It is probably a basic human need: the need for association. Throughout the history we imagined being part of something bigger than ourselves, from our families. We visualized things bigger than our villages, bigger than our towns. We imagined bigger communities and called them nations, we did not stay there...we created states. It was this collective imagination that made states possible. We are still trying to find life elsewhere in the universe...and God knows maybe we found what we were looking for. Or perhaps we never will. To conclude my totally unrelated brainstorming session from the scope of this post, I'd like to point out that I absolutely loved Martian Chronicles.
I did not enjoy the SfD, as I made it clear on my previous blog post on the Speaker. I faced a totally different Ender, with an "I am the Chosen One"Syndrome. A syndrome which showed its symptoms by the initial voyagers to Mars in Bradburry's book. "Hey, look at us! We came to Mars! Yeah, we call your planet Mars! etc." A feeling people get when they start to consider themselves as the last Coca-cola can in a desert. Luckily, Bradburry didn't spend 300 pages on showing how we had to think differently of ourselves and of others.
The Chronicles for me did not end when the book concluded. It finished for me at the end of the Night Meeting story of August 2002. I still do not think that the Aliens are wiped out of chickenpox. There is always the possibility that the aliens solved the problem of coexistence with humans between the period of 3rd and the 4th human voyages to Mars. There is a possible explanation that humans are made to believe that the aliens are dead. Perhaps it might be so that we, as humans, just had to take part in that solution without being aware of coexisting with the aliens on the same planet. Of course, by saying this I am totally eliminating the possibility of this book representing the conquest of America...but may be it. There are many conquest stories that fall parallel to that of conquest of America.
On another note, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind was a good movie-- to an extent that I interpreted it as a cultural exchange programs with the Mars. It was an odd feeling I got out of the film, given that I'm studying here on one of the cultural exchange programs here. Yet it fell into what Ender was emphasizing in the Speaker for the Dead: learning from the other. And to an extent, acceptance that we are part of something bigger that we cannot comprehend. Hopefully with this acceptence we can start to understand what we truly are part to/ of.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Reflection 6: Hug your inner Spender.
With the snowapocalypse, I lost track of what I posted and what I didn't- but I think it will all become clearer this week. Do bear with me as I post my reflection and substantive posts in wrong order for this week. On another note, I am 21 now. You remember those college essay prompts we had to write about "having dinner with 3 important figures in history?" Having access to all DC Bars now, I think Bradburry and I could be good drinking buddies.
I already shared in class what I took out of Martian Chronicles and the Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. However, I think it is a good time to fill in those who were absent in class on Thursday. To me Martian Chronicles represented a process of self-alienation, self realization and how we cope with "loss of familiar cues." This process is one I'm familiar with by virtue of living in the US for 3 years now...but it probably happened to those of you who are not even aware of it. By leaving our homes, and coming to AU we, in one way or the other, had to readjust our lifestyles. Some probably had to modify their lives more than others for their own reasons. One of my favorite philosophers of all time Aristotle emphasizes the self-actualization to maximize one's potential...and I cannot think of a better way ofmaximizing our potential by leaving our comfort zones. I left home, only to understand "home" being merely a state of mind. A theme that was implied in some of the short stories found in Bradburry's book.
As Michael and I were creating the Wiki page for this week, we could not get a hold of the book. We thought about summarizing stories, but it was very difficult. As a short book, Chronicles was packed with themes throughout the book, so we decided to wrestle with some of the themes we found interesting. I was particularly interested in the role of culture in interactions, as I mentioned earlier. However, I found 2 more important themes in the book. Namely:
1. Proofs for God's Existence
Throughout the voyages, humans are seeing all these signs and interpreting them in the scales of their values and beliefs. One of their core beliefs is the assumption on the existence of a higher moral authority called God. In their eyes, life on Mars is part of God's grand plan. However, humans in these stories neglect the fact that life on Earth could have been God's master plan. I have ideas scattered all over the place, so let me move on to my second point before I forget what to say...
