Week 13 Literary Speculation

Reading a Clockwork Orange was more disturbing then I would have imaged. Having seen the movie several times before I picked up the book, I had prenotions of what to expect. I found that the movie was so censored and changed from its basics.

            The first huge thing that was a shocker to me was the age of Alex in the book, 15! When I think more about his age the less shocking it is. Stealing, lying, killing, violence, drugs, sex; something that is becoming part of young teenagers lives as the generations pass. I wouldn’t doubt that our feature might hold more kids like Alex in it. I was truly repulsed at the rape scene in the novel. The movie to me made it seem very consensual to a point, where in the book Alex drugs and rapes the young girls. The worst part was the age of the girls, 10.

Reading this book was so intense. I truly did enjoy reading it. Although I had trouble with the Nadsat slag at first, until I looked at the little glossary. As for the 21^st chapter, I am kinda torn. I like the final chapter that adds closure to Alex’s journey. That there is hope for humanity and people can change on their own. But I also really like the concept that some are beyond hope and you can’t medically make someone good. Part of being human is having the choice between right and wrong, good and bad.

Week 8 Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

I have been egger to finally read one of Neil Gaiman’s novels. I am a fan of his writing for graphic novels, and have always wanted to read some of his novels. For week 8, I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. The story of a man returning to his childhood home and recollecting his forgotten childhood adventures. I really got swept up in this read. I know I might be young to say this but I really felt a connection to the narrator. How he was searching for his identity as an adult and his disconnection with his childhood. Now entering my mid twenties, I have started to get feelings of nostalgia and trying to find my identity as an artist. I often find myself starring off into space, as the narrator did on to the ocean and remember things differently then I thought I had remembered.  How we want different thing at different points in our life. I find a great example is a song written and performed by Neil’s wife Amanda Palmer, “In My Mind”

In my mind

In a future five years from now

I'm one hundred and twenty pounds

And I never get hung over

Because I will be the picture of discipline

Never minding what state I'm in

And I will be someone I admire

And it's funny how I imagined

That I would be that person now

But it does not seem to have happened

Maybe I've just forgotten how to see

That I am not exactly the person that I thought I'd be

And in my mind

In the faraway here and now

I've become in control somehow

And I never lose my wallet

Because I will be the picture of of discipline

Never fucking up anything

And I'll be a good defensive driver

And it's funny how I imagined

That I would be that person now

But it does not seem to have happened

Maybe I've just forgotten how to see

That I'll never be the person that I thought I'd be

And in my mind

When I'm old I am beautiful

Planting tulips and vegetables

Which I will mindfully watch over

Not like me now

I'm so busy with everything

That I don't look at anything

But I'm sure I'll look when I am older

And it's funny how I imagined

That I could be that person now

But that's not what I want

But that's what I wanted

And I'd be giving up somehow

How strange to see

That I don't wanna be the person that I want to be

And in my mind

I imagine so many things

Things that aren't really happening

And when they put me in the ground

I'll start pounding the lid

Saying I haven't finished yet

I still have a tattoo to get

That says I'm living in the moment

And it's funny how I imagined

That I could win this, win this fight

But maybe it isn't all that funny

That I've been fighting all my life

But maybe I have to think it's funny

If I wanna live before I die

And maybe it's funniest of all

To think I'll die before I actually see

That I am exactly the person that I want to be

Fuck yes

I am exactly the person that I want to be

As for the story, I loved it. The story had such a dark whimsical feeling, a contemporary urban fantasy.  The story felt so familiar but different at the same time.  Like a story or movie I might have seen as a kid.  A story that sticks with you even after you’ve read or seen it. The feeling of repulsion as the narrator pulls the worm out of his foot that was soon to be Ursula Monkton. At times the surreal and rich fantasy puzzled me, but also interreges me. Parasites living longer then man himself.

I think that we all in different ways have our own ocean at the end of the lane in our childhood. I really loved how this novel was also written from Neil to his wife, which makes it feel every personal, how he is sharing his childhood with her.

