Viewing Blog 3

Supernatural

Season 1

22 Episodes

approx 45 min an episode

Throughout this whole season Sam and Dean are searching for their Dad, fighting evil every chance they get. The season ends with them just skimming by death barely getting knicked, finally reunited with their father, thinking they've escaped for now they get hit by a semi-truck driven by a human possessed by the demon. 

This represents the idea that even when you try and fight, and go through so much to finally get reunited with the one that you love, life can throw something unexpected your way and all you have left are those good moments. So appreciate the time you have with the people you love because you never know what's to come because life isn't always fair, and you don't always get that happy ending.

Paranormal Encounters (Blog11)

The Furnished Room

                The Furnished Room reflects O. Henry’s view on city life by showing that there’s always more to the story than meets the eye. A seemingly nice little old lady claims she has never seen the girl he is looking for, meanwhile she doesn’t reveal the fact that she committed suicide and that that room is haunted because it’ll mess up her business. She’s only looking out for herself, which is a very common way to live in big cities. Most people mind their own business and watch out for only themselves in big cities.

A place full of strangers that only look out for themselves, “’As you say, we has our living to be making,’ said Mrs. Purdy.”

The Boarded Window

                I believe that this story does have some supernatural elements to it. Some elements could be explained with reason but there is a certain vagueness of the story that leaves it up to question and interpretation by the reader. The initial start of the story opens with the cabin being haunted, so right there, in the setting is a sign of supernatural elements,

                “That closes the final chapter of this true story---excepting, indeed, the circumstance that many years afterward, in company with an equally intrepid spirit, I penetrated to the place and ventured near enough to the ruined cabin to throw a stone against it, and ran away to avoid the ghost which every well-informed boy thereabout knew haunted the spot.”

                But whether or not his wife was dead and came back to life or whether she was alive the whole time and just in some kind of comatose state is all completely up for interpretation. I believe that she was dead and then came back to life to protect her love. The fact that her wrist were bound and she was being prepared for burial but her husband couldn’t tell that she still had a pulse seems a little too far out. He’s a hunter, he deals with killing things himself all the time, I think he would’ve been able to tell if his wife was dead or not.

Haunted Houses (Blog 10)

“The Fall of The House of Usher”

This story was a hard read but I believe it is just a story meant to spark your imagination and play with the mind. I didn’t see much symbolism but more just a thrill of reading it. More or less a story to scare you and leave you wondering, was Usher’s sister dead at all? Or did he knowingly put her in the tomb alive?

 Poe even claimed, “And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of gloom.”

Was the doom and gloom that Usher radiating from the guilt of burying his own twin sister alive?

Gotta Love Poe (Blog9)

The Raven

Edgar Allen Poe

The emotions that I believe Poe is trying to convey in "The Raven" are fear and a level of hysteria towards the raven that was sitting above his chamber door. It's almost as if he's being haunted by it and there's a level of psychotic-ness, for lack of a better term, being pushed through multiple different lines. 

"'Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked, upstarting-

'Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken!-quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'

                                                                  Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"

This quote especially, he's basically talking to a bird and imagining the bird is up there taunting him, refusing to leave him in peace, reminding him of everything he's trying to forget, or more specifically a certain woman he's trying to forget. Usually when someone doesn't want to be reminded, there's a level of angst and pain, as well as an undertone of regret.

"'Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!'

                                                                  Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"

It's obvious by the punctuation alone that he's pleading, begging, crying out, for this bird to leave him alone but the bird, calm and nonchalant is just like, "Nah, I think I'll stay here awhile."

 Maybe he did something to Lenore, and the raven represents his conscience coming back to haunt him?

Annabel Lee

Edgar Allen Poe

The overall tone of this poem I would say is sadness, loss. It's all about losing a great love to one of the worst fates, death. There was no undertone, it was all spelled out pretty nicely. 

"For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

     Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

     Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

And so, all the night tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,

    In the sepulchre there by the sea,

    In her tomb by the sounding sea."

The rhythm of the poem definitely helped make this piece not just a beautiful love letter to a lost loved one, but also a beautifully sounding piece of literature. The flow of the piece and the repetition helps deliver more emotion and have a bigger impact on the reader.

Happily Ever After's Are Overrated (Viewing Blog 3)

Ever After

Viewing Blog 3

121 minutes

The Cinderella fairy tale touches on a lot of different fears and expectations. Alike all other fairy tales, there is this expectant "happily ever after" ending.

That is why fairy tales are so well-known and liked, because they represent something that human beings crave, eternal happiness. If a fairy tale showed a true ending, the prince dies of cancer and the princess grows old alone and eventually gains a large sense of dementia and is no longer the person she used to be, it wouldn't be as well liked. No one wants to be hit with the harsh slap of reality of how life really ends for the majority of us. No one lives forever, and fairy tales are a symbol of eternal love and happiness.

Cinderella stories, especially, cover a lot female reliance for a man to come and "rescue her". That's the one thing I really liked about this version of the Cinderella tale, on at least two different occasions, Danielle (Cinderella), proves that she can pull her own weight, or better yet, even the prince's.

Love Knows No Gender (Blog8)

"Day Million"

Frederik Pohl

(1966)

There is something to be said about a love that doesn't need touch, or physical contact of any sort to be pure and true. What greater love could there be than connecting at the mind? Men and women get so caught up in physical looks, they forget when all is said and done you're left with who a person is, not what they look like. This story greatly advertised this aspect of any relationship.

