Tremblaye’s Weblog

     A specific scene in Strange Days was when an unknown person breaks into Iris’ hotel room and gags her, rapes her and kills her. While the man is doing this, he is hooked up to the squid machine and he then hooks up Iris to the squid so she can see herself getting raped. Also, Iris can feel the emotions that the killer/rapist is having as he is doing this to her. This creates a more of a high for the killer because Iris is more scared seeing herself being treated like this. Later on in the movie, the viewer finds out the killer is Max, Lenny’s best friend and Faith’s “body guard.”

The motivations of Max to use the squid were for more enjoyment of the killing. The squid allowed him to relive the events and also show other people what he did and how he felt as he did this. Also, when the victim is hooked in she feels the emotions he is feeling, he gets more of a rush because of that.

The squid greatly effeected Max. Max becauses addicted to the squid and he is hooked in almost at all times. He feels like he needs to record all of his life with the squid. I am not sure if the squid made him insane and want to kill people or he was like that before the squid?

I think the squid is a good thing but in the wrong hands it can be dangerous. This is like most things in life. A gun is a good thing when someone needs to protect themselves but in the hands of a young child it can be horrible.  I think that the squid is very addictive like a drug but should it be illegal? Smoking is not illegal but it is unhealthy and addictive. They have no positive value but the squid does. I do not think they should be illegal but lawbreaking in the clips should be used against criminals who are dumb enough to record their crimes.

The conversation between Mazer Rackham, Graff and Ender is one of the most important discussions in the entire book. This passage explained the reasoning why Graff did the things he did against Ender. Graff felt that his actions were the only ones that resulted in a great commander that could beat the bugger army. This actually made me and a few of the group members feel a little better about Graff’s action. He explained himself and I felt his actions were actually planned out and not spur of the moment, which i thought most were during the course of the book. Steve saw in the passage how Graff admitted to tricking Ender and Mazer was trying to use the you were “born to do it” approach. Graff was talking about how he was training him and Mazer was talking about why Ender was chosen. Kelly saw Graff’s reasoning for using a child but still was not completely convinced with his methods. She said that she thought he had good points and sacrificing one kid’s childhood to preserve the human race and by doing this saving millions of kid’s childhoods. Still, is it okay to sacrifice one for the better good? Some members of the group agreed with Graff and said that the commander had to be a child. One group member made a reference to the quote by Graff stating “Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart” (298). This quote got the group discussing if it was a true statement or not. Most agreed with it saying that ignorance is bliss. After talking about the quote for a little while Andrew made a reference to Hitler and Justin made a reference about Vietnam. This might seem a little off topic but before that we were talking about dehumanizing the buggers. Also, how Ender loving the buggers allowed him to destroy the buggers. Hitler made a large number of the population of Germany and the world think the Jewish population was subhuman. This same technique was being used against the buggers and how the buggers were not human and they did not think, feel, or love like humans did so it was fine to kill them. This was a large chunk of our discussion, was the killing of the buggers justified?
I think the best technique we used as a group was that someone said a specific quote out loud than the person discussed that quote and that lead to much more discussion within the group about themes and plot questions. Sometimes the discussion would result in other topics but then we would try to get back to the topic at hand.

“The Battle School is much like a parallel universe where the children are allowed to participate in violence while the adults not only allow it, but also encourage it. These young, impressionable minds are being shaped by men who want power and war– not exactly the proper influences on children as young as six. In fact, the adults in this novel are the polar opposites of what “normal” adults are expected to be”(Anna’s post).

