Futurismnow

Grace Perry Dr. June Ellis  EN376*01 27th November  Laguardia Reflection What I really enjoyed most about Okorafor's Laguardia  was the literal use of the word "alien" to depict the ways in which our contemporary society approaches immigration. The travel notices, the banning of people from specific countries (ironically announced after the image of the Statue of Liberty, the pinnacle of freedom for most of the European immigrants coming into New York throughout the 1900's), the blatant racism in profiling travelers, and the inclusion of microaggressions paralleled against human-human interaction and human-alien interaction all contributed to an incredibly poignant commentary of the hypocrisy many Americans maintain towards their own immigrant ancestors. The graphic novel format provided an apt depiction of the degree in which the "aliens" in the novel's reality compare to immigrants within our reality. I also could not help but chuckle at Future naming ...

  Elizabeth Thompson Dr. Ellis EN 376 27 November 2023 Internalized Colonization             Okorafor’s  Laguardia  discusses the threat of the colonized becoming the colonizers with the tension between aliens and the Neo-Biafra movement. Citizen says the movement originally had good intentions to combat discrimination toward Igbos but became very rigid and discriminatory of aliens supported by Nigeria’s government. Even though Citizen is Igbo, he was targeted by protestors for having floral alien spores in his body, and his home, including the floral aliens he was caring for, was burned down by them (Okorafor). However, Citizen also has internalized prejudice against aliens as he offends Payment later on by refusing to let them hold his newborn (Okorafor). Although he later apologizes, his initial attitude demonstrates how colonization can make someone protective and defensive, giving them a survival mentality t...

Naming is a key feature: Freedom, Letme Live, and  Citizen.  Nigeria is supposed to be accepting of alien life, coexisting, and acknowledging their advancements, but there are people protesting the progressive mindset, including Citizen.Its interesting that Freedom was worried about how her grandmother was going to react to Letme Live being illegally in America--the immigration lawyer, who has a building named the "New Hope Apartments"--it highlights how deep rooted the fear is when you are an immigrant. I noted that immigrants have two names, the original and the American version. It highlights that culture and language is unique. For example, if you speak Spanish and are asked to no longer do so--there is a part of your identity (a whole other world) that no one will get to meet. Therefore, people prefer dividing their identity, rather than erasing one or prioritizing one. I think its interesting that the author choose plant-based aliens because plants depend on nature and ...

 Fisk Candau Dr Ellis EN376 27 Nov 2023 Laguardia Reflection     Something I found really interesting about the reading was the depiction of strength, resilience, and resistance. Almost all of the human characters belong to groups typically thought of as weak or lazy like women and pregnant people. However, instead of playing into the tropes that pregnant women need to be protected or that women don't have the strength or will to go out and fight for things like men do, Okorafor has every main character be a part of these groups and still have resilience and strength as one of their main character traits. With this, Okorafor fights against the characterisations/generalisations of these women, especially pregnant women, being weak or having lesser abilities than their male counterparts.     I especially found interesting how strength and resilience were tied to people's identity as part of their family, like when Future's grandmother says that of course she's com...

                    In reading  LaGuardia , I found myself so drawn into the world Okorafor and Ford created. I’m not used to reading many graphic novels, so reading  LaGuardia  was an unusual experience for me. But I found that the use of illustrations truly added to the story—especially with the aliens. Okorafor’s frame for the narrative clearly comes from Trump’s travel ban (which thankfully has been ended). But what truly interested me was Citizen’s involvement with the Biafra movement. I know relatively little about Nigeria’s history (and most of West Africa as well), but Okorafor’s use of Citizen as a complicated foil to Future brought a deeper element to the narrative that I truly appreciated. Citizen, as we learn, supports the movement to secede from Nigeria and create a “pure” land for people separate from the Nigeria full of aliens. This cause stems from the real event of Biafra’s succession and the Nig...

