Getting Away From That Subject -

All of those post's remind me of something about The Diamond Age- *sighs* I make way too many connections to adoption in my life- frak me

The way the people in this book live- especially those like Nell bothers me too. I didn't stop to think about it much until writing my previous posts on The Ship Who Sang. She is seemingly a thrown away child, (Nell) who has to take care of herself, while using the Primer to help her grow up. I get how the Primer echos Nell's thoughts and, Nell echos the Primers it's a circle. Primer as mother and father really- not only to Nell, but to the Mouse Army.

The Mouse Army-yeah again throwaway girl children- who are get this connection my mind made Chinese girls- who in reality in adoption are also throwaway children in their society, because boys are valued more than girls. But oh, The Mouse Army becomes so powerful-with Nell as their General. She leads them down the revolutionary road, she leads them to demanding their rights. I find it very interesting that the really subversive stuff in this book- lead to that for so many of the characters. The Drummers and their sex computer even make me think of self determination - the seed too. What is that about? Why going back to the old ways and leaving behind the technology -it leads to living in a society that does not value girls as much as it values boys. It leads to well yeah I am not going there this blog is not about that.

How She Was Made-

Helva that is- and it certainly seems to me that her creation is a showcase of "The Wonders of Science" and of course technology.

Being born deformed, or with birth defects in Helva's universe need not mean a life of being marginalized as it does in our universe. ( Or at least it seems to me our universe marginalizes the disabled) It can mean a rich fulfilling life of service to all of humanity via the shell program.

But those who are not suitable are left to die, or is it euthanized? While those chosen are given no voice or choice in the matter. (Ick there go those thoughts on adoption again)

Not that I think it's a horrible thing that this was what happened to our heroine Helva. I think it's a marvelous thing. But again I have to question ethics here- (not to mention morals) I always remember that line from Jurrasic Park, "You were so busy doing this, that you didn't stop to think if you should" Or it's something like that anyway. Helva is a wonderous creation-she is in fact Cyborg/PostHuman and has seemingly limitless access to her brain. But she is also heavily conditioned-to be loyal, to serve. What about her wants and needs? Sure she can pay off the debt she owes from being created as a shell person-but what happened when she was on the verge of that? Yep, they reeled her back in. So how is it really ok for Helva to be treated this way if she's a human being? Is she supposed to be eternally greatful and loyal to those who "chose" her for this life? Or at some point will she be able to be her own person and live her life as she chooses? Yeah more stuff that makes me go hmmm....

Religion and Hate

I seem to have a lot to say about The Ship Who Sang, don't I? Religion in this book is just really sorta whackadoo isn't it?
The crazy cultists on the world that is going to be scorched, yeah really? You are that nutso? Then to top it all off the Mother Superior refuses to be rescued, until one of the young ones runs for the ship. That worked out real well didn't it? Helva lost her mate over it, the man she fell in love with. Oh yay for the religious nut jobs who caused that.

The Dylanists, who aren't really whackadoo at all mind you, but realists who want to preach a message through music. Helva learns about it through her temoprary brawn Kira. She uses it to good effect too-basically killing the High Priest of a murderous cult who has captured them both with the intent to harm. But  Helva instead turns the tables through music and they both escape with the bad guy dead as a result. And a dead BB ship who went insane from the loss of her mate. (there I go again the whole mate thing yeah?)

Maybe the message here is that religion is bad for people? Or is it that religion if used as a tool it's evil? I don't know, but certainly there are worlds in this universe that allow suicide because of their religion. You don't see any religion portrayed in a good way anywhere in this book-except for the Dylanist's and even that religion isn't looked upon favorably is it?

It makes me go hmmm-anyway

Can you mate if you don't have sex?

So yep, more on The Ship Who Sang- Helva is presented to us as being very, very human. All of her thoughts and desires and feelings are nothing but human.

But is she really human? Can she truly have a mate without having the intimacy of close skin to skin contact? I mean it doesn't have to be sex- but choosing a mate without being able to touch them just seems so squicky to me. Parollen himself desires to touch her, to be with her and "look upon her beautiful face" he struggles with the not touching thing himself. Although in the end, he does become Helva's "brawn" which is to say mate. We see into Helva's thoughts on this many times throughout the book.

Our attention is drawn to it over and over- starting with Jennan, on to the Corviki and in the end with Parollen. (did I spell that right?) He urges her to take a body that is not her's-after the Corviki incident. Why? Well he wants that intimacy-he wants to be with her not only in mind, but in the flesh. In the end he seems actually obsessed with her and shows stalkerish mannerisms. I mean he even had a picture made of how she should look. WTH?

