Tyler Abrams - Lit. of Horror, Fantasy, & Sci-Fi

     I see media technology overall becoming less and less social if that makes sense. I'd say for the next decade viewing media at home will be the biggest change. I don't think cable TV will have as many viewers I think most TV shows will be on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and the big TV channels will each have their own platform like Disney (ABC) and CBS already do. Now this prediction doesn't support my "less social" comment yet. In 20 years, I think we will see start to movies step away from the theaters and go to "straight to video" and at home viewing. In 30 years, I think Blu-rays, DVDs, and even 4K movies will be completely digital and we will just be buying movies at home. In 40 years, I think watching movies at the theaters will be no more, maybe they will be even projected onto our front lawn. In 50 years, I think all new movies, new tv shows, and any other new media will be able to be viewed on our devices immediately and we won'

     Neil Gaiman is an amazing author. I've read American Gods and Graveyard Shift but I never read Coraline. I had just seen the movie, so I was happy to take the opportunity to finally read it. I just love the story itself. I like the idea of in our perfect dream world that everyone we know and love would be these button eyed doll people. It really proves the point that you can't create the world or change people only to your benefit. Also it shows that a perfect world isn't a real thing. Coraline realizes that about her perfect world. The conflicts and troubles of life is what makes it life and it shapes us as human beings. We need trials to overcome so we can discover things about ourselves. People would be very weak in a perfect world. I really discussed the themes I discovered while reading this book, but I really enjoyed it! Another great work by one of my top authors!

       Night Circus is written by Erin Morgenstern. I had to look it up but this book was written in 2011. It fairly new but it was definitely written after Harry Potter. It feels like a similar tale but with much older feel plus it involves the circus. I thought this book was just ok. I never really cared for either of the main magicians. Some elements and twists on the wizards in this novel were nice. I liked the idea of our main characters being ripped from reality and bond as ghosts to haunt the circus forever but their love story never really impacted me. All in all it was fantasy book that had nice ideas.

        Well there is not much to say about "The Hobbit" that hasn't been said already. This book changed so much. It inspired 9 films, countless video games, and other novels inspired by. J. R. R. Tolkien created a huge fanbase that changed a generation and generations to come. This was all done because he wrote about a journey, but he created a world that some many stories could be told in. J.R. R. Tolkien's story was about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and a wizard named Gandalf the Grey traveling to help Dwarves save their mountain from a fearsome dragon. I was never that big of a fantasy person so it took me until this class to finally read this classic but I have to say I enjoyed it very much and it makes me appreciate the movies even more.

        What I like about this story is how it plays to the typical story tropes to let you know you are in a preteen fan stay novel but does make some improvements. The story starts out with "family going to live with a relative plot". The missing parent (Dad this time), relative turns out to be strange/mystical, and supernatural elements are all here. I like the exclusion of the men in this town being just zombie-like with no will of their own. Then our main character's brother Chris comes to this town and is turned into a werewolf. I'm a fan of the supernatural and these elements plus an engaging plot all comes out to be an enjoyable read that I wished I read as a teen myself.

"Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler Week 12 Response/Assessment 1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?       While reading this I felt very unnerving. I was very confused most of the read about what was exactly going on. The text has many uncomfortable things and phrases in it. There is a lot of talk about eggs, grub, and killing of animals. The animals I found out to be humans I think. It seems that most of the characters are evolutions of humans that are changed by a species that uses the human body as a host. There is this mother character, T'Gatoi who I believe isn't a human but was one of these "alien" species from birth. Most of the time she is trying to get her son, Gan to take her egg to birth "young" I believe. I may have interpreted some things wrong but I was kind of a hard story to follow. 2. What connections did you make with the story you read? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect?