Literature of Horror, Fantasy, Sci Fi

  The Martian by Andy Weir was a fun and interesting read.  The main character, Mark Watney, made the novel seem hugely realistic and human.  His humor literally had me laughing out loud numerous times, and that is something that's very rare for me when reading.  I think the reason for this is because he was very sarcastic, and also fairly honest.  Although he was stuck on Mars and was headed toward an almost certain death, he never made you feel sorry for him.   The comedic tone of the book was incredibly prominent, and was a great compliment to the sci fi genre of the story.  I think it's important to note that I'm really not a fan of science fiction stories.  This one, however, may have made its way into my ever-growing list of favorite books.  I unexpectedly fell in love with the sarcastic humor, and I found it so easy for feel empathy for Mark, his crew, and even the people at NASA.   I think that my usual dislike for sci fi ...

  In Anansi Boys , Neil Gaiman plays with the myth of the African spider god, Anansi.  I was previously unfamiliar with this mythology, and found learning about it through the story was really fun and interesting.    I love the idea of bringing mythology into the modern day.  Neil Gaiman was able to create a believable, modern world.  The main character, Charlie Nancy, gets his normal modern world and his status quo disrupted when his father dies and it's passed on to him that his family is an incarnation of Anansi.  He also learns that he has a brother, who can be summoned by using a spider as a messenger.   I always like when authors create a world where the main character knows as much as the audience knows.  It's great when the main character turns into a sort of fish out of water in his own world.  Learning about his family's story completely turns his live upside down, and although some of the events that happen in the story are ...

1.  What is your reaction to the text you just read?           My first instinct is to say that I thought the writing was very good and engaging.  I typically don't enjoy works like this, and I don't love science fiction or the creation of other worlds that seem so different from our own.  That being said, the way Octavia Butler wrote this piece was really interesting and somehow relatable.  The main character, Gan, is strangely relatable and I'm not quite sure why yet.  Somehow, I can't help but think that this story is fairly relatable because I'm a woman, and I feel like it takes a stance on feminism.  Gan is expected to bear a child-like creature from the time he is very young, and in some ways cultures do that to women quite often.  It was interesting to see a male character go through the reproductive expectations that women often go through.  The fact that this story was written by a woman only supports my theory t...

  This week, I read The Night Circus  by Erin Morgenstern.  This was by far my favorite story I've read in this class, and may have even made its way up there on the list of my favorite novels.   I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and therefor one can deduct that I'm a big fan of description.  This book had a ton of description, and I really appreciated that.  With this lengthy description came an abundance of imagery.  The imagery in this book was so intense, I really felt like I was immersed in the story.  I felt like I could walk inside the entrance of the circus, smell the popcorn, and see only in black and white with flashes of red splashed in.  It's rare that I find a story's setting more fascinating to me than the characters, but this story actually accomplished that.    Although the idea of a mysterious circus that only comes at night is fascinating, it would be nothing without the characters.  Celia and Marco were interest...

  This week I read The Hobbit , which is surprisingly the first experience I've ever had with this story.  I'm a film student, and we have been taught year after year the Hero's Journey.  And, much like other fantasy/sci-fi stories (such as Star Wars ), this novel really followed it to a t.   The first step in A Hero's Journey is The Ordinary World .  In The Hobbit, this is fairly simple: Bilbo Baggins is perfectly happy in his little Hobbit home in The Shire, eating and socializing with others who enjoy their relaxed and predictable lifestyle.  The Call to Adventure  is when Gandalf approaches Bilbo with a quest.  The Refusal of the Call  is when Bilbo is apprehensive about going on the adventure, and the dwarves come to his house.  Bilbo literally reuses to go.  Meeting with a Mentor , is Bilbo's meeting with Gandalf when Gandalf expresses to Bilbo that he possesses skills that are needed in order for the team to be successful....

  This week I got a chance to read Aunt Maria  by Diana Wynne Jones.  This story was unique, mainly because going into it (knowing it was a witch story), I thought it was going to be similar to a children's book that I used to read all the time called Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola.  Strega Nona  is an Italian children's book that's about a witch doctor in Calabria who helps people throughout her village.  I thought that Aunt Maria  was going to be very similar to this, and I was very wrong.   Aunt Maria  is not kind.  She is a witch, but she doesn't necessarily help people.  In fact, when her power is threatened or questioned she lashes out and does cruel things like turning people into wolves.   The thing I really noticed and focused on while reading Aunt Maria is the focus on gender.  Specifically, the separation of genders.  To me, this story was clearly alluding to the detrimental effects of separating genders so...

  This week I unfortunately got sick and couldn't bring myself to read anything, but I did get a chance to watch Donnie Darko .  After watching the film, I definitely think that it falls into the "weird" category.   First off, the "scary" character in the film is a bunny.  This is pretty "weird", considering that a bunny is not conventionally scary, and I'm sure that there are very few people that are afraid of them.  However, this bunny was terrifying to me.  Something that I really liked in the movie was when Donnie went to a psychotherapist, he said that Donnie was simply having hallucinations.  This caused me as a viewer to constantly be wondering whether or not Frank (the bunny) was a hallucination or real.    I think something that really makes the story "weird" is that it's so original.  It isn't something that reminds me of anything else.