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..

Haunting

When I read "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe, the three movies that popped into my head were Rose Red, The Haunting, and Amityville. All these haunted houses have the same eerie feeling to them. They're all vintage and strange things happen in and around the property. The beginning of the story has a sort of mysterious, yet obvious, tone. Like you know what's going to happen but you just want to keep reading. I find it typical that the house ends up being destroyed in the end.

"Afterwards" was a story about another house but it wasn't necessarily haunted. For some reason, the couple that moved in wanted a ghost to live with them but they never realized that the ghost had been living with them the whole while. I think this proves the quote, "we all want what we ain't got." It's weird because you always hear people trying to get rid of the ghost or spirits in their homes and we have a couple that actually want one with them.

Edgar Allen Poe

"The Raven" is probably the most famous poem known of Edgar Allen Poe. I think I've read this poem a good 3 or 4 times in all of my middle and high school life. What Poe attempts to communicate in this poem is loneliness, anger, sadness, fear, doubt, and anxiety. The Raven resembles his constant reminder of the loneliness due to the loss of his wife, Virginia, in which he re-names 'Lenore' to rhyme with "nevermore".
In "Annabel Lee", I would describe the tone as anger and remorse because of the loss of his wife. He's furious at the gods for taking her away and accuses them of being jealous of their love for each other. I think that more than hatred and anger, it's more about him being deeply depressed and sad. It opposes The Raven in the way that the raven repeats "nevermore" as in he will never again see his wife, when in Annabel Lee, he laid by her side even after she died because he thought that would never separate them and their love for one another.

Gender and Sexuality

The story "Day Million" talks about what the future is going to be like for the human race. Its not a regular love story because it talks about a "girl" who really isn't a girl because she's actually a boy and a boy who really isn't a boy because he's a 187 years old. Not to mention that they also don't look like a boy or a girl would. The female looks like an avatar that lives underwater and the guy looks like a green or blue Arnold Schwartzenegger with 7 fingers. They also don't make love like a normal couple would. The female was actually a male but no one could tell unless you really went into her anatomy.  

The story of "When It Changed" talks about a society of women that first have an encounter with men. It's sort of weird that there's no need for men for women to reproduce. Where a man and his wife and children go off into a place where there haven't been men for six hundred years. The women talk about how rough and heavy these men are and they have weird customs like shaking hands. I think it's odd yet, interesting how women have learned to survive and reproduce without men.

Introduction

Well for starters, I'm having issues trying to change my blog name "Blog #3". Yeah, I know it's awkward. Yeah I know my introduction is late and I'M SORRY. Well anyway, my name's Flavia, I'm 19 years old and I've lived in the Sunshine State since I was 2. I'm into the outdoor life. Beach, lake, pond, park, trails, you name it. I've always been into reading, but never writing. So I'm sorry if some of my sentences make no sense or are out of order.. Ha. I've always had a thing for horror movies. When I was around 2, my mom tells me she would try to cover my eyes on the "scary" parts in movies and i would try to get around her. I'm to the point where there is no horror movie out there scary enough. My mom is my influence in this case. She's the one who's deactivated and/or broke my scare-o-meter. She has this huge 60 DVD case thing that's PACKED with horror movies that are actually worth watching. I'm very picky on what kind of SciFi or Fantasy movies I like. Or any movies in that case.

I hope to learn more about all of you guys!

UPDATE: I found out how to change my blog name yay :)

Blog #3

After reading "That Only A Mother", it really made me think about how I would react in a situation where my spouse had gone.. well you can't really call her crazy.. But surely there was something psychologically wrong with her. After being exposed to radiation, there were many children born with deformities. The reading tells you there was something obviously wrong when Margaret only mentions the baby's facial features and nothing more. Then it adds on when she says that her 10 month old baby was having full blown conversations with her and she didn't see any more to it. Maggie's husband, Hank, never got to see the baby until he came home 10 months later. When Maggie told the baby to crawl for her dad, she told her mom to put her on her stomach. That's when Hank became suspicious. The baby then started to squirm and Hank laughed because he thought she had her arms stuck and couldn't get them out of her sleeves. That's when he realizes the baby was missing, not only her arms, but her legs as well. Whether Maggie knew all along or she didn't realize it, it was pretty odd no one decided to contact this to her husband.

As for "We See Things Differently", I didn't really understand why Charlie, or Sayyid or whatever his name was (apparently none of those names were his real name), did what he did. We all know how other countries see America. Let's face it.. we're pretty hated around the world. "This was the jahiliyah- the land of ignorance. This was America. The Great Satan, The Arsenal of Imperialism, the Bankroller of Zionism, the Bation of Neo-Colonialism.." Everyone has something amusing to say about us Americans.