My Final

My Final assessment piece is going to be on the Golden Compass, I have found this novel quite interesting although I had a tough time reading it and within such a short time, but once I got into it wasn't to bad, I managed to read the entire book over a two week period. i like the fact that the Golden Compass is toned down to a level of readability by a younger audience, but many of its themes and allusions are more than heavy enough for adults, I really enjoyed reading this book it had alot of adventure in it which i love reading about, and just different things that people do to get themselves into trouble and out of trouble, overcoming obstacles and helping others.
the author has started off this novel very slow throughout the first couple of chapters which in my opinion is hard to stay focused, because it just seems like they drag it on alittle bit long. definitely after the chapters it starts to pick up and it gets the story moving along quite nicely.In the this world there are many weird things that happen for example, Lyra is drawn into events beyond what she can understand at the outset because she is a critical figure in the events that will emerge.
I really like the character development, and I especially like how they included orphans and just people that you wouldn't normally think of or hear about in a book, it's nice to see alittle bit of difference in authors characters. I think it awesome that they have armored bears, they are very convincing creatures.
The one thing that i hate about the ending is that it resolves one issue but it then just gives you another it doesn't ever end anyways for all of you readers out there this novel may be long but it is a very interesting and good read if your looking and haven't read it, anyways good luck.

The Paper Clip

The short story that I have read for this week is called paper clip and it’s by Arthur Colin, and it is in the genre of science fiction. This short story is a very interesting read due to the fact that it is about paper clips and little tubes that send them from peoples cubicles to this ladies cubicle so that she can do the most important job of sending the paper clips to a incinerator. If you ask me I don’t that that’s a very important job. This author doesn’t really have that much time to develop any character backgrounds, which really is too bad because I think that it would really help his story out a lot. I didn’t really see a lot of elements of science fiction in this story except for one the use of nanotechnology. I think its very confusing how Arthur Colin ended the story, it didn’t seem to make a lot of since to me the girl that does the paper clips gets fired from her job and then goes down the golden elevator with her new boss who shoves her out and she lands on her face. I don’t know what to think off the ending.

An EYE for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth

This week I read a short story called An Eye for an Eye and a tooth for a tooth, its by Lawrence Schimel and it’s from The Mammoth book of comic fantasy. First off this is a really strange story it is like deep dark horrifying tooth fairy story, and if I were a little kid reading this I would defiantly not ever want to loose any teeth again as well as sleep again, just because of all the horrifying elements of this story. This girl lost her eyeball her teeth and something in her ear so she couldn’t hear anything anymore. The author of this story doesn’t take a whole lot of time out to develop her character but does try to describe a few things about her while telling the story of when she was little and liked to get money from the tooth fairy. I do however like the way that the author turned a fairytale story into a horror story and kind of change the way that we perceive those types of creatures we all no and love and it kind of makes me think a little bit about and now im wondering maybe if the tooth fairy is this way the maybe Santa clause and the Easter bunny are not so nice but are actually the bad guys. Maybe Santa really takes kids and makes them toys are maybe the Easter bunny is made up of eggs or something really strange like that, I don’t know it could happen.

The Aquatic Uncle..Nov 5

For this weeks blog I have just read a short story called the Aquatic Uncle by Italo Calvino. fist of all i must say this was a very interesting little story and if your reading this and haven't read it yet, i recommend that you do, it has some interesting theories of evaluation. I especially love how the author keeps you guessing what these land creatures are and even the water fish, i mean he gives you slight clues of what they could be near the beginning of the story but not enough to actually know for sure. they talk about how toads have warts and stuff so it kind of gives you the clue that they could be frogs or something but your still wondering about the uncle. I also like the fact that they brought a girl frog into this and that the land frog was going to marry her but then it put a very bazaar twist on the end and she ended up learning how to swim and she basically became like a tadpole and married the boys uncle. which i thought was alittle bit weird that they got married because he is supposed to be this very old fish and she's so young. I really like how this story tells you what the authors version of evaluation is and how they think it came to be.. like i said before really great short story, and if you ever have anytime you should take a sec to chill and get away from the world, and read the aquatic uncle

In Class Writing

In Class Assignment
-My most significant observation that I made about this short story called beyond the door, is that the writer really tries to bring you into his stories meaning that he is trying to make you feel what the character or characters feel. It seems like the writer is really trying to bring some action into his writing and I like the fact that he doesn’t explain everything in great detail, he gives enough information without giving you two much.


