Posts Tagged ‘horror’

“Why Young Girls?”

Posted: December 19, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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Yesterday I visited my advisor’s office in the English department and discussed doing my senior thesis in the fall. Normally I would talk to her about this after spring semester had started, but I wanted to get a jump on things before I was busy with homework from five different classes. Plus I had the day off yesterday so I thought to myself, why not?

During the course of our meeting, I was outlining what I’d like to do for my senior thesis, mainly to write a novel. For this novel, I chose five different ideas for stories from the list of novels I keep on my flash drive and gave a brief synopsis of each one to my advisor Ruth. Around the third idea, Ruth noticed a trend with two of the stories I’d mentioned: they both involved young girls as protagonists in the story (one was a story based on Alice in Wonderland, the other involved demons). She then asked me, “Why young girls? Why are they used so much in horror?” To my surprise, I realized I hadn’t thought of it much, and at that moment I didn’t have a very good answer for why, when children are used so much in scary stories, young girls are more dominant than young boys (notable exceptions include Danny Torrance from The Shining and six out of seven protagonists in Stephen King’s IT, the two boys from Monster House, and Hansel from Hansel and Gretel).

And guess what? The question’s been bugging me since that meeting yesterday. So between writing, work, applying for scholarships, and my household chores, I thought I’d take a moment to examine why young girls are more dominant in these sorts of stories. First, we need to examine why children in general are used so much in horror stories:

1. Children are very innocent creatures. It’s the most obvious reason, but it still needs to be stated. Children are very innocent human beings. They still believe that good usually wins against evil, that bad guys get beat up and thrown in jail by superheroes and cops, and the world is a safe place where they are loved and are protected from evil, at least until they’ve been warped by some of the harsh realities of the world. In horror stories, that innocence is tested and sometimes completely broken by the events of the story, whether it be monsters under the bed, abusive parents/teachers/bullies, or whatever else you may be using as the antagonist in a story.

Even the man/child/sponge has more imagination than most adults.

2. Let’s face it, kids are more imaginative. As we grow older, we tend to think less in terms of the fantastic and more in terms of what is real and reasonable. But as children, we really believe in Santa, the boogeyman, fairies, aliens and ghosts with little doubt that they are actual, concrete beings. This means that kids are usually the first to come to the realization that something evil is at work. They don’t realize it through any leap of logic or reason, but through gut feeling and belief. This is also usually why they are more likely to survive than that one guy in every horror film who insists with fatalistic stubbornness that there’s a logical reason for everything and then when they realize something’s up, they still insist on handling it themselves as men, even if it leads to their heads getting bitten off.

3. Kids are dependent on others. Until sometime between ten or twelve, children are dependent on adults for most of their basic needs, and even when they start to become independent, they still require a good portion of help from adults. When in a horror story, most likely a child can’t recieve help from an adult because they’re less likely to be believed by adults. This means they’re basically adrift in a metaphorical sea that wants to kill them painfully and mercilessly. How they survive without the security of an adult is something that keeps the reader drawn into the story.

4. Children are also not as resourceful. Or to be more specific, it’s rare for children to have access to the knowledge or tools they need to defeat the enemy of the story. They wouldn’t know how to set up a trap for a mutant monster, or how to draw a vampire into the sunlight without being totally obvious of their intentions, or even how to set a windigo on fire with nothing but a set of matches (which they shouldn’t be playing with anyway). If the characters are adult, all they need to do is get out their smartphone and Google “How to make a molotov cocktail” or “how to set up a tripwire alarm system”. Kids wouldn’t even have a smartphone, and even if they did they probably wouldn’t know what to Google. How do they survive with nothing to really help them? That is another draw of a horror story.

Look at that face! You know that hotel gave that kid some big therapy bills.

5. Children are easily influenced. Lastly, children are easy to influence, for better or for worse. Has anyone seen Friday the 13th Part IV? Right at the very end we see just how the events of being around Jason have influenced and hurt little Tommy, who will be dealing with his issues for the next two films. A horrific event can stay with a child for a very long time, corrupt their innocence or make them aware of their own abilities. Either way, the events of the story will stay with the child likely throughout their lives. From what I hear, the Overlook Hotel certainly stuck with Danny Torrance (I haven’t read Doctor Sleep yet, though it’s on my reading list).

