Will Our World Become Like What William Gibson Depicts in the Book?

In William Gibson’s story “All tomorrow’s parties”, he depicts a world where the virtual one is going to overwhelm and destroy the real one. His prediction about how cyberspace will influence people’s lives and change people’s attitudes is based on facts and seems that it could come true in the future. His book, “All tomorrow’s Parties” was written in 1999 when the internet was a new innovation when lots of records were done by hand and written down on paper. At that time, not many people would think that the internet could become a part of their life. However, only 8 years later, everything has been turned into digital formats, databases, and then was connected to the internet that people came to rely on in their daily lives. This change happened in the recent decade and overturned human behaviour which has been developed over thousands of years and it will keep changing our world in the future. This is very frightening because new technology invades our lives so rapidly. This made me wonder whether our world will become just like the world depicted in the book or will there be a day that I cannot distinguish the real from the hyper real. Nevertheless, the strong influence of cyberspace/ Internet on our lives cannot be denied.
To sum up, the ideas William Gibson generates influences a lot on our society today. His ideas are able to make people imagine what the future would be like and examine their actions today. Therefore, we might be able to adjust our behaviour so that we can prevent the dystopia William Gibson describes before it becomes a reality.

Encountered Cultures Through Vancouver Narratives: In Vancouver Short Stories and Innocent Traveler

As the course draws to an end the time has come to reflect on some of the works read and the different authors’ unique representations of their Vancouver. We’ve explored a collection of different cultures in Vancouver Short Stories, and the English to Canadian Culture of Ethel Wilson. These texts each showed a distinguishing narrative or writing style that represented a different culture or group of people.

Starting with the short stories, four main ones stood out being able to identify their authors’ culture and unique writing style. First “In Vancouver” by Martin Allerdale Grainger, represented a narrative of early English settlers and society, enticing them to come to where one could find rugged adventure, very different from their traditional English lifestyles. Next came the unique views and story telling of Pauline Johnson and Emily Car. Through their works one could illustrate the landscape, legends and people of the Native American culture and early Vancouver from their descriptions. The Asian- Canadian culture was represented by the works of Wayson Choy and Sky Lee, in which their characters struggled to, assimilate into Canadian society due to their cultural traditions and differences. Also usually the characters were divided in assimilation, the younger generations managed to slip into Canadian society with ease, while older people struggled to let go of their customs. Moving to Ethel Wilson, we got a view of the English- Canadian culture, somewhat different from that of Grainger. Wilson’s work was different because as the story progressed we saw how she slowly immersed herself within the Canadian culture, learning to love the city immensely. This differs from Grainger’s work because in his works only an advertisement was made not a story of his assimilation into the culture and Canadian society.

Destabilizing Effect

To tell you the truth, for the first 82 pages of All Tomorrows Parties By William Gibson, I did not think I could finish this book since I despised it so much. At first, nothing made sense to me, and as soon as I would get into the story, the chapter would end and yet another confusing setting and new character was introduced. But when I started to like it a bit more, I did feel that it made me a bit uncomfortable, by its destabilizing effect. This novel got me thinking of the future, and how if it will turn into anything like All Tomorrow's Parties, I'll be glad I won't be living through it. One thing that troubles me about life on this bridge, is their lack of police service. For example, when Silencio's friends, Raton and Playboy were murdered by the man, their bodies were not confiscated by the cops and no one really made a big deal out of it, as if it was normal. And when Carson got shot by the man in the black scarf who was actually following Rydell, no help came to either seek medical attention for Carson or to arrest the shooter. That is one aspect of the story that makes me feel really uncomfortable and unsafe about the bridge, just like the medieval ages, where anything could happen to anybody for any reason due to a lack of law. These all contribute to the fact that Chevette did not want to walk back to where she had parked the van and that Fontaine pointed a gun at both Chevette who knocked at his door and Silencio who sat innocently by his window. Other things that worry me is that Fontaine had two wives, Clarisse and Tourmaline. It is as if women have lost their rights and San Francisco has gone back in time and followed the paths of some modern developing countries. And the fact that all the beaches are so polluted that they have bio-hazard signs on them, makes me think about the way that we are living as a nation right now to actually cause that in the future. I know that this book was very different from other books that I have read, but I guess William Gibson did have a destabilizing effect on me and many other people too and in a way it is a good thing, since it causes doubt about the present.

Cyber-punk? What the…

From chick-lit to cyber-punk how do these people think up these genres? While reading through Gibson’s All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP), I was trying to figure out what the term “cyber-punk” meant, without having to go on some weird sci-fi dude’s website. I really liked this book; it was a welcome change from Ethel Wilson’s Innocent Traveler, which still haunts my dreams night after night, you guys know what I’m talking about right? I thought the constant change from character to character was pretty cool, it made it so you just start to really get into one person’s story and then they cut you off until you read a few more chapters about other people and get back to them.

