Upon first reading the theme of this week I wasn’t even sure how to distinguish between genre and literary fiction. So I googled it and read a Huffington post article, loosely defining genre fiction’s purpose as entertainment and escapism and literary fiction’s purpose as speculation and reflection into reality. In my opinion, the line between the two can be blurred, although there would be prime...
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
For the week of Cyber and Steam Punk, I decided to try a bit of steampunk with Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker. Although I have yet to finish the novel, I love all that I’ve read of it so far and am excited to finish it in the future. A large reason for my interest in this specific novel was for the main characters. I sampled quite a few of the books on this week’s list before buying one, and the characters...
Harlan Ellison: Fiction of Ideas
For this week of big ideas, I read two short stories. The first story was one that I recognized as a short story I read two years ago and remembered loving, called “Repent Harlequin” Said the TickTockMan. For both of these short stories, I tried my best to understand the greater meaning but it may have been lost on me. “Repent Harlequin” obviously criticizes totalitarian dictatorship, and makes the...
Monday, November 20, 2017
In-Class Assessment: Bloodchild by Octavia Butler
What is your reaction to the text you just read?
While the Tlic alien race is very foreign and unsettling, I find the concept of alien races connecting on an emotional and physical level interesting, as well as disturbing. The Tlic are similar enough to “Terrans” where communication and emotional understanding is possible, but the entire continuation of their species depends on the compliance of...
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Space Opera- The Stars My Destination
The Stars My Destination is an impressive introduction to the space opera subgenre of science fiction. It combines familiar with the unfamiliar. The science supports the fiction, rather than the other way around. The storyline exists for its own purpose and the science only acts to help in relaying that message. There is a larger idea, involving common human complexities, and although the...
Saturday, November 4, 2017
The Novel of Spiritual Education
The Harry Potter series played a large role in my childhood, as it has for many others. Though I was too young to appreciate the books when they first came out, I saw every movie and picked up the books during middle school. Like many children facing adolescent struggles of puberty, I fell in love with the magical world that mirrored ours. There were characters I could relate to having problems that...
Neil Gaiman- The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The fantastical world coexists with our mundane reality in The Ocean at the End of the Lane: the fabric of time can be snipped and mended by an immortal grandmother; wormholes to other realities can manifest themselves in your heart; a duck pond can be an ocean of understanding. And while this tale is undoubtedly a fantasy short novel, the narration really boils down to a coming of age story about...
Saturday, October 14, 2017
The Hobbit: A Hero's Journey
The Hobbit is the perfect example of a formulaic hero’s tale. Bilbo Baggins begins his journey as a painfully ordinary man, most comfortable in routine and unwilling to disband from it. Only through the supernatural persuasion of a mentor (Gandalf), does he feel the compulsion to embark on a journey, knowing fully well that he will never be the same afterwards. This “refusal to call” and “crossing...
Aunt Maria: Witches in Power
Diana Wynne Jones’ Aunt Maria uses the witch archetype for many reasons. One reason was to establish this dystopian world with a great rift between sexes; a rift that is unnatural and should not be accepted as a decent way to live. This is almost revealed explicitly when the revived Antony Green speaks of the way life is at Cranbury. “They divided into men’s ways and women’s ways then, and they’ve...
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Vampire Academy
I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been biased against the vampire genre ever since seeing Twilight. I tried to keep an open mind when starting Vampire Academy and while I still found the characters predictable and the drama a little tiresome, the book’s vampire lore actually had me hooked. I found the complex social structure of the vampire world interesting. Not only was there conflict between living...
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