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

  16 Classes attended  1 Class missed  54 points from midterm  60 for this half of semester  TOTAL POINTS: 130 points

  Sketch One: It is ten years from now, the holiday season of 2030.  You are thinking about a present you might be getting for the holidays.  What is it?  Talk about how you did your holiday shopping,  What is your job and how are you doing it?  What is your living situation and what are the major issues of the day?  Please make these questions relevant to any appropriate holidays you celebrate.     This is the year 2030 soon to be 2031. I must get some gifts for my family, though most of them I shouldn’t even call that anymore. Looking in the window of a grand modern building; I gazed upon the present I have so wished for this year, a new phone. Yes, I know a phone, however this one was the newest ones they came out with. I have had my own since college 2020. That was 10 years ago? The years can go by like trickling water if one does not pay attention to their lives. Have I not paid attention? I am a costume designer and model in ...

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Arthur Dent are the series I chose to read for this week. The reason I chose this series was due to the fact it gives a look from the ordinary man in sci-fi rather than something like Star Wars were the main character is the hero. Another use for the satire of the series is at the beginning of the book when Douglas talks about the blue green planet and ape descended life forms. While doing this he is making fun of humans and the earth being lower than what they actually view themselves as. Using his views and ideas in the perspective of sci-fi.             The main thing that really caught my attention in read this series was the tone. The tone is pretty much dry and dark humor. I really loved Monty Python growing up so this humor is something I really enjoy it’s not obnoxious and it’s just straight to the point and in your face. I love that about this series it really keeps your attention in th...

    A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess is the novel I decided to read for this week. I watched the movie years ago, however reading the book I now know why people did like it. I really loved this book due to the fact it was so weird. The book was more of an abstract and quirky way of envisioning the violence that can come from free will. This book transcended (abstracted) the expectations of literature by the particular writing style and the actions of the boys in the book. The ideas that presented themselves in the book were interesting to say the least. First there is the inherent evil of the government in which talking about how the government is seeking to suppress the individual in favor to confine to the state. Another one I thought of was a quote from Alex himself, “Duality as the Ultimate Reality”. This statement shows how Alex sees society and the world, good versus evil, commitment versus neutrality, man versus machine, man versus government, youth versus matu...

1.     What is your reaction to the text you just read? Bloodchild was a very interesting read, I must say. You don’t really have much to go off of in the beginning on what the story is or who the characters are. However, once you continue it becomes more clear that this is a alien host story. Where humans are no longer the superior race and aliens roam. There still were questions I had however, after reading, who were the alien species? (all we really get are names a their physical appearance). What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect? There weren’t many connections to other movies or books to connect this to, all I really thought of was the host, the 5 th wave, and Alien. However, the connections I made from the book about experiences in reality are far greater. The main thing I made a connection with were how the aliens are birthed vs. Bot flies. Another connection I made from that w...

  Soulless by Gail Carriger is one of the novel I decided to read for this week. Its set in London, England in Victorian times. The world and society however consist of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and natural humans. The title, Soulless , comes from a character that is a soulless person who can touch a supernatural person and neutralize them. On top of all this steampunk is intertwined in its inventions, society and the world. Both the werewolves and vampires have the market on these inventions. The villains are scientists, led by a powerful man, who hid their devious tricks and horrible experiments in London. This novel was something I enjoyed more than usual. I adore steampunk, however, this combined everything I love to read. Vampires especially, reading how well everything combines into a mystery based novel really entrances the reader. The themes embracing this novel is love and equality between men and women. Love is a center idea in the book due to the connection betwee...

     A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is the novel I have chosen to read this week. The reason for this is that it grabs on the concept of mental psychology. The main character, Meg Murry; who with her, her brother Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin O’Keefe, try and find her father that is stuck on another dimension/planet. Meg goes through a lot of trails mentally, and during the book that almost ruins her relationship with her brother. Due to the story capturing the idea of the psyche, the symbolism is very strong and hides itself in the adventure.             The symbolism of light and darkness provides a metaphor for good and evil as well as helping the book on a symbolic level with universal concepts of a moral compass. Children’s change of that moral compass when losing a loved one. Light is a symbol for good, knowledge, and clarity. Darkness is evil, ignorance, and obscurity. Another symbol would be...

