A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

This series is incredibly entertaining and the sarcastic humor makes this show and book far less serious than most science fiction pieces. The witty remarks that Arthur Dent makes to his comrade, Ford Prefect are hilarious because he sounds more annoyed with the situation than upset. I'd expect someone that lost their house to construction for a bypass to be infuriated with the situation- the ironic factor in this is that the end of the world is near anyways so it's not like Dent will be able to use his home or will anyone else for that matter. Dent's friend, Prefect suggests that the only just solution to the matter would be drinking four pints of beer and ironically he's correct hah! Another humorous aspect of this show is how Prefect thinks that he is a hero to Dent, yet he always gets the both of them into a heap of trouble... and with each of these little incidents becomes another episode. I did not finish all of the audio book clips but I can sense that the pattern for this program is that the two will never escape every problem and that along the way they meet people that they have already met or learned about for the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy". This is how the character, Trillian came into the show. After saving/capturing Prefect and Dent they all came to realize that Trillian and Dent already met- on Earth! I love the connections that are made from one location to the next and how Earth remains in the stories and there is always some travesty. This show is somewhat like a soap opera... in space. Especially with the dramatic music that almost pokes fun at old sci-fy movies and literature. Even the dialogue is less serious than it is in other science fiction pieces. This audio series has great voices and because of that it is so easy to imagine each of these characters and their demeanors- the separation from dialogue between characters the narrator, or book's voice was especially entertaining and they definitely played off one another. I want to finish the series and surprisingly I enjoyed the show despite it's cheesy affects.

A Revamped response!

I wasn't completely sure as to what literary response I should redo/develop until I saw that I wrote, "to be continued" after my "Interview With A Vampire" response... that made it the choice pretty secular.

The characters in this book are so complex- so humanistic that they don't seem dead, or reborn. I'm not even sure what the correct classification of a vampire is as for if they are living or dead. hah. The main vampires in this book have heightened emotions because they never got to live out every aspect of being human. Claudia in particular seems to be the most affected by time and aging because she would forever be a child... (Although she does die in the end of the novel and movie) besides that point she never got to develop into womanhood. As much as she was constricted by her outward appearance she was even more so by her "fathers", Louis, her protector and maker and Lestat, Louis' maker. Claudia was like a pet for Lestat. Perhaps he thought that he could create a better vampire than Louis turned out to be- since Louis is always questioning his authority and still remains so human in his actions. This of course makes Louis, Claudia's nurturer and partner. As Claudia becomes older she mistakes their strong partnership for a relationship. It is emotionally devastating when she realizes that her body will never match her maturity and to be frank, sexual desires. I believe that Claudia truly wants to be intimate with Louis. Lestat’s meals- healthy, beautiful women who have felt every grown-up emotion and don’t just know of them, often remind her of her imperfection. This unfair prospect angers Claudia because she never had the choice or chance to become anything more than she is, a child. She eventually learns to use her perplex persona as a mechanism to get whatever she wants. By playing innocent and pure she gets the kill, all while relying on her fault, being a child.

Oryx and Crake

"Oryx and Crake", written by Margaret Atwood is a disturbing futuristic piece that could actually be feasible if people decided to "develop" the world in that way. Bioengineering is at the center of society in this novel and slowly bioengineering goes from bettering the genetics of animals and plants to totally eliminating humans as a race. The "Crakers", Crake's species that are his idea of perfection are horrific considering that they are not individuals any longer and they all have the same faults- the lacking of knowledge. Everything that was once humanistic, caring, and emotional are no longer in existence because of Crake's experiment and Jimmy/Snowman is sadly the only person to suffer through this apocalypse. The advancements in science are forever developing but in this novel Atwood illustrates the world after all of the advancements have been pursued. Another terrifying thing in this book that I can see relating to today is the secrecy of the government. It's something that most people fear and in this book knowing about the experiments and leaking information results in death. Even the people who felt like they were controlling their subjects were in fact being controlled by the government- and all respectable jobs were government based.

The past for Jimmy is the current day for us and it seems to be completely corrupt with all of the sex, drugs, and the illegal internet games (such as survival games). The future is even more bleak. To be completely honest I found this book to be depressing. Unlike the past sci-fy books/short stories I've read nothing seems to be positive about this futuristic scenario and this book is probably the closest thing to the truth when discussing the future. At the end of the story Jimmy/Snowman finally sees a small group of humans and he doesn't know how to approach them. It never concluded if he interacted with them or not and I think the fear that was instilled in him is of the most pathetic kind- he was scared of his own race!

I actually started a new book over Thanksgiving break called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and it seems to have correlating themes with "Oryx and Crake" but it's main character, Katniss seems to be more positive even though her situation is also bleak. Katniss is apart of an actual live broadcast game in which she has to kill to survive... and winning is surviving. Her district also bioengineered animals for government use and had poor results. I'm only on page 50 or so of this book but I would highly recommend it as maybe another option to this week's reading.