CULTURAL STUDIES: Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

Summary:

Anyanwu lives in West-Africa and is immortal. She is found by Doro, who is also an immortal. Even though she feels someone watching her as she attends to her garden, she believes that they don't pose as a threat so she continues to work and is mindful of the intruder's location. Once Doro presents himself he immediately ask her to drop everything and move him so they can procreate together. Although Anyanwu is hesitant because she is unfamiliar with this man, she eventually leaves everything behind with assurance that her family will be left alone and safe. Anyanwu leaves with Doro because she wants to have children that she will never have to watch die because they are immortal too. Doro promises her this will be true but she soon finds that these are empty promises. Anyanwu leaves with Doro and travels to his American colony. During the voyage, Anyanwu struggles with her impending future and tries to reconcile these worries with the idea that Doro's people will be well taken care of. Doro introduces Anyanwu to some of his "creations"/ sons who also have special powers. Isaac is taken with Anyanwu and she likes him as well although they don't speak the same language. Upon landing on the American colony Anyanwu is overwhelmed by the difference between her culture and the American culture yet she does her best to assimilate. Doro makes every attempt to control her and forces her to marry Isaac, bear his children, and remain on the colony. Once Isaac is dead, Anyanwu runs away and takes the form of a dolphin for many years to hide from Doro. Eventually Anyanwu creates her own colony, which in many ways is more successful than Doro's and protects her people until Doro once again finds her and forces her to have her children breed with who he sees fit. Anyanwu is once again enslaved by Doro but in the end it proves Doro and Anyanwu both needed each other in some way and they can't live without each other.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Seed_(Octavia_Butler_novel)#Summary)

My Criticisms:
   
      It is interesting to read some fantastic stories like what this novel contains. This novel shows a moral lesson  of being contented on what we have in life. It is overwhelming to read such novel with such lessons. The storyline is fairly developed, some parts were confusing. The characters are not believable, we all know that there are no immortals ever. The novel simply explains the quote "no man is an island". Overall, cultural studies was shown in this novel because the immortal characters have their ways to save their mankind and to prolong their existence.

DARWINISM: Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

Plot Summary:

In March 1912, in the event some people called the "Miracle," Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, including its inhabitants, disappear suddenly overnight and are replaced with a slice of an alien Earth, a land mass of roughly equal outlines and terrain features, but with a strange new flora andfauna which seems to have followed a different path in evolution.

Seen by some as an act of divine retribution, the "Miracle" affects the lives of people all around and transforms world history.

The book describes the life and the adventures of Guilford Law, a young American photographer. As a 14-year-old boy, Guilford Law witnessed the "Miracle" as shimmering lights moving eerily across the ocean sky. As a grown man, he is determined to travel to the strange continent of Darwinia and explore its mysteries. To that end, he enlists as a photographer in the Finch expedition, which plans to travel up the river that used to be known as the Rhine and penetrate the bizarre new continent's hidden depths as far as possible. He lands in the middle of the jungle in the midst of nationalistic skirmishes, in which partisans attack and wipe out most of the party of the Finch expedition on the continent that they believe to belong to them.

Law brought an unwanted companion with him, a mysterious twin who seems to have both lived and died on an alternate Earth unchanged by the Miracle. The twin first appears to Guilford in dreams, and he brings a message that Darwinia is not what it seems to be, and Guilford is not who he seems to be.

A startling revelation soon arrives. By the end of the story, it is revealed to all the characters that it is really now the End of Time and that the Universe, the Earth, and all the consciousness that ever existed are really being preserved in a computer-like simulation known as the Archive. The Archive was built by a coalition of all the sentient beings in the Universe in an effort to saveconsciousness from death. However, "viruses" (parasitic artificial life-forms) known as Psions have invaded the system of the Archive. Guilford Law eventually learns that he and those like him serve as instruments in a cosmic struggle against the Psions for the survival of consciousness itself.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwinia_(novel)#Plot_summary)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is interesting yet not that enjoying to read. This talks about how important being conscious is. It takes a headache first before you understand what the novel is all above. The storyline was into well developed one. The characters are really not that believable, because we ourselves didn't experienced that kind of events in their lives, some characters are not that proven existed. The novel is somehow interesting but confusing to understand. The novel is about special evolution that made this included in the Darwinism Theory.

ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Summary:

Ben’s story starts in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota in June 1977. He was born deaf in one of his ears. Ben’s mom, Elaine, was the town librarian, but died in a car crash a few weeks before. He now lives with his aunt and uncle a couple miles across Gunflint Lake from the house he grew up in. Ben has never known his dad, but feels a pull to find out who he was. Ben discovers a bookmark in his mother's book, Wonderstruck inscribed to his mother that ends with the words "Love, Danny." Ben thinks Danny must be his father and proceeds to call the number listed on the bookmark. As he is calling, a bolt of lightning hits his house, travels through the phone line and causes him to lose his remaining hearing. He wakes up in the hospital, unaware of where he is. A short time later, he decides to run away from the hospital and journey to New York City, eventually hiding out in the American Museum of Natural History. While at the museum, he meets Jamie, whose father works at the museum. Jamie takes him on tours of the back areas of the museum and helps him to hide in an unused storage room. Ben is still determined to track down his father, so he leaves the museum to locate the bookstore listed on the bookmark he found in his mother's book. Once there, he encounters Rose and they try to piece together how they might be connected.