-I think that the husband in the story is very lonely (His wife left him and the cuckoo clock hates him)

-Protagonist
-Romantic partner
-Artificial life
-Not a lot of time for character development
-Very realistic (Could Happen)
-Paranoia
-Loneliness
Author

- Easy to understand
- Humorous stories

THE DROWNED GIANT J. G. Ballard

This Week im reading a short story called The Drowned Giant By: JG BAllard and first of all I must metion that this is in the Genre of Science Fiction. When I first started to read this story I had to reread the first couple of pages... for me it was a harder story to understand and I believe that it is this way because they are describing every little thing in great detail about the Giant and its Confusing . Also they are talking about how many people are there and when they are there and where they stood on the Giant. I don't think that the author really needed to explain all of that, he could have done it in a much shorter story or he could have even made the story longer with other important things.. I just think it unnecessary. Now for a brief description of the story.... So basically there is this giant that had drowned and he has been washed up on the shore everyone heard the news and went down to see this giant and it was huge I must add.. well this guy found out about it and was fascinated by it so he returned everyday and more and more people came to see, eventually it started to decay and less people came from then on. Some people took pieces of the Giant some went into a museum but eventually there was nothing left and the guy no longer went and seen the giant... that's basically wat the story is its alot longer than that and way more detail, but honestly I didn't really see the point to this story, its about a decaying body what more is there to tell. This story really wasn't for me.

Blood Child Oct 22

This week I read Blood Child by Octavia E. Butler, this is a short story from the category of diverse position of science fiction and this story I have to say was very weird and was a little bit hard for me to read I think mostly because it was very confusing and then that made it so I didn’t like it all that much. First it really revealed information slowly, and it steers you into the dark but then in the end she brings the whole story together. But I do think its interesting how the author set the story up. So in this story there are these creatures with 4 limbs and many meters long. They drink some type of eggs that make them live longer. But the mother of these creatures wouldn’t drink the eggs, I don’t think she drank them because she was at her wits end, she is tired of being used. This alien species are trying to use humans as a host for reproduction. This story is a bit displaced because the guy is having a baby. I felt bad for the mother’s sun because his fate has been decided for him, but in the end he is the real hero because he has saved his sister from having to go through this whole being pregnant thing and birthing process. So if you like wired and really gruesome stories this might be the one for you, go check it out

Twilight Oct 15

The novel that I have read for this week is called Twilight and its by Stephenie Meyer and I think that its in the category of horror. This novel is about a girl who falls in love with a school boy, who ends up being a vampire that she can’t get her mind off of and pretty much in the end she wants to become a vampire so that she can live with him forever.
This book starts of by having us meet the characters pretty much one by one which don’t get me wrong I like that but, I don’t like when a story drags on and on about one character in particular. Stephenie doesn’t really drag it on for too long but defiantly long enough. So basically this novel starts off by bringing you in pretty slow, she goes through every detail, so you feel like your there and this is really happening. Which is all good but I really don’t think that you need all of that detail you could probably cut it back some and still get your point across just fine. I really like that this book is easy to read a really easy to follow so just about anyone in any age group can read it. In the character development aspect they are very well developed. And in contrast with all of the other characters when Edward’s story is being developed she doesn’t’ give to much away in the beginning, which really draws you in and make’s you want to know more about the him, it just gets you really involved with his character. Even though the story starts off slow towards the middle of it, it really picks up a lot and its sucks you in.
If you are someone who likes a good romance novel with hint of action and horror this will be a great book for you, it’s a very easy and interesting read.

Press Ann

This week I read a short story called Press Ann by Terry Bisson, and it’s from The Mammoth book of comic fantasy. First off all I must say that this little story was a bit weird and confusing, it did however start out fine, it was this girls birthday and she was going to go out with friends but she had to pay for everything so she needed to go to the flash and cash atm but when she did the atm was talking to her and trying get in her life basically. This story is weird because you usually don’t see atm machines that can actually talk and basically have a human brain, and no exactly what is going on with you at that time, but still acts like a machine. I kind of like the slower reveal of information in this story but once more things start happening and its getting better you expect the author to sum up everything in the end, but that doesn’t happen which is big bummer. The author really doesn’t develop his actors much in this story but, definitely tries to through the atm machine but really doesn’t manage to do that all that well

The Golden Compass

The “Golden Compass” is the first novel of the Dark Materials Trilogy. The Main character Lyra Belacqua is an orphaned twelve year old girl living at Jordan College, Oxford with her daemon Pantalaimon, or Pan. A daemon is essentially a person's soul that takes on animal forms. During childhood the daemon can shape shift at will until the person has reached maturity. At the beginning of the book, Lyra and Pan sneak into the forbidden “retiring room” and over hear her uncle, Lord Asriel, talk to his fellow scholars about the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, and a mysterious elementary particle called Dust and how he plans to exploit its abilities to reach other dimensions or other “worlds.” After Lord Asriel's departure, Lyra overhears, from her friends, a rumor about Gobblers who have been kidnapping children. Later on Roger, Lyra's closest friend, is discovered to be kidnapped by these fiends. Determined to rescue him, Lyra plans are interrupted by a visitor, Ms. Coulter, who recruits Lyra as an apprentice. Before leaving, lyra is given, with the condition that she tell no one about it, a compass, or the alethiometer, that has many dials that can tell a person anything they need to know, by the master of the college who says that it originally belonged to Lord Asriel.