Space Opera and The Final Frontier

When I first started reading Shards of Honor, the first thing that crossed my mind was oh great romance. But as I kept reading, the book grew on me. Shards of Honor was a Space Opera that was a lot like a Soap Opera to me, with out the silly cat fights and memory loss. I’m not a huge fan of romance novels but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I think that one of the reasons I like this read was because of the 75% fiction and the 25% science in it.  I’m a sucker for a good romance, but I have trouble connecting to the setting and characters. I had no troubles connecting to Cordelia Naismith. She is a strong female archetype. As I read deeper and I started to picture myself in her shoes, it became like watching a soap opera to me. I would sigh in frustration with her, when she would leave Vorkosigan. The respectful relationship that grew between the two main characters was something I quiet enjoyed. My mother has always been a strong feministic figure in my life. I was thought to respect myself, and not fall into the dating trends of modern society. In Shards of Honor I see that classic respectful development of a relationship. Cordelia and Vorkosigan’s relationship is something I wish would happen to me. Vorkosigan is portrayed as a bad guy, but Cordelia is the type of woman that knows never to judge a book by its cover. Which is ironic, cause that is indeed what I did when I began reading this book.

Over all the book was a fast easy read. Details where give at I feel the proper times not wasn’t super overwhelming. I keep coming back to it but I truly think building of this romantic relationship is what sold me on this book.

Week 2 : Vampire: Love and Pain

For week two I read Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. Someone during the in-class discussion said, “ Vampires stories, are never real about vampires.” The complex relationships in Anne Rice’s novel are only giving the masks of vampire to draw one into the story.

            The triangle relationship between Claudia, Lestat and Louis is tragic. First we are Louis, mourning the lost off his bother only wishes for death and when Lestat grants him immortal life it’s not what he was expecting. Louis is conflicted up the unmoral means to which he must feed on his once fellow humans. He feels isolated and disjoined from his companion and creator Lestat. To Louis, Lestat is the reason for his problems.

            And then the introduction of little Claudia, an innocent little girl tainted against her will or knowing. Louis conflicted with his emotions both lusts for her life and pitys her as he glazes at her. He tries to give reason to his desire for her, as he is putting her out of her misery. Lestet afraid to loose his only attachment you would say to humanity, Louis changes Claudia into a vampire. Lestat gives Claudia to Louis, to appease his nurturing femine nature. Which is a basicly the formation of a gay couple with a child. The author Anne Rice having lived San Francisco(1970), a city with a huge gay and lesbian community we can begin to see the influences of the gay community in her story. More so when Louis meets Armand. Anne’s personal life has a deep connection to the characters in a way, Claudia representing her 6 year old daughter that passed away.

Having been changed so young Claudia had little to none experiences of the world. Her perceptions of right and wrong are tainted by Lestat. Claudia’s mind grows and not her body, a women trapped in a child’s body forever. When Lestat and Louis secret is revealed to her, she feels betrayed and enraged. And she shows no pity or remorse as she butchers Lestat.

But I think my favorite relationship is the one between to interviewer and Louis. At the end, after Louis had told his story of loss, pain, and sadness ; the interviewer wanted to become a vampire? It makes me as the reader question my own thoughts to if I would do the same if I was in his position.

Week 3 J-Horror

For week 3 I read stories from the Kwaidan. The assumptions in the works I read about good and evil, where at times very black and white and also at time ambivalent. In most “western” horror I find you can find a cause or reason for evil and bad. As I read the stories of the Kwaidan, I could see ways that “western” horror differs. In “western” horror or the gothic, I find the stories are layed out with information leading you to an understanding of why and how. 

A good example of an ambivalent horror story would be MUJINA. The spirit weeping women “O-jochu” has no face really, but why? She is weeping so one could assume that her spirit passed in way in agony or anger, and the at the ending where the witness to the faceless women encountered another spirit without a face? Some how the apparitions are connected to each other, the weeping women and the soba-seller or maybe not.

            In the Kwaidan stories I found that the why is often not the key part of the story, where in “western” horror there is always a reason. Sometimes bad things and or weird things happen to good people (for no apparent reason), the people in stories tend to walk the line between the spiritual world and our physical world always. This leads into strange happenings. In “western” horror normally the innocent is effected by relations to the guilty.  

            In “western” horror and the gothic evil is created by man, the innocent be comes evil and somehow the triumph over it will sent it to rest. And I fine that in J-horror that, killing the evil and good somehow winning doesn’t end the story.  Good doesn’t always win, which is a lot different then in “western” horror.  You can see it more clearly in the J-horror cinema.

From the stories I read from the Kwaidan and from J-horror movies I have these different assumptions of evil, contribute to a very different type of horror.  It’s unique and different to the horror I grew up with.