Literature of Horror, Fantasy, & Sci-Fi

I chose to read Italo Calvino's short story, The Distance of the Moon', for our Literary Speculation section and it was....bizarre. Surely not the weirdest thing I've ever read but it certainly turned into something I wasn't expecting. It starts with someone older telling one of those "back in my day" sorts of stories about how the moon used to be right upon them and starts to go into the finer details of exactly how that worked. This lore is what hooked me in. It started to get a bit weird when they went into this "milk" that the moon apparently produces and how they would harvest it. That didn't throw me off completely, though, as it was still giving part into the lore of the moon and these people's relationship with it. This is also when the story started to shift more into a weird love triangle revolving around the narrator, his deaf cousin, and a married woman, and this is where it lost me. What began as a story about a people and their

For this weeks' reading I read Octavia Butler's short story, Bloodchild . It was a very interesting read, though, it made me quite uncomfortable by the end. As I progressed further and further into this story it became increasingly apparent that while Gan and his family had what they viewed to be a positive and healthy relationship with T'Gatoi, the relationship between the Terran and the Tlic was anything but. While most of the Terran in this world had come to terms with and rationalized the relationship it was clear to me that this was because of the normalized oppression of them. The Tlic claim that the Terran are as free as they are and manipulate them into believing this by making as simple a change as not referring to them as "host animals" even though they still are, even if it is to a lesser extent of abuse as in the past. They even try to guilt the Terran by claiming that they are their saviors and are being so kind as to let them live in the Preserve. Th

What stuck with me most about William Gibson's short story,  Fragments of a Hologram Rose, is the method of coping one is able to use within a world where sense-recordings exist. It is not particularly healthy to say the least. When the main character, Parker, has been broken up with by his girlfriend he immediately goes to his sense-recordings to cope with this. Sense-recordings are effectively allowing people in this world to dwell on their past even more so than they previously would or were able to and this makes it significantly harder for one to move on or grow. One could even become obsessive over this sort of thing and just live within their old memories and senses. This story actually reminded me a bit of the Black Mirror episode, "The Entire History of You" . It is of course not exactly the same in it's premise but the technology in each is similar enough and the negative affect that these sorts of things could have on people is evident in both, though perh

So, what will the future look like in 15 years? Bleak. When I look to the future it is bleak. If we keep going the way we are going with climate change, giant corporate conglomerates, social tensions, etc. then the future is not bright. I think that this is something common amongst people my age. It has been discussed time and time again how if you look to science fiction from the 50s it is generally much more hopeful whereas science fiction from the 80s or later tends to be more dark and post-apocalyptic in it's nature. I think, given what the human race has gone through and continues to go through it is not hard to understand why. Though, while I do think the future looks bleak. I think that not a ton will change in the next 15 years. The environment will continue on it's decline, social tensions will not be resolved, technology will advance even further but at what cost, there will be little to no privacy, and people will still be slaving away at jobs that they don't car

1.What is your reaction to the text that you just read? I actually read this story for this weeks reading so I will be elaborating on my feelings of it in a separate more in-depth blog post but long story short, it made me uncomfortable. It was good, but unsettling. The normalized oppression of the Tlic to the Terran becomes more and more obvious as the story goes on and it is upsetting to see our main character, Gan, go through a major realization of this and then yet still accept and even welcome his fate. The impression of love between these two characters when their unbalanced power dynamic is so evident is just uncomfortable for me as an audience member to read. It is even more uncomfortable given that T'Gatoi is much older than Gan by an undisclosed amount of years. 2. What connections did you make with this story that you just read? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect. I couldn't personally connect with the story very much as it was

So for this week I read Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream , and I must admit, I picked it solely for that title alone as it is just so darn relatable. I have no idea what I expected, or if I even had any expectations, but what I ready certainly wasn't it. It took me a second read through to completely comprehend the story, especially given that you start placed right within it without any context, and even then I'm not sure if I've grasped everything. At first I was not a huge fan of the story but rereading it and understanding the complexity of it all has made me appreciate it much more. It truly is a very dark and horrifying story when you get down to it. The idea of AI's taking over, set on destroying and/or enslaving the human race, isn't new by any mean but the way this story handles it - I'm not sure I've seen anything like it before. Almost any other time you see humans manipulated by technology in this way, it is generally at th

For this sections' reading I chose to read The Star by Arthur C. Clarke. What fascinated me the most about this story is that it was in fact science fiction. Sure, there is the very fancy technical science jargon that comes with a lot of science fiction, but in this story it takes a back seat to a very common theme in many stories; personal theological and moral musing. At first it really seems as if there is no need for this story to take place in outer-space. It makes you wonder why the author choose to set this story in the genre of science fiction. It isn't until the end, where you understand what it is that this narrator has seen that you understand why that is. The narrator and their team have come across a planet similar to their own, with very human-like buildings and history, and it has essentially undergone a mass extinction. Whatever organisms were there before are gone. They've been wiped out by a star, their sun, exploding. Given this, I think it is very smart

This week I read Neil Gaiman's children's novel, Coraline.  I had previously seen and loved the movie but never sat down to read the book. The thing that struck me about this novel is the same thing that struck me in the film; not the fact that it's pretty scary for a children's book, something Gaiman is now known for, but the sadness of how ignored by her parents Coraline feels. It's incredibly relevant to many people and it just hits you in such a way that you can't shake it. The entire novel then turns into a form of escapism. Coraline uses this alternate world or dimension as a form of escapism from her seemingly uncaring parents. Why else would she just blindly accept another mother and father with buttons for eyes if not for the fact that they are everything she wishes her parents and world to be like? I certainly can't chalk it up to her being a child as Coraline seems to be pretty smart. Despite all of the adventure and horror in this novel, it's

