Enlivenment sounds like it had some really good intentions-making motors run on leaves, curing eye problems (her vision was blurry), self-healing cities. I wonder what went wrong? Who are these bees and how did they get in power? Or are they even the ones in power?
They would pay "with their bodies" and the sarcasm went completely over her head. I thought it was interesting that the language reflects the psychology effects of the plague. When referencing the enlivened perspective, Goonan uses more naturalistic imagery and personification. For example, at the begining of chapter 41, Goonan states, "Verity realized as if she were a radio stone distilling the ever-present essance of the air that the City was shouting at her" (409). I think this opens the door for an interesting question. How much of our perception depends on external objects and how much depends on our own psychology, mood, and chemical state?
I thought the headline on the newspaper article at the begining of chapter 35 was intersting. Supposedly quoting a famous scientist, the article said, "I think both the best and the worst will happen. All the very bad and the very good scenarios will come true, only we won't know which is which until later" (355). Considering the creativity, energy, and ambition effects of the plague along side the conformity, seperation, and ultimately death, this dualistic description seems to be fairly accurate. And ofcourse, it is always incredibly difficult to determine what is good or bad when your living or acting in the midst of it.
Because of Verities direct and indirect exposure to the plague and drastically different reaction, does she have a more objective perspective than many of the other characters to evaluate the plague? Another example would be the nanotech plagues. They seem to provide a certain type of illumination of the world to certain individuals, but the consequences of it are typically death. Similarly, the basic utopic image presented in this book does not appear sustainable and quickly dissolves into dystopic outcomes. I was wondering what people thought Goonan was implying.
Is it impossible for their to be perfect communication carriers, bioligically improving capacities, and a utopic ideal within a world without negative consequences? Does our notion that everything good must have an aspect of evil make this a self fulfilling prophecy?
Hey all, I'm really sorry about not making any comments thus far. I really don't have a good excuse. I've just been really down, and procrastination comes with that for me. I'm really sorry. I will try to make a lot of posts the rest of the quarter to at least partially make up for my laziness. I thought Doctor Prichard's comment about science fiction always being more about the present than the future was definetely relevant to this book. The dualism inherent in items and events in Queen City Jazz applied to a lot of current problems. For example, the bees
were useful information carriers but also caused paranoia because of their size and scope. Likewise, the vehicles of communication today elecit fear because of the network size and complexity. Like DJ spooky talked about in his lecture, the metaphors of ourselves and our world (via myspace, facebook, plurk) have become more complex than the actual
biological people and physical features themselves. So what of being human? An original being acting to ones own accord. Repeating patterns of life is all life as we know it. Humanity continues onwards, learning from our mistakes or not. Increased knowledge or not. We cycle as well. Verity spoke of a closed loop. The same but always a bit different. People were happy in the city when the bees were out-skowling at Verity sniffing out his mission. Were those people part of the hive, holograms, their mind connected to the Queen herself? Some city dwellers knew the city was acting weird, looking for that new experience through their savior of Verity. How split was this feeling before the territory plague was released? Even after the plague, Sphere stayed in a broken city because of what he could make of it- embodying music completely. Also, the intense euphoria the city creates
in people... wow. Although it must be awesome to not have a care in the world, that would be scary. And allow the people affected to be easily controlled perhapsAll the individuals in the city aren't really anything more than extensions of the city's will. They have their own thoughts and drives, but like V goes on about, they don't have that same freedom of the outside world. These last few chapters also made me think
of The Invention of Morel for the obvious reason that life was put on a repeating loop in the City, as it was in Morel. It made me think about humans' obsession with eternity and immortality. And what amazing lengths people will go to to "live forever". But in both Morel and QCJ, is it really worth living forever if you're not experiencing new and true moments anymore? What is beautiful to me may not be to you. My guess too is that Verity will eventually reject her Enlivened self. If she chooses
the Enlivened side, will she be lost forever in the eyes of the "pure"? Not only are they addicted to it in the way that they can't live without it, they are entranced when it takes over them... IT controls THEM, instead of the other way around, which is another way that the whole situation is similar to drugs. It could go
either way. Seeing in pixels. I don't think it's a coincidence either. I think it's all very relevant and related. Standout in society. They're all acting kooky because of that. =) I am finding this book extremely interesting. He seems like a pretty guarded and self-protective guy anyway, so I don't think his reaction seems too surprising. I think the Bees and the Flowers are the root of it, no pun intended.Verity is on a journey of self-discovery more so than a journey to save Blaze and Cairo, as well as her initial thirst for the city. She seems to gain more and more of a selfish outlook which seems to reflect the process of the more communal feeling of farm life contrasted with a cities concern of individual interest and fulfillment.
This, however, does not under mind her various helpers but all the people in the city seem to be on their own path and they merely cross Verity's at certain points. This as well is an interesting contrast with how these are connected together. One way this may be, which was previously mentioned is by drugs and the mutual connect and dependence many seem to maintain. Within the chaos of what seems like the future of Cincinnati, they acknowledge the sense of some sort of humanistic network.