Okay, so we’ve established why children in general are used so much in scary stories. But still the answer of why young girls are used in the stories has still to be answered. Often, like Carol Anne from Poltergeist, they are persecuted and kidnapped by beings we can’t really understand. Or, like Samara from The Ring, they are the stuff of our nightmares. And occasionally they are both (anyone watch The Exorcist recently?).

This morning I spent some time trying to figure out and I think a lot of it has to do with socialization and the roles we assign to the female gender. In other words, what we expect from young girls and how we believe they should act, behave, and think are why young girls are so popular in horror stories.

Please note that the suggestions I’ve listed below are for fictional girls and are just based on my own reading and viewing of many different horror novels, comics, TV shows, and movies. There may be several stories featuring girls that are the exact opposite of these reasons, I just have yet to be exposed to these stories. The reasons I’ve listed do not necessarily apply to real girls either, as I’ve made clear below. Here are the reasons I was able to come up with and which back up my beliefs on gender roles making female characters popular:

1. Fictional girls are more prone to sweetness, harmony, and nonviolence. Most boys when they’re young like to get wild, scrap a bit, use their fists and compete with each other through acts of physical prowess and aggression (when my cousin was younger, you could not stop him from acting like this). Young girls though are often portrayed as preferring to be friends rather than fight. They like doing cute stuff and they don’t like to get their hands dirty or do anything too wild. The only exceptions I can think of are Beverly Marsh from IT and my sisters, but then again my sisters are from my crazy family, so go figure. So since these fictional girls are less likely to use their fists and more likely to try to harmonize, they’re at more risk for whatever evil is after them in the story.

2. Young girls have yet to enter into the realm of maturity and sexuality. A lot of criticism with horror comes with how it sexualizes its female characters (please see my article Sex and Horror for more on this topic).However young girls have yet to reach that stage where people begin to see their sexuality. There’s an innocence in this lack of sexuality that young boys don’t get from their ignorance of sexuality, though that might have something to do with the fact that, like I said, a lot of women in horror are defined by their sexuality, whereas men don’t usually receive this sort of sexualized image no matter what age they are.

3. It’s adorable when young girls cry. Because of the pre-assigned roles that differentiate between boys and girls, at some point boys are taught that crying is not a manly thing to do, so they stop crying if they want to retain whatever form of manhood a young boy can have. On the other hand, it’s considered okay for girls to cry throughout their lives. And instead of pitying these girls or questioning their maturity like we would with boys, our hearts go out to the girls and make us want to hug them. This contributes to the popularity of young girls in horror stories.

And if these points haven’t hammered home my belief on gender roles playing a major role in the popularity of young girls in horror, here’s my final point:

In the end, the princess mentality takes a toll.

4. Young girls want to be princesses. It’s no understatement that plenty of girls in our Western society want to become princesses when they grow up and have a handsome prince rescue them from evil so they can live happily ever after, and our media perpetuates this to no end  (even Once Upon a Time and Frozen couldn’t leave this cliché out of their storylines, though they both do something rather original with the trope in each their own way). In horror stories, typically it’s up to a female character to either rescue herself from her predicament or to let a strapping young man save her and then sweep her off her feet. With young girls, that choice isn’t always available, and often the writer will write the story so that we wish for someone to come and save the little girl, while holding us with baited breath to see if she will be saved by a dashing prince…in the case of horror stories, most likely an older male relative with an axe or baseball bat.

So the reason why young girls are so popular in horror stories, as I’ve listed above, is that they fulfill certain gender roles that we’ve come to expect and work nicely into not just the plot of the story, but certain preconceived notions we unconsciously have in their minds. However, not all young girls fall into these roles. Beverly Marsh from IT plays a big part in stopping the demon clown when she’s a little girl by being the more aggressive fighter of the Losers Club. Coraline from the book of the same name is able to release the souls of the eaten children and save her parents all on her own. And even creepy Samara coming out of the TV is an exception, as she doesn’t fulfill any traditional roles, not even the one about needing saving. She’s the freaking villain!

Yeah, don’t mess with her.

