Parody and Satire in science fiction

Satire is our ability to laugh at ourselves. But where does humor come from?

Humor usually is our ability to point our relevant and incredibly realistic and bluntly obvious points about ourselves, and laugh. We laugh..because they are true, and this is usually because they are points we wouldn't usually want to put into the spotlight.

Satire in science fiction does just that - it highlights some very obvious (usually unflattering) points in our present existence and exaggerates (some might not even call it exaggeration..) them to a semi realistic future where rules and social norms run far away from where they are now.

I think this kind of ties in with Oryx and Crake, but on a lighter side of things. Though, I must say, that the ability to create humor in these things doesn't mean it isn't a very serious problem.

In Idiocracy, we find channels devoted to just getting hit in the nuts (a simplified version of Americas Funnies Home videos anyone?)

I find similarities Oryx and Crake where we have "Noodie News" and the extinct animal game.

It is interesting that really the only difference in these two genres is the ability to poke humor at the situation in one, and the bluntness of how things are in the other. Nothing too different, but the way we perceive them. This is semi terrifying because the latter is terrifying, yet they are the same things. Is it all going to end up boiling down to our own perceptions of things? Can something be OK because we end up being OK with it and brushing it off?

I would like to take the time to throw out the quote, "If you are not completely appalled, you haven't been paying attention."

Revised blogpost, The Hobbit

The Hobbit is another novel that I find intriguing for the fact that it brings a sense normalcy and perspective in a world so exotic and diverse in comparison to our own. We are able to experience this through the eyes of a fairly relatable character, Bilbo, who is quite warm and friendly. We learn his quiet backgrounds but watch him embark and discover the diverse world he lives in, so therefore we are also experiencing it through him.
This background roots and sets us up for being able to properly understand the values of family lineage and birthright.
These certain circumstances allow Tolkein somewhat of a commentary onsocial issues; I know it is very subdued, but I do feel like he is putting somewhat of an importance on it. He gives us an earth without a universal stabilized government and we are able to see oppression and evil alongside innocent races. Some are more developed than others and they are all varying in terms of priorities (some want to take over the planet, while others want second breakfast.)
I also found it interesting, but predictable, about the corruption of men.

REVISION: ADDITION

Lets elaborate on the race of men. We always seem to be the morally instable and lower scum race in a fantasy world that is full of other species and begins.

Is it because we can easily see the fault in ourselves; because we actually are ourselves, and find it easy to point our our downfalls? Or is it that we believe that with any discovery of another advanced race, we just always assume we will be lower in moral standards (because anything below us wouldn't be considered another race, it would just be an animal?)

Oryx and Crake

The certain cultural standings that existed in the world prior to the unnamed apocalyptic event were really intriguing to me. I can already see these parallels in the world today.

Having basic human feelings, emotions, and pleasures become corporate products is ever apparent in todays society. This novel struck me because it was incredibly realistic in the idea that these things will go unchecked.

The parallels of child pornography in this novel to what we have today is so similar. He searches the underbelly of the web to find asian child pornography. This is very similar to what we have today; child pornography is ever present on the hidden net with the aid of TOR browsing. TOR specific .onion sites are hidden from normal indexed parts of the internet and search engines.

Hidden trading sites and sensitive corporate information are shared (see the Silk Road).

I think this is just going to become a bigger problem with internet censorship becoming more and more pressed in our government. SOPA (stop online privacy act) and PIPA (protect IP act) are prime examples of this.

If these things become current and the internet becomes regulated, underbelly operations without any sort of social policing will evolve and we might find ourselves in a similar situation of what was above. A good comparison is the war on drugs; making it illegal just seems to egg on that sort of activity. Control of the internet will have harsh consequences; much like the ones we see in Oryx and the Crake.

Diverse Position Science Fiction

As I am getting older (I know turning 20 might be young in most books, but for me that was a milestone) has brought of the idea of what it will be like to look back on this time I am living in now (with the assumption that I won't die in some tragic crash and will live to be old). What will I use to base my assumption of relativity off of? And what will be the thing that has "changed" in terms of social status and economic patterns?

It is interesting to think that when my grandmom was alive (born in the year 1919) segregation was normal. It was at the point where it was just what it was; those people who we consider to be "ignorant assholes" weren't even considered that, they were just normal. Now look where we have come now. There is obviously still opposition to minority freedom, but not so much in my generation.

This is why I consider diverse position science fiction to be very accurate in terms of the future. We really only seem to find white people dominating most scenarios of the future, but that is just because it was written today.

It is also interesting that not only will there be more domination by minorities, but I believe the way they interact (or the way we all do as a whole) will change. I think we will become more of a soup. The thought of "wow, that is a successful minority and i'm happy for him" will change to "wow,that is a successful person."

