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Sci-Fi Exam IV

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Author of Heart of a Dog
-satire, philosophy that favors art, ethics, and culture
-passionate fan of Gogol and Mollere
-stylish
-had 3 wives
-trained as a doctor and became a drug addict
Heart of a Dog and its connection to Island of Dr. Moreau
-animal turned to humanoid
-historical background because there were many rejuvenation experts in Russia
Why do patients want rejuvenation?
-sex: old man who gets with woman half his age
Why does the scientest work on doing rejuvenation?
-wants to create something superior
-bypass reproduction with femal to do it scientifically
-improve level of humanity
Why revert the humanoid back to a dog?
-scientist realizes that what he did was wrong
-say what is the reason to create something artificially when every year some woman gives birth to a spanoza (genius)
What is unusual about the scientist in Island of Dr. Moreau?
-realizes he made a mistake and fixes it
Describe the POV in Heart of a Dog
-dog's (Sharik) pov first
-next section is lab log
-ends with narrative form with no certain conscious
Describe the dog Sharik
-mutt with no social origin
-interested in food, minimal needs/comforts
-has street smarts (like a smart Soviet teenager)
-sympathetic
Describte the character of the dog
-philosophical
-discusses various classes of people and say what people are like
How is the dog sympathetic
-feels sympathy for others
-feels sympathy for typist even though makes sexual/kinky references and public hair references
What types of memories does the humaniod have?
-dog memories
-little typist is woman he wants to and does get engage to
Who is Probrazhensky and what does he do?
-the scientist
-the "transformer"
-he transforms
-dog refers to him as high priest, magician, godhead, etc
-looks like a wonderful person who gets what he want from the dog's POV
Why have the lab log section?
-progressive report and scientific
-makes the fantastic more acceptale because have objective scientific
-make the fantastic more credible
How is the dog? How is the humanoid?
-dog is charming and wins overs Zina, Dana, etc
-everyone hates the humanoid Sharikov
How is the humanoid Sharikov?
-drinks, smokes, and is destructive
-from dog identity keeps hatred for cats
-shows characteristics of Chumpkin (human from which gland was taken)
What is the paradox in Heart of a Dog?
-dog was more intelligent, likeable and refined than humaniod
Describe Shvonder
-proleteriat
-on house commitee
-resents the scientist/professio because he has special privileges and can't do anything about it
-professors antagonist by support Sharikov and egging him on to give it the prof.
How does the professor and docotor portray Sharkov?
-vocabulary of cruelity when refering to him (murder, blood)
-describe Sharikov as helpless head
Way to read the novel Heart of a Dog
-political allegory
-statement on how nevery persuade humans by violence but kindness
-life's needs take a process rather than forcing them
Hows is Heart of a Dog a political allegory?
-October Revolution
-critize Soviet in begining
October Revolution
-elimination of sizable percent of population (violence)
-after revolution had program to eliminate illiteracy (turn ignorant people to better people in position of power)
How does what the prof. did relate to the October Revolution?
-he also tried to quickly and violenty transform
-revolution not evolution
How does the novel critize Soviet Union in the beginning?
-see lots of stealing
-see incompetence
What was Andre (the scientist) guiding force for the experiment?
-humanitarian desire
-help community
What was the error Andre made?
-realizing there is a difference between transporting goods from humans
-seen with the cat that transporting live beings is problem
-even with goods have problems (made in china on object was written backwards after transportation_
What happened to the cat?
-in limbo
-disappears after disintegration
-cat's name was Dandeloe
What values are communicated in Neumann's 1958 The Fly?
-nuclear family (Andre, Helene, and Philippe)
-conservative gender politics and pro-family values
How is the brother involved in the The Fly (1958)
-Francoise is the other owner of the company with his brother
-his the finace one
-crush on Helene (Andre's wife)
What happens in the beginning of Neumann's The Fly? What is the significance?
-a cat disappears
-sign that negative things will be revealed
-later find out it was Dandeloe
How is The Fly (1958) layed out?
