Oliver: 1. Connection to popular culture, 2. Important terms or events from the novel 3. video links

Ian: 1. literary elements 2. movie poster 3. literary elements

Brianna: 1. Spotify Playlist, 2. Link articles on related current events 3. linked video

Angel: 1. links to songs 2. linked videos 3. connection to popular culture

"Dear Clara, It's strange to think I've started to build a life in the same place I saw as your escape from home. But you saw something else, and I think I understand now why you never could rest. It wasn't about us or a job or all the little things we call a life. You saw a future of dead soil and dead oceans, all of us fighting for our lives. You had a vision of what life would be like for future generations and acted like the planet had a gun to our head. And maybe it does. I was always so proud of you, but it took Siberia, a quarantine, and the mystery of a 30,000-year-old girl to help me realize that. Maybe tonight I'll look at the stars and make up a new constellation for the both of us, a woman standing at the precipice of a great chasm. I'll be here with you. Love, Your father." ( Nagamatsu 26).

Letter from the perspective of Clara if she was still alive:

Dear Dad,

I wish I could have been clearer about why I escaped there. When I first escaped, I saw life ahead of me. I saw laughter and an overwhelming amount of joy, not for me but for the future that would bring brightness to future generations. I knew I needed to be there in order to help the people ahead of me and for you guys. I knew that if I didn't do this, there would be no future generation or life to this place. I am sorry for making it seem you were the reason for my escaping, but I saw something you would never understand and I knew it was needed. Thank you dad for your unconditional love and support. I am glad you got to envision what I saw, it truly was something special. I can't to feel your presence next to me again. Until then, know I love you.

Love, Clara.

Analysis:

The author finishes Pig Son, this way which I feel is a strong closing to this chapter of the book. The whole story, we hear this story and there are different aspects incorporated and when we get to the end, Snortorious is asking for the rest of the story. He wants to hear the final part as he gives the most selfless sacrifice. The author ends the story by saying before I place my hand on his heart, now beating steadily for a boy two hundred miles away, and tell him thank you." This has a very meaningful ending as we see the sacrifice take place. The author brings in a peaceful tone as it isn't necessarily too sad, but knowing that this is a selfless act and a great way to end the story to represent what the whole story has led to. Another part of this passage is the "Home, I say- family, like you" it brings in this accepting tone and sort of love even outside of intermediate family which helps bring the story to a conclusion as well. It helps to show that family isn't just blood related but someone on the outside can be considered family, which the author emphasizes that is this passage.

"It was a regular Saturday when the drug trial patients moved into the cottages next to our trailers. Most of the staff sat on lawn chairs outside as the families arrived, some of the kids in wheelchairs, others walking at a snail’s pace, holding the hands of their parents. We waved if the children waved. Otherwise, we just watched. One of the kids, maybe six or seven years old, arrived on a stretcher topped with a plastic bubble, as if he were some sort of buffet dish" ( Nagamatsu 41).

“That morning, the bunker company sent an armed escort to take us from our apartment. We put on special clothing and masks that would allegedly protect us,” (Aguirre 125).

Connection:

When reading this part of the story in "City of Laughter" I couldn't help but go back to the story in Wastelands 2: More Stories of The Apocalypse; "Foundation" by Ann Aguirre. Not necessarily the drug trial part but the concept and idea of the separation from society. In this story particularly that brings the connection is how the characters in this story are taken away from society and separated. The characters are moved to what is called the bunkers and place in special clothing. That kind of connects with the plastic bubble that the kids in "City of Laughter" were placed in. There were also about 6 families in these bunkers, and they were moved away from their homes and away from society. This connects really well to "City of Laughter" because it emphasizes the aspect of separation from society and disconnection due to an apocalyptic event that took place. The idea of being stripped of touch to society is where I really see this connection taking place.

• Tom Petty's 1993 song, "Mary Jane's Last Dance".

  - "He once caught me humming Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” as I examined a box full of arms I’d burned the night before in preparation for a grad exam.

  [The chorus in this song, I feel, is very relatable in the context of this passage, as it says "Last dance with Mary Jane, One more time to kill the pain. This talks about Laird's disease or pain being relieved from Aubrey's presence. "]

  “I love that song,” he said. “You know the music video starts off in a morgue.”

  We sang the chorus together."(153, Songs of Your Decay)

• R.E.M's 1992 song, "Everybody Hurts"

  -"I curl over my desk, find a playlist on my phone called “The Saddest Songs in the World.” “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. starts right as my boss taps me on the arm."(160, Songs of Your Decay)

• Bands mentioned in "Songs of Your Decay" were:

  -Simple Minds- "Don't You (Forget about Me)"

• This inclusion of this song after Laird's funeral was significant because it brought a connection back even after his death for Aubrey.

  -Queens of the Stone Age

• “Let’s play a little more music,” he says.

  “More Queen?”

  “Queens of the Stone Age."(156, Songs of Your Decay)

  -The Strokes

• "He’s silent for a long while, pops a few Goldfish crackers into his mouth. I wonder if he’s ever fantasized about intimate moments like this with me. He pulls his iPod from the speaker dock and begins to scroll.

  “The Strokes?”

  “Sure,” I say."(161,Songs of Your Decay)

  -Talking Heads

  -Dead Kennedys

  -Nirvana

  -The Cranberries

• "If he and I had met as teenagers, we would no doubt have spent hours dancing and smoking, drinking to the old greats—Talking Heads, Nirvana, buying Dead Kennedys patches on eBay to sew onto our denim jackets."(146, Songs of Your Decay)

  Movies/ Shows/Articles

• National Geographic

• Star Trek

  -"...and his last real outing when he felt healthy was to a comic book store—and we both laughed at his nerdiness, his encyclopedic knowledge of Magic: The Gathering, Star Trek, and Superman lore."(160,Songs of Your Decay)

• The Gathering

• The Economist

• 2001: A Space Odyssey

  (These movies, shows, songs, etc, are set in a 90s time frame even though Laird's disease is from a plague in the future. The ipod that Aubrey and Laird's listens to sets the tone and ideals for this passage in a fun but memorial way.)

