Author: Marisa Greaney

During the process of reading and comprehending Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, there had been encounters with both ‘aha’ moments as well as moments and notions that have caused a deeper thinking.  Being registered to the 400 level course, it is almost second nature to develop certain relationships with literature in terms of analysis and understanding.  However, Butler’s Xenogenesis had, in a sense, challenged that somewhat experienced thinking and understanding.  There are certain notions that have in a way triggered my own thinking to be something deeper.  This is not my only experience with Butler’s works, the others being Bloodchild and other stories as well as Wild Seed.  While having experienced works that have required me to think in a unique way about different topics, such as the short story Bloodchild, Xenogenesis has required an even further and admittedly awkward way of thinking that is outside the normal I have become so accustomed to.  Having to encounter a new way of thinking was a welcomed challenge, especially in my final semester of undergrad.  

There was also a sense of growth that accompanied the new way of thinking, I personally feel that these have both fed into one another.  The new and complex way of thinking not only about the literature in front of me, but the world around me has been the catalyst for some of my very own and much needed personal growth.  Applying the ability that I have personally developed into trying to understand the Oankali and their own process of life has led me to become more socially intelligent, giving myself more time and care into thinking about others and how their own matters of operation and life are different from my own.  This notion was a sort of epiphany as one of the most essential parts of my future career as a teacher is the professional social relationships developed with students.  

In terms of having to think differently, Xenogenesis was a challenge to wrap my head around initially, even with an already existing interest in science fiction as a genre.  There were certain concepts, socially, about the Oankali that I could not, for the absolute life of me, understand.  That is until I stopped looking at the Oankali in a conventional human sense.  They are not human, they were not human, so why was I trying to humanize them?  The same question can actually be tied into AI and the stigma around it and its use.  

My own personal thoughts on AI and its use have grown and developed through this experience as well.  Upon coming into the class at the beginning of the semester, I did not have many positive experiences with AI especially after student teaching.  There were too many encounters with students using generative AI in bad faith.  However, through this course as well as another language course here at the college, I have found uses for AI that does not hinder the user.  Where at the beginning of the semester I would not even dare to touch a generative AI program such as ChatGPT, however now at the end of my semester there has been a certain growth in my own ability to see and handle this change in technology.  The language class I am enrolled in has introduced the idea to me that AI is not all that evil and how it can be used for one’s benefit such as to learn a new language.  This can tie into the earlier notion of thinking and understanding with the Oankali.

Seeing something in a different light is not the only factor of personal growth however.  There is a sense of having to see both sides of an argument or inherent issue to be able to grow.  It is important to see the dangers that both the Oankali and AI possess in their respective worlds.  While both somewhat different, these two entities encounter similar issues when faced towards humanity.  Both the Oankali and AI were inherently despised by humanity, both for different reasons, but eventually became accepted, albeit reluctantly.  And through this acceptance there are still naysayers.  All of this to say that these two entities are inherently similar, which was another factor into this new way of thinking and growth.  

There is a balance in everything, that is one of the main takeaways I have gathered, especially when learning about AI, its uses, and its dangers.  Not everything can be seen as inherently evil or inherently good, there are two sides to every coin.  In terms of the Oankali and the humans, what the Oankali were doing was for survival as a species, however humanity failed to see that.  Did the Oankali do that in the humanly correct way? Absolutely not, but there was a pretty viable explanation to their actions and behaviors.  

This is the same for AI, although a little different.  AI is not something that is essential for survival more than it is a tool for convenience.  However the process was somewhat the same to my own understanding, but with a different outcome.  AI was widely accepted for all of the wrong reasons, as it was not meant to replace human thinking and intelligence but to enhance it.  

What does all of this have to do with personal growth?  Well it can be described as a way of thinking, and this open-mindedness can be a path for one’s own personal growth, much like my own throughout the semester.  The skill applied in the class in terms of thinking can be applied to most everything.  In my own experience of growth throughout the semester there has been a need to take a step back and just think.  Learning how to think in a different way was a cause for much needed personal growth.   

In Octavia Butler’s Dawn there was more than one instance where I was made to be uncomfortable, and with further thought and discussion I was made to be even more uncomfortable.  There is a certain recurring theme of lack of consent, which was the most prominent discomfort in my reading experience.  There was also the superiority that the Oankali as a species exuded, and the concept of the ship itself that was a discomfort.  There was a constant string of thoughts while reading that had me questioning if the humans were truly alone, especially after learning that the ship they reside on may be a living entity itself. Upon learning the setting, there were even more questions and concerns that were set in place.  

