User:Princessmishell/sandbox

Entry #1
Today in Eng 103 we met our professor and she went through on what we will do in this course. She explained to us about Wikipedia and how we will be using it a lot. I had to create an account on Wikipedia and she explained how to use it, which was good because I never used Wikipedia before and found interesting how you can edit almost anything. It also shows you who changed what and the time they did that change.

Entry #4
Today in class we went more in depth on Octavia Butler. We were each assigned to paraphrase a specific year and the stories that were published in that year. I was assigned to the year 2000 and there are 4 stories I have to paraphrase. I started with the short story, "Amnesty" which was very interesting, even though I read only a small portion of the story, it gave me a lot of information. We all had to write what we paraphrased in google docs. It seemed as a hard task to do but it isn't. This assignment was to help us how to either summarize, paraphrase, or quote. It did help me understand each of them more better.

Entry #5
Today in class we revised our team work on Octavia Butler. What really helped me in editing my section was that the professor wrote feedback and it helped because I was able to change specific things so my writing could sound better. She gave me a lot of helpful feedback, I changed a few things in my writing and it made a difference because I feel like my writing sounds much better now. Hopefully by the end it will be perfect.

Entry #6
Today in class we divided into two groups. She each had to print out our drafts of Octavia Butler. We went over each group reading out loud each section in the draft. We had to mark our corrections. Once we were finished we had to go into our Google docs and fix/change the things the professor said had to be changed. Once we were done with fixing our sections we had to transfer it to Wikipedia. Which was an easy process. Reading each section out load helped me a lot because I was able to see what to change so my section could be ready to be posted in Wikipedia.

Entry #7
In the beginning of the class we had an extra credit game. We each paired up with another person and the professor gave us two sentences and we had 5 mins for each sentences to create as many paraphrases we can think of. This was a good way for us to gain extra points. We then had to write about our article with the rest of our group members. Which wasn't difficult either. The last thing we did was copy all the work we had written about Octavia Butler into the wiki page about her. Which was a big deal because we basically changed everything on that page.

Entry #9
Today in class we had Sanchez-Taylor come in and speak to us about fledgling. It helped a lot because she explained to us about her article and also spoke about the topics in Fledgling. We then got into our groups and had to create a paragraph about the topic we chose, which for me was the revision of the vampire figure. This was not a hard thing to do because I liked this topic and had a lot to say about it. I think the lecture we had from Sanchez Taylor and the professor helped me in completing my paragraph because they explained everything very good and in depth.

Entry #10
Today we had to revise our sections, I got paired with another classmate. We had to paraphrase some quotes in order to make our topic sentence stronger. It was a bit difficult but once we were done we got more feedback by other classmates. It helped because it made our paragraphs stronger, once our paragraphs were done and revised we had to put them on wikipedia and just add citations. It wasnt that hard what we did today because we had help and feedback from others.

Chapters 1-6
In these six chapters we learn a lot about the protagonist. She wakes up in the middle of the night, hurt and hungry. She doesn't know where she is or who she is, she kills what she thought was an animal. She was confused and naked, she had scars all over body. While she is walking on the road she meets this man names, Wright. He decides to help her and that is when she realizes she is young. He develops an interest towards her after she bite him, he decides to take her to his home. Even though she didn't know this man or what his intentions were with her, she decided to trust him. Once she gets to his house she looks at herself in the mirror and realizes she is dark skinned with curly hair. They both seemed to be attracted to each other, and even though she looked very young she assured him she wasn't as young as he thought. They ended up spending the night together. The next morning he decides to give her a name. Renee, because it meant reborn. Still confused about what she is and what happened before she woke up in a cave, she decided to start investigating about herself. She wasn't sure if she was vampire. Renee takes blood from 5 other people and then she realized that her saliva had something that made people drawn to her. They obeyed her when she would bite them and then lick the wound. She started to remember small things about herself, she realized that the animal she killed and ate when she first woke up in the cave was actually a man who seemed to care about her. She decided to go back to the cave because she thought she lived in the house that was burned there. She smelled someones scent, someone like her kind. She was eager to find out if there were more people like her.

