District 9 Response

District 9 was a heartwarming movie, about a human sacrificing his own life to save a whole alien race. There are similarity related to caves of steel. The action of acceptance is showed quite clearly.  At the end of the novel in caves of steel, barely accepted Danieel as a friend. The action he provide was that he asked Danieel to stay and work with his son in the future. In district 9, the main character was a stubborn man who wanted to have his normal life back, being in the process of becoming an alien, he didn’t care about anything else. However, at the end he realized that the aliens have family too and would want to go back to their normal life and their home. He sacrificed his chance in changing back and remained an alien throughout the rest of his life.

Journal 6

“Your Earth is still your Earth, but between the efforts of your people to destroy it and ours to restore it, it has changed.”

…

“And you think destroying what was left of our cultures will make us better?”

“No. Only different.”

This part of the novel explains to Lilith that the world she will be living in will not be the same. I picked this quote because I feel that Lilith has to make a complicated decision; in fighting against the aliens or accepting their help. The world has changed because of destruction done by the humans, for them to start a new life there all on their own is very difficult. However, the people feel that the aliens are helping them for their own benefits. I believe this is a very tough choice for Lilith and her choice will change the path in the future.

Journal 5

Octavia Butler’s Dawn, is a very interesting novel about decision making. Lilith an earth woman was saved by the aliens along will many other humans. She was chosen to awaken first and lead her people to a new of earth. Her choice in accepting the aliens help was questionable however, she eventually believe in their kindness. Another choice she had to make was who will be her follower; to be awaken first. Throughout, the whole novel Lilith has to face obstacles in trusting, believing and forming the future path of earth. I am hoping to know the turn outs and the ending of this interesting novel soon.

District 9 – issues of race
— discrimination against race — dehumanization
Prawn as derogatory term
I27 forms – cf. I9 form — off-planet — immigrants
cf treatment of immigrants to US
aliens segregated into ghettos
unlawfully evicted from properties
cf. rights in America except if groups considered property (cf. slaves in 18th/19th c. US)
pamphlet – tents — Japanese internment camps – forced out of towns and cities — WWII/Pearl Harbor

parallel to Nazi regime – destructive propaganda, dehumanizing Jews – concentration camps – cf. aliens being shot at if doing antyh8ing wrong

start w/aliens as grotesque — find sympathy for them

hinted at other movies in sci-fi genre. These aliens not necessarily more advanced – helpless
beg of movie – inversion

how media affects our views of things

how do you symbolize filth? cockroaches — correlate w/Nazi, slavery in Am — characterize Jews as dirty

strip of identity by giving English name – Christopher Johnson

sexual connection – smears of Wikus having sex w/a prawn, seeming “tainted” – infected

black magic – Nigerian

cat food – crack cocaine.
hinting at drugs being pushed into black communities after black power 70s.
minds messed up b/c of cat food

the “Other” — or “othering”
liminal / liminality –
hybridity

colonialization / colonization

prawns subjugated

mercenaries – cf. Iraq

paramilitary force

bureaucratic issues – sign paper.
wikus

MNU

eminent domain

human rights organization

child

families

contagion

compare wikus in district 9 w/Lilith in Dawn
reject that part of themselves
rebel
where do they start, where do they go – wikus trying to chop off arm

do these characters become more human through their transformations/melding w/other species?

How do each of the characters grow:
Wikus –
Lilith

wikus – self-interest

humane – empathy, compassion
humanitarian
extrapolating from own species

District 9 – contamination
Dawn – transformation

Dawn – aliens are manipulative, controlling, invasive
District 9 – aliens are submissive, oppressed, victimized

but in each film, a human being becomes mixed with the aliens

District 9 – play of corporate power – D9 as critique of capitalism – cf. Occupy Wall Street, rhetoric around protestors, cleaning out square

style – documentary style, cinema verite
believable/belief
— amount of times Wikus says to shut off camera
— suggests that there will be a sanitized version of this film that will be shown to public

thick moments

dehumanization –
markings/tattoos – no clothes

Question at the end of the movie – what will Christopher Johnson do if he comes back?

Paper 2 due May 15

Watching the movie District 9 I noticed a few similarities to the novels we read in class. The first similarity I noticed was with Caves of Steel, both the novel and the movie had a place specifically for the humans and the Aliens. The two species barely had interaction because they had there own space.  In both Dawn and District 9 the only similarity I could think of was how the alien was the only individual that could freely travel from one place to other which in a sense shows similarity because the humans were free to invade the aliens space. To conclude the finally novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was similar because the bounty hunters were people that were paid to hunt and kill all the androids that were coming in just like District 9 where the humans were not only invading the aliens space but capturing them and using the as experimental tools for there research.

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.

Ori Dona

Prof. Mathew Gold

Eng 2400-D552

Response Of District 9

District 9 had a very strong human and alien relationship theme. This movie takes place in Johannesburg South Africa which has a very long history of apartheid. Wikus van de Merwe is displayed as a weak man with a careless attitude toward the prawns. He is displayed as a caring man when it comes to his wife only. However later on after his fate changes and he begins to undergo his physical transformation, he also begins to change his perspective toward the prawns all leading up to the moment where he was willing to sacrifice his life to save father prawn and get them to the ship. This film is not like the traditional alien films because the prawns are not coming to invade, they actually are stuck and are the victims of human cruelty showing a correlation to the racial tensions in South African history. These prawns are clustered together in horrible conditions and are forced to fend for themselves while being isolated from the world. Wikus begins to see the error of his ways after he begins to taste the cruelty of the humans he was a part of. This movie is shown through Wikus’s perspective and shows his mental and physical transformation.in which he displays heroic qualities toward the last couple of scenes showing his ability to change.