Space Opera and the New Frontier Response

I remember when Martian came out in 2011 and being so excited to read it, because I love space books and movies. Finally, when the movie came out it in 2015 was such a visually pleasing movie to watch. Not only because I already loved the book, but because in this day and age graphic effects and technology has increased so much in quality, they were able to portray the movies so well visually.

Now I think this book and movie show a lot of peoples deepest fear. Which is being stuck in space on Mars, having no contact with anyone and not knowing what to do. Now of course Mark Watney knows what he's doing because if he didn't he wouldn't be working at NASA. I think this movie shows the world what could happen in the future, which is where this movie is taken place in (year 2035). It gave us some type of fantasy as do many movies do, but I always think that these movies alway appeal to everyone in some time of way. We alway want to explore more, we have always wanted to explore more of the world and universe we live in. It's something we've been fascinated with since the beginning, always looking to the future. Now as freaky as The Martian is to us, it still shows us "what could be and happen", which is at the same time cool and scary and the same time.

Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy Response

I think the book and movie Coraline was a good way to show myth with a mix of reality. I remember reading this book when I was younger and always found it fascinating and I enjoyed it very much. In 2009 when the movie was made I enjoyed the story even more, because you're able to visually see the difference between myth and the "real world".

In Coraline the story is very odd, and I think the choice to make it a claymation made it all the better for the effects. The mythic part of this movie and book reminded me of a story my grandmother told when I was younger. It was a story similar to Coraline, there's this lady that steals little kids from their families at night and makes there lives seem better. Eventually after being pampered by the lady and the people around she asks the kids to stay. Of course the kids say yes and after their response the lady steals them and their souls forever. Which is almost exactly what the myth story of Coraline.

The myth I believe is the the door that's through the wall and The Beldam pretended to be Coraline's "other mother" and makes her "other father", "other neighbors" etc. with a better life and everything. Eventually asking Coraline to stay their only if buttons were allowed to be sewn into her eyes. It's obvious where the myth world is relevant to the contemporary world. That's what the movie is about, it's this myth world coming in contact with the real world. It collides and the everything gets mixed together and everything gets confusing for a minute. Especially when you watch the movie I suppose because it's visual. However, you see these two different, but similar worlds mesh into one and eventually Coraline loses all that she knows.

At the end is where things change, the myth of this story changes. I don't mean to spoil anything, but I don't think there's a way I can explain how it changes without spoiling it. At the end Coraline enters the other world with The Beldam, now in her original form (a spider). As Coraline tries to defeat her with a game this is a representation of reinventing the myth she's come to know. By defeating The Beldam she set the ghost children's souls free and helped save her parents, along with all the other people The Beldam captured.

Regardless I believe Coraline is a really good movie and book. Obviously I'd recommend reading the book first. There's always a chilling thought of myth coming into reality. Coraline is one of those stories, which is makes this a wonderful read.

The Tale of Spiritual Education Response

I believe that Harry Potter has many lessons/challenges to show and give in the movies and the book, which is what I read for this week and topic. I love Harry Potter and I learned a lot from the stories that JK Rowling wrote. However, this topic of having to think and talk about moral issues and spiritual challenges is something interesting where I actually have to look throughout what I've read and think hard about this.
For example what I've read in terms of moral issues you learn very fast that there's a separation of magic and non-magic. I believe this is used to connect younger audiences to show a sense of "not being apart of your muggle parents". Also you learn that there's a lot of rules of magic, such as when you first meet Hagrid he notes to Harry that magic shouldn't be used outside of Hogwarts. I suppose this reason to show the "rules" so early is to show us the viewers that stuff happens too where you need rules and laws. Eventually you learn more about these rules and realize how important they are to the Wizarding World. I also supposed they show the importance to get the viewers to realize that "hey maybe rules aren't so bad"
Finally I think that it's important that JK Rowling made it to where Harry Potter is raised from a very verbally abusive family, The Dursley's. This family of 3 treats Harry terribly, which is what you come into while reading the book and after the title in the movie. Regardless of when you see it, it's almost the first thing you notice about Harry Potter in his youth. Which as much as I hate to say it, but I believe it's a very good thing that this is how he is raised. The reason being, say Harry was brought onto know when he was very young that he is some "famous wizard", who is "the boy who lived". I believe he would have been going into Hogwarts with his head up high and a big ego following him, which I believe is what young adults are used to. However, they're not used to the most important person in the story being the one who was treated like crap. I believe this choice of seen was an important one that Rowling made. Also gave the viewers a sense of "hope" I supposed, showing that "anything is possible".
I love Harry Potter it is such a wonderful book and movie in so many reasons. This story is full of moral lessons for everyone regardless of who you are. Which is what JK Rowling wanted everyone to feel like, Hogwarts is always a place you can come back to.

