Dr. Moreau

I was interested in The Island of Dr. Moreau because I wanted to get into the science fiction horror genre. However, I wasn't scared by it, which I think is just the era it was written in. Perhaps if I was a reader back in that day and age, I would have been at the edge of my seat, but as someone living in the 21st century where the horror genre is just everywhere in media, I was unimpressed. The idea itself was definitely freaky, like having human animal chimeras is gross and creepy, I think just the way it was written didn't really allow for the suspense and thriller vibe that I was expecting. (Perhaps that was the point, however. Perhaps what Wells wanted to do was not to create a Stephen King, not that he would have known who that is, kind of fear, but a more eerie fear. A fear that can't be turned away from because it exists in the real world which makes it all the more horrifying.) That's not to say it wasn't a good book. I actually liked it, along with its message, or at least what I think is its message. Wells was critiquing his society at the time, with their increasing interest in evolution and controlling biology. I think with his book he wanted to say how humans are just animals themselves and vulnerable to the laws of evolution just like any other creature on this earth. I like to imagine him saying to his readers "Did you learn nothing from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? The entire book is just the consequence of someone trying to play God, not a go ahead!"
I question whether the reader as a human is supposed to be Prendick, or the Beast Folk. Prendick is a logical man of science, who's just caught in this whole situation. Critics have said that Prendick is actually a Christ type of character to Dr. Moreau's God, but I think differently. I think perhaps Wells wanted the audience to read Prendick, grow sympathetic with him, and agree with his choices and see themselves in him. Prendick isn't a bad guy, and all of what he did, killing the Puma man and taking the over the island after Dr. Moreau's death, is understandable. By isolating himself at the end of the book, and he does this because he has seen the true nature of mankind, the reader pities Prendick. This book is definitely a cautionary tale for the Victorian readers, and it definitely worked. It worked so well that Wells was freaked himself out. But even though we as a readers are seeing this all take place in Prendick's perspective, I think that Prendick is supposed to show us an outside point of view of who we really are, the Beast Folk.
First there's the religion of the land, or the Law as it's called, and their God, Dr. Moreau. Without Moreau, the people of the land completely fall apart and back into their animal ways. They didn't know how to survive without him as he was their guidance. Even though he hated them and treated them awfully, the beast folk knew no differently so without him they all just fell apart. That's humans right there. We provide ourselves with laws and rules laid down by our gods and without them we'd descend into chaos. Another aspect is just the evolutionary one. People are still animals, even though we create society and laws, people still break those laws. I think Wells is trying to speak about the true nature of mankind. To him, mankind is still equal to that of animals, no matter we tell ourselves.
Wells was also trying to talk about how luck and life works. In the beginning, Prendick perhaps thinks himself to be lucky as the sole survivor of a ship wreck. His luck is even heightened when the other ship picks him up and a kind man aboard treats him back to health. However, that all backfires on him when he ends up on the island with no way to get back to a mainland. Everything falls apart for Prendick, to him realizing that this island is actually not all that it seems, and running into forest and Beast Folk. Suddenly he's thrown into this world that he absolutely does not want to be a part of and has to take charge, like after Moreau's death and continuing to enforce the Law. At the end, he does get his resolution, by having a boat wash up ashore and letting him finally leave the island all behind. With this, Well's was talking about how bad things happen to good people. It's also seen with Montgomery. He was a good person, and it's seen in how he takes care of Prendick out of his own choice, but ended up saddled with someone like Dr. Moreau. However, Wells isn't saying that people don't get their just desserts. Dr. Moreau definitely gets his with his death at the end after torturing all those animals (perhaps Wells was warning similar scientists about what was coming to them) and at the very end with the boat washing up for Prendick many speculate that the dead bodies found in it were actually those of the captain and sailor of the boat that kicked Prendick out. But Prendick, a regular English guy ends up with all this knowledge that he did not want nor need and has to isolate himself from civilization because he can no longer trust humanity. The world works in mysterious ways.
Overall, it's a good book. It raised ethical questions that, at the time it was written, needed to be asked, and it still remains relevant to this day. This book was, at least I think it was, a big cautionary tale towards eugenics. Dr. Moreau's experiments all backfired on him and proved that humans can't control their evolutionary destiny. We just can't. We, like all other species, are just pawns to the bigger picture. Also that we shouldn't play god. Ever. It will never work out for us.

The Island

I've read up to chapter 13 in The Island of Doctor Moreau, and so far, I'm not getting a real "sci fi" feel from it. I guess the only thing that can be classified as science fiction is the weird body modifications, a topic we've discussed several time in class already. But other than that, it seems more like a weird horror but not horror (like a Goosebumps book I used to love as a kid). That's not to say it's a bad book, because it's definitely not. I was kind of intimidated at first because of the fact that it's so old and usually old book are really hard for me to grasp just because of the way it's written sometimes. They don't have that modem flair of telling you what's right there. But I wanted a challenge, and I'm pleasantly surprised.
The closest thing I can imagine to the weird beasts on the island are the chimeras in (bear with me here and I'm sorry) on the manga/anime Full Metal Alchemist. In one of the first volumes, they meet a scientist who transmutes his daughter and their dog into this weird and horrifying hybrid. That poor child. But I'm assuming Dr. Moreau isn't using just regular people for his experiments. Considering he was caught last time and it was the reason of his fleeing England, he's probably started using bums or orphans or whatever. People that won't be missed. Which is just as bad??
But I had some things to say about the characters, namely Edward Prendick. the poor rando who just gets caught up in all of this because of a ship wreck, I really feel for the dude, I do, but come on, does he have no sense of self preservation? He immediately freaks out and bolts when he finds out what's going on in the island rather than pretending that everything's okay and waiting for the next boat that might arrive (which given is not for awhile). But no. He dips into the forest that he has no idea how to navigate through or survive on (all without eating breakfast again. Tragic.) Montgomery clearly wants to keep this guy alive which is why he's there in the first place, while Dr. Moreau doesn't care, so what's to stop him from using Prendick in his next experiment? (perhaps with the puma? who knooows) It be completely valid because no ones missing Prendick in the first place, everyone believed that they all died in the wreck, and if Prendick escapes he would very obviously blab about the events on the island to everyone. So, sorry, but I gotta side with Moreau on this one. Also, how did Prendick not realize what was going on sooner? I mean the people that live there aren't very subtle about hiding their body modifications, as well as Montgomery and Moreau aren't really hiding what they were doing. The only part that kind of annoyed me was when Prendick was like, "hey I just saw someone with cat ears?? explain??" and Montgomery was just like "sorry my dude. you're crazy." Like clearly Prendick knows something's up at this point if he noticed cat ear guy over there so why won't Montgomery come clean with him? All he has to say is "dude. don't freak out, but we might be creating human animal hybrids though. please don't freak out and run away and create all this drama."

Why I stayed away

If I had read Craphound outside of class, I probably wouldn't have labeled it as science fiction. I mean, there's aliens, but it's kinda a casual thing. Like oh it's just everyday Canada and by the way, there's aliens here. Everything else seemed kinda normal. But what I kind of realized in that interview, more things are scifi than what we realize.

I read all of the Hunger Games and Divergent books series (and one or two of the Maze Runner one), and never once thought it was science fiction. I put science fiction on kind of a pedestal, something that only men could ever really touch, which is already a backwards way of thinking. Why did they get to have this all to themselves when we have to share everything with them? Even recent science fiction movies, like Interstellar or The Martian were too far away for me to grasp because it wasn't something that was made for me. Like a lot of things it was made for men, by men. I don't think I ever truly understood that there are many different kinds of science fiction, we just only ever really see of the super popular tropes like space travel and the apocalypse. There's also science fiction for everyone, that it doesn't belong to a certain group of people just because their voices are the ones that are the loudest. Reading the interview made me appreciate the women in science fiction more because I finally got to hear their voices. Just like the men they have different opinions on topics and on the genre, and I think we often forget that. I think we often lump women together, especially those that work in a men field, as either rare jewels held in the highest regards or something that isn't even given a chance. You shouldn't stay away from something because you're confused by it, if anything this should compel you to pursue it. However I never chose to pursue more science fiction because it felt wrong for me, like I wouldn't be able to find something in it because it wasn't made for someone like me in mind. But this is wrong. There's always something out there for us, we just have to find it and bring it to the light. 

