User:Dr.Droog/sandbox

Journal Entry # 1
Today we met our charming and enthusiastic professor, Dr. Ximena. She handed out what I considered to be, by far, the bulkiest syllabus I've received thus far, but also reassured us not to be intimidated by it. After reading through it for a few minutes, I saw how organized and helpful it was in answering any conceivable question I could have had. It is the syllabus I presume to be appropriate for a college level class. In a college where I sometimes cannot help but to feel patronized by my professors, It lends to a scholarly environment I can appreciate and find motivational. After reviewing the course outline, we were given another equally voluminous booklet: our guide to editing Wikipedia. It is a comprehensive guide that includes how to create a username and how to efficiently participate in the Wiki community. After following a series of specific steps, I had successfully registered onto Wikipedia and created my account. I was glad to have quickly come up with a pseudonym that satisfied me: Dr.Droog (the professor repeatedly warned us that for better or worse, we would be stuck with this name- lest we create yet another new account). Dr.Droog is a reference to a favorite novel of mine- A clockwork orange written by the genuis Anthony Burgess. I read a summary of the vampire novel we will be focusing on, "The Fledgling". I've read (and really enjoyed) Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Chonicles". So far so good. The class is crowded (for my taste) compared to my other ones. Professor makes up for it with her very personal manner of addressing any and every student. Cheers!

Journal Entry # 2
Conducted research on the referenced cited works from Octavia Butlers wiki page and discovered several problems. Many of them were broken links, meaning they were useless and could not serve as a valid source of information. Others did work, but sent the user to home pages, and not specific pages of information regarding whatever information is being cited, and so they were also voided. We had issues with a particular link that cited a book and page, but did not have a link to a scanned version (pdf) of it available for reading, and so one if forced to trust the existence of this book on good faith, which is not good enough for factual purposes. I looked it up in the library databases and found that the book was available in the library, and so at some point I will borrow it out and investigate myself.

Journal Entry # 3
I used an essay piece written by De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai titled, "Memorial to Octavia Butler", to analyze the common themes Butler included in her body of work. Among them were colonialism, imperialism, feminism, ethics and morality, social, racial and gender hierarchies, sex and sexuality, agency vs. destiny, and biological engineering. Her point of view protagonists are reflective disenfranchised or marginalized characters who struggle to cultivate their humanity in a gritty and cynical world. Her characters redirect the focus of the genre from the one dimensional white male hero to the overlooked and multi-dimensional minority character that faces complex dilemmas that eerily reflect those found on our own grounded world.

Journal Entry # 4
We had a lesson on the importance of quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing correctly on Wikipedia in order to avoid accusations of plagiarism. We were shown several examples of how each could be used most efficiently and effectively. We did not discuss Fledgling, which was probably for the best because it seems that most of the class, for individual reasons- this writer included- had not finished reading the assigned chapters. In our defense, the book is not a particularly arresting read, and for those who attempt to cram in all assigned chapters at once, can be quite painful. I was selected as group leader for what the professor promised me was to be the most difficult of the tasks assigned today. The handout my group and I received was a list of Butler's themes and corresponding excerpts of quotes from several authors and sources regarding their prominence in her work. The themes were divided up within our group and we went to work, eliminating or adding according to relevance. My theme is one of the more expansive ones in her body of work: Sociobiology...

Journal Entry # 5
We continued working within assigned groups (I occupy role of team leader). I was in charge of researching and writing in regards to Butlers motif of "The Remaking of the Human". As I am meticulous about my writing, I wrote very little. I introduced the notion that Shori, the protagonist from Flegling, embodies the theme of hybridity as a means to superior beings. Her unique resistance to sunlight due to her dark skin sets her apart from her own people, the Ina, and the vampire lore as a whole genre.

Journal Entry # 6
Today we worked on reading and editing Team 2's compiled research and writings on Butler's recurring themes. I was responsible for edits regarding the theme titled, "Recreating the Human". Whoever had written it had done a fine job, and so the only work to be done on my part was to replace the citiations with those that are wikipedia acceptable (MLA). Afterward we uploaded it onto the wikipedia sanbox page. We then broke off onto different work- I chose to update my sandbox as it required much attention.

Journal Entry # 9
The professor invited a guest speaker to discuss themes found in Butler's writing, and specifically, themes found in Fledgling. We discussed the construction of race, Racism/Supremacism, mutualistic symbiosis, the revision of the vampire figure, creation of a new species, hybridity, feminism, sexuality and power structures. I was put into a group to deconstruct the theme of racism, speciesism, and supremacism. We wrote topic sentences to assist in the writing of our draft responses. We worked well together.

