Idiocracy

For this week we watched some of Idiocracy. First thing is first, awesome movie I have seen it before. I love how in the film they made fun of modern issues. It opens our eyes to what happens if all the senseless and brainless people on this earth mass reproduce and change our race into a bunch of idiots. It makes us realize that being smart is nothing to take for granet. One that thought it also made me extremely scared for what to come, with all these social networks and all these dumb kids growing up it kind of scares me. It was a definite eye opener although it was meant to be as a comedy. Definitely Idiocracy was a great new and refreshing addition to the Sci-fi genre.

Oryx and Crake

This week’s novel was Oryx and Crake. This was a pretty interesting story. At first I was super excited because it seemed to be a post-apocalyptic movie. Which is a topic I usually love although they are usually the same. This one seemed a little different it was not the normal we need to re create our world. Or it wasn’t really zombie based. This made me really enjoy the book. It made me think of what I would do if I lost everything I ever loved. Where would I go? I even made plans just because of this book. But mainly I loved this book because the main character’s name was Snowman. So awesome snowman it always made me think of winter and I love winter!

Blood child!!!!

Today in class we read a short story called blood child. This story was so awesome easily the best sci-fi story I have actually enjoyed quite a lot. I loved that the humans turned into the cattle for the aliens. Such a twist to modern day civilization that we are not being feed and taken care of just to be a host to an animal baby. Although the sheer idea of another species coming down and planting eggs into the humans to where they hatch and eat the human from the inside is awesome it is also very creepy. To think the aliens basically rape the humans and we know nothing of these creatures. Imagine one day your in your house and an alien comes and uses you to habor their child, it is a scary thought. What we do not know or are familiar with is scary to use. That being said I feel this story was one of the greatest reads of my life. I loved the idea of the story and it kind of reminded me of that movie alien. Those were the aliens I pictured in my mind as I read this.

Snow Crash

This week we had to read Snow crash, again I do not really enjoy this type of genre but I never heard of “cyberpunk”. So I went in with little clue as to what was going to be shown to me. And boy was I surprised and pretty intrigued. Johnny Mnemonic put on a pleasing show. I really enjoyed his novel, half human half robots called Cyborgs what is not to love?! Although is was a generic kind of future story I loved Mnemonic’s ideas abut downloading data and being able to dump our memories and pick up new ones. I felt like it was a pretty interesting touch, it makes me feel like everyone would live more then one life. And be able to choose their memoires to gain information about people. This book make we really think of the future and what it would be like if I became half machine. What kind of things would I do? Johnny Mnemonic opened my eyes to Cyberpunk and maybe changed my perspective on the scientific fiction genre forever. The booked showed me this genre could still be innovated.

Babel 17

This week I decided to put my differences aside with Science fiction and read Babel 17 I was very tempted to read it but I’ll give science fiction one more chance. And it actually was not that bad, I would of rather of read a fantasy novel taking us to a special magical place but seriously not bad. Using linguistics as a weapon was pretty clever. I thought the idea was awesome because of the way we feel that language is a huge weapon in todays society with cyber bullying and all. I could really relate to the main character because of the sheer fact I went to high school and delt with sticks and stones bull crap. And I love the way that Denaly’s main character about the power of languages is a female character. It makes the book relate so much more. Over all I really liked how Denaly designed the language and how he formed the role of the lead. Saying that I would not read again because I do not like sci-fi but it was interesting to read nonetheless.

Space Opera

I found Space Opera extremely hard to keep my attention. I did not quite enjoy it as much and wish I would of wasted my time watching something else. First off I am not a big fan of Space movies, besides Star Wars of course. But the whole alien scene is not for me and never has been. I just do not enjoy the spacy lazars and things like that. Another reason why I did not really enjoy it is this might sound bad but the effects in them were to out dated. In this day and age we are use to better then life effects and cg characters that it makes any old type of film hard to look out. The older films always look grainy and such and usually have good compositions and stories but it is hard to get into something when you do not like the look of it. For example you are not going to watch and animated film if the characters look weird to you, the look plays a big part in what we watch and pay attention to. Last but not least the story, uhhhh I could not stand the story it was super generic and predictable. It felt super spacy, might be my basis talking, but it felt like an outer space movie. At least Star wars brought you into their world with tons of back stories and mini stories within their universe. Space Opera did not do that more me, I was just thrown in a futuristic space dear I say it Opera. So basically as you can tell I did not enjoy anything from this movie, besides that pirate Steve actor from dodge ball, he’s the man!

