The Moosiest.

Also known as Ricardo Z.

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This Influenced Sheep

Doing some research on the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick, I’ve learned that he does have some simple but significant influences. 

Primarily, Dick himself claims that without the book Fear, written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1940, “I would never have come up with what I do.” Fear is a horror novel generally written on the concept of fake reality. In the novel, the protagonist forgets what happened during part of his day, and he goes on  slowly noticing and recognizing demons and horror elements in the world around him. Being a non-believer in spiritual things, the protagonist dismisses the scary things he encounters until he learns that during the time when he forgot what he did, he had actually murdered his own wife. This type of material, especially during a less horror-centric time like the 1950′s, seems like it would have a profound effect on work of Philip K. Dick, and it is recognizable in his novel that I read.

In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, protagonist Rick Deckard at one point is arrested by a fake police officer which then takes Deckard in for questioning at a fake police station. During his arrest, both Deckard and the reader are clueless as to why the police officer doesn’t know Deckard, a police agent himself, and doesn’t know the station Deckard works out of. In addition to that, Dick also develops this false reality of the fake police officer/station by further implementing a simulated calling system for Rick Deckard’s free call which is then redirected to internal numbers. All of this is done by the escaped androids running the station to make Deckard question his own sanity, similarly to the protagonist of Fear.

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This Animal Sheep

The first long criticism that I have completed was quite the enlightening experience. “Speciesism and species being in Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?”, written by Sherryl Vint introduced to me a perspective on the book that I had not even thought of for a second: the fight for animal rights.

The author makes many extreme points about the book, how the main character is disconnected from nature due to his unhealthy relationship with animals, how the entire human perspective on animals both in the book and real life is unsafe, and how the connections and similarities between the human interpretation of androids and animals ultimately reduces our humanity.

She argues her points very effectively, and often supplements her logic with a Marxist lens (that is again, effectively argued), however I went through the entire paper disagreeing with the core principle upon which she was arguing: animals are worth more than a commodity. Sure, there are pets that humans grow close to, but in the current state of society, humans would be nowhere near as successful as we are if we did not find a way to exploit the other meaty creatures of this world for sustenance and materials, and that stays true in the book too, from what I can tell. After blaming humanity for its loss of humanity, Vint never answered an important question (in my opinion), “What more can we do?”

Ultimately, the read was very informative and well written with legitimate points, I just personally had some qualms with it.

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This Academic Sheep

I went to Oakland University a week ago with Ryan Fneg to access the full papers that made up my shortlist of sources. On that day, I experienced for the first time the power and breadth of a library’s full resources.

Walking in, we asked the help desk if the library had any specific criticism papers written on our book. We didn’t know what to expect with this request, but after some more talking we ultimately received the ability to search the entirety of the university’s online catalogue. With this search engine at hand, I immediately found far more criticism specific to that of my book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, than I could have imagined. And my greatest realization of this entire adventure hit me shortly there after.

All of these passionately written books and articles and papers that I discovered on this book written by some guy about some imaginary stuff: it was all free.

Quickly reading through the first pages of my many page criticisms, I realized just how intense the literary world gets over the smallest details, and I gained a new respect for the art of literature that I didn’t have before. People care way more about this stuff than I knew, and I was legitimately excited to start my adventure through the dozens upon dozens of pages of intricately written documents that detailed the most specific complexities of this book that I had overlooked.

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This Researchable Sheep

I’ve begun my research on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by getting a grasp of what the literary criticism scene surrounding the book actually is. Through Google Scholar searches, I’ve compiled a shortlist of five papers written by what seem like reputable authors, and they cover a wide range of subjects that I believe are differing lenses (as I can tell from the titles). All of the papers were blocked behind account or pay-walls, so I’ll have to continue the indepth research at a university or college library, Oakland University’s, to be exact.

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This (Anti)-Climactic Sheep

It’s here, the climax of DADOES! What do I think of it? Well, I think what I’ve thought for the past 100 pages: I’m actually reading a book that’s too rushed for ME. I usually get really impatient when reading. If a story doesn't go in the direction that I’m interested, I easily lose focus and want to move onto my next hobby. With the deep and interesting world, numerous philosophical dilemmas, and potential for an expansive plot, DADOES is surprisingly effective at condensing all of its content into a small package. This makes it really effective at holding my attention, however as I’ve stated in the past, and as I know other people have felt too, this novel is too short for what I think Dick really intended it to achieve.