-narrative
-retrospective from Helene's POV
-shes fooled into telling the story by an untruth that Francois said (said he has fly but doesn't)
What is the setting of Neumann's The Fly
-montreal
-life is unstable
What weighty issues does Neumann pose?
-issues such as the nature of God, humanity, and progress
How is Andre in the beginning? How does he change?
-starts out believing that "God gave us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible"
-ends up realizing "There are things a man should never experiment with"
Why does Andre want to die in the end?
-he senses his increasing loss of humanity/humanism
-opts to die ethically rather than live as an inhuman
-only one that dies in film
-choose death because of his principles (love and sacrifice are guiding principles)
What does Francois comment on about his brother Andre?
-says brother is like an explorer searching for the truth
-says that search for truth is most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous
What is intelligence according to Andre?
-characteristic of humanness and humanity
Why would killing Andre-Fly make sense giving the decade was the 50's?
-in the 50's there was a phobia of the dimished male
-feared man would loss power
How do we see Andre turning into the fly?
-through his eating habits
-can't talk
-writing deteriated
-loses control of fly arm
How do we see the fly fighting with the human Andre?
-fly part is distruptive
-fly arm vs human arm
-fight is espcially apparent when he is writing to his wife
Does the fly become more and more human since Andre becomes more fly like?
-possible because have parallel between end and beginning
-reversal of situation in end because Andrefly and spider are crushed
Gender and The Fly (1958)
-Philipe's comment "that's what women are"
-by end nuclear family is reaffirmend because have Helene, Francios, and Philipe
-Andre is ideal middle class husband (loving, religious, and philosophical)
Why choose a fly?
-biblically linked with darkness
-remote from human (relates to remoteness of each scientist from society)
-alien presence and omnipresence (due to size)
What are the credits like in the 1986 The Fly? What's it linked to?
-black background
-murky, flowing
-look of credits is linked to bacteria in lab through microscope
Contrast the two versions of The Fly
Neumann's:
-stable world that is destablized by aberration
-gradual fusion of man and fly due to error during teleportation on the molecular level
Cronenberg
-bleak world in which the sense have replaced the soul
-error takes place on the genetic level
What is the setting of Cronenber's The Fly
-generalize setting is city
-real setting is the loft, an Eden of the 1980's, decade of the "I" and "Me" generation
Loft as Garden of Eden: religious subtexts
-Veronica's entrance into the loft recreates the original sin of sex
How is Veronic indicative of the original sin
-strong, seductive woman
-drives car with stick-shift
-initiates sex
-through her Seth learns secret of animate beings, of FLESH
What is the progress of experiments in the 1986 The Fly? What does Seth say about the last experiment?
-movement from her stocking, to meat, to baboon, to Seth
-when Seth and fly merge he says the telepods should have been PURE
How is Seth's emergence from the telepod like a birth?
-birth of new but corrupted Seth
-womblike telepod
-becomes a New Man
-birth is a fall from innoncence, brings about indiscriminate desire for sex, violence, etc
Describe all of the miscengenation in Crononberg's The Fly
-Seth and the fly (computer's error creates a kind of computerized, sexual, intercourse bwt Seth and fly)
-later Seth proposes a gene-splice bwt himself and Veronica and unborn child
-at end Seth becomes splice with telepod
Human vs Animal Issue in The Fly (1986)
-theme of loss of humanity in era of self-absoprtion
-the society itself is insect-like and the loss of compassion, etc. characterizes the 1980's
-Seth says insects lack compassion
1980's Masculinity
-comes of badly in this film
-positions two versions of a degraded malehood as rivals for Ronnie (Veronica)
-Seth Brundle and Stathis Borans (same initials) are alike: ambitious, have power of sorts, possessive, don't listen to Veronica
Machismo
-Stathis tries to take over Ronnie's project
-Seth throws her out and picks up lower-class woman at bar
-Crononberg makes the strenght, aggression, and personality of the fly a grotesque hyperbole or parody of masculine traits
What does The Fly (1986) suggest about males?
