In last Friday's Introduction to American Culture and Literature class we covered (almost...) the first 80 paragraphs of Philip K. Dick's neat short story "Human Is" (1953), in which Jill Herrick decides to leave her thin, inhuman, cold-eyed, machine-like husband Lester, because he only cares about his work, doesn't want kids, and has been getting worse every year of the five years they've been married. Lester is a government toxicologist, working on new poisons for Terran military to use in their constant wars against "alien" civilizations. As the story begins, he tells Jill she'll have to stop letting her nephew Gus visit, receives a message informing him that he'll be traveling to Rector IV as part of his poison research work, and refuses to let Jill accompany him. While he's gone, she tells her big brother Frank that she's going to leave Lester cause she knows he'll never change. And then Lester comes back two weeks later a new man... Warm, kind, tender, romantic, playful, and totally lacking interest in his work. What's happened? Jill doesn't really think about it, so pleased is she by her "new" husband... But Frank, who works for the Federal Clearance agency (FBI/CIA/Homeland Security), is suspicious...
ANYWAY, having the kids read the story gives me the chance to tell them a bit about American culture: how American scientists use tens of thousands of monkeys for research (cause Lester uses animals for his toxicology work) and how Americans divorce a lot. It also lets me give them some marriage advice relating to the importance of communication and respect, citing some statistics about how little married couples talk to each other and about how lower income couples tend to love each other more than higher income couples, and telling them what my best friend from high school's mother told me before my marriage: "Never go to bed angry." I hope the students get the idea that literature, "even" science fiction, reveals the culture that creates it and provokes conversations relevant to our lives. . .
2 Comments
Kyohei Terushima
12/22/2017 02:03:27 am
I surprised Jill's husband.
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JP
12/23/2017 06:32:07 pm
Hey, Teru! I'm glad that you challenged posting a comment, but you posted it in the wrong website and the wrong blog! This is my personal website about Fukudai work etc., and not our class website. Please go to our class website and post your comment there, OK? Here's the link:
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
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December 2023
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