Cyberpunk (Revised)

Cybernetics are a plausible future. Even today we have a number of mechanical devices to replace limbs or help organs function. As the technology continues to advance we're bound to see all sorts of new ways that cybernetics can improve our lives. There's definitely no shortage of ideas for what we could achieve with them either. Cyberpunk goes back quite a few decades at this point and many ideas from stories in the genre could become reality. Whether it be something as simple as robotic or replacement limbs to something as complex as neuro technology that changes the way our brains function. Hopefully however the choices made are the ones that are for the best. Stories in the genre of Cyberpunk, much like stories in other Sci-Fi subgenres, often show the ups and downs to the technological advancements made. In the world of the Metal Gear video game series there are nano-machines that repress the emotions of soldiers to make them more stable on the battlefield, but it also creates the issue of having a single system that, if hacked, can cause everything to go amok. In some other stories when the cyber enhancements make life more cushy and easy we tend to see a world where humanity doesn't strive to achieve anything because they can get so much down without ever having to put in actual effort. Another feature of the older cyberpunk is the idea that it isn't all sleek and shiny. A world with cybernetics can be very gritty and dirty. This type of thing is a bit easier to notice in films in the genre such as Blade Runner and I, Robot. A world of cyberpunk is one riddled with technology, but while some of it will prove to be beneficial there will always be the chance that things could go awry.

Vampires

There's something weird about vampires. After doing the reading for this week and comparing it to other vampires I've seen in books, movies, TV, and games, I noticed that out of all of the types of "classic monsters" that vampires have has the most liberties taken with them. The biggest case of this being in the Twilight series where almost everything we thought we knew about vampires is turned over and changed minus the one staple of needing to feed on blood. Vampires have been everything from the darkest and creepy monsters to being romantic interests that are very relatable despite being a monster. I think it's probably that vampires, unlike some other monsters, are very close to still being human and this part of them is what allows them to lure their victims in. The recent trend of vampire fiction though has made them a type of monster that I really could care less about whereas in the past there have been awesome things like the Castlevania video game series that have made gothic vampires a very appealing thing with a more traditional look at them. It's hard to say what will happen to vampires as the years go on and maybe someday someone will come up with something fresh and interesting that keeps them a bit further away from the over sexualized nature they're at now.

Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

It's all about the legend whether it be myth or urban tale. Anansi Boys played this idea in a very interesting way by interweaving the myth of Anansi into the lives of people and creating a story around that. In a similar sense the movie Big Fish visualizes the stories the father tells as these big mystical things that the son believes have no truth behind them. He finds out he's only half-true and that even though they're exaggerated the stories have power and tell their tales as long as you believe in them. This genre is all about how these myths and legends can spin the world around. These stories are grounded in our reality, but possess magical qualities that don't actually exist. In Being John Malkovich the doorway into John Malkovich was this mystical quality. It created a bizarre scenario that could never actually happen but would be interesting to think about within the confines of Earth. One of the most interesting scenes in the movie is when John himself goes through the doorway and we see what would happen if he went within his own mind. The results were beyond bizarre and were hysterical and horrifying at the same time. In all three of these stories another addressed point is the consequences of these magical things existing. The consequences tend to always be bad enough to make sure the magical thing is kept in check otherwise things would only get worse.

Space Opera and The Final Frontier

Crews of people exploring the reaches of space. Seeing worlds out and beyond. The struggles that come with these travels and the exciting otherworldly adventures are what this subset of Sci-Fi is all about. A lot of people probably grew up with this genre in some form or another. Personally, I had been shown the Star Wars movies as a child. This genre opens up so many possibilities as it doesn't have to be grounded in our reality at all. However in the case of The Stars My Destination and in the Star Trek series Earth is very much a real place and is the reason for humans being a species in their stories. We don't know much about what's out there beyond Earth in terms of life and what we can explore. Stories of The Final Frontier journey into possible answers to these questions and often invent the technology that would be needed to do so. There were many things from Star Trek that once did not exist that are slowly being developed today. We wonder what is really within the realm of possibility and over time science proves there is still so much we have yet to achieve.

The New Weird

It was hard to really grasp what this topic was supposed to mean. Especially with the readings and the movie. I took a look at TiMER and then listened to the first few episodes of the Hitchhikers radio drama. Both things were quite different and all I can really surmise is that 'The New Weird' means just that. Science fiction that is just a very weird concept. For the most part TiMER was quite realistic except for the one exception of the device the movie is named after. A small little thing the TiMERs were and yet they changed the way humans interacted with each other so much. The process was such a simple thing in the world of TiMER and very cost effective as well. It seems to me that a lot of the better sci-fi out there poses very strong "what if?" questions. TiMER's question was, "What if by having a simple device implanted onto your wrist you could be guaranteed to meet your soulmate?" What was effective about TiMER was that it looked into both sides of the idea. It showed you that yes it was very accurate and those who used it ended up happy, but it also showed you how it could put unnecessary hassles on your life and make living a little less exciting and unpredictable.

J-Horror

There was something very different about this reading that made it extremely interesting. Taking a look at some of the stories in Kwaidan was a very different take on the horror genre. The spirits in the stories often fell more into a grey area rather than being good or evil. It often took some poor action by the living to cause a spirit to do something harmful. Some of the spirits were very cunning and their ability to lure people in was more frightening than the spirit itself. These stories were very strong at building tension and making you afraid of the simplest things. I've read a few mangas that dealt with situations similar to the stories in Kwaidan. Something that seemed common was the idea of a spirit not always killing someone but instead doing something to them to curse them. A curse seems to take the idea of haunting and amplifying it by adding some sort of physical ailment. The J-Horror stories have an aire of unpredictability of them that sets them apart from other horror that often can be quite predictable.

The Novel of Spiritual Education

Harry Potter might've been the story to make this idea popular, but The Magicians took the idea and threw it on its head. The Magicians clearly has its inspirations from Harry Potter as well as the Narnia books. It merges ideas from both together into something new and with a lot more realism to it. I know some people who have read The Magicians for another class and more of them didn't enjoy the story as much as I did. A big criticism I heard revolved around the main character never being anything more than whiny and never appreciating what he has for long enough. That part of his personality is what I found made the whole thing a bit more believable. All of the magic, it was real and Quentin's attitude of  the real thing not being as mystical as he expected grounded the whole idea a bit more in reality.

If you look at the overall scope of the Harry Potter books and compare it to the events in The Magicians it'll seem a bit silly how often horribly catastrophic stuff happened to Harry each year while Quentin went through all of his magical schooling without too much conflict during it. Danger didn't just stumble into Quentin's life. He had to go and adventure with a group of friends to end up in danger. The situation is more relatable and because so many things that happened in The Magicians were a result of Quentin's actions the whole story poses more interesting questions and themes.