Chapter 1
The protagonist awakens severely injured, blinded, and starving naked in a cave.She has no memory of who (or what) she is- no recollection at all. Her hunger is so intense, that it immediately takes priority over all else. Using her keen senses, she locates an animal within the cave but is too weak to give chase. She patiently waits for it to approach her, which it does, and quickly kills it by viciously tearing out it's throat. She eats her prey, and then goes to sleep. She is interrupted by an acute and adverse reaction to sunlight, as it burns her skin. She eats and rests, and quickly heals her wounds sufficiently to explore her surroundings. She walks through isolated woods and discovers a deserted farmland. It was apparently burned down. She attributes her burn scars to the fire that consumed the area. She walks down a road aimlessly until a car pulls up beside her. The young man driving the car offers her assistance, and she accepts. As they drive down the road, she bites his hand and drinks his blood. This produces a seductive effect on him- he not only enjoys it, but wants her to continue. She enlists his help on her search for answers, and he takes her to his home, where he takes care of her. He describes her as a black child no older than 12, and renames her renee. They develop a strong connection which involves them having sex. As he sleeps, renee walks through the community looking for people to feed on, since she asses she cannot feed off of Wright Hamlin alone, as it would weaken him too much. She enters an elderly woman's home, and feeds off of her as she sleeps. The woman, Theodora, awakens and wants renee to stay with her- she seems to have fallen under her spell and renee seems to be attracted to something in her as well, and promises to see her soon. Friday night, Renee and Wright head back to the burned community to find answers. They find evidence in a field that a helicopter had landed there and flattened the grass. Renee also catches the scent of a man of her own kind who had been there. They are shot at by a man with a rifle, but Renee manages to takes his gun away, overpower and bite him, only after getting shot herself. As wright and Renee discuss what they should do about the unconscious man she just drained, wright reveals that he feels uncomfortable that she can control people. She offers him freedom from her control, but he declines it, instead choosing to stay with her as aid. She tells him to stay away from her as she heals from her wound, fearing she may go mad with hunger and attack him. She heals and locates the gunman, seeking answers as to why he was armed and patrolling the area. She bites him, effectively rendering him harmless and obedient- and interrogates him about the shooting incident. He reveals to her that his name is Raleigh Curtis and that he was bitten by an adult male who instructed him to guard the ruin, shoot any trespassers and to not tell anyone about him. Raleigh's head begins to hurt severely, being torn between obedience to both vampires. His discomfort arises Renee's sense of morality- she sympathizes with his pain and she calls off the interrogation. She leaves him with a message for the male vampire- she is eager to meet him, and will do so next Friday night, and that he may answer any questions regarding her.

Chapter 7
That next friday night, she meets the man in the helicopter. He tells her he is her father, Iosif Petrescu, of the Ina. He explains to her that her name is Shori, and that she her memory loss is due to an injury she sustained to her head. He tells her that the ruins were where the female ina lived- that is, Shori's mothers and sisters, and that they were attacked and killed. The area was burned to the ground and all 77 of the members inside the homes were killed, except for Shori. They spend the night there.

Chapter 8
Iosif flys Wright and Shori to his community so they can become acquainted with it. They enter a large house full of Ina with their Symbiont counterparts. They learn of what responsibilities constitute the Ina Human realtionship. Wright becomes anxious as to his fate if he chooses to stay. He learns that his borderline obsession with Shori is due to an addiction in the substance of her saliva he refers to as "venom". He would die if deprived of it. Iosif explain to Shori that she will require more symbionts apart from Wright. She immediately recalls Theodora and requests permission to have her stay. After Iosif invites her to meet her youngest brother, he asks about the man she ate in the cave. Hugh Tang was Shori's brothers symbiont.

Assignment #4
1. 2."When read through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this section of the novel models legal storytelling." Shori is literally constructing the world around her as she gradually regains her memory through the use of newly remembered words. Also, it allows for her to first be viewed by the reader as an individual rather than a member of any group. 3.Shori has inherited a deep sense of morality from both her human and Ina families. She wields her power responsibly as is demonstrated when she presents Wright with the choice to leave or stay, despite how difficult it would be for her to accept his absence. 4.Shori's black skin grants her the unique ability to withstand the sunlight, ironically allowing her more freedom than white Ina. It also makes her physically different from any other Ina, and the target of discrimination from intolerant and conservative Ina and humans alike. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. The Ina are naturally pan-sexual, and do not discriminate when selecting their symbionts. The vampire has always served as a manifestation of sexuality. 12. 13. The Human-Ina relationship is reminiscent of that which constitutes one between a master and his slave. The master is dependent of his slave, whose existence is devoted to servitude in the form of a human resource. The slave is powerless and completely dominated, and like the Ina, literally yields his or her body in bondage. The Ina make their Symbionts addicted to their venom, and in doing so, bind them eternally. Furthermore, the Symbiont is marked with the scent of their Ina, much like a slave is branded and labeled as private property. Where the relationship differs is the symbiotic nature of the Ina-Symbiont as opposed to that of the master and slave. The Ina benefit from the blood of the human, and the human benefits from the Ina venom. The slave on the other hand only experiences loss- loss of identity, loss of agency, loss of freedom.

Impression of Octavia Butler
After reading a breif summary of Octavia Butler's life and accomplishments, as well as an excerpt from her reflection piece, "positive obsession", I have come to see her as a social activist. The mere act of writing science fiction is defiance born of equal parts passion and rebellion. She defends her decision to write science fiction when asked about it's benefit to the black community. Racism is so prevalent and expansive that science fiction writers (supposedly the most imaginative and creative, and mostly white men) cannot envisage black people in space. White people live all over the universe in unknown worlds, but no other minorities are allowed- talk about racism in space. Octavia Butler uses science fiction writing as a weapon of satire to attack racism, sexism, and other forms of injustice based on her own lived experiences. It is inspirational to know that her perseverance never wavered despite countless rejections. It is no coincidence that a shy, reclusive unpopular girl would retreat into the fantasy world of science fiction: it is a form of escape. Since she was not accepted within the confines of her life, she would build her own world and set it's rules. Her introverted nature led her to read and write, and gave her a unique perspective from which to process and reflect on social issues. She was shunned as the outcast (due to her size and race), so she related to those creatures and aliens she created because who else would understand the plight of being a reject more than something not of this world? What better and more objective perspective to view society from than outer space?

Citation practice
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Birth of a Writer