Week Fourteen: Science Fiction Parody and Satire

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I didn't know that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally a radio broadcast, I always thought they started as books. Douglas Adam's story has become quite the cult classic--I think everyone knew that the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was the number 42 at my school by the time we were in our sophomore year of high school. That being said, not all of us knew exactly where that came from, although I had an idea.

Like seemingly everything from this semester, I wasn't very exposed to Hitchhiker's Guide. I never saw any of the film adaptations, although I do vaguely remember watching a trailer for the one starring Martin Freeman. Listening to the radio adaptation was pretty entertaining, although there were times that I got lost because I wasn't reading or watching anything.

I think that the humor, however, was best served in this audio format. I'm not big on podcasts or radio shows, although I did listen to the Welcome to Nightvale series for a short period of time. I like that, with this format, you're allowed to visualize what's happening yourself instead of relying on visual cues from film. The humor of the script was also well portrayed.

Idiocracy

I really enjoyed Idiocracy, especially as an Advertising Design major. The idea that a dystopian society is run by advertising, commercialism, and straight up stupidity is honestly not that far from a lot of the research and planning I do in class. There's a new method of media planning and buying that has been in the works for the past year known as "programmatic" media, which uses big data mining trends to define individuals based on their online shopping habits. From there, ads can be placed on a mass of sites that the individual is expected to frequent, making the consumerism more accessible than ever and the actual strategy and planning part of advertising slowly irrelevant when up against data mining.

There's always the long-running joke that every company is owned by another larger company, as seen in Idiocracy's "Brawndo" irrigating the crops and buying out the FDA, FCC, and USDA. The popular show Parks and Rec also makes fun of this in their final season which is set in 2017, looking at brands like Chipotle, Exxon, and Verizon merging into one giant company as well. But even here and now, that's happening everywhere. In advertising there are realistically 3 major "Umbrella Companies" that oversee major advertising agencies.

So maybe someday what we see as parody and satire will "devolve" into the dystopian society of Idiocracy. As this class comes to the end, all I can say is so long, and thanks for all the fish.

Week Thirteen: "The Aquatic Uncle" Question Responsese

1. Are there any prominent symbols in the story? If so, what are they and how are they used?
1. The Aquatic Uncle uses evolution as a prominent symbol throughout the story, particularly the stark comparison between "terrestrials" and "aquatic" inhabitants. From the narrator's point of view, anything that is wet or damp or fish-like in nature is used in a negative, almost derogatory way. 
2. What connections did you make with the story you read? Discuss the elements of the work which you were able to connect.
1. I related the the familial ties that the narrator had with his great uncle N'ba N'ga, having grown up with a large extended Italian-American family myself. The same way N'ba N'ga defends living an aquatic life where there are plenty of worms and crayfish, my own great-aunts and uncles have expressed their insistence that they don't need to be a part of the technological advances that we see today. Trying to get my grandmother on facebook is about as impossible as getting the aquatic uncle to live on land. Unlike the narrator, however, I do not relate to his obvious prejudice and familial self-consciousness/shame. Qwfwq is very embarrassed by his uncle. 
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
1. I think the story has very strong elements of storytelling and narrative from the perspective of the narrator. If I were to adapt the story into another medium, I would choose a short animated film format. I'm not an animation student myself, but to illustrate the contrast between old and new, I could perhaps use the contrast between the elements of traditional animation for the more "aquatic" world compared to CGI for the terrestrial world. There is a lot of discussion about the evolution of animation and its shift to realistic CGI versus more stylized animation techniques. As far as storytelling changes, I don't know what I would change??

Week Twelve: Diverse Position Science Fiction

I Live with You

This week, I read the short story "I Live with You" by Carol Emshwiller. The story was, to put it simply, very strangely relatable. To me, it wasn't overtly "science fiction", but the main point of view of this shadow entity that shared the home of the woman was definitely not of this earth. Overall, the story really examined gender, and the way we control our day to day lives. 

In the story, the "You" referred to in the title can be any woman--anybody who spends more time alone or working than they do interacting with others. And then there is the extra occupant of the house, the one who sneaks away and goes unnoticed, taking the woman's favorite clothes and nibbling away at her food. As the story progresses, the entity becomes more aggressive, finding joy in it's control over this woman's life. This idea, I think, follows and criticizes the majoritarian culture of the power role women have in today's society. Even when living "alone", the woman starts losing her own freedoms and decisions. Instead of being proactive and doing something about it, she adds more locks to her own bedroom door in an attempt to protect herself. Because who would believe her, anyway?

At the end of the story, the woman pushes back against the entity and takes her life back, right as the entity is starting to REALLY take over her identity. This part was perhaps my favorite line in the short story:

"You'd not have done that before. You've changed. You'll take back your life. Everybody will make way for you now. You'll have an evil look. You'll frown. People will step off the sidewalk to let you go by."

 When I read that, it made me think of an empowered woman, someone whose in charge and confident. Something which is a rare twist to the societal norms and the entity that had been sharing the house with the woman.