I also like considering where those "3rd world" countries will be, especially with the aid of technology. How their governments will develop and how in turn they will mix with other countries.

What was interesting about Dawn, was an aliens need to interbreed with us to create more of a genetic diversity. It is very plausible for our race to become too mixed in the future; to a point where our lack of genetic diversity becomes a biological downfall.

Cyberpunk

When reading of viewing anything from this genre, I constantly in an internal debate about what parts of this envision of the future will actually come to exist, and at what intervals they began to show themselves. It is obvious that most of these things will come into existence, but for me the question is at what point do they become too exaggerated by our excited 20-21st century selves to be applicable in a futuristic standing?

Take Johnny Mnemonic for example. This is a classical representation of human biology merging with our most up to date technology. Our result is a half human half machine being that can go above and beyond to answer the call of duty (we are assuming that he was made for good work...this is not always so). Our intentions with this merging (in this case, secure data storage) are usually for the best, but it never seems to work out that way, does it?

What usually gets in the way of this half human half machine working to our intended desires, is the uncontrollable element of the human or bionic aspect. What was different with this particular story was that the data seemed to function separately from his own brain. Usually we see them merge and the human inhibitions slowly become influenced. In this case, it was just the mere presence of priceless stolen data existing in human flesh that caused a problem.

I feel like the merging of humans and artificial intellegence is unavoidable and it is the vital part of this genre that creates validity in its own predictions. It is obvious that we will want to improve ourselves and judging by our own course of history, we will only slightly hesitate to do so.

Multi-Verse

One of my favorite things about this genre is how I get the feeling that it is the earth (in terms of social, political, and environmental problems) applied to the universe.

When humans gain the ability to space travel efficiently, we encounter the same problems we did on earth. Space travel was often looked at as a glamorous futuristic endeavor; clean spaceships and perfectly colonized worlds exist outside of humanity. Outer space seemed to be that place where we could finally achieve perfection.

But it becomes obvious in this genre that this is not the case. In reality, the openness and unconquered vastness of space just enable humans to do "their own thing," which we all know is never that bright. It becomes painfully obvious that we will never escape our problems and our own human tendencies; even when we try to emulate the planet we once were. Having the ability to "start over" and create another world really can make us understand how unrealistic our ideas for a perfect society are.

In Babel-17 we are presented with the expanding world that is suffering through intolerable differences. I found it interesting how with the expanse of beyond earth, we lose a sense of what is considered normal. I liked how language became a huge part of this book; and it had a large impact of how each character thought of their own situation and changed each interaction. In an almost 1984 way, language controlled the outcomes of each relationship.

The Stars My Destination

Though this has been somewhat of a common theme in some of my blog posts, I am just going to go for it. One of the things that was the most alluring about The Stars My Destination was the background concept for the main character, Gulliver Foyle Once again, we find ourselves with the average man.

The only thing that really motivated him to do anything extraordinary was the fact that his life really depended on his ability to un maroon himself in space. I (and I believe most others as well) find this very relatable to my own procrastination. I will stop at nothing to push things off for more time to do nothing, even if it is costing me success. It is also interesting that I am completely aware of this predicament, yet I continue to hurt myself in this way. It becomes such an apparent human trait especially when represented in the character in such an extreme situation.

I also find it funny that the tipping point was not so much at the fact that he was stuck, it was more when he became angry at being "passed up" at rescue by passing ships. His selfish behavior is so relatable, especially to my inner demon child.

Heterotopias

Our reading Foucaults Of Other Spaces really made me reflect on how the absence of understanding really dominates our daily activities and mental reflections. Space, in terms of both the universe outside this word and the one we are in now (internal and external space, as he put it) has an ever-present power to put everything we know into relativity, and nothing will ever amount to it.

The concept of the Heterotopia brings about the question of what we actually consider valid in our minds and in our thought process. These things can exist in already "physical" places but have more existing layers. So what is real? The combination of my own musings related to a physical place is just as real as the memory of a conversation that once was; just because something is lacking a human visual input doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If we rid ourselves of the practice of dismissing something of its "real validity" because it doesn't actually "physically exist," we can begin to understand the world in a different way and use these Heterotopias to escape our daily lives.

That's why I find gaming so fascinating. It is just as real as any place I "physically" exist in; both experiences have input and output with my brain.

I can remember being young and playing Zelda; Ocarina of Time and being completely captivated. I suddenly was transported to a different world, and as far as I was concerned, I was.

Contemporary Urban Fantasy

This weeks topic, contemporary urban fantasy, has been one of my more favorite sub-genres of fantasy/sci fi. It falls into the same logical thinking of why I loved Harry Potter as a kid; it is completely set up rationally around todays world, in the sense that you have to be open to weird things happening to people.

