Anubi's Time Portals

For this week, I read the book The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I found the story’s concept very interesting; it combined Egyptian mythology and time travel to create an adventure that could decide the future of the world. Most of the sci-fi stories that have time traveling mainly uses time machines, wormholes, or any other thing where the source come from science and space. However, in this book the author used the concept of myths and magic to create time portals. These were originally for summoning the Egyptian gods from the past when they were in their prime but failed. Even though the story mainly has fictional situations and events based on time traveling and Egyptian myth, it also seemed to have some connection with real historical events to give a more accurate feeling to the setting. The story has many interesting characters, each with their own goal. Though the main protagonist, Brendan Doyle, happened to join the expedition to the past in order to meet and study an enigmatic poet he has been interested in researching. However, he ended up getting on all sorts of problems. Out of the various antagonist, only three of the main ones stood out to me: Horrabin the evil clown, Dog-Face Joe, and Doctor Romanelli. Horrabin was a villainous clown on stilts that commanded over beggars and conducted experiments on people. When the experiments failed, the people would turn into monsters and be locked in the clown’s basement. I think that this enemy has inspired many of the evil clowns we know today. Another villain is Dog-Face Joe, the body swapping pseudo-werewolf, who also happened to be one of the magicians that participated in the activation of Anubis Gate to summon the gods. However, after failing he got cursed and was transformed into a furry canid human with the powers to swap bodies; he even managed to place Doyle’s soul in the body of the enigmatic poet he had been researching on, William Ashbless. Additionally, Dog-Face Joe’s character served as a personification of the Egyptian god Anubis, which fit the story. Finally the main antagonist, Doctor Romanelli was a powerful magician who had been trying to smite the English invaders from Egypt. At the beginning of the story, Doctor Romanelli had a doll with a very similar name to the original, acting as his double. The real one was not involved until later on in the story. It really interested me in the story when Doyle and Romanelli ended up in the Egyptian underworld. It was ironic how the antagonist wanted to call the Gods to smite the invaders, but ended up getting devoured by the demonic chaos serpent, Apophis, while the protagonist got to hitch a ride on Ra’s sunboat.

Space Traps, and Gomorrah...

For last week’s reading, I read the short story of Aye, and Gomorrah… by Samuel R. Delany. In the narrative, the author portrayed the idea of a world where astronauts, commonly referred throughout the story as Spacers, were prepared by being neutered before puberty as a precaution to the effects of radiation and other hazardous threats found in outer space. However, today with new technological advancements, male astronauts can enter the space without being neutered. Another effect of being neutered was that it prevented the astronauts from going through puberty. As a result, the astronauts turned into androgynous adults, making their sex difficult to identify. (Would they be allowed into the Hideyoshi gender baths?). In this world, there was also a subculture of people referred as “Frelks”, however I wasn’t able to confirm whether they were just men or women. The “Frelks” were the people that were aroused by the Spacer’s androgynous looks and naive unattraction to anyone. The story mainly depicts the daily life of the Spacers; talking about their troubles and share their desire to feel sexual attraction. The Spacers also traveled to places and took advantage of the Frelks’ attraction towards them through prostitution by sexually teasing them. This raises a moral issue today since prostitution is illegal in majority of the states. In addition, today, prostitution is seen as a forced practice mainly through human trafficking or a result of poverty.

Personally, I think that because it was a short story, it lacked explanations in some part of the story, which made it more complicated to understand. Also, I found the grammar structure to be a bit complex. When I first started reading the dialogue, I was under the impression that the Spacers were children. This essentially fits the plot since they are basically adults with childlike mindsets because they were never able to go through puberty.

Space Short Operas

For this subject, I decided to read the short stories by Arthur C. Clarke. In both The Star and The Nine Billion Names of God, the author seems to question the concept of a divine creator, as well as different ideas on the concept. In The Star, the story is told from the perspective of a crew member from a space expedition, elaborating on the thoughts of his wavering faith after witnessing the expansive universe. The story constantly keeps questioning if there is a creator or not, especially when they find the alien time capsule from a desolated planet, that the surface was destroyed by the near dying star. As for The Nine Billion Names of God, the story mainly focus on the concept that there is a secret within the many names for God. A monastery is using a machine borrowed from the protagonist to conduct this research. The author seems interested on the concept of a future where one wonders on the idea of a creator or higher power. I have a pretty open mind when it comes to different beliefs. For example, I was raised to believe in an All Powerful Creator as a Christian, however when I first started learning and understanding about the evolution theories and the expansive universe at school, it never wavered my beliefs. Both stories were short and had some unique ideas, however I found it a little hard to understand some of the narration and dialogues in both of them. When I started reading The Star, I was a little confused, however the more I read through the short story, the more I understood. As for The Nine Billion Names of God, I was not able to fully understand most of the dialogue because of their complex science vocabulary, which is common in Sci-Fi stories.

