Week Seven: The novel of spiritual education

     For this week, I read the night circus. I found it an interesting twist on the teenage coming of age tale.  I enjoyed how this tale deviated from the standard boy meets a girl and falls in love. Instead it pitted two rival students against each other and somehow they found companionship and love through the competition: however, one of them would eventually have to die. However, a large lesson taught in this story is that one's ego is not as important as the safety of others. Mr. A.h and Prospero put their own egos and self interest in front of the safety of the others in the circus. Similar to Harry Potter's Dumbledore, they exploit the children in the tale for their doing as if they were pawns on a board of chess. Unlike Dumbledore, Mr.A.H. and Prospero survive while Marco and Celia are killed off and bound to the circus fire in spirit form. It does show though that love can prevail through anything, even competition that is fought to the death. In a way, the lesson here is that fate does not predetermine how things will end, only if one allows it to end that way. Following this train of thought, it is a coming of age tale. The two magical lovers  learn that you can find passion in love as far as someone you view as an enemy, thus you should never turn someone down or judge them based on where they came from.

Notes:
Harry potter: appeals to kids and teachers. Kids grow up with him (over 7 years).
Fate: Pheonix feather in the wand.
Humble roots- harry raised with miserable relatives- makes him more humble and nicer once he moves to the wizard world.
Malfoy- returns later as a tragic hero
philosopher's stone: magic symbol in alchemy
Sorcerers stone in us, philosophers stone around the world
Speak no evil: cannot say voldemort's name
saying his name is how he finds you
Free-will
Morality: morality is muddied, its grey versus black and white
Parents have flaws
Harry has great affections for parental figures.
dumbledore plays harry as a pawn against voldemort
prophesy
harry and voldemorts fates completely interwoven- one has to die ( Classic myth)
The ending- 19 years later
-The story doesnt end with conclusion of voldemort, he finds his family in hermoine and the wesley's.
malfoy- forgiveness. History but they've moved passed. another family sending off the kids.
school in 4 directions- each is an aspect of the whole. cannot have one without the others.
slytherin is about power, but its good and bad. much more than that, it is very sophisticated
it is more inclusive. Not good vs evil- twist of fates
malfoy- product of hierarchal (class-based) racist feeling
hes an idea of the four houses.
flying brooms, flying cars! Mystical objects
Completely immerses people into it
Participation and the values- moral teaching through the spiritual values. Not too didactic, or taught, your experiencing. strong sophistication of outlook, brings you into complexity.
story is not as simple as it seems.
Snape- dynamic character. Not good or bad, understand the reasonings now.
snakes resentment towards father-
dumbledore- abandons harry due to emotional baggage of it.
trying to balance equation.
unsavory dumbledore
epic story- very large canvas to work with. not into miniature the whole time
Rowling- personal events, best of class, university,
portugal- meets and marries there. abusive husband, flees with baby.
he pursues her, she fends him off and divorces
single mom, teaching english at night
idea for book on a train, train breaks down.
difference between poor and rich: she wrote the idea down when she got it
if you don't write it when it happens, you will lose it!
get the concept unfolded, worry about details as you flesh it out
this becomes harry potter
her friends support her with this, friend cashes in retirement plan so she can write the book
how first draft is written^
now she has a manuscript- twenty years ago
publishers-still operated as unsolicited work
manuscript finds an advocate and it gets in in publishing house.
editors did an unusual thing- before its published in englad, they take it to international book fares and thats where all of the book deals are made. david levine- scholastic- read the book and believed in it and bought it (intro into us market). she got 250,000 for it in advance. gaureentee against proceeds. different illustrators for the different classes
from single poor mom to rich women in england
appeal: something in it for everyone, something to learn.
rowling ages harry appropriately
harry didn't get laid!
snogging- kissing
J.K. Rowling- use of initials hid gender
Religious sects are insane
cs louis- friend  of tolkien
polman- attacks cs louis's narnia
Golden compass trilogy- reasonable development of people. god is there in a wheelchair, there, but not really.
belief that souls could be eternalized. everyone has companion they are born with, different patronus
Cursed child- bad fan fiction of harry potter. adaption of harry potter into a playwright form
Harry potter- ton of autobiographical work in book.
The magicians- character going to magic college (boo yeah)
growing edge of fantasy- success of harry potter followed by the conversion of the lord of the rings into movies- made it a contemporary genre through film, tv.
an effort to bring classic fantasies to the big screen
gormangest- written by an illustrator who was shellshocked from WWI, complex political fantasy.
politcal manipuation, real power struggle. game of thrones in darker sense
fantasy- morals are putt in context. suggest morals to find through suggested paths
stephen king- dark tower series. moving towards fantasy ideals.

