Week Eight Writing Assignment

Ocean at the End of the Lane

I was so excited to actually be assigned to read a work by Neil Gaiman!  I had not read his latest work so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. When reading Gaiman’s, “Ocean at the End of the Lane” it is set up as a clear work of contemporary science fiction. You are immediate thrust into the life of a character that has all these events and commotion going on in his life. The story seems set in a realistic realm with quirky characters (Lettie being the main one) where strange things have happened and the main character arrival home dredges up all these memories from his past he seems to have mysteriously forgotten. He ends up encountering supernatural beings trying to invade the human world and it is up to Lettie to save him. It ultimately nearly costs Lettie her life.
            What I found most compelling while reading this book was within the first few pages of the story you were thrown into this person’s life. It was so enthralling to all the sudden be encapsulated in this world that was seemingly normal with at first subtle hints other worldly elements and science fiction.  It was spine-chilling and as the story developed it was clear you were in a science fiction story.  The romantic in me wanted something to happen between the protagonist and Lettie on their adventures but of course it wasn’t so.  I do however wish I understood more backstory, but maybe that’s my western compulsion of storytelling that I know. I want to know more, but I don’t necessarily need it. I didn’t complete the novel. but I do intend on continuing it.  

Week Seven Writing Assignment

Harry Potter and Time Bandits

This week I chose to read the first novel in the epic Harry Potter series because I have never read a single Harry Potter book before.

          A slightly different take on children's fantasy literature as it evolves to something more adult based, J.K. Rowling's, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first novel in the epic tale about the boy who survived. Much like Time Bandits and most classic children's literature, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone begins with a young boy stuck in a dark, cruel, pedantic world and crushing for a way to get out. By the end of the novel he finds himself in a magical world of adventure. 

          Unlike Time Bandits the magical world is not a dream. Instead, it is a very real world and the main character's destiny. Like a peasant Arthur pulling the Excalibur out of the stone or a young farm boy, Luke Skywalker, realizing he is to be a Jedi Knight, Harry Potter is the story of a young person finding their chosen path. 

Orphaned Harry Potter is placed in the care of his non-wizard (or Muggle) Aunt and Uncle while still a baby to hide him from the evil wizard Voldemort after his parents are murdered. The aunt and uncle are cruel and abusive and Harry, like most child characters in fantasy stories, feels like he doesn't belong. When Harry is 10, however, he discovers that he is actually a wizard and is sent to the Hogwarts school for wizards. This plays on the fantasy that most children have at some point, that maybe they are adopted and they are meant to be someplace magical and wonderful far away from their real lives. Wizards, and spells and flying broomsticks are Harry's new reality and this world is not treated as something of a dream or an absurdity like Wonderland or Oz. We are meant to accept that this is the reality and not something Harry Potter will wake up from at the end.

Like Time Bandits and the works that influenced both, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone deals with some dark subject matter. Playing Quidditch and learning spells is light and an avenue of fun for the student when their is a constant looming shadow of darkness. However Harry was predestined to avenge his parents and was pinned a target from birth as "the boy who survived." Similar to the idea that children are meant to go to school in the "real world"and do deal with, teachers, bullies, crushes and puberty without the possible looming darkness of evil and death. The threat of Voldemort is heavy price Harry must pay for his destiny of being a great wizard who lived. Starting with The Sorcerer's Stone and continuing through the books and films in the series, Harry is becoming an adult and learning to face his fears. Unlike Time Bandits though, Harry does not have to face the world and the future alone. Therefore, it has a distinctively more positive message than Terry Gilliam's bleak view of the adulthood through the eyes of a child.

Week Six Writing Assignment

The Hobbit!!!!!!

J.R.R. Tolkien created what is known widely accepted some of the best works of fiction ever written. Having his work be called "escapist" was considered badge of honor to him for several reasons. To understand Tolkien's work you  particularly his first glimpse into the land of Middle Earth, "The Hobbit", the reading must envelope themselves in what Tolkien is urging us to escape into and what he was wanting us to escape from. The Hobbit was written after World War I. It is easy to see how a young man; a soldier could fantasize realms millions of miles apart from the death and despair that surrounded him and an entire generation of young men in England at the time. 

The Hobbit is a work of fantasy, not just because of the mythical creatures that reside in Middle Earth (dwarves, dragons,goblins etc.) but most of these creatures also live in many of Tolkien's influences, such as Beowulf, Norse mythology and Grimm fairy tales. It is a fantasy because of the feelings it instills in the reader. It's completely transcendent of time and can transport you mentally and emotionally to the characters stories.When The Hobbit was written, it was well into the 20th century and The Great War introduced the world to modern weapons such as tanks, airplanes and chemical warfare; the likes of which had not been seen or used. The Hobbit takes us to a much simpler place. Middle Earth is filled with war, death, despair, and evil incarnate. However,  the wars are fought  creature to creature; man to man, with swords and axes and the evils of the world are more black & white. 

         The good in The Hobbit is pure, idealistic, almost infantile in its goodness. Bilbo is a reluctant hero (much like Tolkien himself as a soldier,) yet he does what is right and conquers his fears. Bilbo Baggins is a simple, settled hobbit who would was content in his complacency in The Shire. Never having a passing thought he would one day be going on an adventure, meeting different creatures, and slaying a dragon. He is awe and in wonder of the worlds beyond The Shire and all the creatures around him. The Hobbit is a work of fantasy that is excessible and easy to escape into because Bilbo is a likable character and you want to want see him do well and you encounter other characters you take pity on as well.

Week Five Writing Assignment

Archetypes of Women

One prevalent archetype of women in the science fiction and horror genre that not changed drastically is the "damsel in distress" since the beginning of cinema. It could be said that this stereotype peaked in the 1950's. Even as early as the silent version of Phantom of the Opera (1925) and classic Universal monster films such as, The Wolf Man (1941) and The Mummy (1932); women were fainting and being carried off by the monster or ghoul. In the post World War II era of pinups, swimsuits, Marilyn Monroe and an awakening sexuality in America as exemplified by the first publication of Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine, women in science fiction and horror added "sex appeal" to the movies and reason for excited teenagers to flock to the drive-in. What teenage boy would not race out to see a curvaceous brunette in a swmsuit being carried off by the Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954). The poster alone for Attack of the 50 Ft Woman (1958) is an iconic image still to this day.

Yet for all the sex objects from films such as, Attack of Giant Leeches (1959) and The Astonishing She Monster (1957), there was a new breed of heroines emerging in the world of science fiction cinema. Female characters were being written as intelligent, strong willed counterparts to their male leads. Patricia Neal is the heart of the classic The Day The Earth Stood Still. A single mom, she is the one who tries to understand and accept the alien visitor, Klaatu. Women were still currently fainting and being carried off by the monster or alien, but now they were also being written as level headed voices of reason who stood up to their male co-stars with sass and witty comebacks. They were no longer passive. Now they were even scientists, participating in the fight against the looming terrors, such as in Howard Hawk's, The Thing. It was not until the 1970's (post women's rights movement) that you would see a female lead such as Jamie Lee Curtis in, Halloween or the female lead in George Romero's, Dawn of the Dead. As a strong independent character.