Fireflies by Owl City

After we watched the two episodes in class I decided to finally take Firefly off my list on Netflix and watch it. I only got through three episodes and a half when I decided to call it quits for the night and go to bed.
I've decided to talk about the characters and some of their flaws (now these aren't things that necessarily anger me because I feel like these were things that they were maybe planning on overcoming or something and never could). For Zoe, what bothers me about her is that she never seems to stand up to Mal. She's loyal to her crew and her captain (which I admire) and still manages to be a loving wife to her husband regardless of the life they lead. However, she has these moments where she clearly disagrees with what Mal wants and it's almost as if she's about to say something but then decides against it. Wash notices this when he tells her that she should just tell the captain what's what right up front but she doesn't. I feel like she has the potential to be a really great leader and character but I think that this might her back a lot on some accounts. Speaking about Mal, what bothers me the most about him is his inability to tell people what he thinks. When Simon and River are kidnapped and Simon asks him why he came back for them in the first place, Mal just brushes him off. The rest of the crew (Jayne) asks repeatedly why they keep them onboard since they're such a big risk as fugitives but Mal's always like "whatever" (although I can understand maybe not wanting to dignify Jayne with a response). Simon also has his moments. He seems to keep his cool most of the time (or at least pretends to) but has times where his sarcasm can turn mean and accidentally hurt someone (usually Kaylee's which makes it even worse) feelings. This is him being unsure of the new world he's been thrust to and not knowing how to deal with it. I mean I get it. He used to be a respectable doctor with a bright future but now he's even lower than common criminals. I feel for him, I really do, but that doesn't mean I don't get annoyed.
Something I really enjoyed was the whole culture mash. Like the people were American in a Chinese and Indian environment. It made the clothing really cool to me. It's a really hard aesthetic to describe but it's such a look™. I can't really say more about it other than it was a really cool aspect of the show that is honestly a believed possibility for humans if we ever start terraforming other planets because of globalization here.

Mars

One of the consistent conflicts in the book is what to do with Mars. Sax believes that Mars should be colonized like Earth with all of these cities and people, while Ann thinks that Mars should be kept at its purest state and should just be studied. I side with Ann over this issue because I can see where she's coming from. She talks about how much we've messed up Earth with everything that they've done and that they could be messing with life that already exists on Mars. This is a modern topic as well as we see many places that are being endangered (like the Amazon Rain forest) at the expense of mankind wanting to make money. Many people want to preserve the beauty of our world but others, who are much richer and thus can be much more influential, see differently. I really side with Ann about wanting to keep Mars as a place to study from because I hate the thought that everything humans see we must destroy. Humans don't see beyond their scope of understanding, and the book portrays this beautifully. The characters can never see what the other characters might see, and if they do, they just act ignorant about it. They don't wish to compromise, as seen with Sax and Ann, it must be their way or no way.
Another aspect of the book I really enjoy is how real the characters are. They're all just awful humans, but that's what makes them so realistic. I could never see myself doing what these characters do, like what they say Maya does with sex (use it as a weapon), but I can see people like that. I can see an Arkady who's just always weaseling around and slightly annoying everyone, or a emotionally disconnected Frank. When John talks about Sax's self made religion (thisness), it really struck something with me. When they see Mars and the entire crew of the Ares gets deliriously happy, Maya talks about thisness. She rejoices in how happy everyone is because she knows it won't last. When John and Maya see each other again and decide to rekindle their relationship, John thinks about thisness. He just thinks about the intensity of the moment and how much he loves where he is right then and there. Later, thisness causes John to propose to Maya. But these moments are just so relatable. Everyone's had those times when life just feels too hyper realistic and you feel with so much intensity everything that's going around. You take a step back from yourself and think, this is my life, this is who I am, this is the world I live in, and you either love it or you hate it. It's a moment of complete introspection, and very rare. Those are times that you look back on and think about what you were doing then, like Maya does when she remembers how happy everyone was and just wishes she could go back to that time. For these characters, I think, do they deserve this happiness? They're such god awful people so do they deserve this immortality they're getting? Why do they have the right to dictate whatever happens on Mars? But then I realize, I'm just as human as they are, I can't judge them. With these characters, they're just being too driven by their personal needs and wants. Vlad and Ursula are driven by science to create their immortality solution. Maya's driven by power. John's driven by fame. None of these people do anything for anyone else, and if they do, they just think about how that'll impact their own lives. Maybe that's why I agree with Ann so strongly. Ann didn't want for anything specific, she just wanted to study Mars like they originally intended to do. That's what I would want to do if I was in her shoes. But there's always a Sax in everyone's lives that complete destroys everything you wanted. As more and more people come to Mars, it's harder to control. People are hard to control. You tell them to do one thing and they instantly want to do exactly the opposite. The first hundred reflected mankind at the time, because as you see more and more in Mars, they're exactly the same as the first hundred. Helmut is just as power hungry as Sax is, but except he was on Earth. There're more where they came from.

