Another Earth

The part that I want to focus on is when John, after hearing that Rhoda submitted an essay to go to Earth II, told Rhoda Plato’s anecdote of people in the cave. He said that when the man who saw the outside world came back and told the other men what he has seen, he was stoned to death. This story relates the two character’s attitude towards truth. Rhoda, who sympathizes for the man who has seen the real world, is an advocate of truth. She is willing to pursue the unknown, and came to John’s house to reveal something that might get her hurt.

John symbolically represents the men who would kill the man who tells the truth. He is sheltered from the perpetrator of the accident because of the coma and he is not ready to know that Rhoda, a girl he falls for, is the person that killed all his family. Like the men who violently react to the man who sees the real world, John almost chokes Rhoda to death when he realizes that she is the “stupid teenager” that caused the accident. John says “maybe they are not ready to know the truth;” he certainly is not. When John accepts the ticket to the other Earth, I think it symbolically represents him finally accepting all the truth of the night of the accident, not being left in the dark any longer. As John argues it is a stupid idea to go to the other Earth because people are not ready for the truth, by agreeing to go to the place that represents “the real world” in Plato’s anecdote, John is telling that he is ready to accept everything.

The fact that he went to the other Earth instead of Rhoda makes him the advocate for truth, and maybe the ending could also be interpreted as the other John, like the other people on the cave, not ready for the truth therefore not coming to earth even when he was offered.

Bridesicle, by Will McIntosh

“He told Mira he would see her on Tuesday, and killed her.” [p. 9]

The fact that the author deliberately uses the word “kill” raises couple of issues that leaves me uncomfortable. First, the helplessness of the women in these situations in Bridesicle when they are repeatedly killed until they meet a sponsor willing to pay their body reminds me of a brothel where the prostitutes were ransomed to be bought as concubines. The fact that such establishment has developed seem to reflect on the continuing decline for honoring life as medical technology advances. The lives of these women are seen as commodity, and they become a trophy wife to someone who is able to pay for their body; it seems unlikely that love will actually develop in this atmosphere. Then what happens to unattractive women who would not appeal to anyone? Do they just get discarded and sent to “die?” Second, the word invokes a violent image of murder. People, at least at the Bridesicle establishment, take life so lightly because they can easily revive the dead. They don’t think about the fact that they are killing someone because that someone can easily be revived. Third is the question of what is worse, being dead or staying alive in spirit only inhabiting someone else’s body without being able to do anything according to my ideas? Isn’t the process of being revived due to the dating services more horrid since if one is dead, they do not comprehend that stage as being bad? It is only by returning to the land of living that Mira dreads returning to the state of nothingness but once she is in it, she does not feel anything.

The novel makes me think about what the meaning of life and death are. The hitchers that live within someone else have a body that is physically dead, but they are not considered dead. Are we alive because of our physical body or because of or mental capacity, something that makes us who we are? The story seems to imply that our life comes from our non-physical attributes such as memory and personality, yet puts a heavy emphasis on the importance of the body by showing the desperation of the women to stay alive (or return from the dead).

The Story of Your Life, by Ted Chiang II

“don’t ask me to explain it” p. 130 and 172

This line is the first line when I thought that this whole story is a simultaneous thought process. Actually, not just a simultaneous thought process, but like a semagram with each of the anecdotes acting as small characters. This effectively shows the narrators ability to think simultaneously. Until this point, I thought that the story of the daughter had direct correlation to the story of the heptapods that directly precedes or follows the story of the daughter. However the two stories, the story of Nelson and her daughter, and the story of Colonel Weber are both similar stories where the players knowingly or not, participate in this play that becomes the “private joke” of the knower. The stories are so far away from each other that they seem unrelated, but they are definitely connected to each other. I think similarly, each story is connected to something else, placed in random formation like Heptapod B; like the whole story is one huge semagram- each story being “characters”, the connecting stories as “sentences”, and this whole story like a “paragraph.”

The quote also represents the narrators view on her new found knowledge, the future. She cannot explain it to anyone what happens because it is like her private joke. It is like how the readers of the “Book of Ages” cannot tell other people that they have read it, because then it becomes a paradox, or the private joke would no longer be there. Her simultaneous existence also reminds me of Orr. I’m worried that the narrator would confuse herself with the memory of past, future, and present existing all at once just like how Orr had all the memories of different realities in his head. I guess it is a story that she would have to keep a secret not only because it violates the rule of thumb[you cannot reveal the Book of Ages!!] but because she can be perceived as mentally ill or used with malicious intent.

