RR - All You Zombies

This week we have to do a reader response on a story we read. I have chosen the extremely complex, "All You Zombies." With reader response I am going to walk you through my personal experience when reading this story and what exactly I took away from the piece. Reader response is a very effective method in analyzing literature. Though the author generally has a major theme or topic he is attempting to convey, different readers interpret the story or aspects of the story very differently. It gives us different perspectives based on various reader responses and helps us look at things in a different light; a light that perhaps would have never been discovered if it was not for that response from  another reader. We all draw our own conclusions from what we read, but with the help of others, opinions of which we would otherwise never even think about, we can conquer the true meaning of a story from all angles. "All You Zombies," was, and excuse my language, a mind fuck. It is basically about a man who, with the help of time travel, is somehow his own mother and father while at the same time the offspring of the conception. Along this story we learn of the very detailed life of the main character and the things that have happened to him to cause this odd result. Its hard to say if I really enjoyed the story. It was definitely very interesting; I have never read anything like it. It was indeed quite confusing and at times hard to follow. This took away from the story, and I am sure other readers felt the same way. I think by the end, however, I had a pretty firm grasp on what the author was attempting to get across. One thing learned was that beware of a friendly conversation in a bar, you might get more than you asked for. I think this was the first time time travel was really explored in this fashion, at least the first text I have experienced it in. We generally think of time travel as a simple concept of going back and forth in time. This story showed as how it could actually change events in the past and future and how these events can in turn fuse with others to make a complex puzzle of history. Definitely a must read for scifi fans, but approach with caution.

Theme

This week we discussed theme and how it enhances a story. The theme of a story is extremely important in establishing early on and maintaining consistency throughout. It can be seen as essentially the foundation of an idea for a story upon which the characters and events that take place build on. A theme is typically the first idea that an author has for a story and uses it as a jumping off point. They begin by saying, "I want to write a story about humans and their dependence on technology or the importance of family." This then flourishes into a story from which different characters interact and engage in relationships with each other while dealing with different obstacles that are thrown at them. Along this path, their relationships and experiences are direct examples that support the theme and aim to further the authors intended idea. One of the stories we read was, "Second Variety." The story details a world war involving the Soviets and the United Nations. After almost complete annihilation, the United Nations responds to the Soviets attacks by developing a lethal model of robot intended to even the score. The two superpowers then meet to come to a truce, but discover that the robots have somehow created an alternate version of the robot model, one that looks and acts like a human in every way. The major theme that I found to be present in this story was identity. The different characters, after discovering this new type of robot, began to question each other as to who was the second variety and who was an actual human. When it was discovered that one person was actually a robot, it caused the remaining characters to question everything. The theme of identity and relating to our surroundings is very primitive in the sense that we will do what we must to survive. When one thing that is so familiar to us is in question, everything becomes that way. I think the interactions between the different characters during the story enhances the theme of identity and keep the story flowing. With a strong theme, a story will always have the ability to convey its message to its readers.

Conflict

This weeks concept is desire. Desires of a character and their motive within the story. I chose to highlight Dr. Frankenstein in our reading of Frankenstein. In class we discussed conflict in detail and how a characters desires encounter this conflict. This is a very important aspect as every character in every story has some goal there intend to achieve. Along the path to achieve this goal, there is generally some sort of conflict that they will face. This conflict, depending on the character and how vital their goal is to the story itself, is a crucial piece is developing a fictional story and how it will flow. The reader gets to know the character and learns of their desire. They then tend to side with this character and sometimes have an emotional bond with them and it becomes the goal of the reader to achieve this goal, through the character that they are reading. Dr. Frankenstein is in so many words, obsessed with creation. Through his experiences with the death of his mother and relationship with Elizabeth, his love, the doctor is set on the idea of creation and the power that it brings with it. In our reading, we see Dr. Frankenstein experiment with the human body, both how it is built and how it falls apart. He is enthralled with every aspect of his experiments. The conflict we come to see is after he brings his creation to life. He is absolutely disgusted with what he has created and cannot bear to even look at it. He struggles with internal conflicts with himself and questions his motives to bring this, "thing," to life. The resolution of this conflict goes beyond our reading. I am, however, familiar with the story and know that the monster goes on to destroy everything and everyone that the doctor loves. This internal conflict that we see in this story defines Dr. Frankenstein. What began as an obsession and also as his life's work, ends in utter disaster causing the doctor to question everything in his life. We can see now the effect conflict has on a character and the story itself.

