Hitchhiker's Radio Guide Show

I felt like I was one of the few people at this point in my life who had not read or seen the movie for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  I was excited to listen to the radio show, as that is something I have a little but not much experience in.  I felt like this was the perfect way to enjoy this work.  The radio show broke it down into bit size pieces for weekly installments, and even though I listened to all of it in three sittings, I still had things broken down into chunks.  Having the different voices play the characters is something I have always enjoyed from full cast audiobooks, so I enjoyed is even more in this production with the inclusion of sound effects and music too.  My biggest problem for this work was the ending.  The radio show just seems to stop. They even said in it that there would have to be more books for anymore answers.  I felt frustrated by not having a "real" conclusion.  I'm sure for some people it would be like a cliffhanger that would make them read more, but whenever I see something like that I get frustrated and quit the series.

Amanda

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler Questions

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
After reading Bloodchild by Octavia Butler I felt confused, so much so that I ended googling to find out more about what I had just read. Once I had done that I felt like I could better understand the story and was less confused and more disturbed. Online this story is argued to be a love story, but I think the only way I could believe that is if it was familial love. Gan makes all of her decisions to help her family. She gets impregnated so her brother and sister do not have to carry that burden, not because she has fallen in love. Once I started thinking about it that way it wasn’t so much a love story as a coming of age story, which fits with the opening line “My last night of childhood began with a visit home.”

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which were able to connect.
Personally I did not feel as connected to this story as I could have been. I tried not to let the fact that it’s a short story sway me, but I’ve never been a fan of short stories. Past that this work has a lot of good in it, if only it had been written in an easier way. I had a hard time getting into the story and understanding just what was happening. Once I figured it out I realized it was just a twist on a modern day problem. Sex, family, and survival are all problems addressed in this work, but the entire time you are wondering which side is the good. The problem is, they both are. These creatures are just doing what is needed to stay alive, and harming the others as little as they can. It’s almost a paradise, but it is twisted and corrupted by the fears of a child.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
I think this story would make an interesting mini series or tv show. I might just be biased because I believe most books should be turned into tv shows and not movies, but the story would unfold more natural with having an overarching plot like this story gives, and smaller subplots of other things that happen on this planet. We would be able to go deeper into the children’s backstories, the mothers past, how humans got to this planet, other people being impregnated on this world, how this world has developed a new type of family all without losing the main story of a young girl afraid to do what she must to protect her family. Right now with the boom in young strong heroins this story would be a hit. It would be dark and horrible like The Handmaids Tale but it would follow its traditional African roots giving it a new and refreshing take.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

I picked to read this book after I watched the Netflix adaptation.  I had really enjoyed the show so I wanted to see how close the book would follow to it, and then try to figure out why things were changed.  After reading the book I can say that, for the most part, the TV show only changed the characters and left the plot alone.  The same things seem to happen in both things, but the people are completely different.  The tv show introduced a few great new characters to us that the book either glosses over, doesn't have, or is a combination of a few smaller characters.  The TV show also stepped up its racial diversity.  But all of that really comes down to stylistic changes, both are good with what they have.  That saying, the biggest character change of all, was Takeshi Kovac.  Maybe I found the main character of the TV show hard to read because most of his acting is actions instead of dialogue, but he comes across as more of a bad guy rogue.  The book allowed him to be funny and even cheerful at some parts.  That's not to say that the TV show didn't have him laugh, but he seemed more plagued by his past than anything else.  Book Kovac is constantly stalked by an ex-partner who is missing an eye (TV is a black woman lover who lead his rebel team) but even in the moments of an one eyed ghost telling him how to change his life, Kovac seemed less melancholy.  I have to chalk this all up to being able to understand his thoughts, something a book can give you the privilege of that the TV cannot.

Amanda

Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Assignment:
The readings for this week emphasize the fiction of ideas. What ideas or mind experiments were explored in the works you read for this week? What were some of the implications or consequences of those ideas for those of us living today?

One of the best examples of a mind experiment in this book is the paradox of this book.  In chapter 5, two character talk about a work of fiction in their world, that is in fact our history.  They mention that FDR was shot and killed in Miami, leading up to a different man becoming president who can do nothing about German taking over Europe in World War 2.  This is our world.  So we are caught reading a book about a fiction world where they read a book about a fiction world that is actually our world.  Once you get done with your headache, you realize how cool it is that Dick did this too us.  Yes the whole premise of the book makes you think about how horrible life would be for the average American if Germany had one, but this was the first moment that I stopped and actually thought about what that would actually mean.  Up until this point it had been fiction to me, but for some reason, making my world fiction put things into a perspective I could really understand.

