What will the future look like to you in fifteen years?

What will the future look like to you in fifteen years?

In fifteen years? Full of war and suffering. With how our world is progressing right now, there will either be more war and violence and suffering OR, there will be no world here at all. If we end up in a nuclear war, no thanks to our current president. Gun violence, school shootings, crime, war, all have been increasing as I grew up. Only getting worse since Trump took office. If he is re-elected, we will most likely be in a nuclear war with North Korea. a quarter of Americans will be kicked out of the country for not being white essentially, another quarter would be killed in mass shootings and the rest are airheads who are oblivious to the reality of what we are causing. I honestly don't see a future in fifteen years. No one worth looking forward to anyway.

What will the future look like to you in fifty years?

In fifty years? Same answer. A future full of war and violence, or no future at all. Radiation will be everywhere, cancer rates will increase because of this. The Government will do nothing about it. There will be no trees, no grass, no clears skies or brilliant blue seas. Animals will be dying off in the thousands. Countries will be at war with each other. The world will be overpopulated, poverty will increase. The government will be a dictating rule of military officers. This will for sure happen if we stick to our current path. I can't even imagine a world without vibrant green meadows, or the loud crashing of the ocean waves at the beach, or the relaxing shade given by towering trees. All, gone, in 50 years if we don't change things now. This is a future no worth existing in. Not for me. This is a hard reality to read, but it is true. This will happen if we don't change our current course. Would you want to live in a future like this? Full of misery and decay? Is this the future you want to raise a family in or create a career in or grow old in? Is this a future you want to happen? If not, then why are you not doing anything to stop this from happening? Why are we letting this happen?

Bloodchild - In-Class Reading Response

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

I'm quite confused as to what is happening, but I'm guessing it is about an alien species using human beings as hosts to bare offspring? This is really odd to me because the story seems to emphasizes the personal connection the alien and the host need to bare the offspring.  The only depiction I've seen of aliens breeding with humans is from the film franchise 'Alien'. Either way, I'm quite disturbed by this story. I am more disturbed by the ending. And the implications of the ending scene is too disturbing for me to explain in detail.

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

Well, this story sounds very similar to how the Xenomorph from the 'Alien' franchise reproduces their offspring. The creatures in this text seem to select a specific human host, particularly a male one, and then transfer their eggs within the host in some way. I could not really tell how from the text, but considering that the host must undress to do this, I'm assuming it's through very private means. For example, the Xenomorph transfers it's eggs through the mouth of the host using its weird tongue thing. In this text, it seems to be more... intimate? From the description, it seems it might be similar to how humans reproduce? Which is even more disturbing to me.

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

I would definitely change how this alien creature implants it's offspring into its host, it's too disturbing to me to even think of adapting in any form of medium, particularly film. The process seems much too graphic to depict on the big screen, and it seems how the process is done is important to the story, seeing how detailed it was in the text. I would use film as a medium to best depict this story, however, I personally would not watch it. However, I believe the film would best explain and visually show the story, as it's really hard to picture this world through text. I would also add some kind of prologue or intro as to what the world is, how things are living, etc. Some backstory. As it is now, it is very confusing and loses the reader quickly in the beginning. After going a bit further in the story you get the idea that this is some kind of alien creature. However, it would help plenty to point that out in a brief summary of sorts in the very beginning to understand the relationship between the aliens and the humans. Without these minor changes, this would be an unwatchable failure of a Sci-Fi film.

Cyberpunk and Steampunk - Legend by Marie Lu

In the book, the Republic, once the United States, is always at war with its neighbors and uses a misguided test, called the ’Trial’, to pinpoint prodigies within the country. They are also dealing with plagues that seem to only affect the poor districts, in reality, the government is in fact purposefully infected these areas as experimentation. Depending on where this prodigy came from, they are treated very differently. June Iparis is a fifteen-year-old prodigy who is the ’supposed’ only person to ever score a perfect score on her Trial. "A few others are tapped for politics and Congress, and some are chosen to stay behind and teach. But Drake is the Republic's best university, and seeing as how the best are always assigned into the military, our drill room is packed with students.” (Ch. 2, Legend) when June scaled a building at her school and her classmates' gossip in awe due to her skills in many activities given on campus. "I glance behind me and manage a smile for them. "Fourteen floors," I call back. That gets them buzzing again. Somehow, this has become the closest relationship I have with the other Drake students. I am respected, discussed, gossiped about. Not really talked to.” (Ch. 2, Legend) However, prodigies born in poverty, like Day, are lied to, being told that they failed their ’Trial’ as an excuse to use them for experimentation. The idea of a person with intelligence beyond the norms being used for the government's military gain, is, unfortunately, something we do see in our lives today. Anyone who fails the test given by the government in the book is immediately killed, or experimented on, depending on the person’s wealth. "An inferior child with bad genes is no use to the country. If you're lucky, Congress will let you die without first sending you to the labs to be examined for imperfections.” (Ch. 1, Legend)