"Adrift on a sponson city a few hundred yards over her head and orbiting Arcturus, fifty light-years away, Don has only to command his own symbol-manipulator to rescue Dora from the ferrite files and bring her to life for him, and there she is; and rapturously, tirelessly they ball all night. Not in the flesh, of course; but then his flesh has been extensively altered and it wouldn't really be much fun. He doesn't need the flesh for pleasure. Genital organs feel nothing. Neither do hands, nor breasts, nor lips; they are only receptors, accepting and transmitting impulses. It is the brain that feels, it is the interpretation of those impulses that makes agony or orgasm; and Don's symbol-manipulator gives him the analogue of cuddling, the analogue of kissing, the analogue of wildest, most ardent hours with the eternal, exquisite, and incorruptible analogue of Dora."-p.384

"When It Changed"

Joanna Russ

(1972)

This story reflects on the inequality that women face, the message is loud, clear, and bold. Although, I also think that even though there will be men coming into their world that the only way they (the women) would feel belittled is if they let men make them feel that way. Though having men around in general is likely to have some impact on the younger generations.

Just like now, in the human race today, if you want your daughters to grow up strong and independent and never feeling less than a man, you, as her parent, must instill those thoughts and ambitions. No matter what there will always be someone in life who will try to make you feel less than what you are, who will try to take what you've worked for. It doesn't make you the weak one, it makes them the weak one.

"This too shall pass. All good things must come to an end. Take my life but don't take away the meaning of my life."-p.515

Breaking A Nasty Habit (Viewing Blog2)

Once Upon A Time Season 3 Episode 4

"Nasty Habits"
(43 minutes)

Much like the title the central theme to this episode of Once Upon A Time is all about breaking nasty habits to become better, to do good.

                In this adaptation of the original fairy tales, not everyone is who they’re depicted as in the classic Disney movies. For example, Peter Pan has always been this symbol of freedom for children, Neverland being the home every kid dreams of. No parents to tell them what to do, how to dress, how to act. Just pure freedom and ever-lasting youth. Though, in this version, Pan is anything but a symbol of freedom. He resembles treachery, evil and entrapment. He lies and takes little boys against their freewill. Then, tells them lies to make them actually want to stay. He plays mind games and uses people as if they’re pawns in a game of chess. His face is that of a child but his heart is as black as night. His intentions are evil and I believe this represents an idea that although someone can have a good reputation and can even play the part that not everyone is as they seem and there is nothing like the love of a parent for a child. Seeing as how Henry, the boy that he’s taken, has a whole army(family) hunting for him in Neverland, they represent that the bond of family is an unconditional love.

              Although, there are some contradictions to this unconditional love in real life. An example is Henry’s grandfather, Rumpelstiltskin. He knows of a prophecy that Henry will be his undoing, so when Rumple believes that his son (Henry’s father), Neal, is dead, he’s willing to break his cowardice, selfish habits and sacrifice his own life for the better good of saving Henry from Pan. A twist is enacted when Neal shows up in Neverland to save Henry, thus giving Rumple a reason to live again and giving incentive to kill Henry before the prophecy could be enacted. Once Neal finds this out it reminds him that he can never trust his father, Rumple, and he shows this distrust by leaving him binded and behind. When Neal does this he tries to escape with Henry and gets caught by Pan, having burnt the bridge with his father Neal is left powerless and again Henry gets recaptured by Pan.

If Neal had given Rumple a chance to prove himself and left his anger and loathing for his father behind for Henry’s well-being(the better good) than maybe it could’ve saved both Neal and Henry from the fate of Pan. Now, Neal has no choice but to wait and trust that his father will come after them and, hopefully, break the habit and do the right thing.

False Memories Bring Out The Crazies (Blog7)

The main question alone reminds me of this show I’m overly obsessed with, Once Upon A Time.

Only instead of using technology to change all the fairy tale character’s memories, she uses magic.

Besides that, the short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Phillip K. Dick portrays a character who is seemingly normal at first, aside from the futuristic world he lives in, with hovercars and buttons on stovetops that can make coffee for you. Everything seems mundane until the main character Douglas Quail visits someone who can infuse a memory sequence of him going to Mars in his brain. When the sequence doesn’t take due to the fact that he had already been to Mars on a secret mission for the government things spiral out of control. The idea of memory implantation and creation seems a little too far out, but then again, I’m sure fifty years ago the idea that a woman could get fake breasts, or face-lifts, seemed far out as well. So it’s hard to tell which direction science will veer towards. I do not think that it will be a positive impact, though. Memories make us human. The things we’ve experienced and learned in life create who we are, which clearly the main character has shown us. One minute he was a desk-jockey who knew little to nothing about action and adventure, or how to handle assailants with weapons. Once his memory returned to him he became one dangerous SOB, capable of taking down the most dangerous of opponents.

Did I think Arnold Schwarzenegger was a good fit for the role of Doug Quail? Well, not really. I’ve never been one of his biggest fans, I think his accent is a little annoying and his acting is B-rated, in my opinion. Douglas Quail is supposedly a regular looking man, Arnold is anything but ordinary. His broad shoulders and tall frame make him intimidating and make you, as a viewer, question how someone so jacked could live a mundane life. I think Bruce Willis would’ve been a better fit for that role, much like his role in The Fifth Element.