2. Art vs. Art-ificial & Communication
On page 66 Spender rants about the role of art in life. Spender compliments the Martians for including art as part of their life. He compares Martians to people in Earth to point out how materialistic they have become. When we look back in history, art has always been part of human life-- it was the ultimate human experience. Specially when we look at the drawings that have been foun din the caves, we understand that humans felt the need of passing/reflecting their inner experiences, emotions, feelings to the outside world. Thank lord we now have many means of sharing our feelings/ thoughts with others. Since we are incapable of telephaty there is no perfect information among ourselves but we created tools to communicate our minds to one another: we not only draw, we compose music, we write poetry and stories. It could be true that we have access to many tools to say what we would like to say. Yet, we are reluctant. We oppress our feelings. We see human expression of emotions a sign of weakness. We shut a side of ourselves somewhere we have no access to and we do not talk about it. In fact, when someone is brave enough to talk about it we pay him/her. Think about it: We pay people to make art for us.
On that note, I embrace my inner Spender and peace out. I think you should give your inner Spender a hug too; if he leaves, you may never find him again.
I already shared in class what I took out of Martian Chronicles and the Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. However, I think it is a good time to fill in those who were absent in class on Thursday. To me Martian Chronicles represented a process of self-alienation, self realization and how we cope with "loss of familiar cues." This process is one I'm familiar with by virtue of living in the US for 3 years now...but it probably happened to those of you who are not even aware of it. By leaving our homes, and coming to AU we, in one way or the other, had to readjust our lifestyles. Some probably had to modify their lives more than others for their own reasons. One of my favorite philosophers of all time Aristotle emphasizes the self-actualization to maximize one's potential...and I cannot think of a better way ofmaximizing our potential by leaving our comfort zones. I left home, only to understand "home" being merely a state of mind. A theme that was implied in some of the short stories found in Bradburry's book.
As Michael and I were creating the Wiki page for this week, we could not get a hold of the book. We thought about summarizing stories, but it was very difficult. As a short book, Chronicles was packed with themes throughout the book, so we decided to wrestle with some of the themes we found interesting. I was particularly interested in the role of culture in interactions, as I mentioned earlier. However, I found 2 more important themes in the book. Namely:
1. Proofs for God's Existence
Throughout the voyages, humans are seeing all these signs and interpreting them in the scales of their values and beliefs. One of their core beliefs is the assumption on the existence of a higher moral authority called God. In their eyes, life on Mars is part of God's grand plan. However, humans in these stories neglect the fact that life on Earth could have been God's master plan. I have ideas scattered all over the place, so let me move on to my second point before I forget what to say...
2. Art vs. Art-ificial & Communication
On page 66 Spender rants about the role of art in life. Spender compliments the Martians for including art as part of their life. He compares Martians to people in Earth to point out how materialistic they have become. When we look back in history, art has always been part of human life-- it was the ultimate human experience. Specially when we look at the drawings that have been foun din the caves, we understand that humans felt the need of passing/reflecting their inner experiences, emotions, feelings to the outside world. Thank lord we now have many means of sharing our feelings/ thoughts with others. Since we are incapable of telephaty there is no perfect information among ourselves but we created tools to communicate our minds to one another: we not only draw, we compose music, we write poetry and stories. It could be true that we have access to many tools to say what we would like to say. Yet, we are reluctant. We oppress our feelings. We see human expression of emotions a sign of weakness. We shut a side of ourselves somewhere we have no access to and we do not talk about it. In fact, when someone is brave enough to talk about it we pay him/her. Think about it: We pay people to make art for us.