This week I both re-read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and read for the first time the short Prequel snippet provided to us (which only increased my frustration out Rowling as a Prequel is the only thing I ever asked for out of her - I couldn't care less about any of the other spinoffs produced). I admit, I've been a fan of Harry Potter since I saw the first film when I was four years old with my father, so it would be easy for me to talk about many different things. However, I'm going to focus on the house system inside of Hogwarts. It's not something I thought very much about prior to it being brought up in class, which is why I find it so interesting now. It does indeed seem to be just an easy way to establish very base character traits within characters without actually having to state those character traits, which I find to be very smart, considering you still have a vast variety of characters amongst each house so it doesn't feel

For this weeks reading I read J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit. I had previously seen the films but never actually read the book and throughout any changes that may have been made for the on-screen adaptation I feel that Bilbo Baggins' character stayed more or less the same. Bilbo is the perfect "unlikely" or "reluctant" hero and a character that is easy for most anyone to identify with. It's very easy to look at Bilbo and say "well, he's just an average guy, not some fantastical hero" but that is the key to the "unlikely" hero trope. Unlike other heroes who desperately want to prove themselves heroes and/or have prophecies foretold about them, Bilbo initially doesn't even want to be bothered out of his cozy little hobbit hole. Once he is coerced into this journey, he consistently voices his desire to be back home throughout most of the first part of it. It isn't until he rises to the challenges presented in unlikely ways that h

For this weeks reading I chose to read James Robinsons' comic, Witch Craft . I find it incredibly fascinating how tales of witches and witchcraft have for the most part evolved into being stories of female empowerment and camaraderie. Historically, witchcraft was seen as this evil thing that, predominantly, evil and satanic women practiced. At least, this is the case for the western history that we are taught in schools about the Salem witch trials and what not. Now, there are many theories as to why there was a witchcraft craze back then, including the idea of drug-induced hallucinations, but a lot of people believe that the reason it was mostly women that were accused has to do with the sexism of the time and fear of powerful women, which isn't a totally outlandish assumption. In reality, the truth probably lies somewhere between that and some of the theories. Given that thought though, it makes sense to swap the power play in current stories about witchcraft and make a state

Jeff VanderMeers' novel, Annihilation, does an excellent job in depicting what anxiety feels like and dealing with human-kinds fear of the unknown. It does an especially good job at making you feel perpetual uneasiness by never identifying any of the characters by name, making it even easier for you to project yourself onto them and their fear. Throughout a large portion of the story, the main character, the biologist, takes note on how it feels as though she's being watched even though no one is there and how everything feels "off" or "wrong" but she can't ever really explain why. This is a good representation of what it's like to live with anxiety. Sure, most people experience anxiety in the way that one would before giving a very big important speech to a huge crowd of people, but having an anxiety order is another thing entirely. You experience anxiety over everything. Over nothing, really. You make things up in your head or you just get the sens

For this blog post I'm deciding to focus on the short story The Tale of the Porcelain God from Lafcadio Hearns' Chinese Ghost Stories Curious Tales of the Supernatural. The main thing that struck me about this story is that for the first few pages it seems that all this story is is just some guy gushing about how much he loves porcelain. He goes on and on listing "this porcelain and THAT porcelain and who could forget about THIS porcelain" and you start to wonder if this is even a supernatural tale at all. Finally, towards the end of the story you get to see what the supernatural element is. Unto Bu literally pours his heart and soul into his work and sacrifices his human life so that his artwork may be perfect. I think it's pretty straight forward what this story is trying to say; that if you put your all into your artwork then you will be rewarded with a great product. Unto Bu does, after all, end up becoming a god after achieving what he believes to be the impo

One of the things I've always loved most about Anne Rice's novel, Interview with the Vampire is the duality of Louis and Lestat's characters and what they represent. You look at them and right off the bat go "oh, Louis is the good vampire and Lestat is the bad vampire." Yet, Louis isn't really a good vampire. He's a "good" vampire, in that he tries very much so to repress his vampiric side and abide by the human ideas of what is right and wrong. He clings desperately to his past and tries to act human rather than accepting himself for who he is now and his newfound nature. Lestat, on the other hand, is the ideal vampire. We may look at him and point and say "bad" but he is true to himself and what a vampire is supposed to be. He isn't bogged down by human constructs and allows himself to follow his more animalistic desires that come with being a vampire. So, while Lestat may be the "bad" vampire of the story, he is objecti

Something that comes up time and time again when people discuss Mary Shelley's gothic horror novel, Frankenstein , is a discussion about who the true monster is. Is it Frankenstein himself or the creature? More often than not, especially in modern times, people come to the conclusion that Victor Frankenstein is the true monster of the story, and I can't really contest that because they're not wrong. Victor Frankenstein is not a particularly great human being. He abandons his creation immediately after giving it the gift of life and serves as a dead-beat dad character so to speak . When given the chance to stop his creation from going on a murderous rampage simply by making him a wife, he doesn't take it. Not to mention, he did this all to himself and only really takes partial responsibility, searching around every corner for anyone or anything else to put the blame onto. So sure, Frankenstein is a monster. However, I don't think enough people give the creature the c

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