Anasi Boys

Anasi Boys was a really cool and crazy story to read, and I enjoyed how it followed along with the general story of Anasi tricking and making deals. ill be honest, while I read this I never had any real idea as to what was going to happen next. it kept me on the edge of my seat, especially with how all the stories interwove with each other. When Rose called off the wedding I thought that was going to be the end of her and her mothers part in the story, and in most other stories it probably would have been. and the subplot with Maeve was interesting and satisfying in its own right, and when Tiger possessed Coats I laughed for like five minutes because of how everything was set up. that was when I realized just what would happen and I was greatly pleased by it. I think my favorite part was how Spider and Charlie didn't merge back into one person even though that's what they were originally. I feel like if that had happened it would have undercut the story and made it less satisfying.

Babel 17

Babel 17 was interesting, especially at first, even if it was very info heavy at first. Its not one I probably would have picked up of my own volition due to that, but it was an enjoyable read none the less. I did enjoy how Rydra ended up being the traitor herself through her learning about Babel 17, and it was nice to see her team come to help her resulting in their victory in the end. A lot of the technical stuff about language went over my head, but it was explained enough that I could somewhat follow along.

Bloodchild

Bloodchild was an interesting read and one I wholeheartedly enjoyed! There was a nice level of unsettling lore building and gore, coupled with cool aliens. I gave me huge Bloodborne vibes, which is always a good thing, especially with how the aliens were described. There were a few moments I felt a bit of nausea, specifically when T’Gato was cutting Lomas up and it was describing how the grubs formed and fed….. which was probably my least favorite part of the story, given that’s my general fear and revulsion in regards to actual human pregnancies…… this and Xenomorphs are why I am never having children. 

But as a whole I found myself really intrigued by the aliens and their culture, as well as the nature of their relationships with humans and how due to the difference in species their relationships are changed.  Given that the Tlic live much much longer than humans it’s not surprising that the very standard of their relationships changes, what with the mother of our main character being T’Gato’s childhood friend, and her daughter being a surrogate mother to her children. Specifically, after helping raise her from birth. And while I feel like there was a tension between them it didn’t feel as taboo, given the world building that was explored in the beginning of the story. 

I would probably adapt this story into a 2d animated short film, preferably made by the same people who animated the castlevania series. The style from that show I felt would help portray this story, given their lack of fear of showing the gore and viscera that showed up in this as well as being able to portray the aliens well. Changes that I would make to this mostly fill into the cinematography of it cause the story itself I feel doesn’t need to be changed much. Its something that anyone could feel connected to even if they don’t want too.

             

Shards of Honor: the space opera

Shards of Honor was interesting to read and really captured my attention after skimming through several first 10 pages of other options. I greatly enjoyed the opening to this story Cordelia and Dubauer exploring only to find out their camp was destroyed. the first few chapters of them traversing the land with one of the people who was responsible, one Vorkosigan, really captured a epic feeling, and it kinda reminded me of that will smith movie that came out a few years ago with his son. A new virtually unknown planet with all the strange things that live on it. Annihilation is the other film it reminds me of, though obviously that is more horror and earth base, while this is space based.
The rest of the story was a wild ride, often times taking some unsettling and barbaric turns, but I enjoyed how Lois handled the horrors of war as well as the consequences on all sides.

Farmer Giles of Ham

Rereading Farmer Giles of Ham after listening to it from a Cd in my elementary school days was an experience. Especially since I now severely relate to Giles. I too would not want anything to do with a giant, much less an actual murderous dragon if I had been abruptly woken up and otherwise minding my own business. Though having a talking dog would be interesting I will admit. but this story is very much a hero journey I can relate too, especially given it starts with getting drug out of bed, though that seems to be a constant especially given the legend of Zelda game series. 

Another thing that was interesting was how the citizens handled the king and his knights incompetence. Sure the king gave Giles Tailbiter, but that was just because it was something hanging around his armory that no one was using. It was a barely there acknowledgment fo the farmers achievements, which as the reader I understand and kinda agreed with, but for the actual people I feel they thought it was a bigger thing than it was. And when the dragon came and they still trusted the knights to protect them and all the knights did was make excuses. From them doing so would insult the chief to they were on holiday and it would be cheating if the best went off to kill a dragon while the lesser stayed behind and partied.

