User:ElzeyBurg/sandbox

Entry#1
March 6, 2015

In today's class we went over the syllabus and discussed the basics of what we will be learning and accomplishing this semester. Our first topic was Wikipedia, I learned new things about this website that I had never noticed before such as the tabs on the very top and what they do. It's crazy how you can see what and when something was edited. I created an account and learned about the basics of using Wikipedia like creating your user page for anybody to see and using sandbox. Sandbox was pretty cool and very easy to use being that there are formats provided for you. With everything that was taught in class I was able to create sections and insert citations.

Entry 2
March 13, 2015

Today's class was great. In the beginning of class we were speaking about Wikipedia and it's meaning and purpose. What I got from our discussion is that Wikipedia is basically an encyclopedia that is a work in progress being that it can always be updated with other people's knowledge on a topic. It helps other people around the world to get resources on a topic that might not be available to them. We had also discussed why our research was going to be based on Octavia E.Butler and the reason was because her page really lacks important information that people should know about her. From her autobiography and biographies I read I see that she is such a determined and amazing person. Our next topic was Octavia's novel called "Fledging". We learned that it was based on a female vampire and took a survey on what we think correlates with the word vampire. When I hear vampire I think about death, love, anger, darkness, blood, etc. though I think vampires have become more friendly or human like throughout the years. Growing up I saw movies like Lost Boys etc. and now movies like Twilight has made vampires less scary at least in my opinion. I haven't received the book yet but I am looking forward to reading the first six chapters.

Getting into groups of five everybody got to learn things about Octavia they didn't know from their copy of the biography. With a worksheet every team got to put their input on what they thought was important to add to her page. Main things that the class agreed on was the impact Octavia's grandmother and mother made in her life was very important and definitely should of been added. Also details like experiences as a child, how she viewed things at a young age, and how being an introvert also made her go into the path of writing.I enjoyed this exercise and looking forward to our next class.

Entry 3
March 20, 2015

Today in class we got new pieces of biographies to read on Octavia Butler. We had to separate the difference between facts and individual perceptive. After we got a new handout, "Lead from encyclopedic article" (I learned that lead was basically the main point of a entry or whatnot) which had six different ideas on Octavia Butler. Reading each of them as a class we pulled out what was most important and should be added to her page. We then got into groups again where everybody had different biographies and together discussed and input ideas on what we found to be particularly important. Although my group didn't discuss much everybody put in their ideas and I pretty much agreed with them and added that Octavia was a feminist having strong females as protagonist and quoted Lisbeth Grant-Britton saying "Butler is more preoccupied with human development and interaction on a sociocultural plane...". When each group was finished we then read a letter that was going to be sent ( I forgot her name) to ask permission to use some photos of Octavia if you liked the letter you got to sign it. I decided to sign it. As a class we discussed the themes Octavia seem to deal with such as sex, dominance, feminism, etc and how she always twisted stuff. After reading chapters 1-6 of Fledgling I definitely never read anything like this but so far I do enjoy reading the book.

Entry #4
March 27, 2015 In the beginning of class we went over the difference between summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. To me summarizing and paraphrasing were the same thing but I learned that paraphrasing is like summarizing but also is more detailed with explaining a point as well. We then got into our groups were I met my partners for the weeks to come. My group was short two people and I felt like everybody was tired prehaps anxious for the weekend and spring break. MY group was in charge of Butler's influence and legacy. Although everybody was suppose to work in different parts Marcos (the leader of my group) decided it would be easier to work together in one part so it can be easier and everybody could put in there different inputs. This sounded like a good idea but didn't work like I expected. We managed to get what we thought was important down and decided paraphrasing was best to do. Class time flew by and my group deiced to exchange numbers so we can meet up or enter google docs over the break.

