Week Eight: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

This week, we talked in class about contemporary fantasy and stories by authors such as Neil Gaiman. I (regrettably) didn't get around to reading Anansi Boys this week, but in class we did watch Coraline and saw an interview with Gaiman and touched on that.

I loved the use of myth in Coraline because it was definitely set in a contemporary setting and very relatable to any kid having grown up in this modern technological era. The movie played on the "distant parent" trope, one created with the invention of the computer and with parents having too many things to do on the computer-- whether they be work or games. I personally know friends who have parents that are more addicted to the computer than they should be, and it can be very damaging to a kid who needs any kind of direction, supervision, or accountability.

So Coraline has to deal with moving away from her home to a rural area so that her parents can focus on their work (their computer work) and Coraline gets stuck trying to supervise herself however she can, whether it be avoiding the neighborhood boy or just finding something to keep herself occupied.

She discovers this fantasy world and becomes enthralled with it, without anything else to keep her occupied in life. I feel like this really speaks to the imaginary world that a child can cook up for him- or herself in the modern era, and how it can start to run rampant if not properly supervised.

The 'myth' in this story came from Coraline's very real invention of her imaginary world. This is by no means a concept that is unheard of being created by a child or otherwise, as I said before. Gaiman does something very special by making a fantasy book out of a very real situation, one having to do with neglect and an imagination run rampant-- he does bring the point home by giving the 'imagination' part very real implications in the real-world context, but the point still stands.

I think Gaiman put a modern twist on both the concept of Coraline and the idea of how the story stands as a myth on its own. This is for sure a reason why it's so popular.

Week Seven: The Novel of Spiritual Education

I'll admit it, I'm one of those people who has probably reread the entire Harry Potter series about five or six times. It was really big for me throughout my childhood and the timing of the book releases were well placed for my generation, as I felt that I grew up with the characters in HP as the books were released chronologically through their teen years.

This week, I revisited the Harry Potter series and it brought me back to the values it presented to me as a teen (I haven't re-read the series in a long while). One of the impacts that I remember most about this series is the theme of growing complexity as a child becomes an adult, and their growing awareness of the complications of the world around them.

In the first book, the world of Harry starts out very whimsical, magical, full of wonder. Harry is introduced to the Wizarding World for the first time, as is the reader. In a way I feel like this reflects the wonders of the world exposed to someone who has finally grown old enough to have the capacity to learn and understand the world on a larger scale than ever before. This, of course, is a trend that continues throughout one's teen years in general. As you age and grow, your capacity to understand also grows, and you start to experience more of the negative sides of the world as well as the positive. You become disenchanted, a bit, and start to feel wronged and attacked by all the unjust things that are being done to you in the world. The poorer sides of life feel like a personal attack when you are a teen, and being so young, you have no idea how to cope with this yet.

I feel that this trend is mirrored in the HP series. As Harry and his friends grow and learn, and as the series progresses, the books get darker and darker and the characters start to learn more and more how twisted the world is, but more importantly, they learn how to cope with it. I think the Harry Potter series is an effective series for teenagers dealing with various difficulties for the first time in their lives-- learning how to cope is an important part of growing up, and not necessarily something that is focused on, or that everyone talks about. I know it helped me in a way, and that still stands out today as one of the best things I learned from this series.

Week Six: The Heroic Journey

This week I read The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I have never read any Tolkien books before, nor stayed awake during any of the movies-- so I was surprised when I was able to really enjoy and actually finish the entirety of The Hobbit. It wasn't quite as long as the Lord of the Rings series, which I'm sure helped, but it was still a good sized book! I was surprised at how accessible the language in the book was, and found myself really enjoying it.

The book reminded me very much of the Redwall series, also written by a man from the UK. The style of writing as far as the worldbuilding, songwriting, elaborate descriptions of feasts, and inherent good/evil alignment of certain races of beings in both books are very similar. However, I did notice that in The Hobbit, the tone was very conversational, as if the author himself was telling you the story in real time. I think this is definitely one of the things that made the book so accessible, and probably helped in the popularity that it gained.

