Kaitlyn Fitzgerald LMST 345 Fall 2020

  Classes:  Mon Sep 7 (1 point) Mon Sep 14 (1 point) Mon Sep 21 (1 point) Mon Sep 28 (1 point) Mon Oct 5 (1 point) Mon Oct 12 (1 point) Mon Oct 19 (1 point) Books and  Movies: Frankenstein (6 points) The Haunting  of  Hill House  (5 points) Vampire Academy (5 points) Byzantium (1 point) The Hole (5 points) Annihilation (6 points) Annihilation Movie  (1 point) Red Lands Vol. 1-5 (5 points)  Lord of the Rings (6 points)  47 points total 

 I've seen the movies for both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, countless times, but I've never actually read any of the books. I listened to the audiobook that was linked to the reading list profile because I didn't have the time to actually sit down and read it separately from my other work. I have to say, listening to an audiobook for the first time was a little odd, especially sitting in the labs in Kimbrough, where I had to pause it every now in then and rewind it a little bit because the language is a little confusing when I don't have the words in front of my face.  The amount of times the book utilizes the word queer is impeccable, I  think I listened to it way over 30 times within the first two hours (not sure how many chapters it is because they never really gave chapter numbers through the reading). I think what draws me to the large fantasy world of Middle Earth is how it plays to my sense of adventure. I've always had a very active imagination, hen...

 The art of these comics is beautiful. Although stylized black lines are a typical aspect of comics,  I think the stylized thick black lines with the dark warm color palette, in this setting, really support the theme of how the patriarchy sees female empowerment. The lines are thick and a little unpridictable which matches the personalities of the three witches; also unpredictable like the setting, Florida has always been a little chaotic. In the first volume, the reader is immediately placed in the middle of the action, there is a huge burning tree with nooses dangling from it and the witches are setting up to take out all the police officers. It's obvious that it is a reference to the Salen Witch trials. I think it's cool how the first volume really calls out the hypocrisy and narcissism of the people in the town, in particular the male cops. Right from the start, it's clear that the cops are very set in their corrupt ways. They seem to think that the only people at fault...

 As someone who's major relies heavily on 3D modeling, the CGI in this movie made me laugh so hard. The gator with shark teeth, and don't even get me started on the voice bear. All in all,  though, I thought that the movie was pretty good. However, there are parts where the movie strayed a little too far from the book and I thought that it took something from the plot. Like, when automatically new all the names and a brief synopsis of the backstories of the characters. It took away the experience of having your identity stripped and then being placed in an uncomfortable environment. Also, a clear point about Area: X is that it can copy or mimic, and in the book, they didn't carry any high-tech or automated weapons. The scientists in the movie waltzed right in with semi-automatic weapons, kinda looking like ghostbusters. I really wanted to see an interpretation of the at first, seemingly normal, tower and the crawler. Hypnotism was touched in the movie but they didn't re...

Weird Fiction is one of my favorite genres, so I really enjoyed reading Annihilation. Personally, this style of horror is much more enticing to me and I get way more out of it. I think part of it is because most of the experience in reading comes from the physical environment and not the internal psyche, not to say that the genre doesn't delve into the psyche, especially Annihilation. The fundamentally basic theme behind the book is four scientists go into an unknown Area: X to do research for the government. This area basically rejects the standards or binaries of typical everyday life; ranging all over from biological to environmental differences. One of my favorite parts about the book is that we don't get any details about any of the characters, no names or physical descriptions. Without the identity of the characters, it brings all the attention to the environment.  There is an interesting beauty to Area: X. I think a lot of people get uncomfortable either watching the mov...