I am Legend, Armageddon, 1984, World War Z, The Maze Runner, The Stand, the titles go on and on for books and films that exemplify a world in terror. The coming or aftermath of an apocalypse is a common theme in many story lines that has been done time after time. Authors and writers choose these settings because they have skepticisms and predictions of what will come of our society. These idea have revolved around, extraterrestrial intervention, war, disease, and even zombies (how original). There is a common aspect in almost all of these stories that human society completely breaks down and turns against itself. I think this expresses a strong conviction that the human race is considered potentially destructive and unable to function under high pressure situations. I'm pretty sure that no matter what year you're from or what year these stories were written, these attributes can be found in society always.
This week I read "The Star" by H.G. Wells and "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler. Both of these are AMAZING, I absolutely recommend reading these. The nice part about pairing these stories together is that they appeal to all kinds of readers. "The Star" is much more descriptive, there is very little dialogue and is told from the perspective of looking in on a world and its behavior as opposed to following one person or the story being told from one person's perspective. It adds a nice element to understanding the story. "Speech Sounds" is told about the story of a girl "Rye" and is full of dialogue and a simple but intriguing plot line. It was nice to be able to enjoy two stories of different builds but similar themes.
I did think that "The Star" was a little predictable but for being a story written in the 1800s I guess it's understandable. Although it was inevitable that the star would eventually hit or come close to Earth, it was nice that throughout the story, Wells constantly made the reader ask "Well what does that mean" and "What's going to happen to that". I think it is important to grasp the concept that no matter what level destruction the Earth and the human race faces it is near impossible to destroy them. Just like in this story, I think that humans will always try to rebuild society over and over again, no matter what happens, they will attempt to rescue and restore technology. Also, it was a great touch how at the end Wells added the Martian species and their perspective on what had happened to the Earth. This perspective made it seem like all of the devastating change that happened to Earth was such a trivial and insignificant concept.
"Speech Sounds" was a pretty great story and told a great amount of information for just being a short story. This story falls under my very long list of 'Short stories that should be novels", but I'm sure the story was probably intended to grow only in the readers mind and not on pages. I've read and watched many stories where an artificially created disease diminishes or changes the world's population. This was the first interpretation that effected the understanding and utilization of speech, which was awesome. I think that Obsidian was merely a pawn to this game. It is my understanding that his purpose was to give Rye a reason to live and continue to explore life. Also, without him she would have never met the children. Other than that, I'm not completely sold that his character alone was supposed to inspire a great part of the understanding of the reader (I'm sure people will disagree with me on this). The children offered a great deal of hope to Rye because they could speak and understand speech. She was blindly ignorant to thinking they had any future other than behaving as feral creatures. It was a look for Rye into what the world could be, again a rebuilding of society and starting from 'scratch'.
"'... and indeed the only difference seems to be a shrinkage of the white discoloration (supposed to be frozen water) round either pole.' Which only shows how small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem, at a distance of a few million miles." - "The Star", H.G. Wells
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
War and Conflict
In Science Fiction, I've always known that war/conflict, and culture played a part. This is probably my least favorite part of this genre. I appreciate that almost all scifi stories teach a lesson or a moral that should be followed. But honestly, I love Science Fiction because of the fantastical world it can take you to and the wonderful things that can happen regardless of what is humanly possible in our world. This week I read the stories "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril and "We See Things Differently" by Bruce Sterling. I think I have to admit that these are not going to go down in my record books as 'scifi stories I thoroughly enjoyed'. That being said, I will continue with my analysis of these stories.
In "That Only a Mother" I found it a very interesting literary choice that the author decided to include telegrams only from Maggie, she never included the ones back from Hank, only when he said he was coming home, and one before the baby was born. Obviously, after I had finished the story it made more sense to me why Merril did this. Although I said I wasn't a huge fan of the 'War and Conflict" side of scifi, these kinds of endings are why I appreciate the genre so much. I thought it was amazing (yet strange) how this baby could speak and sing so beautifully, especially at such a young age. But, the second I thought about how abnormal (not in a negative way) this was, I realized that I knew from experience, typically when one sense of the body overly develops, very quickly, it means that there is something wrong with another one. In this specific case, the talent and ability of speech and understanding, advanced because of the lack of touch/feel and movement.
