The Future

Ten years from now, I see myself in a sad state, because nobody is taking anything seriously anymore. Everyone's doing what they want and they're not caring about climate change and worldwide affairs. I'm creating art about people healing the Earth to bring hope into people's lives, but I'm afraid it's only helping to distance people from reality by just feeding them more entertainment.

Thirty years from now, I see myself feeling hopeless. Climate change is accepted and people are trying to stop it but it's too late. There is a growing movement to leave Earth, but only among the rich. I have left my artistic life and focused on becoming an engineer to try to help the problems everyone around me is facing. People are not caring as much as they should, since now there's very immersive virtual reality games and worlds to experience.

One hundred years from now, I see the world dying. There's a constant air of paranoia around the world where people are wondering if the world is going to die or not. Everyone's playing it really safe. Recycling. Living sparsely. Bunkers are being sold. Space in spaceships are being sold for the more privileged people to leave from, whereas the poor can only afford to send memorabilia that they want remembered and saved. I am high in a mountainous area with the girl I love and we are in peace living from long-lasting products

'Bloodchild' Response to questions

After reading Bloodchild by Octavia Butler,  my first thought was in realizing how similar the ideas in this book were to the weekly reading, Dawn. Butler's interests lie in things like what the effects would be in having a human/alien hybrid child and how the concept of gender is blurred by aliens. I also felt saddened by seeing how Butler makes humanity seem so hopeless and trapped when an alien species comes to "domesticate" them in a way. But at the same time, it's not entirely depressing, because humans are allowed a certain kind of freedom within their confinement. I'm talking about Bloodchild, but the same thoughts could be applied to Dawn. Butler puts humans in situations where they should be happy living a comfortable life, but they never are.

I can't seem to back away from relating Bloodchild to Dawn, because I feel like they're so similar and almost seem to bounce ideas off of one another.  For example, the idea of having something harmful to one group be something beneficial to another. Like parasites in human bodies becoming the Tlic's offspring in Bloodchild or cancer being a healing mechanism for the Oankali in Dawn. I also saw a strong connection between Bloodchild to the movie Alien. Specifically, the birthing scenes, which could be seen as C-sections. Something about it just has a very displeasing but necessary quality to it, and I think that idea definitely ties into the alien theme.

If I were to translate the reading onto another medium, I would make it into a radio story. It's short and gets to the nitty gritty of the story quickly, which is perfect for a radio story. Once aliens get visualized, they lose some of their mystery, but just hearing the types of noises they make would be enough to spark people's curiosity. Changes I would make would be to take away some of the background information given to us in third person, and I'd figure out a way to incorporate it in the dialogue within the characters in order to make it only dialogue and no narration.

12. Dawn

Dawn by Octavia Butler hit on a lot of points for a relatively short science fiction novel. The one that impacted me the most was in how trust constantly shifted to and from characters in interactions between characters/groups of characters. This was one of those stories where the mystery of "what's going on?" really made me want to continue reading the book. In this case, more specifically, I wanted to know if the main character, Lilith, was or wasn't actually in danger from the Oankali aliens. I found my trust in the Oankali constantly shifting. They helped Lilith in one scene, and in the next they'd keep secrets from her and stay very quiet.

The description of the Oankali and their ship/animals seemed highly interesting as well. The way they were living appeared very logical in how they absorbed genes they needed from other species and adapted it into their culture. And how they were described (aquatic/grotesque) made me cringe in more than one place. 

Another interesting thing I found is in the parallel between the Oankali's home world and Earth. Both species, at the time the story begins, have lost their home world and are now just drifting. I think this just reinforces how similar the Humans and Oankali are in terms of their standing in the universe. But because of mistrust and suspicion, it creates heavy conflict between the two species. In this way, Dawn is about two cultures clashing and coming to understand what each other wants from one another. 

11. Snow Crash

10. The Stars My Destination

9. Shards of Honor

8. American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman gave me a very confusing crash course on folk tales and mythologies all around the world. That being said, it was a very entertaining read. The whole book was a huge commentary on American's uncaring attitude towards the magic of the world. It reminded me of Santa Claus movies where Santa loses power when people stop believing in him, because that's how this universe of folk tale characters exist. It was also slightly a story about manipulating of people and how easy it is to control what someone does by knowing what makes them tick. Another story this book reminded me of was Percy Jackson. American Gods felt more grounded though, because the main character seemed really hardened by our society.

The whole book felt like it was downward spiraling. People are slowly losing their beliefs in these titans/gods so they're turning towards drugs and sex to keep themselves happy. The book is ugly. Gaiman isn't scared to go into dark places with these characters. It makes sense since the characters all so torn. But since it was very depressing, it also had an air of nostalgia. There are several moments, specifically with the Leprechaun,  where the gods reminisce about the times in the past when they were respected and believed in by the people. Besides this, there were also several chapters that focused on stories completely separate from the main plot that mostly takes place in the past and tells of a hero/god from a foreign country.