On that note, I embrace my inner Spender and peace out. I think you should give your inner Spender a hug too; if he leaves, you may never find him again.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Expectations and Alien Life
All of the early stories about the encounters between the martians and the first humans to come to mars have the common thread of expectations not being met, and this leading to disaster. Ylla expects to meet the humans and fall in love, but her predictions lead to her husband killing both members of the first expedition. The second expedition is ruined when the humans expect to be welcomed as heroes, but martians expect anyone out of the ordinary to be insane. And the third expedition comes to ruin when they throw all of their reason out the window when their expectations are not met. Since what they find is not what they expect, they decide to accept anything, however unlikely.
The warning here from Bradbury is that we cannot allow either our expectations or lack-thereof to make us blind to reason when dealing with an alien life for, or the unexplained in general. The first two expeditions fail because the humans expect to be welcomed with open arms by the martians. The martians, on the other hand, choose to see the humans as a single madman of unbelievable brilliance instead of accept the possibility that he might be telling the truth. These problems could have been avoided had both races set aside what they predicted would happen, and accepted what did happen.
On the other end of the spectrum we have the third expedition. The astronauts, upon finding something that they cannot explain, accept the first explanation given to them, despite its extreme improbability. They could have saved their live if they had kept their skepticism, and tried to think rationally. The lesson is that when dealing with the unknown we cannot allow what we think we know, or what we are told, overpower what we can observe and reason for ourselves.
The warning here from Bradbury is that we cannot allow either our expectations or lack-thereof to make us blind to reason when dealing with an alien life for, or the unexplained in general. The first two expeditions fail because the humans expect to be welcomed with open arms by the martians. The martians, on the other hand, choose to see the humans as a single madman of unbelievable brilliance instead of accept the possibility that he might be telling the truth. These problems could have been avoided had both races set aside what they predicted would happen, and accepted what did happen.
On the other end of the spectrum we have the third expedition. The astronauts, upon finding something that they cannot explain, accept the first explanation given to them, despite its extreme improbability. They could have saved their live if they had kept their skepticism, and tried to think rationally. The lesson is that when dealing with the unknown we cannot allow what we think we know, or what we are told, overpower what we can observe and reason for ourselves.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Reflection 5: Neumann
Letting others live, and coexistence are dilemmas of modern time, just like nationalism. With limited resources and land at hand, how do we escape the perpetual state of war with one and other? Look at us, we no longer carry swords or pistols around with us- though the risk of getting robbed, mugged and etc. remains. Yet we rely on institutions to protect us from the dangers. We even rely on institutions to protect us from ourselves at some instances. So are we, in a way, progressing? Are we becoming better humans? For Iver Neumann, we are simply making sense of ourselves differently because the times have changed, as well as the who we see as the other(s).
Iver B. Neumann's Uses of the Other was the recommended reading for this week, and was a very good follow-up to Carl Schmitt. By using Europe as a case study, he presents the self/other nexus with respect to West's East, against the Russian and the Turkish others. I originally ordered the book amon my nationalism readings, but it was a nice coincidence to have it for this course as well.Neumann refers to Nietzsche's position on knowledge: "Nietzsche stressed that the world does not simply present itself to human beings; rather the activity of knowing is a formulation of the world. it is the knowing that makes the self not the other way round. [...] 'i' am a number of different ways of knowing and that there is no such entity as a permanent or privileged self" (12). However, it is commonly agreed that foreign policy is about making an other from a perspective of 'i.' Neumann then presents Michael J. Shapiro's time and space dimension in self/other nexus: "Self/other relations have to be understood in their historicity; they are aspects of historically contingent ideas of self, which again are rooted in historically contingent ideas about time and space" (23). I could not have agreed more with the impact of time and space on the self/other creation and maintenance. However, even this is only one way of looking at this nexus.Feminists (or Gender theorists) would add the gender dimension to conclude that "Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings."* We embrace the slash between "self" and the "other" as means of distancing ourselves. As we hide beyond our differences, we neglect our similarities. "I hope there will be no more unnatural barriers between us and them" says Ender, which could definitely help with facing the other for whoever they are (307). Rather than giving religion, God or technology or attempting to change Piggies reproductive system we just need to let others be- unless they would like to change.