  Joshua Singh Dr. Ellis EN 376 27 November One of the first things I noticed in Nnedi Okorafor’s work is that she highlights the constructed, divisive belief that those who look different are different and must be treated as such. For example, when Citizen, Future, and his child are all in a room where Citizen sees aliens playing with his kid, Citizen exemplifies the othering caused by such perpetuated beliefs. He says “Hasn’t our son been exposed enough?” (my copy doesn’t have page numbers). This implies that it is not natural for aliens and humans to cohabitate, nor is it acceptable for an infant to be in such constant contact with them as evidenced by Citizen’s initial response to the aliens playing with his kid. Although this belief is strongly rejected by the aliens and those who seek to unite Nigeria without the needless othering, Citizen still believes that children should not be closely associated with them. The aliens then tell him, “Ridiculous. You haven't been here a ...

  Tyra Alexander 26 November 2023  EN*376 Dr. Ellis Laguardia Reflection Reading Laguardia really solidified the purpose of dystopia to me. A few days ago I saw a post on social media that said “Dystopian Fiction doesn’t predict the future, it critiques the present” in response to the Hunger Games series. It’s safe to say that I definitely see it manifest in this graphic novel by Okorafor. I definitely saw parallels between the novel and the travel ban that was placed during  Trump’s presidency. I also saw parallels with discrimination and microaggressions against immigrants. But after reading the afterword by the author, it was very interesting to see how one event that happened to Nnedi in Laguardia Airport transformed into a piece as such. Other aspects I wanted to touch on were the names of the characters and Future’s hair. The name’s of the characters being niche reminded me of “Pet” by Emezi. I didn’t really look into what some of them may mean but the...

     While reading LaGuardia, I found myself comparing the discrimination against the aliens to that of immigrants and colored people in America today. However, I then questioned myself as I wondered how the people in American would react to aliens entering out world today. For as much as we’d like to think we’d welcome aliens with open arms, I do not think we would. We would probably hold protests and have anti-alien bans in fear of how they could change our reality.    The setting of the airport stood out to me throughout the graphic novel as well. After doing research, I discovered that Okorafor set this story in the airport based off personal experiences . Okorafor travels a lot, and it became clear to her that airport and border crossings are more focused on control than safety. Okorafor describes that an airport is “the space between, a place of contention, a place of displacement, a place of fear, a place of identity.” The airport is a place wher...

 Ruth Owusu  Dr. Juniper Ellis  Postcolonial Literature   LaGuardia Reflection      Questioning at the airport is such a real and scary experience for many Africans, undocumented citizens, and "foreigners" who arrive in America. As much as America promotes itself as hospitable, the land of the free, etc.. its interactions and implementations are quite the opposite. Okorafor presents those truths in the contrast, yet similar lives of Future and the 3 Sudanese men who came abroad.      Although Future is a Nigerian American, a naturalized citizen, she was still interrogated by the security at the airport. Her physical appearance may have played a huge part in that but also, she lived in Nigeria for an extended period of time. Because of those factors, it gave them an excuse to inappropriately inspect her. Then the security went further to probe her about her pregnancy and the father of the child. The whole interaction was so layered a...

 (preface: this was the piece that I felt the most lost on story-line wise so please forgive this post if it parts of it seem a little off!! I tried my best 😊) Preserving the Future through the Contingencies and Constants     Given that this is a graphic novel, I find it most appropriate to discuss the impact and significance of one scene/page that stuck with me. This segment takes place across two pages and appears on pages 120-21, just before Okorafor inserted her "Afterword" piece. This is the scene in which LetMe Live passes away and all of their Floral spores greet LetMe in their final moments. These illustrations are rich in emotion that evokes senses of pride, nurture, and fulfillment. LetMe had fought so vehemently throughout this graphic novel to keep his Floral lineage alive under the pretext that his fellow Florals were extinguished back in Nigeria. For example, when Future was giving birth to her and Citizen's child, LetMe risked his life to accompany he...

 

 Fisk Candau Video link :  Pet 2nd Half Response  if that doesnt work this is the link https://youtu.be/3qixEzCCQug (sorry it wouldn't let me upload it since it was too big of a size 💔💔)

Grace Perry Dr. June Ellis EN376 Postcolonial Futurism  20 November 2023 Second Half of Pet One of the elements I really enjoyed from reading Emezi's work, is the way they focus on memory and how it is valued and maintained with Lucille. Most strikingly, the majority of these characters operate in a learned assumption of forgetting, in which they have been taught to live in a way that is not reflective of their own past. Lucille is dedicated to moving forward, yet, as we have discussed with the other works we have read, you cannot move forward without looking back to where you have come from. Emezi frames this well, specifically with the ending, in which trust and community are unsustainable without this shared past and the failure of ignorance as being beneficial to the whole of the society.  Throughout the beginning, memory was key for the way in which Jam learned from and observed her parents and her relationships, yet the moment it had to be acknowledged and carried on (Pe...

