Anna Sibilia

David Steiling

The One Adventure to Rule them All

As far as fantasy goes, there has yet to be an author to outshine J.R.R. Tolkien in depth, fame, and overall influence of a genre. Throughout the course of his life, he redefined and hand-crafted many new tropes and that would soon lay down the new foundation for almost every author to come after him in the fantasy genre. His understanding of narrative, balancing of character tone and action, as well as creating a tremendous world that was so meticulously detailed it was almost tangible, created a platform that raised him high above many and designated him a permanent seat among many other famed authors and playwrights. 

The Lord of the Rings is the quintessential journey of the hero, sending a band of characters onto a quest that controls the very balance of the world and the fates of all of those whom live there. What’s more is that each character has their own journey to be completed and their own epiphany at the end of it. For instance, the four main hobbits all start in the Shire, though all of them from different backgrounds: Frodo had already become aware that the ring was evil and that he must find a way to be rid of it: Samwise had wanted to accompany his friend and employer, for he has a loyal (if not timid) heart; and Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin) were perfect examples of childish innocence that the sheltered world of the Shire allowed them to be (it is possible to go further and explain the trials of the rest of the party, but let’s stick to these four).

As they leave the Shire and venture into the wilds, the naive state of their unexposed minds is slowly chipped away by the new surroundings and people. Frodo starts experiencing the weight of the Ring around his neck, and though it is subtle in the beginning, the power of the infernal creation slowly starts to seed his mind with doubt. Sam starts having his whole view deconstructed, no longer seeing the world full of rosy hues and glorious tales, but a new reality in which he and his companions might not survive. Merry and Pippin also portray the loss of innocence in that war has ways of turning children into adults whether they are ready for it to or not, though they still maintain their ability to create trouble and mischief. 

The characters also represent dualities of each other, as Frodo and Sam are representational halves of people torn between staying virtuous or giving into temptation, and this becomes so much more apparent once Gollum is introduced. He embodies Frodo’s corruption and personifies the twisting nature of the Ring, a prophetic tool meant to warn the hobbit lest he give into the dark forces that tempt him. Sam is the opposite, being reliable and caring even though he is afraid and ignorant of the troubles around him. even when he becomes aware of the perilous danger surrounding he and Frodo, he still refuses to leave and uses this as a reason to fight harder until the end. Though the is evil all around, he shall not fall though he may waver. 

This series is truly an epic, written in emulation of many classic biblical tales, and as such it carries almost as much symbolic force and righteousness.

Anna Sibilia

David Steiling

Women and Witchcraft 

There is a disparity within literature in the way gender is portrayed. More often than not, a male hero is sent on a quest with a group of sidekicks meant to appeal to other dynamics and groups of people than the norm of the protagonist. Consequently this created an archetype of female characters whom are ‘only strong for boys’ being that they near constantly could be written as a male and have no dramatic change to their character to push views of toxic masculinity onto the audience in subtle, snide ways. 

In the case of Aunt Maria authored by Dianne Wynne Jones, we see a cast of women higher on the proverbial mountain of power with no qualms in wielding such abilities over the heads of their male counterparts. Aunt Maria herself is a nagging, fickle woman who starts out as an annoying force that harasses the family. Usually, this isn’t the place of a lady in media, for in most worlds -fantastic or otherwise- women are not antagonists who brutalize or harass others, they work in more subdued ways to either undermine or usurp power from others. Therefore Maria’s actions are quite unexpected, and her bullying role only increases until it seems her targeted family is nearly rent asunder. 

Maria does exemplify the trope of being both woman and filled with ill intentions (another evil witch-queen, as she’d surely be in the Disney fashion), however, that is not the point of Jones’ writing. Her blatant reversal of the world’s power distribution only highlights how much of our society is so reliant on the typical distribution of power and the way things are delegated to each gender. 

There is a strange dichotomy of men and women in literature and media that spawns back from the beginnings of story telling. It is a belief that men are more representative of the physical world: they are the embodiment of what we can understand and interact with, the pinnacle of power, whilst women are symbolic of the mystical and ethereal part of life. This is largely caused by the fact that women can carry and give birth to children, something men could not do, so therefore women were tied to the spiritual side of creation when men were tasked with handling other physical labors. Women are also more empathetic and emotionally understanding in the written word, and therefore can better understand and interpret the minds of others -something many typical heroic figures rarely do. 

By turning things on their head in this novel, Jones wanted the audience to understand that this dichotomy should be deconstructed and done away with. Men and women play equal parts in society, however there is this notion to demonize or oppress one half in favor of the other. Misandry and misogyny create an unhealthy atmosphere where it is hard for the masses to communicate with another and the ruling party is able keep the stigma alive.

Anna Sibilia

David Steiling

Weird, Inventive, and Horrifying

It is not surprise that the horror genre has an ever changing dynamic in relation to the public’s taste; with each new trend, hundreds of new scary stories and films bombard the silver screen and other media whilst clamoring for attention. During the beginning stage of each new wave is a small group, something that sets the example for the rest of the genre. The ‘Weird’ is a slightly alien part of the encompassing genre, as the outliers that linger there are usually thinking and morphing their ideas at a faster pace, evolving and bringing new elements into the horror genre. 

For instance, the newest exploitation of these trend setters is the revitalization of the Zombie sub genre, bringing the undead back to the forefront of horror and the public’s view. One of the most popular forces in this was the Walking Dead series, originally a series of novels written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Tony Moore that introduced the audience to an Earth where all notions of zombies had never existed and therefore everyone was ill-prepared for the shambling rise of the Walkers. AMC had discovered this Weird installment and translated it into prime-time television, which only spread the influence of the genre further. The gritty, realistic take on the zombie horror sub-culture exposes more than just rotting flesh in its writing, often pitting up morality and practicality; the conflict of individual survival versus sacrifice for the whole; this series began ripping apart humanity (literally) and displaying the notion that maybe man is as monstrous as the very things people are trying to protect themselves from. 

As time passes, I’m sure the Weird will reinvent the horror genre countless times again,  yet I’m not too sure where it will go. As of late, there has been quite a recurring theme of demonic horror movies hitting the mainstream cinema screen, mostly in part of works like Sinister, Paranormal Activity (the first one anyways), and Insidious, though I cannot think of where the next focus may be. My guess lends itself to the more psychological side of horror, wherein writers have their stories blend hellish imagery and nightmarish themes in with the daily decomposition of the mind as madness starts setting in. Yet this is already a prevailing theme in modern horror and I am unsure of whether or not it will be considered ‘old enough’ to be reworked into a ‘new’ facet of popularized culture.