First written in the 1940’s by the inventor of the Polygraph test William Marston, Wonder Woman was meant to e a progressive view of women in an ultimately Paternal world. and it would certainly appear that way, from The land of the Amazons, Her physical prowess compared to other men, self-styled fashion sense and above […]
In the last Blog, I mentioned the novel shared a familiar theme with a Seussian tale entitled The Sneetches. However, if I had known the outcome of the story, I might have placed the media source here instead, as it would have proven more appropriate. By the end of the ninth chapter, the Anglo-Saxon Association, in […]
“It’s as clear as Black and White”. A commonly quoted phrase used to demonstrate the absolute or truthful distinction of a point, concept, or fact of life. The unintentional irony of this quote is exemplified perfectly in the novel written by George Schuyler entitled Black No More, in which a miraculous operation allows for the […]
While reading the Book “We” my morals raged against the community under the One State. With debatable social concepts being commonplace (such as eugenics, and the elimination of a person as an individual) I spent most of the novel ranting and criticizing their flawed utopia. But nevertheless, it kept my attention during the entire novel, and allowed me […]
Our most recent discussion in class regarding the concept of uncanny sensations and appearances has brought to mind yet another “Star Trek” parallel. We mentioned dolls, clowns, and zombies, among others which strike obvious uncanny chords within us. We also mentioned androids in particular as truly being uncanny. In staying synonymous with the Star Trek […]
In Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy I was struck by the scene where Edith presents Julian with several novels from his own time. Bellany wrote, ” As my eyes glanced over the names on the backs of the volumes, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, Defoe, Dickens, Thackery, Hugo, Hawthorne, Irving, and a score of other great writers […]
If there’s anything I could assume about society at the time of the publication of The Begums Millions, it’s that attitudes then were very similar to common attitudes in modern day America. The plot of the book mainly revolves around fervent Nationalism that seems almost childish. Doctor Sarrasin as well as Max are depicted as […]
My two main focuses while reading The Begum’s Millions by Jules Verne (ch1-5) were how money changes people and Otto and Max’s friendship. While reading these chapter there were some great examples of how money can change people. Otto is an example of how money can change a person’s mind set. He mentions that money […]
Victor focuses too much on the science and function behind things and consequently misses the emotional aspects of life and gets an incomplete picture of how the world works, and it’s this that causes his downfall, as well as the doom of everyone he knows. As a child, he points out that the way […]
Throughout the book the reference of the garden of Eden and Adam and the Creator is apparent greatly. God had created Adam and Eve, as Victor had created his own form of life. Religion doesn’t have a strong hold on the book, but towards the end of it, the first time we someone actually praying […]
While reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the one main idea I focused on was self-image. When reading about how the monster wanted a friend and how he reacted to Felix and Agatha’s family I can’t help but think of children who are seeking friends. He says I became this way through misery. This makes me as […]
To be honest, when I started reading The City and the City, I was expecting it to be similar to the novels we’ve read before. For me, it was more of a detector story which I didn’t find much enjoyment from. The idea that both cities are separated by cultural differences isn’t very science fiction for […]
The City & The City was very interesting to me. I love crime novels and loved that aspect of it. I however, was a little disappointed with the ending, and that Orciny wasn’t real because I also love fantasy novels. One thing I liked a lot about the book though was how it took place […]
The City & The City by China Mieville ends with the following passage: “We are all philosophers here where I am, and we debate among many other things the question of where it is that we live. On that issue I am a liberal. I live in the interstice yes, but I live in both the city […]
I thought that the ending of the book was very interesting. Orciny not being real was interesting I think it makes it a little more confusing and a less enjoyable of an ending. I thought that there could have been more of a description of why things were happening when Borlu is doing his investigation […]
As I was reading the end of China Mieville’s novel The City & The City I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn’t put the novel down. My favorite aspect of the novel is that at it’s core it is a great detective story. The ending of the novel was my favorite part. The […]
As I read the last section of this book, what stuck out to me is the crossing from Ul Qoma to Beszel where Yolanda gets shot (p. 231). The image is the closest thing I could find to fit the scene. The scene speaks to me like a movie where everything is happening so fast […]
I have finally completed the novel The City and the City by China Meiville and I have some things to say on how it ended. First of all, as I talked about in class today, I was disappointed that Orciny did not actually exist and was merely a fabrication to dupe Mahalia to help with […]
I have to say, after finishing China Miéville’s The City and The City, I was really impressed of how he represented the barriers that people face in our society today. For instance at the end of the novel, we find out that Breach is the one who controls the barrier between Besźel and Ul Qoma […]
So I like to do this really self-destructive thing called “reading the end of the novel before starting it from the beginning”. So I usually pick the last two chapters or so and just read them. Which is really not smart when I think about it because then it’s taking from the fun of reading […]
Its really striking that genrally the public in The City and The City chooses not to see the events ans establishments around them. It almost seems like a ridiculous idea at first, especially when its in relation to an entire city. At the same time as people we choose not to see things all the time. […]
What strikes me about this story is that it is not striking. In its two main aspects, this story seems to be neither here nor there. These aspects are its being a (1) detective story and (2) an ontological mystery of either one or two cities. We eventually find out that this ontological mystery is resolved when […]
