I'm Back

This blog initially began as a college assignment but I've decided to continue sharing my thoughts about science fiction. There are so many talented authors of scifi writing today as well as a multitude of others that have written in the past that are just waiting to be discovered. I've decided that as long as I continue to read science fiction I will also continue to write about what I'm reading. As long as there is an interest for the future and a wealth of young dreamers I'll keep sharing my thoughts on this stuff.

Lessons Learned

     "The Monkies Paw" is an awesome example of being careful what you wish for. You could wake the dead if you're not careful. Or not. The story implies that the son has risen from the dead and has come back to pound on the door but no body is ever found. The story has heavily implied supernatural occurences but all of these occurences can be viewed as mere coincidences. The events could simply coincide with the wishing being done on the monkies paw. The Mother is obviously mad with grief at the loss of her son and this can explain her reactions to everything that happens in the story. However this isn't the point of the overall story. The message of "The Monkey's Paw" is clear, be careful what you wish for. 

     "The Premature Burial" at its root is about paranoia but the condition described within the story is real and has been documented. Catalepsy occured in many people in the 19th century and it paranoid many people living in America at the time. It was common in the 19th century to see graves with bells attached to them just in case the coffin's tenant awoke. The Narrator in the story shared this paranoia and constructs an elaborate grave to make sure he doesn't share the same fate as those who were prematurely buried. The story ends with the narrator realizing that he's been pretty crazy and shouldn't obsess about death so much. This ending leads me to believe that Poe wrote this story to calm the masses.

Hauntings

     "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar allen Poe is a psychological tale of loss and acceptance. Roderick is the last of a dying line which reminded me of a Solomon Kane story called "the moon of skulls." In the story Kane goes searching for a kidnapped girl in Africa and ends up in the lost Atlantean colony of Negari. While exploring the city Solomon comes across the last member of the Atlantean line. He listens to the lament of the last of a dying race. That's the tone of "the fall of the house of usher." The last of the Usher line is slowly wasting away along with his house just like everything eventually succumbs to the forces of entropy. Roderick is kept alive only because of his sister whom he refuses to accept the death of. Once Roderick finally accepts the death of his sister everything finally comes to an end and the house crumbles into dust along with the last of the Ushers. Besides the psychological aspects of the story their are also creepy descriptive elements. The house looks like it has eyes, there's a crack running through it, and the trees around the house are described to have a consciousness about them. Internally the house is dark and enclosed. The description of the inside calls to mind images of cobwebs and flickering lamps. The observer in the story represents all of us. We all had that one friend when we were kids that was a little weird and had us convinced that he lived in a haunted house or something.
     "Afterward" is a different take on the haunted house idea. The house doesn't have ghosts initially, the ghosts are brought to the house by mary's husband. The couple leave America so that Ned can run away from his guilty conscience and live in England far away from the buisiness dealings of America. Elwell however does not want him to get away with what he did so easily and takes Ned away. The story showcases the things wrong with the United States at the time. These things include shady buisness and exploitation of labor. This story is less about the evil that exists within a delapidated building and more about the evil that exists within the human heart.

Edgar Allen Poe

     I think everyone can agree that Edgar Allen Poe is one of the greatest writers of the 19th century if not of all time. His poems and short fiction are timeless and still have a great impact on readers today. His poem "The Raven" is so famous that a sports team is named after it. "The Raven" is possibly the most well written poem ever. The feelings of dread flow from "The Raven." The concept of the finality of death is the scariest aspect of the poem. People today don't seem to understand why the poem is considered scary mainly I think because people today have become so exclusively literal. The Raven says "nevermore" because Lenore is dead and there is nothing he can do to bring her back. She is dead and the narrator will never see her again. The narrator isn't named because the narrator could be any one of us. All of us will lose people we love and none of us will be able to bring them back and they will be lost forever. We'll sit like the narrator by the fire trying not to think of the ones we've lost. Sitting, reading a volume of forgotten lore or watching the television, biting our nails nervously while we focus on the rustle of the curtains or the creek of a door. Trying to focus on anything that will keep us from realizing that it is over for the ones we loved and soon it will be over for us. Scary, huh? At least Orpheus was given a chance, am I right?
     "Annabel Lee" has the same basic premise as the raven which is the sadness that comes after loss but "Annabel Lee" tells the story of how that love came to be. The Love of these two is so strong that even the angels feel envious of them. Of course it all has to end with the loss of  Annabel because it wouldn't be Poe if it didn't. Poe lived this kind of loss so it wasn't a chore for him to write so powerfully and convincingly. Like the Gettysburg Adress, if you lived it it's always more genuine when you write it down.

