Pynchon - Blog 10

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
April 23, 2009

Pynchon – Blog 10

Going further into Pynchon’s “Against the Day,” I feel more and more confused as I progress. The book has quite a lot of characters and subplots that it is quite hard to keep track of things and also is somewhat annoying. I am left to assume that the book will account for all these somewhat separate plots as the book concludes. The characters themselves are not well developed and this was in some sense a big turnoff for me and I hope that the rest of the book is more rewarding in that respect. The book is quite heavy in my opinion and it does not settle down into a strong single plot. I wonder if the author intended to structure the book with so many characters and plots or if this is a result of Pynchon’s natural style.

Blog #9 - Conclusion Ignatius Donnelly

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
April 7, 2009

I found that the book got more and more dark as I read through it. I did not quite like how donnelly chose to get rid of his key problems in the book. First of all, the entire idea of destruction was completely unnecessary. While in the very early stages of the book, I thought that the book would move towards a political uprising to create a utopia in America itself rather than see its end. Society today relies on the idea of political self improvement rather than sheer destruction.

Also, I really wonder why Donnelly chose Uganda to be the true Utopia in the book. Currently Uganda is politically and economically struggling and in the book it is shown to be a place where people are equal and living how man was supposed to live. I find this contrast quite interesting. Furthermore, right now America is the worlds richest and most powerful nation and Donelly represents it as a dystopia which begs the question of what happens to Uganda in its future after the conclusion of the book. It was shown as a utopia but then I felt that it could have also went the other way.

Blog#8 - Donnelly

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
March 31, 2009
Blog #8
This was indeed a very interesting novel and I have not read a book like this before. It is a novel which portrays a utopia at a time in the future. The book is organized into letters which Gabriel writes to his brother. I found it a very effective way of narrating the story in first person. There are some key aspects of the book which jumped out at me which I felt the need to address.
At first, in chapter one , the reader pictures a perfect utopia with the description of New York which Gabriel portrays in his letter to his brother. Future New York is shown as a perfect place to live with its technology, its size and it being simply the pinnacle of human society. However, as one progresses into the book, future New York is shown as a dystopia of sorts. New York gets worse through the chapters as more is revealed on the political problems of the city.
The book holds a lot of political references in my opinion which may or may not be intended by the author. First of all, Africa is portrayed to be still a third world sort of place even if it is substantially better off than it is now. It is a dystopia in the future world portrayed. African countries seem much more organized though. This could be something the author intended for the reader to think about. Jews are noted to be the wealthiest and the noblest of the people in New York. I am not saying that the Donelly is making a statement of the future but I was just posed the question why he chose to specify this on multiple occasions in the book.

Blog #7

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
March 10, 2009
The novel “Whitechapel Gods” immediately confused me as I was reading the first few chapters. S.M. Peters writes in a very disconnected way I felt. Between each chapter the book jumped from one scene to another very abruptly in my opinion. I was for the most part unable to make certain links between what the characters were doing and what the true identity of the characters was. Oliver, Tommy and Missy were the first characters which I actually followed as sort of the ‘main characters’ and as I kept reading, I became interested in what kind of people they were. However, I was very confused and really couldn’t keep up with the things going on with them. This did not bother me though. In all honesty, this actually made me keep reading the book to see what was really going on. There were also many plot twists and turns in the book and I felt that the book was indeed fast paced. The identity of Aaron was in particular quite surprising to me.
Another thing which interested me about the book was the image that Peters produced of Whitechapel. The city of Whitechapel was a section of London during Victorian times and is portrayed in the book as a very vile place to live. First, there is no freedom as it is ruled by these machines which Bailey and the other men are rebelling against. The city is blocked off by the gods and there is no free movement. Secondly, Peters describes the general aura of the city to be so polluted and dull due to the dominance of the factories and machines which spat out waste and smoke in the air. This may sound farfetched but I do think that Peters may be making a claim on the future of mankind.

Blog #6

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
March 3, 2009
I quite enjoyed the movie “The Prestige” and it was my first time watching that movie. I did find some aspects of it mysterious and mind boggling. In terms of the death of the wife of Angier, I found it quite sudden and I felt that one minute underwater is not quite enough to kill someone. Could the movie be creating an effect that life is quite fickle. The incident also sparked the rivalry of the two main characters. I felt that the rivalry erupted between the two so suddenly.
Another aspect of the movie which I felt was interesting was the way in which they portrayed the rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. At Tesla’s display of his electrical invention, people are shown to panic and leave the building. This was due to the influence of Edison who declared that Tesla’s alternating current was dangerous and it was very interesting that the movie chose to address this. There are more instances which depict this rivalry such as when Angier threatens Tesla that he would go to Edison and also when the innkeeper informs Angier that Edison’s men are outside the hotel.
Angier and to some extent Boldon go to such lengths to get back at each other and for the sake of magic. Both men become so obsessed with the stage and with tricks that they compromise anything to achieve their goals. Angier drowns himself on every performance and recreates himself. This is in my opinion a very horrendous thing to do. Could the movie be suggesting that humans are selfish and competitive by nature? I did feel that the movie portrayed the dark side of humans to show the true character of people.