I think Helva is all too human, and so is Parollen. But in different ways- Helva is all mind and soul-Parollen is all body and soul. Until he realizes he can be with her without that intimacy that he so desires.

Sex and What about it?

So, I went ahead and started The Ship Who Sang. I have read this one before, it was among my mother's books when I was growing up. I loved it back then- I still very much like it-but love it? Not so much- So you can have babies, without having sex- ok- and they can be grown up to a certain point without a uterus-um ok- but then they have to be implanted or die. Gross- People like sex, no getting around that, and they have sex even if it means no procreation so ok- but-

I got to the part where they are shipping the zygotes to another world to help repopulate it after a catastrophe and found myself sick to my stomach while reading it. Anonymous doners and all that it's hard for me to read that sort of stuff. I lost my oldest child to a coerced adoption. I find it morally and ethically repugnant to take another's sperm and egg to create a child who will have no idea where it really came from. I know that in the world of Helva that these donor's children will have all the information they need to be healthy, they know what the genetic predispositions are for these soon to be tiny "humans" It is the not knowing part that really bothers me, you know the not knowing who their actual mother's and father's are It bothers me alot, it reminds too much of my own life up to the point where I was reunited with my daughter. Who did not know her medical background-at least not the really important things about it, because all of the important information only became available as I aged.

Yeah, I know this is a bit far afield from the book, it's personal-but I can't help but make it personal. Adoption as a topic for me just sucks-no matter where or what universe it takes place in. It is never far from my thoughts, and it always seems to show up when I least expect it. It's like being slapped in the face by an unsuspecting trout. I get why it's important to this story, I get it-really I do. But I don't have to like it do I?

Diamonds and Machines and Being Human~

We've talked alot in class about Cyborgs and what is and is not a Cyborg. We talked about where we as a species is going, and pondered whether or not that place is a good one or not.

I find myself thinking of Nell and the Primer as a lesson to humanity. Her journey through the Primer leads he to become more human. More everything really- including subversive. In order for the status quo of the Phyles to remain the same, the Primer must not fall into the hands of "the common people" It must remain a tool of the Thetes and the "Upper Crust." In the hands of a girl like Nell it becomes a tool of destruction for the current hierarchies. It teaches the least of people (girls) to think, teaches them how to survive with out the MC in a way as well. The Cyborg life most people live is not enviable. It is sad and lonely and stagnant-learning to be more human, to think, to be subversive in this world, is to truly live and grow.

When I think about our own world, I have to wonder if we will have the "middle ground" we spoke of in class. Or if like Neo we will one day wake up to find the machines have taken over. We keep talking about living in The Matrix. I think Dr. Hager is correct in many ways. We already do live in The Matrix. Our lives are so interconnected to technology, to the instant way we can do almost anything anymore-without ever leaving home. Shop, buy groceries, movies, music, and so research- communicate from here to Beijing in an instant if we wish it. It is up to us, as it was up to Nell to decide how we use our knowledge. How we are Cyborg-because the question to me is not if we are Cyborgs, but how we are, and what we do with that.

Deerskin

After our discussion yesterday it became clearer to me that not only was Lissar's mother an obsessive self involved parent, but that she would use any means to get what she wanted. Which seems to be in her case life eternal. Whether through her daughter or her painting. Lissar's father as evil and wicked as he may seem to us, could have been under some sort of spell. If you infer that her mother was indeed a witch, it would make sense that in some way she held him in thrall one way or another. Over time as she began to believe her looks were fading, perhaps she thought she would lose his love and adoration. If this is so, would it not make sense for her to ensure that he would always view her as he had from the start of their relationship.

I know how disturbing it was for me to read how Lissar was treated, but it was also disturbing to read what happened at the "wedding" of Camilla. The King becomes a broken man, having to listen and face the truth of his own actions caused this. I felt it was the weight of that knowledge, and the death of the "mother" that did this to him. If he had been under some sort of spell, it ended with the dark woman's disappearance, and with the truth spoken by Lissar. Lissar in essence drained the wound that had been festering since her father raped her. By letting the rage and pain go, Lissar is then able to live a true and full life. One in which she can marry, and live and love while learning that there are people she can trust not to hurt her.

Good Mother, Bad Mother-

We talked about this theme when we watched Aliens(more about that in a minute), I thought about it alot then, and as I have read Deerskin I thought about it again. Deerskin's mother is so wrapped up in the King that she ignores her daughter, is so obsessed with her own beauty she ignores her daughter, and in the end extracts a promise that all but ensure's her equally obsessed husband will most certainly do something horrible to said daughter.