Sci-fi novels like 11/22/63 take upwards of a thousand pages to successfully convey their societal messages and build worlds for the readers to explore. It took hundreds of pages to discuss what makes a strong family through the character of Jake Epping and the long-tale of his love life. It took the same amount of pages to accurately describe the smallest details as he gets hunted by a monster-of-a-man with a sledgehammer, or as he chases down Lee Harvey Oswald. Stephen King’s writing technique resulted in a long book, however it was never a book that felt under or over developed. It was pefect for me, at least.

Now, here’s Philip K. Dick strollin’ in with his rinky dinky 240 pager trying to mash the significance of human empathy into every single line he can. It’s honestly not THAT bad, but the amount of pages he utilizes to convey these messages ultimately take words away from the sequences that I personally want to know more about. I want to know how Rick goes about his bounty-hunting ways, what was coursing through his mind as he finishes off his final two bounties and becomes the greatest operative in bounty-hunting history. Instead, I get half a page that nearly-literally amounts to “Rick shot android 1, android 2 says something, Rick shot android 2, wow why is Rick so unsatisfied with life″.

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This Empathetic Sheep

At this point, Dick is using DADOES to demonstrate the significant role of empathy in modern human society. In the book, Rick Deckard uses empathy as the sole dividing factor between androids and humans when he tests individuals to determine who they are. The idea behind this is that humans are capable of empathizing for others, meaning they are also a more successful group. This idea is further pushed by the idea of empathy boxes that followers of Mercer, a new religion in this futuristic world, utilize. At the point I’m at, we now know that followers use these boxes in order to communicate with other followers, and share their happy feelings with people who’ve had bad days, or vice versa, technologically extending the human ability to empathize.

I think that Dick’s onto something with his intense focus on empathy. When humans utilize their own resources to empathize with others, they build relationships that can then in turn provide utility for themselves. Empathy to some extent is a trade-able resource, as Dick demonstrates with the empathy boxes.

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This Romantic Sheep

Two interesting observations from my last reading session.

One: The reviews commenting about awkward pacing in Dick’s book were completely right. Starting the book out, the author chose to go on pages and pages discussing the utility of Rick’s electric sheep and the philosophical values behind the society’s attitude towards people with animals. In stark contrast, where I’m at now, Dick uses half a page to describe how Rick identified, tussled with, and “retired” (killed) an android. There is a huge disparity of page use between these two events that really COULD have had their page counts flipped if necessary. However, I believe the page distributions are accurately proportionate to what Dick really wanted to use the book to discuss: random philosophical values in modern society.

Two: Stemming off of the previous observation, Dick really uses every other page to cram in as much philosophical material as he can. Every choice in the book has some sort of modern social dilemma attached to it. For example: When Rick meets Phil Resch, there is a clear push from other character’s for the reader and Rick to believe Phil is an android, and Rick is put in a position between killing Phil and trusting him. After some events we simply learn that Phil isn’t an android. I believe Dick used this small arch to demonstrate how our (or just my) predisposition to believe new information causes us (or just me) to overlook logic, which would be an important tool in real life to harness the power of people’s perceptions.

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This Electric* Sheep

Dick’s writing style has been pretty solid, however he does have a few quirks that need to be discussed. For one, from what I can tell he interchangeably uses first person and third person tenses outside of dialogue. It seems like Dick intended to have both a main character narrator and a disembodied narrator, however they’re mushed together into the same place so its weird to have to make a conscious distinction between them. Then, every piece of dialogue has a distinct purpose, and it’s kind of uncomfortable. He makes it a little too obvious that he’s giving you a piece of world information here or revealing a character trait there. It’s not necessarily bad, it simply feels different.

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This Android Sheep

Dick starts off his novel strong, introducing the reader into the entirely new world of a semi-post-apocalyptic Earth. By picking out details here and there, I’ve learned that a certain nuclear war, World War Terminus, has decimated the Earth’s atmosphere and now people are emigrating to Mars with their super-cool, United Nations granted androids. The books immediately introduces a bunch of philosophical themes, like the main character’s electric sheep demonstrating how humans grasp at straws in order to create hierarchy complexes, and the validity of a machine that can instantly program an individual’s mood. I’m excited to see how the main character’s bounty hunting job unfolds.