The biggest concern, to me, was the prominent lack of consent that was practiced by many of the characters in the book.  This notion was planted in the beginning of the novel and is revealed to the reader when they discover that the last remaining humans have been rescued and kept under the care of the Oankali.  This in itself is not something that the humans have wanted, many of them may have already come to terms with the inevitable downfall of the human race as a whole.  A second instance is where Lilith had discovered a scar on her abdomen sometime between her second and third Awakenings.  In this instance she had no memory of where it had come from or how she had gotten it, until later on where she was told by Jdahya.  Here is where Jdahya explains how her body was genetically modified, against her own will and knowledge, to reabsorb her tendency for cancer.  This was one of the first proverbial red flags waving in my headspace.  This example of non-consent shook me to my core, as a reader I find myself seeing vivid images of certain events in my head. The thought and visualization of this procedure was enough to make me put the book down for the night and clear my mind.  

This was only one of the first examples where lack of consent was practiced by the Oankali.  Another example of this is the rescuing of humans as a whole.  While this particular example is not quite as disturbing as the previous, I feel that the actions that Oankali had taken to preserve humanity can be seen as disturbing, especially considering the lengths that the extraterrestrial society has taken to preserve the humans. The scene where Lilith is shown the suspended animation pods that the humans are kept in between awakenings and where Kahguyhat briefly explains the gene trades the Oankali participate in.  It is in this scene where Lilith says “It’s one thing to do that to a plant.  It’s another to do it to intelligent, self-aware beings” (Butler 60).  While in this scene, Lilith is told that the Oankali had not done her or the other humans on the ship any harm, there is still some doubt that the Oankali would “…make mules of our children…” (Butler 60).  Although the gene trade is essential for the survival of the Oankali, there is the notion that they, as a species, do not participate in a mutual trade when trading with other sentient beings.  As Lilith had said, it is one thing to alter and trade genes with the suspended animation pods, as they are plants and are not capable of consent.  However there is the implication that the Oankali had been trading genes and modifying the humans, who are capable of consent, without consent.  Some of these trades or modifications have even been made without the knowledge of the human, for example Lilith in the beginning of the novel when her tendency for cancer was removed genetically.  

The most outright disturbing moment in the novel is at the end.  This was the moment that made me inherently disgusted with the Oankali, who I had finally begun to warm up too.  This moment in particular is when the other humans that Lilith had awakened were moved down to Earth without her.  Lilith had been told she was left behind for her own good and her own safety, but why would she need to be protected as she had been genetically modified (willingly, this time) to be stronger and more resilient as compared to the rest of the humans?  The reason for this protection? Nikanj had done something unspeakable and horrifying, It had made Lilith pregnant with her and the recently deceased Joseph’s child all without her knowledge before doing so.  Lilith had protested upon finding out, saying that she was not ready to have another child, especially one that was going to be different than that of a normal human.  The response that Nikanj had for this had truly rocked my world, it has said “ And you are ready to be her mother.  You could never have said so.  Just as Joseph could never have invited me into his bed – no matter how much he wanted me there.  Nothing about you but your words reject this child.” (Butler 282).  This response, especially the last sentence essentially says that Lilith’s body was ready and that she wanted this, even though her mind and consciousness did not know itself.  This was something that reminded me of victim blaming in cases of sexual assault in the world today, where a common reasoning for this diabolical action is “Well they were asking for it”.  This was the most utterly disgusting action performed by Nikanj in the entire novel, in my opinion.  

This leaves the questions of what else will the Oankali do in terms of not respecting the autonomy of the humans on the ship as the trilogy continues.  Do they eventually learn and respect this autonomy? Do they become more attuned to human social cues and body language  as opposed to reading their ‘internal’ cues, much like Nikanj had done at the end of the novel.  That is the thing that I look forward to the most in the rest of the trilogy.

