Narratives from the Multiverse

Notes

·      Interested in the development of humans

·      Dune film directed by David Lynch

·      Odd tone to the movie- melodramatic

·      Bedouin references

·      Genetic “death clocks” biochemical clocks

·      Life extension qualities and what it takes

·      60s and 70s Sci-Fi deals with life extension and mind expansion

·      Fiction of ideas vs. fiction of technology

·      Paranoia

·      Women Writing Space Opera

·      C.L. Moore- original space opera writers //30s and 40s// focuses more on the internal lives of her characters, psychology, intuition, emotion

·      Esp is very big for fantasy heroines

·      Leigh Brackett- The Big Sleep

·      Lois McMaster Bujold- Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Maismith- family sagas

·      Catherine Asaro- combines the romance novel with the conventions of science fiction- heavy science

Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel Delaney

This short story does a wonderful job at captivating its audience right away. It is shown through a very interesting viewpoint, that of a spacer.  “He” is a spacer, a genitally mutilated astronaut of sorts. I like that this story didn’t out right explain anything to the reader. It just starts off and through the events the narrator goes through we are able to understand the world he lives in, to an extent. I was thoroughly surprised at the subject matter in the work but that is also why it was so fascinating.  The characters, no matter how briefly they are mentioned, all seem unique and interesting. The interaction between the girl” Frelk”, in Istanbul is a very interesting interaction because it really allows us to see how our narrator thinks and understand a little more about him.  This is definitely a look at the development of humans both mentally and sexually. Body modification is a casual subject matter here as well as our protagonist seems at peace with his becoming essentially an androgynous a-sexual character. The issue of population control also arises for a moment in the story to help justify what has happened to parts of society.  By the end of it nothing is resolved but it definitely gives the reader something to think about.

Fantasy

Kiki’s Delivery Service

·      Matriarchal society

·      Initiation

·      Female mentor

·      Beta men

·      Maternal figures

·      Nurturing, the setting being a bakery

·      The city isn’t terribly welcoming or receptive

·      The roots of female power are rural

Position of Women in Fantasy

·      Archetypal story telling

Illustrated Horror- women in horror vs. women in fantasy

·      Frankenstein- damsel in distress

·      Posing language and the general composition- vulnerable, wearing white- innocent thing

·      Same posed used- paperback book of the 50s- lurid covers

·      Bride of Frankenstein- interesting concept- kind of occurs in the book

·      “ Always with the neck”

·      Idea of Dracula as a seducer

·      Seduction- all about the denial of female sexual experience

·      Against contraception – they will be out of control

·      Dracula’s Daughter- female desire out of control in the other way- fem fatale

·      Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- all men are two faced- the civilized and the real guy underneath (The Wolf Man)

·      The Mummy- all about male obsession for the female

·      Invisible Man- stalker

·      Edgar Allan Poe- Mystery an Imagination- abstract art

·      Cat People

·      Victim or fem fatale- not a lot of room for safe sex so to speak

·      Cultural clutter over the top of the genre

·      Women spend their lives rediscovering sex

·      Women being anxious

·      Women waiting to be victimized/ frequently tied up or just laying their (fainted)

·      Overt sexuality- “ bondage liberates you”

·      Weird tales

·      Woman who runs with wolves

·      Sex and violence

·      Misogyny – horror in general is a very misogynist genre

What does fantasy do?

·      Women up the pedestal that they aren’t real

·      Virgin Mary quality

·      How dare they have their own set of sexual desires and real lives

·      Attempt in contemporary fantasy to make it more real

·      Still dealing with misogyny- Twilight

·      Kiki- admirable in the ways that she is rooted in real female power

·      Positive model

·      Disney is all very “mans world”

·      Is a princess movie an anecdote?

·      Worshiping the object of desire which is the status

·      Warbreaker

·      What about gaming? – what is happening there and what are those girls like?

·      Pans Labyrinth brings politics to the front of fantasy- fantasy does this in general Pans Labyrinth just pushes it right to the front

·       Pagan  

Foucault Reading

·      The imperfect was the earth- everything else was increasingly perfect- heaven should be more perfect and so should the moon- but it wasn’t

·      If everything we know is wrong????

·      Layers of perfections was incorrect

·      It didn’t stop

·      Space

·      Time- relative- not anything you want to base your cosmology around

·      When you disturb hierarchies in this way

·      Sites- place- sacred-

·      Heterotopias- mirrors

·      Cemeteries

·      Virtual space

Urban Fantasy

Class Notes

Coraline

§  Loses track of where one is

§  Henry Selick (Tim Burton Producing)

§  Staged

§  Not a very natural flowing dialogue

§  Hint of Gaiman in the dialogue

Anansi Boys and Gaiman Video

§  Takes mythology and weaving a contemporary story

§  Mythic story bones

§  African mythology

§  Central assumption of the work differs from most novels, he assumes all the characters in the work are black unless otherwise described

§  What is Genre?

