The Martian

I am not the biggest sci-fi person. Although I do like it a bit more than fantasy. But the difference.... is science. Which I'm not the best at understanding. With fantasy, there are not as many mathematical/chemistry elements that I will look at and read 4 times over and blink with my empty eyes at. So reading some of this book was a little hard for me. Especially since I have the attention span of a puppy. My mom adores Star Trek and even has the emblem tattooed on her ankle, so it's not a completely foreign subject (and with the campy-ness of the original series my brain doesn't process much of the science aspect at all).

The Martian is about a team from NASA traveling to mars and encounter a a strong sandstorm that knocks unconscious one of their members that they assume is now dead and try to leave the planet as fast as they can, while they leave the body of their friend behind. The man wakes up alone on Mars and then has to cultivate potatoes using his own poop to survive until NASA comes to rescue him.

The suspense in this book is palpable. It has a way of keeping me on my toes that I've never experienced from the genre since Close Encounters. I really felt bad for Watney, although he seemed to figure out everything pretty naturally. I reckon that's probably what their training (aka gibberish to me) is for. He's relatively calm to the situations happening, which if he were otherwise he probably wouldn't have ended up back on Earth. I also have a lot of respect for this character due to the way he quickly reacted to everything that was thrown at him. The story is pretty dramatic, though, which is most likely why it is considered an Opera. If only he broke out into song regularly, it would've nailed the genre on the head. All jokes asides, this was a very compelling read. I couldn't imagine having to go through the betrayal of your own crew, saving your own poop for growing potatoes, repairing lost rovers, losing all your air, and still somehow ending up home could do to your brain. That's a ton of stress. The poor lady who felt guilty for leaving him behind has to deal with that too, now. I think she did what she had to do in order to save the rest of her crew, I don't think she's fully to blame. Overall, the Martian was very interesting. I will probably go watch the movie now, I heard it was really good.

Anansi Boys

This book is not what I was expecting it to be at all. What exactly was I expecting it to be? I have no idea. But I will say I didn’t think Neil Gaiman would capture me like he did. In this book, Fat Charlie is overcome with a million different unlucky instances, even though in the beginning he seemed to have a pretty good life. The myths in this selection were of a greater power- the creators of the universe. HOw did they create the universe? Through stories and songs created by gods of animals. The dedication to the West Indian culture in this book is very interesting, especially since I have no previous knowledge of anything remotely close to the myths Gaiman alludes to. Charlie’s father was the spider god Anansi, who is the ruler of mischief. This explains how sad Charlie’s life has become due to his father playing jokes on him all the time, but Anansi has passed away. Little does Charlie know that he has a brother named Spider (who is actually his other half) that has been given their father’s gift of mischief. It is up to Charlie to stop Spider’s devilish actions against him that spirals his life into chaos. Fate is a joke in this story, seeing as no one seems to be taking it seriously since everyone kind of does what they want (except Fat Charlie who is just trying to live his life). Like I had previously mentioned, a lot of characters break out into song about their lives and how their aspirations came to be. I have never read anything that portrayed gods with song, although I don’t read a ton of fantasy novels in general. It was fun to get to understand the characters but trying not to think of it being played out like a Disney movie was a little hard. Although the theme of fate was prevalent, like we talked about in the lecture, I believe in “Everything happens for a reason”. I feel like that applies whole heartedly to this novel due to the fact that Charlie does seem to find out his true purpose in the end. He was destined to be a singer and to marry the cop Daisy instead of his ex-fiancee Rosie. Which I have just realized as I was writing this that they both had flower names…. Which brings me to the point: women are used as a driving force in this novel. Without Spider coming in and snatching up Rosie, Charlie could’ve been met with the same fate later on after their marriage to some other guy. Similarly, if it weren’t for Daisy, Charlie may not have ever realized his talent for singing and preserving the stories from the “Beginning Of the World”. I appreciate Charlie’s respect for women, I think there are a lot of Spiders running around our society today still thinking women are prizes to be won. I appreciate that Gaiman made sure the protagonist outgrew Spider and learned how to become a nice young man.

