Week 8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Week 8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

As prior to discussing Neil Gaiman stories in my class, I read Coraline and it follows a young girl who recently moved into a strange  old house. I think this is perfect for this week because it follows contemporary urban fantasy quite well.

The chapter begins and the first sentence talks about how she discovered a strange little door before even introducing the house itself. I thought this was pretty interesting to start us off as readers. The first chapter is just an introductory to Coraline, her family, her neighbors, and the very strange door that open to a brick wall. By the end of the chapter we realize that this might not be the case with the black shapes as shadows messing with her that night.

The following chapter is her just exploring. Coraline is a character that loves to explore just like most main characters centered around Urban Fantasy. This is probably why these characters are in these situations in the first place they want adventure and they want danger. While visiting her neighbors she gets a warning from the old man’s mice telling her to not go through the door. Forcible and April reading her future in the tea leaves reading her future that she’s in danger. In which Coraline thinks about maybe danger wouldn’t be such a bad thing, she couldn’t have been more wrong about that statement. After sometime she went through the door everyone told her to stay away from. Where she runs into her “Other Mother” I noticed that this was happening around lunchtime rather than dinnertime like it was in the movie. No song was played by the dad either upon meeting. In the other world, everyone is different and Coraline is treated like she’s the center of the world, this is including all the material possessions she’s given and food. Everyone is a lot interesting than they are back at her home, with constant performances. Of course, it must’ve felt weird to Caroline to have another universe where seemingly everyone cares about her more than her original world. And when I read more into the story, the more and more it became clear to me exactly what this all was saying to children.

 

 It all ends with the fact that in normal childhood life your parents won’t always be around to entertain you or show you love all the time. They won’t have everything perfect. That just because some strangers who seem awfully nice and pretend to be close to us doesn’t mean that they are. Coraline is probably the best example of Urban Fantasy because so many kids and people can relate to how she is feeling.