The thought of a divine being and their divine judgement has always been the inspiration for the continued good deeds of those believing in them, but like you said as logic and science takes a more dominant role in the world soon this sense of doing something right for rewards afterwards becomes more of a made up story to protect those who needed it. As we do make these advancements we have to be extra critical of ourselves and this means we must collectively make the effort to know where the line of acceptability is and to ensure that no one should ever cross it. I keep thinking of the famous line in the film Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum tells the scientists “you were so preoccupied with with whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should”. This overwhelming desire to progress leads to horrific outcomes and it’s only a matter of time before we cross a line we will never be able to take back… if we haven’t already.

I agree with the statement that everything that is alive produces waste. During my last semester at UW Waukesha I took a class called Global Sustainability and in that class I learned how much of an impact the human race in general has had on our planet. Plastic, for example, does not degrade and can just sit around for a long time. Even though plastic is recyclable, it can only be recycled a limited amount of times. Glass, on the other hand, can be recycled an infinite amount of times because all you do is melt it down and reshape it. Same thing with metal. In a world where we should use materials that are easier to recycle, we seem to be using a lot of plastic. This book could be used as a warning for people to use less of our resources, but I personally know how hard it is to break the habit we have formed after such a long time.

I would like to ask how you classify someone as living? Emiko for example is built and socially programmed but she is programmed to have emotions. I think her emotions are what separate her from a toy and what turns it from playing with a sex toy into a rape situation but also if someone is programmed are they living?

Going off of what both of you are saying, I think one of the characters in the section you’re talking about said their family was killed and he hoped they wouldn’t be reincarnated as windups. I think the characters know the windups aren’t just objects or toys, but their guilt for the injustice and abuse windups have suffered makes them treat windups poorly. And I agree, animals are so intelligent and have so much emotion; for me, it’s not a question of if animals have souls, it’s “how couldn’t they have souls”. I think their denial of the engineered animals’ souls reflects the denial of the windups’ humanity.

I look at all of this in a different way. I feel that the idea of a soul just gives an excuse to treat certain things, whether they be animals or not, as lesser. The people who claim that animals don’t have a soul are then able to justify their mistreatment of them this way. This is exactly how Emiko came upon her situation. So I agree with you on this to a point. If you are giving souls to animals there are cultures that believe plants and the soil of the Earth have a soul like life force that is similar to humans and animals. It must be noted that the notion that all animals have souls because of some people’s opinions can also be wrong.

I lean toward the view that while animals do not have souls neither do people. I view a soul as a sort of agent that consciously enacts its own ideas. I do not believe that humans can do this. I view is fairly unpopular but that humans, like all things in our world, are the part of a larger system that just goes along. The view stems from the programming that all living things sort of undergo. Based on genetics and experiences it seems that in any given situation a person only will make one decision. Of course it is incredibly hard if not impossible to create two situations exactly the same, but for all intent and purposes when we can do similar ones they turn out the same every time. This is not perfectly conclusively but when dealing with metaphysical matters it is tough to be so.

I believe the struggle and suffering of Emiko is what brings her to actualization as a person. If not for the abuse she suffered, she would never have become aware of her own capabilities. Even her negative emotions brought on by injustice and servitude allowed her to fight back against her own genetic impulses. Through suffering Emiko has been enabled to build and define her character, and emerge as a self-determined individual.
It is also interesting that this arc contrasts so heavily with the Buddhist teachings of detachment. In Buddhism, one seeks to detach from the world, from the negativity, in order to achieve peace and enlightenment transcending the desire for individual actualization. So just as the Buddhist who clings to the world of attachment cannot reach enlightenment, the Buddhist who seeks enlightenment cannot reach human actualization while detached from the suffering of the world.

An interesting, to me at least, connection I made when reading was with an ethics class I am a part of. In the class we talked about a form of virtue theory. There are certain virtues that one has to consciously do to be a good person and do the right thing. While this seems really good what it also means is if a person went by their instincts and made the correct decision every time they wouldn’t be a good person, just lucky, because they didn’t make the right decision consciously. One has to understand both good and bad to be able to make right decisions and be a good person. The example that would come to mind was Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, as a prince he had no understanding of bad so he could never be good under this theory.

I understand that Emiko in the novel has to go through what she does to reach self actualization, but I wonder if it was worth it or necessary. Now that she realizes that she is just as good as any other human isn’t she worse off? Before she at least realized that she had a set purpose and with her first master was seemingly quite happy. But now that has finally taken a stand is she better off? If she was right in thinking that the northern windup villages don’t exist she really has no place to go.

