Week 11

This week I watched Interstellar,  and I was completely blown away by this amazing movie. Now I don't usually swear in these blog posts but HOLY SHIT THAT WAS FREAKING AMAZING. I actually had to not do anything for a good hour after watching it just to process what happened.

Anyway, Interstellar follows humanity’s last-ditch effort to find a new habitable planet – after Earth is ravaged by environmental catastrophe. Cooper, a pilot turned farmer was asked to go on a mission by NASA to find another habitable planet for humans. A lot of this movie had to do with complex physics, which the director (Christopher Nolan), probably researched extensively. I love things related to time travel, science, space-time, space travel, black holes, and supernatural beings.

The characters in the movie refer to the supernatural/extraterrestrial beings as "THEY". “THEY” are an advanced race who have unlocked the secrets of dimensional travel and, for some reason, decided to help mankind in escaping an almost uninhabitable Earth. The NASA team believes that the beings may be either unable or unwilling to communicate directly with humans (which would make things infinitely easier) because “THEY” are fifth-dimensional, having transcended humans' three-dimensional ways of understanding the universe. Brand thinks “THEY” have laid out a series of primitive (in their opinion) breadcrumbs (binary messages) and advanced technology (the wormhole) for humans to follow – in order to save ourselves from annihilation.

Week 14: Satire and Sci-Fi

This week I read the famous Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.  I did watch the movies before, but I haven't read the books, but I'm really glad I did. The movies don't compare to the books in my opinion, just because I feel like there's something in a book that a movie can't match....yeah images are worth a thousand words but if those words are amazing I think it's worth the time it takes to read it.

I forgot where but I read somewhere that the districts are supposed to be in post apocalyptic America, and they were supposed to be in major cities, the Capital being in Washington D.C. When compared to other post apocalyptic fiction novels, the Hunger Games shows many similarities to different categories within this genre. Since nowhere in the series does it actually say what caused the apocalypse that made America into Panem, the disaster is left up to the us to imagine. But, this society definitely had the ability to create nuclear weapons. One was even used by the Capital to annihilate District 13. Nuclear war could have created mass panic and the fragmentation of the current government leading to chaos. Usually when there mass chaos and the absence of guidance for the people, one individual or group tends to rise above the rest and take control, aka Prez Snow.

One big theme is survival. Survival seems to be the most obvious one as the point of the Hunger Games is to be the last one standing. Throughout the novels, all Katniss thinks about is surviving and helping Peeta survive as well. In fact, one of the only bits of advice that Haymitch, their mentor, offers is to “Stay alive”. This applies not only to the fights in the games, but also (especially in Mockingjay), to the rebellion against The Capital.

Week 13: Literary Speculation

This week I read A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, a young girl who is transported through time and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to save her father a scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. At the beginning of the book, Meg is a homely, awkward, but loving girl, troubled by anxiety and her concern for her father, who has been missing for over a year. The plot begins with the arrival of Mrs. Whatsit at the Murry house on a dark and stormy evening. Although she looks like a hobo, she is actually a supernatural creature with the ability to read Meg's thoughts. She startles Meg's mother by reassuring her of the existence of a tesseract--a sort of "wrinkle" in space and time. It is through the tesseract that Meg and her companions travel through the fifth dimension in search of Mr. Murry.

The concept statement of this book is basically "Love conquers all." We see this when IT possesses Charles Wallace, but Meg uses love (which she realized could help after being in the arms of Aunt Beast) to drive IT away out of Charles. 

Another theme is that sometimes complete symmetry/rhythm can be extremely creepy. Imagine walking onto a street in which all houses look EXACTLY the same, and all the kids playing on the street are doing the EXACT same thing and the EXACT same time. And if they mess up, it looks like someone just died horribly. Kinda got an image? Now imagine a whole WORLD of that. Its unbelievable and unimaginable. If you want you can also imagine that everyone on this godforsaken planet has a brain controlled by another HUGE disembodied brain which knows nothing of love. Weird.

I also really appreciated the addition of the fourth and fifth dimension in this book. I've always found that type of thing really interesting, and I love reading about theories about it. Its even more fascinating that its pretty much possible if we had the means to do it. I've also always wondered if it could somehow be done and if we could travel really far away.

Week 12:

Are there any prominent symbols in the story?

One symbol I noticed in Bloodchild was the what the Terrans actually represented. An element of this short story is the way in which humans are deprived of their humanity and reduced to a function.....a mere object. Humans themselves are a symbol of slavery/poverty. In the story Gan says, “She parceled us out... and an independent people”. Here, humans are merely bargaining point. Even more so, humans are just a vessel for  giving birth for the Tlic.  This is conveyed in the figure/symbol of Lomas. Contrasting from the other characters in the story who actually interact with each other, the narrator, T’Gatoi, Lien, and others, Lomas appears for a short amount of time as an unwilling participant in a Tlic birth. He appears as an example of horrible unfair circumstances. Throughout Lomas’ narration he is figuratively and physically dehumanized. Physically, Lomas is mutilated by the parasitic Tlic larva within his body that eat away at his flesh and by T’Gatoi, who cuts open Lomas in an effort to extract the Tlic Larva. Figuratively, Lomas is reduced by the narration that was seen in the story.

What connections did you make with the story?

I didn't relate specifically to any of the situations in the story (I'm not really a host for an alien creature) but I do understand that making hard choices and being placed difficult situations is very tough and nerve-wracking. Especially when you have to shoulder the responsibility after making those choices. When Gan had to choose between being a host and letting that his sister do it, I felt like that was a situation in which a lot of responsibility was in the choice he made. I've had very similar situations.

What changes would you make to adapt this into another medium? What medium would you use?
I would make this into a graphic novel..... I mean it certainly is very graphic. It would be easier to convey emotion through pictures and staging through words, and all the visuals of the grotesque grubs eating away at Lomas' flesh would be laid out for the audience to see. I might end the story more dramatically and grotesquely than how the author ended it tough, because I could use my design and story sense to change how the audience takes the information.