"Thus, we were necessities, status symbols, and an independent people. She oversaw the joining of families, putting an end to the final remnants of the earlier system of breaking up Terran families to suit impatient Tlic"
By portraying a future society in which humans, the Terrans, live together with Tlics, a distinct species of aliens, on a foreign planet, Octavia Butler calls attention to past and contemporary issues of race and slavery; she uses "science fiction as a mirror for contemporary issues."
The culture that the Terrans and the Tlics create together on a foreign planet mirrors various examples of mixed cultures in reality. Though the Tlics haven't exactly conquered the human civilization (on the other hand, it was originally the Terrans who fled from their original civilization to settle on a different planet), in a way, the Terrans serve as their resources for living in terms of continuing on with their race. With two different races coming together, as in the combination of Terrans and Tlics trying to create a joint society, many conflicts arise in terms of who receives more benefits.
Though it is said that the Terrans are "independent people," the readers can still view elements of slavery as the Tlics use Terrans and take advantage of them as instruments in propagating their own race. Therefore, since it is in their interest to use the Terrans, the Tlics save the Terrans and allow them to live on a reserved territory. Though the Terrans do receive some benefit in following the Tlics' ways, such as the prolonging of their lives by drinking the Tlics' eggs, the balance of benefit seems to be much more tilted towards the Tlics than the Terrans. In a way, the situation reminds the readers of various examples from world history in which a similar situation occurred. For example, when Europeans enslaved Native Americans and forced them to live in a reserved territory, they did see them as an independent race, but a race that was lowly then their own. Therefore, they felt free to exploit their resources and the Tlics, too, seem to see the Terrans in a similar way; though the Tlics recognize the Terrans as their own beings, they still seem to be "caged" within the borders of the reservoir that the Tlics have set up for them.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah"
"'Yes.' She looked down. I glanced to see the expression she was hiding. It was a smile. 'You have your glorious, soaring life, and you have us.' Her face came up. She glowed. 'You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to land, while we...' She turned her head right, left, and her black hair curled and uncurled on the shoulder of her coat. 'We have our dull, circled lives, bound in gravity, worshiping you!'"
- From Samuel R. Delany's Aye, and Gomorrah
Samuel R. Delany, through his short story, Aye and Gomorrah, enables us as readers to picture a future society in which the differences between genders becomes neutralized in the form of "spacers": people who have given up their sexuality in order to work in space.
Even from the beginning of the story, the spacers seem to be separated from the rest of the earthly people who still have their sexuality; their original genders can't be identified and they act as though they are still in their youth as if they have failed to mature due to their inability to feel sexual desires.
In the quote taken from the book, a "frelk," someone who desires sexual favors from the spacers, makes a statement which compares the spacers to the rest of the people. She says, "You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to land, while we...We have our dull, circled lives, bound in gravity, worshiping you!" Her statement introduces an interesting aspect to the concept of sexuality and its importance in our lives. Though the speaker might be referring to the more literal fact of the spacers' ability to fly into space which enables them to remove themselves from the earthly world, I believe it could also be referring to the sense of liberty and freedom the spacers' lack of gender and sexuality might give them.
Gender and sexuality in society tends to bind people for many reasons. First of all, the human need to satisfy sexual desires and to gain sexual pleasure sometimes override one's common sense and even causes immoral activities, such as prostitution. Prostitution also takes place in the story as the spacers, too, engage in prostitution by having physical relationships with the frelks in exchange for money. However, for the spacers, it doesn't necessarily mean anything since they don't feel sensual and sexual pleasure from being involved in such act. In addition, gender also takes form in language as different languages. For example, Spanish involves having masculine and feminine nouns which are strictly distinguished.
Gender in society also refers to roles of people; specifically to the role of women and the role of men. By dividing the roles of people in accordance to gender, the concepts of inequality sprout and there always seems to be no unification among the people. In addition, people are bound to their roles in society accordingly to their gender; it hasn't been long in history where women, especially, have been allowed to seek roles in the world of men. In contrast, however, the spacers, with their lack of gender and immaturity, are able to more freely enjoy who they are without the need to fulfill a role in society which relates to their gender. Instead, they play a role which benefits the society as a whole. Therefore, the spacers seem to be unbound by the concept of gender and sexuality which, for the rest of the earthly people, seem to act like the "gravity" which binds people firmly to the ground.
- From Samuel R. Delany's Aye, and Gomorrah
Samuel R. Delany, through his short story, Aye and Gomorrah, enables us as readers to picture a future society in which the differences between genders becomes neutralized in the form of "spacers": people who have given up their sexuality in order to work in space.
