WEEK FOURTEEN: Hitchhiker's Guide

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams) presents us with a twisted, satirical image of what life outside of Earth is like and what the future may hold. This week, I listened to the first radio recording of the saga, and read alongside the transcript from the recording. I found it hilarious, to say the least. The story follows two “friends” who are dealing with the end of the planet, destined to start a new life in space, all the while surrounded by alien beings and new frontiers. The story is not completely unheard of in the science-fiction genre, but what sets the Hitchhiker’s Guide apart from others, is how it pokes fun at itself and the genre that created it, breaking the fourth wall. The story is sitcom-like, only with more intelligence.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide is layered, as a story. The writing itself is full of wit without taking itself too seriously, if seriously at all. Adams is highly aware of the tropes and likes to bend them to his liking while simultaneously doing the same thing with his style of writing, creating a unique story. The characters are foolish, the narrative is absurd, and all the while the author manages to discuss some very dark subjects (i.e. the planet getting blown up and ensuing depression). The refreshing thing for me about the story, at least the one I listened to, is that we’re always pitched the same kind of thoughts on the future/space-beings. Adams gives us something new. Why does the future always have to be so serious and glamorous? Can’t it be ridiculously nonsensical? After all, we have no idea what may lie beyond our field of vision. 

WEEK THIRTEEN: Atwood and Oryx and Crake

This week, I looked into Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. I started this novel and hopped around, doing some research of my own. Filled with intriguing content and paired with Atwood’s distinctively witty style, I can already feel that I will be going back to finish the story. Oryx and Crake features a bizarre cast of characters who are dealing with a sort of post-apocalyptic world created by Crake (a mad scientist of sorts) who wanted to create a world of his own devices. Crake essentially annihilates the human race and wants to see how moldable the world can be. I found a particularly interesting and relevant quote that seems to sum up how I feel about the book from The Daily Telegraph, stating, “The bioengineered apocalypse she imagines is impeccably researched and sickeningly possible: a direct consequence of short-term science outstripping long-term responsibility.” 

The novel is relevant to today’s world. We see science recreating the world and politics intermingling with the evolution of man/nature. It is a descent into manmade chaos wherein only we are to blame for the atrocities brought upon us. Atwood writes this not only as a piece of literary genius but as a forewarning.

I think it is important to address how Atwood’s writing differs from genre writing. Oryx and Crake, in my opinion, relates to a broader audience than other more genre-specific, fan-service type writings that can also a part of speculative fiction. Atwood wants to reach out to a broader audience. Her writing, in content, discusses loftier and more psychological subjects. She herself has openly argued that her writing is not science fiction (filled with monsters and aliens) and rather that her ideas could actually happen to us, by us. Not to say that other authors don’t write well, but Atwood’s writing is thoughtful and interesting to read for the way it is written. It reminds me of Murakami in the sense that they are both dealing with speculative fiction but while writing it in their own, highly literary, voices.

IN CLASS RESPONSE: Bloodchild

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

The text we just read reminds me a lot of Dawn, that I read for this week. Though it is a short story, Butler packs a lot of context and information. I think her main goal with this piece was to make the audience realize that cooperation/relationships with beings from other worlds would require "give and take" from both parties. The two become co-dependent, making drastic changes to their otherwise normal individual ways of life, so that both may live in the new climate. While there is a dependency both have with each other, there are times in Bloodchild where the humans seem to be in a pseudo-slavery relation with the Tlic. Do the Tlic use humans for breeding grounds and nothing more? We can't be sure. Some of the Tlic seem to have developed real feelings for the humans, but the ambiguity of the situation is what makes the story so compellingly foreign. In the grand scheme of the universe, our position may not be anything we could imagine, which makes Butler's world building skills so intriguing to look at.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements in the story with which you were able to connect... 

