My Summer (Book!) Road Trip

Reading is my raison de être.

So, after a hectic semester in college, I am celebrating my freedom with a three-part summer goal: Read, read and read.

I can think of no better way of spending three months than by lounging around reading a good sci-fi or two. I just finished Carte Blanche, Jeffery Deaver’s sleek new take on James Bond. Luckily, I have a perfect part-time job at a library to top up my books when I’m runnin’ dry.

I’m thinking of my book summer as a road trip. Where will these books take me? I’ll find out!

So here’s my road trip itinerary:
(As with any good road trip, I might find a pleasant detour along the way.)

1) Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler- I’m a huge fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Handler’s alter ego Lemony Snicket. This one’s about teen love. I started it yesterday and am loving the novel’s humor.

2) X-Men Messiah Complex- After mutants are nearly wiped out, a new mutant is born, giving the X-Men hope.

3) X-Men Second Coming- Will the new mutant bring hope to mutant-kind?

4) Insurgent by Veronica Roth- Great young adult dystopian series where teens choose a faction that they are bound to follow their entire life based on their personality

5) Marvel’s Civil War and Spider Man: Peter Parker and The Amazing Spider Man Civil War tie-ins- Iron Man and Captain America, two of Earth’s mightiest heroes, have become enemies.

6) A gazillion other comic books! (Marvel of course)

6) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson- You had me at ‘cyberpunk’.

7) The Alchemist by Paul Coelho- Don’t know much about it but it’s supposed to be good.

8) V for Vendetta and Watchmen by Alan Moore- The film versions of these graphic novels are good

9) Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson- A cyberpunk about hackers.

10) Spy novels- I’ll start with Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, then go to Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels, then add a few Tom Clancy novels for good measure.

11) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams- There are two ingredients to make a good book: Wittiness and science fiction. This doesn’t have either.

I am open to suggestions too, any good books I should check out?!

College student texting habits (Study)

It is no secret that college students text.

That is evident to anyone who has wandering around the Cal State Fullerton campus and witnessed a herd of zombies- er, students walking slowly with their eyes glued on their, like, new iPhone- between classes. Paired with the newly-discovered Nomophobia, the fear of being without our cell phones, it got me thinking:

Just how many students text or check their phones walking around campus?

A staggering 37.2 percent of female and 21.2 percent of male students, I found, were texting or using their phones.

I spent 80 minutes (two 40-minute sessions) at CSUF’s Titan Walk, one of the most frequented spots on campus, located north of the quad and west of the library, to check. My perch gave me views to see every student walking in both directions.

In total, 29.9 percent of the 756 students I watched were texting or using their phones.

While this is in no way scientific, it does show just how many students text. 76 of the 358 males and 148 of the 398 females I saw were using their phones. I define “using their phones” as either: 1) Texting, 2) Checking their phones, 3) Talking on the phone, and 4) Holding their phone in their hand.

Keep in mind that the average time I spent stalking looking at each student was 15 seconds.

These numbers are alarming. While I am all for technology (I love my iPad), I recognize its dangers. Technology has drastically hard-wired our brains: We have short attention spans and think in terms in Google. (Proof: Quick, where was the first battle of the Civil War? I imagine your first instinct -as was mine- is to open up another tab and look it up on Wikipedia. (The answer is the battle of Fort Sumter, in April 1861, by the way.)

METHODOLOGY: Why I counted “having a cell phone in their hand” as using a cell phone: It means the student had either 1) Just texted, 2) Was about to text, or 3) Wanted to have their phone out because they are so used to being with their phone. I did not count students who were listening to or holding their iPods, although I realized that I should have because there were so many. My first session was a Wednesday afternoon (which was not too busy) and the second was the following Tuesday morning.

STATS: Male (Texting/Using phone): 76; Male (No): 279; Female (Texting/Using phone): 148; Female (No): 250.

NOTE: I doubt “texting” is AP Journalism style but this is my blog and it’s fine with me.

Photo and text by Tim Worden

Of Aliens and Men: Science Fiction, a Genre Code (Anthropology essay)

Wohoo, got to write an essay about science fiction! It was fun being able to write about The Hunger Games and X-Men!

This is my final paper for my Language and Culture Anthropology class. We have to evaluate a code, which is a genre (like punk rock music, or fashion, or mystery novels).

Star Wars envisions a planet with a binary sun system, somewhere far, far away…

INTRODUCTION

            Since its beginnings in the mid-1800s, science fiction has crept up to become a dominant genre in the United States. It hit the radar in the 1890s with H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, but did not reach mainstream status until the latter part of the century with Star Wars and Star Trek spawning thousands of sci-fi die-hards.

While I am focusing on science fiction literature, its popularity in television and film cannot be ignored: Roughly 44 of the top 100 highest-grossing films of all time incorporate some form of science fiction (Box Office Mojo 2012).

