Week Six: Writing Assignment

At first, when I heard that we were reading The Hobbit in class I was not thrilled. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy to begin with and having read The Hobbit in seventh grade I was a little leery to delve into it again. However, thinking back to how awful a pre-teen I was, I decided to give The Hobbit a second try instead of picking something off our alternative reading list.

To begin with, the reading experience was better this time. The Annotated Hobbit, which was the version I read this time, gave me a better idea of the adventure and the entirety of Middle Earth. The commentary and the added illustrations gave me a better understanding of what I was reading. This allowed me to focus on the characters a little bit more this time around. However, every time a chapter opened up with a description of the scene I still felt the almost impossible urge to skip it because I knew that it would continue on forever. This time, I had a new-found respect for the dwarves and even Bilbo himself. Bilbo is a lot more likeable this time around. I really appreciate how he grows in his adventure. He starts off in the story being complacent in his little hobbit hole in Bag End, and he ends it as a brave and courageous little hobbit. I also seemed to forget that once Smaug was defeated, and the Battle of the Five Armies was was won, Bilbo rejected a substantial amount of treasure. I always really like when characters recognize who they are and what they need and stay true to their values. He wasn't greedy when the moment was presented to him. Instead he returned home and lived a peaceful life, even though he was shunned by his neighbors and and other hobbits. I think I responded to Bilbo better this time around, probably because I wasn't a pissy little teenager. 

However, Bilbo's personality was one of the only things that I really enjoyed. Everything else was similarly lackluster as the last time I read it. I just really don't enjoy books like this. I could appreciate how good of a book and how well it was written this time, but it just isn't the genre for me.

Week Five: Writing Assignment

Witches are an integral part of American lore. Stories about witches date back centuries. This week the class read Aunt Mariah by Diana Wynne Jones. In this story, witches are portrayed as older women who work their magic through talking. This is a very archetypal view of witches. 

Historically, witches are portrayed as someone who influenced another's mind, will, or body against their will. This can be completed in any number of ways. Witches can use words and rituals to carry out their "spells". In Aunt Mariah, the witches used words to influence how people saw and interacted with the world. 

However, Aunt Mariah did use some stereotypical emotions surrounding witchcraft. Society as a whole, fears witches. And it was very apparent in the material we read this week, that the community that the book was set in were terrified of their witchy "queens". The witches were shown as evil, manipulative, and desperate to get what they wanted. The commercialism of Halloween has allowed modern culture to portray witches as the warty, green-skinned woman who brews potions and casts curses. And this was a direct comment on how our society views women in power.

Our society has a stigma on women in power. We often view women at the top as ugly, usually alone, and bitter about her life. Women in power is, unfortunately, inherently negative. Culture will often tell littlle boys to be strong. We commend men as leaders, but condemn women. And the way witches are portrayed can often be a cautionary tale to young girls. In stories about women we're often telling girls, "Dont' be strong or expressive because this is what you will turn into." 

The witches in Aunt Mariah were not good witches, but at least they were handled in a way that didn't overtly depict them as standing over bubbling cauldrons speaking in verse. As older ladies speaking at a tea party, they at least had a little bit more depth than some witches in stories today. 

Week Four: Writing Assignment

The weird is the unexpected and uncanny. Weird Horror has you sitting at the edge of your seat just a little bit differently. In horror, the gore and mystery unfolds in very easily defined ways. Horror is all about rules and when you break the rules, you die. However, weird horror usually turns these rules on their heads. Weird Horror does not follow expected horror conventions. I think that's what makes it so exciting. 
This week I started to read the Monster Island trilogy by David Wellington. It started off as a traditional zombie book. As it evolved, it was revealed that a survivor took it upon himself to join the ranks of the undead and in the process he became a powerful creature who could think even after death. He even had the power to control and drain power from other zombies. In traditional zombie lore, zombies are shambling, mind-less monsters only interested in human flesh. A reader does not expect a sudden appearance of a smart and almost all-powerful zombie to step into the field. This eerie and uncanny turn of events qualifies this trilogy as weird horror. Even the required movie for the week breaks the rules. 
Cabin in the Woods, uses the classic horror tropes to make viewers feel comfortable. It lures the audience into a false security before ripping the rug out from under them. I hope horror continues in this fashion. Weird horror pushes the boundaries of horror conventions. Characters and plots break free of common tropes and allow audiences to be surprised by horror once again. 

Week Three: Writing Assignment

Japanese horror is a whole different animal than American horror and it's a far departure from what I've already touched on in this blog. The authors and directors who create Japanese horror use Japan's history, tradition, and culture to make incredibly effective horror.
This week, I read a book on classical Japanese ghost stories called Kwaidan. In this book, all of the collected stories are otherworldly and very dreamy. Conversely, American horror is shaped around the classic gothic archetype found in Frankenstein and Dracula. In Kwaidan, however, most of the stories I read, the antagonist or the force at work visits the protagonist in their dreams. Everything seems to happen in a dreamscape. And all of the stories operate like a dream. They are all mystical with no explanation as to why they are happening. However, there is always an inevitable reaction to why these things are happening. In the story Oshidori, a hunter kills a duck in a pond. Another duck, a young spirit comes to him in a dream mourning the death of her murdered husband. In the morning, the hunter visits this duck at the pond and because of his previous actions the duck horrifically destroys herself in front of the hunter to make him reflect on what he has done. This story offers no explanation as to what was happening. Oshidori makes no excuses, but if it had been written in America, it would have tried to rationalize all of the supernatural elements and over explain what was happen as to not confuse the audience.
Finally, Japanese horror doesn't seem to operate on good vs. evil. In the Yuki-Onna story, a snow woman comes across two stranded woodsmen and kills the older one. The younger woodsman wakes up to discover what she is doing and she threatens that if he ever tells what he has seen, she will kill him also. He goes about his life and marries a wonderful women and they have many children together. Everyone seems to adore the wife, but when he shares his terrifying experience with his her it is revealed that she was truly the snow woman all along. In American culture, this woman would have been treated as an evil and manipulative creature. But, in this story the creature's motives are a little ambiguous. The two truly seem to care about each other, but when the husband doesn't keep his secret, she must reveal what she is. Japanese horror does not break the world down into two simple sectors, but instead leaves the actions of the characters up to interpretation. In the end, these characteristics are what make Japanese horror so terrifying.