In my own personal experience, I had not dared to touch the new generative AI platforms such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGBT, or Google Gemini when they were first released.  Up until just a few weeks ago at the start of the semester, the only ways that I had experienced AI was when peers were using the platforms to check their homework.  I have even had students blatantly use generative AI programs to complete their in class assignments.  With somewhat negative experiences being some my first with this newer technology, you can say it had left a sour taste in my mouth especially as an upcoming teacher.  Having watched students of mine and even some of my own peers sacrifice essential parts of their education and skill building by using generative AI programs to do critical work for them set off proverbial alarm bells in my own head about the use of these programs.  These are not the only experiences that I have had with generative AI, as was mentioned in class by Josie, many of the companies behind these programs are stealing artworks from social media platforms and using it to train their AI programs.  This was something I had been aware of as someone who interacts with many artists and their communities online.  Many of those artists were not comfortable with ‘Big AI’ stealing their works, so much so that many of them have created an ‘Anti AI’ overlay for their digital works in an effort to try and fool the AI and keep it from stealing their works.  As of now however, I do not know if this pattern still works to combat AI art theft.  Upon finding this out when mindlessly scrolling through various social media platforms, I had found myself becoming increasingly weary of this new technology, especially as these platforms have shown to negatively impact things that myself and others find great pleasure in.   

With having so many negative experiences with AI, you can imagine the shock I felt when the use of generative AI programs was required for a class that I am taking this semester.  There were a multitude of initial thoughts that were initially negative about having to use AI for my own learning, although after a few seconds there was further explanation into the required use of these programs.  The class was taught how to use these programs to their benefit through a series of somewhat complex prompts to the AI.  As an example, the class was taught how to effectively prompt an AI into acting as a tutor for a given subject, asking it to provide explanations and ask questions based on the given subject.  This had blown my mind, I had only seen and heard that AI had been used in bad faith and could not believe that it was regularly used and could be used with good faith and still benefit the user.    

That one class has sparked a change in my own use of generative AI programs and I now find myself using it multiple times a week to help benefit my own academics.  Before that one introduction of how someone can properly use generative AI to benefit them while at the same not hindering them.  This has made me hopeful towards the increased use of AI by students especially,  showing skeptics like myself that these programs were made to help us and not hinder us like many bad faith users have been doing to themselves.  While there are still challenges with bad faith users and certain bad faith practices with the developers of AI, it is still something that is inherently new in the technological world.  

Although being essentially forced to use these AI programs and slowly becoming more comfortable with its use, I am of course still skeptical.  As mentioned before, there is a certain hope with the continued development of these programs that can be proven to be incredibly beneficial to human society.  I firmly believe that with tighter regulations on the use of AI in certain spaces, such as professional spaces, it can be used in good faith to improve certain things such as productivity and intelligence as a whole.  Upon learning how to properly prompt and use a generative AI chatbot, Microsoft Copilot personally, my mind started racing with ways that I can use the program to better my own quality of life as a student.  I have since started minimally playing with the program to see what it is capable of as a tutor with certain subjects, some of which I am already familiar with to see what the AI already knows.  As expected based on what we have already discussed at length during class meetings, there were some discrepancies when it came to some of the more obscure information of the topics that the AI was tested with.  

There is a childlike hope in myself that with the perfection of AI development years down the line, that the upcoming generations will be more intelligent.  Of course as a rising teacher this is a sort of selfish desire of mine, not in the sense that it may make my own future career easier, but more in the sense that the future generations can live a more fulfilling life.  This hope has some grounds as it was shown to us in the article titled “Meet the ‘super users’ who tap AI to get ahead at work” by The Washington Post talks about AI users that have learned how to properly prompt the AI programs to be more efficient in their work.  These users have essentially taught AI to do some aspects of their work without being a hindrance to the person themselves and the final product of this work.  With this new efficiency, AI users may have more time to indulge in their own hobbies or spend more time with their family and friends as well.    

There was a point in my academic career when I was approached by peers, colleagues, and even family members about my stance on the use of AI as a rising teacher and if I was worried that the generative AI would be a hindrance to my career.  While even now with a newfound appreciation for generative AI programs, there is still uncertainty of how it can negatively affect my future, especially with these programs in their ‘infant’ stage.  As with most things, the programs start rough and unrefined, but may ultimately become better versions of themselves.  While generative AI users may be using the shiny and new programs in bad faith, there is a certain hope that with stronger regulations among its use there will be an increase in good faith users that can start to outweigh the negative stigma that generative AI has surrounding it.    

