After reading the four chapters, I get that ‘technology versus humanity’ feeling and its connection with control. Something that is considered a huge theme in science fiction. It’s also gradually becoming more to the truth that technology is taking over, which can correspond to Alice’s “treatment” in Chapter Ten. This even gave me a comparison to something we’ve previously read, “Do Android’s Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, where most people own a mood organ that effectively changes what a person wants to feel. In that reality, however, the owner of the mood organ was in control. In this story, these so called “doctors” are in control. As Dr. Argent says, “We can control the violent” (Piercy 197). What seriously irks me is the irony of that quote. In its entirety, it is actually the opposite. Those in charge are the violent ones while the patients are the actual victims. It’s as if they possess no human rights at all. Is it the fact that they are women? Does this point to Piercy’s determination of feminism? Of course.
I also have come to realize something about one of the characters in particular; Dolly. I’ve had my suspicions about her from the beginning but now, in the conversation between her and Connie, it is confirmed that Dolly is an asshole. I do not understand why Connie continues to ask for her help. In her place, I would completely notice that Dolly will not help. $5, $10? I’m in a prison for Christ’s sake, in what thrift shop do you think I’m going to spend it? Why don’t you do something practical like getting me the hell out of here? She is always high, always on drugs, in what world do you think she is going to do anything? Connie keeps thinking she is going to do something to help her because she’s “blood”. What’s funny is that Luciente is from another time, far into the future, and she/he is practically family. She/he has done more for Connie than Dolly will ever do.
Connecting back to technology and humanity, we hear something that Luciente says in the scene where she/he is with Dawn and Connie next to the highway during Connie’s timeline. As cars are driving by, Luciente says, “All those people in metal boxes, alone and cut off” (240)! Key words in that quote: “alone” and “cut off”. This can pertain to where humanity is headed presently, in our current time. We are getting cut off from our own lives, and in doing so, what makes an individual an individual is getting lost through time, piece by piece.
When Connie is sent forward into Luciente’s time frame, we learn something new about the legislative and judicial branches of her/his society (if any). Apparently, having a disagreement between one another, such as in the case of Luciente and Bolivar, it is almost a sort of crime, and what happens is that the two opposing individuals have to pretty much make nice: Parra says, “Luciente and Bolivar, sit down face to face inside the ring. Look at each other… You must set aside time to speak” (206). So it may be entirely possible that ironically, this utopia is a dystopia because of its noticeable downsides.
