Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne

Aunt Maria was an incredible short story to read. Every time Mig and Chris described Aunt Maria and all her silly friends I laughed, they made them seem so stuck up and hilarious.  Wynne keeps the town secrets pretty secret throughout the first half of the story and at first read it seems like it starts out a little slow but once I thought about it I actually enjoyed how slow the story began, it added to the mystery of Aunt Maria and her dirty tricks. Wynne also makes the reader absolutely loathe Aunt Maria and her wicked friends, as soon as I read how she was treating Betty making her do all these things for her by reverse psychology saying that she didn't really have to.

Chris and Mig are a great duo that play off of eachothers characters. Mig is the sort of creative/imaginative writer and Chris is the smart adventurous one who isn't afraid to speak his mind. I really enjoyed how their relationship evolved as the story went on. They became stuck in this town and in Aunt Marias house and they become closer to each other as brother and sister. The whole division of sexes among the community is the biggest issue in the story but Mig and Chris conquer the division by working together to triumph over Aunt Maria and her evil minions. Even when Chris is a wolf, Mig knows exactly what he is saying and figures out how to talk to the ghost along with the help of her mother Betty.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

J.R.R Tolkein is a wonderous man and it is still so unbelievable to me that he created this whole world out of nothing! Not only did he create this whole world but he created the language and races and everything out of his head, over a lifetime. He is the man.  I have never read the Lord of the Rings but after this I really want to. The films based on these books are great and I cannot wait to see the two more Hobbit movies.The humorous tone of the Hobbit is so great compared to Lord of the Rings. I found that the Hobbit was very refreshing and rich with detail, as J.R.R Tolkein never ceases to amaze me with the amount of detail he includes.

I absolutely loved the three trolls and Radagast. They were my favorite characters by far, I never really knew that there were more wizards other than Gandalf. Radagast seems as though he is an extreme hippy/fairy version of Gandalf. He seems as though he is equally wise and kind to Gandalf although he also seems like he is a bit crazy because he speaks to the animals and cares so deeply about them. I feel like Radagast shares apart of Tolkein himself with how Tolkein said that our world was irrelevant and the world he created is the real part of life we need to explore where as, Radagast seems disconnected with the human world and lives in his own world of animals and the forest. So in a way, Radagast and Tolkein are one in the same because they both live in their own little worlds and see the rest of the world very differently. The trolls were so funny, they brought comedy to the dark situation the dwarves were in. If I read this as a child I would have died laughing at the trolls and the different ways they talk about cooking the dwarves.

Kwaidan

 

I read the story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi. I would really love to read the rest of Kwaidan in my free time because each and every one of them would make for excellent illustrations. Each story I read was so dense and interestingly cultural, they are super inspiring for creativity. For example, when Hoichi plays the song of the battle of the Dan-no-ura on his biwa it says "even the goblins could not refrain from tears." How awesome of a spot illustration would that be? Goblins tearing up at a Japanese man playing this instrument and singing.

Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi super fun to read. When Hoichi meets up with the samurai and he takes him to recite the battle again and it actually describes what Hoichi is saying is amazing, the descriptive words are great, it makes me wish people of our time told stories this way. The fact that Hoichi is blind also adds to his artistry and how amazing it is that he can recount these stories with such vivid words. I also enjoyed the moment when the story reveals that he has been playing in a cemetery for the dead is because before that we really didn't know where he was and who he was singing for. 

The priests tell Hoichi that he will be torn to pieces unless they strip his body and write holy text all over him and he must not budge when he is called to go to the cemetery that night-great imagery. My favorite part of J Horror is the gore and how abruptly the gore seems to appear in the story, like when the priests forgot to write on Hoichi's ears and they get ripped off. 

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

I have read the whole Interview with a Vampire series and I love them all. Anne Rice has this ability to create an immense sense of sensuality without there being any actual sex, she also creates the richest characters with such deep backstories. Anne Rice is definitely one of my favorite authors, she puts all other vampire media to shame. 

It was so brilliant of Rice to do this story as an interview from the vampires perspective, it makes the storyline come to life as if these were actual events that Louie went through and these are his thoughts and emotions thrust upon some pages.  Louie is so relatable because he is the most humane vampire among the character list. He tries to eat only animals, he still has a sense of humane morale and the amount of depression he feels from feeling and experiencing so much of life is crazy. Throughout the rest of the books as well, he remains the one and only vampire who is the closest still to a human being. 