To the definition of cyber punk; the term cyber derives itself from cybernetics, which is the “study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them”. The term punk just describes a hoodlum or rebellious young person. When combined the main concepts of these words form the ideas of mechanical (cyber) individualism/ anarchy (punk). The genre of cyber-punk places emphasis on the freedoms of the individuals in the story, combining “high tech with low life”. “Cyber-punk science fiction stories” a term coined by Gibson, are usually set in a combination between the low level side of technologically advanced societies and also taking place online in a cyber space blurring reality. The characters in these types of fictional stories are usually lone anti-heroes in which they are outcasts, criminals, and/or hackers, being manipulated to do the bidding of higher powers.

All Tomorrow's Parties: A Blog?

First off, I want so say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was such a relief to read something I could follow and understand without too much in depth analysis. I'm sure there is more to the story than what is on the surface, but the story itself was a definite page turner that kept me interested no matter who the story was focused on. I liked how Gibson left a lot of the book up for interpretation. The use of ambiguity is effective, but not overwhelming.

Okay so here's my case. Being that this course is titled "Fiction in the Blog Dimension", I have become suspicious about this book as a form of blog. First of all, there are a total of 73 chapters in this book. This is unheard of for a novel, at least in the novels that I've read. Some chapters aren't even a page long. Each deals with a specific incident for a specific character or group of characters. When I read chapter 42, entitled "Red Ghosts of European Time" for the second time after skimming through the book, I noticed that this chapter is relatively insignificant to the plot of the story. It almost seems like a reflection of the day's events and describing what Fontaine was doing before he went to bed, much like a diary. Most chapters have this sense when you read them. Then I thought, wait a minute, a blog is a form of a diary. So, couldn't this book be a form of a blog?

The more I think about it, the clearer it comes. This book is a collection of diaries of several characters, except they are not written in first person. They are all third person. The best analogy I can think of for something like this is a forum, which is a form of a blog in which several users interact from their own computers and with their own points of view. For the most part, they stay focused on one topic and one can follow each person’s interpretation relatively easily. This parallels Gibson’s book, where the “forum topic” is The Bridge, because everyone has an affiliation with it in some way.

So there you have it. I claim that William Gibson’s book is cleverly structured as a blog.

Similarities and Differences Between Blogs and Douglas Coupland’s Novel, “Hey Nostradamus !”

When I was reading “Hey Nostradamus!”, I had a feeling that although this is a published book, it has some features that are quiet similar to a blog. For example, this book is composed by four different people form four different points of view (just like four different writers can compose one blog). All of them present very personal feelings and internal perspectives. The language they use is relatively simple compared to other novels we read such as “Vancouver Short Stories” and “The Innocent Traveller”. In addition, although the four people (Cheryl, Jason, Heather, and Reg) do not directly communicate to each other, the way they speak their story (such as retelling the story and giving another explanation or expanding the story) does give them a chance to refer to other’s narratives viewpoint.

However, although there are many similarities, the book, “Hey Nostradamus!” is still a published book which, by definition, is very different form a simple blog (because people will rarely do revision when they are blogging). Therefore, what a book can present will be more significant than what a blog can present. For example, “Hey Nostradamus” deals with lots of elements such as love, relationships, religion and the massacre which includes deep and philosophical meaning that needs a lot of space to discuss. (This kind of ideas cannot easily be dealing with in one blog). The ideas and meaning tend to be more profound and last longer and are discussed by people over time. Besides, the time frame the author, Douglas Coupland, uses is not commonly used in blogs. For example, in Cheryl’s part, the author doesn’t focus on one fixed point (i.e. the present, when Cheryl faces the massacre) but jumps to the past and into the future in order to present Cheryl’s thinking. The author also makes some prediction in Cheryl’s part like Cheryl’s knows that her writing her on binder about “GOD IS NOWHERE” will be left behind and that people will wonder about it. These perspectives are very different from the perspectives in an ordinary blog because a blog is usually focused on the present (like a diary, and the computer system will record the date) and its topic is often referring to one thing.

As a result, although “Hey Nostradamus !” was presented in a very special format and it’s style reminds me of a blog (like Heather’s part which was presented in a diary format), it is still quite different from a blog.

