Literature of Horror, Fantasy, Sci Fi

- Blog for Ringling College of Art and Design Fall 2019 Literature of Horror, Fantasy and Sci Fi -

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Week 6: A Rich Fantasy Life

Discuss how the work you read for this week reflects or doesn't reflect elements of the classic journey of the hero.  This week I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and although I've watched snippets of the movie series, I haven't had a chance to read it until now. When comparing The Hobbit to the classic stages of the Hero's Journey, I believe it follows most of the elements. According to the 12 Stages of the Hero's journey, it begins with the Ordinary World. The beginning of The Hobbit also showcases Bilbo's ordinary world, living as a hobbit and living in his homey hole in the ground where he enjoys good food and a comfortable lifestyle. The second and third aspect of the Hero's journey is the Call to Adventure and the Refusal to the Call, this comes when Gandalf approaches Bilbo and invites him to join him in an adventure, but Bilbo is happy to be living at The Shire in the comfort of his home and doesn't want anything to do with Gandalf. As much...
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Week 13: Literary Speculation

This week we are attempting to distinguish between writing in genre and writing that may use elements of genre but that is essentially literary. Discuss this question in relation to the work(s) you read for this week. Do you think this is an important or necessary distinction, or not? Is your experience of the text affected by these questions? This week I read the short story, The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino. Whilst I read this story, I realized that it was a mixture of science fiction, fantasy but also prose. The structure, the descriptive and flowery language as well as the topic of the short story reminded me of poetry. If this piece was condensed, I could definitely see it as a piece of poetry. The genre of fantasy was most apparent as the narrator discusses traveling to the moon easily by "rowing out to sea" then climbing up the moon and collecting "moon milk" which almost resembled cheese. It also recounts how the narrator, Qfwfq, fell in love wit...
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Week 3: Asian Horror - Vengeful Spirits

Please write a post on your blog (350-500 words long) that discusses the assumptions of the work you read for this week. Do the assumptions of the work—the nature or even the existence of good and evil for instance—reflect a different cultural orientation than that expressed in "western" horror or the gothic? In what specific ways do the assumptions seem to differ?  In the short story Diplomacy from Kwaidan, we see the assumption that hateful resentment will lead to a restless spirit, therefore haunting and taking vengeance upon the person they hate. A man is about be beheaded and tries to scare the samurai (who is about to behead him) by cursing him and saying he would avenge the samurai as a ghost if he killed him. I believe this is similar to the cultural orientation expressed in western horror. We oftentimes see that the backstory or history of a haunted location or person has to do with a spirit dying in hatred and vengeance and cursing the individual, an item or desc...
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