This reality of our world centers around inequality between the poor and wealthy, the unrealistic idea of perfection and the fear of a dystopian future ruled by a militaristic government. We all have this paralyzing fear of the government experimenting on people, and over zesting the unnecessary use of war. The primary fear many share in our world is the government taking over control using war, violence, and fear. This reality depicted in Legend is centered around two characters from two very opposite sides of the world. June is from the wealthier side of the Republic, her family being more military based. Day, on the other hand, is from the poverty-stricken area, where an unnamed plague is specifically being caught from the poor residents. At age 10, Day took his Trial given by the government and supposedly failed it. Due to failing, he and other failed kids are sent to labs to be experimented on for imperfections. In actuality, Day passed his Trial, but due to him being from a poverty-stricken family, he was used to be experimented on, in an attempt to isolate the prodigy gene to create more prodigies. June, however, is treated with praise and expectations, being trained and guided into the life of a soldier loyal only to the Republic government. The only reason they join sides is due to June realizing Day was innocent of his supposed crime of murdering her brother Metias. And as she investigates her brother’s murder, she discovers that her brother found out the truth about the Republic and was in fact killed under orders of the ladder by his fellow officer, Thomas. Afterward, Thomas and the Republic did everything they could to pin the murder on Day to utilizes absolute control over June due to her prodigy skills.

This idea about using a test of sorts to test the intelligence in a child is done in our world now, through SAT’s and other standardized tests. Tests that are in fact designed to make a child fail, using aspects from past tests that children failed to create a harder and more difficult to pass a test to impose the idea that the child must get a specific score in order to succeed in the future. That is a horrible and traumatic ideal to imprint on impressionable children. We should not let the idea of perfection grow like this because it is unhealthy and is not even working. Another thing we must stop doing is imposing the idea to kids that war is good or necessary. I cannot explain how many times I get ads on YouTube or on TV about going to the army, navy, airfare, etc. because it is the right thing to do. It is not. Because we do not need to be in War. But the government is imposing the idea that going the army is fun or is a duty that all must do for our country. It is not, it is a choice. A choice that is being taken from children and teens because they’re being told that it is a must that they have to do eventually. That’s the reality the Marie Lu is depicting in Legend. That is the future she is warning us about. That is the world that we are dangerously inching closer to with each passing decade.

This is a very fascinating book, the first of a trilogy, that I believe opens up the fact that this fear of a dystopian future very much exists. That this future could happen, and that we can stop it. The book also highlights societies unrealistic ideals in perfection in people, particularly children, especially through unnecessary tests created to bring children down. I recommend this book as something to read during your spare time. It is a great book and has an interesting concept. There aren't robots, aliens or weird grotesque monsters, but there are more real-life kinds of science used in this sci-fi book. With gene manipulation and dystopia riddled with war.

Akata Witch: A Novel (by Nnedi Okorafor) Response

In Akata Witch, most of the main characters we are introduced to are witches, or as they are known in Nigeria, ekpe—Leopard societies/people. I noticed that women with lighter skin are treated much more cruelly than women with darker skin; as explained by Sunny’s encounter during her class in Chapter 1. Her white-skinned teacher, Miss Tate, attempted to force Sunny to punish her classmates with a wooden switch to their hands. When Sunny refused, her classmates jumped and beat her after the school day ended. In this case, Miss Tate’s power as a teacher was highlighted when she punished her students for their poorly written essays, and her attempt to make Sunny punish them instead. Simply because Sunny’s essay excelled over her classmates. However, Sunny’s classmates saw this as Miss Tate favoring her (Sunny) for being light-skinned and allowing Miss Tate to brutally punish them instead of Sunny pretending to. In my personal opinion, I believe they just used this as an excuse to ‘justly’ beat Sunny out of hatred. Another thing to mention is how there are misconceptions of albino people having evil magical powers. As seen when Chichi suspects Sunny is a Leopard person and is debating with Orlu on whether they let her in their world. Sunny worries over what Chichi’s perception of her maybe. Sunny was taught that all juju is evil, and Orlu and Chichi try to explain that there is “some good, some bad, some just is…” (page 24). This highlights how some people are ignorant of different cultures and their history. For example, when Sunny assumed Juju was all evil and how people believe witches are evil.