Amanda

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

While reading this short novel I was constantly wondering where the ending was going to take us.  Sure the book is about broken systems, so I knew that the brainwashing would not "work out all right" and leave Alex becoming a better person, but I was expecting something more than what I was given.  One of the thought I had while reading this work was that they would have Alex overcome his old life, start a family, and then have teenagers come and destroy his family like he did to others.  That might have been too much irony, but I think it would have felt more just.  Instead we are left with him seeing how his son will grow up to be like him and there is nothing he can do, but in the end it will be alright because man is not a machine so we grow and play by our own rules.
-Amanda

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

"It doesn't matter that you didn't believe in us, we believed in you." -Mr. Ibis (American Gods)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman was a very interesting read.  Taking the old myths of the past worlds and mixing it with contemporary "gods" was executed in such a way that left the reader wondering who exactly was going to win in the end (or as the gods say there is no end). All of this brought questions into my mind.  I was left with this idea that the gods had created us yet we had created them.  After some time struggling with this age old chicken or the egg dilemma, I had to accept that this was an interesting work that could make people think a lot more about their beliefs and actions, but in the end in real life it all has to come down to faith, that old gut feeling.

Shadow was such an interesting main character because, when it all came down to it, he wasn't really relevant to the story.  Sure if you took him out the story would change a bit, but in the end the same things would happen: gods would go to war over the love and worship of man kind.  It was like reading about a man who was watching an event.  This is probably why the book is so long and takes so many tangents to get to the important stuff; I mean for a book about waring gods, we really only faces that near the end.  Most protagonists are "the chosen one" and we can find endless examples of people being needed to fulfill tasks, rescue others, and solve problems.  And while Shadow does play a big role for Wednesday, I truly believe that he could have figured it out without him.  This is one of the biggest differences between this book and others like it.  Instead of the gods coming to shadow and asking him to do these tasks that would be easy for them to accomplish but they need him to learn, grow, and be a better person, they bring him along as a taxi driver who also helps clean up the messes.  Odin talks about how he needed a son, and yes Shadow convinces the gods at the end to not fight, but I just feel like it could have been anyone who was paying close enough attention.

Amanda 

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Caraval is a book that should be compared to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  They have all of the same elements: magic that seems to be fake but is real, love both romantic and non-romantic, a game brought on by a magician, a big twist at the end, and strange yet magical worlds that feel more like game boards than locations (something I am sure the authors did on purpose).  I liked the books about the same amount, which is to say they are about average.  But I have already talked about The Night Circus and my problems with it, now I will be talking about Caraval by Stephanie Garber.

One thing I liked about this book was the "magic system".  I put this in quotes because I still feel like I cannot call it that.  It is not magic to these people, it is their everyday lives.  My favorite aspect of it was how they dealt with time.  In the beginning the main protagonist enters a clock shop, and this is just used as a piece of foreshadowing for on of the most exciting moments in the book.  Scarlett trades days of her life for a dress.  This is something we see as a warning often in fiction, but I really enjoyed how they played with her not dying sooner but instead being unconscious for those days.  The whole book is focused around time.  Things are done at night.  This adds an elements of mystery but also weirdness.  Overall the way the book handles magic and time was very interesting.

So why did I think this book was average when I really like the concepts behind it? I think it all cracks down to personal opinion.  I felt like Garber's writing style was a bit juvenile.  I also felt like the story was predictable.  I should give authors more of a break, because as I get older I hear more stories and it is harder to surprise me, but instead I get frustrated when I can figure out the big ending before the main character can.

Amanda 

Artemis by Andy Weir

I chose to read a newer book that Andy Weir had written for this week.  Artemis falls into the same genre as The Martian but instead follows a civilization (and heist) on the moon.  I absolutely love heists stories and this one did not fail.  There is murder and twists like in all good thieving stories.  I would hate to compare this work to Ocean's Eleven, because then it would fall short, but it has the same structure as that story meaning that every time the audience is getting comfortable something big happens and you are pulled back into the story. 

Another reason why I picked up this book was due to it being about a female person of color.  Not only is it hard to find women as leads in science fiction, but never would you find a middle eastern woman.  The best part was that her race and sex where not just thrown in there to have a female poc pov, but he used it in parts to further the plot.  At one point she wears a Burqa to go undercover.  Another she is a prostitute in a fancy hotel.  She herself is not very religious but her father is, so we can see him finding ways to keep to his religion while on the moon.  

