Literature of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction

For this week's topic I read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. What a book, oh boy, don't you just love condescending patriarchal stuff like this? The whole time I was reading the book I was just sitting there angrily and filled with frustration; I just wanted to jump into the pages and tear the whole system apart so all the women could be free and people would stop being hanged in public for stupid reasons. The scary thing is that I realized while this is a sort of dystopian situation, it's actually not too far-fetched of an idea. If we had countries in modern times where women aren't even allowed to show any skin in public, specifically around men, then the concept of fertile women being kept as basically sex slaves so the prominent men of society can have children when their wives can't is really not that absurd. Poor Offred knows her husband has been shot but she doesn't know whether or not he's alive and she has no idea if her daughter is al

I read Cyberpunk in the Nineties by Bruce Sterling because while I thoroughly enjoy genres like cyberpunk and sci-fi I had never truly familiarized myself with what cyberpunk actually is. I found the explanation to make sense when I thought of a few works I was somewhat familiar with that sound like cyberpunk. Ghost in the Shell I believe is certainly cyberpunk, and while I don't know too much about it I know it involves cyborg-human hybrids, that concept alone lending itself to the concept of cyberpunk in that it involves enhancing and pushing the limits of the human condition. Humans have been able to live longer and overall healthier lives over the many thousands of years we've existed as our modern species, and we're not about to stop improving ourselves. We already equip ourselves with various forms of technology to be in less pain, to prevent pain, or to simply make our lives easier, and we continue to work to improve these technologies and to invent new ones. We wo

This week I read Aye, and Gomorrah and The Drowned Giant. As usual it took me a bit more effort to figure out the piece that was less straightforward, well, if not straightforward then not as easy to get a grip on. This piece for me was Aye, and Gomorrah. I'm not sure if it was the kind of abrupt way it was written or the fact it started in medias res, but something as I was trying to read it kept throwing me off, or distracting me, or making it hard to read. I was able to read part of The Odyssey even though it was also in medias res at the beginning of the story, but I guess I was just more familiar with that story and what the rest of it would be like vs this story. Once I finally figured out what the story was about, I was able to actually think more critically about it. I thought it was interesting that the author was toying with this idea of lack of gender, especially since it was written in the 60s, still pretty close to the "good ol' 50s" where it was the hu

Bloodchild, by Octavia Butler 1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?               It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on, but once I figured it out I could read the story with less confusion and rather be able to actually work through the deeper meanings behind it. I've heard of similar scenarios and stories where one species uses another to bear their offspring, but this of course happens in real life as well with some insects and perhaps even some other species. I can see where this took its inspiration, as I've learned about some insects that lay their eggs inside others and when they hatch they eat their host from the inside out much like in this story, and in fact this is how most parasites operate. Despite the clear message that humans/Terrans are not the species/race in complete power here as is pretty much the case in real life on Earth for the most part, I did not find myself angry or upset with the Tlic species even though they were u

First Contact is the first space opera I've actually read; I've seen the Star Wars movies and some clips of Star Trek, I guess I like to keep with the "Star" titled works, though I'm not actually sure if Star Trek counts as space opera or not. After reading First Contact, it brought to my attention aspects of Star Wars and even other unrelated works that I had noticed a bit but not actually put much thought into. The main theme I picked up on is that of self-preservation, in fact that seems to be the focus of First Contact . As the humans come across the alien vessel, the narrative almost immediately begins discussing the logistics/necessities of the situation, none of which are good unfortunately. It makes it painfully clear, and reiterates multiple times in fact, how neither of the ships can risk going home without destroying the other. This actually reminds me of the phrase in Harry Potter, " Neither can live while the other survives," in essence m

Although high fantasy is my favorite fantasy subgenre, contemporary urban fantasy is always fun as well and I enjoy it immensely, well, of the probably small amount I've actually watched and read, that is. I didn't get a chance to read Coraline yet but I've watched the film multiple times which I love. I've heard the book is much darker than the film, so this actually makes me want to read the book even more as I thoroughly enjoy dark and creepy things, hence my previous mentions of my adoration of the horror genre. When it comes to the story in general, I had never seen or heard anything like Coraline before I was first introduced to it. The concept of this "other mother" who entices children into her midst by granting their simple wishes and fulfilling their dreams for a happier life is intriguing, and I can understand why children would get sucked into all this. Children and young teenagers can be pretty easily tricked and made to believe false promises. Th