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Author Archives: Dr Lothian
A House by the Sea
“A House by the Sea” by P.H. Lee was written as a response to Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” I found that the texts this week were challenging, in that besides the WMST literature class I took, I cannot remember the last time I read fiction for a class, and I …
The Future of Bodyminds, Bodyminds of the Future
In The Future of Bodyminds, Body Minds of the Future, Sami Schalk discusses the issues of speculative fiction and the conflict that arises when these written works ignore difference and intersectionality and frame them to be a problem of the past. The issues that Schalk points out are that fiction—particularly science fiction or futuristic fiction—portray …
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Earthseed Response
The excerpts from Octavia Butler’s “Earthseed” were exceptionally intense and in some places harrowing to read. I did enjoy it but it wasn’t fun, which is always something I hope for when I read fantasy or sci-fi, though I know that wasn’t the purpose of this story. Reading it made me wonder what could have …
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
I like the concept of fiction as a route to approaching issues of social justice and feminism. While I haven’t read much that relates to this, I greatly enjoyed Ursula Le Guin’s story of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. I feel like science fiction offers a unique perspective when thinking about oppression and …
Radical Imagination
Tuesday Smillie critiques Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic feminist science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. Basically, the novel is set in a fictional universe where the humanoid population are inhabited by brown skinned, androgynous, and gender-fluid people and something happens. Le Guin’s novel explored the effects of gender and sex on cultures and …
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
This story is about a city by the sea called Omelas, a utopian city of happiness. It begins with the Festival of Summer and the events that were occurring as a result; the town was decorated, music was playing, horses were racing, children were playing, food was being served, flowers were blooming, and the people …
A House by the Sea by P.H. Lee
I believe the main purpose of this piece is talking about child abuse. While I was able to get that from the main point of the child locked in the basement, I didn’t actually understand what all these formerly abused people living in a house by the sea versus the city was supposed to mean. …
Post-Class Reflection 4/18
In class we discussed adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy. When going over the introduction and the sections on the principles and elements of emergent strategy we talked about a general definition for “emergent strategy” and brown’s description/definition of herself. When we went over the section on fractals it was mentioned how the book itself operated …
Post-Class Reflection, 4/18
“Emergent Strategy” was definitely an interesting read. While I struggled to follow it before coming to class, the group discussion did help a little bit in that it reminded me of specific points she had made, but I still felt overall a little lost with the subject matter. I’m not sure I still fully understand …