Musings: Walking the Cross-Cultural Tight Rope

This is to be the first of hopefully many pieces of my Office Diaries section. I suppose it is an effort to convince myself I am one of the evil minions now - part of multiple despised guilds, including but not restricted to 'office goers' and 'working class'. Office life, as it is, is often about moderation. You want to be appropriate. Except when you end up doing that too much, to your own detriment. Read on to know how.

Burroughs and Gilman: Final Thesis

For my final thesis, for once, I only wrote about the rejection of tradition and the embracing of rationalism in Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. You can read the story here, and my analysis of the story here. You can also find the analysis of A princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs here. For my final thesis, read on.

Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars

Okay then, so turns out that Princess of Mars was written as pulp fiction in a serialised manner in a magazine back in the day, before being compiled and published as a book. Which should say enough about the sort of writing one can expect from it. However, the fact this book is the first by the dude who finally went on to give us Tarzan, you have to go see the raw base that masterpieces are worked from.

Plus point - He managed to put in some feminist narrative into what is literally a SciFi escapist fantasy.

Super plus point - He got Michael Wheelan to draw his book a cover, for the 1971 edition, seen above. My love, you see? I mean yeah, it isn't the first cover, or even in the first five chronologically, but it's Wheelan alright? And the longest lasting cover as well - three decades! That's Wheelan right there for you.

Anyhow, the link to the book is above, so read that shizz, and now, moving to the summary and analysis.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland

This post summarizes and analyses, hopefully in some depth, perhaps one of the earliest Feminist Utopia based stories in the science fiction genre: Herland. It has been an engrossing read, and though there is a summary below, I would still recommend that you guys do read the actual story. And on we go.

H.G. Wells: The Country of the Blind

Imagine a world, a world where everyone was blind. Imagine they had been blind for generations, and had completely lost the concept of sight from their collective memories. Imagine you got there, and were stuck with them. How would you fit into their culture? In a world of the blind, wouldn't the one eyed be king? Here's how HG Wells predicts such a situation will go. My analysis, read below.

Musings: Beautiful Languages

We hear, talk, and even see languages all around us. We associate some with a strong tone - like German, and some with feminine softness - like French. We also find aesthetics in their structure, in their cultural backdrop, even their script. So what makes a language beautiful? Read on to find out my views on the matter.