Don't get me wrong, there are obvious reasons why I find the extreme opposites attractive. Fantasy middle earths and far off lazer fights are a nice reason for before bed escape. But there is something to be said about applying absurdity into the logical thinking process of our brains; especially watching or reading about these situations unfolding to a seemingly normal group/single being.

Take Being John Malkovich for example. Craig is our average flatline unemployed puppeteer (I know this strays from "normal," but you get the picture) who just so happens to discover a portal into John Malkovich's inner being. Though he is shocked at first, this becomes a semi normal part of his life and he is able to adapt it its absurdity rather quickly.

Our weekly reading, Anansi Boys, follows somewhat of the same setup in terms of our main subject. Charlie (Fat Charlie) seems to lead a somewhat uninspiring life until this bomb of an "undiscovered brother" is dropped on him, throwing him into a world of an arachnid bloodline.

They both have interactions with being average or a lack of motivation. Though craigs interest in puppetry is quite unique; his average life and relationship with his pet obsessed wife lacks excitement. He basically deals with uncomfortable social situations that end up being most of his life. Charlie on the other hand, is pretty average himself, but has to deal with an overly quirky father who is obsessed with karaoke (and who is also an african spider god).

I feel like it is important to this genre to establish a sense dullness; not to emphasize the jump into abnormality, but to have a flat thought process in the minds of the people who experience these above normal situations with the paranormal/science fantasy types.

Harry Potter

I know it was suggested that we stay away from Harry Potter and his pals if we had already had the pleasure of reading the books before. But I couldn't resist reading once more now that I am older and I have some real world experience to compare it to.

It wasn't that I found them less interesting this time around, but I just really realized how much I fantasized about what it meant to grow older and be your own boss. I felt like when I was little, anything was possible. I do still believe that that is true, but back then I thought more along the lines that I would be able to experience anything I wanted, in an unlimited time frame. This idea of Harry becoming independent and owning up to his newfound magical powers and running around a giant castle under an invisible sheet at night(I would fantasize and compare this to learning how to drive, having a house, ect) was so open ended to me and applicable to my own life.

The obvious allure of this series was the idea of a secret world existing so close to our daily lives, yet being so undetected. I love how some some the solutions to keeping the magical world unexposed were so simple that they became absurd and comical. Like Muggle repellent charms that make an area off limits by making them think they have someplace more urgent to be that was previously forgotten about. They (we) become almost like an annoying nuisance.

Even just basic magical solutions to things that didn't involve muggle control are geared around this way of thinking, like the fact that you are supposed to bewitch a washcloth to clean dishes, instead of just magically making them clean in one step.

This division between two worlds brings up the interesting job of keeping them separate and drawing a fine line between what is considered the acceptable amount of mixing the two. In Harrys instance, he was brought up in a family of them who had full knowledge of the secret world, yet despised it. I love how Rowling brought in the idea that some Muggles were in the whole magical secrecy; especially the idea that Muggles can learn to do magic in certain situations.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is another novel that I find intriguing for the fact that it brings a sense normalcy and perspective in a world so exotic and diverse in comparison to our own. We are able to experience this through the eyes of a fairly relatable character, Bilbo, who is quite warm and friendly. We learn his quiet backgrounds but watch him embark and discover the diverse world he lives in, so therefore we are also experiencing it through him.
This background roots and sets us up for being able to properly understand the values of family lineage and birthright.
These certain circumstances allow Tolkein somewhat of a commentary onsocial issues; I know it is very subdued, but I do feel like he is putting somewhat of an importance on it. He gives us an earth without a universal stabilized government and we are able to see oppression and evil alongside innocent races. Some are more developed than others and they are all varying in terms of priorities (some want to take over the planet, while others want second breakfast.)
I also found it interesting, but predictable, about the corruption of men.

A Wild Sheep Chase

It is obvious that Japanese culture, for being another developed nation, is far from our western culture. That is part of the reason I want to go to Japan; to experience I completely different culture shock.

There are certain minute differences (although many huge ones) that attract me to Japan, and those are very apparent while reading Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

Horror literature/genre I feel represents so much about a culture. It is a representation of what a certain nation or group of people consider terrifying; something that actually is supposed to scare them. That means that inside one story, there has to be relatable elements that bring about a fearful/excited reaction deep within our brain.

What I find to be amazing/different about Japanese horror and A Wild Sheep Chase is the larger emphasis on the physical existence of spirits. In western culture, ghosts are usually only whispers of reality. They don't exist and that is why we consider them scary; because they are fragments of what is physical in this world.

