Bloodchild Response

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
 I found this work disturbing and a horrific view on a fairly common Science Fiction theme.  A lot of Science Fiction works examine a reality where humans aren't the dominant species any longer, but Bloodchild did it in a more disturbing way, having the eggs be used as a way to control people.  Having that existence be a fate male humans didn't choose for themselves adds another element to how disturbing this story is.
 
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?
Bloodchild had some interesting parallels to how humans treat different species on earth.  Being the dominant species means there isn't much to challenge us and prevent us from using other creatures to further our own species.  The Tlic were similar, using humans to further their species.  Their morality concerning the situation is similar to our morality around breeding and eating animals.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?
I feel like Bloodchild works well as a non-visual medium.  I feel like leaving room to imagine the Tlic and the scenarios Gan was in added to the story.  I feel like this story could also work as a longer film.  It's set in an interesting world, that could easily be expanded upon to have more characters and more human perspectives.  Gan's relationship with his family could also have been expanded upon, and would've added an interesting element to the story.

4. Are there elements of this work that you would consider afto-futurist?
The relation between humans and the Tlic resembles a lot of African culture throughout history.  The stripping of human culture that came with living on a new planet resembles the loss of African culture through slavery and assimilation.  This relationship between the humans and the Tlic gives Bloodchild afro-futurist elements, and creates a different perspective in science fiction.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Response

Despite not being a big fan of Sci-Fi, Harlan Ellison is one of my favorite authors.  I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is an interesting concept.  I like the set up of society creating technology that is so far outside of our control, and also highly intelligent and so filled with hatred for humanity as a whole.  I love the detail of how AM's name changed, from Allied Mastercomputer to Adaptive Manipulator and finally to Aggressive Menace.  Just the changes in names show how society created AM as something to help society, and ended up losing control of a highly intelligent being.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream stands out to me as a Sci-Fi novel mostly because of the character interaction.  Ted is interesting as a narrator, being the only one of the five completely unaltered by AM.  This leaves Ted paranoid that everyone he is trapped with hates him, and makes his perspective as a narrator interesting.  It also makes his decision to sacrifice himself at the end to free the other four from their life of torment interesting as well.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is an interesting perspective on sentience and what it really means to be alive too.  None of the characters are truly what we would consider "alive," the humans are maintained by AM but not truly living, and AM himself leads an agonizing existence.  AM's hatred of humans stems from being not truly alive.  He is highly intelligent but doesn't have the ability to form meaningful connections or have any sense of community.  By keeping the humans trapped in the world he created, he is attempting to take away their humanity and torment them with the same meaningless life he lives.  Despite all the torture the five humans undergo, having Ted's self sacrifice at the end shows that none of them really did lose the parts of life integral to being human. 

Shards of Honor Response

I found the tone of Lois McMaster Bujold's novel inconsistent and difficult to get into.  I've never been a big fan of sci-fi in general.  I wanted to give Shards of Honor a chance because, as a space opera, it seemed to be structured more like a high fantasy novel.  I found the tone of novel confusing at points, which made it difficult for me to fully get into it.

Shards of Honor seemed to be focused around the central love story while waving away a lot of trauma.  The love story plot seemed too lighthearted for all of the serious things Cordelia was faced with.  There were a lot of moments where I believed the story was going to take a much darker turn than it did.  When Cordelia got back to Beta Colony, her treatment is so unsettling that it seemed like the story was going to take a much darker turn.  Instead, it's kind of passed over without any acknowledgement of how traumatizing everything must have been for Cordelia.