Gaming and Fantasy Warbreaker

Our eighth week brought with it the novel Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, and the exploration of how gaming has been affected by and is affecting the genre of fantasy. Gaming in the recent decade or so has risen to become one of the leading industries worldwide. A lot of new games coming out have, in one way or another, been influenced by the genre.

In the novel Warbreaker, we find the story of princess Vivenna and princess Siri. One of them, Vivenna, was arranged to marry the king of a rival nation called Hallendren. After princess Siri is sent as her substitute, Vivenna goes on a journey towards Hallendren in order to save her, and through the novel they become involved in the development of events that pointed towards a war between Hallendren and their home kingdom Idris in a near future. An interesting, and innovative game-like aspect of the novel was a magical system created by the author dubbed “Bio-Chromatic Breath” where sorcerers breathed life into objects, depending on their colors. Being that color was such a fundamental part of the story, having characters even express aspects of their mood through changes in their hair colors, it created a very visual experience for the reader. This is something that could easily be translated into a gaming platform where current technologies could expand on the imaginative idea created by Sanderson. In the time of Tolkien for example, they wouldn’t have imagined the capabilities of modern technology nowadays. What used to only be viewed in the individual reader’s mind is now something that can be brought to life through artists working with computer generated images. The fantasy genre’s niche for inspiring the creation of new worlds has spread through all kinds of media, not only in console gaming, but also music, art, and modern creative writing.

I guess a big reason that the intertwining of games and fantasy is something that has been long in the making. From the first fan of The Hobbit, to Narnia, to Warbreaker, who hasn’t been wanting to explore those worlds. Part of the whole mystique of fantasy is exploring something never before seen. That’s why there will be, as long as it doesn’t become repetitive, a bright future for games that introduce aspects of fantasy into their experience.

Urban Fantasy Anansi Boys

The topic of our seventh week of reading was the urban fantasy. The urban fantasy is the category where a lot of post-Tolkien era works fall into. These are not the easily repetitive epics set in Middle-Earth-like worlds, with wizards, archers, and sorcerers. With influences that seem to come from myths and legends handed down orally through generations in cultures such as Latin America, these are stories that merge every day situations with fantastic characters and plot lines.

A good cinematographic example of the urban fantasy is the film Pan’s Labyrinth. Set in the time of Spain’s civil war, the story explores the life of a little girl who’s the stepdaughter of a malevolent anti-rebel general. Through out the story she comes into contact with a magical, yet mysterious, beast called Pan who has her go about certain tasks in order to prove her worthiness of being a princess back in his mystical realm. At the same time she carries her tasks out, she also has to deal with the ongoing wartime situations at the base camp she lives in. In this week’s reading Anansi Boys, we see a good model of an urban fantasy. The novel tells the story of a modern day English accountant called Charlie who discovers that his recently deceased father Mr. Nancy was actually not human at all, but the incarnation of a West African spider-god spirit called Anansi. After he finds out about this, Charlie also learns that he has a brother he never knew about. He eventually meets this brother of his called Spider, a very mischievous character, who had inherited the mystical powers of their father. Charlie soon regrets bringing Spider into his world and they go about dealing with different conflicts through out the novel. It was very interesting to see how the author Neil Gaiman brought together the two worlds of both our everyday cities and the deep mythical plane from where Anansi and other god spirits like the Tiger and Bird came from.

Out of all genres of fantasy, the urban fantasy is the one that I believe makes a deeper connection with the audience. Yes, middle-earth is cool, and space or extra-terrestrial worlds are amazing, but what we live and experience everyday is our Earth. So whenever an author successfully creates a story that incorporates both realms, it makes a much stronger connection with the reader.

Spiritual Education "The Magicians"

Our sixth week brought us to the theme of spiritual education in novels. The genre of Fantasy is one that is filled with possibilities. Although many fantasy stories concentrate on descriptions of epic battles between mythical creatures and beasts, there are other stories that, not only provide entertainment, but also make it their purpose to educate their audience. Mostly directed at children or teenagers, these novels bring teachings of morality, human relationships, and daily life.

