Viewing Blogs

So over the course of this semester I have re-watched the first six seasons of Supernatural. Most people know about Supernatural but for those who don't it's a show about two brothers Sam and Dean who were raised into the life of hunting the supernatural after their mother was murdered by a demon. Through out the first six seasons you see the show unfold and reveal a much bigger story. The first two seasons are mainly about them facing different types of ghouls and creatures while searching for the yellow-eyed demon that killed their mom. After the third season things start getting really complicated. Now it's not just ghosts and creatures, but angels and demons. I don't want to reveal much for those who may not have seen the show.
I've also watched an anime called Witch Hunter Robin. This show is about an organization called the STNJ whose sole purpose is to hunt and capture witches. The funny thing about this organization is that they actually have witches working as hunters. These witches however are called craft users as their powers are not fully activated yet. When a young fifteen year old craft user named Robin is sent to them as a replacement for a lost member, the team learns there is a lot more to her powers then they thought. It's a twenty-six episode series. I'm really into shows about hunters and the supernatural, if you can't tell. I just love shows like these because it's interesting to see the characters reactions when they realize they aren't that different from the things they're hunting.

Reader's Choice Blog Post 13

I chose the novel Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake for my reader's choice presentation. The gap I'm filling with my presentation is paranormal romance. The essential question this story answers is "How does the work conform to genre expectations? Does it bring anything new to the genre?". The novel is a young adult horror but it also includes paranormal romance which we didn't see much of in the horror stories we read in class. It conforms to the genre because it contains the suspense, mystery, and creepy atmosphere that horror stories are expected to have.

Blog Post 12

In "Premature Burial" by Edgar Allen Poe the narrator is a man who is terrified of being buried alive. His fear is also very realistic because he suffers from a disorder called catalepsy. The narrator says that this disorder causes him to go into a state that mimics death and these episodes can last from days to weeks. When I first read about catalepsy in the story I had a feeling that it was a legitimate medical condition but the symptoms might have been tweaked or exaggerated. After doing some research I found out that it is a legitimate condition and that back in the times where this story is set cataleptics were confused with being dead many times. A lot of the cases where people were buried alive were people who were cataleptic. I also learned that catalepsy is usually a condition that results from other illnesses such as schizophrenia. Knowing how much Poe loves mentally insane people, it's possible that the narrator of the story was schizophrenic.

"The Monkey's Paw" is a story of the supernatural because it contains an object that is claimed to have magic wish granting powers. The monkey's paw also shows that the claims made about its powers are true when it starts to actually grant the wishes. When the Whites wished for 200 pounds the paw granted their wish and they got it the next day. Besides the 200 pounds they also got their sons lifeless corpse as a seriously fucked up bonus. Later on when Mrs. White wishes for her son to come back to life someone comes knocking at the door. The husband, knowing that wishing for the resurrection of their son was a bad move, probably wished to reverse the one his wife made and then the knocking stopped. It all seems pretty supernatural, like this monkey paw has some serious juju going on but it could also just all be a huge coincidence. Okay the part where the son died the next day and they got exactly 200 pounds is really freaky and pretty hard to believe it was just a coincidence but there's definitely a possibility. The time when the wife wished for her son to be back and then there was knocking at the door it could've been ANYONE. There's no way to say that it was the son for sure. When the husband wished for zombie son to go away it's assumed that the knocking stopped because the wish was granted but it could've just been that these people took 80 years to open to the door and the person got tired of knocking right at that moment. It all just could've been some realllyyyy freaky coincidences.

Blog Post 11

Well first things first, if I were to ever interview Egaeus from "Berenice" by Edgar Allen Poe there would be some things that would have to be done before I agreed to it. Straight jacket, shackles, and a shatter proof glass between us. This guy pulled Berenice's teeth out and clearly has some severe OCD or even schizophrenia. God forbid he took a liking to my hair and tried to rip it out. Nooo nope, not ok. Anyhow, if I were to interview him my questions would be less about Berenice and more about his own story. Like where the heck was his father? Did he die too? Does he know if both his parents were related? Poe seems to really like to write about inbreeding and about how inbred people seem to always have mental illnesses so I'm assuming that his parents were related and that's why his health so messed up. Has he ever had other moments where he blanked out and then realized that he had done something while he was blanked out and didn't remember? He seems to not really care for Berenice, could this be because he is jealous that she was beautiful, graceful, and filled with light while he was filled with darkness? Was he obsessed with her teeth because as the beauty and light from her body started to deteriorate due to her illness, her teeth still remained white and shining? Was the library the only place he wanted to be in because it was where his life began but where the life of the woman who gave life to him ended? So many questions for this very deranged man.

