Allyssa Ellis

For this week I read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane . I really enjoyed this short novel and the underlying themes that went along with it. Some of the things I noticed were the revealing of reality and how it is never as it seems, comparison of adulthood versus childhood, and the idea of other universes. The one theme that I want to mention and expand on is the idea that every person or being has a different side to them, that is not outwardly visible. In the father's case, it seemed that he was being controlled by the "flea" Ursula Monkton and almost drowned his son in the bathtub. This makes you wonder - did the evil person/creature make him do this or was there something evil and resenting in him the entire time? With the main antagonist, Ursula Monkton, she is an evil creature from another world that entered the world that we know it, disguised as a human. This provides some interesting perspective, that sometimes the evilest traits and experiences...

The reading for this week, under the category of the Heroic Journey, was The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkein. The most memorable aspect of this novel is the mythical creatures. Every part of this novel is filled to the brim of interesting and unusual characters, including hobbits, dwarves, goblins, gollums, and many other talking animals as well as shape-shifting creatures. Each creature has it's own set of interesting characteristics in the way they, talk, act, and think. The main character, the hobbit, for example, is very nervous-minded and is constantly comparing his situation to how it would be more comfortable at home. The wizard, Gandolf, is depicted as wise and stern in his manner, and purely set on his one objective of guiding the troop of dwarves and Bilbo. The goblins are depicted as nasty creatures that rule part of the land, and hunt ferociously. These descriptions are what lead the story, keeping you interested in what creature might appear next along their journey. Particular...

For this week's topic, witches, I read the five volumes of Redlands. I found this series to have a contradictory storyline, leaving me not sure about my verdict of it as a whole. The story is about powerful women, but they are constantly faced with misogyny and terrible men. They take vengeance, but they kill many people by doing so. Because of this conflict, I think that the story in itself is about underlying morals and how we are able to challenge and even discard them for a good story. The main characters in this series are what I would consider archetypal powerful woman figures. The three main characters, all witches that hold special powers of some sort, seem to exist for the genuine betterment of their community. They are typically taking vengeance on men that have committed crimes or have treated people poorly. This gives a feeling of justice from these characters. The bad guys get what they deserve, and that really boils down to moral principles. The reader feels as thoug...

For this week, under the topic of The New Weird, I read the novel Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. One particular theme that I noticed throughout the novel is the constant presence of curiosity and how that goes hand-in-hand with reality. The novel retells not only the experience of being in Area X, but also how the main character got there. It seems that every expedition that has traveled to Area X have done so out of curiosity for finding themselves, or the truth of their specific field (i.e. biology, psychology), and ended up learning and experiencing much more than they could have intended. In the beginning, it's portrayed like this area is similar to a wildlife preservation, with seemingly pristine natural flora and fauna that have been undisturbed unlike that of the outside world. As the story progresses, their curiosity leads them to explore the "Tunnel" or "Tower" inside of the ground, as well as the rest of Area X. The more that they explore and examine...

In this weeks reading, Interview with a Vampire,  something that stood out to me was the way the author depicted what was considered good versus evil. Since the majority of the book is told from Louis's perspective, through dialogue in his interview, we get to learn about his beliefs as a vampire versus the other vampires around him. For example, Louis is depicted as a generally good character at the beginning. This is shown through his squeamish and hesitant nature about killing humans and his empathy towards their lives. He also points out that he doesn't realize he is able to take animal's blood rather than a humans. This appears as a sense of morality. This morality is directly contradicted with the personality of Lestat. He is depicted as a tough vampire who doesn't feel empathy and will hunt anyone he pleases. Later in the book he turns a little girl into a vampire which leads to his "death." He later comes back to life on more than one occasion to get h...

Some of the "gothic" elements of Frankenstein include paranormal characters, (Frankenstein's creation), themes of cruel death (the death of Frankenstein's mother), and loneliness and isolation of the creation. One particular theme that I noticed and thought was interesting was the theme of isolation and loneliness, particularly abandonment. The theme of abandonment is present throughout the entirety of the novel in some way or another. Frankenstein feels abandoned by the death of his mother, which throws him into a obsession about life and death. This obsession leads to the creation of the "monster." The monster is deemed uncanny and a terrible mistake by Frankenstein the second that he created it, and abandons his "child" per say, trying to avoid it for the majority of the novel. This issue keeps escalating. Frankenstein starts to feel paranoid that his creation is following him and trying to get to him, and when his creation is away from him he...

Blog for Ringling College of Art and Design's Lit of Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction Class (LMST345-01)