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Sci-Fi Exam 3

Terms

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What does the title Solaris imply?
1.Solar
-source of energy, light
-in ancient cultures sun was assoc with God
-goes along with idea that men are supposed to enlighten people on earth about planet
2.Solo
-people at sation are in solitude (fearful of being with others)
-when Kelvin arrives at station sees people there have barracked themselves
Which two characters have different names in the polish translation?
-Rheya is Harey
-Snow is Snout (means rat face)
What is the novel Solaris about?
-people coping with the past: Kelvin with how wife committed suicide
-knowledge: limits and epistemology (nature of knowledge)
-boundaries between fiction and "reality"
Describe the diagram of Solaris space station and the ocean. Relate this to Freud.
-space station "hangs" just above the ocean
-the space station is the conscious
-logic, rationality, and calculations are at space station (these are things we assoc with enlightenment)
-the ocean is the subconscious
What are the characters in the novel repressing or feeling guilt or shame from?
-Kelvin has repressed guilt in role in wife's suicide
-Satorious possibly petafellia because hear patter of feet
-Gibarian's phi-form is large black woman rep. trans-racial attraction
-sexual and strong emotions seem to be present in these repressed materializations
Who is Kelvin? What does his name suggest and how is this connected to Solaris?
-Kelvin is a pyschologist who has not subjected his self to analysis
-kelvin suggests temperature
-Solaris is plant with two suns and extreme temperatures (great heat and extreme cold)
What does the name Snow have in connection to the planet Solaris?
-name compliments on contrast of temperature (great heat and extreme cold)
What's the importance of the name Satorious and Berton?
1.Satorious: Sartaz who was an existentialist (how act now is what matters)
2.Berton: Breton who was a surrealist
-surrealism was movement which ignore logic and focused on dreams and people's irrational behavior
How is alienation seen in Solaris?
-people secluded in own rooms with the blinds drawn
-sign of not being able to confront other people and self (fear)
What makes the novel Solaris anthropocentric (Regarding humans as the central element of the universe)?
-fact that they think they can contact other which by name alien is other so human rules don't apply
Who was the ocean's first victim? How was he spotted? What does this imply?
-Fechner was first victim (fell into ocean and disappeared)
-Berton was flying and saw Fechner as a 10 ft baby
-implies Fechner had early trama as child and ocean "read" him
How was Berton's eye witness report taken by others?
-refuse to believe him because goes against human logic
-trying to describe one aspect of ocean's behavior
What (if any) commentation does Lem make on scientific organization?
-Lem comments on organizations that claim to do one thing but do another
-scientific organization set out for objective investigation BUT don't do this
-don't discover but impose ourselves
What do the names of the ship in Solaris mean?
-Alaric: violent conqueror
-Prometheius: brought fire from gods to earth but was tortured after did this
-suggest how have progress but at same time tremendous suffering (to move forward must be willing to suffer)
Does the ocean have an agenda?
-lem tries to destabilize notion that ocean has an agenda
-Snow says not to be concerned with why but with how and what
-why goes to philosophy/divinity
What is the significance of the dull, very scientific section in Solaris?
-have lots of what/how (scientific inquiry)
-basic data (have lots), complex information (have some), but no knowledge of ocean
What is the goal in Solaris?
-make contact with other worlds (ocean)
-irony is can't make contanct with one another (enclosed in rooms)
What is the setting of the novel Solaris?
-plant Solaris, space station, ocean
-enclosed space within enclosure vs ocean
-symbolic setting
What does the ocean do?
-entity that projects repressed fears and desires (fetishes, etc)
-materalizing mirror
How do the characters view the phi-forms?
-in beginning everyone looks at materializations with fear
-threatening because they expose people (items of psychic)
What do the phi-forms make people do?
-make people confront themselves
-in end Kelvin confronts his phi-form by bringing her out in the open
-uses it to confront himself to some extent
What does Kelvin say about religion or god?
-a god who is imperfect
-created world but doesn't know what to do with it
-draws parallel between this god and ocean
-inconclusive though about this god
What does the novel Solaris emphasize?
-asking questions and confronting is more important than answers
-science deals with what while philosophy deals with why
What genres are in the novel Solaris?
