Tortola's Blog

Note: For the purposes of this blog, I made Akin a little older than he is in Part II, chap. 11, where I got my ideas from. ~KP

I have got to say, today had to be the weirdest, yet most interesting day in my life (well, in my new life). The day started out normal. I made breakfast for me and my husband Max, tended the garden, and did laundry. I was about to go out to town to see my friend Olivia, but Max tells me to stay home. I had a feeling he would. We heard gun shots fired from some house down the road last night. I think it was about some bad trade or something… Max didn’t want to tell me anything so I wouldn’t worry. I guess it’s his way of keeping me safe.

He went off to work at the blacksmith shop and left me alone in the house. I didn’t want to be cooped up inside all day, it’s not like people were going to start shooting again (we have a law against that stuff you know!). Besides, I really wanted to go visit Olivia before she traveled to another town to sell her new blanket designs, and to show her my new woodcuts.

I left the house around noon and almost walked past the house Max thought the gun shots came from. I got mixed feelings approaching the house… I felt angry and scared at the same time… just knowing that we banned guns from Phoenix a while back, and still people find a way to use them and cause trouble… I just didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to visit Olivia real quick before she left and head straight home.

To avoid the house, I started to make my way across the road until I saw this little boy sitting on the steps of the house. I didn’t recall seeing him before, but he looked lonely. I went up to him and asked him his name. He told me his name was Akin. I asked him if he was from around here, but he told me he wasn’t and that he was half-Oankali. I was quite shocked when he told me this. I have seen Oankali constructs before, but not one that look so much like us…so… human. It was quite weird to me, yet Akin seemed act like a normal human child.

He was very sweet and very, very smart. He was interested in what Phoenix was like and what the people did here. I told him I was an artist and showed him some of my woodcuts. He was quite happy and wanted to learn how to make them someday. It felt so weird at first, getting to know someone who wasn’t human, but liked human things. I didn’t know Oankali were like that until I met Akin. It was too bad our visit had to be cut short. Akin was called inside and had to go catch Olivia before she left. I went to her house but she was already gone, so I started back home. I walked past Akin’s house on the way back, but I didn’t see him around. I have a feeling this will not be the last time I will see him. For someone so different, he is very interesting. I hope I will see him again.

Kaila Panavia-Poole

November XXXX

Diseases, though scary and deadly, are part of the everyday existence of man. Many diseases occur naturally, some treatable, some not, and has become something we have learned to accept as humans. Diseases become the fate of many humans, even the human character Lilith in the story Dawn. But after she wakes up in the alien world of the Oankali, Lilith’s life was no only changed, but extended, as she was rid of the factor that determined her fate.

I find this to be the most alien aspect about Lilith’s new life with the Oankali. Compared to me, Lilith is superhuman because she was rid of a disease that has plagued her family for generations. Though humans do not necessarily want diseases, they become a part of our lives, internally and externally (through someone else); becoming something we learn to accept over time. I believe it takes a lot of strength in a person to learn and accept that he or she has a disease. Though Lilith says her inherited disease is a curse, even she has learned to accept it overtime. When she is rid of the disease by the Oankali, she learns to accept this too, but realizes that what the Oankali did to her was more than just a nice gesture, but for a bigger aim.

This becomes something Lilith does not understand: if the Oankali want to bring humans back to Earth, why change the things that are part of the human existence? Diseases are a part of human life, and in a way, teach us to become better humans as we learn to accept diseases and find ways to help others who have them. So in that sense, eradicating all diseases will take away the things that make humans who we are.

In the long run, eradicating all of our threatening disease may make humans healthier, but in the end, it will teach the new humans on the new Earth how to not accept these sudden changes in life or care for others who have changes. Changing one of our human fates, which has probably been with us since the beginning of time, will create different people with no knowledge of diseases, thus create different consequences for the future.

After studying the artwork and panel designs of WE3, I noticed that the art and panels themselves tell as much as a story as the physical actions of the character and the words they say. I found that the art and panels show an alternate version of the same story we get with just actions and dialogue. I take a look at Page 59, which I about 1 and 2 getting into a fight about staying together as a team, which is abruptly ended when a strange scent hits the air. So, ignoring the speech bubbles, analyzing that Panels, and the positions of the characters within each panel, emphasize character movement and the direction of where the story is going next.

In the first panel 1 is running towards 2, while the second panel has close up of 2’s face. I noticed that the characters in these panels are facing each other, as if in a confrontational stance, because 1 is running to the right and 2 is glaring to the left. The direction the characters are facing emphasizes that a confrontation is about to start.