     Artemis by Andy Weir was the novel I decided to read for this week. The technology of this particular book incorporates itself into the story through smuggling, sabotage of the facilities and even where Jazz (the main character) lives. The story takes place in the future where a 26-year-old woman lives in Artemis, a city on the moon.   Thus the technology was already advanced enough to have people living and working on the moon. A man asks her to shut-down one of the facilities so that he can take over the moon, when he offers to pay her, she couldn’t say no. This plot choice is interesting, instead of having her be the hero, she is more like a middle man since she just wants the money to pay back her dad.           The book as a ton of symbolism intertwined with the pages. For one, Artemis symbolizes the sense of home as well as the society is holds between the sections. Due to Jazz moving ...

   Stardust by Neil Gaiman was the book I read from this week. Stardust has always been a movie I was captivated by. However, the movie doesn't give me enough of the world on the other side of the wall. The book gave me the information and sense of world building I was looking for. This book holds a different approach of fantasy, like many of his other books. Due to it being like the magical world is a part of our own and we ourselves can experience it if only we decide to go over our "wall".       Stardust gives readers a spark of hope and wonder of this world being real, more so than harry potter (only witches and wizards are able to be a part of this world). With a magical realm/ kingdom laying just next door is a different approach for it erases that line of separation in writing. Laying in between fantasy writing that is in a different world entirely, or it exists but only for special few. The world also semi mirrors our world with its hierarchy o...

8 Classes attended  1 Class missed  54 points for books plus movies I have read and watched

            His Dark Materials (trilogy) by Philip Pullman were the books I have read for this week. I have yet to watch the series and I watched the movie as kid consistently. However, the books while reading have a sense world building that the movie wasn’t able to present to its viewers. The first book explains the world/ dimension of the books and lets us be able to understand and be swept into it. With the soul connections between daemons and people and the corruption of the magisterium are values all three books show to the read.             Starting with the golden compass, in the book the compass is a truth-telling mechanism that is one of the last ones known in the world. However, the compass is the symbolism for a moral compass, encouraging the children who read these books to maintain a sense of right and wrong. Pullman criticizes the oppression, cruelty, and narrow-mindedness of soci...

       The books I read for this week were From Under the Mountain and The Hobbit . The first one was my first time reading, which I decided to read that one since I have seen the movie for the Hobbit. I wanted more worlds to think about and enjoy. In The Hobbit I definitely knew what was going to happen, but that’s how I can just relax and fall into the world easier. Let all the words soak in like in on paper, letting my senses change and images of the world become more alive. I sat there reading the book over and over again at one point. I couldn’t get enough of it. I even have two tattoos for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit , one is on my left thigh as the beginning quote from The Hobbit . The second one is not a quote from those two, it’s from Harry Potter however it’s in elfish and it’s on my other thigh. Therefore, it was nice to finally read series I was so in love with for so long. The Hobbit as a lot of different things, humor, action, suspense, e...

       The book that I have read for this week was all of the trilogy The Chilling Adventure of Sabrina by Sarah Rees Brennan. This book I decided to choose for this week because I got bored in the show and was wondering if I could actually get into the series if I read the book. This theory I had was proven correct, I read this book whenever I would take a bath. Why? Because I wanted a spooky Halloween feel, with candles and everything. It definitely helped that my bathroom if already a witch and cottage aesthetic. Furthermore, I loved this book, from its teenage struggles to life or death situations it really brings you into Sabrina’s life.                              The book itself has an immense female strength in Sabrina. From the beginning we are with her through school, relationships, and family. How she deals with her power and...

              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...