The Final Chapter

13th Blog Post / Revisit of earlier post


I decided to revisit a post from the first weeks reading about the Frankenstein Monster. Besides horror being my favorite genre, the Frankenstein Monster is probably my favorite character in the vast world of creatures goblins and ghouls. The adversity he faces, the misunderstand aspect of his intentions when trying to find Dr. Frankenstein, and the life he was forced to live because of his apparence all lend to this sympethatic approach I get when reading this novel.

As the reader I can find so many things that I can relate to in this novel. The Frankenstein Monster didn't choose to the life he was born into, none of us do. So when he is abandoned by his master Dr. Frankenstein he throws a tantrum just like a new born and then we start to see what he is capitable of. His destructive force that turns into a killing machine, though he doesn't know what its wrong at first but to us, he is this un-human nightmare sent here to kill us which isn't his intentions. He was just scared, but then he starts to learn on his own since he was abandoned.

His ability to learn is the reason he becomes so dangerous. The Frankenstein Monster his forced to teach himself throughout the story. One important thing is speech, with this tool he is able to communicate with Dr. Frankenstein and with every human that he comes across. I found this to be extremely interesting because the Frankenstein Monster is one of the few intelligent creatures of the night. Which brings him up to a human level, I can get inside his mind so to speak because he can voice his thoughts, I start to understand his reasoning towards the end of the book when he kills Dr. Frankensteins wife out of revenge. Most of the time the monsters tend to be mindless animals in a sense, running off their natural instincts. Creatures like zombies, some ghost, werewolves, king kong etc. But at this point in the story, the Frankenstein Monster is actually plotting is revenge for being left alone and is strategically planning who to kill, who is closest to Dr. Frankenstein.

The thought of having something with that mindset and the ability to carry it out is pretty scary because now there is reason. Moral of the story, don't give a monster a reason to want to kill you, especially if he can come up with a reason.

Liliths Brood

Lilith’s Brood 

This weeks reading was one of the better ones out of the past few. I love how it talks about responsibility which is something I think everyone should take more pride into. This is another good story about humans interacting with another intelligent species, aliens. Of course in this novel the humans are weaker, making the reader feel vulnerable. Then we are introduced into the role genders play in this story. The aliens have this third category of gender called ooloi, which is described as a mixture of both male and female. Another little tid bit about the ooloi is the ability to change other genders and they can make hybrids with other species ( we find out this becomes problematic later on in the story for Lilith ). So if they went to a new planet they would have no problem blending in with whatever species that was on that planet. Hopefully there intent would be good and not malicious.

There aren't that many humans left so having any sort of connections with humans becomes very important. Can you imagine a universe full of life and being alone? Lilith and the ooloi have combined their genetics, heres the problem. She's isolated from the human race because she isn't a pure human being anymore ( figuratively ). Lilith feels like an outcast to the human race and now has to choose which humans to start over with. I can only image how difficult this must be when everyone sees you as an outsider and you have to cast that thought out of your head when making a decision. All that pressure is put on Lilith to make those choices, and to make the right one at that.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 

by Ursula Le Guin.

This novel is very well rounded short story. In this short story, they talk about a nice town called Omelas ( The Utopia, every story seems to have one ). Everything is going good except the situation with a deformed child. The people of Omelas are thinking " hey if we let this child be free we can't be perfect " selfish of them right? I know, I guess this is the price they pay for wanting perfection or this is what happens when a society is brought up on perfection. The standards that outline "perfect" cloud the fine line between what's right and wrong. Obviously this is a clear case to the reader, we know this is wrong and now after reading that I have this animosity towards the perfect town, kind of ironic if you think about it. The town that has everything going right for it and yet I have a problem with them already.

This really reminds me of things that go on in today's world. Giving someone else freedom doesn't take away from your own freedom, not like there is this limited pool of freedom and there isn't enough to go around. Anyways back to the story.

 In the town of Omelas, there are people who see the captive child and walk away from the town. They know what's going on but choose not to help, we see that all the time in today's world, everyone is guilty of it at some point. Its like a social standard thing were we keep on with our daily routine and the outside world doesn't influence us. When really it does, I bet if one person did do something then others would join in and support that individual. All it takes it one.

So I went from reading about this nice town and thinking the best about them, to uncovering the truth about the towns true nature. The figurative mask the town wears while this child is in a room suffering really talks to me about the type of society they are.

The Stars

Reach for the Stars! 


  The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is really different from stories I'm used to. Our main character Foyle isn’t the best until he wants revenge and to destroy all people on Vorga for not helping him. It’s funny how much trouble the teleportation or "jaunting" caused to the everyone on all the planets.  Really quick on a side note, people in this novel can only teleport on each planet or to places they have already been to, unlike in most science fiction stories were its a free range of teleportation. Basically it causes wars and dangers to the common people because of the amount of problems that arise from them. This in turn is the downfall, funny how advancement in technology that was supposed to be for the better, ends up being the downfall. This was a very interesting take, I have seen it done before where the teleportation is used to get to some important destination for the heroes, but I never thought of what a teleportar could do if they weren’t a hero like stealing items, unless I think of the cartoon Futurama were Bender the robot would steal riches from all over the galaxy in all different time periods. Otherwise teleportation is usually just a means of escape, with some instances of quick travel. 

