Dr. Merkwürdigeliebe

I actually wrote my second paper over this movie, so yay. I get to write about it even more. The main goal of this particular film was to essentially satirize every aspect of the Cold War. Every fear and conspiracy from nuclear war to fluoridation is discussed in varying length throughout the film.

General Buck Turgidson is actually a perfect embodiment of American sentiments towards any and all Russians during the span of the Cold War. In most every scene that includes the Russian ambassador, the exchange between Turgidson and himself often result in humorous arguments. People during the Cold War in America were just as quick to judge Russians as General Turgidson was, proving just how true-to-life his character is.  General Jack Ripper's fear of fluoridation is also another technique to satirize the War. This is shown in the scene where he tells Group Leader Mandrake that he's convinced that fluoridation is a Communist plot because he isn't able to "give his essence" to women when making love.

This and many of the other ideas are excellent satirical points mainly because of their accuracy. They are so true to the feelings and thoughts among Americans during the time period that the people watching the movie can see just how ridiculous some of the things they believed in really were.

Though the movie is apocalyptic in nature, we're actually being told the story from before the events that ended the world transpire. This isn't an approach most apocalyptic works take, as most mention the events that created the world they take place in in passing, if at all. I think that, out of all the stories we've read so far, Stephen King's short story in Wastelands is the most similar to the film in form. Though the causes for the apocalypse were totally different, they both tell the story of how things happened instead of the world after.

Just a wee bit behind schedule...

So, over the past few weeks between exams and papers and other homeworks, I all but forgot about our blog posts. I just wanted to give you guys a little warning that you should expect several Boneshaker-related posts back to back...to back...to back. I'm pretty far into the book right now, and I'm a little sad to say I don't like it quite as much as I thought I would at this point. The story is good and I like the way she sets up the background and story, but the plot just moves waaaaaay slower than I expected it to. For some reason my mind associates steampunk and zombies with a story that's just like BLAM! So, uhh... yeah. Expect many back to back posts and spammed comments on many a blog. Just sayin'

A Brief Break: A Question

So apparently we're starting up our little book club, thingies sometime soon. Personally, I'm going to be reading Boneshaker. Honestly, when a nerd hears the words Steampunk and Zombies describing a single thing, it's practially a requirement that they investigate it. This got me to thinking. So, fellow nerds, I summon thee from the darkest depths of your individual lairs! Riddle me this: what are your favorite games that could be/ are apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic? For me, I wanna say it's the Devil May Cry series. I know that any self-respecting RPG gamer would generally shun the shoot-em-up action style the games have, but these games have something the others lack: story. The way the stories for all the games are introduced and played out, and especially the character development all make them (in my opinion) great games. While they may be a bit cookie-cutter as far as the gameplay goes, they do leave room to develop skill. Anyway, that's pretty much my answer/defense for myself. What about you guys?

A Brief Break to Talk About, Well....Writing Prompts

     Abstracts are an interesting form of writing. One could argue that they're essentially summaries, but I think that they're far more aggressive than that. When a work is set to have an abstract written about it, it first must be thoroughly examined. Once the absolute key points are identified, all the other information can be deemed unnecessary and removed. Abstracts basically glean all the fat (extra or otherwise) off of papers and leave nothing but the facts. This makes abstract a perfect writing form for the conclusion portion of our paper. In the conclusion, we're expected to write what all we've gathered from our research and, as the name implies, the conclusions we've gathered from it. By using the abstract form, we can cut away any extraneous details of the paper and leave behind the bare facts and let them establish the credibility of our research for us.

Tales from Postapocalyptia Pt. 2

"Fine but..." I said reluctantly as we shuffled out of the old shack, "I wanna see mom before we go into town."


     As we stepped outside the old shack, I immediately smelled the burning wood emanating from the watch fires lit all around the town. Up from the hill where my house is, you can see for miles around; not that there's anything really worth looking at. I don't know much about how the world ended, but I can tell from the black and desolate landscape that there was a lot of fire. Everywhere I look I'm greeted by stretches black char with occasional patches of brown earth scattered about like spots on an animal. The few trees that are left are either burned remnants of their former splendor, or useless stumps chopped down for fire wood; courtesy of humanity. Somehow, though, humanity still finds a way to live. Even from up here I can hear people bustling about, parents calling for their children, wives yelling at husbands, and merchants trying to hock the last of their wares before they close down. It's amazing seeing how this town I call home has managed to survive in this hell we call a planet.