Entry #5
April 17, 2015

I came into class a little bit late but found my group quickly and was told my part in today's review work. I entered signed in and opened Google Docs to review any notes Dr. X had left. I agreed with a lot of the corrections and saw what needed to be added. I was in charge of adding more information in the influence section. My head was more in the game and felt like I was in a better mind state to get the job done. What also helped was that my group was complete today unlike the first time where there was only two people in my group so everybody had something to focus on. I was able to add more information on Butler's mother and Dr. X was kind enough to give me a book which provided information as to influences and impacts on Butler's career. The book also gave me another influence that I wouldn't have known about if I didn't read the pages before the page marked for her mother's information. The class time flew by today and I still feel like I'm missing a little bit more information which hopefully I can add to Google Docs over the weekend/weekdays. I'm hoping by at least the next two weeks my group is able to make the edit in Butler's Wikipedia page.

Entry #6
April 24, 2015

Today we started right away getting into our groups and collaborating with another team. I was in team 4 which focused on influence and legacy and worked with Team 1 which dealt with Butler's biography, early life, college, and death. We printed out everybody's work and we read to ourselves then got into a circle with Ann and discussed what need to be fixed in every paragraph. There was a lot of errors and as a group we agreed or disagreed on what needed to be changed or added. It was a little bit hard to get everybody attention but in the end we focused and got to work at least I speak for myself. I'm excited that we are very close to editing the article officially. Ann was a great help and guided us in our discussion of editing. Putting two teams together was great because we got fresh minds seeing mistakes that we couldn't see ourselves and it was better than if one team revised their own work.

Entry #7
May 1, 2015

We started the class with receiving our paraphrasing quiz back. You didn't feel like we were ready to start paraphrasing Fledging just yet so the class was separated into groups of two. We went over how in order to paraphrase you first must understand the sentence (the main idea) if not your basically going to end up copying it which defeats the whole purpose. Each group got 3 sentences to paraphrase online and we had to write as many as we could in 5 minutes. While my partner was typing the different sentences I was using the thesaurus so we wouldn't repeat the same word. This task wasn't as easy as I thought it would be maybe because of the time frame but me and my partner were getting the hang of it. After we started working on research assignment #5 and whoever didn't finish research assignment #4 were able to finish it in class. Next we got into our teams and officially edited Octivia Butler's wikipedia page. That was pretty cool. We also decided to what we liked to keep or move to the talk page in respect to the person who created her page. Then we were given our next assignment and by next class we should be ready to start our summaries on Fledging.

Entry #8
May, 8 2015

As soon as class started we got into our groups that we were suppose get into last week but was delayed because of the lack of people completing research assignment #4. We got together and discussed the writers thesis and made sure everybody in the group understood. Then we had 3 questions to focus on and everybody added their input which made some members be like "oh yeah, that's true". Each group was going to present their essay to the class answering the questions Prof. X would ask. While each group went up we took notes on the importance of the questions and answers that were being discussed. We spoke about Afrocentrism, feminism, race, mutualistic symbiosis, etc. and why Butler would bring these up and what was she trying to get the reader to see. Since my group had 4 people and 4 questions we all picked one to speak about when called. We went up and understood better what we had read. After everybody went up we had some cookies and took a break. When we returned we got into different groups based on the short reviews then finished research assignment #6 which lucky my group as well as myself had finished for homework. Our next assignment was given to us and then class finished.

Entry #9
May 15, 2015

I walked in class and saw the board filled up with the themes of Fledgling as well our class guest Sanchez. We began with discussion of the construction of race which was made up of biological issues as well as social. We spoke about how Shori was made to be black rather then being born black and how Butler uses the history of slavery to show the power of being black rather it be something that is inferior. Back then being a slave was considered less then human but Butler uses being human less than Ina. We spoke about other themes as well as mutualistic symbiosis, the revision of vampires, and hybrid. After our whole discussion we quickly got into small groups to practice writing. We took a break than got put into our teams. I'm in team 4 which deal with the a)plot, b)mutualistic symbiosis, and c)alternative sexualities. I got to work on b by myself since we had a member absent today.

Entry #10
May 22, 2015

Today I got into class late but when I arrived I got paired up with Santuros to proofread and make any changes to the section of alternative sexualities. He had worked on 2 paragraphs and when I came in we both work on the third. It was a little difficult in the beginning because I couldn't comprehend what I was reading so we decided to ask Dr. X fro help which she did. We had to create a topic sentence and paraphrase two quotes from critics which was challenging at first but putting our thought together we got the job done. When we finished we got another teams work and revised their work while another team revised ours. At the end we made changes that the other team noticed and posted our work into the sandbox. At the end of class Dr.X gave us our guide to our Reflection paper which is due next Friday.