Makayla Garrison, Jenna McFarland, Marisa Greaney, Sage Kearney, Lauryn Bennett, Katie Lyons, McKinley Skala

In Nnedi Okorafor’s novel, Lagoon, the ‘aliens’ play multiple roles in Lagos, Nigeria.  To some, depending on the perspective , their roles were carried out negatively to some characters and positively to others. The ‘aliens’ act as a form of katechon, despite the chaos that has erupted from their arrival. Humans have created their own problems, while the aliens just want to coexist with them. The existence of the ‘aliens’ almost prevents them from spiraling into total apocalypse despite the fact that they have been viewed as, and treated, very negatively throughout the book. They have not acted evil of their own volition, but mostly in response to the evil done to them by humans. When they witness something horrific done by humans, they step in to rectify their evil. 

The definition of ‘alien’ does not have any negative denotations, though society gives this word a negative connotation.  If we used ‘alien’  according to its denotative meaning, then it would just simply mean someone different from a foreign place, which would also connote change. Most often alien is a term used to describe immigrants or those from one country seeking to gain entry into another one. In this novel, the connotation of aliens being from outer space, or extraterrestrial, is used more prominently. This is a topic that has become highly politicized as there is much stigma surrounding people who are different and from another place seeking entry into a different nation. These same negative feelings connect to the way the people in Lagoon react to the water people arriving, as they simply desire to coexist with humans. They have never declared any negative intentions. Humans in the novel begin to react negatively and spiral into chaos as a reaction, but it stems from their own bad faith as the water people have not done anything harmful to humans when they first arrived. 

When comparing perceptions, generally adults and children have different and sometimes conflicting views of situations. Children are inherently good. They don’t have reason to fear the worst until they have been taught to do so, either by upbringing or experience. In the context of the novel, as the aliens arrive, the children view it positively and are eager to welcome these new beings, “Kola squealed with glee and exclaimed, ‘This is the happiest night of my life!’” (Okorafor, 180). Kola is eager to interact and meet these beings because they are new and exciting. Her reaction contrasts with the way many of the adults are either scared or condemn their presence without prior justification. The way that stigma is placed on aspects of society and that the humans have overreacted to the arrival of these aliens is highlighted throughout the children’s reactions, because they have not given any reason to suspect harm. Adults have already lived through countless harmful and deceitful experiences, so they already have reasons to doubt strangers (especially aliens, especially so given the negative connotation of the word). Adults do not have the innocent and trusting minds that they once had when they were children themselves. It takes time to trust in strangers whereas children start with trust and develop suspicions and doubts with time. When Ayodele proved who she was to the president and his advisors, “the soldiers guarding the president dropped their guns, the wives screamed, and one of his advisor’s fainted. The pilot fell to his knees and began to vomit. The president watched with wide eyes” (Okorafor, 217). These adults of such high status and power reacted in ways that resembled the actions of an infant. They cried, vomited, ran, and shied away from Ayodele as they immediately perceived her as a threat to themselves and the human race. The president managed to bring himself together as he knew he had a major role to play in the bringing together of Nigeria and Ayodele’s people. 

From each character introduced in Lagoon, the reader is able to clearly determine whether that character deems the alien emergence as an invasion or an arrival of the city of Lagos. For example, Fisayo believed Ayodele’s intentions were to take over Nigeria. Fisayo believed, “the alien woman had hijacked her phone. She was speaking about taking over Nigeria. Fissayo shut her phone … This was the rapture, the apocalypse, the end.” (Okorafor, 129). Ayodele was merely announcing the arrival of her people and was emphasizing their wish to coexist with the people of Nigeria. Fisayo came to this conclusion simply because there was a foreign individual on her phone announcing their sudden arrival. She reacted negatively based on pre-existing notions of aliens and what their arrival has been interpreted as based on stigma and negative representations. Fisayo’s blind fear caused her to instill fear and panic in those around her, particularly with her sign: “Repent. Lagos will never be destroyed” and her split-second killings of innocent Lagosians. Many other Lagosians initially reacted in a similar way to Fisayo, and sought to rid their city of these trespassers with whatever means necessary. People automatically believed these otherworldly creatures as invaders of Lagos and intended to cause harm to its citizens, but they have only communicated that they wish to live in harmony with humans. Ayodele announces to the world, “In less than twenty-four hours, I have seen love, hate, greed, ambition, and obsession among you … I have seen compassion, love, hope, sadness, insecurity, art, intelligence, ingenuity, corruption, curiosity, and violence. This is life. We love life” (Okorafor, 112). From the short time that Ayodele has been on Earth, she has witnessed all of these concepts in action. Ayodele realized that humans are intense, emotional beings and are constantly acting in their own self-interest. Humans took on the idea of us versus everyone else to get through this time of stress and the unknown. Humans protected themselves and their loved ones and left everyone else to fend for themselves. She has viewed all the good and bad, and despite the bad, still did not wish to cause harm to the people of Lagos. Humans have not recognized this as they cannot see past her existence as someone foreign and unknown.

