We just read and analysed our first text ("Day Million" by Frederik Pohl) which combines some of the typical features of contemporary short stories. It is Science Fiction in essence and, as such, it takes us to a distant future, 10,000 years ahead! Yet, how is the text related to the present? How does it relate to us, here and now? How would you define reality (as briefly as possible) using this story as a reference point?
Please, answer these questions with short answers. Notice they are basically personal questions, so you can come to ALMOST ANY conclusion, so... pay close attention to the way you answer them. Make sure you use language as effectively as possible.
Post your answers before midnight April 4th. Let us try to give some feed-back (to the group or any specific member during Easter, and let us get ready for discussion on Tuesday April 14th.
Thanks for participating, see you after Easter, enjoy yourselves and... READ!
ps.- Needless to say you have to start reading the first poems in the handout!!!
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I think that this story is extremely critical of the human paradigms, due to the fact that the topic relates -literally- to "taboo" topics being discussed by world leaders such as cloning, genetic manipulation, etc. which have generated satisfactory cientific results. Yet, metaphorically the story criticizes the fact that the human being in general tends to narrow his/her mind to the reality being lived at the moment and closes options for changes that may occur at present time (but not to changes in the far away future). Therefore, it is very probable that this author meant to make the reader aware of what reality is to him/her right now, using historic characters to make an analogy in time between us and the main character in parallelism with us and Attila and using direct addressing as a way to capture the reader´s attention and accomplish his purpose.
ReplyDeleteEven though the story takes place in a distant future, it touches ethical aspects that have concerned human beings trough the history of humanity. Aspects such as free will, the inner need, desire or right of deciding what we want to do and when we want to do it, has been a universal concern since men and women have lived on the planet. The story is only telling us that in spite of technological developments, we remain our essence and concerns about free will and other philosophical/ethical aspects. Using the story as a reference I would personally define reality as what we want to live and believe in our present, the here and now.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between this story, set in a very distant future, and the present time is the treatment given by the author to certain human feelings, situations and problems. Despite that it is ten thousand years from now, humankind still worries about the same things as we do now: love, marriage, reproduction, acceptance, among others. Therefore, the author might have intended to show how time does not affect our feelings; however, time does affect our concept of reality. The comparison of the genetic change of children with a visit to getting a tooth job done is showing how reality can change enormously, depending on the culture and the society in which this reality is taking place.
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ReplyDeleteIn spite of the generation gaps, a lot of stories are still considered universal and controversial in society since its topics challenge readers’ ethics. The story “Day Million”, for example, reveals that life will be different in the future in terms of genetic manipulation in order to procreate a human being with exceptional characteristics. Nevertheless, the author tries his readers to realize that the prejudices from today’s society still keep present in future’s society. The text relates with us since it deals with essential aspects of our mankind, the notion of identity and individuality, experimentation with human beings to benefit others and our respect to human life. On the other hand, taking into account that the story focuses on genetic manipulation, I would say that reality is the concept of not being naturally as the other ones are, but a modified genetic material far away from principles, which would change our real mission in this world.
ReplyDeleteI think that this story has very much to do with our society nowadays. A society in which people pay much more attention to external features than the inner ones. Here and now we may consider that we share a very similar reality as human beings, still each one of us picture the world in a very different way. In the story the characters were living in a planet that is apparently completely different from ours, and for them that was totally norma. That's why the concept of reality depends on how we percieve the world and the environment that surounds us. The speaker of the story challenges the way people here and now think and percieve topics such as moral and ethics taking technology as the main means.
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