Satire and Sci-Fi Response

Without even reading about it, I watched Idiocracy for this theme before class. I think it hit the nail right on the head on where we as a state are coming to in the now near future. The whole thought of having food that's given to you by a machine and in the end gives you nothing, having a toilet as your sitting chair, being completely oblivious to the obvious and so much more is what we have to look forward to in this future of ours. We're getting stupider by the second with little things here and there that come into trend now. I noticed that during the movie there was one thing that they still didn't have that we've been wanting since Back to the Future came out. That one thing was flying vehicles and boards, which is pretty sad considering all this time has gone by and there's absolutely nothing that's happened in terms of technology growth. Technology is what people today have been wanting to improve for a long time now, so it's kind of a thought to look upon. Will we ever create the things we've wanted since the beginning into a reality, and improve our living situations so we don't end up like this movie or will we just continue to drive in a circle and do nothing about it? I truly believe that if we keep up this nonsense we call "improving our living", we're going to be a bunch of idiots just like in Idiocracy.

Literary Speculation Response

I ended up reading all of the  Cosmicomics readings instead of just reading the one that was requested. However, I believe these stories are all bizarre in a very interesting way. There is this whole idea of something we wouldn't think of being possible to live in and then they make it a reality in these stories. It's a sense of just accepting a sense of story telling that we just kind of accept? I do think that these stories are very out of the zone of story telling as well. By that I mean it's something that way out there that is awesome! Now I'm not speaking of just one specific story in Cosmiconics, I'm talking about all of them from "The Distance to the Moon" to "The Spiral". They're all a sense of where you have to think that "is this possible" and "if it did happen would that actually happen?".
I think it's cool and fascinating to not have a specific genre to your story or stories. A sense of imagination and "suspense" is what they leave you with. Also I think there's a hit of "rebelion" in this no genre thing, because it's like a new era of stories to not have a genre.

Diverse Position Science Fiction Response (BloodChild Response)

1.) What is your reaction to the text we just read?

I think the whole story was both interesting and odd, interesting because of the context and the subject matter and odd because of the way it was written. Talking about the idea of human and a type of other being which is alway interesting in stories. I think that is why I was interested in this story, because of the other being ideas. Also I got a sense of diversity or "racism" (probably too harsh of a word), but it shows different sides and the "battles" of them as well.

2.) What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect.

Something I enjoy about stories is being able to connect to it, but I think that's what makes a good story as well. Connection wise with this story, I think the sense of emotion that the main character feels I suppose is what I connect to. I think Octavia Butler did a very good job at building up the emotion and getting the reader to connect and grow with it as well. Which is kind of where I connect to it, I feel like my emotions grew with the story as I kept reading.

3.) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

Since I'm very bias about photography, since I am a photography major. I this that making this story into a series of photographs would be really cool. Possibly not using all of the elements used, but using a lot of them, just ones that go with the specific subject. I'd probably want to use the existing characters, for example Gan and T'Gatoi for one of them. I want to focus on both side of the story, now just one of them. However, I'd want a consistent subject matter as well so it doesn't look like a bunch of mixed up images. 

Cyberpunk and Steampunk Response

I never really knew what Cyberpunk actually was until we really discussed it in class. However, now I understand the term and genre a lot better now. I think the whole Cyberpunk is some type of reality for the world today in a way. This type of genre reminds me of what our world it going into for the future. For example in Cyberpunk movies, shows or books there's always a sense of dirty or gritty atmosphere. The streets always seem dirty with trash or muck which is how our world is today and seems to be getting worse over time. Another example is the technology used by people in the area. It all seems so futuristic and new such like our technology and what we are designing for the future. When looking and reading this type of genre you notice the setting takes place in a very rural area such as cities like New York City. There are big neon electronic billboards everywhere that light up the city so much there is no need for street lights. So there's a lot of reality for us today in these Cyberpunk movies and books.

I believe the older Cyberpunk movies and books had the same characteristics, but the audience was very different that today's Cyberpunk audience. In older Cyberpunk everyone was so amazed with the technology used and setting, so everyone wanted and couldn't wait for the future. Now we look at them and it's almost a sense of reality for us, not everything seen of course, but most of it. Which if you ask me is pretty sad, because some of the Cyberpunk settings aren't very nice.