"That Only a Mother" didn't conform to the scifi standard, area and setting wise, especially because it wasn't in the future and there was nothing strange about their society. However, the second that the big "secret" was revealed at the end, a whole new layer of Science Fiction standards were added. Suddenly when you find out that the baby is disabled, it causes you as a reader to think back to all of the things that the mother was saying before, how absolutely sure she was that her baby was PERFECT. You begin to consider if her blindness to her baby's disability was a shear act of love, or if it was borderline madness/insanity because she wanted so badly for her baby to be perfect. Of course because this is Science Fiction, Merril had to add in the part of Hank saying "Why didn't you tell me" and Maggie responds as if she had no idea of what he meant. As a reader, I couldn't help but be amazed and rather awe-struck at this point because like I said before, I love endings like this.
Aside from the aspect of insanity that was included in "That Only a Mother", there was something beautiful that must be taken into perspective. Regardless of the fact that Maggie's daughter was disabled(I really hate the term mutated, although that was the word in the book) she had unconditional love for her. Maggie thought she was just as beautiful and as perfect, if not more, than any other little girl. I think that this is true for all parents of disabled children. During the time period that this was written (1948) there were so many cases where disabled children were disposed of, or given up by their parents. Even some hospitals would try to starve out the babies and refuse treatment because they were 'an abomination' or 'freaks'. I really appreciated and enjoyed that the author took the opposite view point and spoke about how a mother could and would love her child, and be blind to their irregularities, it was a beautiful concept.
I was really not captured by the way that Sterling wrote "We See Things Differently", I feel like the first 5-7 pages were very slow, the author is very descriptive and thorough with imagery. While some readers may enjoy this, I really did not.Like I said before, it doesn't help that I'm not enthralled with this branch of Science Fiction. That being said, I really did enjoy the lesson that this story was trying to convey. While reading the whole story, the theme behind the title was very clear to see. Because this man had come so far from a completely different culture into American, it was easy to understand why there was a big element of culture shock. I think this story could be applied to society today in more ways than one. There is a huge level of ignorance that a vast majority of Americans still exemplify today. This ignorance is a huge factor behind world conflict, and the lack of sensitivity towards other cultures. I did enjoy that although "Charlie" had been exposed to so many types of offensive, rude, ignorance, he still kept the peace for the most part. In the end he kind of alluded to the fact that everyone has their own troubles and their own ignorance, but man should not judge man of these things because your issues, and your ignorance are what are most important to you. I believe that a lot of this has to do with human instinct an that it will continue as long as humans walk the Earth.
"I finally got to see her! It's all true, what they say about new babies and the face that only a mother could love- but it's all there, darling, eyes, ears and noses -no, only one! - all in the right places. We're so lucky, Hank" - Maggie "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril.
Update: Okay so just a few things I failed to notice while reading "That Only a Mother". I've reread the story since I posted this and had a class discussion. Now that I've reread, it occurs to me much sooner that the baby is mutated. For example, how in the quote I posted, Maggie only talks about her babies facial features. This is a huge red flag, that there is something wrong with the rest of the baby. Also, there are quite a few subtle but clear references to fathers murdering their babies after seeing them with their mutations. It was mentioned how the fathers were never taken to trial with these murders because it was so common and medical oddities were not protected during these years. This is very true and accurate for this time period in history, disabilities were frowned upon and often discarded or overlooked in the eyes of society. Through all of these subtle hints it can be inferred at the end that the father was going to attempt to kill his child. Although this is a very important part of the story and was most likely intended to be assumed, I'm kind of happy I over looked it the first time. I love scifi and a good surprise ending even if it is a little morbid but I think this was a little too dark for my own personal preference.