I found it quite horrifying reading the passages that talked about mom, or how Lissar remembered her. How sad that "mom" was so into herself that she just couldn't get past the changes that time wrought in her. I also had to stop and think about how she must have felt after having given birth. Was so apalled at the changes in her body then too? Was that what started her downward spiral into death? So self absorbed and obsessed she was not what anyone would call a "good mother" in fact she was a downright "bad mother" Ossin's mother on the other hand, was all about her children. Seeing them married and well taken care of- and letting her son be what he was, just as she let her daughter.

In Alien's we saw two "women" who were mother's, neither of them could be called bad mother's in the way Lissar's mother could. They were both only doing what comes naturally for each of their species. Lissar's struggle with her pain did however lead her to another, who could be called a "mother" the Moonwoman was in my mind a stand in for the mother she did not have. She gave her all she could to help her-time and the power to take back her life in a way that no other could have done. Magic yes, but also more than that. She helped Lissar heal and in doing so made it possible for her to face her father, the King in the end, and give him his richly deserved end.

Mrs. Brown you have a lovely daughter~

I did think the reading had some really excellent points. Chiefly the point that sci fi is not taken for literature, in other words "real writing" I get the point of Mrs. Brown and understand the idea behind her, but don't honestly know if Le Guin's theory of her is correct. (Although that last bit of the essay was hysterically funny) I also found it objectionable when she said American's don't/can't write novels of any kind, but that is another post.

Sci fi as a genre reminds me much of the so called "Horror" fiction genre. No one really takes horror seriously, most see it as schlock and mindless entertainment. Stephen King's work is a good example of this. Yes, some of his writing is schlock, but if you have read The Stand, or The Dark Tower series you know there is much more to King as a writer than people assume. (and you know what happens when you assume right?) If you only read for pleasure, or only read for education you miss out. King's work as well as some of the great writer's in Sci Fi have been vastly underrated in my estimation. To tell a story and to tell it well, to be able to spark someone's imagination and cause them to perhaps look at things differently, or understand something differently, is what being a writer is all about. ie: The fight between light and dark, left and right. To be able to have the balance of Yin and Yang in a work of art, speaks to the entire human experience. To show how those things are needed to balance each other is for me one of the best things about a good novel, whether it is Sci Fi, Horror, Fantasy or a plain old Auto Biography. It seems to me that it is the writer's goal to teach this to us, to show us both Yin and Yang, Left and Right, Shadow and Light. Mrs. Brown may not want to go to the stars, but I bet she wants to learn about them in clean little boots-

Bloodchild

This is a story that left me wanting more, and with many questions. The relationships between T'Gatoi and her humans are very complex and also very simple. The duality of those relationships are what made me want more of the story.

Lien the mother of Gan and Qui, seems to not only love T'Gatoi but to also hate her and her place in the lives of her sons. Resentment radiates from her through out almost the entire story. With the exception being when she takes some of the egg and T'Gatoi stings her and holds her to "comfort" her. Lien seems torn by her love for her children and her childhood love for T'Gatoi. I believe she still craves the closeness she had during her childhood with T'Gatoi, but is terrified at the thought of her son bearing T'Gatoi's children. She knows it's a terrible process which can lead to death, and while she uderstands that in order for the Tlic to continue as a species it is necessary that their eggs be incubated in a living body, she does not like it. Nor does she seem to want it for her children, as much as she may care for and love T'Gatoi.

Gan who does love T'Gatoi, also loves his family and has all the usual feelings associated with having siblings. He loves his brother Qui and sister Hoa, but also does not understand either one of them. Qui because of his anger over what the Tlic do to humans is an angry young man, while Hoa wants to be used to incubate T'Gatoi's eggs. Gan after seeing what happens to Lomas becomes afraid of what will happen to him, and refuses to be a carrier, telling T'Gatoi to use his sister as she wants to be a carrier. Once he realizes it will be that night that the eggs are implanted he changes his mind yet again and consents to being "seeded." We talked in class about how it was perhaps Gan's desire to be in first place with T'Gatoi that prompted this change, and while I agree with that to a certain extent. I also believe he was horrified that his sister might suffer as Lomas had, and might die of it. So selfishness and love both prompted him to allow himself to be used.

It was at this point I wished there were more to the story, being left hanging and not knowing what happened to Gan, his family and T'Gatoi's children was for me frustrating. It was also rewarding, I love a story that let's your imagination fill in the blanks and complete it. Our imagination's are a wonderful thing, and being able to complete the story in my head and fill in how the people and creatures look, speak and act makes me smile.