Many of the books we have read this semester have concerned the subject of death and discovering one’s own mortality. Even more, the characters we have all come to know in these books have asked questions rarely voiced out loud in the real world: “How am I going to die?” “Why does no one love… Continue reading We Are the Choosers of the Slain
Author: evergreen
It’s Just an Empty Box
“As you know, I’m extremely brave, but I can’t spend eternity in a small underground place.”(p.169) Oskar voices many complex emotions and thoughts through the veil of childish, pretentious naivete in ELIC. I find myself feeling a connection with him as I imagine I acted in much the same way, trying to armor myself with… Continue reading It’s Just an Empty Box
The Black Hole in The Road
A fundamental part of our humanity is our visceral experience of the world which becomes naturally desensitized over time. Specifically as this relates to The Road and The Black Hole of Trauma, experiencing continuous traumatic triggers can lead to two paths for a traumatized mind. The first is the increasing insensitivity to these events as… Continue reading The Black Hole in The Road
The Prism of Perception
The camera rises up over a rise behind the man and boy walking down the road. The shot shows a landscape of gray and brown spotted with blackened misshapen lumps. The two figures seem insignifcantly small set against the desolated vista. Camera snaps to a side shot of the boy standing next to his father… Continue reading The Prism of Perception
The Self-Empowerment of the Masses
I was thinking more about our discussion of Earthseed and my topic for this optional blog post coalesced from there. Why religion? Why do people turn to deities and mystical powers to tell them how to act in extreme situations where moral action becomes ambiguous and survival becomes paramount? Why do these people not gravitate… Continue reading The Self-Empowerment of the Masses
Pyromania
Lauren has a fascination with fire as do many of the other people living in Parable of the Sower. Beginning with her dream in the very beginning of the book and continuing through several manifestations, fire plays and ever increasing role in her thoughts and life. Humans have always had a primal fear and fascination… Continue reading Pyromania
The Consequences of Truth
The first chapter of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is short yet fraught with emotion and conflicting ideas. It begans by suggesting that the main character is to be married or used in some other ritual the day after her birthday, then immediately tells us the ritual is a lie. Her recurring dream of… Continue reading The Consequences of Truth
Binary Codes: The Symphony of My World
The past year has seen an explosion of construction on our campus, which seems to carry a message of new beginnings and reinvention in itself, but is more the context for my post this week. The new Engineering Building has become a second home for me in this my final year of undergraduate study, its… Continue reading Binary Codes: The Symphony of My World
The Four Letter Word
“Fuck” can be pretty much any part of speech and indeed can be used for every word in a sentence, i.e. “Fuck the fucking fuckers.” Lucifer’s Hammer is a lesson in the uses of the English language’s most vulgar word, but its use is not meant for shock and vulgarity. Fuck is a very strong… Continue reading The Four Letter Word
The Characterization of the Comet and Other Solar Phenomena
If we are just a virus on a rock hurtling through space and there is nothing more, why do we choose to continue to live?