Story of Your Life--Part 2

“The ray of light has to know where it will ultimately end up before it can choose the direction to begin moving in” (156)

““Sometimes it’s good to wait” I’ll say. “The anticipation makes it more fun when you get there”” (140)

These two quotes are inherently opposite and describe respectively how the heptapods and humans view life. The first seems almost nonsensical from the human perspective as it not only personifies light as an entity that can think and reason, but would imply that we can make informed decisions about the future even before it happens. In the story, Gary talks about how the movement of light can be thought of as a chain of cause and effect or as a personified object that carefully selects a path and calculates the distance of its chosen path, the first of which is the human way of thought and the second of which is heptapod reasoning. But, how can the humans know that this is how heptapods reason just from learning their language? The fact that humans can make assumptions about heptapod reasoning due to what they have learned about their language shows just how important the concept of language is in society. The heptapods’ written language requires them to know what they want to say before they even begin to write, a concept that to us would make it seem like heptapods know the future. However, this could also mean that they simply see the world as a whole, they complete a thought before they communicate it, they do not wait until the end of their writing to make their point, but they instead know the reason behind their writing before they begin to argue. This seems to me like a very reasonable way of thought that would create stronger arguments and the ability to better appreciate the entirety of the surrounding world.

However, humans tend to reason linearly and do not always know their point before they reach it in writing. In the second quote Louise tells her daughter that anticipation is a good thing and that it makes life more fun as you get to live in a mystery which you watch unfold before your eyes. Indeed, this mode of though does seem like more fun and enables humans to make decisions and adjust their path as it unfolds to a final end that could be unexpected and surprising in an amazing way. While the heptapods’ ability to see their ends before they begin allows them to make informed decisions, it does not allow them to learn by making mistakes or to ever experience the excitement of surprise. Sometimes, humans wish they could see the future and know that their lives are going to turn out alright. However, as Louise truly says, “the anticipation makes it more fun when you get there” allowing us to become excited by the mystery of the life that lays ahead, instead of moving forward with foreknowledge and no room for surprise and excitement.

On a second note, for the entire story Louise seems to keep her narrative about the aliens and about her daughter separate, however, towards the end the two begin to meld. The first instance of this is when Louise goes to the grocery store with Gary in order to buy food for a dinner which Gary has offered to make and the second is when the two spend the night at Gary’s house. The fact that the two narratives mix under these circumstances is interesting because it implies that because Louise is beginning to move on with her life and is finding love, she can begin to integrate her memories of her daughter into her present life and no longer keep the two separate for fear of her strong emotions for her daughter. Throughout the story, Louise’s narratives about the heptapods parallel the anecdotes she tells about her daughter and because the two begin to mix as the heptapod tale comes to a close, it shows that perhaps Louise’s purpose in telling about the heptapods was to gain a way to talk about her daughter and in doing so to come to terms with her death.

Story of Your Life--Part 1

“One of the sailors pointed to the animals that hopped around with their young riding in pouches, and asked an aborigine what they were called. The aborigine replied, “Kanguru.” From then on Cook and his sailors referred to the animals by this word. It wasn’t until later that they learned it meant "What did you say?”" –(Chiang, 127)

This quote from Ted Chaing’s “Story of Your Life” has many meanings. Not only does it show that learning needs to be a careful process, but it also applies to the narrator’s life and assumptions. In this quote, the sailors assume that the aborigines understand that they want the name of the animal when they point to it ask what it is. However, it was this first assumption that lead to a vast lack in communication and most likely many jokes from the aborigines behind the backs of the foolish sailors calling animals “kanguru”, a phrase that would seem like an absurd name to the native speakers. The narrator most likely tells this story to her intro to linguistics class because it teaches the vital lesson of learning and communication: never assume that you and the other party’s ideas are synonymous because assumptions lead to foolish mistakes. Instead, linguistics and other of life’s practices must be carefully thought out and studied in order to obtain accurate communication and motion of ideas between peoples.

On the other hand, this quote demonstrating the need for caution in assumptions applies to the narrator’s life as she assumes at the beginning of the story that her daughter will live long enough to have children, a fair assumption and hope for a mother. However, unfortunately, this dream and assumption does not come true. In this manner the above quote cautions humans about the nature of uncertainty in life. This quote, when read in this way, ridicules assumption and shows how truly unknown the future is. This shows that humans should live each day as it comes and not assume anything about the future because they cannot be sure about or control anything beyond the present using assumptions that do not have to and often do not hold true.

Bridesicle

“So Lycan had a hitcher. At least one” (4)

This notion of being able to host a dead relative in your mind is inconceivable to us. It wholly ruins the connection between body and mind, and goes against everything we know. But to the characters of Will McIntosh’s’ Bridesicle it is not strange to host one or even multiple “hitchers” and hear them constantly in their minds.

