5 Years Out, 15, 50

In five years most newspapers will only be available online. Subscriptions to these papers will allow the subscriber to view the entirety of the paper, whereas people who haven't subscribed will only be able to read headlines and perhaps the first paragraphs of selected articles. There will be more large scale, if not global papers, since the internet will make the news available to everyone rather than just regionally. There will also be even more readily available alternative papers, in which viewpoints other than the most popular view will be expressed. This will be a great thing for society because it will allow people more access to the truth, rather than just being told one side of a situation. Of course hearing multiple viewpoints, sometimes contradictory, can be a bit confusing.

In fifteen years we will have the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy: an electronic book sized machine that can make phone calls (complete with live video), take notes, quickly and easily provide information, perhaps project movies (in holographic form?), etc. Colonization of Mars, hover cars, no fossil fuel, downloadable drugs (virtual reality environment), commercial space travel, and some type of new closeness with machines, whether it be through actually installing microchips or ports into humans, or through enhancing physical human aspects. Certainly virtual reality will be a large part of our realities.

American Idol winners become global emperor for the week, and decide on the distribution of rationing out coca cola and super antibiotics to the world. Mars is cut off, poor bastards, there's just not enough cola to go round. Cola is also no longer sweetened with the extinct plant sugarcane. All sweetener is artificial. Human experiments on mutating the dolphin brain have forced the dolphin to evolve, making it the smartest being on Earth. The dolphins teach humans to breathe underwater (like we did in the womb), and all mankind begins to make the move into the ocean. Surfing takes over soccer as the world's most beloved sport, sharks are butchered into extinction.

On a side note, I really have no idea what the future holds. I am pretty adverse to technology, and don't take in much news. I'm an introverted artist, I can only really tell you what I might be like in the future, and even that will probably prove to be inaccurate.

Lilith's Brood

This was a really neat book that's split into three parts. I was only able to read the first part in which the main character, Lilith, awakens aboard an alien spaceship. I thought this story centered around human sociology, and I found the character's reactions to awakening in an alien spacecraft very true and real to what an actual person might do and feel in a similar situation. I hadn't thought that Lilith's job of awakening forty other human survivors, and aclimating them to the ship would be such an ordeal, in fact I had thought it would be a nice opportunity for her to interact with humans again. I of course found out through my reading that this was not the case; many of the newly awakened humans refused to believe the fantastical truth that they are the survivor's of Earth's apocalypse and aboard an alien craft. A large part of human interaction and human sociology has to do with sex, and the author did not forget to leave that out of this story. The alien 3 way sex was pretty strange, but made perfect sense as the way an alien race would reproduce.

Babel 17

A lot of neat new ideas offered in this book. I really enjoyed the idea of language expanding thinking ability pushed to the extreme with a language who's word meanings are so intricate that it allows the speaker to see situations from a heightened awareness. And the reverse of that concept in the character of The Butcher who doesn't use the words I or me. I also was very interested in the idea of reading a person's thoughts through the reading and interpreting of facial muscles, movements, and personal actions. The body modification through cosmetic surgery was very interesting and I like to think that the human race will begin to artificially modify themselves in a conscious effort towards diversification and evolution. After reading this book I feel motivated to learn more languages and enrich my existing vocabulary as well as learning more about common facial expressions and how to read and interpret them.

My Destination is the Stars

I forgot to post for this reading before, so I may be a little hazy on the details of the story, though this was one of my favorite books I read in this class. I loved the anti hero, bent on revenge. Great premise to move the story, forget chasing love or money, revenge is a stronger more interesting motive. I thought that the removed tattoo mask of NOMAD that shows up in the main character's passionate emotions was so cool. I'd really like to illustrate his face. I wish I could remember more of the book, but I feel like its blending with some of the recent similar sci- fi I've read recently. I can't recall if its this book or another that had the neat scifi diseases and problems of the future universe, but one example is the woman who can't help but telepathically send her thoughts out.

Warbreaker

Warbreaker is my favorite read yet in this class. From the beginning of the book the reader is told that an Idrian princess will go marry the Hallandren God King to prevent a war, as preordained in a peace treaty. The story holds to that plot while twisting and pulling to break loose of its guidelines. From the start things go wrong in the plan. The wrong princess is sent to Halladren and her sister follows with the intention of rescuing her only to fall into the clutches of a band of knieving mercenaries who her to try and push the Halladrens into war. Meanwhile the first princess is trapped in the God king's palace where she is warned of unknown dangers and told she must produce the God King's heir though he appears to have no interest in her. The story remains this way, with many plans to escape from the plot being thwarted until the end. At the end your sure the war is imminent, the Lifeless troops are marching, and no one is alive who knows the command to stop them. But War breaker is all about not letting war break, so the God King release's Kalad's undead army of stone soldiers o stop the Lifeless force and stop the war just before it begins. I found this book really engaging. When Vivianna finds out that he has been betrayed by the mercenaries I was right there with her. I couldn't believe it, but then when she thought back at the signs of their betrayal and of how she ignored them, I realized I too had ignored these obvious signs of disloyalty. I also really liked the cast of characters. They were diverse and interesting and I identified with quite a few of them, especially Vasher and LightSong. The magic system was really interesting too, almost seemed written for art students with a focus on color.

Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Another book with no character names! Everyone instead has an aleius or just a last name. I liked that, it gives a back story to all the characters. For instance Shadow goes by Shadow because he was a shy kid who followed adults around rather than playing with other kids. I liked Shadow a lot as a character and that he, as a full grown and rather large criminal sort of man, has so many ties to his childhood and childlike questions and actions. The story jumps around a lot and I definitely had trouble following the story, but that's not to say that it made me dislike the book. I found some of the short stories within the book, such as the story of the twins, to kind of take me outside the context of the main story to give a me a greater understanding of some issue that will aide me when I return to the actual story. The same thing is true of the short quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I especially liked the chapter that started with Benjamin Franklin's quote, "Three may keep a secret, if the two of them are dead" and then started the chapter with the sentence, "Three days had passed." I thoroughly enjoyed Neil Gaiman's style of writing, and found many of his ideas about the world quite insightful, but the whole idea of ancient Gods living within modern times and living regular mortal style lives just didn't dance for me. The writing kept me reading, but the plot concerning the god's and their impending battle or storm didn't win me over. I have yet to finish the book, so maybe the ending will change my mind about the plot.

The Golden Compass

I'd seen the movie a while back and I can't say it left much of an impression. The book, however, I really liked reading. It was quick and clear and I just blew through the pages. It all starts in the retiring room of Jordan College where Lyra first hears of Dust, aureous borealis and the city hidden inside it, and the armored bears. It's also here that Lyra saves her uncle from the master's poison. Then she's wisked away but Mrs. Courteur, her unknown mother, and is given the altheimeter upon her departure. After finding out Mrs. Courteur is a Gobbler, she escapes from her and begins the true adventure which takes her North with the gyptians. As their name suggests I found the gyptians to be kind of a watery mix between gypsies and egyptians. They take Lyra by sea to a town where they get dog sleds, an aeronaut, and an armored bear and continue on towards the prison where kidnapped children are cut from their daemons. Lyra causes a jailbreak just as her friends arrive to fight off the guards. She escapes into the aeronaut's balloon and floats to the king of the armored bears' castle. There she arranges a fight between the bear she has befriended and the king. The book ends with her deciding to follow her uncle into the city in the Northern Lights.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit has an obsessive depth of detail. Tolkien constructs full cultures. Details like the dwarves' hats, Baggins family history, general hobbit history, songs of each culture, nasty songs for goblins, war and mine songs for dwarves, etc, all of which build the reality of Tolkien's fantasy world. Tolkien doesn't write as a commercial writer bent on selling, rather he constructs his story as his own modern version of ancient myth. Much is actually taken from ancient mythology, even names such as Thorin which is taken from the Norse God, Thor. The Hobbit's main character, Bilbo, follows the "Hero's journey" very precisely, starting with the innocence of the Shire, the call to adventure by Gandalf and dwarves, the refusal to leave, the supernatural aid of Gandalf, etc. The book is a kids' kind of classic, adventure tale full of exploration. I really liked the annotated Hobbit because it included sources from which Tolkien got his ideas and different illustrations done by numerous artists. I liked the book better when I was a kid, but I still found it enjoyable.

The Wild Sheep Chase

I loved The Wild Sheep Chase. First off, the writing was great. I have a feeling the author is also a poet. I especially liked a sentence on page 153 where the main character repeats the word took four times in one sentence. He even replaces the word look with took an saying "I took a long took," which I thought was really neat. I also really liked, though I didn't fully notice it till maybe half way through, that the characters don't have names. The only actual name in the whole book is Kipper, the name the chauffeur gives to the cat. The lack of names shows a similarity between main character and author in that the main character says he hasn't named the cat because he doesn't really like names, and the author shows his dislike for names by not using them.

When I first started the book I read the first two chapters and was wholly depressed. However, the next chapter introduced the main character's new girlfriend who he falls for because of her beautiful ears. She really lightened up the mood. From there the book took off as the wild sheep chase began.

I loved the ending. When he arrives at the Rat's house, wakes up to find his girlfriend gone, and quits smoking, I really felt the suspense building. I found the next ten days spent in the house to be the slowest part of the book and for good reason, it really allowed for creepy feelings to start growing and set an insatiable need to know what the hell was going on inside me. When the truth finally came out I was happily floored. I really liked that the Rat was two ghosts though I didn't quite understand how the Sheepman could have buried the Rat since they are the same person and are both ghosts. But then again the Rat was able to fetch beers as a ghost, so maybe ghosts can bury people too.