Harry Potter

Complex Moral issues are practically the foundation built upon the groundwork for The Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry has been raised for all of his life as a lower status family nuisance to his aunt, uncle, and his cousin. After a series of rapidly insane events unfold on his 11^th birthday, a whole entire world of magic is revealed to him. On top of that, he is thrusted into a huge responsibility of being titled “The Boy Who Lived”, practically a deity in the eyes of many in this world. With this comes friends who automatically respect him, enemies who envy him, and a need to uphold this new family legacy of his magician parents who were both popular, smart (well at the very least his mother), and in the most esteemed house anyone can be a part of. Harry has so much thrust upon him and must navigate it while also keeping up with classes and assignments, an obvious parallel that most students would immediately be sympathetic towards. Harry’s new way of life also comes with challenges in the form of rivalries, such as with Draco Malfoy. He’s given multiple chances to inflict as much pain and suffering to Harry and his friends without much as a second glance from professors, and most of the time leaving the scene of the crime Scott free. Meanwhile, any event that Harry would become a part of, he would seem to always get the short end of the stick, such as being caught for being out of their dormitories. Though sometimes things work out for the better, like when he took a chance and helped Hermione escape the Troll, using teamwork together rather than letting past resentments get the better of them. It seems that Rowling had a knack for keeping things tense with new challenges that can intermingle with a character’s moral code, and nothing else shows it clearer than the final few chapters set in the various rooms that were made to keep The Sorcerer’s Stone locked up. Hermione’s ingeniousness assists with any task at hand and helps them decode clues and riddles that would elude any normal person who hadn’t indulged themselves in countless literature. She not only has book smarts but can also think on her feet, with quick decision making as with The Devil’s Snare and the Flying Keys, which would have stumped both Harry and Ron the moment they were thrusted into it.Ron, though not really seen as the brains of the group, can really be seen as the epitome of “best friend” material. His loyalty and faithfulness in his friend’s ability to power through the final challenges gives him the fortitude to sacrifice himself for his friends, the type of moral attitude seen in very few people and the very definition of a spiritual challenge that would show anyone’s true colors. Harry is a very “trust your gut” individual. From the get-go, his life has forced him to only trust in himself for his own decision he’d enact upon, and in turn has a very keen and justly guided moral compass. Naturally a personality like that molds a very honorable and just young kid who has no sinister intentions and has a heart of gold, which unlocks the Sorcerer’s Stone for him. It’s fair enough to say that Harry has many laborious tasks that he has to uphold throughout the book. He was thrust into a world with notoriety he didn’t even know existed, and still somehow managed to make do with it all without becoming a perfect character.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a great example of the Hero’s Journey. Bilbo Baggins one hundred percent does not want to be a thief in this war that has nothing to do with him. He is a normal hobbit who does nothing but normal hobbit things and that is all that he wants to do. That is until he experiences the dwarves’ perseverance to save what they can of their kingdom. He sees them willing to give up their lives even though they don’t have that great of a chance of succeeding. That’s his pivoting moment that propels his Hero’s Journey. During his trip through the Lonely Mountain, he learns how to be the thief they originally wanted him to be. He helps the dwarves’ army fight against trolls, and a congregate of Orcs, and outsmarting Gollum for the ring. He learns that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and despite losing friends along the way, he is the one who is responsible for their victory in the end. He even ‘came back from the dead’ in the eyes of the dwarves. At the beginning, Bilbo was content with that he had. He wanted a quiet life to himself, but seeing other be so selfless, he decided he wanted to be a part of their adventure.

Akata Witch

The characters in Akata Witch are definitely archetypes, but not in a bad way at all. They are very interesting and deeply written characters. Sunny, is the New Girl or Hero in this situation, and she a disability that may seem very superficial, but affects how she can go about her life. She is albino which means she is very sensitive to sunlight and feels out of place compared to the others around her who have a lot more melanin. She’s great at sports, but she can’t be in the sun because it burns her skin. Her magic is being able to teleport to the spirit world and be invisible, and both of those are directly tied into her albinism. So while she may be an archetype, she still is original and uniquely herself. Orlu could be seen as the Everyman archetype, and while he is very bright, he is dyslexic which proves to be a great disadvantage to his progression in learning about his Leopard Powers. His powers also stem directly from his disability and he is able to undo Juju spells. Though, he is taken advantage of by ChiChi for this powerful ability. ChiChi could be seen as the Joker, but she is very hotheaded when it’s her that’s being made fun of. She is quick to stand up for what she wants, but she’s not afraid of bending the rules to get there. She picks on Orlu by using him to undo the spells of her bad ideas. But she is able to remember everything that reads. Sasha is the Rebel of the group, he was kicked out of America for getting revenge on some bullies and sending a monster to haunt them. He is extremely quick to anger and has an authority problem, but he eventually learns how to use his powers for good instead. He seems to come off as unscholarly due to his authority problem, but he actually has the same power ChiChi does, which is to remember everything he reads. These characters are also interesting because they represent the opposite of how most people write literature. It’s usually the male characters that are the heroes and the smartest, while the girls are the more emotional ones. In this case, the girls are the ones who are firm and stand for what they believe in, while the males are the ones who are either neutral or too emotional. I appreciate this, being a woman. I think woman are a lot more than archetypes on a paper. I think every character should at least be more than that, and these characters are all deeply written, and do a great job at telling a story about finding yourself.

