After accumulating websites that I visited over the course of the semester here are two visuals that I created using Voyant. I broke up the visuals based on the first half and the second half of the semester. I not only did this because Voyant couldn’t handle the number of websites I input, but I it is interesting to compare the two halves of the semester and see which key words were highlighted.

First 1/2:

The first half of the semester started with research into popular science fiction, sports in Sci-Fi, robots, cyborgs, nanotech, and sci-fi movies. Besides some of the more obvious terms, one of the terms that stands out to me is “human”. A common element of sci-fi that I was interested in this semester was the connection between the genre and what is can say and show about humans. Seeing this word stand out in the visualization, even through I wasn’t actively researching it, reminded me of how much sci-fi is able to, and talks about, the human condition and where we may be headed in the future. Another word that stood out was “time”. I think one thing that we have emphasized with every short story that we have read this semester is understanding the setting, and particularly when the story was written and in what time period it is based. I think that more than any other literary genre, time is emphasized more in Sci-Fi because sci-fi has the ability to reimagine the past or imagine the future.

2nd 1/2:

The second half of the semester I explored themes like nuclear war, dystopias, how seasons are shown in sci-fi, the Hugo Awards, and a few others. This visualization highlights a few terms that stand out to me. The first one that stands out is “winter”. In researching seasons in Sci-Fi, winter was commonly talked about, and my assumption is due to its connection to nuclear winter. One of the most interesting parts of that research was the illustrations, as most of them showed these dystopic cold atmospheres. Another word that stands out is “soviet”. Russian sci-fi wasn’t mentioned too much in my research however, my assumption is that the word soviet was in connection with my nuclear war research. Most cases of nuclear war in Sci-Fi, involved some kind of conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Overall, interesting exercise that gave me a good overview of the things that I have learned this semester and the topics that I have covered personally!

After watching Anvil (2017) on the Partfaliaz website today, I started clicking around watching other videos posted. I found a video titled, “Kinsetsu”, by Clemens Wirth, with the description “A Fictive Macro Sci-Fi Journey to Planet Nine”. Not only is the cinematography incredible, but it is all done using objects and phenomena on our planet. This was particularly interesting because without CGI, Wirth was still able to make the images feel other worldly.

The cinematography is awe-inspiring, but the sounds associated are also worth highlighting. One thing that Sci-Fi in literature form can’t fully communicate is sound. With every object in motion in this film there is a sound associated with it. Wirth, in association with his cinematography is adding a new layer of sound to the landscapes of other worlds. The opening image of the movie states, “Kinsetsu, Textures from Planet-9”. The images are certainly texture related but the sound seemingly also has texture.

I would I highly recommend a quick watch!

I saw this goofy comic in my local newspaper and I realized that I have become adept to finding buzzwords that are sci-fi related. In this case, “Clone” caught my eye and I had to share. Without reading into the simple comic too much, fun to see ideas from stories like Nine Lives in a Monday morning newspaper comic!

Humans have always had a fascination with the stars and the unknown that lies beyond Earth’s atmosphere. “The Star”, written in 1897 by H.G. Wells, imagines how the Earth would react if space was brought closer. The hurtling planet, whose contact with Neptune sets it on a trajectory towards Earth, brings the chance of an apocalyptic scenario to all walks of life. How the world reacts however, contrasts to a similar story written by Federico Schaffler in 1983 called “A Miscalculation”. A young boy’s dream is to be in space, and he is willing to die to be reborn in the stars. When his opportunity finally comes in the form of a falling meteor, he is “rescued” by a firefly and eventually his mother. More than 120 years after Wells wrote “The Star”, and almost 40 years after Schaffler’s “A Miscalculation”, these two stories contain similar messages rooted in the timelessness of space that are applicable today. Both authors use the story’s respective endings and the theme of the mathematician, to highlight how perspective is critical to how a situation is viewed.

