(Im)Possibilities

In an interview with Randall Kenan, Octavia Butler spends a great deal of time resisting the labels Kenan presents to her. Immediately, she is contrary to the idea that her writing might be “speculative fiction” rather than science fiction or fantasy (Francis, 27). While reading “Bloodchild,” select interviews with Butler, and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet I considered the ways language categorizes people and what the resistance to such labels says about those people. In this post, I tried to reconcile my readings with what Butler talks about in her interviews. Continue reading ““What’s in a Name?” Categorization in Butler’s Fiction and Romeo+Juliet”

Hi!

Throughout history, there have been divisions among people based off of external qualities. Some of these qualities included skin color, eye color, hair type, etc. These qualities form categories based on race. In biology, there is no genetic code that defines what race one is. There are small variations in strains of DNA between the human species. Many experiments have been done to look for something that simply isn’t there. Continue reading “The false Illusion of race”

Before diving into the main focus I wish to present within this blog post, I would just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild. I was completely unable to predict where the story would go at any point within this work and that made this reading all the more enjoyable.

What I wish to discuss here is the relationship between the Tlic and humans and whether this connection is mutualistic or parasitic. For clarification purposes, mutualism will be defined as having both parties benefit from the abilities of the other. However, parasitic will be defined as a one-sided relationship in which only one party benefits and has the potential to harm the second party. Continue reading “Reaction to Bloodchild”

Throughout today’s society, racism is predominant in various culture.

On 9/6 we viewed a Ted Talk on culture. This Ted Talk stood out to me because the speaker, who is from Nigeria, discussed how she had a house boy growing up and throughout her life, the speaker was told on multiple occasions, that their house boy was poor. The speaker grew up believing that her house boy was uncultured and him and his family were incapable of basic life function. The speaker then visited where her house boy lives and was surprised to see that her house boys brother weaved a basket by hand. She was surprised to see this because she assumed her whole life that her house boys worth was based solely off of money and that poor people were incapable of most things. Later on in the talk the speaker shares an experience of when the roles were reversed. The speaker talks about when she attended college and had an American roommate. Her american roommate told the speaker she was shocked that her English was so good but was surprised when the speaker responded by saying English is the first language in Nigeria. Her roommate also asked if she could teach her some tribal music but the speaker made a tasteful joke that the tribal music was a Maria Carey album.

For one out of class assignment we had to read the introduction of Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington. One part of this novel that stood out to me and relates to culture was the discussion of African American personal and family stories of abuse rarely surfaced and were discussed  in medical literature and popular literature. Washington states, “The experimental suffering  of black Americans has taken many forms: fear, profound deception, psychological trauma, pain, injection with deadly agents, disfigurement, crippling, chronic illness, undignified display, intractable pain, stolen fertility and death” (Pg. 9). Although the suffering of black Americans is tragic in many forms, it goes undiscovered throughout history due to the lack of documentation of medical practitioners. The information was “downplayed” and seen as therapy.

Hello everyone!

I suppose I will be the first to post in our class (English 101), as I haven’t seen posts from anyone else in our class (though correct me if I’m wrong!*UPDATE: I see someone posted at the exact same time as I did!) Blogging is definitely new to me, so bear with me as I attempt to do this somewhat correctly and actually catch your guys’ interest! What I really wanted to talk about here regards Dan Hurley’s article, Grandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes, that we read about behavioral epigenetics. Now because I know that it is very likely that not all of you read this, I will try to give a brief preface of what it was about. I apologize if it’s not very scientific language, but I’ll do my best! Continue reading “Epigenetics and Eating Disorders”

By Sunita Singh

A methyl group is one of the simplest molecules of organic chemistry. In my organic chemistry class sophomore year, this is one of the few concepts I could firmly grasp. As I went on to my Genetics and Heredity classes, I was especially interested on the profound effect methyl groups can have on gene expression. When I saw epigenetics was the topic of Grandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes, I was excited to revisit the subject. Continue reading “The Power of Methyl Groups”