Magical Realism in Limbo

(In the interest of full disclosure, I've played this game before, though this is of course my first time throwing literary terminology at it.)

One thing that jumped out at me when I played this game recently was that it seemed to have many of the traits associated with magical realism, in one form or another. Authorial resistance is one of the more obvious ones; at no point does the game offer any concrete information about the nature of the setting, the protagonist, or even the controls. As is typical for magical realist works, this serves to make the whole thing much more bizarre and mysterious than it would be if we knew what was going on. I'd say there's also a strong sense of metafiction, though this is somewhat inevitable in many video games; when controlling a character directly, there's much less distinction between the character and the viewer/player/reader than there is in a medium with predetermined outcomes.

I just wish we had been assigned the entire game (it's short) so that I could see what people thought of the ending.

Limbo

I downloaded this game and made my roommate play with me because I was scared stuff was going to pop out and it would be like the exorcist maze game. Luckily it was not; although it was somewhat garish, overall it was not too bad.

When I first started the game I wasn't quite sure what to think so I started over analyzing EVERYTHING. I thought the idea was to experience limbo or it was some sort of sick trick. Then as I went along and actually made achievements, I began to realize there was actually goal. I thought it was fun and challenging and I liked having to use my surroundings to get to the next step.

 The concept of the game directly relates to this class because it uses horror in a suspenseful way. The entire game is shrouded in a gray mist, complete with creepy forest, traps and monsters. I love the idea of surviving, using your mind, and horror were all combined into this enjoyable, creative game.

Tme Travel

In the movie Primer two friends unknowingly create a machine for time travel.  Upon discovery they use the machine to make money and save a friend’s life.  Time travel is a concept that fascinates humans; the idea to go back and undo mistakes in the past to better your own life  The idea to be able and go back and change events that have occurred in the process undoes who we think we are and makes us capable of taking actions we would never have taken.  The fact that if we make a mistake we can go back and fix it and just keep repeating this cycle till our life is how we want causes us to be capable of actions that we would see as immoral and overall wrong without this ability to undo it as seen by the two friends who bring harm upon themselves and others. Mankind’s biggest wish is to be able to change what is in the past to change the course of their life. However, what makes time travel   such an intriguing concept is what changes in other people’s lives will they be the same or will that one change cause the butterfly effect.  The butterfly effect is the theory that a minor change say stepping on a bug could completely overturn the future.  This concept is extremely popular in science fiction and is common issue in time travel movies.  The ultimate question that is the central conflict within time travel scenarios is can one small difference change the future in drastic ways. 

Time out of Control

Primer uses time travel as a warning to the future about the advancement of technology, including but not limited to the concept of time travel. While Carruth's Primer revolves around time travel, the message is the same regardless of the type of human advancement: we cannot allow technology to escape our control. This is similar to the idea of artificial intelligence, in that even if we come to have the resources and knowledge to create something, if we cannot control its actions or its outcome, then mankind is better off without. We are at a point in our society where innovation is more about the improving conveniences in life, not purely for survival. Technology such as time travel is far too risky, because while it could benefit the human race, the consequences that could come from it are too great. Another way to look at time travel is sort of like nuclear weapons, because both are completely unnecessary, as well as catastrophic if everyone had the power to use them. Primer uses the butterfly effect in the same way that Ray Bradbury does in "The Sound of Thunder" where humans can go T-Rex hunting, and one man steps off the designated path and ultimately alters the course of history with his small mistep.

Primer

        At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, it didn’t hit me until watching “Primer” for a second time on Netflix after class that the bewildering “boomerang” sequence of events in the film was likely intended to mimic the experiences of Abe and Aaron as they adjust to reliving the same 24-hour time loop. The problematic creation of character “doubles,” which we have encountered in previous works such as Fuentes’ Aura and “The Father-Thing” also engage the audience with the characters’ growing disorientation. With so many circuits of the same events being made and a new set of “Abes and Aarons” emerging from each subsequent circuit, we, and the authentic Abe and Aaron (whoever they are) begin to question which “set” is at the heart of the narrative.

                On a bit of a different note, I could see this film as a whole being used as a criticism of the exaltation of laboratory research. While Abe and Aaron have somehow stumbled upon a way to successfully manipulate time under very specific conditions and within a closely monitored environment (“the Box”), their attempts to alter even minute details of their current lives (investing in stocks, etc) are complicated by unexpected consequences (Aaron telling his wife about the invention and Mr. Granger discovering and using the Box). Ethical and/or philosophical grievances aside, the failure of the protagonists to account for factors like Granger’s intrusion could be compared to the potential dangers of certain real-world scientific experiments that, while successful in contained environments and thus theoretically viable processes/solutions/etc., cannot or should not be “toyed with” in a world outside the lab, where conditions are never ideal and in which innumerable external variables exist that “theory” has no ability to regulate.

The Cabin in the Woods

There is just so many things to talk and write about this fantastic movie. First, we have the parodying of horror tropes in the film itself, then just the uncanny idea of someone controlling our every move. I personally think that everything in the film was nicely done. One aspect that I want to talk about in particular is the combination of genres into one big movie. The Gothic aspect of the film was present through the ritual and setting itself. It was scary, secluded and in a controlled environment. Not once did the characters have a chance of surviving the outcome if not for the super-always-high Marty. The ritual is very Gothic in that it is done to appease the "Old Gods" because there is a belief that these higher, stronger beings exist and need to be placated through the suffering of mortals and through the spilling of blood. It is also Romantic as well because there is this notion that the five individual have to play a certain role in order to accomplish their goal. It is goes back to the idea of society needing these positions filled because without a paragon of virtue being a example of goodness then how would people know that being a whore is a bad thing?