It really makes you think and im not surprised that at the end Giles ended up becoming king, cause even if he resisted at first he still stood up and solved the problem over the knights and king who just wanted to get rich quick. Hmmm you know its kinda reminding me of some aspects of our society today…. I wonder why……. 

Witches in Writing

Witches are a very broad subject matter, especially when it comes to literature portrayals. From the Wicked witches, to kind souls capable of bending magic to their will there are a thousand different kinds that you can pick and choose from. one of my favorite small time authors I like to read when it comes to witch’s is a tumblr user by the name of caffinewitchcraft, who specializes in short stories, with a personal preference for witches and the supernatural. She also keeps modern spins on her stories, In regards to representation and taking well known stories and twisting them. One of my favorites by hers is a “climax” piece for what could have been a longer story. It’s the story of a witch whos magic was taken from her by the stories love interest and used to kill another witch who was corrupt, and those responsible had never given her the chance to help. So they stole her magic and now as she is recovering in the hospital the love interest is begging for her understanding, asking her is she gets why he had to do it. She accepts his words but warns that he will be judged by the Mother, the earth itself for his crimes of slaughtering one of her daughters and stealing her magic. The story ends very nicely and I would recommend reading it and it is just one of many interesting pieces that she has written. she does an excellent job keeping to the norms of the witch, a focus on maternal and female relationships (in both the platonic and romantic sense of the word) a connection to the earth, an a warning not to mess with them too much. and she does a good job by portraying each in different types of moods, some are more comedic, others more of a hurt/comfort vibe, while others are terrifying and everything in between.

https://caffeinewitchcraft.tumblr.com/post/188729910411/caffeinewitchcraft-prompt-a-lot-of-stories-end(this is the link to the story I mentioned.)

while this is too her writing page.

https://caffeinewitchcraft.tumblr.com/tagged/my-writing

New Weird

New Weird

Before this class I had heard the term new weird a little, but never really understood what exactly it was. But I think I understand it now, in that its taking and reworking as well as developing new tropes to fit our world and link the horror aspect to the newer generations. Annihilation did a good job of getting that across with its environmental horror, while other films play a bunch on a wide array of tropes, tweaked and twisted to fit this new generation. Ill be honest I don’t read a lot of professionally published material, mostly due to the monetary costs to upkeep my pace, and stick to a bunch of smaller authors that write mostly for fun. One of my favorite micro genres of horror that I feel falls very well into New Weird are short two sentence horror stories. They are a little hard to find unless you are looking very hard for them on line, but they are some of the best.

And New Weird is not just limited to literature and movies. 

In the realm of games there are so many horror games that work hard to really nail the feeling of terror, and having to tweak it to fit our new age desensitization to the horror elements of our forefathers. One way games have achieved this is by limiting what the player can do, its harder to not be scared when your only options are run, hide and distract. Alien Isolation, and the original outlast games do this extremely well, even if they don’t stray too far from traditional horror elements. I personally turned the game off halfway through the prologue of the first outlast game cause my heart rate to skyrocket extremely quickly. PT, I believe it is called, is a game demo that did an even better job, due to it pulling in a bunch of different elements from both traditional and modern horror tropes and was absolutely terrifying to play. This game specifically covered your player character walking through two hallways repeatedly with different things happening each time. to progress you had to figure out just what to do all while a malevolent presence resided over you. Another game that I enjoy that takes some of those New Weird horror ideas and plays with them is Dead by Daylight, which is one of my favorite games. It’s a survival horror competitive game, where you go into matches of four survivors, each with unique perks that you can mix match and customize, and one killer who has the majority of the power. The actual gameplay can be unnerving but for the most part it pulls forth the minor adrenaline high of fleeing some giant creature. 

