Multiverse and Language-Babel 17

There are two things about this genre and the novel this week, 'Babel 17', I would like to discuss. First is the main theme in this novel, language, and the second is the genetic manipulation and the characters in the novel.

On the first, not only is language everything this book is about, but this seems to be a common theme in cyber-tek stories as well, such as the following week's novel, 'Snow Crash'. Language and as we find in the book, body language as well, is very powerful, more then people would initially believe. The main character, Rydra, appears to be telepathic, but in truth she is just incredibly fast and accurate at reading people's body language. This was very fascinating to me, because my mom, who studied psychology, has taught me about reading body language and interrupting and analyzing my interactions with others and other people in general. In the beginning of the novel, Rydra explains to her psychologist every little movement and exactly what it meant, down to amazingly subtle things, that all turned out to be accurate. Spoken language is also important, in the novel this new language can even betray your previous beliefs. This I believe is true now more then ever in today's society. I'm taking an Environmental Ethics class and the main thing we've been learning is that we more then often unknowingly do things against our beliefs everyday. We buy and use products from companies who practice things against our beliefs, we ignorantly support them. Language, used ignorantly and blindly, will turn against us, we will betray our own beliefs if we use it without knowing it's true meaning. This I believe is the lesson and concept that Babel 17 teaches. 'Snow Crash' uses similar techniques, even though it is cyberpunk, language plays a key role in power control, which some take advantage of. In both novels the hero must learn to control this language and stop it's spreading corruption before it completely controls them.

The second part to Babel 17, is the genetic manipulation, which is growing even in today's society. I found it very interesting when the novel described each character, no one seemed boring. I believe that's what really driving people in today's world to want to be more then what they are now. They want to be interesting, perfect even, or imperfect to stand out. We start with different colored hair, piercings, tattoos, and then escalate to bionic parts like organs or limbs, then we'll get to bionic organs like eye enhancements, mechanical parts that interact with other machines (like computer chips that open doors for us when we walk near them), and so on. The genetic manipulation doesn't have to be negative, in the book it was so cool to imagine the different characters and their fantastic enhancements. It all depends on the direction society heads with the manipulation, hopefully we won't ever get to a point where we are pretty much ordering children from a catalog where we can mix and match desired traits.

Space Opera

At the time I saw 'Star Trek' I wouldn't have called it space opera, but now that I know the criteria, it fits it perfectly. Overdramatic, light-speed space travel; large, universal empires and multiple races or aliens and foreign planets and galaxies. All the drama of space opera can be paralleled by common stories or situations we face everyday, only in a fantasy setting. For example the movie we watched in class, 'Forbidden Planet', a story where your own mind can be your undoing, is just a personification of reality, where we are our own undoing most of the time. The space-opera movie 'Serenity' stars a group of rowdy outlaws each with their own speciality, who try and uncover a government cover-up, a classic story that could be told during any time period, western, crime noir 30's, modern, or futuristic. The novel this week, 'The Stars My Destination' is space retelling of 'The Count of Monty Cristo' all about the simple yet complex human need for revenge and justice. Even though it may seem to others your actions are insane, evil and cruel, you alone know the 'truth' of your suffering and demand that an equal amount of suffering be returned.

Anit-heroes are interesting in that way, and make them appealing and popular. They do what we more then often only dream and fantasize about: revenge! One of my favorite tragic characters is Eric, from 'Phantom of the Opera'- an anti-hero who just wants his loved returned that he's given to the girl her entire life. Human desire for 'fairness' leads us in many directions, and in 'The Stars My Destination' it drives him toward revenge, but this leads to good things for the main character, Foyle. Before he was just 'existing' , now because of his desire for revenge, he forces himself to become more then just that. Again, something we only ever hope for, but never implement in reality. In that way Folye is likable, at least for me, because he is relatable. He was a complete failure before, no education, no skills; now he pushes himself harder then ever! He found his purpose, it may or may not be for the right intentions, but at least he's moving forward now. Which is more then most people in today's society can say.

Cyberpunk

One of my all time favorite genres, because, similar to fantasy, it literally takes you into a different world. My first experience was probably similar to everyone else's: Tron. I've only ever seen the original and I loved it, a guy warped into a whole new world, where his frown-upon skills in reality are key in this new universe. This I found is the basic plot of all the cyberpunk I've read. Hackers are the gods, the control and sneak around the rules of 'cyberspace'. Knowing I was interested in the genre, when an opportunity came up in my writing class last year to read 'Neuromancer' I jumped at the chance. I'll just admit, my first reaction was surprise at the seemingly random sex scene... never expected that! But the cyber punk heroine was awesome, so it was okay. She, or 'Molly the razor-girll', exemplifies her role completely as we discussed in class: she's badass, cybernetic enhancements- fingernails extended like claws and technologically enhanced sight, and she's hired by the mysterious but helpful 'Armitage'. It was an interesting book, I wrote my paper on it by focusing on all the drug referencing it contained. The main character, Case, not only had a drug addiction, but cyberspace itself was described like an acid trip. He was addicted to cyberspace, and he was losing his mind not being able to connect with it.

