WEEK 8-THE ALIEN AS OTHER

“We are helpless because we don’t know enough, and so jittery we don’t think straight.” (Campbell, 112)

WEEK 7- Planetary Disaster

“You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things you have created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore.” (Commander Adama, Battlestar Gallactica Miniseries)

Cyborg Post

WEEK 5- THE DYSTOPIAN PRISON

Maureen nuzzled into her pillow. The sun was breaking into her bedroom and spreading shadows across her room. She could hear soft shuffling in her room. She knew it was her mother Diane, but she did not wake and turn to her. She closed her eyes tighter and hoped her mother hadn’t seen the movement. Her alarm rang loudly and she could no longer pretend to still be asleep.

Her mother quickly ran to her side and nudged her repeatedly to wake up. Her mother, Diane, was wearing a sleeveless corn silk blue linen dress that showed off her assets. Her blonde hair was cut in the most perfect bob. She smiled, her white teeth just as blinding as the sun reaching out from outside. Maureen did not move.

Diane pursed her pink lips and put her fists at her waist. She asked her daughter if she was nervous for her big day. Maureen did not respond. Diane pulled up a chair and began to tell her daughter the pep talk she had thought out the night before. How every girl reaches the age of puberty and has to go though the transformation. She began with her experience at the age of 13 when it was her turn to become a woman she was scared but as soon as it was over she felt so relieved and happy she had gone through it.

Maureen sighed heavily; she told her mother that she loved her hair. Diane ran her hands over a long auburn lock and told her that once she went through the transformation they would look alike. Everyone would exclaim what a beautiful mother and daughter pair they were. Diane then asked her daughter if that is not what she wanted. Maureen asked if she could keep her hair the way it was. Her mother frowned, trying to appear more hurt than she really was. She wanted her daughter to want to look just like her.

Maureen asked her mother for details of the transformation and for the reason that she had to go through it. Diane patiently explained. She explained how they would alter her looks and hair so that she could be able to marry. That they would insert her identification chip, without it she could not enter any facility, mall, or building. She told her that on that chip was the knowledge to cook, clean, and do all the duties she would need to know to be a good wife. And that the chip would control all of the unnecessary emotional madness that she would go through without it.

Maureen began to cry and her mother patted her softly. She told her mother that her father loved her hair and said she was the most beautiful girl in the world. She also told her that she wanted to be an astronaut and couldn’t see why she would need to learn to cook when all their meals came freeze-dried or dehydrated.

Diane wiped her daughter’s tears from her pink cheeks. She asked her how much she wanted to be an astronaut. Maureen answered that she wanted to be an astronaut more than anything, between sobs. Diane then asked her how she intended to get into the NASA buildings without proper identification. She explained that the government would need to submit to NASA a report stating her history of whereabouts and behavior when she applied for a job there and they could not do so without the insertion of that very identification chip.

Maureen stopped weeping. Her mother asked her if she was ready to get dressed for her big day. Two armed guards then appeared at her bedroom door.

"In my time people are willing to stand guard. It's a living. I guess maybe it's power, too." (Piercy,365)