Interview with a Vampire

I read “Interview With a Vampire” about a year ago and though its not extremely fresh in my mind I do remember a few interesting things I liked and noticed about it. I thought it was neat how the book is a cross between a dark horror novel and a romance novel. I also really liked the portrayal of New Orleans as a city full of dark alleys where predators may lurk. The idea of a society of vampires and the extreme love and kinship felt between vampires was a concept I thought of as being realistic, in a vampire world. I would think vampires, being immortal and needing to feed on blood, would want to band together to find acceptance and to combat the loneliness of immortality. The idea of a child vampire and the ensuing dilemma was very interesting. Immortality is something so desired by many humans, but immortality as a child seems to be more of a curse than a blessing. I also liked the contrast between the two male vampires; One vampire feels the pull of morality and tries to live as a non-aggressive predator (like a human) where as his benefactor fully embraces the life of a bloodthirsty selfish killer. I see now that its been pointed out to me the concept of S&M introduced by the two male vampires.

Why are Zombies popular?

Why are zombie movies so popular?

Why is armageddon so popular? It appears that we humans know our unfortunate end is coming in the future. At some point, because of war or disease or disaster, the human population will dwindle, food will become scarce, and people may have to resort to cannibalism to stay alive. Being forced to cannibalism is somewhat forgivable, but wanting to eat your own kind is just plain evil. And we love evil.

The death of a loved one is one of the hardest things for a human being to cope with. Certainly many people who have lost someone wish that they were still with them. Having someone try to eat you is scary, but having someone you loved, come back from the dead and try to eat you, is just plain horrifying.

Monster Island

Jack Price

8/30/10

Monster Island

I liked the book Monster's Island, but I felt it read like a screenplay. Maybe thats just because I've seen a few zombie movies but have never before read a zombie book. The emphasis in the writing was on the plot and oncoming action rather than troubling with much character development, vivid descriptions, or use of elaborate metaphors. The book isn't going to win the Pulitzer, but it sure would make a good movie.

I thought Gary was a great villain. When Dekalb and the girls first find him, they decide to keep him even though they are so adverse to the undead. I thought that was a bit far fetched but I suppose you've got to introduce the character somehow. The idea of Gary's origin: that he was originally a doctor who turned himself into a zombie while keeping his brain oxygenated, was a really neat way of making a half zombie half human. Gary's character won me over even more when I found out he had super powers! Since the dead are just too easy to get around, what better idea than to take away their limitations and make them an even fiercer force to be reckoned with by giving them a fully brained leader who can control them with his mind.

Mael fell short as a villain and character for me. When Gary fist heard Mael calling for him in his head, I was very excited to find out about Mael. However, when he turned out to be a Scottish bog mummy, bent on killing for no apparent reason, I mentally snickered. I felt like bringing the mummies into the zombie story was kind of corny. Now the idea of the first zombie to the zoo, who becomes a giant zombie from over eating, that was kind of cool. Anyway, Mael was at least good as a stepping stone for Gary. I especially liked Gary at the end, fat and controlling his minions from the comfort of his chemical bath.

Jack was a neat character too, I think knowing a little more about him and his personality would have made him as charismatic as Gary. I liked that Dekalb saw him as calm and courageous, even though he exposed his inner stresses to Dekalb multiple times.

Dekalb, our main character, rose to the occasion. He was good for a main character because he was a normal person that any reader could relate too, but who just happened to be a weapons inspector with a father's motivation to succeed. He got the job done. Happy Ending.

Frankenstein Response

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and was surprised to learn she wrote it when she was just nineteen. I found the characters of Victor, the monster, and even the father, to be well developed, whereas Elizabeth, William, Clerval, etc., all acted more as back round characters that help move along the plot. (Through their murders) I'm not a big fan of monsters who have feelings, or even personality, because I think it makes them easier to relate to and therefore less scary. In the context of Frankenstein, I liked that the monster spoke of his inner turmoil, and I think his intelligence added to his character's part in the story, but I also felt like he wasn't that scary of a monster. I think the scariest monsters are mindless killing machines like great white sharks or the aliens in the movie "Alien." In hindsight I think I actually found Victor to be the most monstrous character, because attributes such as cowardice, depression, solitude, and selfishness make for a scary human being.

My previous experience with Frankenstein had soley been in Halloween decorations and the movie "Young Frankenstein." I was surprised in the reading to find that Frankenstein committed multiple murders. However, all that strangling wasn't enough to spark any kind of fear in me. Though not scary, Frankenstein was definitely a dark, good book, and a great start to this semesters readings.