In this story, some characters are more complex than others, as some fit multiple of the three main archetypes. The three main archetypes being Character, Situational and Symbolic with many subcategories. For Sunny, she fits the Character archetype later on in the book, but I personally believe she is more of a Symbolic archetype. Her being albino insinuates that she should have the ability to disappear at will, as well as travel between this world and the spirit world. She is often called a Ghost, or half ghost-half human. We later learn Sunny’s abilities as a free agent Leopard person. Once Sunny discovers her spirit face, her albino skin no longer burns painfully under the sun. “Her spirit face was the sun, all shiny gold and glowing with pointy rays.” (page 93). She is put into the Hero archetype when forced to move to Nigeria and then later discovering her true identity.

Narratively this story and her character, have many similarities to Harry Potter. Sunny, like Harry Potter, is placed in an unknown world and must save it from an evil that threatens it. For Sunny, this evil is the Black Hat Otokoto, a serial killer who murders Nigerian children in order to summon the most-formidable of spirits. Black Hat Otokoto fits the Villain Archetype with his main goal of gaining more power by summoning greater evil; a motivation that many villain archetypes in literature are often depicted with. He is also a very powerful Leopard person who was mentored by Sunny’s Leopard grandmother Ozoemena. This is how they are essentially connected to each other, much like Voldemort and Harry are magically linked. One character that appears in the story, Sugar Cream fits the Mentor archetype. In the Leopard world, they value knowledge and learning above everything. She is the Librarian of the Obi Library in Leopard Knocks, making Sugar Cream one of the most powerful and well-known ekpe within West Africa. Her condition of scoliosis in indicative to her shape-shifting ability; mainly her ability to turn into a snake at will. She considers becoming Sunny’s mentor, much like how Dumbledore is a mentor to Harry Potter, but is unsure due to Sunny’s questionable behavior. The more you go in-depth with each character, the more subcategories they will fit into. In the same way Sunny, our protagonist, fits many Archetypes.

Frankenstein (by Mary Shelly) Response

From what I’ve read so far, the scene that particularly sticks out to me the most would be the scene of which Victor successfully animates the monster to life. He gets melodramatic, explaining how he was now disgusted by what he’s done, and how terrified he is of the monster. 

“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!-Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.” Chapter V, page 75. Victor explains in great detail about his emotions at that present time, something very common in gothic literature. He also heavily romanticizes the way the monster looks, describing how “Beautiful” the creature is. Another common trait in gothic literature is romanticism. He also uses peculiar vocabulary to describe the monster’s features, very dark and dull adjectives. 

Following this, he runs out the room and tries to sleep numerous times, but begins to have terrible dreams of Elizabeth and his mother. Holding his mother in his arms as she slowly rotted away, causing him to wake in a cold sweat. This could be perceived as an omen of Elizabeth’s possible fate, as he was initially embracing Elizabeth before she changed into his mother (who has already since passed by this point of the book.) After this he gets a surprise visit by his old friend, Henry Clerval, whom witnesses Victor’s mental breakdown as he (Victor) tries to explain what he has done.

“I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of, and far less to allude to, the occurrences of the preceding night… I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there, alive, and walking about. I dreaded to behold this monster; but I feared still more that Henry should see him… My hand was already on the lock of the door before I recollected myself. I then paused; and a cold shivering came over me. I threw the door forcibly open, as children are accustomed to do when they expect a specter to stand waiting for them on the other side… I stepped fearfully in… my bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest… when I became assured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy… I was unable to contain myself. It was not joy only that possessed me; I felt my flesh tingle with excess of sensitiveness, my pulse beat rapidly. I was unable to remain for a single instant in the same place; I jumped over the chairs, clapped my hands, and laughed aloud. Clerval at first attributed my unusual spirits to joy on his arrival… but… he saw a wildness in my eyes… my loud, unrestrained, heartless laughter, frightened and astonished him… I imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously, and fell down in a fit… he anticipated with such joy, so strangely turned to bitterness. But I was not the witness of his grief, for I was lifeless, and I did not recover my sense for a long, long time.” - Chapter V, page 78.

This is an even greater example of high emotions being played out to the reader. The intense, erratic and lengthy description of all the emotions/feelings/thoughts going through Victor’s mind as his fear of the creature increases. Almost every action he makes is followed by an emotional adjective, to emphasize the emotions Victor is experiencing. Something gothic literature most commonly does to further the suspense and fear in the story and the reader.