Week Six: Fantasy

For this week it was all about fantasy. We were asked to read this week The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. So far I’ve seen all the Lord of The Rings movies and both Hobbit movies that have been made. I really enjoyed The Lord of The Rings with its story and characters, until The Hobbit came out. The Hobbit for me right now by far is the best out of the all the books and the movies.

Summary:

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin and his band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.

The group travel into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles. As a reward for solving all riddles Gollum will show him the path out of the tunnels, but if Bilbo fails, his life will be forfeit. With the help of the ring, which confers invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improving his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs give chase but the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn.

The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's demise. The expedition travels to the Lonely Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town. A noble thrush had overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and reports it to the Lake-town defender, Bard, who slays the dragon.

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the Arkenstone, an heirloom of Thorin's dynasty, and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the mountains of the North, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable.

Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the climactic Battle of Five Armies. Thorin is fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies. Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no want or need for more, but still returns home a very wealthy hobbit.

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            Even though the hobbit is just one book there is a lot of things happening throughout it. One of the events that happens through out the whole book that I really enjoyed was the evolution of

Bilbo’s character. The journey that Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves go through helps Bilbo to gain a very clear sense of identity through his quest with them. At the beginning for me, Bilbo was more of a problem then useful to the journey. After all of the things that Bilbo went through it was nice for him to take more of a leadership role and trying to solve problems for an example. Bilbo steals the Arkenstone, a most ancient relic of the dwarves, and attempts to ransom it to Thorin for peace. However, Thorin turns on the Hobbit as a traitor, disregarding all the promises he had previously bestowed. In the end Bilbo gives up the precious stone and most of his share of the treasure to help those in greater need. Another example of Bilbo growth throughout the hobbit is at the beginning Gandalf was a parental influence over Bilbo early on and try to make sure no harm was done to him. Over time Bilbo gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact the dwarves could not bear to acknowledge.

            Another aspect that I found interesting while reading the hobbit is overcoming mental obstacles. The overcoming of greed and selfishness has been seen as the central moral of the story. Whilst greed is a recurring theme in the novel, with many of the episodes stemming from one or more of the characters' simple desire for food. Like be it trolls eating dwarves or dwarves eating Wood-elf fare or a desire for beautiful objects, such as gold and jewels, it is only by the Arkenstone's influence upon Thorin that greed, and its attendant vices "coveting" and "malignancy", come fully to the fore in the story and provide the moral crux of the tale.

            Overall The Hobbit was an enjoyable read. I recommend reading The Hobbit if you have problems reading The Lord of The Rings. In addition I also recommend watching The Hobbit movies and The Lord of The Rings.

Week Five: Witches

For this week we were asked to read books and novels that involve witches. For this week I ended up reading The Tough Guide To Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. This book humorously examines the common tropes of a broad swathe of

fantasy fiction for children or young adults.

This book is really different from the other books of had to read for class. The basic storyline of this book is it is a guide to fantasyland, which is a world where all fantasy novels that feature dragons, knight, wizards and magic together in a realm. The book is set up like a brochure/travel guide to fantasyland and it tells you the dues and don’ts when your there.

I think the concept of this book is interesting and cute for younger audience and I think caters to the audience it was shooting for very well. While reading this I did not get too much on an aspect of witches.  In addition to the reading I looked for how witches are used in different forms in the present day. In the end I selected to explore American Horror Story: Coven.

Summary:

The Story primarily follows the antics and events of a coven of Salem descendants who reside within a boarding school, Miss Robichaux's Academy, centered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The academy is run by Headmistress Cordelia Foxx, who has always lived in the shadow of her mother, Fiona Goode.Fiona is the Coven's "Supreme", a witch born every generation who embodies countless gifts and magical abilities, namely, the Seven Wonders of Witchcraft. Danger lurks inside the academy's past due to the mysterious butler Spalding and his relationship with Fiona. The entire coven is accessed and evaluated by the Council of Witchcraft, which includes Fiona's old rival and Cordelia's mother figure, Myrtle Snow.

Zoe Benson is sent to the Academy after discovering that she possesses a strange genetic affliction that traces back to the days of Salem. She is a descendant from the Salem coven and there[fore is a witch herself. Upon arrival, she meets telekinetic movie star Madison Montgomery, human voodoo doll Queenie, and enigmatic clairvoyant Nan. One night, Zoe and Madison attend a frat party and meet a fraternity headed by Kyle who takes a likening towards Zoe. Madison is gang-raped by the other frat members and vengefully flips their bus with her powers, killing seven on board including Kyle. Madison attempts to revive Kyle by attaching other limbs to his body and cast a resurrection spell. The revival works but Kyle returns as an aggressive and simple-minded creature. The presence of a revived corpse attracts Misty Day, who has the power of necromancy and even revived herself after being burned at the stake. Misty begins a friendship with Zoe and often takes care of Kyle.