The adaptation from short story to a film impacted the story in a lot of different ways. For example, in the short story there was a lot less violence than depicted in the movie. Also, the movie went into a lot of detail about Douglas’ mission on Mars. The writers and directors had opportunities to expand the storyline and turn it into another different story entirely. It seems as though the director’s did everything they could to turn it into a “feature film”, something to grasp the audience and attract viewers. Anything for the ratings, it seemed.

Techno-Futures (Blog6)

“Burning Chrome”

By William Gibson(1982)

Oh, boy. This story was strange. I have a small grasp at what the concept was but I’m not entirely sure I understood it.

Please, correct me if I’m wrong, but Jack and Bobby are some kind of Robin Hood hackers, not affiliated with the “heat” as they called law enforcement, but also not affiliated with Chrome and her mob. In fact, they set out to take down Chrome, take away all of her money so in a sense, stripping her of her power. I believe Chrome is a person but she’s had hormonal procedures that make her look young? I had a really hard time comprehending this story, but it seems as though the life that “Burning Chrome” depicted is one where plastic surgery is exploited to the maximum. You hear about people getting not just different eye colors but completely different eyes? And I’m guessing the “The House of Blue Lights” is some kind of whore house? It makes me wonder, is this going to be what our future holds for us? People getting so much surgery to look “perfect” they end up stripping the meaning of the word beauty? I can definitely see similarities, in that aspect, to present day’s issues with body image. Women, men, getting face-lifts to look younger, along with many other surgeries just to look like photoshopped pictures of plastic Barbie dolls. When the main character was describing Chrome I couldn’t help but think about the “Uncanny Valley” that we discussed in class. I feel like that was definitely portrayed in a couple of different instances,

“Chrome: I’d seen her maybe half a dozen times in the Gentleman Loser. Maybe she was slumming, or checking out the human condition, a condition she didn’t exactly aspire to. A sweet little heart-shaped face framing the nastiest pair of eyes you ever saw. She’d looked fourteen as long as anyone could remember, hyped out of anything like a normal metabolism on some massive program of serums and hormones.”-p.557

“He had the kind of uniform good looks you get after your seventh trip to the surgical boutique; he’d probably spend the rest of his life looking vaguely like each new season’s media front-runner; not too obvious a copy, but nothing too original, either.”-p.559

*********

“Computer Friendly”

By Eeileen Gunn(1989)

I think the author chose a child’s point of view because just like the child, the reader is learning all about this new world as well. So a lot of the same questions the child was asking, I found myself asking as well. At first, I didn’t see much sci-fi in the text. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, when will there be an alien dropping out of the sky or some kind of cataclysmic event? It seemed as though it was a regular girl who was getting dropped off at a school and when they kept talking about how smart she was and how she had to take tests to prove it I thought, “Oh, well this girl must be trying to get into some private school?”

 As I started reading more and more, I picked up little hints here and there of something off about this world the author threw us into.

“The monitor watched as they wiped the wall, then took their thumbprints.”p.640

Took their thumbprints? I couldn’t help but think, what kind of school is this? Are they keeping track of how many times she gets in trouble? As the story goes on it reveals more and more how strange the world is, like how her father’s memory gets wiped clean after being at work all day and his daughter has to guide him home. Also, her brother, he seems to already be at work. And he doesn’t come home every night for dinner. In fact, his parents don’t even talk about him much at all.

“Her parents didn’t talk much about her brother Bobby. He had done well on his tests, too. Now he was a milintel cyborg with go-nogo authority. He never called home, and her parents didn’t call him, either.”-p.644

The Culling

The Culling

By Steven Dos Santos (2013)

I’m a big fan of a good twist ending, but I can’t say that was something I enjoyed reading. Not that the story isn’t good, or that it bored me, but the raw emotion of betrayal stung. The emotions that are conveyed almost all too well through simple text in a book are almost too much to handle. Being that Lucky and his little brother Cole are living in a fantasy world doesn’t mean their world is anything fairy-tale like. A world of poverty, starvation, filth, disease and then only to be put through rings of mental and physical torture, on top of the mind games people, that are supposedly close to you, play. I’m excited to read more, and hopefully read about Lucky taking down that S.O.B. Cassius. I almost feel like in a way I saw it coming, because it was just too good to be true.

 I can see how this relates to humanity in the sense that there are actual countries living like this. Third-world, dictatorial countries that live in these conditions meanwhile, just like Cassius, the rulers of the country live lavishly.

 This story reminds me of two movies I’ve seen recently that are pretty good, the first is a comedy called “The Interview”, how lavish the leader of North Korea is living meanwhile his people are starving, how manipulative he was, compared to how manipulative Cassius was to Lucky.

Another movie, “Machine Gun Preacher” which is sadly based on true events about one man trying to make a difference against the Rebels in Africa. In a sense I can see a similarity in the situations of the book and situations that kids in other parts of the world unfortunately face today.

Insidious (ViewingBlog1)

Insidious

(2010, 103 minutes)

The long credits give this creepy film an eerie feel to something as simple as an opening scene. I feel the fact that this story takes place in an ordinary home, with an ordinary family, makes it more relatable to an everyday person. In the beginning the family starts out getting ready for school and work, the mother unpacking boxes as they just moved into a new home. The mother is cooking breakfast and on the phone with some automated machine, saying “Speak to an agent.” It’s clear that a normal, mundane life is trying to be portrayed.