Story of Your Life, by Ted Chiang

“I’d love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you’re conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you’re ready to have children of your own, and we’ll never get that chance.” [p. 1]

The beginning of the story sets up the narrative style, first person perspective of a mother telling a story. The way the story is written is as if she is telling a bedtime story to her daughter, or on a deathbed. The title of the story, “Story of Your Life,” and the way the narrator starts with the story of the day her daughter was conceived, I think implies that this story somehow relates to the story of the narrator’s daughter in the narrator’s perspective, although I have no idea how that actually will work out except when the narrator is telling stories of her life before the aliens visited. Initially I thought that the narrator has already died or was dying, but it seems that it was the daughter who died-from the passage later when the narrator talks about saying “that’s her” at a suspiciously hospital like setting. I somehow get the feeling that the daughter was somehow killed in an accident/incident involving the aliens, but maybe the “you” of the “Story of Your Life” has nothing to do with the daughter.

Another narrating style that interests me is the way the narrator alternates stories between the story of her daughter and the story of her encounter with the aliens. The only correlation between the two alternating story seems to be the way they use language. We can see the daughter speaking and the mother figuring out what she means through context, such as the “made of honor” while also figuring out the alien language through context, such finding out their written structure. Perhaps the “you” in the title is both the daughter and the aliens, hence the alternating narrative style.

Blood Child, by Octavia Butler

“You’re better,” she said this time, probing me with six or seven of her limbs. “You’re gaining weight finally. Thinness is dangerous.” The probing changed subtly, became a series of caresses. / “He’s still too thin,” my mother said sharply. [p. 4]

I can’t help but to relate this conversation with Hansel and Gretel when the witch checks how much Hansel gained weight every day to gauge when she should eat him and Hansel deceives the witch by giving her a bone, making her think that he is too thin. Not to mention, even if I did not know the specifics of the Tlic/Terran dynamic, I caught on that there was something almost master/slave like in the relationship between the humans and the Tlic-largely due to several implications such as impatient Tlic wanting teenage Terran, “sell,” and “family.” The fact that T’Gatoi wants her human to be healthy implies that this “something” is something physical, which later the readers find out that it is in the form of “pregnancy.”

I think the fact that Gan’s mother “sharply” retorts to T’Gatoi also emphasize that perhaps what T’Gatoi want when Gan is healthy, may not particularly be desirable. Gan’s mother is quick to defend him, probably wanting to push the date as late as possible so that Gan is not taken away. I guess the reason why my mind jumped to the witch in Hansel and Gretel is because of the mother’s words, “He’s too thin.” Maybe my mind is just gruesome, going straight from “He’s too thin” to “He’s too thin to eat.”

I now catch that there is also something, predator-like or sexual about the way T’Gatoi handles Gan. T’Gatoi, touches Gan that “bec[omes] a series of caresses,” there is something sensual about this if I think about how they are going to be, in really twisted way, husband and wife-ish, but then again, I just can’t let go of the image of a predator, satisfied with how her prey is fattening up. It could be in her nature, considering that she could have, as a worm, eaten Gan’s father. This novel is just generally too disturbing.

Hijab Scene #7... oops

The last couple of lines of the Hijab Scene #7, “Yes, I carry explosives/They’re called words/and if you don’t get up/off your assumptions,/They’re going to blow you away,” reflects the narrator as an intellectual woman with power in her words, who is ready to show the person she is talking to that she is not like the stereotype constructed around the women wearing a hijab. The last line of the poem, “They’re going to blow you away” shows that there is going to be an element of surprise of finding what they do not expect to the extreme if the person don’t “get up/off your assumptions,” as she is able to change what he/she thinks completely, as implied by the words “blow you away.” The speaker is confident that she can throw away all that preconception with the power of her words. The implication of these lines is that despite what people assume about her as a woman wearing a hijab, her words are powerful, and capable of completely changing the perspective.

