The future is something, as a kid, that I always looked forward to. Flying cars, robots, and spaceships that could take me places I could never imagine, the child in me expected nothing but the best. Now, on the brink of adulthood and in light of the previous election, I would much rather go back to when I was young again and dreaming of a perfect future.
Nowadays, instead of trying to forward ourselves as a race, we're so caught up in petty arguments and debates about nothing, holding us back as a result. Social and political issues run rampant in a time where most don't even understand either topic, yet everyone seems to have an opinion on. This self-destructive behavior is not something that I like seeing from us, and the fact that while we do that, many issues go unnoticed is quite terrifying. In an age where corporations seem to have a firm grasp on us from every end, social media sites do nothing but serve as a spot to nitpick everyone and everything instead of actually doing something in society.
I hope that throughout the rest of my life, I am able to get by without seeing any world wars or the end result of the global warming we've all caused, but so few seem to actually worry about. I hope that the foreseeable future is similar to the one I dreamed up as a kid, but if anything, I see it becoming more like the one we saw in Idoiocricy.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Week 14 - Satire and Sci-fi
I'm glad we ended the class with satire (mainly because we watched Idiocracy). The film definitely paints a picture of what our world will look like in the (near) future. The film is one that I can constantly watch just because of how funny and scary it is, due to the somewhat realistic nature in which our society is heading. The cult film tells its jokes by using sci-fi tropes to make fun of hypothetical situations.
Sci-fi-centric films, in a sense, have it the easiest when parodying a subject, more or less because what they're making fun of hasn't exactly happened yet, even if it is something that could. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is another example of satire in the science fiction genre. The novel is about the absurdities of modern life, and how many things we find to be important in life are really just insignificant. Many of the situations in the book are direct representations of things that are or have been happening in real life, but since it's through the eyes of the future, it isn't seen as a direct statement. For example, the Vogons sole purpose is to block progress and to create paperwork, mirroring bureaucracy in their system of living.
Sci-fi-centric films, in a sense, have it the easiest when parodying a subject, more or less because what they're making fun of hasn't exactly happened yet, even if it is something that could. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is another example of satire in the science fiction genre. The novel is about the absurdities of modern life, and how many things we find to be important in life are really just insignificant. Many of the situations in the book are direct representations of things that are or have been happening in real life, but since it's through the eyes of the future, it isn't seen as a direct statement. For example, the Vogons sole purpose is to block progress and to create paperwork, mirroring bureaucracy in their system of living.
Week 13 - Literary Speculation
The movie Existenz is a truly bizarre film that shows us a new form of gaming in that the system is organically attached to the host and sent into them directly. The human "umbilical cord" connects gamers to the game and essentially give life to the characters, given that the world, while a bit odd and strange, feels very lifelike. The fact that the film doesn't use many actual sci-fi elements other than the technological way of getting inside the games make it's more speculative fiction. I also tried reading The Aquatic Uncle, but didn't quite understand what it was about.
Week 12 - Diverse Position Science Fiction
If there's anything the sci-fi genre hasn't done, it's give minorities a prominent role in major sci-fi stories. Granted, that isn't to say that there aren't people of different races or colors in these stories (Morpheus in The Matrix, Ricardo Montaban's Khan from Star Trek, and Finn in The Force Awakens), but they aren't leading these films or stories.
The film that we watched in class, Attack The Block, is a pretty basic alien invasion film, but it feels fresh and new because the dynamic among the survivors and the setting is much different from what we're used to. The setting is in the slums of London following a group of black teenagers, one of which is associated with a gang. They steal from a concerned white lady who is scared of them because of their appearance. So when they have to team up later, the dynamic isn't about people who hate each other, rather than about people who don't accept or trust each other.
Another story about diverse characters is Bloodchild by Octavia Butler. The story follows Gan who lives in a society where aliens have come down and cannot procreate, so they use the men to reproduce for them. The story is about reversal of gender roles, as well as the struggles between two species that have to learn to live on their own to survive.
The film that we watched in class, Attack The Block, is a pretty basic alien invasion film, but it feels fresh and new because the dynamic among the survivors and the setting is much different from what we're used to. The setting is in the slums of London following a group of black teenagers, one of which is associated with a gang. They steal from a concerned white lady who is scared of them because of their appearance. So when they have to team up later, the dynamic isn't about people who hate each other, rather than about people who don't accept or trust each other.
Another story about diverse characters is Bloodchild by Octavia Butler. The story follows Gan who lives in a society where aliens have come down and cannot procreate, so they use the men to reproduce for them. The story is about reversal of gender roles, as well as the struggles between two species that have to learn to live on their own to survive.
