Mixed Feelings

As I finished the book I had very mixed feelings about it.  While I was happy for Helva who seemed to have found a brawn she is compatible with I was anxious to see if the mission to Beta Corvi turned out.  I realize that the book is not about her missions but about her struggle with mourning and moving on.  But after all the hype about the mission and CV drive, I wanted to know if it turned out.  And...since she was going back to Beta Corvi where she left those other four passengers I want to know if they are happy there and if there is any sense of "human" left in them.  A huge chunk of the book was devoted to that mission and I feel like they have kept me hanging too much.  I like a little suspense, a sense of what happens next, in books but this is too much.  I need more!!!

Another aspect I have mixed feelings about is the whole mourning of brain ships.  These shell people and ships are designed to last hundreds of years.  So the makers know that the ships will go through many brawns in a natural lifetime.  Wouldn't it make sense to condition the shell people to deal with mourning and loss?  Especially if they are going to allow them to retain their feelings.  It seems to me that this should have been something the designers should have thought of when making shell people and pairing them with brawns.  If part of Helva's conditioning had been dealing with loss and grief, she may not have had such a hard time when Jennan died.  But, anyway, I am glad things worked out for Helva in the end and she seems happy now.  As for the mission, I guess we'll never know.

Being Conditioned

I ws very intrigued from our class discussion on Thursday and kept thinking about loss and mourning all the way home.  Someone brought up the point about being able to self-destruct and how Helva was conditioned not to but now she is not being conditioned.  Because she is not being conditioned anymore those thoughts, while still deeply embedded, may begin to lose their power and eventually, many hundreds of years later, she will just be done living.  Another student (or maybe the same one, it all gets jumbled together) mentioned the lack of physical sensation.  At first my thought was that you can't miss something you didn't know, such as how Helva can't move around like brawns.  But as I thought about it more I began to realize that Helva was rasied with other people like her so that was all she knew until she went to the ship.  She knew that others could wak and touch and do things she couldn't she didn't really experience it on a normal basis.  Again, I think she was conditioned not to want those things but she is not being conditioned anymore.  Perhaps she will start to see the avdvantages that brawns and others have.  After watching people walk and jump and hug and touch, will she start wanting that too?  Sure, it's nice to hurtle through space and fly at amazing speeds but the people she takes are also doing that, just experiencing it differently.  Perhaps she will begin to wonder what it is like to be a fully functional person.  Without her conditioning will she soon start to long for touch and affection in ways that she can't have?  Will she go mad from wanting those things?  This is becoming an very interesting book.

Victorian Collective

After class on Thursday I kept thinking about collectives.  The Borg and the Drummers are definitely collectives.  Their minds are like one, inter-connected and almost without free thought.  One is many.  The more I thought about it the more I kept thinking the Victorians in The Diamond Age are a sort of collective.  The Victorians want everyone in their phyle to think alike and act a certain way.  They do not like people who speak up and cause dissent.  They want to go on living their comfortable lives and not have anyone make any waves.  This is why Finkle-McGraw and Hackworth came up with the primer.  If everyone is acting the same and doing the same things, then no one is unique or has unique experiences.  Both Hackworth and Finkle-McGraw want their girls to grow up having experiences that will change them into something great, non-conforming because they realize the Victorians do not give them this opportunity.  Miss Matheson says this when she is talking to the girls on page 321 when she talks about the differnet phyles and being clever.  She states, "Whatever you do with your life will certainly be lost...unless you are doing it with like-minded people who will remember your contributions and carry them forward."  So, my thought is that she is telling them it is okay to be clever but you must be clever with people like you and together, collectively, your ideas will be carried by many.  One is many.  Then, later on page 353, Miss Matheson tells Nell, "You can try to act the same-we have tried to make you the same..."  Part of the curriculum of Miss Matheson's school is to prepare young ladies to take the Oath, to be a Victorian, to be the same as all other Victorians.  One is many.