I think that the human mind is still not able to comprehend all of the multi-dimensional nature of the self/other nexus. Yet, we understand more than we ever have. The trouble is, what do we do with such a knowledge and understanding. For too much understanding can do just as much harm as too little understanding of the other.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Carl Schmitt, meet the piggies
On page 23 of my book, Rooter is quoted as asking Pipo, "If you have no other city of humans, how can you go to war?" To Novinha and Libo, this question reveals either that piggies want wars, or whether they see them as unavoidable. What's really going on here, is that Rooter has demonstrated an understanding of the works of Carl Schmitt and is getting at a much bigger question. According to Schmitt, "Were a world state to embrace the entire globe and humanity, then it would be no political entity and could only be loosely called a state" (57). A single state cannot exist in isolation, without an enemy. Rooter knows that "There's no honor for you in killing Little Ones," that the pequeninos cannot be the enemy. The existence of only one human city is, in Rooter's eyes, a contradiction. He isn't concerned with war, but with alliances. He knows that there must be more than one human city, and if there aren't any more on Lusitania, then there must be other worlds with humans. By the end of Speaker for the Dead, the reader finds out that the piggies are extremely curious about spaceflight, and most of their questions came out of that curiosity.
I wonder what Schmitt would have made of Valentine's (Demosthenes') four orders of foreignness (p34). The important distinction in this work is that of ramen and varelse:
I also feel that Val's apparent oxymoron, "human, but of another species," needs to be addressed, but first I would like to know what you guys think thus far. How would Schmitt change his conception of the political in the second millenium after the adoption of the Starways Code. Would he?
I wonder what Schmitt would have made of Valentine's (Demosthenes') four orders of foreignness (p34). The important distinction in this work is that of ramen and varelse:
"The third is the ramen, the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another species. The fourth is the true alien, the varelse, which includes all the animals, for with them no conversation is possible."Is there any room for these classifications in The Concept of the Political? They do increase the resolution of our analysis, but does it matter? Gobawa Ekimbo doesn't think so: "When it comes to war, human is human and alien is alien. All that ramen business goes up in smoke when we're talking about survival" (313). It's easy to imagine Schmitt agreeing, but he does admit in his writing that he doesn't know how things will change in the future, and acknowledges that his conception is meant for a specific time and place. Regarding a future all-encompassing world order, Schmitt says, "If and when this condition will appear, I do not know. At the moment, this is not the case" (54). This statement leaves the door open for different circumstances and therefor a different interpretation.
I also feel that Val's apparent oxymoron, "human, but of another species," needs to be addressed, but first I would like to know what you guys think thus far. How would Schmitt change his conception of the political in the second millenium after the adoption of the Starways Code. Would he?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Fear Thou Not; For I Am With Thee
Wow. What a cheesy piece on Alien encounter. After Ender's Game, I expected something more compelling than this. As story went on, plot became more and more predictable. Card clearly wanted to make text more scientifique, but I really did not enjoy his means on going about doing that. Here are my observations on the Speaker for the Dead:
1. Too much Discovery Channel: Who knew reproduction/ mating patterns / skills could tell us so much...and yet nothing? I don't know why Card had to pull all Discovery Channel on his readers. Perhaps he was trying to show how we live in a pluriverse and there are different meanings attached to extra-marital sex, or sex without marriage in Piggies and in humans realms. I still don't think having almost 200 pages dedicated to implicit/explicit understandings/observations of sex and pleasure-giving among piggies. I agree with Jane "Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind" (141).
2. Too Little Spiritual Conversation: I didn't expect Ender to give in to church this easily. He did not engage in any philosophical conversations- it never happened. Though Jane figures out that he is playing double, I wished there were more religious conversation. I really hoped Ender questioned the Children of Mind Ministers, at least to help the readers understand why they are doing what they are doing and why they live in that particular way. I felt the conversation they had about celibracy was too short, given the overall emphasis on sex throughout the book.