The Heroic Journey Response

I believe in every hero role they're not what you expect, which is what The Hobbit has in terms of the "hero". However, I also believe that The Hobbit has multiple hero roles such as Bilbo, Gandalf and Tolkien, each obviously has their own individual reason, but still a hero. I'd like to talk about Bilbo for this entry though because I feel that he has more of a hero role in The Hobbit. 
A hero in most classic hero journeys has some type of self reflection of some type which his also where you realize that the character is actually worth something and is important. For example Bilbo, someone who would never leave his hometown or go anywhere for that matter and doesn't like the unexpected. Then eventually he leave because he was to see what it'd be like on "the other side" the more adventures side. This is a time where a type of self realization is taken for Bilbo. The ring is something he uses in a heroic way to, something he would of never thought of doing. Also convincing Tolkien that he has to change his lust for gold ways, if not then it'll end badly and such.
Either way, I believe that The Hobbit shows a classic hero journey through Bilbo. By classic hero journey I mean having the most unexpected hero figure has a self realization over time. Also by helping characters along the way during his journey. All of which Bilbo showed in The Hobbit. 

Witches and Women in Genre Response

The story that I read was "Aunt Maria (Black Mariah)" which was very interesting. The only witch book/story I've ever read was Harry Potter, so reading this story was very interesting. I believe that Aunt Maria portrayed what everyone thinks a witch actually is: rude, mean and manipulative. I'm not sure I enjoy this type of witch better, but it does pertain to a very popular type of witch. I get the feeling in terms of women this story shows that we're typically angry when things don't go our way. Also shows that once we have some type of "power" like Aunt Maria we manipulate everyone we meet (guys). Which personally I don't agree to, but that's what I get from this story and characters. Regardless I think Aunt Maria was very good for it being a witch story which I personally aren't into very much.

New Weird Response

Being a huge zombie fan I read The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. I first enjoyed reading this because it is a graphic novel. I’m not a big fan of reading so I try my best to find reading material that is exactly like this graphic novel. However, personally I think the word “weird” has no set definition, because it’s different for everyone. Personally I think “weird” is something that is out of the ordinary for a specific person or something that makes someone uncomfortable. For example, I find spiders gross and weird, but some enjoy spiders and don’t think they’re gross.

There are also people who enjoy the “weird”, they find it very compelling. I don’t know why exactly people enjoy the “weird”, but I have a thought that it is something like why people enjoy horror movies. People get a drive from what is weird, they enjoy the suspense of what’s going to happen I suppose or being out of the ordinary. For example, the movie watches in class today where the man and woman enjoy pain and got a drive from it. Not saying they thought it was weird, but to others it’s weird and that’s why the man and woman enjoyed it too.

Now The Walking Dead is something “weird” too, but people still enjoy watching movies and reading about them. I think the whole thought is “weird” because it’s something that isn’t today in our time. It’s something people know can possibly happen and there have been incidences where something similar has happened, but not like The Walking Dead. I think people keep watching and reading things about zombies because they know it can happen so they enjoy the idea of it actually happening by watching them. I think The Walking Dead was very interesting and weird and I love everything about Zombies because they’re weird.

Japanese Horror Response

The story Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things was very interesting to read actually. I have read some Japanese Horror Stories, but not enough to be familiar with them. However, I believe reading this gave me a perspective of what to expect when reading these types of stories. For example, what I've noticed especially in Kwaidan was that Karma was  big thing. Sort of like the saying "what comes around, goes around". Also tying into the whole Karma deal, selfish/materialistic it is known as a type of sin. To me the story was simply a ghost story, Japanese horror tends to focus more on curses involving the themes of revenge and grudges which I find very fascinating. These's a lot more honor and trust in these types of movies that often get broken in some type of way, shape or form. This also ties into the whole honor and dishonor ritual type stories and traditions. All and all this story was not a heroic Japanese story, which I enjoyed very much.