So my favorite quote so far in the story occurred at the conclusion of the chapter that contains the story of Reef retrieving his father’s body.

“One of those cases you couldn’t just fold. God, across the table of Fat, was picking His nose, scratching His ear, laying on tells with a prodigal hand, it had to mean something, and a faulty guess would be better than none”(218).

This quote shows the irony of many decisions that we face. Is it better just to fold when things get tough? This reminds of the saying, “Better safe than sorry”. Although, in Reef’s father’s place he did the opposite of taking caution, he decided that the prospect of a better life was worth losing everything he had now. This has been a common theme among the science-fiction tales we have read thus far. All or nothing!

The next thing I noticed was the use of the word unheimlich. The context of the quote in reference is when the Lew and Renfrew are talking. Renfrew is talking about his colleague Werfner. Renfrew describes Werfner as “keen-witted but unheimlich,” and goes on to say that Werfner

“is obsessed with railway lines, history emerges from geography of course, but from him the primary geography of the planet is the rails, obey their own necessity, interconnections, places chosen and bypassed, centers and radiations therefrom, grades possible and impossible…… each and every accommodation to the matrix of meaningful points, each taken as coefficient in the planet’s unwritten equation…”(242).

In The Uncanny by Freud, he defines unheimlich as: “That ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light”.  I don’t quite know if Pynchon meant to describe the man as unheimlich or his actions and discoveries as unheimlich. The first I cannot fathom, but the second is understandable. Imagine someone with the intelligence and abilities to invent super advanced technology, say like Albert Einstein. Many argue that Einstein’s knowledge of the atom bomb should have been kept to himself, so wouldn’t that be considered unheimlich?

“Neither did it follow that because man was educated he was intelligent. The vast population of the middle class, who had received good education, but who did not have any opinion upon any subject, except as they derived it from their daily newspapers… The rich men owned the newspapers and the newspapers owned the readers; so that practically, the rich men cast all the hundreds of votes” (pg 126)

This quote is an issue that many people today still face. The more people know, the more they want to know. This thirsting for knowledge can be very dangerous until  people understand that they must questions the sources of their information. If their sources remain unchallenged they are capable of printing anything they want and it will be taken as fact. Therefore the amount of education will not necessarily make a civilization any better off.

Gabriel goes on to say in the next paragraph,

“Education will not stop corruption or misgovernment. No man is fit to be free unless he possesses a reasonable share of education, but every man who possesses that reasonable share of education is not fit to be free”( pg 126).

The second part of the second sentence is rather interesting. I believe at this point I agree with the speaker, it would be a scary world if a person who knew everything was allowed complete freedom. A person who knows everything will dominate in every aspect of the world, and with such a power it can be expected that the person will soon use such power to obtain complete domination over others. People with out any type of education is not fit to make decisions for themselves or others, because they cannot grasp the meaning behind such decisions.

So what is so familiar about Caesar’s Column? I think that the troubles that Gabriel is witnessing are issues that many people fear. What do they fear? The thing that most can easily see to fear is the domination of those with money over those without money. In the industrial age, people that were wealthy were usually from a long line of wealth that never wished to part from this life-style. So what would any person fearing being poor do, they would increase their wealth and insure that those of lesser status would remain there. Today many people fear that the wealthy will rule the masses. In some ways this can be observed today, one example is that the media will portray what they believe and their beliefs are usually determined by (a) wealthy owner(‘s).

This seems to be the same fight that Oliver was fighting in The White Chapel Gods. He was fighting those who had made themsselves superior to other humans by idealizing. The difference though is that the people of White Chapel were not allowed to die, where as the people in Caesar’s Column’s New York were encouraged to die. This is slightly odd to me.

I am curious to see how the story goes, but since this is the first dystopia it can end in one or two ways: 1) the dystopia is conquered and utopia is created (the more likely) or 2) the dystopia is maintained and the rebels are killed. I hope fore the first.

The most mystifying character to me is Missy, Michelle. Before she reveals in the 2nd to last chapter of the reading were she came from, I was completely baffled by her. She seems to have a constant struggle for sanity between herself and an obvious previous abuser/controller. At many times through out the story she gives into the thoughts provoked by her counter conscious, Matron Gisella. Such times is when she kills Lawrence, she claimed that he did something, but it was just the argument between herself and Gisella that provoked such thoughts that he was dishonorable. Through Missy’s constant struggle of regaining her self-worth and power, she puts herself in harms way because she is trying to prove herself competent. She follows Bergen into an area she shouldn’t have, and she opens the door which Oliver warned her about. By trying to escape her fate, she just buried herself deeper into a hole she may never recover from.

I also found it peculiar when Aaron speaks to Oliver he informs Oliver that there isn’t just two Gods, but three. Oliver’s first response is that they will eventually have to conquer him too, which is slightly odd because at the moment he can’t even injure the two he is facing now. This is also very dangerous because Aaron tells him that they are in the third God’s head and to say such things would almost mean a certain death. Is it possible that the third God is the God of church?