How can one possibly not take in their entire environment? Constantly “unseeing” would be just impossible. It is in our human nature to observe and notice. But is it? In China Mieville’s novel The City & The City the art of unseeing is really brought to our attention. However, how much of this do we […]
I didn’t know what to expect when I started reading Mielville’s The City & the City. After the first chapter, I thought, “Okay, so it’s a murder mystery novel.” What raised more of a question than the murder itself was at the end of the first chapter when the investigator mentioned the elderly lady. “An elderly […]
The City & The City by China Mieville is proving to be thought provoking, but in a good way. Two cities (or is it really just one city?) are coexisting within the same geographical landscape yet completely separate. Confusing! What kind of makes this premise possible though is the idea of seeing and unseeing. Although the “two” […]
Early in The City and The City Mieville has the press accost Borlu (11). The statement of “The public has the right to know” comes up at this point. Borlu has to figure out this statement, but upon such he ponders on the worth of such a cliche. I found it interesting that this cliche […]
When I first started reading China Meiville’s novel The City & The City I was instantly drawn in because it had the backbone of one of my favorite genres of fiction: the detective story. Now to have a great detective story/mystery you need to have certain elements: 1. A shocking crime: We begin this novel with […]
Having read a large amount of the novel The City and the City by China Meiville, the concept of these two cities living in such close proximity to each other and each trying their hardest to ignore the others existence is just fascinating and baffling to me. We discussed in class on what is actually […]
As we discussed in class yesterday of how China Miéville considers his work to be “weird fiction,” I believe this relates to the hybrid genre we discussed briefly when examining Margaret Atwood. For instance, I mentioned that I attended a presentation for my fiction class about how writers can create their stories by combining mutliple genres into one story. […]
Forming an opinion on whether Besz and Ul Qoma are one in the same city (and their differences are only conventional) or two different cities (and their differences are real yet fantastic/mysterious) tells us something interesting about how we look at morality (bear with me here). Initially, most of us would be inclined to say that […]
Out of all the geniuses as Watson-Crick, Crake chose Jimmy to lead his “Crakers” after his world-wide apocalypse took place. He also could have chosen Oryx, who was trusted by the Crakers, but he still chose Jimmy… So the question is why? It may have been that Jimmy was Crake’s only real friend since he […]
To survive we must wipe everything out and start over. We must erradicate our human nature. We must end to begin. These are all the sort of idea that Crake was trying to convey in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake when he introduced the virus to wipe out the human race. However, I really do […]
One of my favorite parts of the book was the talk of myth and art in general. I found the discussions between Crake and Jimmy quite interesting, and couldn’t help but take some offense to how Crake essentially described art as a tool for the artist to get a piece of ass. On the surface […]
The use of science is a huge factor in the novel Oryx and Crake and it is eventually the reason why humanity is destroyed and the reader encounters the apocalyptic world they see in the beginning of the novel is the outcome of science. Its scary to think this kind of science is probably capable in todays […]
When I finished reading Oryx and Crake it was difficult for me to decide what aspect of the novel that I enjoyed the most. Although some could argue that the characters are not complex I believe that they are. What impressed me the most about Oryx, Crake and Jimmy is that even after the novel […]
Oryx and Crake has turned out to be one of my favorite novels of Humanities 383. I found Atwood’s lack of specific details extremely refreshing after reading Delany’s Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. The lack of details in Atwood’s novel gave me plenty of working memory space in order to consider her main points […]
“Gone were its destructive features, the features responsible for the world’s current illnesses” (305). It has been mentioned many of times that we are obsessed with the destruction and rebuilding of the world. We look at what went wrong and what we need to improve on in the new world. After reading the aforementioned line from Oryx and Crake I […]
I thought that this novel was very interesting. The ending being so ambiguous really makes you wonder what Snowman will do whether he will try to befriend the people or see them as enemies and identify more with the crackers. One of the things that interested me the most was Crakes motivation. Crake is […]
I think that Oryx and Crake adheres to a more subtle “mad scientist” theme. While Crake is not a caricatured brand of evil, he is evil in the same sense as the 20th century scientists who ran wildly unethical experiments. Many people know of the few psychologists of this era whose experiments required driving somewhat unsuspecting […]
I found it interesting the dynamic between Jimmy and Crake and how they exemplify two different standards of social power. Jimmy shows on page 193 that he has power due to his sexual and social ability with girls. This is very similar and relatable to the idea of being a “player” which is often still […]
After finishing Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, the most significant scene in this novel is where Jimmy experiences the plague happening while in Paradice. For instance, Atwood writes, “He was in shock. That must have been why he couldn’t take it in. The whole thing seemed like a movie” (342). This quote reminds me of […]
Throughout the book we see some caparisons between Jimmy and Crake. Jimmy is always pointed out to not be as smart as Crake, but are they really that much different? Crake creates the Crakers to ultimately fix humanity, to make the human race more fit to survive. However, doesn’t Jimmy do the same? He always […]
“As soon as they start doing art, we’re in trouble” (p.361) This line from the book really stuck with me. Creativity is hugely important in raising children and it is helpful with problem solving. For Crake to understand that if his Crakers start creating art that his realm would soon end, is not surprising. He […]
Though we probably gather few things from instinct alone, the most primary of these is the idea of the self. From a young age, we know – if nothing else – that there is an “I” and a “you;” I have certain thoughts, take up a certain amount of space, etc., and all that is […]
