Viewing Blog 13

American Horror Story: Murder House

After we read “The Furnished Room” by O Henry I couldn’t help but relate that story to the one and only Murder House. The season begins like any other horror story would, setting an ominous mood surrounding the large forsaken house. Followed by the classic do not enter warning but of course no one decides to listen, sentencing themselves to death.  Similar to “the Furnished Room” the house has had generations of a vast variety of inhabitants over the years, all leaving either mark, trinkets, or ghost behind behind. I thought it was extremely ironic how the main characters Tate and Violet fell in love, blurring the line between life and death until she succumbs to the dark side without realizing it. This follows the poetic theme of dying with the one you love or in the same place, just as Poe and O Henry described within their stories.  Another horror trope that was painfully obvious is how there’s always that one character that is painfully in denial. That character is usually a man and AHS didn’t let us down as the husband and father refused to believe a house could be evil. Ignoring every warning since the first episode, damning him and his family.  Which moves us onto the next horror element; Men only see what they want to see. The house undertaker Moira is an outdated older woman but whenever a man looks at her he sees her former younger self, creating lust and desire. Towards the end of the season when Men, the husband/father realizes the power this house holds over himself and his family he finally sees Moira as her true self. He sees the truth.  I think this is one of the first horror TV shows to ever successfully pull off a story that continuously captivated the audience for longer than two hours, adding just enough abnormal to the story line to keep you coming back for more.

Blog set 13

Reader’s Choice

Lucky thirteen, hehe. For this weeks blog set and my reader’s choice presentation I chose a novel by Ernest Cline called Ready Player 1. This novel was published 2011 of August and adds a whole new element of science fiction we didn’t dig into during the semester. The most common tropes identified throughout this sci-fi piece of literature include dystopia, utopia, and the blurred line between reality and fantasy.  There are also modifications of the typical sci-fi elements that the author adds to the Megatext himself. With the use of videogames the characters explore all elements of science fiction, dealing with a parallel universe, heroes, villains, intergalactic battles, immortality and more.  Humanity is clearly reflected back on itself because the novels shows how much of an impact technology has had on our lives, specifically computers and online gaming. How engrossed human kind has become with social networking, video games, and etc. The setting is about thirty years into the future and it’s crazy to think most of us will still be in our 50s.

The main character starts off as your typical angst-y teen that would rather travel to space with only the company of his videogames than have to face real people and become a part of reality. Most of civilization feels the same way, they’d rather chat online through their avatars then face real every day problems. Who wouldn’t though?  I don’t think I would but the point is you HAVE to. Virtual reality is exactly that, “Not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so.”    

As much as you want to deny the truth it’ll always find a way to resurface.

This all connects back to humanity because in today’s day and age we can for the most part get everything we need online with few exceptions but as every day passes so does the need to go out of one’s way to get something. You can even have your groceries delivered to your house.  So the future Ernest predicts doesn’t seem impractical at all. It’s only a matter of time so I think it’s time that we all take a step back from our computers, cell phones, televisions and appreciate those physically around us.

“The Premature Burial”

By, Edgar Allan Poe
1884
Poe begins his story by setting an eerie ominous tone, one by one describing different cases where one has been pronounced dead due to catalepsy. A common condition in Poe’s era whose symptoms were extremely physical to death. I do in fact think this is a legitimate medical condition because it’s not the first time I’ve heard of it and the indicators described seem very plausible. Consequently with the lack of medical technology the victims of Catalepsy did die since they couldn’t get out of the coffin or tomb. Once society realized that there was a possibility of being buried alive it caused a frenzy and many citizens created ways to prevent “The Premature Burial”. The narrator himself was engrossed on the idea of becoming a victim to this phenomenon since he himself suffered from Catalepsy and since his episodes were irregular no one knew if he was actually deceased or in a trance like state. I feel like I would be just as paranoid if I suffered from this condition, realizing how easy it is to be pronounced dead and wake up in a coffin a few hours later is absolutely terrifying. I wouldn’t want to waste my entire life with the anxiety of being buried alive but I don’t know how I would overcome it. The narrator overcomes his fear by basically facing it when he wakes up in that dark corner of the boat and thinks he has been buried alive. I think it was ironic but I think facing what he thought would kill him puts his whole life in perspective.

