Week Three: Kwaidan

This week I chose to read the short stories from Kwaidan from the assigned readings. I found them very entertaining and enjoyed the fact that they were a series of short stories as apposed to long novel forms--I've always fund media to be more digestible and to the point in shorter formats. These in particular kept me reading, the same way you could easily binge watch a tv series on Netflix but not necessarily watch 4 feature films back-to-back. I liked the way some of the stories had abrupt endings, reflective of how the real world situations of the tales would have a surprising end as well. 

Another thing I noticed was that, while they were written down by Lafcadio Hearn in 1907, the language is very simple to reflect the translations of the original stories. I wonder if some elements of the fiction were lost in translation, especially when considering the traditional embellished nature of Victorian English contrasted against the straightforward plain interpretations of the tales in Kwaidan.

One of the stories from the Kwaidan I read was The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoychi. It was more like stories I’m used to than others with a distinct beginning, middle, and end as well as being longer.  The creepy supernatural elements kept things interesting, I suspected that there was something going on that more than meets the eye. Well, mostly because Hoychi is blind, he couldn’t see if something was afoot. I definitely didn’t expect his ears to get ripped off though and him to keep completely still. 

Week Two: Understanding Vampires

I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a fan of vampire fiction, but I am a fan of many things that lie within the vampire genre. In this weeks class, we discussed the different classic elements of vampirism and the rules that are generally accepted in vampire fiction. As a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan (TV series only, I haven't had the chance to read the comics yet), I'm most familiar with the "Buffy Rules":

• Vampires are immortal unless killed by the following: Stake through the heart, Fire, Decapitation, Direct Sunlight
• Vampires do not have souls, they are demons that have taken over the souls/memories of the host body
• Their faces can turn bumpy
• Turning someone into a vampire requires the one being turned to drink the blood of the host vampire
• And many more rules

It was interesting to realize these "established rules" that I had etched in my mind were actually pretty different from the rules that are traditionally associated with vampires...such as turning into bats, or using their lustful gazes to entrance unsuspecting women. I started thinking about the way Buffy kick-started the post-modern take on vampires to add a romantic element. There are vampires, but they have souls and love the one person meant to kill vampires! (Spike and Angel) And with that, the lion fell in love with the lamb and the Twilight series became a hit (not a fan, if you couldn't tell.) 

With all of those elements in mind, I chose read  I am Legend by Richard Matheson, comparing the elements of vampirism and storytelling to the perceptions of vampires. I had seen the movie "I am Legend" starring Will Smith--although I will admit I was too scared and left the theater because there was a lot of loud startling noises, and I'm just really not a fan of "scary" movies. I liked the scientific take on the vampire notion in comparison to traditional vampire stories that incorporate more supernatural elements. In this story, the idea of an epidemic with a cure fuels the plot, which reminds me more of a "zombie" horror story. 

When we look at the "vampire" or monster in vampire fiction, we normally see them as the main antagonist to the very capable protagonist. Often the protagonist's journey is an involuntary one, but a duty nonetheless. Robert Neville had to deal with the pain and loss of his wife and daughter to this disease, losing the life he loved to fight vampires and survive in a new world. And in every generation, a Slayer is born...sometimes that slayer is a cheerleader who has to give up her life she loves to fight vampires and keep the world the same...

But Buffy Summers legacy as the Slayer is very different from Robert Neville's journey into becoming a "Legend". Whereas vampires are normally seen as a very black/white interpretation of good and evil, we realize Neville's story actually puts him on the evil side of a new society. Overall, I found I am Legend a novel take on an idea that's rehashed time and time again, and that's really what I like about vampire fiction.

Gothic Fiction depicted in The Black Cat (1934)

I have read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein many, many times at this point. I first read the novel when I was in the 7th grade in my advanced literacy class, where I was most impressed by the word "paroxysm" (I continue to use the word to this day). I then read it again in my senior year of high school in my AP English class, where I thought to myself "I wonder if I'll read this book again." Lo and behold, I did read it again! Although this time was probably my favorite reading of it, because I instead explored the structure of the book as a piece of Gothic Fiction, and elements from it that I thought were really reflective of the genre.

For this entry, I decided to take my understanding of a few key points in gothic fiction from my readings and relate it to another classic gothic piece, the 1934 film "The Black Cat" starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, as well as contrast those elements to Frankenstein. The film, produced by Universal pictures and one of the biggest box office hits of that year, was part of the boom in horror film "talkie" pictures following the release of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in 1931.

1. The Sublime Setting
1. One major theme in gothic fiction is the idea of relevance in the context of the world, or the sublime setting. In Frankenstein, there are many grotesque horror elements combined with scientific findings that combine the emerging technology in the world with these 
2. This can also be seen in "The Black Cat", where Karloff's character Hjalmar Poelzig's very modern home is built on the ruins of the fort he commanded during the war, and surrounded by very old traditionally gothic elements.
2. Mortality/Death
1. There is a fascination in gothic literature about the preservation of mortality and the death that follows it, which is often displayed in grotesque ways.
2. Frankenstein examines this idea with Victor trying to keep his professor's mind immortalized by bringing his creature to life, hoping to find a way to take parts of people who were once deceased and bring them back for longer preservation. The results take a turn of the hideous, but the idea is nonetheless successful.
3. This ideal of preserving the beauty of things that were once living can also be seen in Poelzig's hidden dungeon: After being revealed as an antagonist through the film, we see Lugosi's character Dr. Vitus Werdegast finding his deceased wife as one of the beautiful women on display in the glass cases Poelzig has.
3. Descent into Madness
1. 
   

Elements of Horror depicted in Young Frankenstein

• Mortality/Death
• Hangings, shallow graves, grave diggers, etc.
• Bringing the dead back to life through science
• Brains on display
• Examined deterioration of heads
• Grotesque visuals, such as
• Igor's eyes/hump?
• Noises:
• Thunder & Lightning 
• Mystery of the unknown
• Dark/ Cobwebs/ Rats
• "IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT..."
• Castles lit by candlelight, Ruins
• Secret Passageways
• Breaking the limits of Mankind
• Isolation
• Descent into Madness

NOTES:

• Gothic: 18th century, one of the first genres.
• Not many novels, first novel Jon Quixote
• Novel: new form
• Chase through a multichambered environment
• Pursuit from someone who isn't appropriate for the other
• More developed gothic: pursued finds someone they can relate to
• Flows form different emotional standard, not beautiful classically. 
• Sublime: At the top of a rugged set of mountains, looking at the landscape... Recognition of how relevance in context of the world.
• Genre: Categories
• The Gothic Heroine: A response to the increase of female readers/audience
• Survival
• Variation of the Damsel in Distress Archetype, only she's taking care of herself. 
• Looking for someone who will serve as her suitor
• Awakening
• Recognition fo herself and her accomplishments
• North Anger Abby by Jane Austen, satire of gothic
• "The Woman who Kicks Ass"
• Frankenstein