  *Another side note, there was another instance of teleportation in Dragon Ball Z ( yes the cartoon ) were Goku teleported himself and Cell ( the antagonist ) to save planet Earth, only for Cell to survive and return to Earth. I bring this up because the teleportation was used to not only as a means of travel, but also to save a planet. Thought that would be an interesting little piece of info.*

  It’s also interesting how it spread sickness but now that I think about it, its literally the fastest way for it to spread. And I like how it has the science atmosphere with people getting sick when they first starting trying out teleportation, but it also has the fantasy aspect of the story. Mixing things we understand like spreading diseases with components that we know aren't fictional yet like teleporting. Our brain puts two and two together and it makes sense somehow. The story continues on with the end being Foyle making a last ditch effort to escape from his past and have a fresh start. Very interesting stories overall and I would recommend it to someone who's interested in this genre.

Anansi Boys

A man named Spider...?

I didn't get to read the entire novel but it started off normal and now I'm at a part were nothing is making sense to me. A pretty quick recap, there is a guy who had his father die, the guys name is "Fat Charlie", not his real name but thats his nickname. Turns out this "Fat Charlie" is some reincarnation of a spider god but doesn't have any powers because his brother has them. Well that must suck to be a god and have no powers, and not even that "good" of a god. I'm not sure what powers a spider god might have except powers that are similar to Spiderman. Which actually now that I think about it might be pretty awesome. 

Anyways Fat Charlie ends up whispering to a spider and ask for his brother to show up and then the next morning he does. This is were things started to get weird because they get super drunk and then Fat Charlies brother who's name is "Spider" ( shocking ) ends up finding out all these things like embezzlement at the company he works at and sleeps with his brothers fiance. Not all in the same night but over the course of what I was reading. And thats were I left off. 

I didn't know what to expect when I started this novel, and then it started off somewhat normal and my first impression was" oh well that sucks that this guys father died singing to some girl in a karaoke bar ". Then he's really depressed and BAM, you're a spider god. First off thats an odd choice of a god to be, as the author I don't know if I would've picked a "Spider God", maybe this lead to the creepiness because most people hate spiders. I found myself wondering how the Fat Charlie took that news the first time he heard it. I know I would've called someone crazy but still would've been tempted to try it out. It's not everyday you get the powers of a god, even if it is a spider; maybe I'm like Spiderman now which is awesome because spiders have amazing strength.

C.S Lewis

For this week I decided to re-read one of the novels from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe written by C.S Lewis. I read this book when I was in 8th grade so it has been a while, and re-reading it after I've seen the movie was a little different. The movie was no were near as good as the book was and I don't usually say that even though most people do. So now that I know the plot of the book, the characters, all setting and what to expect, I could look out for certain things that I might have no caught onto the first time, digging deeper into the book I guess you could say.

One thing I noticed was key traits by the main characters, and what I took away from the novel. Like how loyalty was a big part in this book, the main characters were brothers and sisters and they needed to bond. And what I mean by that is they couldn't abandon each other because they were all they had. So what happens, one of the brothers is tempted by the witch with a piece of turkish delight ( which is like a sweet treat ). Typical kid right? Oh hey little boy I have some candy, come with me, and then he falls for the trick. Pretty much thats what happened to sum that up.

But in all fairness he wasn't the oldest so he felt like he was in the shadow of his brother. And that always happens, no one wants to be under someone else, especially if it has to do with family. Thats usually the case with family betrayal, one feels lesser and they want the power or right or claim to what they think they deserve. We see this a lot with the brothers that are coming into the right of power as they become of age, not as much with the sisters in the family.

Overall this is a really good book and a really good series that I think everyone should go read.

Hobbits.....Not Little People

Obviously this story is more popular now since the movie just recently came out and was a massive hit. It's been a while since I've read the book but I did recently see the movie, though the movie only touched on part of the book because its being spilt into a trilogy. Can't wait to see the other two which I hope will be even more amazing than the first one.

Anyways, I love them both. This is probably my favorite type genres outside of horror because I feel "freedom" or like a sense of adventure that engulfs me. The quest they go on (I love to travel) so its not hard to get my imagination going when they begun the quest. Also from reading Lord of the Rings and seeing the movies, saw and read them both before I saw the Hobbit sadly. Kind of backwards since the Hobbit to place 80 yrs before the quest in the Lord of the Rings happened.

Bilbos journey with his companions captivated me from the get go, not hard to get stuck reading this when theres danger around every corner knowing that you have little friends and even more enemies. The fantasy landscape in another world, the magical civilizations (elfs) and the battles, everyone loves a good fight scene. But the main thing that keeps me reading is the ability to overcome struggle. You always have this sense of entrapment, like well they aren't going to escape from that. Or they can't win that battle, or they aren't going to find their way out of that with all those enemies. Yet time after time they do the impossible, even if I already know they are going to make it there is still the unexpected element of someone might die off. Which character could it be? How would the loss of that character affect the rest of the group and their journey? These are the things I ask myself while I'm reading.


It's just one epic story that I think everyone should go read before they go and watch it in theaters.