Original Radio Drama of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Blog 14
Week of 12/2/19

                      This week's topic was on Satire and Sci-Fi. In order to explore this topic, I listened to  
the Original Radio Drama of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. In the snippet of what I listen to I found out that Earth and its inhabitants are to be disintegrated by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass.This is all a big surprise to some of the people of Earth, like Arthur. Our main characters, Ford and Arthur, decide to hitch a ride on the Vogons' ship and are then thrown out into deep space by the Vogons to die after being caught aboard the ship. But, in the most unlikely situation they are rescued by the Infinite Improbability Drive spacecraft at the last second before they perish. 

                      The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy illustrates what we prioritize as problems in our world today and trying to find a solution to them. The story was a bit over dramatic at times but I really liked the way the story deals with the horrible situations our main characters our put through. It gave light on some very dark circumstances Ford and Arthur have to deal with. A example of this happening today is with the global warming crisis. Everyone knows about it and it's warning signs but a lot of people still do nothing. With the story being told in the future we are shown a scenario of the toll our planet will take, due to our current treatment of it, and the consequences that will most likely happen if we do nothing to prevent them.

The Handmaid's Tale

Blog 13
Week of 11/25/19

                        This week's topic was on Literary Speculation. In order to explore this topic, I read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood's novel uses elements of different types of genres but is essentially literary. The main types of genres elements I picked up while reading this novel was dystopian, historical fiction, and a memoir.

                         Dystopian is the main element in The Handmaids Tale due to the setting being in the near- future in a totalitarian-like state due to the decreased birthrate. This has cause the injustice of women having their basic rights taken from them. The elements of historical fiction and a memoir are not as obvious until you get to the end of novel. This is due to the big reveal of the last chapter of the book. This is where I found out that what I was reading in the previous chapters were tape recordings of Offred's account of living in Gilead,which makes it a memoir of sorts. The recordings are being reviewed at a conference years after being recorded and Gilead's fall. This creates a historical fiction element to the novel.

                    The combination of these elements would seem like they would mess with the flow of the story but I feel it only improved the story line. Without this surprise elements of the last chapter I think the readers of this novel would be left unsatisfied. The readers would never have gotten that sense of relief that Offred did indeed make it out of Gilead.  Personally, I wasn't affected by the merging of more than one genre because the overall story and message was more important to me. 

I Live with You

Blog 12
Week of 11/18/19

         This week's topic was on Diverse Position in Science Fiction. In order to explore this topic, I read the short story I Live with You by Carol Emshwiller. This story is about a woman, we later find out her name to be, Nora who is living a solidarity existence of a not at all interesting life. She spends her days going to work and coming directly home to her cat. This story would not seem of much interest if it was not for the unknown third occupant living in the house. This story is in the point of view of this unknown character and we see how this individual effects the daily life of Nora.

The unknown narrator of Emshwiller's story seems to be an odd mixture of a guardian angel and a stalker. In the story the individual mentions how once they saw Nora at the coffee shop, they realized just how perfect and alike they were, causing them to follow her home. From then on this occupant lives in the nooks and crannies of the Nora’s all too-big house. They then start to do tiny things on a daily basis to disorient Nora, like moving items where they were not supposed to be. At first I thought this character was out to get Nora and make her slowly feel like she is going crazy. I soon realized by the end of the story they were doing it for Nora’s own good. The character saw what kind of rut Nora was in, the loner that nobody noticed. By doing what seemed to be pestering daily actions added up and slowly got her out of her rut. And in doing so Nora could stand up and be the person she was always meant to be.

Fragments of a Hologram Rose

Blog #11
Week of 11/11/19

           This week's topic was on the sub-genres Cyberpunk and Steampunk. In order to explore these topics, I read the short story Fragments of a Hologram Rose by William Gibson. This story takes place in the future where people can relive other individuals’ experiences through a device called the delta-inducer. As readers we get to experience the device first hand through Parker, our main character. Parker is dealing with insomnia, heartbreak, and loneliness due to a resent breakup. In order to cope he delves into the sense-recordings of his ex-girlfriend in order to sleep through the night. 

            As we experience the recordings, we see tiny snippets of his past and how the nature of sense-recordings has shaped his adult life. What was once a promising future for Parker with the opportunities of working at an American subsidiary of a Japanese plastics combine. We soon learn that due to the invention of the delta-inducer Parker left all these great opportunities behind. With this being said, it is quite obvious how the machine's effects on people are quite severe.  I believe this to be true due to the way it seems as if Parker cannot live without this machine by his side. The machine has become the new street drug in this scenario of the future. People who use this device do not seem to get out and socialize instead they have created a companion like relationship with other individuals’ memories and experiences. I find this future to be quite troubling and hope that this setting of events does not happen to us in the future. If we all where to stay inside by ourselves and not deal with our problems who knows what the consequences to our world would be.