This was especially true in the world renowned series of “Harry Potter” books, and also in this week’s reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. The novel The Magicians takes a very interesting twist on the genre, because it sets the story in our contemporary modern time. The author takes elements from classic fantasies such as Narnia, The Golden Compass, and the “Harry Potter” series. He relates the story of Quentin a young man who still daydreams of an enchanted far away land called “Fillroy” that was described in his favorite series of books (shades of “Don Quixote”). But also, the world in The Magicians includes magic…kind of obvious looking at the title. It even included a college where students could pursue studies in the magical arts/sciences. Similar to Hogwarts in the “Harry Potter” world, but more like a modern day college campus, rather than an old, ancient castle on a cliff’s edge. Through his time in and after the university, Quentin goes through trials and tribulations similar to what most college students go through nowadays. Girls, drinking, drugs, depression, not caring much for classes, trying to find answers…the epic journey of adolescence. After moving to New York, and partying his magical brains off, Quentin hits rock bottom, but not long before he discovers that “Fillroy” did exist all along. From there on he makes it his mission to defend Fillroy from the evil that looms over it.

Making an entertaining fantasy novel, which also includes educational aspects is a great tool to begin to plant the seeds of moral fiber into young minds across the world. But also, I firmly believe we must be careful with some of these stories that grow into immense popularity, because with the banner of education they also create a front to advertise, and push their products towards children.

The Hobbit

This week we introduced the genre of Fantasy with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Tolkien’s interest in linguistics, and his time in World War I were great contributors to his works of literature. Also, the clash between his calm rural childhood and the industrialization of the area he lived in gave him great inspiration.

The Hobbit, the precursor to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is the story of an adventure that Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, undertook. Set in “Middle-Earth”, The Hobbit includes creatures and environments made up by Tolkien, but heavily influenced by Norse mythology. Hobbits, a race of small people who enjoyed a simple lifestyle, and weren’t known for going on epic journeys. In the story, a wizard named Gandalf invites Bilbo to go with him on an adventure to take back an ancient treasure that was now in the possession of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo, Gandalf, and a group of dwarves go on this quest which takes them through mountains, forests, and caves. They faced rough landscapes, hunger, bad weather, and attacks by all sorts of creatures like huge spiders. After they were able to kill Smaug, a huge war over the treasure ensues between humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, and wargs. In the end Bilbo goes back to the hobbit lands, and kept on living the chill lifestyle of a hobbit.

Maybe, Tolkien gave the role of hero to a hobbit, because when he was a child and saw the fast pace industrialization of his country, he yearned to go back to relaxing in his country pasture home. The life-style of a hobbit is peaceful, ideal. Middle-Earth isn’t any more savage than our daily world. I think the world we live in now could be considered even more dangerous and evil, for that reason, even though Bilbo isn’t a great warrior he still has mental qualities and morality of an epic hero.

J-Horror Kwaidan

Our fourth week of class has brought us the genre of j-horror. Its essentially the name for the modern Japanese horror film derivatives, but it originates in the traditional Japanese ghost stories. Contrary to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre type of “slasher” movies, j-horror deals more with creating an overwhelming mood of despair or emptiness.

I decided to read the alternative Kwaidan collection of traditional Japanese ghost stories, because it’s the source of what j-horror has evolved into today. In Lafcadio Hearn’s recollection we find beautifully narrated stories, almost with a far east poem feel to them, existential. For example, in the story of “Oshidori” we are told about a hunter, Sonjo, who wasn’t able to find any game to shoot and eat. Then he came across a pair of a male and a female oshidori ducks. Even though he knew killing oshidori brought misfortune, his hunger took the best of him, and so he shot and killed the male duck with his arrow. Later that night, after having the duck for dinner, he dreamt of a beautiful woman who sat by his pillow weeping, so sorrowfully that it caused him a great deal of sadness. She cried out, “Why did you kill him…do you know what you have done?”, “Me too you have killed—for I will not live without my husband!” Before leaving she told him that the following day he should go back to the pond where he shot him. Wanting to find out the meaning, if any, of his dream, Sonjo went back the next day and found the female oshidori in the water. It swam up to him, and with its beak it tore open its body and died before Sonjo’s eyes. After that he shaved his head, and became a priest.

