Harry Potter ~ Reading Response~

So for this week, I decided to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I had seen a lot of the Harry Potter movies, and I attempted to read the first book a long time ago, but I didn't really enjoy the first one because it was a lot of world building and sort of drudgery that I didn't particularly like reading. So, since I had already seen Chamber of Secrets an obnoxious amount of times, I skipped forward to Prisoner of Azkaban.

In regards to the reading response assignment portion; I think Prisoner of Azkaban definitely tackles a moral issue of killing someone, the judicial system, betrayals, stereotyping someone based on something physical that they might be ailed with or even born with, and the aspects of heroism and cowardice. All of these themes pop up in Prisoner of Azkaban, especially between Buckbeak and Sirius. When it comes to the spiritual part, it ESPECIALLY pops up in this book with the whole Patronus spell.

I found this book incredibly enjoyable to read, as it provided some of that world building that the first book has, but with a little more action and exploration into the world that we didn't really get in the first book. I should probably finish the rest of the series, but I probably won't, due to time constraints.

Heroics Journeys

For this week, I read Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice. The book's title definitely caught my attention, and the content is definitely something that I'm into when it comes to the genre of fantasy that I really enjoy. The first part of the book, the preamble to the first chapter, was probably the best chunk of literature that I've ever read in my life. The way the tumblebug argues for what it views as obscene, lewd, etc, is something that I see ALL OVER the internet and media today, especially on certain blogging platforms. I also found out that this book apparently influenced Terry Pratchett, which is a plus.

This book sort of falls into the general types of 'heroic journey' that is in most, if not all, types of fantasy, but something that felt a little more different that most heroic journeys, was the main character not being something entirely helpless. He was a pawnbroker, and wasn't really in love with his wife, but he wasn't like a poor, dirt urchin that was scrounging for fortune and glory. He was just sort of a regular man, doing The Manly Thing, and got pulled into a huge adventure that may (or may not have..) actually happened. I also appreciated his talk that he had with Dorothy, and just how he's generally a very likable character that, surprisingly, is very relatable.

Unfortunately, I didn't read the Hobbit, because the over abundance of both The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit Movies in my life (my father LOVES these series), I didn't really have an interest in them. I will say though --



This is the only good reason of Smaug.

Witches 'n' Stuff (slightly late)

So, for this week, I only really read the first couple of chapters for the Aunt Maria; I plan on reading the entire book later because of the responses in class saying that the book DOES get better, despite the really dull and drawn out beginning to the book. The first part of the book was just dull to me because it felt like every other 'coming of age' book aimed at young adults, but if the later parts of the book get interesting and start pulling in witchcraft and other fantasy elements, I'll be more attracted to finishing it!

Instead, I re-watched both Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle, with Kiki's being one of my favorite movies since I was a kid. It was interesting re-watching Kiki's, because I am also taking the Children's Literature class along side this one, and spotting all of the old tropes that are in old children's media and seeing it in movies like Kiki's or even Howl's Moving Castle was really fun. It was mentioned in class, but the red bow on Kiki was a big one, as well as her specific time of year and night to leave her home to essentially become a woman.

When it comes to the witches in Aunt Maria, based on the witches that I got to in the first chapters of the book, I would say the stern, 'police lady' witch probably stands out the most as the most non-stereotypical witch, but she does fall into archetype of 'powerful bitch' character-- which I don't personally think is a bad thing, but it definitely plays into how the main characters treat her and how she acts in the first few chapters.

"The New Weird" - Reading response stuff!

This is one of those subjects where I'm really interested in the 'weird' aspects of parts of horror! I'm a huge fan of horror that is also humorous, because I feel like the humor really helps balance out the horror-- I'm the same way when it comes to heavy fantasy elements editing horror. It's one of the few reasons I enjoy watching things like Cabin in the Woods, because of the humor that just happens naturally in the film.

For the reading, I read some of the short stories in Three Moments of an Explosion! My favorite being, Polynia. The main story mechanic being the mysterious icebergs that just appear over London and somewhat become the new 'norm' after a period of time is really interesting to me, because it adds some excitement to the aspects of normal life, just giant icebergs flying around that nobody really knows why they exist, but they're just part of life now.

The other short story that I enjoyed was the one about the mock 'trailer', because a dynamic between two different types of undead was really cool and interesting to think about; especially with the fight being between undead that choose to not evolve, and the ones who do 'evolve'. It's one of those things that I'd actually like as a real movie!