The human reaction to the alien arrival showed their true nature; they took the arrival of the aliens as a reason to go off the rails and cause mass destruction, and stigma against the arrival of something new and different from them. Even when they had the opportunity to show their humanity in this situation, they rather showed selfishness and betrayal. Although the alien arrival did spark this behavior, the humans showed that they were always capable of this violence because there was nothing forcing them to react in this way. They have proven to be the actual evil despite their fear, “He could almost smell her. Peasant he thought. Rubbish. Filth. But he would take her money” (Okorafor, 59). Father Oke is a prime example of the problem of judgment, greed, and overall evil within society before the presence of the water people had even become widely known. Multiple other examples also protrude throughout the book with the discourse among the 419 hackers, the plan of Moziz and Philo to steal Ayodele, and the area boys aiming to provide nothing but torment to the surrounding area. There was already so much negativity pent up, that the humans used the arrival of this new species to unleash it all, “Agu understood that they were angry at Lagos, angry at Nigeria, angry at the world. The alien invasion was just an excuse to let it all out” (Okorafor, 173). Agu presents this sentence in a way that seems to almost justify their actions, due to their anger at the world, but humans also created the problems that curated such frustration. The refusal to change even went as far as to be rooted within the government, “When had the Nigerian government and military done anything for its people?” As soon as the opportunity presented itself, the humans took advantage of what they perceived as the apocalypse to steal objects, harm others, and basically do what they wanted while they had the chance. They used this opportunity for bad, rather than good. The president even reveals this in his broadcasted speech to Nigeria, “We tore at our own flesh last night, as we have done many times in the past. Now, as we hurt from the pain and loss, let our minds clear. And see” (Okorafor, 277). It was not the aliens who burned buildings, destroyed cars, beat people, and wreaked havoc in the streets of Lagos; it was human beings. The president urges the people of Nigeria to open their eyes and set aside their internal perceptions to make room for change and the betterment of their country. The evil of the humans generates strong contrast between their actions and the actual good that the arrival of this new species has presented. Ayodele sought to heal a human child, despite the fact that she had bee greatly harmed. Not only this, but others of the same species were able to change the mindset of people who were previously very comfortable with harming others for their own gain, “But this woke me up. The coming of Ijele. I am not being melodramatic and I am not crazy. And I am not out of danger. But I will never practice fraud again. Never. I swear” (Okorafor 199). They have no reason to be kind to the society that has been nothing but malicious and skeptical towards them, but still aim to protect humans nevertheless.

Throughout Lagoon we see many instances of humans eager to cause destruction and harm without thinking twice. These actions highlight the way that humanity has already had a problem to be solved, and that the aliens have brought no real harm to them. In fact, they have  mostly had a positive impact on the lives of many who have interacted with them throughout the book. If anything, the aliens themselves are the katechontic force preventing them from spiraling totally out of control. Whenever something truly threatens the humans, the aliens would step in and save them. The actions that the humans had taken during the first instance of stress, when the aliens landed off the coast of Bar Beach, the Nigerian Government had instantly assumed the worst. This skepticism carried on throughout the novel within the country despite the fact that they had not overtly caused any real harm to humans. When the situation turned out to be much more intense, but not dangerous, than initially expected, Lagos erupted into chaos. Many took advantage of that chaos to cause more harm than the aliens had ever intended.  These actions can reflect more broadly on the hesitation of humans to accept good change. The same applies to both extraterrestrial aliens, and the aliens that deal with foreigners traveling between nations. Humans apply the same evil both ways. 