Hello bloggers. I am back for the final week. The semester is finally over! Its been an interesting one to say the least. We have read some pretty cool stories for sure. There were a handful of more off the wall stories as well. I would definitely say that my reading comprehension has improved, especially for the science fiction genre. I think its safe to say that I have a much better grasp on fiction. Style of writing, technique, characters, etc. Some of the stories we read really blew my mind! There are some crazy writers out there. You read a story and you say, "how the hell did he/she come up with that? What were they smoking?" Favorite story of the semester you ask? I am between Burning Chrome, Liar!, and The Nine Billion names of God. Each story spoke to me in a different way, but all positive. Wait, I did really enjoy Bears Discover Fire, I gotta put that in there also. That was a pretty cool concept. Another thing I took away from this course was a better understanding of how vast and diverse the genre is. We read stories about sex, time travel, mother nature, economics, politics, robots, and of course outer space. Being a film buff, I would love to adapt of of these stories into a movie. There were definitely some good concepts. I gotta say, as I have said before, I was bummed we didn't read 2001: A Space Odyssey, only my favorite sci fi story of all time! Oh well. Well I don't have much more to say other than I did enjoy it. I think it will help me in the future in analyzing other genres. It always seems to help when you have an outside perspective. Well I guess I can say my first ever blog was a success. Maybe I'll keep it going? Probably not, but I enjoyed it while it lasted, peace out yall.

Welcome back bloggers. The semester is almost over so, I'm on little or no sleep. This week's prompt is on setting. Where does the story take place, what's going on around the characters, time, climate, etc. These are very important factors in a story, well, it really depends on the story. Some more than others, but either way setting generally plays an important role. This week we had to choose a story that we read to analyze. Of course I chose Bears Discover Fire. Maybe my favorite story of the semester. I mean come on, bears are scary enough already, now they have learned how to wield fire? A pretty cool concept if you ask me. Anyways, setting definitely played a major role in this story. It takes plays in a heavily wooded area of the country near Virginia, Tennessee, Western Kentucky, that region. For those of you who are unaware, an area with a pretty dense population of bears; bears of all kinds as well. All over the area, the main characters, along with surrounding communities, notice bears everywhere are gathering together and lighting fires. They have replaced the common practice of hibernation with this new activity. Mainly gathering and making these fires on the outskirts of the forests and the medians along the highways. This shows that these bears are directly interacting with the human world. They are now closer than ever. I thought setting played a major role in the sense that if this took place anywhere else, chaos and destruction would follow. Imagine if bears arrived in an urban area like New York or Chicago. People who are not used to wild life more than something you would see in a zoo would not know how to react other than, "we must destroy these bears before the torch our asses!" Because this story took place in a more rural area, they adjusted to this new concept quite well. Also, as we see in the end of the story, the bears take to the locals quite nicely. They allow them to join their fire and sit with them as equals. Bobby, a farmer, Wallace Jr., an innocent child, and Bobby's mother approach the situation with curiosity and acceptance. Setting shows us that not everything is accepted everywhere and people are very different from you, depending on where you are.

