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?

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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.