Week 8: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This week I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. The book was different from anything that I had ever read and it kept me engaged the entire time as I had no idea what to expect from it next. The book was not set in a far-off time period and does not start off in a magical place and it slowly works its way into the myth as the story goes on while most myth stories have the myth throughout the entire book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and all the turns that it took. After watching and listening to the author talk in class I enjoyed the book even more because the authors speaking voice and speech was so interesting. I didn’t realize until the end of the book that Gailman never introduced the narrator by his name so you never know what he is called the whole time. From getting a worm that crawls into his foot that then becomes a controlling housekeeper who threatens to kill the boy.  The book features a lot of ups and downs and leaves you guessing what could possibly happen next.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: Interview With a Vampire

The relationships in Interview with a Vampire involve the three characters, Lestat, Louis and Claudia. Lestat had turned Louis into a vampire by convincing him that his pain would go away if he was turned. Louis’ transition that Lestat caused always caused Louis to feel a sort of animosity towards Lestat. Lestat convinces Louis to finish turning Claudia, a child, into a vampire as well. Since Louis is still new to being a vampire himself, he is still very reliant on Lestat to teach him. Claudia is now in the same position that Louis once was since she is no longer a normal child. I believe that Lestat was so persistent that Louis turns Claudia because he feared that Louis would leave him. Claudia is now to be raised by both of them as their daughter and when this announcement was made it seemed like Louis was surprised by Lestat saying that. I found this interesting because in most vampire stories I’ve read/ heard, the vampires try to stay away from people becoming too attached to them
Read more

Week 13: The Aquatic Uncle.

I actually truly enjoyed this week reading assignment! This isn't something that I would normally choose to read on my own but for only being 7 pages long it was really something that held your attention. The idea of that the higher evolved frog wants to return and be with her boyfriend's less refined uncle was extremely engaging. Prior to the ending, of course, I found the story very relatable for me personally with trying to get older family members to move into more modern times and them rejecting it. The idea of using evolution to describe a family dynamic I haven't read about before which made it a refreshing storyline The story was able to fit a lot of meaning into such a short story and it moved along at a quick pace too. Overall, I would read this type of fable again because of the interesting way that it was written and concept.
Read more

Week 12: Bloodchild

1.    I’m not entirely sure how to react to this story by any means. I actually really hated it and how it was written if I’m being totally honest. It took a long time for me to understand what exactly was happening and I’m still not sure if I ever really figured it out in the end. I didn’t find the storyline interesting at all and it felt like it was trying very hard to be “different”. 2.    I guess the only connection I can make is a theme of motherly love. The affection from a mother is a constant theme in the story and is often touched upon with Gan and his mother and T’Gatoi and her eggs. I was unable to make any sort of personal connection or tie to this story because of how disconnected I was from the plot and storyline itself. 3.    I feel like this story would be best suited for a graphic novel and it would be way better than the novella itself had it been illustrated to start with. I feel like there needed to be more descriptive language to help support this unknown world w
Read more