Week Fourteen: Science Fiction Parody and Satire

Thoughts of the future in my lifetime and beyond. Honestly the thought about the future to me is scary, scary because it is something unknown there is no telling in what direction time can lead us. Tragedies and events we may not want to happen may become a reality, such as a death of someone close or the end of something that makes one happy. Although there is also the comforting fact that there maybe beautiful blessings awaiting us to encounter them, like the birth of a child or the introduction to something new. The future for my generations I believe will hold many new things such as technology, the legalization of certain things and a female president. But I also feel concern because of the lifestyles we as a whole live, the over usage of the earths resources, the diets we have, the social media etc. In a very distant future imagine a lazy society where almost everything is done by some use of technology, which could involve in losses of jobs health issues and the dependency of technology to survive. I can also see the cure for certain diseases, viruses, and medical advancements. The possibility of encountering life on another planet or maybe we migrate onto another planet, space discoveries etc. 

Week Thirteen: Literary Speculation

After having read aquatic uncle and all at one point, there were similarities between the short stories. Such as a family member/figure and the people associated with them, and how they affect them. Although both are set in different places and use different people the effects of the family members are similar. In one story they are positive and in the other negative/bias. In the aquatic uncle there is a distinction between viewpoints of both generations, and thoughts on the world around them and what they know, which eventually leads to the narrators love to leave with the uncle and fall in love with him because she agrees with his viewpoints over the narrators. In all at one point in a uncomfortably spaced society one figure was the comforting mother like one and no one speaks badly about her. She is greatly missed by all the different families who share a space with each other and have differences or dislikes towards each other. Nonetheless both express a family like figure who affects the lives around them and plays a role in their lives.  

Week Twelve: Diverse Position Science Fiction

For this week I ended up reading I live with you by Carol Emshwiller. It was an interesting short read because it kept me wondering whom the person narrating the story was. It had a sense of mystery to it, because who ever it was, was in control of the situations over someone else’s life. They mad decisions for Nora that her herself wouldn’t have made. It was a confusing read because I never found out who the person narrating was and I don’t know if I was or wasn’t suppose to. I assume that is part of the story to have the reader confused and keep them wondering. Anyhow I found it interesting because it took two random people who never met each other and introduced them by involving someone else who was in control of the setup. These two Nora and Willard would’ve never met each other because they were both unnoticed and we kind of used to that. Both living single/lonely lives. The story in my opinion doesn’t connect with a majoritarian culture because unlike a majoritarian culture in this story one person was making the decision similar to a dictatorship. Making the other 2 involved puppets of situations brought together by someone who wanted to see a certain outcome.

Week Ten:The Fiction of Ideas

For this week I decided to read the short story the drowned giant. It is a story about a giant who washes up on a shore and draws a lot of attention towards it from the people inhabiting the city near it. The narrator is part of a group of friends who are doing a report and is fascinated by the giant and his existence. He attends the beach throughout a period of time and notices the likeness the giant shares with humanity besides of course the size. Throughout the days he notices the changes the giants body goes through and the people who come to visit examining /researching the giant. He feels that even with the giant’s immense size he still believes he shares similar vulnerabilities, making him feel connected in some way, as if some kind of re creation of the giant. The idea expressed is that in the story the narrator felt as though we were some tiny imperfect copies compared to this giant fascinating being who washed up on shore, and that whether people wanted to believe it or not he was real. 

Week Nine: Space Opera

For this week I decided to read the short story 9 billion names of God. Where a group of monks believes that when they can figure out the 9 billion names of God that humanity as a whole has served its purpose for existence. They believe that God will then end the world, as we know it. They devise an alphabet where after all their calculations would turn out to be about 9 billion names, and even through their research it would take an additional 15,000 years to come to the conclusion. Instead they want to finish this task by a quicker means and decide to use a machine of modern technology called the mark V computer. They end up hiring two men that will know how to operate and maintain the computer to make their results appear with in 3 months. During this process one of the men becomes worried that the monks will blame the computer and them because they believe the task will fail. Although one of the men tells the other of a story where when he was a kid there was a preacher who said the world would end and it didn’t, his followers ended up selling their homes and believed the preacher was correct in his prophecy. And even after finding out the world didn’t end they didn’t revolt against him they just believed he had made a mistake in his calculations and continued believing him. The other man how ever didn’t think that would happen in their case so he decided to postpone the computers results until their scheduled departure just in case. Only to realize that on their way to their departure destination the machine would be finishing up its results, and noticed that the stars began to disappear reinforcing that fact the monks were right all along. The Story brings an interesting aspect of a belief in God and how some people may find others beliefs bizarre, it shows us that we can believe what we want but it doesn’t mean we are correct and that others are wrong if they don’t believe in the same things.

Week Seven: The Novel of Spiritual Education

This fantasy genre is geared towards the teen readers who are going through certain changes in their lives and sometimes have no one to talk to about them or no where to go to understand what they are going through. Many of the books in this genre help them see another persons experience set in fantasy worlds, where even if they don’t live in them they can relate because the life lessons are similar. Growing up I can admit I was never into Harry Potter even though almost anywhere I looked it was being sold. I can recall being assigned to read one of the books in middle school and never really gained an interest towards the series, but it made me wonder what the hype /craze was about. It wasn’t until the movies began to appear that I began to get my feet wet as to what the books were all about. The fantasy world, the characters and the creativity of the books and films made me a bit interested because it involved magic, drama and friendship. Although I believe I liked it most because of the characters and how closely I could relate in terms of age, situations they got themselves into, and things most teens go through. I can definitely say it was a part of my adolescence and can see the big impact it had on my generation. And although I’ve only read 2 of the books seen two of the movies, and have been to the theme park attractions, I wouldn’t consider myself a die hard fan of the series but I can definitely appreciate and respect it because it was part of my youth and continued into my 20s, which connected me in some way with the characters as they grew older with me.