By: tianhony@andrew.cmu.edu

tianhony@andrew.cmu.edu — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:19:29 +0000

The story was also confusing to me at the beginning, and it was difficult for me to imagine or picture what the suit looks like and how the protagonist lives in the suit. I did find the story quite interesting and I think I was expecting some kinds of plot twists throughout the story. I especially liked how the story starts with the human saying “I hurt”, and ends with the suit saying “I hurt”. The suit was originally designed to protect the human and improve the human abilities, so it was ironic that the suit ‘lived’ longer than the human and it acquired emotions that electronic parts should not have.

By: Z

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:48:54 +0000

I really enjoy the interaction between the protagonist and the suit in the short story. In the thirty-four days expedition, the protagonist goes through a process of suspecting, working with, and accepting the suit. Their relationship transform from a functional collaboration to an interactive companionship. It cracks me up when the suit retaliates by playing loud music when the protagonist sings in a “flat note”. However, the suit and the protagonist are still different. The protagonist portraits the suit as something “little closer to perfection than ourselves”. Comparing to human body made of flesh, the suit is stronger, more rational, and independent of the limitation of a physical body. The protagonist’s fear of being ditched, I suspect, emerges from recognition of defect and weakness of human being. While human’s organic body is a chaotic system which displays weakness, isn’t it a component of the identity of human being? Or “maybe it is the only way to progress”, when human becomes something more perfect like the suit, which is created as an imitation of ourselves but a little more perfect in the first place?

Comments on: Descendant short story thoughts

By: tianhony@andrew.cmu.edu

By: Z