Adam Swift Post # 8

I found both of Octavia Butler’s science fiction novels very unique this week. Speech Sounds was about a world where a pandemic limited the ability for people to communicate. The majority can neither read or write nor speak. By reading this short story we learn how difficult life would be without communication. The woman Rye in the story can speak but she barely does it because she is one of the few who can. The main means of communication is body language. Just simple gestures are universal and have become a vital way for people to communicate with one another.

We also discussed whether you would rather be able to read and write and not talk, or be able to talk and not read or write. I would rather have the ability to verbally communicate with others and understand spoken language. Everything we do is based around talking. I couldn’t imagine not being able to understand music. Also not being able to understand language is kind of like when you’re listening to a conversation in a different language which can be really frustrating. I would feel so lonely and isolated not being able to talk to others.

Ashlyn Zgoda Post 8

In the Leading Man the boy with the keys for fingers at the end of the story ends up saving a little kid from suffocating in a metal shed. There was a debate in class over whether this mad him a hero or not. Many people in the class said that he wasn't a hero because it was sort of his duty to use his last key finger to save the boy. Yet I believe that the boy with the key fingers was a hero because he did have the choice not to open the shed, not to take that chance. Every day there are firefighters that save people ad they are considered heroes even though this is their job.

In The Evening and the Morning and the Night I believe that the people with DGD are heroes in their own way. They have learned to come to terms with the disease and make their lives productive anyway. Also the people at Dilg are helping people everyday and they also understand what their patients are going through. They help them keep their sanity and in this they are heroes. They are saving them from their fate for just a little longer. In reality I believe that you don't have to do something dramatic and glamorous to be a hero. All you have to do is go out of your way to help someone, and in a small way this makes you a hero.

Bobby Stroud

In class this week we read the stories by Octavia Butler. One of which was called "The Evening and The Morning and The Night." In this story the society is conflicted by a disease called DGD, which is caused when people take cancer-curing medicine. The main character, Lynn, had two parents who had the disease. This disease causes affected people to lose control and make very irrational decisions. For example, DGD caused Lynn's father to kill her mother and then himself.

Similarly, the other story, "Speech Sounds" is also about an unheard of disease that is affecting a society. The diseases deprive people of the ability to read or write. For this reason, characters cannot communicate because not all of them have the same capabilities. However the disease eventually fades. The significance of each story is that Butler seems to be trying to show that diseases can be overcome with faith and hope.

3/19/11 Andrew Mernan

Two stories that we have recently read that are quite similar are "Ironhead" by Aimee Bender and "The Leading Man" by Aimee Bender. "Ironhead" is about a boy who is born with an iron for his head. He tries to fit in with the other kids, but they do not accept his iron head. "The Leading Man" is about a boy who is born with keys for fingers and he tries his whole life to try and find out what the keys open. In both of these stories, we see how these two outcasts are different than the other people of the society, and we see how they try and find there place in society.

They are both searching for a acceptance in their stories, and they want to try to fit in with the rest of society. However, because of their physical differences, they are not accepted by everyone as they wish to be. The boy in "Ironhead" has sisters who are very good at sports, which put even more pressure on him to try to fit in with everyone else, but he is unable to because of his Iron head. The boy in "The Leading Man" the main character searches for decades trying to find out which doors the keys on his hand open. Both of these characters are in search of something very important because of the physical differences they were born with.

Post #8

Octavia Butler seems to write about science fition situations that are not completly impossible. The Evening, th Morning, and the Night and Speech Sounds are both stories in which daily life is changed due to illnesses and diseases that people have been exposed to. In The Evening, the morning, and the Night a cure for cancer had been developed, but this cure also came with some side effects. Those who got this cure would produce children that had Duryea Gode or "DGD". DGD is a disease which in time causes a person to "drift" and in an attempt to get out of their own body they try and mutilate themselves. Those who have DGD stick to a special diet that helps prolong their lifespan. Although they have not found a cure for DGD, they discovered that females born of two DGD infected people produce a pheromone that allows them to make other DGD's listen. This helps to calm them and if used properly, it allows DGD patients to focus on art or research instead of trying to bring harm to themselves.