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FOLLOW UP TO THE MOST DIFFICULT DECISION OF MY LIFE

Ultimately, I chose to go with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. From what I can tell, the book effectively builds an entire world to explore, enough for entire movies like Bladerunner to be spun-off, the main character is given an actionable goal of finding some rogue androids, which will make for an interesting plot, and the book seems to base itself off of a philosophical core question, “At what point, what makes something a valuable life?”, giving the book significant literary substance.

These qualities sufficiently fulfill my criteria, and thus it is the book I choose for my AP Literature Final.

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THE MOST DIFFICULT DECISION OF MY LIFE

Spoiler: Not really, but kind of.

Reading is not usually an enjoyable experience for me. It takes a special breed of writer, a specific taste of diction, to tickle my literary senses in all the perfect ways for me to truly want to read a book. And thus, as I search for my choice of book for the 2018 AP Literature and Composition final, I struggle to answer one simple question: what kind of books do I like?

As a kid I usually only read what was assigned to me or whatever book seemed the least brain-numbing if I was to accomplish a book log assignment. During my middle years of upper elementary and lower middle school, I had somewhat of a Reading Renaissance. I surrounded myself in Artemis Fowl, The Giver, The Hunger Games, books that generated a sense of wonder, didn't shy away from the common battle between hero and villain, and all shared a common element of youth empowerment. The greatest accomplishment of this Reading Renaissance was my completion of the Harry Potter series, a series that truly tested my reading endurance.

Since this renaissance however, my life has been rather full. I’ve found other, more personally fulfilling hobbies, and I’ve lost enjoyment in burying myself in books for hours on end when I could be exploring the deep worlds of video games or educating myself in new disciplines and studies.

Going forward with my book-search, I plan to keep in mind the qualities of the books that brought about my Reading Renaissance as a kid: following the structure of protagonist vs antagonist, having a relatable main character, and developing an interesting world for me as a reader to explore.

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These Rebels Actually Have Causes

Disclaimer: I don’t actually talk about Star Wars.

Watching Rebel Without a Cause left me with many mixed feelings. The death of Plato was unnecessary and uncalled for. Plato’s love for Judy and Jim as his pseudo parents was heavily underdeveloped and felt like an afterthought. The ineffective and unbelievably fast development of Judy and Jim’s relationship was jarring and offensive on multiple levels.

 All of these issues lead to Rebel Without a Cause leaving a very sour taste in my mouth. My only gleeful takeaway from this movie is a strong belief in the possible existence of irony in this film’s title. All of this movie’s events ultimately stem from Jim’s naivety and adolescent decision making, his cause for each being that he craves attention. 

This is the only point that I believe the movie is wholly correct to make, and it is this detail that the movie hits the bullseye on for a stereotype of teenagers. Jim grunting in the planetarium, vying for attention from Judy via the knife fight, and his battle for Buzz’s friends in their game of chicken all were Jim’s struggles for attention in his new environment.

When I watched Easy A, a teen comedy film starring Emma Stone, I noticed the same teenager stereotype being utilized. In Easy A, Stone’s character, Olive, poses as a tramp within her high-school to assist the social ranking of her friends and to give herself monetary gain. When Olive pretended to have sex with a friend to hide his homosexuality from the public, the public opinion of her slowly grew more and more negative. 

Olive ultimately embraced those who called her out because it gave her the one thing teenagers always receive in movies: attention. As she faked more relationships, she received more of the share of gossip within her school. 

Personally, I don’t believe the stereotype presented by these films truly reflect real teenagers. I don’t doubt the existence of teenagers who actively avoid attention within their respective cultural groups. However, the question raised by these movies’ stereotype is still important to answer: what makes an individual truly worthy of the attention they fight for? And, if they are not worthy, why are we, the audience, complicit in giving the these individuals attention?

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Breaking Genres: Why Breaking Bad Is So Damn Significant

Pictured: Walter White, main character of Breaking Bad played by Bryan Cranston, sitting in front of bins of crystal methamphetamine and stacks of cash.

