Fahrenheit 451

This was an interesting movie. I thought it wasn't so bad. In this time period firefighter's must burn any books that they see because the government says so. In the movie a certain firefighter named Guy Montag runs into a girl named Clarisse, who collects books. Montag becomes interested in the books and reads one. Montag is later chased into a hidden group of people who spend their whole lives just reading one book and memorizing it. Montag figures he ought to do this also so ends up just working on memorizing his book.

Design

There are many aspects of design that I have not put a great deal of thought into until now. One thing is how much work can go into one little thing. Designers work hard to make even the smallest thing pop out at you and make you like their product without even knowing what it is. Many hours are put into the tiny detail that caused you to buy a certain product. Another aspect of design that you usually don't think about is simplicity. Items that you see can stand out due to how simple they are. Their example was Apple products. Apple products have a sleek, simple design that appeal to many different people around the globe. These products were made like this specifically to appeal to certain people and to catch everyone's eye. A final quality of design that I never thought too much about is how certain objects have lagged behind in some areas. Chairs are a good example because of how easy it is to find an uncomfortable chair. We have so many objects in our lives that are easy to use and are nice to use but then we find ourselves sitting in an uncomfortable chair that was not well designed. It's funny how advanced we can be in some aspects but behind in many others at the same time, despite how simple those items can be.

Blade Runner

In the movie Blade Runner there is a scene near the end involving Deckard and Roy.  How this scene plays out can be confusing because of how it ends.  Roy ends up dying but he plays out the scene so that Deckard can understand the replicants better and feel empathy for them.  Roy realizes that he is dying while he is going after Deckard so he puts a giant nail through his hand to help slow down the process of his body shutting down.  After meeting Deckard on a rooftop, Roy scares Deckard enough that Deckard jumps off the roof onto another building.  His jump is short and he begins to hold on for his life.  Roy also makes this jump, but successfully this time.  As Deckard begins to fall Roy grabs onto him and pulls him up, saving him.  Deckard is obviously very confused at this point and Roy goes on talking about his memories and such.  Knowing that he has taught Deckard to feel empathy for the replicants, Roy lets himself die finally.  This was an interesting scene because Roy went from being crazy to being nice in an instant.  I think that he did this because since he knew that he was dying he knew he couldn't do much else to change the world directly so instead he spent his time teaching Deckard a lesson so that Deckard has a chance to change the world himself.  He knew that killing Deckard wouldn't accomplish much so he used his intelligence to end his life in the best possible way.

Androids

I thought that the climax of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was interesting.  More information about each of the characters is unveiled along with some of their feelings.  Rick goes through a lot and is having trouble finding meaning in not just his job but himself.  Isidore has to deal with the androids and his feelings towards different groups.  I liked how John and Rick faced a lot of different things and then figured out how to deal with their problems.  I thought it was interesting that Rick overcame his dislike of killing the androids and instead decided to go after even more than he was originally supposed to.  It was good to see Rick's true self and that he doesn't like to be messed with at all.  It was also interesting to see some of John's reactions.  Since he has a low IQ he interacts with the world differently and that was a good perspective to see with everything that was going on.  He just wanted to be with others and that is why he embraced the androids, no matter their own feelings towards him.  I liked that he had to deal with the androids, the spider, and his new revelations on Mercer and Buster all at once.  Another cool thing was how Rachael messed with Rick and then how she killed his new goat.  She caused him to show his true self and I think that will be the end of her because of it.  I feel like Rick should have never trusted her in the first place but he let his feelings for her take him over.  Overall it was a good climax that I think will lead to a great ending.

The Rosen Corporation

There are many interesting things in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, all different in some way.  In my reading I enjoyed the various ways that the Rosens manipulated Rick.  When Rick first arrived he saw a couple different animals that seemed unbelievable to him.  First there was the Raccoon which Rick knew existed still, but he also knew the cost of such an animal was huge.  What surprised him way more was the owl that they had.  Owls were supposed to be extinct so that was truly unbelievable to Rick. Before Rick leaves as a failure, the Rosens try to bribe Rick with the owl but after a series of events Rick uncovers that the owl is in fact electric and everyone is back to thinking that owls are actually extinct.

Rachel Rosen was the first person Rick was to test.  Her results had her as being an android so Rick called her out on that.  Eldon Rosen said that Rick was wrong and that Rachel was simply a human that has lived in outer space most of her life.  After almost getting his electric owl Rachel says something that makes Rick still think that she is an Android.  He tests her with one last question and it is finally shown that Rachel is indeed an android and even Rachel herself did not have knowledge of that.

The Rosens manipulation was very good and they almost got their way too.  I find it weird that they would bother having an electric owl though.  Everyone on Earth assumes that they are extinct so it seems foolish to try to trick those that enter their building, though they did almost trick Rick.  Did the Rosens have any motive outside of making sure the latest Android model was safe to distribute?  It wouldn't seem that way but anything is possible in this book.

A&B Chapter 11

In chapter 11 in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing it talks about various ways of revising a paper.  One thing it talked about was revising globally, which interested me.  Usually in papers when revising I would change a sentence here or there that would just effect that one sentence and nothing more, this would be revising locally.  When you revise globally though, you are looking at a much bigger picture.  Revising globally causes you to make revisions in several places based on whatever you just revised.  If you make certain changes in your paper it is possible you will want to go back to the thesis and make it better based on what you just changed elsewhere in the paper.  It is important to always look at the paper as a whole and not just as bits and pieces.  One other thing that I thought was interesting was using multiple drafts for one paper.  While I have never done it in the past, I can see how it would be useful.  In an important paper it is helpful to have the best possible ideas written down and shared in the best possible way.  To do this you would have to keep make new drafts as other parts of the paper change.  Having the best possible paper is important no matter what it is for.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I found how the characters in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? viewed animals to be quite interesting.  Owning an animal is very important for their social status in the book.  Some people will look down on you if you do not own an animal or let if you let your animal die.  Because of the way Earth is it is harder to find animals and that is why they are so important for social status.  Rick's neighbor Bill Barbour has a horse that he went to Canada to get, then he rode the horse all the way back to California to make sure that it wasn't stolen.  He did this all to increase his social status.  Rick on the other hand had a sheep that died.  In order to keep his social status the way it was he went out and got a replacement for his sheep, but this one was not living.  It was a perfect replica that was electronic.  It was nearly impossible for others to tell the difference between the real thing and the fake.  I find all of this very odd.  I personally would not care what others thought of me if these were the type of people to make judgments based on my animals.  If I wanted an animal I would have an animal just to have one, not so that others liked me more.  In fact I probably wouldn't be on Earth anyway, I would take my free Android and move to Mars, assuming the weather was nice.  The way animals are looked at in the book are just one of many ways people are different in their time then in ours, and I am very glad that is so.