Literature of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi

Listening to The   Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  was a complete 180 from last week's reading. Although both stories are absurd and sci-fi in nature, the tones and themes between the two are so vastly different that I almost got whiplash. Douglas Adams takes the listener/reader on a wacky and fantastic journey, but my biggest takeaway was: just take life as it comes to you and have fun with it. I mean, the question of the meaning of life is brought up and Adams just completely avoids answering it. At that point, I was more interested in the paradimensional mice and how the president of the galaxy could just lock himself out of his own mind for security reasons. The absurdity of it all made the story so fun to consume, and kept me wanting more when it left on a cliffhanger. I think that in today's situation, Adams' treatment of story and meaning is a very useful one to adopt into our attitudes. Life has thrown us all through a loop, completely changing our lifestyl

After reading Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake , I described it as "the COVID-19 conspiracy theory that my grandpa sent me on crack." The shocking similarity to our current state, and the outcome of the book attributing itself to the worst parts of capitalism made it all the more hard for me to digest the novel. I personally did not enjoy it for mostly that reason, but looking at it from an objective standpoint has shown me that Oryx and Crake is a very well-written commentary on many things in our current society. Going in, I had a feeling that I would be reading something on the more literary side masked by a very specific type of genre writing; I was already familiar with Atwood's style due to having read The Handmaid's Tale . When picking a novel, I usually go for something on the more genre fiction side. I enjoy escaping into tales of possible futures, odd worlds, adventures beyond my wildest dreams; it is just that, an escape from our current lives and

Oh, do I love a good paranormal story set in Victorian England. I was actually extremely excited for this week's reading, as steampunk is a huge inspiration for a lot of the work I do. And in turn, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook for Soulless by Gail Carriger. Carriger's witty writing and colorful cast of characters very quickly drew me in, and I found myself laughing along as the reader delivered the story. I think that one of the most interesting points of this novel is not quite the addition of supernatural creatures themselves, but the way Carriger incorporated these creatures into the high society of a typical victorian-era steampunk setting. Although this requires the reader to have some sort of prior knowledge of the social hierarchy during this time period, Carriger quickly catches those who don't up to speed with Alexia's rebellion against it all. Her introduction to the way vampires and werewolves are incorporated as beings that live almos

As society progresses and begins to widely accept new ideas and sexuality, it is very interesting to see what artists of the past have done to portray these ideas that seemed so alien and uncomfortable in days' past. In The Left Hand of Darkness , author Ursula K. LeGuin explores the idea of an androgynous people and the way their society revolves around this fact. Their adaptable anatomy that forms only once a month as they pair off for kemmer  was a pivotal part of the novel, and acted as a foil to the main character's rather sexist point of view sometimes. I find it very interesting that such a subject was discussed as early as 1969. Although the novel was published only months before the Stonewall riots, gender and sex was still much less publicly talked about than sexual orientation. Having so forward of an idea as androgyny (even through a very scientific lens) was not something I have seen in literature from this time period. However, I found it coming from much less o

From the beginning of the novel, I knew that I was not going to like Gully Foyle; I mean, you're not supposed to, as he is an anti-hero. In recent media, some anti-heroes have been spun to be redeemable, and Gully Foyle is not even close to any of them until possibly the end. This may be due to his arc being similar to that of the hero's journey featured in many fantasy novels. He does skip a few steps here and there, but overall goes through stages such as death and rebirth, transformation, and atonement. Gully's overall transformation from a rather dim oaf, to a cunning aristocrat, to the people's savior was jarring to say the least, but it did act as a measure of his journey throughout the story. I first thought that the aristocrat part was the end of Gully's transformation, but he could not have fully gone through the transformation section of the hero's journey without having gone through his "death and rebirth" phase. To me, that only occurred

For this week's reading, I chose to read Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane.  The novel took a while for me to get hooked, as every page was a new concept out of left field. However, I enjoyed the story once it picked up, and how it played on a piece of mythology I haven't seen in a while: women in threes. In multiple types of mythologies and religions, there exists a trio of powerful women - the Moirai, the Graeae, the Norns, the three Morrígna, and many more. Some portray them all as old women, others show them as the maiden, the mother, and the crone. In Gaiman's case, he chose the latter of the two, the three appearing as the mysterious and intriguing Hempstock women. From their introduction, it was rather obvious that there was something supernatural about the  Hempstocks. It was either that, or assume that they were all crazy. From Lettie's omniscient knowledge of everyone's money dreams, to the three of them discussing the suicide letter despite