"The Furnished Room" by O. Henry really reflects his view of city life because he spends a lot of the time describing the rooms little details and wondering what could have happened before the man got there since a bunch of people have inhabited that room before him. In the beginning of the story it says "the houses of this district, having had a thousand dwellers, should have thousands of tales to tell", this really reflects his fascination with the stories that lie within every house. Reading this story was actually really cool for me because I actually think about things like that a lot. Anytime I stay in a hotel room I always wonder who stayed here before me and what happened in the room. I also tend to move to different houses every year so every time I move into a new home I'm always thinking about how the house was once home to someone else and I wonder what stories they have in the time that they lived there and I ponder how they might have decorated the rooms. Houses, apartments, hotels, and so on contain the stories of the best night of someone's life or maybe the worst year of their life which fascinates me and reading this story was just interesting cause I probably would've been doing the same thing as the main character, just sitting there looking around and wondering how or why those stains got there, etc. BTW super creeped out when it said "Marie" was carved on the wall! I'm reading this at night and reading about my own name being carved on a wall in a creepy story at this time of night is not pleasant.

I don't think "The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce actually contains any supernatural factors in it, only things that seem supernatural. At the end when Murlock falls asleep by his wife's dead body we're told he hears wailing sounds, which we might assume is the beginning of a supernatural occurrence.  Later on after he wakes up he sensed that there was something there. A ghost perhaps? As the story goes on he hears foot steps and the table shakes beneath him. When he can't find it in him to say his deceased wife's name and is too scared to reach out for her we might think that the wife's body has become possessed or something and is now the living dead. When he was hit by the table and there were scuffling sounds everywhere the idea that the wife had become some type of living dead may have been reassured. Especially when he reaches out for her and there is nothing on the table anymore. It says in the story "there is a point at which terror may turn to madness" which means Murlock probably thought that his wife went zombie on him too. However after he shoots his rifle we found out that it was actually just a panther. The horrify-ling funny thing is that the next morning we find out Murlock's wife wasn't the living dead, she was just living. Murdock basically set up his wife's death by binding her hands and laying her on a table next to a window which attracted the panther and left her helpless since her hands were bound. This story just kinda proves that every one becomes a madman when they're scared.

Blog Post 10

After reading "The Fall of the House of Usher" you can really see what modern day haunted houses took from this story. The stereotypes of a haunted house that are in this story are things like the creepy, shiver down your spine, feel you get when you just look at the house. Not to mention that there's a strange glow and a dark creepy lake next to it. Oh and an underground tomb. Poe turns regular objects into seeming creepy. I mean if he decided to go as far as to describe a dust particle it would probably be creepy too. The description of the mansion made me think of the Disney movie The Haunted Mansion which shows how this story inspired the modern day haunted house.

Afterward by Edith Wharton definitely fits the definition of an American Gothic. The story has immense amounts of suspense in trying to figure out where or when the ghost is going to show up. I think this story teaches people that getting what you wished for isn't always a good thing, especially when you have no clue when or where that thing is going to show up. Not to mention when the thing you wished for was a ghost.

Blog Post 9

"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe makes me think about those nights that you stay up till 4 am and you can't sleep but you're so exhausted that your mind starts going a little crazy and you become super paranoid. I don't know maybe that just happens to me. Poe seems to be trying to communicate that very sense of paranoia. The speaker constantly kept repeating to himself "‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—/Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—/ This it is and nothing more.” every time he heard the tapping sound. He was trying to convince himself that he wasn't going nuts. When he finally decided to attend to the visitor he realized there was nothing there except darkness. He spoke the name Lenore into the darkness as if he expected the deceased woman to respond. At this point he was really losing his marbles.