Magic Realism

Honestly for me I love fantasy. It is my all time favorite genre. It just helps bring out the creativity in our minds and see what’s not really there. Saying that fantasy as grown throughout the years. The fantasy we know of now is nothing of what past generations remember it to be. One of those types of fantasy is called Magic realism. Magic realism is basically when the film strikes the realm of realism and combines it with the impossible, which I am certainly interested in. But magic realism such as pans labyrinth or lord of the rings really did not strike home with me. The movies, that is, I absolutely love the novels. But the movies are something I do not really hold dear. The reason I am not fond of the look of these movies is that in reality they are not that real. The directors and everyone tried really hard to make them seem realm but it just did not work. Part of that is the era, in that time I do not believe we had the technology, skill or resources to make things look real. Although some things looked call I could not help but feel a bit of awkwardness toward creatures such as the orcs or the goat thing in pan’s labyrinth. When we see things acting aside humans the humans are so real that everything in comparison looks fake. Also you could see they are just men in masks. They are basically creatures that function like humans and since they are not humans it makes them seem a little off. And this makes me feel uncomfortable and a little weird so I am not a fan of how they made these movies. Now how I think they should of made them was waited for our technology and graphics to get to where we are now. Or use the same graphics of Jurassic park because I think we can all agree they made the dinosaurs epically the CG ones really come to life. That being sad I think movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth and Lord of the Rings should of used more CG qualities like Jurassic Park it makes them seem less robotic and better then life.

Harry Potter

This week was meant for Harry Potter. I have never read the books but this week made me start on the deathly hollows. Already enjoying the book, I skipped to the end because I watched all the movies and already know what happens but that doesn’t stop me from loving the epic tale of Harry Potter. Frist things first I love Harry Potter. The reason I feel like it is such an epic tale is again like the lord of the ring, the world. I love movies, books, and games that have their own world to them. For example the games Halo, World of Warcraft, and Legend of Zelda. All these games have their own worlds in which they are formed upon. They don’t just make a game off a character they already have the world with loads of backstory to play off of. That is why I love Harry Potter, it makes the world seem so real. There are countless of back story to it which are later explained throughout the films/books. Another reason I thought Harry Potter was an amazing tale was the adventure and the time we spent with Harry. We grew up with him, he was always roughly the same age as this generation, which made him tale kind of special to those who have watched the movies or read the books. You grew while your favorite characters grew it made the stories seem so much more real and that there really was a world beyond ours. And if there is no world beyond ours. It sure wants there to be one. These are reason why I think Harry Potter was so successful, the world it created and the generation that grew up with it.

Fantasy!

If there is one genre I love it is fantasy! Everything about fantasy I enjoy. I love the games the movies and the stories. This week we were assigned to red the Hobbit. I have never read the book but I decided to get it for this week. And I can easily say I loved it. The book was awesome! My favorite thing about the book is the wonderful world you are placed in and how everything is created so the reader can paint a perfect picture in their head. This world they create seems so real that you just want to escape to it. Every detail is laid out and it leaves all holes filled so no one can discrete the believability. I think fantasy is one of the best genres because I believe it makes you think the most. It takes your mind on an incredible journey that no other genre does. You imagine more and sometimes want to escape to that world. Although I loved the book there were some parts I felt were a little slow and long. I love detail as much as the next guy but those doors man. That is all I can say, the amount of time and detail they talk about those doors is way to much. I mean they are doors. So all in all I loved the book very fun, very engaging and very happy I finally read the Hobbit. Cannot wait for those movies!

The Black Maria

For this week’s reading I read the Black Maria. I do not really know much about witches but they have always been interesting to me. This book upped my love for witches; it has been a while since I read a book with a female lead. And I can say usually they end up being some of the best books. One thing I loved the most was her characteristics she had and attitude and seemed to hold herself pretty well. She was strong and interesting the read about. One of my favorite things was how she would use the guilt trip on anyone just to receive what she wanted. It reminds me of my mother which kind of made we relate to her a little more. Another thing I loved about the book was the slow beginning, I felt like I really got to know her before the book even started. I hate books with lack of character and reader involved meant. Overall I enjoyed the book, it had a very dark and eerie feel to it and that is what I love in most games, movies and books. I feel like it keeps you on your toes and kind of coats you in this darkness that the characters themselves can only feel.