In "That Only a Mother" I found it a very interesting literary choice that the author decided to include telegrams only from Maggie, she never included the ones back from Hank, only when he said he was coming home, and one before the baby was born. Obviously, after I had finished the story it made more sense to me why Merril did this. Although I said I wasn't a huge fan of the 'War and Conflict" side of scifi, these kinds of endings are why I appreciate the genre so much. I thought it was amazing (yet strange) how this baby could speak and sing so beautifully, especially at such a young age. But, the second I thought about how abnormal (not in a negative way) this was, I realized that I knew from experience, typically when one sense of the body overly develops, very quickly, it means that there is something wrong with another one. In this specific case, the talent and ability of speech and understanding, advanced because of the lack of touch/feel and movement.
"That Only a Mother" didn't conform to the scifi standard, area and setting wise, especially because it wasn't in the future and there was nothing strange about their society. However, the second that the big "secret" was revealed at the end, a whole new layer of Science Fiction standards were added. Suddenly when you find out that the baby is disabled, it causes you as a reader to think back to all of the things that the mother was saying before, how absolutely sure she was that her baby was PERFECT. You begin to consider if her blindness to her baby's disability was a shear act of love, or if it was borderline madness/insanity because she wanted so badly for her baby to be perfect. Of course because this is Science Fiction, Merril had to add in the part of Hank saying "Why didn't you tell me" and Maggie responds as if she had no idea of what he meant. As a reader, I couldn't help but be amazed and rather awe-struck at this point because like I said before, I love endings like this.
Aside from the aspect of insanity that was included in "That Only a Mother", there was something beautiful that must be taken into perspective. Regardless of the fact that Maggie's daughter was disabled(I really hate the term mutated, although that was the word in the book) she had unconditional love for her. Maggie thought she was just as beautiful and as perfect, if not more, than any other little girl. I think that this is true for all parents of disabled children. During the time period that this was written (1948) there were so many cases where disabled children were disposed of, or given up by their parents. Even some hospitals would try to starve out the babies and refuse treatment because they were 'an abomination' or 'freaks'. I really appreciated and enjoyed that the author took the opposite view point and spoke about how a mother could and would love her child, and be blind to their irregularities, it was a beautiful concept.
I was really not captured by the way that Sterling wrote "We See Things Differently", I feel like the first 5-7 pages were very slow, the author is very descriptive and thorough with imagery. While some readers may enjoy this, I really did not.Like I said before, it doesn't help that I'm not enthralled with this branch of Science Fiction. That being said, I really did enjoy the lesson that this story was trying to convey. While reading the whole story, the theme behind the title was very clear to see. Because this man had come so far from a completely different culture into American, it was easy to understand why there was a big element of culture shock. I think this story could be applied to society today in more ways than one. There is a huge level of ignorance that a vast majority of Americans still exemplify today. This ignorance is a huge factor behind world conflict, and the lack of sensitivity towards other cultures. I did enjoy that although "Charlie" had been exposed to so many types of offensive, rude, ignorance, he still kept the peace for the most part. In the end he kind of alluded to the fact that everyone has their own troubles and their own ignorance, but man should not judge man of these things because your issues, and your ignorance are what are most important to you. I believe that a lot of this has to do with human instinct an that it will continue as long as humans walk the Earth.
"I finally got to see her! It's all true, what they say about new babies and the face that only a mother could love- but it's all there, darling, eyes, ears and noses -no, only one! - all in the right places. We're so lucky, Hank" - Maggie "That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril.
Update: Okay so just a few things I failed to notice while reading "That Only a Mother". I've reread the story since I posted this and had a class discussion. Now that I've reread, it occurs to me much sooner that the baby is mutated. For example, how in the quote I posted, Maggie only talks about her babies facial features. This is a huge red flag, that there is something wrong with the rest of the baby. Also, there are quite a few subtle but clear references to fathers murdering their babies after seeing them with their mutations. It was mentioned how the fathers were never taken to trial with these murders because it was so common and medical oddities were not protected during these years. This is very true and accurate for this time period in history, disabilities were frowned upon and often discarded or overlooked in the eyes of society. Through all of these subtle hints it can be inferred at the end that the father was going to attempt to kill his child. Although this is a very important part of the story and was most likely intended to be assumed, I'm kind of happy I over looked it the first time. I love scifi and a good surprise ending even if it is a little morbid but I think this was a little too dark for my own personal preference.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Alien Encounters
Alright so everything I write is always going to come with a HUGE SPOILER ALERT. Since this is a blog generally analyzing pieces of Science Fiction including literature and videos, spoilers are a given! I truly do recommend reading all of the stories that I talk about because obviously anything I do to try to explain will never be as wonderful as the original work. So, if you are planning on reading any of the short stories I intend on talking about in this post, ("Mouse" by Fredric Brown, "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg, and "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress) do not continue reading. Otherwise, I have warned you and you may continue with your own risk!