I feel like the Three Gods represent forces that people have to overcome. I believe that Mama Engine represents the temptation of Lust, love, and desire. She is the God that tempts people to disregard the importatn things in life and persue self-indulgence. Grandfather- Clock represetns the logic that people try to hide behind in order to avoid believing in more than the unprovable. If the third God in this story is the God of the church, then he reprsents what the humans are hoping for, free will and an eventual rescue.

The long one……. Victoria….I have selected a few quotes that I would like to discuss.

Quote 1: “Beyond rich draperies adorning the large study windows, a hint of cholera-laden London fog could be detected, thick swirls coiling and looping like a Byzantine plots” (241). This quote is our introduction to the setting of the story, it is a dreary time full of sickness  and despair; yet the narrator seems to offer some sense of hope. This is the wishful/ foretelling aspect of the story.

Quote 2: “Cosmo grew reflective. “I hadn’t thought of that aspect of my discovery. Still, one can’t retard progress. If I hadn’t chanced upon the refinement of Klaproth’s new metal, someone else surely would have” (251-252). I see this a confirming the Steampunk’s believe about how technology has a purpose, and that it sounds retarded to say that oh if i didn’t do it someone else would have. Cosmo also did not think about the effects such technologies would have on modern society; something that replace the normal transportation would cause a huge uproar. But then again the idea that fueled the Manhattan project was the fear the another country would figureout the atom bomb before we did. Years later many people say it was better us than them.

Quote 3: “… signaling that the world is not ready for such knowledge, if it ever will be…. You may console yourself with the thought tat it must have been a painless death, thank God”(253) This quote is ironic, because in the first half of the sentence it is about science, which many people don’t believe that an omnipotent power has any control of and should not play any part in, but towards the end of the sentence it seems as though the speaker is thanking God for giving the people a painless death by an invention that man had created. This also discusses the opinion of foreshadowing the future, it expresses that although great strides are made with new technologies that there are still many bad results.

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In every reading we read this weekend the main concept was futurism. This was accompanied by the idea of domination. I was very confused when it came to reading Further Considerations on Afrofuturism. I couldn’t understand if it was a cultural appreciation and hope for the future of Africa or if it was all on the basis of hating white people because of the oppression they caused blacks in the past. I didn’t understand a lot of the examples in the text, and was completely unsure about what the entire article was trying to hint. I do not understand the comment by the author on page 294 under the section Black Atlantic Sonic Process that reads: “Afrofuturism studies the appeals that black artists, musicians, critics, and writers have made to the future, in moments where any future was made difficult for them to imagine”. This quote is confusing because the previous part of the article talks about the suffering that the captured slaves faced during their trans-Atlantic relocation. I hardly see how this is relevant to futurism. This seems to be like someone dreaming for a utopian society in which all of the wrongs done to them will be revenged.

The second reading, Science Fiction, the World’s Fair, and the Prosthetics of Empire, 1910-1915.

My overall response to this article is that it is informative and not at all surprising. Ever since the US Revolutionary War, the US has been attempting to unify the states. It is shown in our struggle with Great Britain that when the states stood united, they became a powerful body that could defend its self. This is very similar to the main concept in this second reading, because it talks about all the parts that people look at when identifying things. It is not until all the parts are put together that people of the early 20th century could understand and identify anything.

First, I must discuss the part of the book that concerns Homes. It is startling that such a time existed when  man could get away with murder after murder. I do not understand how people did not notice that acquaintance after acquaintance would go missing abruptly without warnings and no one was the slight bit concerned. I also cannot comprehend how a loving father, Ned, could just let his child remain in the hands of his estranged wife and crazy seducer. It was Christmas, you would think he would want to see his daughter, especially since had once tried to obtain custody.

The other side of the story is one that pertains to Burnham.This character reminds me very much of our previous leading man, Jadwin. They both are completely obsessed with their work.  Another similarity is their need to separate business and private/family life.  In The Pit and in this novel both others use nature as a symbol. Both Jadwin and Burnham try to escape from the city to their country homes where they can be their natural selves.

A contradiction to the The Pit, in the time period of The Devil in the White City art is still a valued and sought after thing. The architectures designing these massive buildings, first demand that their artistic visions not be contaminated with corporate ideology. The reason this a contradiction to the previous novel is because although art was appreciated it was not a businessman way to money. Art was seen as an extra that one could learn and appreciate and value after the basic principals and needs were met, not the forethought of design.

A surprising, but possibly foretelling event is how the structures are sinking; this may be a symbol for whats to come.  All I know is that I am not sure if I want to find out what happens next!

Another startling scene was the one where Laura finds Mr. Cressler. The whole description is rather odd. You would think that a woman who is so obsessed with love would display some sort of emotions when finding a beloved friend dead. She was so deep in her own self-pity that she separated herself from the rest of the world. She seemed to be struggling so hard to find love in others but in the end because of so much disappointment she could not feel anymore.