Week 15: Frankenstein Revision

After having never read Frankenstein, I was quite surprised as to how different the monster was compared to what I had expected. There are countless adaptations of the story portrayals of the monster but I’m not sure any of them come remotely close to it. Frankenstein’s monster is almost always a mindless, green, groaning monster with bolts sticking out his neck that wants for nothing but to kill people. In Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein the monster is actually smart and originally has no intention of killing and believe it or not, he just wants to fit in. But it doesn’t matter how smart the monster is or how he even saves a girl from drowning. He’s ugly, so he’s a monster.

I don’t know if it was Marry Shelley’s intention of making the reader feel for the monster or not but damn, I couldn’t help but feel terrible for the guy (although I’m always guilty of favoring the monster characters) Of course until he started killing people…. It was actually harder for me to relate to Dr. Frankenstein. He did things that seemed downright selfish and he never cared for his own creation. He spent most of the book complaining about his life and never really took any action to fix anything.

A funny spin on the concept of a monster being rejected by the world is in the animated movie, A Monster in Paris. Set in 1910 France, a harmless flea is accidentally transformed into a monster. Emile, a shy movie projectionist who also plays the role of the gothic heroin, finds that the creature isn’t so threatening and he actually has an incredible singing voice!

The movie pays homage to stories like Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera where the monster turns out to be what we don’t expect. Like Frankenstein’s monster, Francœur, (the flea monster) has no intention of harming anyone but because he is a hideous bug-man, he is considered evil. In the end it is the greed and selfishness of people that turn out to be the real monsters.

For my revision, Alexis Chambers and I watched No such Thing since we were both eager to finish the film. It was definitely not what we were expecting. Compared to Frankenstein, A Monster in Paris, and the Gothic Horror genre, No such Thing had a lot in common but a lot of differences too. There was that combination of horror and romance, kind of like Beauty and the Beast and a similarity to the Bride of Frankenstein.

As with the other two stories mentioned above, the monster turned out to be the most relatable character. The other characters seemed to have no emotion, hardly reacting to anything around them, where as The Monster had so much personality. Everything was affecting him and all he wanted was to die. This film was another example as to how people are just as terrible as the monsters they make up. As the monster roams the city streets he is beaten up and treated like a freak. Something that stuck out as different compared to the other films is the way the people reacted to the Monster. Instead of freaking out about the fact that there’s a real live monster walking around, people treated him like he was a sort of celebrity. News reporters tried interviewing him and even making him a television fad.

Beatrice, plays the Beauty role of Beauty and the Beast but she doesn’t necessarily fall in love with the Monster at first. In the beginning, she sort of had the opposite role of the Monster where she wanted to continue living after being in a plane crash. Because Beatrice had already faced death, she was not afraid of the Monster. In the end, she and the Monster both go through two similar procedures but to achieve two different goals. Beatrice's surgery was to keep her alive because there was more for her in life and The Monster's surgery was to take his life away. He seemed to be weary of life because he had already had enough of it.

In the end it is uncertain whether the Monster is destroyed or not. Either way the Monster and Beatrice seemed to finally be at peace and life will go on. Overall, we weren’t expecting the outcome of this movie but it kept itself original. I think I liked the portrayal of how humans would react to a monster. By now, I think most of us would react more calmly. At least I would anyway...

Week 14: Science Fiction Parody and Satire

Something satirical science fiction tends to do is make the entire human race look like a bunch of idiots. Futurama, Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and especially Idiocracy takes the future human race and makes it the least intelligent group of species on earth, and I agree with them completely. We’re a species that kills to create. We destroy species, plants, ecosystems, and even the very air we breathe just for our own personal gain. I see us as a parasitic race. In the end, we will be the cause of our own destruction. When I see parodies of the future like Idiocracy, I see them more as reality than fiction. We may be getting smarter and creating incredible technology but, the more we do the blinder we get.  Before you know it, all the dolphins on Earth will decide to just leave.

I love Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the book, the series, and especially the new movie. There are so many scientific elements thrown into one story and all of it is explained in such a humorous way. The universe is basically transformed into one big joke and Arthur Dent’s reaction to it all is probably how anyone would react. The characters of Hitchiker’s Guide are all so very strange but very likable. Arthur Dent is basically the character you put your own shoes into, having no idea what in the world is going on, Ford Prefect, Arthur’s alien friend who has a strange obsession with towels, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the strange two headed president of the Galaxy, Trillian, also an Earthling, who is probably the only one who takes anything seriously and Marvin, the super depressed about everything paranoid android.  You just don’t see characters like this anymore!