   

Gender and Sexuality

    The story "Day Million" By Fredrik Pohl is an interesting take on the future development of the human race. Pohl asserts that one day we will have moved beyond the restrictions of gender and become a species that doesn't have any need for conventional reproduction. At our present point as a species our only real purpose in life is to reproduce. Freud saw this and developed his entire method of psychoanalysis upon it. The idea that reproduction is the only real driving force behind human beings makes sense when you really think about it. What other purpose do we all have on this earth other than to make more humans? We certainly didn't get to this point because we dreamed that one day we could all communicate with eachother worldwide through a vast network of interconnected computers and hypertext documents. We got here because there is an innate animal like desire to keep the species going. All other thoughts and dreams are secondary to that primary desire. That being said it is interesting to think about a world like Pohl's where human beings have moved beyond that innate desire to reproduce and can identify as male or female without persecution. Pohl's world is one where like in the case of Don and Dora, one can identify as male and the other as female or vise versa without it mattering to anyone.
     "When it changed" by Joanna Russ is a story that has become cliche over the years. The overwhelming theme in all of these stories is a society of women encounters the first men they've ever seen and chaos reigns. What makes this story a little different is that the possibilty of human parthenogenesis is added to the equation which cuts out any need of men for reproduction. I found that the question posed in this story is whether or not men and women need to exist together. If reproduction is possible in a single gender race then why should bipolarity need to exist? I don't think the author is stating that men don't need to exist. She is only posing the question as to whether men are needed in a society of all women.

Philip K. Dick

     The idea that memories could be implanted or altered doesn't seem to be a complete impossibility. The human brain is a very complex organ but given time I think that we as a species could figure out exactly where these memories are held and how to manipulate that region. The implications of such manipulation would be staggering. If a human being commits a murder and has his or her memories altered to forget a murder was ever committed then how would a jury be able to convict them. If an insanity plea can release a human being from a murder charge than why wouldn't a temporary lapse of memory hold up in court? Entire heads of companies could have their memories altered in the case of embezzlement so that no new information could be found out from bringing them into custody.
      I pretty much feel the same way bout every movie Arnold Schwarzenegger is cast for. I think Arnold is the worst actor on planet earth but his acting is so bad that it's good. He has the personality of fly paper but somehow it comes off so funny that the movie is entertaining. He makes all the other actors in the movie look like they deserve acadamy awards. You'll have a scene like the one where the doctor guy is in his hotel room and he'll have all this emotion trying to convince Arnold to leave the simulation and the only emotion that Arnold can muster is "I will shoot you now." Say it in the Arnold voice it will sound funnier that way.
     Anytime you adapt something that is initially 20 pages or so and turn it into a two hour long movie you're going to have to add content. So that means a lot more chases involving ironside trying to kill you and everyone who's unlucky enough to be riding an escalator at the time. I think in all they adapted the short story to the movie pretty well. There is the time difference from when it was written to when it was produced into a movie but I think we can all agree that if it was made into a movie during the sixties it would be just as cheesy as it was in the eighties.

Darwin Among The Machines By Samuel Butler

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-ButFir-t1-g1-t1-g1-t4-body.html