13: Literary Speculation

The Aquatic Uncle and Literary Distinctions

For this section in class we read Italo Calvino’s The Aquatic Uncle it tells a funny an quirky evolutionary tale of aquatic sea creatures making the evolutionary progression to land. We follow our main character/creature Qfwfq as he tells us about the moment when he, along with other creatures, first crawled out of the seas and began life on land. However, his stubborn great-uncle, N'ba N'ga, chose to remain underwater. Qfwfq being embarrassed to have a great-uncle who is a fish is embrrased to show him to his fiancé. Things get worse when Lll his fiancée begins admiring the old fellow's determination to cling to his old ways. Abandoning Qfwfq, she dives back into the sea. The love of Lll and the aquatic uncle serves as a defiant statement that things don't always get better when they change. It was great and I intend to read all of Calvino’s Cosmicomics. I still am not entirely sure of the distinction we are trying to make with the work, the work is still fiction but yes it takes some liberties and just becomes a literary work just as Bloodchild did it puts in a completely alien perspective to disorient you but still manages to raise questions of our own humanity and limitations.

12: Diverse Position Science Fiction

Evolution and Diversity of Fiction, Bloodchild and Attack the Block

I unfortunately missed the discussion on Bloodchild due to being late to class, which is a shame because I really enjoyed it and it fits perfectly with the topic of diversity in science fiction. As the genre gains more popularity the people that read them eventually write them and those people through natural progression become ethnically and sexually diverse (black, Hispanic, male, female, gay or lesbian). Octavia Butler is a master at using science fiction to make familiar topics unfamiliar outlining any gender role issues. She uses a unfamiliar and inhuman setting, characters, and plot to disorient the reader and removes any preconceptions about the themes of the story. It brings about specific issues I assume Butler wishes to stress in the reader’s consciousness and now that she has successfully disoriented the reader the themes no longer compete with any preconceptions. Most readers may already have an opinion about gender roles in regard to human childbirth. However in Bloodchild the parasite lays eggs in the humans against their will evoking a drastically different response. The reaction of the reader is probably of injustice yet the scenario when taken out of context is not that different from traditional gender roles in humans and especially dealing with childbirth. Bring up a lot of question about and female gender roles and the power they each have. We tend to romanticize things like childbirth and sex but Butler removes all of that a baby is just seen as a parasite to a mother. For me the relationships between the humanoids and their alien overlords serve as a great metaphor of the dissimilarities between men and women. On the film side of things Attack the Block takes to the more gender tied diversity but it’s awesome I would recommend it to anyone. It follows a group of inner city kids with some gang affiliation trying to protect their block from an alien invasion. It’s funny and extremely relatable.

11: Cyberpunk and Steampunk

Exploration of Cyber Punk and Steam Punk & Blade Runner

So now coming of Multi-verse fiction we naturally progress into alternate realities influenced by technology of course. These two sub genres of fiction, these growths of the multiverse genre mainly led by aesthetics are Cyber Punk and Steam Punk. Noted for its focus on "high tech and low life," Cyberpunk features advanced science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in some sort of social order. Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and megacorporation’s, and tend to be set in a near-future Earth, rather than space. It’s cool; it draws a lot from film noir. Steam Punk on the other hand is Cyber Punk’s weird steam powered brother. It usually takes place during the 19^th century in some sort of western civilization a retro future. It makes for some cool looking stuff Bioshock is a good mention for any gamers out there. I love Blade Runner it’s truly one of the greatest science fiction films ever made in my opinion. A true science fiction story or film should be more about ideas it explores not spaceship battles, futuristic gadgets, or weird creatures. This is what separates it from a Space Opera or Epic and fully qualifies it as an examination of technology and the impact it has on human society, existence, and humanity itself. The whole thing is done in this very dry noir detective story but is littered with the most futurist and forward thinking of sensibilities. It’s very self aware and real which only makes me respect Ridley Scott with even more praise than he had already received with Alien, he’s a master. Also Paprika is a great mention I love this movie as well and it raises a lot of the same questions Blade Runner tends to raise. So often do these movies when done right bring up themes of human integrity, dependance on technology and singularity, a future that is much scarier and real than lets say... a martian attack or a demon possession.