So I think I’ve answered the question Ruth posed to me yesterday in her office. I’m not sure it’s the best answer or the right answer, but it’s what I was able to come up with. If you have any ideas about why young female characters are so popular, examples of girls who buck the trend, or any other points relevant to the discussion, please let me know.

Also, in a somewhat related note to children and horror, I finally watched the film version of Battle Royale. It was actually much better than I expected, almost as good as the novel. However there were a couple of creative choices I disagreed with, and that’s why it’s not on equal footing with the book. I also won’t see the sequel, because apparently it’s not based on the original story, its anti-American message goes beyond criticism of America to full-on attack mode, and nearly every reviewer who’s seen it has hated it, apparently.

All for now. Write on you later, Followers of Fear.

One Year Since Newtown

Posted: December 14, 2013 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
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I’m not sure there’s a single American in the country today who opened a newspaper, got on their smartphone, or connected to the Internet who doesn’t realize that today is exactly a year since the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Even now, the memories of that terrible day are resurfacing in my mind’s eye: sitting in bed, seeing that a school has been shot up by a gunman. Fatalities, fear, fingers already being pointed, conspiracy nuts shouting their insanity. But for a little while, the American people, a people so prone to heat and rage and division, were united in a way that hadn’t been seen since 9/11. We cried and memorialized the dead. There was grief for the 20 children and six adults who died, grief from people who’d never heard of Newtown until that day. There were numerous memorials and tributes, online and on TV and across the nation by everyone from children to the most powerful of politicians.

However in the days, weeks and months since Newtown, as we learned about the gunman Adam Lanza and we heard stories about the dearly departed. that unity broke up. We looked for solutions to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again. In a year full of monstrous mass shootings in Aurora, Wisconsin, and now in Newtown, advocates for stricter gun safety laws hoped that Congress would pass sensible gun control laws. And with ninety percent of Americans behind measures such as a ban on automatic rifles and expanded background checks, it looked like there might actually be some change this time. Second Amendment advocates meanwhile balked at these proposed measures, and instead said gun control laws didn’t work and called for administrators to be trained in firearm use and to hire security guards for schools. In the end, some states such as Colorado, New York, and Maryland passed their own restrictions, while President Obama passed 23 executive mandates and Congress failed to pass any laws that would truly satisfy either side.

Normally I would use a post such as this to advocate for stricter gun laws, but I’m tempted to not do so in order to keep the dead in mind on this horrible day. However, I read articles that show that the gun maker for the rifles used in the massacre actually had an increase in sales after Sandy Hook, and I feel a little sick to think anyone could profit off a tragedy such as this. Not to mention that nearly a year after Sandy Hook, there was a shooting at a school eight miles from Columbine High School, as if to remind us how little has been accomplished since then.

So I’ll speak and say, a year later, parents are gathering around dinner tables with a vacant seat. They wish to hold their kids close to them, but they can’t. And across the nations, parents and children, siblings and cousins, friends and families, lovers and colleagues, lose someone dear to them because of gun violence. In fact, approximately 30,000 people each year are lost to gun violence, the equivalent of nearly 1154 Sandy Hooks.

We need to do something about this tragedy, but is throwing more gasoline on a fire really going to help? No, it will not! We need to choke out the fire, not give it more fuel. So if you can, call or email your legislators. Support gun control groups if you can afford to. And if you own firearms of any sort, make sure it is in a safe place where it won’t hurt anyone who might accidentally stumble upon it. And I know any Second Amendment advocates will be furious with what I’ve written here, but let me tell you, I’m not advocating for taking away all guns from your homes. Even freedom of speech is regulated when that speech is used to incite violence or is used in a malicious manner. Shouldn’t guns be treated the same way?

And besides, do you really need a military grade automatic rifle? There are no zombies or enemy armies waiting to attack, you can’t go hunting with that kind of gun, and a simple handgun is enough to ward off any burglar or rapist. Just saying, is all.

I’m going to leave you with this video I found. It describes all the grief I feel for the victims of Sandy Hook, and I think it’ll resonate with you too on this most horrid day.

