Blog Entry Three

Revolving doors spit me into a cathedral-like entry, complete with shiny marble floors, and people with cheery smiles pasted on their faces like those paraffin lips you get at the drugstore. I start to walk toward the elevators. The signs hint that all is not as cheery as first thought. Oncology and Surgery waiting rooms are straight ahead. An antiseptic smell permeates the corridor, so strong that I wonder if I’ll see it in the air. I can’t keep my eyes from sliding to the right, where the surgery waiting room is filled to capacity. People sitting in small groups, huddled, worried, and frightened, slip past my vision as I try to hurry past unnoticed. Faces look up at me, searching for answers I don’t have.  Quiet whispers follow me down the hallway until, finally, I see the elevator and step on. I hear the ding and the doors whoosh open. Suddenly I have to again navigate through unfamiliar territory, to room 4407. I make it to my grandmother’s room, where I find her sitting up and ready to leave.  After a much faster trip back the way I had come, we are in the car. It feels good, like freedom.

I used the technique of writing a travel narrative from my own point of view. I tried to convey that my location appeared cheery at first, but was not, once inside. To involve the reader, I added specific sensory details, such as the antiseptic smell and the people with worried body language. I added my reactions to the sights and sounds and my moments of insight. For example, the surgery visitors looking toward me with momentary hope. I think this technique impacted the reader in several ways. First, the location starts as a mystery, causing them to guess where I might be. Next, I involved them with details to help them envision the location and what happens there. Details include sights, sounds, and smells, but also my own fears and observations. Lastly, I tried to remind them of a shared or similar experience with a hospital or care facility.

Blog Entry Two

Published in 1950, the book, I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction story based in the 2050’s. This futuristic series of short stories relate the creation and development of the robot.  The series, narrated by the protagonist Dr. Susan Calvin, is an adventure about how man creates and deals with new technologies, and the dangers that come with them. It is also about solving the greatest problem facing mankind, that of defining humanity. The theme of this story centers on the interaction between humans and robots, and the moral issues that arise from this interaction.
The book was published when Americans were experiencing the cold war and the nuclear arms race. The bourgeoning fields of science and technology were beginning to show major breakthroughs, with the creation of the first computer and a new field called quantum physics.  Asimov’s purpose was to entertain an audience who were reading daily about scientific discoveries. Asimov wanted to engage the reader with possibilities about the future from a political and a moral perspective. For example, the discourse of the times was captured when Dr. Calvin said, “And just for a moment he forgot, or didn’t want to remember, that other robots might be more ignorant than human beings. His very superiority caught him.” Asimov was drawing a parallel between robots and our future; about the issues of scientific discoveries and their impact on our world.
Asimov chose a first person narrative by a female scientist to convey his message.  His use of a female was a clever commentary not only about the future of technology, but also a future where women are scientific leaders. For the 1950’s, this was a radical idea, and further served his purpose of questioning  societal norms.
His use of a series of short stories allowed Asimov to build the reader’s interest and knowledge, taking them from looking at robots as simple machines toward robots that became power hungry politicos, telepaths, and sentient beings with the intelligence to drive man from existence.  Asimov foreshadows this future where robots become equal to humans in the very first story, when a little girl becomes attached to a robot that is destroyed. “The whole trouble with Gloria is that she thinks of Robbie as a person and not as a machine. Now if we managed to convince her that Robbie was nothing more than a mess of steel and copper in the form of sheets and wires with electricity its juice of life, how long would her longings last?" Asimov’s knowledge of his subject allowed him to blend scientific fact and fiction that tapped into the desires and fears of his audience.

Blog Entry One

Chapter thirteen of Made in America, an informal history of the English Language in the United States, by Bill Bryson, traces changes in the English language during the late 1800’s through mid-1900’s. British influence on language in America soon gave way as American dominance in the invention of civilizing comforts mounted. The rapid technological advances and industrialization brought a level of prosperity and innovation to America that remained unsurpassed for fifty years. Bryson discusses the emergence of new vocabulary as a result of these inventions, and how the words for these new devices evolved over time. Words were added to American English as a result of innovations related to the comforts of the home. The discovery of electricity led to a host of new words and altered the vocabulary of the American public.  Bryson says, "As electricity became more widely available, electrical products began to come onto the market. Singer produced the first electric sewing machine in 1889. The electric fan appeared in 1891, the electric iron in 1893, the electric vacuum cleaner in 1901, the electric stove-sometimes called a fireless cooker-in 1902, the electric washing machine in 1909, the electric toaster in 1910, and the electric dishwasher in 1918." Names for these devices soon became household terms as Americans embraced consumerism. Interestingly, slang terms also emerged. An example is the term, juice, used in 1886 to describe electricity, but persisting to this day.
Bryson also traces the evolution of several familiar product names. Television was invented nearly as early as radio, but was referred to by a variety of names. “In the early days it went by a variety of alternative names – electric eye, iconoscope, image dissector, electric telescope, televisor, picture radio, visual wireless, electric vision, and radio vision,” says Bryson. As the television became more widespread, its name also became standardized. Another example was the Radarrange, later renamed the microwave oven. Its name did not become familiar until the product itself became common in households. As technology evolved, Americans embraced not only the products, but also the language that described them.