To start, it is nice to be done with Delaney and on to an easier read. This novel flows much better for me and it has ideas I can easily grasp. The two themes that have stuck out the most to me are the ethics of creation and science, and […]
The farther I read on in Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake the more it is becoming my favorite novel in the course. The novel brings up so many issues that are evident in the other novels that we have read but it does it in a very refreshing way. I’m excited to read more to […]
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite novels of the class. Atwood manages to write on a number of different issues all the while keeping an actual plot going. Now amongst these many issues, there is one line in particular that has managed to catch my attention that deals with […]
Given the redundancy of the theme of ‘cultural evolution of religion,’ I feel inclined to make a disclaimer in favor of religion here. For it is not just in Atwood’s story that this theme is exemplified, but many authors do this. My point here is that demonstrating the evolution of religion in temporality (in human terms) […]
This is my second time reading Oryx and Crake and it’s still one of my favorite books. The subject that has always fascinated me in the novel is the idea of trying to create the perfect human organism and what features are included to claim this title. Now that I am reading this novel for […]
I am enjoying reading this book. As mentioned in class I like the way the chapters are broken up. I thought that in particular chapter 6 was very interesting. When reading about Oryxs childhood it was very troubling. I thought it was particular interesting that children being sold was not viewed as selling but […]
Oryx’s story about her past was very disturbing to read. It is common knowledge that sex trafficking is prevalent today, but it is still hard to read about, even though it is a fictional story. Oryx’s mother sold her for money, and so they could possibly be able to feed their other children. This reminded […]
In class we discussed how in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake it was necessary for Snowman to introduce laws and a subsequent mythology in order for the Crakers to function. It was too hard for Snowman to explain every single thing from the past that the Crakers had questions about, so instead he made up […]
One of the things that really struck me the most was how Margaret Atwood discusses Jimmy’s and Crake’s education in her novel Oryx and Crake. Atwood separates Jimmy and Crake by the two different aspects of knowledge, science and the arts. For instance, in the beginning of the chapter “Applied Rhetoric,” Jimmy and Crake end […]
Who is Crake? We don’t know much about him yet except for his younger years with Jimmy, and for the fact that he is “against the notion of God, or of gods of any kind, and would surely be disgusted by the spectacle of his own gradual deification,” (104). Would he be considered a sort […]
I am enjoying this book and it is a good read, I am just not sure what to make of it yet. The picture is where I am trying to picture Snowman. I am intrigued by the characters and how their lives have changed and what the future holds for them. I like how the […]
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is a novel about a man who goes by the name of Snowman (Jimmy before the plague) living in a post apocalyptic world. Although we are not told directly, it’s implied that he’s the last man on Earth. What’s interesting in this novel is the moral and ethic values that Atwood […]
Given author Samuel R. Delany’s deliberate, complex writing style, one can safely assume that he leaves very little to chance. Due to this, I found the main character quite striking in Delany’s text Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand. Delany names his main character “Marq Dyeth,” which the reader eventually learns to be […]
Delany’s novel, Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand, does an excellent job of covering a huge array of topics. This makes it overwhelmingly hard though to figure out which to discus. So I decided to look closer at civilization. There are two main paths of civilization in this novel. They are basically at odds with […]
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71ZbF1lmZ%2BL._SL1500_.jpg As I was reading Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand by Samuel Delaney it was hard for me to connect with any aspect of the novel. The setting, characters and concepts in the novel were really foreign to me. One of the aspects of the novel that I could connect with […]
In Samuel R. Delany’s Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand, desire is the fuel of every day movement. What one desires to do, be, eat, taste, hunt, or have sexual relations with defines how a person (or evelem) acts on a daily basis. Particularly while following Marq Dyeth’s story one can see how […]
Who are you? We ask ourselves this from the moment we are conscious of ourselves. We see ourselves not only through our own eyes, but also through the eyes of others. The names they call us, the comments they make, even the way they act around you, helps to define yourself to you. This is […]
After finishing Delany’s novel, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, one of the things that struck me the most was the lack of privacy Rat was receiving while with Marq Dyeth on the planet Velm because even though Rat is looked upon as this extraordinary character in Marq’s society, he doesn’t receive any privacy […]
On Velm, the inhabitants only using “he” as a pronoun denoting sexual desire at all really jarred me and was an effective contrast to our society’s view of women. Throughout the novel, clearly, “she” is the standard pronoun in most situations. This was jarring to me, as a male, it made me feel somewhat marginalized. […]
This book has been very difficult to read at the pace we have been given. With Delany using words differently from what we know and understand their meaning to be, cause me to pause and think about how the English language had been created. Our English is different from Old English and is even different […]
No matter our culture, location, or even species, humans and animals alike seem to prefer a fair deal of familiarity in our lives. People wish to spend time with those they know and enjoy, dogs have their favorite toy, and cats have their favorite sleeping spot in the sun. If you take someone out of […]
Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand is a novel which needs considerable amount of time to really understand. It is filled with so much information we don’t understand that it’s overwhelming and hard to read. The universe in the novel is filled with different kinds of sentient beings, rules and languages that takes […]
