Week Ten: The Fiction of Ideas

Week ten, I read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. It is one interesting book! It’s about Genly Ai, the main character, who has a mission on the planet of Gethen. He has to convince the Gethenians to join the Ekumen. The strange thing is that the Gethenians do not have obvious gender. They are both male and female. Once a month they can become either male or female depending on their partners.

Nowadays, the world has changed and many things happened. I think there is no barrier between genders like the Gethenians in the story and everyone should be Genly Ai. We all should find the ways to gather everyone, every gender all together. In our world, there are many issues such as culture conflicts, religious conflicts, political problems, gender issues, and every other unnecessary thing that should not be the topics for people to argue about. So gender issues are not the only problem we have and all the same issues are happening in every places and everywhere in the world. This means all of these issues include many people; a lot of people, even a small family will have all kind of issues. The world is like a big family and we have many big problems to solve. To live peacefully together, everyone in the world is all involved to solve the problems.

We cannot tell or control anyone to be what we want, especially, their gender. We have to think and try to understand them not try to change them to make the world a better place. It is about humanity and what we human being can do to another human being.

The Left Hand of Darkness kind of led me to the new world, the world without barrier of gender and it makes me think of many things about the present world. In my opinion, this book is a really good book for everyone to read and start thinking about the new world which is the better world for the future.

Week Nine: Space Opera and the New Frontier

For this week, space opera, I read The Martian by Andy Weir. I never watched the movie and the only thing I know is that it is about a guy who is stuck in space. I read it and I found it interesting how the mood of the novel is kind of relaxing even though he should be panicking and everything because he is stuck in space alone and he will die soon if he has no food or water. Mark Watney is really funny, I feel like he doesn’t scared of anything, except dying of course. He is a chill dude and very positive. In my opinion, the novel is kind of heavy with scientific stuff, plus math. Some parts are hard to understand because of the science and math stuff.

The Martian has many different feels from many genres. There are many elements in the story that it takes from other genres. The first element that I found is that Mark Watney has to find his way back to earth, so I guess this can be includes in adventure genre because he is on a journey, a terrible journey to find his way home. Also, with Mark’s personalities and how he thinks and talks to other people in the novel, I think this will fall in comedy genre, it is entertaining and makes the story even more fun and relaxing. Space environment and science stuff make it into the sci-fi and science fantasy genre and it is drama because he has to deal with trying and struggling to survive.

The Martain is really entertaining, exciting, and fun to read in my opinion. I don’t know how the author created the story but it feels real to me and I like Mark, how he thinks and how he talks. His conversation with the people in NASA is really amusing. At first, I expected the Martian to be very serious and boring but it turned out that it is fun to read after all.

Week Eight: Contemporary Urban Fantasy

A myth is a traditional story that has been told from generations to generations.

It’s been so long that some stories, no one no longer knows of it is true or not. Myths are what you normally heard from older people when you are young and we children tend to believe that they are true. As we grow up, we are most likely to tell the stories that we heard from when we are young to our children too. In my country, most of the myths are kind of scary and adults use the myths to teach and trick the kids to do good thing or listen to them. It makes me feel dumb sometimes when I think about how I believe about it back then when I was younger than this. Like, asking yourself, how can I believe in that or how is the story even make sense.

But in the other hand, no matter how far the world has moved on, myths are still, always in use.

            For this week, I read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. It told to be fantasy novel. The story is about two brothers, son of Anansi, the spider god. They had never met each other before until their dad died and this is the beginning of the story. When Charlie met Spider, a lot of things happened to his life it is not a good thing either. Spider seems to steal everything from Charlie and the thing which I think is the worst is that he stole Charlie’s fiancée, Rosie.

At first Neil Gaiman leads us to the real place on earth and then he brings us to the world of myth. That makes the reader slowly forgets about the real world when reading the story. I think the important thing I learn from this story is you have to think carefully before you make a wish or want something because you will never know if the thing you wish for is going to come true or not and it might also possible that it may cause your life to be good or bad. 

Week Seven: The Tale of Spiritual Education

The black and white stripe tents suddenly appeared in town waiting for the night to come and when the time has come, then it’s Le Cirque des Rêves or the Circus of Dreams time. That’s the beginning of the story Erin Morgenstern had created. I think the way she described the scenes and everything in Night Circus are amazing. It makes me feel like I am a person who is standing in the crowd, waiting to see what kind of circus opens only at night and closes at dawn. While standing there, the smell of caramel wafting through my nose. When the tents and lights are all sparkling against the night sky, it’s the time for the show to start and then, found out that this circus is neither a normal circus nor normal show.

            Celia and Marco are the main characters of the story. They are forced to play the cruel game by their respective master. The rule of the game is that the person who is able to survive is the winner. Celia and Marco have to compete each other with magic but neither of them knows or understands the rule. In my opinion, it’s very unfair for Celia and Marco and they can’t even refuse to play the game. When they found out that one of them have to die to end the game, neither of them wants to kill or see one of them getting hurts, they are in love with each other. So the solution is trying to find the way out of this game. This part of the story teaches the reader what is right and the characters know what the right thing to do is. They are also brave enough to do it. This is similar to Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, the main characters; Harry, Ron and Hermione. They know what is right and they fight for it, no matter how dangerous it is.

