Author Archives: Jamal Ingram

Journal Response #8 – Brown Girl In the Ring

In my least favorite novel among the novels we’ve read in class. A lot of confusion going on within the setting of Toronto and how the citizens are portrayed as poor, dislocated, cut off from the norm and treated as nothing but street trash. Similar to the Prawns in Districts 9,  the people of abandoned Toronto really have no hope that the city will return to it’s former glory and luxurious form. Also, from what I can get from this title, the brown girl, being Ti-Jeanne, is possible the only solution or promise that the city has where most of the organizations that run this damage city is run by most of her family members. Sounds strange but also a weird reading to get into.

Journal Response #6 – Dawn

A very interesting read from the beginning to the near end. But my journal response has to do with a conversation between Lilith and the alien that she is introduced to when she awakes again. After she leaves her room with the alien and is introduced to this new world away from here own world, the alien discusses that the world that see know is not there anymore & that the food and animals that were once present & edible will not be the same when they are ready to return. One of my many problems with the aliens are control & change. Because the aliens are not familiar with the human as mentioned in the text, they feel that if they change the humans by “experiments” that they are doing good to them when in fact they are doing harm to a race that is not yours and a race that are not know to do experiments towards each other.

Journal Response #5 – Blade Runner

Comparing this film to the novel is like comparing an apple to an orange. Though It has some familiar scenes and text from the novel & being able to see it in picture as opposed to reading it in detail is great, they are some parts that separated it from the novel. For one, the setting is dark & rainy with a crowded feeling as opposed to a more open spaced setting in the book. Another is the animals from the film are not shown to indicate status but are present to show value and rarity. In the novel, the animals represented your status and your place among others. The last problem that I had a issue with & had no impact was the voit kmap test, which was used twice in the film, didn’t show any valuable merit to indicate an android when in the novel when Rick used it showed throughout the novel how the test was used to show the personality of these androids.

Journal Response #4 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The one thing I’ve taken from this novel so far is how far one will go to improve one’s status. The main character of this novel, Rick, is constantly thinking about his electric sheep and how he wish for an exotic animal to show off to his neighbors. Even while on the job he manages to go off track to look at how much an ostrich cost. Status for the people of this novel is determined mostly by animals as the more or exotic the animal appeared, the more noticeable you are among others.

Another interesting topic is the voit kmap test that was issues by Rick. A test that measures empathy is a poor attempt to tell whop is human and who is an android. As I read the questions that was issued  for test, I’m think that this is how we control order in the world where if you answer the question in a way that sound almost robot-like you get sent away and I don’t even want to know what they do to the androids after that.

Journal response #3 – Caves of Steel 3

The More I read into this novel, the more I see R. Daneel appear more human then robot. With his relationship with Elijah & his son when they were hiding out in a small hotel on the outskirts of town, you can see Daneel lending a hand to Elijah in a moment where Elijah needed it. Daneel is aware of his surrounding and is able to read others well in conversation. Though he is made up of metal & wire with human like skin on the outside, he has shown me that he is more human than most of the people living in the city.

Journal Response #2 – Caves of Steel 2

Trying to understand this relationship between Elijah and Daneel is like to solve a rubrics cube; you seem to find a pattern and on the verge to solve it but that one piece at the end tricks you and you have to do the whole thing again. That’s how I see this relationship as Elijah early in the novel is introduced to Daneel because of an investigation that occurred in Space town. Elijah, who already has a hatred for robots, didn’t realized at first that he was a robot because he looked almost human-like. As we see Elijah get exposed to situations where robots are endangered the more he feels sympathy for them and try’s to learn more from Daneel. But, when they were in space town, Elijah came up with Daneel that killed Dr. Sarton. After trying to know him and understand the mind of a robot, Elijah takes a step back & targets his partner for the crime. Its a complicated relationship and I look forward to read more about it.

Journal Response #1 – Caves of Steel 1

In a few ways, the world according to Caves of Steel differ from the world we live in today. For instances, men go to work and are responsible for the money and women and their daughters stay home to cook and clean. Second, citizens are listed according to class and rank are not entitled to certain benefits that someone above them has until they meet that rank. Another is the Earth’s inability to cope with the overpopulation they have and finding a solution to lower that number or support the citizens living in it. Lastly, with I consider the biggest among the differences is how the “Earthman” treat robots/machines because they fear their place in life and work will be replaced by them one day. Oddly enough, the last point is exactly happening now but instead of just outright pushing them out of the workplace, we are being trained how to use and monitor these machines and it has allowed for us to live an easier, more productive life.

Journal Response #7 – District 9

District 9 is a excellent movie and touches on some of the similar issue pertained in such novels as Dawn and Caves of Steel. One of the bigger issues is the fact they treat these aliens, know as prawns, as outsiders and consider them as inferior and unwelcomed on their planet, or more direct South Africa. You can see the consent hatred and segregation amongst the whites (living in luxury neighborhoods) and the blacks (living in poverty) of South Africa and how the blacks living among the prawns; just like the novel Caves of Steel where the humans had a dislike towards the spacers for coming to their city. Its a consent battle for control between the UMC and the blacks for “weapons” owed by the prawns with is where it draws similarities to Dawn where there is object one side wants to control or gain power over the other. The dynamic between Wikus and Christopher Johnson reminds me of the same partnership of Olivaw and Elijah of CoS and how they were able to understand each other as they story progress.