Literary Speculation

Margot Atwood wrote a book called Oryx and crake. It is a post-apocalyptic story, but most are told in flashbacks. It is speculative because of its futuristic setting and dystopian world. However, it also fits in the sci-fi genre because if the hybrid animals and people. It also falls in the romance genre because Jimmy loves Oryx and it caught in a love triangle with crake.

If this novel didn't have a mix of all these genres then the story would not be as interesting. Without the love element, the story would be survival and that would be a little boring.

Afro-Futurism

My story for the week is "Brother from another Planet" by John Sayles. It was created in 1984 when the major of the culture was white. I found it interesting that there were not a lot of whites in this story. One of the cultural perspectives are even though our main character is from another planet, he still has that fear that people of color have of the white police. That's still a cultural issue today. Walking down the streets of New York, he got to experience different cultures that are not white. For example, when he was taking fruit from her store, she tried to speak to him in her language thinking he would understand her. He didn't understand especially when she called the cops and he knew to be afraid. Even though he wasn't from this planet, he learned that people of his color are treated very differently.

Cyberpunk

The name of the story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson and it was published in 1981. The setting of this story is 2021. This story plot has been told over and over. You have good guys and bad guys and you have one guy caught in the middle. His job is a data trafficker and for us trafficking his a negative meaning to it. For example, sex trafficking or drug trafficking.

The altered reality is very futuristic even though it's just 2 years away.  For example, The city just looks like a regular city but the technology has his impressions of what technology would have looked like. But in reality, is over the top. The thing that alters reality the most is that Johnny has a giant computer storage in his head. But if he didn't have that in his head, then it would be just like any other story.

The Fiction of Ideas

In The Drowned Giant by J.G. Ballard, A dead giant washed up on shore on a regular town. At first, the townspeople were very curious and were hesitant about going to see what it was, but then they gradually got more curious to the point where they got the courage to got up close to it. The story gets weird when the dead giant has been there for a while and the townspeople begin to feel like it just normal. The Narrator goes to see it every now and then and he begins to notice that some of the body parts from the giant are gone.

The writer is exploring mind experiments through the idea of messing with what we think is normal. For example, at the end of the story, he sees the giant's body parts scattered around town and everyone is just ok with that, which is definitely not normal.

An implication of this idea for today is first-person shooter video games. When these types of games first came out and younger kids started getting curious and wanting to play these games, parents freaked out because it was not normal for a kid to shoot people. Years have past and its become normal for kids to play these types of games, but its not normal. Even though it's become second nature to many kids to play these violent games, it still doesn't make it age appropriate.

Space Opera

In Firefly By Joss Whedon, a sci-fi story is created with all the elements of the American western movies of the last century. The cast is a group of renegades and misfits who end up calling there spaceship their home. They are sort of like guns for hire from back in the 19th century wild west days.  Just like the old space operas, these stories are good vs. evil. But the good guys all have demons from there past. It reminds you of the old gunfire who becomes a sheriff after a life of crime. My favorite element of this story is the humor and that was missing from the stories of the old west. In many of the episodes, the characters in trouble and have to shoot there way out. During all of this chaos, they become like a family.

Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Neal Gaiman wrote Anansi Boys in 2005 and it considers a modern myth about the children of West African and Carribean gods. The story is a combination of realism and fantasy with some romance, comedy and supernatural stuff is thrown in to make it interesting. When the story begins, the narrator tells us that songs were what caused the creation of the world and one of the gods sang a song to create every part. Songs are magic and play an important part in the life of the main character Charlie.

Like most myths, things don't always work out the way they're supposed to. When Charlie was a boy and living in a magical world, he broke a magic ball in a neighbor's yard. To punish him, the neighbor split him into two boys. Spider got all the bad qualities and Charlie got all the good and kind ones. But Charlie doesn't remember any of this and has no idea he comes from a magical family. In order to return to the world, Spider can step through a picture but Charlie has to be sent back from a god.  Spider lives up to his bad reputation and Charlie wishes he could send him but, but I think Charlie really knew he had a connection with Spider.

The story is full of symbols and metaphors just like myths of ancient times. The animals are the avatars of the ancient gods just like Zeus used to take human form. They all face problems. For example, the birds won't leave Spider alone because he owes something to the bird woman. The most interesting symbol is when Charlie begins to sing and he sings the story of this novel. I think myths that combined reality today with magical elements make the story better for readers today because we can connect with them.

The Novel of Spritual Education

The Harry Potter prequel is only 800 words so its hard to get many complex issues out of it. However, since I know the Harry Potter stories, I can put together some ideas. Harry's father James and Sirius Black are teenagers and friends. They are in an alley and have been stopped by the cops. There very sassy to the cops. This same attitude can be seen by Harry and his friends in the novels. I don't think they mean to be offensive, but the magic kids do seem to feel superior to non-magic people. However, when danger approaches, there schooling kicked in because the struggle of good over evil is at the heart of there education and maybe the bases of there spiritual ideas.

The Hero's Journey.

The Hobbit, Bilbo goes on a hero's journey. He begins in the innocent of the hobbit shire. He loves his life there and doesn't want anything to disturb it, but the wizard Gandolf visits him and calls him to go on an adventure. Bilbo tries very hard to get out of this, but the dwarves need his help so he finally goes to help. Along the journey, they meet many scary trials. For example, some of the dwarves are captured by the trolls and Bilbo figures out how to set them free. The biggest test is when he faces the dragon, but Bilbo lets his fear get the best of him. He steals a cup from the dragon and the dragon gets really mad. All heroes on the journey make a mistake along the way. Luckily the dragon is killed but not before he burns down the town. In the end, he goes back home and writes about his adventure. He is not really a hero like we think today.