Is it weird if I write about Red Mars? I'm writing about Red Mars...

So I started to read Red Mars, and was pleasantly surprised. I found it very easy to read and it flowed very quickly, but the story was enough to keep me reading. I haven't read that much to be honest, only through most of The Voyage Out (which is the second chapter), but I wanna talk about spoilers so sorry spoilers ahead.~~~
So far, someone's died and that's not at all what I was expecting. The timeline was weird for me, starting with John's murder and then how everyone ended up on Mars in the first place. My first impression of the characters was "these aren't exactly good people" which I found strange. In books, there's always the big moralist protagonist, and Red Mars seems to be lacking that. From the first chapter, I thought maybe Frank was the main guy, but he definitely is not the best guy. Throug The Voyage Out that he actually kind of plans John's murder and that's implied in the first chapter but you don't really see how much he hates John until the second chapter.  Maya seems to be a really complex character so I'm curios to find out more about her. In the first chapter John and Maya were together and so obviously was very sad about his murder ( how will she react that to discovering that Frank played a part?) but in the second chapter she was kind of in love with Frank. Or at least might have been. What I also like about the book is that it's not very American centered the other astronauts are from different countries and they talk about them a lot and and how they almost make fun of the Americans and was it  just really nice like perspective to see. What really upset me about the characters is that it's kind of weird to put yourself in their shoes. No one seems to really trust each other even though they've been living together for I forget how long almost like several months now and it's just hard to imagine that. They don't have friendships and just tolerate each other and that's very strange to picture that you kind of have to live with someone for that matter time and you don't really build friendships.  I really want to find out more about about how Frank and John and how their relationship came to be. They're frenemies  because Frank is like the captain and I think Frank might just be jealous of John because John is like they say he's like the super charismatic type and stuff and everyone loves him and they kind of listen to Frank out of just obligation because he's their leader. What I don't think I like about this book is that a lot of things are implied and I'm not very good at receiving subtle hints. So I'm reading and think was that supposed to mean something I did not catch that what just happened. For example when Maya and Frank have sex for the last time she says she looked into his eyes and it was like looking into an empty house and she knew it was over and I was like what what what.  You don't really know how much time passes between where they are now as in leaving to go to Mars and from where the book starts. They've already built cities and stuff and they said that the Arabs already got there before them and I wonder how long ago that was before the rest of the world showed up. John's played off as the antagonist  and you kind of sympathize with Frank  at the very beginning at least and then you kind of see from a different perspective. From Maya's point of view, you see kind of Frank as  this cold guy thats almost calculating in her eyes and John is is like super charismatic that's probably why he so influential  and probably why Frank wants to kill him or plotted against him ( I actually don't know if he did this but I feel like he did or that it's heavily implied so I'm just going to go with that). What I want to see is kind of the development between Maya and John how they came to be about because I'm assuming a lot of time passes between the two chapters so I'm really interested in seeing how those two happened. In the beginning when Frank talks to Maja you don't get anything that they might've had something together but like second chapter comes along and you find out they totally did. But I'm really enjoying  it so far.