1.Sci-fi
-encounter with other; some understanding of the other
2.Mystery
-in beginning and revelations
3.Philosophical Essay
-solaristiccs
-statements about role of humans in world
What paradies are in the novel Solairs?
-juxtaposes one data section next to one another to show how it's useless to have data complication if incomprehensive
When do the phi-forms appear? What do they look like? What makes them unhuman?
-appear when person is sleeping
-perfect duplicates but more stylized (after time become more human)
-can't be killed
-don't sleep or eat
-subatomic structures (neutrino)
-always warm (black woman in freezer)
-different skin (sole of feet are as soft as babies skin)
What does the fact that Rheya's dress has no fastens mean?
-emphasize not real
-another image of closure or entrapment
What emination is changed in the film?
-black woman is white
-racist and tacky if black
What is the purpose of blood/blood stained hands in Solaris?
-blood identifies as human
-blood stained hands suggests guilt
How is reality confused with dreams/sleep/visions in Solaris?
-times when Kelvin and reader don't know if dreaming or not
-ie when Giberian came to him
Describe suicide in Solaris?
-ultimate expression of incomprehension and despair (contrast to despair is hope)
-Rheya and Giberain commit suicide out of despair
What kind of state is Kelvin in at the end of the novel?
-in state of neither hope nor despair
-state of extended expectation
-open to whatever ocean may give him (distinguishes him from others)
Describe the motif of space exploration in Solaris?
-puported goal (not real goal)
-presented as something grand
-not interested in learning but rather want to make other like us
-anthropocentrism
-self glorifying names of space crafts
What is the importance of "man" stenciled on Snow's door?
-answer to sphin's question
-keep coming back to same question
What is the importance of the concept of why in Solaris?
-hardest thing for humans to accept is randomness
-why implies there is a purpose
-religion often provides this purpose
-at the end, Kelvin accepts ocean may just do things for no reason
What is the importance of the concept of what/how in Solaris?
-has to do with technology and science
-don't have an explanation of what ocean is at end
What differences are in the 1971 film Solaris?
-beginning and end of film is not in book at all (Kelvin visits father's home, emphasis on water)
-addition of family BUT above all father/son relationship
How does Kelvin become interested in space in the 1971 film Solaris?
-inherits interest in space from father
Describe the relationship of characters in the 1971 film Solaris?
Kelvin ---- Father
|
[dead mother that appears in
visions]
|
Berton
What happens at the end of the 1971 film Solaris? What is this associated with? What does this imply?
-Kelvin comes back home (see same water scenes) and falls on his knees in front of father
-return of prodigal son
-comes back a different being
-changed from closed, skeptic (of Berton), and unsympathetic to open person
What does the scene of Kelvin and his mother mean?
-see vision during feverish period
-mother washes him and eats apple
-washing is associated with baptism
-eating apple is associated with return to paradise (Garden of Eden)
Is the ending in the 1971 film Solaris clear? What makes it clear or unclear and how?
-uncertainity in ending
-superimpose ocean upon house
-several meanings
What could the superimposition of the ocean upon the house in the 1971 film Solaris mean?
1. still on Solaris and Kelvin is fantasizing about relationship with father
2. back home and has changed sufficiently
3. emination that Solaris is reaching out further
How is the ending a replay of the beginning in the 1971 film Solaris?
-at father's house again
-trace same route
How is water symbolic in the 1971 film Solaris?
-link ocean with rain because ocean is water like rain
-associated with chaos
-associated with baptism (image of birth and rebirth)
What is the ending in 2002 film Solaris like?
-engimatic (puzzling, ambigious)
-like beginning (chopping, cuts fingers) then Rheya appears
-see hollywood ending (happy couple)
What scene interrupts the ending in the 2002 film Solaris? What is this scene a reinactment of? What's the importance?
-scene between Clooney and Michael (phi-form)
-reinactment of Michaelango painting: God reaching hand out to man and man's hand touching it
-reason for going to Solaris was to est. contact--happened
-scene that enables what happens to Kelvin
What does Rheya say to Clooney at the end of the film? Where are they?