Week 11 - Cyberpunk and Steam Punk
Usually, in a cyberpunk story, we find characters that are robots, are made up of some robotic parts, or are associated with robots. Another thing associated with cyberpunk stories are that they typically have a strong, female character that is either modified or put together in some way (if she's a robot) and is seen as the perfect woman, both in appearances and in physicality.
Blade Runner is a great example of the cyberpunk sub-genre, along with being a perfect neo-noir film as well. The film follows Deckard, a retired Blade Runner who is brought back in to find a few replicants, robots that look exactly like humans, that have gotten loose. The story takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles (2019) and while the film revolves around catching these sentient characters, Deckard himself may be a replicant himself. The design of the film is very high-tech, while also feeling a little dirty, giving it a harsh, futuristic feel that does feel new, but also with a little bit of cynicism. Other examples of cyberpunk are Ghost in the Shell and, more mainstream, The Matrix. An example of a Steam Punk aesthetic are post-apocalyptic stories such is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Blade Runner is a great example of the cyberpunk sub-genre, along with being a perfect neo-noir film as well. The film follows Deckard, a retired Blade Runner who is brought back in to find a few replicants, robots that look exactly like humans, that have gotten loose. The story takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles (2019) and while the film revolves around catching these sentient characters, Deckard himself may be a replicant himself. The design of the film is very high-tech, while also feeling a little dirty, giving it a harsh, futuristic feel that does feel new, but also with a little bit of cynicism. Other examples of cyberpunk are Ghost in the Shell and, more mainstream, The Matrix. An example of a Steam Punk aesthetic are post-apocalyptic stories such is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Week 11 - Cyberpunk and Steam Punk
Usually, in a cyberpunk story, we find characters that are robots, are made up of some robotic parts, or are associated with robots. Another thing associated with cyberpunk stories are that they typically have a strong, female character that is either modified or put together in some way (if she's a robot) and is seen as the perfect woman, both in appearances and in physicality.
Blade Runner is a great example of the cyberpunk sub-genre, along with being a perfect neo-noir film as well. The film follows Deckard, a retired Blade Runner who is brought back in to find a few replicants, robots that look exactly like humans, that have gotten loose. The story takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles (2019) and while the film revolves around catching these sentient characters, Deckard himself may be a replicant himself. The design of the film is very high-tech, while also feeling a little dirty, giving it a harsh, futuristic feel that does feel new, but also with a little bit of cynicism. Other examples of cyberpunk are Ghost in the Shell and, more mainstream, The Matrix. An example of a Steam Punk aesthetic are post-apocalyptic stories such is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Blade Runner is a great example of the cyberpunk sub-genre, along with being a perfect neo-noir film as well. The film follows Deckard, a retired Blade Runner who is brought back in to find a few replicants, robots that look exactly like humans, that have gotten loose. The story takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles (2019) and while the film revolves around catching these sentient characters, Deckard himself may be a replicant himself. The design of the film is very high-tech, while also feeling a little dirty, giving it a harsh, futuristic feel that does feel new, but also with a little bit of cynicism. Other examples of cyberpunk are Ghost in the Shell and, more mainstream, The Matrix. An example of a Steam Punk aesthetic are post-apocalyptic stories such is Mad Max: Fury Road.
Week 10 - The Fiction of Ideas
This section of sci-fi is what personally interests me the most. This section is about sci-fi writers who started writing less about large, space epics that took place on fantastical worlds but instead focused more on social and political topics and using sci-fi stories as their way to approach these topics. Soon, the more paranoid and dystopian side of literature started kicking in, thanks to the likes of Phillip K. Dick.
Fahrenheit 451 is a great example of this. The film is about an American society in which reading books is banned, and that local firemen are in charge of burning them all. The reasoning is most likely in part because the "higher ups" of this society don't want people to question their authority, which some of the books they're burning could be doing just that. It's all about social order and structure and trying to maintain what they think is right for the better good.
The short story Aye and Gomorrah is another example of this. The story is about people called Spacers, who are people who have to be neutered at puberty so that they can work in space without being hurt from the radiation. They are respected by the people, but they end up feeling lonely because they are unable to have sex. There are people, called frelks, who do want to be with these Spacers, but because of this, they are looked down upon. When this was originally written, it was in the '60's, when homosexuality wasn't accepted in society. These frelks stand in as homosexuals, being shamed for loving those they have no control over.
Week 9 - Space Opera
When I hear about the "space opera" sub-genre of sci-fi, I automatically think of Star Wars. Space Operas, in the simplest terms, are galactic sci-fi stories that are either simplistic in their storytelling or even melodramatic. They also have pulpy elements, sometimes giving these stories a cheesy, B-movie feel (and usually a romantic subplot as well). Star Wars, despite become a huge pop-culture phenomenon, is at it's core a pulpy space opera.