Chapters 1-6
The book starts off with the protagonist being hungry and severely injured and later found out it was a female. She wakes up in a sort of cave and had no recollection of her life before she woke up. She knew she needed to feed and feeding ultimately lead to her healing. After days of resting and healing she finally gathered enough strength to be able to walk around and check her surroundings. She ended up finding what seemed to be a small town but it was all in ruins, everything was burned. She could smell certain things like flesh and although she had no memory and absolutly no idea of who she was but she was able to recognize items and what they were used for. A guy named Wright found her walking down the road barefooted and offered her a ride. This has been the first person she has met since she woke up. During the ride she ended up biting his finger and then sucking and licking his blood. Although he seemed creeped out but enjoying at the same time they both realized that she was different, something else. It seemed though as her bite helped her have a influence over the person. Wright let her stay with him in his cabin and tired to help her remember anything from her pass that can help both of them know who and what she was. Being that she couldn't remember her name he also named her. Her name was to be Renee which he learned to mean reborn. Vampire seems to be what makes more sense being that she feeds and prefers night rather than the day. She seemed to know a lot for the aged that she looked which was a child like body. The town that she had discovered when she had first woken up had helped her find somebody like her, she was able to smell out the difference between human and what she was, but that was the question who and what was she?

Chapters 7-15
Renee goes back to the town with Wright hoping that the person like her would show up to meet her. She was nervous about this encounter. When the time finally came she learned that the person she smelled was her father and although she had no recollection of him or if she should even trust him she felt like he was safe. She learned that her name is Shori and the question of her being a vampire is confirmed, she is although they don't call themselves that but rather Ina. Her father and his people would go looking for her expecting that if there were any survivors at all Shori would be it because of the experiment she was darker making her adjust to the sun more better than other vampires and also the fact the she's a quick runner. He lets her know that the ruin town was once her home and that everybody had died which included her mothers, sisters, and humans (Ina males live with other males and is versa). Shori's father suggests that she and Wright should go to his community where they would have a place to stay so she can be better informed about who she is and hopefully regain some memory. They go with Shori's father and they meet more people of her kind and symbionts. Everybody greeted her but still no memory sparked not even when she meet her brother who she was closest to Stefan. She learned that he too was an experiment like her only a little lighter than her but still in the brown shade which was made possible from her two elder mothers. Shori was one of a kind and was a successful experiment that she would have visitors from all over the world to witness her. While conversing with he father and brother she find out a little bit more about the family she lived with and that nobody had still figured out who burned her home down and why. Wright also learned about how his life will change being Shori's first symbiont and he isn't very pleased with this. He doesn't like that he has to share Shori with others like her other symbiont Theodora and he's not even sure if he even really wants to be with her or if the venom is what keeps him wanting her. Both Shori and Wright were suppose to go back to Iosif's community on a Friday but when the day came nothing. No word from them and when they tired to get in touch they weren't able to. Worried they thought it was best to go to the community themselves to see what had happen. Shori soon finds out that her father's community had been destroyed just like her mother's family. With her senses she was able to find out that her father and her brother Stefan didn't make it. They had both been burned. While searching the area she finds symbionts Brook and Celia who were both devastated that their Ina's were no longer alive. Shori was sad as well but couldn't mourn properly being that she had just meet them and had no memory of them. There was still so much she need to know about what she is. All four of them had went to one of Iosif's house that he had owned away from the community for the symbionts. She learned a few things she hadn't known about Ina's but felt uncomfortable being taught by Brook since Shori should know all this stuff.They settled down for a while and Shori bit Brook and Celia making them all family now. They were only in the house for a while because soon enough Shori had smelled gasoline and suddenly the house was being attacked. She managed to kill 4 humans and made sure her family were safe. She came to the conclusion that perhaps the attacks were meant for her, she was these peoples target and maybe because she was a upgraded version of an Ina. While they rested thinking of there next step Shori learned more information about herself and her other siblings. She also found out about other Ina's who might be able to help in finding out who's out for her family. These Ina's were the Gordon family who lived in California and thats where they decided to head. They finally found the Gordon family and they agreed to help Shori find out who is behind the attacks and also offered shelter. She felt comfortable with them and even gained a new symbiont Joel which she hoped wouldn't be a probably with her new family especially Wright her first. Wright seems to have a problem sharing her with another male because with females he didn't seem to mind it much. But being told she would need more symbiont she decides it's safe enough to have Theodora join them.