The Weird

The genre of Horror can be so many different things, but one thing it always satisfies and ends up being, is how weird they are. Weather it be how creepy and weird the monster or villain is, the setting in which it takes place, or even the way someone gets killed or stolen or whatever! Weird is in the nature of horror and I believe it could not live without it. And after reading King Rat by Mieville’s it definitely fits under the horror role of weird. What made it weird is the fact that it was different like the Cabin in the woods it is weird because it is out of the normal. Because of books of and movies like these I feel like the future of Horror is going to change slightly but for the better. Because of these types of books and movies we realize what is being over done and that we need a change in how we view horror. I feel like the future of horror is going to start using real world elements rather then the paranormal. Simply because in this day and age people are generally more scared of things that can come true rather then old myths and legends of monsters. Soon the reality of movies like the Cabin in the woods will not be so weird and instead start being more common.

Japanese Horror

Japanese Horror seems to get a lot of recognition in the world today. I for one can say I have never really watched a film or read a story based upon Japanese horror. But I can say I am certain glad I never have. All I have heard is that their films tend to be a little on the weird side. So I was ready for anything. Before reading I guessed Japanese Horror would be roughly the same thing as American horror, boy was I completely wrong. I do not quite understand most of the horror perhaps because I am not of that culture. But scary here is scary anywhere I have always said and think many would to. The book A Wild Sheep Chase was this week’s read. Overall I felt like a had quite a unique experience, that I was not ready for. I loved how the book used some things that would mean completely different things in the art of western literature for example the sheep. I loved the use of the sheep; it was completely different from the western meaning, which from a western standpoint the sheep tend to represent followers. But, in this story the sheep possessed their own characteristics although it is unusual and strange it felt pretty darn cool in my opinion. However upon the reading I also went lost at times and mostly because of my distance from the culture. There were many underlining things linking to the Japanese culture, which made the book seem distant from me as a reader. That’s the one reason why I could say I did not like this book. Other then that I found it fun and interesting. The book definitely gave me a new prospective on horror and wondered what other types of horror is out there and where can I read those.

Interview with a Vampire

This week’s book was Interview with a Vampire, not going to lie. When I first saw the title I was instantly turned off. Another vampire book? Really? But when I got into it I instantly realized it was different. It wasn’t your normal Twilight type of book it was actually engaging and different! Right off the bat the thing I loved about this book was the vampire, Louis telling the story. I thought that was such an interesting concept never done before in the “Vampire” Genre. Having a vampire tell about his lie to reporter was priceless to me. The writer Anne Frank even makes it so the interview process doesn’t seem to choppy and stray us from the story. If I didn’t understand something you could always count on Louis to either give me a better answer to the questions I had (the reporter) or even just give a response as if you were watching a talk show with a guess speaker. It was such an interesting and engaging concept. Making it seem as if we were witnessing a real thing really helped me feel for Louis and what he went through weather it be losing his love or transforming into the vampire. Now for me the most interesting part of the book was the ending. I felt it was so sad and disrespectful for the reporter to ask Louis to turn him into a vampire. Even after hearing his story all the hardship Louis went through all the torment and sadness you heard in Louis’ voice. Just for the reporter to so simply say “Hey let me live forever” At that moment I felt so sad for Louis this reporter didn’t want to hear your story he just wanted to become something like him. Even after hearing that living that long life isn’t as good as it is made out to be. I was so happy when Louis wouldn’t turn him into a vampire it served him right and made we really appreciate Louis’ life even if he was a little different.

Gothic: What is it?

So what is gothic? Gothic is nothing but a surreal and dark style. Gothic is usually of a darker tone then most styles and has some of the most astonishing architecture built after it. In today’s day and age gothic is more then a style it is mainly categorized in the horror genre. But more then that gothic is takes horror to a whole new level, instead of terrifying it can make something a little more interesting and as well as sophisticated. For example a really good example of gothic, which I believe, is Diablo. Diablo is a video game franchise made by Blizzard Entertainment. This game is about both the heavens and hells and everything in-between. It is set in a medieval ish world where the undead and demons have come back to take revenge on the heavens. And you must search for ways to help stop the main 7 devils. How is this gothic you ask? I believe it is gothic because of the style. Not just the style of the buildings and armor but the style of the underlined story and game. The game is indeed a horror game but its more then just scary it adds a bit of sophistication to the genre of horror. You are put in a world a very dark and mysterious world, who seems to be used to creatures like these demons roaming about. Everywhere you look the architecture is gothic as well as the players and armor. You are in golfed in a world of darkness and you can feel it as you play the game. Walking pass any opening always on your toes this game doesn’t just scare you , it does more then that. It keeps you alert and on your toes ready for anything to come your way. It is giving the horror to you but letting you fight back. Not only are your enemies scary but you scare your enemies. And that is why I think this is an example of gothic, it has the dark feel to it, it isn’t just horror it is also fighting back the horror, and the style of the architecture and everything around you is dark and pointy like the original gothic style.