Machines vs. Humans

I seem to like stories about robots who threaten humanity's very existence. I fell in love with The Matrix a few years back (though I've only watched the first movie), am now fairly obsessed with the Terminator franchise, and when my boyfriend introduced me to the remake of Battlestar Galactica I took an immediate liking to it.

So I got to thinking...why do we like the stories about machines that threaten us? And what are those stories really about?

Maybe we're fascinated by the idea of being able to create our own destruction. Maybe it's taking the old story of the child who kills their parents one step further: from child to parent, to the new creation destroying the race who used generations worth of knowledge to create it.

After all, the story of Oedipus is still popular today. Or at least known. (Disclaimer: I haven't read it, but do know the basic plot.) Maybe machines are just a fun twist on the story.

Or maybe we like them because we're questioning if we're really the top predators. Or possibly because we're questioning if we should be the top predator, since it should be pretty obvious that we are.

What do you think? Is it one or both of the things I've mentioned? Or do you have another idea that hasn't occurred to me?

Stuff from Cthulhu Con

There were quite a few short films shown at Cthulhu Con, and I wanted to note down those that caught my interest (and that I remember a week after the fact). There were also a few books/authors that I took an interest in, from what I saw of them at their readings.

BTW, my apologies in advance if my notes here are sort of sparce. It's mostly just something for me for future reference.

Also, I didn't get to see all of the short films. And I'm not even listing all those here that were interesting...just those that are standing out in my memory as I'm writing this post.

Short films

Nefarious
Director: Brian Guardiola
Cast: Mackenzie Weimer, Shannon Burton

This one simply caught my attention because it has a young woman who may be a little overly cautious about something like out of a horror movie happening. Then, of course, she turns out to be in a short horror film herself.

George Jones & the Giant Squid
Director: Vincenzo Perrella
Cast: Christopher Waldon, Zeke Avila

From its title it seems like it should be a spinoff from James and the Giant Peach, but I don't remember the novel very well so I can't really comment on that.

I can say, though, that it was very interesting commentary on blindly following religion. It may have been borderline anti-religion. Speculating on this may be why it caught my attention.

Grasshopper
Director: Michael Usry
Cast: Jason Thompson, Christine McCarthy

A child goes missing, and a crazy man claims that a giant grasshopper took her. Or...is he crazy?

Authors

Michael Griffin

He read a short story that I cannot possibly hope to describe without giving away spoilers. I will say though that he's an author I may want to watch. He has his own blog, and mentions his reading briefly in this post.

Jim Smiley

This author read a chapter from a novel that will be coming out in October, Girlfiends Past. Dark urban fantasy, and he knows how to tease readers with wanting to know what's coming next.

Amanda Downum

She read a bit from a bit of a novel that is looking for a home. (That is, a publisher who will publish it.) I don't have much more than vague impressions of it in my memory, but it was definitely interesting. (Sorry, I may have been having a tad bit of trouble understanding people over the mics...)

Andrew S. Fuller

This guy read his short story that is in the anthology Fish, which is a book that I now want to read. And...I am too tired to do much more than direct you to read about it here, if you so wish.

Using masks

When looking at an old notebook I found the following. It's dated 7/13/2012, and there are minor spoilers for the books mentioned.

Please forgive the bad writing. I think I was just jotting down ideas at the time, and would rather write it down word for word here than fix it up.

...........

I've noticed before how "masks" can be used in books to hide things, or help someone become something else. I put "masks" in quotation marks though because rarely (actually, never that I've seen) is a real mask used.

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag wears a mask to hide his unhappiness, and Clarisse makes him realize that: "He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back" (12).

In the Beka Cooper books by Tamora Pierce, Beka is shy in the extreme to begin with. But she finds that she can hide behind her law enforcement uniform as a trainee, and it allows  her to speak to people. (Dress and Dale, book #2.)

In Sevenwaters: Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier, Fianne is shy and I think awkward around people. But she finds that using the magical glamor to make herself more beautiful can give her confidence.

I first noticed this theme when reading a children's book in a waiting room at a doctor's office. I don't remember the title or author of the book, but in it there was a shy fairy of sorts who painted her face. The face paint gave her confidence to play with the other fairies. In the end the paint washed off, and after initially trying to hide she realized that the others accepted her for who she was and was no longer shy.