Meanwhile, Fiona is cursed with an untreatable cancer due to a new Supreme rising to power within the Coven. Fiona tries to cure herself and regain her youth at all costs. A famed voodoo priestess and rival of the Salem witches named Marie Laveau, has regained her youth and immortality by bargaining with the voodoo devil, Papa Legba. To get a rise out of Marie, Fiona frees the immortal and buried alive Delphine LaLaurie, a 19th-century slave killer, who mutilated Marie's lover by transforming him into a Minotaur. Delphine becomes a maid at the Academy and struggles with adjusting to the modern world due to her past history as a racist.

The past slowly unravels as it is revealed that Fiona killed the previous Supreme in order to take charge of the Coven. Myrtle discovered the truth and tried to reveal it by enchanting the only witnesses tongue, Spalding. Spalding later cuts his own tongue out in order to protect Fiona and has remained mute ever since. Spalding also helps cover up the secrets of the Coven including when Fiona slits Madison's throat, believing her to be the next Supreme. Zoe discovers Spalding's secrets and kills him, turning him into a ghost that haunts the Academy. Cordelia is blinded by acid in a freak attack by witch hunters, one of whom she is married to. Myrtle is framed by Fiona as the attacker and is burned at the stake. Misty revives Myrtle along with Madison, all who return to the coven with vengeful notions as Madison seduces Kyle and Myrtle slaughters the rest of the Council and so on…

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            With American Horror Story: Coven, it pushes the concept of being a witch to the extreme.  One example of Coven pushing the concept of being a witch is the use of domination, killing and manipulating that each female character does to become stronger as an individual and their magic. Coven is different from other TV series, movies and novels in the way they used girl power with magic.

With Harry Potter the series is all about a young boy named Harry Potter and his adventures as he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns how to perform magic and comes face to face with his archenemy, Lord Voldemort. The book series Harry Potter they use witches in a different way than Coven. Hermione Granger is one of the main female leads in the series. Even though she is a strong character and she can defend yourself she does throughout the series needs to be saved by someone like Ron or Harry. Her main purpose is there to keep Harry and Ron safe and on track. With the witches in Coven it is all about being the top witch of the coven and to see which individual will fight and kill to get the top spot.  With this series it’s more of which witch can dominate other people to get their way.

Overall there are many different types of witches. It seems that witches are making a comeback into media and they are going to be sticking around for a while.  I do recommend The Tough Guide To Fantasyland if you want to have an easy read. Also if you like blood, drama and magic then I recommend watching American Horror Story Coven.

Week Four: The New Weird

For this week we were asked to read the new weird genre. The story I selected to read for this week is Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter.

The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Sophie Fevvers, a woman who was, so she would have people believe, a hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialist, and she captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter. This novel is separated into three different towns, London, Petersburg and Siberian.

In the London section of the novel it starts off with the American journalist Jack Walser interviewing Sophie Fevvers following a performance for the circus, which employs her. Fevvers claims to have been left as a baby in a basket on the doorstep of a brothel. Before she reached puberty she was a normal ordinary girl with a lump on each shoulder. When she hit puberty she sprouted complete wings. This stage of Fevvers' life comes to an abrupt end when Ma Nelson, the madam of the brothel, slips in the street and falls into the path of a carriage. The house and its contents is inherited by her brother who plans to convert it to a house for fallen women, but Ma Nelson's employees burn the place down and go their separate ways. Fevvers continues her story, she and Lizzie move in with Lizzie's sister and help run the family ice cream parlour. When the family falls on hard times Fevvers accepts an invitation from Madame Schreck. Madame Schreck puts Fevvers on display in her exclusive combination of freak show and brothel, along with several other women with unique appearances.

After some time Madame Schreck sells Fevvers to a customer, Christian Rosencreutz, who wishes to sacrifice a winged in order to procure his own immortality. Fevvers narrowly escapes and returns to Lizzie's sister's home. Soon after their reunion, she joins Colonel Kearney's circus as an aerialist and achieves enormous fame. The London section concludes with Walser telling his chief at the London office that he is going to follow Fevvers, joining the circus on its grand imperial tour.