-impersonality of male sexuality (nightmare of ejecting maggot-like phallic fetus)
-violence of men (final confrontation between corrosive enzymes and rifle; both images for tools of male sexuality: semen and phallus)
How are females portrayed in The Fly (1986)?
-Ronnie is unable to dissociate from either Seth or Stathis
-she's absored in the era's "get-ahead" preoccupation as indicated by her statement "I'm onto a big things" (also a sexual pun)
How is there a possible AIDs subtext in The Fly (1986)
-Seth's body starts out beautiful (exercises, Ronnie's entraced with him working out)
-then his body deteriorates into an ever-disintegratng synthetic mess
-male object of desire mutates into a physical threat
What are the overall themes of Cronoberg's 1986 The Fly?
-success in a competitive world
-threat of monlithic corporations to individual identity (also in Alien)
-body-building
-casual sex and signles scene
-fear of commitment and erosion of nuclear family
-neglect of ethical issues
Is abortion mentioned in the 1986 The Fly?
-yes, abortion subtex in Ronnie's pregnancy with a mutant
-parallels pro-abortion subtext in Alien
-contrasts anti-abortion subtext in Terminator
How can the 1986 The Fly be read?
1.Brundle wasn't someone who was completely human to begin with (wasn't social, sexually knowledgable, or matured)
2.Response to critical situation with AIDs and research in AIDs
3.Preverse coming of age (puberty): start with sexual awareness, then move to mucho, hungry, hormonal male
How was Octavia Butler an unusual sci-fi writer?
-black woman with dyslexia
-poor, big (6ft)
-lesbian
-shy
-in US, sci-fi was white male genre
Blood Child
-1986
-won Nabul and Hugo
-Butler won MacArthur award
What themes/ideas exist in BloodChild?
-coming of age
-foreign identity
-freedom
-reproduction
-parasite
-politics
-co-existence
-gender identity
-slavery/dehumanization
-family/maternalism
-basic instinct and trust
Who are the characters?
-terrans (earth): Gan, Lien, Hoa, Qui
-Gan: first person
-Lien: mother
-Hoa: sister
-Qui: brother
-all of them have different reactions to the Tlic that are distinguished
-Tlic: T'Gatoi
How is T'Gatoi connected to Gan? Describe their relationship.
-T'Gatoi's host was Gan's father
-have a mother-son relationship as well as sibiling relationship
-lovers relationshi
Coming of Age
-Gan reaches adulthood by conceding to be host
-boy chooses to be implantd
-becomes adviosr to negiotator because after helping save Lomas's life, tries to convince T'Gatoi that terrans should know mor about the "birth"
What is/are Gan's motivations to be implanted?
-wants to spare Hoa
-jealousy
Politics
-T'Gatoi is negotiator between terrans and Tlic's about implantation
Forgein Entity
-terrans were in exodus and are on another planet (not Earth) in attempts to colonize it and failed
-Tlic are parasites with many limbs, tail, cold (possible amphibious)
What sedatives are in The BloodChild?
-sterile eggs which are like opium
-sting from the Tlic's tail
Freedom
-no way to escape where the terrans are geographically (Qui tried by failed due to this)
-T'Gatoi give Gan the choice (freedom) BUT there is an imbalance of power so is it really freedo
-terrans are treated like cattle bread for host
Trust
-needed for mutual survival
-partnership between terrans and Tlic both sexually and politically
Reproduction
-strong emphasis on reproduction
-all female environment except for males who give birth, are about to give birth, or will do anything to avoid giving birth
-reluctance to birth/reproduction (duty to bear children is questioned with different attitudes)
Tlic Parasite
-are Tlic superior speices: skilled politicians, can speak terran language
-aren't excused from pain (pain isn't one-way, Gan hurts T'Gatoi during sex)
Co-existence
-how much of own identity do you have to give up to live with others?
-symbiotic relationship
Gender Identity
-goes against convention because most powerful character is T'Gatoi who's female
-she is influential, politician (politics is traditionally male domain)
-sexual instigator: she chooses partner, overipositor (non-carrier as opposed to egg in her)
-birthing is male function
-Tlics are almost all females

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