I think what makes Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so fun is the fact that it branches off from planet Earth, Earth is actually completely destroyed, and focuses on the wonders of the universe. Douglas Adam’s picks fun at science, philosophy, and religion but also includes his own statements and ideas about life. While things are silly, I question whether any of it could be possible seeing how we were possible. Even in the end when the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything in between is answered I still wonder…. Why 42?

Week 13: Literary Speculation

        This week we talked about what Literary speculation and what its purpose was. I find it to be a fact built around an imaginative story that can take science and teach something metaphorically to you. I think its purpose is mainly to make us explore things we normally wouldn’t or would not want to do. It also brings out sort of creativity in all of us. We take a scientific concept that could be too complicated to comprehend or a concept we’re not even familiar with and turn it into something that we’re all interested in now just with the addition of a story plot.

        We started the class off with the movie Primer, a movie that I felt with what little we watched would be a great film in the end. To me it was one of those examples that you don’t really need a lot of money or CG to make a good movie. I felt as though there was a lot more action going on with such simple filming vs. a movie made up of mostly CG. I also loved the story present. It had me interested and the way it was presented was very believable.  It reminded me of the movie Timeline that is also about time travel. In this movie, a group of scientists go back in time to 14^th century France and basically write the history we know today. It has scientific and historical facts that come together into an interesting story.

        We also read The Aquatic Uncle, what I thought was a silly folktale about evolution. It was a little different from Primer because Primer tried to be a little more realistic about the scientific concept. The Aquatic Uncle did revolve around the concept of evolution but it did it in a way that was really silly and it brought me back to my Native American cultures class where all the stories had weird talking animals and some sort of moral in the end. But, it did make me wonder if all organisms were aware of themselves would they decide how they would want to evolve? How would things have turned out in the end?
         I would like to see more science fiction media with literary speculation. I speculate things all the time and even come up with my own stories. I think up a lot of “what If” scenarios especially with science fiction.  

Week 12: Diverse Positon Science Fiction

Bloodchild was a strange but interesting way to cover feminism and female pregnancy/childbirth. Pregnancy is gruesome, and Butler, explains it just how is is…minus the flesh eating grubs. This story, although sci-fi, stays pretty true to reality. The process of childbirth is dangerous and can sometimes kill the mother. In older times, women were basically forced to reproduce. In order to keep the Tlic race alive, Terrans must be used as incubators for the Tlic eggs. What’s interesting is that Butler makes it so that the male Terran is the carrier. Judging by Gan’s reaction to the whole ordeal, I like to wonder how men today would react if they were suddenly told that they must be the one to bare children. Would men agree to the circumstances or would they react with violence, as did Gan?
I was also surprised about how many students in class were repulsed by the descriptions in the story. I don’t find my self affected much because 1. I’m female and 2. I’ve dissected plenty of animals not to be affected anyway. But what I’m curious to know is why did the descriptions make students feel that way? What makes people feel grossed out and why? I think Butler made me think further about things other than feminism. I think we need more short stories like this to get straight to the point. I do understand wanting to grow attached to characters but Butler created a scenario that made me ponder even moments after reading the story.

We also watched Attack the Block during class, a movie that I find to be pretty amazing. It’s a movie that takes an alien invasion and puts it into an environment that you wouldn’t normally expect, and the heroes aren’t really heroes. This movie focuses on a gang of teenagers, basically a bunch of thugs that you would never look up to. 

Writers and filmmakers hardly ever think about how other cultures or races are affected by events in films particularly sci-fi and fantasy. There are some films that have tried such as District 9 and Avatar but I don’t feel like they exactly hit the mark. Our films also mainly feature some typical white male out to save the world. It’s just nice to see a change for once and Attack the Block even brings out a lot of cool concepts and visual effects. The aliens in this film are like none I’ve seen before. Altogether there is originality to this film that I think is disappearing in current movies.

Week 11: Cyberpunk

The “punk” genres have become a huge part of sci-fi today. They definitely feature some of my favorite themes such as virtual reality, androids/cyborgs/robots, and advanced technologies in different eras, I am even designing my own spin off of “beauty and the beast” set in a diesel punk 1920’s setting. Currently there are up to 20 different derivatives of the cyberpunk genre and it continues to grow.  

