I Am Legend Chapters 10 - 21

Summary-
Off on his epic quest to solve the mystery behind the vampirism, Neville scavenges for some microscopes. At first he gets a bad one, but he goes again to find the highest quality microscope. He then takes three days to master how to use the microscope. Through collecting the blood of a vampire, Neville extracts a sample that he then examines with his microscope. With research, he manages to determines that the specimen that he was looking at was a germ, a breed of bacteria. Through even more research, Neville begins to connect the dots. The germ explodes if it does not receive any blood. With that explosion become sporulation which he assumes is the makeup of the dust storms. It would explain the quick spreading of the germ since the germ, in the dust storms, would latch onto anything it touches to infect it. It leads Neville to search history for answers. He questions if the horrible Black Plague in Europe was due to a similar cause. He also finds that there are two varieties of vampire. One where the bacteria controls a living body, and one where a dead body is animated by the bacteria. Garlic was an allergen to the germ. All this knowledge lead to more questions about the vampires. This leads to more frustration on Neville's part which builds up to a tantrum which he resumes his drinking. He quits his quest until a miracle happens. One day, he encounters a dog, in the daytime. In an attempt to get it closer he talks to it. With no encounters with anything living, he hasn't heard his voice in a long time, his voice has a hint of hysteria. The dog runs away in fear. For the next weeks he puts water in a dish and leave it out on his lawn. He slowly befriends the cautious dog. Th dog had to be cautious to survive the vampire apocalypse, it had learned not to trust anyone. After around 2 weeks the dog arrives with a sickly appearance. Neville takes him in to cure him. The dog was Neville's only source of happiness, it was his best friend. He tried to cure the dog. He failed, with tears streaming down, Neville feels something broken in him. With the death of the dog, Neville becomes even more determined to solve the vampirism. He remembers a flashback set around the time of the decimation of the human population. He remembers seeing a crazy cult that believed in salvation from the apocalypse by believing in God. He makes another connection. The living vampires were from the insane cults. They had believed in salvation. It also connected the mirror and the cross. The cross and mirror reminded them of there old life and their sin towards the God that they worshipped. The mirror reminded them of the fiend they had become. It was so simple to Neville now, those weaknesses were purely psychological. He laughs for first time in a long time when wondering if crosses are ineffective towards Muslim vampires. His hobby became to hunt for Ben, his former friend. He suddenly finds a real living woman on one of his searches, Ruth. He brings the girl to his house, but he has a hard time trusting her because he had forgotten how to trust. He insists on testing her blood to see if she is infected. The girl willingly agrees, but sneaks out in the night. Neville catches her and tests her blood to find that she is a vampire right before Ruth knocks him out. All that is left of Ruth was a letter that explained her intentions and how she survived in the light. Ruth tells Neville that some living vampires have had there germ mutated to tolerate sunlight. Her original mission was to spy on Neville for the vampires, but she tells him that she grew fond of him. She warns him that her new society of vampires plans on killing Neville in vengeance for the deaths that he caused to the vampire society. On a night attack by the vampires, dark suited men came to kill the vampires. They were the new vampire society. They invade Neville's house and take him to their court. As Neville is waiting for his execution, he views from his prison, the new society. They fear him, he is an anathema.  Ruth comes to bring him poison to make his death painless. Before his death Neville thanks Ruth and makes her promise to make sure that the society does not get too barbarian since she is a high ranking officer. With his death, Neville realizes he is a vampire to them, the last of his kind, a legend.

Quote-

"Full circle, he thought while the final lethargy crept into his limbs. Fullcircle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend" (Matheson 96).


Reaction-
The book was really questioning perspectives and morality. Morals are based on perspective. Neville kills the vampires for his experiment for the "greater good". The fear by which the vampires view Neville bring in a whole new perspective. The vampires view Neville in a way that Neville views the vampires. With his death Neville thoughts are shown in the quote above. Humans had viewed vampires as evil and feared them. Neville realizes that he was now that subject of fear, soon to be merely a legend in the eyes of the vampires. Everything has turned around. It has come fullcircle. The feared fear the fearer and the fearer fears the feared.