Panels three and four have 1 and 2 rolling on top of each other in a fight, with the panels split in two. The panels are split by a diagonal bar, starting from the upper-left to the lower-right. I find the diagonal bar having two tasks: (1) as the silhouette of the bridge they were walking on and (2) as a visual device conveying the direction of the characters as they fight.

In the first half the third panel, I noticed how 1 is in the upper-left corner of the panel while 2 is on the lower-right against the diagonal bar. The bars direction compliments 1’s jump toward 2 with the intent of pushing her down, which he does on the second half of the panel.

In the forth panel, there I a change of character position. 2 is now on the upper-left corner and 1 is on the lower-right. The diagonal bar again compliments the direction of the fight. Panel four signifies that 2 now has the upper hand (paw, rather) in this fight.

In panel five, we have 2 on the left, 3 in the middle and 1 on the right. I noticed that, though the positions of 1 and 2 have changed since panels one and two, they are still in a confrontational stance, meaning that the fight is not yet over. 3 is standing in between 1 and 2, trying to diffuse the confrontation. I then notice a wide diagonal bar to the right of 1 in this panel, and I realize that it has a special task: neutralization.

I believe that the wide bar has a neutralizing effect, as panel six shows, the confrontation has stopped. 1 and 2 are not facing each other and 3 is not in between them. The characters seem to be positioned the same general direction, yet they are looking in different directions, as if their minds want to engage in something other than the confrontation. I also noticed that the characters are positioned in the general direction of the neutralizing bar, further emphasizing that the confrontation has toned down, or become neutralized.

I have found Neuromancer to be a confusing book to read. Besides the plot not making much sense to me until after reading chapters 5-6, what really got me confused was the use of certain words in the world of Neuromancer. To me, word use is pretty important as they can give you a sense of what the characters are talking about or what their world looks like. There were some words I recognized, some I didn’t understand (used a dictionary to get an understanding), and some that were given a whole new meaning.

Some words that I recognized were Matrix (a rectangular array of quantities (numbers) in rows and columns¹) and Nexus (a link or connection¹).  Not only do these words have a dictionary meaning, but a meaning in the movies The Matrix and Blade Runner respectively. I was quite surprised to find these words in this book and I’m curious if the book and movies have a connection in one way or another (as Blade Runner come out first, then Neuromancer, then The Matrix) .

There were some words I didn’t understand at all, like the word ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics). Though I believe the word (or acronym) ICE is a description for a computer program in Neuromancer, it seems similar to our ECM (Electronics Counter Measures) systems used in today’s military.  But, instead of blocking or jamming radar signals, it blocks out viruses or hackers from their computers (like when Case had to hack into Sense/Net to get some data… or something).

But the words that gave me the most confusion were deck and sprawl (the disorganized expansion of an urban area into the adjoining countryside¹). The word deck has multiple meanings, like card deck, cassette deck, ship deck. There is not a exact description for it, so maybe its some kind of, well, computer deck, a monitor and some kind of device or another to access (or jack in) the matrix or, err, cyberspace (or whatever). I also noticed this word only relates to Case when he goes into the matrix/cyberspace.

Sprawl is not given an exact description either and confuses how I should imagine the Neuromancer world. Where is this sprawl? Is on the ground, with cars and buildings or above ground like a scene in the Jetsons? I could assume it’s on the ground, as it seems to have buildings, trains and many domes or geodesics, like the one in Disney-Epcot:

[picture of Epcot geodeic]

But then the word “hovercraft” comes up, so should I now assume that the sprawl is above ground and the trains are like the Disney Monorail?

[picture of Disney monorail]

Apologies for relating Neuromancer to Disney World, but I can’t find any other way to imagine the Neuromancer world. The vague use of the word sprawl, and so many others,  just don’t do any justice for my understanding of it.  Maybe the words, like the plot, will become clearer (or at least get an explanation (like the word fence in chap. 5)) as the book continues.

^{1 Definitions from WordReference.com}

After reading Who Goes There by John Cambell, I found a few quotes said by the character Blair (the biologist) that stood out for me:

“And just because it looks unlike men, you don’t have to accuse it of being evil or vicious or something.

“Just because its nature is different, you haven’t any right to say it’s necessarily evil.”