Week Six: The Heroic Journey

For this week I read the hobbit. I am not new to Tolkien's work but i have never sat down and read the hobbit. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the more upbeat tone it offered for the reader. The story of the hobbit reflects the hero's story to the T, following a set formula. Following the discussion had in class, the hobbit follows this formula so well because of the experience tolkien himself had. He had experienced the events of the First World war, one of the largest conflicts in history. In order to write true to the formula, one must experience life itself. The Hobbit follows the classic journey down to its major parts. The journey begins in the shire, where Bilbo Baggins smokes his pipe in peace. The shire is the point of home, the beginning step of the hero's journey. It is the comfort zone that bilbo refuses to leave once Gandalf offers him a chance to return to his adventurous ways he possessed as a child. This is an autobiographical fool to Tolkien's experience as a child in the country as well. Once he rejects this call, and this is where it differs, he is given the chance twice to join the party. He decided again to reject the call, only to fall asleep and realize he will take it. He decides to join the party once they leave and he accepts this call of action. It features the traditional trek of the hero, he experiences several events that influence him as a hobbit, and as a dynamic character. He is very much a traditional hero in unexpected ways, as he is a novice in fighting and in surviving outside of the shire. He however has a lineage that ties him back to great warriors, similar to the demigods of the ancient greeks. He might be far down the lineage, but his great Uncle on his mothers side was a hobbit said to be great in battle, big enough to ride a normal horse, a far-cry from the traditional hobbit. An interesting difference in this story versus the typical hero is actually the stature of Bilbo. He is a small Halfling character. This creates the point of conversation for several characters as they question his abilities, instead of his ignorance of the world its what he is thats questioned. The challenges he faces are chosen in a way to show his size, such as the capture of the dwarves to the hands of the giant, his assistance in the battle of Smaug, and the occurrence of the five armies. He reaches the point of returning home once the the battles are finished, and he is in a sense glad to return home, but reluctant. He discovered  himself as a character and that a hobbit can do more than one thinks, but there is one item that hinders his moral development until the lord of the rings trilogy: the events with smeagol and the One Ring. It grants him invisibility but also the taint of the ring- a slice of the insanity that is the manipulative force the ring carries. He is given the chance to discard the ring, one chance in particular with gandalf, and he refuses to. This leads to the events of the Lord of the Rings, and bilbo's journey doesn't truly end until the ring is removed from his grasp. It is the momento he takes back with him from his journey, the development and change that he experiences as a character. He does not return as the same hobbit he had left as.

Week Five: Witches and Women

For this week I read the book Black Maria. The women portrayed in this story are Archetypes versus stereotypes. This is for a few reasons. A stereotypical witch (at least for american culture) is a woman with extraordinary powers of the supernatural. This sounds like foil to the witches in the story, but this isn't the case. A typical stereotyped witch is one that wears the infamous black cloak, aged face, and overall dark appearance. Tied in with this is the vile personality of a witch, they are mean and vile in nature. Aunt Maria herself doesn't follow this same formula, entirely. She is the wolf in sheep's clothing, she gives off the appearance of a different archetype: the grandmother. She appears sweet and innocent at first, but once the story unfolds she begins to show her true nature. She isn't an outright devious character at first, she doesn't have the appearance or mindset of the wicked witch of the west, but her choices and control through the book show where her true powers are. She gains control of people through manipulation, in doing so she takes control of the town she lives in. The parties themselves are a good example of this, as these women meet at the same time on the same day for the same event. They talk and gossip and all seems normal on the outside. It would appear everyone on the inside is ignorant to her powers, as if she has moved in slowly without any attention noticed to it. It isn't until Meg and her brother move in that someone notices that there is something amok in this small town. She is a new form of archetypal witch, one in which she possesses the familiar qualities of supernatural elements but with the appearance of an innocent old woman.

Week Four: Old and New Weird

For this week, I read a few of the short stories from China Medville's Three moments of the explosion. I'm familiar with the new weird, as I have been exposed to this genre for quite some time now. The short story The Buzzard's Egg stuck out to me as both weird and very intriguing. Its told through the eyes of a prison guard for prisoner of war gods. The tone is dark and melancholy as the prison guard describes the various gods that he watches over and had previously encountered. He is a peculiar man whom talks with a slight sense of insanity. It is the oddness that pulls us in further. I watched both the Troll Hunter and Cabin in the Woods and the appeal becomes evident pretty quickly. Its the unusual turns that make the weird intriguing, not wanting to see how truly odd something is but continuing to watch it anyway.  Psychologically we like to fit in or follow what is considered the normal way of things, whether its staying up to date with fashions, or technology, or reading and watching programs that are accepted by society as a whole. With the Buzzard’s egg it is the weirdness of insanity and implausible events that make it an interesting read. In a movie such as Sinister or Insidious, its that weirdness of events beyond our understanding that brings us in. Both feature Supernatural beings that try to come in to our world and take souls back to them. Events like this do not occur in regular life to our knowledge and it appears very odd. With the troll hunter, what makes it weird is that Trolls exist, and that there is an individual who hunts them down with UV Cameras and lights to kill them. It is the break from what is expected that pulls us so deeply in to this new weird, as well as the old weird.