I agree with your points. I also think that these adults are using their powers to shape these young people for their own purpose. The people in power think they are doing it for the greater good but sometimes I question their motives. I feel that they are using them against each other for their sick and twisted games. Ender uses violence to solve his fights with bullies and never gets into to trouble. This is obviously sending messages to Ender saying that solving your own problems with violence is fine. This is exactly the opposite things that my mother taught me while I was growing up. These games are supposed to get the children ready for the battle, but I feel it is just making the kids slowly go crazy. These six year old kids are so little their values and moral codes are still being shaped. I think this is one of the reasons that home is not brought up. The idea of other moral codes could conflict with the new values these crazy old men are instilling in these little soldiers. You can see when the parents are very different from the generals when Ender’s mom prays over him out of love for him and General Graff wants him to feel isolated and moves Ender into commander of the Dragon troop. This shows the parallels between the two worlds of regular earth than the Battle School. In the real world there are many teachers that do not deserve to be called this. There are teachers that belittle children but there are also teachers caught for being inappropriate with students. I think this is the same concept, people believe they are shaping their young kids minds into better individuals but inside are warping the children’s morals and values.

The second section of the book “Ender’s Game” gave a lot more informantion about the world that is the Battle school. Through out the entire novel, the reader is always reminded that Ender and his fellow launchies are only six years old. Also that the “older” boys are only ten or twelve. This brings up the point that these young boys are not living regular, or what is considered in today’s society,childhoods. Then what is a regular childhood? I know that living in a school that teaches killing and violence at the young age of six is not regular but what is? The men in charge even forget that these boys are this young. When General Graff and Anderson talk about moving Ender to the Salamander army they have this conversation. “‘I suppose you’ll move him now.’ ‘We were waiting to see how he handled the thing with Bernard. He handled it perfectly.’ ‘So as soon as he can cope with a situation, you move him to one he can’t cope with. Doesn’t he get a rest?’ ‘He’ll have a month or two, maybe three, with his launch group. That’s really quite a long time in a child’s life.’ Does it ever seem to you that these boys aren’t children? I look at what they do, the way they walk, and they don’t seem like little kids” (66). This brings up that these little children are being treated like adults because the men in command even forget that they are still children. The laguage in the passage that i thought supported this was when the general says he will be fine because a few months is ” a long time in a child’s life” (66). This is a little ironic because he is saying that two months are enough time with the other launch kids but then why not move all the children when they are ready? The standard is to move children up at eight but aren’t other children ready before that?
I think this passage really made me worry about the fate of many of the characters. If the men in charge have a hard time remebering these little chidlren are little children then they will treat them like adults. These children are not getting play time like children should get. These kids are playing war games and video games that they have to kill in. I think the author put this passage in the book to stress that these little “warriors” were not being treated as children anymore. I think that book has many of the same opinions that i feel, that these poor children are not having a childhood and there will be serious consequencse in their mental state. The children are absorbed by this game and this becomes their lives.

“Ender smiled. He was the one who had figured out how to send messages and make them march-even as his secret enemy called him names, the method of delivery praised him. It was not his fault he was a Third. It was the government’s idea, they were the ones who authorized it-how else could a Third like Ender have got into school? And now the monitor was gone. The experiment entitled Andrew Wiggin hadn’t worked out after all. If they could, he was sure they would like to rescind the waivers that allowed him to be born at all. Didn’t work, so erase the experiment”( 5).

Ender is questioing his exsistence and whether the fact that he was born was a mistake. He is thinking about issues that a six year old should not have to worry about. Six year olds are suppose to play and think that he did not “work” and should be “erased”. Ender is trying almost to blame the government for having him born because they made his parents have Ender. Ender feels so much dissapointment in himself that he just wishes that he was never commisioned to be created. He was not really born because his parents were told to have Ender and we are not sure what the birthing procedures are in this time.

I think this quote tells a lot about the society and also a lot about Ender. The society seems to follow the ways of the government because Ender’s parents were willing to have Ender because the government told them to. Also, it shows that the government has a lot of power because the government is influecing people. There is now a social stigma against people who do not comply with the laws of the IF. This shows that Ender is questioning a lot of things in his life and is not very sure that his exsistence is worth anything. The government with the action of removing his chip took all of Ender’s self worth. This shows that getting into this school is praised and Ender is nothing without this.

