Diverse Position Sci-Fi

There's a very colonialist theme in Dawn by Octavia Butler, and it's not subtle. The main protagonist is a black woman, whose family was lost years and years before the start of the book. She was kidnapped, but her captors claim they saved her. When the story starts out, she's imprisoned, isolated, confused, and she doesn't know why, or for how long. Kept alone until she's ready to face the alien race that took her away from Earth. The reason for all this? Integration. Much like Bloodchild, the extraterrestrial creatures use the unfortunate circumstances of the humans to their advantage, and while it may not be moral, or welcomed, the result seems to be in the best interest of both races.

There seems to be a trend of science fiction stories that take modern problems and expand them into the larger universe. Of course, any genre does this, but transcending the boundary of reality and universe gives the opportunity to present the problem in a new context. Sometimes, all an audience needs is a new viewpoint to understand the issue at hand. Sometimes.

Cyberpunk and Steampunk

Snow Crash features an alternate reality fueled by anarcho capitalism in which corporations run the world and shape culture. Technology plays a significant role in this futuristic setting, and brings along with it a virtual reality world used both as a tool and an escape from a grim reality, treated as two individual universes. Technology is so ingrained with the real world, viruses can be introduced as drugs, although unheard of before the events of the story. With the advancements we've had since the writing of Snow Crash, we are inching closer to a similar reality. VR is becoming more advanced and commonplace, and with the sophistication of new technology comes the adaptation of coders and hackers.

The Fiction of Ideas

The Drowned Giant takes an interesting look at how the human populace treats subjects outside of our common knowledge. Fear or panic are the probable fist reactions, but in this story the otherworldly creature is as dead as can be, and clearly no threat. Of course there are the few like the narrator who have a natural curiosity, and the scientists who show up and do some amount of studying the giant before leaving. But the rest, the various townsfolk, are left to their own devices, and have no care in the world about who this giant is, where he came from, or how he came to drown. Or even what this means for the world.

I've never seen a beached whale, but I can imagine they would have been treated pretty poorly too in the 60's. The deceased giant is handled with no humanity; the people climb him, carve him, burn him, and hack him to pieces, with no regard that this phenomenal, foreign thing on the beach was once living and breathing just as they are. Honor of the deceased is relative. The death of one's mother has a different weight than a ex-coworker's aunt. The giant is so far removed from the people that he is not treated with the same respect as any dead human is expected to receive.

Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Everyone knows some amount of mythology, and mythology is a vital part all of our media, new and old. The Lion King is Hamlet is The Oresteia. American Gods takes a less subtle approach, and feels like the grown-up version of the Percy Jackson series. Mythology is known as a thing of the past; contemporary myths are few and far between, and the ones we do have are widely accepted as false, i.e. Bigfoot. Religious stories are old.

Neil Gaiman masterfully blended the old gods with modern day society; I was awestruck by how creative and innovative some of these ties were. The people's relationship with gods of any culture were never simple and clean, and they didn't always make sense. The gods of American Gods feel so much more believable than Percy Jackson's, of which had little variation from their sources.

Spiritual Education

I found that the most interesting part of The Night Circus was the observation of the two student characters, Celia and Marco, and the natural comparison of the teaching styles used for them. Both magicians use approaches very specific to their own personalities and lifestyles, and project their views and expectations onto their students. Neither are ideal in morality.

Both of the magicians play as an abusive savior to their apprentices, and are given absolute power over their life. Celia and Marco are groomed to compete in the magicians' rivalry, and raised with no sense of personal importance; their childhoods and onward spent serving their mentors one way or another.

As a novel marketed for young adults, it feels as though there's an underlying lesson of how to identify such abusive relationships, by providing not one, but two exaggerated situations. These situations, while of course nestled in the world of fantasy and fiction, can be very real and very difficult to understand not only for children, but for anyone in similar situations.

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

1) What is your reaction to the text you just read?

A little bit intrigued, a little bit disgusted. It takes a while to get a good image of the Tlic, and of the situation as a whole. They're giant parasitic worms- that's gross. But the world and the relationship built around the Tlic and the humans is so unique from the other stories I've read and watched.


2) What connections did you make to the story? Discuss the story with which you were able to connect.

There's a lot to compare between Bloodchild and other alien stories in which the alien race uses humans to birth their young. Most notably the Xenomorphs from Alien. I don't think I've ever heard a story about a compromise between the aliens and humans, and it's definitely an interesting angle to work with. It's mentioned that early on during this relationship, the Tlic had treated the humans like cattle, but they eventually had the sense to treat the humans with a little more dignity.


3) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I've been watching Love, Death, and Robots on repeat since Netflix released it. This story would be awkward, cumbersome, and probably with poor reception if made into a live action film of any kind, but an animated short would bring it to life. Love, Death, and Robots showed that animation can be gritty and pretty, and can push horror and scifi like no other medium can.