The sheer diversity and complexity that Delaney is able to present us with is quite astonishing on many different levels. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so overwhelmed by information and detail (perhaps when I first began to read?). It’s almost like trying to decipher a set of pictograms or ideograms. The depth […]
Samuel R. Delany’s Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, is a novel that pushes our ways of thought, and stretches our understanding of language. Although the book is extremely dense, and I’m struggling to trudge my way through what feels like wall after wall of text, I also can’t help but find myself […]
Samuel R. Delany’s novel Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand is providing to be quite a challenge for me. One of the things that has stood out to me in the novel is gender and the use of words that go along with gender. This topic has definitely been covered in class but […]
Semiotics is the study of “signs” and how we (humans) construct meaning with them. Stars In my Pocket Like Grains of Sand offers literary semiotics by showing how we use a word or constructed sign (the pronoun “she”) to signify a more general and and mind-independent object in the world (a woman) (71). However, having studied some […]
As mentioned in class I would agree that this book has been difficult to understand mostly due to the complex language Delany uses. I thought that the ending of chapter six was interesting. When Marq is informed that Rat is his perfect match by the WEB. The way that their compatibility was described to the […]
After the last couple of discussions in class, I have to say, the language in Samuel R. Delany’s Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is extremely unique because not only the language challenges readers, the language provides interesting words to describe the setting and characters. For instance, in the prologue, we are introduced […]
Knowledge: another process, finally no different, in its overall form, from the one called stupidity. Information is not taken into the human organism so much as it is created from the strong association of external and internal perceptions. These associations are called knowledge, insight, belief, understanding, belligerence, pig-headedness, stupidity. (Only social use determines which associations […]
As a reader and a fan of horror films, not much disturbs me anymore. That is until I read the opening pages of the novel “Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand” by Samuel Delaney. My aunt has been a respected mental health nurse for over 23 years now and that has made me […]
Throughout the first few chunks of pages we’ve had to read so far, I can’t stop thinking about why a person — free to make decisions from their own free will — would turn their minds over to become a slave. However, this sort of explains the title of the book, Stars in my Pocket Like […]
“The truth is, Santine, I don’t have any real concept of how a billion differs from a million. Or a thousand. At least in real terms. No human does.” (101) This quote and the following short discussion really struck me because it reminded me of the way we learn. In elementary school we are told […]
The Dispossessed is definitely not my favorite novel so far. But, the many themes that are packed into it do intrigue me. In my last post I wrote on the utopia that Le Guin described. But his book is so much more than a study of this ambiguous utopia. It could easily be labeled as feminist science fiction. Le Guin uses the […]
I really thought that the concept of scarcity and the role of government/ governing body and law in the two societies was very fascinating. Urras obviously the wealthy capitalistic state and Anarres the so-called “Utopia”. I think that the idea of Anarres is a very interesting one, like we said in class it is […]
The Dispossessed was not my favorite of the four novels we have read so far. It was rather slow, and went into a LOT of detail with physics terms and the General Temporal theory which can be confusing and too comprehensive for someone who knows almost nothing about it. I did like the way LeGuin […]
The concept of time that is presented in Le Guin’s novel, “The Dispossessed”, is thought provoking. The two opposing ideas of time she presents are that time is sequential as well as simultaneous. At first, the idea seemed slightly hippie-ish. The western idea of time is that it moves forward and it is only sequential. […]
I must admit I haven’t finished the novel yet but it is very intriguing. I do not really care for the story itself for the obvious reasons that have already been pointed out in class; it’s slow, there is not much action, and the story bounces back and forth between the past and present. But […]
“The Revolution is in the individual spirit, or it is nowhere” (p. 359). In class today, the idea of individualism was mentioned and it made me realize how contradictory the Odonians were. Le Guin’s imperfect Utopia is evident in the novel I thought especially in the form of conformity. Anarres is supposed to be […]
Towards the end of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, chapter 11 discusses the debate whether Shevek should go to Urras or not. For instance, Shevek goes to a meeting to discuss his opinions about Urras, but gets shut down by everyone else at the meeting. One of the members says, “But if they [Anaresti] […]
We have spent a lot of time talking about Le Quin’s ideology while she wrote this book. In another class, History Seminar, we are talking about the 1970s and how peoples perspectives had changed dramatically about government, about lifestyles and world views had changed. This was the first decade where the American people began to […]
As I’m reading Ursula Le Guin’s novel “The Dispossessed” I can’t help noticing the recurring idea of walls and barriers. One of the most prominent barriers that i’m seeing is the language barriers in the novel between not only men and women but between The Urrasti and the Annaresti. The first time that I noticed the language […]
“It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced. The bond that binds us is beyond choice. We are brothers. We are brothers in what we share. In pain, which each of us must suffer alone, in hunger, in poverty, […]
I found the concept of “copulating” in Urras to be really interesting. It is first mentioned when Shevek is waiting for his father when he is a young boy. His father loved Rulag, Shevek’s mother, but she had to go to a different area since she was smarter than he was. So Shevek’s father would […]
