The Bluest Eye

My reaction to reading "The Bluest Eye", by Toni Morrison was that I am not a fan of the book. I don't really like the book because I am having a hard time following it. The book seems to jump between a lot of different characters and the narration changes a lot. One of the things that is making this book very hard to read is that there really isn't a lot of dialogue in the book, so there really isn't much character interactions with each other. The story is mainly a narrative. This is okay, but I want more character interactions. I also don't like the fact that some of the words are spelled wrong, and some of the grammer too, but I think this is probably to visualize how Pecola's family talks. One thing about the book I don't understand is why they repeat that same sentence from the introduction in each chapter?

Blade Runner and Androids

Some of the similarities and differences between "Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep", and "Blade Runner are that both take place in the future and have the androids, or "replicants" in the movie, that are from mars. Another similarity between them is that the Vought Kampt test is present in both "Blade Runner" and "Androids" and is used to tell if a person is an android or a human. The only difference is that in the movie, the test scans the eye. In both the movie and the book, Rick meets Rachael while giving her the Vought Kampt test. The differences between the movie and the book, are that in the movie J.R Isadore is named J.S Sabastian and Roy later kills him. Another major difference in them are that there is no Luba Loft in the movi, instead a snake charmer named Zhora takes her place. There is also a new android named Leon in the movie that did not exist in the book. The movie doesn't feature the second police station that is run by androids and Rick isn't married. A major difference in "Blade Runner" is that in "Androids", the story takes place in San Francisco, but in the movie the story occurs in Los Angeles.

Blade Runner

My reaction to the movie "Blade Runner" was that I felt that the movie was more bizarre than the book. In the movie, there were these wooden figures in J.S Sebastian's apartment that were similar to robots that were absent in the book "Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Also the Chinese man who made the eyes was attached to something, which I didn't understand, but it was probably to keep him warm. Another thing that seemed weird in the movie was when Pris was killed by Rick.Why was there a strobe effect and screaming? The most bizarre thing to me in the movie was at the end with the unicorn origami, that the Asian man left by Rick's apartment, and the quote that he says at the end that "she won't live, but who does", makes it seem like that everyone is an android. Since this is the second time I have watched the movie, I enjoyed the movie more this time because I noticed more things that occurred and kept an eye out for similarities and differences between the movie and the book.

"The Bluest Eye"

After reading a few chapters in "The Bluest Eye" I must say I'm definitely enjoying this read. I'm curious to know if "The Bluest Eye" is fiction or non fiction. A scene that stood out to me in the story was when Pecola caught her menstrual for the first time. Both Frieda and Claudia tried their best to hide it from their mother. These children had no education about their menstrual.  They had no courage to ask  their mother. This scene explains what kind of relationship the girls have with  their mother. Besides the fact that you can have a baby once you receive your menstrual, was all they new. This scene became even more odd to me after learning that Pecola was friends with 3 "whores". Who told her almost everything about sex, love, and money. They failed to inform Pecola about the natural things that will change with her body as she gets older. It's def something they've gone through before, just like their sexual experiences that was shared to Pecola. It's sad to know that young girls are going through the same situation as Pecola today. Unaware of who they are and will become. they don't see past being a young girl. They have a hard time looking towards the future because their not supported or believe there is none. 

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

After watching the movie "Blade Runner", I was able to see a significant difference between the way Androids are shown in the movie and into the novel.
Personally, I felt more sympathy towards the androids in the movie than in the novel.
In the movie, Androids as for me didn't failed the test. They were in fact shown as "more complete" than human at some point. I felt Humans underestimate androids there own creation. They don't notice that Androids are like them but only don't live as long. Androids seemed to be as intelligent as a human can be, they are physically stronger, They have emotions, Nexus 6 loved Pris. Racheal thought she was human but was devastated when Dekard told her that she was an Androids. She loved Deckard. The humans scientist know that androids have emotions and they are human like. I didn't see them as "emotionally inexperience" like Dr. Tyrell said. Maybe it's a way to keep in mind that they are machines. It's rather cruel or inhuman to play with  FEELINGS which are universal. Androids were also persecuted by the police especially Deckard. They were tracked. The Opera singer knew that Deckard came to retire her. She tried to escape but was eventually killed.  Androids in the movie only fought for their lives or the hope of having a longer one. At the end of the movie, Nexus 6 before dying seemed to have much more Knowledge than Deckard even if he had a short life spend. I saw that by the way he talked about his experiences. It's like he had a combined memory of many different people from different epoch. It seemed like his brain had more storage memory than the human brain. His short life prevent him from using his talent to create. He used it to survive until he died. It shocked me when he compared his existence to a tear lost in the rain.  At the end human and Androids are running after the same things. Androids are asking DNA engineers to grant them  a longer life while humans turn to God for the same reasons.

In the novel there is much more details that appeal your imagination. There is also more characters. While reading I imagined Androids to be more robotics than human like and prone to fail the test. In the novel some characters are ambiguous, you suspect them to be Androids while they might be Human, starting by Deckard himself.
I found this Novel complex and  interesting. It's an ingenious way that Philip K. Dick found to question Human worth and Interest. I understand now why they associate him with Kafka and the Postmodern movement.

Blade Runner

One scene from the movie that stood out to me was the killing of Miss Luft, the opera singer. The scene in the movie was completely different from the story, definitely more exciting. In the movie Ms Luft did not call the Android police on Deckard, instead she took matters in her own hands and tried killing Deckard herself. While reading the story I was confused whether she was human or  android, but the scene in the movie made it clear that she was an android. After she was killed I didn't feel any empathy for her as I did in the book. probably because she almost killed Deckard who is portrayed as the "hero" in the story/movie. It seemed as though no one else cared either a women was being chased and eventually murdered in the middle of the street and no human cared.  This was odd for a community that worships the idea... "empathy" but this can also be the reason the empathy box and Mercer was taking out of the movie.This scene also shined more light on the relationship between Rachel and Deckard. Rachel saved Deckard's life,  this allowed the audience to accept the relationship between a human and android. If one does not fall in love naturally you mind as well love a human or android who has saved your life. That will always be a interesting story to explain to others. Not to mention they took Deckard's wife completely out of the movie. The idea of Deckard being single rather than married made sense.  Deckard's wife,  had approximately  2 scenes in the story.  The relation between Rachel and Deckard would not be clear if he was a married man. Overall  I enjoyed both the book and movie, however I must admit I liked the movie a little less, probably because I read the book first.

Blade Runner

This is actually the second time that I've viewed this movie in college so far. In my previous English 102 class, we examined and basically held a debate on the perspectives of this movie and even the second time still has me a bit torn. The question of If Deckard is a replicant or not is so important and like you said in class, even the creators of the movie couldn't decide. In my opinion, I think Deckard is a replicant mainly because of the little subliminal messages like, his tainted memories and even the fact that he was so infatuated with Rachel knowing she was a replicant as well. I thought the scene where Deckard was almost thrown off a building but saved was very strong. Being that close to death is what the replicants felt like, living in fear all their lives and that's exactly what they wanted to show him. Overall, I like Blade Runner. To this day, every time I watch it I examine a different viewpoint on what's real and what's not.