I really enjoyed reading your blog post because I like Game of Thrones a lot, but I didn’t make the connection between Sansa and Emiko until I read your post. I really like the parallel that you draw between the two women. Both of them will have to deal with the abuse that they’ve suffered, even after they manage to take control of their lives and are able to get away from their abusers.
In the show, we know that Sansa is managing to move on from Ramsey a little, but who knows what her mental state will be like next season. And with Emiko, we’ve just read the part where she realizes her self worth and is taking a stand against her abusers, but that doesn’t mean that Emiko is in the clear; she still has a long way to go before she is free physically and mentally.

I was very amazed at the amount diverse energy production. I was most intrigued by the springs because I was trying to wrap my head around how these springs really look and if they would actually be able to producing power. I think this is a great topic to choose because this is the path that the world is finding itself on. The need for more diverse fuels is a growing concern with warming of the entire planet from fossil fuels creates many challenges in the future for many different peoples. I think that what is happening in the book is certainly extreme for our situation but they are very creative.

I find this very interesting as well. Taking a piece of technology that was made to accurately display time and use it as an energy source is an interesting twist to show how desperate the population in the book must have been to find an alternative energy. With how much our current generation is exploring different kinds of alternative energies, this book draws a close parallel to our world and in the future we will be using alternatives to gasoline, coal, etc. Seeing this population fall back to an older technology to power their world is something I wasn’t really expecting.

I enjoyed your post, Jessica. I think it is important to analyze the perpetuation of objectification and the cycle of physical and sexual abuse. Emiko’s character is a sad one to me. She hasn’t had the chance to say no, and while she isn’t programmed to do so, I hope she somehow malfunctions.

Another aspect of looking at this is the fetishization of Asian women. While you speak about a general topic of women objectification, it’s important to remember Emiko is Japanese and the history Asian women have endured for the sexual pleasure of white men. My post this week is exactly on that, actually, so if you’re more interested, take a gander!

I really liked this post, as I felt the same way about Emiko’s character. A point of yours that really caught my attention was when you talked about the idea of consent and how kids, especially girls, “have been taught since they were young to let other’s have access to their body without having their permission,” as this is very true. It negates the importance of consent if someone is told that even if they have no desire to act upon whatever it is that is expected of them they still are pressured to do it. I also liked your point about how people feel obligated to make their partner happy, and feel they must do whatever to keep them. Too often, people feel pressured into acting upon some desire of their partner that they might not feel comfortable pursuing, but that they go along with to keep the person in their life.

While I agree with most of your post I feel like you may have slightly misinterpreted one of the lines. There was the line “You are beautiful, even if you are New People. Do not be ashamed.” You interpreted it to be similar to the phrase “you look beautiful for a _____ person,” but I don’t think that it meant that. This especially goes along the lines of how important the phrasing of what is said to Emiko is.

You have to really breakdown both of these phrases to see how they compare. The second one seems condescending while the first doesn’t have too. Move the words around in both can show the what they are really saying. The second one switched is this, for a _____ person, you are beautiful. It puts a condition on the person’s beautiful, only within the scope of being a certain type of person are they beautiful. Then you look at the first one, even if you are New People, you are beautiful. This is saying that she is beautiful in spite of the condition. It is more acknowledging that people (perhaps the speaker included, but from the rest of that paragraph I’m not sure) look at that quality as something bad.

I also doubt he has malicious intent with the statement because she talks of how he regards her with as more than human. I have to admit the first phrase can be interpreted two ways and it completely depends on the intent of the speaker. One way, a bad way, would be similar to how you interpreted it, but the second way, a more positive way, would that it is separating her beauty from her being New People. So it is saying no matter what she was, she would be beautiful. Of course there is notion of how reliable Emiko is as a narrator as well, she could just be thinking he meant it one way and is portraying it that way. The more positive way is how I first interpreted it but rereading it I can definitely see how it could be the other way.

I love your point on Emiko’s emotional state. She does feel stuck and like she can’t do better. She repeats to herself that she’s just a toy and a plaything; I don’t know if it’s because she thinks it’s true or to soften the blows when other people call her this. I’m also afraid her storyline will be cast to the side to make her a love interest for Anderson; if she was, her struggles and mistreatment will only serve as shock value. She will only serve as a plot device and further prove her existence as an object.

Like you, i had a hard time reading the chapter where Emiko is first introduced. It was really difficult to read about what was being done to her and then to feel her reactions and hopelessness. Like you mentioned, she almost wants to die, but can’t or maybe there is a part of her that still wants to live.
I also can’t wait for her to start to fight back and to maybe find happiness somewhere far away from where she currently is.