"everything is forgiven, what matters is we're together"
-dead land, higher plane of consciousness, ocean, Heaven, psychie
-ambigious
Compare and contrast the ending of the novel Solaris, the 1971 film , and the 2002 film
1. Novel (Lem): open ending
2. 1971 (Trot): reconciliation with father
3. 2002 (Sat.): coupling, happy ending
*in all Kelvin learns a lesson and becomes more humanized
Alien (1979)
-important to dir. Scott of how film looked
-thought that sex was needed to grab attention
-centrality of confrontation with other
What was the name of the space ship in Alien? What does this mean?
-Nostromo ("our man")
-name of novel Joseph Conrad wrote about exploitation and colonization
What does "mother" want them to do?
-company (mother) wants them to bring alien back alive for military purpose
-not scientific exploration but profit
What do the opening shots of the space ship in Alien imply?
-some space seems huge (large rooms)
-spaceship looks like inside of body (womb)
-claustrophobic and enclosing (like womb)
What is the first thing that happens in Alien? What do we see?
-crew is awakened by message (SOS or warning)
-see crew in bassenettes and looks like they are wearing diapers
-crew are seen as children (of technology and the company)
What is the company interested in?
-making money, expansion, and colonization
-willing to sacrafice human lives
What does the alien want to do? What is the aline like?
-alien wants to expand and multiply like company SO
alien = mother
-alien has no morality, pursues goal at all costs, only interest is to multiply
How is procreation portrayed in Alien?
-procreation bypasses women and the womb
-male is procreator
-man's body that the egg grew in and the alien came out of man (male birth)
How is the alien sexualized?
-alien has phallic head
-connection between popping out of stomach and erection
-oozes white stuff
What is the order of deaths in Alien? What kind of slant does this give the film?
Kane, Bret, Dallas, Ash, Lambert, Parker, and Ripley lives
-marxist slant because of class concerns
Kane
-first to die
-Cain/Kane was first person murdered in bible
-aggressive Brit. (tries to colonize the most)
Bret
-lower class
-"yes man"
Dallas
-leader of crew
-fool
-keeps information to self and goes against safety rules
What is interesting about the crew that is left for most of Alien?
-Ash isn't human and he's suspect from beginning because Ripley said she didn't trust him
-Lambert becomes less concerned with money and just wants to get out
-no one listens to Ripley even though she's 3rd in command
-irony is she's the one with common sense
What are Ash's feeling about the alien?
-admires alien
-describes it in way that implies he knows more about alien than we do
How is Lambert like a typical woman?
-screams and freezes
-indirectly causes Parker's death
What big change occurs in Parker?
-changes from being obessed with money to humanized
What is Ripley like?
-strong, intelligent, female survivor
What questions the idea of Alien being a feminist film?
-Ripley relaxes by taking off clothes
-last scene is typical slasher film (woman mostly undressed threatened)
-shown here as vulnerable
What sexual turns are made at the end of Alien?
-strokes cat (porn association)
-in underwear
-see her butt crack
What are the themes of Aline?
1.capitalism
2.technology
3.reproduction/abortion (alien being expelled at end...sucked out)
What are the parallel's between Alien and the other works we have read?
-motivation for space exploration: War, Solaris
-corporations: Met., War, Term. 2, Fut. Cong.
-reproduction: Met., War, Term., Invasion
-simulation: Met., Term., Solaris, Invasion
-Tech Noir
-Animal/Machines: T.M., War, Term.
How does Alien unnerve the audience?
-sense of claustrophobia
-space ship looks like womb
Information for Production of Alien
-Giger (surrealist artist): biomechanical art
-Ripley was orginally a male character
-used kids to make alien planet look bigger
Who is Gustave Moreau?
-french symbolist painter
-devoted works to representing ancient myths (sphinx, oedipus)
-interested in dilemia of spiritual or ideal vs the material and sexual tendencies
-Well's named his similarly visionary, anti-materialist scientist after him
What are two of Gustave Morea's painting symbolic of?
-Oedipus represents the spiritual or the ideal
-the Sphinx (half woman and half animal) embodies sensuality, avarice, and sin
What is the sphinx? What question does the sphinx pose? Where is it seen in Well's works?
-part human, mostly animal (female)
-associated with sex, predatory, and victimization
-askes what is man/human?