This past week in class, we had a great discussion about nature and environment. This topic led into a great debate on how these terms can be interpreted and how they, "should be used." At first glance of the terms, they may seem easy to define, but as we learned in class, many different people have many different definitions and uses for the two words. Some said that nature has an organic base to it and is untouched by mankind as opposed to other artificial things we see around us. Others said nature could be altered, but as long as it was once considered nature, like a tree placed inside of a mall, that would still fall under nature. Environment was generally defined as everything around us, both natural and man made. This was definitely one of those debates that led to the typical, "but what if..." You could go on all day about what if this or what if that. The point is how you define the terms. There really isn't a wrong answer. I personally defined the words as nature being untouched by man, while environment includes both aspects of natural and artificial. This week's blog assignment included using an article, image, video, or anything else that represented the nature/environment debate. As seen above I have chosen to use an image. I simply found it using Google images, but I didn't just search a random picture, there is meaning behind it. This past weekend was the Masters. For those of you who do not follow sports, it is arguably the biggest golf tournament of the year and even possibly the most prestigious event and prize in sports. I found a picture of one of the tournament's signature holes, the12th hole. As you can see above, it is a very pretty hole with a lot to look at. I chose to highlight this aspect, however, because golf is a great example of how we fuse nature and man made sports. A lot of the things you see are great examples of nature. Trees, bushes, grass, water, etc. But I can almost assure you that when the earth was created, there weren't little yellow flags sticking out of the ground, or a rock bridge perfectly arching over the water. This shows us that there are many man made features present in this image. This brings about the debate mentioned earlier, can this still be regarded as nature? It looks like nature, but it has been cleverly designed and altered to challenge the golfers who attempt to conquer it. It's hard to say. It really depends on how you define nature and environment. I personally consider things like this as, "nature plus." This basically means that I consider it to be nature, but with a few additives. Also, my definition of environment is an all-inclusive concept that involves everything around us, no matter where it came from. I really enjoyed this assignment because I found it interesting to try and define these concepts. When you first look at them, they do indeed seem easy to convey, but oh the contrary. I thought the above image would really help express my point of view and stance on the topic itself. Hope you enjoyed it bloggers, see you next week.

Hello again fellow readers. On the cutting board this week is The Nine Billion Names of God and how Marx's ideas on society functions in terms of culture, economy, religion, etc. First off let me just talk about how excited I was to read this story. Being a HUGE fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey, as you probably have read in one of my previous blogs, as soon as I saw Arthur C. Clarke I could not wait to dive into the story. Although relatively short, I really enjoyed the story and how it flowed. It read very quickly, but in a good way. This was the reason I chose to analyze this story for this week. I really understood where it was going, leaving me with virtually no confusion, as with stories we have read in the past. This story mainly focuses on religion and essentially the purpose of mankind on earth. To the monks in the story, the purpose of man is to discover the true name of God. If this can be achieved, God will end the universe, thus ending the human race. Upon learning this, the two computer programmers, of course, think this is a bit absurd and make plans to escape the blame at the end of the process. Marx had a relatively "anti religious" view on religion. He viewed as a downfall of society and that it held back innovation. The monks in the story have been told of this mission to find the name of God, a mission that has been passed down for centuries through many generations. They have no choice whether to give the mission a rational thought of whether it makes sense or not. Are they to go against something their ancestors began thousands of years ago? How could they possibly do that? The westerners, however, who have been employed to run the computer that will eventually discover the correct combination, think about this in a much different way. Marx's ideas would obviously favor those of the computer programmers and their plan to escape before a possible failure of the end of the universe, as the monks have predicted. Marx feared an outbreak of chaos as a result of religion, something seen in this very story. Its hard to say religion is necessary, but even harder to say it should be forbidden. I believe Marx had some innovative ideas, but something more in the middle seems most effective. Before I conclude, I have to mention that last line. A real mind fuck, excuse the language. Falling stars? I guess one would conclude that the universe has begun to end. But what if that's not what the author meant? What did he mean? I am personally a big fan of leaving the reader with a cliffhanger. (see Shutter Island) Gives the story much more flavor.

