english 192 texts studying

Swamp Thing

a graphic novel by Alan Moore. features the Swamp Thing, also known as Alec Holland, as he goes through life struggling to figure out who he is following a terrible accident. comes to realize that the Swamp Thing is not Alec Holland, his former self, and is instead a being that "thinks" he is Alec Holland.

Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood. main character is Jimmy, aka Snowman, who tells us the story of how humanity ended up like this. He tells the story of a man named Crake, who sought to improve humanity in very horrific ways.

Dawn

by Octavia Butler. This book features a woman named Lillith, who wakes up on an alien ship after nuclear war destroyed humanity + earth. she realizes that a group of aliens, called the Oankali, have "saved" humanity by bringing them up, and expect her to train humanity to accept them while also alloying the Oankali to genetically modify them to make them "better."

Speech Sounds

by Octavia Butler. main character is Rye, a woman who has lost her husband and her three children following a disease that took away what people cared for the most: either their ability to read and write, or their ability to speak. for rye, her ability to read and write was taken away because she was a history professor and treasured that the most. in the end, she stumbles across two children who have their abilities and realizes that there is hope for the future.

Exhalation

by Ted Chiang. a story of a group of anamatronic beings who live on argon, and live by refilling their "lungs" with oxygen tanks. one of the beings decides he wants to know how they function, and he dissects himself. he comes to realize that the world is running out of oxygen/argon, and that they are all destined to die -- in the end, it is reveled that he has written his story down, with a hope that someone will read it when he is no longer alive.

"Story of Your Life"

by Ted Chiang. explores the perspective of a linguist, Louise Banks, who is one of the first people to have contact with arriving aliens because she has to figure out a common language barrier. she adapts their language, and now carries the ability to see everything that will happen in the future. she tells this story from the perspective of telling her daughter "the story of your life", and decides to have her daughter even though she knows her daughter will die young. move adaptation is "Arrival"

The Great Silence

by Ted Chiang. told from the perspective of a parrot, in which the parrot asks humanity why they haven't discovered the intelligent life right there besides them. the parrot tells that humanity isn't to blame for nearly being driven to extinction. the last words: "You be good. I love you." the fermi paradox: intelligent species actively try to conceal their presence, to avoid being targeted by hostile invaders.

Vaster Than Empires and More Slow

by Ursula LeGuin. short story that deals with a group of people being sent to another planet to discover, only to realize that the planet itself is sentient and is very mad that they are there. main character is Osden, who is a sensor who was "cured" of autism when he was younger, and left with powers that allowed him to feel what everyone around him is thinking. it tortures him, and he eventually leaves the group to be with the planet.

Neuromancer

by William Gibson. the main character is Case, a man who struggles to live following a double cross which left him unable to "jack" into the technological systems of the world. He is also mourning the loss of his love, Linda. He is hired by a man named Armitage - who later is reveled to be a man named Corto - and is led by a woman named Molly, who he becomes close with. The ultimate goal is reveled with the AI Wintermute wants to "bond" with another AI, Neuromancer, to become the Matrix. novel ends with the two having done so successfully.

Lagoon

written by Nnedi Okorafor. Set through an afro-futurism lens, the story's protagonists are Adaora, a marine biologist, Agu, a nigerian solider, and Anthony, and Ghanaian hip-hop artist. The three help an alien ambassador, Ayodele, to introduce herself into the world of Lagos, Nigeria. all three humans are later revealed to have special abilities, with the book blending science-fiction, fantasy, and folklore elements.

The Author of Acacia Seeds

written by Ursula LeGuin. written from the perspective of three types of beings: ants, penguins, and plants. explores what it maybe look like if animals had languages that could be freely communicated to animals, takes away from an anthropocentric point of view.