Kris Reads Horror, Fantasy, And Sci-Fi

The mind is an interesting subject to explore, after all we have spent much of our existence trying to figure out its functionings. Humans have done various experiments exploring its processes, and how it can be altered. Science-fiction stories provide a way for us to explore concepts about the mind without actually performing them on people, providing us with a variety of outcomes. One notable story that does this is the amazingly titled “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”. In the story, the last five humans in existence are tortured by the supercomputer AM, who regularly messes with their minds as a sick form of entertainment and punishment. Each character, even AM arguably, is suffering from some experimentation done to them psychologically, or physically in some cases. Each of the five main character’s take some notable aspect of their person and completely alters it, leaving them shadows of their former selves. While many could see this as a story discussing the dangers of arti...

Science-fiction one of the most interesting genres to discuss, personally, as it’s probably one of the hardest genres to define. It covers such a broad range of topics, with some stories and tropes often finding their roots in other genres such as Western and Horror. I think, however, one of the best descriptors of the genre is that sci-fi is “the literature of ideas”. Typically the genre deals with the human reaction to various creative and futuristic concepts such as advanced technological processes, space exploration, time travel, alternate realities, and the like. To me, sci-fi is something that you look at and just know that it’s sci-fi. That’s a sentiment I definitely share with one of Arthur C. Clarke’s most famous short stories: “The Nine Billion Names of God”. The use of technology and the exploration of the nature of the universe within the short story evidently makes this a sci-fi tale, but the root of the story ultimately reminds me of something fantasy or even mytholog...

Through much of The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, myths of varying cultures are used as inspiration for many of the issues, such as #50 “Ramadan”, which draws from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and the special “Song of Orpheus”, which is a retelling of the myth. However, the mythological reference reach their high point in the collection nine in the series, The Kindly Ones, which holds issues 57-69. The entire plot of the story is structured like a Greek tragedy; the protagonist, Morpheus is the ill-fated hero, and each interlude is narrated by the “chorus”, the Furies themselves. While this structure is intact and it bears many references to various mythologies (such as Lyta’s Medusa imagery and Loki’s role in the plot), the story itself is not based on any one particular myth. Rather, it serves as the climax of the main storyline of the Sandman comics. Throughout the series, the main theme has been change, as Dream of the Endless, or Morpheus as he’s commonly called, has be...

1.) What is your reaction to the text you just read? My reaction is a rather strange mix of empathy and visceral disgust. I feel pain for the protagonist, Gan, as he has been raised his whole life mislead about his fate as a host to the parasitic eggs that his family friend and partner, T’Gatoi. Personally, nothing strikes more terror into my heart than insects and the thought of being infested by parasitic insects such as the botfly (which I believe is an inspiration butler draws from). However, there does seem to be an emotional, symbiotic bond between Gan and T’Gatoi that can’t be denied. While Gan admits that he wants to protect Hoa from the same fate when he considers suicide over being infested, he almost admits that he wants “to keep [T’Gatoi] for [him]self”. However, I am also aware of the narcotic effect of that the sterile eggs produce in humans, or Terrans as they’re referred to. That effect makes me wonder how much of this love is a byproduct of being given the eggs, and ra...