I think that would’ve made any skeptic turn priest. Reading through Kwaidan I noticed the very strong Buddhist concepts of karma and reincarnation. The narrations are very intertwined with that aspect of Japanese and Asian culture. I read a book once called Graceful Exits by Sushila Blackman. It was a compilation of passed-down stories of how great Buddhists and Zen Buddhist teachers have passed away. It relates extraordinary events, beautiful spiritual moments, that most people would never believe, and I feel these type of accounts, deeply rooted in Buddhist culture, might be part of the influences of the Japanese ghost stories.

Vampires

Last week’s reading sucked…literally. Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire brought a completely new reading experience to the vampire genre. Long gone were the days of Nosferatu’s leg-sliding walk and ugly mug, as Rice took a more romantic and humanly connected take on the matter. Not a bad move on her part considering the fact that most readers of such stories are mainly female, and merging romance with steamy neck blood sucking narrations would almost guarantee her book great success.

In Interview with the Vampire tells the story of Louis, a vampire who through an off-the-record meeting with a journalist, recounts the events in his life as an immortal. Louis tells us of his life in rural New Orleans, and how he eventually came to encounter Lestat, a powerful vampire, who turns him into one and schools him on the vampire way of life. He continues to relate how he encountered the little girl Claudia, and how he regretted to convert her because he inevitably imprisoned her body into the young state it was, yet her mind would continue to develop her vampire behavior. Through out the story, Louis struggles with his desires to drink blood and his human conscience which prevents him from willingly causing harm to others. On the other hand we are also presented with the antagonist Lestat, who is clearly in command of his train of thought and his actions, and couldn’t care less about the pain his survival caused to humans.

Anne Rice clearly, among other themes in her novel, presents us with a good and evil clash. Even though the story is about vampires, most of us non-blood-sipping humans can relate to the fact that we have two sides of our brain that are conflicted when we might want to do certain things that our other side of our conscience doesn’t approve of. Anne Rice had some tragic events in her life pertaining to her child, similar to Mary Shelley, and this story filled with tragedy and mental conflict was probably a reflection of her feelings and her coping with her own conscience.

Monster Island

The second week of class dealt with the theme of zombies. Originally derived from ancient African and Haitian voodoo beliefs, zombies were reanimated corpses, brought back to life by way of witchcraft and sorcery. Nowadays, perhaps because of the times we live in, zombie stories tend to go for a more epidemic or virus type of explanation.

At least that was the case in this week’s 2004 blog novel by David Wellington titled Monster Island. In this story set in a modern post-apocalyptic Earth, the world’s big economic powers have all crumbled, and some viral disaster in the recent months has created a global population of zombies who fiend insatiably for satisfying their hunger for flesh…specifically live human flesh. The main character Dekalb, is an American and ex United Nations weapon inspector who was stuck in a Somali refugee camp with his seven year old daughter Sarah, with a number of other survivors. At the time, Somalia is controlled by Mama Halima a woman commander in chief with a national army comprised of mostly girl child soldiers. Due to his knowledge of New York City, Dekalb is forced to leave his daughter in the care of the Somali army, and mission out to New York by boat with a team of girl soldiers to find some medicine for Halima who apparently had been infected with aids. Because of the scarce supply of aids medication in Africa, Dekalb’s knowledge of New York City was there best and fastest option. After arriving in the city, Wellington describes, in an almost graphic novel type of way, the visuals of street battles, gore, blood, a.k-47 rifles and zombie body parts, as the group made their way through the city to complete their mission. The novel also goes back and forth between the simultaneous storyline of Gary, an ex med student living in New York who had recently made himself into a zombie because of his fear of being the only one around who wasn’t. This was a very interesting and particular aspect of Wellington’s work which was nice because it gives a perspective from a zombie who has kept his conscience and is dealing with the struggle of his new undead existence.

I’m not a particular fan of the zombie theme, but as a way of understanding the rise in popularity, maybe it’s an attempt at speculations of possible futures for humanity where the field of science, which in reality is advancing incredibly fast every day and has been used for horrible experiments, gave way to the rise of mindless flesh eating freaks. I just think a lot of people have a thing for fantasizing about being in dangerous situations, but its not the same to tell a story than to live it, I bet it wouldn’t be so fun if tomorrow’s news told you about the arrival of real live zombies in a city near you…or real dead I mean.