Dawn

Dawn by Octavia Butler talks about sex and adaptation between humans and aliens as if it is a metaphor for black slaves and white plantation owners. Lilith in the story has to choose if she wants to breed with these aliens called the Oankali. They lecture her about how their way of life is better because of how none violent their way of life is and put down humans as they are violent by nature. Lilith is also denied any media about her culture. Just like a white slave owner would feel that he had saved his slaves from their barbaric ways in africa.

For the aliens sex is strictly creation. There are extremes differences between the humans and aliens. Humans use sex as pleasure as well as creation and they are not expected to have too many children. For the aliens sex is all about creation and are expected to have many many children. Humans pollute their environment. Aliens use every inch of their natural resources until some are extinct. The human repulsion of having sex with the aliens because they are monstrous may touch base with social classes and also could be racial. Such as a Wealthy person having relations with a very poor person or would be considered shameful by society. Or when a new race lives along side another one relations with the both sides will probably not be accepted for a long time.  

Blood Child

1.
How could a man survive after being cut open like that?

How do grubs even get into someone?

Are they on a different planet or did these grubs invade?

If the these grubs survived before human hosts why do they need them now?

How old are these humans if they have been eating theses eggs for so long because they preserve life?

2.
How important is it to preserve the value of human life (How important is it for a species to be persevered) ? 

Is survival important if it is pretty hopeless?

Should we migrate to other places even if they have hostile environments? 


3.
Is she a feminist?

Johnny Mnemonic

A good aspect of cyberpunk is that it always has a good heroine and equal rights between sexes are shown. Molly reminds me of the mutant female with the dagger razor blade fingernails in one of the x-men movies. She most have been an inspiration.  I find it funny how all of the cyberpunk stories so far have been about hacking. Johnny's head-chip seems like a good place to hide files instead of a computer. its untraceable.

Snow Crash

Its kind of cool how the new form of secret agent, the futuristic view is a hacker. Apparently if you are a hacker in this world you have a high social status because the more access to knowledge you have the more you are respected. Not the same was wealth makes a difference in our society. However, wouldn't being a hacker in this world make you have a lot of money also? Maybe wealth and knowledge aren't that separated. But anyway, i find it interesting how the author incorporated Sumerian culture into the cyberspace/ cyberpunk culture. Its like some sort of Scientology kind of take on religion where these god-like alien-like people made this virus and changed people's speech. Also i don't know why but i was thinking about sailor moon every time the computer meta virus came up. Because in one episode there was this computer virus takes over the minds of students and makes them zombies. actually i thought a lot about sailor moon when i was reading this maybe thats just me. but like the same parallels happen in both stories where there are these god-like being's and they fight this evil energy thing and both are futuristic while having this kind of old greek/ sumerian mythology apart of the story. which i love because i love mythology. Also i think its funny how the hero of the story's name is Hiro. its obvious i think. But I like how the author writing is easier to understand and doesn't get to detailed with things. Honestly i don't like sci-fi that much and for the most part i think its because its usually too descriptive with the technologies and i will usually get lost and/ or bored.

Parable of the Sower

Honestly throughout this novel I cried, a lot, because like Lauren Olamina, I sense other people's pain. However, it's on an emotional level. That's why I tend to not read or watch movies that have a real sense of tragedy. Even though, the novel was set in the future, it still seemed real to me or that it could happen in the future. The sense of reality in the book comes from her journal entries like you are experiencing the tragedy through her eyes. Also, even though it is set in the future she talks about already existing evils like rape, murder, disaster, natural disaster (the earthquake), robbery, war... instead of advanced technologies or the dominance of them. I like how strong her character is even though she definitely has weaknesses like everyone. She sees God as reality rather than an almighty fictional character, like she says Zeus. No, her God is nature and change and I admire that and she has a way to thing logically about it. Nothing she can't see nothing she can make up its just there it's truth it's reality. Which can be hard to swallow. However, I believe that religion should be more about nature and change because its true that humans change like nature and religions like Christianity or Judaism are more fixed in their beliefs in traditional old ways set in Hebrew times. That's my opinion. Change is adaptation and adaptation is survival. Even mentally. I felt that when Lauren was traveling north with the survivors was like Moses leading the chosen people to the promise land. I find that this may symbolize that when things change people still need to have a sense of traditional values that should be kept. Which is a little indecisive of me, but i think that a balance of change with tradition should be kept. otherwise society can lead to to chaos and anarchy. No matter how much of a rebel or a hippie I may come across at times, I know that Anarchy will never function successfully, ever. People cannot be trusted. and if there is no form of government someone will take the opportunity to be a leader, and not everyone is independent therefore some people need to be followers. Also, like Lauren says in her journals people will group together no matter what and try to con core each other for power greed and other things. Governments are like these groups however organized government on a large scale is more secure. war can be avoided with communication sometimes that does not always go over successfully and someone may cast the first stone. Its all just so complicated to say the least. I think that the best thing to do in this world is to listen to what you are taught and learn to think for yourself but harm non and be kind to others.