Chapters 16-21
Not even a couple days in her stay with the Gordon family, Punta Nublada was attacked. Shori was able to sniff out the attackers before any real damage was done and got the symbionts to get ready to fire their weapons. There was 18 invaders in total in which 3 were still alive. Shori was able to bite one of them to question him. She needed answers. While questioning him she got the feeling that another Ina had bitten him and ordered these people to attack but she couldn't be sure. Soon the Gordon family, Shori, and Victor (the surviving invader) gathered in a room for further questioning. They had asked what he knew about them and he answered by saying that they were sick people because of the experiments they do comparing them to Nazi's. It was confirmed that an Ina had indeed bitten these men to attack Shori's family but for what reason? She is definitely special in the Ina community though others may not think so. Spending time in the community Shori learned more about herself like how she can read and write Ina and she can also make another Ina kill themselves (mostly male) by biting them and ordering them to. They suspected the Silk family to be the Ina's behind the murders. Since questions needed to be answered a Council of Judgement was called in which involved serval Ina families. While waiting for everybody to arrive Shori got to finally meet some Ina women. She got to talk to one Margaret, and learned a little bit more of how her future would be like and mating situations. Soon enough Daniel (part of the Gordon family) asked if she would mate with them and she said yes. Though they agreed they both wanted each other Shori would have to wait a couple of years until she was fully an adult. Then it was the first night of Council of Judgement.

Chapter 22- Epilogue
It's the beginning of the Council of Judgement and Milo, representative of the Silk family and Shori already begin to be feisty towards eachother with their comments. Shori had shared her story and Milo insults her by calling her "child" and being an equivalent to a dog. The Silk's family involvement with the attacks were denied by their representative. Questions kept being asked and answered back and forth whether if Shori is sane and if she had any bond to Daniel that they believe her story and so on. The first day is over but the next morning Shori finds out that one of her symbiont Theodora is dead. In fact she had been murdered and the person who comes to suspect is a symbiont of Katherine (who was the Silk's family advocate) Jack Roan but he is already gone from the community. It's already the second day of the Council of Judgement and both Katherine and Victor are removed from their advocate position and replaced. Katherine murder got included for judgement as well. At the end of it all judgement has been passed, The Silk's children will be placed with other families while the fathers will be left outcasted. Katherine was to have her thighs amputated but insisted to be killed instead. While she was given the chance to think about her decision she tired to kill Shori but Shori tore her throat and later find out she had been killed. Shori decides to go live with other female Ina's to learn everything she possibly could until she came of age to mate with the Gordan family.

Research Assignment #4
Bast, Florian. “I won’t always ask": Complicating Agency in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling.

1. Self determination isn't the same for everybody because not everybody deals with the same struggle. Race and sex are part of this but so is a person's upbringing which makes everybody's self determination different. In some cases one may not have self determination because it's taken from them.

2.My understanding of bildungsroman is when the reader can see the protagonist of a novel grow and become more emotionally, spiritually, and physically mature through the obstacles they overcome.

3.An example of xenophobia is when Shori meets Ina's who know her but she can't remember anything which frustrates her because she doesn't know if she trusts them or being lied to. For instance when she first met her father she was hesitate on trusting him. Shori's ignorance of self happens throughout the whole novel because she is continuously learning about herself and being told what she is able to do and how she is different from other Ina's and what her power she has over others.

4.In the beginning of the novel Shori was basically given a new life. She has no memory of the past and was able to go through a journey to rediscover herself. Towards the end of the novel Shori proved that although she dealt with memory lost she was not to be inferior or talk down on by any other Ina. She grew into a person who's willing to stake her life to protect those she loves.