However, the characters seem to have differing opinions as to whether or not these “hitcher” relationships are beneficial. For Mira, her relationship was terrible, and her mother was constantly driving her crazy, even to the point of driving Mira to kill herself in order to escape her mother. On the other hand the hitching experience is wonderful for Lycan’s family and allows them to become closer. This shows that even though technology has advanced enough in this story to keep people’s minds alive, the tensions of families and of relationships still exist and transgress the mind-body relationship.

In this story the mind is powerful, and it is implied that humans live through their minds. However, that brings up the question of what qualifies as being alive? If the body is removed are we still alive? Personally, I do not particularly like the idea of reviving or of absorbing people, and I think that once a loved one dies they should be allowed to rest in peace and move to their next stage of being.

Bordo and Hopkinson's "A Habit of Waste"

“Feminine bodies now speak symbolically of this necessary in their slender spare shape and the currently fashionably men’s-wear look.” (Bordo, 2368).

Bordo’s article about the ideology of the feminine mystique seems disturbingly true, as she characterizes the parallels between women’s views of themselves and contemporary cultural ideals. But as Bordo points out in this quote, femininity does not just consist of what the media thinks a women’s body should look like, but rather it also consists of what society says a women’s role in the workforce or at home should be, thereby forcing women to conform to two entirely different standards. In the day of Bordo’s writing, current day, women are expected to be independent and to have a job with equal pay as a man, but this forces them to conform to masculine and feminine ideals as Bordo exemplifies in the above quote. This therefore creates a double standard that makes it extremely difficult for a woman to have a successful career in today’s society and still have a traditional family, as while women are now almost expected to take on “men’s work” and have a job, men are not yet expected to take on “women’s work” and take care of the household. Until the feminine and masculine ideals balance, women will always feel an increasing amount of pressure to be perfect, and sadly the female diseases described by Bordo will only worsen in severity as women try to conform both their bodies and their attitudes to modern life.

“You’ve got to work with what you’ve got”---(Hopkinson, 276)

Cynthia in Nalo Hopkinson’s “A Habit of Waste” struggles with her body image and does not seem to live her life to its fullest and eat all the foods she enjoys, for fear of becoming fat. She is so adamant about changing her body, that she saves for five years, just so she can buy what she believes to be a more attractive body, but in doing so she no longer looks like herself and deprives herself of once traditional and tasty foods, such as her parents’ cocoa tea.

As she admits in this quote, Cynthia realizes by the end of the story that the exact image of her body is less important than the person she becomes in it. I think she begins to realize this when she sees the woman on the bus “wearing the body [she] used to have”, but unlike herself in this body, this women is “far from looking graceless, her high, round bottom twitched confidently with each step, giving her a proud sexiness that I never had” (263), showing Cynthia that personality and confidence make the person, not their body.

As Cynthia gets to know Mr. Morris and revels at his resourcefulness, she begins to realize the importance of “use[ing] what you’ve got” to create the best life possible, until she finally comes to terms with her body and decides to eat Thanksgiving dinner without worrying about the calories.

This story is thereby trying to say that while body image may seem important to shaping who we are, the true value of our lives rests on not our perfect shape, but on our personality and the confidence we exude. It is this confidence and personality that create beauty, regardless of a person’s external experience.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Part 3

“She was a wonderful singer. The planet could have used her. This is insane” (136)—Rick Deckard.

Why in a destroyed world, barley able to prevent itself from crumbling, would such talent as Luba’s be discounted? Well, I guess the simple answer to that is because Luba is different. Luba Luft is an android, and so, despite her talents, contributions to society, or pure desire to break free from her master and live life as a more privileged human, she will never be accepted and will always be hunted as a danger to the human race.

With this quote, Rick, a bounty hunter who claims to “stand between the Nexus-6 and mankind, a barrier which keeps the two distinct” (142), begins to realize that maybe the androids do have something to offer to society. However, due to his fear of androids, his job, and the promise of money, Rick inevitably retires Luba, despite his awe of her voice. He says, “this is insane” yet does not alter his actions and spare Luba’s life because he is too set in his ways and not open to a change in the social order.

Androids are seen as second class citizens, not even citizens, in Dick’s world, and because humans fear them and refuse to give them a chance to assimilate into earth society, this classification will never change and society will miss out on all of the potential androids possess such as their singing and police talents. Even though Rick is beginning to realize the error of his ways, he has not yet made the mental leap to accept androids for the benefit of society. This quote thereby shows the harm closed-mindedness can cause and demonstrates that in order to make a social change for the better, people of the higher class must be willing to take a leap of faith and change their mindset to allow new people and new ideas into their way of thought.