The Quiet Game: My Seventh Review

Posted: December 12, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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tqg cover

They say that 7 is a very lucky number, and I have no doubt about that right now. I just got my 7th review on my collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. This review comes from A. Frankel, which stands for Amy Novak Frankel, my third cousin and a dear friend., and she gave it five stars. In a review titled A really good book from a new author, Amy says this:

“I thoroughly enjoyed each of the short stories in this book and look forward to reading more from this author.”

Well if I remember Amy, you said that you bought all my books (which is just the two), so I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Reborn City. I spent four years bringing that to the printed page, so I’d love your opinion on it. And thanks for the review once again. I’m averaging about 4.3 out of 5 on Amazon now.

If you’re interested in reading The Quiet Game, it’s available in both e-book and print paperback from Amazon and Smashwords. I hope you enjoy reading it and whatever you think, please don’t hesitate to leave a review. I’m always happy for feedback, positive or negative.

Two New Reviews!

Posted: December 6, 2013 in Novel, Review, short story, Writing
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Today I woke up to a wonderful surprise: I’d gotten two new reviews on Amazon, one for each of my books. Both come from the same reviewer, username Enji, which makes me happy as I’m glad that anyone would read both of my books and also review them. But then again, I know who Enji is offline and I know she’s supportive of me and my writing, so that might explain it.

tqg cover

First, let’s start with The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, which now has six reviews. Enji gave it five stars and titled the review Loved the Uniqueness of Each Story. Here’s what she had to say:

“I liked that each story was unusual. I think that the book was appropriately named. I prefer chilled bones rather than scared out of my whits since I am a bit of a chicken.”

Chicken or not, I’m glad you plucked up the courage to read the book Enji and I’m glad you enjoyed them. Also, I still get to maintain a 4.0 average on Amazon, so I’m all the happier that you read it.

Reborn City

Next, Reborn City, which now has two reviews. Enji also gave RC five stars (moving its average to a 4.5 out of 5) and titled her review Fantastic (which is the catchphrase of my favorite Doctor). Here’s what Enji wrote:

“As a reader who does not read books in this genre, I must admit that I could not put down the book. I attribute this to the talent of the author. I am looking forward to reading the next books published by Ungar. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy action with  features of supernatural powers and sci-fi.”

Oh Enji, I think I’m blushing a little. And I’m happy to hear you couldn’t put it down. It’s always great to hear that from people who read your work. And I hope to have another book out soon, I just don’t have a definite date yet. But thanks for reviewing Enji. It means a lot to me.

If you’re interested at all in reading The Quiet Game or Reborn City, or you want to give either of them to a friend, or you just want to support me because you’re extremely nice, both books are available on Amazon and Smashwords in print paperback and e-book formats. And if you like or hate what you read, please let me know. I don’t mind feedback, positive or negative (though I haven’t gotten much negative feedback yet).

I have some work to do, so I’ll be signing off now. Thanks for reading, and I hope to post again later. Have a lovely weekend, Followers of Fear.

Review: “Battle Royale” by Koushun Takami

Posted: December 1, 2013 in Novel, Review, Writing
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The edition I got from the library. God, it was good! Blew my mind…and possibly a finger off. That explosive.

Some of you may remember from a while back I finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and wrote a less-than-favorable review of it. It was around that time, I started to hear about a book that predated The Hunger Games and was considered by some fans to be much better than Suzanne Collins’ trilogy. And when I heard it was a Japanese novel, then I got really interested (typical me, I’m a nut for most things from Japan).

This past month I finally found the time to get the book, titled Battle Royale, from the library and sit down to read it. As I got about a hundred pages in, I started musing to myself that this was the sort of story I would like to write, well thought-out, exciting, and extremely well-written. About two-hundred pages in, I was so engrossed it was really difficult to put it down. And by three-hundred pages in I was staying up late just so I could read more! And today I finished Battle Royale, which has officially become one of my all-time favorite novels.

And of course, I had to write a review of it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the novel by Koushun Takami, the story takes place in a world where Japan is the seat of the Republic of Greater East Asia, which as far as I can tell is what would happen if Japan had come out much better from World War II as an authoritarian empire. In this Republic, junior high classes are selected randomly throughout the year to take part in survival games in which the classmates must fight each other until only one student survives. The novel tells the story of one particular class, Shiroiwa Junior High Class 3B and its 42 students, selected for the heinous Program and forced to fight each other on an isolated island in the Seto Inland Sea. The novel focuses mainly on the exploits of Shuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, and Shogo Kawada, three classmates who plan to escape the Program, despite the number of obstacles meant to keep them in the Program (not to mention classmates that are all-too willing to take part in the Program). The novel also looks at the lives of several other classmates, so that by the end of the book you feel you know at least a little bit about a majority of Class 3B.

