ENG4U, Science Fiction

Society and Science Fiction

tarynvpwhs |

Some argue it is a glimpse into the future, while others dismiss it entirely. 

Science fiction not only explores the world’s many possibilities, including dystopian worlds, utopian societies, and a variety of other futuristic ideas, it also brings them to life. When you read science fiction, you will get a sense of what could happen if the planet goes south or becomes highly developed. Science fiction is essential in society because it focuses on the “what if’s” in life and builds the audience a sense of suspense, curiosity, and wonder about science fictions many topics. Science Fiction is more important than you’d think. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what your future holds?

Suspense, wonder, and curiosity are all elements of science fiction. Several science fiction topics are based on real-world issues or circumstances. Harrison Bergeron is a great illustration of this. The narrative is about equality and how “everyone should be equal,” but the costs of having everyone equal aren’t always worth it. Some examples throughout the story are the use of handicaps which were to be sure that nobody can have advantages over another, the brain shocks that George gets due to intelligence (1), and that ballet dancers all need to wear masks in order to “conceal their beauty” (10). Equality is one of the most pressing issues that people face in the actual world; what if this is the result? It’s something you’d never imagine unless you’ve been paying attention to these kinds of issues covered in science fiction. 

How will we know what to do if something went wrong in the world?

There are various pieces of science fiction that concentrate on the world’s descent into chaos. Science fiction writers spend a lot of time talking about how the planet is breaking down and becoming uninhabitable. These sections are dystopia, environmentalism, and wastelands. Dystopian societies are often explained as post-apocalyptic, undesirable, and shown to have great suffering and injustice. In science fiction, dystopian societies are shown repeatedly. Often these societies occur due to government control, technological control, environmental destruction, and survival. Environmentalism relates to natural disasters and possibilities about what can happen to the world in the future. With the world today, the environmentalism part about science fiction can show many relations to global warming to create even more awareness, which can be highly effective. Wasteland worlds can be described as a place is ready for new beginnings after disastrous times. These wastelands are commonly caused by destruction of war, destruction of nature, and destruction by disease.

Javier-Rodriguez / Pixabay

This relates to today’s world as we are in a state of destruction by disease. These sections of science fiction draw attention to problems in the world that many people are beginning to dismiss; if people took the time to read science fiction, a sense of fear could appear so change can be made. 

jewhisperer / Pixabay

And last, moving away from the idea of the world collapsing and turning into an inhabitable place, science fiction provides a glimpse into a world that is advanced in a way that it can be considered “perfect”. This advanced place is explained by a utopian society. This part of science fiction allows readers and/or viewers to see again, what is possible in the future. Utopian societies are defined by a community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. An example of this is the community of Twin Oaks. Twin Oaks is a small community that comes together and shares the same beliefs about cooperation, sharing, non-violence, equality, and ecology. This is an illustration of a utopian society in which everyone lives in harmony. These communities may exist in the future, and science fiction brings various perspectives on them to life. 

 

In conclusion, with the points stated you can see that science fiction is beneficial to readers in the sense that it brings some knowledge to the possibilities of the future. You can get an idea what is possible relating to apocalyptic societies, utopian societies, and all kinds of other futuristic concepts. Real-world problems will be used by science fiction writers to construct potential outcomes. In terms of these real-world issues, it is an important genre to pay more attention to, especially now with all of the uncertainty in the world. As a result, readers from all over should pay attention to the information provided by science fiction rather than dismissing it before these problems manifest themselves in actual life. 

ENG4U, Environmentalism, Science Fiction

Real World Views in Books

tarynvpwhs |

Global Warming, pollution, over population, low level of fossil fuels, deforestation, and the list goes on. These are terms you have been hearing for awhile, ain’t it? With so much talk and worry about it why isn’t anything being done? You can look into the future of our ever so changing Earth and wonder if change is even possible at this point.

Science fiction writers have shown in many ways the possibilities of the future. In many stories you see Earth turning into a wasteland due to over population and pollution. The world as we know today is getting close to this, slowly. There is so much knowledge and possibilities out there, with that there is fear, but there is no action. We have seen time and time again the aftermath of a wasteland society due to over population in many science fiction novels.

