User:NajahLovesPink/sandbox

Entry #1
March 6, 2015 In class today I learned so much about Wikipedia, I never knew that Wikipedia was such a social avenue for writers, students and teacher. I learned Wikipedia is a guide to improving online encyclopedia and also a creative way to connect and interact with people who share similar interest in a topic. I learned when you edit on Wikipedia, I am joining a community of hundreds of thousands of people "Wikipediains" who freely contribute their knowledge to Wikipedia. I also learned to write in encyclopedia formal style and tone is important when adding new content to Wikipedia. I also learned when you make a Wikipedia edit, you're joining the community of thousands of people. I learned the style of Wikipedia, when writing in Wikipedia you must write in an encyclopedic style and formal tone.User and talk pages are pages you edit you might also want to create a user talk page to let others know you a bit more. In class we have become more familiar with each other and our professor for this semester. We went over the syllabus and made adjustment to our sand box, which was cool. I also learned a different side of research English that I never knew existed. I was really impressed by my instructors eagerness and curiosity on letting us explore Wikipedia. I never knew that Wikipedia can be so awesome and interesting.

Entry #2
March 13, 2015

In class today I learned how to edit someone else work on Wikipedia, I also learned to come together in groups and edit as one on Wikipedia's talk page. This assignment gave me an idea of learning to edit talk pages when needed to do so. In class we also looked at different versions of Octavia Butler's autobiography. We took little parts from each version of her autobiographies published by different authors and different views to edit a non creditable version of Octavia Butler's autobiography that was publish on Wikipedia without discrediting the author's work.

Entry #3
March 20, 2015

In class today I learned that Butler themes are very distinct when it comes to sex and she appeals her novels to an adult audience. In a lot of her novels she connects biology with culture, how much does our body change or represent who we are. I also learned that Butler made her novels frisky but at the same time controversial for publishing REAL science fiction during her time. We worked in groups day to help manage and revise the social science and themes of Butler's life. My group focused on her themes mainly to understand and take on the authors feelings and emotion in her novels. Much of her work reflects a wide-ranging interest in physical sciences with the study of human behavior. (John) I also learned her importance as an overall writer and how unique she is. We also posted in the talk page again but this time it was about social criticism and themes rather then the revisement of her autobiography on Wikipedia that we did last week.

Entry #4
3 Hours Absent.

Entry #5
April 17, 2015

In class today I worked with my group members (Group 4) on Reception, legacy and influences. Looking through the critics I realized Butler was favorable and also not so favorable to certain critics. Most of her critics really enjoyed her most of her work she accomplished. Evey time I publish my journal entries I discover more and more awesome information about Butler. Like Publisher Burton Raffel supports Butler’s eight novels tremendously: “I do not think any of these eight books could have been written by a man, as they most emphatically were not, nor, with the single exception of her first book, Pattern-Master (1976), are likely to have been written, as they most emphatically were, by anyone but an African American.” (Raffel) This was a statement claimed by him.

Also Butler was also positively critiqued by author Burton by saying, “Her prose is crystalline, at its best, sensuous, sensitive, exact not in the least directed at calling attention to itself”. Butler also had many achievements and awards which she received. In class we also came together and edited the work that was produced during class.

Entry # 6
April 24, 2015

In class today we picked up from our last class with adding improvements to our work. We worked together as teams once again but this time it was a little different. We were grouped together as Teams: 1&4, 2&3. I was with groups 1&4, we worked with Ann, our teacher's librarian volunteer to help us revise our work. This process was a little loud but it helped get the job done. When reading my unrevised work, i found a lot of grammatical errors that i wouldn't find alone if I was revising my work so this process truly helped. After we were finished writing our revised work we put it in our sandboxes as group 4.

Working with peers can be really helpful, I ENJOYED IT.

Entry # 7
May 1, 2015 In class today we played a game called "The paraphrasing quiz", we were given three sentences to paraphrase in many different ways and we will be graded for each different version we got correct. We also finish completing assignment number #4 if we didn't complete it for homework. We began reading authors reviews on octavia butler, We researched different book reviews from multiple authors centered around "Fledgling". We went over the main ideas and themes that would be great to add to octavia Butler's wiki page. We also learned how to edit a real wikipedia page and leaving our revised remarks as a LaGuardia Student in the edit summary.

Entry # 8
May 8, 2015

In class today we worked together in our groups to the previous homework assignment #4, we had to post the theme, MLA citation and main points on the talk page as a group. Our teacher handed us the most important questions of the book review to present our understanding of fledgling to the class. Our teacher helped us understand more in depth of the book review/authors who wrote them. We had to Re-do or do if wasn't done RA3, We had to complete RA4 if wasn't done as well. We also voted for themes to be added to wikipedia's fledgling page as well and "Difference as a means of survival" won. Lastly we completed research assignment # 6.