Radio as a Science Fiction Tool

The best stories are ones that make you feel like they are real, and the best way to do that is to present them in a believable way, through logical character development and plot. Even in "absurd" situations, like science fiction and fantasy, the audience can feel like it could happen, if not now, or on this planet, then certainly someday or in a far away place. In the past, the only ways to create this feeling was through books and plays. Radio provided a new means for realism in fiction, and Orson Welles and his broadcast team took advantage of it to great effect.

Radio at this time had helped to bring the nation together, and it was a main form of communication as well as entertainment. It was interesting how this dual nature of radio broadcast helped shape the fear of the listener, suspending the listener in a state of uncertainty. Even for those that knew the broadcast was merely a story, it was told in such a way to draw the audience in, to make them think about the possibility of such a world and such an event actually taking place.

Fear of The Unexplained

In Primer, Limbo, and the War of the Worlds podcast, we find a common theme in fear of that which is not understood. In Primer, thought the film is classified as science fiction, we are struck with fear of the time travel we do not completely understand. This fear is propagated when we come to know that the time travel has caused some unknown damage, presumably in the minds of the main characters. Limbo represents more a fear of the unknown as the game is set in limbo, the state between life and death. With hardly any proof to the existence of this state, both the state of existence and the game may be classified as fiction/horror. This classification, however, does not detract from the fact that Limbo preys on humanity's fear of death and what waits beyond. Since we have no facts to offer concrete proof of what waits beyond death's veil, death and what lies beyond is constantly used to frighten audiences of all forms of entertainment. The War of the Worlds podcast also preyed on the human fear of the unexplained. With no concrete proof of intelligent alien life, people like H. G. Wells may only speculate what would occur should foreign entities attempt to invade. These fears of unexplained concepts, (time travel, alien invasion, what happens after death) are common to science fiction and provide audiences with not only a thrill, but possible explanations for that which cannot be explained. It is for that reason that science fiction has become so popular in recent years; everyone is looking for answers to unsolved questions in science fiction media.

The Little Boy

Limbo was a really fun game to play! Though simple and somewhat abstract in its design, it is sophisticated in its game execution. At first I was on the main screen for awhile before I noticed that there was a little boy (I thought it was still loading). Then I pushed the arrow keys and saw him rise from the bushes. I found out how to use the rest of the controls in the settings when you hit "esc." The setting is rather dark and dim, simulating soft and harsh textures of the environment from obstacle to obstacle that the little boy faces on his journey. This creates depth and represents a kind of realism. Through that type of realism and the character of the silhouette boy, it creates an uncanny world that the player feels connected to through the interaction that the boy makes. He struggles through obstacles as we can see through his humanistic movements, from pulling, pushing, climbing and jumping, and dying. This semblance to human movement makes the player attribute emotions of sympathy and empathy to the character, even though it is merely a silhouette of a small boy with bright eyes. Because of this, I felt super accomplished and gratified whenever I went through the multiple obstacles because I felt like I helped the boy on whatever destination he is trying to get to. The sound is pretty quiet, you only hear the rustling of his feet and natural sounds of water splashing, snapping booby traps, rolling boulders, etc. This adds to the sense of mystery and overall atmosphere of the game. The fact that the game is so mysterious and dark with no dialogue (so far) and no real instruction as to how to control the boy at first, enables the player to feel more engaged in it.I felt determined to go through the game to find out what it all leads to and if anything would reveal the story behind the little boy.

Primer: Science fiction without any explanation

Most science fiction that we read/ watch always explains how the science fiction actually works. In Paycheck, the SF by Philip K. Dick explains time travel by Einsteins theory. Much like the film directed by Robert Zemeckis, the time machine in Back to the Future also does not have further explanation of how the machine actually works. This attribute is interesting in that the direction the story can explore is literally endless. We do not know how the machine works, and it is unpredictable to us of what it's capabilities are just as much as it is to the characters in the novel. Many SF also decimate information by having one character not understanding the mechanisms of a system. In Primer, Abe explained to Aaron the concepts of what is happening. He brought Aaron to each one of the professors so that we as watchers understand how the time travel mechanism works.

Limbo

Limbo was very interesting in using its dark environment to create anxiety. Limbo was unique from many other video games, in that was made with only shades of black, white, and grey visuals. These visuals, along with the unsettling nature of the environment, were used to create anxiety for players. The video game gives no pretext as to what Limbo was about: you play as a boy that suddenly wakes up in the middle of the woods who gradually advances through this environment. What really caught me off guard was the amount of gore and detail that went into the boy's potential deaths, in that one would not expect such a level of violence in Limbo despite its already established dark nature. All these things come together to make a truly unsettling trial and error video game.

Primer: Consequences of Time Travel

The central theme to Shane Carruth’s Primer is one about how the advancement in technology can potentially lead to unpredictable events caused by the technology. As Abe and Aaron discover the time-travel capabilities of their invention they begin exploiting it to make money in the stock market. However after they begin time travelling they soon observe odd things happening. They discover the father of Abe’s girlfriend (Rachel) in a vegetative state caused by time travel. Abe and Aaron never revealed to Rachel’s father their machine, implying that his discovery of their machine could have been made through their doubles. It is also revealed later in the film that Aaron’s double actually drugged the original Aaron. Here the audience see’s the negative consequences of the duos invention. They created a machine that they did not entirely understand or could predict and thus became victim to unforeseeable “side-effects” of time-travel. In the end the two part ways as they cannot agree on what to do with the time travel device reinforcing the idea that it is impossible to predict all possible consequences of a technology and the great potential new technology has to disrupt and even harm our own lives. 