7.The Night Circus

It's been more than a month since we were assigned to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I'm still slowly getting through it in between other weekly readings. It's just such an interesting book, because the premise of it just hooks you right in: A competition between two magicians where they adopt pupils, teach them the ways of magic, and let them go through the actual competition, which still hasn't been revealed what exactly it is at the point I'm at.

On the surface, it's an urban fantasy set in the early 20th century.  But the story reads like a thriller, because it feels like the stakes are really high in the competition and it's very fast paced. It also feels very fresh in terms of new ideas. The story is set in Victorian London, in a world where magicians secretly live and circuses are highly loved. Mixing the magic of circuses and the literal magic of magicians creates a unique sense of wonder that couldn't be reached with just one of the two types, I think.

In terms of commentary, a reaction I had to the book very early on was of surprise that two adult men had taken young kids for their own purpose. There were subtle details in the story that debated whether what they did was child slavery or if it was just a pupil/master relationship. Celia for example constantly wants freedom, and her master never really completely gives it to her because of how she's bound to the competition. Another point is when the magicians are performing on stage and it's questioned by Celia or Marco how come nobody is noticing when the magic is used. And it's revealed that humans don't notice, because they don't understand what's happening. I think this could be connected to reality in terms of human ignorance.

6. The Hobbit

I have seen The Lord of The Rings trilogy and The Hobbit movies, so being asked to read the book of The Hobbit definitely made me get excited. What I found out about it was how similar it was to Grimm's fairy tales in terms of tone and narration. In class, I learned that J.R.R Tolkien was heavily inspired by European fairy tales, so it would make sense that The Hobbit feels so much like a fairy tale. But what really made me interested was how Tolkien wove different stories and arcs together within this larger adventure which was for the dwarfs to get back to their mountain home.

I found it interesting how this group went through some of the most traumatic things people could only imagine of, but the story still managed to keep a lighthearted tone and feel. The dwarfs joked around constantly, each one also having their own specific personality. It created a very childish and fun feeling to it. That isn't to say that the story didn't have depth to it. I found that there was a cool connection between the hobbit and the dwarfs. The hobbit lived in a hole in a hill and the dwarfs in a way used to live in a hole in a mountain. I thought this was an interesting symbol for class distinction and how sometimes the higher classes in society's needs help from the lower classes. Whether or not Tolkien meant to put these subtle details in his story doesn't matter. Because he created such an interesting, believable world, people can draw any interpretations they want from the story and make it help shape their lives. That's what makes some of the best fantasy stories in my opinion.

5. Aunt Maria

Aunt Maria is a strange story, because throughout the whole beginning it feels like there's something big going on in the story. The author, Diana Wynne Jones makes it seem like it's a story of a family, who's father recently died, that goes on a trip to the father's Aunt's house. But while this situation plays out, there's a bunch of subtle hints that there's something wrong about the place. For example, the kids (who are the main characters) see the workers in the town the aunt is at as zombies And they see the kids in the orphanage as robots. Meanwhile the brother is finding a ghost in his room almost every night. The funny thing is that, although the logical part of my brain was telling me that Aunt Maria was behind a lot of these mysteries, I couldn't help wondering if some of the weird things that happened were just in the kid's imaginations. In that regard, Jones did a good job at conveying the
feeling of paranoia the kids were feeling.

What I found interesting was that there didn't seem to be any important guy characters in the story. And in the town, all the guys were zombie workers which is a funny yet interesting take on our society. The important people in the story was set up to be Aunt Maria and her other old, female friends.

The book has a mystery to it that I couldn't pin down.  With every few pages, it felt like a new mystery had been brought up to the table. Since I didn't finish the book, I couldn't figure out what connected everything. In all, it was a fun, goofy read.

4. three moments of an explosion

China Melville has a very scientific style of writing. He writes like how people write for newspapers, describing every bit of information to the smallest detail so the viewer can draw their own opinion. What makes three moments of an explosion unique are the stories that Melville tells. He brings about incredibly fantastical and crazy problems to the normal, modern world. In one story, there are huge icebergs that hover above London. In another, there are playing cards in a deck of cards that appear to the players at random all around the world. So these out-of-the-ordinary situations are described as scientifically and accurate as possible, trying to grasp and understand the crazy situations that happen. It reminds me of Murakami's style in A Wild Sheep Chase. The author is taking a stance of indifference and wants the viewer to take things casually as they are happening. It seems like this is the style these days, since both of these books are written by great authors of our century. It makes me think about the internet and how maybe that has aided in disconnecting people from one another.
But the way these stories are written doesn't make it sound like a bad thing. I actually really enjoy reading these books because of the style (maybe Sheep Chase more, because the indifference comes from a character and not an unknown speaker. That could spark another topic of conversation, but I don't think I want to head there.).

