Blog Set #9

I agree that Bettelheim feels the need for threatening figures in fairy tale because they do help children understand not everything is good in this world. This can indeed help them work their fears and primitive. A fear I see that can be from the Cinderella fairy tale would possibly be one of losing one’s parents. We see that Cinderella loses her father and is left with a horrible stepmother to take care of her. If one were put in this situation they would have no control over what would happen to them. The idea of being trapped under the care of someone so cruel is very frightening to a child. Even at this age that idea is scary to be.

If we look at the story of Hansel and Gretel we can see the fear of being betrayed by someone who has offered to assist us in our most desperate time. Hansel and Gretel are all alone and hungry when they reach out to look for some help and confine in this older woman only to be killed and eaten by her. This instills in us not to trust strangers and also teaches children not to go into random peoples’ houses. That is a lesson we teach to the child reader.

Another story that teaches children a lesson is the one of Beauty and the Beast. We learn to not judge a book by its cover and to hide the true meaning of a person, which is what is on the inside.

Blog Set #6

Burning Chrome

When reading this story I imagine that is trying to portray a futurist world of mass technology. The idea that technology will becomes such a big importance in our lives that we will try to hack into it. I’ve heard about people like Jack and Bobby, even in today’s society we have hackers who can wipe out our bank accounts. This does not sound too far-fetched for being written in the 80s. I personally somewhat liked this story but it was kind of slow for me. I still like the theme and ideas of it, they still a kind of truth to how we have become with computers and being able to breach them.

In this story I believe the power is probably held with the Chrome. The people have to try and figure out how to hack into it. Technology seems to be big powerhouse in this postmodern society. The criminals also seem to have a very powerful role in the story. We see even Chrome is a big time criminal with lots of money and power. The story even portrays her as untouchable.

Chrome is portrayed as the most powerful criminal in the story who has mass connections and wealth. They make it seem as if she is untouchable and a dangerous target for the robbery. As we see the story progress when she loses all her power and wealth, she can be accounted for her crimes.

I like the idea of this story it very well sticks to characteristics to be science fiction. The idea of a futuristic society where we have power hackers to of into a grand system and have control of other people’s wealth is scary and very well possible. It happens today and that’s why I like this story. It seemed to be ahead of its time and in a sense predicting.

Blog Set #5

"Reason," by Isaac Asimov, 1941

I was confused reading this stories because I saw QT had a slight display of emotions and did not go along with the laws of robotics. I thought maybe it was that he was programmed with a bit too much intelligence and that’s why he deterred from the rules. From the beginning when he was questioning his existence and what it meant I had a feeling something would happen with him. He kept asking questions about his purpose and he didn’t seem to quite understand what the humans were telling him. He eventually just has this attitude where he feels he is superior to the humans and thinks he is the master. That part was a bit eerie to me because I would be freaked out if a robot told me he was my master.

         I feel like this robot had his intelligence too high because he also kept relying on the idea of logic when explaining to the humans why he didn’t believe they create him and earth wasn’t real. This robot had too much going through his though process and maybe that’s why he turned against the men. Also he gave long explanations to his actions meaning he thought about them thoroughly. He based them off the logic he knew and continued to go against the humans.

         The story to me sounds a bit cliché to the idea about robots taking over. The idea that we can create artificial intelligence and then have it turn on us is something I’ve seen quite a bit in science fiction literature. The idea is eerie to us and I think it has its roots back in this story. I liked the way the story went and how it gave a weird feeling to how we would see a robot going against us after questioning its existence. I was a bit confused at the end though.

"Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," by Brian Aldiss, 1969

I didn’t quite understand this story until the very end when it is explained that the little boy is artificial and he is to be replaced now that the parents were permitted to birth a natural child. I like that twist and how he also questions his existence like in the “Reason”. I definitely liked this story more than the first one.

         I didn’t understand why the child was having a hard time communicating with his mother until the end when she explains his communication wiring wasn’t working. That to me was very creepy. The child tries to convey his love towards his mother, which is another thing that didn’t that didn’t make sense to me because if he is a robot how can he feel emotion?

         With the developments in technology in the story we can see at this point there are artificial humans (and toys). But they make the child almost seem like a toy as feel. They seem as if they are trying to make a relationship with the child but at the same time when the mother discovers she can become pregnant she wants to dispose of him. This makes him seem like a toy as well. She mentions she has no issue getting rid of the teddy bear because he very well but is a little hesitant about the artificial child.

         The mother seems to be saddened by the fact that the child robot has emotion for her and values their relationship when she reads his letters to her. This may be difficult for her because she does not feel the same way about their relationship. She is ready to toss this robot to the side now that she knows she can give birth to an actual child. Its sad to see at the end when he rests and it says it feels like the embrace from his mother.

Viewing blog #1

Pyscho Pass
22 Episodes in the first season x each 20 minutes = 440min= 7.3 hours so lets just say 7 hours of viewing.

A quick summary of this anime is that it is set in the future where the government determines whether someone is dangerous or not. They crime force is split into three positions inspectors, enforcers, and analysis officers. The inspectors are detectives with a clean psycho pass, enforcers and latent criminals who help the detectives, and analysis do the computer work. If someone has a certain psycho pass number they are determined as dangerous to society and are put away for therapy. There are readers all over the city and the inspectors have guns that can read it. When on duty the gun can read how high the psycho pass is and determines whether to disable the person or kill them.

Its scary to think that we could live in a world constructed like that. In one episode a woman was raped and they read her psycho pass and it was high due to the stress levels and the gun ended up killing her. I wouldn't like to live a world like this because you never know what could happen. One day you could just be stressed or upset over something and a detector will read you and send you to therapy or to be locked away forever.

I would consider this science fiction because it is futuristic scenario. It is all technological the way they do things. I really enjoy this show and it has made its way into my top three animes of all time.

Blog Set #3

In “That Only a Mother” I feel as if the fact that they are in a middle class setting the mother expects nothing less of perfect from the child. That’s why I feel like maybe she went a tad bit crazy and didn’t realize or acknowledged the fact that her child had no limbs. That to me is very creepy and strange.  She maybe feel as if what is going on such as the toxicants can’t affect her because of her status.

The story may reflect also on humanity and how people can be blind to certain things because they choose not to deal with reality. The child clearly has no limbs but the mother may have noticed but suppresses that idea because she feels that this could never happen to a woman of her status.

This conforms to the genre expectations by creating an eerie sense of discomfort at the end when you realize the mother is insane and doesn’t acknowledge the fact that her baby has no limbs. Also in the regard of science fiction the story has a hypothetical situation in which there is a rise in babies being born with mutations.

In “We See Things Differently” The story follows after America’s fall of economics and culture. All the nations the United States have helped rise up will eventually turn on the U.S to tear us down. The Arab world comes together and becomes a power block. We find this out from the perspective of Sayyid Qutb and he is an Arab coming to America to figure things outs and as well to make sure no one gets out of line.

 this conforms to the genre expectations of sci-fi by creating this future dystopia in where we find out the things that led to such event and how they could be possible.