Primer

The film Primer presents a version on the stereotypical "time travel adventure." Abe and Aaron create a time machine device, and as they discover that it actually functions properly, they build bigger protocols until it can readily transport people. In the beginning, the excitement about this new discovery is clear. The two travel through time and there are seemingly no negative retributions. However, as they continue to use this time machine, the consequences of time travel begin to emerge. This film poses a warning that time travel is dangerous, and that the continuum of time and space is not something that should be altered or played with by humans, or any other species. Because the whole concept of time and travel is vastly unknown, it should not be explored. Time travel will ultimately lead to dire consequences. Thomas Granger's comatose state is a prime example which suggests the dangers of messing with time. Because there are so many things unknown about time and how it works, playing with this abstract idea will lead to dangerous, if not fatal, incidences. This reminds me of a part in the third Harry Potter book that deals with the issue of time travel. Hermione and Harry use a time turner to go back in time to help Sirius escape. However, they had to be very meticulous as to not change anything else. This is the butterfly effect. Changing one little thing will alter the rest of history.

War of the Worlds Broadcast

In War of the Worlds, the narrator tells of the invasion of Earth within an hour-long commentary on the instances of it happening. The realism of the commentary is astounding considering that the whole thing was simply a prank, but the uses of the scientists switching out to talk about strange events talking about explosions on Mars, and the “proof” made this broadcast much more realistic. The broadcast played on people’s fear of the unknown, despite the advancements in technology, there is still so much unknown. This unknown fear can be seen through the “alien technology” and “heat ray” that was fired at many on comers. The threat and realization that humans may not be the only powers on the planet, frightened people to the extreme, thus their crazed reactions and responses.  Furthermore, the use of radio as the only source of communication made the response much more violent – it had always been considered a reliable source, so why shouldn’t it now? These issues all led to the widespread panic of the War of the Worlds broadcast.

Limbo (9)

The moment the game Limbo starts there isn't a single rule or description of what the player should do, the player ultimately has to figure everything out by themselves, excluding what the controls are. The entire demo sets a very dark eerie atmosphere, in which this little boy is running through an isolated forest that is basically pitch black. Through the course of the game the player begins to learn how to direct this boy in order to maneuver past the traps that has been set up to kill him. As the game progresses, the player begins to feel a connection towards the unknown boy as we become disappointed or angry when he dies by the bear traps, rock, or spider. We want to help this boy to achieve his goal, even though as players we're not quite sure what it is. Finally, I noticed that notions of nature was definitely a key aspect in this game, which plays on the theme of the Gothic

Limbo(Blog #9)

I actually enjoyed playing the Limbo Demo. From the beginning, we see that the character we play as is a small boy in a foggy black and white forest. Although I was not entirely sure of the goal, I just moved on forward. I then had to go through various obstacles that were fun yet challenging at the same time. I liked the fact that some of the obstacles required me to think outside of the box. For instance, there was one particular obstacle that got me frustrated – getting across the little pond without drowning. I won't reveal how I got across it, so everyone else who hasn't played yet could figure it out. I really enjoyed how this game made me feel involved, which reminded me of metafiction.

The War of Worlds Broadcast

“The War of Worlds” Broadcast is a unique example of listeners being truly brought into the realm of the supernatural without any notion that what they are experiencing is not reality. In 1938 a radio station re-enacted a portion of “The War of the Worlds” as a Halloween Prank, but because the broadcast lasted an hour listeners that tuned in after the short introduction didn’t know that the broadcast was a prank. As a result the listeners believed a Martian invasion had occurred and thus experienced the supernatural while in the realm of reality. The manner by which the broadcast is portrayed creates a sense of false relaxation in the listener followed by anxiety and fear. Initially the broadcast is filled with joyful music and occasional interruptions with news about odd occurrences in space. The news is short-lived; however, and the programming returns quickly to playing music, causing the listener to believe there is no need for alarm. But as the act progresses the news interruptions become more frequent and the reporters have a sense of anxiety and bewilderment in their voices.  It is important to note that the scientist that are portrayed are initially reporting that they have full understanding of the occurrences but as the broadcast progresses the scientist are unable to explain the apparent “alien” invasion. The fact that scientist, the voice of reason for society, are unable to explain the assumed alien beings creates a sense of fear in the listener. The lack of confidence in both the reporters and scientist causes the listener to enter into a state of panic. Thus through the use of sound the creators of the broadcast were able to create a supernatural occurrence in the realm of reality. 

Limbo

Limbo is a virtual world. It is a computer game where the player is attempting to go forward through a wasteland. At first, the player doesn't have any clue about what is going on, but as the game progresses the player learns how to direct the character through the maze of obstacles. I played with my friend Paige. When we got to the spider and it stabbed the character he died. We screamed, partly from surprise and partly from horror. We had been working so hard towards some unknown goal that we had become emotionally involved, and the disappointment from the loss of the little guy caused us the players to react. The game is a type of meta-fiction. It requires the player to bridge the gap between reality and this new fictional world. The game allows the player to bridge the gap more effectively than most books or movies do. The player has to physically push buttons to make the character move and the player has control over the character's well-being. It is not such a jump of imagination to put yourself in the little characters shoes.