Lestat is basically Louie's polar opposite, yes they are both vampires but Lestat is such a different beast, it makes the story so dramatic and interesting with the two polar opposites colliding. Louie learns basically everything from Lestat as this sort of messed up father figure. He gets the basics of surviving from Lestat but he also learns what not to do and how to retain human morales. I find it very interesting how Rice uses Claudia as the glue for Lestat and Louie. Without Claudia, the two probably would have gone there separate ways a lot earlier.

This series so great and the story keeps getting richer and richer as we learn more about the different cultures within vampirism and how Louie, Lestat, Claudia and Armand are so drastically different from the rest of the vampire community. It's as if vampires get more violent and ill mannered as the bloodlines thin out. The younger the vampire, the more ignorant and reckless.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson does an outstanding job at making Robert Neville seem believable as a character. The crazy amount of sorrow and loneliness he experiences is enough to make you want to put the book down and want to be surrounded by people just to know they exist. The setting of Los Angeles is great because it gives the vampire/zombies plenty of places to hide and lurk. The way Neville goes through his day to day life of scavenging for food and trying to find the scientific causes of the pandemic seems so real, as in that is what real life people would be doing if this same thing were to happen to them. I just wish that his short lived dog stuck around longer. I am a sucker for animals. 

The uniqueness of the monsters themselves are incredibly intriguing to me. I have never heard of, read or seen a movie about vampire zombies. Different kinds of monsters are oddly facinating to me. As the story goes on we start to learn more about the vampire zombies like how they can infect the living or dead, they are affected by garlic, mirrors and crosses. I thought the detail that the vampire zombies react differently to crosses according to what their religion was in their past lives as human beings. Such as, how a christian vampire zombie would be frightened by a cross but a jewish vampire zombie would not. Also, Neville discovers more ways to kill the vampire zombies. At first he just uses a stake to the heart but he figures out that sunlight or creating deep wounds in them kills them much faster and in larger numbers.

Ruth is a strange person to me because ya she is upset that her husband just died but at the same time she disagrees with killing the vampire zombies because they were once human. I also thought that the way he people have started to cope with the infection and are so terrible to Neville because he is not one of them is just awe full.  He is the minority among these infected people who might still be a bit insane of the disease. One would think that they would love Neville because he is learning so much about the disease and could potentially cure them, but no they all seem to be heartless and inhumane and execute him. Sad ending :(

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This book is amazing to me because of the time period it was written and how it was written by a female. I sincerely love Frankenstein and the whole story behind it.

Victor Frankenstein is a very selfish character, he creates this monster and disconnects himself with his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth. He is the just the most annoying character to me because he strives to be a creator of life and goes to he university to learn all he can yet he can not take responsibility for his actions and in tern he gets 3 people killed in the process. I understand the importance of his character and how he plays off of Robert Walton's character but Victor is just the most apathetic, depressing character. I honestly enjoy the richness of the monsters character the most.

Frankensteins monster is a facinating character and I love how he evolves and grows as this somewhat humane being. Frankenstein doesn't really try to better himself where as his monster does, he tries to integrate himself into society and figure out who\what he really is. My favorite part of the entire book are chapters 12 through about 17 where the monster spends time with the De Lacey family. Through these people the monster learns to read, speak and he even learns a bit about history. Even though we get a glimpse at this slight bit of humanity that lies within the monster we quickly learn how separated he still is from society. Because of the depth and character Shelley puts into this monster, he is my favorite character.

There are a couple reoccurring themes in this book however, the one that stuck out to me the most is the statement that knowledge is power, and too much power is dangerous. When Victor learns all he can at the university about the secrets of life he is over obsessive and becomes infatuated with it. He then creates the monster that he is too selfish and scared of to deal with. On the other hand the monster also gains knowledge by watching the cottage people and attempts to use his power and fails miserably by scaring them and ending up right back where he started, he crosses a fine line of being a monster and being human.

First Post!

I will be updating this blog very soon about my experiences in my Literature of Horror and Science Fiction class I am taking this semester. The featured text will be about the books we are required to read and the films we watch.


from David Steiling:

The expected level of performance is to have read and responded to at least 11 substantial works during the semester including at least 7 novels and to rewrite, improve and revise one of the eleven entries into a 12th blog post in the form of a final statement. This is the performance expected to receive a "B" grade in the course.

The way to earn the best grade you can in the course is to exceed the requirements for each week and for as many weeks as possible do more reading and responding than is expected for a "B."