The Road

        "The Road", written by Cormac McCarthy, follows a man and his son as they journey in a post-apocalyptic world. Post-Apocalypse is a science fiction genre that focuses on the after math of the destruction of humanity. This novel can be considered  post-apocalyptic because the setting is in an ash covered waste land with hardly any people besides the main characters. A post apocalyptic movie I've seen is the "Book of Eli", featuring a blind man named Eli travelling in a lawless land. Another movie that is post-apocalyptic is "Zombieland", where a zombie Apocalypse has occurred and nearly everyone is a zombie.The genre has alot in common with dystopias, like being set in the future and not having favorable living conditions, but they are very different. In a dystopia it at least gives the pretense of a utopia and happiness. Post-Apocalypse is just downright depressing and dismal."Aeon Flux" is a good example of the blending of the genres.After a deadly virus nearly wipes out the earth's population the survivors build this dystopian society.I think that post-apocalyptic novels and movies have a greater impact because it scares us by showing how the negative things we do now will affect us later. The style of The Road is written in a breathless format. It has few commas, alot of conjunctions, and no quotations for when the characters speak. It gives the book of a feeling of a long drawn out dream that never quite ends. It also gives a sense of urgency with it's breathlessness. I don't like the writing style all that much, even though it has few words on the page. I've never read a novel like this which is probably why I'm so uncomfortable with it.

Brave New World Part III

 I've just finished BNW and all I have to say is wow. John is dead. He killed himself in the last chapter which although it left me speechless wasn't a shocker.  I understand why John did it , he felt he couldn't live in the world anymore. Because the civilized world, the one he'd always dreamt of, had been a lie. No emotions, no solitude, no passion. None of that existed in his BNW and so he left, only to be pursued and humiliated. That had me thinking what I would do if I were in that situation. I understand how he feels, it would be hard to live as the only outsider in a society, and then when you find like minded people they are sent away, and your left alone. That would be hard to adjust to. But I wouldn't end my life. I feel John took the easy way out, opting to end his life than endure his society. I also feel that if John continued any longer he would have gone insane. It's contradictory, live and go insane or die a coward. It gives me mixed feelings, but nevertheless I enjoyed the book. Not only has it made me think about the future, but it's also made me realize a truth: In order to achieve a perfect society things will have to be sacrificed. Whether it be your rights, your mind, your body, or even your children, something has to go, and BNW made me realize that.

Can Science Be Ethical ?

Freeman Dyson's  " Can Science Be Ethical?"  directly relates to "Brave New World". While Dyson  describes the future technology that will exist, BNW is the example society it will exist in. Dyson states that as scientific advancements are made our moral ethics will wane. In BNW  the dystopia is so technically advanced that humans are born through test tubes. One might ask, what happened to natural reproduction? Is it ethical, or morally acceptable to create a human? Is it acceptable to deny a woman her right at mother hood? In fact, in BNW, it is considered an insult to say someone is a mother. Dyson also foretells of people improving themselves and their children. Genetically modifying themselves in order to achieve perfection. BNW has genetically modified characters, who are chosen from birth to become whoever the society decides, no matter what the cost is physically and mentally it is to the person. As science increases it gains a more tighter grip on lives. Like a prophet of doom Dyson fortells a highly probable future with the way science is progressing. BNW seems to serve as a prototype or give us a clear example of the future. If ethics cannot be defined or a line is drawn people will loose the rights of a free thinking human being.

Brave New World part II

 Reading "Brave New World"  had me thinking about movies I've watched recently that had the same themes. The story, set in this seemingly utopian world where everyone is seemingly happy. I watched Aeon Flux not too long ago, it's about a post-apocoplayptic world that's perfect. Except that it isn't. The people are under a military dictatorship, humans are being reborn over and over using cloning by the government in secret, and people are starting to remeber their past lives. In Aeon's world, people literally live forever because they are being recloned after they die. I think this is similar to Brave New World because not only are the people maufactured they are opressed by some central authority.But while people in Aeon Flux have liberties like getting married and choosing their profession the BNW citizens don't have that option. They've been brainwashed or conditioned into thinknig that their lifestyle was predestined and that everyone belongs to everyone.The movie and the book are set in dystopias, in societies that are perfect but once you scratch the sufrface you see flaws.I think why the film makers chose to make Aeon Flux a dystopian society was to show what could happen in the future if reproduction is gone. In an effort to maintain the human race what lengths will people go to? And if immortality was possible would people take it even though it harms others (such as the rulers in the film's world)?

Brave New World

  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is an intreastiong novel. It's about a future society where humans are born literally in test tubes and are divided into social classes.The highest class is the alpha and the lowest is the epsilon. After being divided into a class babies are "conditioned", often painfully, in order to have personalities and intellect according to their class. A type of brainwashing in a way. In this world, everyone in  their social class is more or less the same except for a man named Berand Marx. Benard is in the highest social class, alphas, but feels like an outsider because he does not look like one. Also in this utopia there seems to almmost be a religous following of Henty Ford. This may be linked to the fact that he started assembly lines and it seems that humans are being created on them.
   All in all, I like this book so far. It makes me think of the future of the world one hundread or two hundread years from now. At first it seems perfect, except that humans are made in test tubes. There seems to be no war, poverty or violence but when i read on I started to see the flaws. Such as using predestination to determine who a person is going to be. The philosophy that everyone belongs to everyone also disturbs me because there are no monogamous relationships and no real emotional bonds. Which makes me wonder human relationships will change over the years.