Even from the beginning of the story, the spacers seem to be separated from the rest of the earthly people who still have their sexuality; their original genders can't be identified and they act as though they are still in their youth as if they have failed to mature due to their inability to feel sexual desires.
In the quote taken from the book, a "frelk," someone who desires sexual favors from the spacers, makes a statement which compares the spacers to the rest of the people. She says, "You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to land, while we...We have our dull, circled lives, bound in gravity, worshiping you!" Her statement introduces an interesting aspect to the concept of sexuality and its importance in our lives. Though the speaker might be referring to the more literal fact of the spacers' ability to fly into space which enables them to remove themselves from the earthly world, I believe it could also be referring to the sense of liberty and freedom the spacers' lack of gender and sexuality might give them.
Gender and sexuality in society tends to bind people for many reasons. First of all, the human need to satisfy sexual desires and to gain sexual pleasure sometimes override one's common sense and even causes immoral activities, such as prostitution. Prostitution also takes place in the story as the spacers, too, engage in prostitution by having physical relationships with the frelks in exchange for money. However, for the spacers, it doesn't necessarily mean anything since they don't feel sensual and sexual pleasure from being involved in such act. In addition, gender also takes form in language as different languages. For example, Spanish involves having masculine and feminine nouns which are strictly distinguished.
Gender in society also refers to roles of people; specifically to the role of women and the role of men. By dividing the roles of people in accordance to gender, the concepts of inequality sprout and there always seems to be no unification among the people. In addition, people are bound to their roles in society accordingly to their gender; it hasn't been long in history where women, especially, have been allowed to seek roles in the world of men. In contrast, however, the spacers, with their lack of gender and immaturity, are able to more freely enjoy who they are without the need to fulfill a role in society which relates to their gender. Instead, they play a role which benefits the society as a whole. Therefore, the spacers seem to be unbound by the concept of gender and sexuality which, for the rest of the earthly people, seem to act like the "gravity" which binds people firmly to the ground.
Monday, September 5, 2011
"The Lathe of Heaven" CP #1
"Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. The light shines through it, and the dark enters it. Borne, flung, tugged from anywhere to anywhere, for in the deep sea there is no compass but nearer and farther, higher and lower, the jellyfish hangs and sways; pulses move slight and quick within it, as the vast diurnal pulses beat in he moondriven sea. Hanging, swaying, pulsing, the most vulnerable and insubstantial creature, it has for its defense the violence and power of the whole ocean, to which it has entrusted its being, its going, and its will.
But here rise the stubborn continents. The shelves of gravel and the cliffs of rock break from water baldly into the air, that dry, terrible outerspace of radiance and instability, where there is no support for life. And now, now the currents mislead and the waves betray, breaking their endless circle, to heap up in loud foam against rock and air, breaking....
What will the creature made all of seadrift do on the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?" [Chapter I, "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. Le Guin]
As an instrumental opening, Le Guin makes a metaphoric reference to the jellyfish. Though it is written as a prose, I see it as a poetic verse where the vulnerability jellyfish is linked to the vulnerable essence of a human being. Peoples' reliability on the perpetual qualities of everyday life in the real world could directly relate to the "instability" that Le Guin points out in the statement above. Often times, life is seen as a perpetual wave or an "endless circle." For example in Gabriel Garcia Marquéz's "Hundred Years of Solitude," history repeats itself over and over again and characters become reflections of one another. And therefore, people, in order to shatter the monotony of their lives, venture off into the dream-like world of their imaginations. In the statement above, it says that "the light shines through (the jellyfish), and the dark enters it"; though the world of consciousness and that of unconsciousness are separated, the wall or the boundary between the two is sheer enough to be shattered, perhaps by the human's ability to dream, which, Le Guin says, bridges the "gulf" which is located "between the waking or hypnotized-trance condition and the dreaming state." Therefore, human beings are vulnerable as to differentiating between reality and non-reality because, like the jellyfish which is "tugged from anywhere to anywhere," human beings are also tugged back and forth between reality and dreams.
Though such introduction of the novel, I believe, set a great opening for the novel in which the main protagonist experiences his dreams altering reality, what really interested me was a statement Haber made to Orr during one of their later conversations.