In Speech Sounds, due to radiation poisoning, people are not able to communicate as well. The illness targeted things such as speech, the ability to read or write, and the ability to comprehend other's speech. This reduced people to a more primitive level, communicating through gestures and incomprehensible sounds. Due to this lack of communication, people became less trusting of others, and often people would be harmed due to jealousy of the abilities they might still have possessed. The main character, Rye, is doubtful of people's ability to move past this lack of understanding and she considers killing herself, but after she meets two children who can speak and understand, she is given a purpose to live for.

Chelsa Wlodarczyk Post #8

Leah Villari Post 8

The Evening and the morning and the night by Butler talks about a disease called "Duryea Gode."(DGD) The disease is known to have started due to a parent taking a cancer curing drug before the person with the disease is born. The main character, Lynn happened to have two parents with the disease. After her father kills her mother and he then commits suicide, Lynn goes to college on a DGD funded scholarship and lives with others that have the same disease. At a certain point in this disease people start to "drift." This meaning that people effected lose all control and start to mutilate themselves and even others. Lynn has controlled herself this far and when she meets Beatrice at the ward, she becomes frightened for what may become of herself. She sees Alan's mother who is blinded because she literally scratched her eyes out and she sees people almost acting like animals. This sight would be scary to anyone. Seeing how people act with the same disease that Lynn had made her scared for her own future.

When Lynn meets Beatrice she immediately doesn't like her. Beatrice explains to her that eventually everyone drifts and tells her that she wants Lynn to take her place one day. Lynn clearly knows what happens to someone when they drift because of what happened to her parents so she is hesistant about the topic in general. When Lynn talks about Beatrice's offer she isn't very keen of the idea of spending her life in a ward. Beatrice explains that they help people and keep them from harming themselves further. I feel that in this whole exchange between characters, Butler is trying to get the point across that Lynn should take the job to help herself and others with DGD. Although this means personal sacrifice on Lynn's behalf, she realizes by the end that this is what she needs to do.

Laura Giunta Post 8

This week we ready stories from the author Octavia Butler. She is a Science Fiction writer, but the way she uses Sci-fi is different. She treats it as a way to allow us to see something about society now that we otherwise would not. To start off we ready The Evening, The Morning, and The Night. For this story Butler created a disease where called Duryea-Gode Disease, which was caused by a drug people took to cure their cancer. The disease would be passed down to their children. DGD as most called it, made people "drift" when they reached a certain age. That meant they could no longer control themselves, and just wanted to escape from their bodies so they would tear away at their skin. It is a very disturbing disease, but there is a place called Dilg that found a way to treat it. They would take in patients and have them focus on artwork or clay and it would keep their minds off mutilating themselves.

The next story was called Speech Sounds. This story Butler wanted to show her vision of the world in the future. It was a very scary picture she gave us. Again people had acquired a disease where they no longer had the ability to read or write. Some people could not even talk, or hear. In the story it is hard for the characters to communicate since everyone has different capabilities. Also during this time noone knows who to trust, it is a violent world now. Luckily at the end it was found that young children were able to speak, so somehow children born after the horrible break out of the disease were not affected. There was hope for the world after all.
Butlers stories are great in a sense that it is interesting to see what others picture the world to be like in the future. There is no one who truly knows how it will be, so to read her thoughts on the issue was very intriguing and makes us think.

Brittany Coppinger - Post 5

I really enjoyed reading the stories by Butler. I love her style of writing and i think she brings up really interesting topics to think about. In "The Evening and the Morning and the Night", I was intrigued by the idea that a cure for something was the destruction of something else. In the story, there was a cure for cancer, something that we, in this reality, have been desperately searching for. In the story, however the cure just created a problem. This seems to be a recurring theme in history. How many times has something initially perceived as good turned into something that just does more harm then good? We rush into things without thinking them through fully. And sometimes even when we do think things through, there are consequences we can not even imagine. We all think that finding a cure for cancer would be one of the best things our society has ever done, but at what price? What if finding a cure does release some other incurable disease onto our society? What if you have to kill someone to cure some one else? Is it worth it? In advancing society, where do the costs start to outweigh the benefits? What if we lose something that we take for granted?

