Kaitlyn Fitzgerald LMST 345 Fall 2020

 During my senior year of high school, I got rear-ended while I was at a  stoplight. The lady who hit me screamed and screamed at me, and even when someone came over to tell her to stop,  she just screamed at them. She yelled at me that it was all my fault because I had slammed on my brakes in the middle of the intersection when I actually had stopped behind the line and she just wasn't paying attention. She tried to manipulate me by telling me she was pregnant and if the baby was injured it was all my fault and then she tried to get me to not go to insurance because she had rear-ended someone else four years earlier and her insurance rates were just starting to go down. I was 18 at the time and this was my first accident, and when the cop showed up, I was told that I could've made the light and that I should be grateful I'm not getting a ticket. I was marked at fault. I found out later that the cop who showed up was not a traffic cop, clearly because he obviously didn'...

Seeing Sam Riley as someone other than Mr. Darcy was a little shock but at least Darvel has the same moral compass and respectability. As far as vampire films, I hadn't ever seen a movie quite like this one. Filmed by the same director who filmed Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, Neil Jordan, this movie takes on some of the similar values. The vampires, Eleanor and Clara have been on the run from this diluted Brotherhood of vampires; chasing down Clara because it was against the code to turn her daughter into a vampire. Like Interview with a Vampire, both Eleanor and Clara are very humanized with detailed traumatic histories. Clara's story is absolutely tragic. Being taken as a kid and being put into prostitution by Ruthven and then not being able to save her daughter from him as well, is traumatic. I'm glad she showed him no mercy, he didn't deserve any. I thought it was cool that the vampires weren't your typical neck biters, but had a singular nail that e...

I haven't read a young adult romance novel in a very long time. I expected the usual teen drama, of course, but, I forgot how nonsensical most teenage arguments are. Most of the problems could have easily been solved with just a simple conversation, but then, I guess, there would be no meat to the story.  Vampire Academy is directed towards a younger audience with it's more modern version of the vampire. In the same way that Twilight fantasized the blood-sucking immortal beings into highly sought after, untouchable teenagers, Vampire Academy turned the modern version of vampires into almost royalty that always needs to be protected. It's interesting that Richelle juxtaposed her shiny new version against the old standard of a monster vampire.  It's very rare that the characters are referred to as vampires, and with very humanized characters, it's easy to forget that about fifty percent of the characters are bloodsuckers. The Moroi is the name given to the more humani...

 I enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House about as much as I enjoyed reading Frankenstein. From the limited amount of gothic literature I have read, it has become increasingly obvious that it is not my style. I respect both books as classic pieces and I did enjoy reading them both, up to an extent, however, I would not choose to read them again. It's clear that both pieces uphold the gothic style of writing and I think that is where I find my problem, in the structure that gothic literature is laid out in. Page after page of "woe is me, my life is hard, and nothing is my fault" and incessant anxiety. Being in the headspace of these individuals is frustrating for me, especially when sentences drone on and on with, personally, unnecessary details. Picking up the book, I truly expected to be scared. From the description on the back of the book and the countless movies, I expected chills to spread down my spine and to not be able to sleep after reading it. In fact, it was quite t...