One of my favorite sections of the novel early on was in the second chapter when the narrator spoke of numbers and their beauty and that if a book was written all in numbers it would be true. “Nothing said in words ever came out quite even. Things in words got twisted . . . […]
So far, Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel has brought up some interesting questions and ideas. Annares is supposed to be the perfect Utopia, but is it really? Annares has no form of government, everyone is equal (including women) and being a homosexual is nothing out of the norm. In fact, they encourage sexual exploration with the other […]
Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel, The Dispossessed, is complex to say the least. It’s really not a hard book to read. But, it manages to touch on so many aspects of the human experience at once that it’s hard to sum up what makes it so fascinating. Le Guin manages this through the fabulous main character, […]
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed, ideas about the pursuit of knowledge run aplenty. specifically, when Shevek begins his professorship on Urras he is completely astounded by the way students are taught. He was, “appalled by the examination system” that required a, “deterrent to the natural wish to learn” and a “pattern of […]
I think that the concept of gender is obviously a very important idea thorough out the book and is very interesting one as well. I think that the way the women from Urras are made out to be is ridiculous. For example when Shevek first arrives to Urras his encounter with the woman at the […]
I wanted to respond to the idea of abolishing property, or the right to own something as we were discussing this in class. As I had an opportunity to think about it I do not like the idea nor do I think the concept has any chance of ever working in any society […]
I find the concept of Urras very interesting because of the way their structure is laid out. They just know they have responsibilities that have to be met, the same way it is in my home, where I live with three other girls and we don’t have any structure of how we do things, we […]
During the early years of Shevek’s life we see a strong difference between the males and females of his world. Unlike today’s society, women seem to have more equivalent views on gender divisions. Women are just as likely to pick up hard labor as shown while they are working the mine. Also, unlike in reality, […]
Half way into Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, one of the major themes that really astonished me so far is the theme of dependency vs independence. Le Guin takes these into consideration while describing Shevek’s journey to Abbenay and with Shevek’s experience, it is extremely negative. For example, Shevek gets treated as an outsider […]
As I started The Dispossessed, immediately Star Wars and Star Trek came to mind. The language barrier between the two countries is evident. What was it like when the explorers came across another being? How did they communicate or relate to each other? There is no universal language that could be used because we would […]
While reading Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, I was amazed at how so many things were still operating on Earth after a majority of people fled to Mars. There were still normal occupations and businesses like lawyers, police stations, and pet stores. The one business still operating that I found particularly […]
Throughout the novel we have a theme that I call humism (equivalent to racism but different in that it’s the discriminatory view towards all sentient nonhuman life) which treats robots like the Nexus-6 as inferiors and as mere objects not worthy of equal treatment by humans. Have we seen this before somewhere? I believe in […]
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick presents us with the question of: If we create it, do we then have the right to destroy it, even if it’s a sentient being? It’s an interesting question because on the surface it seems perfectly fine to destroy something if you create it. However, if what […]
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? near the end Rick decides to buy an animal. Upon entering the shop he at first shows interest in buying two rabbits, which would be more affordable. The salesman at the store instead up-sells him to a goat. I found this segment both comical and strange because of the […]
In the fiercely solitary society created by Philip K. Dick in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, connecting to other human beings naturally has become a trying and challenging process, if not an entirely obsolete practice. Because of this, the use of new technologies to synthesize emotions and connections has become all the […]
Chapter 12 is interesting because it explores the idea of the similarity and difference between humans and androids. First and more familiarly, a difference is on 133 when Rick and Phil are arresting Luba. She proposes (essentially as a final wish) that Rick buy her a painting that she wants to own. When Rick assents, […]
Animals play a relatively important role in the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? After all, sheep are mentioned within the title. Pets provide companionship and security, but within the novel, the way characters cling to animal ownership demonstrates just how important animals are to human life. The first time we are introduced to animals is […]
I thought that this book was crazy in a good way and really makes you think about different situations. In the last chapter of the book I thought that it was really interesting when Rick finds/sees the toad he gets so excited and thinks about all the possibilities like wealth and fame that could result […]
You can draw so many parallels in this novel to many science fiction movies. About halfway through I realized how alike this novel is to one of my favorite sci-fi movies, Demolition Man. Not the greatest movie, but still very entertaining and it has its humor at the same time. If you haven’t […]
After reading the first few books in our class, I am fascinated by the different perspectives about the future these authors present in their books. Granted, I’ve not read as much Science Fiction in the past, but now, seeing these perspectives about the future really relate to today’s society and how we are so curious […]
I did not expect Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to end the way it did. I thought that Deckard would have been more proud of his accomplishment. He did something that no one else had done in one day, retired six androids. He bought a goat after his first three and after his second […]
It seems shocking when Rick’s wife, Iran, says “My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression.” Most people probably cannot imagine why someone would want to feel depressed or hopeless, but maybe she was tired of pretending to be happy all the time. I can understand why she would want to feel depressed if […]
