Patricia Lettis- Lit of Horror, Fantasy, and SciFi

Kindred by Octavia Butler reminds me of several themes that I have seen in media and news lately. The civil war statues and the 23 and Me ancestry test.   It’s about Romanizing the south and your family.             The people who are trying to keep the statues of the general and are not going to openly admit that they are racist (Side note, many of the statues were literally installed by the KKK. How can you say they are not racist?)             People with the DNA test are finding out that they are 3 percent black or Indigenous and believe that it is some secret romantic past but, it was not. Life is not a Disney movie. You have to be honest about the past and what happened in your family. You don’t have to celebrate people or justify them just because you are related to them.             ...

This is a strange and gross sci-fi monster story. The lore and universe was well developed but, the uncanny world so casual introduced in this short story was jarring at first and kept getting worse. What makes it so odd and unsettling for me was the subject matter that leans into child brides. The monster asks for the mother to give her a child that she could basically impregnate. The monster picked the youngest son when the oldest was able and willing to volunteer herself. The boy’s education was just to become ‘prepared’ for his life that is only to service the monster and even had things that would affect him, his body, and his mind kept from him. Yes, at the end, he said that he was upset that she could leave him and take another but, he did not know any better. He was raised to be her’s. Of course it would be scary to become free from all forms of your past life. He did not really love her or care for him more than he was told he had to. It is like the child bride and young ...

In Light of Blade Runner 2029, I read that movies grandfather. Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? By Phillip K. Dick and also Ubik by Phillip K. Dick. Because I read the whole book in three days. I really enjoyed Phillip K. Dick’s writing so much. I enjoyed his writing style as much as I enjoyed Neil Gaiman and Roald Dahl. He has a way of making his characters seem real enough. There are tropes that he leans into. The Washed Up Man lead and the Passive Leading Lady. I think it’s the way that he has his characters interact with their world. They are worn in and tired. The way that he writes these characters does not make them seem to be humbler. They don’t think that they are more important than anyone else and they are not.             Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep is a cyberpunk story. It’s combining the problems we have today with high tech but, not solving them. In the world of the novel, ...