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
February 25, 2009
The reading, Ted Chiangs “seventy-two letters”, was quite frankly weird. Being steampunk, I did expect it to be this way but in the end I was still confused in some ways. The story was quite similar in structure and plot with the stories portrayed by many Japanese anime movies today. I also noticed that the story had strong steampunk characteristics. For instance, the story was set in England which is typical of steampunk. While reading the story a few questions came to my mind.
Willoughby pressures Stranton and tells him that his idea of making automata to do the “easy work” of the people is not a just idea. Stranton believes that his idea is going to be a positive effect on the world. The question which I was posed with was if Stranton was just in his efforts. Stranton’s efforts were not much different from efforts to increase mechanization throughout human history and I feel that there was nothing wrong in doing so. Stranton also explained that he did not intend to replace sculptors but rather only to aid the manual aspect of it.
Furthermore, I quite found the ending to be quite a steampunk ending and I was not completely satisfied with it. I understand that it is a style of ending but I was left hanging in my opinion when the problem at hand was not fully resolved.

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
January 27, 2009
The introduction to steampunk truly gave me a new perspective on this style of writing. Previously, I grouped everything into simply science fiction. While reading what steampunk really was I did feel that I had encountered many steampunk books, shows and movies and had not recognized them as part of any specific genre. The introduction described steampunk as giving more power to the invention than the inventor and I did find this true in the examples the book gave on Japanese steam punk. The introduction illustrates the difference between edisonades and steampunk. One question which came to mind was if second generation steam punk was truly different than the edisonades. Second generation steam punk did not have the urban setting, the melancholy style or the “punk” feel to it. This to me was quite similar to the edisonades. I did however get the feel that the edisonades were still more optimistic than second generation steam punk.
Regarding “Further Considerations of Afrofuturism,” I was posed with a series of questions. I still cannot fully agree with the idea that science fiction is indeed playing a major role in the prediction of the economic and social future of Africa. Investors or corporations are hardly the audience for media generating an image of utopia or dystopia regarding Africa. Afrofuturism does not play as major or widespread a role as is described.

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
January 27, 2009
On reading the Devil in the White City, a few thoughts came to mind. In my opinion, the death of Root came quite sudden. Root was playing a major role as one of the architects and as Burham’s best friend. Dora, Root’s second wife, calls Burham and tells him that Root is ill with pneumonia. Burham goes to visit Root and suddenly Root dies. This was a major crises for Burham as all his work towards the exposition was done hand in hand with Root. As such I was quite taken aback as in only a couple of pages, Root went from healthy to dead.
I found the chapter “The Black City” quite interesting. Larson’s description of Chicago was intriguing as it gave a foundation for the events to come later in the book. He mentions the crime, fire and the fact that working women were at a risk. I was particularly influenced by how Larson ended that chapter in which he says “it was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago on the eve of the exposition.”(12)

Aniruddha Joshi
English 1102
Dr Reynolds
January 14, 2009
On reading chapters six to ten, I was posed with a couple of questions. It was indeed an interesting part of the book. Personally, it was interesting to observe the behaviors of the main characters through those three chapters.
Jadwin, once at the top of the pit, crashes to the bottom in one day. Is primarily due to Cressler’s suicide, his failure in business skills, or due to poor luck? The most likely reason in my opinion is the suicide of Cressler. On the day that Jadwin received the the news of Cressler’s death, he was in emotional turmoil. He made these decisions in that mental state and this may have resulted in his failure. Jadwin had predicted the market correctly on previous occasions and hence it is more likely that his emotional issues played a much larger role than business skill or luck.
Laura feelings towards her husband and towards Corthell caught my attention. Throughout the reading, I was attempting to answer the question of whether Laura wishes for and enjoys Corthell’s company because she is lonely from the marriage of her husband with his work or because she genuinely likes Corthell and the art which they appreciate together. This is a difficult to answer as I personally do not feel that Laura’s relationship with Corthell would have existed as such if Jadwin was around in the house. Hence, it can be inferred that the absence of Jadwin is a cause of the relationship. However, I cannot deny that Laura does like Corthell and the knowledge and skill at art that he possesses. The question can be answered by saying that both can be causes to the relationship but I still cannot decide on which is the stronger reason.

Aniruddha Joshi

English 1102

Dr Reynolds

January 14, 2009

“The Pit” by Frank Norris was a very interesting book thus far. While I was reading the first chapter of the book I was posed with the question of why Laura had a very uninterested tone towards Corthell while he was expressing his love to her when suddenly in the same conversation she cries out that she is extremely glad that he loves her. Furthermore, on the way back to her home she again internally accepts that she does not love Corthell. Her actions do tend to be a little confusing to me. I do feel that many of the romantic conflicts which occur in the book could well have been avoided if she were to be completely honest with the gentlemen rather than, in effect, raise their expectations only to disappoint them in the end. I understand that she would be looking for company and hence would have liked Corthell’s love in that way but I do feel that her behavior was somewhat unnecessary. Laura’s behavior as a whole was quite difficult for me to relate to and I did feel that the character did fluctuate a bit through the course of the first five chapters.

I feel that Norris has successfully managed both the romantic side and the business side of his novel very well. However, I did find them to be somewhat disconnected at times. This may not be such a bad thing but nonetheless it did grab my attention. I found that Norris moved from Laura to the Pit in a very sudden manner at times. For instance in chapter two the reader has his full focus on Laura and in chapter 3 the reader is suddenly dragged to the Pit.