The Magicians

Lev Grossman’s book, The Magicians, is an interesting take on magical education, tailoring it towards an older generation, primarily college students. The story had an interesting enough premise that it went on to become a popular television show on SyFy. Both the books and the show tackle some difficult issues and subjects, such as depression.

            The protagonist in both the series and the books, Quentin Coldwater, is more of an unconventional hero for the series, as he is … depressed and depressing for the audience, to say the least (to say the most he’s a whiny little b). Even though Quentin is top of his class and even gets to go to an exclusive magical school, he still isn’t happy. The author’s take on magic accentuates this fact, saying, “magic is a craft”, which must be practiced over and over to get it right. Grossman turns casting magic into more of a tedious, repetitive task, eliminating the mysterious joy other stories grant magic. Thus, even when Quentin excels at magic and begins to grasp its workings, he becomes unsatisfied and less interested. He finds little joy in his life and paints the world from a bleak, colorless viewpoint.

            Thus, reading the book from Quentin’s standpoint quickly becomes monotonous and dreary, with only an occasional spark that quickly blends in to the grey background. The TV series portrays the plot in a more whimsical way, giving Brakebills more color and wonder than what we can see from Quentin’s viewpoint. The series also brakes up the monotonous outlook by following other characters and giving us peeks into their lives. The series maintains the fact that Quentin is the protagonist by making him into “the chosen one’; he is portrayed as the center of all these events, though in the end he kind of fails at being chosen.

            The series also gives more focus and direction to the issue of depression. Quentin actually comes to terms with how depressed he is, and actively tries to get help, going to see a specialist in the beginning. His depression is acknowledged upfront and we see various methods of dealing with it throughout the series, addressing an issue that can resonate with the audience.

            By portraying Quentin Coldwater as a depressed individual with real issues, The Magicians creates a unique and faceted charter, though he might not be the most light-hearted.

The Hobbit: Hero's Journey

Many of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, especially his book The Hobbit, are classic stories that have successfully woven a tale based on the structure of the Hero’s Journey pattern. While the characters and overall world are completely unique and well orchestrated, the plot follows the Hero’s Journey scrupulously.

            The protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is a unique hero for this journey, as he is a middle-aged hobbit at 50 years old, and generally has no desire for romance, adventure, or anything outside his hobbit-hole, which serves as the “ordinary world” from the Hero’s Journey. The “call to adventure” comes when 13 dwarves (plus Gandalf, “the mentor”) ask Bilbo to join them on their quest to kick a dragon out of their house. Following the formula, he “refuses the call”, since he likes his cozy life, then says screw it all and joins them last minute the next morning. For his “road of trials” Bilbo encounters numerous enemies, allies, and tests, including, but not limited to: trolls, elves, giant spiders, giant birds, orcs, humans, a creep whose only friend is a ring (Gollum), and, of course, the dragon. After many ordeals, Bilbo and co. finally reach “the approach”, going up the dwarves’ mountain to kick out their rude freeloader. Bilbo’s “ordeal” would be his confrontation with the dragon moocher Smaug, and the chaos and fighting that follows. The “reward” that follows would be Bilbo’s share of Smaug’s treasure horde, as well as his magic fashion accessory (the One Ring), which got him through half of the journey. On “the road back”, Bilbo journeys home to his hobbit hole, where everyone presumes him dead, giving way to “the resurrection”, where he proves he is not dead to the neighbor’s auctioning off his silverware and other possessions. Thus, he “returns with the elixir”, and his life returns relatively to normal, while his fashion accessory waits around for its time to come back into style.

            Aside from the main outline of the Hero’s Journey in The Hobbit, there are also several subtler points in the story that relate back to the classic structure. For example, Bilbo’s “atonement of the father” and his “atonement of the mother/meeting with the goddess”, can be seen in his struggle with his lineage, between his normal “Baggins” side and his wild and adventurous “Took” heritage from his mother. By finding a balance between his ordinary/homely side and his courageous side on his adventure, Bilbo reconciles his ancestry.

            Overall, the Hobbit is a beautifully re-imagined tale of the Hero’s Journey, with a truly immersive world and unique characters to give the classic tale a fascinating and bewitching twist.

Witches

Diana Wynne Jones’s novel, “Howl’s Moving Castle”, takes a different approach to witches and wizards, and twists around several tropes commonly found in fantasy novels. The setting where the novel takes place, Ingary, is a magical land where it is assumed that all of the fantasy tropes are a given, specifically the rule that the youngest gets an adventure and fortune. The main character, Sophie, takes this “rule” as a given fact, and restricts herself as the oldest sibling to a lonely and boring life.