The Lathe of Heaven, By Ursula K. Le Guin II

He seemed to recoil, as a man might who thought to push aside a gauze curtain and found it to be a granite door. [p. 145]

This is not the first time that Orr has been described as solid. The first one to observe so is Heather, earlier when she sees Orr in her office. The fact that Orr is described as a rock is so interesting.  Unrelenting force, an obstacle, symbol of something eternal, nature, calamity, common place, and not opinionated are just few of the descriptions I would use for rocks and they all seem to fit Orr well. It reminds me of what somebody said about Orr, being a possible play on words for ore, a rock containing minerals, normal on the outside, but special within. I mean, Orr is often portrayed as being more solid, more strength than originally perceived. The novel slowly changed out of perspective of predator/prey relationship since Orr started to make his stand known. This is a crucial moment of the story because we finally see Orr say no! Yay! Again, Orr is portrayed as a great obstacle in this case, or an unexpected weight. It is kind of like how Haber did not expect Orr to have such a strong opinion against the use of the e-state to change the world. Actually, this all reminds me of another Taoist perspective of water. Water can be perceived as weak, malleable to any form, but has the power to carve rocks. Orr, though he has dutifully following Haber’s instructions and perceived as prey multiple times in the novel, is able to find within himself to stop Haber, give him advice to stop himself, in the end. Actually it is scary how much Taoist ideas are immersed in this novel. Slightly off topic, but according to Lao Tsu, a wise man knows that sickness will turn him sick before he actually gets sick, kind of like Orr who knew this was all wrong from the start while Haber had to, in the end, go cuckoo. But anyhow, this all shows Orr’s amazing prowess! I am rather proud of him to finally emerge out of his panicked shell and showing his calm, serene self that believes in “self is universe”

The Lathe of Heaven, By Ursula K. Le Guin

He says he’s helping me. It would have helped a lot if he’d told me told me that he can see what I see, told me that it’s just not delusion. [p. 40]

The passage reveals vulnerability that Orr has of his ability. Or maybe not of his ability, but of his sanity? Orr is grasping the last strands of his sanity and Haber is using that completely to his advantage. The passage also, to me, was the first real sign of Haber’s manipulation and control. Orr is put on more drugs, forced to dream effectively more often, while left to face the change alone because nobody would confirm that it is actually happening. It irks me so much that Haber is acting all high and mighty and manipulating the situation so Orr does not get any confirmation that his effective dreams are not of his imagination. It is an effective tool of manipulation for a corrupt psychiatrist, really, to make sure that the patient is left doubting their own sanity, because as soon as Haber acknowledges that what Orr has is real, especially with that mic of his recording all the sessions, Orr has complete legal ground to sue Haber and get out of the situation. Or, Haber is also a psycho for believing Orr. Maybe that is why he refuses to acknowledge them. Seriously, no psycho should be handled by a psycho. The passage also reminds me of the authority Haber has as Orr’s psychiatrist. He has the power to help, but he is restraining for it. Instead, what I am more reminded of is that Haber has the power to assign Orr into the required therapy for the deranged or put him into an institute. That threat just becomes clearer as the novel goes on. It takes so long for Orr to realize that Haber is indeed doing this out of personal gains, like it took this long to find out that maybe Haber is not out for the good of Orr.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick II

“You’re too close,” Mercer said. “You have to be a long way off, the way the androids are. They have better perspective.” [p.214]

This passage reminds me of No Woman Born by Moore when Harris contemplates about who has the better view of Deirdre, himself who is too far, or Maltzer who is too close. In No Woman Born, Maltzer is unable to perceive Deirdre as anything other than a collection of metal. I thought that was not unlike how the androids can only perceive the outer appearance, the superficial level of Mercerism. What the androids do not get is the social power that Mercerism has through empathetic connections and it does not matter whether or not it is real. It is like how Maltzer could not conceptualize the fact that Deirdre can be perceived as something else by others because all he has seen is her in her metallic glory.

Or maybe the passage has more to do with one’s willingness to find such things. Being “close” representing emotional attachment, one could not find faults with the system of Mercerism because they refuse to acknowledge them unless they are spelled out. Humans cannot find such things as faults because they are experiencing what Mercer is first hand; they are too busy to climb up the hill and get hit by stone to look around the surrounding and notice something wrong with it. But as Androids are detached to the situation, being unable to connect through the empathy box, they can ascertain the situation at hand more accurately, because they are objective.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick I

It, he thought. She keeps calling the owl it. Not her. [p. 59]

I thought it was interesting that the only reason why Rachel Rosen was caught in her act was because she called an owl, it. It is interesting because one, according to the Voigt-Kampff test; I would be subjected at the point of that laser gun. I always call animals ‘it’ sometimes because I lack of a term to described them when I do not know it’s gender, and I am a proud omnivore who delights in meat products. So what do they call them if they do not call them it? Another reason why it is interesting is that the owl which Rachel refers to as “it” ends up being “it” after all as it is a fake animal. If it is hard for me to not say “it” to animals, I can’t imagine how hard it would be if the animal is not even a real living thing. Although she also failed the Voigt-Kampff test, she would have been able to fool Rick if not for that slip, thus it is just so ironic that the owl that made her slip was not a living thing after all. Because then, her slip does not become a true slip.

