Reader-response

The concept of the week is the reader-response method of dealing with text. As you recall from class, this means that when you write about a text you walk us through your own idiosyncratic response to the text, explaining what you experienced and why. What can we learn from your reader's response to a text? Choose any of this week's or last week's stories to look at via the reader-response method ("When it Changed," "All You Zombies--", "Bloodchild," "Nekropolis," "Something to Hitch Meat To," or "Kirinyaga").

The story I want to write my reader's response on is "Kirinyaga" by Mike Resnick. When I first began reading the story I was excited, because I love learning about Africa and the ways of life there. However, I know that tribes have weird and sometimes unethical rituals in the eyes of outsiders, and the particular rituals the Kikuyu performed in "Kirinyaga" were hard for me to get past. I hate the idea of killing little babies, but also understand that to a person with the Kikuyu people's customs and religion, it is necessary. When Barbara Eaton came to negotiate with Koriba, the tribe's mundumugu, I kept thinking "Just give her the babies, witch doctor!!!!" because I was personally frustrated by their rituals. Eaton did not understand either and ended up leaving with no new terms with the tribe. For Koriba though, abandoning their native rituals is absolutely out of the question. He is the tribe's spiritual leader, and he is clearly going to stay devoted to keeping his tribe whole, no matter what the cost. Even the chief and other leaders tried convincing him to give in and he took a firm stand for their religion, leaving all of them feeling guilty. I know that the ritual at hand is obviously very controversial, AND I personally think it's totally wrong, but it made me relate it to myself. It's just the same as a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or any religion being told to conform and stop doing something that is part of everything they believe, and in essence, who they are. While in my eyes it is viewed as murder and stupid, in the eyes of the Kikuyu it is sacred and actually beneficial.
On a side note, the mention of Kirinyaga being on a planet other than Earth was totally confusing and out of place to me, but it did remind me that I was reading SF (haha).

Gender

Gender's role in fiction reflects this type of real-world problem. For this week, I'd like you to take a story from either this week or last week and think about it in terms of gender and the complexities that arise due to the way in which our genetic code is not necessarily the same as our behavior.

In "When it Changed" by Joanna Russ, the society on the planet Whileaway is completely made up of women. When men come back to the planet, inviting the women to come back to the newly "gender equal" earth, the women are offended and refuse. They grew up in a place where men had not been present for thirty generations, therefore they are completely sufficient without men, and partake in activities that are traditionally divided between men and women by gender roles. With regard to certain physical capabilities, women and men can do the same ordinary tasks equally. The men were baffled and disagreed with their lifestyles, simply because it was not the way they were conditioned to believe women should behave in life. The men wanted to be "manly" but so did the women, however, the women thought that the very concept of a "manly role" existing was wrong. I just think it is crazy that gender roles are so prevalent and normal in societies all over the world, to the point where we do not even notice them. It is only when I read stories like this, or a feminist article, that I realize how influenced I am by my environment. I do not tend to have any strong views on feminism or the like, but I do think individuals should be able to do whatever they want and act however they want without being discriminated against or pointed out. Unfortunately gender roles are so pressed on society and ingrained in who we are, when someone is acting out of their role it is hard to not see them as weird and/or more masculine or feminine. Not only that, but we have a tendency to think something just is not “right” with that individual. It is all very bizarre to me and makes me think about how we are all brainwashed to a certain point from birth (haha).

On a side note, really liked the way Simone de Beauvoir spoke on the subject as “the Other” in The Second Sex. It was a new point of view to me and I actually agree with a lot of it. I think most women do view themselves as “the other” without even realizing it, when in reality we are all created equal. These past few stories have been VERY interesting and mind-bending for me.

End of Robots, Computers, and Science!

"Burning Chrome" marks our last story in the "Robots, Computers, and Science" section of the class. I often like to take these section divisions to use as a time for reaction: what has this section of the course taught you? Things you may wish (but don't have to) think about:
- how has this section of the course met or thwarted your expectations of SF?
- what practical literary techniques have you learned that are valuable to you?
- What story from this section do you think best achieves/exemplifies the goals of SF? How so?

            The section of the course on Robots, Computers, and Science has definitely met my expectations for SF. Every story was SO different, and all the authors had totally different ways of telling their short stories. Some were in chronological order, some blatant and straightforward, others mysterious and scattered; it was a nice variety to read. I did not realize how broad of a genre SF was until reading all these different stories. “Liar,” “Algorithms for Love,” “Second Variety,” and “Frankenstein” all discussed artificial life, but in totally different ways. However, one thing they all had in common was that the artificial life ending up not being a good thing and the creator was usually left at the mercy of the created. The other three stories all touched on alternate realities, whether it was the supposed future in “Take Your Choice,” the new and transformed mind in “Flowers for Algernon,” or the inside of the computer systems and the different world the story took place in, in “Burning Chrome”. We have only read seven stories and already we have covered a wide variety of topics and writing techniques used in SF. The literary techniques I learned include using metaphors, different ways of describing time, the technique of leaving out certain facts so the reader must infer, and details, details, details! Also this particular array of authors all wrote in different tones, which really held the stories together, plus some authors revealed the main characters thoughts more than others. However, of all the stories in this section, I think “Algorithms for Love” best achieves the goals of SF. Not only was it my favorite story in the section, but also it tackled much larger issues than the other stories. The main character, Elena, was dealing with her own nervous breakdown and the destruction of her marriage, and all because of robots! She created them and made them so lifelike she wondered what was different about her human life and that of her robots. Eventually this all led to her demise, whether literal or symbolic is up for the reader to imagine.