 “The Monkey’s Paw”

By, W.W Jacobs
1902
I was stoked to re-read W.W Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw” because it brought me back to my elementary schools. This story was one of the first stories I ever read that lead me into the supernatural/horror genre. It wasn’t sugarcoated like your typical elementary school stories but gave that element of unnerving terror without vulgarity or anything to gruesome for a fifth grader. This story left just enough for one’s imagination while providing basic lessons throughout the short story. The biggest clue that “The Monkey’s Paw” is supernatural is the fact that there is a magical paw that can grant wishes, with guidelines of course. But, like any other horror story the main characters choose to ignore the warnings and proceed with greed. The first wish could be perceived as coincidence rather than supernatural but how would you explain the sudden knocking for the second wish? And then the simultaneous disappearance as soon as the wife opened the door while the father wished his son was dead once again? I think the reader can create a non-supernatural explanation if he or she really wanted to but all signs point to paranormal. The family finally learns the valuable lesson we all know as “Be careful what you wish for” once they are rich but at the priceless cost of losing their son. Was it worth it?

 

                                                       Blog Set 11

“The Furnished Room”

                                                       By O. Henry                                 

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, especially since the setting was in a lively part of New York, one of the only cities where every single person has their own drama and own life but become a part of someone else’s unintentionally each and every day.  I found that this story could relate to O. Henry’s quote on the dot. A city, especially one as busy as the big apple is constantly taking in new residents, day in and day out but the buildings remain the same. The short story gave me an eerie suspenseful feeling because in a way it reminded me of how an old mansion would be, with a house keeper who has been care taker for generations and knows all the residents dirty secrets. The fact that the previous residents all left small meaningless belongings behind seemed to have great meaning within the story as they depicted the previous owners even if they felt they were insignificant to their lives. For example, even when the narrator just gets a sniff of the girl whom he is searching for he loses it, knowing that small sense must trace back to her. I wonder what items I deem unimportant and could easily leave behind but another would think otherwise and automatically relate it back to my person.

“The Boarded Window”

By Ambrose Bierce

Whenever I visit my grandpapa he starts to tell funky stories about the past, one that I’ll always remember was how often people were buried alive. I couldn't even comprehend waking up and finding myself underground leading to my accidental death by starvation, suffocation or even just fear but with the lack of education and technology as the current day and era I could see how this would've been possible. Once they realized they were prematurely predicting death a string and bell would often be tied around the corpse’s finger just in case consciousness was regained and they could be rescued. I think the main character might have feared that he would end up burying his beloved alive therefore he procrastinated the process and he withheld his emotions with the hope that she might not actually be gone. Until the panther intrude proved all signs of hope were useless, her body the next day was destroyed and showed signs that she could have indeed been alive, her hands were in a new clenched position, her ribbon broken and the panther’s ear was in her mouth as if she was using her only available self-defense Some supernatural elements were definitely the footsteps, change in temperature, the pressure the narrator felt against his body and how the panther made it into his house. But, if she was alive before the animal attack then who would be haunting the cabin? This story created a lot of questions and possible answers as well as confusion.

“Berenice"

By Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s story “Berenice” continues with pretty much the same themes that can be found in his other   stories, a sinister mansion in a equally as sinister area paired with a man who is considerably mad but the story is being told from his perspective so you are unsure of what is the actual reality of what is going on or what the mad man believes is going on. The next constant theme is a beautiful woman, who happens to be his cousin, but she is in every way flawless and the narrator associates her beauty with purity, mainly focusing on her teeth, growing a dark obsession for what he deems as heavenly and feels the need to own, to pull out. Which eventually he does. This story also relates back to those who were often mistaken for dead but are in fact alive, Poe often wrote about what the current hysteria of the era were and obviously being buried alive would be a huge one so he wrote to get into the readers mind and left readers with an aching fear of possibility and what ifs.