I connected most to Gan, Bloodchild's protagonist. We follow him through his personal realizations that his world are not what it seems. I connected with his frustration, anger, shock, and confusion at the Tlic's techniques of working with humans. The humans are, as even Gan described them, like animals in a farm. While Gan has lived his whole life seeing the Tlic and humans' amicable relationships, he now sees that everything is not what he thought. Too, I connected with Gan's compassion for this other being even in the face of repulsion. He refuses to leave her side in order to protect his sister and to protect her children.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What media would you use? What changes would you make?

I don't think there are many things about this story that would need changing in order to be adapted into another medium. I might expand on Qui's story to include more background in the family's life. I think there's a lot hidden beneath the surface with his character to be explored. Because I am an illustrator, I would probably choose to adapt the tale into an illustrative piece. Given the nature of the story's pacing, characterizations, and brevity; I think that a comic or graphic novel would be an appropriate way to adapt Butler's story. There may have to be more information given into the narrative/setting in order to add to the length, but in all, I think Butler gives us enough to start with to create something that could be quite interesting to see illustrated.

WEEK TWELVE: Dawn

Week Twelve: Dawn

For week twelve, I read Octavia Butler’s Dawn. The story opens with near total destruction of the human race, caused by a nuclear war. An alien race known as the Oankali have picked up the few humans left alive and keep them safe while they rebuild the human’s world. Lilith, the protagonist of the story, has been chosen as a leader-type by the Oankali to guide the other people into a new frontier. The alien beings, however, demand that in return for the rebuilding of Earth, the humans inter-breed with them in order to create a stronger species fit to survive in the new setting.

Butler makes us question our place in the present on a scale much larger than just here on Earth. The reader comes to realize that should other beings come into contact with us, there will be a give and take. The relationships that will form between life forms of different backgrounds will be far more complicated than we might imagine, yet Butler provides us with some thoughts. In Dawn, if we (the humans) are going to survive through this end times, then we have to agree to the terms of the Oankali, despite how repulsive and complicated that process may seem. 

The novel also forces us far out of our comfort zone when it comes to how we think about life in general. Relationships, sexual orientations, and ways of life as we know it mean nothing to the Oankali. The juxtaposition of the two life forms interacting puts things into perspective. I think Butler may have been trying to make a statement to the audience about how meaningless the labels we cast on each other are in the greater scheme of things. 

Butler covers a lot of ground in this one story, and doesn’t hesitate to discuss allegorically issues that we are facing today. These issues include sexism, bigotry, homophobia, rape, slavery, and war (only to name a few). While the humans have problems, so too do the Oankali, and becomes up to the beings to decide if they can come together so that both can survive. 

WEEK ELEVEN: Cyber/Steampunk

This week I read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. The story follows Hiro Protagonist, a wild-card, genius of a main character, who gets caught up in a mob related drug concoction that's sweeping the "nation." He and his group of misfits work together to get the world back on its feet after Snow Crash has taken over the minds of many. Taking place in a dystopian America, Stephenson puts us deep into the world of what it means to be cyberpunk. The story itself is great fun to read. Stephenson's irreverence makes him an excellent storyteller for the genre. He writes with intense rebellion towards conventional literary subjects and gives us something fascinating to read.

Cyberpunk as a genre is a kind of dated futurism that envisions human life intermingling with robots and the genetically modified. We are presented with blends of human potential with genetic mutations, creating both higher beings and dangerous counterparts. Thematically, the genre feels grungy. This is not the clean future of The Jetson's, rather, the seedy underbelly of a world gone awry from the misuse of technology and the possibility that our own creations may overtake us. The line between human and tech becomes so thin and blurred that there can almost be no distinction of the two's differences.

More and more in today's world we can see technology's impact. Automation is what's next, cyberpunk is an intriguing warning. I connect this week to a video that I saw a while ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU , "Humans Need Not Apply." The video analyzes how our world is already in the process of ridding humans of having purpose in society as we know it to be today. There are still people that are skeptical, claiming that there can't possibly be a way a robot could do their job, but those people are in denial. Already we see the ways in which tech is dominating the cultural infrastructure of our lives, and that trend is only going to grow exponentially with each year. So, what's next?

