Apocalypse (Blog Post 4)

The story "The Star" by H.G. Wells and "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler contrasted to so much despite they were both end- of- the- world, mankind-in-chaos apocalyptic stories. "The Star" by Wells is about a huge celestial body that had disrupted the orbit of planet Neptune was headed towards the Sun and the Earth stood in its path. This body not only disrupted the orbit of Neptune, but disrupted the nature of man, The calamities  caused by this "star" not only caused the  death of millions and destroyed many lands, but brought a sense of unification amongst the people of Earth and "the new brotherhood that grew presently among men."On the other hand, "Speech Sounds" by Mrs. Butler, the destructive element that came onto the Earth (the illness) not only left the world as we knew it, it caused a sense of disunion a amongst man. In this story, a virus broke out killing many (such as Rye's -the main character- family) and leaving most people impaired through sense of literacy and speech. However, this story really interested me. The fact that when Rye carries around a gun, and she got off the bus and she was hesitant as to what to do next because in the story traveling (especially alone) because is unnerving because she may have to "[risk] seeking shelter with locals who might rob or murder them," shows the sense of chaos in the world. However, what really interested me about this story about how this story was the part when Rye was considered murdering Obsidian because of hatred, frustration, and jealousy. Also, these feelings arose from her sense of loss and loneliness, which is prevalent in cases of murder. Anyhow, despite the difference in the outcome of unity in both of these stories, there was one thing they had in common. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

Update:

Okay so maybe there wasn't light at the end of the tunnel for the story "The Star" however; there is a sense of peace that resonates towards the ending. What really I didn't think about was how hopeless the Earth was with this apocalypse. There was no sense of fighting back because there was nothing they could do. When we discussed that in class all I could think was, "Dang, I'm depressed now." My speculations for "Speech Sounds" were predominantly correct. I also really enjoyed making the short story out of complete randomness. It was fun, funny, and very insightful.

War and Conflict (Blog Post 3)

The story "That Only a Mother," was very interesting story conceptually. A quick synopsis of the story is: a mother named Margaret gives birth to a mutated child as she waits for her husband Hank to respond to her letters and come home. However, this story left me with more questions than answers. Did Hank kill the baby at the end? In the story it says, "His fingers tightened on his child," so did he squeeze his baby to death because how freakish she was?  Was Margaret that obsessed with having normal child she overlooked the fact that  her child had no limbs and was practically a stump? Or was she so obsessed with having a normal child (that wasn't affected by the radiation too badly) that she literally didn't know her child was limbless and that's why she didn't tell Hank about the baby's deformities? Besides the burning questions this story has left me with, this story reminds me of domesticity of a woman in a way. Margret was just a stay at home wife, waiting  for her husband to come home while loving and caring for a mutated baby with a face (and body) only a mother could love.

            In the story “We See Things Differently” by Bruce Sterling, a Arab man named Sayyid Qutb visits a future run-down America as a reporter. This story actually parallels to modern day society and how the outside world views Americans. For example, I was watching YouTube and this particular video by BuzzFeedNews (I love that channel) and this British man said “I love to laugh at you Americans.” Though a lot of people do love Americans, we tend to overlook that there is a great ocean of people in the world that detest Americans and think of us as "jahiliyah-- the land of the ignorance.This was America.The Great Satan, the Arsenal of Imperialism, the Bankroller of Zionism, Bastion of Neo-Colonialism." As a Bahamian (though the Bahamas and the States have close relations), I can completely understand the feelings of the other nations, believing Americans have the culture of no culture and destruction. But I do not understand how someone can hate the ignorance of a country to the degree that he is willing to not only take the lives of the citizens who inhabit  this "impure" country, but willing to take his own life also (just as the unnamed man Sayyid did).

