Month: November 2017

According to those infected, the most powerful effects of the Clay’s Ark disease are it’s compulsions. The heightened survival instincts and the need to infect others haunts the members of the secluded ranch and eventually the Maslin family as well. Throughout the novel these characters describe the microorganism as completely non-human, but maybe they are overlooking some crucial connections between themselves and the virus.

Drive reduction theory is a motivational theory that attempts to explain why we as human feel the desire to preform or behave in certain ways. The theory states that humans act in ways to reduce drives, such as eating to reduce the feeling of hunger, and returns the body to homeostasis, the steady internal state.
We many times speak of the microorganism with the idea of it’s differences in mind, but I feel that its important to take into account the similarities between it and humanity.

Continue reading “Animal Instincts”

As a communication major with a specialization in media, I often think about what something might like in a movie or television show when reading books in class. This idea has always been something I think about because the way that a scene is written in a book is so different from the way that it is written in a script that it can often change the way that we feel about the setting, the characters, and the scene in general. This really came to mind when we were discussing Clay’s Ark. Continue reading “Clay’s Ark or Vampire Movies?”

In class on Friday (November 3rd), we were asked to think of what we wanted at the end of Dawn. As the group I was in began to think about this question of what we wanted, I started to think about what I didn’t want to happen. Throughout the semester, I have noticed that Octavia Butler is constantly pushing us as well as reminding us to stay aware of our surroundings. In Lillith’s Brood (specifically Dawn and Adulthood Rites) I find her constantly making us comfortable with our characters and their situations, only to change them and make us readjust. As discussed in class on Friday, it’s both interesting and incredibly frustrating.

Continue reading “Don’t Get Too Comfortable”

Continue reading “Closing the Book and Walking Away”

One of the main questions formed when reading Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood trilogy, is, “what does it mean to be human?”. Within this work, an alien species called the Oankali, find the Earth nearly destroyed by a nuclear war and try to preserve what is left of humanity. The Oankali do this by incorporating some of their own DNA into the remaining humans as well as what will become humanity’s children. By doing this, they are not only NOT saving humanity, they are making humans an extinct species. Continue reading “Oankali and Humanity”

Last week the class reviewing the discussion we had with Professor Kennison and Professor Muench a few weeks ago about voluntourism. The group discussed ways to better prepare students traveling to foreign countries for the first time and how to approach cultural differences. One way we thought to address this concern was by exposing students to some culture values and norms before going to a foreign country. Continue reading “Advice for Blake”

The ending of Clay’s Ark has really stuck with me and I find myself still trying to find meaning in it. In particular, I have been thinking a lot about a character that I know many others in class are also thinking about: Blake. Continue reading “Dooming the World”

It’s true that the human population is full of unique individuals, for we are not a species that are meant to be carbon copies of each other. Despite our status as one species (or more like the remaining one after evolution) for hundreds of thousands of years, a deeply rooted xenophobia still exists in today’s modern world. Lately, the term “species” still un/conconsciously equates to “race” despite all the scientific evidence that says otherwise. Not everyone may have grown up in the same conditions as everyone else but that doesn’t mean we can’t be aware of these differences as a society and handle them in a respectable and appropriate manner. Continue reading ““Understanding” Your Place”

In class last week, we had a group discussion on Institutional Review Boards, which is described by the FDA as “an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects”. Additionally, IRB’s approve research, protect human rights during research, and also disapprove certain research if need be.

We also talked about how IRBs fail to protect human rights on occasions more frequent than we would hope. There are several examples of this from the texts we’ve read throughout the course of this semester thus far. One example in specific that comes to mind is from a recent reading in Medical Apartheid. In chapter 11, when it talks about 126+ African American boys between the ages of 6 and 10 were tested with a drug fenfluramine to determine if violent behavior in these children could be biological. Later in the chapter, the book states that “children cannot give informed consent, because they cannot understand the medical procedures, or weigh the risks and benefits of participating in medical research”. With this in mind, researches will turn to parental control, but this can also lead to problems for the child. This is one clear problem from the text that came to mind in class last week when having this discussion on IRBs. Clearly, something needs to change to keep experiments such as this one from occurring.

I found an article called “Ten Ways to Improve IRBs” that suggests one good example that can spark a change in those IRBs that fail to protect the human rights of it’s participants. The article states that it is necessary to clarify the powers of IRBs. It says that many institutions do not do this, which can result in IRBs becoming informal, educational bodies that make suggestions and modify consent. I’m not saying that all IRBs need improving, but there are most certainly necessary improvements needed within some.This example from the article would be a good place to start, and it would prevent the modification of consent, such as the study that I mentioned from Medical Apartheid.