Satire and Sci-fi

I listened to 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' this week and I really enjoyed how the radio drama came out. It didn't need a lot, but seemed to add to the story. It was nice they even added recaps so you were caught up on what was happening. 

Hitchhiker's Guide seems to highlight invasion. Invasion is something that has happened many times in our own history and seems to still happen today in some cases. In the story, it talks about how Ford's alien race would come to destroy Earth. 

It also mentions the planet Magrathea, who created Earth, and while creating it for finding the answer to life, soon became the richest planet in their galaxy. Which resulted in the neighboring ones turning to poverty, which has happened in our own history on Earth.

Literary Speculation

I read Oryx and Crake for this week. While reading the story, I knew from a few paragraphs in that this was a science fiction novel. It takes place in a dystopian world, societies separated and science experiments. There is also romance in the story, between Crake, Oryx and Jimmy. 

While following the characteristics of one genre, I think adding elements from other genres into the story can be a important thing. It's not necessary for all stories though since some work fine without different elements. My experience reading the text isn't affected though since many stories I have read do have different elements from many genres. 

Bloodchild Assessment -

1. My reaction to the story I read was a little unsettling at first. I was confused about a lot of things like these creatures and what they looked like, the setting, and the names the author threw around. Understanding now that these humans lived on an alien planet, owned by the Tlic race, and some were forced to be carriers, made me realize how uncomfortable something like this in real life could be. 

2. A connection in the story would be "coming of age." In this story, Gan is the youngest child, but as the carrier, he now has a responsibility. Gan loses some innocence when he is forced to watch the little flesh-eating grubs be removed from another man's stomach. He was a carrier as well and this was their type of 'labor.' It does seem to have elements of slavery, but the author did say it wasn't supposed to be.

3. For this story, I would love to see it in an actual horror or fantasy film. The first few scenes could show the reason for why these families live on an alien planet now and serve under this alien race. Another change would be is to make sure the family members are the correct age show impregnation. Taking that aspect out would take a lot out of the story. 

Fragments of a Hologram Rose

This week I read "Fragments of a Hologram Rose," which starts with Parker in his apartment having trouble sleeping. While reading the short story, it's clear he went through a rough breakup and uses sense-recordings, which are kinda like holograms. Parker surrounds himself with these holograms of his ex's memories to help him sleep. Already compared to our reality, we don't have sense-recordings or holograms to help reflect on our past. Another part of the reality in this story is that the U.S (or southern California) is in a dystopia, or maybe some kind of post-apocalyptic. Which is different from our reality too.

The effect this story had on the narrative and the reader was to make you feel lonely. Going through such a hard break-up in a rough, dystopian world, the only happiness Parker seemed to gain was from looking at the holograms and memories over and over again. 

The Fiction of Ideas

While reading 'The Left Hand of Darkness,' the story starts out with space travel to an alien planet. Two astronauts try to bring two civilizations on that plant together for some kind of peace. 

The idea of space travel and alien plants/civilizations aren't fiction, the worlds the author creates for this story are. The creation adds to the alien planets we haven't discovered yet. The author also creates the planets religion and spirituality, which could be fiction but with so many possibilities in the universe, it's always possible that something similar exists. 

Space Opera and the New Frontier

While reading The Martian, the obvious elements in that story that we've covered before is  isolation and fear. Mark Watney was alone for two years, his only friend for a short time was a mars rover. Just like any horror story/film that we covered, being somewhere so unknown and literally out of your normal element and far from your home can send anyone into an endless state of fear. Mark does have something to kinda help him though which is his humor. He might not have anyone to share it with but it does keep him happy for the most part. In comparison to the other horror stories that have a strong isolation element to them, this is whole new level of loneliness for someone to face.