• In the passage, "Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You", we are provided a story in which robo-dogs have the ability to hold all memories and voices from deceased family members/ friends. It also has the ability to teach individuals about their curious questions that they have.

  -"I pointed to the robo-dog welcome packet on the tray table that outlined its popular features: facial recognition, voice commands, audio recording and playback, an expandable library of songs, games like go fetch, eating a plastic milk bone. The Husky 3.0 model can pick up the beat of whatever music is playing and dance in time. Its LED eyes can display the weather forecast, personal calendars, and journal entries, and help with arithmetic. Its personality changes the more its owners interact with it and, if it’s ever lost, a GPS beacon can be used to track it online."(129, Nagamatsu)

• This story is told through the perspective of a dad that owns a repair shop for the robo-dogs with his son Aki, who is kind of rebellious to him because of the death of his mother, Ayano.

  - "I’m sifting through a nearly empty bin of spare parts, trying to repair my neighbor’s robo-dog, yelling to my son to ask if he’s seen any second-generation leg servos, when a customer walks through the door, a little girl carrying a PupPal 3.0 Pomeranian model in a bright pink tote bag."(125, Nagamatsu)

• Aki comes up with the idea to buy his mother a robo-dog, while she is sick in the hospital to give her company through her dying illness. The father, who worked at the robotics factory was not fascinated with the idea of robo-dogs, but for the sake of the happiness in harsh times with the illness of his wife he was willing to buy Hollywood. Hollywood is a robotic husky puppy that creates a bridge between aki and his father because the wife's death would ripple their relationship. Hollywood is incorporated with alot of Ayano's voice, speaking to Aki and her husband through the dog after her death. However, at the end, Hollywood malfunctions and loses all of its memories that Ayano instilled in it and many other robo-dogs that the father has had to sweep from other robo-dogs owned by people who rather the malfunctions then lose their memories of their loved one.

  - "It was Aki’s idea to buy his mother a robo-dog, something to keep her company when we couldn’t. He met me at a closeout sale where the last robo-dogs were being sold, and I let him take charge, questioning the vendors, playing with the robo-Pomeranians, -Akitas, and -poodles, adding bandannas and other accessories to our purchase without asking my permission.

  “Dad, check it out,” he said, pointing to a husky puppy. “I think this is the one.”(128, Nagamatsu)

• "I pick Hollywood up off the floor and his legs tread the air. Hollywood tells us it’ll be cloudy with a chance of rain. He tells us that plague deaths are at an all-time low. I imagine part of my wife’s spirit floating inside this tiny plastic body, wanting to connect us, waiting patiently for its turn."(140,Nagamatsu)

• In "Ron's gone Wrong", Barney, a boy, who is quiet and bullied is given a malfunction robot A.I. friend who others in his school had already had and he hated he didn't have one. So, he ends up getting one for his birthday, but it is malfunctioned and Barney does not like it because it does not work like the other kids in his school's robot A.I. friends. However, Ron(A.I. friend) and Barney grow closer and Ron becomes everyones favorite and Barney cherishes his A.I robot through its malfunctions and the memories that he has are there and he is globalized to be friends with everyone.

• The Umbrella Academy is a highly notarized show, first popular through its attention-catching comic books started in 2007. The story is about a father who releases his eggs from outer space from his wife, adopts the seven kids with superpowers from earth where they landed, raises them, and teaches them how to use their powers. His name is Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who is not a regular father, but his children found out that he is an alien or time -traveler in such. They try to save the planet from its doomsday in each timeline (throughout history) from their sister who is powerful and their father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves. There father puts them in a new timeline to be with them and so he can be back with his wife from his planet. He meets his first wife in his timeline in the 1960s who is a scientist. He has a talking monkey as his butler, and he is known for taking part in JFK's assassination, and many other important events in time.

• The Scope of Possibility is about a woman who has went through time trying to create a perfect Earth. She has a daughter who also at the end is able to go through time. The woman has a family in the time of Atlantis, caveman years, The Seneca falls Women Convention, Galileo, and even King Nebuchadnezzar. She shape-shifts into many of our characters from the story such as Clara Miyashiro and Theresa who is the wife of one of the Yamato brothers and a smart woman who helps him with his math in response to the black hole in his head.

These songs that make up this playlists are demonstrating different themes and ideas that were throughout the story, “Through the Garden of Memory”. The main concept from this story was the idea of being in a void, such as space, and being surrounded by strangers and memories. Yet, without the ability to escape and go back to reality. These songs and further describe the emotions the characters are feeling during their time spent in this void. These songs can relate to this story either by the title of the song, the lyrics or the overall message the song is delivering.

The obvious connection between the Babe scene and Pig Son is the relationship between a pig and the male role as a father figure. However, I also want to point out how the interactions between others develop an empathetic and admirable perception of the pigs in these stories from the humans in the stories.

"cowboy attitude." -pg. 2

"iPod to the duffel bag" -pg. 7

"postcards and photos" -pg. 9

"glass of vodka" -pg. 11

"Dungeons & Dragons" -pg. 12

"IKEA furniture" -pg. 12

"outpost alcohol and cigarette stash" -pg. 26

"And they all lived happily ever after." -pg. 27