I've probably mentioned it several times in class, but Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is one of my favorite novels of all time. I went back to read the story again for this week's assignment, after having spent some time contemplating whether or not to pitch a thesis inspired by the novel (the idea never went through unfortunately). Like the previous times, I thoroughly enjoyed Morgenstern's writing and world. As for this week's assignment, I wanted to discuss how The Night Circus  deals with both education in magic and the love story told throughout the novel. Celia and Marco never had much of a choice in their education; they were forced into it quite young and through circumstance, and simply grew to accept that their lives were bound to something much larger than them. Unfortunately, the two, having been pretty much bartered into this backwards game of chess, were more being trained rather than educated. Both A.H and Prospero used rather harsh means of m

When asked to name history's most known fantasy authors, Tolkien's name is bound to come up. His legendary world- and language-building skills shine in his Lord of the Rings series, and whose stories have been adapted and readapted for all sorts of media forms. For this week's reading, I went back to an old favorite of his: The Hobbit . It had been almost a decade since I last read more than a few excerpts of it, and was very excited to read the novel with fresh eyes. After having studied the elements of the hero's journey both in middle/high school and in this class, I've come to realize that Tolkien follows the formula pretty accurately in his prequel novel. From the hero's beginning to refusing the call to adventure, all the way to the reward, Bilbo goes through every stage in the hero's journey. Tolkein's beautiful descriptions portray Hobbiton and the Shire as the perfect place to live an ordinary life; and the perfect place to rouse our dear hero

With many young adult novels typically comes a sub-plot about finding oneself. The teenage years are full of change and self-discovery; along with the tumultuous situations presented by puberty. In many of these stories, th e protagonist is a school-age child who goes on some sort of journey, and when they finally find themselves, grow into someo ne more mature (but not quite yet an adult). In Akata Witch, author  Nnedi Okorafor portrays this story of finding oneself through the lens of a magical world set in West Africa. By setting Sunny apart in every way possible (her accent, her looks, and even her magical heritage), Okorafor creates the perfect situation for Sunny to leave her frustrations behind in search of her true place in the world. Similarly, the animated film Kiki's Delivery Service  discusses this transition in the lens of another magical world. Although not as different as Sunny is from her peers, Kiki is alienated by being the only witch in an area where people a

For this assignment, I read Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I typically stay away from traditional horror, but the story of Annihilation drew me in quite quickly. The combination of science fiction and the fear of the unknown was both exhilarating and intriguing enough to keep me reading. Throughout the novel, Vandermeer toys with the idea of transformation and how it affects those who do so unsuspectingly. From the Earth changing with this unknown area, to the biologist herself, transformation appears as a common theme throughout the novel. In the movie, this idea is pushed in new and terrifying ways, presenting the viewer with guts that move, crossbreeding deemed impossible, and skeletons that climb out of their own bodies. This portrayal of human bodies morphing and changing in unimaginable ways definitely chilled me to the bone. In this day and age, being able to transform one's body is something discussed almost casually. From losing/gaining weight, to plastic surgery, t

Oftentimes in literature, the father figure is portrayed as either an absent character or someone with less-than-pure intentions. But what happens when your character is immortal? In Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice, this idea is explored. Against his will, Louis becomes a father figure to Claudia the moment Lestat has her transform into a vampire. As a result of his vigilant morality, the immortal very quickly latches onto her, making sure that the child will (mentally) grow with some humanity in mind rather than becoming like Lestat. This brings into question his own morality, which Louis was often contemplating. His teachings to Claudia seemed to act as a way of grounding his own self and making sure he did not lose his humanity. He feared that telling her the truth about her creation would not only make him lose her, but his own humanity as well.  In contrast, Claudia learns about humanity from a very detached point of view, having been turned much too early in life to dev

Before reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , I was only vaguely familiar with the cartoonishly green hulking figure, the mad scientist with the giant Tesla coils, and the line "it lives!" Little did I know, the story of Frankenstein and his creation delves very deep into the subjects of life, love, isolation, and morality. Framed at first in the form of letters, the story hooks the reader by putting them in the shoes of Robert Walton's sister, to whom he is recounting the tale that Victor tells him on his deathbed. The dying scientist seems to either be trying to atone for his sins, or at the very least warning Walton about his creation that now roams the ice of the North Pole. Shelley writes at length throughout the novel about the morality of giving life to what was once inanimate. Victor refuses to take responsibility and face the consequences of achieving such a fantastical feat, and must pay the price. At several points in the novel, the once passionate and dr

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