And finally I chose to read this work because, have I mentioned, it takes place on the moon! Like most humans, I have a huge fascination with the moon itself, so mention that a book is going to take place on it and I am ready to read.  Andy Weir constantly reminded us in the work that that was where we were; wether it was through the low gravity, the hot sun, the small living conditions, the illegal imported goods, the bad wifi (I think you get it, he was constantly reminding us), but he also did it through the science.  There were moments throughout the work where he would stop and give us a science lesson through the main protagonist, which was always used to educate and further the plot.

-Amanda

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Assignment:
Fantasy of this type is pointed at young adults to help instruct them in the complexities of navigating the world. In what way were complex moral issues and spiritual challenges presented in the work you read for this week?

Responce:

The book Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern brought up a few different moral issues throughout the work.  The biggest one is the one addressed at the very end, completing the plot.  Celia and Marco choose their own love and happiness over that of another person’s life.  Bailey was an ordinary person, and they way that he was thrown into the Night Circus’ world bothered me.  He was not given the opportunity to choose anything for himself, just like Celia and Marco were denied that right, yet they were still fully willing to force everything onto him.  They were both upset that they never got to do what they wanted and never got to be together yet in the end they were willing to do that to another person. 

Another moral issue this book brings up is how Celia and Marco use everyone in the Circus as a pawn in their game.  While they do not get their lives taken away, none of them know to the full extent what they are participating in.  This moral issue does not bother me like the other one does, because I believe they are not taking anything away from the other performers, but instead offering up a place for them to work without know the full extent of what their work is benefitting.  The exception of this is whenever they directly lie to another person like Marco does to Isobel.

But the reader must look beyond Marco and Celia’s moral crimes and search the real root of the problem, they were forced to participate in these “games” just like everyone else.  Both Chandresh and Hector chose this life for these children and treated them abusively growing up, then forced them to perform when they wanted to just be happy together.  The issues I brought up in paragraph one would not have been a problem if it was not for these two forcing the competition onto their children.  They had to use everyone in their lives like pawns because they were pawns in a game they did not get to start and had no choice but to finish.

-Amanda LaCorte

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

The story Akata Witch has a lot of female characters in it.  The main character is Sunny and while she does everything that a protagonist does she also faces a lot of sexism in the work as well.  I believe the other used this on purpose to help show how tough the world can be for woman instead how it has been used in other novels where it feels like an author is trying to talk down to women.  Nnedi Okorafor has many examples of strong women in this work; between that and her accurate references to Nigeria this novel is overall a unique take on fantasy.
One of the biggest moments in the novel that stuck with me after reading it was when Sunny was trying to play soccer.  This is something she loves to do and is very good at it.  When she gets on a team to play for the day they first tell her that she cannot join them because she is a girl.  Her friend Sasha stands up for her and convinces the other boys to at least give her a tryout.  What made this scene so powerful was her tryout was so much harder than any of the boys' tryouts.  She had to not only shoot the ball into the goal, but there was a goalie and defense playing against her. This was a powerful image showing the extra work women have to do in order to get the same privilege as men.  The novel gives other examples of both genders working together to destroy the evil, which is good.  I don't like when works try to praise women by bashing men, but instead lift both men and women togther.
-Amanda

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"My dear Bilbo! he said. Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were." -Gandolf

I wish I could have read this book before seeing the movies, but as I watch them all as they were coming out and just read the book for the first time for this class, I unfortunately cannot change that.  Because I had seen the movies, so much felt like it was missing from this book.  I realize now why there were so many changes made, but I am not sure I would have done all of them myself.  

My favorite part about this book is the protagonist.  Bilbo is such a relatable character.  He really just finds himself in the middle of all of this greatness not really making many choices on his own yet still lucking out.  The entire time he is dreaming of his bed back home.  While I love The Lord of the Rings series, I think that Frodo is more of a savior archetype which can make him hard to relate to.  He saves everyone, by doing what no one else could before him, and sacrifices almost everything to fix someone else's mistake.  Frodo leaves his story scarred yet stronger.  Bilbo on the other hand gets thrown into an adventure he didn't sign up for, wants to go home, manages to mess up the right way every single time, and walks away with a huge secret that starts the drama in the original series.  He leaves his story a different character, but I wouldn’t call him scarred, just braver.  He is a great example to children and adults of what a real human is: flawed but brave.  He tries his hardest and makes difficult choices, all while fate throwing him where he needs to go.  Bilbo is a great main character.  

 -Amanda