 He went  back into the room and opened the window because he thought the sound was the 

wind hitting the shutters. Now a Raven has flown into the room and sits upon a bust and when he 

speaks to the bird it replies with "Nevermore". Now at this point any sane human would've shit 

their pants and ran but instead this man decides to ask it questions. The strange Raven seems to 

have uplifted the speakers dark and depressed mood " The Raven still beguiling my sad fancy

into smiling". The speaker begins to think about Lenore and in grief begins yelling at himself to forget her. The 

bird interrupts him with his extensive vocabulary of "Nevermore"  and this sets him off. He starts yelling at the 

bird calling it an evil, even calling it the devil. He starts asking it questions about seeing Lenore despite the fact 

that he knows its only answer will be "Nevermore". With this he tells the bird to get lost and basically go to hell. 

The Raven once again responds with "Nevermore". By the end of the poem the man has lost all his sanity and is 

entrapped in his own personal hell. "The Raven" communicates a very grim feeling of losing all hope and that 

can lead to losing your sanity. The mood is really dark and depressing, everything is described as being lifeless

 "Once upon a midnight dreary...distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December".

The tone of Annabel Lee seems to be very somber and nostalgic. He clearly misses his childhood sweetheart 

very much. The speaker describes their love as something that angels were even jealous of. The song like rhythm 

of the poem makes it even more gloomy and mournful sounding.

VIEWING SUGGESTION

The first season of The Following is about FBI agent who is trying to catch a serial killer whose murders are 

based on Poe's work.  It's really cool, gory, and creepy so if you're into that stuff I suggest you give it a try.

Blog Post 8

When someone says they are going to tell a love story people expect to hear about a boy and girl who fall in love but have some type of obstacle in the way of their relationship. In the end they overcome the obstacle, get married, and live happily ever after. In "Day Million" by Frederik Pohl the characters do get married and they do seem to live happily, but not in the way we'd expect them to. One of the first things that makes this an unconventional love story is that Dora is a transgender woman. Romantic stories about transgender women are most certainly not something you hear about everyday or ever really. In the story Dora's change in gender seemed to not bother anyone, if only people were that accepting now. The second thing is that Don and Dora didn't even say a word to each other before Don proposed. And we thought Romeo and Juliette fell in love too quick. Also, there was the fact that after the marriage they never interacted with each other again. If they ever felt the desire to be with one another they would simply go back to the recorded analogues. It was a strange love story that had me thinking "What the @!%$ is going on?!"during every paragraph.

Parthenogenesis literally means virgin birth, it's when an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg. This is something that does not occur in mammals. A mammals egg must be fertilized in order to develop into an embryo. So parthenogenesis specifically may be impossible for humans but virgin birth isn't. A woman doesn't need to have any type of sexual intercourse with a man in order for her to get pregnant, she just needs some fresh or frozen sperm and some intimate quality time with a turkey baster and BOOM she'll have herself a stinky, crying, snot nosed infant in about nine months. There has also been some research done on whether a female egg could be fertilized by artificial sperm and it seems to be a possibility. So will men serve any purpose if women gain the ability to reproduce without them? In “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ, it seems that the purpose of men is to be arrogant a**holes who need to make women feel inferior in order to make themselves feel better. Huh, that actually sounds like a lot of men I know. Don't worry boys I know it's "not all men" but it sure is plenty. In reality men would still serve a purpose even if they weren't needed to reproduce because any woman who is straight, bisexual, pan sexual, or is of any kind of sexuality that has interest towards the opposite sex wouldn't want their potential male partners to disappear. They are companions, best friends, brothers, boyfriends, husbands, fathers, etc. etc. and I suppose they can be entertaining sometimes.

Blog Post 6

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start with "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson. To be honest it was insanely difficult for me to get into the story. I was baffled with what was going on in this story and almost gave myself a headache trying to figure it out. As the story continued I started grasp some of the general concept. The story seems to be about two hackers who are trying to hack and steal money from Chrome. There are what seem to be brothels and eye replacements and a bunch of other strange things. All in all, it was pretty confusing to me.