Dalton, one of the two sons, took a pretty steep fall, which turned out to be nothing. There was seemingly no cause to why all of the sudden the next day he doesn’t wake up and he’s in a coma unlike any other, or so the doctor says,

“There is no brain damage, that we’ve detected. Technically, yes, he is in a coma. He doesn’t react to stimuli, he has no sleep-wake cycle but there’s no brain trauma or infection. The scans are all normal. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Mom, “He can’t just not wake up? I mean, there’s gotta be something.”

Doc, “I’m sorry.”

Dad, “Okay so what do we do? Do we stay here? Do we-"

Doc, “Conduct further testing, it’s only been a couple of days, it could take a little longer.”

The horror of waking up for work like every other day, walking into your child’s bedroom and your child just being unresponsive, is like no other. I couldn’t imagine that kind of terror. The worst part about all of that is not knowing what happened to him or why he’s like this. You might start to blame yourself. It leaves not just the characters to wonder but the viewers, as well.

A couple of days in a coma turns into months, and Dalton’s moved home, where one of the creepiest scenes in the entire movie takes place. The mom is downstairs playing the piano with her baby girl sleeping in the upstairs bedroom when what sounds like a frequency interruption on the baby monitor catches her attention. She listens close as angry whispers turn into loud shouts that she can hear are coming from inside the house and even wakes her baby up.

The mom seems to experience the encounters with these entities the most, seeing as how she stays at home with the kids, so I almost began to wonder if she was going crazy until her other son says something eerily shocking,

“I’m scared Mom.”

“Scared of what?”

“Dalton. Can I change rooms?”

“Why would you wanna change rooms?”

“I don’t like when he walks around at night.”

Being that Dalton has been in a coma for months now, there’s no way he could’ve been walking around. So what was the little boy hearing? Evil entities that have manifested physically into our world enough to be able to actually be heard and seen.

You would think that because it seems as though there are other entities making contact that it would have something to do with the house. But when the family moves to a new home and the hauntings keep happening, the family has to assume it’s something other than a simple haunting.

Come to find out it’s a genetic sleep-jumping disorder that allows the host of the body, the person, to move through to an otherworld. In doing so, leaving their body an empty vessel, or portal, for the seemingly evil entities.

I really like this film because I believe that sleep represents freedom for a lot of people. A chance to escape all the horrors that surround you and to rest. Much like Freddy Krueger’s victims in “Nightmare On Elm Street”, there is no escape anymore for the little boy lost in this dark, insidious otherworld.

Some Very Emotional Robots (Blog5)

“Reason”

By Isaac Asimov (1941)

A real life-like robot, check it out

I feel as though the fact that QT experiences human emotions can represent a few different ideas and fear in man about technology. Humans have been the top of the food chain, the smartest out of all species, for so long, there is a fear that technology will one day replace everything that we are.

“’Look at you!’ he said finally. ‘I say this in no spirit of contempt but look at you! The material you are made of is soft and flabby, lacking endurance and strength, depending for energy upon the inefficient oxidation of organic material-‘”-p.165

While I was reading “Reason” by Isaac Asimov, I was under the impression that this robot was meant to symbolize a parent-child relationship. I’m not sure how everyone else interpreted the story, but that is mine. Especially when QT talks about being a newer, better, version of Mike and Donavan. That’s almost how it is with kids, as we grow older, we grow weaker and our kin take over what we’ve built. They become the future leaders and providers for this world. It is our job as parents to guide them into doing the right thing and following the right moral objectives. Sometimes our parents, are not what we had hoped they would be. Growing up, most kids have their Mom’s and Dad’s up on a pedestal, when we realize they are just human, we begin to question as to why they are superior to us. They make mistakes just like we do, why should we listen to them?

As a teenager, I rebelled against my parents, to the ultimate extreme. Not saying it was without good reason but when I did, it was after I had found someone else’s footsteps to follow. I had become friends with someone that had no problem taking control of my life and I had no problem letting her. So, I relate to QT in this story in that retrospect, when he finds someone he feels is worthy enough to be his “master”.

“’I like you two. You’re inferior creatures, with poor reasoning faculties, but I really feel a sort of affection for you. You have served the Master well, and he will reward you for that. Now that your service is over, you will probably not exist much longer, but as long as you do, you shall be provided food, clothing and shelter, so long as you stay out of the control room and the engine room.’”-QT p. 169

The QT models of robots were new, and this was the first of its’ kind thus far. Meant to take over for man, too dangerous of a job, the robot soon doubts and questions every little thing that the “earthmen” say. QT asks about his existence and doesn’t accept the answers given to him from Donavan and Mike.

While growing up, I questioned why I was here. What was the point of my own existence? I believe we all question that at one point in time. Though, it’s a very “human” question to have for a hunk of metal. I believe a lot of us can relate to some of the questions QT is asking. Some people get brought into this world as an accident or even planned, but not everyone understands why they were brought into existence. What’s the bigger picture as to why we all exist? Are we actually here to build things such as QT, to help Earth go on striving, even if the human race does not?

“Cutie continued imperturbably, ‘And the question that immediately arose was: Just what is the cause of my existence?’”-p.165

“Super-Toys Last All Summer Long”

By Brian W. Aldiss (1969)

“In Mrs. Swinton’s garden, it was always Summer.”-p. 444

Does the author mean this in a literal sense? I found myself questioning the very first line of this short story.  Another peculiar line is,

“She had tried to love him.”-p.444

Talking about a three year old little boy, which at this point I’m guessing is her child. How do you try to love your own child?

When I first started taking notes on this story, that is as far as I’d gotten before I just got consumed in the tale. This whole story is about social interaction with technology. It’s about humans relying on technologically-made beings for just about everything. Food, weight control and even companionship.

