Weird fiction

works and history, inspired writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, and of course, Fuentes himself. This is what I believe to lie at the core of Chickamauga; that which we pass on to the next generation. Chickamauga is a piece of anti-war fiction that details a young boy’s fateful adventure into the woods. Bierce begins describing the child in the second paragraph on page 343, but we are never actually given a name. However, the line that interests me most is slightly below that in…

Spirituality plays a subtle but major role in Alexie's stories. The characters in these stories seldom participate in any kind of religious practice, and spirituality is not explored as explicitly as some of the other themes in the book. Nonetheless, Alexie often describes his characters in religious terms. The collection contains countless references to both Christianity and traditional Spokane spirituality. For example, the refering to the Bible by way of a passing reference in “All I Wanted…

Kurt Vonnegut a German short story writer and novelist, who endured a very hard and depressing young life, uses his background as motivation for many of his novels and short stories. “Deer in the Works” one of many short stories by Kurt Vonnnegut, was published in 1950. Vonnegut after his service in World War II had a job at G.E or General Electric. This where people theorize where he got inspiration for “Deer in the Works”. The setting in this book is the industrialized plant of Illium works,…

The title is a very basic representation of what’s inside, it is strange enough to draw the reader’s attention, after all it is a pretty weird story to say, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” But it is also one of the most representative of the fact that it is a collection of neurological cases because it actually implies something being wrong with the brain, while other titles such as “The Lost Mariner”, “The Disembodied Lady”, “Witty Ticcy Ray”, “The Dog Beneath the Skin”, and “Rebecca”…

“We Kill Ourselves Because We Are Haunted” is a non-fiction essay by Jennifer Percy in which Percy meets veterans or soldiers and their family members who are suffering from PTSD. It has occur due to some accident that happened to the veterans or soldiers in their past. In the article, Percy discusses various incidence of different people who are trapped in the circle of PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a problem related to mental health. In this a person experiences flashbacks,…

that is being told to them. In Tim O’Brien’s novel, the narrator actually named all the characters in the novel after the men that fought alongside him in the Vietnam War. With this approach the narrator created a distinction between true fact and fiction. Despite telling all the stories, the author never revealed if the stories truly happened or not. In the story “How To Tell A True War Story” by Tim O’Brien, the author essentially refers the story back to the title. The title doesn’t offer the…

was expelled from Oxford and then had to leave England, Hardy had to face the wrath of the conservative English public. His controversial novel Jude the Obscure was banned and copies of the book were publicly burnt. After that Hardy stopped writing fiction and though he published a number of poems he certainly lost the verve and rhythm necessary for the creative artist. Despite these two sordid examples , exile literature has always evinced an immense reader interest , as there is a great…

Discussion on Definitions of Science Fiction In the first reading assignments of the class, we were asked to read about different definitions of Science Fiction through the history. To my surprise there were 9 pages, and the diversity of the definitions is a par the number of them. While reading the book, I also echoed back with the definitions and have a deeper understanding on them. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the first of its kind. Although Shelley considered the novel to be a horror story…

do with the fire that left Maggie disabled and walking with a limp. Several critics have pointed out how Mama describes herself and Maggie as victims, and Dee as a selfish, insensitive person. According to Wayne Booth, author of The Rhetoric of Fiction, explains that “the fact that Mrs. Johnson is both narrator and character … has a powerful effect on our perception of Dee” (Booth). It is fair to say that Mama and Maggie’s characters do make you feel sympathy for them; however, I’m sure no one…

Science fiction as a genre has often had its stories steeped in allegory and metaphor. From the 1960s Star Trek to James Cameron’s Avatar, sci-fi narratives seeking to impart a greater meaning to their audience have been met with wild success, despite varying degrees of subtlety. In his novel Embassytown, author China Miéville takes this tradition and puts it to the side in lieu of running with it. A self-proclaimed “geek," Miéville has held a lifelong interest in the genres of science fiction…