Week 9: Space Opera
Post a response to what you read this week discusses what elements from other genre have been used in the work you read.
This week, I read No Woman Born by C.L. Moore. The plot focuses on a singer/actress/dancer Deirdre who was almost killed in a fire, and saved by a scientist who transfers her brain into a golden mechanical body so that she can speak, dance and sing just as she could as a human. This results in a female cyborg of sorts, who has no face and no expressions, but sounds and moves just as Deirdre had. This short story reminded me of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with its "gothic" aspects, although it leans more towards science fiction rather than the horror genre of Frankenstein. I believe this is a modern and futuristic retelling of the story of Frankenstein as the audience is able to easily fine parallels between the two stories. One of the gothic aspects of Frankenstein (that I discussed in an earlier blog post) was that it introduced the monster or supernatural being to the audience. In No Woman Born, Deirdre's physical appearance is described in detail at the beginning of the story when she appears to Harris just as Frankenstein's monster's horrifying appearance was described to the audience. Additionally, Frankenstein's monster was "sympathetically familiar" in terms of being judged by his outward appearance, Deirdre also longs to return to the stage she performed on before the accident. Although she is confident that the audience would accept her, Harris and Maltzer still fear that they will judge her for her physical change, this showcases how the world sees and judges people, through their outward appearance first. Eventually, Deirdre feels uneasy about the situation too, knowing she will never be fully accepted by people as she once was because she's different now. As much as she wants to be human, she is not, just as Frankenstein's monster wasn't either.
This week, I read No Woman Born by C.L. Moore. The plot focuses on a singer/actress/dancer Deirdre who was almost killed in a fire, and saved by a scientist who transfers her brain into a golden mechanical body so that she can speak, dance and sing just as she could as a human. This results in a female cyborg of sorts, who has no face and no expressions, but sounds and moves just as Deirdre had. This short story reminded me of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with its "gothic" aspects, although it leans more towards science fiction rather than the horror genre of Frankenstein. I believe this is a modern and futuristic retelling of the story of Frankenstein as the audience is able to easily fine parallels between the two stories. One of the gothic aspects of Frankenstein (that I discussed in an earlier blog post) was that it introduced the monster or supernatural being to the audience. In No Woman Born, Deirdre's physical appearance is described in detail at the beginning of the story when she appears to Harris just as Frankenstein's monster's horrifying appearance was described to the audience. Additionally, Frankenstein's monster was "sympathetically familiar" in terms of being judged by his outward appearance, Deirdre also longs to return to the stage she performed on before the accident. Although she is confident that the audience would accept her, Harris and Maltzer still fear that they will judge her for her physical change, this showcases how the world sees and judges people, through their outward appearance first. Eventually, Deirdre feels uneasy about the situation too, knowing she will never be fully accepted by people as she once was because she's different now. As much as she wants to be human, she is not, just as Frankenstein's monster wasn't either.
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