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Science Fictions (Film/TV (Blade Runner : The Final Cut (Directed by…
Science Fictions
Film/TV
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Arrival
- Directed by Denis Villeneuve and released in September of 2016
- The movie version of Story of Your Life, tells the story of how aliens known as the Heptapods came to Earth on a spacecraft seeking help from humans and how a linguist, Dr. Banks, determined this by developing their language through multiple interactions
- Major Themes
- Time: Time is not linear for the Hetapods but rather allows them to view their entire lives at once. As a result of this, Heptapods are able to do things in the present that will affect their future, which is the reason why they came to earth in the first place. Humans, however, are only able to see time in a linear way. When Dr. Banks learns their language her perception of time changes and her life is forever changed.
- Dealing with Emotional Pain: After Dr. Banks learns Heptapod B, her perception of time changes completely and she is now able to see events that take place in the future. One of these events is the death of her daughter. Dr. Banks is now forced to live the rest of her life knowing that her daughter will die and has to deal with it. Dr. Banks also could have avoided this by not having a baby in the first place but decides to have her anyway. The experiences she will have with her daughter outweigh the sadness she will get from her death.
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Be Right Back
- Black Mirror: Episode 1 Season 2
-Aired on February 11, 2013
- Tells the story of a young woman named Martha who is happily moved in her with boyfriend Ash when he suddenly dies. At his funeral, she meets a lady who gives her the opportunity to talk to Ash. At first, she is against it, but then tries it and enjoys it so much that she ends up cloning him. Martha ultimately learns that Ash's clone can never be Ash and ultimately ends up making him live in the attic.
Major Themes:
- Power of Social Media: The Social Media accounts that Ash had allowed an AI software to learn about him and mimic him to the point where Martha could not tell the difference. Should society have so much information out in the public for anyone to have access to? People with very different motives could take this information and do terrible things.
- Are Clones Ethical?: Although Martha lost Ash very suddenly and it made her very sad does this justify whether or not she should clone him? If we have the power to clone someone and make it seem like they never left should we. Many people have different viewpoints on this topic.
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White Bear
- Black Mirror Season 2 Episode 2
- Air February 18, 2013
- Tells the story of a girl who kidnapped and killed a baby girl with her boyfriend and is now forced to relive the same painful, gut-wrenching day for the rest of her life with people spectating her while she lives through it.
- Major Themes:
- Power of Technology: Crazy how they have developed the technology needed to allow this to take place. Will today's world ever achieve this? If we do should we implement it? How Ethical is it to use this as a punishment? Did the girl deserve this for her crime?
- Mental Health: What effect does this constant mental attack have on her mental health? Is causing this amount of trauma to a person's head ethical?
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Novels
The Time Machine
- Written by H.G Wells and published in 1895.
- Written as a Frame-narrative
- Genre: Scientific Romance
- Tells the story of a scientist who decides to travel back in time and when he arrives meets a new species known as the Eloi, who idle vegetarians, loses his time machine and while looking for it meets another new species known as the Morlocks who are meat-eating creatures that live underground. Ultimately finds his time machine, goes further back in time stopping periodically to observe the changes and finally returns home.
- Major Themes:
- Degeneration Theory: civilization is in decline, people are becoming worse
- Society and Class: In the future, it appears Eloi are all considered equals and live lives filled with fruit and riches. No one is better than anyone in this society. However, when u look closer we realize that the Morlocks, although underground, have the power and cause the eloi to fear them.
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Kindred
- Written by Octavia Butler and published in June 1979
- Genre: Slave-Narrative
- Tells the story of a black woman named Dana who develops the power to travel back in time to the slave period whenever her ancestor, Rufus, needs help. However, she does not have the power to return whenever she wants and is subjected to the racist treatment of the time period. She transports multiple times and each time she has to fight for her life longer. She ultimately ends up killing Rufus after her next ancestor had been born which finally allows her to end these chain of events.
- Major Themes:
- Race + entitlement: The way the white people in this novel treated the black people because they felt they had the right to is sickening. Example, white patrollers who felt they had the right to rape Dana.
- Power of Family: Although Dana is treated very poorly by Rufus she at first doesn't resort to violence. It isn't until Rufus attempts to rape her that she kills him. the connection of family between Dana makes her more inclined to tolerate Rufus's actions.
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Never Let Me Go
- Written by Kazuo Ishiguro and published in 2005.
- Genre: Dystopia society
- Tells the story of Kathy H. and her classmate's, who are all actually clones, experience at a special school known as the Hailsham school were they are cultivated and taught to love art then there transfer to a new location known as The Cottages where they live leisure lives with the final ultimate destination of becoming donors that donate their organs until they complete.
- Major Themes:
- Importance of Memory: The novel is written through Kathy H.'s memory of what happened. Kathy realizes that she loses some memories and tries very hard to keep them. Memories are what allow us to look into our past and reminisce about what things once had been.
- Are Clones Ethical?: In the novel, many people are against the idea of clone donors. The people in charge of Hailsham actually take the children's artwork in an attempt to prove that they have souls. This raises the question of whether or not clones should be used at all.
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Station Eleven
- Written by Emily. St John Mandel and published in September 2014
- Structure: multiple characters, multiple time periods. Takes place before and after the pandemic
- Apocalypse Story:
- All the main characters are connected in some way to Arthur Leander
- Tells the story of a plague that hit and killed a vast majority of the human population and how life was operated after the plague had ended.
- Major Themes:
- Death and Survival: Throughout the book, it is clear that the main goal of the people still alive is Survival. Everyone is doing whatever it takes to try and survive during and after the plague. After the plaque where laws are no longer enforced, people are now forced to try and survive from other people who wish to cause them harm.
- Religion: The prophet in this novel shows us the importance religion plays in society. Growing up reading the Bible, the stories in the bible and the actions that took place in his life made the prophet the person he became. Religion can have a large impact on the type of person a person will be.
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Short Stories
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Inventory
- Written by Carmen Maria Machado
- First person female narrator
- Apocalypse Story
- Tells the story of a girl and her actions during numerous, sequential moments of her life before, during, and after the plague came and decimated the human population.
- Major Themes:
- Desire: The girl in this story documents/narratives the events in her life based on her sexual relations with other people. Each moment takes place at a different time where she is engaging in sexual relationships each time explaining how the plague impacted her life at that moment. Interesting how we can use people's sex lives to tell the story of how their life became what is it.
Power of Lists: People can use lists to make sure that things are never forgotten. Lists/inventories can not disappear while humans can. The girl is the story decides to list things that she deems important in order to make sure that they are not forgotten.
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Story of Your Life
- Written by Ted Chiang and published in 1998
- Tells the story of an alien species called Heptapods who came to Earth and how the people on Earth tried to put together and learn their language through multiple interactions with the aliens
- After learning a good amount of the language, Heptapod B, Dr. Banks interpretation of thought changes completely and now being able to see everything that takes place in her life at once, her life is now changed forever.
Major Themes:
- Language Barrier/Importance of Language: When the aliens arrived, they were not able to communicate with humans immediately because of the lack of a common language. After learning their language humans are finally able to conversate with the Heptapods. Only through some form language is it possible for being to communicate
- Sapir-Wharf hypothesis: Language determines and influences thought, cognition, and our experience of the world
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