Modern Myths and Legends

I initially started reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, however I ended up enjoying and being more interested in his other book, American Gods. His book is filled with many interesting concepts and ideas of the fantasy world trying to adapt to the ever growing modern society. I love the main protagonist’s name, Shadow Moon, because personally I think it is one of the coolest names I have ever heard. This story has a very interesting fantasy-like setting set in a modern world where the original fantasy beings from myths and legends are trying to adapt. The old gods are losing their presence in the world because they are being forgotten by the people. Meanwhile, as trends and technology progress, more gods are born as a personification of modern culture. These includes the internet, media, and many other modern concepts. One thing I have noticed in many stories with the theme of fantasy in the modern world, is that the fantasy world tends to be hiding from humanity in order to be unnoticed. The human protagonist is the only one that knows about it either by accident, destiny, family legacy, or even by being halve part of that world. A few examples that also reflect this concept are: Hellboy, American Dragon, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, and Gravity Falls.

I found it really fascinating that on Shadow’s journey with Mr. Wednesday across the United States, they were looking to recruit Old Gods for Mr. Wednesday’s plan to start a war against the New Gods; they meet many different fantasy creatures along the way. It really caught me by surprise that Mr. Wednesday was an incarnation of the Norse god Odin, but what surprised me the most was the biggest irony in the story; which was the final boss who happens to be the leader of the new gods and the one pulling strings to create the war, the Norse god of trickery Loki. Though he is one of the old gods, it kind of make sense that he would easily adapt to the modern world, knowing his character, and try to start a war between the old and new gods. The only problem I have is his fake name, Low-Key, seriously too obvious. A part of the story that I really liked is how the author decided to bring back Shadow’s dead wife and make her a part of the story. The author did this by having Shadow visit his wife’s grave and give the magical gold coin he got from a Leprechaun as an offering, which caused her corpse to be reanimated. I also liked how the wife was never fully revived, except for her soul, and is only an undead spirit called a Revenant. I really enjoyed the moment when Low-Key’s men in black minions captured Shadow, and then his wife followed to rescue him. She went on a rampage with the minions and left a trail of dead bodies. This is a sign of how powerful a dead person can be when they do not have natural limiters activated in their bodies; since they are dead the powers of the fearsome corporeal ghost are enhanced.

Magic in the Night Circus

For this week I read the The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I found the story to be fascinating; the unique situations added intensity to the plot and the overall manner in which the story progressed was interesting. The story seems to follow a chain of events. For example, a famous magician, Prospero, receives a girl named Celia from his late mother and later finds that Celia has potential to become a magician in his magic show due to the fact that she has magic powers. Prospero decided to challenge Mr. AH, his former mentor, who was visiting. Both Prospero and Mr AH would raise a disciple to later compete against each other to the death, in order to determine who the stronger mentor was.

In my opinion, I think that Prospero’s actions were irresponsible. His pride and urge to overcome his master placed his own daughter to a betted death match. Personally, his actions raised extreme moral issues because basically the two disciples faced a complicated dilemma, placed in a situation without a choice. The two disciples were educated and trained with different methods; Celia was home schooled and trained by her father while Marco was adopted by Mr AH from an orphanage and received training like that of an Institution from Mr. AH. Another moral issue was presented when Mr. AH simply adopted Marco to use as a tool to prove his mentorship ability.

I found it really fascinating how fate ended up leading both Marco and Celia to the Night Circus without being aware that they were each other’s fated opponent. During the performance they both spared with each other until they realized the true meaning behind their training and being at the circus. The storyline became increasingly complicated when Celia and Marco started having mutual feelings towards each other. This juxtaposes the intentions of Prospero and Mr AH. If the disciples were to fall in love with each other they would not be able to face and fight each other to death. Their lack of freedom to love and choose their fate poses extreme moral issues.