Marisa Greaney

McCoy

26 September 2022

Essay 1

When initially registering for classes this semester, I looked over the list of English courses almost constantly.  I had narrowed down the seemingly endless list of choices to only two or three.  After mulling it over and experimenting with other configurations for my schedule, I had ultimately picked the one I wanted to take based on the name, ‘Black Apocalyptic Fiction’ seemed to stand out the most, and my excitement for the upcoming semester only grew.  In the summer leading up to the current semester, there was many conversations among friends and coworkers as to what is in store for us in the near future.  While some had chosen not to pursue a higher education, most of us had discussed the classes we are going to take in the upcoming semester.   

When having these discussions, the mention of the course name ‘Black Apocalyptic Fiction’ was not only mentioned quite a few times but had also piqued the interest of some of my friends and coworkers.  Most had similar reactions such as mentioning how interesting that sounds or why can’t their school offer such interesting courses and my college is so boring.  Many asked what the course materials are or what is being read in the class, and I could only answer with a simple “I’m not too sure” or “if I’m honest I cannot really tell you”.  While thinking about it one night after a long day at work, I had thought to myself “what does this course have in store?”.  While thinking to myself, I thought of what most people would think of as ‘The Apocalypse’ and concluded it to be some sort of devastating event that could be seen as the end of humanity and even life itself on our planet.  During this, my mind started to race as to what kind of apocalyptic stories we could be reading throughout the semester, my mind instantly wondered to the many, many apocalyptic medias I’ve consumed throughout my lifetime, my excitement for this course only growing. 

When the course content was released to us on a Thursday in July, I was on a field trip for the summer camp I worked at.  This could not have come at a better time, since this was the longest trip of the camp season, and we were on the bus back home.  I had thought that now was the perfect time to review the course materials.  While initially reading through, I did not gather all the information about what the ‘apocalypse’ part of this course was, as I was more interested in reading the grading policy and the assignment list before tuning my attention back into the bus full of campers I was supposed to be monitoring.  That had been the first and only time I went through the course materials before the start of the new semester.   

            My first introduction with the ‘apocalypse’ that we are to become familiar with throughout the semester was within the Andrew Santana Kaplan article Notes Toward (Inhabiting) the Black Messianic in Afro-Pessimism’s Apocalyptic Thought. Santana Kaplan explains in his work that the meaning of apocalypse is the end of worlds, similarly to what we think of when we hear the word.  Although he expands on this idea and goes further to define the concept as that, the ending of a world, but alongside the revelation of errors within said world.  In simpler terms, Andre Santana Kaplan describes the apocalypse as the ending of a world, while also realizing the mistakes the world, or the person or people inhabiting that world, has made to get to this apocalyptic point.  The term ‘world’ in these definitions does not necessarily mean the planet in which we are living or the setting in which a story takes place in a work of fiction, it instead means a personal world, something akin to moving to a new place and leaving your old world behind. 

Within Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed, we see not only one, but two examples of this definition of apocalypse.  The novel includes the ends of two separate worlds, one being that of Doro, and the other being that of Anyanwu.  Towards the end of the novel, Doro has the revelation that the way he has been living his extremely long life, had been harmful to those around him such as his children.  In this realization Doro’s own personal world starts to change not only by itself but with his own effort if he wants to keep Anyanwu in his life.  On the other hand, the personal world of Anyanwu ended with the meeting of Doro, who showed her many things and ultimately changed how she would continue to live her immortal life. 

            Based off both the novel and the Santana Kaplan Article, we can gather that there is more than one definition for ‘the apocalypse’.  In your typical media consumed by the masses, the apocalypse or an apocalyptic event is one of extreme world ending abilities and the definition of the word that I speculate that we would be using throughout the remainder of the “Black Apocalyptic Fiction” course is the one that was explained in the words of Andrew Santana Kaplan, and given to us in Butlers Wild Seed as an example.  Another example of Santana Kaplans definition of the apocalypse is present in Percival Everett’s novel American Desert, where the life of an ordinary man is ended (quite literally) and his world changes from the one he used to know, to this new and unfamiliar one after his strange resurrection from the dead.   

            Based off the events of American Desert, the events of Wild Seed and the content of Andrew Santana Kaplan’s article, one can speculate that the upcoming course content would contain the ending of one’s personal world.  Something I have come to expect based on what has been discussed and reviewed for class is a further understanding of a personal apocalypse, as I have some to call it.  Another thing I am looking for in this course is trying to figure out what constitutes a personal apocalypse other than just a personal world ending revelation, or a fated event that was shown to us in Butler’s Wild Seed and Everett’s American Desert.