After the turn of the millennium, the popularity of crime drama television shows has increased dramatically. From CSI to Sherlock, stories of murder and deceit have become catalysts for some of our most entertaining forms of video media. Shows like those previously stated are fantastic to watch for their interesting mysteries or incite into our modern police system, however they often fail to break away from the limitations of their genre subject matter: crime and justice.

Breaking Bad, debuting in 2008 and concluding in 2013, follows the downfall of Nobel Prize laureate and high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, as he turns away from his safe job and loving family to a life of drug manufacturing. His reasons for doing so are multi-faceted:

He requires money to support his family after his death.

He requires money in order to fulfill his own life goals.

He feels that society does not appreciate his work as a Nobel Prize winner.

He feels underutilized by his simple educational occupation.

The first two of these reasons are the most significant contributors to Breaking Bad’s importance to society. As it is revealed in the series’ pilot episode, Walter White’s terminal lung cancer, and the money required to pay for his chemotherapy treatment, act as the show’s main devices for plot advancement. Because White is incapable of paying the hundreds of thousands of dollars required for treatment, he utilizes his skills as an awarded chemist to create highly valuable, and also highly dangerous, methamphetamine. To reiterate: a high school teacher’s inability to pay for potentially life saving medicine forced them to manufacture drugs in order to illegally secure their own life.

Breaking Bad’s creators, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, and Michelle MacLaren, have ultimately created one of modern society’s greatest commentaries on the state of American healthcare. Breaking Bad goes beyond its crime drama genre to speak to the United States and its people about the faults in our current healthcare system and the impacts these faults have on the psychological safety of individuals in our society. Its attempts to do so have been primarily received by online publications, inciting new discussion about possible improvements to the current system. 

Listed below are a few articles primarily discussing Breaking Bad’s commentary on the United States healthcare system.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/09/14/breaking-bad-would-be-worse-in-a-european-health-care-system-not-better

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/27/breaking-bad-is-fully-dependent-on-our-broken-health-care-system

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/09/breaking_bad_accuracy_a_doctor_says_it_s_the_best_medical_drama_on_tv.html

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Yoko Shimomura: A Perfect Example of Modern Originality

Shimomura has been quoted saying that “Dearly Beloved”, from the video game Kingdom Hearts, is the most favorite track she’s composed. 

Yoko Shimomura, born in Japan on October 19, 1967, primarily creates accompaniments to video games utilizing an orchestral musical style. She cites her main musical inspirations as Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Maurice Ravel. In an interview with RocketBaby, a Japanese video game and animation journal, Shimomura was quoted saying that she takes individual inspirations from things in her life to create her music, like:

“a beautiful picture, scenery, tasting something delicious, scents that bring back memories, happy and sad things... Anything that moves my emotion gives me inspiration”

It is this workflow which I believe gives Shimomura her true modern originality. Her ability to pull music from the inanimate aspects of life separates her from the other musical geniuses of our time by giving her an untapped and original source for her music. 

Instead of being the base of her work, Shimomura’s classical inspirations simply give her an avenue of creative expression. Shimomura is a perfect example of modern originality because while we live in an era of remixing previous material, Shimomura is still able to effectively create her own new art (a high art) utilizing the inhuman world around her. 

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The American Way of Death: My Sixth Thoughts

I believe it is acceptable to generalize that funerals impact individual’s interpretations of someone’s death. If someone has a much more extravagant, burial funeral compared to someone with a humble cremation, those two different funerals will carry two different connotations. This is why the revelation brought upon me by page 130 of AWOD is significant. 

On page 130, Mitford offers evidence for her thesis that families will try to purchase the most expensive funerals they are capable of for the deceased. What her evidence also explains, however, is that the wants of a deceased individual are very rarely taken into account for the type of service a corpse will undergo. Instead, the type of service is often chosen by the family of the deceased, who are, as consumers, much more marketable to after the trauma-inducing events of a local death. This gives funeral directors even more power to perpetuate their own death culture within the United States, which is often going to be anything that makes them more money.

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This survey supplies my abstract with research on the general perceptions for funeral preparation by the American public.

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The rate of cremation has surpassed that of burial in 2015 according to a report released today by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). The 2016 NFDA Cremation and Burial Report: Research, Statistics and Projections features statistics and in-depth analysis of consumer attitudes toward cremation.

An interesting look by the National Funeral Directors Association into the future of funerals. It makes long term estimates on the balance between the traditional funeral and cremation.