Marco undergoes a complex spiritual challenge towards the end when he had to choose between Celia’s love or his mentors expectation. However, his love for Celia was powerful enough to override the challenge. He stood against their fate and kissed Celia in front of everyone, which to most people would find it to be extremely embarrassing to actually do it out of a whim. Although the ending was a tragedy, Marco and Celia’s spirits remain together and their love continued.

A Hobbit's Journey

For this week, I read the “Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. There are many aspects in the Hobbit that reflect many elements of the classic hero’s journey. I found it interesting how some details in the book were not present in the movie adaptation.

The hero’s journey is introduced through the eyes of Bilbo Baggins, the story’s protagonist, in his homeland, The Shire. The journey begins by describing the hero’s lifestyle and his main flaws. Unlike most protagonists, Bilbo is portrayed as an antisocial and withdrawn hobbit where he prefers to be in his own comfort zone away from the other hobbits.

Bilbo was content with his current life until he received a visit from a very well-known wizard, Gandalf. This sudden visit altered his whole life; a group of Dwarves started to appear in Bilbo’s home. The intrusion of the dwarves placed Bilbo out off his comfort zone. Later on, he learned the reason for their visit; the dwarves wanted to recruit him as their “burglar” for their journey towards the Lonely Mountain. The purpose of this journey was for Bilbo to follow the dwarves to reclaim their land by sneaking into the mountain and taking back the dwarves’ sacred stone from the dragon. Bilbo rejected the mission multiple times, until he was finally convinced to join them. He decided to leave his comfort area in order to learn more from the outside world. Bilbo’s adventure follows the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he first had an ordinary life, but after the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves, he was called to an adventure.

As the story progressed, there are signs of Bilbo’s character development where he went through some behavior changes. He started to reform his bad habits in order to adapt to any conflict the party might encounter. He also used his wittiness to help the group from many sticky situations. Bilbo’s growths and acquired new skills emphasize on the element of a classic hero’s journey.

Throughout the journey, Bilbo also managed to acquire two magical items that had helped him throughout his adventure. The first item, Sting is an elven short sword that glows whenever any orcs are approaching. This sword had the ability to alert the group of danger. The second item is a magical ring that allows Bilbo to turn invisible whenever he puts it on. The presence of these two items helped Bilbo and the dwarves defeat and overcome challenges throughout the classic journey of a hero.

At the end, Bilbo was able to reclaim the dwarves land and return home. The entire journey had shaped and transformed Bilbo into a hero. Bilbo returns to the Shire, but with a different attitude than the one he had before his journey which made his life in the Shire more enjoyable. To conclude, the change in Bilbo’s character reflects the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he transformed from an antisocial, withdrawn hobbit into a heroic protagonist. He is no longer the same person he was before he left.

Hexing Witches in Literature

For this past week, I read the book Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the story disturbingly creepy but with a lot of personality coming from the characters’ actions which enriches the story. The character, Aunt Maria, may seem to appear as a rude bossy old lady, but in all actuality she happens to be a powerful manipulative witch; making her the main antagonist of the story. In my opinion, Aunt Maria’s rude, stubborn, bossy and cranky personality are just stereotypes of a grumpy old lady. Most of her behavior and outdated opinions mainly reflect the past experience of an old lady. Maria’s personality trait was influenced by her witch-like manipulative nature, where she kept using reverse psychology on the protagonist's mother to do all of the housework for her. Aunt Maria embodies the powerful stereotypical image of an old wicked witch. She uses her magic powers to influence and completely control the town she lives in.

I really find it interesting how the story revolves around a pair of siblings that must defeat the evil witch that threatens their family. This reminded me of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel with the content of two children having to confront a witch. In my opinion, I do not think that all witches are evil since it mainly depends on how they decide to use their power; either to help or get corrupted. A witch mainly refers to a female spellcaster, however a warlock is referred to as a male witch.

Our culture models women with power as independent, strong and intimidating. However, Aunt Maria is needy and dependent on the people around her. The only way she manages to get things done is by using her powers of magic without really questioning her actions and circumstances. This also plays around with the idea of hierarchy in our society today where people use or even abuse the power they have to manipulate or demand things from others in order to accomplish their goal.