Thursday, December 18, 2008
"Human Is" Discussion
Many science fiction stories are allegories of real life situations. In what ways are the conflicts in "Human Is" representative of relationships and situations that exist around us now? How do you feel about the motivations behind the decisions made by Jill and the Rexorian? Can you relate to anyone in the story?
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Although “Human Is” is fictitious, it represents many real-life situations. They are a husband-wife relationship, developments in science and technology, desires for a better life.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the Herricks’ marital disharmony is allegory of unhappy families resulting from selfish behaviours of workworm husbands. Those scientists, like Lester, who are ambitious to achieve remarkable success in career lost their attention to their family happiness day by day. Lester was too cold and busy to care about Jill. He even hated being disturbed by Gus, their lovely little nephew. He was willing to leave his wife alone at home while travelling to Rexor IV. All of Jill’s comments for Lester were full of negative opinions: inhuman, hideous, utterly cold, ruthless,… The more contradictions led to their connubial breakdown.
Second matter is the scientific and technological advances. In July 1969, the Apollo 11 made the first amazing step in human voyage to the Moon, which was followed by a lot of steady progress in manned and unmanned spaceflight history. The imaginary idea that there would be many planets with many different kinds of human could come true in someday. ^.^ Then people could not only easily explore outer space but also steal bodies and exchange souls together. >.< How incredible it is!
ReplyDeleteThe last “Human Is” referred to is that people always expect a better life and be certainly fight for their survival. When Rexor IV was too old and dying, Rexorians had been trying to migrate to another planet where life still exists. The expectation of life encouraged Rexorian to attack innocent Lester and exchange his mind. And it was bad manners of Lester that supports Jill to refuse her real husband and start new life with an alien.
About 3 main characters: Lester, Jill, the Rexorian. I can understand why they had to do such things. But I have no idea to assess or sympathize with them. Because I would never choose a man of work to get married. Even I couldn't live in another body. That's aweful!
ReplyDeleteVery insightful comments, Ngan. I hope some other students have at least read your comments. Because of the limited response so far, I have decided to open up the discussion to other classes. And also, I have found another blog site which lets you post comments with any email address. I have copied your comments and posted them there. Please tell our class about the change and give them the following address: http://toddstorytalkvietnam.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteI will be thinking about your comments and responding in the next day or so. Thanks, Todd.
"Human is" is a fiction story but it reflects our real life. The relationship between Jill and her husband is really bad. In our real life, with the development of technology, people seems like they don't care much about their family like they did in the past. Nowaday, it's truly hard for people to earn money for their family or even find jobs because of the economic crisis. However, some people think that is the reason for them to concentrate too much with their work. For example in the story, Lester is a hideous husband that makes his wife feels very sad. Family is where we depend on whenever we want to feel peaceful but Lester looks like pressure for Jill. Today, many wife and husband is being in the same situation with Jill and Lester. Spending time with family doesn't mean you have to put away your works. Being selfish and ambitious like Lester just makes us being lonely.
ReplyDeleteOverall this story, the realationship between Jill and the Rexorian is quite interesting for me. This is not the love because of his appearance, his character makes Jill loves him. He makes she feel peaceful just like perfect family she has wished for. Human different with animal mostly about love. The love of human is for their family. We have emotion that let us care for each other include stranger. According to the story, Lester doesn't even care for his wife, the Rexorian is a better human thousand time than Lester. Although Lester's situation is really poor, the Rexorian deserves to be human for his good character.
ReplyDeleteThere is still one more thing that makes me pay attention on. The rexorian has to left his planet because its environment is ruined. That warns us about our responsibility with the Earth. The Earth likes our unique home. Nothing special like our planet in this whole solar system until now. If we ruine our planet like the Rexorian did, we and our children have to pay so much for our problem. That is what i wonder so much. There are lots of meeting for pollution problem but we are still doing few things to protect our planet. It's not enough. If only all of developing countries standed together to solve that trouble. ( i think i'm too pessimistic ^^ )
ReplyDelete