  Elizabeth Thompson Dr. Ellis EN 376 20 November 2023 Fear             Fear is brought up several times throughout  Pet , but it is not treated as singularly bad or good. For example, Jam says, “Maybe Bitter would have believed Pet more if Aloe hadn’t been contaminating everything with his fear,” but Pet responds, “Fear is human” (149).  Pet  puts fear in conversation with the rest of human nature. Jam views Aloe’s fear as a contaminant, something destructive that hinders the hunt. However, Pet does not discourage her from feeling fear as it is natural. Even if fear may be a factor that makes humans hesitate from accepting truth, the other side of Aloe’s fear is love in wanting to protect his daughter. Pet says that as long as Jam keeps moving forward, it is acceptable to feel fear (149).             Another instance of fear is when Jam processes t...

  Joshua Singh Dr. Ellis EN 376 20 November Emezi ends Pet on a thought-provoking note that is fitting for a post-colonial future class. After the revolution, one major event that occurred is the carrying on of history. Within the context of this class, that usually means that tradition rooted in the way things were is replaced with the victor’s history. Rather than culture being an inclusive aspect in one’s life, it usually devolves into a portion of their identity that they use to separate themselves from others based on differences disseminated by history’s victors.  One instance in which this morphed history causes people to use identity as a divisive tool is through the interaction between Bitter and Redemption. Because of history’s victors deciding which identities are the “correct” ones and which ones are not, Redemption must put himself out of his comfort zone and push against these notions that history has perpetuated for so long. When sharing a meal with Redempti...

            In the latter half of the book, Jam (with Redemption) discovers the monster hiding in the supposedly monster-less Lucille. But what stood out to me as the novel concluded was the exploration of right and wrong—or, rather, the approach to ethics that Pet and Jam take in their quest. As we discussed last class, the society of Lucille seems to be a sort of utopia—except there’s still danger, even though no one will admit it. Lucille’s declaration of “no more monsters” seems to be more prescriptive than descriptive, as we learn with Pet’s arrival. If this is the case, is Lucille a moral state? What rules govern this society if wrong—supposedly—has been eradicated?             I found Pet’s approach to the hunt and to monsters particularly fascinating, if not concerning. When in Redemption’s house, Pet states: “There is no right thing…There is only the thing that needs to be done” (160)...

Communicating is not just Speaking.      In the second half of Pet, I noticed that Emezi draws particular attention to the importance of projecting a message and the different forms in which one can be communicated. Sometimes, as Emezi's narrative has made clear, justice runs deeper than simply eliminating the problem source. Doing so may provide a sense of redemption (haha, very in line with our characters here...) for an individual, which is certainly important and should be prioritized, but the rest of a society would miss out on being exposed to the truth. If people simply focused on eliminating a problem whenever it popped up rather than focusing on being vigilant and reconstructing the root causes, then they really won't be fixing much of the problem at all. To help resolve this, it seems as though Emezi is encouraging her readers to be attentive and receptive to all forms in which people communicate their troubles. From there, Emezi pushes the idea that how an indi...

 Ruth Owusu  Dr. Juniper Ellis  Postcolonial Literature Second Half of Pet Reflection      This book is very intriguing and thought-provoking. There were so many themes and messages that Emezi was confronting, and I want to lay out a few. Specifically, Chapter 8 was one of my favorite parts where Ube took them to the archive room where there were pamphlets about the different family monsters and the bad things happening in homes such as rape, domestic violence, child abuse, etc. I found it interesting that although monsters were really bad at the time of the revolution in Lucille. And now presently, there are supposedly no monsters. The memory or knowledge of them is hidden, secret, and kept in archival boxes. It is no longer exposed to the public, so now everyone in Lucille is happy and jolly going about their business. Granted that is fair and understandable; however, it may be true that although the angels came and killed many of them; it is not possible...

