The Turning Point

As I stated in my last blog post I don't quite get the hype behind The X-Files, but I do think there is something to be said for the third season. Since I only watched the the third season in full and quick overviews of the first two seasons I can't be sure of this, but it seems to me that the third season marks where the X-files really becomes the X-files everybody today loves.

In the overviews of the first two seasons the show seems to skip around a lot and not have a solid plotline. If this youtuber, N3RD, is able to totally summarize the first two seasons in detail in about 3 minutes each it shows that it isn't that complicated with a solid plotline. In season 3 there is a solid plotline with semi in depth charaters, I have trouble following it, but it is there. In this seaason we get more of a look at the charaters' families, such as Scully's mom and sister, while in the first two seasons mainly what we see is a sister (who turns out to be an alien clone). In the season you can follow what is happening and who the characters are, whereas the fist two seasons have more of a "monster of the week" feel.

To help my understanding of the show I watched the last episode of season 2. In this last episode it seems like the end of a season, like the story can end there. The last scene is "the cigarette smoking man" burning Mulder in a boxcar. I think that this was the sceenwriters allowing the series to start all over again. This continues in the first episode of the 3rd season, which, if shown separately, could be the beginning of a new season. Everything from the past seasons that you need to known is covered within the first episode and you can easily catch on. I think that the writers realized that the first two seasons weren't what watchers wanted, so they allowed it to be reborn.

I think that season 3 allowed to series to start over and become a show that was pone of a kind in the 90's. It was a sci-fi that wasn't totally heavy science and even followed the plotline of another story, Sherlock. While I don't particuraly enjoy the series I do appretiate it for what it is, a ground breaking science fiction show, and I believe that that all started in season 3.

X-files--sci-fi or just fiction?

   I think that the X-files slips in between science fiction and fiction throughout season 3, but for the most part it's fantasy. I think it scratches the border of science fiction. During the season  they discover many supernatural things, such as aliens, but they never really take it into the science aspect. For the most part they try to dive into "why aliens?" or like "what is happening and why?" but a big part of the series is that it is never really answered. By trying to create cliff hangers I feel like they are actually taking away from the science aspect of the show.

   I feel like the science aspect of this is a missed opportunity. They could make the show so cool if they explained more advanced technology that the aliens had. Or if they had just gone more in depth to any of the science they mentioned in the show. I know I might get a lot of backlash from saying this, but I don't get all the hype around this show. I see all the potential this show could have had, but I've just had trouble getting into it. I don't see the show as having a strong plot line and I really have trouble getting attached to the characters, and I feel like I don't have much to say about it even after watching almost an entire season. Overall I don't think that it is a bad show by any stretch of the imagination, I just don't see why it had such a following.

Chekov--The real ladies man

Chekov was put on the show to appeal to a younger audience, but from our discussion in class it appears most people don't see him as a real catch anymore, but I'm here to argue that he still is (both in the original and reboot). Here are some reasons why Chekov is a well done and perfect heart throb:

1) He isn't a stereotypical manly man, but he still fights for what he believes in. 

Chekov isn't overly manly like Kirk. He doesn't have the constant need to prove that he is the best and strongest and knows when to step down. But he is willing to step up and fight for what (or who) he believes in--as we see when the klingons start to talk trash about Kirk.

2) The power

I think that since the Enterprise is like the police force of the future their stature would have the same alluring power that police have on many girls today. It is no secret that many girls today find "a man in uniform" way more attractive than they would be without the job, so I think it is logical to say that this would apply to Chekov in the future.

3) He's young

Since Chekov is so young he appeals to the younger audiences who want a guy closer to their age instead of a guy closer to 40. 

4)The accent

Accents are great, they give a person something different, something new, and with his heavy russian accent Chekov perfectly fits the bill.

5)He's adorable

Enough said.

The only one who can come even close to comparing to Chekov is Chris Pine as Kirk

Psychology in the Frozen Journey

     I think the difference in the Victor Kemmings' views of the past in the Frozen Journey are interesting because of how vastly different they are while both still being entirely possible.
     In the beginning of the Frozen Journey Kemmings has a very positive view of the past, remembering only the best parts. In psychology this is called rosy retrospection, basically meaning that you remember and talk events from the past more favorably than they actually were. Later he remembers everything that went wrong and it taints his memories (the house falls about and the whole memory becomes dramatically depressing). Both of these ways of recalling memories are recognized in psychology.
     Right now psychologists aren't totally sure what causes these ways of remembering memories, but one main theory has to do with implicit theories. They believe that before an event happens you decided how it might turn out (think a spring break trip you think will be awesome) and with this idea in mind when you look back at the event you fail to recall the neutral moment and only remember those that proved or took down your theory. If the event you remember go along with your prediction you'll remember the whole trip with rosy retrospection, On the other hand if an event happens that causes you to be wrong you'll remember the whole trip as terrible.
      Psychologists ideas of how this effects people's future also matches up with what happened in the story pretty well. The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology states "Rosy mechanisms may help to explain why people often seem to repeat the mistakes of the past... [rosy retrospection] may suggest some reasons or circumstances where people learn less from experience than they could or should. Constantly rewriting the past in a favorable light may mean we don’t adjust to the demands of the future.” I think this idea can be seen with the bird because it is an event he forgot about or at least had altered in his mind to not be as bad (rosy retrospection) that keeps replaying itself in other memories in different forms.
     Another part of psychology that I see play out in this story is dampening, the tendency to think of current or recent events as less favorable and pleasurable than they really are. This can be seen in all of his later memories, which to him seem to be current events. It is exaggerated in this story because, since he can alter his memories, when he starts thinking of the memory as bad it actually starts to become terrible (ie the house falling apart).