Cabin in the Woods: Monsters

In Cabin in the Woods we see a large variety of monsters contained in their glass prisons. Many of which are obviously supernatural and their presence preys on our more outlandish fears. These creatures include Fornicus Lord of bondage and pain, the Sugarplum Fairy, the Angry Molesting Tree, and other such obviously supernatural and mythological creatures. This movie, however, excels as a motion picture as it also includes horrors from all portions of the uncanny-supernatural spectrum. There is the clown who, at first,  seems to be a human murderer in a costume but later proves impervious to bullets. There is also the alien beast which is perceived as a real possible threat by many people. Then there are 'monsters' who seem to be nothing more than dangerous humans such as the Dolls and the Huron. By utilizing all areas of the spectrum to frighten the audience the motion picture fully captures all fears and the full attention of those watching and provides for a better movie.

Who are the horror characters?

I thought it was really interesting how these supernatural elements exist from other past supernatural film. When I was watching the film, I realized that these characters are the sames ones I've seen in the past. For instance, the clown, is seen in many scary movies. What I really didn't understand was why the directors required people to get murdered in some horrendous plot. Why didn't they just kidnap people and instantly murder them without the risk of an apocalypse. 

This film also reminds me of a metafiction because the film takes place in two worlds. One manipulates life to save all of humanity and to keep an evil monster contained, while the other world consist of college students having a summer cabin trip. 

The Cabin In the Woods

To be honest, Cabin in the Woods is a pretty ridiculous movie. When I first started watching it I thought it was actually a horror film and although there are elements of horror and gothic. I thought the film was overall pretty silly.

There are some interesting concepts presented though. I want to focus mainly on the idea of the greater good/free will and the contrast of scifi vs. gothic. The movie is centered around governmental group that is forced to sacrifice living humans in order to satisfy the "ancient ones." They set up the scenario to make it seem like the people choose their fate out of free will but I think the director wants us to question the validity of this. Is it really free will to be forced by chemicals to have sex or go against your gut feeling? Is it free will to be locked in your room or video taped?

Along with presenting these questions the film also contrasts the genres of gothic and scifi. We start the film at a very stereotypical gothic house with horror cues left and right. Then as the movie progresses we are transferred into a world filled with scifi and futuristic ideas. I think it is definitely unique but I also think it is where most of my odd feelings come from. Mixing these genres the way they did and with all the clichés they did just made it a comical mess.

Will and the "Greater Good"

From the movie Cabin in the Woods, an idea that I thought was interestingly presented is how the new security guard brought up how the circumstances they create for the sacrifices are rigged. The two main workers talked about how although they (the organization working for the ancient gods) plan out and manipulate the five college kids to the possible options of their deaths, it is ultimately up to them to choose. This leeway provides a loophole because their lack of faith in humanity backfires when the fool's and the virgin's will to live allows them to infiltrate the system. The idea of humanity posed between the "innocent" sacrifices and the organization is also interesting because it seems that the organization finds justification that this ritual is to deter the ancient ones from taking out all of humanity. They celebrate not because they won, but because the death of a few takes the ancient ones off humanity's back for some time. This reminds me of Warm Bodies because the idea of survival and self preservation is prevalent in the organization's reasoning, but their humanity is degraded because of it.

Cabin in the Woods

     Cabin in the Woods reminded me very much of all of the zombie stories we've read. Not in the literal zombies that appear in the movie in the form of the Bucknards, but rather, how uncanny the, for lack of greater clarification, government workers are. While they are in fact, humans, their personalities are rather inhuman. The opening scenes show quite a fair bit of human interaction. We can see the friendship bonds between the two main government workers, who gripe about their home life, talk about life outside of work, and rib their coworkers. In these aspects, they are distinctly human. However, as the movie progresses, their lack of compassion becomes more and more clear. They make jokes about people dying while watching their deaths in stark clarity. They talk casually about suffering, express anger over the survival of sacrifices in other countries, and take bets on the ways in which the sacrifices will die. Worst of all, with the supposed success of the program and the deaths of all five people impending, the government workers bring out bottles of alcohol and celebrate. In these regards, these people area starkly inhuman. They exhibit little sense of morality and compassion, aspects that are largely definitive of humanity. For these reasons, I believe the government workers to be good examples of the uncanny, because of their clearly human form and personalities coupled with their seeming complete lack of actual humanity.

Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods can be seen as a supernatural movie.  The movie in general does not appear supernatural because the audience knows why and how the events are occurring while the sacrifices are unaware until later on when two of them slowly piece together the “puppetry” of the event.  What really makes this movie supernatural is the idea that the events around us we have no control over and that others can choose what will happen and even make us change how we are, unknowing of their presence they have that makes this supernatural.  This is what is uncomfortable for the viewers that we may be being watched right now and be influenced without even knowing there is someone else pulling the strings. This idea of puppet and puppet master separates those in control from our world and makes them seem other worldly by their ability to extort complete control.  Even though the puppet masters are human in the movie their ability to have complete control over the event and their normality towards the event makes it supernatural.  Beside the control the fact that those who have control over these events for them this is a normal day at the office is what separates them and places them in another world.  That the sacrifice of five people is normal for them and they can still be sane viewing and controlling these events makes them appear to the viewers other worldly as if they are not human.  The movie through this pokes at the idea of what actually makes us human and what is humanity.  Are the puppet masters, that appear as normal humans going about their job, still human as they can sit and control the deaths of five unknowing sacrifices.