Love vs. Religion

Love and religion often challenge each other in the novel, “ Hey Nostradamus!” by Douglas Coupland. Love consists of both lust and an individuals support and encouragement for another, and religion embraces our beliefs and how we react to our surroundings. These two situations can either bring people together and unite love and religion, or in some cases, tear people apart into isolation when the interests of love and religion conflict each other. There are several examples of this throughout the book. Reg certainly favors his religion over his son Jason. When his son longed for guidance and forgiveness for stealing the neighbor's raspberries, Reg turned his back on him and pretended as if he did not exist since the sin of theft was committed. He also accused Jason of murder when Jason had actually saved innocent people, claiming that Jason should have been killed instead of committing a sin himself, even if it saved his life. This demonstrates that Reg would rather have lost his young son's life rather than have him sin. Religion also created conflict between Jason, Cheryl and Youth Alive, leaving Youth Alive no choice but to accuse Jason and Cheryl of sinning when they were suspected of having premarital sex. Jason even took his fury out on Youth Alive! physically, by beating up Matt Gursky. Reg also ruined his relationship with Barb after stating that one of her twins had no soul since one of them was a clone of the other, due to his beliefs. These examples show how religion can create dispute and opposition in relationships when applied too strictly. On the other hand, Reg and Kent's relationships is a good example of how religion and can bring people in sync. Reg and Kent shared the same beliefs, so Reg respected him, even more so than his own wife, and was constantly defending him even in ridiculous situations, such as in sixth grade when Kent complained about Easter egg's indirectly hinting at lust. Also, Jason and Cheryl were united in marriage due to religion, and would have remained as one till death parted them apart.

Unnecessarily Complex: A View on Poetry

Okay so my blog post this week concerns Margaret Avison, and her collection of poems. I want to make one thing clear right from the start. I hate poetry, I always have. I never understood why it exists, and why people seem so interested in deciphering the words and magically have a life changing experience as a result. I could never understand it, or read through the language to some “deeper meaning”. I have never felt anything from reading poetry, except maybe a bit of dizziness from being so confused and bored. After a student’s rebuttal of points discussed in lecture, Professor Ogden said on the class blog,

“I think that hating something literary is clean & good: lukewarm indifference is the only response that I regret being the cause of.”

I believe I fall into the category of “clean & good”.

Don’t get me wrong, I have complete respect for Margaret Avison and her approach with poetry. For some people, poetry is their emotional release. Avison was simply trying to relate her emotions. The problem I have concerns her method for relaying these emotions to other people. For an average person such as myself, and a lot of other students I’m sure, it is very difficult to read through all the thick, confusing language to make some sort of sense out of the whole thing. I mean, why not just state your ideas and feelings in plain, simple language that other people can relate to? Seriously, I would really like to know how many people who have tried to read Avison’s work immediately understood the deeper meanings similar to those that Professor Ogden raised in lecture. I was genuinely surprised to see the things that he wringed out of Avison’s complex language. The ideas themselves were quite insightful. I believe that a beautiful place like the country we live in deserves to be celebrated and reflected upon. But when it requires a professor who has had years of experience and has the knowledge to tell you thhis, it becomes a hassle. I would much rather read something that I can interpret for myself. After all, isn’t that what post-secondary education encourages, original thought?

Was Joe Fortes Really A Great Person and So Worthy of Respect?

In “The Innocent Traveler”, there is real person existing in the book and the author Ethel Wilson uses her own views and words to portray that person which can be seen as documentary-style writing. Form “The Innocent Traveler” we know that Joe Fortes was a black man who lived near English Bay, taught many children to swim, and saved lots of people form drowning. When she describes, Ethel Wilson uses some old-fashioned, discriminating, and racist terms such as “negro” to present her feelings about the black people. Although she didn’t seem to use that word to be cruel and she did show her respect to Joe Fortes, it is considered an offensive word form our view point today. However, I wondered was Joe Fortes really a great person and so worthy of respect? By Googling Joe Fortes, I found that he was listed under the history of English Bay. He was a very famous person at the time that Ethel Wilson wrote her book and he was appointed Vancouver’s first official lifeguard and swimming instructor. He was not born to be a swimming teacher, however, and he did many jobs before he moved to English Bay. Because he taught swimming lessons and did life guarding voluntarily, he had to do a labour job to support himself. In the official report, it is recorded that Joe Fortes saved 29 lives, but people believe that the number must exceed 100. After he died, a drinking fountain was erected in 1927 by the citizens of Vancouver in Alexandra Park to remember him by his great contributions to the community. Ethel Wilson did present her personal impression of Joe Fortes in her own way, but we might feel that something is missing because it is difficult to find other people’s ideas about Joe Fortes and very difficult to find writing done by him in his own words.

"Chick-Lit" Positive or Negative Genre?

