Wow, I am obsessed with parenthesis (at least on this post). 

Blade Runner & Chapter 4 of Reload Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott.

Post your bullet points or narratives below. You can also upload a file if you've created a word .doc or written narrative....and make certain you indicate yourself as an entry!!

ENVIRONMENT

The environments of Blade Runner (BR for short) and Trouble and her Friends (Trouble for short) have the same feeling of a city: dark, dirty, different levels of living giving it a sort of underworld feel. I think it is interesting that in the "future" there are no trees or countryside, only smog-y cities. It is not a very hopeful image of the future; the things that make earth would be erased and replaced by HUGE technology systems. We saw in BR that all of the technologies were quite large in size and had outer mechanisms that moved to help with the function of the equipment (remember the machine in the beginning when one of the skinheads is being tested as a new employee). One of the things that has marked the evolution of the 90's into the 21st century is how technology gets slimmer and sleeker (and easier to lose!), but BR fails to capture this. I mean, they were in the 80's. Trouble was written more recently than BR and has more refined technology, but still has the feeling of bulkiness. 

TIME

BR comes out and tells the audience that it is creating a picture future society (which is hilarious) but Trouble does not have a concrete time period or date. From the excerpt we read of Trouble the reason we know that Cerise is living in the future is that the technology and societal structures are so different from anything we know or have read about that we assume it is in the future. Melissa Scot does a nice job of making things like the Nunberg Act sound like historical events, helping us associate real things like the Nuremberg Trials. I think she is trying to create a feeling of future by also creating a sense of past.  

CHARACTER

When we meet Cerise, we are able to view her as a loner and quite self sufficient, but she actually seems to like operating with others as equally as operating alone. Cerise's thoughts are often wondering if she is 'the last one' and while she deals with Trouble leaving quite well, it is also evident that she suffered a blow because she walks right into a trap while visiting Miss Kitty in the illegal Cyberworld. She seeks company near the end, but is not unable to go on with purpose in life without  a partner. 

Harrison Ford is a more complete loner. He seems to resent working with anyone and has a very aimless purpose in life. His view of humans and non-humans is quite negative, viewing non-humans as nothing and humans and replaceable. Cerise has more compassion on people who have become cyborgs (dollies) and a better sense of society as a whole, she seems to understand and accept life more realistically than Harrison. 

THEMATIC CONCERN(S)

While both plots hold the quintessential sci-fi ideals of oppression by some sort of organized government I feel that BR deals more with the relational aspect, especially looking at Harrison's character as the loner I have identified him to be. He deals with the android/cyborg relational issues; he has conflicting interests because of his attraction to Rachel and his orders to kill beings like her. The basic premise of BR is very basic: a search and destroy. Most of the groundwork for the plot is revealed in the beginning, giving the audience a comprehensive understanding of how the society works from the beginning. Overall, I feel that BR is pretty shallow, except for the final scene with the last skinhead dying and the dove. (Oh, and maybe the scene when he squashes his maker's eyes out, that was cool and had some meaning minus bodily juices).  

Trouble does not incorporate the same technology/human interface plot element (at least not from the excerpt we read). The technology that Cerise deals with does not create the same conflicting feelings. Cerise does not really question morality and the readers are made to feel the sympathy of those who are oppressed (Cerise + co). Cerise deals with more 'human' attributes. Humans are not meant to be such complete loners (like Harrison) and this makes the story more convincing. I am more willing to suspend my belief for her. Maybe we could talk about the relatability, suspension of believe etc. There were some downright hilarious scenes in BR (don't question my sense o' humah, bitte schon).   

OTHER 

Hello SOUNDTRACK craziness. 

I just cannot handle the tinkling bells that went off every time he was in a HOVERCAR. Yeahfrigginright. 

I want to see how someone would illustrate Trouble.