I cannot help but think of what ifs, if Rachel was indeed a “special” schizophrenic individual, forgetting that the owl is supposed to be a she, not a robot, would she have passed the test? It was briefly explored in the novel that mental patients may not be able to pass the Voigt-Kampff test, which was the reason for Rick initially being tricked. Because the way she was found out had sketchy ends-after all, Rick does not have an empathetic connection with his electric lamb-it just makes me wonder if Rick’s assessment based on the use of Pronouns were so accurate.

Aye, and Gomorrah…, by Samuel R. Delany

“You are a child,” she said. “I love you” [pg. 131]

There is an odd way of frelks perceiving Spacers. Frelks are sexually attracted to Spacers because they think spacers are supposedly “unattainable” [p. 130] The impression that I got from the dialogue between the Turkish frelk and the narrator was that frelks, at least the woman, are attracted to Spacers because they/she thinks that Spacers are lacking in something. The way she kept repeating “you are a child” [pg. 129] or variations of that, seems to say that Spacers are mentally inferior or undependable. It is ironic that I got that impression because supposedly Spacers are the solution to the global population problem in the universe of Aye, and Gomorrah. Frelks are sexually attracted to Spacers because “[Spacers] can’t love [Frelks]”[p.130] then I would think there should be some kind of an inferior complex in frelks because they are the ones pinning. Yet, the way the woman talks, “you wouldn’t understand” [pg.130] has a superior tone in it like, I have something that you would never get.

It is odd that she would say “you are a child” then “I love you” the next, when, one, she is sexually attracted, and two, she just met this person. If she thinks that Spacers are like children, isn’t this like pedophilia which is more socially unacceptable, or should be, than any other sexual perversions that she mentions? Or if she is saying I love you in a motherly sense, she would not think of buying the narrator for 20 liras cheaper than the market price.

One other reason why I chose this quote is because of how the narrator is like a child in some sense. He[used to be] almost went for 6o lira without doubting that the woman might be cheating on him, which shows his naivety, but more importantly, I think is prevalent when the narrator asks for the woman to give him “something [she] likes”[pg. 131] It represents how the Spacer wanted a human connection, especially since the Spacer vehemently refuses the idea of monetary payment. It was irritating when the woman kept refusing to do so saying “I just don’t want to buy you”[pg. 131] when she is the only one putting financial value on his[used to be] head. Why couldn’t she just give a piece of memento, or a token that has sentimental value?

No Woman Born, by C. L. Moore II

The whole idea from the start was to re-create what I’d lost so that it could be proved that beauty and talent need not be sacrificed by the destruction of parts or all the body.

[p. 36-7 Deirdre speaking]

Plastic Surgery has existed since ancient Egyptian period but it wasn’t until after the two World Wars when it flourished as one of the legitimate specialty of the medical world. Due to many doctors working on the field and helping veterans with their lost features and limbs, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons were formed after World War I. The group legitimized the practice. Many new techniques were developed in World War II including rebuilding of limbs and skin grafting, surgery that involves the planting of skins. After the war, the surgeons, who had no patients suffering from injuries, started to target middle aged, middle class women who were starting to sag from age. Plastic surgery became more acceptable for beauty.

            Maltzer, who happens to come across Deirdre when she almost got burned to death, decides to rebuild her body. Deirdre was built with slender metallic body and, despite having no features, “a very beautifully shaped head.” [p. 27] Although she was initially built to prolong her existence, the ‘eternal beauty’ that came with her re-birth captivates people. Harris, as he sees Deirdre after the her little break, that “she has not changed at all[…] that she would never change” [p. 51] There is a hint of longing in his reflection, as he thinks about how she would be “supple, golden, enigmatic” [p. 51] even after he becomes old and crippled. The initial sense of having a metallic body to keep living, became a subject of envy because, as Maltzer says, she would still be beautiful after everyone else changes.