The story spans across the galaxy as we follow two droids with valuable information about how to destroy the empire. The two find themselves in the hands of the Skywalkers, where they meet Luke, a quiet, lonely outsider who doesn't seem like much of a hero. However, when his aunt and uncle are murdered, he gangs up with a bounty hunter named Han Solo (who brings out more of the western, badass hero tropes from the sub-genre) and the wise old Jedi, Obi-Wan, to destroy a threat that plans on destroying the galaxy. The idea of a small, insignificant character being brought up to fight a threat much larger than he could have ever imagined with the help of his gang helped this film feel massive, despite it's pulpy, B-movie roots and production values.
However, this sub-genre isn't always a sure-fire success for other pieces of literature like it was for Star Wars. In fact, it's more on the "nerdy" side of the spectrum. This is why a book like The Martian is successful in today's day and age. The book is about a man, Mark Watney, who gets accidentally stranded on Mars and has to find a way to survive on his own. The idea of going from living conformably to dealing with something much larger than yourself (surviving on Mars) has elements of Space Opera without abiding by all the "rules". Mark even goes as far later on to refer to himself as a "space pirate", joking about the ridiculousness of his situation. Despite this, the grounded approach to this fictitious idea is what made it successful as a novel, and then a movie soon after.
The story spans across the galaxy as we follow two droids with valuable information about how to destroy the empire. The two find themselves in the hands of the Skywalkers, where they meet Luke, a quiet, lonely outsider who doesn't seem like much of a hero. However, when his aunt and uncle are murdered, he gangs up with a bounty hunter named Han Solo (who brings out more of the western, badass hero tropes from the sub-genre) and the wise old Jedi, Obi-Wan, to destroy a threat that plans on destroying the galaxy. The idea of a small, insignificant character being brought up to fight a threat much larger than he could have ever imagined with the help of his gang helped this film feel massive, despite it's pulpy, B-movie roots and production values.
However, this sub-genre isn't always a sure-fire success for other pieces of literature like it was for Star Wars. In fact, it's more on the "nerdy" side of the spectrum. This is why a book like The Martian is successful in today's day and age. The book is about a man, Mark Watney, who gets accidentally stranded on Mars and has to find a way to survive on his own. The idea of going from living conformably to dealing with something much larger than yourself (surviving on Mars) has elements of Space Opera without abiding by all the "rules". Mark even goes as far later on to refer to himself as a "space pirate", joking about the ridiculousness of his situation. Despite this, the grounded approach to this fictitious idea is what made it successful as a novel, and then a movie soon after.
Week 8 - Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy
For this week, I watched two movies that in some way reinvented myth, Pan's Labyrinth and Big Fish. Pan's Labyrinth is a direct example of something called "magical realism". This is the combination of magical and realistic elements. The film is about Ofelia, the young stepdaughter of a brutal army officer from Spain, escapes into a fantasy world introduced to her by Fauno, the mythical beast that finds her in her time of despair.
The fanatical elements of the film stand in for the harsher realities that live outside of it, and as a result turn the basic "fable" into something more sinister. In my opinion, many of the issues we face today represent a failure of imagination and just accepting things as they are. In the film, Ofelia's mom criticizes her, asking her to accept the reality she lives in, not the one she made up. This is one of the reasons I love the film so much and why it does a great job reinventing a mythical story and bringing it to the real world with real issues.
Big Fish, however, is a much different representation of the same idea. The story follows William Bloom, who comes back to visit his dying father, Edward. The two of them were never really close, as everyone grew up loving Edward and his stories except for William. William, knowing this is among the last times he'll be able to talk with his father (with the help of his wife), he sits down as his father "remembers" all the stories he had as a kid. The film is, at its most basic, is about whatever is true in life is never as interesting as something you think of or imagine. But, I didn't see it as Edward lying about his life (a better version), rather that he just had a different perspective on what happened throughout his life.
The fanatical elements of the film stand in for the harsher realities that live outside of it, and as a result turn the basic "fable" into something more sinister. In my opinion, many of the issues we face today represent a failure of imagination and just accepting things as they are. In the film, Ofelia's mom criticizes her, asking her to accept the reality she lives in, not the one she made up. This is one of the reasons I love the film so much and why it does a great job reinventing a mythical story and bringing it to the real world with real issues.