Sooner or later, this world may become completely unrecognizable and way down the line, become unable to be sustainable for human life. In some science fiction stories, they put plots out that show examples of humans needing to be taken off Earth. Could this be possible in the future?

With this, you start to think more about how change needs to be done. Seeing the possibilities of the future will continue to push people to change before it is too late.

ENG4U, Robots, Science Fiction

Fears that Come with the Robots

tarynvpwhs |

Robots are made to be part of the Sci-Fi world by showing how humans are “supposed to be” by showing an almost perfect society. A society where there is no crime, a society where everything gets done as it should.

In most movies or books, robots are either good or bad. The robots portrayed in these stories can do all of these tasks that normal humans would most likely be unable to complete like they do. A few examples would be cooking a meal in seconds, going onto a new planet to fight off space creatures, flying though space, and just doing peoples everyday jobs all in routine. Moving away from the stories and transitioning into real world things though, robots and their abilities are being used in the real world for things like factories, going into places that are too dangerous for humans (a place where there may be a bomb or another planet), and even in the medical field with surgeries and rehabilitation. The good in robots involves them completing numerous tasks in an efficient way, this way human error could be decreased.

On the other hand though, robots are also deemed to be scary over a stereotypical saying which is “robots are going to take over the world!” Basically stating that these “prefect example of humans” will soon turn on us and take over the world. Why is that though? In many science fiction stories this example of robots has been made true numerous times (along with the good side of them of course) and that being done brings uncertainty to the real world on them.

The anxiety exhibited by humans on robots to me seems to be started with a fear of technology. People in society may be afraid of how far these creations can go, can they get more human like? what if they develop personalities? Since this technology is rather new, there are a bunch of what ifs involved around it.

ENG4U

Young Readers and Dystopian Literature.

tarynvpwhs |

Dystopian literature- such a dark theme. But yet, it is the genre that young readers are the most drawn too. Why is that?

Dystopian novels have tons of plot twists that always work in keeping the reader engaged. In my opinion, reading about post-apocalyptic or scary societies intrigues the YA audience because it makes them feel better about the society we live in now. Although, the society we live in isn’t all that great, it is definitely better than what is displayed in this genre.

Speaking from personal experience, dystopian literature has been my first choice of genre time and time again. For myself, dystopian novels intrigue me because of the amount of suspense that there is in them. I have read the following series: the hunger games, maze runner, divergent and more. All of these series include a lot of action and always have me wondering what is going to happen next.

 

Uncategorized

Introduction

tarynvpwhs |

Hi, my name is Taryn. I am a grade 12 student who is on route to graduation in June 2021. I live on Manitoulin Island and have for my whole life, I am excited to get out and explore new things and new places.

My favourite subjects always changed throughout high school until last year when I got a really big passion for the sciences. I plan to go to college and get on route to become a Registered Nurse. I am ready to put in the work to get to where I want to be in life, it will definitely be a challenge but it’s a challenge that I am willing to take on.

Memed_Nurrohmad / Pixabay

In my free time I am always either working, playing hockey, or just spending time with my friends and family. I currently work two part time jobs, they take a lot of my time during the week and the weekends. I play hockey about 4 times a week, hockey has always been a way for me just to let loose for awhile and forget about other things I have going on. Spending time with my friends and family is something that I always try and make time for so that I can always keep the connections strong.

This school year I am really just looking forward to getting out of here and graduating. I have been feeling really anxious to get on with life and see what is in store for me next.

 

ENG3U

How does other people’s bias towards language impact me?

tarynvpwhs |

In my life I’ve seen so much discrimination towards my language and culture, and this happens in a lot of indigenous communities. People don’t understand the importance to having a language in your culture, I think that a lot of people in society make it seem like English is supposed to be everyones first language. This is not true.

Having a certain language in your culture brings a big sense of community and belonging to people. When people discriminate towards my language, the Anishnaabe language, I feel hurt. I ask myself why don’t people just learn to be accepting towards others?

I believe that this happens to many other cultures as well, diversity is huge and people still aren’t accepting of it. I wait for a time where everyone is accepted and can be who they want to be.

truthseeker08 / Pixabay

Do you feel the same?

ENG3U

Local Slang

tarynvpwhs |

Local Slang: to me this means a certain accent or set of words that a group of people use. It brings a sense of community and identity within the group or culture.

