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.