Entry # 9
May 15, 2015

Today in class we had a guest speaker, we went over the novel of Fledgling and depict the themes. We talked about the construction of race, racism,specism, supremacism, Mutualistic symbiosis, The revision of the vampire figure, Agency, Hybridity and Alternative sexualities. This really helped me understand the novel more into depth and was really encouraging to draft our sections or Wikipedia. We went over the topic sentence of the themes of Fledgling that would help us draft the themes of Fledgling. We worked in groups of three while we worked on the worksheet for creation of topic sentences. As a group we tried to figure out a new topic sentence for " The Revision Of The Vampire Figure". Then we broke up into groups of five to write the Butler’s motivation for writing the novel and post it to blackboard.

Entry # 10
May 22, 2015 Today in class we worked of Drafting and posting the Fledgling's construction of race, We used all the information from our previous class to help draft the construction of race.

My Impression of Octavia Butler
My first initial  thought of Octavia Butler is that she is very smart, she knew a lot for a 10- year old girl at the time in 1957 transitioning into a grown women. Octavia in my opinion seemed to have self esteem issues as well as being shy and afraid. Octavia was a subtle speaker as well, she believed that she wasn't qualified, that she was ugly, stupid and clumsy. Octavia knew her goals and aspirations from a young age. She also thought her shyness took the best of her but she never let anything get in between her pen and paper. She loved writing and wanted to share her aspirations with friends, family and the world. These are things that are very noticeable throughout the text as I read. I learned that Octavia would of had four other siblings but her mother had miscarriages. This could of also played a major affect on Butler's self esteem.

Reading her short autobiography I learned she died at the age of fifty- eight and have been suffering from hypertension and other health problems years before. (Logan) She also published five short series of books. Pattern-master series, My of Mind, Survivor, Wild Seed and Clay's Ark. A lot of butlers work has been centered around a vision for humanity's future. She strongly believed possibility to travel to the stars is endless. I also learned that Octavia work reflects strong amount of interest in the physical sciences and the study of human behavior which reflected on her novels.I leaned that Octavia Butler has great substance and achievements that she has conquered such as, She has been the guest honor or equivalent at more than one science fiction conventions since her first appearance at Wiscon in Madison. She also attended man workshops or in forums to contemporary American authors to race gender studies to the science fiction worlds of Octavia Butler at the University of Illinois. Butler's stories and books are about power fantasy, fantasy, race, gender, love, addiction, genetics, longevity/immortality, rape, incest,slavery, education and ect. (Pfeiffer)

Fledgling Summaries
Chapters 1 - 6

In the beginning of the novel the narrator does not state the characters, In fledgling we are looking through the narrator's focal lens. The protagonist setting begins in the middle of the night, where she wakes up. The protagonist is in desperation of something to devour. She is hurt and also lonely. As the introduction to chapter one continues, the protagonist stumbles along the road where she meets a man named Wright. Now this man decides to go along with her, be her shelter and company. The man and protagonist build this awkward relationship toward each other. Awkward because of how young the protagonist was, not knowing anything about Wright she decided to place her faith in him and follow along with Wright. The protagonist was a youth, but really deep down inside she was a 53 year old woman. She was still puzzled on what she was and why did she awake in a cave. Wright decides to give her the name Renee, Renee meant reborn to him.

Renee bit Wright and realized this is the substance shes been lacking all along. They agreed to stay with each other as long as Renee departs into the night. That same night she went out looking for more victims she could find. Next she found four more victims to suppress and seduce into getting their blood. This leaves them in a sort of daze yearning for her to bite the again.

Chapters 7- 15

In these chapters, Wright began to become attached to Renee. He didn't want to share her with anyone else. Wright was attached to her to the point he didn't want anything to happen to Renee. Because of Renee, Wright had become a symboint, meaning he was now half human half vampire and had the advantage of surviving off the two traits inside of him. Renee and Wright went to the ruins where they found a Cross, But not only that, Renee found someone of her own species. Losif began to tell her stories about herself and renamed her Shori. Later in the chapter Shori decides to go to the Iosif community but there was no eexistence of the area. Shori wanted to leave Wright behind to see what was going on. Wright suggested that she feeds on him before she leaves. Shori finds out that her father's community is also in ruins. As she walks through the community she stops at her father's mansion and goes inside. Shori was in great despair to see her brother and father killed. Later on she meets Brooke and Cecilia, They were also in distraught to see their community gone. They headed back to the safe house were Shori had questioned Brooke about any more Ina's. Shori questioned them so she can relay the news of the attacks to close relatives to the Ina's that were killed in that village. They mention Gordon and shori was in desperation to find him and tell him about the tragedies. Wright wanted to inform his father before hit hit the road with Shori.