Leaving with Ms. Coulter, Lyra is at first, very fond of the woman, but later becomes more uneasy. Ms. Coulter's daemon, which is a golden monkey, was caught looking through Lyra's things, which Pan told Lyra, most likely looking for the compass. The two quickly escape, after the incident and finding out that Ms. Coulter is the head of the “Gobblers.” After being chased they are picked up by Gypsies, who Lyra is friends with some of their children. The Gypsies, who have had their own children taken from them by the Gobblers are planning a search and rescue mission to save all the children. Lyra discovers, from one of the Gypsies, that Lord Asriel and Ms. Coulter are her biological parents as well. During her time with the Gypsies, Lyra learns how to properly read the alethiometer and gains the companionship of an exiled polar bear named Iorek Byrnson. During the search, Lyra is kidnapped by the Gobblers and discovers that they are separating children from their daemons and essentially killing them. After a series of daring moves and almost getting separated, or cut away from, Pan, Lyra frees the children and escapes on a hydrogen balloon, piloted by Lee Scoresby. Lee then takes Lyra, Roger, and Iorek to Lord Asriel, who is being held captive in Iorek's homeland, Svalbard. The church, not agreeing with Asriel's explorations, has imprisoned him in order to shut him up. Upon reaching Svalbard, Lyra meets with the current king, Iofur, who tricked and exiled Iorek, into fighting with Iorek so that he may gain his rightful throne back. Iorek successfully wins the fight, and kills Iofur. After the victory, Lyra and Roger continue their way to Asirel and discover that he had been working on his research even while being imprisoned due to his influential nature. Lyra soon finds out that Lord Asriel never needed the alethiometer, like she originally thought, but instead he needed Roger. Asriel takes Roger outside and murders him by killing Roger's daemon. By severing the connection between child and daemon, he released a high amount of energy. With the energy and his specialized equipment, Lord Asriel was able to open a portal to another world and soon disappears. Pan tells Lyra to follow him, and Lyra, devastated by her mistake, follows Asriel into the portal.

Lord of the Rings (Extended Version) by Peter Jackson

I watched the Lord of the Rings the Extended version by Peter Jackson and this was actually my first time ever watching these movies, and I thought that they were very interesting and had alot of dark action scenes in it. I was surprised because I thought that this movie would follow more to the novel The Hobbit, but it didn't it took us more into depth and to many places that The Hobbit didn't.
My favorite character is frodo and not because he is the main character but because he seems that he really wants to go on this adventure and is really hyped up and excited about it and when Gandolf took him and his friends to the dwarves and the other creatures they asked who was going to take the ring to the fire pit thing and nobody wanted to so frodo stood up and said ill go. I really like his energy and his will power. My scene I hate the most in the first movie is when Gandolf falls off of the cliff with the firey dragon, but first he is just hanging on the edge of the cliff and everyone is just standing there watching then frodo runs to him and tries to help him but the others pull him back and Gandolf yells at them then falls. Well the reason why I hate this scene so much is because Gandolf has helped these people and protected them through everything on there journey so far and then when it comes to him needing help and some protecting the others are just like forget it and basically that’s why it makes me so angry. But yeah anyways overall it’s a pretty good movie and I can’t wait to see the last one and find out how it ends.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit

The Hobbit

This week I read the J.R.R Tolkien’s graphic novel The Hobbit. This classic novel is in the genre of fantasy. First I must mention that this book was originally intended to be a fairy tale story for children, however the adventure and action in this book is more suitable for adults.
The Hobbit is a story of Bilbo Baggins, and he really isn’t your normal looking hobbit, he is more of a plumper man who loves to eat (which are what Hobbits are all about Fooooood!) and is a quiet and content hobbit that keeps to himself more often than none. But one day his whole life get turned upside down when the wizard Gandalf comes wanting him to go on a quest with him and many other dwarves to retrieve the dwarves stolen treasure. This story first takes place in a more happy and magical surrounding and then we head into a dark gloomy setting and throughout the chapters in this novel you will find yourself reading about many different kinds of mystical creatures such as elves, goblins, wolves, dragons and many more. All these people go on this quest with Bilbo but when it all comes down to it, it is Bilbo himself that must face the dragon Smaug.
In my Opinion I think that this book is very interesting read and there is lots of adventure it, so if you have any time on your hands and wish to read something then I recommend to you my friend The Hobbit.