"'I'm not in the judgment business, Mr. Orr. I'm after facts. And the events of the mind, believe me, to me are facts. When you see another man's dream as he dreams it recorded in black and white on the electroencephalograph, as I've done ten thousand times, you don't speak of dreams as 'unreal.' They exist; they are events; they leave a ark behind them.'" [Chapter II]
In an article titled, "Between Reality and Illusion" by Kentaro Ichinara (taken from the Guggenheim site: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact/participate/youtube-play/the-take/moving-images/3735-between-reality-and-illusion), the writer makes a statement at the end which reads, "Through projected images, illusion permeates into and is mingled with reality, blurring any potential borders between them. This is the world we live in." It really made me question what is real and what is not. Ichinara also said in his article that, "Illusion is also a phenomenon involving our perception of reality, whether it is a 'true' representation of that reality or not" which related to when Haber said "your uncinscious mind is trying to tell your conscious mind something about reality--your reality, your life--which you aren't ready, rationally, to accept" [Chapter II]. Perhaps, we do have the ability to create a "new present" [Chapter III] which is shaped by the idea that memories could be altered. Personally, I do agree with the idea that memories could be altered... have you ever heard the case of a girl who accused her own father of raping and killing her best friend because she remembered something incorrectly? After all, the past, present, and the future are all made up of images which are stored in our brain as memories and if we do dream of different images, I believe that that dream will have the potential power to alter our memories, making the dream a part of our reality. Who knows, like the photographic image of Mount Hood on the wall of Haber's office, our reality also has the potential to be altered through the unconscious.
But here rise the stubborn continents. The shelves of gravel and the cliffs of rock break from water baldly into the air, that dry, terrible outerspace of radiance and instability, where there is no support for life. And now, now the currents mislead and the waves betray, breaking their endless circle, to heap up in loud foam against rock and air, breaking....
What will the creature made all of seadrift do on the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?" [Chapter I, "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. Le Guin]
As an instrumental opening, Le Guin makes a metaphoric reference to the jellyfish. Though it is written as a prose, I see it as a poetic verse where the vulnerability jellyfish is linked to the vulnerable essence of a human being. Peoples' reliability on the perpetual qualities of everyday life in the real world could directly relate to the "instability" that Le Guin points out in the statement above. Often times, life is seen as a perpetual wave or an "endless circle." For example in Gabriel Garcia Marquéz's "Hundred Years of Solitude," history repeats itself over and over again and characters become reflections of one another. And therefore, people, in order to shatter the monotony of their lives, venture off into the dream-like world of their imaginations. In the statement above, it says that "the light shines through (the jellyfish), and the dark enters it"; though the world of consciousness and that of unconsciousness are separated, the wall or the boundary between the two is sheer enough to be shattered, perhaps by the human's ability to dream, which, Le Guin says, bridges the "gulf" which is located "between the waking or hypnotized-trance condition and the dreaming state." Therefore, human beings are vulnerable as to differentiating between reality and non-reality because, like the jellyfish which is "tugged from anywhere to anywhere," human beings are also tugged back and forth between reality and dreams.
Though such introduction of the novel, I believe, set a great opening for the novel in which the main protagonist experiences his dreams altering reality, what really interested me was a statement Haber made to Orr during one of their later conversations.
"'I'm not in the judgment business, Mr. Orr. I'm after facts. And the events of the mind, believe me, to me are facts. When you see another man's dream as he dreams it recorded in black and white on the electroencephalograph, as I've done ten thousand times, you don't speak of dreams as 'unreal.' They exist; they are events; they leave a ark behind them.'" [Chapter II]
In an article titled, "Between Reality and Illusion" by Kentaro Ichinara (taken from the Guggenheim site: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact/participate/youtube-play/the-take/moving-images/3735-between-reality-and-illusion), the writer makes a statement at the end which reads, "Through projected images, illusion permeates into and is mingled with reality, blurring any potential borders between them. This is the world we live in." It really made me question what is real and what is not. Ichinara also said in his article that, "Illusion is also a phenomenon involving our perception of reality, whether it is a 'true' representation of that reality or not" which related to when Haber said "your uncinscious mind is trying to tell your conscious mind something about reality--your reality, your life--which you aren't ready, rationally, to accept" [Chapter II]. Perhaps, we do have the ability to create a "new present" [Chapter III] which is shaped by the idea that memories could be altered. Personally, I do agree with the idea that memories could be altered... have you ever heard the case of a girl who accused her own father of raping and killing her best friend because she remembered something incorrectly? After all, the past, present, and the future are all made up of images which are stored in our brain as memories and if we do dream of different images, I believe that that dream will have the potential power to alter our memories, making the dream a part of our reality. Who knows, like the photographic image of Mount Hood on the wall of Haber's office, our reality also has the potential to be altered through the unconscious.
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