Week 9: Space Opera

Week 9: Space Opera

The Martian is a humorous sci-fi opera.  A typical freak Martian dust storm (reminiscent of the movie “Mission to Mars with Gary Sinese) suddenly hits astronauts/botanists on a mission while on Mars. 

The main character, Mark Whatney, gets blown away and stuck in his side with an antenna and left for dead by his fellow crewmates.  His suit is damaged, so no vital signs are detected.  Mark realizes his dilemma, alone and stranded, and goes into survival mode.

The Martian uses his brain “I am going to have to science the heck out of this” to survive.  Mark uses his training in botany and engineering to come up with several ways to survive.  He grows potatoes out of his own “waste” and invents water by passing leftover hydrazine, rocket fuel over a catalyst.

He is a brain geek and survivalist bringing the “Nerd Thriller” genre into the Mainstream.  This is hyper-technical meets Robinson Crusoe times two!  What helps this novel be so technical is the author is an actual software engineer.  I found the humor genre in this book as well like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  The humor cuts the tension of a very grim situation.  The dialogue undermines the bleak setting. 

It gets interesting once we read the people back on Earth realize his is alive, thanks to satellite photos that show the equipment on Mars being moved.  You really want this character to survive.

What is coincidental is this book is about the nerd that is the hero, very much like how I always thought Spock was the hero in Star Trek – even though others all made Kirk out to be the Golden Boy.  Scotty was also one of my favorite Star Trek characters as well.

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.

Week 7: The Tale of Spiritual Education

Week 7: The Tale of Spiritual Education

For this week I decided to try to read both PDFs listed on the resource page, I started off by reading the Harry Potter Prequel  because I was interested in reading it as a Harry Potter fan myself.  I enjoyed the little short story ending with the little bit on Sirius and James.   


The second one I read through was by Eric Morgenstern, Night Circus.  A very interesting read, the story itself was stronger and more world building more than the actual characters in ways I feel.  Overall, it was alright. I feel as though like other novels in this genre it’s not as morally centered like others. It seemed more dissociated or almost like it wasn’t even making a statement. (At least relating to this week’s topic.) I feel like they spent way too much time on parts of the novel that weren’t interesting at all.

I think literature about magic in general can play a role in captivating young adult readers, usually in stories with a younger character going through challenges in their life that are normal.  School issues or problems with others with magic added onto it. Of course, Harry potter has these elements although the character goes through deciding if he’s good or bad, and sometimes it’s about their romantic interest but with more added onto it. Like deadly tournaments and battles.

Week 6: The Hero's Journey

Week 6: The Hero's Journey

I decided to revisit The Lord of the Rings, a novel series I haven’t read in years. In class we talked about a narrative pattern called “The Hero’s Journey”. This follows the cycle of a character growing and experiencing throughout the story. I would love to talk about exactly how this plays out in the Lord of the Rings since it follows this very closely, following the main character of the series Frodo Baggins. In the beginning he is innocent, unknowing of the world outside his shire. Before he is called to leave and adventure out in the world, a moment of awakening. Of course he follows his heart to do the right thing to adventure with his pals, going through trails and hardships. Only to eventually be betrayed by someone close to him. These are all common things in The Hero’s Journey, this is a constant cycle of different challenges a character must face either big of small in some degree in almost all storytelling media.  These tropes usually start with a character that never was privileged, and never had parents. They have a very weird circumstance leading him to give them this unprivileged life like someone out to kill them or something happening when they were born. Frodo was an orphan.  Of course they become the right age,  the age of puberty or maturity to start on their journey or adventure to adulthood. Of course by the end, usually the main character is reborn when the conflict is over a new one continues.