Neuromancer in Tokyo

Wow! Very interesting to say the least. I can definitely see the inspiration for "The Matrix" coming from this book. Although it is interesting how a hacker can access the "network" or the internet by being mentally physically there I hope that never happens to us as a society in real life. I feel that if that happens people will lose all physical connection with real life and become delusional to what is real and what is illusion. It like case of one of those online game addicts when that is all they do and even when they aren't playing the game they feel like they are still apart of it. I support some technology and its advances if it benefits humans sparingly and healthfully. if that is a word. I'm a very naturalistic kind of guy and i believe people should respect nature and make it apart of their lives. I feel that technology and nature should flow and balance each other. For example hydroelectric cars clean and efficient and very "GREEN". Another example here in sarasota there used to be a landfill close by. but the city changed it into a field of rolling hills with the trash underneath it that will decompose over thousands of years. And another thing it doesn't even smell! Technology should benefit us and also benefit nature which in turn will benefit us. I think some people forget that we are animals ourselves we aren't robots. we need nature as much as the animals do. Even in the future if we are slightly bionic with artificial parts we still have a soul that needs sunshine not smog. That's why introducing a game system that connects to your brain is unhealthy for us. It would be like introducing a new drug. Speaking of drugs I found that the artificial pancreas was so interesting. wouldn't that be great in the future if we could give addicts artificial parts to help eliminate their addictions to harmful substances. although it would probably be way to expensive for people not living in or above higher middle class. Or if we could give cancer patients artificial parts such as lungs for smokers. maybe in the future things will be less stressful with its advances but then again it might make everyone really lazy. that would be kind of bad. I think its funny how every story seems to have a romance in it. even in sci-fi genres. Cause when i think of sci-fi i think of robots and space, not human emotions like love. i like how in this story the romance between molly and case just ends. after all the things they when through all hot and heavy and on this epic adventure. at the end case goes back to hacking and finds a new girlfriends and molly millions just peaces out. like what? this book has everything a stereotypical movie has today drugs, love, sex, crime, action, tragedy, the works. The world gibson created is very corrupt and thats the way the world turn out if we let technology dominate our lives not work with our lives.
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'neuro'

stands for nerves and artificial intelligence

'mancer'

stands for a (white) magician and romance. It also stands for Case as a computer "hacker" who disrupts the social order (much like an evil magician) by throwing virus programs into society, thus causing chaos in the world.

The word is also a pun from the word "Necromancer": magician dealing in evil spirits and death. 

pretty cool! 


found in blogspot of iggyo...

http://iggyo.blogspot.com/2011/01/living-in-gibsons-future-mostly.html

Warbreaker

I enjoy how this book represents how important color is to our lives and how different colors can represent or invoke different emotions. Siri's hair in the novel changes with her emotions red when she is angry, darker brown when she is sad, light blond when she is happy and white when she is afraid. Just like in cartoons when someone sees a ghost in fright their hair turns white. An example of color emotion; most divorced couples have had yellow kitchens. This is because most people spend a lot of time in their kitchens and the color yellow in abundance evokes an angry or hostile attitude thus creating a lot of fighting. Its funny how yellow is thought to be a universally happy color.

It is also funny how color can be seen as a negative thing in the world the author has created. Each person is born with one single breath, however one can gain more breath over time if someone willingly gives you it. People with many breaths are more vibrant in appearance and have an outstanding aurora. People who have a lot of breaths are known as Awakeners and are sometimes feared because they are very powerful. they can animated inanimate objects even choke someone with the clothes they are wearing. They can even wake people from the dead.

The two kingdoms set up in the book are at peace only because one princess is to marry the neighboring kingdom who is ruled by a God-king. The princess Vivenna is to marry this king. Her kingdom is very drab the people fear color and only wear browns. However the other kingdom is proud of its bright colors. Siri, Vivenna's sister, is a rebel. Which I'm fond of. She loves color and not being important to the kingdom, because Vivenna has all of the responsibility, so Siri can just drift through life unnoticed and carefree thats the way she liked it. She spent most of her time escaping to the fields and picking flowers. She gaves some flowers to the children in town who awed at them, but was frowned upon by the villagers but wasnt scolded because she was a princess after all.