I Am Legend Chapters 1 - 10

Summary-
The novel begins with Robert Neville going through the day doing his "normal routines". In an apocalyptic world, Robert is possibly the last human alive. The town is abandoned so Nevile can roam the town in search for materials he needs to defend himself from an onslaught of vampires. He has garlic hung around his house to ward off the vampires when they come in the night. During the afternoon, Robert makes stakes in order to kill vampires in slumber during the day. In the daytime, Robert has the upper hand, but during the night, the vampires barrage Neville's house. He plays music as he waits for the approaching nightfall. The attack starts with Robert's longtime friend, turned vampire, Ben Cortman shouting for Robert to leave his house. The vampires can't approach the house because of the garlic but they throw stones and shout vulgar statements to lure Robert out of his "base". The most dangerous part were not the rocks or the shouting, but the vampire women's seduction. They tried to lure him out by "posing" while removing clothing. It has been five months since the vampires have been coming to his house. At night, he dreams of his wife, Virginia, who has been dead for five months. It has been the same monotonous routine day after day. In the morning, he wanders around town killing vampires who are "sleeping". He ponders why he is still living. By opening the door, he can just end his suffering. He concludes that he is scared of death, and is too stupid to kill himself. He remembers Kathy, his daughter constantly who died around 5 months ago. He questions his morality through the killing of vampires. They need to survive, and in many ways they are no worse than the corrupt politicians or factory owners. He eventually comes to the conclusion that it is moral because he is the last man alive. He kills off of necessity. He goes to the crypt of his wife to bring flowers. In her tomb was a vampire, so Neville dragged him outside. When he went back out to leave, he found the vampire dead. He hypothesizes that it is daylight that kills the vampires. To test his hypothesis he goes and gets a vampire from the next house and drags her onto the street in the view of the sun. She died. He had lost track of time. Nightfall was approaching. He returns to his house to see vampires inside and around his house. He crushes some with his car, but he manages to lock the door after the vampires got out to chase the car, and hide. He finds out that his house is in a ruin. He cries as he sees his house wrecked by the vampires. Luckily the vampires had not touched his generator. That meant electricity was still powering his house. For about a week he rebuilt his house, gathering materials in the day, and building at night. He dives into a flashback about his wife. It was during a dust storm and she got sick. They complain about the condition of the United States after World War III. Insects were everywhere and they might carry diseases. After the house was rebuilt he made it his goal to find out about the vampires to easily kill or cure them. He question why the cross, sun, garlic, and mirror work on the vampires. He uses vampire test subjects for experiments and interrogations. Another flashback, this time with Virginia dead. He refuses to bring her to get burned in a fire like government officials made mandatory to prevent the spread of the disease and buries her away. A few days later, there is a knock at his door, and Virginia is standing on his doorstep. She has become a vampire. The scene then switches to the Los Angeles library. He researches in the science room and concludes that the vampire epidemic was due to a bacteria. It explained the sun because certain bacteria cease to exist in the daylight. It also explained garlic which could contain an allergen to the bacteria. He wonders how the disease spread so quickly. He first  thinks its the insects that are transmitting the diseases, but when a dust storm hits his house again, he has an answer. It was the dust storms. They contained the bacteria that lead to the downfall of mankind.

Quote-
"At one time, the Dark and Middle Ages, to be succinct, the vampire’s power was great, the
fear of him tremendous. He was anathema and still remains anathema. Society hates him
without ration" (Matheson 15).

Reaction-
The quote above is a very important theme of the novel. The vampires have been hated because of their power and their mysteriousness. They were ostracized from society for no particular reason other than that. This leads to a great moral debate over the vampires. Vampires need to drink blood to survive. It brings up questions such as...Are we vampires to cows? It is a matter of survival. Neville makes himself believe that what the vampires are doing is wrong, but he is at the same time using vampire test subjects and watching them die. This novel was amazing. It is sort of like a mystery novel and a horror because vampires are attacking Neville, but at the same time he has to figure out what caused the vampirism and find a cure. Matheson brings many revolutionary ideas to the world of literature. He proposes the idea that vampires are formed due to a bacteria. There is very little physical conflict. The conflict in this novel in more internal as Neville resists his temptation for the women, suicide, and his questioning of morality.