On the other hand "Computer Friendly" by Eileen Gunn, was a story I was able to understand and thoroughly enjoyed. The way the children were euthanized if they didn't pass the tests, or seemed to be "too fidgety" like that one little girl, was something I found to be really disturbing. It reminded  me of how a computer company might be trying to make a new product and they have a bunch of different prototypes and once one acts up, they throw it away and try again till they make the perfect one. This story also reminded me of how now in our time some kids may not live up to their parents expectations and that child then becomes a lost cause to the parent. Just like the end of the story ,when the kids who were seen as useless became useful to that Chickensomething guy, computers, kids, or whatever it is might be a lost cause or failure to some but that doesn't mean that they aren't a success to others. To be totally cliché, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Blog post 5

In the story "Reason" by Isaac Asimov, robots are supposed to adhere to three rules, 1. robot may not harm a human, or through inaction allow a human to come to harm 2. A robot must obey orders given it by humans, except where such orders would violate the first law 3. A robot must protect its own existence, except where such action would violate laws 1 and 2. These rules were made to follow the idea that the humans would always be the masters of the robots, but what happens when they create a robot smart enough to make up his own master? Once that happens all these rules go down the drain. Once Cutie begins to believe that there is a higher power involved in all of this, humans become inferior beings. I thought it was cool that even though they had completely different beliefs, in the end they found out they could still work together despite those differences.
In "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss, the world has become massively overpopulated and restrictions have been placed on having children. The world is so distraught that nobody wants to have windows if all they're going to see is chaos. With the technology that has been created everyone is able to stay inside and enjoy gardens or cities without actually having to go outside. Not to mention that social interactions or relations with other humans are no longer necessary  because synthetic humans are being made so that they can ease the loneliness. The technology in this stories allows for human interactions to cease existing.  I found it really sad that David just wanted to be loved by his mother, like any child would, even though he was a synthetic life form. However, the mother couldn't love him because she knew he wasn't actually her son or even human.

Blog Set 4

The appeal of stories about things like asteroids or other planets hitting the Earth is that the possibility is very real and if it were to happen there would probably be no way to really stop it. The universe is a vast unknown territory for humans. We are to the universe what a grain of salt is to our solar system. There is so much left to explore in space and we honestly will probably never be able to even explore half of it. The thought of the unknown, of not having control over something, is a thought that terrifies humans. Humans constantly want to be in control of everything, especially their own lives, and stories like "The Star" by H.G Wells  make us realize we don't always have control. That aspect of stories similar to "The Star" is what make them so appealing to us.


Wrath, greed, sloth, lust, pride, gluttony, and envy. These things are known as the seven deadly sins and a lot of them showed up in "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler. Right in the beginning of the story we are introduced to wrath. The men on the bus getting into a violent altercation simply because one of them accidentally touched the other. Just a few moments later and the whole bus is plagued by wrath and rage. Much like the world now. We constantly hear about horrendous acts of violence on the news everyday. Just like in the story, even those who are meant to protect us. like the police, seem to be doing the opposite and are just mindlessly killing people.
Another deadly sin is greed, which in a dystopian society would most likely be necessary. Basic things like fuel, food, or transportation became sparse and because of that people became greedy. These items became as desired as money or precious jewels. They needed to take all they could get and horde it like gold. Just like the story, greed is very prevalent in the world we live in now. Everything is based on getting as much of something as you can, especially money. The desire to obtain enormous amounts money and luxurious items is part of what runs our society.
The fun time Obsidian and Rye had in the back seat was filled with plenty of lust. The immense desire those two had for sex despite the fact that they were absolute strangers was a perfect example of lust. But this act of spontaneous intercourse was acceptable because of the situation they were in. Because of the way the world had changed. In recent years, casual sex has become a lot more acceptable in society. Once upon a time having any kind of sexual relation with someone you were not in a committed relationship with was extremely frowned upon but now we have dating websites and apps like Tinder that allow people to hook up with anyone and lust as much as they want.
Sloth was when the old man that lived by Rye had the women do all the work for him. Even with those women there he still wanted to get Rye to do his work too because he was too lazy. Our world, thanks to a lot of new technology, allows us to be absolute couch potatoes. Why go outside and make friends when you can create an everlasting relationship with Netflix. Online jobs, online school, online payments, you can do almost anything online from the comfort of your home. Not that it's a bad thing to be able to stay home but it can end up promoting laziness. There are also jobs like pimping and drug dealing that allow the person to have workers do the job for them but they are the ones that get paid the most amount of money.
When Obsidian an Rye realize that the other person has what the other one is lacking they are both so envious of each other they could kill. Rye said she had never felt like killing someone so badly until she felt that insane amount jealousy. Envy in our present time is the same as in the story. When people are envious enough of something someone has they can go to extreme lengths to get it or destroy it so the other person can't have it either. ( If you have not seen the film Seven I suggest you skip this next section because it contains spoilers to the ending. The movie is about a serial killer who's murders are all based on the seven deadly sins)
***SPOILERS*** For example, in the movie Seven the serial killer is so envious of the detectives happy traditional life that he beheads the detectives wife and sends her head in a box to the detective. That way neither of them get a happy life.***END***
As humans we always want what we don't have.
I couldn't find anything relating to pride or gluttony so if any of you find anything please comment below! It'd be really cool if the story could have a connection to all seven.

