All at One Point. Complicated Stuff and Fish.

Until about five minutes ago I had never heard of this short story and I 'm still not even sure I read it at all if that makes sense. I'm not entirely sure of what happened at all, really all I understood was something about making pasta and people with unpronounceable names that had numbers in it. First off my question is what kind of maid is going to take the time to make pasta noodles from scratch, I feel like something like that would take all day. Then when we talked about it in class, somehow it seemed everyone but me related it to the big bang and the beginning of the universe. I fail to see how this story has anything to do with space or the universe or the beginning of anything other than how to make noodles which I pictured as Ramen noodles but now that I think about it its probably Spaghetti noodles. That was my big story question, what kind of noodles.

The second story "The Aquatic Uncle" was much more interesting and easier to follow. I didn't get to finish it though before we started to talk about it. It was an interesting subject matter, no one really writes about fish and mud guppies and primitive mammals. I liked how they were talked about as if they had advanced thought conscious. Like it was a family decision to either go on land or stay in the water. We follow a family that decided to go onto land and while they haven't fully developed as much as some, the're still far from the water dwellers. THe main character of this family then falls in love with a far more advanced mammal, one I pictured as a meer cat of some sort.

If you really want to look into it then this is more of a story about acceptance and not really about evolution. You have to be able to love your family no matter what, even the grumpy great uncle that lives in the swamp.

Johnny Mnemonic/ Cyber Punk

This was a surprisingly entertaining story. I would always see the Johnny Mnemonic film to check out at the library but it looked so bad that I always ignored it. Maybe not so much anymore. For some reason I always seem to have a thing about cyberpunk ever since The Matrix. I like how there's the relatively normal setting, a modern day or believable/plausible futuristic world which is immediately easily relatable.

The idea of storing information inside your head seems like a closer possibility as the years go on. Right now we have blutooth headsets that sit in your ear and allow you to talk to people. Sooner or later those headsets are going to have storage capabilities. I can imagine that within the next 20 years we'll have the option to implant ourselves with different technological capabilities. Imagine having a memory storage implant in your head, you'd never forget anything. Marriages could possibly be saved because husbands would no longer forget anniversaries or birthdays. Kids would never fail tests because they could always remember the answers. But thinking of that does that mean we're no longer human? Is using technology to our advantage mean we're no longer human, would we have lost touch with humanity?

The Yakuza was also an interesting enemy, I feel you don't see it often enough in books and films. They're just one of those things you don't see too often. They're usually just forgetting about and seen as only existing in Japan. The fighting was decent too, I didn't expect it to be so violent and realistic. Being part of the sci-fi genre I automatically start to think that lasers and phasers are going to be involved. Overall though I was satisfied with this story

MULTIVERSE!!!!

Aye, and Gamorrah was a weird story and I didn't quite understand what was going on the entire time. As far as I could understand there was something about a sex change or that the guy could be whatever you wanted him to be.

The focus of the story almost seemed to be about the guy but it was being told from what seemed like the womans point of view. It was really hard to find out the point of this story, why anyone would want to tell it. It is interesting however to think of a future where people can become whatever sex they want. Not that its something I would want to ever do but I can see how some people would. This story actually got kind of annoying for me in its lack of direction and subject matter. Thats the biggest thing that gets me when it comes to stories, stories that don't go anywhere or seem to have any purpose. This story would have been a hundred times more interesting if there was a more clear conflict with the two characters in the story. Maybe if one was trying to run away from the other or something.

Jaunting!

Space Opera, aside from in films (with the exception of Dune, too cheesy for me) is not a very appealing subject to me, and I can't figure out why. I like all the subject matter contained within such as space, and war, and women and spaceships and action. But something about it all just doesn't sit well with me.
The Stars My Destination was a bit surprising though, especially for being made in the 50's. Something made in the 50's automatically makes me think of films like Forbidden Planet, which was shown in class.

Stuff like this is too bad for me to get into. Even in a "so bad its funny" kind of way. Its just tasteless. But this book surprised me, the whole tattoo's that glow idea is something that obviously influenced some modern day sci-fi action stories and even video games. Even at first the story was reminding me of the Count of Montecristo minus the lover part. Then it seemed to take a turn in the direction of the Matrix where this one guy is the savior only he doesn't really know it yet. Its only when he unlocks his true powers and manages to teleport from planet to planet (or jaunt as they call it) that he realizes he's "the one" and has to lead the people to freedom. Even the back tracking to his birth is kind of like 2001: A Space Odyssey where in the end we see what could be perceived as either God or Dave as a newborn baby floating above the earth.