Blog Set 10

The Fall of the House of Usher

This was my first time reading Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher, it wasn’t as difficult to get through as I thought it would be. The elements depicted in the story immediately gave me chills as I envisioned the creepiest house possible. The description Poe used through out his story was impeccable, he gave the house a personality itself and I almost felt like the house itself could’ve easily been part of the problem. It reminded me of those old traditional families who have always lived in the same place for generations, each birth and each death taking place in the same place. Which is also what Poe is known for, finding that blurred line between life and death. The symptoms of the narrators childhood friend seemed to trace back to the same weakness of a vampire, light sensitivity, lack of appetite for food, paleness, and enhanced features. The User’s twin sister was also suffering from the same illness but the way the Usher had her corpse left once she passed was as if he knew she wouldn’t be long for gone, as if it was a family secret. This also led me to think maybe the family was indeed a part of the undead and that’s why they kept to themselves and the house. The stereotypes of a typical haunted house during the entire story. First the house itself is generations old and sit’s with large windows that are described as eyes watching all that happens around it, the doors are massive, heavy and threatening. The inside is dark despite the large windows because the inhabitants cannot stand the light and the family tomb is conveniently located on the premises, filled with lines of corpses.  

Afterward

1910

As I began reading Edith Wharton’s “Afterward” I noticed how the house was also made into it’s own character within the story, demanding an equal amount of attention and concern as the characters that are people do. The house is also perceived as eerie, deceiving, and that haunted feeling remains. I think this story fit in nicely with the American gothic genre, with the haunted setting but still the glimmer of hope since the couple finally got what they wished for, to live with a member of the supernatural. All I can say is be careful what you wish for. What they used to dream for became a nightmare, as the husband dies “afterward” when the mystery is solved but it is too late.

Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with the disturbed, the unusual and the creepy. What better words to describe the one and only Edgar Allan Poe? In life Poe was known to be depressed, erratic and you can absolutely feel his emotions through his writing as if they were you own. You mourn for the loss of women you only know through the words of another man and you feel the hatred Poe did towards the outside forces that took his lovers away.

“The Raven”

Published in 1845 depicts a mood of bleak sorrow stating that the setting is in a lonely December night, with a fire that is burning out and slight insanity as the narrator is consumed with his troubles but trying to distract himself from his current reality, a reality without “Lenore” who is a main symbol within this story. The story begins with orderly emotions as the narrator drifts off into thoughts about Lenore but as the poem continues the narrator is losing control line by line. He finds himself speaking to a raven, even though we know ravens cannot speak so we assume he must be mad, or maybe he isn’t? Maybe we’re the mad ones. He then symbolizes the Raven as actually being a sinister devil like creature sent to haunt the narrator and remind him how he will never have Lenore again, she is “nevermore”. I think Poe is trying to communicate his pain and confusion as to why death would take away his lover and why she still plagues him but he cannot actually have her.

“Annabel Lee”

My parents actually decided my middle name would be Annabel because of their mutual adoration for this poem. Published a few years after “the Raven” in 1849 and focuses once again on the loss of a love interest, because we are unsure of who Lenore and Annabel are it is often assumed that they are the same person. Throughout the poem I think Poe is referring back to true innocent affection, where love was careless, easy and free. He continuously states that their love is “gentle” and forgiving. The narrator also continues to blame everyone but himself for the death of his beloved, he blames the Angels, and even nature itself but never once himself. Communicating that she was taken from him too soon, that their love was still pure and lacking corruption like most love partners do. That fate was unfair to both of them and he will always grieve over his adored and she will be rich in his memory.