However, reading 'Snow Crash' was actually a bit more entertaining! Might have been because it was more modern, the whole 'mafia samurai pizza delivery boy' drew me right in and Hiro's personality and the continually building series of events kept me in! Not so much drug imagery as in 'Neuromancer', it honestly sounded more like 'Sims' or something, with the avatars that could be generic or store bought and cheap, that sounded very realistic. Even the fact that Hiro and half the world lived in storage units seemed very realistic and was a nice detail to keep the reader. Why not spend all your time in a universe where you are rich, skilled and can bend rules of the world sometimes, especially when you literally live in a box. These are the appealing and engaging elements of cyberpunk, where you can have an epic adventure with love, danger and action without even leaving your room. Modern computer games have hooked onto this and as a whole, society is addicted to it.  

Urban Fantasy

Mixing magic and the real world is very entertaining. It take fantasy to a whole other level. Normally, we read fantasy to escape our everyday reality and explore beautiful fantastical worlds. However with these types of books, they bring the fantasy to our world. Now we can imagine having epic adventures and heroic journeys in our own reality! It is a very exciting possibility that I was happy to explore.

Reading about gods and mystical powers in our society also made me think of another book series I've read, which was suggested to me by, yet again, my sister. I believe it was for a younger audience, especially since I read one of the books within two days, but it's called Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Sadly it was made into a horrible movie that, just as another of my favorites, Eragon, did the book no justice at all. Percy Jackson is another book that plays on ancient gods and goddess, playing on Greek myths, versus Anansi Boys, about African culture myths and gods. However both books explore the 'urban fantasy' type genre, where reality and fantasy are heavily intertwined. I always find it amusing when things that we can't explain in our reality are caused by the magic of the other reality. For example, one of the main details in Percy Jackson is that the main character is dyslexic, and this is explained: he is a demigod, and his brain is programmed to read Greek, not English. Even subtle little things like that really solidify a story and fully bring the fantasy into the real world.

There is a bit of difficulty in this genre I would imagine. In fantasy worlds, you have the problem of having to create from scratch a whole new set of rules for the universe. The opposite, if you have a set reality, there are some rules you can't break, otherwise you lose the audience's believability completely. Of course being fantasy you can take liberties, but even then there is a fine line that borders on, 'Oh that's so cool, I never thought of it that way before' and 'Really? Come on, I seriously doubt that would ever happen...'

Upon researching Anansi Boys, I found it appears to be a spin-off of another novel American Gods. When I read the synopsis for that I immediately became intrigued, it sounds exactly like Percy Jackson, only a lot more in depth. In Percy Jackson, the Greek gods and goddesses are modernized, along with several greek figures in history. For example Daedalus is an old, cantankerous architect who's every plan is recorded in his laptop, and Ares is a killer looking biker. American Gods is said to even explore popular culture in american, personifying our greed and other vices, that sounds ridiculously entertaining.  

Spiritual Education& Fantasy

I am surprised to know several of my friends have never read the Harry Potter books or watched any of the Star Wars, OR Lord of the Rings, quite a disappointment, they've missed a lot. So much of those stories are tied into our culture no a days, it seems impossible to me that anyone doesn't know about them. My sister passed on the Harry Potter books to me, one by one as the came out, after she read them within days. I also remember watching 'The Golden Compass' when it came out in theaters as well as 'Chronicles of Narnia'. I happened to watch 'Chronicles of Narnia' with a very religious boyfriend, and therefore afterwards found out many, many things about the movie and books- which he had read- that I never would have guessed were in there. He even read 'The Golden Compass' despite it's anti-religious undertones(or overtones, they are quite obvious) he enjoyed it, mostly the fantasy quality about it. Which is something I also stuck to in the book. The fact that you can have a spirit animal is fascinating in itself, but again, my draw to fantasy is the extraordinary worlds it creates, and this book, along with Narnia, created so many for me.

Narnia itself could represent that aspect of fantasy, that there are other worlds out there, just waiting to be explored, and sometimes all you have to is open a closet in an old house, or fall down a rabbit hole... Now kids can imagine all there wildest dreams come to life in this world were anything is possible, as long as they do not sin at least. This tends to lead to evil trying to overthrow you and all, for example the gluttonous nature of Edmund leads him to naively befriend the White Witch.