Bloody child

When I read books or short stories I'm always curious as to where the name comes into play. Like in Neuromancer it's the AI or in Snow Crash it's the computer virus. It's always weirdly gratifying to see the author drop in the name and you're like "woaaah I get it now ha", but for this short story, I didn't get that. I was left wondering who, or what, is the blood child. I think back to the part in the story where T'Gatoi is operating and Lomas and she pulls out the worms that are literally latched onto his insides and Gan comments on how bloody and red they are and how he can't tell what color they actually are because of how much blood they're covered in.  Later, when Gan is contemplating murder or suicide, he asks T'Gatoi what Terran blood tastes like because she fed on the veins of his father. Maybe blood child are the Tlic that are born from the blood of humans. 

During the part where T'Gatoi is performing the surgery on Lomas, Gan sees that she feels no emotions as she has to dig around Lomas' internal organs to find more worms. I think this reveals a lot about her character and what she actually feels for humans. She doesn't care that Lomas might die or is in pain just as long as the babies survive, and Gan realizes this as well. This disturbs him because how can someone not feel remorse or fear when they see one of their own being put through such intense pain? I think Gan pictures himself in this position and that T'Gatoi will react the same way. Perhaps he sees that maybe T'Gatoi doesn't actually care about him like he previously believed. This is what I got from this interaction at least.

I also just had a few questions about the Tlics and N'Tlics. How does one reach the stage where Lomas was in? Why did these babies need to be put into an animal so quickly before they were born when other Tlics could be born from humans? These are just semantics but things I was confused about as I read the story. 

Neuromancer

When I first saw Case in the dirty bar or whatever, I thought, "okay so this is the macho rogue underdog, whatever". I honestly didn't expect much from him. I thought I saw every stereotype of a main character in Case, so I kind of just let it flow. But I was pleasantly surprised by his weird character development.

Right of the back this book is confusing. The reader is confused (I mean I was), and Case reflects this. He goes through the story himself finding stuff along the way with the reader, and by the end, he's just as clueless as when he started. When he shows up in the Flatline, he has no idea what any of it is. He's lost at seeing Linda Lee and what the Neuromancer implies. When he sees Wintermute and Neuromancer have merged he's not totally sure what has happened, and at the end even more so when he sees that weird alternate version of himself at the end.
Case proves that he isn't that stereotype of a main character whenever he follows Molly rather than taking control and shows genuine care for her. He's scared when she gets hurt and refuses to leave her to be tortured. He's emotional around people, that I felt, were just kinda bitter all the time. I find this pretty ironic considering that he's the one that wants to spend all his time out in cyberspace instead of in his physical body. When he's jacked in, he doesn't have to carry his body with him, and his emotions are largely what verifies that he's still in fact human. Molly can be stone cold and ruthless (and awesome), but prefers her body to anything out in the cyberworld. If I had to come up with a reason as to why this is it would have to be because Molly knows what her body can do. She gets her leg broken and she still keeps going because she's not afraid of testing her physical limits. Case fears of being trapped somewhere he can't break free from, and his body is one of these prisons.
Case was real. He wasn't unrealistically amazing like, "wow he just pulled that random stunt out of nowhere is there anything this man cannot doo??". Nope. Honestly, the reader is more in awe of Molly and her abilities than Case's. He couldn't stop Armitage from getting killed even though he desperately tried to. Case is given a chance at having his old life back, his hacking life, and in the beginning, he would do anything to keep it. He freaks out when Armitage is killed because he is the only one that can fix him, which is completely understandable, which is what anyone else would have done in the same situation. But when it doesn't end up the way he wants it to, he doesn't go back to wallowing in his self pity after the whole ordeal is over, he finds a new life, which is incredibly admirable.
Molly was another interesting character I wish to dissect. When she's first introduced I thought "oh so here's the badass female lead, that's cool". There's always the one. When her back story is revealed I actually didn't hate her motivations. Usually when I read a tragic back story I'm like "how does it give you a right to be this way though??", but with Molly, it was weirdly okay. I think it's because she didn't let what had happened in the past change her as a person. I mean it definitely did, but I mean it didn't turn her into completely closed off and heartless. I see in a lot of other books or movies that the female lead is either one of two things. A complete wimp or super duper strong and capable. However, the capable lead is typically like a huge rock, kind of like how a guy would be portrayed as. They're emotionless and stoic, which is annoying to see time and time again. I wanna see women who are not only powerful but can also express their feelings because um, they're humans who still have emotions and you don't have to be dead inside to be a hero. I wanna see women where they're both powerful and a good person. I think I saw this in Molly. She had a hard past and yeah it sucked but it didn't close her off. She lets herself care for Case, and she shows that when she tells him to jack out because she wants to protect him. This didn't stop her from being strong. If anything I think it enhances her courage because it displays that fear is okay to have it's just whether or not you fight it that makes you strong or not. 

