FIR Reading Blog #9

Title: The Electric Ant, 1969 from the book "Decades of Science Fiction"

Author: Philip K. Dick

Date: August 24, 2010

No. of Pages: 9 pages

Time alloted in reading: 4 hours

Summary

Garson Poole is physically an electric ant, possesses the mental attributes of the human. The struggle to retain these human qualities is the mark of the true human in the "Electric Ant." Like the human, the android must have these very qualities if they are to fulfill their particular function. They must be able to correct their mistakes and to creatively engage with new situations. It is imperative that they act as autonomous beings. It is the act of choosing one goal out of many that helps to create identity. Poole is treated like a person and is unaware, until his accident, of his true nature as an "electric ant." It is his treatment and his memories of his pre- accident experiences as a "human" that help to drive his search for a true sense of himself and reality. The electric ants are designed to function along side humans, but they were programmed not to notice or know they are robots. Furthermore, Poole is not the first electric ant that has accidentally discovered his true nature. Poole is but one of many electric ants who accidentally find out their true identities.

Insight

Poole was designed and constructed for a purpose that was not of his choosing, but now that he knows his true nature, he ponders the concept of decision. He probably never gave his ability to make decisions much thought before, because being human grants one the right to make their own decisions. Since he realizes that his ability to make decisions in the past was an illusion, that the ability becomes very important to him. I sympathize for Poole because he is the true "human" in the story. Even though, he is an android, he is more human than the actual humans around him. The story presents us how human being are being reduced to a commodity/ robot and everything he does has a value. It reflects reality in contemporary life or modern society. The human values in the story is compassion, sympathy rather than commodification or materialistic and there is "sense of justice." So it makes us question, "What makes a human being human?"

Take- off Poetry

The uproar subsided,
tears like flowing water
dried up by the sun.
The residue the tears left
is like salt to fill a
ten- pound sack.

A deep love felt for a father
is like a mother's milk
dried up from the shock.
I had enough in mourning
yet, for mom awaits
the enormous responsibility.

Found poetry

We hid our faces
behind masks
that suggested other histories;
we touched hands
accidentally and our skin
sparked like a personal revolution.

We stared
across the room at each other,
waited for the conversation
and the conversion,
watched wasps and flies
battering against the windows.

We were children;
we were open mouths.
Open in hunger, in anger,
in laughter, in prayer.

Jesus, we all want to survive.

Ghazal Poem

Waiting in vain, impatiently I cry.

There you were yesterday leaving with no goodbye.

Days die so soon, emptiness made me strong.

It was yesterday weaving the thought of final goodbye.

Never will it matter, I found solace in my voice.

So it was yesterday I am believing you bid goodbye.

Some say, distance is what makes the heart grow fonder.

I tried to believe this yesterday, how it meant was goodbye.

Words are just words unless it makes you stronger.

Today I believe, yesterday is stronger than the word goodbye.

Haiku Poem

Heels run, heels walk by

Wherever way we tumble

Heels are our best friend.

Shakespearean

Never would have I imagined

That life would be so desolating.

Today, I feel somber and not wanting to begin

All the goodness in the bad, I feel not resonating.

Shuddering violently inside me, rapture fervor

Is there a way to turn it all around again?

Make your way to me, moment to savor.

If I may to seek goodness in what bears pain,

I would be silenced and make a fool of this world

For when I stray my eyes toward you, I disdain.

Too much has been given, nothing left of me to mould.

For when you come and you go,

You leave me with questions I need to know.

Frustration Poem

Go and unchain my chilly hands

Chase me so I know where to go.

Give me chances to grasp on things

For all I hear are groans of chastity.

Heartbreak Poem

How long have I wept

In the cold lap of sorrow

Pounding, hammering into deep

Devouring my inner yearning deep within.

A rusty smell of soil and rain

Makes me linger on the pain.

A rage upon me straining,

Struggling to get out of this deep burrow.

Boredom Poem

Too idle, too lazy

Am I going crazy?

The sound of tick- tock

Am I in jail lock?

Strong smell of wine

Am I feeling fine?

Thinkin' bout good times

Ugh! how tedious are these rhymes,

I must have gone crazy.

Family Poem

The slightest touch that smells of lilac

Grows from a garden I call home.

A mother whose love I want to go back to,

My baby steps to her ears watching as I freely roam.

A mother's arms like a lullaby cradling me in a rack.

Love or Lust Poem

Remembering O' sweet serenity days upon seeing you

Rhyme and melody in my ears like a serenade of

classic love song,

Thoughts came rushing by

My mind goes blank that surrenders

a single breath to a hush.

