Cyberpunk and Steampunk

So, How would I like to start this blog on the story Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Actually, lets start it off with the drug that is actually called snow crash that is like cocaine on steroids. People in the future are getting doped up on is not surprising to me because in any era of history there will always be drugs. The story has this protagonist named Hiro which is very skill from what the swords and even a really good online hacker but he's bad at social aspect of things which happens a lot with those type of people. Hiro didn't care much about the drug until one of his close friends gets caught up in it which becomes personal. He teams up with this guy name Y.T. to gather and dig up dirt on the people that are responsible for the incident. The fact the drug can be taken in two ways being virtual and in real life but have the same effect is mind blowing .

It turns you into an mindless minion that people can control and do whatever they please with you is really wild. Hiro encounters a assassin that works for the man who is trying to push the drug on more people is interesting. He does get the chance to escape and gets away but it gets much harder for him as he continues his journey. This weeks read was a nicely tied together story with the future and drug related aspects and the unique character attributes.

Space Opera

The story I ended up choosing to read was The Stars By Destination by Alfred Bester for this blog entry. First, lets talk about how they tattooed tiger stripes on the mans face so people know he's a prisoner. I mean that's on another level of branding, like the face is the first thing people see when they see a person and is very hard to get removed but then again this is the future. The fact that he really didn't do anything wrong to become a prisoner is what happens a lot even in today's society which is sad. He hoped the ship that saw him would help him but they acted like Stevie Wonder when they passed him. Gulliver which is the main character was left stranded for dead, but, he found a way to build an escape ship and somehow made it back to his home planet but has a plan to get revenge on that I can sorta understand from his view point.

If someone left me for dead and somehow I got out of the crappy spot I'm coming for you on sight no questions, no apology, and definitely no forgiveness. I read like they wanted him dead so why shouldn't he want them dead. He does fail to get revenge and gets thrown in prison for it but they question him about his cargo on his ship but he doesn't tell them which is great loyalty. He shows element of loyalty, heroism, and noble in my person opinion.

Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

The story that I read was the Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman was a interesting read in my opinion. The fact that it starts out the Main character is living in England but use to live in Florida is already a great start because I love the Europe. The myth of Greek gods and goddess I always found amazing since I was a young child. I look at them more as heroes than gods but I think they have similarities but have a fine line that separates the two. The reason I bring that up is the fact that the Protagonist's father was the god of Trickery but Charlie (the main character) didn't know that at all about it. Charlie also didn't know he had a brother but the reason that was because his brother inherited all of his father's powers while Charlie didn't inherit nothing from his father. The lady did tell him that if he wanted to talk to his brother, he should tell a spider that he wants his brother to come visit him.

Now to me that sounds like the lady was on some really strong drugs but Charlie listen and did it one night when his girl wanted him to kill a spider and he thought this would me a good time to try that out. The weird thing about it all is the fact it actually worked and his brother actually shows up named spider. It really made me think it was interesting how everything worked in the story and was a good read this week.

The Hero's Journey.

Reading the story The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien, I discovered that the way how Bilbo's Baggins starts his hero's journey is by a wizard. So, one day when Baggins is just chilling outside like it's a normal day nothing out of the ordinary, when out of no where a tall old man approach's him. Now Baggins is a hobbit which are shorter, like legit half the size of an average human and they have hairy feet like Chewbacca hair on their feet. So the wizards name is Gandalf, he offers Baggins if he would like to join him on an adventure but Baggins says no but offers him a drink to be nice. Now Baggins deny's the offer which happens a lot in a hero's journey. Gandalf tries in another way to get Baggins to join him on his adventure by sending other dwarfs to Baggins home to get him to agree to come with them. Baggins gets interested in the quest due to the treasure that could be obtain if he joins the group. A hero's journey show's the main character setting off on his quest for adventure to achieve his goal of getting the tressure that is in the mountains from what the map said from Gandalf. Baggins is an odd hobbit but he has adventure in his blood because of his mother but most hobbits like to play it safe honestly. Overall, the story was a decent read that had a magical journey that gave it an interesting tone to it.