From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 237 - 334

Summary- War games that relate to the current events are becoming increasingly popular. One such company, Kuma, releases missions based off of  the latest actual military missions in the form of video games in a matter of days apart. It gave Americans a look at the battlefield that they so desperately wondered about with their curiosity. Real life events change the game industry almost instantaneously. For example, after 9/11, there were a decreased amount of war based video games because it would heighten the fear of terrorist attacks. The greatest amount of war game, are actually based off World War II.  These include titles such as Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. It was very easy for the video game companies to recreate these wars because of the easy one sided moral stand. The Nazis were the obvious "bad guys". Some brave companies actually take on more challenging wars as well such as the Vietnam War, it is highly controversial due to the purpose and origin of the war. The morally right side is unclear which makes it hard for the game developers to pin an adjective on an army collectively. Many veterans of war are against the production of games based on their war because they feel as if it trivializes the war. These leads to controversial moral questions and of honor. These new games in addition with the current war has also impacted other war based products. Airsoft rifle sales have gone up as well as army action figures as the public becomes increasingly interested in replicating a mini, harmless version of a war. As time progresses and the war continues, interest will continue to grow with every new generation. In 2004, war based video games topped all of the other genres in sales with a rather large lead. With these new games comes the question of realism. When people debate over games the topic of realism often comes up. This is a very broad term that encompasses many different aspects.  It could be historical accuracy, sound accuracy, gun accuracy, or visual appearance. This leads to many war companies enlisting many war veterans in their ranks (the ones who support it) to clarify certain events and check the accuracy of the historical content. Probably the most realistic of these games is America's Army which is actually created by the Army. It stresses the parallelism of the game and war. There is no tolerance for friendly fire and the lives of the soldiers are taken very seriously with strict rules. Not all games are played through the eyes of the "hero", some games play in the eyes of the enemy. This is extremely controversial due to the fact that is creates a sick factor. For example, a game call JFK Reloaded actually assigns the player to kill JFK. This is a growing problem as games become more and more realistic. There is a moral conflict and complexity that has the potential to lower the fun of the game. These games also have a opposite genre dubbed the "antiwar games" games such as They Rule allow the player to solve things diplomatically. These games are undoubtedly less popular. Why do humans like war games so much? It might be human nature, with these new technological development, games have evolved, but on a structural level, they are really the same as before because war is the same.

Quote- "The rules may have changed, but the old game remains" (Halter 334).

Reaction- This quote was one of the most powerful in the whole book, and a fitting ending sentence to this wonderful book. Through the history of war games and actual war, which are tied so closely together, there have been many technological improvements. There also have been new rules and ways to play, but the core idea, the idea that we can replicate war without being in an actual one remains. This is an idea that seems appealing to human nature, to feel excitement and face danger, without actually having to be in any real danger. It is amazing what this book showed. Some of the ideas brought up were very revolutionary and this book is truly one of a kind. Where else are you going to find a book that links the history of war with games? I would recommend this book to anyone interested in either war or games in general because it was sure fascinating to me.

From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 173 - 236

Summary- Modern Warfare has now been compared to video games constantly. Just a few years back in 2003,  news channels broadcasted live footage of the war taking place in Iraq. Many reports came in criticizing the strategy. The militariy's response was that this was real war not a videogame. General Norman Schwarzkopf tries to remind everybody that war is not a game despite comparisons. Lives are at stake and the soldiers are not merely discardable pawns. Technology has gotten so good that the bombing of 911 was broadcast realtime. It was almost surreal according to a variety of news anchors. The Gulf War was dubbed the Nintendo War by the Boston Globe because it was fought by a generation of military that has grown up with "Nintendo" technology. Even now, the military is trying to create a virtualization of war in its labs. VirTran System has created a belt that goes along with the simulation games so people can experience real pain. Why would one do that? The military says that the best training for war is war itself. Ed Halter jokes that if this program of a sensor belt is released to the military, there might be soldiers with pre traumatic stress. When one does not experience pain, then the person is reckless which is not how soldiers are supposed to act in warfare. Pain keeps the soldier remembering that they do not want to get hit ever again. What do movies, games, and simulation systems have in common? They all want to create lasting memories in a person's head. Macedonia, a simulation technology officer says, "Until you're in combat, it's all in your head." Simulation is all the training that the soldiers do, not just the video simulations. People are trying to get soldiers to a situation as close to reality as possible. This memory will last in the soldiers head, and therefore can be recalled during actual war.

Quote- "We're trying to mess with that program a little bit, so you remember long afterward that experience" (Halter 199).

Referring to the brain.

Reaction- The quote above is really the main concept of all art. Artist try and trick the brain into remembering their piece of art longer than any other artwork. This broad category ranges from painters to simulationists. The designers of simulation pride themselves as artists of their own because the main concept of leaving a memory inside someone's head is the same as any other artists, whether it be a movie director or a photographer. The wonderful thing about the brain is that is can be programmed, much like a microchip. We humans are pre programmed, but with this concept of art, we slowly alter this program. This is essential in virtualization because without the flexibility of our brain we would be in a static program.