Chapters 16- 21

In theses chapters, The Gordon's village is under attack but its under attack at the wrong timing. Shori is present in this village while it is under attack and she shows her unknown attackers she means buisness. She goes after the attackers and captures them for questioning. They explain to her they don't know into depth who is behind the missions they are being sent on to destroy these villages. They only tell her they were sent out because the Ina's were having sexual encounter with the children and causing a ruckus. They Decide to call a council meeting with the Silk family to receive justice for these attacks.

NajahLovesPink (talk) 04:00, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Assignment # 4
1.On Page 391, Brox quotes Homi Bhabha on how hybridity disrupts what is considered homogeneous, thus creating a third, ambivalent, subversive position. What, according to Bhabha, could a hybrid character such as shori mean in a story about two separate species?

Accodring to Bhabha hybrid figure opens up space of cultural uncertainly and instability. Basically the shori character represents an in between, it disrupts the unity and homogeneity of cultural identity. Bhadha feels hybridity expresses the impossibility  of essentialism and fixity through its embodiment of dialogic tension within its own paradoxical structure(Bhabha 36-39)

2.On page 394, Brox refers to Salvaggio's categorization of a female power in Butler's narratives. What are the two types of female power according to Salvaggio? Which is Shori?

Shori's displays a force from (1) the beginning of the novel that controls and dominates, and human endurance that compromises and survives. (2) She inspires many Ina to accept her hybrid subjectivity and models new ways for viewing diversity and treating human symbionts.

3.Page 395: What parallel situation does the Ina's "Speciesism" against humans invoke?

The Ina species Invoke that they are not invoked by race but humans are.

4. On pages 396-96, Brox explains how butler revise the vampire figure. How does she do so? She challenges the reader by reconfiguring the traditional vampire figure.

5. Page 396-97: How does Butler question the fixedness of the race through Shori's character. (Brox mentions three strategies) 1. Butler explains she often delays the racial identification of her other characters 2. Genetic engineering created Shori 3. Shori depicts her skin color as something that is biological and natural but also socially constructed.

6. Page 397: Why are some Ina afraid of Shori capability to reproduce? They are afriad because she is a mixed specie, There was a question that was hinged on the fertility of an individual who was a cross between two races.

7. How does silk's insistence on Ina purity help them construct a story of Ina superiorty to humans? Were Ina always superior species? The Silk family argues for drawbacks of hybrid vampire and it's effect on Ina purity during the climactic trial scene. Ina was always dominate over humans.

8.Page 400 How is Shori's reproductive potential the true challenge to Ina superiority? It is a challege because Shori would breed but she is a mixed specie so this is a challenge. Shori ability to survive, fight back and potentially created one because the natural hybrid, which would occur if Shori were allowed to reproduce, would disrupt the Ina's claim to power.

9.Page 403: How do the Silk's comparisons of shori to animals invert the notion of vampires as anaimalistic? What view of humanity (and their symboints) do these members of the Silk family have? It inverts the notion of vampires as animalistic because the Silk's feel towards shori suggest that they are more concerened about the potential legitimacy of human/vampire progency than sex between humans and Ina. The humanity view that the Silks have sex between human symbionts and Ina have never been a problem because the pairings do not affect their offspring.

10.Page 404-405 How does Shori represent the future of the Ina? How may she represent a future for the human? Shori represents indicates the strengths and possible future they believe she embodies, This affects the human because shori has the ability to choose the male family for her own reasons but shori dosen't have full reproductive choice so this may not affect her mating with humans at all.

Fledgling review
According to Susanna J. Sturgis, Fledgling was perfectly suited for Octavia and the themes she have been exploring close to her other novels she has published. Susanna goes in explaining in to details the summary of how captivating Fledgling is, She explains that butler doesn't intend for readers to feel comfortable because the novel has such a dependence towards it. Susanna felt fearless readers would have stood by the silk family when they called the council meeting in fledging because of their expression of the relationship between Ina and human species. Susanna ends her rapid but informational review with a great quote by Octaivia Butler herself, "Change can be and often is terrifying, but the biggest folly is to refuse it; deny change is to abdicate one's responsibility to help shape it".

Quotations
"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." ''

"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."

"I've heard it called a pwerful hypnotic drug. It makes them highly suggestible and deeply attached to the sorce of substance."

Themes
Racism/speciecism

Feminism

lternative sexual relations/ sexuality/ family relations

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

Citation Practice
Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction

Octavia Butler. Birth Of A Writer