Who is more alive? Easy question, right? One would think that the real being would be the one containing blood and skin and the need for oxygen and water. However, the way that Dick describes his main character, Rick, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? makes is seem more like the andy is, in fact, […]
“The silence is deafening.” We’ve likely encountered this phrase more than a few times in our lives. We can probably even think of a time when we’ve experienced something very near complete silence. Given our constant auditory saturation, the bustling crowds of today’s society would probably find it difficult to come across anything close to […]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a novel about the future that takes place after a nuclear war. Earth is almost inhabitable and most species have gone extinct from radiation poisoning. Most of the humans have evacuated and taken refuge on Mars. The ones who chose to stay struggle with their IQ slowly deteriorating. […]
With Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? being written in 1968 when the Cold War was chilling America it seems only fitting to see this book set after a nuclear war, WWT, no doubt brought about by these two super stupid powers. By reading between the lines I wonder if Dick implied there was […]
Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a novel that poses many critiques and questions about society and our humanity. One of the questions, that I find most intriguing, asks what humanity is. Early in novel, we are presented with the concept of the mood organ/mood alterations. The ability to choose what […]
Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, allows for some interesting inquiry into the psyche of man. In the beginning of the novel, when the main character, Rick, and his wife are waking up for the day, they have a discussion or rather an argument on the use of their “mood organs”. These […]
Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has created a world in which one could easily be told that one is an android- just with false memories. This has made me question how anyone could stay sane in this type of environment? No wonder people are so heavily “mood enhanced” and rely […]
I found it interesting right away that they were controlling their moods and found it similar to some things in our society. In the novel they are choosing to dial numbers to control how they feel. At the beginning there is a time when the wife has dialed a specific number and then notices how […]
If one thinks it immoral, it is probably owed the following prejudice. That that being “human” means letting your own emotions arise “naturally” – purely bodily. That this is necessary to fully experience humanity (thus be human); however, is not so clear. There are plenty of inconvenient cases for this view. Do we temporarily […]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: what an awesome title! Philip K. Dick’s novel is really surprising me. One of the main things that intrigued me in this novel was not the androids’ similarity to the humans, but the humans’ similarity to the androids. In particular, the people in the novel can program their own emotional states with a device called […]
As I was reading the first few chapters of “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” the idea that recurred over and over to me again was the idea of an or lack of emotional connection. This idea is also what connects this novel to Solaris in the fact that during the entire novel Kris is […]
The immediate connection I made in this story was that of another fellow student. It was uncanny how much alike the empathy box is to our current society. In my opinion, way too often nowadays do we throw medication at everything. At the first sign of anyone with anger, sadness or depression issues, or being […]
After reading the first few chapters in Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The main idea that popped into my head was, how are other humans able to live on other planets such as Mars? I was puzzled because after reading about the interview with the woman on Mars where she managed to […]
In Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, there is a lot of discussion of Wilbur Mercer and Mercerism. It seems to be a form of religion that many of the main characters take part in, in different ways. For example, there is a scene with John Isidore who is a “special”, […]
Empathy is a feeling meaning having the capability to appreciate, understand, and accept another living things emotions. In Phillip Dicks novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, empathy is one of the the major themes that starts off right from the beginning of the novel. Empathy is so highly regarded in this future life, a world controlled […]
I have asked my friends who like sci fi about this book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and I was told that this book is awesome. It is definitely not something that I would have picked up on my own. The title would have caught my eye but the premise of the book would […]
I thought that the end of the book was very interesting. As usual it seems as Lem has left many questions un answered or open to our own interpretation. Two of those questions for me are, what is solaris? And what does it represent? I think that there are many possibilities of how these two […]
Reading Lem’s novel Solaris to me is like gazing into the night sky. So many questions arise and the only answers that come with it are the ones that you come up yourself. For example, looking up at the stars I feel small and insignificant. I question my existence and I question what’s really out there. Typical […]
In our day-to-day lives, we take our basic understanding of the world around us for granted. We intuitively assume that our mental picture of the world around us – or how we’re perceiving it – accurately depicts the world as it actually exists. As a species, we often consider the potential for our knowledge of […]
I found it really interesting that the ship that takes Kris to Solaris is called “Prometheus.” In ancient Greek mythology, Prometheus was a god who brought fire to humans. The gods were all furious that he did this, so Zeus punished him by exiling him to earth. He was bound to a rock and had […]
I try to start every book with an open mind whether it be a romance novel or science-fiction. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised than greatly disappointed. This is the same approach I took with Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Being a little over half done with it I am still not sure what to think. Besides the complete state of confusion I am […]