Cyberpunk presents us with a look at what could become of us, despite how fantastical and far-away the concepts may seem. With the fears that ensue, so do the possibilities. There will be infinitely new ways that our world will open new doors for us to travel through. Control of our offspring, beings that do the things we don't want to do, and time. Time for us that we've never had before.

WEEK TEN: Left Hand of Darkness

Week Ten: The Fiction of Ideas through Left Hand of Darkness

This week, I read Urusulla K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness. The theme for this week revolved around the ways in which science fiction/fantasy writing can address problems in the modern world. In this sense, the authors of this genre are writing with metaphors to indirectly emphasize topics that would otherwise be sensitive subjects to deal with.

Reading the story, as it would seem so many other readers felt, my biggest takeaway was Le Guin’s addressing of gender identity. The topic of gender recognition is something that becomes more and more relevant in today’s world, as binary gender roles are questioned and seen as being absurd (at least among the liberal crowd that Ringling seems to attract). 

Le Guin took a risk in writing this book. Published in 1969, the novel would have been even more controversial than it is now. I think the way that she was able to provide such forward thinking at such a time of intense scrutiny is admirable. I also think this was made possible thanks to the use of metaphor. In similar ways to Haruki Murakami, Le Guin used metaphor to her advantage. In being able to tackle deep issues, one must first realize that it can be dangerous and unheard of to speak so directly. By placing the characters in a world unlike our own, the reader can disconnect from the logistics of the story and place themselves into the philosophy of the writer. Le Guin elegantly does this, in my opinion. 

I have not had the chance to finish reading the novel, but from what I have read so far, and based on my own opinions, Genley represents a type of person that does not understand non binary gender roles. This type of person is common place in our modern society. Le Guin created a world in which people are people despite the changing paths of the world or people’s individual opinions. She proves that life is meaningful and real no matter your representation or lifestyle.

WEEK NINE: The Space Opera

The Space Opera

This week's genre/topic is an interesting one. Space opera's, as Dr. Steiling has described, provides a different kind of audience with their own kind of Western. Typically, I don’t think that the people who enjoy the space opera are the same types of people that enjoy Westerns. The demographic shifts entirely from the alpha male to the inspired nerd.

I started The Martian for this week by Andy Weir. One of the things I enjoyed about this novel was the attention to detail of science coupled with Weir’s ability to create a fantastically unreal world. He pairs reality and fantasy with such great detail that the reader immediately relates and believes that this story is factual. We become sucked into the novel incredibly fast. As an interesting and relevant aside, I did a little digging and found that Weir published the novel on his blog in separate installments as he was writing it. The reason that the science in The Martian comes to feel so believable/true is because different correspondents to Weir’s blog would leave him critiques on the representation of scientific facts and calculations.

While the scientific factuality of his novel is inspiring, to say the least, I will say that at times the calculations and explanations became long-winded. I found myself occasionally skipping over a page or two in order to get back to the story, trusting that Weir had appropriately detailed everything that needed to be detailed. 

All in all, I enjoyed what I read for this week. Weir and space operas are not typically the type of story that I would find myself enjoying but I was pleasantly surprised. This class has opened me up to all kinds of different reading possibilities and that’s been really great.

WEEK EIGHT: Mythical Fiction

Week Eight: Mythic Fiction (Neil Gaiman)

For this week’s reading I looked at Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. To start, I feel the need to say that Gaiman’s writing style seems to be one that the reader either loves or hates. He speaks in a voice that sometimes seems frivolous while at other times seeming incredibly direct. He takes his time in moving through things in a poetic sort of prose that becomes an art form of its own. He writes fantasy with a dash of realism that lets the reader immerse themselves entirely into his own world, which is simply a grand amalgamation of the things that have inspired him.

