Blog 13

For my reader's choice presentation I chose shape shifting as the general topic. The books I chose to match my topic with The Harry Potter Series, Animorphs, and Twilight. Shape shifting is an idea common to all cultures. This topic has always fascinated me because of the idea that a human can change into an animal or another being. When I was younger, I would always imagine shifting into some kind of fish so I could explore the ocean. Since then the whole idea of shape shifting was always interesting to me.

Blog 6

I feel like "Burning Chrome" is in a cyber world where everything anyone does is on the internet. Shopping, banking, etc. But not like internet is now, but worse. Like no one leaves their homes because they can literally do anything on the internet. Who has the power in the cyber world? Hackers. They can basically hack and get whatever they want out of your life. In "Burning Chrome", Bobby and Jack thought they had the power, but in reality, it was Rikki who had control over Bobby. Chrome was a criminal that Bobby and Jack stole all the money from his accounts by hacking into them to become rich and impress Rikki. In the end, Rikki ends up stealing all the money from them and taking off.

Blog 5

In "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long", the mother, Monica, feels lonely and wants to communicate with her son, David. Eventually she realizes she cannot love a child that isn't her own. David is actually a robot that was used to replace a real child. David shows emotions unlike other robots and it's not under his "programming", so Monica feels like something is wrong with him when she finds emotional letters written to her from David.

In "Reasons", QT1 probably has a different set up than most robots. Unlike most robots are supposed to, QT doesn't obey humans and he has that ability to make other robots obey him.OT does things because he wants to not because he has to or someone is making him.

Blog 4

The appeal of stories like "The Star" is the reader's perspective and their different opinions on how the world is going to end. Everyone wants to read other's opinions or theories on The End. Some include the zombie apocalypse, as well as others, like "The Star", talk about survivors and where they find refuge in the different poles.

"Speech Sounds" is a story about an of isolation and and lack of communication. I say lack of communication because there is no such thing as a different language anymore because you either spoke in voice and had difficulty reading or spoke in sign language. Everyone in this new era has the problem of becoming increasingly and absurdly jealous of others with the other ability. 

Blog #2

The story "Passengers" is a weird story in my view. I think it tries to identify man as sexually aroused  with any person even when unconscious. "Men are dogs" I guess can be a saying that is relevant to the story, but at the same time, he didn't realize what he was doing because he was unconscious.. Relates more to someone being inebriated and can't remember what he/she did last night.

"Out of All Them Bright Stars" is related to just typical racism or not wanting to be caught feeling sympathy for another race. Everyone wants to fit in. Especially in a society where just about everyone wants to fit in and follow the crowd. In "Out of All Them Bright Stars", Sally doesn't want John to feel isolated or left out so she tries to converse with him. Eventually her boss gets aggravated and kicks John out and Sally doesn't do or say anything of it.

"The Premature Burial" & "The Monkey's Paw"

In the story "The Premature Burial", it shows how paranoid the author is about being buried alive. He tells us that he has catalepsy, which sort of reminds me of lucid dreaming because you're basically paralyzed as well. This story gives me goosebumps because just by reading it, I can picture myself being buried alive and it makes ME claustrophobic. The worst part about having such a horrible fear like his, are the night terrors like he had in the middle of the boat he fell asleep on. I couldn't imagine what it was like for him to feel like he's going to die buried alive and to have such terrible nightmares. Especially during a time where it was common for people to die in such a way.



I feel like "The Monkey's Paw" should be in the book series "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" because it's suspenseful, but not scary. You can basically predict what's going to happen after the Sergeant tries burning it because it's cursed. But there's always that one stubborn person that wants to see what it does and in this case it was Mr. White, and Herbert suffered the consequences. There could be other explanations for the story like.. It was the wind that knocked on the door? Or.. maybe he tripped and fell into the machinery and it killed him instantly.. But then the story wouldn't be interesting.

Madness and Lost Love

"Berenice" was sort of creepy to me. Of course to us in present day it's taboo to marry your own cousin. Killing her and stealing her teeth is just all sorts of messed up. Even for one with "monomania".. I would ask Egaeus what the last thing he remembered was. Why he obsessed over her teeth so much and not her hair or her eyes. Maybe his teeth weren't as perfect as hers so he just HAD to have them. The world may never know...

I feel like "The Boarded Widow" is a story you tell you would tell to a bunch of boy scouts during a campfire. Though it sounds like thing that really has happened. I feel like the panther was irrelevant. Like come on.. it couldn't be a bear or a deer or something.. A panther. But that's beside the point. It was hard to call a T.O.D. when you were out in the middle of the woods. There are those rare people who are nonchalant about their loved one's death. All in all, I can't really tell you whether she really was dead or not. Maybe her afterdeath nerves were the reason she bit off the panthers ear..