Lit. of Horror, Fantasy, Science -> Colson Engelberger

In “The Hobbit” , the main character, Bilbo, is whisked away by forces seemingly beyond his control and does not generally follow the elements of the classic journey of the hero. We do not learn much of his lineage, and around his small neighborhood, he does not have an intense reputation about him. However, another character Thorin, follows this journey more closely. Upon his introduction to the novel, we see that he has great expectations placed upon him by his surrounding company. Upon killing the Dragon known as Smaug that was guarding the treasure he deemed as rightfully his, Thorin begins to exhibit greatly selfish behavior. Through his journey, we see inklings of a fall from grace, however these suspicions are brought to the forefront when he flatly refuses to help those that he has negatively affected in his journey, even though they ask of him only the bare minimum. This goes in contrast with the archetype of the hero’s journey, that says that when the hero has his battle he w...

    “Akata Witch” by Nnendi Okorafor, is a young adult novel set in Nigeria, that follows the story of a young girl named Sunny. One day, Sunny discovers that she belongs to a group of people known as “Leopard People”, people with supernatural abilities and powers. Through the course of the novel, she works to discover her true heritage and powers, while fighting against an evil that threatens the fate of the world.  As the novel progresses, the reader is able to see different archetypes of the “Witch” character and how they affect the life of the main character. Immediately, we see that Sunny is othered by her community for being a black albino woman. Her classmates sneer, belittle, and bully her for no other reason than the fact that she is different. Before even learning of her magical abilities, it is already widely rumored that because of the way she was born she must possess a type of great power, a fact backed up by the fact that when her friend ChiChi first ...

"Weird" in this sense, refers to a subject that the general population perceives as taboo or unexplainable. Often times, the subject matters of the “New Weird” involve mind-bending and logic defying events of the supernatural being dealt with by the main protagonist. Something in their world has significantly changed and this change challenges their world view to the point where, even despite protest, they can not help but uncover the truth behind the phenomena.  In “Annihilation”, the reader follows a character only known as “the Biologist” as she is sent out into a mysterious new region known only as “Area X”. The choice here to follow the Biologist specifically brings a new perspective to the work, as rather quickly, we see her try to apply her previous knowledge of biology to the world surrounding her, only for this knowledge to fail her. When trying to explain a wall of organic, seemingly plant-based lifeforms to her party, she says, ‘“Some sort of fungi,’ ...

Often times, before one reads a story, they approach the work expecting to see certain genre tropes that they themselves are already familiar with. When reading a story about superheroes, it is expected that the protagonist and antagonist will face off in an epic battle. When reading a murder mystery story, the reader expects to read through how the killer was able to get away with their crimes for so long, and to find out their identity. In general for all stories, it is expected that good will go against evil, what form these two forces take depends entirely on the scope of the novel. However, these assumptions and tropes can vary greatly depending on regional and cultural differences.  For instance, the assumptions of Western and Asian horror differ greatly due to their cultural values. In Western gothic horror stories, often times the misfortunes and events unfolding are due to the main characters own mistakes or dark past. Exemplified in Mary Shelly’s, “Frankenstein” , the...

Mary Shelly’s classic Gothic Novel, “Frankenstein” contains a variety of different references to Gothic Literature, and is among the best works of fiction to consume when analyzing the Gothic thanks in part to the novel’s use of various tropes of the genre. Immediately upon beginning the book, the reader is welcomed to the desolate, unforgiving, and completely isolated environment of the North Pole. Isolated environments are a common trope of the gothic novel, as these kinds of places serve to cut the main characters off from receiving help in their struggles.The protagonists are often alone with their thoughts, forced to confront their own minds and struggles with morality.  More specifically in the context of the time period, the North Pole represented a fantastical region of the unknown. Very little had been recorded of the area, and for all the average person of the time knew, it was a land of great mystery and intrigue. In the book, the ship of an explorer known as Robert ...

“Interview with a Vampire” is a 1976 novel written by author Anne Rice. The book is often credited with being a part of the cultural shift in mindset of vampires from perhaps silly Halloween monsters, to something more humanizing, sinister, and sympathetic to the average reader. The relationship between two of the lead characters in the novel, Louis de Pointe du Loc and Lestat de Lioncourt, is of notable interest to the reader, as it presents wildly different interpretations of the moral dilemma of immortality. For instance, Louis is a character who is only turned into a Vampire at the start of the novel, and from the beginning of his journey, he realizes he has made a terrible choice. To Louis, all life around him is precious and he won’t seem to let go of what Lestat refers to as his “romance with mortal life”. Anytime he kills another human to feed himself, he feels extreme guilt to the point of driving himself to sickness. Letstat, on the other hand, serves as...

 Hey ya'll here's my course blog for Literature of Horror/ Fantasy/ and Sci-Fi.