Spiritual Education

Since the beginning of the "The Night's Circus", the two children, Celia and Marco, are raised from a young age to keep their minds on the competition and build their strength and magic abilities to win. As they grew older and met for the first time, the two had a strong connection with each other. The complex moral issue shown in this story is how two people who are supposed to be against each other and fall in love against their teachers wishes. The two are feel heartbroken when they realize the competition can't be stopped and someone needs to be killed in order for someone to win. In their response, as Marco is about to commit suicide, Celia jumps into that same pillar of flame to be with him. This sends the two into what seems like a limbo world deeper into the circus, where they are neither dead or alive. But they're together. 

Sometimes going against your parents wishes can turn out to be a positive or negative thing. This issue seemed to be a neutral. The two stay together and love each other, while Marco's father-figure, Mr. A-H, helped officially end the competition between the two.

The Hobbit - Heroic Journey

In The Hobbit is a very good starting example of 'classic journeys' and how this genre of adventure has grown over the years. Starting elements of a classic journey, that is shown throughout The Hobbit, is that it always starts with a quest, an unlikely hero, along with someone who helps guide the hero. The different world they live in is also a good element for adventures. It's something that's completely different from our own that holds mythical beings and fictional creatures, like elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins, and beings like Gandalf who have magical abilities. 

Classic journeys like 'The Hobbit' and other stories that follow its features are a great way for the readers to escape and imagine their each individual adventure through these worlds. Being able to imagine your own adventure is a great accomplishment for these stories to gain. 

Witches 

The characters in Akata Witches seem fit more into their own personality types, not so much fit into one of the 12 archetypes. After reading more into it, many of the archetypes seem to be something big, wired a strict way. These characters might fall into those archetypes, but multiple, not just one of them. 

One of the 16 personality types might be better suited for these characters. For example, Sunny's personality, who is said to be optomistic and intelligent, would be ESFJ: The Caregiver. The caregiver is someone who is warm-hearted and puts someone else before themselves. 

I believe Chichi's personality falls under the ESTP: The Doer. This personality is described as friendly and action oriented who like immediate results. This makes me think of Chichi and how she is very energetic and is quick to prank her friends. 

Orlu is a more quiet, intelligent character. His personality strikes me as the INTJ: The Scientist, described as quiet, analytical and has a high value of knowledge. Even though Orlu has a dyslexia, he still is very smart and quick on his feet to help out his friends. 

Finally, I think Sasha's personality would fall under ENTJ: The Executive who are described as assertive.  Since Sasha is hot headed and tries to control his anger, this personality fits him well.

Sunny and Chichi seem to represent the simplicity of independence with their powers.

Weird Horror

What makes weird so compelling and eye-catching is how different it is from our normal everyday lives. In films, weirdness can go from comedic, innocent to a more trickery of the mind. There's no killer or supernatural being declared, just something that can mess with our heads and affect our actions. 

An example from the movie we watched in class, Under the Skin, shows how a human can be very disconnected from humans and society, barely any emotions which can make the audience uncomfortable. The scene where the two men are under her reflection in her "home," one of them pop to what it seems like only their skin. It makes you think "what is causing them to disappear?", "what is her purpose?", "Does she do this to survive?". 

An example from Borne is how a lot of the weird elements are produced by us, humans. What we want to discover or create, no matter how weird, can cause some kind of consequence. After an apocalypse in the story, whether men caused that or not, more weird things begin to occur, like the creatures 'The Company' created that cause destruction on the city the main character lives in. 

Asian Supernatural

While watching the movie, Kwaidan, in class, you can see a difference between western and eastern horror just by the way supernatural beings act. Yuki, the woman of the snow, will kill a human but she kills for a good meal, which is not very often. Compared to western horror, demons or evil spirits usually posses, or do something to harm many people at once. 

Eastern culture has a good balance of good and evil spirits, just as western culture does. Western cultures believe in angels and demons, expressing how demons can harm humans and only do evil, while angels protect. In comparison to eastern cultures, they believe in beings that take different shapes like demons, ogres, or trolls, whether good or bad, and welcome the good spirits with shrines and open arms. 