For this week's concept, we have to write about something I had never even heard of before we were assigned it. Something called the novum. After discussing it in class and reading over the prompt, I found the idea of the novum to be very interesting. Generally in science fiction stories, there is some sort of device or machine per say that classifies the story under the genre of science fiction. Examples include a computer, a robot, or any fictional element that is plausible but not necessarily existent within our present time. I will get to a literary example from class, but first I wanted to use an example to expand my point with one of my favorite films, 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the film, one of the main characters is HAL 9000. He is an intelligent computer that controls that space ship the remaining characters are on to Jupiter. This is an example of the novum in the sense of a character. I just personally found it interesting that it was a character in the story, but also a science fiction element that enhanced the story, but I digress. One of the stories we read recently, Dead Space for the Unexpected,  we meet several characters that work in some sort of marketing or advertising firm, it never really says but that's the impression I got for some reason. At this firm, it seems as if every aspect of their daily tasks are scrutinized and eventually scored. These scores, especially for our main character, are the only thing that matters. It's almost as if what their job services or provides does not even matter. I viewed the company as selling some useless product, like a plunger or a workout machine.Only the scores determined everything. It didn't matter that what you were selling was maybe not the most honorable practice, but the way you did it. This is all, by the way, my personal interpretation, essentially what I, "read between the lines." Without getting off topic too much, I wanted to bring all of these points back to the original concept. I viewed these scores as the novum of the story. There are many similar programs at various places of employment that we today, but in no way the manner seen in the story. Thats really what validated the science fiction element for me. These scores determine every aspect of the work day, and that just seems eerie. I got this weird vibe that they were being watched. I had this picture of a huge room with hundreds of screens analyzing every move the employees made. This in turn made up a large portion of the scoring. The concept of the novum is very clear in the stories we have read this semester, particularly in the story I have talked about today. A concept I was not initially familiar with, but now have a concrete understanding of  and will apply to future readings.

We kind of got a little more freedom than usual on this week's topic. We can pick any story that we have read up until now. Thinking back I always come back to Burning Chrome. I have not written about it yet, so I will just jump in. This week we have to do what's called a Close-Focus Reading. I am pretty much going to break down a section of Burning Chrome and analyze it word by word.
I have chosen a  paragraph early on in the story. "Chrome: her pretty childhood face," to "none of them at all reassuring." (Gibson 372) In this paragraph it gives a unique, chilling description of the title character. Who is Chrome? What is she all about? Why is she such a well known, important figure of society in this futuristic world? This is the first time in the story that we get to know who she really is.
"Chrome: her pretty childhood face smooth as steel, with eyes that would have been at home on the bottom of some deep Atlantic trench, cold gray eyes that lived under terrible pressure." She is described as having a pretty but childhood face. This conveys a sense of innocence about her. Pretty, therefore has power. I love how the author describes her face as smooth as steel. Steel? Chrome? A coincidence? I think not. At first glance one might not see her as a powerful figure, but as we see the story continue, we learn that this is quite the opposite. "They said she cooked her own cancers for people who crossed her, rococo custom variations that took years to kill you." This is another example of the innocent, but powerful force that Chrome projects. She may appear to be the girl next door, but she has an effect on people that takes a lasting toll that can take a man's life. Maybe this talent that she yields is what drew the mafia to her. They know what she is capable of, and to me it sounds like she could get anyone to do anything, which means money for the mafia. "They said a lot of things about Chrome, none of them reassuring." She doesn't really sound like someone you would want to take home to your parents does she? Absolutely nothing that is said about her is reassuring? Damn, that's cold. This perhaps foreshadows the motive of our main characters. Someone has to take out this demon woman and take her for all she is worth.
I really enjoyed the way this paragraph flowed, which is why I chose to focus on it for this assignment. At the point in the story, we don't know much about the title character. But after reading this, we get a good idea of who she is, what she is all about, and perhaps why someone would plot against her. This sets the tone for the remainder of the story, as we now have an emotional connection to the main characters mission and their plan to, "burn," Chrome."

