Lit of Horror Fantasy and ScFI

So our fun journey comes to a conclusion with satire. I love reading satire. It is a fun way to poke at serious topics. After all, if you can not laugh at yourself, how can you laugh at all. Satire is almost always mistook for something that it is not. It is often just a pure joke about society. Something that is meant to be fun and entertaining should not be taken so seriously. This week we dove headfirst into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . This one was a lot of fun for me to both read and listen to. The series started off as a radio broadcast and was eventually made into a series of books. We follow Arthur Dent as he looks for life after the Earth was destroyed by Vogons. His journey crosses paths with several other characters. I had a lot of fun with this. It pokes at every way life in some form. That is what makes satire fun. The novel is spread out over six novels. In order to read them all and describe them here would be close to impossible. I love The H

Literary speculation is an interesting topic. It sort of includes everything that we have talked about. In way it capstones every week of this blog. There is no limit to speculative literature. Often times we talk about the future with this topic. However anything can be considered speculative if it involves discussing what could be. That is the key to this topic. What could be is what makes speculative literature. In the reading list for this week was a short story called The Distance to the Moon . It was written by Italo Calvino. The story takes up around seven pages and just ends. When I say that I mean literally just ends. The story does not wrap up. It kind of just throws you out. I find that very interesting, yet annoying. I love the world built by Calvino. He does an amazing job of bringing us in to his mind. You get drawn in and all attention is on the setting. Then you are out and it is like you were never there. He is quick and to the point with this story.

We made it to week twelve and started talking about diverse position science fiction. I had no experience with this genre coming into this class. Science Fiction in general is a lot of fun to read and watch. I had high hopes for this class and it definitely paid off. We read Bloodchild in class for this week. I posted a little bit about it earlier, but it does not hurt to reiterate. It is a story of sacrifice and survival. The characters are all named in some language that I had never heard before. It is about bringing an animal to be sacrificed allowing it to survive. The story needs to be made visual because it is difficult to follow. I was able to connect to the protagonist, but could not follow their journey. This was definitely one of my least favorite stories.

This week, and all of the following weeks, was dedicated to a topic I knew very little about. We talked about cyberpunk. Cyberpunk looks like a lot of fun. I do not often get the chance to sit down and read a long story, especially one I knew very little about. I forced myself this week to dive into the genre a little more. I read the short story Fragments of a Hologram Rose by William Gibson. My main complaint with the story was that it was too short. I was captivated by the idea that something so inviting as a rose could be so rejecting in the form of a hologram. The main character does not really tell the story so as much as he shows us the story. What I mean is that he is like a tour guide. He speaks about what is going on, but in reality we can see it happening right in front of us. This week, being cyberpunk and all, I had to watch BladeRunner again. I have seen it so many times and it just amazes me every time. The film is so much fun. I have a great time with this

This week we went into the multiverse to talk about stories revolving around different dimensions. These stories are unique in the sense that there is no set rules for these stories. Anything can and will happen. I really enjoy that idea. It brings a lot of different thoughts and emotions to me. When I am reading a story about the multiverse I feel like I am writing the story itself. It is an amazing thing that a writer can have that much power over an individual. As for the reading for this week, we read Aye and Gomorrah . To summarize, the story is about sexuality. We have these beings known as Spacers who are neutered before puberty. This results in androgynous adults. They turn to prostitution from the Frelks in order to satisfy their sexual demons. The story is short and feels really out of this world (see what I did there?). I like how the story was brief. It made it easier to feel for the characters and understand what they are. So often is the case that these long st

If I thought last week's reading was strange, then this week's reading was just bizarre. I never would have thought that a story about a furry would catch my attention, but low and behold here we are. The first book in a series of seven, Ship's Boy  is a fun little tale of David Birkenhead. David is twelve years old and is training to run a starship when the Boyen Empire attacks. David is a slavebunny that works for the humans. He has no choice but to become an engine working because career choice is reserved for the humans. While this makes for an interesting story what really sells the book is the idea that David can actually save his ship. The story seems like a furry fan fiction, but plays out more like a bildungsroman. The story also takes no time at all throwing you right into the action. I said a lot of nice things about this story and actually found myself enjoying most of it. While I do not ever see myself reading a story about a furry again, this set of

This week's reading was different for me. I don't often dive into the world of fantasy but Neil Gaiman is a fantastic author with a lot of credited works to his name. The one I chose to read was Anansi Boys . The story is unique in the sense that it is about Fat Charlie and how he interacts with a Spider. The spider uses a lot of humor in order to get his point across and Charlie seems to have a rather weird experience with this. In the end of the story the spider marries into the restaurant business and Charlie becomes a singer. The two also find out that they are related. What's interesting about this story is the idea that these two are related. It makes for a nice little twist about midway through the book. Gaiman's style is unique to what I've read in the past. Fantasy is not my favorite genre of work, not by a long shot. However I did enjoy this book. It was a nice break from what typical fantasy is. I attribute all of that to Neil Gaiman. I look forwar