Your sweet fragrance smells of cinnamon

that heighten up my senses, it lingers in my nose.

It's what I get of a dose

So seducing, so enticing.

Poetry Activity #1

I wonder where to fit in

Everyday now I feel this strange

Mystery of life, lost in a private dark

Where I could go in the deep dark bottom anytime.

Asking myself portion of reality didn't help,

It shall begin to find its voice.

I ramble to see where the next leads me,

Getting out of my empty hollow

With nothing to think of but myself.

I live life to its fullest, getting lost in another world

My soul is entwined like a cocoon

Feeling this someone embracing me.

The feeling I sought from the very start,

I am glad I made it from here to there.

Now I am free to explore what life has for me,

It isn't butterflies in my stomach but it's as if

I am a caterpillar soon to come out

And now I am out of the open.

Nursery Rhyme Poem

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again."

I was not meant to sit on a wall

But it was you who put me there

I did not wish to take a fall fall,

There is no help in which to turn

Another lesson I have to learn.

Any knowledge that I can gather,

Curious about life and all

Is so uncertain, like the weather.

I was not meant to sit on that wall,

I did not wish to have any fall.

FIR Reading Blog #7

Title: Witch (Bayen) from the book "Asian Women in Literature"

Author: Mahasveta Devi

Date: August 8, 2010

No. of pages: 11 pages

Time alloted in reading: 1 hour

Summary

In a tribal society steeped in superstition, the spells of witches often are blamed for stubborn illnesses, a stroke of bad luck, the drying up of wells, crop failure or the inability to give birth to a son. But social analysts and officials said that superstition and faith in witchcraft often are a ploy for carrying out violence against women. In the play, Chandi is separated from her husband and son when she is accused of being a Bayen, a women who breastfeeds dead children and has the ability to curse others. The villagers are afraid to kill a Bayen, and instead imprison her in a small hut by the railroad tracks. Chandi is labeled as a Bayen after several village children die of disease. Since she works in a burial ground and is, at the time, lactating her breast while digging the graves of children, Chandi is singled out as a Bayen by the community. Chandi is forced to stay in this condition because of the surveillance of the village hence, deviation from expectations of social norms is monitored through the understanding that one is constantly subject to the observation of those around them. Chandi is repeatedly reminded not set her eyes upon anyone in the village, as she supposedly has the “evil eye”. Her inability to stare upon the village, as they constantly monitor her exemplifies this idea of punishment. She is constantly subject to the gaze of those who seek to control her, yet she has no means of knowing when she is being monitored and whether any violation of her imprisonment will have any repercussions. Chandi turns her back to her ex-husband when she has been conditioned to ensure that she does not set her eyes upon him or their child. It is only after her death at the end of the play, when Bhagirath, her son publicly decries her treatment that the villagers are willing to accept that she is not a Bayen. This affirmation of her motherhood posthumously (occurring or continuing after death) removes her status of Bayen, but of course, at this point it is too late to have any significance. Despite the fact that she is dead, this reaffirms that the denial of Chandi’s motherhood is fundamental to the construction of her subaltern status.

Insight

The novel demonstrates the transformation of a working class woman into a public scapegoat (the one who suffers in place of others) and ultimately, a subaltern woman with no bodily or social agency. The play demonstrates the way that her subaltern status is constructed by the society around her. The need for a scapegoat combined with inherent gender bias supports the transformation of Chandi into a subaltern. She is forced to accept the constraints and restrictions of this condition because of fear of violent retaliation from the community, all of who collectively have control over her life. Her subaltern status denies her access to her child, and thus, her inability to fulfil the role of mother further preserves her position as a subaltern. The depiction of Chandi as a “subaltern woman” reveals that those with dominion power gain from the preservation of the status of subaltern women. Subalternity is strictly constructed by society, and that the plight of these individuals advantageously serves those with dominion power. By presenting the plight of subalternity through this literay piece, there is hope that the plight of women like Chandi will create considerable drive for social change, as often, those who view these texts are complicit (aware and has the ability to report such incident) in the subalternity of women. This also has something to do with exploitation and cruel disciplines associated with subalternity, and are thus essential for any understanding of the plight of Chandi as a disempowered individual.

The depiction of Chandi as a “subaltern woman” reveals that those with dominion power gain from the preservation of the status of subaltern women. Subalternity is strictly constructed by society, and that the plight of these individuals advantageously serves those with dominion power. By presenting the plight of subalternity through this literay piece, there is hope that the plight of women like Chandi will create considerable drive for social change, as often, those who view these texts are complicit (aware and has the ability to report such incident) in the subalternity of women.