Both authors introduce a new perspective for the final scenes of their stories. In the case of “The Star”, Wells transitions his story from an apocalyptic description of life on Earth to the perspective of Mars astronomers. The astronomers, operating on a larger scale, see an Earth that is left relatively unscathed. By changing the vantage point, Wells highlights the differences that perspective can have to the size of the disaster saying, “’The only difference seemed to be a shrinkage of the white discoloration (supposed to be frozen water) round either pole.’ Which shows how small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem, at a distance of a few million miles” (Wells, p. 49). Wells contrasts descriptions of incredible human suffering with the opinions of the astronomers, showing how small humans are in the universe. This same emphasis on perspective can also be seen in Schaffler’s story. Much like Wells, Schaffler uses the ending of the story to introduce the character of the mother and a new angle on the situation. Naturally, the mother sees her son dreaming about the stars and calls him inside. Unbeknownst to her, the son was dreaming to die by meteor in order to be reborn in the stars. Schaffler makes this contrast evident saying, “’Son, it’s so late, come to bed.’ The voice of a woman, full of tenderness and understanding, is heard calling him, bringing him out of his reverie and disappointment with reality” (Schaffler, p. 211). By going from language of dying by meteor to a mother’s tender voice, Schaffler shows the differences in perspective between the mother and the son. This not only returns the story back to a realistic situation but increases the irony of the final meteor miss.

The study of astronomy would be guesswork if it wasn’t for mathematics, so it isn’t surprising that both stories have included themes of mathematics and calculations. By including the character of the mathematician in “The Star”, Wells not only shows the perspective of someone who can see the future developing ahead of average citizens, but also how society reacts to data and science. For example, Wells explains the citizen’s reaction to the news of the inbound star saying, “There was no precedent for such a thing… The master mathematician’s grim warnings were treated by many as so much mere elaborate self-advertisement” (Wells, p.46). From the average citizens viewpoint the concept of an inbound star is beyond belief, but instead of listening to the mathematician they brush him off as being self-interested. Using the perspective of the average citizen and the astronomer, Wells provides commentary on the flaws of society in a time of crisis. This message is timeless, as it is hard not to relate this scene to the COVID-19 pandemic that the world is facing today. In a similar way, Schaffer also uses math with the boy’s calculations for the correct place and time to be killed by a meteor. For example, when the boy can feel the light penetrating his body but fails to be reborn, he thinks, “I miscalculated” (Schaffler, p. 211).  While subtle, the story hinges on that phrase. After the boy realizes that his timing was incorrect, he brushes off the incident as result of the firefly. While less obvious than “The Star”, the perspective of data and math is key to the boy’s decision making, and leads to the scene at the end where we learn that the boy’s calculations were correct on location, just not on time.

Overall, these two stories follow a similar structure, include the same imagery of space, and deal with the possibility of death from the cosmos. However, their message of the importance of perspective is timeless and universally applicable. “The Star” and “A Miscalculation” use perspective to show how small humans are in the universe, what death can look like, and how an individual can be misunderstood. With H.G. Wells being well known as one of the founders of science fiction it is fair to say that “The Star” may have been the inspiration for, or had some influence on Schaffler in his writing of “A Miscalculation”. Regardless, these stories show how universal the message of perspective can be. In my re-read of these stories, it was striking to see how applicable “The Star” was to the current pandemic. The mistrust of scientists and citizens ignoring the threat at hand, followed by destruction hitting every continent one by one felt like a recap of news articles written in the first few months of 2020. It is the perspective that we have on the impeding star, meteor, or COVID that affects how we respond to it.

Works Cited

Schaffler, Federico. “A Miscalculation.” Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain, translated by Andrea L. Bell, edited by Yolanda Molina-Gavilán, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2003, pp. 209-11.

Wells, H.G. “The Star.” The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction, edited by Arthur B. Evans, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2010, pp. 39-49.

In yet another attempt to distract myself from the ever present sci-fi reality of COVID-19, I have decided that this week I want to talk about the imagined modes of transportation seen in Sci-Fi.

Teleportation is my favorite imagined means of transportation. In most sci-fi, ie. Star Trek, teleportation is basically breaking down an object to its atomic level, moving it to another location at that size, and then building it back up on the other side. Here is Star Trek providing the perfect imagined visual example of the characters being atomized for teleporting.

http://numrush.com/2013/09/19/quantum-teleportation-one-step-closer-star-trek/

In an interesting article written by defense contractor, Northrup Grumman, they attempt to explain how teleportation is a reality today. With my very limited knowledge in quantum physics, it seems like scientists have been able to send photons or other quantum sized particles across incredible distances almost instantly. This has big implications to today’s society, not necessarily in the transportation of humans but could be key to the use of quantum computers and even cybersecurity for the future. See this link, for a cool and better explained reading of how quantum teleportation works.

