So I read through Anansi Boys, and I actually found it pretty interesting and a fun book to read, despite the first small chunk seeming a little tedious with details. The humor of the book definitely sold me over into wanting to continue reading! I really enjoyed how the myths were occasionally linked back into the ancient, old world (like when spider first tricked tiger), and then brought back into the modern world when it came to dealing with the problems again.
Another thing I really enjoyed with this book is how 'casual' the myths/mythological creatures were sort of weaved into society. Fat Charlie didn't freak out nearly hard enough at him and his "brother" basically being gods, or the ghost of Maeve just sort of casually flitting about doing her business in order to get back at that one boss that I don't remember the name of. All of these things combined sort of made the myths more believable, in a sense, to me, because they were so easily related to the modern world and were just sort of casual in their existence, not like some grand pedestal thing that was rare for mortals to ever even see.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Thursday, February 22, 2018
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
"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!
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!
Thursday, January 25, 2018
J-Horror Reading Collections ~ Reading Response Stuff
So for this week I revisited some of the Junji Ito stories that I used to read in the past, as well as re-reading some of the Fuan no Tane collection again. As much as horror scares the shit out of me, I do enjoy these visual novels a lot.
So, for starters, I went back and re-read The Enigma of Amigara Fault, which at this point is a well known 'classic' amongst most people who have even been on the internet in general, due to its strange nature in the manga. It's your bog-standard style of manga, and looks harmless enough from the outside. The plot is pretty simple, stating that a large fault has created this huge rift that exposed a giant mountain filled with human shaped holes.
From there, the horror aspect comes from the fact that people are coming from all over the world to go into these holes, as they believe they were 'made for them'. The main character ends up going into them at one point, slowly contorting into a strange, deformed monster that is seen through the smaller version of the holes on the other side of the fault.
What makes this scary, for me at least, is the visual effect of the distorted humans that you see at the end, because they're still just human enough to be seen as people, but still morphed in horrible ways. The use of onomonopea is also very good in this manga, with the unsettling 'drr drr drr' made by the 'humans' as they approach the end of the tunnel in Amigara Fault.
Most of Junji Ito's works are like this, which makes them pretty good for people who can be easily spooked by horror mangas, because at least his look really pretty, even with the gore or deformations.
Fuan no Tane is the same way with Junji's horror stories, but to me rely much more on the visual horror as well as unsettling nature of the way the characters or horror things in the series look. It's a collection of small horror manga's that are usually only a few pages long, and don't really have a huge, cohesive relation to each other. The short size of them make them really easy to binge on, despite how scary they can be because of their visual horror. Most of the visual horror includes huge, deformed, shine-less eyes that stare without a reason, and large smiling mouths that don't really have any teeth but are nonetheless unsettling.
The short-story horror mangas also tend to focus more on some serious topics like suicide, murders, etc, while Junji Ito's tend to be more of the fantasy-horror route. It's got its own fair share of weird horror, but not in the way where it's the typical western way of being very exaggerated and over the top.
Here's a link to read Fuan no Tane also!
https://mangarock.com/manga/mrs-serie-100084031/chapter/mrs-chapter-100084043
So, for starters, I went back and re-read The Enigma of Amigara Fault, which at this point is a well known 'classic' amongst most people who have even been on the internet in general, due to its strange nature in the manga. It's your bog-standard style of manga, and looks harmless enough from the outside. The plot is pretty simple, stating that a large fault has created this huge rift that exposed a giant mountain filled with human shaped holes.
From there, the horror aspect comes from the fact that people are coming from all over the world to go into these holes, as they believe they were 'made for them'. The main character ends up going into them at one point, slowly contorting into a strange, deformed monster that is seen through the smaller version of the holes on the other side of the fault.
What makes this scary, for me at least, is the visual effect of the distorted humans that you see at the end, because they're still just human enough to be seen as people, but still morphed in horrible ways. The use of onomonopea is also very good in this manga, with the unsettling 'drr drr drr' made by the 'humans' as they approach the end of the tunnel in Amigara Fault.
