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.