            Diana Wynne Jones uses Sophie to advocate female empowerment and condemn the social restrictions placed on women. Sophie’s viewed restriction as the oldest is similar to the viewed restriction that women should stay at home. At first, she is shy and demure, and restricts herself to a boring and lonely job even when her sisters try to persuade her to do otherwise and live freely. When the curse is placed upon her, she loses her inhibitions and extreme self-restraint, becoming bolder and going on an adventure, since the worse had already happened. In a way, when she became older, she finally stared to act her age, since she no longer cared what anyone else thought after all that she had been through. Sophie’s emerging powers are a huge testament to female empowerment, as she literally bosses things into doing what she wants. This is one of the ways Sophie begins to take her life in her own hands, a manifestation of her taking control and breaking her previous meek attitude.

            The portrayal of men also advocates female empowerment and breaks the stereotype that they must be the strong ones that save the day. The main male character, Howl, is shown to be incredibly immature, and that his constant playboy antics are a symptom of his weak, child heart. No explanation is needed for the meaning there. The other men in the novel are also pretty much all shown up by the women. The prince of the country and the royal magician Sullivan are defeated and cursed by an especially powerful woman, and then saved in the end by Sophie. Sullivan also falls in love with Sophie’s sister, who worked as an apprentice magician to try a break his curse.

            Overall, the story uses more unconventional portrayals of magic and fantasy characters to weave a story about strong female empowerment and tearing down social restrictions in a whimsical and compelling way.

The Weird

The word “weird” can mean a lot of things. It has three definitions in the dictionary: involving or suggesting the supernatural, fantastic/bizarre, and concerned with or controlling fate/destiny. It can be used to simply describe something that is interesting, such as a cat with moustache pattern on its face, or can be used to describe something horrible, like the monster from Stanger Things coming to destroy mankind. Overall, the word describes a break from what is considered normal or typical.

            When applied to media and stories, the word “weird” can also mean a story that contains elements of various genres, or one that fits in no genre specifically. The movie “Cabin in the Woods”, for example, while focusing on various elements of horror stories, also contains various elements and tropes from the science fiction and fantasy genres. The movie involves scientists strategically recreating typically horror movie tropes using both sci-fi and fantasy elements, such as advanced mechanical traps and mystical curses.

            While all elements of all three genres can be seen in the movie, it cannot be defined as any one in particular. Therefore, it falls into the category of “weird”. It further falls into a “weird” category because elements of both western and oriental horror are present. The typical western horror tropes are clearly defined and even explained in the movie, such as the elements of sex, the defined characters of the slut and the virgin, and the need to defeat and destroy the enemy. However, there are also elements of Asian horror, such as the focus on needing to return balance to nature though a ritual and the fact that the monsters are not killed and returned to normal in the end.

            Overall, the definition of “weird” as a genre can be seen as a catch all for stories that don’t necessarily fall into any other genre, or those that simply encompass many. As movies and stories evolve and take elements from multiple other stories, the weird genre as a whole will continue to grow and become more prominent.

J Horror

While fear and terror are universal aspects of horror across the globe, the genre of horror media shows several differences depending on the culture from which they originated. Western and Oriental horror specifically show several different trends in their stories, especially in the nature of demons and evil.

            Some of the main differences in Western and Oriental horror can be shown in the different views of dragons, which is tied to different views of nature. Western ideology views nature as something more disposable, something that must be conquered and subjected to your will. This stems from the harsher conditions of the land and ready availability of more land should specific land prove to be unusable. This as such reflects in the Western view of dragons, great beasts of the land, which are readily killed and defeated by the brave knights who stand against them. The oriental vision of nature instead views it as something that must be balanced, something that can be worked with as long as specific requirements are met. This reflected how many oriental countries, specifically Japan, had more limited land available, and plots for crops such as rice could not be easily replaced and moved. The Oriental vision of dragons differs therefore, instead being seen as mysterious beings that are not to be trifled with, and whose death can cause disastrous consequences and unbalance nature itself.

            This view of nature (and dragons) carries into horror genre. The Japanese manga, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault”, for example shows an imbalance in nature, an earthquake that reveals human shaped holes, which are shown to be punishments for criminals of the past, those who disrupted the natural order with their crimes. There is no fighting or even necessarily conflict, just retribution for disturbing order. This greatly differs from the traditional Western horror story, which usually involves the protagonist fighting and killing some sort of monster. The movie “Kwaidon” serves as a good example of this. The story involves a young man seeing a monster woman who promises not to kill him if he never talks about it; he later marries a mysterious woman and the two live happily until he mentions what happened on that nigh, whereupon she says it was she and leaves because he broke the promise. Overall, everything was good until he broke the balance by breaking his promise; she didn’t even kill him because she loved him and their children. As a kid, I heard the western version of this story, which was the same except both the woman and their children turned into horrible, jersey-devil-like monsters when he broke the promise, and he killed them and then went to jail for their disappearances. The western version retains the western vision of violence and the need to defeat what is perceived as evil.

            The differences in Western and Oriental horror can be seen in a myriad of aspects of their respective culture, but these differences may become less and less defined as cultures blend across the globe.