3. Infusion of Social / Natural Science: This aspect of the book looked promising. Xenobiologists sounded more like anthropologists, who are considered social scientists rather than actual scientists. In real life, social and natural scientists are part of two different realms. Scientists dismiss social science when it uses qualitative method with less emphasis on empirical evidence. Levels of accuracy in a social scientists work always comes into question, for scientists rely on duplicability of experiment results to make them more reliable. In Lusitania the participant observation of Xenobiologists is leading science. Another good observation was made by a fellow blogger, Morgan, who mentions in her post how the "xenologers were so absorbed in their own culture that even venturing into other ideas (like realizing that the trees were actually alive, and not totemic) was almost beyond their comprehension."
4. What is love? Despite his brilliance, I feel that Ender really needs to read some Aristotle. Where is Moderation?! Ender limits his feelings to love and hatred -there is no mention of liking someone- moderte love! Truth is, Ender's attitude sounds rather like love conqeers 'em all. Talk about cheese. Besides, Card goes as far as to quote Sheakespeare at some point...doesn't he know that Sheakespeare believes that uncontrolled love leads to madness? Is Ender really sane?
5. Emphaty and Lack of Fear: One big assumption near the end of the book is the assumption of perfect information; the assumption that we know all we need to know about the Piggies. Ender comes off as a know-it-all, because he communicates! He takes emphaty to such an extreme whch eliminates the fear of the other. Even though Card grasps the importance of language and actual communication, he does not grasp the importance of Culture of communication, and how much information is being utilized outside of the verbal communication. Though in the story this aspect is totally discarded, in real life we have high-context cultures and low-context cultures and the amount of information exchange is not necessarily limited to verbal exchange.
6. Domestic Violence: This is the first piece of sci-fi that I came across, which was this open about domestic violence. Regardless of education level, level of wealth of their husbands, women are subject to violence in their homes. It was interesting to find Ender justifying domestic violence comitted by Cao during his speech. Cao just wanted to be loved -Yeah, so does everybody else. Let's beat each other to death until we get some love. Ender's speech reminded me of Machiavelli's depiction of Fortuna. Going off with same approach in justification we can say that Machiavelli secretly wanted to be conquered by fortuna -not the other way round.
I didn't mean to be this critical but it happened. Yet I know Ender would have understood, and would have loved me regardless.
1. Too much Discovery Channel: Who knew reproduction/ mating patterns / skills could tell us so much...and yet nothing? I don't know why Card had to pull all Discovery Channel on his readers. Perhaps he was trying to show how we live in a pluriverse and there are different meanings attached to extra-marital sex, or sex without marriage in Piggies and in humans realms. I still don't think having almost 200 pages dedicated to implicit/explicit understandings/observations of sex and pleasure-giving among piggies. I agree with Jane "Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind" (141).
2. Too Little Spiritual Conversation: I didn't expect Ender to give in to church this easily. He did not engage in any philosophical conversations- it never happened. Though Jane figures out that he is playing double, I wished there were more religious conversation. I really hoped Ender questioned the Children of Mind Ministers, at least to help the readers understand why they are doing what they are doing and why they live in that particular way. I felt the conversation they had about celibracy was too short, given the overall emphasis on sex throughout the book.
3. Infusion of Social / Natural Science: This aspect of the book looked promising. Xenobiologists sounded more like anthropologists, who are considered social scientists rather than actual scientists. In real life, social and natural scientists are part of two different realms. Scientists dismiss social science when it uses qualitative method with less emphasis on empirical evidence. Levels of accuracy in a social scientists work always comes into question, for scientists rely on duplicability of experiment results to make them more reliable. In Lusitania the participant observation of Xenobiologists is leading science. Another good observation was made by a fellow blogger, Morgan, who mentions in her post how the "xenologers were so absorbed in their own culture that even venturing into other ideas (like realizing that the trees were actually alive, and not totemic) was almost beyond their comprehension."