And the twists and surprises in this story will keep you reeling until the very end. You can quote me on that and take it to the bank.

The author does a very good job managing a very large and diverse cast, giving most of the characters at least a little characterization so that those you meet seem at least well-developed, even those who only show up for one or two chapters. Takami-sensei (as he would be addressed in Japan) also manages to tell a very bleak story with engaging finesse, wasting not a single word. The action sequences are so terrifying you’ll be hearing the climax from Stravinsky’s The Firebird during the climax (at least I did), the musings on life, the government, and the meaning of the Program will pierce deeply, and the emotions of each character hit you pretty hard as you get to know these kids. And when you find out why a government would have a Program like this, you’ll think to yourself the same thing you’ll end up thinking when you read the resolution of the story: “That’s so clever! Scary, but clever!”

There was only two moments where I was dissatisfied with the story. One was I wanted to see more of a certain character that died midway through the novel. The other moment, later in the novel, was I had trouble believing that a certain character wouldn’t get treated for a potentially-fatal-if-let-untreated wound after he sustained it and the danger had temporarily passed. Why wouldn’t he get the bullet out before it killed him? There was time for it!

Other than that, I absolutely loved the story. Even the romantic subplot of the novel was woven in beautifully, and didn’t annoy me like it might’ve in a certain trilogy I could name (oh wait, I did name it! Never mind). The plot was quick-paced, terrifying, and left you with an impression that doesn’t go away.

All in all, Koushun Takami-sensei’s novel Battle Royale gets a 5 out of 5. I haven’t been able to immerse myself into the world of a novel in a long time, and after I was done, I didn’t want to leave because I’d grown to love some of these characters so much and so desperately wanted to see what would or had happened to them.

I’m going to go reserve the movie version from the library now. I doubt it’ll be as good as the book, but at the very least it should be interesting. Maybe even review-worthy (though that could also happen if the movie is incredibly terrible when compared to the book). Unless something else awesome happens tonight, I’ll blog on you later, Followers of Fear. Goodnight.

Reborn City: Out One Month

Posted: December 1, 2013 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Reborn City

It’s been a while since I actually sat down to write a blog post, so I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got two posts to write today. The first is, as you’ve probably already guessed, the announcement that Reborn City, my first published novel, has been out for an entire month (I would’ve advertised it being out for one week and for being out two weeks when we hit those milestones, but I was afraid I’d get on everyone’s nerves. Now I actually think it might’ve been good to advertise it a little more).

So far ten copies of RC, five paperback and five e-book copies, have been sold, and I’m hoping to sell a lot more with the holidays upon us. I’ve received one review so far, from Canadian science-fiction author and friend Matt Williams, who gave it four stars on Amazon. And soon I might get more reviews: my sister read the book and said she liked it, and would give a review as soon as she could, so I’m looking out for her review.

If you’re only hearing about Reborn City for the first time and are wondering what it’s about, here’s the blurb I wrote for the paperback:

Zahara Bakur is a Muslim teenager recently moved into the gambling town of Reborn City. After her parents are killed by gang violence, Zahara is forced to join the Hydras, an interracial gang whose leaders have supernatural abilities. As the violence in Reborn City escalates and Zahara becomes closer to the Hydras, including the quiet but stern Rip, she finds herself drawn into a dark conspiracy involving the origins of the leaders and the shadowy corporation that rules over Reborn City.

If that’s piqued your interest, then by all means please go check it out. It’s available from Amazon and Smashwords, and I believe both books offer short previews of what’s inside the book, available in both e-book and paperback format. And while I have your attention, I’m going to also put a shout-out for my collection of short stories, The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones, also available from Amazon and Smashwords.

Alright, enough advertising for now. I’ve got a review to write and then I’m going to work on Ch. 24 of RC‘s sequel, Video Rage. Wish me luck!

