Week five: Witches and Women in Genre

For this weeks post i read "Aunt Mariah" by Diana Wynee Jones. 

It is interesting to consider how women with power are represented in our fiction today based on culture models of women.  Especially when you pair that idea with how our culture use to view women.  Its really hard to say or to have an educated opinion on the subject for me, based on a couple of factors.  I havent read much in the past, so i don't really know what our culture has to say about women in power in fiction other than to pull ideas from the few books i have read. ie, Aunt Mariah, Wizard of Oz, Wicked, and the recently watched Kiki's Delivery Service.

I could talk about how its seems that in regards to women when it comes to power, it seems to come with some kind of price, their youth and beauty, as if they cant have power in any other way. I find the topic of women difficult to talk about because, one im not a woman, and two i grew up with two older sisters so luckily for the most part i would say i dont have chauvinist pigs view of things. And three, typically when i have a problem with someone or an ideal i just ignore it or move along because i know their wrong.  So unfortunately i feel like my view of things is a little different,  mean for the better. I know there seems to be a war going on right now in women's rights, but is their a problem in the way their depicted in fiction in terms of power?  I don't know. 

With books such as Harry Potter and films like Frozen, i would say i hope not.

Week 4: Old Weird and New Weird

"I before e, except after c, and except for weird, because weird is just weird."

I love weird be it old or new.  This past summer, i had an obsession (to be perfectly honest, i still do) over Weird Science comic covers.  Along with any pulp covers i could find, i love that shit.

Weird for me is the unexplained, once you start putting labels on it, it becomes a thing.  I don't want to get to deep on why things are weird because i genuinely don't know, but i love it. This week we watched under the skin, and it was AMAZING (had to run home and watch it), because of how "weird" to some say it was.  Im attracted to that so called "weird" stuff.

Weird has became sort of a thing now, kind of like people who call themselves "geeks."  Its like people want to be weird, want to be different and in that way because theres enough of them that becomes a cliche.

But again, the weird i like is the stuff that not only is hard to explain, or doesn't need an explanation, aside from that i think its the stuff thats just a little off, riding the border line between whats taboo and whats somewhat except able?

Its funny because as a somewhat new person to this world and not discovering pulp covers until late last year but only seeing them vaguely on films my parents use to let me watch as a child.  Im experiencing the "old weird" and for me "that" time is now although its been hear already and gone away.  So i think it runs along the lines of the creative, where all things have been done before and if you want to do it again you try to find a new way of spinning it, which i guess is what I'm trying to achieve with my art, without labeling it of corse.

Week Three: J-Horror: Asian Supernatural Narritaves

Good vs. evil is something i can relate to because in terms of stories its what i enjoyed as a kid, although its not something i experience on the day to day.  For this weeks blog post I read part of A Wild Sheep Chase, which i really enjoyed and hope to re read and finish on my own time. Its interesting to think about what western and eastern cultures find to be more interesting to focus on.

Its seems that in western culture we are more interested in terms of storytelling an in your face, black and white, good vs. evil,  wright vs. wrong, BIG vs small, rich vs poor, type of story.  It is a rarity for western society to have a story focus on the mundane, the unexplained, the taboo or to play in  a space that some would deem boring.  But its exciting for me, im new to basically anything outside of the states, so this is my first J-story (period).  

A Wild Sheep Chase has defiantly opened my eyes to what other cultures have to offer in terms of storytelling.  I was familiar with other cultures in terms of films but because im not a big reader i never thought to consider the reading material they would have to offer.  Its exciting because it gives more time for character development and just really good storytelling.