A Wild Sheep Chase

This week’s reading was a very different sort of ghost story. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami is an almost mock tale of a detective following the ghost of a man called the Rat Man. Here in which we are also following a ghost sheep which hasn’t been seen for years and has a black star upon its back. Inevitably it turns out to be the spirit of a dictator that has taken over the Rat Man and has jumping bodies this entire time seeking power. The whole book had a feel of transcendence and almost unreal quality to it as if I was expected to suspend my disbelief similar to watching movies.
            First off her ears! Our main detective falls erotically in love with his newly found girlfriend’s ears, and not just a set of them, more like a couple of them. Especially when he was describing his sexual encounters with her ears exposed it was, at least, a bizarre feeling of awkwardness.
            His next encounters were following the trail of an old friend he had met in a bar called The Rat Man. This man, with characteristics of a filthy rat undoubtedly, is sending letters to our hero which turn more and more coded and full of warning as they are being sent. By following this man you can’t help but feel like we are never meant to meet this man and that he is some figment of our hero’s imagination.
            Next we meet up with the sheep man who promptly tells us about the holy grail of our quest; the dark star sheep. This sheep has not been seen in a long time and apparently has driven both the sheep man and the rat man to the brink of insanity. “Eating” their minds and ruling over their bodies this mythical sheep is our shadow in the night.
            Through this entire time we are being loose handedly guided through the book with estrange writing. I feel as if this book itself was set in some other worldly dement ion where they themselves are ghosts. It was a bizarre experience to say the least but one that left tiny chills that I couldn’t quite explain. Did I believe in the Rat Man and the overlord ghost sheep who stole you body and soul or was it so weird that I couldn’t comprehend. Maybe both.

Mmmm I'll have twelve more please

Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land is in every sense a hippie inspired book. I’m not saying this with spite or malice but just matter of fact. While following Valentine Michael Smith, an orphaned human raised by Martians, we are taken multiple ideals of controlling ones entire body, starting a church with your own values/ideals, and finally realizing the void between someone who is “different” than one’s self. This last bit I found to be the very core of the novel. Sure everyone is going to have its followers but realizing the major influence of the world, in our case the Catholic Church and Muslim religion, and how you “grok” both their ideals and that of the world is something this book hits a cord on. We see Smith simply except where he is and instantly begin trying to understand by reading, watching and learning everything he can about this planet. He finally contends with the major power of religion on this Earth planet; the Fosterite church who at first accept him in. Once he founders his own values however he is swiftly booted and starts up his own following of the “Church of All Worlds” which is a good display how typically cults in this day and age are treated by more popular churches or alternatively how major religions treat people who don’t “think” the same way.

Featured the Church of All Worlds god

                Growing up in a polish die hard catholic family on one side and being sent through catholic high school (surprisingly by choice) I was exposed to a lot of the stories of the Church. With great interest I set out and am constantly learning different theories about how people view the world around them. The one main aspect I seem to find throughout the board is how people deal with death. It seems like it is the main reason, if not the only one, for a religion. It’s the doctor’s sucker you put in your mouth to feel better about the terrifying ordeal that is life. Depending on how comfortable you feel with yourself is what religion you lean on. Now there are other qualities of religion and moral ordeals that you can hold but frankly morals are not made by religion is it made culturally whether that is heavily influenced by religion or not. Let’s be real again, the bible is the most fictionally read book right alongside the Torah, emphasis on fictional. “Grok” can explain how clouded your looking glass is while you view the world around you. To quote the karma theory,  it is which plane of ignorance you are currently on when experiencing the world, and how much you truly can understand without it.

                That’s what I got from this book at least. Some of it is mostly my deep seeded anger towards people with narrow minds and narrower understanding but to be truthful we know nothing about this world we are on. We write and rewrite our history, science, and countless other books to fit the new discoveries we find. It’s no wonder people flock to stories to make them feel like they have a grasp on this massive chaos of understanding. Hell what do I know? I am only an egg after all.

Bladerunner

Bladerunner is a very unique film in its' own right. When it was released in 1982 it was one of the most technologically advanced films America had seen in that time. They wisely picked Harrison Ford to further their tech-prowess by simply being his don't-give-a-damn-the-world-sucks acting attitude in which he isn't looking around everywhere and ogling at the world around him.

    The concept behind the movie itself is very intriguing. A large corporate company, Tyrell Corp., decides to invest in human replication with a  catchy jingle that just gets investors; “More human than human.” Out of this demon seed spawns a ban on all the replicants from earth with the basis of it being that they are not conducive to the world. With their lifespans only lasting 4 years, time in which Tyrell believed they could not able to produce genuine ideas or experience. Sooner before later some of the replicants come back to Earth requesting more time and contradicting Tyrell's theory. This is a huge issue which can be taken on by today with our vastly growing technology. With such machines as Walice, the jeopardy playing program and even one that tells jokes depending on the reaction of the audience its truly terrifying that we can give judgment to machines. Large wiffs of Terminator always resonate in my brain whenever I hear of these types of machines.

For everyone's benefit in humor I hope they turn out like Schwarzenegger

It seems like Bladerunner is not so off when we need to truly consider if such “inhuman” beings can create or feel true human emotion.
    Throughout the movie there was a strong leit motif of eyes. Everywhere; testing Rachel (the replicant who believes she is human), the consultant who specifies in eye enhancement, multiple shots all involving the eye. What does it mean? Going back there are references in the bible that focus strictly on the eye;
     Matthew 6:22-23 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

It has been traced back further to even Cicero (106-43 B.C.) who is quoted saying, 'Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi' (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter).

The ability to judge and form ideas are all conclusive to what we call the soul. So will we give our robots souls in the future? Will we need to contend with what we sow? Movies such as the Matrix, Bladerunner, and Battlestar Galactica so far off? Time will only tell.

Please future?