Weekly Exercise #15 (11/26/13)

Posted: November 26, 2013 in Scary Stuff, Weekly Exercises, Writing
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Time again for my Weekly Exercises. These flash fiction pieces are part chance to practice my craft, part chance to hear feedback from readers, and part shameless plug to get you interested in my published fiction. Remember, the Weekly Exercises are dependent on your feedback, so if you like what you’re reading or absolutely hate it, please let me know. Also, if you have an idea for a Weekly Exercise, let me know. You may see your name and idea here on this blog. And finally, if you wish to read any more Weekly Exercises, they can all be found on their own page.

This week’s exercise is in memory of all teens who have been or are currently being cyber-bullied. What you are going through is horrible and you do not deserve it. Be strong. Trust me, it gets better.

~~~

Amber found Edna’s Facebook profile and laughed. There was a picture of the fat bitch with a dog and her younger brother. Well, she wasn’t really fat, she was just a bit rounder than the other girls. But she was still a bitch. A fat, ugly bitch who listened to weird music and sat in front of her computer all day and had flirted with Amber’s boyfriend. Didn’t matter if they were going through a rough patch, the bitch still had to pay for breaking the rules!

On Edna’s status, she’d written the words “Enemies Beware. Be Kind To Others Even If You Don’t Like Them.” What the hell did that mean? Didn’t matter. The bitch was going to get what she deserved. Clicking on the comment space, Amber wrote “Ur a fat, ugly pig. Why don’t u go sterilize urself. Cow.” Amber clicked Enter.

Nothing happened. Confused, Amber clicked Enter again. Still nothing. Now Amber was pissed. How come the damn comment wasn’t showing up? She groaned and tried to refresh. Now she’d have to write the comment all over again.

She clicked the Refresh button and suddenly Edna appeared on the screen. Amber’s eyes widened as Edna waved at her. “Were you planning on doing something?” she asked, glaring at Amber through the screen triumphantly. “Not going to work.”

Amber felt her anger flare. “What the hell are you doing there?” she hissed. “You’re not supposed to be on my computer—”

Suddenly Amber was unable to speak. She felt overwhelming despair come over her, like she’d suddenly been told that everybody hated her. In fact, she was sure that they did. Everybody hated her. She didn’t have a single friend in the world. But just as surely as the feeling had suddenly come, now it was gone. Why had it come? And where had it gone?

Edna only laughed. “Now you know how it feels.” she said. “Don’t do it again if you don’t want to feel it again. That’s the curse I cat: anyone who tries to bully me feels what it’s like to be bullied. Not very fun, is it?”

Edna disappeared. And Amber, for the first time since she was a little girl, cried in shame.

Why Again Did We Let Zimmerman Go?

Posted: November 26, 2013 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
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Remember George Zimmerman? The guy who shot Trayvon Martin? Guess what he’s done now: he’s threatened his girlfriend with a shotgun and threw her out of the house when she tried to dial 911. When the police searched his car, they found an AR-15, a shotgun, and three handguns. He’s been let free on a $9,000 bond, and he’s entered a plea of not guilty. And this isn’t his first brush with the law since he was let off this summer: he’s been pulled over three times for speeding and assaulted his wife (yeah, he’s still married). The only reason he wasn’t arrested with the last one was because of lack of evidence.

Now, back during the Trayvon Martin trial, those who supported Zimmerman were saying that he was defending himself, that Trayvon was high and unstable and dangerous. They ignored that he had a history of violence before the Martin incident, and they might just try to ignore this situation altogether. But I’m going to repeat what I said back then: that George Zimmerman attacked an unarmed teen and killed him, and got away with it because of lack of witnesses, including the victim who understandably couldn’t speak, and because of a law that makes no sense to me. Yeah, I don’t support Stand Your Ground laws. They basically say I can go into a public setting with a gun, start a fight with any random passerby, and shoot them if I feel threatened.

But the point is, Zimmerman’s proven that he’s more likely to instigate an incident than defend himself. This is his second assault since his acquittal. It’s only the first with enough evidence to actually go to trial. So I’m just going to be the first to say this: Zimmerman should’ve been convicted back in July, because he assaulted Trayvon and killed him. But he didn’t, and then he attacked his wife and girlfriend. Either of those assaults could’ve been avoided, just like Trayvon’s death could’ve easily been avoided, but we allowed them to happen.

I just hope that this time around, Zimmerman gets convicted, because honestly if he keeps getting off like this, his head’s only going to get bigger and he’ll think he’s invincible to prosecution and punishment. And I really don’t want to see the carnage a man like that can leave behind when he believes he’s unstoppable.

