Finishing off

Finishing off the class with Hitchhikers was nice. I had heard a lot of great things about it but never got a change to check it out.  I really enjoyed it, it's pretty close to my own sense of humor.  As the class finishes I look back wishing I could have finished more books. I've so busy with thesis I didn't really have to time. So I stuck to short stories or reading just a bit.  I should totally make a list of the stuff I should go back and finish once classes are done.  I really enjoyed this class, both the stuff we read and the discussion. It was great to get introduced to new and old stuff.

Future

1.  In 10 years, I've been a show runner with a large following and a hit show under my belt.  As the baby boomers slowly died out or retired, the following generation set off to repair and improve both the world economy as well as the eniverement.   With an educational push towards both the sciences and arts there is currently a progress boom in both. The world is trying to correct it's past mistakes.

2. 2050, As the world is adjusting to becoming more and more muil-species due to influx of live forms for other planets, I still currently creative head of a large entrainment company.  I'm trying to continue spearheading the same ideas and value that put me where I am while the growing change in media from being earth base to galaxy based. Being friendly with the new alien earth population isn't favored by every human on earth and as make me a target for attacks from a new growing group of human who are aiming to "take back earth."

3. 3000, earth has changed and adjusted to the influx of alien live and merging with galaxy travel. I'm saying that I am retiring but still seem to be pulling the strings in the media.  I attempting to use my last years setting in stone my legacy.  I have gain a galactic repuational for being exsentic.  While I have tried to relax and fade quietly in my old ages. Different issues and problems have kept me in the galactic affairs much to the dismay of many other media and world leaders and some of my family.  

Literary Speculation

I had a hard time wrapping my mind around a lot of the stuff we read this week like in a physical sense.  A lot time it's not the stories were hard to understood, usually they were pretty simple.  Reading At Daybreak was a little rough.  The only image I could think of was Flatland and how it was written to look. I guess in a way Speculation Lit is suppose to do that.  It's sort of suppose to go deep in an idea to the point where things may not be as easy to full understand.  

Diverse Position Science Fiction

I really enjoyed Bloodchild actually.  It was strange but interesting.  I think one of the best thing about scifi is getting to create a whole other culture and way of living. Bloodchild is a good example of this. It is a totally alien world and way of live using different part of our world and imagination.  I personally think this is way fantasy and scifi is the prefect place to explore diverse position of life since you don't have to weighted down but any sort of human history or idea, you could literally make your own.  So It's always a little disappointing to see a lot of the scifi and fantasy still be mostly based on white western heterosexual gender ideas when there isn't any reason for it.  I'm going to ask every writer who think aliens from a totally different planet would have the same ideas of gender, race, sexuality as human often do, why the hell that makes sense.

Cyberpunk and Steampunk and other forms of punk

I've never really been into cyberpunk or steampunk plots for the most part. Reading Johnny Mnemonic was interesting.  Something about the classic mafia story in a future world allows for a lot cool ideas and plays off both stories. I think that's what Cyberpunk and Steampunk is good at, being two concepts into the same world. While Cyberpunk is the future while Steampunk is often the past.  In some ways they are totally opposite but in the way they use their tones and idea to tie though two worlds.

Bloodchild

1.  That was interesting ride. I was trying to decode what was going on from the beginning. Are Terrans humans or something else? Are we still on earth? Is this going where I think it's going? There were a lot of alien concept though at you quickly.  I like a lot of stuff like this, an interaction between aliens and humans. Sort of an after invasion or after first contact sort of story. This story does a good job at establishing the history and culture of world, while still allowing some questions. I thought it was interesting.

2. I have sort of getting an alien dystopian feelings from the opening pretty strongly. The sort of distorted family united and the rules and relations started to give it away pretty quickly.  I had a hard to times placing or imagining what T'Gatoi looked like though. The story sort of blends this sort of dystopian feeling with usual alien scifi feelings.

3. I think it would dark could still be easily adapted into a film.  Using the time to development and show character relationships while also telling a complete story. Film could really sell the locations and create an otherworldly feeling using lighting and composition and color work to really create a mood.  

COME TO VENUS MELANCHOLY

I really really enjoyed reading COME TO VENUS MELANCHOLY.  Robots are a cool concept in scifi but often I don't connect to them especially if it's played really boring.  I often can't think of them as scary but honestly I'd like to be friends with a robot.  I really like the character in it, she is very understandable  and sympathetic. I wanted to help her out in the end but I thought the end was still super powerful.  

Opera and adventure in Space

I was surprised how much I liked The Martian. I thought it would be harder to follow. I read the novel Dune in middle school and I guess I thought it would be like that.  But I couldn't have been more wrong.  The Martian is super easy to follow and the character was really relatable.  It's a very different kind of scifi novel.  I wasn't surprised that it was compared to other land survive novels. It seems scifi has this thing with taking other genre and putting them in SPACE.  Space Opera, Space Adventure, Space western.  You can being a lot of neat things to an old genre by place in a new place..like Space.    