Week Three: Japanese Horror

I found A Wild Sheep Chase to be quite fascinating and very peculiar. I am new to the Japanese horror genre and it took some time to transition into this new story. The amount of symbolic meaning and life meaning in this story sets it apart from the gothic, which appeared more of personal iterations of the authors that wrote them. I had assumed the Japanese horror would be written in that same sense where the characters are foils to people from their life, or character personalities are based off of those of the author. It is not either of these, but the embodiment of a metaphorical meaning. The story is based around the hunt for a supernatural sheep, but also in the supernatural itself. It has the feeling of a traditional Japanese tale, the lesson behind the story is more important than the story itself. It is not a western horror, but it does have some western feel in it with the plot development of this story feeling similar to an American movie plot of the same time frame. The lack of names for the characters was also odd, but it works well for the story. This is another difference between the gothic as well, as the characters are typically named and stand out to the reader. But in this case, it works to the advantage of the story. As is the same with the gaming industry, an unnamed protagonist often pulls the reader/gamer deeper into the story because they can include themselves in the story. By doing this, the meaning of the story is more connected with the reader. It is less of a matter of connecting with a character, but more of a matter of becoming the character. It puts oneself into the story and makes them experience it first hand, the fear of becoming ruined, the frustration of searching for a sheep from a single photo taken. However, it is interesting to look at the karmic balance of the story. There isn’t a definitive good and evil, but a mix of forces that are natural, neutral. The story doesn’t favor good versus evil like its counterpart of the gothic, but favors neutral forces based on the actions of the character. There is small character development, but more so to say that your actions can have dire consequences, not that you are a Hero or Villain for the ones you chose to make.

Week Two: Vampires

For this week I read Interview with a vampire. It raises some unthought-of questions about immortals:  When you live forever, do you still crave the love of another? Especially when you crave blood as your primary source of food. This book features several relationships on varying levels, with those of friends, and of lovers. It seems as if mortality and the the repeated heartbreak that occurs over hundreds of years cause the heart to become cold (no pun intended), and unfeeling. This is an interesting aspect that might also explain why vampires are cold and unfeeling in general. The passions and feelings that we have through the mortal sense have to do with the impulses we have to continue on. We feel the need to establish relationships and continue ourselves through our children. We do this through the common means but if one reaches immortality, the meaning behind these actions disappears. The pressures of finding a mate diminish but it leads to another aspect of immortality: loneliness. The perfect example of this is Louis and Armand. They both are vampire males and seek to establish a relationship with only emotion as the kicker. They do have a relationship that lasts until Louis visits Lestat and sees what he becomes. He appears to care less for his emotions and thus his feelings of love and anger. Armand brings up the fact that he had killed Claudia in an attempt to stir feelings of love and or anger, but it effects him in no way whatsoever. When the feelings of passion disappear, what would be left for an immortal? He becomes more secluded and hates his nature. However, he is one example in the text. Lester provides another example, what happens when an immortal falls in love but cannot move past the feelings. He pursues Louis repeatedly and also kills for him, while Louis repeatedly tries to kill him. He is the lover scorned. With immortality, one unable to get past feelings can experience several lifetimes of thinking, and drive themselves into madness over getting that lover back. Immortality changes the game in the way that living forever can allow for extreme love, and extreme hatred. This leads to some truths about relationships, the first being passion. A relationship without passion is as eventful as a limp vegetable. Passion is what keeps a relationship lively and healthy, and once it disappears a relationship becomes distant and slowly fades.

Week One: The gothic

For the introduction to this class I read Marry Shelly's classic Frankenstein. I found the psychological aspects of the story to be quite intriguing. It is a story of with strong character development. Dr. Frankenstein's Abomination is the greatest example of this character development. It is a creature created from an experiment to reanimate dead tissue. Once it is given life it begins as any new creature, in its infancy. The creature may be fully formed and large in stature, but its mind is in the young stages of a newborn child. It does not understand what it is and like any child, it does not see itself different from any other person. Once it finds societal members that teach it to speak, read, and write, it believes itself to be a member of society. This creature doesn't understand why people run away from it, and it becomes dejected from society. It becomes frustrated and hurt by this, and begins to act as if it is in its adolescent years. It seeks revenge on its parent, and curses its existence due to this man. He finds ways to get at Frankenstein, in this case by killing off his family. It only reaches adolescence though, once the creature finds its creator after the long trek through the arctic, it begins to realize what it had done. It had not thought of the future until he had finally achieved what he had aimed to do. This psychologically is similar to one in their teens, where they act on emotion and impulse without the forethought of the consequences of their actions. Like any teen, it has an emotional response to this. It begs the question of what he creature was maturing to. The quick development of it could have seen a truly bright and prosperous individual. This ties into the theme of society, it is incredibly vain. We want people whom are pretty or seem to fit in over truly brilliant and less attractive individuals. We seem to value the youthfulness of a face over the intellectual person.