My interpretation of "Passengers" and "Out of All Them Bright Stars" (Blog set #2)

Whether there is life besides humans in this universe has always been a question many people have thought about. If there is, then how exactly would they interact with humans? I found the differences in the human-alien interaction in these two stories, "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg and "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress, to be very interesting. In the story "Passengers" Silverberg portrays the aliens like parasites, they live through the humans and use them as hosts. The way they take over the humans makes me think of Dissociative Identity Disorder. The title "Passengers" is referring to the aliens like a passenger passenger in a car. Having a passenger means having an extra person inside your car besides yourself, the driver should be the one in control but a passenger could easily take over. Possibly like two people or personalities trying to be in one mind. More examples are the way the humans couldn't remember anything that had happened and how they acted when they were being ridden was apparently opposite of their usual personalities. The fear they had to try to actually love someone knowing that they could change at any second. Also, the strange way that people who had been ridden weren't supposed to discuss like it was shameful. It made me think of how people treat mental illnesses in our current time. On the other hand Kress portrays the aliens as friendly and polite in "Out of All Them Bright Stars". The alien, John, is very kind towards Sally and clearly means no harm. Even though the alien is nothing but kind he still gets treated rudely by the owner of the diner simply because he looks different. Even now, racism like that still exists. People are constantly judged and mistreated for having a different skin color or looking different. This story made me think about how many Americans feel about the large amounts of immigrants that have come to America. Out of all the countries why do most immigrants decide to come to the U.S? This question is similar to the one Sally asked herself about why the aliens chose to go to Earth instead of any of the other planets. Most immigrants come to the U.S with the simple intention of starting a new and better life and gaining new experiences, like what these aliens seemed to be doing. Just like John, immigrants can be treated very rudely. I can say this from personal experience. My family immigrated to the U.S from Cuba in the 90's and the treatment John experienced is very similar to treatment that me and my family have experienced. Personally that's how I thought these stories reflected humanity back on itself.

UPDATE
After the discussions we had last class I learned a lot of different perspectives and interpretations about these two stories which was really cool. However, my own personal interpretation stays the same and nothing about the way I understood these stories has changed.

Blog Set #1 Introduction

Hello, my name is Mairelys (my-reh-lees)! Don't worry about trying to pronounce that tongue twister of a name because for your convenience I have given myself the nickname Marie. I've always been fascinated by science-fiction, fantasy, and the supernatural. What really interests me about these things is that there's always a possibility that they could be real. There are still a lot of mysteries to this world and I love that these genres let your imagination run wild. I love horror, particularly demons, ghosts, and murder. They absolutely terrify me but I love the adrenaline rush I get. However, bring up clowns and I'll have to excuse myself from the classroom. I hope to learn about what makes these genres what they are and some history on how they came about. I also hope to discover cool new movies, books, and TV shows through this class. I mainly just want to broaden my knowledge about science-fiction and other similar genres. I'm very excited to be taking this class for this semester!