Alé Salamán -- LMST345

 This book reminds me of our current world. Maybe not in the same way as it's not a pandemic but in this world, Luce struggles with not being able to go outside due to some incidents and everything such as performances get simulated via Virtual Reality. The world is kind of moving in the direction of digitizing all interactions but in order for those virtual interactions to work some people have to work in the real life to make entertainment happen. Overall its a good novel about living IRL and URL and what the duality of those states looks like. 

 I listened to the audiobook, I like the radio format. It's cool to think about stuff like a radio play.  I usually don't really engage too much with listening mediums as I feel like I lose engagement but this was honestly not too bad. There was quite a lot in this story and I'm glad it was in the grey line of serious but fun. The plot follows Arthur Dent as he's trying to save the earth from Aliens. There are these super intelligent mice that are commissioned to build a 2nd earth since they don't think Earth 1 can make it.  I just like how the story never really takes itself seriously and it just is one big adventure you can listen to. 

 I read Toni Morrison's Beloved. I think it's quite a strange story about former slaves being haunted by their past actions in a way. Sethe was forced to kill her child while she was a slave due to the fact that they can't own any possessions. A woman comes to 124 Bluestone and stays because Sethe thinks it's her daughter that's come back to life and grown so essentially the house ends up haunted by her daughter. It's quite the story packed with mystery and a strange sense of haunting. This book is like a longer version of what the Yellow Wallpaper makes me feel by the end of reading it, just a lot of inadequate post read feelings. 

 Lilith Iyapo wakes up 250 years after a nuclear war. Butler works on humanizing strange concepts. This book contextualizes cross-species relationships, 200 years after the world has changed in a dystopian way she's tasked with birthing the next generation of crossbreed human aliens and figure out how to survive on this new earth, and figuring out how to accept Oankali's ways of life. There's a whole lack of consent within this story as the Oankali are forcing this cross-breed society. She learns to live amongst them but everyone in this story essentially hates the Oankali.  I think this book plays on the idea of what is being a human? How are they going to survive against this other species? Reproduction is essential to these life forms. They're expected to deal with the new normal of cross-breeding aliens. Humans are being dominated and forced to have gruesome births but they also get offered plenty of advantages in terms of technology and advances.  I thought it was

 Ghost in a Shell is perfect cyberpunk story depicting a human robot hybrid trying to find who she really is and also looking inwards into the idea of what it would be like to have more human traits and looking through the lens of being able to genetically modify herself. I thought it was perfect to read this week due to it's cyber punk nature. It's not my first time reading it but I thought it would be a good reread. She's almost used as a weapon herself during her trials and tribulations fighting crime in these S-9 missions but overall the whole book is about what it would be like if she had an actual life and didn't have to be who she is essentially. The S-9 team essentially goes on missions to track criminals and terrorists who hack networks and copy the souls of enslaved humans in order to make a profit of selling these ghosts to the black market.  I have watched and read this story previously and overall I think it's a great story of self reflection, humanizat

 Dune is my dad's favorite book so I was looking forward to read this as he gave me the physical copy. It's quite a large novel and honestly it's quite overwhelming with information. It's not the kind of novel I'd usually read; but the novel wasn't bad at all. I thought it was interesting how for such a futuristic novel based 20,000 years in the future, many norms are still in place such as feudal systems, religion and colonization. These things are never going to die. So many things are the same yet the idea of Earth is an archaic thought. It's almost like the world powers but focused solely on colonizing and becoming stewards for different planets. Like all societies, there's drug use which I found ironic considering there is a drug called Spice in real life as well. The way the enviroment is in the Dune planet, you definately need spice to get through it.  Overall, it's not what I'd usually read but I really ended up enjoying it much more then