Futurismnow

Tyra Alexander 2 October 2023 EN*376*01 Dr. Ellis Harjo/Walcott/Schwartz Reaction  After reading and listening to the three poems for this week, I had a lot of thoughts about all of them. For starters, Harjo’s poem ‘A Map to the Next World” talks about reconnecting oneself to the past in order to continue into the future. I really liked the map metaphor in this poem. It really puts into perspective how to really see a fruitful future; by acknowledging the gift that according to Harjo is forgotten. Harjo also calls this forgetfulness the abandonment of “encampment and relatives” which is caused by science. This could also directly correlate to euro colonization when indigenous people were forced to abandon their practices. I suppose that Joy Harjo may be proposing a future where people of Native American descent let go of notions that were used for oppression. By saying “You will have to navigate by your mother’s voice, renew the song she is singing”, Harjo could be saying that in ord

               I found it interesting how time seems to be a central theme of both stories, although in different ways. In “Old Man Alabama”, the question seems to be: what if you could change the past? Would you? In “Rhonda Honda”, the question pertains to embodiment and time—if you could change your appearance/make yourself younger, would you? What’s the importance of the body in terms of identity and aging? Is your age a physical manifestation in addition to a psychological development?             Specifically, in “Old Man Alabama”, Sanders explores the relatives of Native Americans living a typical life in what I assume to be modern day America. Their traditions mix with the current times’ mundanities, including their medicine. It creates a sort of temporal dissonance as the two men in their “Walmart jeans” and “cheap nylon running shoes made in Singapore” discuss the outsider Old Man Alabama, a relic from another time. The two suspect that Alabama is up to something—and that some

           After reading both of Sanders' short stories, I had a lot of mixed emotions and thoughts. However, my main thoughts from the text, "Rhonda Honda". One thing I thought about as I was reading is the same question I raise with all of the futurism texts so far: what if? For "Rhonda Honda", my question was What if you could morph into any gender and any age you want?  Throughout the beginning of the story it's safe to say I was confused as to why they were so eager to find Rhonda; I wondered what she was hiding. But when I got to the end and it was revealed that Rhonda was the president of the United States morphed into a young biker woman, I was confused.      Nevertheless I thought about how this is a clear that this is a reflection of the lives of transgender people going through transition when I got to the quote that said "Nice Morph Job, Only six months". Then my question changed. What if people were hunted down for transitioning into s

 Lucy Marous One aspect of Sanders’ short stories “Looking for Rhonda Honda” that I really appreciated was all of the references to film noir and how the world building of the story created a similar setting for this story. The most prominent way in which noir tropes are used in the story is the narration from the story’s detective Johnny Noir. Leaning into the detective archetype, Noir’s narration is defined by a certain wit and is very observational. As he is telling the story, he is sure to include any small detail, which really sets the scene. As he explains the details of Margot’s case and the Roadgrrls, Noir discusses the bikes ridden by the group: “Even more important, while any real biker would walk before he'd ride any bike but a Harley-preferably one made before the Xiangs BMW takeover-no roadkid would be caught dead on anything that slow and old-fashioned.” (247). Doing so not only provides exposition for the story, but is a great choice on Sanders’ part to blend the c

Eva Walters Dr. Ellis EN*376*01 27 September, 2023  Sanders Blog Post In our class so far, we have looked at different novels and stories that help to envision a future in which marginalized groups of people are viewed in a different way, such as Pasifikafuturism in the novel Na Viro , written by Gina Cole. The novel works to dismantle the colonialistic, western views that are infringed upon Indigenous groups of people. Similarly, the story Rhonda Honda by William Sanders displays a world in which gender-transforming surgeries are viewed without criticism and are readily available to society.  In Rhonda Honda , the main character Noir is tasked with the mission of finding a missing woman named “immaterial”. Noir is told little information and must keep the mission secret, as per the requested orders. Noir eventually finds the woman, going by the name Rhonda Honda, in a “roadgrrl” part of town with bikers. Noir eventually discovers that Rhonda Honda is actually the president, and h

  Fisk Candau   Dr Ellis EN376   27 Sep 2023        Something I found r e ally interesting in Sanders’ “Looking for Rhonda Honda” was the presentation of and attitude towards trans people (called gendermorph in the short story), specifically that in the case of “Blanche” versus the case of Rhonda Honda.     The first instance of gendermorph people being presented in the text is one of complete disrespect. Johnny Noir , when typing an email to the mysterious person taking some of his money , refers to them as “Blanche” for the sole reason that it would “piss her off,” presumably because it is that person’s deadname (245). Also, Johnny Noir refuses to use that person’s real pronouns, which are he/him, only referring to him using she/her because “ gendermorph be damned, I’ll start going along with that the day she/he quits grabbing half my pay” (245). Thi s shows that, in Johnny Noir’s mind, a person’s identity does not need to be respected if you have some problem with that person.

Ruth Owusu Dr. Ellis  Postcolonial Literature  September 27, 2023                                                                      Sanders Reflection      In the article entitled, "Going after Old Alabama" and "Looking for Rhonda Honda," William Sanders addresses the tension of looking back at America's past, while simultaneously progressing towards the future through the lens of the indigenous context and American government context. In "Going After Old Alabama," Old Alabama goes back in time to make extinct the event of the arrival of Christopher Columbus on Native American soil does not seem like a bad idea. However, the idea was given to a man who did not fully process the depths of this idea. As stated by Charlie Baldwater, "You know the worst part? It was a hell of a great idea he had. Too bad it had to occur to an idiot." "Nasgiduh nusdi," Thomas Cornstalk said. "That's how it is." (Sanders, 60).      In co

  Joshua Singh Dr. Ellis EN 376 27 September Rhonda Honda I first would like to say that reading Rhonda Honda and Na Viro has been refreshing. While Na Viro presented the reader with ideas that challenged western views of Pacific and Indigenous peoples, Rhonda Honda does that but challenges heteronormativity of another group. This story follows a detective who has been tasked with finding a girl whose name is described as “immaterial” (243). Because the story is set sometime in the future and there is not much world building, the reader creates an image of the world through the characters’ dialogue. This is where we learn that the world exists in a pseudo-dystopian state in which the president is missing and biker gangs are an ever-growing problem for law enforcement individuals such as Noir, who serves as the story’s main protagonist. Noir has only been told that there is a girl missing and that he must find her. The mission is incredibly secretive, and he cannot allow anyone else

  Katharine Burris   EN 376: Postcolonial Lit   Revisiting Yesterday to Imagine Tomorrow   While comparing “ Looking for Rhonda Honda ” and “ Old Man Alabama ” by William Sanders, I found the treatment of the past and the present to be particularly interesting. The reader see s two different articulations of individuals attempting to change pre-established societal norms and ways of living, one by traveling to the past and one by  envisioning the future. Therefore, the question then becomes, which is more successful in compelling change?   The inherent constraints of changing the past can be seen in Sanders “ Old Man Alabama ” as a man finds out “how to fly through time” and afterwards “turned a lot of poor damn sailors into sea birds” ( Sanders, 57). In this instance, I found Sanders to be commenting on the futility of making change in the   past as the only thing Old Man Alabama could do was turn sailors into birds, which is clearly ineffective . At the end of the stor