     I say "our town" because it doesn't actually have an official name according to the Council of Seven, our post-apocalyptic excuse of a government. Stationed in the city of New Eden, about fifteen miles or so outside of town, the Council rules the surrounding region through the consensus of the (as the name implies) the word of the 7 Councilors. Their decrees are, of course, enforced by a substantial military group known as the Coven. I personally don't know too much about them, just that they've got a huge stockpile of old weapons and tech. We're out here in the wilderness reduced to rotating watches while New Eden still has a functioning security network. How's that for a fair and just leadership?

"You're thinking about the Council again, Ian. Stop it," Alice said, jarring me from my thoughts.

"Oh, uhh...huh? How did you know?" I asked.

"I know you, kid. You should know that by now, Mr. Genius man."

"Al, I really wish you'd stop calling me kid. I'm older than you for god's sake," I said as we made our way down the blackened hillside to the town below.

Tales from Postapocalyptia Pt. 1: In which a story is introduced

     The Great Calamity. The Final Days. The Event. The End. All of these are quaint, little names we gave to the end of our world. We give names to it, we try to put reason to it, but none of us except the old people actually remember how it happened. All I know is that it, obviously, sucked. My name is Ian. I'd tell you my last name if I knew it, but you'd be surprised how many formalities go out the window when the world ends.

     Although I was born before everything went downhill, there are some younger kids that we call first-gen Apocalypse babies. This is a pretty big deal when you factor in our total lack of health care facilities. Not a lot of hospitals were left standing after what happened, and none of them are up and running... yet. Most of the men and women with the know-how to repair the old buildings, or build new ones, are either dead or too old to do much more than teach. Things like architecture, engineering, medicine, science- things that were commonplace before the end- fit into one of two categories of arts: lost or dying.

    Now by this point you may be wondering how a kid like me (even though I'm 17, which is hardly young enough to still be considered a kid thankyouverymuch) knows so much about these things if they're supposedly "lost knowledge." Well, that's a funny story. You see, when I was little my mom just knew that I was special. Genius. That's what they call me. I don't really see why they think I'm special for doing something that comes to me like breathing, but apparently it's a pretty rare thing.

     I'm not really even sure where all this knowledge comes from to be honest. I just seem to know things. A few of the old "scholars" in the town brought me their old book collections to read and study. I had books from all over the academic world; Shakespeare, Calculus, Biology, Engineering, you name it I had a book for it. I knew them all by heart, too. Cover-to-cover without fail I could recite those books by heart.

"Ian, what the hell are you doing wasting my lamp oil?" asked the woman in the doorway.

"If you must know, Alice, I'm writing my autobiography."

"Don't you pull that high and mighty I'm-an-all-powerful-genius stuff with me, kid. I've been your best friend since we were little, and if there's anyone who doesn't have to put up with it, it's me," she said as she made her way to my makeshift writing desk at the other end of the room. "Besides, you're 17, Ian. What in God's name do you have to write about?"

     After reading my paper, Alice laughed and said "Who are you writing this for? It's not like anyone outside of here even knows who you are, much less gives a damn." I rolled my eyes at her and snatched the paper from her hands. God, her skin is soft, I thought to myself before coming to my senses.

"I dunno Al, it just makes me feel better knowing that if something happens to me, my memory won't just turn to dust."

"Ugh," she said as she huffed and pulled me up from the chair, "c'mon, Ian. The Chairman wants to have a word with you."  

An Idea

So I've been giving some thought as to how to make these one-a-week blog posts we have to do entertaining, not just for me the writer, but for you the reader (assuming there are any of you out there), and I think I've come up with an idea. I want to write a story in parts, one (or maybe more depending on my free time) part a week about a pair of kids surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. I'm not an author, by any means, but I figured that a little creativity might make this whole thing a little less droll. The basic theme of the story is that some time in the future, a power-hungry dictator decides that he doesn't like the world he's controlling. So, like all mad-scientist leaders, he decides to create his own apocalypse. This particular brand of end-times consists of a chaotic world that the leader, Dr. Martin Zion, created based around a book he loved to read as a child, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. In the first few posts, I'll set up the story and whatnot, and once we actually start reading in our groups, that's when I'll introduce the part of the story where the main character Ian, actually finds a long-lost copy of the book and begins to use it as a sort of survival guide, and eventually, a means to stop Zion from further destroying the world. Before I really get into the story, I'd love to hear what you all think about this idea! Feedback, protests, what have you. I'd really like to get a feel for my audience here so all 4 of you who are unfortunate enough to be following my blog, comment away! You'll get to play a part in a short story, and fulfill your homework requirements all in one go.