Don’t you just hate it when you are reading a book or watching a movie and by the end of both you are left with more questions than answers and you feel nothing wasn’t resolved or answered to your liking? The novel Solaris is having this affect on me and it drives me crazy, and […]
So I know we talked about this in class, but the idea really stuck with me. What if the giant baby episode in Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, really was just a “glitch” in the ocean’s first attempts at replication? I mean obviously nothing is going to be perfect on the first try- even look at the […]
Let me preface this post by saying that I have many different feelings or opinions on the novel itself, so I have a couple things to write about. I really started out confused by a lot of the story along with everyone else for the first part and I’m only about halfway thru at this […]
There are many interesting topics to discuss that surround Stanislaw Lem’s novel, “Solaris”, but since Valentine’s day is tomorrow I have chosen to talk about love. First, let me pose you this question: What is love? The Merriam Webster dictionary website defines love as “a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person”, “attraction […]
Throughout the whole book of Solaris, thus far, there are so many questions which come unanswered. One of the biggest questions has to be the intentions of the planet of Solaris. Why does this planet want to toy with the emotions and guilt that these people have weighing their minds down? One theory could be that […]
For humans, “romantic love” between males and females is rooted in reproduction thus propagating our race. This is clearly evident when one tries to distinguish between his relationship with his wife and his best bud. Both the wife and the best bud may have similar moral value, but the main distinguishing factor is the sexual […]
Just like in using a 3D printer the result you get is the product of the information given to the machine. You can tell a 3D printer to print a little turtle, and though that turtle may look exactly like the real thing down to the smallest detail, it is still NOT a turtle; it […]
While reading the first third of Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris, I found a couple similarities to Steven King’s novel The Shining. Though I’ve never read the book I’ve seen the movie directed by Stanley Kubrick which stars Jack Nicholson and is placed in an isolated hotel for a period of time. Both works start off […]
I’m only basing this on through page 66. As I continue to read Stanislaw Lem’s book Solaris, a question that is continually brought to mind is What does it mean to be human? What constitutes a sense of humanity in a creature. The character that brings this to mind the most is Rheya. Rheya appears […]
As we discussed in class on Tuesday, now I am beginning to understand the ambiguity that Stanislaw Lem is presenting in Solaris. For instance, the chapter titled, “The Monsters” is a perfect example behind the ambiguity of science. In this chapter, Kris finds some information on the past research of Solaris, and with this constant […]
As I started to read this book, Star Trek images came to mind. It is the only SciFi that I have really been exposed to and I do not like it. Space is a mystery that man has been trying to figure out for many years. Since it is infinite, and man does not fully […]
I chose this picture of Carl from The Walking Dead because it shows how society and civilization has crumbled under the immense changes that have occurred. As you can see, Carl goes from wearing a tie and looking happy, carefree, and well-groomed to a dark and dirty kid. While reading The Day of the Triffids […]
The theme of women being dependent on males, as a mid-1900’s value, stuck out at while reading this novel. Need I recount all of the particulars? These are as follows: Bill rescues a cowering Josella, Bill making all of the decisions when he partners with Josella, Coker’s progressive attitude and demand for details that would […]
At the end of Day of the Triffids we are left with essentially two known standing regimes. Beadley’s university group that has taken up refuge on the isles, and Torrence’s pre-fascism group who seems to inhabit the main land. The main difference between the groups is that Beadley’s group seems to want to work together […]
When we were first assigned this novel and i saw the title I, along with others, assumed that this story was going to be referring to a specific day where these Triffids. However as we all now it was much much longer then just one day. Looking at all of the encounters the Bill and […]
Should a rebirthed society, as in the novel, start off with new myths or should they cling to old ones? Or is it time to rid themselves of myths completely and take a more scientific or philosophical approach to teaching and passing on information? Starting on the bottom of page 203 Josella speaks of children born into the new […]
The title of a particular book can say a lot about what is contained insides it’s pages, so why did Wyndham choose the title The Day of the Triffids? With just reading through the pages we can see that the triffids, though playing an important part in a few chapters along the way, were not the […]
We like to image the world ending. Whether it be by aliens, zombies, apes, or even plants, almost every human being has either read a book or watched a movie that has the world as we know it ending. Sometimes a superhero saves the day right before total destruction. But, sometimes only a few survive to […]
After finishing the novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, I have noticed that once a catastrophic event occurs in society, everyone goes their separate ways in different groups that have different morals, rules, and leadership elements. This also seems to be a recurring theme in other books and films that feature a post […]
In Day of the Triffids the population diminishes as the situation becomes more serious and people die of disease, suicide, and killing as a result of the Triffids. At the point when Josella and Bill join the University people they are introduced to the idea of regrowth. Notably the room in which this information is […]
Up until Shirning Farm in this novel, it seemed that none of the blind people had hope. They were committing suicide, wandering aimlessly around, following a random leader, or being forced to get supplies or work. But this all changed with Dennis Brent. He was the owner of Shirning Farm and had managed to keep his […]
“The Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham poses particularly interesting ethical questions. What would you do if the entire world went blind, civilization fell apart, and the only thing you could do to survive was to act against your ethics? These were the kinds of tough questions that the main character, Bill, had to […]