I don't always agree with the Hero's Journey as being an the only possible way to write a cohesive story-- though I recognize that it's a tried-and-true way to write a long-form fantasy story. The Hobbit is a good example of this-- the story is very structured, but you don't realize this while you are reading it. The story flows and the transitions are not easily spotted. I do understand why the movie seemed to embellish the story so much however, as it is written subtly and not in a flashy way that would be at all appropriate for a movie.

Week Five: Witches and Women in Genre

Internalized misogyny, as present as it is in our culture, has an interesting way of manifesting itself in our stories and media. Many times it is so subtle and so common that many people don't even notice it even when you isolate it and point it out. There are not just a couple ways that women and femininity have manifested themselves in the horror genre in particular, but many-- and not all are very flattering.

There are usually two types of women characters in the horror genre: helpless and powerful, opposite sides of the same spectrum. Many 'helpless' woman characters are side characters, whose role in the story is to be saved be the (usually male) main character. If a helpless woman character is the main character in the story, many times she is a passive character, not active-- meaning that much of what goes on in the story happens to her, instead of her being the catalyst to moving the story forward.

One of the ways that a 'powerful' woman character manifests herself in a horror story is in the form of a witch. Witches have magical powers and are usually more evil than good. These witches are usually very ugly, warty, and extremely hard to be around. If she is not evil (like the Good Witch of the North) she is usually incredibly beautiful, idolized, and in a way, untouchable.
All of these tropes say a lot about how our culture views many women in a way.

By putting powerful women on a pedestal, or making them incredibly evil and ugly, I think it sends the message that power is something that women cannot inherently achieve. Though if she does achieve power, she must be so far removed from femininity that she is hardly a woman anymore, or at least not one that looks any good (green skin, anyone?).

The film we watched in class, Kiki's Delivery Service, is an example of a story in which the witch characters are not viewed as evil, untouchably beautiful, or otherwise-- they are viewed as borderline normal members of society just trying to fit in. Kiki, the main witch, seems incredibly human. More and more stories these days are expanding their horizons and including the trope of the 'witch' character as one that is more normal and human, but it is important to talk about how internalized misogyny affects how these characters (and how women characters in general) are interpreted in other works of literature, films and comics.

Week Four: Old Weird and New Weird

I appreciate strange or non-linear storytelling in particular-- not that I think I'm above 'regular' kinds of storytelling or anything. Both are good. I'll admit that a lot of nonlinear books I read or movies I watch go way over my head, but I enjoy the surprises and I enjoy the way that these works challenge the way we normally experience media. I think that's a very important theme to have, especially in a genre such as horror. This genre is riddled with all kinds of tropes and predictability, though at its core you would think it's supposed to be weird! I see a lot of interesting dramas and documentary-type films, but when I see a horror film challenging the norms I really get excited.

I read a bit of King Rat outside of class, which I'd always wanted to read, but I really don't think I got far enough to explore what was so weird about it.
The movie we watched in class however, was far more compelling. We watched Under the Skin, a 2013 film starring Scarlett Johansson that definitely explored the world of "new weird". Right off the bat it turns over a number of tired horror tropes on its head, as it seems to feature a woman prowling the streets of Glasgow and preying on men-- not the other way around, as you would think. Before long, you realize that supernatural elements are involved-- but again, not the way you would think. I sincerely enjoyed the way that this film approached these scenes. At first I was under the impression that the movie was highly metaphoric. The strange pool of liquid that the main character was luring these men into seemed to come off as a way to represent a woman serial killer in such an alien way because the concept itself is so alien. I later learned that the film is actually very supernatural, but I still stand impressed. I feel that these elements were very gently and excellently handled.

I think 'weird' is very compelling, for me at least, because it gives you a break from a world saturated with formulaic storytelling. I respect people who work structurally but I try to think of storytelling as an organic process and that each different story is its own living, breathing thing, and that you may treat it as such. I feel when I watch films and read books like this that they are really pushing the limits of storytelling and I can really respect that. I know many people are afraid of things that are 'weird' or foreign but I think that weird keeps the world interesting and we should not shun it, but embrace it.