At first, I was thinking, all of this technology has made this mother stone cold and deadpan. Come to find out that her husband created this life, even if it’s in the form of a technological robot, and now they don’t bother to nurture or care for it. There’s something very disgusting about a child that gets ignored and cast aside. I believe it’s relatable to every day occurrences. Bad parents are everywhere, not just in stories to robot-children. It stems back to the question, why create a responsibility that you are not willing to care for? Why have a child, robot or not, that you will not bother to consider your own. As sickening as it is, there are too many children out there that can, unfortunately, relate to little David.

I feel the worst part about all of this is the fact that the little boy doesn’t even know he’s not real. It’s heartbreaking. It relates back to society today because every day I see mothers and fathers not paying attention to their kids because they’re too busy texting or talking on the phone or taking a selfie. Since when did spending time on your phone become more important than spending time with your child? Also, what kind of self-worth issues will that create for the child, much like little David’s, when a fake conversation on the phone or social networking through social media sites takes precedence over being a parent? The fact that this story was written in 1969 and it contains as many similarities to issues people are facing today is remarkable and very, very scary.

Another thing, completely unrelated to my point on technology, but I was very much reminded of the movie “Ted” (2012) when Teddy, the robot teddy-bear began to talk and could walk and act on his own free will.






UPDATE:

Is it ethical to stop the progress of technology?

This is a very gray-matter question. There is no black and white answer. I feel as though there are pros and cons to both sides. I believe continuing could possibly result in loss of jobs, laziness, and who knows? Maybe even unprecedented consequences in regards to human development. I also believe that if we hadn't continued to advance and research technology the ay we have we wouldn't have all the benefits we do today, such as medicinal research.

Walter, The Male Stripper

I feel my blog 4 entry is long enough and this short story/update deserves its' own space. Hence, why it has its' own post. Enjoy!

**WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT**
1. Walter, Age: 32
2. Male Stripper
3. Always sleeping with women
4. Wants to become famous
5. An artificial intelligence will be created and humans will have to scatter across the Galaxy.

My dream has always been to see myself on this big projector. I sit in this quiet movie theater, very aware of the last few dollar bills I have in my pocket from my Saturday night. I work at “Balls to the Walls” male strip club every weekend and it’s usually more than enough to provide for the rest of the week and to pay my mom the rent money. I only pay twenty-five dollars a week to sleep in my old room at my Mom’s until I can make it on the big screen. My name is Walter and I am a thirty-two year old male stripper. I say it to myself and it sounds like an Alcoholics Anonymous introduction. I shake my head and mutter to myself as I stand up, leaving the blonde bimbo I brought with me more dumbfounded than when I found her. I zip my jeans back up, pat her on the back of the head and whisper,

“Good job sweet tits, now I gotta bounce.”

She looks at me, gaze inquisitive, wipes her lips, shrugs her shoulders and then turns to stare back at the movie. The light of day seems so harsh after being in that dark theater for however long it took to bust a nut.

When my vision finally adjusts I notice two other women, brunette and a redhead. I let my gaze and imagination wander on the redhead. I wonder if the carpet matches the drapes. I snicker to myself as I walk down Main St. when I notice at the shop across the street, all of the television’s turn on simultaneously and a news report starts broadcasting an emergency bulletin. Apparently, some experiment went wrong and now they want us to remain calm as an artificial intelligence invades our world while we try to evacuate to another. Did I just hear this bitch right? She wants us to go to another planet? I listen closer and try to pay more attention to her words rather than her chest. But, damn that rack!! Not just another planet. She said the first 50,000 people to get to NASA can hitch a ride out of this Hellhole, and then what?! Did she just say we’re going to be scattered across the Galaxy? The fuck does that mean?!

The Apocalypse and Post-Apocalyptic Outrage (Blog 4)

I believe that stories such as the short story "The Star" by H.G. Wells, about asteroid's coming for Earth have a mass level of appeal and are commonly used because we, humanity, fear the unknown. Most people look up into the night sky and see stars and sometimes shooting ones. Our imaginations roam wild as we imagine what it's like out there in all that vast open space. Same goes with the ocean, that's why there are movies such as Lake Placid, Jaws etc. Just like space, we don't know much about what else is out there due to the fact that there's a certain point where we just can't travel anymore. I believe that creates an appeal from those of us who have an inkling for the thrill of being scared. The fact that we know so little, means that our creative perspectives on a possible outcome, are actually, in a sense, very possible.  Who's to say they're not?
There is no one person out there that could possibly know for certain what lies out in space, and there is no one person who could tell us what lies in the depths of the ocean; because there are just some places and creatures we cannot even exist within the same atmosphere of. There are some creatures that can only survive where we cannot. So, those circumstances and probabilities can become quite frightening and thrilling.

"A vast matter of it was bulky, heavy, rushing without warning out of the black mystery of the sky into the radiance of the sun." p.41

One thing I really like about this story especially, is the different perspectives he throws in. A lot of stories are based from the narrators' point of view, here he talks about all different places and the different impacts its having on people all over the world.

