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.