Anansi Boys is a fantastical journey through a young man’s life as he loses himself, only to reconnect with himself through spiritual beings and reasonings. Anansi himself is an African mythological character that Gaiman has appropriated for the telling of his story. Anansi is known to take the form of a spider, typically, and holds within him the power of knowledge and tales. Gaiman uses this story to connect a variety of myths and legends in order to tell the tale of one man whose life changes dramatically after a death in the family and a visit from a brother he never knew he had.

The interesting thing about this story is that Gaiman is taking a folk tale written many years ago and repurposing it for the contemporary instance. The folk tales of such a nature have a lot of promise and intricacy and entertainment, but a modern audience would have a hard time relating to them. This is similar to the way that other authors and artists will take common tropes and re-imagine them into concepts that are uniquely their own. Spider, Fat Charlie’s brother, an all knowing, cunning, and tricky man comes into Fat Charlie’s life with his own motivations. The two brothers are polar opposites and it is through their conflicting interests and drama that the story unfolds before us.

The beauty in Gaiman’s writing this story is that we are first thrust into a somewhat reality and then whipped through a world of imagination, magic, and mythology. 

WEEK SEVEN: Spiritual Education and Harry Potter

Harry Potter

Although I have read the stories of Harry Potter, it was a sweet reminder to be able to read them again. The entire series follows the story of Harry and his friends as they go through Hogwarts. They grow up together, finding themselves through their classes and discovering what it means to be wizards as well as adults. In the context of this class, I feel like these stories were a nice fit along with the other texts. Harry Potter is iconic. It stands to the test of time and to other texts that fit alongside it. It represents a different type of fantasy literature and is, in itself, so powerful and impactful. There is nothing else that represents fantasy literature as well as Harry Potter does. 

I think that JK Rowling created something that has changed the lives of so many people. The scope of her writing has become a very important thing in a lot of people’s lives. We follow the education of Harry and his companions as they grow up in all of their own rights. While Harry matures with his friends, his friends mature alone.

My favorite part about the in-class discussion was hearing about how the "good" characters in Harry Potter were more aggressive than the bad characters. I had never really considered that before the discussion but now that I’ve been thinking about it, it all makes sense. Harry himself is the most aggressive and crude character in the entire series. His actions prove that to a “T.”

I found an interesting article that well describes this notion, http://www.dailydot.com/parsec/harry-potter-stats-good-characters-more-aggressive/ , and in it, they discuss everything that we were going through in class. The author’s opinions were well put and describe the notion that perhaps those whom we consider to be the most perfect characters may in fact be the most flawed. Harry, for example, made more hastily wrong actions towards others than any other characters in the story. That came as a shock to me at first, and I wanted to stay in denial, but it makes sense. Even though I want to stand by his side, I realize now that his character isn’t as glorious as I made it out to be.

WEEK SIX: The Hobbit

This week, I read Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit. This iconic piece of folklore is about a hobbit named Bilbo who gets chosen to accompany a group of dwarves on a quest to take back stolen treasures. The plot itself has become such a huge part of the fantasy lexicon that I will not bore you with the summary, which everyone undoubtedly has heard by this point.

The book was a major player in the world of fantasy fiction. It paved the way for a new style of content and writing that stretches the boundaries of reality through fantasy. Tolkien was remarkably prolific in his world building abilities. He sculpts such an elaborate world for us that is elegant even in its smallest details that we believe it all to be real (or at least believable), no matter how outlandish the whole thing can be. The Hobbit is kind of unique in the realm of world building, as well. Tolkien is able to create a new world with unheard of things presented to us while still giving us rich stories that take place there. All the while, none of this feels as being too much on the reader to take in, because of how robustly Tolkien presents it to us. I found a great quote from C.S. Lewis describing the world of the hobbit as, “a world that seems to have been going on long before we stumbled into it but which, once found by the right reader, becomes indispensable to him.”