Asian Horror

Typically I hate horror films and stories that involve Ghosts, demons, and poltergeists. Slashers, giant monsters and environmental destruction I can handle with ease, as the Anaconda series is one of my favorite in this genre. And that’s typically because I can’t handle the malevolent antagonist being invisible/ not stoppable by normal means. But I didn’t get that with Pulse. Yes I felt stressed out by scenes and scared but not to the point where I started panicking. Partially I feel like it was due to the ghost not being as overtly malevolent. I chalk it up to the difference between western and eastern media. The ghost were their but they weren’t actively going after people to harm them like they typically are in western media. They’re more stagnant in a way, typically in one specific place and not interfering unless they are disturbed or its them reacting. It lead to a less threatening situation, but still scary cause once the ghost were triggered they were a threat, but not in a you cant escape way. It’s the same feeling I got from watching the Yukioni movie. The threat was there but it wasn’t in your face, you are going to die immediately. It was simply an overarching threat that wasn’t taking up the entire story so you could get more narrative in the story without it seeming forced and it allows for better stories in my opinion.

Vampires and Their Types

When it comes to vampires I have a couple of set stereotypes that I tend to sort them into. The first is the Van Helsing(2004 Film) Vampire, and this set the standard for the more horror Vampire stereotype. Full disclosure this film is one of my top three favorite movies of all time, and I watched it almost religiously through my school years to up to this day. I loved the grand scale adventure aspect of this film as well as how it tied in the top three horror monster icon elements. Frankenstein’s Monster was a very nuanced and interesting character, especially considering how he had been portrayed in all previous films. And I like that even though they went with the more standard monster appearance they still kept him a likeable and sympathetic character which now that I have read Frankenstein by Mary shelly I feel is a closer homage to the feelings I got from that book. The were-wolves too were portrayed interestingly, still a wild near untamable beast, but reined in by Dracula’s control over them. To be honest though out of the three archetypes I felt they were the least developed past their origin and to be honest it works well enough for the story. 

Now Dracula. This movie does an absolutely amazing job of developing his character. He’s an emotional person, pissed off when his wives and children truly die, desperate for the Monster to bring his unborn children to life, down-right sassy and smug when he comes out before the finale.  Hell the scene where he meets van helsing for the first time is one of the funniest scenes in the movie in my opinion. He’s so overdramatic and charismatic its amazing and I can see why he actually has three wives that seem to share a decent relationship with him given the time period. But my favorite part is that he is still a monster and its very clear, especially when he drops the façade of humanity and actually transforms into a huge beast that’s absolutely terrifying to look at. 

Now on the other side Dracula Untoldit a great vampire movie in which you have a more “Monstrous” Dracula as a hero instead of the villain. He’s less terrifying than Van Helsings Vampire, though his creatore fills that aspect a bit better. Once again in this movie they create a developed character, who struggles against his nature, mostly in the case of wanting to protect his family. He agrees to become a vampire to protect them and his kingdom. This movie does an excellent job of creating a more heroic vampire, while still showcasing the horror of vampires, specifically when Dracula makes his vampire army to go save his son from the Persians. 

Mary Shelley's Frankenstien

Reading Frankensteinby Mary Shelley was an interesting experience, especially after growing up in this modern age where everyone and their pet knows what the Frankenstein monster is. Ill admit one of my personal favorite movies is the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing film, that features a mix of Dracula and his wives, werewolves, and Frankenstein. So, I went into this reading feeling like I would easily understand the story plot and only have to translate it to modern speak and fight through the boredom since its obviously not going to be as action oriented as what I was used to. 

            Needless to say, I was very very wrong. Not in that the basic plot line wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was far more interesting to read than I imagined, and I genuinely felt pity for the monster. 

            During the story victor is plagued with nightmares and warnings from the Monster, which helped establish the gothic Omen/Vision tropes. To the reader it is fairly clear of the potential things that could happen and were are forced to watch with dreed when the Victor makes his mistakes. 

            And the horror trope of parental conflict takes center stage in this entire story, with Victor being the neglectful Father, and the monster the constrained child. He created this creature and cast them aside, wishing to abandon that which he had cursed with life. To be honest I’d be pissed too. Though most of the people I know  think of Victor as the victim, he truly isn’t after reading the book. It was he who set the creature loose, and he who is responsible, and I was pleased to read that that was how he felt.