Author Archives: chrispetrus
Nurturing the Flesh: Simialarities between The House of the Scorpian, Neuromancer, and Frankenstein
First Both Matt and Frankenstein’s monster share a very similar style of living space when they are on their own. Matt has his little pig pen with sawdust and rotten oranges, and the monster has his little shack with a dirt floor and low ceilings. This similarity made me ask if El Patron knew about […]
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Rewriting the Prologue in Peter Watt’s Blindsight
IMAGINE YOU ARE Robert Paglino. That’s Right. I must have been about eight or nine years old when it happened. I can’t say I remember much. I mean I was just a little kid. But there are some moments in life that impress your brain permanently, and you remember some of the most vivid details. […]
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My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me
“They’re tricks of the mind, the same neurological smoke-and-mirrors that convinced people throughout the ages that they were being haunted by ghosts, abducted by aliens, hunted by— —vampires— —and you wonder whether Sarasti really stayed behind or if he was here all along, waiting for you…” (159). I think this quote can serve as an […]
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In the Belly of the Plants
What strikes me as truly alien are the plant rooms in Lilith’s Brood. I had trouble understanding what they are. Are they independently living organisms or are they part of another living creature? Do they think on their own? How will they play a more crucial role in the book? The section where Kahguyaht takes […]
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Sympathizing with Dr. Trendle in WE3
I thought about the class discussion on the graphic novel WE3, about how the eyes are absent in the panels depicting most humans. Eyes certainly reveal emotions in the animal characters 1, 2, and 3. Often times in the book, Dr. Roseanne Berry’s eyes reveal her sympathy for the WE3 team and her anger […]
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The Cyber novel Neuromancer
I had typed up most of my blog on Friday, but when I noticed the email with the blog prompt about why Neuromancer is difficult, I figured I could change my blog to focus more on that question. William Gibson is arguably the father of the Sci-fi sub-genre Cyberpunk. But, what is Cyberpunk? […]
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A Response to Jdougla8′s blog post “Secret Monsters”
I agree, Julia, that McReady made some ridiculous claims in Who Goes There. And, what’s interesting is that he is the hero of the story. I actually wanted to add to your list of fallacies that other characters made, as well. Frankly, they are all over this story. One example is when Blair discusses the impossibility of the aliens being […]
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Comment on Leading up to “a spark of being into a lifeless thing” by chrispetrus
According to Isaac Asimov, "Mechanical human beings are to be found in ancient and medieval myths and legends, and the word "robot" originally appeared in Karl Capek's play R.U.R, which first staged in 1921 in Czechoslovakia, but was soon translated into many languages." I remembered him mentioning something about that in an introduction to his novel The Caves of Steel (One of my favorite SF novels BTW). Asimov also points out, "R.U.R. added its somber view to that of the even more famous Frankenstein, in which the creation of another kind of human being also ended in disaster, though on a more limited scale. Following these examples, it became very common, in the 1920s and 1930s, to picture robots as dangerous devices that invariably destroyed their creators. The moral was pointed out over and over again that 'there are some things Man was not meant to know.'" Everyone should definitely pick up the Robot Trilogy. The prequel I’ Robot is excellent. That Will Smith movie does Asimov’s work such poor justice. The whole saga is awesome. Continue reading
Isolation and Obsession in Frankenstein
To be honest, I have never completely watched the black and white Frankenstein. But, the first depiction of the daemon that sticks in my memory is quite similar to the character in the classic movie. When I was about seven or eight years old, I was given the Konami video game Castlevania for Christmas. […]
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Leading up to “a spark of being into a lifeless thing”
I agree with where Julia Douglas and Occasionalbologna (sorry, I do not know who in my group has that username:) were going with their blogs. I also thought about how Suvin states, “SF concentrates on possible futures and their spatial equivalents, but it can deal with the present and the past as special cases […]
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