Let the trial begin!

The 5 Beauties of Horror

Posted: November 24, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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The final article in my series of the various common themes (aka “beauties”) found in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. What started as a discussion in class led to these three posts: The 7 Beauties of Science Fiction, The 7 Beauties of Fantasy, and now the 5 Beauties of Horror.

Now, as to why there are only five beauties in horror, I have an explanation for that: simply, horror often crosses genre. When it features supernatural creatures or monsters from another planet or realm, it’s horror crossing over into fantasy or science fiction. When the story features more human monsters and less of a supernatural aspect, it tends to cross over into the suspense and thriller genres. In that sense, it’s very difficult to get into pure horror, because that’s so difficult to define. So instead, I opted to go into some general themes you find in all forms of horror, no matter what genre they cross over into.

If you have any ideas on how these could be expanded, please let me know. I’d love your opinion on these beauties, since I came up with them on my own (not a lot of horror fans in my science-fiction lit class sadly, or at least not any fans who are as into it as I am).

1. The antagonist–the starting point of the story. Often you can define a horror story by its antagonist. because that’s often what comes first in planning a story and what you use to describe the story: “it’s a story about a murderous ghost”, “it’s a vampire novel”, “there’s a serial killer terrorizing this small farming town”, etc. And in this capacity, I’d like to mention that the antagonist can count as something else if there’s no real human antagonist. For example, in my short story “Addict”, there wasn’t a human or demon up against the narrator. Instead his own addictions were the antagonists of the story. So the antagonist would be more like the evil in the story that wants to do the characters harm or is already doing them harm, I guess.

2. Characters and setting. Usually after I’ve come up with the villain of a story, I start to create the other characters and the setting. The latter can also be a character, such as a haunted house or a forest (if you have trouble believing me on that watch the first season of American Horror Story to see what I’m talking about). I ask myself, who are the characters? Why are they opposite or beside the antagonist? Where is this all happening? What is each character like? All important questions that the author goes into in creating the story.

3. Conflict–there’s going to be one. If there’s a vampire in town, there’s either a vampire hunter or some townsfolk who are going to try and kill the vampire. If someone’s girlfriend has been kidnapped, expect someone’s going to try and get her back. If there’s an evil ghost trying to claim the lives of a family, there might be an exorcist or a paranormal investigator or a really angry mom trying to keep the kids safe from whatever is menacing her family. That conflict is the driving point of the story, and it sets up for the next beauty.

4. Fear. This one seems obvious, but it needs stating anyway. In a horror story, the point is to get the reader or viewer scared silly by telling a story and using the various elements within to terrify. Whether it’s a feeling of being watched, of something out fo the corner of our eyes, of something jumping out, or something just damn strange that we can’t put our fingers on, the whole point of the story is to scare, to create that fear, and it’s up to the storyteller to figure out how to do that and do it well. Otherwise the storyteller has to rely on silly gimmicks like sex or too much blood or watching teens get drunk, stoned, and naked.

5. Rules–there is an MO to what’s happening. Vampires can’t walk in the sun, the killer only goes after people who enter his father’s old prison, the ghost tries to take the souls of children from their parents. There are rules to how the antagonist operates and how it can be taken down. And for the most part, those rules are concrete, or else the story makes no sense and the reader/viewer will lose interest due to disorientation and confusion.

I hope you found these helpful. And once again, if you have any suggestions on how to improve this list, let me know. I do better on this sort of stuff in a group setting sometimes.

The 7 Beauties of Fantasy

Posted: November 22, 2013 in Reflections, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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This is the second in my series of blog posts exploring the general guidelines or common themes that appear in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror (click here to read The 7 Beauties of Science-Fiction). This whole series started in my science-fiction/fantasy literature class this past Wednesday, when we examined the 7 Beauties of Science-Fiction, we also came up with an original list for the 7 Beauties of Fantasy, and I on my own came up with 5 Beauties of Horror. I thought a series of blog posts sharing and examining these various beauties would be helpful and fun to write, especially when you consider how often the three genres intertwine and overlap.