Alien Encounters (Blog post 2)

     I started off reading the background information of the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction on pages XII-XVII. At first, it was so formal and scholarly, it took me some time to get into the groove and understand the background information it was handing me about Science-fiction and how to read and understand it. However, it was very insightful as to how a reader should interpret the stories he is reading and that things aren't as metaphorical as it would be if you were reading a normal fiction story. For example, on page XVI, there was an example saying if a story said, "Her world began to crash," instead of it being a metaphor for a girl's emotional state, in science fiction, her world could literally be crashing.
     "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg (1968) I thought was a great story. When I finished the story I literally wanted to punch something or someone because of the frustrating ending (in a good way), which had more of a expected yet unexpected surprise. It's was like once things started working out and love could happen, the passengers said,"Nope," and screwed everything up, taking Charles away from Helen.  The general synopsis of this story starts with a man, named Charles, who finally regains consciousness after being "ridden" by a passenger (an alien that possesses people and causes them to lose memory as to what has happened while being encountered), and finds himself trying to regain pieces of what happened- knowing that he was with a girl and that was pretty much it. Then while going out for a walk, he finds the girl he was with while he was being "ridden" by a passenger for the previous three days. Such occurrence led him to remember the events that happened: him  having sex with Helen. Charles, eventually (more like immediately) meets Helen and tries to commit himself to her, yet she is reluctant. This short story parallels a lot with the real world and how people  have casual sex on the quest to find true love and the sense of isolation it brings. On  page  437, Charles thinks to himself, "But I already had that pleasure, three nights of it, though she does not know that. I want something more. Something more. What?" Though Charles enjoy the company of Helen, her company is not suffice. In actuality, what he wants is love. One the other hand, Helen is so fed up with being used and watched by the passengers, she's given up hope as to what she can accomplish while she was free. On page 441, Charles confesses that he remembers the encounters him and Helen having sex while they were both being "ridden." He proceeded to try and persuade her to have sex with him and not be afraid to fall in love in this "little time when [they have] free." This story pulled on my heart strings (but I'm just a sucker for a little romance),  and overall relayed the message: in this short life span we have (referring to the limited time of freedom), love while you can even though it may seem hopeless, and futile. Love while you can, so you can at least say that you've loved before the passengers return again and screw everything up.

         In the second story, "Out of All Them Bright Stars," by Nancy Kress (1985) started  strongly with Sally working in her little diner restaurant, when suddenly a blue Alien man named John strolled in and was immediately the center of attention. Sally's co-worker Kathy ran towards the back to alarm their boss of the new comer. Sally proceeded to serve him, concerned for how uncomfortable he  must have felt, and disgusted with how blatantly everyone was looking at him. As Sally and John spoke, Sally was surprised by his friendly nature. Then suddenly Sally's boss, Charles, came out storming and aggressively, latching on to Sally and yelling at her  for serving John. This very scene stuck out at me because it reminded of Disney channel show "That's So Raven," when Eddie (a black character) reminisced about his old childhood friend who was white. And as they were playing, Eddie's friend's father came storming out, furious because his son was playing with a black kid. This short story brings to my attention a lot about discrimination and even blatantly said "niggers" on page 583. It was only when John was next to normal white men did Sally notice his differences. Same goes for with Eddie's friend. Only did he notice the difference between him and Eddie was when his father came and yanked him away from Eddie.  However, as the story began to end, that's when I started getting confused. Sally starts getting upset with John and how he was there to make a difference and there was so many sudden mood changes, I just couldn't keep up.

Update:

Well my accusations for "Passengers" were pretty much spot on when we conversed in class. However, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" became so much clearer and I understood it more. Previously, the ending had me confused and scratching my head as to what was going on. Now I understand that Sally is frustrated because she has to do something she doesn't want to in order to maintain stable with her needs. So whether she wants to admit or not, she needs her wife-abusing, jerk-of-a-boss Charlie. She realizes she's powerless to change anything by herself. She couldn't protect nor save John. She's stuck and frustrated and that's all. There's nothing more Sally can do. 

Introduction

Hey everyone! As you probably (hopefully) guessed, my name is Kelsey. I chose this class because I thought it'd be an interesting class to join, and I think Sci-fi is pretty cool, so why not? My forte is more  along the lines of sci-fi and fantasy so anything involving:  robots magical powers, aliens, or anything that defies logic is a thumbs up for me. I absolutely detest horror! However, I can stomach certain levels of it such as: killer/murders, gore, vampires, Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog (most definitely). If you start talking about ghosts and demons, I am out of here. So lets see how this class goes. I will keep my fingers crossed that the content in this class doesn't scare too much,  with any luck, at all.