But what exactly is science-fiction, apart from alien invasions and cheesy graphics?

Science fiction is a genre textual code (Chandler 2011). A code is an interpretive framework of symbols that is dependent on many related characteristics. As a result, “Codes help to simplify phenomena in order to make it easier to communicate experiences” (Chandler 2011).

As a genre, science fiction allows readers to experience the mysteries of the universe. It seems like a cliché, but it is true: Are we alone? What if dinosaurs roamed the Earth today? What if I traveled 800,000 years in the future? What if reality is simply a projection from a game? All of these have been the subject of science-fiction plots. If Sigmund Freud were to peer deep into science fiction, he would determine that it represents an unconscious plea for pure escapism.

According to science fiction critic Gary Westfahl, science fiction as a “distinct and self-conscious genre” was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1926 (McLeod 2010:170). The Gernsbackian definition of science fiction has three elements (McLeod 2010:170):

1. Charming romance/thrilling adventure (for mass appeal)

2. Scientific fact (intends to be scientifically plausible)

3. Prophetic vision (social consequences of an idea)

BODY

            As a genre, science fiction sets itself apart not with its superb characterizations or sensual love scenes, but by its ideas (Davis 2010:19). “Science fiction (delves) more actively into philosophical questions” (Davis 2010:19).

For example, what makes H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898) iconic is its fanciful vision of aliens in tripod machines wreaking havoc on the Earth. The novel ends with the aliens being, ironically, conquered by bacteria and the reader realizes without some Deus ex machina, humanity would have been easily wiped out. And the novel’s protagonist? “Whatzizname, who narrates all this to us, is no more interesting than the cellulose he is printed on” (Davis 2010:19).

Science fiction serves as an unfiltered realm for delving into the deep things of the universe. Fans of ABC’s sci-fi drama Lost realized this, and latched onto the show as hardcore fans intent on discovering the mythology of a mysterious island. Another hit sci-fi show, Fox’s The X-Files, achieved a cult following with fans and had –in 1998- more than 500 fan websites devoted to discussing the show’s conspiracies and mythology (McLean 1998:3).

Science-fiction allows the audience to experience alterity, or otherness, by imagining things outside the normal human experience.

“The media-driven milieu of The X-Files suggests that the whole world is now the same place, all of it accessible, all of it at once safe, dangerous, restricting, liberating. The North Pole is no more or less threatening than the New Jersey woods or a cheap motel room” (McLean 1998:8).

Science-fiction, then, mirrors Anthropology by exposing readers to alien cultures to better evaluate their own culture. Anthropology has ethnographers experience different cultures from places such as Papa New Guinea or Brazil. Science fiction has this alterity by exploring: cities of the future, alien planets, the wider universe, inner landscapes and places outside the traditional mappings of the world (Westfahl 2011:73).

The time-travel sub-genre of science fiction is able to comment on the current society by exploring what will happen in the future. Prominent examples are H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and BBC’s long-running Doctor Who, which follows an alien time traveler protecting Earth.

When The Time Machine was published in 1898, Victorian readers got an etic understanding of their own society’s class struggles. The reader is introduced to the working-class Morlocks and the aristocratic Eloi who inhabit Earth in 802,701 A.D. In fact, the novel can be interpreted as Wells imparting his Socialist idea of class struggle as he witnessed the growing gap between the working class and bourgeoisie during the Industrial Revolution (Mankus 2006:11).

Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island (1874) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) take an optimistic view that technology helps colonialism (Reider 2010:203). The technology allows the inventor to reach the frontiers of human existence.  “The spatial frontier tends to coalesce with a technological one, because… the effect of the scientific discovery or invention is precisely to give its possessors a form of mobility and access to territories that no one else has” (Reider 2010:203).

Science-fiction also deals with the downsides of progress. Common in science fiction stories is a “Central Brain” which, due to its superior technology, decides to destroy humanity. In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), the increased connectivity of the world is not used for Facebook and texting, but to allow the government to monitor its citizen’s every move. And in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men (2007), the Danger Room, a high-tech computer room the X-Men use for training, gains self-awareness and seeks to kill the X-Men (Whedon 2007). The Danger Room’s computer had been receiving upgrades to make it more intelligent until it finally realized it could overtake its creators. In the science fiction genre, characters often must defeat the technological threat by curing the corrupt technology, or, alternatively, unleashing a virus to destroy it (Westfahl 2011:48).

Further, technology allows those with the high-tech inventions to conquer the “primitive” people. In Avatar (2009), humans colonize another planet to mine a rare energy source while enslaving the peaceful natives.

“As an extended meditation on the potentials of technology, science fiction uses these end-of-time symbols to envision technology’s ultimate potentials, both good and evil” (Westfahl 2011:43).

But science fiction is not only just about deep philosophical and eschatological questions. Science fiction allows its audience to get lost in another world.