Now without further ado, here are the 7 Beauties of Fantasy, seven themes or motifs that are found in most fantasy stories, as the examples I pick will show.

1. Character–someone through whose eyes we see this mysterious world. Every fantasy story has at least one focal character, someone through whom the world we’ve been introduced is explained and explored. These sort of characters usually end up becoming heroes of some sort and we end up identifying with them very deeply in the course of the story. Examples include Bilbo Baggins and his nephew Frodo in the Lord of the Rings canon, Eragon in the Inheritance Cycle, and Nick Burkhardt in Grimm.

2. Setting and culture–the magical, mysterious world our character explores. If it’s a fantasy novel, there’s almost a 99% garauntee that the world is nothing like the world we live in, and there’s a 100% certainty that something will need to be explained to us. Be it Middle-Earth, Narnia, or Harry Potter’s Wizarding world, there’s a whole realm to explore, with its own cultures, nations, societies, geographies, floras and faunas, and so much more. It’s up to the author, through the narrator’s eyes, that we find out as much as we need to about it.

3. Novums and Neologisms–technology/tools and words/phrases exclusive to the world we are in. Just like in science-fiction, the world of the story in fantasy has words or devices that are exclusive to that world and that we don’t understand entirely. Be it the Invisibility Cloak and Apparation, or the gedwey ignasia and Eldunari, they make no sense in the context of the real world but they make plenty of sense in the context of a fantasy realm.

4. Adventure(s)–you will go on one. Can you think of a single fantasy novel that doesn’t involve some sort of quest or journey or something along those lines? Neither can I. It seems every fantasy story is predicated on the main character going off to save a princess from a dragon or to toss the One Ring into the boiling flames of Mount Doom or find the genie she’s engaged to but who has been kidnapped by an evil sorcerer. Along the way the character fights enormous perils, learns valuable lessons, and grows as a character until he or she becomes the hero or heroine we all long to be on some level.

5. There are things that can’t be explained rationally. How does magic work? Why can a dragon fly when its body is too big for its wings to reasonably lift it off the ground? How come unicorns have magic in their horns? In a science-fiction novel, television show or movie, everything is based on science, and in theory everything can be explained scientificially. Not so with a fantasy story, which are not based on science but on mysterious forces and strange new worlds to explore and are limited only by the author’s own imagination. So don’t ask how come a sword from a water maiden is more powerful than your average sword or how magic can respond to a blood sacrifice, because you’re not likely to find the answer unless the author wants you to.

6. Familiarity–the characters don’t wake up one morning going “what the heck?” The world of the character is the one they gew up in. They know it like the back of their hand, and it would take much to surprise them in this world. In other words, unless they’re a little baby the world isn’t one they are unfamiliar with. It’s the one they know like the real world is the world we know. Not only that, but the world is somewhat familiar to us. You could channel-flip to HBO and might think you’re watching a special on the War of the Roses or on the Norman invasion, and not realize you’re watching Game of Thrones.

7. Internal history–there’s a history to this fantasyland. This is similar to the “historical extrapolation” beauty in science-fiction, but very different. Sci-fi is what could be possible with our world, so the history is the same for the most part. In fantasy though, the world has a very different history than ours. Different nations, different wars, different cultures, different creatures. This world we are visiting through the story likely has its own history that has its own unique players and events. And probably the one person who knows the full extent of that history is the author of the story his/herself (or sometimes not even then: half the time I’m not sure the writers of Once Upon a Time know where there story is going, let alone the entire history of each and every character).

No matter what, fantasy is always a strange and new exploration of new territory. It’s fun to look into and it’s fun to inhabit. And in some cases, it can even become a phenomena lasting years after the new world has entered ours. Knowing how to examine and analyze such places don’t detract from the story, but they make them all the more fun, all the more beautiful.

At least, I think so. Hope you liked the post and be on the lookout for the 5 Beauties of Horror, coming soon.

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