4. What is love? Despite his brilliance, I feel that Ender really needs to read some Aristotle. Where is Moderation?! Ender limits his feelings to love and hatred -there is no mention of liking someone- moderte love! Truth is, Ender's attitude sounds rather like love conqeers 'em all. Talk about cheese. Besides, Card goes as far as to quote Sheakespeare at some point...doesn't he know that Sheakespeare believes that uncontrolled love leads to madness? Is Ender really sane?
5. Emphaty and Lack of Fear: One big assumption near the end of the book is the assumption of perfect information; the assumption that we know all we need to know about the Piggies. Ender comes off as a know-it-all, because he communicates! He takes emphaty to such an extreme whch eliminates the fear of the other. Even though Card grasps the importance of language and actual communication, he does not grasp the importance of Culture of communication, and how much information is being utilized outside of the verbal communication. Though in the story this aspect is totally discarded, in real life we have high-context cultures and low-context cultures and the amount of information exchange is not necessarily limited to verbal exchange.
6. Domestic Violence: This is the first piece of sci-fi that I came across, which was this open about domestic violence. Regardless of education level, level of wealth of their husbands, women are subject to violence in their homes. It was interesting to find Ender justifying domestic violence comitted by Cao during his speech. Cao just wanted to be loved -Yeah, so does everybody else. Let's beat each other to death until we get some love. Ender's speech reminded me of Machiavelli's depiction of Fortuna. Going off with same approach in justification we can say that Machiavelli secretly wanted to be conquered by fortuna -not the other way round.
I didn't mean to be this critical but it happened. Yet I know Ender would have understood, and would have loved me regardless.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Misunderstandings
One of the major themes in Speaker for the Dead was misunderstandings. The book puts forward the idea that if you can understand someone, and they understand you, then all of the problems between you can be solved. The entire point of the section where Ender speaks for Marcao was that once the people of Lusitania understood why Marcao had acted the way he had for all those years, while they couldn't condone him for it, they couldn't really condemn him for it either. This is the function of a Speaker for the Dead. But the misunderstandings don't end with the humans. In Ender's Game the reason for the xenocide was a misunderstanding, and all of the problems between species in Speaker also stem from them. The piggies kill humans without knowing that they will not get a third life. The humans in turn treat the piggies with fear and distrust since they have killed two respected members of the community. The problems between Jane and Ender are also started by one race not understanding the other, because Ender did not grasp the significance of turning off Jane's implant.
Even though all the problems begin with a lack of understanding, Speaker seems to be suggesting that humans as a whole will try to block communication that might be painful, even if it will bring healing understanding. This is true on a personal scale with Novinha, preventing her children from knowing the truth about their father, and on the political scale with the Starways Congress preventing any real communication with the piggies. Card is telling us that two-way communication will always be important for any relationship, and that it will be especially important when and if we meet another sentient race. This stance is made clear since all of the problems between the Lusos and the Piggies are solved within a day of real communication beginning. Of course the Starways Congress, the stand-in for the human desire to not communicate reacts by planning to blow up the planet. The message is clear: if we cannot speak with those we have differences with, the more violent parts of our brain will win out and one side will be destroyed.
Even though all the problems begin with a lack of understanding, Speaker seems to be suggesting that humans as a whole will try to block communication that might be painful, even if it will bring healing understanding. This is true on a personal scale with Novinha, preventing her children from knowing the truth about their father, and on the political scale with the Starways Congress preventing any real communication with the piggies. Card is telling us that two-way communication will always be important for any relationship, and that it will be especially important when and if we meet another sentient race. This stance is made clear since all of the problems between the Lusos and the Piggies are solved within a day of real communication beginning. Of course the Starways Congress, the stand-in for the human desire to not communicate reacts by planning to blow up the planet. The message is clear: if we cannot speak with those we have differences with, the more violent parts of our brain will win out and one side will be destroyed.
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