Author Archives: engh451blog
engh451blog 2011-12-01 00:01:10
The House of the Scorpion centers on many of the same issues and ideas that have surfaced in the science-fiction novels we have read to date. What qualifies as “human”? When, after alteration, does a human lose his humanity? The … Continue reading → Continue reading
Jukka Sarasti Viewpoint
Preparations complete. Anti-matter reserves – 100%. Theseus expansion – 58% and counting. Charybdis overhaul – 100% Next objective: Dispatch Keeton in Charybdis. Keeton summoned to personal quarters. It will arrive in approximately 3.2337 minutes. Human will delay while contemplating disobeying. … Continue reading → Continue reading
“FIRST-PERSON SEX…”
“First-person sex — real sex as Chelsea insisted on calling it — was an acquired taste: jagged breathing, the raw slap and stink of sweaty skin full of pores and blemishes, a whole other person with a whole other set … Continue reading → Continue reading
Gabe’s Journal
The little midget is growing on me. It is difficult to know what he understands about our world now. He unnerves me. His memory is so markedly alien that I cannot stand his presence but there are moments of blatant humanity that still … Continue reading → Continue reading
Freudian Oankalionomics
The most perplexing aspect of the story in Lilith’s Brood is the understanding/images formulated of the Oankali and their motives. The images portrayed by Octavia Butler are so, obviously, alien that the reader maintains an ever-shifting opinion upon the appearance … Continue reading → Continue reading
WE3
The complexity of the WE3 animals is based on their mental acuity and subjective humanity. Through their actions and decisions the reader gains a perspective that only Dr. Berry achieves within the novel; however, that in itself is subjective due to … Continue reading → Continue reading
Interactive Internet?
Neuromancer throws the reader into the futuristic world of genetic re-engineering and cyberwarfare and forces adaptation to the new world while it sprints ahead at breakneck speed. Originally, I envisioned Case “jacking in” in the same manner as portrayed by … Continue reading → Continue reading
Response to jdougla8
The argument that McReady has a suspiciously knowledgeable understanding of the monster and its effects upon the individual/s in inhabits is based on the manner in which he expresses his ideas. When concocting the experiment to prove the humanity of … Continue reading → Continue reading
Comment on Secret Monsters by engh451blog
While I do agree that McReady does seem very persceptive of the abilities and thoughts of the “monster” the omission in one of your quotes does leak some of its strength: “It cannot animate a dead body, apparently” (22). This bit of uncertainty does not refute your claim, with which I happen to share a line of thought, it does follow logically the process through which a human being would explain something to which he/she had drawn a hypothesis. He generally makes assumptions based upon data of how the creature has reacted which lends itself to the believe that he is simply a intelligent and abstract thinker. Continue reading
The Daemon’s Fatal Mistake
The tragedy of Frankenstein’s creature centers around the moment in which his desire of a mate is dashed upon the ground. While Frankenstein labors over his work in Scotland he battles with bouts of nausea at the thought of his … Continue reading → Continue reading