The Monolith

The monolith shows up three times in the "2001: a space odyssey": with the apes, with the astronauts, and at the very end. In the beginning I thought that it was causing the evolution, but as I continued to watch I grew to believe that  it was just there to observe not only evolution, but also rise of a new dominant species.

When the monolith shows up the first time it is when the apes first learn to use weapons. This puts that group of apes above all the others, allowing them to fight and win. Later it shows up again right before we first see HAL. While HAL ended up being destroyed at the time it was created it was thought that it would grow to be the next big thing and HAL did try to take over and beome the next dominant race. Finally it shows up tight before the birth of the star baby, which I assume is better than humans as it is shown as being literally above the people on earth.

I don't think that the monolith was causing the evolution for the first two because it never moved or talked, so I don't think there was anyway for it to communicate and help the species evolve.I also think that if it had caused the evolution HAL would not have failed.

I do on the other hand think that there is an argument to be made that the monolith caused the final k evolution. I think that the monolith would have had reason to do this because the previous step in evolution (HAL) had failed, so if the monolith really was there to watch the evolutions (and maybe even check to make sure that they happened) it could have been angry that there wasn't a new species and want to create one.

One thing that really points to this to me is the holding tank like feel of the room at the end of the movie. To me the room doesn't look like a home, but instead a place where he is being kept. This could be because it is supposed to look futuristic, but we are never shown an exit, all the rooms are the same, and his way out, the ship, disappears which makes it seem like he's not supposed to leave. It could be that somebody/something else is holding him there, but the monolith seems to have the reason and did show up there.

The Martian Chronicles

   Ok, so I'm just going to give you guys a heads up I'm a huge Poe fan, so this chapter made me fan girl hard. And when I say I'm a fan I really mean it--as in I have the complete collection of Poe and have read it all, so just be forewarned.

    At the beginning of UsherII Mr. Bigelow is looking at a house modeled after the House of Usher. This house comes from Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story published in 1839. In the story the narrator, who goes unnamed, gets a letter asking him to come to the Usher house. In the Usher house lives Roderick Usher who is sick mentally and physically. The narrator describes the house by saying when he saw it "a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded [his] spirit." This is much like how throughout the martian there is the feeling by at least one of the characters that something is going to go wrong. 

     "The Fall of the House of Usher" is also very much a horror story. The narrator and Usher end up burying Usher's twin alive and when she escaped it kills Usher and the entire house collapses. I think linking this story into the Martian Chronicles really shows the horror side of the Martian Chronicles.

   Poe's stories were often what I'd call romantic horrors. Many of his short stories started out with love, such as the platonic love the narrator shows he feels for Usher by coming to help him, and then turn into a horror in a turn of events. I think this is a great reflection on "The Martian Chronicles" because it also shows elements of romance and horror in a very similar style. For example in the beginning of the book you see romance by having Ylla dream of a handsome man and then turning into horror by having the Martians trap the Humans and then eventually having the Martians all die.

   Now totally off topic there is one more thing I find interesting-- Bradbury's obsession with banned and burned books. It's addressed in Usher II by talking about Poe booked being banned and burned so nobody could read them. This is also addressed in Fahrenheit 451 where they ban books and burn all of them.  

The Time Machine versus LASA

The Time Machine is a great metaphor for many economic and social differences throughout our lives and world.  In the story, one place the main character travels to has a very obvious resemblance to a place right near our homes. In fact, for many of us we could even consider it our second home given we spend more time at it than our real homes. That's right, it's our very own LASA.  LASA's relationship with LBJ has a striking resemblance to the Eloi's relationship with the Morlocks.

The first resemblance is that of the placement. LASA is literally above LBJ the same way the Eloi live above ground while the Morlocks live underground. The second is the education level. The Eloi consider themselves, and convince others, that they are the smarter and more civilized. LASA does this too. Many of the students here have convinced themselves that LASA is better and smarter than all of LBJ, or at least give off that message. 

Before anyone takes this as remotely offensive I want to point out that the Eloi are not made out to be totally superior to the Morlocks.  In fact, the Eloi are presented as being physically lazy and weak.  Suffice it to say that LASA is not known for its athletes.

In the Time Machine, the Eloi live a life of leisure compared to the Morlocks.  The economic disparity between LASA and LBJ has been a point of contention for years and only serves to further illustrate the similarities between the characters in the book and the students at LBJ/LASA.

The biggest and most striking resemblance is one that most people don't talk about or even acknowledge: the unspoken, undying, deep fear of the other. The Eloi act as if they aren't scared of the Morlocks-- treating them like animals and having them active at a different time. But there is no denying that they are terrified of them. They won't even speak about the Morlocks without getting frazzled. This isn't because they truly believe the Morlocks are inherently bad, but instead because they know they are different. This is like LASA's relationship with LBJ because many LASA students are scared of LBJ students even if they won't admit it. The fear shows when you see people avoiding walking downstairs or talking about how "different" it is down there. 

For the most part the only stories that you hear at LASA about LBJ are about fights and drugs and how horrible it is. Much like how when reading The Time Machine the only things you hear about the Morlocks are bad-- stealing the time machine, trying to attack the narrator in the story etc. Both the relationship between LBJ and LASA and the relationship between the Eloi and the Morlocks show the fear of the other.