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Monthly Archives: March 2014
A Happy Saturday
Ian McEwan in Saturday explores the nature and significance of happiness neither dismissively nor cynically, but rather as a fundamental goal of human life. As the protagonist, Henry Perowne, notes, “for the professors in the Academy, in the humanities generally, misery is more amenable to analysis: happiness is a harder nut to crack.” Saturday functions as a portrait of a […]
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Posted in Science and humanities
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Genetic Modification in Science Fiction
Well, the title may be a bit misleading. I’d like to focus on two novels in particular: one, we are reading in this class (Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood) and the other in my Medicine and Literature class (Dawn by Octavia Butler). What’s interesting to me is that both of my classes have converged on […]
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Posted in Aliens, Collaboration in Humanities, Dawn, ethics, Ethics of science, genetic engineering, genetic modification, Octavia Butler, Oryx and Crake, post-apocalyptic world, science, Science Fiction
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Sentimental Sunday: Love You Forever by Shaakira Parker
For this Sentimental Sunday, I chose Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw. I chose this book because there is something simple and beautiful, but powerful about the story being told. Robert Munsch manages to successfully capture the emotional relationship between a mother and her child. The story focuses on the nurture and growth […]
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The Tension of Time
I wrote my last blog post on the structure of “Cloud Atlas”. The story jumps in time, setting, and cast of characters. The stories overlap and carry themes over a very long period of time. Since “Cloud Atlas”, we have read and discussed James Watson’s “The Double Helix”, Ian McEwan’s “Saturday”, and Margaret Atwood’s […]
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Posted in "Saturday, Cloud Atlas, Double Helix, Oryx and Crake, Science and humanities, Science Fiction, Time
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Genetic Modification as Creation?
One of the aspects of Oryx and Crake that has stuck out to me thus far in reading it is how Snowman deifies the titular characters. He paints Oryx and Crake as the creators of the people that live around him in his post-apocalyptic world and says that he speaks to them, that he is their […]
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Posted in Creation, creation story, genetic engineering, God, Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, playing God, post-apocalypse, Religion, Science and humanities
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Human
On page 94, Perowne takes a look at Baxter and assumes that what he sees is all he needs to know. “Here’s biological determinism in its purest form. More than forty repeats of that one little codon, and you’re doomed. Your future is fixed and easily foretold.” When I read this passage, I thought to […]
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Posted in "Saturday, determinism, faith, human, Science and humanities
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Science Fiction to Science Fact
It has always been the fantasy of science fiction writers to mine an asteroid for its precious materials. Stories such as Catch that Rabbit by Isaac Asimov, The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein, and the Heechee stories by Frederik Pohl are among hundreds that feature futuristic mining camps on asteroids. But now humanity has […]
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Posted in Asteroid Mining, astro201, blog8, Historical, Peter Diamandis, technology
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Who’s Right?
A common element I found in Saturday that I brought up in class is there are constantly arguments over who’s right. After further analysis I noticed they are all debates in which neither person can win. Baxter and Perowne exchange a few words when they get in an accident. Baxtor says, “The Tottenham Court Road’s […]
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Posted in "Saturday, debate, Henry Perowne, Ian McEwan, Science and humanities
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Uganda Abstract
After much consideration, Uganda has decided to support the irredentism of Katanga into Tanzania. We believe that due to the current failed state of the DRC that the removal of Katanga from the state is in the region’s best interests. Not only must the current state of Katanga be addressed for the sake of the… Continue reading
Posted in Model AU abstract, Uganda
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MAPS
Jacques Cartier’s First and Second Voyage
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Posted in Research Tools
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