Culture/ Group:

Anishnaabe people or, Ojibway peoples.

The accent that my culture has is that everyone talks slurred and everyone talks really loud. It’s considered to be a “nish accent”. A lot of Anishnaabe people speak with this accent, there are many dialects and many other groups and cultures that have different accennts like, Cree people.

What I mean by slurred is that we make a lot of shortcuts when speaking, slurring words. A very popular one that you hear all over is “skoden”, sounds silly but everyone who speaks with a nish accent will say this when they are meaning to be saying “let’s go then” to someone else. Exaggerated and loud means that everyone speaks very loud. It’s like everyones yelling at each other, but not meaning too. Why? I don’t know, that’s just how we talk.

Side note: One time, the word “skoden” was spray painted on a water tower in a city and people started taking it as a threat in a way. Not knowing what the word really meant, you can see an article on it here.

GraphicMama-team / Pixabay

Another thing that I noticed is that we say the word “ever” in front of everything. For example; ever deadly, ever sick, ever gross, ever sad, and the list could go on and on.

Living in my community all my life, I also talk like this. Especially adding the “ever” in front of everything.

 

 

 

 

ENG3U, Moon of the Crusted Snow

Why wouldn’t I want to live in Gaawaandagkoong First Nation?

tarynvpwhs |

In Moon of the Crusted Snow the story took place in a place called Gaawaandagkoong First Nation. This community is located way up north. So when things went sour (cell service/internet went out, power went out, and there was no food delivery) they had nobody to contact to see what was going wrong.

I would not liked to have lived in this community during this time period because these people could not go anywhere because it was winter, and the snow was coming down hard leaving there be no way in or out of the community. I would feel like I was trapped. Trapped in the sense that I would have nowhere to go, the only option that was there for me was to sit there and wait, wait for the time to come where the community would run out of the stashed food.

Printeboek / Pixabay

 

ENG3U, Moon of the Crusted Snow

Blog Post #2- Impression on “Moon of the Crusted Snow.”

tarynvpwhs |

Novel: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

 

How I felt..

While reading the first couple chapters of this novel, I felt connected to the book in a way and immediately intrigued. As an example, in the first chapter when Evan was out hunting I understood why he was hunting and why he needed to put semaa (tobacco) down after his kill. To me it is interesting to read about other small reserves and compare it to my reserve.

 

Images that stood out to me..

Again, in chapter one they explain how it is impending winter. They talk a lot about the scenery in the first couple pages. I could imagine the field, the crisp air, the mooz standing in the field of yellowed grass in front of a sunset so clearly in my mind. This once again made me feel some kind of connection to the book.

Free-Photos / Pixabay

 

New Insights..

As I read, i gained new insights or understanding on the hunting process. Before reading I had already understood but, I mean i gained more insight on how other people do it in different reserves & in different places. For example, I assume that all these people do is hunt, skin, harvest hide, make moccasins, gloves, and pouches. And that i understand because, that is how they live, how they survive. The stuff that gets delivered up there to them (like food) is always super expensive & as they say, not the same.

This website will give examples of food prices up North.

 

Connection

I have a connection to this book. I come from a small reserve just like the characters in the story. I understand what it is like, having expensive, not good, food come into the store around here. Meat at our grocery store is really expensive and our we have dry bread (those are just examples), I can’t imagine how it is up North.

 

Questions I have..

  1. What reserve is this story based around? (if any..)

 

*Thats all I got so far..*

 

Link to the book

ENG3U

Blog Post #1- The Island Q.8 (Prompt)

tarynvpwhs |

Prompt Question from “The Island.”

Question: Consider the quote below. How does power emerge in “The Island”? How is the connection between language and power revealed in the quote? Support your thinking with evidence from the text.

 Image via LogOn2Quote 

Answer: Looking at this quote by Julia Penelope, you notice that she speaks about how we use the power of language and turn it into a reality. I find this to be true because, I find that people use language as a way to gain power and also as a way to maintain their power. Looking into the story “The Island” you see how the police use their authority to make a lot of calls over the fate of the man, in a way. For example, the police were trying to convince the doctors and the social worker that this man was crazy (paragraph 42). They (the police) seemed to be trying to get rid of the man the whole time. They used their words to show that they withhold a type of power over the man.