Week 13: Oryx and Crake

For this weeks reading genre of Literary Speculation I chose to start Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I found myself comparing this book a lot to The Giver by Lois Lowry mainly in the way the memory flashbacks were being treated. Snowman reminded me of the Giver, someone who hold all the memories and knowledge and bears the weight of them in order to keep everyone else safe. He struggles with maintaining his humanity something that seems to have been abandoned in his surrounding society. This story also covers the subject of genetic modification seeing as both Snowman's parents were responsible for creating a subspecies of pigs from which they harvested organs from since everyone was falling ill. I find that this portion of the plot is similar to the video game Presentable Liberty where the survival of humans lays in those who have healthy organs and those who have enough money to buy them from healthy humans. Mass illnesses like these aren't far from reality seeing as we've already gone though the Black Plague. For all we know we aren't far from a future where this could happen again, overpopulation and a decrease of living space due to rising water levels can prove to be a formidable opponent in the upcoming decade. Though I didn't get too far in this book it's ne I'd like to finish seeing as other students in the class found it an interesting red.

Week 12: Bloodchild

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

My response to the beginning of this story was one of slight confusion seeing as it took a while to understand that Gatoi was some sort of inhuman creature. Moving forward I felt somewhat neutral to the relationship the family had with Gatoi seeing as they were being somewhat brainwashed by the "eggs" the Tlic provide to their host family. I started to feel wary of them when the mother expressed her discomfort towards Gatoi handling her children, more so Gan, since she knew that eventually Gatoi would be using him as a host. From here my reaction towards Gatoi became one of disgust as she then tore open the man Lomas and removed the children of another Tlic.

2. What connections did you make with the story that you read? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

I felt as though I could connect with Gan in this story as someone who has a younger sibling. Gan had to ultimately make a difficult decision as to wether or not sacrifice himself or his willing sister to the breeding of Gatoi's children. He was scared to take the role himself but selfless enough to take responsibility instead of subjecting his sister to that kind of torture. I also felt like sympathetic towards Gatoi in a strange sense where all she wanted was the best for her children.. Gatoi had already spent time bonding with this family and in this world their kind was already used to this system of symbiosis where both parties benefit from one another.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

If I were to to change this to another medium I would probably go for a full length film or comic instead of something along the lines of a video game or short film. In order to do so rather than change the plot I would prefer to add to it, mainly in terms of world building. I felt as though we  received enough information from the text to understand the bare minimum but I'd like to further explore this world in order to immerse the audience further. I would also prefer to start off by showing the Tlic to be more benevolent and helpful rather than an already suspicious creature in order to drive a harder impact on their true nature later in the plot.

Week 12: I Live With You

For this weeks reading the theme/genre given to us was "diverse position in science fiction" and from the resource page I chose the story I Live with You. The first thing I'd like to state is that I genuinely think this story should probably be in the horror section since I found the narrative to be disturbing. This story heavily plays around with invoking a sense of paranoia in not only the protagonist but the reader as well. As someone who is slightly paranoid I could feel a chill reading through this story it made me uncomfortable and reminds me of how my forgetfulness sometimes makes me question my past action. I thought that it was interesting how the "antagonist" became comfortable with her new living environment so much so she slowly started morphing into the protagonist. Which brings up the question of what she really was, a person, ghost, a second personality? It made me think heavily on those little changes in a room that you never question because you think you did them yourself. The antagonist starts by doing such small actions like nibbling at your leftovers or switching the location of items that the protagonist doesn't start questioning until they get more severe. I found that in later sections it started getting difficult to tell whether the protagonist had done something or if it was the antagonist.

