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.