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Escapism in Coraline

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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...
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The Tale of the Porcelain God: Pouring Yourself Into Your Work

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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...
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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is not what I expected

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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...
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