Rose’s story starts in Hoboken, New Jersey in October 1927. She is kept at home with visits from a tutor because she is deaf. Unhappy and lonely at home, she runs away to New York City to see her idol, actress Lillian Mayhew. In New York, Rose travels to the theater where Lillian Mayhew is performing. She sneaks in and is found by the actress herself, who we learn is actually Rose's mother. Mayhew is furious, despite Rose telling her that she came because she missed her. Mayhew threatens to send Rose back to her father, so Rose runs away again. This time she goes to the American Museum of Natural History. She is found there by her brother, Walter. He takes her back to his apartment and promises to speak to their parents. At this point, Rose's story skips forward 50 years, and we see her as an older woman entering a bookstore. It is there she meets Ben. It is then revealed that Rose is Ben's grandmother, and Danny was both Rose's son and Ben's father. Rose takes Ben to Queens and leads him into the Queens Museum of Art where she tells her story, what caught me here was Rose showed Ben an EXTREMELY detailed mini New York City that she hand-made for the "World's Fair" in New York, in 1964. Also she explains how Danny met Ben's mother, Elaine, and how Ben's father died from a heart disease.

The book ends with the 1977 blackout occurring as Ben, Rose and Jamie (who followed them to Queens) look out at the stars waiting for Rose's brother, Walter, to pick them up.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderstruck_(book)#Plot_summary)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is not that enjoying to read, it seems the story looks very familiar to everybody. It is not that an ideal novel to read because again, its confusing however, this novel shows a moral lesson of being persevere without limits. The readers may feel sympathy to some of the characters. The storyline seems skipped into another new events.

GENRE CRITICISM: 1984 by George Orwell

Summary:

The story unfolds on a cold April day in 1984 in Oceania, the totalitarian superpower in post World War II Europe. Winston Smith, employed as a records (no, not vinyl) editor at the Ministry of Truth, drags himself home to Victory Mansions (nothing victorious about them) for lunch. Depressed and oppressed, he starts a journal of his rebellious thoughts against the Party. If discovered, this journal will result in his execution. Now that’s playing with fire. For the sake of added precautions, Winston only writes when safe from the view of the surveying telescreens. And when that shot of industrial grade "Victory Gin" kicks in.

At work, Winston becomes curious about "the brunette" (a.k.a. Julia), a machine-operator in the Fiction Department. Although at one time he feared that she was a member of the Thought Police, all such paranoia ends when she slips him a note reading "I love you" in the corridor one day. The two begin a secret love affair, first meeting up in the countryside, and then in a rented room atop Mr. Charrington’s shop in the prole district. All of these places are away from surveillance – or so they think.

As Winston and Julia fall deeper in love, Winston’s views about their government (the Party) change. There’s something about Ingsoc that doesn’t seem quite right – is it the manipulation? The changing of history? The all-around sketchiness? Winston is drawn to the revolutionary "Brotherhood" because, well, they’re revolutionary. Eventually, Winston makes contact with O’Brien, who Winston thinks is a member of the Brotherhood, but who in actuality is a member of the Thought Police. O’Brien arranges for Winston to receive a copy of "the book," a resistance manifesto which supposedly exposes the how and the why for the resistance. 

Unfortunately, Winston never finds out the why. Instead, he gets tortured. But before the torturing, he and Julia are apprehended by the Thought Police. Turns out that secret hiding place wasn’t so secret after all. The happy couple is then brought to the Ministry of Love, where criminals and opponents of the Party are tortured, interrogated, and "reintegrated" before their release and ultimate execution. O’Brien runs the show as far as Winston’s torture sessions are concerned.

Months later, Winston is sent to Room 101, where a person is faced with his greatest fear. Rats…why did it have to be rats? Musing on the impending rats-chewing-on-his-face scenario, Winston calls out "do it to Julia!" That’s pretty much what O’Brien was looking for, so Winston gets to go back to being a happy member of the rat race. Released, Winston’s heart is filled with love for the Party. Even when he and Julia meet again by chance, they feel apathetic towards each other. The last man in Europe has been converted and destroyed. Quite the fine point there, George.

(http://www.shmoop.com/1984/summary.html)

My Criticisms:

      This novel once again, is about love. This can gain readers who are fond of reading love stories.  The storyline is fairly developed because of the fast resolved incidents and are also confusing. The characters characterizations are very common, the novel doesn't give aspect of the human condition. Some readers would not be willing to read this kind of typical novel. 

NEOCLASSICISM: The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding

Plot:

An orphaned 13-year-old girl named Catherine ‘Cat’ Royal lives in the Theatre Royal, after the owner, Mr. Sheridan, who named her after the theatre, found her as a baby. She knows well the Theatre and its surroundings, later 18th century England. Cat befriends an African boy violinist, Pedro, who arrives to be the musician’s apprentice. Cat also meets the aristocratic Avon family, and the children, Lord Francis and Lady Elizabeth, who are not as arrogant as other wealthy people. She meets Johnny, the new prompt with a rather unmistakable talent for art, specifically controversial political cartoons, and a mysterious past. She learns that Johnny is the “Captain Sparkler” accused of treason for the cartoons against the king. Johnny had had a romantic past with Lady Elizabeth.