The Condition Of New Death

Okay, this will not be written like the other blogposts because these stories are right up my alley and I’m really jazzed about it. Three Moments of an Explosion: The Condition of New Death is not the weird people these days are used to. In my humble opinion, I think this is the new horror. I think the upcoming generation will create even more things in this category until it is the new horror. Things that don’t describe the unfathomable creatures that make up our universe, but cater to the everyday person who are subjected to the uncanny valley. In most contexts, I think the uncanny valley usually applies when we’re talking about horror and how you can barely make out the face of the shadow in the corner of the screen, but China Mieville is blunt about it in this story. Corpses whose feet orient toward you no matter where you’re standing in comparison to them? And on top of that no one questions anything about this new evolution of ‘death’ either. That’s genuinely disturbing. Things like skeletons and ghosts have outgrown their welcome in the new generations, I think. We’re craving something more, and I think this is just that. One of my favorite horror movies, Cabin In The Woods, is also a part of this category, which is probably why I’m so excited about it. Both are good examples of taking a normal sounding scenario and adding a pinch of something being off, and then voila, you have the New Weird. In Mieville’s story it starts with an older man who comes home one day to find his wife dead on the floor. Seems normal, right? But then she reorients herself so that her feet are always rotating to her shocked husband no matter where he moves. Okay, now it’s no longer the thing we’re used to seeing. It has a new twist. Same thing with Cabin In The Woods, the movie starts with a normal plot of silly and horny college students who want to go stay in, you guessed it, a cabin in the woods. But, the entire time we have shots of these other people working in some sort of lab talking about sacrifices and then all of a sudden it’s more interesting. These are some of the best scenarios I can think of that are using the uncanny valley as a plot point rather than honing a focus on visuals.

I have absorbed a lot of media like this, actually. There’s a short film that’s eerily similar to it, I wonder if it was inspired by The Condition of New Death? It’s called This House Has People In It and it can be found on YouTube. Additionally, there’s a sequel to that video called Unedited Footage of A Bear that also falls under the category of the New Weird, and even my favorite horror artist Junji Ito would be considered the New Weird. I’m actually really glad that I have a title for what this genre is so I can keep looking into it.

Of A Mirror and A Bell

There’s a different kind of evil vs good when it comes to differences between Eastern and Western Fiction. In Of A Mirror and A Bell a prime example of some of those differences are shown. Eastern ‘evil’ usually is dependent (but not always) on themes of revenge. The farmer’s wife in this story gives away a prized possession because she wanted to do something to benefit everyone, but her heart was not fully in it. She gives up a hand mirror that was passed down in her family and ultimately regrets it because of all the great memories she has of the mirror. When the people of Totomi start to melt down all of the items the inhabitants donated for their new public works project (the bell) they come to realize that the farmer’s wife was not honestly giving up her hand mirror with all of her heart because the mirror did not melt. When the woman commits suicide due to the public shame she is receiving, she has given herself to the afterlife as a vengeful spirit. Then the story starts to go into details about the phenomenon nazoraeru. To me nazoraeru is a kind of karma, and whatever energy you give into the world will be given back to you, depending on whether the intentions were positive or not. In this case, the woman died in anger, maybe because she didn’t honestly put her heart into giving up the mirror. In our western culture, we can view this as potentially and ‘evil’ act because the task of breaking the bell was almost impossible and made people go mad with greed. Although in Eastern stories, at least to me, I think that there is always a balance between the good and evil, it having a lot to do with intention and how that energy is put back into the world. If the woman intentionally killed herself with the thought of driving people mad with greed who once called her selfish, then she could be considered ‘evil’. Although, I think she knew that someone who was pure of heart would be able to find a loophole in her rule. Which is why to me, I think that is the true balance between good and evil. It was more of a karma thing. The people who actually needed money in order to live are the ones who were able to “break the bell”. Although we do not know if the man who made the bell out of clay technically earned his riches, but it is implied that he does. Meanwhile in American fiction, I think good vs evil is more black and white. If you kill someone, you are evil; If you save someone, you are good. I think the Eastern style is much more realistic, karma aside. Don’t put out bad energy into the world and you will not receive bad energy back.