When Professor Ogden initially introduced the concept of “chick-lit” it made me immaturely laugh at the proposition of the idea, but also brought up dwelling skepticism that a genre such as this existed. Upon closer inspection I learned this was a recognized and emerging new genre of fiction depicting modern female protagonists accentuating and celebrating their flaws as opposed to viewing them as negatives. However this genre was introduced to us as a positive influence where imperfect females were depicted as the heroines of stories, finding who they really are through there own means. One thing that made me think was the term “chick” it contrasted in my mind all that was said previously. The word “chick”, to a certain extent is a degrading word used by men to draw attention to physically attractive women, or otherwise those that are disagreeable in their eyes (i.e. hey man! Check that chick out!). So why would it be used as a title describing many strong novels displaying the glory of feminism? Many other groups have attached the title “chick-lit” to a very different classification of other books labeling the genre as having negative effects on young women, portraying many of its heroines only obsessed with boys, shopping and cooking. With these two differing versions of chick-lit describing two totally different collections of novels which is the correct definition of chick-lit and how can you tell the difference between the two?

In The Innocent Traveller, the genre of “chick-lit” displays hip and refreshingly different female protagonists who are not anywhere near perfect. These flaws that exist within the characters are what help their readers relate with them and the book more closely. The protagonists do not have a perfect job or have the perfect man; they become a more real portrayal of today’s woman striving to find that balance between work and a social life. The second connotation of “chick-lit” has a different meaning entirely; groups refer to works as “graphic and sexually explicit”, containing negative messages about how girls only think about romance, shopping, social status and appearance. These “anti chick-lit” groups say it’s dangerous for young girls in many ways making them act a certain way to fit in, while giving them the feeling that they are choosing this lifestyle themselves. With this modern genre of “chick-lit” invading our shelves we now have to ask ourselves is it the brilliant works of positive feminism by authors such as Ethel Wilson, Helen Fielding (Bridget Jone’s Diary) or Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City)? Or do the other negative books flood our minds? On that note, which group of novels should be labeled “chick-lit”? Both obviously cannot claim the genre for themselves.

Rhetorical Devices Used in Sophie

The Greek philosopher Aristotle applied the literary devices of ethos, logos and pathos, to fiction , synthesizing rhetorical devices which are utilized as a technique for persuasion. Ethos consists of an author's degree of credibility or status. Humans tend to acquire bias views of messages told by communities they trust, such as their their best friend, and it only seems natural. The next rhetorical device, logos, is more scientific, as it applies straight up facts, or graphs to manipulate or brainwash the reader into believing that this data originates from absolute accuracy and truth since it is so logical. But Aristotle admits that pathos is the strongest rhetorical device, since it reaches out to our hearts and arouses certain emotions.Although numerous rhetorical devices are practiced in the stories of “Vancouver Short Stories” I will only briefly discuss my personal favorite one. The short story, “ Sophie ” might be first acknowledged and appear familiar due to the fact that it is composed by Emily Carr who is a very prominent and applauded author in literature, and who also has a university named after her. Emily Carr's level of authority is an example of ethos. She also utilizes pathos very much in this short story, allowing the reader to feel deep sorrow and pity for Sophie who continuously requires to hold funerals for her young children and who's husband does not treat very well. I enjoy the fact that Emily Carr names streets after real ones in North Vancouver, which makes the story seem much more realistic, and that could be her way of using logos.

E-Media: Alteration of the "Reading Sensation"

As I was madly rummaging through the small, yet quite extensive library in my house in search of a lost Calculus textbook, I stumbled upon a collection of children’s literature books. Most of these I recognized immediately, as they were the books that my sister and I read when we were young. These were the classics, like “The Little Engine That Could”, the collection of “Bernstein Bears” books, and a collection of Roald Dahl books including “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. For children at that time, before the Internet became a worldwide trend, such books were what taught us the foundations of reading and writing, along with teaching us valuable life lessons. It is astounding to see that kids these days are learning to read and write using a computer. Just as a little experiment, I searched for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl on the Chapters website. It did not surprise me to find out that not only do they have the hardcover book version, but they also have audio CD’s, computer games, movies, and CD-ROM texts of the story. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows for multiple ways to enjoy the masterpiece. However, it is sad to observe that the use of the good-old-fashioned book has declined dramatically since the dawn of electronic media. Countless times have I heard people say “Oh I’ll just go and see the movie, then I’ll understand the book”. In this sense, the use of the book is dying. However, the value of the book is still worth its weight in gold. Reading a book has, and always will have a certain sensation that cannot be emulated by a computer or television screen.

All of this has recently come to my attention, after a long hiatus from reading. I had forgotten how different it felt to sit down and read a good book, compared to how it feels to sit in front of a computer screen and browse the World Wide Web. A good example of this “reading sensation” is the physical action of turning pages (As opposed to clicking on a scroll bar). This subtle action, along with others such as holding the actual literature in your hands, and taking time out of the daily routine to sit and read it, contributes to the overall reading experience. When I first started reading Vancouver Short Stories, the sensation immediately came back to me. It is much more interesting and enjoyable to read literature about the history of our great city than to read dry and boring fact books. This is the genius behind the book, especially fictional books, to learn something and to enjoy what you’re reading at the same time.