When it comes to cyberpunk and the thought of virtual reality taking over our lives, all I can think of is how not so far away this future is for all of us. The Oculus Rift is a virtual head mounted display that works, I’ve tested it myself, and although it is still being developed, it only has a year or two until it is completed. Virtual reality will have its advantages to the world not only for gaming; it could be used for social, military, and even medical purposes.

But will the Oculus Rift cause more problems than solutions? I like to think about one of my favorite anime series called .hack. In this franchise, virtual reality exists and players interact with each other through The World, a massive multiplayer online game. The common occurrence that happens in the series is when artificial intelligent programs cause players to fall into a comatose state while playing the game. While I don’t see this to be a reality in the future, I do see people’s vision being affected by the displays. After trying the Oculus Rift myself I can see how addictive gaming will be and how altered my sense of sight will become.

 In the .hack//movie, set further after devices like the Oculus Rift, virtual reality is seen through what is equivalent to the Google Glasses and the game is controlled through a handheld console like the PSP. Basically, you could go outside, sit at a park bench, pop on your glasses and play your virtual reality game. Until this future, gamers like me are going to become couch potato’s that may never see the light of day again. For this week I read the short story, Johnny Mnemonic, which brought forth the concept of having a computer system implanted into our heads. After Oculus Rift, this may just be the next big thing.

Week 10: Multi-verse

I’m a little confused as to what the multi-verse is and even after reading the short story I have no mouth, and I must scream, I am still a little confused. I thought multi-verse meant that there were more than one universe and all of them had their differences. But after reading the short story it seems that it is more about an alternate reality or a “what will happen to earth in the future.” Maybe it’s both?

In I have no mouth, and I must scream, one of the main ideas present in the future is that artificial intelligence will gain it’s own sentience and destroy the human race. This concept is present in a lot of sci-fi but I’m not sure how it would qualify as a possible future for earth. I love it as a concept but I don’t think we’re smart enough ourselves to create a machine that would mentally want to kill us all or even have the capability to. Now when it comes to robots killing us all through war, I think that Is a lot more possible. The military is engineering robots that can maneuver like animals and overcome obstacles in terrain with no problems. I think we have to worry more about each other in the future more than machines. In the end of the story it was the humans that destroyed each other and not the machine.

Another idea or experiment present in the story was that of genetic alteration. The character Benny used to be a handsome scientist but he was genetically altered into a grotesque ape man. Ted, the narrator also becomes genetically altered into a blob.

Today people are obsessed with their physical appearance and will sometimes go to great lengths just to change it. Body modification has become huge and even more extreme as technology advances. We currently have nerve controlled robotic limbs that I can no doubt about it see people willingly remove limbs to have these. 

Week 9: Space Opera

For this week I read 9 Billion names, a short story about monks that seek out the names of god to bring the universe to an end. They get their hands on a computer that can print all the possibilities and in the end it actually works and the stars begin to fade away. There are a lot of franchises set in space that mention of some sort of God or all powerful force or being. Take Star Wars for example, with the Force. There is also a search for new knowledge or an answer to why do we exist. In Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, an all-knowing computer is asked what the meaning of life. Space Opera’s focus a lot on the concept of religion and how religion can start conflicts or end in Holy Wars. Here are two of my favorite examples:

        The fifth element, one of my favorite sci-fi movies, revolves around the concept that there is a fifth element in the form of a human that once combined with the other elements, they become the “Divine Light” which can defeat the Great Evil. In the movie there is an idea about what Catholicism would be like in the distant future. A character by the name of Cornelius is referred to as “father” and the symbols of the elements are religious signs. The story can be related to Adam and Eve where, Korben Dallas is the hero out to save the innocent Leelo. Overall this is an awesome movie. There’s plenty of comedy to keep you laughing and enough action to keep you watching. There’s even a real space opera!

        Halo, which is one of my favorite sci-fi games, is about a war between humans and an alliance of aliens that are led by religious leaders called The Prophets. Their goal is to activate “Halo”, basically a bunch of gigantic laser beams that will destroy everything in their path, in order to reach what they call “the great journey.” Discovering that the rings are actually weapons to destroy sentient life to contain a deadly parasite, the humans must engage in war to stop the covenant.

              I think science fiction fits rather well with religious themes.  Throwing a classic opera in space seems to just work perfectly.