Class Experiennce

         This is the first class that I have taken that required the use of blogs.  I think it was cool to be able to have my thoughts posted publicly, as well as being able to comment on my classmates blogs.  This experience gives me a better insight into to the world of technology and helps me feel more comfortable with working with computers.  I have recently become a tad bit more computer literate and I am enjoying the fun that the world of computers can bring.  I have to admit, the downloading thing can be HIGHLY STIMULATIIIIIIING!  Being able to get what you want, at the click of a button, can lead to addiction.  Sometimes it seems almost to good to be true.  In spite of my new found interest or hobby, I still am leary of technology and the horrors it can bring.  Therefore, I poise myself and control my urges and point and click my little heart away.

“Today Is The First Day of The Rest of My Life”

         This "oft-repeated mantra" is the motivational and inspirational quote for those who perpetually seek to release their psyche from past failures or unwanted occurences in one's life.  It is a cop out for those who seek to use "psychological mind trickery" in hopes of starting over.  Kind of like how people do with video games, when they mess up they puch reset and start over. I always thought that when you come out of your mother's wound, that was the begining of life's external  experiences and time altered itself for no one , but kept marshing on..  Those who use and/or abuse this quote should be forced to return back through the birth canal and began anew for real!  Then it might truly be the first day of things!!!

Camp Concentration Reading Response

           Thomas Disch’s Camp Concentration told of some of the atrocities that the Jews encountered during their struggles in the Concentration Camps.  I was impressed with the story line and the insight into Eliezer’s feelings and determination to live.  He has a sense of loyalty to his father, but yet, wavers psychologically with his commitment to his father and himself.  A young boy is usually not prepared to handle such responsibility.  He shows wit and creativity as he saves his father periodically from death, either by execution or for health reasons.  The end of the story leaves the reader to mildly question if Eliezer will have enough fortitude to continue to endure with the past occurrences and his future freedom.

Neuromancer

            Neuromancer by William Gibson was very interesting in that the theme of cyber punk is a new kind of reading for me.  I am mostly attracted to non-fiction, but I usually can find some reality in all reading. I thought that the novel stimulated my imagination and even though futuristic settings seem exaggerated, the possibility of new technological advances and their affects bring these futuristic scenarios into realistic thoughts of how the future could become.  I found the array of characters from various social stereotypes to be interesting.  The new age of pimps, hustlers, drug dealers, and cyber junkies seems reminiscent of modern day life.  The theme of technology ruling the world seems to be “oft-repeated” throughout the novels we have read.  Although interesting and even funny, the picture that cyber punk novels paint seems to be prophetic, in that man’s obsession with advances in technology will lead him into a world hypnotized and ruled by machines and artificial intelligence.

One’s Actions Can Distort One’s View

            

            Philip Dick’s futuristic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep emulates modern day society’s way of life.  The understanding of technological advances pushes the creative powers of mankind to a limit even superior to their own understanding.  The novel sets the tone by creating a setting of the aftermath of an enormous World War that infests the atmosphere with radiation and has catastrophic causes across the Earth.  This tragic event also leads to a society where most animals become extinct, making them a symbol of wealth and status.  Since animals are now “a rare commodity”, they represent material things such as “present day”, designer clothes, and expensive cars.  To own an animal after the nuclear fallout was to show one’s membership in the elite or rich class in society.  Just like in modern society, those who cannot afford the finer things in life improvise, the people of the new world also imitate items from the rich and famous by making “bootleg” animals, like modern day fake Gucci products, to give the fake representation of high class living. 

            Philip Dick’s novel also brings the reader into the psyche of those who are enslaved and those who are slave masters.  The elite have made advance in technology and can now create androids that are almost indistinguishable from humans.  This shows how the need to place one’s self above others can create circumstances that the creator may not be ready to handle.  This oppression and social isolation of the androids is reminiscent of the treatment of blacks during the time of slavery.  In thinking they were better, more intelligent, and moral, slave masters where convinced that they were exercising the epitome of human action, when in reality they were just as fake, savage and artificial as they viewed the androids in Dick’s novel.  However, even in the midst of prejudice, truth shines its way through and blinds one, forcing him or her to face their true selves, as with Rick Deckard the bounty hunter in the novel.