Teleportation is just one of many imagined forms of transportation in the sci-fi universe, however, the possibility of humans being able to move through space and time within fractions of a second is a proposition that I would love to see come to reality. Especially when boarding an airplane these days seems like a death defying act.

We have been living in a sci-fi novel for the last few weeks and while I would love to make a post about the comparison of the global pandemic occurring in real-life to sci-fi novels and movies, I feel like the only topic of conversation in my life has been COVID-19. However, what the virus is forcing us to do it cope with the impending boredom of isolation, and what better way to do that then watch and read sci-fi.

“Westworld” an American sci-fi TV show that is aired on HBO was my pick for the show I was going to binge in order to follow the social distancing ideology that is recommended by professionals. I write this in the past tense because it proved to be unpleasant to watch, more on that later. Anyway, for those that have not seen the show, it is about a hyper-realistic park that “guests” can enjoy. Once guests (real humans) enter, they can do whatever they want with no repercussions, because everything that lives in the world are a robots. These robots are so realistic however, that the guests can’t tell the difference. In true sci-fi fashion these robots start to glitch, do things that they weren’t coded to do, and begin to take on a mind and consciousness of their own.

https://www.hbo.com/westworld/season-01

What I enjoyed about the first three episodes was just how much I could relate back to class. The producers use much of what makes sci-fi work, and they even managed to build onto examples that I have seen in class. For example, the setting, the characters, and the ethics resemble big themes in Sci-Fi. The setting is in essence a space western, where ordinary humans are dropped into a fictional wild west scene. The main characters are both robot and human, with this interaction showing a new side of human nature and its interaction with the creations that they made. And finally, this show is ethically messed up. The hyper-realistic nature of the robots means the scenes are brutally graphic but the audience is continually reminded that these characters are only robots. Unfortunately, it reveals the true nature of some characters as it is clear just how violent and abusive people can be when they know there are no consequences. This show reminds me of “Bokko-Chan” by Hoshi because it is about humans being completely captivated by robots. In “Bokko-Chan” the robot is much more simple but life-like enough to still attract men as if she was real. The story ends with the robot inadvertently killing the bar patrons. While I have only seen three episodes, I feel like “Westworld” could be headed down a similar path.

I have unfortunately stopped watching “Westworld”. The “Uncanny Valley” idea brought up in class a few weeks ago is exactly why I can’t watch the show anymore. The violence and abuse of the robots is too realistic because the robots are indistinguishable from the “guests”. On top of this, the show has lots of jump scares, and I really don’t like jump scares. Overall, Westword is a great example of a current sci-fi show that has its roots in everything we have been reading. For me, however, it is onto the next sci-fi show to binge. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Nine Lives: Clones and Human Emotion

“Nine Lives”, a science fiction short story by Ursula K. Le Gumn uses the character of a clone to tackle some of humanity’s most difficult questions; what does it mean to be an individual, how do you love someone, and what does emotion look like? Set on the planet Libra, whose surface takes on a persona of a cancerous, wrinkled, and boil-filled face, the three protagonists are working together to extract ore for use on a dystopic Earth. When the planet literally and figuratively swallows 9/10ths of the clone, Le Gumn leaves Kaph, the last remaining piece of John Chow. The clone’s struggles to understand who he is and how other humans interact, allows for the author to contemplate larger societal questions. Le Gumn employs personification, foreshadowing, and a dynamic narrator to place additional emphasis on the final scene, leaving the audience to reflect on what it means to be human and contemplate fundamental ideas of the human experience.

