Blog #13: Post Modern Prometheus

In the the movie Post Modern Prometheus, there were many strange but very interesting things that happened. First of all, it reminded me very much of not only the Frankenstein Complex, but also Xenophobia in a way because of our fear of what is different. You could see the fear and the bias that stuck with people simply because of an idea being embedded into one person's head. The terror that grew inside of the people of the thought of a monster coming into their houses was astonishing as soon as one person planted the idea. It spread like a poison through people and woman feared that they were impregnated with a monster, a demon, or an non-human creature. In the end however, he turned out to be very human. He was ridiculed and looked down upon by the town simply because his features did not follow the norms of society. It kind of makes a person step back for a moment and realize that we see it everyday in the hallways of our very own school. There is ridicule and mockery everywhere because of people's differences. We see it in history too; where one idea became a disaster because of fear.

Blog #11: Random Sample/King of the Beasts

In the story Random Sample, we see a couple of kids who are spoiled and somewhat bratty. As a kid, I always remember the days where I would step on ants in the summertime with my sister. We would also draw on the sidewalk with chalk, and we would get annoyed when the ants got in our way of drawing. In this story however, the kids are very judgemental of the way these new creatures look when they are questioned. Just like the ants, the children treat them badly. I think that the way it ends is very interesting and every ironic as well. As a result of the kids torturing the ants, the kids are then tortured in a very similar way, with a magnifying glass. They describe that the ants must see that sun cover up the entire sky and blaze down on them. They also say that the ants hardly know that you are there until they almost touch your toe. Is the author suggesting the same thing about people through an alien point of veiw? Is it stories like these that makes people more xenophobic.
The story King of the Beasts almost reminded me of Jerasic Park. It takes you back to the biological standpoint of beings and creatures being created from DNA through a testube. The thing that I find interesting is that at first, I thought it wrong to be creating man in this way until I thought, how different are we really from any other animal other than supreme intelect and souls. Animals, like us, crave the same ateention and desire for power among their species. Does the author suggest that the different species of the world have xenophobia toward each other?

Blog #10: Planet of the Apes

 In the movie Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston plays a man that goes on an expedition into outer space. He land on a strange planet ruled by Apes and the planet turns out to be his own, Earth. In his discovery of the Apes, he sees that not only do the Apes despise him and all of the other humans, they are afraid of him because of his ability to speak and to reason. The theme xenophobia is demonstrated in the video because the Apes will not accept him as a being that exceeds what they describe as animals. We later discover that man is dangerous, for at the end of time when Earth collapsed in chaos, it was people that ended up destroying each other in their barbaric ways. Near the end of the movie, it is quoted: “You are afraid of me Doctor. You were afraid of me before and you are afraid of me now. Why”? “Because you’re a man”. This shows xenophobia in the movie during all parts, and the apes never got over it. The apes humiliated man just for their own satisfaction, and the elders of the apes even knew about the Earth once belonging to man, but left the evidence in ruins for the younger generation.

One big problem that I saw in the video that still exists today is the desire for superiority above all others. The apes believed that they were the superior race, created under God as equal. It’s ironic because we think like that, and planet of the apes shows that even in 2,000 years, that attitude will never change.

In their ape society, I don’t believe there is a future. Unlike us, they disgrace those who want to learn, and forbid expanding knowledge. I hope that is not the future of humans as we know it, but I do believe the world will end by people destroying one another.

Ender's Game Blog #4

The last three chapters of Ender's Game consist of many different atmospheres. First of all, Ender struggles with who he is and what his purpose is in life. He wants nothing more to do with battle even though he is the master of it. With the help of Valentine, Graff gets him to go and wipe out the buggers. He later does wipe them out, but is bothered by it because of the perfect manipulation behind the entire battle. It turned out to all be nothing but an evil plot to destroy a race that humans knew nothing about just because of a previous offence. Ender then goes off to find a new life and ends up in a world the same as his computer game. Through the game, the buggers were almost trying to say something to Ender, to tell him that they didn't want to attack, but to understand humans. Ender feels ashamed, but writes a book about the life and history of the race he single handedly destroyed. To me, this whole story was very endearing, and it helped me further understand the true evil of xenophobia. I realize that this is only a book, but it dirrectly applies to our every day life, and this book has many connections to our own human history. We humans are affraid of other humans that don't look the same as we do. We have attempted mass homicide before to eliminate a race that we knew nothing about. It is all really very tragic that people have to be that way toward others that are mysterious to us, and I think that this book was a very good example of that.