            Even though Celia and Marco are young, they choose to do the right thing without fear and if we look back at both Night Circus and Harry Potter, we will see how mature and brave the characters are, age doesn’t matter. Sometimes, adults are the one who use children as the tools to do what they want. Night Circus doesn’t teach this moral to only young adults but it is reflecting and teaching the adults themselves to rethink about what they are doing, whether it is right or wrong.

Week Six: Heroic Journey

            The definition of hero in my mind is the one who help other people and fight for the right thing but in this story, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins just doesn’t want to lose his chance to go on an adventure, he does it for himself, so I don’t really think that he is a hero.

            I think this story is far from the classic journey of the hero because at first he doesn’t even want to go but suddenly he changes his mind. Then, he goes and catches up with the dwarves and Gandalf. In the story, the point of the adventure is to bring back the dwarves’ treasure from Smaug, the dragon. Bilbo is just someone who has been chosen for this adventure. He didn’t want to go to help the dwarves or anything. He just wants to explore the world outside of his comfortable hobbit hole. I don’t think that supposed to be the purpose of the hero’s journey. In the story sometimes, it shows that he is scared and wishing he was back at home, lived his comfortable life. Bilbo doesn’t have any power and he rather small compare to everyone else. He is nor brave or has goodwill as other heroes. On the way of the adventure, when he faces with Trolls or dragon or anything, he always has Gandalf or someone to help him. This means that he can’t even help himself so how can he survive without other people’s help?

            The Hobbit is the story of the great journey but is it the journey of the hero? Bilbo Baggins is just a hobbit. He is not a hero and without the hero how can this story be the journey of the hero?

Week Five: Witches and Women in Genre

            For the fifth week I read Aunt Maria (Black Mariah) by Diana Wynne Jones, a nightmare for Mic and Chris begin when their mom had agreed to visit and spend Easter holiday with Aunt Maria, an old lady who pretends to be good and kind but not at Cranbury-on-Sea. Aunt Maria uses magic power to control the town, only women can work and all of them work under Aunt Maria’s order.

            In the town, the men are all acted like zombie and have no role in town. Only Aunt Maria and a group of women who come to tea parties at Aunt Maria house take place in everything. This is the stereotype of the women who own all the power, Aunt Maria. The story shows the worst situation when women take all responsibility in everything because women use emotions and feelings more than reason but I think there is not much different. Whoever and whatever genders, men or women if they have too much power and can’t control themselves, it will be bad for people who are under their control.

            In the real world, many people still think that women cannot and should not lead or only men should be the leader. In my opinion, either men or women if they know how to use the power that they have in the right way, and be able to change or make the world a better place, that’s enough. There is no need to judge a person by their gender if they can prove themselves. I think equality of gender is important and everyone should not judge an individual by their gender, just like don’t judge a book by its cover because you will never know what really is inside. Women can do everything that men can so no one should look down on any gender.       

Week Four: The New Weird

           For the fourth week,I read Monster Island by David Wellington, the author from Pittsburgh. He wrote many online stories about zombie and they are popular. The Monster Island is a fun adventure story which made me feel excited and thrill with the characters the whole time I was reading. The adventure that involves zombie was incredible and fun for everyone; the author was being able to make me understand and imagine what was happening in the story and got my attention through the end of the book.

Monster Island starts with the apocalypse. There are two main characters which are Dekalb and Gary. Dekalb is a survivor from America who stuck in Africa with his daughter. Dekalb promises to find anti-HIV medicine for Mama Halima, who is a powerful warlord. Dekalb knows the place where to get the medicine. He travels from Somalia to New York and hopes he can get the medicine at UN building. At New York, Dekalb and his team meet Gary. Gary is a training doctor. Gary has found a way to retain his identity and preserve his mind after death.

The whole story can be described by the word ‘weird’ in many details. For example, first thing is that the story is about apocalypse which turned the whole city into hell and people who survived had to live secretly, away from the zombies. Second, the main characters have been in doctor and medicine fields. Last, Somalia child army and Mama Halima are the examples of woman and child abuse which reflect as one of the problems we have nowadays.

From the whole book, I found a part of the story compelling which is. "One of the girls opened up with her rifle, a controlled burst, three shots. Chut chut chut chopping up the grey water. Chut chut chut and the bullets tore through the red windbreaker, tore open the woman’s neck. Chut chut chut and her head popped open like an overripe melon and she sank, slipping beneath the water without a sound and still, pressed up against the railing on Liberty Island, a hundred more reached for us. Reached with pleading skeletal hands to clutch at us, to take what was theirs." The author described this part so well. He makes me feel i was there in that scene and witness everything that happened in the novel.