The first three sentences of the story paint a picture of a grotesque, ugly, and sick woman, whose face is later clarified to be the surface of the planet Libra. The planet is a methane filled, volcanic, and earthquake prone environment whose surface conceals the ore that the human race needs to survive. Le Gumn continues the personification of the planet throughout the story, developing its role as the antagonist after an earthquake kills the majority of the clone, John Chow, in the mine. For example, when Pugh and Martin go to the mine to save the clone, the planet is described as, “The horizontal light and shadow made it hard to see, raised walls of fake iron ahead of them which they slid through, turned the convex plain beyond Hellmouth into a great dimple full of bloody water” (Le Gumn, p. 8).  Le Gumn could have used many other descriptors to describe the “dimple”, but its use implies that the hideous planet is smiling. In the first paragraph of the story the planet is described as having “cracks”, “boils”, and “pus”, however, after the earthquake these descriptors are replaced with one commonly associated with a smile. In a story, seemingly without an antagonist, Le Gumn creates one by personifying the planet. The connection between the antagonist planet and the clone develops over the course of the story, allowing Gumn to kill off 9/10^ths of the clone and even foreshadow the conclusion.

Constantly hinting at impending destruction, Le Gumn uses foreshadowing to place additional emphasis on the conclusion. In relation to the planet, she uses the theme of the body to connect the planet and the clone and provide foreshadowing in the process. For example, Martin is questioning the clone about its creation to which the clone responds, “Intestinal cells happen to be easy to de-specialize and reprogram for total growth.” Later when describing the mine, Pugh and the narrator say, “’A great gut,’ Pugh said, looking down into the black pit, its veined and warted walls catching stray gleams of headlamps far below. ‘A cow’s bowel. A bloody great constipated intestine’” (Le Gumn, p. 5). Le Gumn uses the intestine to create the clone and then describes the mine using the same organ. In other words, the clone is created and killed by the same organ, foreshadowing the eventual death of the clone mid-way through the story. Another example of the use of foreshadowing is when narrator is describing Pugh’s dream and explains, “Pugh slept and dreamed of a one-eyed giant who chased him through the shaking halls of Hell” (Le Gumn, p. 2). The dream foreshadows the death of the clone, as it later dies in an earthquake in the “Hellmouth” mine.  The amount of foreshadowing that Le Gumn includes makes the death of the clone feel inevitable and places a larger emphasis on how the last remaining piece of the clone interacts with the world. Using the situation of a human who is forced to act independently for the first time in his life, opens the questions of how humans love, and what emotion looks like when expressed for the first time.

Le Gumn’s use of the narrator is dynamic, flipping between third person and a third person with a hint of a narrative voice. Removed from the scene, but still with access to the thoughts of Pugh and Martin, the role of the narrator provides an opportunity for Le Gumn to insert her voice into the story. For example, in discussing the clone the narrator becomes removed from discussing the thoughts of Martin, Pugh, and Kaph saying, “No doubt there were many such differences, physical and psychological, among them; nature might be identical, nurture could not be. But the differences were hard to find. And part of the difficulty was that they never really talked to Pugh and Martin” (Le Gumn, p. 6). In this example, the narrator mentions all three human characters in the statement, meaning that it is removed and has its own voice. Le Gumn uses these opportunities to insert ideas like, “nature might be identical, nurture could not be”, and later using this same voice, “Why should they have sympathy? That’s one of those things you give because you need it back” (Le Gumn, p. 6). The usage of the narrative voice coincides with points of emphasis and usually with big themes like nature vs. nurture, sympathy, and individuality involved.

While Le Gumn inserts these themes and questions throughout the story, the plot leads up to, and places emphasis on the final scene. Kaph’s final conversation with Pugh is where Le Gumn places the big questions like, “How can you [love]… how do you [love]” (Le Gumn, p. 14). Kaph realizes his status as an individual, and Le Gumn does it in a beautiful way; it is implied that Kaph is able to say “good night” to Pugh. For the first time Kaph does a human task that is unnecessary, showing the slightest emotion to another individual. Throughout the story, the author sets up this scene, because what better way to explore human emotion than through someone who has never experienced it with person outside themselves. Science fiction allows these topics to be explored from new perspectives. In order for these questions to be asked, Le Gumn needs to use someone who is old enough to speak and yet never been given the ability to be an individual, a clone! Overall, foreshadowing helps develop and emphasize the conclusion, personification builds an antagonist that allows the final scene to be possible, and the narrator gives Le Gumn the freedom to insert her voice into the story. These elements set the scene for the big questions to be posed, while allowing for Le Gumn to provoke thought along the way.