From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 155 - 172

Summary- A milestone in videogame history, Battlezone, by Atari created a revolutionary game in a 3d world instead of the common 2d planes at arcades of 1980. It also was one of the first first person games out in the market at the time. First person became an ideal choice for videogames because of their interactive nature. These two fairly new ideas led to the game's success and later applications of the ideas. The freedom was unfathomable at the time, and many gamers created their own stories and myths to go with the game. Another amazing change to the traditional system was the idea of dual joysticks. This gave the ability to both control head movement as well as feet in these new first person video games. Battlezone soon caught the military's attention. Ed Rotberg, the designer of the game refused to accept to convert this popular game to a military training system. He did not want his game becoming a machine to train people to kill. His directors eventually made him create a Army style Battlezone. The question arises to why the army would want this new game when it was filled with military simulators. The answer lies in the addictiveness of Battlezone. The army wanted the soldiers to do more training by having a pleasant time doing the training. During this time a new generation of youth had been born. One with controllers in their hand that lined up at arcades after school and played until night. Not surprisingly, the military also took interest in this. The new youth had amazing skill in the games that proved valuable in the military. This lead to the army sending recruiters to popular arcades. It was common to see a military officer approach a skilled gamer in hopes of persuading him or her to join the army. In 1993, another famous title came into the gaming world ,Doom. The gaming world had improved graphically at the time of this first person shooter's release. Three innovative aspects made the game so special at the time. One was the marketing. They came out with a demo, a common technique today to attract gamers into purchasing a game. Another aspect was the free roaming gameplay. There were secret areas that the player could venture into to discover all kinds of hidden things left by programmers, which were called easter eggs. The third innovation that Doom did was modding capabilities. This ability for the came to be modified led to an active community of gamers who constantly supplied new versions of the game to the public. Doom caught the attention of...(guess who"?) the military of the United States. Soon they hired modders to create a more realistic version of the game where the bad guys were replaced with terrorists and the futuristic guns with ones found in the military. As the War on Terror approached the military and entertainment industry gradually became closer and closer.

Quote- "Even without knowing it, you're being prepared for a new age............Many young people have incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games" (Halter 117).

Originally made by Ronald Reagan  on March 8, 1983.

Reaction- I connected this quote with my own generation, not necessarily the one Reagan was addressing. We are constantly flooded by titles such as Call of Duty, and without knowing it we are being trained for warfare much like how the simulators in the army did decades ago. Our understanding of computers and all kinds of technology is one that the older generations have a hard time comprehending. This quote it so true. We are the digital age. The age were we are born basically with computers in our hands and with this early start we become more knowledgeable with technology and certain motor skills come with our constant attraction to video games.

From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 65 - 114

Summary- The Pentagon provided input to the modern day videogames. During the Vietnam War, the military of the U.S. was becoming increasingly technological. The government could release bombs from jets remotely and their radar system improved to pinpoint a enemy's position. This program also lead to a game by programmers at MIT who created a game off of that idea, namely SpaceWars!. It was a game where the player controlled a space ship and shot at enemies while dodging meteors. It became very popular along with another game, Tennis For Two, which resembled Pong. What does this have to do with war? Those two games came off of research programs funded by the U.S. military. During the Cold War, science and technology was recognized as an important part of any military or government. They especially pushed the use of computers. This made sense because a bureaucracy needed to keep track of things much faster than group of humans could. Computer games spawned from the funding and research of computers in order to beat the Soviet Union in the Cold War technologically. These games were created by very same programmers working on these projects as they got more familiar with the new possibilities of the government funded computers. Videogames that could be played on T.V. came from the military contractor Sanders, one of the largest contractors in the world. In the 1960's, their electronics department expanded dramtically. They dove into new technological innovations, one of them being T.V. console games. The contractors used Cold War contracting to justify and fund their research on videogames that lead to the devlopment of T.V. games. The military is constantly looking for a war with no loss of lives for their own side. This dream manifests in automated warfare where humans control robots from a screen much like a videogame. The military puts many of its funding in technology after the Cold War. There is a controversy that comes with the possibilities of automated warfare. Many people fear that it will dehumanize the enemy, after all, killing someone on a T.V. screen is much easier than actually pulling the trigger in a battlefield. It is an interesting thought that videogames were actually byproducts of military research and technology. If those wars had not happened, there would not have been the videogames that we now see today.

