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I have read The House of the Scorpion before, so it was interesting to re-read from a more ‘classroom’ perspective. One of the things that stood out most to me, after having read so many other sci-fi novels this semester, is how much differently young adult novels tend to be constructed. Don’t get me wrong; […]

SHW HIM, the captain says. A lesson that cuts through years of living, cuts through genetic programming… but Siri isn’t fully human. No one here is. It is something he should be able to understand. He stands in my chambers and watches the scramblers on the screen. “Is this an execution? Is this a, a […]

I was surprised to find vampires in Blindsight. Watt’s writing is so scientific that there doesn’t seem to be room for human myths and old impossible fears. When I first started reading, I kept thinking that vampire had to be a term, or a creation, not that Watts was saying Vampires had actually once existed. […]

It is difficult for me to say these things. I won’t lie, because one day you would know if I had. I wish that you were human. I wish that your only other parent was Joseph. But these decisions were not ones that I could make, and I will love you just as much all […]

In Lilith’s Brood, there is a large divide between how much freedom the humans have and how much free will they can actually exert. They are treated like slaves or pets, although the Oankali let them believe that they still have choices. Often this is expressed through the Oankali anticipating human actions, and allowing them […]

Page 29 contains very significant color symbolism. The difference between the red lights of the secret facility and the cool outdoor setting makes the facility seem womb-like. WE3 are being born from this place; they have been recreated and built. They leave the facility with different minds and bodies than when they first entered it. […]

One of the challenges for me in reading Neuromancer is in trying to understand the culture that the characters are living in. Although it’s vividly portrayed, because Gibson doesn’t spend too much time explaining what things are (and because, although I enjoy science fiction, I’m not really that ‘technologically minded’) I have a hard time […]

(Sorry this is long… as it was I couldn’t fit everything in! Too much evidence!) When I first finished the story I thought the humans had discovered all of the monsters… but then, I re-read the last page. “Beyond the stars is the answer,” McReady says , “From a hotter planet that circled a brighter, […]

When Frankenstein dies, he says that his creation: “Shewed unparalleled malignity and selfishness, in evil: he destroyed my friends; he devoted to destruction beings who possessed exquisite sensations, happiness, and wisdom” (239). But didn’t the creature posses ‘exquisite sensations’ and wisdom as well? In two years of self-education he was able to master eloquent speech […]

In Frankenstein, the impossibilities of fantasy are overshadowed by the power and reality of science. By its publication in 1818, electric batteries, steamboats, and locomotives were all recent developments. Dalton had just published his atomic theory, and the first asteroids had been discovered. Science was growing to replace fantasy with evidenced rational, but it was […]