Alien encounters are something I've never really believed could occur in real life. In science fiction how ever, my mind has been blown! I always considered aliens to be green martian people who sound like they've inhaled too much helium and probably don't stand much taller than a toddler. A few pieces of work like, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" or even movies like E.T. and Alien (although this was a scarier adaptation) feature something similar to my flawed understanding of aliens. It wasn't until I started to read science fiction piece that I realized aliens could be transient invisible forces that could control your mind and utilize your body. Aliens like this are featured in the short stories "The Mouse" and "Passengers". The more I analyzed this species of alien the quicker I realized - this is absolutely terrifying - .
In "Mouse" I loved the twisted ending, and in "Passengers" it kind of has the same concept of a twist ending, it is just done in different ways. It is apparent at the end of both of these novels that society has taken a back seat and basically fallen apart at the hands of whatever these beings are controlling them. Both of these stories hint at how society was basically falling apart already and that it was inevitable. The characters kind of approach the notion of a crumbling society nonchalantly. They mention things like, 'maybe the society was falling apart anyways' or 'we've always been able to adapt to being controlled'. I think that a lot of people view society today as teetering on the edge of falling apart or crashing all together. I found it very interesting that at the years 1968, and 1949 two authors had an idea of a weak society (both time periods when this thought wasn't often expressed). In both of these novels the "aliens" mentioned were ones who moved from person to person and controlled their actions. In "Mouse" the aliens tried to cause mass havoc that would disrupt the society all together. In "Passengers" all of the humans were aware that the passengers were around and that they consumed the humans minds just to be able to have vessel to live out their own lives. Although this was less destructive it was still overwhelming that a creature could over come your mind and you'd never know otherwise.
I feel like both of the aliens and the situations portrayed in these stories could be adapted as a huge metaphor that the downfall of our society is inevitable and that at any moment we all could be controlled. I understand that this is possibly magnifying the ideas of the authors more than they intended but because of the similar aspects of the two pieces, it is what I've come to interpret.
Throughout all of these stories, a type of control was always the result. "Mouse" and "Passengers", like I said before, have very similar aspects of mind control however, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" has an aspect of control that does not include the conscious mind. In this short story the alien type is more similar to my description of the martian people other than the fact that this alien can talk like a human, seems to be the size of a normal man, and he's blue. The type of control exemplified in these stories is control by the government. It appears that the aliens are out in the open in this world and that the government offers them protection and privacy. It seems that no matter what protection they have,the public is blindly ignorant and in fear unwilling to accept the foreign being.
In all of these stories (and most alien encounter stories for that matter) the aliens are thought of as the enemy and as these terrifying creatures. Sometimes this is true, and they really do just want to hurt us, but other times they're just trying to live their lives or just be accepted. I think its really important to realize how this applies to our lives today. The way that the passengers abuse the human abilities can be compared to the same way we abuse the abilities of species smaller than us (animal testing, animal labor) and the way we do not accept others as ourselves if they are different (birth defects, disorders, nationality) . Humans often have the tendencies to think of themselves as superior and better than all of those who cannot compare. Well, it is possible that the aliens in the story "Passengers" thought the same way, or that the aliens in the story "Mouse" just believed we were a weak link that needed to be terminated. When we can take a moment to change our perspectives in all situations, I think many would be surprised at how much more they understand.