Week 7: The Night Circus

Feeling somewhat let down by the previous reading I did on Harry Potter I chose to do a second title in the tale of spiritual education section by reading The Night Circus which most students in class seemed to have enjoyed. Now based off the first few chapters I can say that this novel lead me to continue reading further without any struggle or loss of interest. Maybe because the character's emotions were far more complex and believable or that they weren't children for long like in Harry Potter. I found it fascinating how the relationships between student and mentor progressed as both Celia and Marco grew up under the guidance of Hector and Alexander respectively. As from what I've read so far Celia seemed to suffer a lot both physically and emotional in her training seeing as her father is mainly using her as a pawn in a gamble against Alexander's student. I felt as though she faced a lot of moral choices when it came to keeping her temper and following her father's orders no matter what they may be. Seeing as Celia shows great promise in her abilities she could have maybe run off or fought with her father but she may have struggled with the fact that he is her father and has a parental respect for him despite the way he has treated her. Marco on the other hand wasn't as abused though he was socially deprived for a great length of time. I can't say this is much better seeing as he was also just adopted to be a pawn in the challenge and forced into something he has no knowledge of. Even though both characters are essentially being used they continue to comply with the orders of their teachers. I personally think from what I've read they continue doing so because they are driven by curiosity and thirst for further knowledge.

Week 7: The Tale of Spiritual Education

For this weeks reading I chose to read about the feature film  before class, Harry Potter. Now quick life story but I was never allowed to read let alone watch a Harry Potter film growing up. Not once did I get close to doing either seeing as my mother was a firm and stubborn Christian woman who detested the concept of witchcraft of any nature. So by my knowledge all I knew about Harry Potter came from friend's who had seen the films and memes from the internet. This week I got the chance to finally get through the first few chapters of the first book and in all honesty I wasn't the most interested in it. I believe this probably had a lot to do with the fact that I couldn't heavily relate to these adolescent characters as I would have in elementary or middle school. The tone of the series here is light and fun which I can appreciate in a children's book considering where the series seems to lead later on. What I personally found fascinating was the great lengths were met when it came to world building. As a Game Art major here at Ringling I believe world building to be most important when it comes to creating an immersive story. Since so much meticulous care was put into creating this story it managed to capture the hearts of several fans which kept them following along with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Everything in the world is thought out carefully in order to suit the characters residing in it and so much creative detail was thought out from the hallways in Hogwarts to the name of spells and origin of creatures. I find it inspiring that Rowling created all this from a simple jotted down after thought on a delayed train.

Week 5: Witches

For this weeks reading I choose to open up Black Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. As someone who has a personal fascination with witches in the degree of crystals and natural healing I was excited to reach the Witches in Literature portion of the course. This book chooses to go back to the origin of witches instead of portraying them as oversimplified stereotypes we have today. Aunt Maria is a clever witch who hides in plain sight and shows how headstrong she is from the get go. She isn't necessarily "evil" or malicious but her intentions don't come off in the kindest regard. If anything I feel like Aunt Maria's magic is one most mothers have present day, the power of manipulation. She handles herself with sharpness and grace which allowed for her to slowly gain control of the community around her. Her parties are seen as a high honor (one which I personally compare with those cheesy Tupperware parties you see in TV shows or movies) she builds her own personal coven in this manor seeing as she only invites women. I felt as though this was interesting seeing as women today still seek power with each other in order to find power within themselves. However, Aunt Maria used the town as her own puppet show for her personal gain rather than a proper coven where power is mutually sought after.

Week 4: New Weird

The week for the New Weird reading I chose Monster Island for my reading. Now off the bat I can personally say that I really like the blog format in which this piece is written, similar to how some books are written as journal entries. The writing itself is also neat in the way that it feels like actual spoken words or lines of coherent thoughts written out. What the character is thinking is written out in the way the brain quickly processes thoughts and lays out information.The story itself seems a little cliche in my opinion by current standards seeing as how the zombie genre has recently been beaten to death (pun intended) but for the time it was posted, 2004, I think it would've been a more interesting take on the theme. The main protagonist Gary is someone who I relate closely with the characters Rick and Lee from the walking dead series. All of which are father figures doing whatever it takes to keep a child safe in a zombie apocalypse. Unlike them however I value the fact the author chose to broaden their horizons in terms of setting for this novel. The majority of zombie shows of today don't show much extreme movement or relocation of characters, most simply move throughout the nation. Along with this they almost always take place within the US, never acknowledging the pandemic to a global scale. Monster Island chooses to go the distance and actually tells us how the protagonist has traveled from one country to the next showing the reader just how far gone the human race is.