Classic Japanese ghost stories

This week i have read a few of the Classic Japanese Horror Stories and in fact they are pretty good I must say.
The first one I read is called a Dead Secret and it was basically about this lady who's name is O-Sono and her father sent her to a school where they would teach her proper accomplishments and then she ended up getting married to a merchant named Naragarya and they got married and had a son.. but after four years O-Sono died but after a few days she came back and haunted the house she lived in but she wasen't looking to scare anybody she wanted something so she stood by this chest and and nobody could figure out wat she wanted so this priest came and watched and listened to her and it ended up being a letter in the bottom of the chest that someone who loved her wrote a long time ago and she didn't want her husband to find out so the priest burned it and then O-Sono was laid to rest and never came back to.
The second one I read is called Of Mirror and Bell and this one is about a priest who wanted to build a bell for there temple so he went out searching for bronze mirrors and he got an assortment of them, but he still needed one more so he went to a young woman's house and asked her if she had a bronze mirror and she did and she gave it to him but after she donated it the priest she realized that it had been a family heirloom and she wanted it back but she couldn't get it back after she already gave it up so she let it go.... so finally the people melted all of the bronze mirrors but one would not burn and that just so happened to be the womans and of course everyone new if a mirror could not be melted that it ment they really didn't want to give it away and they were cold hearted.... soon the woman was so ashamed that she killed her self by drowing in a pond she put alittle curse on the bronze but the town didn't think anything would happen so they kept ringing the bell day after day nothing happened, but the priest became scared and took down the bell and rolled it into the muddy pond.

Response to Mr.Steiling's Troll Bridge Question

List made by Amy Schilling and Andrew Dimase
Different Elements of Fantasy in Troll Bridge
- Trolls
- Barbarians
- Dwarfs
- Talking Horses
- Beasts
- Treasures/Gold
- Setting/forest/enviroment
- Quest/adventure
- Wizard
- Hero/ Warrior
- War
- Swords

interview w/a Vampire

About two weeks ago I read Interview with a vampire, and surprisingly I really liked the book. It really wasn’t that confusing to read unlike a few of the other books that I have read for my lit Class. This book really caught my interest mainly because, I like the thought of vampires and there inner battles first being mortals and then turning into the dark side, I just really like the whole concept of that I guess.
So basically in the book this guy Louis suffers from the loss of his wife and child and couldn’t bare to live on which pretty much caught the attention of vampire lestat and unlike lestat, Louis had a choice to become a vampire or die and he chose to become a vampire. Which was really surprising to me mostly because he said he didn’t want to live anymore, but I suppose its because he wouldn’t feel anything anymore. But as I read on in the book it seemed to me that they really did have feelings or at least one exception Louis. And I say that because, Lestat shows no regard for mortal life while Louis does. During a conversation one night, Lestat tells Louis that they could survive on animals, although it is nowhere near the same experience that killing mortals gave them. But Louis insisted until he came across a town were the plague had killed most except for this little girl so Louis decided to take her life a relieve her of her pain, but instead of killing her he only got enough were she was suffering (losing lots of blood) so Lestat freed Claudia of her pain and let her drink from his blood and she turned into a vampire. Really what im getting at here is that Louis became so in love with this little girl, like it was his own daughter. There bond was so strong and no other vampires liked that because they are not supposed to feel for anyone. Which is why the vampires that Claudia and Louis met along the way decided to take Claudia and Madeline and put them in an outdoor cell where they instantly disintegrated and turned to dust at first light. Forcing Louis to break the bond he had. Which I thought that was very cruel just because they were jealous of what he had they wanted him to suffer. That really connects to the world today because nobody like’s if someone is better them so they want to down grade them however they possibly can. Well that’s it for this time; stay tuned for next week’s blog.

Response to Mr.Steiling's P&P&Z Question

How do the rules for zombies expressed in P&P&Z embody the rules for zombies generally?
1. They kind of walk around mindlessly with no soul eating people, also helping the story out (the disease or plague has taken over the bodies of all the people and they have turned into zombies or unmentionables.

We see zombies in this novel represented as the lowest of lower classes. They are harnessed to pull carts, burned "adead" in a concentration camp-like cremetory, slaughtered coldly and recreationally. Just what is the metaphor being presented by the figure of the zombie in this novel?
2. it may be a metaphor between nature and man.