The future looks unsure for the young six year old boy. He does not look like he will be a great soldier after all. He might be mocked for the rest of his life for being a third but not being able to go to the Battle school. 

The writer of “Media Unlimited” was the ranting and raving of a man upset with the society. Todd Gitlin is upset because he believes people do not truly understand media today. He believes that people think they understand what they are seeing but they do not. In “Media Unlimited” there are many of the situations that the Pew institute spoke of in their test. One of the scenarios that seemed to have many of the similar ideas was the scenario that dealt with privacy. The fourth scenario dealt with transparency and the fact that people will be able to know many different facts about you using the internet. Media unlimited spoke of the dangers of the internet and both points are very similar. 
A quote that I actually enjoyed was, “Surely media have effects on behaviors and ideas, not so much because of any single exposure is powerful but because they repeat. And repeat. And repeat.” I do not agree with Todd Gitlin in many cases but I do agree with him in this instance. Marketing is one of the mediums that Todd Gitlin is talking about. I do feel that different mediums broadcast their opinions so many times that it is like subliminial messaging. I see commercials for a Diet Coke three times in one sitting I begin to think about having a Diet Coke. Companies use different mediums like television, the internet and newspaper ads so people are overwhelmed with their company or product. I feel that the more times I see something the more i will probaly will buy it. This is because i know i am easily influenced by marketing. I always want to try the newest products due to smart advertising I see on television or internet ads.

A hope that I have for the digital future is I want scenario six to happen. I hope that the internet opens doors for more people. Also, I think if scenario one happens the world would be become more educated and brighter as a whole. Both these scenarios have teh same end result, the world as a community receiving the internet. A fear of mine is scenario three that technology will take over the world. I have seen so many movies where computers take over humans and I can see it slowly happening. I do not think it will happen like I-Robot but I think situations like the computer not allowing for things to happen. Then the person using the computer will not be able to override it. I can see this happening in the near future and I believe it is happening now.

I was in the first group which I read scenario one and two about the low-cost network and English displacing other languages.
I thought that it was very interesting that many of the people did not think that the first scenario would not work due to politics and big business. I never really thought that technology would be hinder due to the fact people want to make money off of it. Now looking back it makes sense that if people are giving low cost networks, the corporations are not making as much money. Also the first scenario was being put down because the cost for every person to have a laptop or have the ability to get to a computer is almost impossible. I was thinking about the population in India when reading this scenario. The population is insanely large and very poor as a whole.
The second scenario I thought was a little more interesting than the first. I was more interested because I speak English and I am curious to see if Mandarin or another language takes English’s place as the common second language. As an American, Spanish has become a common language to take due to the fact there is a large number of Spanish speaking immigrants. I feel that English might slowly be replaced as a universal language. The fact that it happened to Latin proves that it can happen. I also agreed with the opinion that many people do not need to communicate with people from different countries that speak a different language. I never need to find out things on the Internet that are not in English. This might be due to the fact that the inventors of the Internet spoke English and most of the Internet is in English. Still I think that most people do not need to converse with people that do not speak their language.
A quote that I thought was very persuading was Jim Warren, founding editor of Dr. Dobbs journal. He said that “its only 15 years.” When I began to think of that my mind started to wander. I thought what was the digital world like fifteen years ago. I do not think the entire digital world will be revolutionized by 2020. I do agree there will obviously be tremendous changes but I do not think there will be a low cost network for everyone.
Another quote that I thought brought insight for me was a quote by Bruce Edmonds, a member of the Centre for Policy Modeling in the United Kingdom. Edmonds said, ” Technology will allow considerable interoperability between languages, making a single language less necessary.” I think was a great point to bring about. The fact that within the next fifteen years translators might advance as well creating dialogue between different languages a lot easier. If this is true than a universal language will become a thing of the past and people can just use their native languages on the Internet.