The Cabin in the Woods

Although this the first time I’ve watched Cabin in the Woods, going into the screening knowing that it was co-written by Joss Whedon did shift my attention towards certain themes that are common to his other works. His television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel (both of which I am an unapologetically huge fan) operate according to the premise that there exists a parallel universe in which humans and other supernatural creatures (for the most part) function unknowingly as pawns in the political games of “Divine Engineers” (called the “Powers that Be” in the series). In particular, the concept of an undercover, human-run facility in which supernatural/fantastic species are imprisoned for observation and testing is also a direct carryover from season 4 of Buffy, in which the protagonist becomes romantically involved with a member of a secret military organization -- coined “the Initiative” – that uses vampires, werewolves, and other spooks as lab rats for the creation of a demonoid master-race.

Fan-girl observations aside, I felt that a certain homage was paid to the Gothic genre in the film’s opening plot. Similar to The Haunting of Hill House, or The Fall of The House of Usher, a person or group of persons retire to an aged, geographically isolated building (the cabin) with a sinister history involving some sort of ill-fated family (the Buckner’s “pain-cult,” the-inbred, “cursed” Usher line) and with one of the characters having a family connection to the building (the cabin is supposedly the property of Curt’s cousin, Luke is the heir of Hill House, etc). 

Warm Bodies

A major symbol in Isaac Marion’s novel Warm Bodies is the mouth/teeth. For example, towards the end of the novel, as Julie and R flee from the Boneys and return to the stadium, R describes how “the stadium roof rises on the horizon, rearing up like some monolithic beast. Climb into my mouth, it teases. Come on, kids, don’t mind the teeth” (215). By describing the stadium as having a mouth and teeth, the reader gets a sense that the stadium is doing to devour Julie and R. The mouth/teeth symbol represents a quality of a threatening entity (not necessarily alive) trying to entice and envelop/eat it’s prey.

Cabin in the Woods(Blog #8)

When watching Cabin in the Woods, one thing that really caught my attention was how humanity was portrayed. Five teenagers go to the woods supposedly for a vacation, yet they find themselves in the middle of a mission where they are victimized and sacrificed to the "ancient ones." What's even more thought provoking is that a mysterious top-secret group is responsible. They believe that what they are doing is saving humanity. But how is killing innocent people an act of saving humanity? The point here is that maybe humanity was already lost, and these sacrifices are now being carried out merely just for entertainment. Another thing I'd like to point out is that the concept of monsters and creatures of all sorts were accepted as normal. This concept follows the theme of Magical Realism where odd things pass by as normal and accepted in everyday life.

Cabin in the Woods

This movie was interesting because it is a blend of two types of fantasy: sci fi and the supernatural. However, the supernatural aspect of the film has not really been explored yet in the film, but i think this part will be explained in the last few minutes of the film. The film seems to be a reflection of what the government is willing to sacrifice for the "greater good". They do what they can to detach themselves from their cruelty to the young people they are sacrificing to some "downstairs" being, in a similar fashion to the government throwing away the lives of thousands of soldiers for a cause that the masses do not really understand, but are told is for "the best" and with the "safety of the nation" in mind. Putting this situation in an outrageous context allows this parallel to sort of slip through the viewers mind without even really being noted. The viewer simply thinks "wow how can they do such a thing to these poor people" without realizing that something very similar occurs every day in the real world. Also those zombies were scary.

Cabin in the Woods (8)

The movie Cabin in the Woods involved notions of magical realism, in which many mythological creatures are seen in the "real" world as normal beings. The plot line of the movie involves  five students that are suppose to get sacrifice to the "Ancient Ones" by being killed by these supernatural beings, in this case, it was zombies. Once again, this story had questioned the idea of humanity. It is seen that the government is in charge of killing innocent humans in order to save humanity, but is this really a humane thing to do? If humans are merely killing innocent people to preserve humanity then maybe it has already been lost. In fact, in the movie, Marty even states that maybe humanity should be lost if the only way to save it is to continue murdering people. I believe the film causes the audience to question the lengths we will go to in order to obtain what we believe is humanity.

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods deals largely with character and movie stereotypes. Within the movie, we’re first introduced to these characters with the connotations of being a jock, slut, nerd, goofy guy, and innocent girl attached to them. These stereotypes are common in classic horror film genres, so it’s very interesting to see how Cabin in the Woods takes these stereotypes and satirizes them. There is a contrast in the joking tone of the people working in the facility to the serious tension with the teenagers stuck in the cabin. This play on emotions and tones causes the viewer to become amused by the contrast in scenes, thus giving the “horror” movie a sense of amusement. This change in perspective of the movie pokes fun at more traditional horror movies, and the absurdness.

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the woods is a unique perspective on zombies. They are not the focus of the story, but merely a tool to express the idea of supernatural. Throughout the movie the characters who are in the control room allude to mysterious gods that are slumbering. This is almost a magical realism story because the characters allude to gods and mystical creatures as though they are a normal day occurrence. However, from the perspective of the characters that are in the cabin, the story could be seen as supernatural. There are monsters appearing out of no where and there seems to be no explanation. The zombies are also different than the other zombies that we have read about. Most of the other zombies are a face-less mass and terror that is threatening the safety the world. These zombies are specific individuals rather than a mass. They have a history and a story rather than being nothing. These zombies are also used as pawns rather than moving with no purpose.

