Rmaxwel1_LMST_345_Blog

The novel I chose for speculative Fiction was Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic. The high-level ideas explored within creates a fantastical landscape thrust into our reality by visitors. This event, “The Visitation”, results in military restricted zones containing fantastical trinkets and extraordinarily dangerous technology. Many comparisons can be made surrounding “The Visitation” the most intentional being garbage and forgotten items left behind after a roadside picnic. How would the creatures of the forest surrrounding would be affected by these treasures and threats laid in the shrubs and grass? Speculative fiction is essential when exploring the build-up to a fantastical reality. The treasures and dangers within the zones play a similar role to how a landfill, or toxic waste affects and warps the surrounding population. Members of society that surround the zones are obsessed with the contents of the zone and the focus shifts almost wholeheartedly to its study or its relation. The even

Revisiting the hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy was a pleasant surprise. Considering aspects of the satire in an analytical fashion is somewhat more rewarding than while observed casually. The true intentions of the author are visible through more dissection of the work, allowing for a much more fulfilling concept and tale. The comedic aspects are a massive boon to the work and allow the text to appeal to a much broader audience, similar to how Dr. Strangelove and other great works tackle harder subjects through comedy. While the tone of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is much lighter, the dark controversial subjects satire handles can still be seen. Both works share a similar plotline. The earth is going to become uninhabitable or in HHGG destroyed the protagonist is forced out of their comfort zone and must explore a weird and strange new world order. By immediately subverting the reality our protagonist is living within we are able to more readily relate to the strange and unex

The Martian was a particularly dense and rough read compared to most other required reading in the course. The film was more or less a watered down melange of 19th-century sci-fi tropes. The movie was rather simplistic in terms of the plot. While it is characteristic of 19th century Sci-Fi to be simplistic in nature when it comes to story, the Martian did not engage with the high-end technology and fantastical aspects that helped the genre take off. Essentially the story is too close to current technology and lacks the futuristic elements that drive intrigue into the current story. Star-Wars contained The Force as well as futuristic androids, spaceships, and intergalactic diplomacy. The Martian contains a space-farmer and surface-level plot. Survival on a deserted planet and wait to be rescued roots the main plot in a singular location limiting the character’s interactions with others and changing the story more towards an internal struggle for the main character. In the Space Opera, m

Majoritarian culture is mainly common sense in a democratic society. With restrictions, it can beneficial to those within the society as long as a sudden change in the population of indigenous peoples is accounted for. It can enable society to flow more efficiently. For example, let's say people prefer to use bikes as a mode of transportation throughout a city and have done so for a century or so. As technology progresses forward and new means of transportation are created, it makes more sense to have roads and infrastructure laid to enable better means of transportation. Legacy technology, as well as practices, tend to be the polar opposite of innovation. In Lilith’s brood, the Oankali intervene on earth in an attempt to control the bloodshed resulting from world war. This intervention is meant to seize control of the planet as well as cleanse the ferocious nature of the human resistors. By creating a cross-species with humans the Oankali likely postulate that the next genera

American Gods by Neil Gaiman reads like a schizophrenic’s dream. I really tried to like the concepts explored within the book but found its pedantic nature overwhelming and brutally nauseating. I went in with high hopes for this book and left feeling confused and underwhelmed. The banality of the story just digs into your patience and you wonder if you should even keep going. The story feels like a long drive and you are waiting and waiting for things to get interesting as the journey continues but the high points are few and far between a sea of monotony. While Gaiman’s writing has a certain humor to it that can carry a lot of the weight, American God’s feels akin to stale bread when compared to sweet and fantastical Coraline. By forcing the mythos into the modern world Gaiman works hard to remove what made the fantastical fantastic. Odin (“Wednesday”) performs parlor magic in a bar, robs a bank by conning people into handing him their money. The most potent magic, or “godly” power is

I found Akata witch to be the least enjoyable required reading this semester. The witches and magic seem fine at first glance, complementing the surface-level character building performed throughout the story. I found myself underwhelmed with the main character Sunny the most. The author writes Sunny parallel to the guidelines of the mary sue archetype allowing her to quickly advance through the magical world with relative ease. The main divergence from the archetype seems to be her albino complexion and “otherworldly” origin. “You’ve got at least a hundred Chittim in there, I’d say. Maybe more,” Orlu said. “What’s Chittim?” she asked. “Currency,” Orlu said. “You earn it when you learn something. The bigger the knowledge, the more Chittim. I didn’t receive half as many Chittim when I went through Ekpiri!” “Ekpiri is level one,” Chichi explained. She turned to Orlu. “That’s because you always knew what you were. Sunny’s a free agent. She didn’t know anything.” “Wow,” she breathed