Bloodchild is an interesting story of sacrifice and survival. The story is about a being who is tasked with bringing an animal to be sacrificed in order to allow them to survive. It was kind of weird to follow considering that each character had a name that I wasn’t not accustomed to. The story did leave a lot of room for interpretation. I feel like there is one giant metaphor here. I think the story is talking about morals more than anything as the protagonist is doing whatever is possible to live. The story is very strange. Despite it being so strange I was able to connect with the story. Given the same circumstances, I think that I would react the same reaction. The protagonist was confused but obeyed. I feel like I always am like that. In this scenario I would probably being doing the same. This definitely leads itself to be adapted into a short film. In order to do it we would have to make it more believable. I would change how the story flows. I think the story

This week's topic has to be my favorite one so far. We are focusing on the idea of spiritual education. I absolutely love this topic. I grew up with the Harry Potter series. It was one of my favorite series of books and movies. As the series unfolded we were amazed as the story unfolded. The Harry Potter series has to be considered in the discussion for the best series ever created, and to think that the series is based on such a simple idea. The whole idea of the Harry Potter  series is based upon the idea of good and evil. There is a stereotypical hero who lives in the normal world and suddenly is thrust into a world of trouble as Voldemort and his friends attack. The story follows the basic heroic journey and continues to do that until the end when they return back to their normal world. This week I failed to complete any reading assignment. However, I had the opportunity to sit down and rewatch the first four films within the Harry Potter  series. The third one is still my

This week we discussed the Heroic Journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell. There is no better author to talk about the heroic journey than J.R.R. Tolkein. His stories are long and detailed. Most famous for his work on The Lord of the Rings series. These three books are absolutely phenomenal and could very easily be detailed on this blog. However, I will not do that because I have only read the first book and do not have any current plans to continue reading the series. I have nothing against the book, in fact I really enjoyed the book, I just do not have the time to read them. Instead I will talk about The Hobbit . Tolkein's story takes place in the same universe as the aforementioned Lord of the Rings , but tells a new tale of the fantasy world. I would give a summary of the novel but I assume most people have had the opportunity to read the book. I will give my opinions of the novel. The novel is unbelievably crafted. It follows the same sort of pattern that Tolkein's other

This week's topic is witches. Witches are unique creatures because they can not be classified as horror or fantasy. So the question then becomes what do we classify witches. There is no simple situation because witches have been portrayed a lot of different ways. At times we have seen them as these ugly old ladies that are truly evil. Other times they are these young and beautiful ladies who have good intentions. Finally we see them as these young girls who have pure minds. The classification as a witch into a certain genre is truly one of the more difficult tasks as for an expert of literature. I am by no means an expert but it is my opinion that this debate may never be over. They are arguments on both sides of the case. For this week's reading I chose to look at the comic book series Redlands.  The series was written by Ringling alumni Jordan Bellaire and speaks about witches in the city of Miami. The whole topic opens up a whole new set of questions. The most prominent qu

H.P. Lovecraft has always been an interesting author. His stories are always different and lyrical. I always like to sit there as I read and see what he is talking about. Lovecraft is unique in the way that he creates a vision that can go many different ways. I really enjoy his style of writing. This week I read What The Moon Brings,  which is one of his short stories. Throughout the entire short story I struggled with what was reality and what was fantasy. His unique style presented a challenge that I was not ready for. It is safe to say that it was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed how his writing made me feel like I could have been there. That is what makes stories great. The fact that I can put myself there makes me love a story. Lovecraft is one of those special authors that I just can not avoid reading. 

J-Horror is a completely different genre than anything I am used to. I have no previous experience with J-Horror. My whole life I have been living in the Western Hemisphere so I have only seen the western world's variation of horror. With that being said, J-Horror is really cool and a lot of fun. I enjoyed the Japanese ghost stories that I was watching throughout the week. Something that I found interesting about J-Horror is that it revolves around the spiritual world as opposed to western horror which revolves around the physical world. The stories that I read were interesting and at times very weird. I think that this style of writing could be viable and succesful in film here in the United States.

In week two we ventured into the world of vampires. The novel we had to read was An Interview with a Vampire  by Anne Rice. To say the least the story was very good. It starts by immediately introducing our protagonist as the vampire, which is different than some vampire stories. The typical vampire story has the vampire as the antagonist. The difference between this story and the others is that we can sympathize with the vampire. Outside of the Twilight series, there are not many vampire stories like this. Something else that I found interesting was the idea that the vampires were homosexual. It is an idea that for time of publication is rare. It made the story even more compelling because it added another dimension to the characters. This one detail, as small as it is, makes the story that much better. What's even more interesting is that the relationship is driven not by sexuality, but by sensuality. The two vampires do not seem to be driven by sexual attraction, but instead b

This week we took a look at the story of Frankenstein . The story was written in 1818 by Mary Shelley. It tells about a young scientist who builds and animates a dead corpse. The classic tale is intriguing because it has many different side paths that it could take. The story is starts off with these book framing letters that are written by someone who has nothing to do with the original story. This sort of device can be read multiple different ways. The protagonist, Dr. Frankenstein, is the one telling the story. This could or could not be a good thing. I say this because he could be an untrustworthy narrator. It is interesting how the story evolves from being about the horrors that the monster causes but more about the monster's place in society. Throughout the story it seems that the doctor and his family are more focused on trying to make it work with the monster rather than actually dealing with the monster. I feel like this is some sort of subtle hint into the life of that ti