Big Fish, however, is a much different representation of the same idea. The story follows William Bloom, who comes back to visit his dying father, Edward. The two of them were never really close, as everyone grew up loving Edward and his stories except for William. William, knowing this is among the last times he'll be able to talk with his father (with the help of his wife), he sits down as his father "remembers" all the stories he had as a kid. The film is, at its most basic, is about whatever is true in life is never as interesting as something you think of or imagine. But, I didn't see it as Edward lying about his life (a better version), rather that he just had a different perspective on what happened throughout his life.
Week 7 - The Novel of Spiritual Education
I think it's no mistake that many kids my age grew up reading Harry Potter. The books, even though they were fantasy stories that took place in a fantasy world, truly captured the complexity of growing up and how to move towards adulthood.
When I was young, J.K. Rowling's books were the first ones that I ever read. The first few books were easy enough for younger audiences to read, while also having enough depth and plot to keep even the more seasoned readers entertained. As the books continued, those who read the got older, and as someone who was around the same age as Harry when reading these books, I could ultimately understand the characters and what they were going through.
Some of the issues that Rowling tackled in her books work in the context of the story, but also represented certain morals or messages that she might have wanted to get across. The importance of family, blood-related or not, is possibly the biggest point in the books, along with other topics, such as dealing with the loss of a loved one, a disability or illness doesn't define you and being yourself rather than someone you're not. The saga is pretty much about a high-school experience, and I think Rowling did a great job at not only setting up her character to understand the hardships of growing up, but also help guide her younger readers in the same way.
When I was young, J.K. Rowling's books were the first ones that I ever read. The first few books were easy enough for younger audiences to read, while also having enough depth and plot to keep even the more seasoned readers entertained. As the books continued, those who read the got older, and as someone who was around the same age as Harry when reading these books, I could ultimately understand the characters and what they were going through.
Some of the issues that Rowling tackled in her books work in the context of the story, but also represented certain morals or messages that she might have wanted to get across. The importance of family, blood-related or not, is possibly the biggest point in the books, along with other topics, such as dealing with the loss of a loved one, a disability or illness doesn't define you and being yourself rather than someone you're not. The saga is pretty much about a high-school experience, and I think Rowling did a great job at not only setting up her character to understand the hardships of growing up, but also help guide her younger readers in the same way.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Bloodchild Questions
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I found the text to be very intriguing, given that it's a story about giving birth to a child, but the setting is different and it's a role-reversal angle to it as well. It seems in part to be a story about slavery, given the angle that aliens have used terrans (human) in the past simply as bodies to fill their children with rather than letting them live freely. In the present day in the story, terrans are allowed to raise a family and be on their own, but Tlics, the aliens that have allowed them to live on this planet, keep them under their wing, so to speak. Also, it seems to say something about gender roles in our society, given that it's a masculine male trying to act tough but one that has to give birth to an alien child.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story which you were able to connect.
In terms of being able to "relate" in some way to the text, I wasn't able to connect with much of it, other than Gan's struggle to try and decide if he wants to do something (give a painful and dangerous birth to an alien child) for his family's sake or if he doesn't want to go through the suffering. Obviously I can't relate to that completely, but the struggle of choosing to do something for you or your loved ones is a universal conflict we find ourselves in.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story in another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
As a film major, I feel obligated to say that I would adapt this story as a film. I would focus on the fact that the story is where humans are deprived of their humanity and reduced to a single function - supplying life to this alien race. Starting off with Gan and making it a giant buildup to the "birth" while showing these other factors at play could lead to an intense and scary adaptation of this dystopian future displayed in Octavia Butler's short story.
I found the text to be very intriguing, given that it's a story about giving birth to a child, but the setting is different and it's a role-reversal angle to it as well. It seems in part to be a story about slavery, given the angle that aliens have used terrans (human) in the past simply as bodies to fill their children with rather than letting them live freely. In the present day in the story, terrans are allowed to raise a family and be on their own, but Tlics, the aliens that have allowed them to live on this planet, keep them under their wing, so to speak. Also, it seems to say something about gender roles in our society, given that it's a masculine male trying to act tough but one that has to give birth to an alien child.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story which you were able to connect.
In terms of being able to "relate" in some way to the text, I wasn't able to connect with much of it, other than Gan's struggle to try and decide if he wants to do something (give a painful and dangerous birth to an alien child) for his family's sake or if he doesn't want to go through the suffering. Obviously I can't relate to that completely, but the struggle of choosing to do something for you or your loved ones is a universal conflict we find ourselves in.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story in another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
As a film major, I feel obligated to say that I would adapt this story as a film. I would focus on the fact that the story is where humans are deprived of their humanity and reduced to a single function - supplying life to this alien race. Starting off with Gan and making it a giant buildup to the "birth" while showing these other factors at play could lead to an intense and scary adaptation of this dystopian future displayed in Octavia Butler's short story.
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