"You really ought to be looking out, Beautiful instead of lying there like a dope, This is a day, Beautiful. This may be the beginning of the end-or of something new. I wish they'd hurry up and get it open" - "Mouse" by Fredric Brown
Alien encounters are something I've never really believed could occur in real life. In science fiction how ever, my mind has been blown! I always considered aliens to be green martian people who sound like they've inhaled too much helium and probably don't stand much taller than a toddler. A few pieces of work like, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" or even movies like E.T. and Alien (although this was a scarier adaptation) feature something similar to my flawed understanding of aliens. It wasn't until I started to read science fiction piece that I realized aliens could be transient invisible forces that could control your mind and utilize your body. Aliens like this are featured in the short stories "The Mouse" and "Passengers". The more I analyzed this species of alien the quicker I realized - this is absolutely terrifying - .
In "Mouse" I loved the twisted ending, and in "Passengers" it kind of has the same concept of a twist ending, it is just done in different ways. It is apparent at the end of both of these novels that society has taken a back seat and basically fallen apart at the hands of whatever these beings are controlling them. Both of these stories hint at how society was basically falling apart already and that it was inevitable. The characters kind of approach the notion of a crumbling society nonchalantly. They mention things like, 'maybe the society was falling apart anyways' or 'we've always been able to adapt to being controlled'. I think that a lot of people view society today as teetering on the edge of falling apart or crashing all together. I found it very interesting that at the years 1968, and 1949 two authors had an idea of a weak society (both time periods when this thought wasn't often expressed). In both of these novels the "aliens" mentioned were ones who moved from person to person and controlled their actions. In "Mouse" the aliens tried to cause mass havoc that would disrupt the society all together. In "Passengers" all of the humans were aware that the passengers were around and that they consumed the humans minds just to be able to have vessel to live out their own lives. Although this was less destructive it was still overwhelming that a creature could over come your mind and you'd never know otherwise.
I feel like both of the aliens and the situations portrayed in these stories could be adapted as a huge metaphor that the downfall of our society is inevitable and that at any moment we all could be controlled. I understand that this is possibly magnifying the ideas of the authors more than they intended but because of the similar aspects of the two pieces, it is what I've come to interpret.
Throughout all of these stories, a type of control was always the result. "Mouse" and "Passengers", like I said before, have very similar aspects of mind control however, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" has an aspect of control that does not include the conscious mind. In this short story the alien type is more similar to my description of the martian people other than the fact that this alien can talk like a human, seems to be the size of a normal man, and he's blue. The type of control exemplified in these stories is control by the government. It appears that the aliens are out in the open in this world and that the government offers them protection and privacy. It seems that no matter what protection they have,the public is blindly ignorant and in fear unwilling to accept the foreign being.
In all of these stories (and most alien encounter stories for that matter) the aliens are thought of as the enemy and as these terrifying creatures. Sometimes this is true, and they really do just want to hurt us, but other times they're just trying to live their lives or just be accepted. I think its really important to realize how this applies to our lives today. The way that the passengers abuse the human abilities can be compared to the same way we abuse the abilities of species smaller than us (animal testing, animal labor) and the way we do not accept others as ourselves if they are different (birth defects, disorders, nationality) . Humans often have the tendencies to think of themselves as superior and better than all of those who cannot compare. Well, it is possible that the aliens in the story "Passengers" thought the same way, or that the aliens in the story "Mouse" just believed we were a weak link that needed to be terminated. When we can take a moment to change our perspectives in all situations, I think many would be surprised at how much more they understand.
"You really ought to be looking out, Beautiful instead of lying there like a dope, This is a day, Beautiful. This may be the beginning of the end-or of something new. I wish they'd hurry up and get it open" - "Mouse" by Fredric Brown
Update: A student in my class suggested we watch "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" an episode from season 2 of "The Twilight Zone" series. I absolutely LOVE Twilight Zone, so I had to go home and watch this immediately. I thought it was absolutely perfect in relation to the theme of alien encounters. It was typical in the fulfilling the SciFi expectations. There was an alien amongst the humans that could not be identified, he could blend in well and caused a bunch of strange things to happen with the electronics. This ended up causing all of the other humans to die, also very characteristic of aliens. It turns out he was a Martian who was coming to "check out" the planet for the rest of his people. He wanted to see if it was a good fit to take over! This episode along with seasons 1-3 and 5 of "The Twilight Zone" are on Netflix, I completely 100% recommend them!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Introduction
Hello and welcome. My name is Sarah Gearhart, I'm 18 years old and an aspiring doctor. I've never been an amazing writer, especially when it came to pieces that required more "voice" or "colorful thoughts" . Otherwise, I will try my very best. That being said I hope you can manage to bar any imperfections.
