Ian Burke Senior Seminar Blog

    The intrigue which the prologue sets up followed by the steady flow of information and character decisions have most definitely given me an entirely new sci-fi series to read and get to know. From the very beginning, the manner in which Jemisin crafts the story beckons you forth along the path she lays out for you. From explaining the tectonically active continent known as the Stillness to the reader witnessing a cataclysm that will come to shape the fates of nearly all the main characters and what seems to be an entirely alien yet human looking creature emerge as a result; the prologue immediately introduces the world and the bigger mysteries it has to offer. For next six chapters we follow three different women, all of whom are members of a powerful race called Orogenes, humans who can control temperature and tectonic energy. The inhabitants of the Stillness despise them because of their potentiality for mass destruction and natural disaster; so any orogenes, otherwise n...

 Very rarely have I read pieces which evokes such simultaneous discomfort and intrigue as with Butler's short work Bloodchild. The thematic lengths to which Butler stretches the thought experiment of a symbiotic relationship between two species is staggering and impressive. A young boy has been chosen by a member of a race of insects called Tlic, to bear her eggs until they are removed by caesarean section. The young boy witnesses this procedure first hand, a neighbor who's Tlic abandoned him is left writhing in agony as the plump red maggots are plucked from his veins by Gan's Tlic, Gatoi, and Gan is ordered to slaughter an animal to provide a new source of food for the freshly plucked eggs. Witnessing this event leaves the boy, Gan, understandably scarred and for the first time is confronted with the reality of what comes from this interspecies partnership. Eventually Gan chooses to end his own life with the rifle used to slaughter the animal at the beginning, but not bef...

    Often times science fiction stories amount to something as simple as a thought experiment; for example, what if a trio of male astronauts became lost in space, and returned to find Earth entirely devoid of the males and populated entirely by females. That simple thought experiment kickstarts what becomes a complex and decisive take on issues related to gender and toxic masculinity. The crew of a NASA solar mission, the Sunbird , takes a hit from a solar flare and is sent careening through space. After drifting for some time, a transmission is picked up by the ship. The communique had all female voices discussing strange slang terms; at first thought to be a hallucination brought on by deep-space isolation, they soon realize that they are being offered rescue by these interstellar strangers. The captain of the mission is initially dubious of their potential rescuers, however the entire crew is shocked to hear off their own mission being referenced as being lost for quite a ...

      Estraven continues to try and champion Ai's mission from behind the scenes of the Orgoreyn political leadership, but comes to see that they either do not trust or do not care about Genly's mission. Soon enough, Genly is taken to a political prison called a Voluntary Farm where he is given drugs to make him more agreeable and pliable to questioning. These drugs almost ruin Genly, and as Orogoreyn's doors shut on Estraven, he journeys to the prison disguised as a guard and frees Genly. Throughout these chapters, where Estraven was insulted by Genly, he has come to realize that it was a result of his ignorance of Genly's lack of true understanding of Gethenian culture and social rules. Similarly, Genly did not understand Estraven's devotion to his mission and how it superceded his devotion to any one Gethenian nation. Estraven remarked "what does it matter which country wakens first, so long as we waken"(LeGuinn, Chapter 14)? As they embark on an 80 day...

    LeGuin presents an epic philosophical and sociological tale through The Left Hand of Darkness, a story about a human male diplomats' mission to a world of androgynous humanoids. The diplomat is named Genly Ai, and journeys to the planet of Gethen in order to convince them to join the planetary collective of humans called the Ekumen. He firsts journeys to the kingdom of Karhide to seek an audience with the King. This meeting is brokered by the prime minister, Estraven, who later renounces his support of Genly's mission and disappears. Nevertheless the meeting goes as planned however the disconnect between the two in regards to their cultures, specifically the unspoken rules and courtesy rites called shifgrethor, causes the King to see sinister layers in Genly's proposal that are not really there. The king refuses, but not before declaring Estraven a traitor for supporting the Ekumen diplomats' mission. Instead of staying in Karhide's capitol, Genly opts instead t...

 Moore, Jackson, and Oates     The literary canon owes much to Mary Shelley for her seminal work on Frankenstein, possibly the first real science fiction story to come into the Western Literary canon. Shelley's work represented an elevation in complexity related to the literature of the day, blurring the line between man and monster. The stories of Moore, Jackson, and Oates all bear this complexity of ideas and willingness to explore ideas within a genre to their furthest extent. Moore presents in her story, Black God's Kiss,  the warrior-woman Jirel of Joiry; one of the few female protagonists within the sword-and-sorcery genre. After a vicious warlord overtakes her kingdom Jirel vows to journey into a hellish underworld to gain her revenge, risking the loss of her soul for vengeance against the tyrant. Shirley Jackson of Haunting of Hill House  fame, masterfully brings readers a social horror story about an annual ritual of mob sacrifice. One of several famili...