WEEK FIVE: Witches

Witches!

Witches hold an interesting place in the world of literary archetypes. They are one of the few character types that are gender specific in reference to women. A witch is a powerful woman with abilities normal people do not possess. They cast fear into those who get in their way. They represent an difference towards normal lifestyles and they embrace their femininity proudly while in opposition to masculinity. It is an archetype of empowerment.

For the week, I read Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. The story is about a “normal” old woman, helpless and innocent as perceived, who lives in a town with other witches. The story starts pretty normally but escalates as the truth of the matters come to light.

Jones presents us with a witch but it’s not a witch that we are more typically expected to see. Her witch stands as the protagonist of the story, rather than some kind of evil being out to make lives so much worse. I think the classic trope of using a witch to display malicious intent is a fun one at best, but there’s so much to play with that I think it’s great to see it being explored further through this novel. We are given a witch that wants to be seen as quiet and frail but underneath that exterior lies a woman of great power. In terms of gender representation, I think Jones represents a woman of reality, guised underneath the witch persona. 

Week Four, Weird

Week Four, Three Moments of Weird

This week I read Three Moments of an Explosion and I came to the conclusion China Mieville is brilliantly weird, period. His work assaults you with its oddity in a way that makes you question what writing really is. It is not often that I read something and feel so entertained with the newness of that something’s content. Not only through his use of subject but in the way he presents it to us is something to be admired. For example, in “The Crawl,” he uses a screenplay to communicate with us, which fits the theme for this week because it immediately confuses us. This confusion is a big part of what defines the weird genre. The reader is meant to feel uncomfortable and surprised. The genre is not unwilling to take risks and sing out on things that other genres wouldn’t. 

I was reading a critical review on Mieville’s work and the reviewer was saying of Mieville’s work that there is a mystery and anonymity to the stories that make them so intriguing. I’ve talked about this before in one of my blog posts and we’ve talked about it in class but, this subtlety to storytelling can be so much more impactful than being obvious about the content. Allowing the reader to fill in the blanks means that the reader becomes an active participant in the work. 

Another thing to note about Three Moments of an Explosion is that it is written in short story format. The brevity of the narratives leaves you feeling astounded that such a fast read could possibly make you feel so moved in such a period of time. 

I think what is so compelling about this week’s topic is that unlike the other genres of horror and science fiction, these stories are just… weird. They tap into a part of you that the other genres can’t, simply by nature. With Mieville, I think the weird is immediately perceived by us as viewers. The fantasy of his stories takes place in worlds not unlike our own. This juxtaposition of reality and bizarre create a discomfort that some of us enjoy partaking in, if only for a few pages.

WEEK THREE: Asian Horror and Murakami

Week Three: Asian Horror and Murakami

This week’s theme hit close to home for me. I am currently a senior illustration student and for my thesis I’m illustrating Murakami’s collection of short stories, The Elephant Vanishes. I have always enjoyed his writing style because of the deep metaphors hidden beneath the layers of text. Murakami’s work is so deeply allegorical that at times the metaphors seem almost nonexistent. He writes to make the reader think. Another common theme in Murakami’s work is that he combines the surreal with the real. I discuss this notion as well while talking about Andy Weir’s The Martian because there are elements of reality intermingling with the unknown. Wherein space opera combines reality with universal mystery, Murakami combines reality with spirituality and the surreal. 

I found a quote from Murakami that I feel appropriately describes the way in which he writes, “my style, my prose, is very easy to read. It contains a sense of humor, it’s dramatic, and it’s a page-turner. There’s a sort of magic balance between those two factors.” For me, this is part of the appeal. His writing strikes a certain chord that other authors tend not to play with. 