What I don't like about the book stems a little from that though. A lot of the short stories are written from such a distance that a story seems almost unimportant and boring. It feels like the author just wrote some of these stories to explore a "what-if" idea. Not all of them, granted, but a lot. I just wish he had given a little more care to the character side of things, even if it would be hard considering how he'd have to take that "indifferent" feeling into it.

3. A Wild Sheep Chase

A Wild Sheep Chase struck me as a very communist book. No character has an actual name. If any, people are given nicknames (like Rat, or the Boss). The only one to be given a name was the main characters dog, and that moment ended up being a very magical occasion because of the naming. Also, the main character of the book is always indifferent towards the events that are happening around him. As is described in the early pages of the book by his female partner: he's a man who wants to be boring. Even when he's taken to the Boss and is thrown into a crazy adventure to find the sheep with a star on its back, he never loses his mind. He always takes things at face value and therefore, it lets him see things clearly. This seems to be a common motif throughout the story, being able to see the truth of things by not letting every day trivial things distract you. This idea is strengthened by the book the main character keeps reading, Sherlock Holmes.

Another theme the book touches on is obsession. The main character obsesses over his girlfriend's ears. The boss's assistant and anyone who is touched by the sheep obsesses over the sheep. It provides a neat contrast between the obsessiveness and the level-headedness of them all. The contrast brings about some disconnection between the reader and the characters, but I think this was on purpose. It was the author's way of telling the reader not to take what's happening so seriously. Again, bringing that communistic philosophy into the tone of the book.

2. Interview With The Vampire

Interview with a Vampire is a fun book just on structural terms. I think the idea of a whole book being an interview was a really smart choice from Anne Rice. It's the same as using letters in Frankenstein, where it puts the reader right in the story using a relatable situation. From there, the audience is right on board with whatever happens to the character.

What strikes me as most interesting from the book is the relationship between Louis and Lestat, the vampire that turned Louis himself into a vampire. At the beginning, Luis is attracted to Lestat's way of living. But when he turns, he starts realizing what a horrible person Lestat is. And he starts seeing him as an animal without any morals because of how he feeds on other human beings. The funny thing is that Louis himself has the same desires as Lestat. He just decides to struggle with it and makes the conscious effort to not attack other people. But he's never rewarded for it, so it creates a very interesting portrayal of the human condition-- how people try so hard to be nice, but never get anything out of it.

Throughout the story (bear in mind, I haven't finished it), Louis and Lestat try to fit in with the common people around them. And yet, they're these horrible monsters with a virus-like condition. I feel like, looking at the story from this point of view, it also provides a look at how bad people (convicts and the like) can live in our society without our even noticing. That might be why vampires scare us so much, because not only can they live in our world, but they might be the people we sit next to in class or during lunch. Anne Rice goes the positive route and makes them be caught by the servants of the house they were staying at.

1. Frankenstein

      This is the first gothic story I have begun reading. I am currently halfway through the book, and I have noticed a lot of big words. This gives the story a very sophisticated and "scientific" feel. This is important because it implies that the narrator, Victor Frankenstein, is a very logical and smart man. I always get the feeling that, with smart characters, they can think their way out of most situations. Therefore, when Frankenstein creates and later encounters his monster creation, it scares us, the readers, even more when he describes it as a 'sight tremendous and abhorred' (pg 109) and a 'detested form' (pg 111), giving the idea that even someone as smart as him can't figure out a way to deal with this problem.

      This theme of not being able to cope with a tremendous problem is common throughout the book. From when his mom dies of sickness and when Justine is killed for the murder of his brother, Victor Frankenstein faces a lot of terrible situations that most people only have to deal with once or twice in their lives. But Victor seems to face something bad again and again. And yet, he continues to stay alive, always on the brink of insanity. 

     What I found very interesting about the way this book is written is how relatable the narrator, Victor, seems to become. Since he has a problem that he can't talk about with anyone else in fear that he'll be called crazy, he relies on his writing to talk about what he's going through. And this is something almost everyone has done in their lives. When we have no one to talk about our problems, we sometimes write it out in a journal or in a word document. So when we read about the tortures Victor went through, we feel even more connected with him, because we can relate to the type of circumstance he's in. I imagine Mary Shelley didn't do this subconsciously, because she also used the "written letter" plot device which instantly lets the reader know how the characters think/write. And, using what we talked about it class, it's like the gothic version of the "handheld camera". It's sort of cheap but effective in putting the audience right in the character's mind.