Ractives

I was really interested on the discussion we had on Tuesday about Nell and the Primer.  What really interested me was the question about when Nell the girl is distinguished from Nell the Primer character (or somethign like that).  I kept thinking about Miranda and the ractives.  You could almost ask the same question about Miranda or any other ractive.  When she is inside her "egshell" she takes on different characters and personas.  Sure, she reads from a prompter for most of it but it is still what she puts into each character that makes them unique.  When does Mirnda the person separate from Miranda the character.  And to take things further, it seems that someone could so wrapped up in these ractives that they lose all sense of time.  Miranda even loses track of time during a session with Nell and realizes that she'd been going "eight hours without a break" (136).  She doesn't realize until after the session that she is parched and hasn't used the loo for hours.  She got so wrapped up in the character that she lost touch with her own body.  The question then becomes whether or not a person could get so wrapped up in a ractive world that they completely lose touch with reality and get lost in ractive and believe it to be the only world.  What would happen then?  In this alternate reality would it be possible for people to only live in ractives?  How much would people depend on these machines to interact with others and would ractives take the place of actual human contact?  The reference to Surrogates also came up in class and in a way it is similar to ractives.  People play different parts from the safety of these "eggshells" while their own body is safe from direct interaction.  The problem arises when people would only use these ractives to interact.  Is that the kind of world we will come to someday?

Initial thoughts on Diamond Age

Okay, so when I first started to read this book my first thought was, "WHAT!?!?!" It started out so strange to me.     It was like being thrown into a foreign country without knowing the languge and trying to figure what the heck was going on.  I had to reread the first couple of pages to  try to understand what was going on.  The I read the back cover and found out it said it takes place in the 21st century.  I was thinking, "No way," this is way too futuristic.  But I stuck it out and as I progressed through the first reading discovered many things about the book and now find it very intriguing.  I think the part where Hackworth is reviewing the biography of Finkle-McGraw (p 19) clarified a lot for me and that is when the book really started to get grounded.  I started to think of the book not in terms of a futuristic piece but as an alternate reality piece.  When Hackworth is describing Finkle-McGraw's youth it sounds very similar to what I know about America.  It's when he describes Finkle-McGraws accomplishments that things start to take a different direction.  So it's not that this is so far into the future, to me, this book is simply describing a reality where nano-technology has literally exploded onto the main scene and has expanded technology to the point where it seems futuristic.  I now find this alternate reality fascinating.  I am still trying to decipher and visualize many of the things described but feel that I have a better grasp of the book now and look forward to finding out what more surprises are in store for us readers.
As far as Bud is concerned, I just finished the part where the tiny bombs have exploded in his veins, I find it hard to believe that this is the end of his character.  I will read more and see if, by some miracle, he survives or if he comes back later in the book.  I just find it odd that Stephenson would introduce so vibrant and interesting a character and kill him off right away.  I am very curious as to what happens next.  We'll see, we'll see......

Black, White....and Yellow?

As I was reading the book and getting caught up in the story it suddenly occured to me the lack of color throughout this section.  After the Lady visits Lissar and gives her the white dress that is the last we hear about color.  Throughout the rest of the section the main colors mentioned are black and white.  When she meets the man on page 167 she is described as wearing "a dress so white it almost hurt the eyes" and "her eyes, black as her dress was white."  No other mention of his clothes or colors is heard.  Another mention of black and white is made on page 168 when the farmer is telling Lissar how to get to the house.  "'Ware the black and white hen; she's a devil."  This one particularly made me pause.  Lissar wears a white dress, has white hair and black eyes but she was given these but the Lady, who we assume is kind and gentle.  This reference to black and white being similar to the devil is an interesting comparison.  While Lissar's depiction of black and white is calming, wonderous and inspiring, another depiction of something black and white is that of the devil and something to be avoided.  I just find that very interesting and am anxious to see if it leads anywhere.

Now, black and white are not the only colors mentioned, yellow is also mentioned on page 176 - 177 when Barley and Ammy are talking about the yellow city.  The yellow city is called this because the great house is made with yellow brick as are most of the other buildings.  I find the sudden introduction of the color yellow intriguing.  I can't help but wonder how yellow fits in with black and white.  Yellow is usually the color of gold so perhaps the importance of the color yellow is that of royalty and prestige.  However, I do not think that entirely answers the question of the yellow.  I think that yellow stands for  hope and faith as Lissar decides that this is where she must go, the yellow city.  There, she hopes to find the end of her journey and answers to why she is there.  The end of the journey only signifies the beginning of another.  So perhaps yellow stands for this hope and new beginning while black and white signify a blankness that can be filled with whatever the seer chooses to fill it with. 