"And where science has not reached, men stared and feared, telling one another of the wars and pestilences that are foreshadowed by these fiery signs in the Heavens. Sturdy Boers, dusky Hottentots, Gold Coast Negroes, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, stood in the warmth of the sunrise watching the setting of  this strange new star." p.41-42

"Everywhere men marveled at it, but of all those who saw it none could have marveled more than those sailors, habitual watchers of the stars, who far away at sea had heard nothing of its advent and saw it now rise like a pigmy moon and climb zenithward and hang overhead and sink westward with the passing of the night." p.42

I also believe another appeal to a story such as this one, is that most people wonder what they would do in their last few precious moments alive on Earth. If the whole planet were to be destroyed and not one person would survive, it makes us appreciate all the little things we never did before. It would make us all see things in a different light. Things like work or making money would have no precedence over someone's final moments here on Earth. I believe it's to help make us realize that though, there isn't an asteroid coming at us now, that anything could happen and no matter what, death comes, even for the best of us.  So appreciate what you have while you have it, because you never know when your last moments will be. In a way, it's almost as if the story is saying, that death fears no man.

"'It is nearer.' Men writing in offices, struck with a realization, flung down their pens, men talking in a thousand places suddenly came upon a grotesque possibility in those words, 'It is nearer.'"p.42

I, personally, thought this was an incredible perspective on what would happen if there would be a cataclysmic event such as an astray meteor that hits Neptune and comes barreling for Earth and then just barely skims by but still has made an impact that would affect and end the lives of so many. It makes me wonder just what would I do in an event like this? What would I do if there was literally nothing I could do to save everyone I love except wait, pray, and take as much shelter as possible?

******

I almost feel like Octavia Butler's short story, "Speech Sounds" foreshadows where we're at now. Obviously, it's very exaggerated. But in a sense, with social networking the way it's going, slang is used in common conversation nowadays. It almost seems like no one actually says what they really mean. For example, "what's up?" in the literal sense, the sky. Nowadays it's a common way to ask how someone's doing, if they're upset, if they're okay, what they're thinking about, etc. It's almost like outside of professional or scholar use, literal English doesn't get used anymore. There are so many abbreviations for any little thing you could possibly want to communicate with someone. There's even an abbreviation to tell someone that you laughed at what they're saying. There's buttons you press just to let someone know you like how they look or what they have to say. As a society, actual human to human interaction, the effects that it will have evolutionary-wise is unprecedented. 

"The illness was stroke-swift in the way it cut people down and stroke-like in some of its effects. But it was highly specific. Language was always lost or severely impaired." p.571

Also, the way people would kill someone else just because they could talk. It's ridiculous that someone would kill someone else out of jealousy. Because they can convey what they're thinking better than someone else, and yet even in today's society people get killed for much less. This story does a good job at reflecting how ridiculous some people can be. How harsh of a world this can be. What people don't realize is how good they have it, they don't appreciate what's already given to them because they're more focused on what they've lost or what someone else has been given. 

For example the main character, Rye, learns that Obsidian can read, but cannot speak like she can. Spoken language has left him, yet fortunately, he can still read. Whereas if she wanted to say something, to channel a thought into words and actually verbally communicate them, she could, she just could no longer read or write. As a writer and avid reader myself, I understand her frustration. Though, her rage when she learns that he has what she does not, I do not understand. I guess I cannot understand.

"He could read, she realized belatedly. He could probably write, too. Abruptly, she hated him-deep, bitter, hatred. What did literacy mean to him-a grown man who played cops and robbers? But he was literate and she was not. She never would be. She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy. And only a few inches from her hand was a loaded gun." p.573

What I feel like she neglects to realize is that's precisely the point, he has no use for literacy skills. He probably yearns for his vocals just as much as she yearns to regain her literacy. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Twists and Turns (Blog 3)

"That Only A Mother Could Love" by Judith Merril is a typical science fiction story in that it starts off with confusion. The reader isn't fully aware of everything that has happened in the story. As you, the reader, start to understand the time frame and the main character Maggie says things such as,

 "Apparently, there was some degree of free radiation from atomic explosions causing the trouble. My baby's fine. Precocious, but normal."

This short story I felt was very good, I'm a big fan of a good twist ending. The title now makes a lot more sense to me than it did before. Although the setting for this story is domestic, the situation is not. I believe that's what makes it more like the genre than anything else. It has the reader under this preconceived notion that yes, there has been radiation and mutation, what's described sounds like a scene from "The Hills Have Eyes" minus the cannibalism, but other than babies being born mutated everything else is normal. Especially in the main character's mind.

The main character starts off as mundane as any typical army housewife story. The letters she writes to her husband all make everything sound completely normal. It had me believing the only thing wrong with the child was the extremely fast-paced intelligence. 

The main character is just relieved to know that her daughter has only one nose and a beautiful mind, she doesn't even go into detail on the letters to her husband that their daughter has no limbs. A part of me believes that she isn't even aware of it because of her unawareness in her thoughts. As the reader, you get to see into what she's thinking and feeling and not once did she mention anything about her daughter being deformed but I believe that's why the story has the name that it does. Although, everyone else sees her daughter as deformed, she still sees a smart bright-eyed beautiful soul.

*****

"We See Things Differently" by Bruce Sterling is a short story about what America is like in the future after catastrophic events have taken place and instead of being on the top of the Earth's political food chain, America's now on the bottom. Americans are ignorant and have a scarce amount of religious belief. There are many different examples in the text that proves the degradation of America's social and economic standings.

This quote is an example of the decrease of Americans that have faith in religion at this time;

"It is not just the poverty; they were always like this, even when they were rich. It is the effect of spiritual emptiness. A terrible grinding emptiness in the very guts of the West, which no amount of Coca-Cola seems to be able to fill."