            The Petersburg section begins as Walser, living in Clown Alley, types up his first impressions of the city. We learn that Walser approached Colonel Kearney who, taking advice from his fortune telling pig Sybil, offered him a position as a clown in the circus. Walser is introduced to the other members of the circus and Walser saves Mignon from being eaten by a tigress. The chief clown Buffo and his troupe invoke chaos at their dinner table. Walser ducks out of the meleé only to find Mignon waiting outside for him, as she has nowhere else to go after her husband and lover have both abandoned her. Not sure what to do with the abandoned woman, he takes her to Fevvers's hotel room. Fevvers assumes that Walser is sleeping with Mignon but, though jealous, takes care of the girl. On recognising the beauty of Mignon's singing voice Fevvers introduces her to the Princess of Abyssinia. The Princess, a silent tiger tamer, incorporates Mignon into her act with the dancing cats and Walser is recruited as partner to the redundant tigress. During rehearsals, the acrobatic Charivari family tries to kill Fevvers and the Colonel reluctantly kicks them out of the circus. Buffo the Great loses his mind during that night's performance and tries to kill Walser. The Princess has to shoot one of her tigresses when she becomes jealous of Mignon for dancing with her tiger mate during the tiger waltz. After her performance, Fevvers goes to a date at a mansion belonging to the Grand Duke. Here, she almost falls victim to his amorous advances but narrowly escapes into a Fabergé egg, reaching the circus train as it is about to pull out of the station.

The Siberian section opens with the entire circus crossing the continent to Asia. The train is attacked by a band of runaway outlaws who think that Fevvers can help them make contact with the Tsar, who will then allow them to return home to their villages. As the train is now destroyed, the entire circus, other than Walser, is marched to the convicts' encampment; Walser is rescued by a group of escaped murderesses and their former guards, who have become their lovers and helped them to escape. As Walser has amnesia, the band of women leaves him for an approaching rescue party but he flees into the woods before they reach him and is taken under the wing of a village shaman. Fevvers and the rest of the party are being held captive by the convicts. Fevvers tells the convict leader that she cannot help them as everything that they have heard about her is a lie. Depressed, the convicts sink into drunken mourning. Lizzie convinces the clowns to put on a show for the convicts, during which a blizzard comes, blowing the clowns and the convicts away with it into the night. The remnants of the circus begin to walk in the direction in which they hope civilization lies. They come across a run-down music school and take shelter with its owner, the Maestro. A brief encounter with Walser, now thoroughly part of the shaman's village, convinces Fevvers and Lizzie to leave the safety of the Maestro's school to search for Walser. Colonel Kearney leaves the group to continue his quest for civilization so as to build another, and more successful, circus. Mignon, the Princess and Samson remain with the Maestro at his music school. Fevvers finds Walser and the story ends with them together at the moment that the new century dawns.

Overall I found this reading to be really interesting and unique. I can see why this novel is in the category of the new weird. I feel that this mall is a mixture of a couple different genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and mystical. One reason why I find this novel to be weird, which is how different interesting it is two other books and novels that I’ve read. Also there is some a sort of random feeling to it and also with the use of the circus world gives this weird mystical reality to the novel.

Some themes that I think the novel touches on is Time, Postmodernism, Post-feminism, Feminism, Magical Realism, Order v. Chaos, Individualism, Appearance v. Reality and Class and wealth. One example the concept of time is hazy throughout this novel, beginning when Walser finds himself transfixed by Fevvers' narrative and hears the clock striking midnight three times within one night. This blurred sense of time represents the difference between narrative time and story time. Fevvers' hold on Walser reveals the true power of narrative and its influence on an audience. Initially, it is through her narrative that Fevvers wields power over Walser. Fevvers and Lizzie reveal in the Envoi, they had previously tricked Walser and purposefully played with his perception of time using Ma Nelson's clock. During their narratives, they support an illusion of time coming to a standstill but only retain control in this magical or illusory sense.

Week Three: Japanese Horror

This week we were asked to read Japanese horror.  Before taking this class I didn’t know that there was a Japanese horror category, I thought that it would go altogether under the category of horror. For the reading selection we were asked to read Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.

A Wild Sheep Chase is about a mock-detective tale that follows an unnamed Japanese man through Tokyo and Hokkaidō in 1978. The passive, chain-smoking main character gets swept away on an adventure that leads him on a hunt for a sheep that has not been seen for years. The apathetic protagonist meets a woman with magically seductive ears and a strange man who dresses as a sheep and talks in slurs.

I found this reading to be difficult because I found it dry and the events within the story escalate slowly. From what I read of the story and what we talked about in class Japanese horror wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a lot of blood and things that would be scary. Instead Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror and tension building suspense, particularly involving ghosts and poltergeists, while many contain themes of folk religion such as: possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and yōkai. From my experience after reading and or watching a Japanese horror, you have to kind of sit there and contemplate what just happened in the storyline. In addition I find in some parts it is hard to understand what is going on. I did however enjoy the use of mystic characters. I find that unique to this category in addition to its other characteristics. Overall I did find Japanese horror interesting and extremely different