Bibliography:

Le Gumn, Ursula K. “Nine Lives” (1968). Baen.com, www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791405/
9781625791405___2.htm. 1-14.

In class last week we had a discussion that stuck with me. Objects and technology in our day to day lives that feel like science fiction are more common than we think. The example that we used in class was the iPhone, and just how reliant we are on a technology where most people don’t understand how it is made and the real engineering behind it. The iPhone we discovered, is an object that we know nothing about, but yet dictates how we operate on a day to day basis.

Much like the iPhone mysterious and unbelievable tech, nuclear energy is theme that has been used in science fiction since the late 19th century. Take the image below for example. This is a gif of a real nuclear reactor’s fuel cell, or the actual radioactive power source. At first glance, and with this being a science fiction blog, this photo looks animated and imaginative. It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Nuclear energy has been such a popular theme in sci-fi because of its mysterious power and incredible societal implications, as a weapon and as a source of power.

https://medium.com/generation-atomic/7-awesome-sci-fi-nuclear-reactors-6bea7419f683

The first mention of nuclear energy in sci-fi is credited to Cromie’s The Crack of Doom (1895), whose plot deals with a nuclear device that is designed to end the world. Set in the future in the early 2000’s, this story has eerie predictions about the future. For example, the story ends by the protagonist saving the world with the only casualty being an evaporated a South Pacific Island. This SF story was the start of a prolific theme in sci-fi, with stories of dystopias, apocalypses, and utopias all thanks to nuclear energy.

While there are hundreds of well-respected stories dealing with nuclear energy since Cromie’s novel, it was after WW2 that theme took off in SF literature. This for obvious reasons is understandable. Last year I took a history class called, The Nuclear Age, and we watched Ishiro Honda’s “Gojira”, later adapted to US audiences under the name “Godzilla”. This movie was aptly timed with a botched US hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific (hence a connection with The Crack of Doom). This movie, produced by a Japanese director, was extremely popular and widely distributed, providing imagery that was highly critical of nuclear testing, weapons in general, and even the use of nuclear energy in any capacity.

                                                      Gojira (1954) – Movie Poster of the creature (Gojira) created by leaked nuclear energy from a US* nuclear test.

SF authors have dealt with nuclear energy in its current technological format including weapons and the creation of fission power. Interestingly, most of these stories are dystopic or apocalyptic in some fashion. Some authors however, see nuclear power as a solution to the world’s impending energy problem. Nuclear fusion promises an even more efficient source of power with almost infinite applications on earth. While the uses can only be imagined in the mind of sci-fi authors and consumers, the science and engineering to bring fusion to earth is actively being done. Check out this headline from an article in the British newspaper, “The Telegraph.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/07/26/sci-fi-fantasy-source-boundless-clean-energy-inside-britains/

When you have limitless possibilities on where to start researching, where do you begin! Why not start with something you know, and see how it applies to Science Fiction. In a small dive in the rabbit hole of the internet, I have found that sports or in a more broad sense, games, are seen in many forms of sci-fi, primarily post-WW-2. Super humans in events like the Olympics (Goldengirl, 1979), invented games with societal implications (Rollerball, 1979), and sports with your life on the line (Death Race 2000, 1975), are all examples of themes with regards to sports sci-fi.

While sports can be described in a written form, they are much more interesting when consumed by the audience in a visual manner. For that reason I focused on video and movies for this week. Seeing what a directer does to interpret an authors image of an imagined sport is an easy way to get an overview. What I found is that much of the “games” and sports imagined by the authors were inherently dystopic. For example, Death Race 2000 is an imagined car race where drivers get points for killing civilians along the way. Rollerball’s plot has an imagined game that captivates the country and becomes a means of control over the population. As a post in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction points out, the movies and their content follow societal themes. For example, a long series of car racing sci-fi movies came out after WW-2 when consumer cars hit the mass market.

Trailer from Rollerball, a 1975 movie about an imagined sport that becomes more than just a game.

Death Race 2000 Trailer from 1975, about a car race across the country with lots of blood and violence. The antagonist is a humanoid created by the surgeons designed to win the race.