§  A sense of assumptions between a creator and its audience

§  Book shelf 

§  Places not to look that is the simplicity of book shelving, telling you what nto to read

§  Sturgeon’s law is a law that said 90 percent of fiction is crap but then 90 percent of everything is crap

§  Genre- is not subject matter

§  The story is within the genre as long as it doesn’t leave the reader feeling cheated at the end

American Gods

§  Detective spun out to a mythic tale with Scandinavian mythology mostly 

Mirror Mask

§  Unsettling

§  Dream world

§  Valentine 

§  Mirror world/ masks/ through the looking glass

§  Things aren’t explained until later

§  Different narrative

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich was nothing like what I had expected it to be. I heard about this movie when it came out originally and hadn’t seen it until now. The trailers are very misleading.  It is definitely a mix of the mundane and the fantastical with a darker tone.  It is not dark in the way that it is depressing but more that not of the characters are really all that sympathetic with the exclusion of John Malkovich himself and this could be done on purpose.  It is set in a city, specifically in very cramped crowded settings be it the office floor 7 ½ or the apartment where Craig and Lotte live.  This cramped feeling could be a reflection on the confinement of their lives and how they seek being John Malkovich as a way to escape that.  This urban fantasy also explores sexuality and being both male and female. Maxine, whom both Lotte and Craig fall in love with is probably the least sympathetic character out of all of them and yet she is the object of their desire and they both spend the whole film trying to be who Maxine wants them to be.  This film plays with the idea of free will and is a very interesting look into some of the ‘what ifs” of reality. 

Labyrinth

I loved this movie. And really what is there not to like. David Bowie, puppets, musical numbers, a fantastical quest, all very fabulous.  The spiritual education genre is defined as tales that are meant to instruct and enlighten typically younger audiences.  Sarah, the female protagonist of the film does go through a spiritual journey and is educated about growing up along the way. She first is shown as this selfish young girl giving up her baby brother for her old life back and then ends up being proposed to essentially by David Bowie’s character, as she becomes a young adult.  The educational journey is literally riddled with puns and puzzles that push her in either the right or sometimes very wrong direction. Misconceptions and judgments guide her decisions at first around the Labyrinth until she takes charge her self of where she is going and starts to get a bit more creative in her thinking.  Labyrinth is a film that can be enjoyed by both the younger generation as well as the older, who can appreciate the innuendos and references to adult life more (such as drug use etc.) Jim Henson does a wonderful job at conveying the different creatures in all areas of the journey be them sinister or otherwise. Often we notice that the creatures simply appear confused or bewildered as to what they are meant to be doing. It is not necessarily their fault that they are not adept enough to help Sarah find her way. Also we see the fear that governs character like Hoggle, controlled by the Goblin King. Spiritual Education often has a theme of control and how it has to change hands for the protagonist to complete their Journey. Sarah is initially helpless and confused but becomes strong and determined. She is able to play the game so to speak and we see this when she and Ludo are attempting to cross over the bridge and the bridge master says something along the lines of no one can pass here with out my permission. To which Sarah responds can we have your permission? And it is granted.  Sarah’s spiritual education is concluded with the return home along with her younger brother after having grown up and learned her lesson along the way. Be careful what you wish for. 

Spiritual Education

Notes

   The function of fantasy

Harry Potter

-       Establishes itself my word of mouth at this point

-       Published by Scholastic

-       Work of a single editor David Levine

-       Paid a fairly big amount

-       JK Rowling J.K stands for nothing)- they were afraid that boys wouldn’t buy the book so they hid the gender by making it an initial

-       Welfare mom

-       Good student

-       Her mother was sick and died when she was reasonably young

-       Teaching English to foreign students

-       Met her first husband in Portugal

-       Single mom and becomes a secretary

-       Waiting in a train because it breaks down and that is where she gets the whole story

-       Her friends believed in her- one of them cashed in her retirement funds to pay for her to live while she wrote the book

-       Book is auctioned off

-       Harry Potter becomes larger than the books

-       More people have seen the movies than have read the books

-       Embeds values that are relevant

-       Moral education

-       Leads you to the kinds of understandings you get when you are 18: shows societal norms in an absurd way (muggles etc.) 

The Magicians

-       Different kind of college experience

-       Harvard in a way (where the author went)

-       What are the real things you have to watch out for (binge drinking)

-       Mentions Harry Potter
-       Conceived of prior to harry potter but he writes it after
-       How it really is going to school in the magical world-not a façade
-       Darker- not so “nice”