A Wild Sheep Chase follows Murakami’s style in a similar way. The characters are all chasing after something that is damn near difficult to capture because the thing they’re trying to capture is a metaphor in and of itself. This sort of intangible thing that resides somewhere deep within themselves and the world around them, and this thing that they are all after varies greatly from individual to individual, is dependent only on that person’s goals and aspirations. As the story progresses, we see a shift from truth to fantasy, not unlike the transitions that take place in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. As we enter into a world we can understand, we begin to lose sight and consciousness of what should be. Murakami uses this segway in order to strengthen the power of his metaphors. 

I found two relevant quotes to Murakami and metaphor that I felt would be appropriate to share here: 

“Metaphors help to eliminate what separates you and me.”

“Everything in life is a metaphor. We accept irony through a device called metaphor and through that we grow and become deeper human beings. Irony deepens a person, helps them mature. It’s the entrance to salvation.”

The reason I include these quotes is because I feel it’s a big part of what separates Western and Asian literature. Western literature tends to spell things out for you, wherein Asian literature forces you to think about what you read and project your own experiences and thoughts onto the story.

WEEK TWO: Vampires and Love

Week Two: Interview With the Vampire

Vampires make up one of the largest horror motifs found in horror literature. They represent darkness, lust, blood, and the mystery of night. While vampires still embody the evil and repulsion of other villains (i.e. werewolves and monsters), they embody an alluring tendency that attracts both readers and the characters that they surround themselves with. This makes the vampire a more complex symbol in literature than meets the eye. 

Without having known anything about Interview With the Vampire, I have to say that it was not what I was expecting. I’m more familiar with vampires like Nosferatu, and Christopher Lee’s adaptations of Dracula. Anne Rice created a new type of vampire paved the way for a new generation of vampire fanatics. A demographic that can appreciate the intrigue of horror with the lust of an evil gentleman.

Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire helped to change the way that the public viewed vampires. She introduced a character that comes off as being suave with elegance, poise, and charm. It becomes hard for us in this day and age to even begin imagining a time when vampires were “evil,” thanks to Rice and novels such as the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Of course, Meyer’s vampires could not have existed without its ancestor, Rice’s vampire. We see vampires desiring more than just blood, we see them desiring love and happiness. Their circumstance has trapped them in a world of misfortune and misunderstanding. 

The evolution of the vampire continues, as the audience shifts from adults to young adults looking for books that peak their own interests. Rice created a vampire that, while evil, is still human. They still have human emotions and thoughts and want things that humans want. 

The dynamic of the vampire shifted after this. Horror was no longer meant only to instill fear in the reader’s minds but to introduce other emotions, emotions forbidden from normally being associated with such topics; lust, romance, and curiosity; all paired with the already established evil nature of vampires and villains themselves.

Week One, Frankenstein

Week One, Frankenstein and Mary Shelley and the Splendor of Gothic Literature

This week I decided to read Frankenstein. I was very pleasantly surprised by the book because while having always heard about it, I’d never read it. Prior to actually reading Frankenstein, I have watched Young Frankenstein, a favorite in my family, and I loved being able to now understand the subtle references in the movie. The story follows the life of Victor Frankenstein and his attempts to play God, only to find horror in his efforts.

I was really impressed by the maturity of the narrative, not only for the fact that it was written by a twenty year old. The contents of the story are unique, addressing a myriad of social issues and topics, and Shelley does this in a very interesting way. Topics are not cliche or overt but rather, webbed together into the workings of Victor’s life story and adventure. 

I think for me one of the most interesting takeaways is not about the plot itself but about the air that surrounds the novel. Specifically the fact that most people refer to the monster as Frankenstein, even though the monster’s name is not Frankenstein. That creates an irony in its relation to the story itself that I think is part of what this story really is. The monster represents parts of Victor, Victor is inside of this monster and as much as he hates that about his situation, he cannot run from it. It wasn’t even until his death that the trials they shared came to an end. Their relationship could be associated with a sort of Jekyll and Hyde duo. Still, the bond that ties these two characters together is forever, and because so many people refer to the monster as “Frankenstein,” we as the audience have trapped Victor there forever.