10: Narratives from the Multi-verse

I Have No Mouth and I must Scream and the Understanding of the Multi-verse

Ok, so first I had to familiarize myself with the term “multiverse.” The multiverse is the hypothetical set of infinite or finite possible universes including historical universes that together comprise everything that exists and has a possibility of existing. I like to call it parallel universes. Multiple universes have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, astronomy, religion, philosophy, transpersonal psychology and of course fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. I decided to read I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison the story takes place 109 years after the complete destruction of human civilization. The Cold War had escalated into a world war and super computers referred to as “AM” were created by the warring nations. One day, one of the three computers becomes self-aware taking control of the entire war killing off all but four men and one woman. It follows these five characters as AM tortures them with immeasurable hatred. On their quest to find food the crew ends up taking each other’s lives out of desperation and the only remaining human is Ted due to him failing to commit suicide. AM now even more angry than before, with only one victim left for its hatred ensures that Ted can never attempt to harm himself, AM transforms him into an enormous gelatinous blob, and constantly alters his perception of time to deepen his anguish. Ted is, however, grateful that he was able to save the others from further torture. Depressing, but I liked it. Multiverse fiction builds on the idea that anything is possible like these alternate versions of everything are ever present and live simultaneous. I could be an evil overlord in another dimension and so I must be careful not to become it. Makes for some great fiction.

9: Space Opera

From Sea to Space and the Human Imagination

When thinking of the space opera grand adventure awaits, a world filled with robots and aliens, heroes and villains, space travel and fiction solely built around predictions. It tends to be cheesy at times but it’s meant to entertain, it’s a dreamers dream as I like to put it. So often do we as humans like to paint a picture of the unknown we are a curious species, thus if we can’t travel to space well damnit we will write about it. The same could be said about the sea once told as a vast unknown deep that could only be traveled through the finest of vessels littered with sea creatures and magical beasts and beyond the blue on the other side of the world a new world awaits. Just imagine it the sea must have been as much of a new frontier as space travel is to us and fiction is eminent when questions are asked. But as we take the genre farther we find that our imaginations are not far from reality and so the sea story progresses into the space epic and as the space opera grows we travel to space. Star Wars is so influential especially to artist like us because although now only relevant through nostalgia as a child it captures the imagination. The people that grew up inspired by Star Wars grew to fulfill their dreams and fiction slowly turns into reality. The computer, the Internet, the cellular phone, robotics…what’s next? Racer Pods right. Ehh…only in my wildest dreams.

The Nine Billion Names of God

For this section of the class I decided to read The Nine Billion Names of God written by Arthur C. Clark naturally because it was written by Arthur C. Clark, big fan. Anyways, the short story tells of a Tibetan lamasery whose monks seek to list all of the names of God, believing this is the purpose of the Universe, and that once the task is completed the Universe will come to an end. They calculated they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about nine billion and the name being composed of only 9 letters or characters. Since doing this by hand would take another 15,000 years the monks turn to modern technology to finish this task in three months. So they get a super computer and recruit two western programmers to help with the machine. After three months the westerners leave the lamasery before the project reached it’s completion in fear of something bad happening to them. Under the night sky around the time that the monks would be pasting the final printed names into their holy books and as they look back they notice the stars of the night sky fading away. It was interesting I like how most of the story is told through narrative between the foreigners. It’s littered with great imagery mixing two contrasting cultures and religious outlooks lead by a theme of skepticism and belief. This idea that the answers to life will soon be answered in this pseudo sci-fi twist of kingdom come is quite interesting. It’s a journey of faith grounded in reality with for it’s time a futurist outlook. I enjoyed it.