I found it interesting how these quotes are true in real life, as they are in the story. Human beings (well, maybe not all human beings) have the tendency to fear or hate things they know nothing about, as they did for the monster in the story. Take me for example. When I was younger, I hated bees and spiders with a vengeance. Bees can sting, and spiders have eight, fast moving legs, furry fangs, and multiple tiny eyes. These animals were scary, or alien to me, like the monster was for the characters in Cambell’s story. The characters feared the monster for his looks and his ability to change into anything at will. These qualities are alien to them and made monster untrustworthy in their eyes. But just because the monster has these qualities that are different to man, as bees have stingers and spiders have multiple tiny eyes, doesn’t mean it is out to cause harm.

So, why hate something you may know nothing about? Because, as I got older and learned more about the animals of the world, I realized that bees and spiders are not that scary after all (except for big, furry tarantulas, but I’m working on that…). Bees and spiders have their qualities for their survival, and though I find them different from me, I learned that they are not out to hurt me. As in Cambell’s story, at least how I interpreted it, the monster was not necessarily trying to kill the humans, but using his qualities to try to go back home.

The same could be said in Du Bois’ The Comet, as Julia didn’t want to trust or feel she should care for Jim because of his race and lower status. But later in the story, after being with him for some time, she realizes that he is just as human as she is and not someone from another world.

In addition:

After reading Forrest Fain’s blog about The Comet, I found that he took this idea one step further. He writes that: “…people believed that the color of your skin dictated your humanity…” and that “we [share] the same human genetics.” He also wrote that “…the messenger and the women are the same despite their racial differences.  It is a shame it took the end of the world (in their eyes) and a comet for us (or them) to see it.”

I agree with Forrest on this as people in the past just didn’t take the time or effort to look beyond skin color and get to know people for who they were. They were so caught up in the prejudice, or should I say, fear of each other that they never thought of themselves as the same. I’m quite glad it didn’t take a comet for us to realize that!

Victor and the Creature had a tumultuous relationship throughout the book of Frankenstein. At the start of the book, Victor, despite all the focus and effort he put into creating the Creature, becomes disgusted by the Creature’s looks and hates him without knowing much about him. The Creature, who soon learns why Victor and other people are afraid of him, starts to hate Victor for not making him more like other human beings.

It is unfortunate that both Victor and the Creature die before really getting to know each other. They both had some things in common. Their love for nature, learning, and being around other people would have made their relationship grow. They would both still be living at the end of the book if they didn’t focus on the negative aspects of their relationship.

For example, if Victor wasn’t afraid to acknowledge the Creature and sympathized with his wishes for learning and companionship, he would see the Creature for who he really was and even help him live to his potential. His relationship with the Creature would have also changed if he went ahead and created a companion for him. That way, the Creature wouldn’t be lonely and Victor would be at peace knowing that they would both be happy.

Now, the relationship of Victor and the Creature would have been much better off if the Creature had a better way of controlling his anger (or hatred) of Victor. It would not have been necessary for the Creature to harass Victor and kill off his family because he didn’t know how to express his feeling towards him. If the Creature adopted a less violent and more peaceful attitude towards his problems Victor wouldn’t be afraid of him and be more willing to help.

If Victor and the Creature gave themselves a chance to know each other better, the book would have had a much different ending. They had many chances to so, but their hatred (fear, more like it) of each other never let them put their differences aside. Maybe there was never a relationship to begin with.

After reading Part One of the book “Frankenstein”, I have come to wonder why Victor Frankenstein becomes afraid of his own creation. If I were to create something, whether it is art, a recipe, or anything, I’d be proud of my accomplishment, even if it didn’t come out exactly as I planned. There has to be something more than the creature’s yellow eyes ( appearance, rather) that scared him.

The book describes some reasons as to why Victor would want to create the creature. For instance, Victor strongly believed in the words of Cornelius Agrippa and other “out-dated” scientists frowned upon by his professor. He probably came to his discovery of reanimating the dead by their ideals and wanted to prove his professor wrong about their significance. Victor could have felt he could contribute to history of science by applying what he discovered that “so many men of genius” (pg 80) could not do before him. Also, Victor’s creation of the creature could also be a response to his mother’s death. Experimenting on the creature could promote him to bring his mother back to life.

Even still, with these good reasons, it does not explain why he becomes afraid of his creation. Was the creature different from what he had expected? Did he become aware or afraid of the consequences the creature could entail? Was Victor not yet ready to take on the responsibility of the creature? Was he afraid he was going to be hurt or killed? Or maybe the creature reminds him of something he didn’t like in his past that the book doesn’t (or has yet to) describe?

So, I really don’t think the creature’s appearance is the cause of Victor’s fear of him. I think there is something beyond his appearance, something deeper, that maybe Victor doesn’t even know yet.