Chapters 7-15
In these chapters we learn a lot more about "Renee" we find out her actual name is Shori. When she goes back to where all the houses were burned, she meets a man who was like her kind. He tells her that he is her father, surprised about that she still doesn't remember him. He takes her and Wright to where he lived and explains to her how he hasn't seen her in a while because their kind would not live with women. He tells her she is actually not a kid, she is about 50 years old, but vampires don't age. She finds out she had two other sisters and has three brothers. When they get to his house, she meets a lot of people who knew who she was but Shori still couldn't remember them. She meets her youngest brother Stefan and he told her how close they were when they were younger. She decides to go live with her father Iosif because she needed to learn about her culture the Ina and know how to start a new family. Wright and Shori go back to the cabin and were going to move in with Iosif in a few days. They waited for Iosif to pick them up but something told Shori that something bad has happened and which is why Iosif hasnt picked her up. Wright and Shori go to where Iosif lived and see that all the houses were burned. Everyone had died, her father, her brothers, their symbionts. Except for Brook and Celia who were symbionts of her father and her brother Stefan. She decides to take them with her and make them her own. They all go and stay at one of the houses that her father owned and later that night a group of men come and started to throw gasoline that their house. A big fire started and these men were shooting them. They get to escape quick from all that, and hide out in the woods. It seemed as if someone is going after Shori and wants to kill her and all of her kind. Short and her symbionts go to another group of Ina vampires for help. They explain to them how there is a group of human after them and have murdered all of her family. They decided to help Shori and let her stay in their house. Sadly the next morning their community were these Ina lived was attacked.

Chapters 16-21
Shori was able to fight the attackers and no Ina or symbionts were killed. Since shori did not sleep during the day she was able to save the Ina from getting killed. Shori shot some of these attackers who were human. She captured one of them so she can later ask him questions. Later that day Shori took the attacker she had captured his name was Victor Colon. Surprisingly she was nice to him and did not kill or torture him. She let him sleep in one of her rooms and told Daniel that they can a meeting and ask the attackers questions. The next day Victor told them that he was bitten by a group of Ina and him and many other men were sent to kill Shori because she was a different kind of vampire. He told them that they also killed Shori's mother and her sisters. They were also responsible for the attack where they killed her father. Shori wanted to kill Victor but tried to stay calm. The Gordon family knew who these Ina were and decided to call they, they were called the Silks and denied everything. They said that they did not tried to kill Shori that this was all a mistake. The Gordons decided to call a Council of Judgement, many Ina families came from all over. Short met her grandfathers and she also realized that she was able to read and write in Ina. Something she thought she had forgotten, the Council of Judgement was a time where all the Ina got together to discuss a serious problem but it was like a party for the symbionts because they were able to bond with other symbionts. Short also realized that she was into Daniel Gordon. They were both attracted towards each other, she was okay in mating with him. Daniel told her that since the venom of a woman is much stronger than a male it would help them in mating.

Chapters 22-Epilogue
The council of judgement has started and right away when Milo Silk gave his speech he showed that he didn't like Shori. Shoris new symbiont, Theodora decides to join her in Punta Nublada. Days later Shori finds out Theodora was killed, when Shori sees Theodora dead she did not know how to react. Short was determined in finding the killer, she wanted to get revenge. Shori manages to pick up a few scents and started asking questions, she finds out the one of Katharine Dahlman symbionts killed Theodora. Shori was sure that Katharine sent her symbiont to kill Theodora. Preston tells Shori to not get revenge on Katharine, but instead to call her on the council of judgement. Katharine denies everything. On the last day of the council, almost everyone declared the Silks guilty for killing all of Shori's family. The silks punishment was to give up their family, there will no longer be an Ina called the Silks. Russell who was one of the members of the Silks didn't want to accept the punishment. He throws himself at Shori trying to attack her, he starts insulting her. But after he calmed himself, he accepted; all the Silks accepted their punishment. Preston then calls Katharine and tells her, her punishment which was having both her legs cut off. She did not want to accept it because she thought it wasn't the right punishment for her. She had to either accept her punishment or be killed. Later on that day Katharine attacks Shori, she shot her but Shori killed her by biting her throat. It took Shori three days to recover from the shot she had. Once Shori woke up she sees Wright he tells her that Katharine was burned and her family agreed to never attack Shori. Shori decided to continue her life venue though she did not know nothing about her past life she decided to learn all about the Ina and later on mate and have children.