Viewers did not flock to Avatar to watch a 2-hour-40-minute flick about man abusing technology. They came to experience the fantastical, verdant world of Pandora. The planet was the decade-long brainchild of James Cameron, who invested an enormous amount of economic and creative resources into creating a fun new world (Westfahl 2011:73). From the ferns to the floating mountains to the mysterious world, viewers of the film were able to suspend their disbelief and peer into their own imaginations.

“Pandora produced a fictional place which is, for many viewers, by far the single most memorable thing about the film. Much of this impact clearly rests on the alterity of this extraterrestrial landscape.” (Westfahl 2011:73).

The visual power of science fiction cannot be ignored. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote A Princess of Mars (1917) to imagine a love story set on Mars, an exotic, fantastical planet with flying ships. It was done in much the same way that romantic comedies are set in New York or Paris today to emphasize the love story.

But these portrayals of the future are not always positive. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) has the Eastern United States under continual ash after a nuclear war destroyed most of civilization, and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008) presents a future in which cities are feudal slaves to a decadent capital.

Unlike space, the science fiction genre is not a vacuum. Science fiction has shifted over time as scientific advances and beliefs changed. The genre is a code defined by its writers, editors, readers and critics (Reider 2010:212).

Genres such as fantasy, action, drama and romance often cross into the realm of science fiction. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003) by Audrey Niffeneger is more drama/romance than science fiction even though it centers on a time traveler. Niffeneger does not use the time travel to comment on future societies (the time traveler can only go a few years into the future, anyway), but to show the effects of time displacement on a young couple. And fantasy shares an appreciation to visually displaying an alternate world full of new laws, language and possibilities.

CONCLUSION

            Science fiction is fundamentally similar to most other fiction genres. It has a setting, plot, characters, dialogue and a climax. What differs is science fiction incorporates science and technology to have a story that is other-worldly. Sherlock Holmes and the Doctor from Doctor Who are both brilliant British detectives who solve cases. What differs between them is that Holmes tends to solve petty political disputes in London, whereas the Doctor has: Traveled to World War II London; witnessed the creation of the universe; and saved the Earth from Gothic statues, robots and aliens. Science fiction, as any literature genre, gets readers to peer into the human condition. It might do it with shiny new toys, but it checks the current society’s ethics, morality and path it is heading on into the future.

From spaceships to superpowers, science fiction is a textual genre code that lets man’s creative genius and imagination shine.

REFERENCES 

Box Office Mojo

2012       All Time Box Office. Electronic document,                                                                                                               http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/, accessed May 16

Chandler, Daniel

2011       Semiotics for Beginners. Electronic document,

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/, accessed May 15

Davis, J. Madison

2010       Two Ways of Describing the Elephant: Science Fiction and the Mystery. World Literature Today. 84(3): 9-11.                                                                                                           http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN                 =2010300979&site=ehost-live&scope=site, accessed 5/15/2012

Mankus, Kay

2006       H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” in Terms of Victorian Class Struggle anD Evolution. GRIN Verlag.                                                                                                                   http://books.google.com/books?id=aiHU91_pgFkC&dq=the+time+machine+and+class+s         truggles&source=gbs_navlinks_s, accessed 5/16/2012

McLean, Adrienne L.

1998       Media Effects: Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture, and “The X-Files”. Film Quarterly. 51(4): 2-11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1213239, accessed 5/16/2012

McLeod, Ken

2010       The Indifference Engine: How Science Fiction Contributes to the Public                                                                                Understanding of Science and How It Doesn’t. Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy. 51(1): 170-175. http://xerxes.calstate.edu.lib-                                                              proxy.fullerton.edu/fullerton/ebsco/record/mzh-2010301352 accessed 5/14/2012

Reider, John

2010       The Return to the Frontier in the Extraordinary Voyage: Verne’s the Mysterious Island and Kubrick’s 2011: A Space Odyssey. Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy. 51(2): 201-215. http://xerxes.calstate.edu.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/fullerton/ebsco/record/mzh-2010302590, accessed                                                       5/16/2012

Westfahl, Gary, with Wong Kin Yuen and Amy Kit-sze Chan

2011       Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future: Essays on Foresight and Fallacy. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. http://xerxes.calstate.edu.lib-                                                                                                                                                            proxy.fullerton.edu/fullerton/solr/record/b2349188, accessed 5/16/2012

Whedon, Joss

2007       Astonishing X-Men: Torn, Volume 3. New York: Marvel.

“Divergent,” the next great Young Adult dystopian novel

The young adults genre has really caught on in recent years- and I’m glad its bringing in the next generation of teens to read

“I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent. And I can’t be controlled.”
-Tris

Definitely my favorite line from Divergent, by Veronica Roth, a young adult dystopian about a society split into factions based on personality. The quote captures Tris’ edgy personality.

Divergent has been hailed as the next great young adult dystopian novel, so I was naturally attracted to it. I would have read it earlier, but I had been on my library’s waiting list for it for a month.

The novel follows Tris, a 16-year-old in a post-apocalyptic Chicago where society is split into five factions based on personality traits (daring, smart, selfless, peaceful and honest).

Each 16-year-old selects his or her faction, each of which specializes in a division of labor to help the society’s welfare (protection or government, for example). The decision stays with them for their entire life- and they must leave their family behind.

There’s a great coming-of-age tale and first love in the novel (and thankfully no love triangle). Overall, it is strikingly similar to The Hunger Games. Tris at times seems exactly like Katniss (rebellious, strong-willed), so fans of The Hunger Games will not feel out of place.

The novel does an incredible job of showing the importance of family. Both Tris’ parents are dynamic characters who change throughout the story, something that many novels gloss over.

I plan on starting Insurgent, book two in the trilogy, within the next few weeks.I will end with another great quote from the novel, this by Four, a Dauntless imitation leader:

“I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren’t that different.” -Four

Insurgent just came out May 1, so at least I’m mostly up-to-date

Concert to promote upcoming primary election

Cal State Fullerton students got to hear a concert by Bristol to Memory in the quad around noon on Thursday.

Register. Volunteer. Vote. was the theme of the event, put on by the OC Registrar of Voters, to raise awareness for California’s June 5 primary election. Students could register to vote and volunteer to be a poll worker at the election. (Incentive: You get $95 for working the 12-hour day.)

The rock/alternative concert was pretty good and a crowd of at least 40-50 students were gathered around the quad.

Incidentally, I will be volunteering as a poll worker in the election. That $95 is pretty alluring to a college student.

Iron Man: The Confession

So I’m reading Iron Man: Civil War and this scene pops up. Tony Stark is chatting with an old friend. It’s incredibly sad and probably the most powerful piece of writing I’ve seen since Lost.

“The one thing I should have told you. But now I can’t…”

“It wasn’t worth it.”

In a related note, The Avengers is now my favorite superhero movie of all time. I loved the helicarrier!

Top 10 Superhero movies to prep for ‘The Avengers’

I made a last-minute decision to watch The Avengers at the midnight premiere tonight- I’ll get in line in a few hours.

Talking about The Avengers… Here’s a list of my Top-10 Superhero movies! (Published in Wednesday’s The Daily Titan.)

Fanboys Assemble!

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
What’s so good about this film? Not its $1-billion box office. Not its eight Academy Award nominations. The Dark Knight shines due to Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker’s (Heath Ledger) chemistry. It is psychological and one of the most powerful pieces of writing seen in Hollywood. Batman, the face of justice, becomes an outlaw for simply helping the city.

2. X-Men: First Class (2011)
The origins of Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) are displayed alongside the world’s quest for power amid the Cold War. In a sense, the mutants mirror humanity’s potential. What propels this above the rest of the X-Men franchise is the psychological depth of the two characters and their tragic decisions.

3. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Chris Evans shows the allure of Captain America. Steve Rogers is an underdog from the beginning. His muscles do not make him arrogant. He is an honest man with a simple duty — to serve his country and help the underprivileged. His drafting into the Avengers in the middle of Times Square is one of the greatest scenes in superhero film history.

4. Iron Man (2008)
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a witty, likable character. He is an inventor who reminds us that technology can be used for good, or evil — something pressing in the technology age.

5. Thor (2011)
Villains make or break an action movie. Chris Hemsworth is a good Thor, but the film’s claim to fame is its villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Loki, the trickster god, has a plan up his sleeve to overtake his father Odin’s throne and be King of Asgard. Superb acting and an impressive visual appearance of Asgard make the film memorable.

6. Batman Begins (2005)
Batman’s origin story is done well. Explained are why he wants to save Gotham (corruption) and why he chooses the name Batman (to overcome his fear of bats). But the film suffers from a slow buildup.

7. Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man’s high-tech gadgets and suit upgrades makes this film good. The tie-in to the Avengers, with Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson as Avengers agents, makes it great.

8. The Green Hornet (2011)
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), the son of a wealthy newspaper owner, joins mechanic martial arts expert Kato (Jay Chao) to become masked vigilantes to rid Los Angeles of crime. Rogen adds his characteristic humor in this surprise hit.

9. The Incredibles (2004)
The film most-suited for all audiences on the list, Pixar’s comedic take on the genre is all fun, exploring friendship and family.

10. Watchmen (2009)
A dark take on America during the Cold War, narrated by Rorschach, who sports an ink blot mask from a Rorschach test. Playing homage to a film noir, he is intent on solving why America’s superheroes are being mysteriously killed off.

And Hollywood is just warming up. The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man come out in July and Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and Man of Steel will be out in a couple of years.