Cabin in the Woods

In this science fiction film, the question rises about the costs of humanity. In the end, a woman from the facility reveals herself to Dana and Marty, explaining to them what is going on.  These ritualistic sacrifices of groups of five people at a time are consistently performed in order to satisfy the "Ancient Ones," to keep them from destroying the world. If these sacrifices fail, the Ancient Ones will rise and destroy human kind. Marty suggests that if saving humanity can only be achieved by the continuous murder of innocent people, then perhaps humanity should be lost. This satirizes the act of humans killing humans. If people kill each other, then whatever this human way of life is, is not worth living. This ironic situation suggests that if the price for keeping the rest of the world alive is to kill people, then that is not a price worth paying.

Cabin in the Woods

Zombie films and texts often times employ and bring over certain elements of the Gothic. The use of isolation is employed heavily within this film, in that both the character of Mordecai and the cabin itself are isolated. Isolation is often used to create a sort of anxiety and mistrusting atmosphere among the characters, which was what happened with the main characters and Mordecai and the cabin. The main characters were mistrustful of Mordecai because of the fact that he was isolated off on his own from their own perception of normal society, and because of it were skeptical of his character. The cabin itself was also seen as strange and sketchy because of the fact it was in an isolated location in the woods. The film also used the darkness in order to assert this overly Gothic atmosphere with the cabin in the woods. All of these Gothic elements were used to instill fear and tension in not only the characters of the film, but also with the audience viewing the film.

Cabin in the Woods

Directors employed gothic elements and zombie fiction ideas to create the psychological thriller “Cabin in the Woods”. Gothic elements are used in order to create a dark and mysterious environment and the zombies build on the ideas created by the gothic theme. The film takes place in a dense mountainous region and the characters visit a desolate cabin. The location of the cabin is important because its isolation creates anxiety in the viewer. The viewer can expect that because the cabin is located away from civilization that whatever occurs in the house will be unknown to the rest of the population. There is also a history associated with the house, and the history involves a father torturing his family. The history comes to life during the film via the zombies that emerge from their graves. It can be assumed that the zombies are members of the family that were tortured long ago. The fact that the history is reoccurring is chilling because it gives the viewer a sense that the house is unchanging and that the people that go to the house cannot change the fate of the house. By using a mix of the gothic and zombie ideas the creators of the film are able to leave viewers in a state of psychological horror after viewing. 

Warm Bodies

I was a bit annoyed with Perry’s constant ‘invasion’ in R’s mind but as I kept reading I made the observation that through Perry’s constant memories playing through R’s mind, R and the reader are able to grasp what the humans have gone through for the past years. I see the parallel with 28 Days Later where Selena and Perry take the role of informing those who are unaware of what’s going on. In both the book and the movie our protagonists have no idea as to what’s going on or what caused the present, as readers we’re on the same boat with the characters and need someone to give us an update.

Warm Bodies

"When I was alive, I could never have done this. Standing still, watching the world pass by me, thinking about nearly nothing. I remember effort. ... I remember being purposeful, always everywhere all the time. Now I'm just standing here on the conveyor, along for the ride." (9)

Despite all the book's (understandable and expected) portrayals of zombiehood as dull and unsatisfying, this part strikes me as rather appealing. Much of real life does of course involve a lot of "purpose" and "effort", which can become pretty exhausting when it continues indefinitely. Yet this passage is unique in its seeming positivity, which makes me wonder if the author intended it that way at all. With the "death of the author", one could say it doesn't really matter, but I'm still curious; perhaps it's a bit of critique on modern life.

I remember reading in an anthropology class about an anthropologist from the 18th or 19th century who wrote an article entitled "On Cannibals", which made the point that in some ways the cannibals he was writing about were actually more "civilized" and intelligent than his own culture. This passage in Warm Bodies reminds me faintly of that, which is probably a bit of a stretch.

Maybe being a zombie wouldn't be all bad.

Less flesh, more substance in Warm Bodies

      I thought I was “done” with the zombie genre (literature, movies, books, you name it) after I’d watched one too many Undead thrillers that played out more like high-definition gore-porn than entertaining (if disturbing) stories with actual substance (or creativity). Once you’d seen the modern remake of Dawn of the Dead,  I felt like you’d basically partaken of every zombie-apocalypse scenario (aside from some gems like 28 Days Later or The Walking Dead) imagined in the last decade or so. Given my past experiences, I actually found the nature of, and the motivation behind the actions of the Undead as they are written in Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies a refreshing surprise. Here “zombies” aren’t simply walking carcasses with a taste for other, fresher carcasses but semi-sentient relics of the people they once were, munching on brains so that they might live vicariously through the fleeting memories of others. These are zombies looking for enlightenment, not food. I found that tangent, combined with the first-person narrative of an actual Zombie (R.) quite demonstrative of the need of humans to “feed off” the drama/interests/achievements/experiences/ideas of others to escape from the monotonous routine of their own lives and grasp for some kind of “purpose.” I’ll take the philosophical Undead over rabid CGI drones any day…

Science Fiction and Zombies

A similar aspect between the zombie genre and science fiction is the sense of wonder and alienation felt by the characters.  This sense of wonder cannot be without the alienation felt by the characters.  This is seen in many of the readings by Philip K Dick and in 28 days later.  By questioning the society’s current structure or state of existence they are alienated from others.  The alienation in zombie movies is more from the lack of knowledge than as in the science fiction genre where there is knowledge of the events but the characters choose to question rather than comply with their society.  Even so there cannot be alienation without a sense of wonder and vice versa.  In the zombie movies the indifference toward the current situation causes the characters to question their societies beforehand and even question humanity as a whole and what it is.  In science fiction the indifference is toward their current society’s actions and the role their society is allowed to play in their own life and in others such as in The Word for World is Forest. Overall to question a part of humanity or society creates a separation from that society and causes the character to appear alienated and separate from those who comply with the current state of the world or humanity.