I found further evidence of the lack of color on page 197 when Lissar is describing the greeting room and royal family.  She makes reference to color when she is describing the room but does not give any specific details as if she is seeing them but not really seeing them.  She just knows they are there.  When she is describing the royal family on page 198 she states, "both of them were quietly dressed" but makes no reference to what kind of colors they are wearing.  Again, this lack of color gives me sense of blankness, nothingness, as if there is no meaning in things.  I feel this is how Lissar must feel, she has no meaning, no direction, she is lost and looking for a purpose.  At the end of the section there is suddenly a great reference to color when she says, "she remembered him as if he dressed in bright colors: red and green and yellow and blue." (228)  For me, this signifies a great turning point in Lissar.  She has found a sense of meaning and purpose to her life.  She is in charge of 6 little lives and will do whatever it takes to keep those pups alive.  It also signifies a change in the way Lissar sees Ossin.  She is beginning to see the world in a new way and that is why I believe the introduction of other colors is important.  The world is no longer as big a mystery as it first was to her.  Lissar has much to figure out and learn but she now sees hope.

Not a "Charmed" life

   As I was reading the article for this weeks class, Kent A. Ono's "To Be a Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I couldn't help but think of the television series Charmed.  For those of you who have not heard of this show it has many similarities to Buffy.  Three sisters find out they are witches and not just any witches but powerful witches because they possess the "power of three" which makes them Charmed.  In the show they fight demons, warlocks, misquided individuals and even face the ultimate evil, "The Source."  Just as in Buffy the three sisters are white and come from a middle class family (all the girls in the family are witches).  The sisters were raised by their grandmother (a witch) because their father had left them at an early age and their mother had been killed by a demon.  However, they were raised without their powers (grandma put a binding spell on them) and only gained them when she died.  They did not seem to be denied any luxuries as they were growing up but yet feel like they have nmissed out on things.  So, just as in Buffy, they are still learning about who they are and what they are to become.
     Also, as in Buffy, the demons they face come from the underground, and when I think back on the show, are generally of a different race.  The Sorceress, who works for the dark side, is of African-American descent and much of the other demons and never-do-wells are of other minority groups.  Most of the "innocents" the sisters save appear to be Caucasian.  The evil characters are all classified as being "dark" just as in Buffy, they have black eyes and wear dark clothing and live underground or in dark alleys and woods, etc.  Another similarity to Buffy is the addition of the character Cole, which is very similar to the character Angel in Buffy.  Cole is a demon who wishes to shed his powers and work with the sisters.  He becomes romantically involved with one of the sisters, Pheobe.  He is also white and middle class.  Yet, another similarity is how the sisters are always complaining about wanting a "normal life" and being able to date, get married and have children.  They sometimes lament their charmed witch status and wish that they could give it up in order to lead a safe, normal, secure life.  But in the end they always accept their fate and continue to fight the demons and other bad creatures. 
     I had never thought of all these implications before reading the article but now can see that even though the Charmed ones are ass-kicking good doers, there are flaws with the way culture, gender and society is repesented in the show.

Gender/Society Roles

I know that this after our discussion for the week but felt this was a perfect example of some of the things we talked about in class on Thursday.  I am sitting here watching "Fred: The Movie" on Nickelodeon with my daughter.  It is a rather stupid movie with no real plot that I can see but it does have the classic gender/society roles in it.  There is a beautiful popular girl, who is blond, and a rather geeky, weird girl, who is dark brunette.  The main character, Fred, is totally in love with the blond girl who happens to live next door, and Fred also lives next door to the brunette, who isn't popular because she's wierd.  This is a great example of how society exemplifies blond girls as the most desirable and the ones that everyone wants.  Brunettes are considered geeky or weird and just "the girl next door."  Now of course, in true movie fashion, Fred ends up realizing that the brunette is a pretty cool girl and  proving to the popular crowd that geeks and weirdos can have fun too and...he gets the blond girl.  And to add to everything, Fred's mom is a drunk brunette, another character's mom is a ditzy brunette and the girls that hang out with the popular blond are brunette but are only popular because of her.  Oh, and of course the two main girls both have long hair!