Those types of lessons are underlying in the books. I think it is helpful and totally appropriate for young readers to be exposed to that kind of thinking and values. With television shows and pop culture in general getting raunchier, sexualized and violent as it is today, children need some classic value-teaching shows, movies and books especially. I'm not even confident children read good wholesome books anymore, they probably all involve werewolves or vampires, because apparently they are the only things that can keep there attention. That might be heavily generalizing, and I certainly hope it isn't true. Fantasy books teach us to use our imagination for good, teach us simple and good values and expand our knowledge and vocabulary. The more stories and worlds we experience the better storytellers we will become, and we will have a brighter future.  

Fantasy: The Hobbit

I was so excited when I saw this one the list for books at the beginning of term. Of course I'd already seen all three Lord of the Rings, and has heard about the animated 'The Hobbit' 2-D movie- whose style was interesting, but quite odd. I enjoy the fantasy genre the most. I completely agree with Tolkien in that fantasy is a necessary escape from the grueling and harsh nature of reality. I lose myself in the stories of fantasy, anything that can take me to another world, some where unlike the one I live in everyday and I love it. Happy endings don't normally happen in real life, things often don't turn out, or we fail, but in movies and books we can escape that. That's why I hate scary movies, I go to the movies to escape reality, not have it thrown in my face in the most gory or mind-trippy way possible.

Our discussion about the heroes journey is one I've heard before, but will never get tired of hearing. Every time I hear about the hero's journey, I learn more and more. I like this classic story plot, and I enjoy watching it, as well as creating my own. I have a comic, and while learning about the hero's journey the way we did in class, I realized what my story was lacking, and how I could improve it, if I were to re-draw it. I lacked the initial 'calling' of the hero, in my story he just, went off on his own, when I believe it would have been much more engaging if he had a reason. Also I noticed I automatically seemed to understand the hero's journey, even without directly meaning too. There were several points/stages in the image of the hero's journey showed during class that I noticed were in my story. For example the duality struggle, the struggle with one's self, like the classic, Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde, before you can defeat the villain, you must face and conquer your own evils.

Most of the books I've read before this class were fantasy, one of the reasons I was interested in this class to begin with was to break out of that style a bit, and explore other mediums. Horror was interesting, the books seem milder then the movies. My younger sister is the real hard-core book lover, and she would often give me the books after she read them- which is how I got into Harry Potter.

The Hobbit was cute, surprisingly easy read compared to other books we've read recently. Though the songs/poems were, in my opinion, annoying, they almost reminded me of book I read in AP English that would go on and on and the poems would be pointless, almost like they were trying to fill up space, basically I didn't get their purpose. In The Hobbit they almost introduced the new characters, but I still was reminded of pointlessness and became annoyed, and there were so many. I saw the movies of Lord of the Rings first, so it was interesting to finally 'get' some of the hints they were making in the beginning of the movie, and now I have some insight into Gandolf and Bilbo, who seemed to be complete minor characters- at least Biblo- in 'Lord of the Rings'. It was nice though being able to perfectly imagine what each of the characters looked like, and the environments as well, though some would say it would have been better to imagine it on my own, I liked the images that popped in my head.

One more note about something we discussed in class was the sexist undertones, I could feel them in the story now that you mention it. I suppose though I wasn't really paying attention to that and therefore didn't notice it. However I remember during the last movie, one of the big bad guys, had a legend about him: no man could defeat him. So what happened in the end? A women ended up killing him in the battle! I thought that was almost completely contradicting the sexist nature, that a women would go into battle and actually be the one to kill the big bad guy. Only problem is I'm not sure if that's entirely cannon as I have not read the Lord of the Rings books.

J-Horror

I believe I've blogged about this before, but to reiterate, I dislike scary movies, or psychological horror. I cannot separate myself from the story, I get lost in it- which is why I actually love the fantasy genre the most. Movies like 'The Grudge' or 'The Ring' I've never seen, and never will. Even the movie we watched in class, 'Pulse'- not the older one with the narration- freaked me out immensely. I went home feeling as though I should be weary of my computer, or the walls, for if I turn on the light in the dark room, someone or something could be standing there ominously. Literally as I'm typing this I am scaring myself because I have to think about that movie again. It's all in my head.

Old japanese horror stories play on your values I notice. Like the belief that everything in this world has a soul, and that the souls sometimes do not disappear with the body after death. Also I noticed if you stray from your values, or what is right in culture's view, bad things tend to happen. For example with 'Pulse', the introduction of technology, the breaking of older, traditional values, leads to suicide, which leads to unrest.