 This quote shows just one example of the economical standings of America in the story's present time;

"We rolled down gloomy streets toward the hotel. Miami's streetlights were subsidized by commercial enterprises. It was another way of, as they say, shrugging the burden of essential services from the exhausted backs of the taxpayers. And onto the far sturdier shoulders of peddlers of aspirin, sticky sweet drinks, and cosmetics."

Another example of the economic decline is the inflation of money in America at the time of the story. It becomes apparent early on in the story when the narrator reaches into his pocket to pay for cab fare,

"The lining of my coat was stuffed with crisp Reagan $1,000 bills. I also had several hundred in pocket change,"

If that's not enough proof check out how much it costs for a newspaper,

"It was a newspaper vending machine. She set it beside three other machines at the hotel's entrance. It was the Boston organization's propaganda paper, Poor Richard's.

I drew near. 'Ah the latest issue, ' I said. 'May I have one?'

'It will cost five dollars,' she said in painstaking English. To my surprise I recognized her as Boston's wife. 'Valya Plisetskaya,' I said with pleasure and handed her a five-dollar nickel."

I was honestly a little confused as to what exactly caused the decline in America's economy, until I read this next paragraph, it's a bit of a long quote but  I really feel it helps explain the Americans side of things to understand how, in the story, America got to be where it is. The main character is an undercover terrorist, playing the facade of a reporter, and he's interviewing one of the biggest rock-n-roll political symbols in America, at the time. In this quote, Boston, (the rock-n-roll symbol) is getting interviewed by the so-called reporter,

"'Why are you afraid of multinationalists?' I said. 'That was the American preference, wasn't it? Global trade, global economics?' 

'We screwed up,' Boston said. 'Things got out of hand.'

'Out of American hands, you mean?'

'We used our companies as tools for development,' Boston said, with the patience of a man instructing a child. 'But then our lovely friends in South America refused to pay their debts. And our staunch allies in Europe and Japan signed the Geneva Economic Agreement and decided to crash the dollar. And our friends in the Arab countries decided not to be countries anymore, but one almighty Caliphate, and, just for good measure, they pulled all their oil money out of our banks and into Islamic ones. How could we compete? They were holy banks, and our banks pay interest, which is a sin, I understand.' He paused, his eyes glittering, and fluffed curls form his neck. 'And all that time, we were already in hock to our fucking ears to pay for being the world's policeman.'

'So the world betrayed your country,' I said. 'Why?'

He shook his head. 'Isn't it obvious? Who needs St George when the dragon is dead? Some Afghani fanatics scraped together enough plutonium for a Big One, and they blew the dragon's fucking head off.  And the rest of the body is still convulsing ten years later. We bled ourselves white competing against Russia, which was stupid, but we'd won. With two giants, the world trembles. One giant, and the midgets can drag it down. So that's what happened. They took us out, that's all. They own us.' "

Although I practically fell asleep through the beginning of this short story, the end of it really caught my attention. Both short stories are similar in the aspect that the endings are twists I never would've expected.


Update:

After the discussions in class based on these two stories I have a better understanding of Sterling's "We See Things Differently". I also didn't pick up on a lot of the hints that Merril dropped in "That Only A Mother". The discussions made me notice those little hints and also helped me see that she was writing an alternate history, whereas in Sterling's short story it's almost as if he predicted the problems we would face with the middle east.

My Interpretations of an Alien Encounter (Blog 2)

Reading science fiction work is like escaping to another universe. Another time and place, some writers call it Earth, while others create their own planets.

A certain specific genre of science fiction that I believe really makes you, as the reader, think outside the four-sided walls of that reality box are alien encounters.

Unlike other genres of science fiction alien encounters are probably the most relatable and yet most unusual. It would mean that not only are there other life forms out there but they also have the capability to make ground onto our home planet. It can instill a lot of different emotions in the reader and the author could take the story a multitude of different ways. How many different types of other species of living beings could there be out in space? Just look up at the stars at night and count them. Then, see how many of those gasses of light have planets surrounding them in their own universe's,  existing from their gravitational pull. How many of those planets might possibly have life on it? 

I recently read two pieces of science fiction and I believe they contrast in various manners. The piece, Out Of All Them Bright Stars (1985) by Nancy Kress reflects on what happens when alien beings have made contact, though they're a rare sight; until one walks right into Sally Gourley's job. It seems as though almost everyone around Sally is scared and disparaging toward the different species just because he's blue and has weird hands. With the initial horror Sally claims to be on all of the faces of the people in the diner that she works at, you would think that these creatures would be monstrous, mean and malicious.

"Just goes on staring with her mouth open like she's thinking of screaming but forgot how. And the old couple in the corner booth, the only ones left from the crowd after the movie got out, stop chewing and stare, too. Kathy closes her mouth and opens it again," -Kress', Out of All Them Bright Stars(p. 581)

 As the narrator discovers by later taking the customers' order, he was a perfect gentleman. In fact, he turned out to be more kind than the wife-beating pig of a boss she works for.

"Maybe Kathy's husband is right. Maybe they do want to blow us all to smithereens. I don't think so, but what the hell difference does it ever make what I think? And all at once I'm furious at John(the alien), furiously mad, as furious as I've ever been in my life. Why does he have to come here, with his birdcalls and his politeness? Why can't they all go somewhere else besides here? There must be lots of other places they can go, out of all them bright stars up there behind the clouds. They don't need to come here, here where I need this job and that means I need Charlie(her boss). He's a bully," -Kress', Out of All Them Bright Stars(p. 586)

 I believe Nancy Kress is trying to portray the hardships people face because of a difference in appearance. Though, her message was loud and clear, not everyone believes an alien encounter will be quite so amiable. 