Ender's Game blog #3

During this portion read of Ender's Game, Ender becomes the commander for the Dragon Army. He recruits memebers into his army that have never fought a battle before and have no technique. This becomes a very important time for Ender becasue it is his time to show his leadership skills and rise above the commanders that he once had, and he can get the chance to teach kids quality fighting. His army then eliminates every other army in the school which makes Ender invinsable.
I feel that this portion of the book was more a transition into what is coming next for Ender. The hard part seems to have only begun for Ender becasue the real world needs his skill to be saved. I did enjoy this portion of the book and I'm excited to see what is next.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” was one movie that I found really entertaining in this class. It was one that definitely kept me thinking about what was going to happen, and why so many things were happening all at the same time. Though it may seem that these people acted out too much because of something stupid or crazy, I think it describes people perfectly.

Being in AP Psychology has given me a good insight on some of the reasons on why people do what they do. A term in psychology that is commonly used to describe memory is something called Source Amnesia, which is a condition people have with attributing to the wrong source of an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. It is at the heart of many peoples’ false memories, because, for example, we tend to remember and believe what we want to believe which is why there are always two completely different sides and stories told in court about the same exact event. Also in psychology, there is a term called the Spillover Effect, which directly associates with fear, anger, or excitement. In an aroused state of fear, anger, excitement, or any other emotion involving a high amount of energy, people can become violent, form mobs, and cause damage as a ‘mob mentality’. People act out in a time of fear as a natural fight or flight symptom found in every species of the world. Like wild animals, when backed into a corner of uncertainty, we will attack each other, and our own morals.

These statistics relate to this story because it shows us an example of humanity’s own mentality. The people of Maple Street become frightened by their abnormalities, and begin to feel backed in a corner. Then, the kid in the story causes a catalyst effect by telling his town what he once read in a comic book creating it into Source Amnesia. People automatically became certain that what the kid said was happening to them, and they became so terrified, they butchered one another through the Spillover Effect.

In the end, the aliens were never on Maple Street, but rather, standing back and watching people accuse one another and go crazy. It was smart of them because like they said, every street is the same. Every street is Maple Street. To me, that is basic science of the mind. They are right however, because every person has those effects of blaming someone when something is uncertain, or if they don’t have answers.

Muse

In Muse by Dean R. Koontz, we as readers get a glimpse of the world in the distant future. Not only do we see the world from the outside looking in, but also on the inside looking out. In this reading, I not only saw examples of extrapolation in the world (the space travel through the galaxy and to new and undiscovered planets), but also the concept of xenophobia.

In the reading, the author writes a first person point of view of a man returning from his travels to a home that does not accept him, or his outside influences that he has picked up along the way. His father, and even some of his family’s friends are reluctant to embrace his new life, and kill his slug, “Icky”, and further ruining the life and talent of his son.

This story reminds me of a drug or alcohol addiction in our world today. Like Icky, it is a substance used by a human to form a sense of self or an out-of-body experience. People feel creativity while under influence of these substances, and the outside sees it as the bad that it is. People tend to feel more creative and  high while using it, but when they don’t have it, they fell somewhat lost. The difference between this story and today’s world of drugs and alcohol is that Leo had a symbiotic relationship with this creature that gave him confidence, it didn’t wear him down. It was a sort of a parasitic friendship that was more giving than receiving to one another. Leo gave Icky life, while Icky gave Leo talent, confidence, and the personality that he formed during his travels and the rise of his fame.

In the end, xenophobia was very real in this story because of the way people took in the creature. People seemed to feel flustered in the story, and suddenly thought different of Leo just because of Icky. Even his father thought differently about his son at the thought that this ‘thing’ is taking his son away. Leo was practically disowned by his father because of a relationship with something new and strange. I think that whether his father was right or wrong to kill Icky is up to the reader but honestly, it’s irrelevant. We as people tend to think of ourselves as superior, and reading stories like this just shows us our own arrogance with the unusual, and our own instinct of violence in a case of extreme fear.