Moreover, what can we make of the zombie as it has become a fixture in contemporary popular culture; just why have zombies become so popular?
3. I believe that zombies have become so popular in this day and age because it gives us more adventure and horror in your life something that we wouldn't usually get otherwise.

Pride, Prejudice and Zombies

The Novel that was selected for this week is Pride and Prejudice and zombies, this is a book I have never and in fact I have never read a Jane Austen book in my life. But I have to say that it wasn’t all that bad of a book. I could actually stand to read it and it wasn’t that difficult to understand. I do believe that with the type of language that they use in the novel, that it takes place in the early 1800’s but I could be wrong. The book seems to focus on a small town with really rich people.
So in the beginning Mr. And Mrs. Bennett are talking amongst themselves and Mr. Bennett first tells his wife that this really rich guy is in town named Mr.Bingley and it would be nice if they could get one of there four daughter’s called upon but Mr.Bingley favors the oldest child Elizabeth the most, and Mrs. Bennett doesn’t appreciate that but anyways what I’m getting is I think its weird that Mrs. Bennett is mainly focused on getting her four girls married off and her husband just wants the girls to be safe from all of the zombies and could really careless about getting them married off, so he put them all into deadly arts. In my opinion if my mom was only concerned about getting my sister and I married off I would be pissed, because there is more to life then just marriage go and explore the world. I think its kind of strange that nobody ever call them zombies except for maybe one or two times in the whole novel they are known to man as the unmentionables. I mean why can’t they call them zombies that’s what they are. Another thing why dress the dead in fine clothes I mean I know that we do it know but then they were just put in some dirt. I love when the Bennett’s daughter’s are at the ball, there dancing and singing and then all of a sudden the unmentionables climb through the windows and start feasting on the people and then the girls just whip out there knives and kill them all I just find that amusing, its just so random I guess.
Ok more towards the end of the book when Elizabeth is over at Bingley’s house, they left the cellar door opened to let the night air in and then the unmentionables were found the next day feasting upon a dozen servants, some maids a couple of cooks and a steward. Ok so if you knew that this plague was going on and there were zombies everywhere I’m sorry but wouldn’t you make sure that the door was closed so you wouldn’t get infected.
All right I will try and wrap it up now I like the ending when Elizabeth ends up marrying Darcy even though Lady Catherine is kind of a bitch to them and doesn’t want them to get married, I honestly think that she’s jealous of Elizabeth. One other thing why do the people stay in England and fight off the zombies why not just move to another town and find safety away from the zombies.

Frankenstein

I started reading the novel Frankenstein today, and at first I didn't think I was going to like the story but after I got into chapter one it got a bit more interesting. But lets start from the beginning shall we, the main character's name is Robert Walton and he has decided to go on this long voyage to the North Pole, and before he starts out he rights a couple of letters to his sister Margret stating that he wants to go on this adventure to experience and gain much more knowledge. He continues to tell her that he will get a ship and hire a crew when he reaches Archangel, but then he gets to thinking that he doesn't have a friend to share his joy with, so he is kind of in search of a friend. Now were getting into chapter one, Walton is on his way to the North Pole when off in the distance him and his crew see a giant man with a dogsled he then starts to pursue him when he finds a man ( Victor Frankenstein ) lying on the ice of the ocean. So they picked him up and brought him in from the cold, realizing he was very sick and weak from being out there so long. Frankenstein starts talking of his past, telling many stories. Walton sees that he is suffering from much grief, but is amazed with how frankenstein loves the beauty of the world around him. Walton thinks that they could be good friends and he could share his joys with him. Frankenstein continues to tell how his dad saved his mom from poverty after her dad had died, then how they had 3 children william, Elizabeth which she was adopted, and himself victor. He goes on to say that him and elizabeth were one year apart and they were pretty much raised together. Victor then went to school to study the laws of nature, he also tried to write a book but his dad Alphorse said it was trash. then later on victor Frankenstein was asked by his parents to attend the University of Ingolstadt, but before he got the chance to leave his sister elizabeth fell sick with scarlet fever and her mother was so worried she needed to be beside her and then she also fell sick, elizabeth then got better but her mother did not, while on her death bed she asked victor and elizabeth to join as a union ( get married) nothing really became of that or at least not yet. Victor now gets to leave for college, he then studies chemistry. working in the labs gathering much needed material to make his experiment. I am now to the part where Victor Frankenstein makes the crazy creature and he realizes it was a big mistake. that was my summary of the first 4 chapters of the novel so far, can't wait to read the rest.