Robert Silverberg's, Passengers (1968), is set in the future, 1987, and is about what it will be like when aliens take over. Though you can't see them, they can take over a humans body and mind for hours, days, or weeks at a time. Most humans don't have much recollection of what occurred in the time they were "ridden" as the main character, Charles Roth, calls it. The story is a brilliant joint of two concepts, possession and otherworldly experiences. This piece differs in Nancy Kress' in various ways. For one, instead of the aliens being physical beings, they're more like evil entities that cause chaos and result in a lot of premarital, casual sex. I believe it represents the fear in how the future will become, even without the evil entities. Another example of how the pieces differ is the outlook on humans versus aliens. Kress' piece takes an equality stance on how to treat the aliens, whereas in Silverberg's piece the humans are the ones in need of some equality change; seeing as how they're all thrown in the passenger seat of their own bodies and used as pawns for sex slave adventures. 

"But Passengers, I am told, take wry amusement in controverting our skills. So would it have given my rider a kind of delight to find me a woman and force me to fail repeatedly with her?" -Silverberg's, Passengers(p. 433)

Unfortunately for Silverberg, his nightmares of the future have sadly become a reality. At least in America, where casual sex and random hookup apps are the norm. Whereas Kress' piece of her stance against inequality has become more of a reality over the past thirty years. 

"sf(science fiction) is constantly reinventing itself, responding to contemporary scientific and cultural concerns and adapting or challenging prevailing narrative conventions. Polish Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (1961; trans. 1970), for instance, gains much of its impact from how it revises the assumptions of earlier first-contact stories," -The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (p. xiii)

In addition, I believe there are many differences in these two pieces. What the alien beings looked like, something as preternatural as aliens hiding in the clouds, swooping down to take over humans bodies and minds (Robert Silverberg's 1968 Passengers), and then twenty years later something as mundane and repetitive as a blue guy in a suit (Nancy Kress' Out of All Them Bright Stars 1985). Although I like Kress' writing, ideas behind the piece, and perspective I can't help but notice that it's just like every other alien story I've heard of. I think this point relates to the sf megatext which I've learned about through the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction

"Like all complex cultural forms, sf is rooted in past practices and shared protocols, tropes, and traditions-all of which contribute to what is often called the sf megatext. A fictive universe that includes all the sf stories that have ever been told, the sf megatext is a place of shared images, situations, plots, characters, settings, and themes generated across a multiplicity of media, including centuries of diverse literary fictions and, more recently, video and computer games, graphic novels, big-budget films, and even advertising. Readers and viewers apply their own prior experience of science fiction-their own of knowledge of the sf megatext-to each new story or film they encounter." -The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (p. xiii)

In conclusion, I believe that both pieces represented great, although very different interpretations of what could possibly happen if an alien race were to somehow make contact with us.


UPDATE:
Not too much has changed on my outlook of both stories. I feel as though most of the class was in agreement on a lot of things. Though, for Kress' short story "Out of All Them Bright Stars", the group I was in had to come up with some other explanation for the theme or besides racism. I believe that having to do things you aren't necessarily morally okay with for the better of your survival was another message hidden in text. A lot of people, myself included, get almost angry when they hear of a story or see something where someone is getting bullied and people around that person do nothing. It was interesting and insightful to read a story from a perspective where the girl couldn't do anything. As much as I would like to think I would stand up for someone against bullying as well, I wouldn't risk my own survival to do so.

Also, in Silverberg's "Passengers", I was able to think of another way it is unique in its' own story by a way of critical thinking and I've come to the conclusion that where most alien encounter stories, the country(humanity) is fighting back (a particular that comes to my mind is the 1996 movie Mars Attacks!), whereas in "Passengers" it seems as though everyone is willing to roll over and accept their fate.

My journey into the horror genre (Blog 1)

My name's Nicole. I've grown up loving horror movies. Breathing the thrill of a good scary story as if it were air.

                My real journey into the horror/sci-fi genre started when I was young. The very first scary movie I ever watched was Child's Play when I was two or three. Although my fascination started with evil driven dummies from Goosebumps, it soon veered toward psychological thrillers and horrors where the bad guy is just a regular man. Movies that could actually take place in real life. The Scream trilogy(the fourth one doesn't count) for example; My mom and I were a little obsessed with those movies, and we'd laugh and mock the dumb blonde running up the stairs when she should have been running out the front door.
               But that phase not so much ended as more as expanded into all kinds of horrors. More specifically, vampires. Oh, vampires. Something about eternal life and damnation and lurking around in the shadows of the night that I find unequivocally sexy. What started this fang-driven craze was an old, scary soap opera from the late 60's. Dark Shadows(no, not the cheesy, Johnny Depp version)
              My dad and I finished nine seasons and never completed the series together but watching that show opened my perspective from Disney fairy-tales to this whole other underworld.
Then, as my home life faltered and my social life was non-existent; I picked up a few different books one Summer that changed my life.

Seance- Joan Lowery Nixon
    And if you're into murder mystery, fantasy novels, with a little bit of romance and a lot of NC17 you have to check out the series below,
Anita Blake series- Laurell K. Hamilton

Thanks,

 (you can call me,) Niki