Aunt Maria









I read Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. It was an ok book it just had a slow start. As I continued to read it got better and towards the end it was interesting. Throughout the book Mig's mom was a constant pain to me. She fit every bad archetype that a woman could have. There are any, such as being in complete denial. When Mig was trying to explain an urgent situation to her, she would just completely deny or would except anything Mig had to say. She was completely oblivious to pretty much every situation. This woman made me so irritated and eventually I thought that if every woman was like her then there would be no hope for the human race. I can say this because I'm a woman and the fact that this character aggravated me so is a sign that there are such archetypes.

Aunt Maria on the other hand is very manipulative and evil. She feigns as being an old woman who cant help herself, but she is actually a very cruel witch with secrets. In my opinion she fits the typical stereotype for a witch. She is older, mean, doesn't like people unless they can be useful to her, and she lived alone until Mig's family showed up.

After being with their Aunt for a while they started to notice strange things about her. Kids will be kids and they eventually figure out that their aunt isn't just a mean old hag. She's a mean old witch and tends to turn any threat into an animal. Including Mig's brother Cris, who was turned into a wolf after confronting Aunt Maria for being a witch. No need to worry he turns back to his original form eventually.

I believe that the witch is slowly making a comeback on the horror scene. They are starting to just exhaust zombies, vampires and werewolves. By doing this the genre is slowly starting to die in my opinion. There is only so much you can do to the point ridiculous failure. Take Sharknado for example. That is one of the most stupid horror films I have ever seen. It is literally as the title states, a "Shark Tornado". They just need to delve back into the old horror and get some new inspiration. This is where I think that Witches have a chance to dominate the genre. I haven't seen a witch movie in Hollywood in  that was actually worth the eleven dollars to watch in a very long time. A movie that I have just recently seen that has any kind of witch in it was Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters. It had some pretty cool witches, and I would like to see even more. Hopefully they reintroduce them back into the horror scene. I want to see some epic battles of magic and nightmares.

The "New Weird."





I read Monster Island, and I really enjoyed it. It tells about a man named Dekalb, who has to go on a suicide mission in order to be reunited with his daughter. He is assigned to a group of soldiers, which are girls who range in ages eighteen to thirteen. However, they are not normal soldiers because they are trained in the art of killing the Undead. Yep, Zombies.

The setting takes place in a world that is ravaged by a horrible epidemic that brings the dead back to life. When they reanimate themselves they are not what you would call friendly. They come back with a hunger that cannot be sated by what we call food. The undead crave the life force that is found in human flesh. They will do whatever they can to try and quench their bloodlust.

Dekalb and the girls are assigned a mission to find Antiretrovirals(Drugs to help fight HIV), to try and save a woman known as Mama Halima. She is a Warlord who is in charge of keeping Somalia free of the epidemic. In exchange for the drugs, Dekalb's daughter will receive education,  food, shelter, and safety from the dying world. This is why Dekalb is so desperate and willing to do this mission. He just wants to get back to his daughter.

This is where Gary comes in. He is Undead, but he is not like the others. He wasn't bitten or infected by the epidemic. He made himself into one of the undead by using his knowledge as a premed student. Dekalb and the girls come across Gary and decide to take him with them. This might be the key to their survival.

The "New Weird" is something that isn't quite common. Gary is the new weird in this book. Never before in any of the zombie books that I have read was there a talking and smart zombie. Gary is considered the "Smartest dead man in the world." This is why it is so different from the usual zombie books. Gary is able to think for himself and try to ignore his hunger and control the living dead!?...

The idea of "New Weird" is to combine something irrational with rational. It is to in my opinion try to lead you astray from your usual thoughts about certain things. In this book I constantly went back and forth with trying to define Horror from the Supernatural.

All in all I like the aspect of second guessing how the book plays out in the end. The New Weird definitely piques my interest and I think this will steadily start to change the Horror genre.

The Kwaidan



While reading all of these stories my perceptions and expectations of horror were thrown off. As I was reading all of these I noticed that it was very different from the western cultures' view on horror. In western horror, the horror genre typically has a fight between good and evil. An example would be in Werewolf horror books or movies. The story centers around a person who either has a strange or dangerous meeting with an animal(wolf or rabid canine), and then starts to lose themselves to a horrid animalistic change. This results in the person having to gain control of their usual self(good) and the beastly urges(evil).

However, I noticed that in the stories there seems to be no battle between good and evil. Instead it is the influence of otherworldly beings, spirits. These spirits appear to be frightening, but by the end of the story it leaves you in a kind of "cliff hanger", which is left for us to contemplate and decide. This is a completely different approach from western horror and I find it more appealing to read. The sense of not knowing what will happen next makes me more interested.

Another thing I noticed that was different from western horror is that the influence of nature and folklore. Within each of the stories, nature was tied to each of the otherworldly phenomena. It was connected by local legends that were relevant to their own culture. I thought this was very engaging and also told you how influential and connected it is to Chinese/Japanese culture. I had previous knowledge of some of the customs of the Chinese and Japanese culture. One of them was the belief that peoples' souls could be reborn in nature or in another time. So when someone had died, it was believed that they would be reincarnated as a plant, animal, or human being.

All in all the stories were great reads. They made me think about how much different they are compared to western horror. It makes you think about how much that ones culture and beliefs play an important role. It kind of makes you as, "does the battle of good and evil really matter?."