Fantasy and Fantasy Gaming

While I haven't finished Warbreaker, so far about a quarter way in I'm a bit skeptical. I've never been a huge fan of science fiction novels and often find them hard to read. On the other hand I love science fiction movies. I like how it usually has imaginative locations and situations no human will ever see in real life. It also says something to my interest in space, you know looking into the sky an wondering which planet has this science fiction stuff actually happening. I know it likely isn't but its fun to think about at times. The movies seem to do a good job of conveying things you would read in books.

For books, the reason I don't like the too much is because when reading it, it seems to make everything one hundred times cheesier looking than the movies do. But I think thats because the people that make the movies realize how cheesy the imagery created looks and make altercations. Thats also part of the reason why I think Star Wars works so well, George Lucas seems to have done a good job of staying away from the cheese and making things appealing.

Warbreaker so far for me is cheesy. I don't understand why it has to be breathing on something that gives it life or why he has a talking sword or why his name has to be Vasher. Its all cheesy and makes it hard for me to read or care about. Every time I read this book I think of the image below. I mean honestly who thought that image was cool or appealing? Thats what I think of when I read this book. Maybe I'm being harsh but i'm very picky when it comes to imagery created in my head, if its not easily created and appealing then I don't care or want anything to do with it. Or at least hard to pay attention.

Modern Fantasy.

I'm going to write about Coraline, its the only Neil Gaiman story i've had any experience with aside from his short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". Found here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties_(Text)

I have very limited knowledge of writers and new books and such but Neil Gaiman seems to be at the forefront of modern day fantasy writers. His stories in context to history are fresh as well they don't contain the usual elves and dwarves and dragons associated with other fantasy books.

Coraline for me is about a child's need to explore and be a kid. Here she is having just moved into a foggy boring town where she doesn't know anyone. Her parents have become too pre-occupied to pay any attention to her and because of this she gets herself into a load of trouble. So if you will this whole ordeal thats about to fall upon her is the fault of her parents. But non-the-less she goes off exploring her new house where she finds a modern day rabbit hole. A little door in an empty upstairs room. In the beginning its made clear Coraline is bored with her parents and has a general distaste for them at the time. Through this rabbit whole is where she finds an opposite world. Everything is the opposite of what it is in the real world. In this fake world the cat can talk, her parents are energetic and exciting and give her all the attention she could hope for. Something all children can probably relate to. In this modern society too often are adults caught up in their own problems and work to really pay any mind to the problems of a child. They are even seen as mundane silly problems when attention is paid, but the mistake is made in ignoring them. To a child these are the worst things imaginable in life because their experience is limited due to their short life.
Back to what happens. After several visits to this other world with her other mother and other father they tell her in order to stay she must sew buttons over her eyes. Sounds painful. Coraline doesn't want this and escapes, eventually leading to a final showdown with the spider version of Other Mother.
Overall if Coralines parents had paid attention to her none of this would have happened. If only her real mom would have been a mother and her father a father Coraline wouldn't have been bored and maybe they would have been able to solve her problem.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is an interesting short story. From the title it sounds pretty mundane and really when you think about it nothing out of the ordinary happens aside from the strange girls at the party. But i've been in similar situations, I end up following a more outgoing friend to a strange house i've never been to where I don't know a single sole. Its like talking to aliens, everything feels different. At this party while never said you start to get the feeling these girls aren't human. They have very large eyes and one talks about swimming around in the sun. At the end just as the main character is feeling comfortable amongst these beings his friend Vic hurriedly says they must leave, and on the way out we see why. The girl he was there for was standing at the top of the stairs in a mess. Vic had gone too far, his eagerness to mingle turned against him. Its left up to the reader to decide, but I believe Vic tried to have sex with this girl but soon discovered she was an alien. But in the end, even if you think you know a girl they really are all aliens.

His Dark Materials.

I'll be honest, the only experience I have with this story is through the movie, and that made little sense. I could tell right away everything was rushed and they tried to do too much in one movie. Although the polar bear fight and the evil bear getting his jaw smacked off was pretty awesome.

Now to say the author Pullman would be an atheist would be a sort of false truth. The book series is really a comment on human morals and religion. I think the whole point he tries to make from the books is that you don't necessarily need religion to tell you how to act. Morals should be an obvious human nature.