One night Cat overhears Mr. Sheridan and his colleague Marchmont, discussing a valuable diamond hidden in the theatre. Cat is intrigued, but she promises to protect it for Mr. Sheridan.

Cat learns that the diamond is not a real diamond, but it is actually Johnny, the prompter. He is of value, because of the reward for his capture.

However, a street gang led by Cat’s enemy Billy “Boil” Shepherd, learns about the diamond, and assumes it is a real diamond. He breaks into the Theatre to steal it. Cat and Pedro manage to evade him, but Cat is arrested for having money that was supposed to be for smuggling Johnny out of England where he will be safe. Boil is also arrested for stealing the money, although 2 of his gang member actually stole the money.

Johnny eventually gets out of England, and Cat is reunited with her Theatre and everyone in it. In the end, Mr. Sheridan tells her that there was no real diamond, nor Johnny, as a metaphorical diamond. Cat is the true diamond of the Theatre Royal, and the Theatre would be nothing without its "Cat."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_of_Drury_Lane)

My Criticisms:

      The novel is such a simple one, with a discouraging ending. The events were directly stated and are confusing. Nothing is special with this novel, it is just a novel somehow without sense. Only few can appreciate this novel. The storyline is properly developed, the characters curiosities are somehow believable. It discusses the importance of the main character as a part of the family of her foster parent. 

MODERNISM: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Summary:

                     Gustav von Aschenbach is an aging German writer who is the paragon of solemn dignity and fastidious self-discipline. Determinedly cerebral and duty-bound, he believes that true art is produced only in "defiant despite" of corrupting passions and physical weaknesses.

                     When Aschenbach has the urge to travel, he tells himself that he might find artistic inspiration from a change of scene. Aschenbach's subsequent trip to Venice is the first indulgence he has allowed himself in years; it signals the beginning of his decline. Aschenbach allows the languid Venetian atmosphere and gently rocking gondolas to lull him into a defenseless state. At his hotel he notices an extremely beautiful fourteen-year-old Polish boy named Tadzio, who is visiting with his mother, sisters, and governess. At first, Aschenbach's interest in the boy is purely aesthetic, or so he tells himself. However, he soon falls deeply and obsessively in love with the boy, although the two never have direct contact.

                     Aschenbach spends days on end watching Tadzio play on the beach, even following his family around the streets of Venice. Cholera infects the city, and although the authorities try to conceal the danger from the tourists, Aschenbach soon learns the facts about the lethal epidemic. However, he cannot bear to leave Tadzio and stays on in Venice. He becomes progressively daring in his pursuit of the boy, gradually becoming more and more debased, until he finally dies of the cholera, degraded, a slave to his passions, stripped of his dignity.

(http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/venice/summary.html)

My Criticisms:

                   The novel at first is just like an ordinary one we usually see in dramas. As you read on the next events, you wouldn't expect that such event can happen. This is somehow a story that is suited for homosexuals who enjoy loving their opposite sex that they think of it as a pleasure in their lives. The storyline of this novel is not that well developed because transition of events are too fast. The character is believable because nowadays, there are such people who are like them especially those who also fight for their love in exchange of their lives. The novel achieve to bring out the hidden feelings  and emotions of its readers. 

ECOCRITICISM: The Land of Little Rain by Mary Hunter Austin

Summary:

                The Land of Little Rain is a book of sketches which portray the high desert country of southern California, where the Sierras descend into the Mojave Desert. Mary Austin finds beauty in the harsh landscape: "This is the sense of the desert hills--that there is room enough and time enough. . . The treeless spaces uncramp the soul." Her story begins with the water trails that lead toward the few life giving springs--the way marked for men by ancient Indian pictographs. Life and death play out at these springs. Rabbits fall prey to the coyote; buzzards hang heavily in the sky above. She then writes of individuals who eke out their living in this land of scarce resources--an itinerant gold prospector, a sheepherder, a blind Indian basket maker. Austin's spare prose creates unforgettable vignettes: "Choose a hill country for storms. . . I remember one night of thunderous rain made unendurably mournful by the houseless cry of a cougar whose lair, and perhaps his family, had been buried under a slide of broken boulders . . ." Anyone who sees beauty in the Southwestern deserts, or who just enjoys good nature writing, will savor The Land of Little Rain.

(http://librivox.org/the-land-of-little-rain-by-mary-hunter-austin/)

My Criticisms:

               The book shows description on the current situation of our nature. It is good to know that The land of little rain or the desert areas can be described more appealing to the readers' imagination. This book rules because it really affects the emotions of the people who are going to read this book. It can help those readers to be a nature lover through applying the teachings and ideas from this book. It was so interesting that a reader can reread the contents of this book. It simply shows the current issues we are experiencing in our environment that we should be aware of.