Literary Speculation : The Aquatic Uncle

This excerpt of “The Aquatic Uncle” I found to be the most peculiar. The narrator discusses, what most in the modern world might argue otherwise, the concept of space and modernization. He explains how the world on land is limited and allows only expansion through mechanisms like survival of the fittest. Only the best ideas survive and push the society toward the future. But living in the water, there is more infinite space, with discourages expansion and modernization. It allows for all forms of living, no one direction, so no modernization is necessary. They want the uncle to move up on the land to help move the world forward, but he is stagnant and stubborn, preferring the traditional aquatic life.

The land and sea comparison is an analogy between traditional and progressive society. The narrator is promoting a shared, community-oriented world by which humans work together to move forward. But the uncle, who is set in his ways, prefers the solace of murky isolation. He would much rather hide away in the depths of the water than work tirelessly on advancing society. He looked bleakly at the future with little regard as to how to better it. This excerpt shows a paradigm among many more traditional people, who refuse progressiveness and communal advancement. Each new generation grows more progressive in their willingness to work together, breaking away from traditions that might not work and seeking out new solutions.

Heroic Journey : Hobbit

The Hobbit is based on events that took place before the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins. Bilbo Baggins is a small and hairy hobbit, who lives in his comfortable hobbit-hole in bag-end. When a wizard arrives on his doorstep with 13 dwarves, he invites them all in for tea. Little does he know that they are to take him on the biggest adventure of anybody's life, where he will encounter goblins, elves, men who can change into bears and Smaug the Magnificent-a very fierce dragon. Many times he wishes for the safety of his comfortable hobbit hole and at times the only thing which keeps him going is Gandalf's certainty that he will see the company through.

While the Lord of the Rings was targeted at a much older audience, I think that The Hobbit appeals more to younger people because it is less complicated and a whole lot shorter. It has an amazing storyline and is certainly a classic. This is why I loved this book, and the film also helped me to understand it clear.

Asian Horror : Vengeful Spirits

The living spirit of Lady Rokujo attacks Lady Aoi, from The Tale of Genji.

The Illustration from manga adaptation version drawn by Waki Yamato in 1980

 The vengeful spirit, is one of the popular topic of the asian countries; such as China, Japan and Korea. In this review of Asian horror, I will describe about the one of the example of a vengeful woman from The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in 11th century of Japan.

 The main character, Prince Genji is the love starved man that who lost his mother when he was little and have fallen love with Lady Fujitsubo, the young stepmother with low age gaps. She was really looking alike Genji's real mother and took care of Genji's childhood like older sister takes care of younger brother.

 Genji's first love was hopeless. And his wife, Lady Aoi was super cold and self-assertive woman who doesn't compatible with Genji. 
So, Genji was struggling with this relationship problem and cause he woos the women with his good appearance. Lady Rokujo was also one of the high ranking women who accepted him, but she was also getting forgotten.

Lady Rokujo could not express her true feelings as she wished without breaking court decorum. Instead, she repressed her feelings of jealousy, which began to transform her into a demon.

 One night, while sightseeing during the Hollyhock Festival, Lady Rokujo’s carriage collided with the carriage belonging to Genji’s rightful wife Lady Aoi. After already losing her place to Genji’s wife, Lady Rokujo discovered that Lady Aoi was pregnant with Genji’s child. The insult was too much. Her repressed jealousy escaped from her body and transformed into an living spirit, which haunted Lady Aoi every night. Eventually, this living was witnessed by Genji, who burnt a anti-spiritual incense for his wife to protect her against evil spirits.

 Lady Aoi gave birth to Genji’s son, but shortly afterwards became possessed by Lady Rokujo’s vengeful spirit. The living spirit was finally exorcised, but the possession took its tool of Lady Aoi and she passed away.

 Lady Rokujo had hoped to become Genji’s next wife, but she discovered that her own hair and clothes carried the odor of anti-spiritual incense. She realized that she had been responsible for the hauntings. Thinking that Genji could never love her after murdering his wife, Lady Rokujō left the capital and joined her daughter at the Ise Shrine.

Interview with the Vampire

The most of the vampires from subcultures are portrayed as captivated things that especially focused on the sexuality and mortal existences that caused a sensation of the fear through the bloodsucking.

Interview with the Vampire is the novel that shows the personal torment of certain existence, not a simple story of a vampire. Louis de Pointe du Lac, one of the main characters of this novel struggles over hundreds of years after he became a vampire. He couldn't find his own answer in mind about himself.

Louis thinks over and over; why does he exist, and the feeling of guilt, that he became an existence that can only live if he kills human even he was human once over.

In the past, while Lestat had no choice of becoming a vampire, Louis decided to become a vampire. However, there was a certain irony that when Lestat accepted a life of a vampire, Louis struggled over the hundreds of years unfortunately.

About Claudia, she turned into a vampire by Lestat after Louis found and drinks from her. Claudia has been growing up in a child's body for 70 years and became disillusioned with her body that doesn’t grow anymore. Also, she eager a body grown woman. As such, she gradually believes that Louis and she has been chained to Lestat and tried to murder him while she was struggling.

According to the reference of Anne Rice mentioned about Claudia, Rice’s dead daughter who died young of leukemia, became the motivation of Claudia. Rice made her daughter who wanted to grow up, into a fictional character called Claudia with mortal life to escape from the death.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the Gothic Novel

Motive of writing Frankenstein was based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's betting between her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and their friends; Lord Byron and John William Polidori have a competition to see who could write the best horror story to pass the time. After thinking of day, Mary conceived the idea of a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. 

The Gothic novel refers to stories that combine elements of horror and romanticism. The Gothic novel often deals with supernatural events, or events occurring in nature that cannot be easily explained. Like for example, Victor Frankenstein creates the creature with a dead body and he plays like a god in effects. And also, Mary Shelley never fully explains where the creature’s parts come from or the science Victor uses to bring the creature to life in this novel. This setting would have seemed very mysterious and ghostly during the time when the science didn't develop enough. 

The setting is also one important element that uplifted the atmosphere. The main setting of the Frankenstein is Switzerland and Germany, and the arctic is the place where Captain Walton documents introductory frame narrative at the beginning of the story. These places have a something common of strange places. They may cause a panic easily rather than somewhere that is familiar. And what's more, the forest where the creature murders people and the dark streets where Victor researches a dead body to create the creature also highlights the dark settings of the gothic novel.