Sex and Gender in SF

I really enjoyed our discussion we had last week about sex and gender. I has never really thought about it before, but the two are very different. Sex being a biological status, male or female, aka what's between your legs. Gender, on the other hand, is a much deeper concept with a vast range of variations. Much more complex than whether you can give birth or not. The world we live in today, men are seen a certain way and women are seen another.  This image has changed drastically over thousands of years of human evolution. We get a sneak peak of how one author, Joanna Russ, thinks this will carry into the future in the story "When It Changed." On a distant planet, there is a human colony called Whileaway. This colony is an all female colony, that has discovered a way to procreate and sustain life without the presence of men. This basic concept gives way to a whole new meaning of the word gender. Sex, of course, we know is female. Their sex has not been altered at in any way. Gender however, in this future world, takes on a whole new meaning. Typically we view the role of women as giving birth, protecting, and raising their children. While men are viewed as the breadwinners, those who provide for the family and put a roof over their head. Men also take the lead role in society, generally holding the positions of authority and management. This all-female colony that we read about in this story fuses the two views of gender into one. Females take on both roles as providers and the care of children. A very interesting and unique concept that science fiction literature makes possible. Astronauts, who happen to be men,  from earth arrive on the planet and discover the colony. They are in utter disbelief that a colony could survive without men. To a man this concept is impossible to understand. This is because men have always been on top and in charge. Women, on the other hand, have done nothing but dream of a world where they are dominant. In this world, not only are they dominant, they are without competition. They rely only on themselves and their fellow woman. One has to ask, could a colony of only men survive?

Style

Style of writing is almost like DNA, it defines the writer and the piece they are creating. It helps shape the message they are attempting to deliver to the reader. Depending on the topic and genre, style plays a huge part in the art of telling a story.  I have chosen to write about a story we read earlier in the semester called Liar!. I found this to be a very interesting story about humans and machines, and their interaction amongst each other. The four main characters discover that a robot they have created has the ability to read minds. They must now discover the origin to this design flaw before it gets out to the public. The author chose a unique style to write this story. He uses several mini conversations among the different characters that eventually leads to their downfall. He intertwines the different characters and slowly reveals hidden conflicts that we did not see at the beginning of the story. One character is in love with the other. Another is bitter at a certain character for holding onto a post that he wishes to obtain. These seemingly subtle conflicts, along with some well written dialogue, lead to the humans turning against each other at the hand of their own creation, the robot.  This style of writing does a great deal of justice to the story and the message the author is attempting to convey. He divides the characters and their problems and as they build upon each other, we see that there will have to be an epic climax. The climax surely comes about when the characters reunite and confront their creation. I really enjoyed the story, but especially how it was written. I think the same story could have gone a different direction, but in no way delivered as powerful of a message. I honestly believed that the style of story telling that the author chose to use gave us a great piece to read, and some useful lessons to learn about ourselves.

Hello internet surfers, my name is Alan. This is my first post on my first ever blog, so bare with me. This is required for a course I am taking, but I am actually looking forward to making an entry each week. The course I am taking is The Short Story: Science Fiction. This weeks prompt is pretty open so I can really go anywhere I want. What does science fiction mean to me? How do I define science fiction? There are several characteristics about the genre that have to be in place for it to be considered science fiction. First of all, I always think of it as being in the future, whether the near future or the distant future. Also, I see science fiction as a somewhat believable story line. Something that just cannot or would never ever happen, I lump those stories in the fantasy and adventure column. I think it is somewhat possible for computers to enslave the human race, at least it's more believable than riding unicorns into the clouds and swimming with mermaids. My experience with science fiction literature is not very extensive I must admit. Science fiction film, on the other hand, is what some may call my forte. Some of my favorite films are classified as science fiction. The Matrix, of course, and what many consider the greatest science fiction film of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001, is actually based on a book of the same title by Arthur C. Clarke. I was so hoping we would read it in this class. Though I have not read very much science fiction literature, I feel very comfortable with the genre. I love reading or watching a story that shows something in the future that could actually happen one day. It reminds of the movie trilogy, Back to the Future. In part two, the main character goes to 2015, which in 1985, when the film came out, seemed like light years away, but now it is only 3 years away! My friends and I plan to throw a Back to the Future party. It is always cool to go into a realistic world and be apart of a story where unheard of things happen, and you think, what if this came true? What if this is all in my mind and I wake up tomorrow and the truth is revealed? Scary thought, but that's what is fun about science fiction. Cannot really say I have any fears for this class, but I am definitely excited to dive into some cool stories and pick up some knowledge on scifi. Well as I said before, this is my first ever blog post, so I am not sure how I did. I will leave you  for now, but I will surely be back. This will be a weekly thing, so we will see how my writing improves along the way. I'm outtie.