The Handler
This was interesting. I liked the puppet/puppeteer dynamic, and the reactions of the crowd. It seemed realistically put together (from a sociological point of view at least)  and I didn’t dislike it as much as The Gaxton Story.

 Making It All The Way Into The Future With Gaxton Falls On The Red Planet

So, this story has a completely superfluous name. Also, I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of it.  I enjoyed the idea of a historical reconstruction site for 1974, but the switching roles conceit near the end, that ruined it. I was enjoying the story until then but  suddenly the narrator was the exhibit and crazy and the suspension of disbelief flew out the window. I guess it was an alright story, well written and all that, but truthfully, the switching of the exhibit with the narrator seemed like a cop out from making it much more complex and interesting.

Having read the Chrysalids as a young teen (about 13-14), and then reading it again, I discovered that, as we were saying in class, it really can function on two levels. In that respect, it’s similar to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which functions as both a talking animal story and an attack on communism. For Wyndham’s book, it’s an adventure story and… well that part is up for debate in my mind. It could be a condemnation of fanaticism, organised religion in general, modern social organisation or something that hasn’t even occurred to me. I’m not quite sure what to think of the message Wyndham is trying to send, especially with the ambiguous role of the Sealanders. Does he want to inspire hope for the protagonists’ plight or is he foreshadowing grim things for them, (especially with the Sealander’s callous use of the threads or whatever that stuff was)? There are a lot of unanswered questions here, which actually seems to work well for the novel, letting the ideas live on and simmer in your imagination.

 Personally, I liked the book now, as much as I did then, even with some of the distressing questions about the fates of it’s main characters and the morality of it’s saviors it poses but never answers.

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Now, a lot of people seem not to like The Winter Flies, and that’s understandable because it’s hella weird. But as they say about birds of a feather, I like weird things.

The thing that seemed to be the biggest bone of contention in class was whether the events in the story existed outside of Gott’s head. I’m inclined to believe that everything that happened in his mind impinged upon reality (hence the need for Heinie to be saved). But mostly I was content to enjoy the weirdness without looking into it too much. The ideas of archetypes are very strong, and pretty blatant even among the ‘real’ people. Gott could be a representation  of The Sculpter, Heinie the Child or the Explorer and Jane is a lot like the principle of The Wounded Healer (one who focuses on problems not related to the most pressing situation, like Jane worried over her painting and not her child). All I know anyway, that it was neat, like a word puzzle in form of fiction.

 This woman appears to be saying to herself, perhaps a little too calmly: “Oh dear, my thigh seems to be on fire. And this vinyl bathing suit is begining to melt. Also, rock on.”

Well,  I was tired of the little “This the place for you to post something” message, so I decided to post something. Too bad, I’ve got nothing to say at this point…

I’ll put this http://www.kukuburi.com/2007/08/09/one/ here, because it’s an amazing web-comic that’s not too far along that you’ll have to read pages and pages to catch up on it.  And, I can’t think of anything else to link to. It’s un-apologetically weird with quirky colorful drawings. You’ll like it, trust me.