That idea is discussed in "Speech Sounds." Communication is vital to our society, but I don't think many people realize just how amazing our level of communication is. In the story, it was a disease that wiped out their ability to use language, but I still think we can learn a lesson from that story. We need to cherish our ability to use language. There are so many words and so many combinations of those words that will allow us to display how we feel. We are doing ourselves a disservice when we do not use out ability for language to its fullest. Every time we scream and resort to violence is a blow to language and a step backward for communication.

Cassidy Weeks- Extra Credit

For extra credit I read "Debbieland", this story is about a girl Debbie, who was teased and tormented by a group of girls in high school. She was not liked because she wore the wrong clothes and did not "fit it" with the girls. One day the girls even trapped her and then beat her up in the parking lot, since that day Debbie has not forgotten but the girls long have. In this story it shows the significance of power that people like to have over one another. These girls that bullied Debbie continue to do the same thing all through life, right through college when they meet another girl, who they in a way emotionally bully until the girl leaves. While reading this I was reminded of a big high school atmosphere, cliques judging other people for how they act or what they wear. It is also funny because when Debbie sees them at the end of the story, they do not even remember her, it was a life changing thing for Debbie but nothing out of the ordinary for the others.

These girls in the story like the feeling of someone else depending on them, they like to know that somone is at the mercy of their hands. For example if it was Debbie begging for them not to hurt her anymore, or the college friend crying on their shoulders, they liked the feeling of having control. By the end of the story, the reader has realized that Debbie has moved on with a family, while the bullies have not made much progress since high school. I find it interesting that Aimee Bender does not tell the story from the point of view of one person. The person speaking is always saying "we." I believe that this identifies the strength of the clique and without them all together, they would not be powerful or able to have such control.

Cassidy Weeks "Debbieland" extra credit.

3/18/2011-Cassidy Weeks

"The Leading Man" by Aimee Bender is about a man struggling to find his way in life because he has keys as fingers, not knowing which goes where. Although this too many people would be weird and abnormal the man ends up using his "fingers" and ends up saving a boy from being trapped into a room. Although this man was strange he technically played the "leading man" by saving the life of someone else. Octavia Butler also has a similar idea in her story "The Evening, the Morning, and the Night." In this case the main character has a disease called DGD which is a disease that begins with self mutilation but can turn into harm or killing of others. In this story the main character feels upset by this disease because everyone is scared of them an not knowing what to do. Lynne, although she has this disease is eventually going to take over "Dilg" to be able to help other people suffering from DGD.

Both stories relate to people being different from the "regular" society, although they do have these abnormalites they are used fro the better and actually help them accomplish great things. Each author plays around with the idea of what a hero is and what some can do to be a hero. I believe that both authors make people with disabilites really matter and that those people are the leading roles, and just because they are different does not mean they are not people who have feelings and the determination to accomplish great things.


Cassidy Weeks

Molly Rutter, Post #8

Aimee Bender’s “Ironhead” and “The Leading Man” are similar in that they both demonstrate a struggling child attempting to fit in. Both the ironhead boy and the boy with the keys made of fingers have an abnormal characteristic that individualizes them from those that surround them. However, there is a difference in these stories that I would like to highlight.

The ironhead boy embodies all who mentally or physically disabled around the world. He demonstrates the difficulties they go through in acquiring friendship, understanding, and acceptance in school and family life. Contrarily, the boy with the key fingers represents those with a special talent or skill, that if used in the right way, will do benefit those around them as well as their own wellbeing. Although it is evident that both characters struggled to utilize their uniqueness, I feel that the boy with the key fingers differs from the ironhead boy in that he used his extraordinary ability to help others. When he saved the trapped boy with his last finger, it showed that he chose to use his talent in a heroic way, opposite of the mundane purpose of his other keys.