Witches and Woman in Genre

Akata Witch seems like a Nigerian version of Harry Potter. The people are called leopard people, and Sunny is the main character in the novel. She finds out that she is a magical leopard person and finally finds her place to belong in the world.

The witches in this story are archetypes because some are good and others are bad. For example, Black Hat Otokoto is a bad leopard person and a murderer of children and the good leopard people know they must stop him. Another bad character is Ekwensu and she is so powerful that she is compared to Satan. However, there are other multiple good witches who are similar roles to the teachers in Harry Potter. For example, Anatov is similar to Dumbledore because he teaches and mentors the young leopards.

However, none of these witches seem to fit the archetype of the old historical witches from stories like The Wizard of Oz. The witch from old stories are 2 dimensional so they are not very interesting. I'm glad that the archetype has grown into more interesting witches today.

Old Weird and New Weird

One of my favorite stories is The Walking Dead. The basic plot is weird because it's a Zombie apocalypse, where the dead are existing among the living. The living people are being hunted and their group gets smaller and smaller. One example of something that is very weird is that one of the groups, to avoid being hunted by the zombie is that when they killed one they remote there skin from their heads and wear them as masks. 

Another story from this week is King Rat. This story is a weird combination of the children story about the "Pied Piper" and a young rebel who is going throw a star wars type Jedi trading  -  except a rat. One example of something that is weird is Saul is trying to find his inner rat just like a Jedi warrior, but Saul's special power is the ability to eat anything including garbage and the squeeze into tiny spaces. This doesn't quite live up to the legend of Luke Skywalker, but the story is kinda interesting because the rat catcher has the same power ask the Pied Piper and Darth Vader.

The Old Weird is kinda sad because it made fun of "freaks" or people with disabilities. The New Weird is more fun because you have the supernatural side of it.

Asian Supernatural

I read The Soul of the Great Bell which is a Chinese ghost story by Lafcadio Hearn. The collector of these stories said in the foreword That he wanted to share ancient Chinese stories of deep personal sacrifice and a strong sense of respect for family.

This story is not traditionally scary like horror stories today. To me, it feels more morbid and sad than scary. The sound that the great bell makes when it's rung is supposed to be the scary part. For example, the sound of the bell is so scary that the stone gargoyles shiver. The children from all around know the story of the great bell because their parents make sure their children know about the sacrifice of the bell makers daughter.

This is definitely a cultural difference from the western world because we in America are not taught to be devoted to our parents to the extent that we give our life. Without cultural belief, this story wouldn't have survival throughout the years. Parents here make lots of sacrifices for their children but when the children grow up they don't always make sacrifices for their parents.

It's funny how in their culture, it's interesting that a scary story is actually about parents manipulating their children.

Vampire love and pain

In Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, she created vampires that could blend in with normal people. She gave them a conscience, at least Louis had one. She created values in them that reflect the same values of people today - without the blood sucking.

In Louis' grief over the death of his wife, he was feeling empty and alone. LeStat reacts to Louis with mixed feelings. He shows conflicting values that we all experience. Compassion and selfishness. LeStat wanted to ease Louis' pain but selfishly wanted a companion to live the vampire life. Louis represents different human values that are also conflicting. To escape his pain, he agrees to become a vampire, but Louis never really embraces the vampire life. This is just like regular humans. For example, to escape a boring life, people think they want to be rich and famous, but when they get there, they wish they have there old life back with all of its problems.

Another interesting value Anne Rice includes is the idea of family. Possibly Louis turned Claudia so she could be the daughter Louis never got to have with his wife. His desire for a family is normal but he was selfish because robbed her chance to grow up. His plan backfired because he rejected him after she learned the truth that she would never grow up. After she dies, Louis is facing his biggest fear - being alone. Isn't that the greatest fear of all humans?

Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, There are many gothic elements. One of the most challenge parts from me reading this was how the story was laid out. It was three stories in one, and this unusual way of telling a story is often used in gothic novels. For example, part of the story is told by the letters of Robert Walton, then much of the story is told by Victor's point of view, but parts are told by the monster. 

Most people would think of a creepy setting when reading something gothic, and this story is a great example of that. For example. Victor sets up his lab in a empty gothic church. Hollywood usually puts the setting in a creepy castle on the top of a hill. 

Another gothic element is the main character is Victor. Gothic heroes typically are loners, very serious, very smart, gloomy and eventually unstable. Sometime they even have a god complex like Victor who wants to create life. He get so obsessed with his work that he isolates himself from everything (school, family, friends, love, etc). He is so focus that he doesn't realize that his creation is "unholy", but when the creature comes to life, Victor realizes what he has done but it's too late. 

Gothic stories always have an element of the supernatural and Frankenstein's monster is the first example of this in literature. However, the monster is very different in the book than the movies. In the movies, the monster is just the scary killer and has no feelings, but in the book, his learns from watching others and sees the love he doesn't get from Victor. 

First Post!

Horror Tropers:

Lighting/Dim lights
Dark/Gloomy weather
Monster is not always a person
Special effects
Taboos
Jump scares
Mirrors