            I thought this reflected somewhat on the development of plastic surgery. During the two World Wars, plastic surgery was used mostly to repair and hide the damages done to the veterans so that they can attempt to live a normal life. It was the kind of life that Maltzer has envisioned Deirdre to have initially, to “see[…] a few old friends who remember [her] as [she] was.” [p. 36] But because she is so beautiful, Maltzer is worried that her eternal looks will become a target of jealous anger. The plastic surgeons, after the war, advertised that they could get rid of baggy skins on the body that came with old age. The necessity to live became something more superficial like something that keeps youth and glamour.

Although the connections between the short story and plastic surgery are not explicit, the human inclination that drives to beauty is represented in the story. Even in the quote, when Deidre is talking about life changing innovation that could help people in desperate situations, she is focusing much on beauty and talent as something that does not need to be sacrificed. By creating this new body, she is able to keep her beauty for longer than otherwise possible. It is like how plastic surgery may have started to help veterans to return to their livelihood during the war, but slowly morphed into being prominently about beauty and youth.

Source:

Beautiful body: A history of Plastic Surgery

http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/31_plastic.html

No Woman Born, by C.L. Moore

First, incongruously, he remembered a curious inhuman figure he had once glimpsed leaning over the fence rail outside a farmhouse. For an instant the shape had stood up integrated, ungainly, impossibly human, before the glancing eye resolved it into an arrangement of brooms and buckets. [p. 26]

This imagery, of mistaking non-animate objects to being human, gave me the chills as I was reading them over. The quotation acts like a foreshadow as Deirdre, the heroine of the story, interacts with people other than Maltzer, the man who created her body, for the first time since her body was consumed in fire. Harris, her former manager, briefly thinks of this memory as he is meeting Deirdre for the first time since the accident. He initially thinks that Deirdre is exactly as she was before the fire before he realizes that her face is but a mask with no expression. On the surface, the imagery seems to be of no significance when Deirdre shines with human actions as she talks, acts, and laughs just as she did before her transformation. She is still the epitome of gracefulness just as Harris remembers her and she is determined to go back to her life as a performer.

As Harris contemplates the possible reaction of Deirdre’s audience when she returns on stage, he compares his view of Deirdre with Maltzer’s. When he thought about Maltzer’s fear of everyone seeing Deirdre as nothing but an assembly of metal Harris thought, “[Maltzer] was too close to Deirdre to see her. And Harris, in a way, was too far.” [p. 35] The use of distance in relations to Deirdre brings back the image that the quote invokes. Perhaps Maltzer has a more correct depiction of what Deirdre is, a jumble of things, while Harris sees what she might represent, a likeness to human. It concerns Harris whenever he sees glimpses of Deirdre’s robotic nature. Perhaps Maltzer is correct in assuming that everyone would one day realize that she is not human, just as Harris realized that what looked like the human figure were just brooms and buckets when he took a closer look.

But Deirdre was cleverer than these two men. Despite Maltzer’s infinite knowledge of how her body works, she was able to fool him into believing in her humanity. She showed that she can fool everyone and that she won’t lose contact with the human race[,] never will, unless [she] wants to.” [p. 62] It brought me to think that maybe she was human despite what her body is made of due to her brain. Harris’ observation of her went back and forth until this point, thinking she is exactly the same as before or fearful of her inhumane aspects. Because of her success in fooling even her creator, the last sentence of the story, “’I wonder,’ she repeated, the distant taint of metal already in her voice.” [p. 64] reminds, yet again, that no matter how well the illusion is made, she is still not human, like the assembly of brooms and buckets will still be brooms and buckets even when people mistake them for being human.

Introduction

Hello, I am Inkyung Sul, otherwise known as Inky.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got Alternative Worlds as my first year writing course because honestly, I do not really recall what I have written down as my first choices. I love reading fiction as a whole and science fiction, although I have not indulged myself quite as frequently in this genre as others, fascinates me.

I am mostly humanities oriented, but I do like other subjects in math and sciences often enough to try and keep my options more open. I like to sing, hence my undying love to any kind of music (although not so much Justin Bieber, he has his high and lows).

My love for writing, I have to admit, is not so abundant. I still have grammar mistakes on my ‘finished’ paper that I fail to catch that I am able to find if it was someone else’s paper (for whatever reasons). Sometimes, it is hard to open a new paragraph or a new sentence so I will go on and on not knowing when to stop. Ugh... but other than that, I like the feeling of my thoughts becoming more concrete as I write or how it is more accessible to me in the future when I may forget a fleeting thought in contrast.

I look forward to the rest of the year, and wish best of luck to everyone.