After finishing  Pet  by Emezi, I found Jam’s home to be a very compelling theme throughout the story. Jam has a special connection with her house, and even a form of communication where the house creaks and groans to communicate its feelings with her. I think her strong connection with her home demonstrates the relationship Jam has with her family and her community. A home is meant to be a place where one can be themselves and feel fully comfortable, and clearly Jam feels safe and comfortable here. However, Jam is unaware of how not everyone holds this same attachment and love for their home, as when she learns of the monsters in Redemption’s house, she thinks how “they’d gone home – Jam to her whispering floorboards and Redemption to what Jam now saw as a sweet laced trap, his home that was a monster harbor” (52). Emezi contrasts Jam and Redemption’s homes and how everyone has various places where they feel comfortable and safe.  In the second half of the story, I also ...

  Pet offers the image of turbulence in a world that is presumably “perfect” under modern standards. The community in Lucille is rid of oppression, biases, and judgements. Though presented in a similarly structured universe to the one you and I live in, Jam is not familiarized with the past. The history of the lives which monsters lived is often swept under the rug to preserve the general goodness of the community: “When Jam asked for more information, her teachers’ eyes slid away. They mentioned religious books, but with reluctance, not wanting to influence the children. Religion had caused so many problems before the revolution, people were hesitant to talk about it now. ‘If you really want to know’...’there’s always the library’(Emezi,4). This cultural reluctance and not wanting to speak of the history which had ignited the transformation of removing the monsters from society at large almost forces ignorance. If the members of the community are not encouraged to know about previ...

Eva Walters Dr. Ellis  EN*376*01 15 November 2023  Blog Post: ½ of Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Pet by Akwaeke Emezi details the town of Lucille in which the main character Jam lives. It is explained early on that the town of Lucille no longer has monsters within it, but this quickly shifts after Jam discovers Pet. Jam releases Pet after cutting her hand on her mother's canvas, creating a creature that she names “Pet”. Jam quickly becomes afraid of Pet, unsure of its intentions or possibilities of it harming her, but ultimately becomes comforted in the idea that Pet derives as a creation of her mother.  Overall, I am excited to continue reading and seeing how the story develops in the second half of the book. I still feel slightly confused by the difference between angels and monsters in the story, but I look forward to reading more about it. Despite being a bit confused, I think the overall plot is very intriguing and unique.

While reading, I found  Pet  a fascinating story in the first half of the narrative. The world that Emezi creates a utopian sort of world in which all the issues of the past have been vanquished and everyone lives in piece. Interestingly, Emezi uses somewhat biblical imagery in the creation of this utopia, describing those who brought justice and goodness to the new world as “angels” and the those who did evil, who created the dystopian world of the past, are “monsters.”  What I found most interesting in this reading (apart from some of the religious imagery) was the different sensory descriptions and means of communications throughout the narrative. We’re first introduced to this with Jam’s use of sign language. Jam simply utilizes the best form of communication for her, which bypasses the need for sound and vocal expression. This is further explored with Pet, the creature that arises from Bitter’s painting. No speaking is required; it can simply communicate with Jam thr...

The naming in this story is interesting and definitely seems intentional (ex: Bitter and Redemption). I find it super interesting that the monster is in Redemption's house. It exemplifies the difficulty of redeeming oneself. Additionally, because it is in his house it adds the layer of someone finding/putting the responsibility of their redemption on someone else. The fact that Jam is constantly seeking knowledge and is encouraged by Redemption aka there is redemption in knowledge.  It was highlighted that no one gets asked to be labeled a hero. Someone may be doing an act out of kindness, necessity, selfishness etc and gets branded with these high exception that they did not ask for. People believing that a utopia is free of all evil and willing chasing to forget the past, which allows the monsters space to return because you are no longer looking for them. So, you don't notice or ignore the signs of it rising. Monsters existing in places we have not looked and they can only b...

Lucy Marous The aspect of the first section of this text that stood out to me the most was the focus on the library and physical books as the best way to gain knowledge. In a future where monsters existed and have been defeated, it would be easy for Emezi to create a whole new world where technology has advanced beyond reading, but instead they choose to maintain that aspect of our world. This idea is established from the very beginning of the novel with Jam’s education. The story immediately impresses upon the reader that books, especially religious texts were kept away from children because of the hidden knowledge they contain: “They mentioned religious books, but with reluctance, not wanting to influence the children. Religion had caused so many problems before the revolution, people were hesitant to talk about it now” (4). Jam is also told in this moment that if she has questions about the angels and monsters, she cannot ask them to the people around her, the only way they can be...