Quote- "A programmer who was a hacker took obsessive pride in exploring new possibilities; it was a spirit that mixed the scientist's love for exploring new knowledge, the engineer's joy at tinkering, and an artist's creativity and inspiration" (Halter 107).

Reaction- The quote above was important to the book because it explained the people who created video games. Hacker did not have the negative connotation that are associated with it today. In the times of the Cold War, a hacker war merely a person who explored the possibilities of new technology and did new things with it. This was the breed of programmers that came with war. War's investment led to new technology and this new group explored those technologies to create videogames. These people were really unique, as they possessed qualities of a scientist, engineer, and an artist at the same time. This spirit the quote mentions was the fuel for new developments in videogames from military technology.

From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 1 - 64

Summary- A variety of modern day videogames mimic war. This ranges from the popular Age of Empires series to Call of Duty. Often times, these games have advance cinematic that vary greatly from the game's actual game play, representing the designers dream of a realistic experience. War games haven't just started appearing. Upon further examination, there is a trail of history with war and games intertwined. All around the world, war have grown with games. The oldest games that have been found in common with war is board games. These games were the first attempts of people to emulate actual warfare in a simulated environment, not unlike modern videogames. Some early wars actually resembled games. An example is during the Elizabeth Era of Britain where soldiers took turns shooting and fighting in a courteous fashion. The most famous boardgame is probably Chess, model warfare. Games such as Egypt's Senet, and Greek's Petteia. Paintings on vases depict people playing these games that are similar to Chess. The idea of war games theoretically comes from bored nobles. They do not have the resources to send people to war so their scholars invented model warfare for them. It was an idealized war that had the same suspense without the cost. China also had a board game to model war. Weiqi, or Go was invented around 4,000 years ago by the Chinese. Unlike Europe where war games were created as fun metaphors to war, in China's Weiqu was created to actually train soldiers in war. Chess's history is shrouded in mystery. It allegedley came from a form of the game in India with similar rules during the trade between Europe and the Middle East. The elephants became bishops, chariots to rooks... The importance of games to war and war to games is clearly shown through literature. Since the earliest times of civilization, literature has depicted games such as Weiqu and Chess as clever metaphors to war. Chess has also been compared to life where each piece has a office and is jumbled up at the end of their life much like the Chess pieces when putting them away. Modern day videogames spawn controversy on whether it is beneficial or detrimental to society. These may seem like new problems but it has happened as long as war and games have coexisted. Renaissance writers often argued on the very topic. Some believed that it served no purpose and posed a problem as a waste of time. Others believed it was beneficial to one's metal awareness and contributed to winning wars. The games were widely accepted by nobles and peasants alike. Ironically, games were meant to serve as a metaphor to war, but later on when there were advances in science, war was ordered geometrically to resemble a board game. The nobles used these war-like board games to explain their strategies, and plan out their attack and defense. These board games evolved into more elaborate systems in Prussia. War advisors had scholars create a more realistic version of war with plaster reliefs and terrain that were realistically scaled to model war that became Kriegspiel. These games led the children of young aristocrats to become more easily adapted to war with the exposure to war at such a young age, like the children of the modern day. This was the most apparent during World War I where children everywhere embraced warfare with a bloodlust. Many Utopian writers such as the author of Shahnama, hope for an ideal world where arguments won't be settled with war but with friendly games of Chess. This indicates the similarities of war and game.

Quote- "The best thing would be to put a couple leaders in a room and let them go at it on these things, then nobody gets killed. And we could just figure out the same things. We'd all use the same weapons. They'd just sit there and push buttons, and we'll have a simulation on this, and nobody'll die. And we'll just have to live by the results" (Halter 64).

Reaction- I found the quote above immensely fascinating. It is once again a Utopian dream that can never be established in my opinion. I believe that people would not go willingly with the results. The loser would resort to extreme violence to get what he/she wanted. This idea is based on the assumption that humans are in control of their emotions. Admittedly, the idea is wonderful. It is a world with no wars, just a friendly battle in a videogame in order to settle disputes, but it is almost impossible to accomplish. Ed Halter's writing style is very entertaining. Despite this being a history book, he adds in jokes and interesting facts that make it a very interesting read.