Times Have Changed

There were so many interesting aspects of this reading that I was having a hard time trying to decide what to write about.  As I was finishing with the assigned reading for the week I came across an exchange between Estraven/Harth and Genly Ai that I knew I just had to write about.  The passage struck me as both funny and a little offensive, but mostly funny.  The passage in which I refer to is on page 234 where the two characters are discussing what Gely Ai's female counterparts are like.

The first part that struck me as humourous is when Estraven/Harth asks Ai, "Are they like a different species?" (234)  Ai's answer seems to be one of indecision.  He can't seem to decide if women are a different species or not.  Finally he says not really but that there are unique differences.  The next thing he says about women, and men for that matter, I agree with.  Ai states that the sex a person is born with largely determines how they will grow.  Social experiences, cultures, activities and almost everything else varies depending on if you are a man or a woman.  We can all try to deny this but it is true.  What sex you are often dictates how people will perceive you.  Times are changing and perception is changing with it but it is a slow process.

The next part that struck me as humourous but just a tad bit offensive was when Estraven asked Ai if women are "mentally inferior." (234)  Ai's answer is that he does not know but women are not stupid, there just aren't any on the same intellectual level as the smartest men.  My feelings of being offended were short lived when I double checked the date in which this book was written, 1969.  At that, a little light bulb went off.  When this book was written, women were not considered as being intellectual equals to men.  Women's right and equalities were still developing.  Now, we have all sorts of bright, intelligent, and succesfull women in a multitude of different fields.  The playing field may not be entirely level but it has definitely come a long way from 1969.

One other thing is for certain; if any man today would make a comment like Ai did in the book, he would be in for a world of hurt!

Still a Manly World

While I was reading Left Hand of Darkness and trying to keep an open mind about a race of people that don't seem to have a set sex I kept getting sidetracked by the great many references to "he."  I started to take note of this more and more and realized that for a race that is supposed to be lacking of any particular sex until "kemmer,"  they seem to still be predominantly male.  Le Guin does not explain the use of "he" until later in the book (page 94).  There she states from the notes of one of the first investigators that the use of "he" is meant to refer to the race of people and not the sex.  She says "it is less defined, less speific." (page 94)  However, everytime I see the word "he" I immediately think of a male, especially the way Le Guin actually describes the Gethenians.  She may attribute female characteristics to this race but for the most part they seem very masculine.  For instance on page 47 the main character is describing his landlady but then says, "a voluble man."  Why not say person instead of man, this may open up the door to better understanding.  In some ways I can understand using "he" to describe a group of people but at the same time feel slightly offended because when someone says "he" most people will immediately picture a male.  I can't help but wonder if there was another term Le Guin could have come up with that would allow readers to stay neutral about sex and not be swayed towards one or the other.  This is science fiction after all and it is perfectly acceptable to make up words.

Another way that the book seems more masculine is when the Gethenians themselves talk about sex.  When children are born they are completely derived of sex and do not even begin to establish this until a sort of puberty.  Yet on page 72 when Estraven is describing his relationship with Ashe and how to help him he refers to "our sons'" and on page 73 states, "we were kemmerings, and had two sons."  If they are truely without sex why not refer them as just children?  By using the term son he is making them male not androgynous.  Using the term children would indicate that they are neither female or male, just children.  Another reference is made to sons when on page 99 it is mentioned that the king is pregnant and is going to have a "king-son".  Again, why not say a king-child?  I find these references very interseting because to me they indicate a male society.

There is also another reference to make this world seem male dominated when the main character is visiting the Foretellers and is describing the "pervert."  On Winter the pervert is someone who is more or less permenantly stuck in one gender and has lost the ability to switch back and forth during "kemmering."  The interesting opart is that the pervert in this part of the story is stuck on the male side with "exagerrated maleness." (page 63)  Why make the pervert male?  There didn't seem to be any specific reason for this. 

It just seems odd to me that this race, Gethenians, are supposed to be without sex until "kemmer" yet they all seem to be male.  I know it is just they way my mind is perceiving the information in the book but I can;t help but notice those references towards the male gender.  I just think that there was another way Le Guin could have gone about describing these people, their children, and the abnormal ones without making references to sons and males.  It just puts the wrong images in my mind and makes it hard to remain open.