Research Assignment #4
1.The first strategy that Butler used to domesticate vampires was through out deracination. The main character Shori was a genetically modified vampire. She was able to walk during the day, she had a lot more advantages than other vampires. She is less vampire and more human because of her emotional attachments. 2.The second strategy that Butler uses to domesticate vampires is by the history they have. The Ina vampires have lived on earth for a very long time, they have interacted with humans for centuries. Butler' revisioning of human and vampire history is important because the Ina history is similar in civilization they both went through the same stages. 3.The third strategy is by race, Shori was a dark skinned girl. While every vampire Ina was pale white, its ironic to make a black vampire the one who is fittest to survive because they aren't viewed as Ina by the rest of the vampires. 4.Accepting to bond with vampires is a human's choice to become post-human because the human decides to stay and live with that vampire or go on with their own life. They aren't forced to stay with the vampire. Even though the venom helps them respect the vampire and also prevents them from aging. 5.The way species already relate to each other on Earth is by response and respect. It is important for humans to learn to become a companion species to other creatures because it helps other species survive. This is possible by third-worlding which can be active by adaptation of other human races.

Fledgling review
1.Charles L. Crow's review about Fledgling explained on how Butler's vampires weren't like the vampires we normally know about. Fledgling has a strange love story since these vampires can have sexual encounters with humans and it can be female or male but when they wanna mate it can only be with a male vampires. Ina prefer to build a relationship with the humans. The reviewer says the Butler's stories often have a black girl or woman that has a special quality. The reviewer says that Shori's first sexual encounter with her first symbiont was something close to pedophilia. Making Shori a vampire with amnesia is a great plot twist because she has to re-learn her Ina history in order to survive.

2."Her stories of border crossings always resonate with implications about race, gender, and family in our own society." "The amnesia is an effective device for generating plot and exposition." "a tale of murder, justice, and revenge. As we expect of Butler, her fable is wise and elegantly crafted."

3.Mutualistic symbiosis, Alternative sexual relations/ sexuality/ family relations, The revision of the vampire figure

4. Charles L. Crow Rockville, Maryland

My Impression of Octivia Butler
Octivia Butler seemed to have a very lonely childhood, due to the fact that she didnt act like the other girls her age. She started to read a very young age which other girls didnt. Her mother cared for her a lot being the only child, her mother had big dreams for her. She wanted Octivia to go to school and learn, since her mother couldnt. Octivia was always dedicated to her writing, she read many books and when her mother bought her a typewriter she began to do what she loved. Even though some of her relatives did not think choosing writing was a good idea because she was African American. But that did not stop Octivia from writing, she did not believe in anything negative people would say about her. She was very passionate about writing and expressing her feelings, I think her mother was also a main reasion in why she didnt give up. Her mother supported her through everything, she spent a lot of money on her daughter because she wanted the best education for her. Octivia recieved a lot of rejection letters and that still did not change her mind about becoming a writer and publishing her stories. She kept sending her stories and kept trying, she was very brave because even though she was neglected by many people she kept on writing. In college she one first prize in a short story contest, and she was a freshman against a lot of older people. She also had dyslexia which makes it harder for people to read and knowing that she did not give up. She ended up selling eight novels and is the only Black women to write about science fiction. She is a great example in showing other people to keep doing what they love, because even though she was in hard circumstances she didnt give up.

Citation practice
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction