Response to “I Bought a Little City”

This is short story is talking about the narrator who buy a little city wanted to be the god of but finally failed and realized the truth is he can never control other by his personal idea even he own the city.

In the story, he did three things to show his authority. The first thing is to find a satisfactory place for homeless people. At that time, he own the city for the first time; every thing looks pretty for him so the triumphant narrator ignored the difficulty of finding such place and got his first setback. It makes him feel disappointed but he didn’t give up show authority, which he thinks he is supposed to have but is not admitted by the folk. Therefore, the second thing which is shooting six thousand dogs without reason happened when he only can use animal as a warning to others. Then it also failed because the pet owners hate him kill their dog. Finally he fall in love with Sam’s wife but the truth is that it is impossible to force Sam’s wife love him. The three failures sober him up; he realized he is an average person which cannot be the smartest. His delusion will never come true.

Response to "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."

  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." Is talking a story that An old man with wings came into such small village，and his arrival take away kid’s illness. However, people do not realize it, they thought this living thing is an angel but it is a bad angel who is “the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy”. Depend on the ugly appearance of old angel, people judge him bad and exhibit him to public as novel creature. They wilfully look at him, criticize him, and hurt him; the same thing also happened to other magic human, such as spider girl. As people lose the interest of him, he secretly recovers and flies away.

  Angel is just seemed to passer-by, his arrival stimulates people are cold and indifferent with others. They delight themselves from others’ pain and distress, and ignorantly judge others according to appearance: Those who are ugly and different from human appearance must be Heterogeneous, and heterogeneous were unconsciously divided into where kindness is miserly by people. But, actually, I am quite puzzled about this article because old man seems nothing happened to him, he is always quiet and leave soon after his recovery. Why does he have such small reaction to those harms? Does his flying has any meaning?

Response to the Middleman

"The Middleman" is told from the perspective of Alfie Judah, an Iraqi immigrant to the U.S. who is a "middleman" for illegal arms deals to rebel armies in an unnamed Latin American country. Alfie is staying at the home of Clovis Ransome, a trader in illegal goods. When Ransome leaves for the day, Alfie is asked to drive Ransome's wife, Maria, on an errand. He takes her to the nearby headquarters of a group of guerilla fighters where Maria meets up with her lover Andreas. Alfie eventually becomes a "middleman" in a conflict between Andreas and Ransome over Maria, during which Maria shoots Ransome but spares Alfie.

We can see Alfie is an immigrant with a tenuous U.S. citizenship who has become caught up in the shadier side of American imperialism and capitalist enterprise. His lust for Maria is in part an attraction to a fellow darkskinned person, although they are from two completely different cultures. Alfie is ultimately a character who survives in a multicultural setting in which he always finds himself as the "middleman" in business, political, and romantic conflicts.

Response to The Lament

The Lament was telling a small story about an old coachman whose son unfortunately died of illness this week. He was very sad about it and hoped to find someone to tell the story of the misfortune, but in the end no one was willing to pay attention to his word, he can only say the story to his horse lonely.

This seems to be not fantastic or attractive. But the author's description empathizes me. The old father who is too old to drive well worked in such a snowy day just in order to find a patient passenger who can listen the whole story; maybe he just wants a word of sympathy from listeners, which can give him some comfort and let him feel his son’s death is concerned by someone; It is enough for him. However, it's a pity that the smallest request cannot be satisfied. Who will care about a little guy dead?  The indifferent attitude foils more pitiful and sad of old father.

Our Utopia Society

Group members: Shen Yanwen(Wendy),Li Yanhao(Max),Yan Jiangyue(Sam),Hong Yuchao(Veblen),Zhang Xinhui(Ada)

Q1: Our society, named Chinamerica, is designed to solve people rights’ inequality. Our value is that everybody is equal in the political status in the society.

Q2: Rules:

(1) Acceptable behaviors are to work as the one-day president in responsible / submit personal ideas that benefits the society to “Central Core Computer”.

(2) Unacceptable behaviors are trying to work as a president for more than one day in normal days (in urgent situation is not) / Work as an irresponsible president. / Submit bad ideas or programs that may destroy the “Central Core Computer”. Punishment is that people who works as a bad president can never join the society’s political activities again. And people who try to destroy the “Central Core” will never be allowed to surf online. Both the two kinds of people will be deprived of political rights.

Q3: Governance:

(1) “Central Core”, works as a charge programmed by 500, 000, 000 people of the country in the 23^rd Century when the technology is super-developed, charges the whole society.

(2) Every 2 years, it will generate 10,000 people to form the Congress randomly by getting people’s ID according the following rule to help it manage the country:

1)        The person’s high school politics subject gets more than B+, or in university get more than B.

2)        If does not meet requirement 1, the person should have working experience in managing a committee at least.

3)        The person should age from 18 to 80 (18 and 80 included)

4)        The person should have no criminal records showing his / her political rights are deprived.

(3) Every day, the Central Core generate a president of the country by randomly choosing 3 IDs represents 3 persons according to these rules:

1)        The person can be any age.

2)        The person should have no criminal records showing his / her political rights are deprived.

3)        One of the 3 is randomly chosen as the president of the country for that day, the other 2 work as vice presidents to help and protect the president.

(4) The congress can either agree and execute presidents’ ideas, or reject the presidents’ ideas. The rule of programming Central Core can be affected only when the president, 2 vice presidents, the whole Congress and 1/10 of people in the country agrees.

(5) So the people being affected are only criminals who are deprived of political rights sentenced by the branch of the congress in every city according to the law and recorded by the Central Core computer. 

Response to Mating

   Had Jane Austen been in the Peace Corps in Africa in the 1980s, Mating is the book she might have written. Norman Rush's novel is, essentially, a comedy of manners played out in Austen's approved milieu: a country village. Granted, the village in question, Tsau, is a utopian society created by the great American anthropologist Nelson Denoon, and run largely by and for disenfranchised and abused African women.
  I can find that Mating is a fiercely intelligent, hugely ambitious novel that takes on feminism, socialism, political corruption, foreign-sponsored rural development projects.And the idea of utopian societies are fun to imagine but will man ever fulfill this world and create a society without flaw. Even the utopian society which are not even real have flaws. The world of women though seemingly perfect has one flaw. It is too perfect. A world without struggle and differences only set up boredom and a lack of character. So Tsau must be unable to continue.