-runs throughout all of Well's works
How is Moreau a parody of God? What were people's reaction to this?
-white haired ruler of his own little world (microcosm), authoritarian, and crual like the Old Testament God
-supposedly looks down invisibly on the beast and can punish them
-people were shocked at notion of scientist setting himself up as God (blasphemous attack on God)
Describe the Laws in both the religious context and secular context
1. Religious Context
-parody the Ten Commandments
2. Secular Context
-neccessity in society to civilize it
-punishment of go against
need for prohibition
What is the connection between science and ethics?
-not everything can be allowed but who decides what can and can't be allowed?
What was Bentham's view on pain and pleasure?
-mankind is under governance of two masters...pain and pleasure
-greatest happiness for the greatest number
-held that living creatures can suffer and enjoy and that their inability to reason is irrelevant to the moral issue of how animals should be treated
Did Wells agree with Bentham?
-Wells was for vivisection
-found Bentham's philosophy too materialistic and pragmatic
Who does Wells use to agrue agaisnt Bentham and how?
-uses Dr. Moreau
-has him accuse Prendick of being too materialistic is sorrowing over the animal's pain
-has Prendick and Montgomery get squemish about the cruelty of vivisection
What is the hierarchy that is established in the novel? what is the distinguishing trait?
-hierarchy is human to animal
-distinquishing trait is human's have language
How is Darwin's notion of evolution portrayed in the novel?
-Moreau sees his experiments as speeding up evolution (improves on evolution) vs Prendick who sees them as incredible suffering
-suggests for ethical/human control over the blind impulses of nature
-Moreau's failure though suggests that humans may be victims rather than masters of cosmic progress
How is the idea of devolution and retrogressive evoluation evoked in the novel?
-the Beast People revert back to their animal state
Who represents man? What are man's traits?
-animals represent man
-man has mind, speech, spirit AND appetite and instincts (animal behaviors..making animal/human boundary fuzzy)
How are the Beast People created and trained?
-Moreau combines various animal parts to for humanoids
-he trains them through pain/fear ("House of Pain")
-programs/habituates humanoids to become more human (pseudohuman)
What is the importance of chasing and huntin?
-chase and hunt is associated with animals
-first chase scene in novel is by humans who find enjoyment in it
-boundaries between animal and human are not clear
How is Well's aethisism seen in the novel?
-no notion of divine providence
-divine providence is idea of being created in God's image
-skeptical of notion of benign nature
How does Well's reference Huxley and Darwin?
-references the pessimism he learned from Huxley through making Prendick a student of his own teacher's
-sets story on an island that has been identified to located just off the Galapago's island
How does the film confusion the animal/human boundary?
-in film try to see of can go from animal to human AND from human to animal
What are the two ways humans could be created? What are the implications of each?
diagram
How is the island a microcosm?
-metaphor that it's floating at sea
-mini world of society
-not an escape which is how most islands are though of ("escape to paradise")
What are the names of the ships?
-Lady Vain
-Ipecacuambe (plant)
If we evolved what does that imply?
-we are not that different from animals
-see animalness in the Capt. and Montgomery (drunkeness)
-drunkeness is measure of reverting to animalness
Who emphasizes chance and what are its implications?
-emphasized by Montgomery
-chance is randomness of the world
-no beliefs
-world is ruled not by benign purpose but blind fate
-not philosophy that leads to man but chance
How is the book a statment as an "exercise in youthful blashpemy?"
-Moreau as arbitary God
-Sayer of Law (equivalent of preacher) is most ridiculous looking animal
What statements may the book make?
1.humanity as "animal roughnew to reasonable shape and in perpetual internal conflict between instinct and injection"
2.darkside of evolution
3.scientific inquiry and vivisection
4.attitude to racial others
5.Moreau as hero?villian?combo?
6.subtext concerned with homosexuality
How is the novel an attitude to racial others?
-animal people are said to be "dark"
-island inhibited by dark creatures
-racial comparison (anti-semitic, racist)
How is the novel a subtext concerned with homosexuality?
-reference to man of genius which may have been about Oscar Wilde (homosexual on trial during Well's time)
-reference to man of genius being exiled (Oscar was exiled)

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