Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Book Review - Individual Novel


            I have never read a book so incredibly eye-opening before Oryx and Crake, written by Margaret Atwood and published in 2003 by Anchor Books in New York. The book is a heavy 374 pages filled with college level vocabulary, but if you want a truly freighting and gripping novel and could handle the vocabulary and strong adult content this book is a must read. Although I can’t say the book keeps you on the edge of your seat every page, the overall message being portrayed is so important everyone needs to be aware of the truly frightening path humanity could be heading down.

            The book takes you to both a futuristic and post-apocalyptic earth where the main character Snowman recalls his memories of the past and also narrates his own interactions with a group of genetically altered humans known as the Crakers in this post-apocalyptic world. His flashbacks to the past depict a futuristic human society run by the wealthiest genetic engineering companies and how Snowman’s best-friend at the time “Crake”, was responsible for the near extinction of the human race, leaving poor Snowman to watch over Crakes brain child, The Crakers. Out of Crake’s own theories to pursue immortality and perfection in the human race, he genetically altered every aspect of the human being from adding several interesting physical attributes to how the human brain is wired, until the end results were his beloved Crakers. An entire generation of humans incapable of violence, jealousy, or lust, where wars and famine no longer exist because Crake rooted the genetic causes for those fundamental problems out. The apocalypse was merely intended to cleanse the earth and allow the Crakers to repopulate our world with their perfected human species. Since Snowman is the only surviving member of the past generation, he is left with the task of passing on all the information gathered from all the past human generations; how else will they know what food is poisonous or even what a bird is. Many of the details in the book concerning Crake’s fate and what caused the human species to go on the brink of extinction is how Atwood keeps her readers on the edge of their seats; she definitely saves the good stuff for last.

            This book is detailing the chilling path humanity took in our insatiable pursuit towards a utopia or perfect way of life and the lines we crossed to get there, and that it only lead us to our  impending doom. The main ideas that Atwood wants the reader to take from this book is, where would you draw the line between nature and science; and are we fully aware of the consequences that would follow when that line gets crossed? In the book our futuristic society uses genetic engineering technology to cross different species together like baboons with pigs or spiders with goats; and as unrealistic as that sounds, it is all too real. That same technology is already at our fingertips and in use. The Pigoons and spider-goats discussed in the book actually already exist today, and to me that is the most frightening aspect of the whole novel, that it’s not science fiction it’s a reality. Today we are pushing that line between science and nature and the companies behind it, are all too concerned with making money that they don’t consider the detrimental consequences that could carry catastrophic world ending consequences. It will always be a part of our human nature to make every attempt to enhance our way of living, but if we’re not careful with the technology or methods we use to do so, we could already be heading down the same chilling path Atwood envisioned. This book is a must read for all adults, people need to be aware of the consequences we could potentially face if we aren’t careful with how we implement genetic engineering technologies, that we already have at our disposal. Not only is this book important in reaching out to readers and enlightening them on current topics, but this has been one of the best books I’ve ever read. Towards the end of the book the plot begins to unravel more and more and I just wanted to keep turning the page, as the book had me on the edge of my seat dying to know “what happens next?” I recommend this book to every adult who could comprehend it, especially all the young adults out there particularly high school graduates and college students because it is so easy to relate to the main characters problems and make the book all the more enjoyable, as it did for me.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This should be the least of our worries...




            The “You Decide” interactive presentation was very well put together and laid out the information in a non-biased way explaining both sides of the argument. The argument at hand is the controversy over the depiction of violence in the medium of video games at the boundary between art and pop culture. I chose to do this assignment on my own; not that I want to exclude any other opinion I just prefer to work on my own. I wasn’t going through this site observing new information any way, and the site itself was using quotes and images over 10 years old. However making the decisions wasn’t at all difficult, I went through the experience with a good amount of prior knowledge. In the end it was a fairly easy choice that didn’t require any more thought. My final decision was that the video game image was perfectly fine to display on the homepage. The image was purely intended to promote a video game, and shouldn’t be viewed as a spark for someone waiting to go postal.

            I do view video games as artwork, and that concept has just been snowballing over the past few years as technology has been rapidly evolving. Games today have the capabilities to entertain you and draw you into a plot the same way a cinematic blockbuster would. One of the biggest reasons why I don’t consider video game violence an issue is because I don’t find the content or images offensive; because none of its real, it’s just a game. From the beginning of the presentation I knew where I stood on the matter and when it was over it didn’t change. I still think it’s a big waste of time to make a big deal out video game violence. Violence has always existed and it will always exist, and for just about as long as it’s been around it has been a way of entertainment also. From cave drawings to the movies we watch today violence has and will always keep us entertained. Therefore I can’t see why these outlets for aggression wouldn’t be socially acceptable or why video games should be any different. There are bigger problems to worry about.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

My Six Word Memior

I Prefer the Road Less Traveled.

Where is hope ?


I chose the cartoon on pg. 43, because to me it was the cartoon that held the most meaning. Junior probably drew this cartoon in an attempt to really grasp what Mr. P had told him about hope. Junior is standing a little past a road sign pointing him towards the hopeful unknown, but away from the rez and his poor home. This concept hit Junior like an epiphany and he was convinced his life would never improve and he would always be a poor-ass Indian who was content with his perceived limitations. Instead Junior went against the grain and wished to travel into the “unknown” in search of hope, hope that he would someday escape the rez and pursue larger expectations.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Pepsi Girl Ad

Well this here is my first eng. 100 blog post and also my very first blog post ever. The Pepsi girl right now is Sofia Vergara, just like the girls before her Pepsi goes for the most beautiful yet recognizable girl at the time. Whether she is a famous musical artist or she is a t.v actress like now. The ad is selling diet soda in "People" magazine so assume the ad is reaching out to women in general; and women on a diet would be their target audience. The ad shows the audience you can keep your looks while enjoying the refreshing taste of diet Pepsi. The ad is also selling the Pepsi brand by putting the most recognizably beautiful women on the ad so when people recognize the woman outside of the ad, they will also remember pepsi. Its Pepsi's way of making you remember.