What We Missed

3D printing has changed the world for the better. Engineers have used it to create complex parts in a matter of hours while elite chefs replicate intricate designs on their pastries. Now, scientists are using this same technique to study how to replicate organs to replace broken ones. In diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia the brain destroys itself because of the lack of blood it's receiving. The victims of these diseases begin to wilt away from the people they once were. There is no known cure. 

However, using the advancing technology of 3D printing, scientists could discover a way to print out new brain parts. The reality is that making new organs is not a future that is too far as people are already creating new body parts like a lung or an ear from stem cells. Replicating brains is definitely a long ways off though, as humans right now don't even fully understand how it even works and all of its complexities, but I think that it's at least in the realm of possibility. Scientists have conducted amazing research with human stem cells already, and when a fetus is growing, their brain grows from cells, so what's stopping us from creating a brain with stem cells we already have? Perhaps we could even 3D print stem cells so that we can create a completely synthetic brain (and maybe even eventually an even synthetic person). Furthermore, engineers could create brains that aren't susceptible to disease or something like memory loss, maybe even making a perfect brain. These brains could be engineered to carry specific traits and talents so that they human with the brain shows them. 

Before this gets too deep and can start dreaming of all the opportunities, immortality is a thing. If we have perfect brains, nothing is stopping us from just recreating ourselves every time something breaks down. Immortality could perhaps finally be achieved, and depending on who you ask, this isn't always a good thing. This would also touch on the matter of soul. Once that part of the brain is lost, then that part of a person is lost. Although they might make a new brain for them, it would not be the same person. I don't know enough about neuroscience and even whether or not souls exists to discuss how people could still remain as the people they are with a new brain. That's the future generations philosophical dilemma. Living forever and philosophy aside, I think overall this would have a good effect on society as death caused by brain loss if often painful and slow. 

This may seem like this is all leading towards AIs or replicants, but if the original purpose of this idea is followed, which is to help victims of brain disease, than this would be an amazing tool in the medical field that could save millions of lives. 

Bladerunning

So what I got from the movie and what I expected from it were completely different things. To be completely honest I don't really know what I was expecting, I just know that it wasn't what the film ended up being. I'm just gonna get my complaints out in the open right now.
What bothered me the most was probably the parts where there was only weird visuals and little to no sounds playing in the background. Like the scenes where Harrison Ford's character would just be looking at things and I'd be thinking 'so is this important??? or nah??' am I missing something?'. Or like that scene where Racheal was just looking at pictures in Deckard's apartment and I thought maybe the people in the pictures were meaningful when in reality they weren't and honestly I still don't know what purpose that served. But onto the things that I really want to talk about.
I don't really understand the relationship between replicants and humans, like, what did replicants do that made them illegal in the first place? Why hide the fact that you're killing replicants by using the terminology 'retire' when everyone knows what that implies? It creates the illusion that what's taking place is actually not as cruel as it seems, as if they were dogs just being put down. However why have this term in the first place if everyone knows they're just being murdered, and in Deckard's case, by rather brutal and inhumane ways. Perhaps the humans feel guilty by what they're doing yet not enough to do anything about it. The replicants have memories, albeit not their own, they have sentience and, as seen in several occasions, a will to live. They're just terrified animals being driven to extinction and they have no idea as to why. Is the viewer meant to think that humans are in the wrong here? What do we think about Deckard? He has killed replicants, but seems to have given up his way of life since he leaves with one. Maybe this is about how one human being redeems himself.