Sci-fi, Horror and Fantasy

                                        Harry Potter and Magical Education in the Fantasy Genre                         I always found it interesting that in the Magical Education sub-genre of fantasy, despite all the dangers and life threatening events, monsters and dark lords that ultimately still so much of the stress and focus in the life these magical student protagonists is their day to day school life, bullies, romances, homework, sports and tests. I remember how difficult and stressful and frustrating middle school and high school could often be, and I mean very often. I guess I have always been a bit skeptical about being able to balance that type of fictional life, though that might be the point. Maybe the idea is that the magical eduction fantasy is supposed to personify the difficulties we faced, as young adults...

                                                Tolkien is the Closest thing I Have to a God.                           So you definitely have a good idea about my slight obsession with Tolkien, I have seen all the movies, and mostly directors cuts of course, read all of his books... well i am still finishing Fall of Gondolin but i am close. The Hobbit is my favorite book of all time, it for me truly captures what a fantasy story should feel like how it should immerse you. I frankly do not really know where to start or what to discuss specifically with this one, there are just to many things. I think one of my favorite things is how he created all these concepts that are used so regularly in modern fantasy but run so much deeper due to his influences and motivations for the writing. For example the...

                                                       Alright Lets Talk About Witches                                              So ill admit here and now that witches are definitely a horror topic that I'm not nearly as well versed in or as comfortable as others but ill still lay down some thoughts. Something i really like and hadn't thought about before was what you said at the beginning of the class, you were essentially pointing out that witches were how women with power were represented quite a bit.  It is interesting to think that the idea of witches as creatures of evil its self was popularized by men who feared women with power or feared the idea of women achieving power, vilifying them as devil worshipers, or crone...

                                                                    Love Craft and Cosmic Horror                                    Lovecracft wrote horror with the themes of making the reader feel small and insignificant, like every thing in their lives was so short and worthless that it lacked all meaning. He wanted the reader to feel this way in the face of something lurking in the shadows of space and the darkness of the ocean, an unseen un knowable horror that thoughts, motivations and existence are beyond comprehension. I love his writing even if the dude was a bigoted prick, he really popularized the fear of the unknown in horror and created the genre of cosmic horror. Though I feel like some of his writings definitely...

                                                                                                Spirits in Eastern and Western culture.                      Im gonna repeat a bit of what we talked about after this class, but i found it really interesting so want to go over in-depth. So in there are some pretty large differences in how people in eastern and Western culture view spirits and in ways the undead. I eastern cultures specifically Japanese views on spirits are lighter and more positive, they are supposed to be here watching us and helping. Their presence on Earth is a common fact of everyday life, versus in western cultures that are dominantly Christian and so when you die your spirit...

                                                                                                   Vampires and immortality          It seems to me that recurring theme in vampire stories is the theme of immortality and its worth to those vampires that have it. It seems that often the vampires that are the villains are portraid as shallow and only seem to derive meaning from more carnal things, money, sex, power, and impunity in their actions. The protagonist vampires seam to be the ones that suffer realizing that their eternal life leads to loss and suffering and prevents them from creating any meaningful non vampire connection in fearful promise of it ending the same. It seems that quite a few of the character...

                                                           Frankenstein Thoughts                              I think it is most likely the point of the story, but i find the creature in Frankenstein to be far more empathetic and understandable then the good doctor himself. I think most of us can connect with aspects of the creature, his general sense of empathy and sympathy, his instincts for compassion and to help others and do good. He might be the character in the book that shows those traits more then anyone else. Where as I find Frankenstein to be more of the monstrous and repulsive character in the story. The monster may look to be an enormous grotesque creature, but he was simply created that way–created through the barbarism of desecrating, mu...