The Heroic Journey

Despite my love for fantasy, I've never found The Lord of the Rings series attractive, and I couldn't ever explain why.  It was only after watching the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring that I realized it had to be the lack of women.  I hadn't ever noticed that the stories featured an all-male cast, but it didn't have a character that drew my attention; Legolas wasn't quite enough.  Investing myself in reading The Hobbit was a little difficult for me, but I did enjoy the style of writing- a mimic of oral storytelling rather than feeling 'written.'

The formulaic and predictable nature of classic fantasy is definitely present in The Hobbit, and probably every fantasy story I've ever read, watched, or played before. You even expect it in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign: how do you get this mix of adventurers to cross the threshold and leave this tavern together?

Witches

For this week I read up to issue 12 of Redlands. I've been meaning to read it for a while now, and I'm glad I finally did. I like the characters in this story, because they don't fall into the typical witch archetypes, or at least not from what I can tell. It's possible that it may be in part due to how the trio of witches is split up for the bulk of the story, or that one of them is controlled by another character altogether. It's hard to tell in the amount of content released so far.

Redlands really gives all of the supernatural characters an element of realism, or maybe humanity. They're not flashy, and they're calculated. Even before they begin to delve into their backstories, they feel their age. These are characters that have a history that has molded them. From other works that I know of, writers seem to rely on the stereotype of the witch, for one output or another. They're creepy, and dark, and use magic- is there usually much more to them? I can't recall any instances where I've read or seen a witch's backstory explained. This depth of the witch characters works perfectly with the current cultural climate of women with power, which is even the driving force of the story. The witch is a product of her era, and the modern witches of Redlands really show this.

The New Weird

I read Borne for this week's assignment, and while I was apprehensive at first, I ended up really enjoying it.  There was an extra level of creativity brought in when it came to the resources that these survivors had with the biotech, in ways I don't think I've seen before, though it did feel reminiscent of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.  When technology comes in as a key element of the world, the possibilities are only as endless as the writer's imagination. There's been more tech used in horror as we become more reliant on it, and as it becomes more accessible and more advanced, but it's being used differently than it was thirty or forty years ago.  We're not as afraid of technology because it's so ingrained in our daily lives. Rogue killer robots aren't scary anymore.

I think monsters that are organic, human, or supernatural is the direction we're going for right now in the horror genre, which makes way for technology to be used to assist the protagonists now.  A Quiet Place used a hearing aid as the last minute savior. The Good Neighbor, while more thriller than horror, followed a two teens who set up secret cameras to spy on their neighbor in an experiment gone wrong.  Technology might not be essential to every movie, it's definitely not going anywhere and will continue to present new and, hopefully, creative uses in this genre.

Asian Horror

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

It's both difficult and not to pinpoint the differences in the horror genre from different cultures. Western and eastern horror is different, they feel different. Most, if not all Asian horror stories I've seen have been based in mythology and history, with a lot of vengeful spirits. Ones I can think of from my own experience are the anime Another and video game series Fatal Frame. They come with a gritty, sepia feel to them, like climbing up to your grandparent's attic to look at the dusty old things in there. It's uneasy all the way to the conclusion, which is often uneasy in itself.
I think I'd describe western horror in contrast as clearer. Psychological antagonists and horrific monsters, anything to get a reaction from the audience. Western horror either has an explanation, or is completely void of one. Western horror seems to have more physical malicious contact between protagonists and antagonists, even western stories about western spirits have a certain level of contact, as in The Exorcist and American Horror Story: Murder House.

Vampires

I feel like one of the most popular vampire narrative includes vampires struggling against themselves and their urges, whether they were born into their vampirism or newly acquired it. The inspiration of Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire is clear within these stories. Lost Boys is a perfect example, and it can also be found in Twilight for sure. There's something intimate about watching Louis fight against his vampire self, at times very emotionally charged with the influence of Lestat. Their dynamic is interesting, with very homosexual undertones, where Lestat feels no remorse or empathy for the humans he consumes. Despite is desire for companionship in Louis, Lestat makes no moves to appease Louis' discomfort at feeding off of humans, and even manipulates him into staying by creating a daughter figure for the two to father together. Not a healthy relationship, but we get very few of those in vampire stories anyway.

Frankenstein

I don't have much experience with gothic literature in the slightest, and prior to class I didn't have a solid understanding of the genre as a whole, either. Having now read Frankenstein, I feel like my definition of gothic is entirely Frankenstein, with a little bit of Scooby-Doo in the mix for the tropes. The entire mood of the novel felt somber and mysterious to me, like it was raining throughout the story, and despite knowing the basic plot before hand, I never knew what was going to happen next or what would happen when. As soon as I caught on that Victor Frankenstein was beginning his experiment, unease crept in, and worsened tenfold when the monster seemingly disappeared.

Classic Horror Tropes

Dramatic score
Night setting
Monsters
Mirrors
Creepy, abandoned houses, placed on a hill, mansions
Secret bookcases
Cobwebs
Science gone wrong
Thunder storms
Howling in the distance
Romance
Traveling to a destination
Trains, wagons
Typical spooky lab equipment- coils, sparks, "primitive" electricity
Creepy portrait paintings
Quiet, empty town
Detached music being played in another room
Candles despite electricity
Mysterious shadows