Multi-verse

For the reading on the Multi-verse I read "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" and I have to say I was a bit surprised at first. It took about a page and a half for me to realize that this story was what Total Recall was based on. The whole idea of implanting yourself with fake memories that feel more real than your actual ones is definitely a scary one if it were something that were ever to actually happen. A lot of what we talked about in class was how some of these stories are something that could happen if certain technologies went unchecked. The dangers that could come with transplanting memories are almost unthinkable. In the story any memory was possible "for the right price."People could pretend they were married to others or fake having all sorts of different jobs. You would never get to really know someone because you wouldn't know if anything about them was real or fake. We have this issue today on a lesser level with people getting cosmetic surgery. It's the same idea but just in a different form and it just poses the question of how much can we do to ourselves before it is too much? There has to be the right reasons for life changing decisions like these. It should be something we need over something we just want.

Introduction - Frankenstein

When you go down to the bare bones of "classic horror" the most mentioned things will be the classic monsters. Dracula, the Mummy, Werewolves, Frankenstein, etc. There's a certain feeling behind these stories and they're not necessarily one that would be considered to have a strong story. If you read Frankenstein however it becomes very clear that that is not the case. Mary Shelley wrote a story that is much more than just scares and a monster. The horror that comes from the Frankenstein story falls under bigger fears such as life and death and taking responsibility for your own actions. The Frankenstein monster starts off ignorant to the world, but after being abandoned by Dr. Frankenstein he learns a lot about the world and becomes quite intelligent. What I've always found interesting is how the monster develops a God complex for Dr. Frankenstein over the course of the novel. In turn it the monster becomes a reflection of what the Doctor thinks of himself. The monster assumes that he was created in the Doctor's image and if that were the case then the Doctor thinks of himself as hideous on the inside as the monster looks on the outside.

Horror as a genre is quite interesting. Today a lot of the horror we see in film or TV comes from mostly violence and shock value. What horror really is though is a look into what society fears as a whole. A good horror story will address fears that are common among most people. Death being quite common because of that. Isolation and being unaware to danger are also common themes in horror. Horror lets us face our fears head on without having to deal with them personally.