One idea that really struck me in the reading and in our class discussion about The Day of the Triffids was the idea that society could actually act as a prison to us. I think that this is a slightly over the top idea, but this is a slightly over the top book.. Exploring this […]
So now that we’ve finally reached the end of the book, we have to ask ourselves… What’s the point of it all? Was there an ending message Wyndham wanted the readers to get? Throughout the novel, I felt uneasy, unsure, hopeless, etc. for the characters. It seemed to me that they were doomed from the […]
1 Wyndham presents several interesting themes in the third section of The Day of the Triffids. One of themes is the idea that man, represented through Bill, has a guilty conscience when it comes to the destruction of nature. A particular quote that I found interesting was when Bill and Josella are taking a trip […]
As I finished The Day of the Triffids, something reminded me of Stephen King’s Dark Tower III, The Waste Lands – now they are completely different stories, but the rebuilding of the human race and how people’s opinions of how to do this might be where the correlation is. It has been years since I […]
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After finishing The Day of the Triffids, I kept wondering to myself, what about the children? What about Josella’s and Bill’s kid, David and Mary’s daughter for when they grow up and see that their world is taken over by the Triffids? We get a brief discussion on pages 203-4 where Josella and Bill talk […]
One topic that I believe can be connected to the novel that I have not heard mentioned yet in class is biological weapons or biological warfare. Biological weapons were somewhat used and experimented with in the first half of the 20th century, mainly in World War I, but they started being developed and used more […]
John Wyndham does a wonderful job creating a world in which we could never imagine living in. Who would have thought that plants could just uproot themselves and start walking around communicating with each other. Let alone they are seeking the exposed spot on humans like their eyes and hands to attach without having any […]
Living things share one basic trait: a primary will to live. They will often do anything and everything in their power to simply continue existing. But what of those who take their own lives? What circumstances are required to upset such a fundamental will? In John Wyndam’s “The Day of the Triffids,” many characters take […]
When I began reading The Day of the Triffids I easily adapted to the idea of plants taking over and attacking humans. After all, why shouldn’t they? We attack them all the time for our own purposes; why not flip the story and give the plants their day of glory? However, I quickly realized how this […]
John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids is a novel about the end of the human world when mobile plants, known as Triffids, take over. Did I mention the people in the book became blind after watching a strange green meteor shower? While reading the first 80 pages of the novel, I couldn’t help but think of […]
Since I am a huge movie lover, I always see similarities and references in books I read. Three films in particular kept popping into my mind when reading The Day of the Triffids and also the idea of society being fascinated and intrigued by novelty things that are entertaining. The Triffids in the Day of the Triffids are […]
I’m currently reading Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, in another one of my classes, and I’ve noticed some striking similarities. Even though the events that occur around each stories protagonist are different, they both involve a drastic change in the workings of society, and it made me think about how people deal with these situation, […]
What type of struggle or trial is man facing in The Day of the Triffids? Seems straight forward enough. But is it? The title tells little and upon reading the back blurb you may assume it’s a story of Man vs. Nature (one of the seven simple plot scenarios). The introduction by Morris would probably […]
The whole concept of this book, “The Day of the Triffids”, was, at first, hard to digest. A book about walking, evil plants and the apocalypse in the form of blindness? I thought that at least it would be entertaining and a great way to introduce me to the world of science fiction novels. I […]
When I was reading “The Day of the Triffids” I was immediately struck by how the author handled the idea of being blind and the fear that stems with it. The idea is personal to me because like the main character Bill Masen I was blind for some time due to a freak accident. He […]
Throughout the first few chapters, I found Bill’s morals to be interesting. There are several situations where he can choose to help or let people be, and most of the times he chooses the latter. When he is in the first bar and the man is talking about his wife killing herself and kids, and then […]
In the Day of the Triffids Bill’s recollections on the engineering of plants for food remind me of our own choice to do so in society today and how it can both be beneficial and detrimental. In the case of Bill’s situation, he worked as a biologist and genetically engineered food for quick growth and […]
Throughout pages 3-79 I noticed, many times, Bill’s heightened perspective in the following regard. Given the new and unsavory conditions, he thoroughly understands the value of and misses the way things were. Surely this is to be expected; however, Wyndham makes the reality of this sentiment remarkably tangible to his readers. As Bill witnesses “the long, […]
1 One of the themes that is brought up by John Wyndham in The Day of the Triffids is how quickly people lose their humanity during times of crisis, and how civilization falls apart. A good example of this is early on when William Masen leaves the hospital and encounters Josella Playton, who was tied […]
In this first part of the book, I have really become interested to know how the Triffids will continue their undertaking of England and why they are doing this. I find it interesting how Bill has worked with these plants for years and still has so much to learn about how the Triffids really are. […]
“There was, too, a feeling that as long as I remained my normal self things might even yet, in some inconceivable way, return to their normal” (Wyndham 39). In The Day of the Triffids, Wyndham creates a story to explain what would happen if civilization were to fall under bad circumstances. This is a pretty common theme throughout […]
In order for these blogs to look the way they do (i.e. not overlapping), your pictures need to have the tags for “text-wrapping.” Text-wrapping allows for the text within the body of your post to wrap around the picture. When you are in a new post you’ll need to add text, and should you choose […]