Leilani Kaiser: LMST345

     Despite only being 5 chapters long, Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation manages to cram a whole lot of exploration, self-analysis, and plain weirdness into them. It's a wonderfully bizarre novel that throws the reader into the journal of a biologist exploring Area X, a location closed off from the public where expeditions are being sent to record their findings. Things get weirder and weirder with every chapter, and I believe that the environment of Area X plays a major role in amping up the strangeness. For starters, the description of the metaphysical border around Area X unnerved me a lot. I'm a person who enjoys science and logic, and to read about a border that could only be described as some block of light had my brain scrambling to find an explanation as to how that was possible. This brain-scramble happened multiple times while reading the novel, and I occasionally had to re-read parts in order to make sure I was understanding what was happening. Going back to the...

     If you were to ask someone to think of a sheep, what would they imagine? They would probably think of a flock of fluffy animals grazing in a pasture. Maybe they would think of the phrase "counting sheep" when trying to sleep. I highly doubt they would imagine a ghost that possesses humans and robs them of their free will in order to transform humanity and the world.     But why did Murakami choose to make his ghost a sheep? Japan is very well known for its folklore on spirits (yokai), such as the Yuki Onna and Oni. It would seem that the most obvious choice for a creature in a ghost story would be a famous yokai. However, I believe that Murakami chose the sheep because it reverses the roles of humans and sheep- in which we are the ones being herded instead.     Sheep are very docile animals. They are the epitome of the herd animal, meaning that they will follow anything that leads them, such as a shepherd or sheepdog, and usually stay in groups ra...

  I have never done drugs in all my 20 years of living, but reading The Orange Eats Creeps  and attempting to piece together a coherent timeline, as well as figuring out just what is going on in most of the scenes, really made me feel like I was tripping for 168 pages. Some aspects of the novel were made clear, such as the protagonist being a 17-year old girl "vampire", she was in the foster home system for a while before running away and joining a group of older boy "vampires", and the setting throughout the entire novel is Oregon. Everything else, however, left me with so many questions. What's the plot of this novel? Is there even a plot? Who's speaking at this moment, because that doesn't sound like our protagonist's cynical tone and observations? Is this a flashback or sometime in the present? Timeline, plot, and narrators lost all coherence as I read through the novel, but even when I reached the end of the story, I still had one simple questio...

     For most children, the idea of getting older is exciting. You can drive your own car, work at your dream job, leave your parents' house, and become a fully functioning member of society. Unfortunately, for Interview with the Vampire 's Claudia, this dream would never become a reality, and this trait of hers is what makes her one of the most sympathetic characters of the novel.     Claudia was turned into a vampire at only 5 years old by Lestat. She was then taken in by Louis and Lestat, and became their daughter. As time went on, she gained academic knowledge through Louis' love of books, and learned the art of the kill through Lestat. Though her mind aged as years went by, she was doomed to remain in the body of a child. It's hard not to feel bad for her when she gets annoyed by Louis constantly treating her like a doll. Imaging being over 60 years old and your parents still coddle you!     This anger towards her predicament is most certainly a r...

  After reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , it's easy to say that Victor Frankenstein is an irresponsible creator. He reanimated his monster from corpse parts, and upon seeing its horrid face, fled from it immediately and did not give any thought to what he was about to let loose into the world. It was only until a few years later in the snowy Swiss mountains did he interact with his creation, face to face. The monster told his story about how he learned about the world around him, and how he yearned for the affection of others, yet the ones from who he sought acceptance rejected his efforts because of his ugliness. This drove him to commit violent acts of revenge, such as burning down the cottage in Germany and murdering William. The only way that the monster would leave Victor alone is if he were to create a female companion, with which they would find sympathy and affection for each other and live in the remote jungles of South America. The way that Victor reacts to the mo...