Contemporary Urban Fantasy and Gaiman

I've seen a lot of bits and piece of Gaiman's work,  most fully Coraline which I love. The concept of a urban fantasy in contemporary time is interesting.  There is something new and fun about add fantasy to a urban setting.  I really enjoyed reading the start of the Graveyard books. Gaiman does a great job of making his stories Contemporary while also being timeless. Coraline is modern but you could never tell 100% what year it is,  This makes the story seem timeless.  The Graveyard books seem similar, it's obviously not olden times, but it's seems like it takes place in a contemporary setting. I think this concept works well with fantasy and Gaiman is good at this.  Using fantasy and myth ideas and using them to built on a contemporary setting in a cool and new way.

Futility of trying to replace Harry Potter

Now I'm a fan of Harry Potter, it's hard to find someone who isn't.  I wasn't a crazy fan as child, I didn't read the first few books till middle school, and I didn't read the last few books till high school. So I was late to party as usual.  So I bonded with it in a strange way.

Now, trying to read another and new youth fantasy books I've always had a hard time getting into them.  I'm not sure why but I have not found a books series that captured that same light.  I often don't enjoy young adult book because they usually have too much "adult" for me.  I tend to like my fantasy to be more about fun then trying to get to that edge they think 13-17 will enjoy. Again this may be 100% on me. I've almost felt like everything is trying to recapture what happened with Harry Potter, which I think it's impossible. I think it'll only happen once and can't be replaced in the way people want it too. You can't recapture lighting in a bottle.  

High fantasy

I've never really spend time with The Lord of the Rings or the stories involved. My dad watched the movies all the time when I was growing up so I have like a basic knowledge about it's world.  But I never really bonded with it.  It almost seen like too much for me.   Reading The Hobbit was a nicer experience then I thought it would be.  It was fun and charming as well easy to read and understand.  I had a good time reading it and it was a relaxing read.  

Witches

I was glad we talked about Kiki's Delivery Service! It's one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite version of witches.  I've always liked the idea of magic and using magic but I never really liked the idea of witches being evil. This might because I grow up with Kiki, Harry Potter, and magical girl animes.  Maybe I thought of magic as act of empowerment and like to see it especially with younger characters like me.

So it's probably no surprise my senior thesis is about a child witch.  I've always liked of turning something that used to be seen a scary and maybe a villain into something that the hero of the story and is soft and kind and cute.

New weird

While reading some of the shorter Lovecraft stories I was reminded a lot of Emily Carroll's stories in  Through The Woods.  While some of them feel more like folk tales, they definably have that an element  of the strange and unexplainable.

Her work tends to leave me upsetting for a long while after finishing her stories. They are very atmospheric and full of quiet horror. 

Now there's a creepiest panel of the scariest story with no context to get to hopefully read this awesome horror comic.

J-Horror

I can't say I have much experience with J horror, since I don't have much experience with reading horror in general.  I was super how much "pre-work" there was, as in a lot back story.  Even the short stories had a lot story to them.   I thought it was interesting talking about how there isn't much of a "good vs evil" plot in Eastern story telling.  The supernatural isn't shown as a "Evil" thing as much a "natural" thing.   Especially in Japanese stories it seems like that mystical things about a part of the landscape and are just doing their thing.  They may be pissed at you but they are usually just doing what they got to do.

Good Vampire Boy Louis

Reading though Interview with the Vampire was really fun and I enjoyed it.  Vampire aren't really 'cool' as much anymore which is a shame because they have a lot of promise.  Louis is such a good character, like a good boy. Especially compare to Lestat who by all means an asshole. It's funny that there was a lot of talk about how the book is about intimacy because I felt like Lestat was a very shitty boyfriend for Louis that you spend a lot of the book yelling about how Louis should leave him.

I might go back at finish the book when I have to time. It was really relaxing to read.

Frankenstein

I read Frankenstein in my AP European history class back in high school, and I'm just now realising how long ago that was. Getting a chance to reread it, even if I didn't get a chance to read all of it.  I can't remember what my thoughts were in high school. Victor is an interesting character, he's kind of an asshole.  He spends a lot of time talking about great his life was before the monster and how awful is was after.  His reaction to the monster is really want cause the whole problem.  

Like if you're going to create a living thing with thoughts and feelings, abandoning it is probably not the best idea.  

I found a lot of similar feelings about the monster that I had for Erik from the Phantom of Opera, which I'd imagine probably got some of it's idea from Frankenstein. I sympathize with them both of them but their lives have turned them into to jerks.