 Fisk Candau Dr Ellis EN376 15 Nov 2023 Pet  First 1/2 Reflection     The thing that struck me the most during the first half was the Awaeke Emezi's style when writing the first half of Pet. Everything is worded so simply that it feels like I'm reading a book designed for elementary schoolers, but it still held the same emotional gut-punch I would expect from the super long emotional similes in classics and things like that. Emezi has mastered the art of delivering super difficult concepts/ideas in super easy and digestable ways where she doesn't mince words in the slightest, even when she doesn't even say exactly what was happening (like when she writes that Bitter is the result of a "monster's monstering" (7)). Reading this section, I had to pause so many times to digest what Emezi wrote and to try not to cry in public.      I think it's super interesting the way that everything is also presented as just how things are without any space for debate, w...

Seeing vs. Knowing      Akwaeke Ezemi paints pictures of the differences between angels and monsters in the world of her book entitled Pet in more ways than one. Not only are both characterizations given brief descriptive physical representations, but what follows from those descriptions are varieties of interpretations pertaining to the truth behind what makes an angel and angel and a monster a monster. In doing so, I believe that she is trying to add meaningful commentary to the idea that our senses can often deceive us and what lays deep within the soul of an entity or being is what is truly telling of their character - to simply see is not to know, rather to understand is to know.      The images of angels from the past are kept hidden away, and when Jam finds them in the library, they are horrific looking creatures and look more like entities that would better be classified as monsters. It is likely that Pet, the creature that emerged from Bitter's pai...

  Elizabeth Thompson Dr. Ellis EN 376 15 November 2023 Inner Monster             Pet is initially described by Jam’s parents as a monster, and he takes offense to that. Yet, he assumes a protective role over Jam while her parents fight and reprimands them saying, “Are you not ashamed, are you not full of shame, see how shameful you shamelessly shout about me being here, not once thinking if your child was safe, without noticing her, you shame things, where are your eyes, they are not clouded by shame, but maybe they should be” (47).             In a single breath, a single sentence of run-on clauses, he berates them with authority. They become the cowering child they have made of Jam. There is a strange dynamic between Pet and the parents, especially Bitter, his creator. Is Pet Bitter’s inner monster taken form via her outlet of painting? Is Pet even a monster if ...

  Joshua Singh Dr. Ellis EN 376 One of the first things I noticed in Pet is at the onset, imagery of society is changed. Angels and monsters become the subject of the narrator’s voice. The author, Akwaeke Emezi, also opens with themes of remembrance and memory. It appears that the society presented is a futuristic one that has lost its touch with its roots; the perspectives of those the narration follows is one that did not live before the revolution. That being said, what they know of the past is through stories, pictures, images of the past that are older generations’ interpretations. Jam says, So pictures could be wrong–wait, no. She’d seen too much of her mother’s work to think that simply. Pictures could be flat-out lies” (Emezi 14). This echoes the idea that older generations’ presentations of the past do not always reflect objective reality. At the end of chapter one, Jam reminisces on Aloe’s words: “It’s not the same when the monsters are gone. You’;re only remembering...

 Ruth Owusu  Dr. Juniper Ellis  Postcolonial Literature  First Half of Pet Reflection      Pet is such an oddly confusing yet intriguing book. The earlier chapters of the book caused me to be very confused and left with unanswered questions. However, once I kept reading and getting towards the halfway mark, the plot began to become more and more clear to me, especially in relation to angels and monsters. I was having many light bulb moments in the scene of Jam and Redemptions when they video-called each other (Emezi, 97). In the picture book that Jam had the Angels were said to look like monsters. Everything we think is bad may not be in appearance; however, in action, it's terrible. So we have to be watchful. The angels in their criteria of monsters show that monsters were not a monolith in appearance. It was in actions that made them dangerous...a "monster." It is ironic that angels who appear pretty and angelic are quite ugly. I guess it's true what...