R's thought processes

I think the most interesting element of Warm Bodies is R's level of awareness. Before he meets Julie, he is essentially setting up his life for the reader to understand. The depth of this thoughts about his existence and the existence of his fellow zombies indicates a type of consciousness we do not associate with anything less than human. R often speaks of the disconnect between his thoughts and what he is actually able to communicate to the world, while at the same time, he feels dead inside and must resort to other human's memories to feel alive. Both his desperation to feel alive and his complex thought processes force the reader to see him as human, yet every time he speaks of his hunger for brains, the reader is unsettled. As he shifts between seeming human and unhuman, the reader does not know which side to fall on. I didn't like reading about R having a wife and child and just accepting the ways of the other zombies, because since we see inside R's head, he is different from the other zombies, and we would expect him not to conform to the rest of his zombie society's customs. R's complexity is the driving force behind the novel, since their is something different about his conscious compared to other zombies that makes him see something in Julie other than another meal.

Warm Bodies

     Something that fascinated me about Warm Bodies is the relationship that the zombies had with the boneys. We see from the beginning that the boneys perform seemingly religious functions in a zombie society which, by our expectations of the zombie genre overall, should not exist. As well, these boneys also perform the function of bureaucracy, in that when quotes dip, as with the amount of child zombies, they appear with new ones. They perform marriages and assign children to parents as with R and his nameless wife, and also act as judge and executioner, as noted when R is confronted by them for keeping a living human. It seems then, that the boneys seem to act as a sort of government for the zombies - a thinking, conscious nucleus around which zombie hives form - implied also by the fact that boneys are rarely seen and instead, have all retreated to hives. They also perform as an almost Orwellian propaganda propagation system, through their continuous taking of pictures of conflict, in order to generate a sort of font of negative energy, which they present to other zombies to keep them mindless. The significance of these actions is that these boneys have become a representation of the inhumanity within a government system. These boneys are completely inhuman. While they have a humanoid form from their skeletal shape, they don't have the defining physical features of humans - such as the skin, faces, eyes, musculature, etc. They are all faceless, with none of the boneys possessing distinguishable features. As well, their functions are inhuman as well. They perform a marriage by linking two zombies and declaring them married. They then show up the next day and hand them children. There are no words, there are no gestures, there's no celebration of joy or anything. It becomes essentially a bare-bones mimicry of human actions. As well, when attacking R and Julie, R notes that the boneys aren't attacking them out of a sense of hatred or emotion, but are rather, attacking them out of a sense of pragmatism, that the couple is a danger to the boneys and their society, and they must be killed because of that. The boneys possess a sort of complete absence of emotion that highlights the differences between them and humanity, while maintaining a skeletal framework of human society. Thus, the boneys are an ugly mirror of humankind, propped up against the stadium city as a warning, and also a reflection, of what that society is like.

Procreation in 28 Days Later

One thing I found interesting about 28 Days Later was the inclusion of the survivor’s need to procreate. Shortly after arriving at the mansion run by soldiers, Jim discovers that they see Selena and Hannah as a means for survival, for procreation. This theme of procreation also made me think of The Word for World is Forest. In both stories, women are a portrayed (through the eyes of some characters) as only being important because of their ability to birth a new generation. The men who see the woman as such cling to this idea; it is their motivation for survival. Yet they don’t regard the woman with any respect, treating them as dolls at the men’s disposal. In contrast there are characters in both stories that do not regard the woman solely as offspring generators. Jim does views the woman with just as much respect as he has for himself. Selver in The Word for World is Forest also represents a man/society that views woman as crucial to the world, for much more than procreation. This contrast in how different men view woman shows the different reactions an individual may have when faced with the possibility of the extinction of their species. 

28 Days Later - Leadership

Zombie Apocalypse stories are fascinating in that they provide an excellent setting for raw human behavior. People in imminent danger, with many friends and family not only dying but attempting to kill them, cannot mask their baser instincts. The will to survive, the hunt for food, the desire - or lack of desire - for human companionship, are exposed as society crumbles. In most of these stories, people must band together in order to survive. However, this pseudo-society is very fragile: any one of them could be dead at any moment, and the struggle for survival interferes with their ability to form relationships.

In 28 Days Later, the societies that form are defined by the leaders that either are appointed or assume command. The first leader is Selena, and her group is defined by survival at any cost. By her hand, her companion of the last few weeks dies, and she warns Jim that the same would happen to him. She is focused only on her own life, and has followers only for the sake of safety in numbers. When they meet Frank and his daughter, the society changes as leadership changes hands. She slowly relinquishes her command of the group, and in doing so adopts Frank's outlook on the situation. People become more important as individuals, and friendships form as survival takes a backseat to creating a society that is worth living in. Frank's death throws everything out of balance, and we see Selena cry for the first time as the society that made sense, that was worth living for, loses its leader. In its place Major Henry West assumes command of the group, and under his leadership the friends are worse off than they'd ever been. He is a man of war, and sees the infection as nothing more than "men killing men." As such, he treats his new guests as part of the war effort, endorses the rape of the women for survival and attempts to kill Jim for insubordination.

In all of this we see that leadership is important, and a society formed under authoritarianism and "survival of the fittest" does not ever work, even in dire circumstances. We must always be aware of our humanity, and strive to form and value relationships, or else the society will not be worth living in.

"What's left of us? What's at our core, then?"