Most of Junji Ito's works are like this, which makes them pretty good for people who can be easily spooked by horror mangas, because at least his look really pretty, even with the gore or deformations.
Fuan no Tane is the same way with Junji's horror stories, but to me rely much more on the visual horror as well as unsettling nature of the way the characters or horror things in the series look. It's a collection of small horror manga's that are usually only a few pages long, and don't really have a huge, cohesive relation to each other. The short size of them make them really easy to binge on, despite how scary they can be because of their visual horror. Most of the visual horror includes huge, deformed, shine-less eyes that stare without a reason, and large smiling mouths that don't really have any teeth but are nonetheless unsettling.
The short-story horror mangas also tend to focus more on some serious topics like suicide, murders, etc, while Junji Ito's tend to be more of the fantasy-horror route. It's got its own fair share of weird horror, but not in the way where it's the typical western way of being very exaggerated and over the top.
Here's a link to read Fuan no Tane also!
https://mangarock.com/manga/mrs-serie-100084031/chapter/mrs-chapter-100084043
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Interview With the Vampire ~ Reading Response
An interesting read, for sure. I hadn't previously read or seen anything really for this title or what it enclosed, other than the vague memory of Tom Cruise playing some blonde vampire in some random movie that I wasn't too interested in seeing. I think I had also confused it with another vampire movie, that was incredibly funny and involved 'The Office' style of filming and content.
While reading this book, I had a weird sense of joy in seeing vampires act a little more abnormal than the typical faire of vampires, and the ability to poison them with absinthe was especially interesting to me, given the properties of absinthe on just regular people as well. The different moral politics between Louis and Lestat were also very interesting, as Lestat mostly just read to me as sort of a brat given immortality, but at least he was having fun with it. Louis was considerably more whiny to me, but I suppose he had good reason.
The development of Claudia as she got 'older' was also very interesting, and it was a little terrifying the way she would attack and kill people, and the way she handled Lestat was especially scary for what was essentially a little girl. Towards the end of her life span, I actually got Baby Doll (the batman villain) vibes from her. It was slightly sad to see her killed in such a grisly manner, especially with Madeline near her. Also, reading all of the ways Louis sort of seperate himself from everyone he could be close to due to his griefs with the death of Claudia, was really interesting. Especially since at the end of his story, he seemed to think himself a pariah of being a vampire; some sort of miserable existence that can only be unhappy.
Either way, the weird 'family discourse' sort of vibe that the book gave was really fun, and I was happy to read this! Definitely a really good read, and I might give the actual movie a watch too, though I can't imagine it's as interesting as the book was.
While reading this book, I had a weird sense of joy in seeing vampires act a little more abnormal than the typical faire of vampires, and the ability to poison them with absinthe was especially interesting to me, given the properties of absinthe on just regular people as well. The different moral politics between Louis and Lestat were also very interesting, as Lestat mostly just read to me as sort of a brat given immortality, but at least he was having fun with it. Louis was considerably more whiny to me, but I suppose he had good reason.
The development of Claudia as she got 'older' was also very interesting, and it was a little terrifying the way she would attack and kill people, and the way she handled Lestat was especially scary for what was essentially a little girl. Towards the end of her life span, I actually got Baby Doll (the batman villain) vibes from her. It was slightly sad to see her killed in such a grisly manner, especially with Madeline near her. Also, reading all of the ways Louis sort of seperate himself from everyone he could be close to due to his griefs with the death of Claudia, was really interesting. Especially since at the end of his story, he seemed to think himself a pariah of being a vampire; some sort of miserable existence that can only be unhappy.
Either way, the weird 'family discourse' sort of vibe that the book gave was really fun, and I was happy to read this! Definitely a really good read, and I might give the actual movie a watch too, though I can't imagine it's as interesting as the book was.
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