We put ghosts and monsters into one category, but it seems in Japan that this line is somewhat blurred.
Also, I feel the idea of terror in terms of the genre seems more about the experience of being frightened, instead of seeing something scary. The scary elements in these Japanese horror stories are very subdued in comparison to their gory western counterparts.

So a sheep is scary? I feel like that takes more effort. And we all love effort.

Interview with the Vamprie

When we think of vampires, we think of cold heartless beings that lay dormant during the daytime in a coffin, waiting for the nighttime to come so they can drain the life our of their next meal. These beings seem to have no existence; nothing to show or even no idea of what is beyond their isolated castle walls.

This is why I found Interview with the Vampire to be so intriguing; it brought about a new thought process in what it means to be a vampire. Here we have Louis, a once normal man, who is suddenly thrown against his will into an immortal life that he didn't choose.

What was so interesting about Louis was that we were able to follow him on his mental thought process into finally accepting and discovering his new vampiric way of life, while still maintaining his human traits. We see him struggle with the ideas of good and evil and how they cross paths with his new ways of survival.

Humans struggle with this moral debate when it comes to living off of animals, but there is a disconnect there that is not available when your food comes form your own species.

What was also interesting about the new world that opened up to him, was the complexity of it all. The secretive yet highly sophisticated network of vampires taking their existence somewhat mundanely brought me that same fascination of when I read Harry Potter and found out about this hidden wizard world.

Monster Island

Zombies are an interesting topic as they are not something that has had much history in literature and human folklore. They are a fairly recent development in the timeline of humanity; something to pop up along side with our ability to control our environment. We now can genetically modify food and life to fit our modern needs; but at what costs? The development of the zombie reflects our worries in possible side effects of these modern convinces.

If you look at almost any zombie book or movie, it is usually a post apocalyptic situation where a virus has broken out from some sort of hi tech research or medical facility in a highly populated city or town. This virus infects life and creates what we know as zombies; the living dead. The protagonist is usually someone adjusting to life in this new world, struggling to rearrange the priorities in his or her life and survive.

What I found interesting about Monster Island was although it did include the typical "avoid/shoot the mindless zombies so I can survive for the next hour" it did contain something more. We are confronted with the idea that there is a new breed that still latches onto its former human self; one that can manipulate and control other mindless beings to its own advantage. Along with this whole intelligence jump, there is also the struggle of going to another continent, which is something that I haven't seen in this genre. The book takes the idea of survival to another idea and you begin to see how much the world has changed. Cultural gaps become apparent and the influence of the post apocalyptic world makes it that much more interesting.

I did get the feeling after reading deeper into the book that the idea of the zombie strayed too much away from what we consider it to be. I felt like the book became more supernatural instead of classic zombie, but hey, you always need someone to push boundaries.

Elements of the genre

Rain, lightning, storms, darkness, suspense, hidden passageways, pretty girls, intelligent obsessed men, paintings that watch you, candles, firelight, monsters, fog, full moons, werewolfs, graveyards, swamps, unsuspecting characters, mansions, murders, mystery, mad scientists, film noir, hidden staircases, cobwebs, ugly sidekicks, bats, rats, unsuspecting townspeople.

Frankenstein

I have to say that I was completely shocked at the complexity of the set up of this novel. It all seemed like a giant telephone game; each event was translated and spoken through person to person, and I can't help but think about how intentional this was. This being a very dark and mysterious novel, I feel like the author used this form of storytelling to add validity to the mystery of the novel.
I almost start to wonder if it was her way of making something so obscure and impossible (the monster) and turning it into something completely possible, but this time only through the misunderstandings and twisting of words. In that day of age, there was no internet or mass communications, and the world was still somewhat of a mystery. Uncharted lands still existed, and along with that came wild imaginations of what could exist outside of the known. Though the author knew her creation was of her imagination, I feel the way this story was spoken through many beings gave it a sense of reality; each time it was spoken it became semi twisted, but only slight bits each time. Therefore the slow progression into the unrealistic horror was less noticeable, especially when mixed with each storytellers imagination.

I also was very interested at the softness of this monsters journey. Though he is a hideous meaningless creation of a man, his quest to find meaning in his own existence parallels the human struggles of wanting to be loved and be like everyone else. He becomes increasingly resourceful with his actions to learn about humanity, like watching humans interact to learn the language. Though he commits acts of violence against humans, it is all done for the simple act of trying to find himself, or someone he relates to. When he knows that this is no longer possible, he gives up.

Having learned of the turmoils that were in the authors life, you can start to see events she makes the nameless monster experience that were also in her (or related to her) own. It is a darker look into the human soul, one that was preexisting to the mass communications like the internet, where humans are easily influenced. An isolated brain is truly self reflective on itself; I admire its purity.