This is a blog strictly dedicated to the love, hate, and appreciation that I have for the genre of Science Fiction. Ever since I was a little girl my dad had a very strong infatuation for authors such as, Issac Asimov, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, etc. the list goes on and on. We spent many nights talking about the various intricacies of the stories and what it all meant. This has obviously had a profound impact on me; my dad inspired me to be a reader, and another devoted fan of SciFi.
Not everyone understands why SciFi is so popular or how it has created big followings like the Trekkies, or the Star Wars fans. Don't get me wrong, I am a Star Trek and Star Wars geek myself but because of it's mass following, bystanders have come to know the science fiction genre as only a Star Trek/Star Wars World. Unfortunately, if people aren't into the concepts exemplified in these shows/movies, they're completely turned off of the genre all together. I think a lot of people would agree with me that SciFi is so much more than that! SciFi (lit especially) delves into worlds containing post-apocalyptic settings, time-travel into the past and present, horror/mystery, and even topics that are popular in modern day society.
I'm hoping that this blog will help you understand how vast and inviting the genre of science
fiction can be.
I think it is very important to mentiion that I cannot, will not, and do NOT, watch horror movies (or anything remotely creepy for that matter). I absoutely will read anything horror, mystery, or suspense related but the whole movie thing just freaks me out! I will try my best throughout my journey of wiriting this blog to attempt watching a FEW horror movies, but I make no promises that I will make it all the way through..
Finally, I am a proud and confident science geek. I love everything and anything science but I have a particular love for human anatomy and physiology. In some of my upcoming blog posts I plan to breifly review the plausibility of certain situations in my future readings/viewings. Of course there is no way for me to prove the actual science so I want to state clearly that any kind of science I try to disprove/prove will be based off of my own scientific knowledge, and personal opinion.
"The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe in the Beauty of Their Dreams" - Eleanor Roosevelt
This is a blog strictly dedicated to the love, hate, and appreciation that I have for the genre of Science Fiction. Ever since I was a little girl my dad had a very strong infatuation for authors such as, Issac Asimov, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, etc. the list goes on and on. We spent many nights talking about the various intricacies of the stories and what it all meant. This has obviously had a profound impact on me; my dad inspired me to be a reader, and another devoted fan of SciFi.
Not everyone understands why SciFi is so popular or how it has created big followings like the Trekkies, or the Star Wars fans. Don't get me wrong, I am a Star Trek and Star Wars geek myself but because of it's mass following, bystanders have come to know the science fiction genre as only a Star Trek/Star Wars World. Unfortunately, if people aren't into the concepts exemplified in these shows/movies, they're completely turned off of the genre all together. I think a lot of people would agree with me that SciFi is so much more than that! SciFi (lit especially) delves into worlds containing post-apocalyptic settings, time-travel into the past and present, horror/mystery, and even topics that are popular in modern day society.
I'm hoping that this blog will help you understand how vast and inviting the genre of science
fiction can be.
I think it is very important to mentiion that I cannot, will not, and do NOT, watch horror movies (or anything remotely creepy for that matter). I absoutely will read anything horror, mystery, or suspense related but the whole movie thing just freaks me out! I will try my best throughout my journey of wiriting this blog to attempt watching a FEW horror movies, but I make no promises that I will make it all the way through..
Finally, I am a proud and confident science geek. I love everything and anything science but I have a particular love for human anatomy and physiology. In some of my upcoming blog posts I plan to breifly review the plausibility of certain situations in my future readings/viewings. Of course there is no way for me to prove the actual science so I want to state clearly that any kind of science I try to disprove/prove will be based off of my own scientific knowledge, and personal opinion.
"The Future Belongs to Those Who Believe in the Beauty of Their Dreams" - Eleanor Roosevelt
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