5.It's important that Fledgling is a first-person narration because the reader needs to understand the state of mind the protagonist is in and her views on the situations she is faced with. This way the reader really sees Shori grow throughout the story.

6. Shori's journey in finding who she is reflects the historical experiences of African Americans because after the civil war many were left without family. Either they didn't know who their family was or they weren't able to reunite with them. Most African Americans don't know who their ancestors were and in some way a it's a piece of them that will always be missing.

7.One way Wright's "normal" agency is undercut by his relationship with Shori is that he basically has to give up his whole life to be with Shori and sometimes believes it's against his own will because if he doesn't stay with her he would most likely die. Another way is that he devoted to Shori who is a childlike (appearance wise) black women. Lastly he's not free to choose a women of his liking to have a family with unless she is a symbiont as well.

8.Ina's crave the connections with multiple symbionts and it could be dangerous to both of them because if anything would happen to each other it will bring a great deal of pain. Humans want to have their normal lives with a family and a career but the connection the have with Ina's causes them to be devoted to them and have no choice but to crave their venom.

9. Example 1: Symbionts do as they are told. Shori tells Wright to treat her new symbiont Joel nice and even though he gets jealous and tries to argue he follows her orders anyway. Example 2: Once influenced by Ina's venom they aren't the same. Shori gives Wright the option to be free of her but since he's had her venom he needs to be with her rather than wanting. Example 3:Ina's can jump from human to human while symbiont cannot (it's painful to do so) When Shori takes Brook and Celia into her family after her father's been murdered it was a painful transition to change Ina's.

10. I feel like all Shori's symbionts are happy about their dependence on her expect Wright. Theodora was lonely and loved Shori and wanted to be with her as soon as she could. Brook and Celia were grateful to Shori even though in the beginning is was not easy being that their Ina died but they were happy Shori took them in because they most likely would've died. Joel wanted to be with Shori by free will. Wright really didn't have a chance to decide soberly because by the time he realized he was growing a dependence on her and she gave him the option to leave her venom was already influencing Wright's mind and he felt like he needed to be with her.

Fledgling Review
Living the Undead Life by Susanna J. Sturgis

Summary

In this review Sturgis talks about how vampire novels and flim has changed throughout time. Butler's novel has

Quotations

"The vampire premise is perfectly suited to themes that butler has been exploring since her earliest novels: Interdependence, freedom and unfreedom, and the cost of human survival."

"Only a few pages into Fledgling, it becomes appearent that the vampire premise is perfectly suited to themes that Butler has been exploring since her earlier novels."

"Out of this thought-experiment arises a plausible structure that allows Butler to explore her favorite issues: power, leadership, individual integrity, interdependence, and difference"

Themes

The revision of the vampire figure, Racism/speciecism, Alternative sexual relations/ sexuality/ family relations

MLA Citation

Sturgis, Susanna J. "Fledgling.(Book Review)." Living the Undead Life (2005): 320pp. Web.

My Impression of Octavia Butler.
Positive Obsession

I found Octavia Butler's essay to be interesting. Though she was happy that she had written this piece, I got the impression she feels her life is not anything special to write about or like she says "too dull". She shared that literature has been part of her life since she was a child and she later grew a "positive obsession" on writing stories. Her mother found education to be very important and took every opportunity to educate Octavia. She is introvert and a very self conscious person but still that didn't stop her from her dreams of becoming a writer and pursuing it as a career. She was determined to sell her stories no matter what other people would say even her aunt told her once before how "Negroes can't be writers" yet that didn't discourage her. She was twenty three when she sold her first work.

Robert W. Logan

In Logan's piece I learned that she was a dedicated author who set no limitations to her writing. She was born in Pasadena, California and was and only child living with her mother. He also mention how she was kept to herself and tended to go into her own little world. Another thing that kept her isolated from other children her age was how quickly she grew and it made her self conscious. To better herself, she took writing courses in college as well as attending writing workshops which she encountered Harlan Elison, who to her was her first "honest critic." From there she join a six week program for writers specializing in the science fiction genre. She made several successful novels and later became the first science fiction writer to win the MacArthur Foundation's "genius grant." She died at 58 due to health problems.

Citation Practice
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction