Jackie Foss: Lit of Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi

              Annihilation by Jerry VanderMeer is the novel I read for this week. This book much like A Wild Sheep Chase was a different experience than most horror I have watched or read. The book shows the values in society. For example, area x is a big symbol for sublime in horror, not only does it cause death and insanity, but it’s almost mesmerizingly beautiful and serene. Furthermore, this area is a living symbol for the beauty of the alien and the terrifying unknown. The words written on the tower walls as also representations of the absorption of humanity, from the organic makeup of explorers' bodies, to the words they write in their journals, and the way Area X repurposes the material and uses it to nourish itself. The book has many aspects to why it is intriguing, however the main thing besides the sublime and psychological themes it processes is that its huge on secrets of the society. As the novel moves along ...

              A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakam i was the book I have read for this week. The book, at first, I thought was slow. However, when I looked more into it and finally finished it. This wasn’t because the book was slow, it was because it was a different type of horror. A Wild Sheep Chase is a psychological horror. Most of the horror aspects are coming from inside the main character’s head.             The main thing I have realized reading this, besides the psychological aspect. The events throughout the book is random and unexpected. I had reread certain things because they were so unexpected, I thought I skipped something. The book is mostly about a guy feeling trapped in his own life and wants to continue life and his career how he wants to and feel joy coming out of it. Instead of his old, rusty, wheel cycle of life. In horror, even in psycho...

                 The book I read this month was Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Anne Rice’s book has the representation of vampires from a different almost opposite perspective. Most works involved with vampires back in that time were still considered villains; evil, cold beings with no human souls. However, Rice’s shows the romantic and opposite side from her character Louis.            Louis' soul is almost still human, from his rage to his sadness. Through Louis, she shows a vampire having regret, love, forgiveness, passion, rage. All the things vampires seem to lack in older writings. These values represent the human that is still left in Louis. Louis throughout the story never loses his humanity even though he has faced so many hardships, he still longs for the pain. Emotions are all he has left of his mortal life, whether they are good or bad he did not care. In the book...

       Frankenstein , the book I chose to read for this week, was interesting to say the least. I grew up with mostly the idea of Frankenstein, but I never heard the entire story of him. The fantastic book is connected with the Gothic style for many reasons. One being the places giving the feeling of loneliness and paranoid in the arctic and feeling claustrophobic and stressed in the homes he lived in. Another being because of the tie between the archaic and modern times. This is not necessarily in the direction of the modern to archaic, however it still has ties with the religious society and the taboo science of life and death. These ties and the strangeness of the science of life and death is what makes the book Gothic. The time of the 1700s death was never a friend and many people died. Therefore, the crisis of death and the catholic church with science around this time cause stories to grab the viewer from the tension. Making the overlap to it past and present...