Saturday, January 28, 2017

Week Three: Asian Horrors: Vengeful Spirits

Week Three: Asian Horrors: Vengeful Spirits

Murakami's work is really figurative and methaporical, seeming sometimes nonexistent. He wants the reader to be actively thinking and figuring things out, like a puzzle. Murakami's work is very specific for combining the real with the surreal, the conciousness with the subconciousness.

Furthermore, this week's reading was A Wild Sheep Chase by Murakami, and by reading it I could see that everything the characters are chasing after is really a metaphor, and that something, seems really hard to grab. This is one of the reasons I love Asian literature, because of the ability that the authors have to leave the reader with some sort of uncertainty, making them feel and connect on a level that feels really personal. Asian literature "forces" you to think about what you are reading and forces you to connect you with your own personal experiences in order to truly get a message out of it. This makes the readers connect on a deeper level to the piece, making them more intellectual as well because he leaves the audience the possibility of creating their own idea of what the characters might be chasing.


Finally, reading Kwaidan stories was a really nice but different experience. Despite the differences between Western and Asian horror, they both include the personificaion of ghosts,  but the difference is that in the Kwaidan stories the author goes back to the roots and tradition of the culture, yet in Western horror not so much.What is interesting about the Kwaidan is that the author is slowly trying to immerge you into the story, and it might take you some time to really see the horror, but as the stories keep developing it becomes more and more disturbing, as uncertain elements appear in the reading.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Week Two: Vampire: Love and Pain

Week Two: Vampire: Love and Pain

I really enjoyed this week's class discussion as we found that despite vampire presenting characteristics like darkness, evil and blood, they still have the ability to attract both readers and characters. Vampires are really well known among the horror literature reading community by their constant pale skin, their need for blood, their pointy fangs and their need to feed the life of people in some way or the other. Yet, Ann Rice created a vampire very different from the first generation of vampires that ever appeared on reading.


She indeed wanted the audience to discover a different way of perceiving vampires. She introduced the idea of vampires having a pursue of love and happiness instead of only wanting blood and death. Ann created a type of vampire that despite having the characteristics of the vampire,they are still able to have human emotions. It is interesting how the author introduced a new way of seeing horror literature, as she reminds us that although vampires have an evil nature, they also desire things like lust and romance.

Anne Rice takes the folklore of the vampire and transforms it for the modern audience. Previous versions of vampires, always saw the vampire as a creatures who only seek for blood and no one really cared what was their past. Thanks to Interview with a Vampire, Ann Rice allowed us to change our mindset, thinking of vampires as no longer creatures, but as characters who represents someone. What is more, he way she portrays sexuality, is not through very gore imagery, but instead with something more sensual and intimate, imitating how humans would perceive sensual experiences. 

Something very important to point out is also the introduction of the heroic vampire, since now the vampire have become the victim. the ones that needs to survive in this condition surrounded by people that don't understand them. It's very interesting how the audience positively reacts to this type of vampire, and I think it is mostly because in modern era, the readers are more welcoming to the different and unusual types, than readers from the past.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Week One: Beginning with Frankenstein

Week One: Beginning with Frankenstein

One of the most important components of Gothic on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is the element of the supernatural. Frankenstein’s creation, is one element that the author choses to represent the Gothic genre. The presence of the dark aspects of life and the fact that Frankenstein himself was created during nighttime reinforces the Goth genre as well.

After the creation of Frankenstein, Victor has a dream that foreshadows Elizabeth’s death. The element of dream is also a common component of Gothic novels, which serves to clarify the monster’s murder of Elizabeth. The dream that becomes reality, is a consequence of the rejection society had of his creation.

Another main characteristic of Goth present in Shelley’s writing is the constant threatening that the main character goes through. Danger is everywhere, the monster is an agent of rage, an instrument of revenge. He resents his creator for rejecting him at birth and abandoning him to the cruelty of the human race. He blames Victor for leaving him lonely and isolated when he was actually born with a loving heart.

Family drama is also an element present in gothic literature, the threat of destroying a family’s happiness or its union. Due to Victor’s reject of creating a mate for the monster, the creature realizes that he will never be accepted into a family. That is the reason why he swears his vengeance to Victor and his loved ones, killing not only Victor’s young brother and his best friend, but also the love of his life, Elizabeth.