Week Three: J-Horror

           A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami.

          The main character “He” and his girlfriend had been forced by “The Boss” to find a mysterious sheep with one star shaped mark on its back is where A Wild Sheep Chase begins. Haruki Murakami doesn’t specify any name to the character in the story, only nickname to be shown like the Rat, J or the Boss. These are things that make the story more interesting.

            A wild sheep chase is one interesting mystery story that can reflect and gives many good things for readers. The main character is a Japanese man who lives a monotonous life and indifference to the world around him. Which is opposite from other characters who got involved with the mysterious sheep. The mysterious sheep is the reason of the downfall of the character who got involved with the sheep. In my opinion, the mysterious sheep means the passion or desire in human which made them greedy for success and power. The bad guys craving for power while the good guys just live simple life. This is the good and evil of this story. It’s seem like the story is related to Buddhism, according to what I understand, the mysterious sheep is evil wish in human mind. When humans were possessed by the sheep and could not control themselves for doing the wrong things, it became their sins and someday, all the bad things they did will surely retune to them. The different of Western and Eastern style is mostly Western style; the good and evil are obviously seen by the audience while Eastern style, the audience might have to figure out what kind of the character really is.

            If we talk about Western and Eastern horror movies, I think they are scary in different ways. Western horrors mostly involve with curse, vampires or else. They usually use blood and gore to scare the audience. In the other way, Eastern horrors mostly use female with long-haired to portray the story or the ancient mythology to tell the story. In my opinion, Eastern horror movie is scarier than Western horrors movie.

Week Two: Vampires

            Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is one of the strangest stories I have ever read. The confuse relationship between the main characters is the point of interest. Louis, a vampire who resist the instinct of vampire, he prefers drinking animal blood than hunting for human blood. Lestat is a vampire who is full of vampire nature, which transforms Louis and Claudia into true vampires, selfish and cruel. Claudia is a 5 years old girl, who has Louis and Lestat as two of her dad.

            The love-hate relationship between the three characters, Louis, Lestat and Claudia is described all over in the story. The pain of being vampires and stuck in the body that will never grow are shown in this story. Claudia hates Lestat because he transformed her into a vampire. She blamed him for making her stuck in a five years old girl’s body. She plans to murder him. I think the reason Louis and Claudia hate Lestat is because of his personality, cruel and rude. If Lestat were more kind, they might be able to live happily together and no one has to die. This reflects to the relationship of people in the real world that if we learn to live together then there will be fewer problems. Another thing that Anne wrote to remind readers is in the last part of the story, the boy who interview Louis begged Louis to make him becomes a vampire. This is an example, showing how humans are always having their mind greedy for power even though they know what will happen to them. Just like the boy who knows everything from Louis, who had been suffer from being a vampire. The boy who interviews Louis ignored that fact anyways and is still want to be a vampire.    

            Vampire is an interesting creature. In the vampire story, most of them are male. A female vampire is less to see. Vampires are good looking. They are handsome and beautiful, may be this is the reason of how they are being able to catch any human they are interests in. This way, it is easier for them to hunt for human blood. So there’s no need to question why everyone loves to watch vampire movies (including me). Although, if it is a novel not a movie, it is still interesting to me. The tales of vampires are always about finding out and learning about vampire life.

Week One:The Gothic

From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley,

The “Monster”, the name of the creation Doctor Victor Frankenstein had created from a dead body. The conflict that I found in this story started from the name of this novel ‘Frankenstein’ and the Monster is basically the main point of the story.  Although, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor/ creator who create the Monster, some people nowadays still believe that ‘Frankenstein’ is the name of the Monster. Some people have been calling him Frankenstein all along until now without knowing that it is the creator’s name? Isn’t this mean that Frankenstein is the real monster? And not the Monster that he created. At this point, it is not too hard to find out who is the real monster anymore.

            From the story, when the monster was created, he was innocent and pure. He had kind heart just like other people/ babies that have just been born. He didn’t do anything wrong and it was not even his choice to be born or to be born that way (to be called the Monster). Doctor Frankenstein who created him, decided to abandon him because he is afraid and disgust with the external appearance of the Monster. The Monster who was left alone with rejection from his own creator and societies became bitter; he started thinking about taking revenge from Doctor Frankenstein.

From this point of the story, it is Doctor Frankenstein’s fault to create the Monster, to abandon him; he is the person who turned the Monster into the monster. He is the Monster himself. This can be relates to our present life that we should not judge a book by its cover.

            Frankenstein is a Gothic novel which focuses on mysterious and supernatural aspect. In my opinion, the mysterious aspect from the story is; what inspired Doctor Frankenstein to create the Monster? The supernatural aspect is; how did the Monster who was a dead person came back to life? How did Doctor Frankenstein bring him back from dead?

Doctor Frankenstein is surely desperate and pitiful but it is his own fault to create and abandon such thing that haunted him and took away his love ones’ life.