Week Fourteen: Stepford Wives/ The future

This past week I continued watching the movie Stepford Wives. This movie is about Joanna Eberhart she runs a booming tv network in new york until she gets fired, after her and her husband decide to take the family and move to Stepford, CT. The town is very odd cause when they get there Joanna starts to realize all of the wives are super domesticated and only do what their husbands ask of them and nothing else. Joanna decides she wants to leave but her husband encourages her to give the town a chance and the people in it. This is my favorite scene, Joanna “Will how do I do that?” Walter “first no more black!” Joanna “No more black!! Are you insane?” Walter “that’s right you heard me! Only high-powered neurotic castrating Manhattan career bitches wear black!!! Is that what you wanna be?” Joanna “Ever since I was a little girl…”

I think this film is great because it was made in 2004 but the issues and themes it discusses in the film are very prevalent today. The film focuses on this idea that powerful women are something to be feared and if women have to much power it’ll be a bad thing. So what is the solution? To turn women into brainwashed blonde robots that only listen to their husbands. The movie takes an interesting turn at the end though because we find out one of the women turns her husband who was very powerful into a robot as well. So this movie is very much about which gender should hold the power and if one side has too much is there a problem? I think science fiction does a great job at showing its viewers what will happen if we don’t fix things like for example if women keep getting mistreated in the work place are they all going to end up as robots?

Week Thirteen: Aquatic Uncle

On my previous blog post I discussed how people can learn from science fiction, with this piece of literature I strongly believe that. Aquatic uncle is a fun and interesting take on describing evolution. It starts with describing characters as tadpoles and fish and then you see them grow into land creatures. I don’t know I personally found this piece to be very interesting because In a way it was actually educational but fictional at the same time and I feel like you wouldn’t really get that out of any other genre.

With science fiction its been hard for me to really relate to the subject because I don’t know much about it and it’s been hard to find a piece I really enjoy. Overall what I’ve learned with science fiction is that there are some very original amazing pieces that blow your mind and you feel like you’re living out your dreams as a kid, some pieces are very educational and bring up a lot of environmental issues that people should be talking about, and then finally there are some pieces that are just very disturbing and gross and are not my kind of reading. This is why I really appreciate the short story of Aquatic Uncle because it was fictional, it was cute and made you feel towards the characters, and it was very educational in how it depicted the process of evolution.

Week Twelve: Bloodchild Assessment

Assessment.

1.     The only symbols I see in this story is this idea that for a generation or power to move forward, sacrifices need to be made. In this case a boy has to have eggs grow inside him that can potentially kill him in the end. They are trained their whole lives for this and if they don’t say yes to the task someone else will have to suffer the same fate. Also there is this idea that the women alien figure decides what boy gets to do it so it’s a matriarchy society.

2.     I personally did not make any connections with this story, for the most part I thought it was repulsive. The only part I liked about was the idea that a women alien was calling the shots, or at least I think it was a woman. I don’t all this story consisted of was weird names, confusing events, and repulsive things. It wasn’t that interesting for me personally.

3.     If I could make any changes to this story it would probably be the fact that Gan has to take the eggs. I would somehow get him to kill the main egg alien. I think I would make this story into a videogame and turn into this story of Gan escaping and him getting together an army to fight this horrible fate all of the boys must face in this world.

Week Eleven: Blade Runner

This past week in class we watched the movie Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford.  The film is about a blade runner that must find and capture four replicants who stole a ship and have returned to earth to find their creator. Replicants are these creatures that are basically robots and don’t have emotions or feelings but after four years they start to become a real person so they have to be destroyed. A big theme in science fiction movies that I notice is how they show something amazing that man has created that always goes bad in the end, this movie is a very strong example of that because humans created these replicants but now they aren’t acting the way they were designed to’ so now man has to destroy it’s original creation. I see this idea used a lot in science fiction tales, another example of that would be Jurassic Park. A scientist decides to breed and control dinosaurs but at the end people are dead and everyone has to evacuate the island to survive.

I feel like both of those films Blade Runner and Jurassic Park raise many questions. Can humans survive for much longer because of all the failed attempts to move forward? Just because something has flaws does it need to be destroyed? Will Harrison ford be able to handle this movie and star wars? I feel like people should appreciate science fiction more because it discusses a lot of future issues that we could have or are having right now. I also feel like science fiction can enlighten people about issues, which can lead to a better future.

Week Ten: We Remember it for you wholesale

This past week I read the short story by Philip K. Dick, We remember it for you wholesale. This story was about a man who’s dream is to go to mars. He ventures to a company called Rekal Incorporated. They tell him they can create false memories for him that convinces him he has been to mars and he will forever have that memory in his brain. Unfortunately when they try and do this they open a can of worms and discover that the main character used to be an undercover agent that had already been to mars, but his memories were erased.

This short story was very interesting to me because it reminded me of the movie conspiracy theory with Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson’s character is obsessed with conspiracy theories, but it turns out he used to be a trained assassin and all of his theories he talks about are true. He just doesn’t remember because his memory was erased. I find it captivating when authors and directors talk about people’s dreams and subconscious feelings. Especially in this story the whole time you’re thinking this man really wants to explore Mars but really his subconscious is trying to remember what happened to him when his memories were erased. Science fiction becomes more interesting to me when it talks about having your memories erased because if we had that now in modern times it would change everything.