While reading a bit of the book, A Wild Sheep Chase, I only felt very anxious and unsettled by the story. It doesn't start out positive. The narrator is divorced with no kids, and his girlfriend at the time is a prostitute and ear model. No one had names, except for Rat who began to write him from weird locations. It seemed like the Sheep-man was just stalking him almost over a couple of days. 

This story and the movie shows that an eastern spirit can be harmful to a human, making them want to harm themselves just to get rid of it, or follow them for an intended purpose, but their not always pure evil. 

Interview with a Vampire

While reading ‘Interview with a Vampire’, there were different kinds of relationships between Louis and characters like Lestat and Claudia. Along with the relationship between Louis, Claudia and the group of vampires they met in Europe.

Throughout the story, Louis and Lestat’s relationship seemed to be nothing but a mixture of hate and lust. It seemed Louis was dependent on Lestat and his lessons on how to be a vampire, not too long after he was converted. They stuck together for a while on the plantation, but Louis scared away Lestat after he threatened to kill Babette, who owned the plantation at the time. Louis did state he had some kind of love for Babette, but not the strongest love he has felt. After Babette figured out Louis was some sort of demon, him and Lestat escape New Orleans.

Louis and Lestat’s relationship slowly turned into a form of manipulation. It seemed like Lestat played with Louis, leaving and coming back to him, wanting him, even though Louis only felt some feeling of hate for him.

Another relationship includes Louis, Lestat and Claudia. Claudia was a young girl Louis fed off of and soon Lestat converted as well. The three of them were a small family.

As her mind grew, Claudia’s body did not. She was furious with whoever made her this way. This is what started the strong hate for both Louis and Lestat, but soon Claudia forgave Louis and their relationship seemed to be stable. The young, smart girl, planned to get rid of Lestat for the sake of both her and Louis. She poisoned Lestat, and slashed his throat. And for the time the two young vampires thought they were save from him. Louis’s view of Lestat changes now. He’s scared that he is back and wonders what he will do if Lestat seeks revenge.

A new relationship forms in Paris. Louis meets Armand, after he breaks up a small argument. Louis seems to fall for Armand’s appearance like love at first site. Claudia and Louis soon meet Santiago through Armand, but he is very rude towards the two, demanding to find out who created them. Santiago’s relationship with Louis and Claudia turns hateful and sour, thinking they murdered their maker, which is against the rules.

Most relationships in this story seem to be negative or even toxic. This seems like a repeating element in many stories that contain vampires, lots of drama and toxicity.

Writing for Frankenstein

Gothic elements that we can picture, and what is described in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is the feeling of isolation and being forgotten. The isolation moments of this story can make you picture more dark settings rather than light, happy ones. Almost all the scenes being written out and told to us are no where near uplifting. Victor seems to feel lonely in these surroundings, making it seem gloomy and dark for the readers. Whenever a big, important scene happens, the readers can only picture darkness.

Each character has they’re own feelings of isolation and loneliness. Victor is isolated a lot inside his apartment, trying to play god and create a new being. The monster feels this type of loneliness as he travels the country in search for a friend or a lover. Meeting all of these people who are scared of him triggers that isolation. He knows he’s alone.

Two other examples of the loneliness of this story are the monster asking Victor to make him a companion and Victor dying. Both of these had a grave impact on the monster. After the monster’s companion was destroyed, he wanted Victor to feel the same pain by killing Elizabeth on their wedding night. This caused Victor to want nothing more but to harm and destroy the monster that he had created. At the end of the story, when Victor passes, the monster has decided to isolate himself in the north, wanting to be alone as he grieves for his creators death.

These emotions are a very strong gothic element that adds a lot of exaggeration to the story. It helps us understand the characters very well. 

Classic Horror Movie Tropes 

Dramatic music 

Nighttime 

Monsters 

mirrors 

Creepy abandoned houses on hill 

Switchy bookcase

Cobwebs 

Science going wrong 

Lightning/thunder 

Werewolves - howling 

Weird romance 

Trains 

Hay wagon 

Traveling 

Lab equipment - coils, sparks, electricity 

Creepy portraits 

Quiet town 

Mysterious music 

Candles