"What is left of us? ...What's at our core, then? What's still squirming in our bones when everything else is stripped?"(p. 138)

In Warm Bodies, it is seemed apparent how the three main groups of "humans" (Living, Undead and Boneys) comments on themes of what it means to be alive and provides a critique on humanity. As discussed in sections and in class, being "alive" means more than just surviving but also we need connection and sentiment, among other complex human needs. In this way, that's what it means to be uniquely human and to "be alive," otherwise we become un-human when all that is left is pure instinct and survival.
It was interesting to see how Isaac Marion characterized the Boneys in the novel. They appeared to be the manifestation of the lowest level of humanity reached when all the things that make us human and alive, such as sentiment and connection, are disregarded and buried deep down in the face of hopelessness or desperate situations. Julie realizes that the origins of the Boneys are not "any spell of virus or nuclear rays" (p. 199), but from within us: "we crushed ourselves down over the centuries. Buried ourselves under greed and hate and whatever other sins we could find our souls finally hit the rock bottom of the universe. And then they scraped a hole through it, into some...dark place." (p. 199). I believe Marion distinguishes the Boneys for true deadness in this manner.
Marion further plays with the notions of what it means to be "alive" between the "Living" humans and the Undead between R's and Mr. Grigio's characters. We can see R's flexibility of moving between the ideas of alive and dead, compared to Mr. Grigio who is pragmatic and unwavering to his own idea of what it means to be alive (surviving). This makes Mr. Grigio more like the Boneys because the Boneys have set black and white ideas over what it means to be dead that should not deviate. In this case, the zombie is more alive than the living because R acts on his emotions, not instincts, and takes steps to compromise and better of his situation rather than just surviving and self-preservation in the face of hopelessness. I think Marion’s main point on this is that humanity must keep moving forward, evolving not just biologically but mentally and emphasizing the importance of finding ways to stay alive, not stagnant, on the inside. This is more meaningful because "memory can't overtake the present; history has its limits. Are we all just Dark Age doctors, swearing by our leeches? We crave a greater science. We want to be proven wrong (p. 190).

Warm Bodies

I am immensely enjoying Warm Bodies as a novel. I think of it as an easy, lightheart-ed read with tons of gore because it is at its core: the tale of impossible love. What I found most interesting about the novel was the fact that R is struggling to find his identity amidst the chaos, even though he and most of the world is dead. I love how the brains of living humans provide a high for the zombies, allowing them a chance of glimpsing what life could have been. I noticed how the abduction/taking of Julie is quite similar to the rape of Persephone. Whether there is any connection or not, through my reading of the novel, R is acting as "Hades" struck by the potency of the brains - struck by an arrow by Cupid - of Julie's dead boyfriend, wanting to protect/take Julie from her people. And like the myth, Julie is struggling but afraid of the strange zombie, R. She has needs that R struggles to full quite like how Hades tried to convince the increasingly depressed Persephone to cheer up. It's kind of cool in my opinion that a novel such as this one is able to incorporate the ideas of transformation and family.

The School of Survival

Both the human and zombie method of raising their future generations reveals that both groups have the common similarity of just trying to survive. Within one of Perry's memory, he sees the new schools of a post- apocalyptic world, "We taught them how to shoot, how to kill and how to survive. If they masstered those skills and had time to spare, then we taught them how to read and write, and to relate and understand their world." The human world no longer values the ideals of sympathy and understanding; instead, humans only value to survive. Learning how to kill is the most important ideal, and since humans are not taught sympathy, they will never understand that zombies also have a sense of human values. From the other perspective, zombie too are only taught to survive, "'Wrong! Get throat!' The teacher kills him and stands up, blood streaming down his face. 'Get Throat!'" Both humans and zombies only want to survive. The zombies drag in the human corpse to end it's life simply to teach the children how to catch humans.

Warm Bodies

I found it interesting that in Warm Bodies, the story was told largely from a zombie’s perspective. This was probably the first, if not only, book that had this unique perspective on the popular topic of a future zombie apocalypse. Never before has a zombie survival story been told through a zombie’s eyes, with many forms of media opting to tell zombie stories through the eyes of a human. I also found it interesting that in the story the zombies are described as to having an almost human-like society, in that like human society they have their own versions of churches, schools, and familial ties, with all of these aspects of society being told through the zombie, R’s, perspective. Isaac Marion may have chosen these unique story elements and narrative perspectives to create the sense that by any definition or word zombies could still be classified as “human,” which contrasts heavily with other stories and how they portrayed zombies. If anything, Marion depicts the zombies as more human than the human survivors themselves, especially when dealing with the interactions with R and General Grigio.

Warm Bodies: Who's Fighting Who

In Warm Bodies Isaac Marion  leads us to believe there is a war going on between the living and the living dead. The war, however, is not between those with a heartbeat and those without but it is between those who want to live and care and be human, and those who do not. When the lines of this battle are drawn, M, R, and Julie find themselves on one side accompanied by many mortals and zombies alike. This side fights to live past just surviving. They all work to recapture their humanity in this post-apocalyptic world. They have not given up hope and are willing to change. On the other side we have the Boneys and John Grigio. This side has lost all hope. They do not strive to remember who they once were; when the plauge swept the globe they gave up and turned into something dark. They are empty inside and whats left of their mind resists change coming to what they believe the world to be. One side has hope where the other has 'tradition'. One side wishes to live while the other only wants to survive. One side wishes to reclaim their humanity, while the other is simply trying to remain alive (or reanimated).