Hey all
I'm one of the Matts in the class and due to the popularity of my first name I've learned to respond to Matt, Matthew, or Meng over the years. Contrary to what most people think when they see my last name, I am not Asian. Actually my last name was Menger (German) before those bastards on Ellis Island condemned my family to countless calls from people spewing unintelligible asain languages. I have never blogged before although I read a few (nyc.barstoolsports.com) so I'm looking forward to the experience.
Most of my experience with fantasy has come through epic fantasy. My great grandfather gave me a set of LOTR when I was in elementary school and ever since then I've been hooked. I've read and re-read more fantasy series than I can remember so if anyone ever wants recommendations let me know. Some of my favorite fantasy authors have been Tolkien, Rowling, Hobb, Jordan, and recently Sanderson (just to name a few). I read voraciously throughout elementary, middle, and high school but my reading really dropped off until I discovered Kindle for the iPhone and iPad and now I can't stop (my parents actually got mad at me for spending too much money on the kindle store if you can believe that, I couldn't) I've never been much into Sci-Fi although I'm currently reading the Caine series by Stover and I've enjoyed some of the sci-Fi elements in it. I love horror films and I've enjoyed a few horror themed video games (dead space, Alan wake, resident evil series) but I've never really read much horror besides studying Poe in high school.
On Clute:
I thought it was incredible that he could break down any horror story into four parts (I especially liked part 3 "revel"). I thought that his line that sci-Fi "declares that certain fixes answer the world" was, in my experience, maybe a little off. Most sci-Fi I've had experience with shows how humans attempt to fix the world with technology and their utopia usually collapses in epic fashion showing that their solutions don't work. I totally agree that fantasy gives people escape into another world which is one of the reasons I love the genre. I also agree with his assessment of horror as giving insight to the "prison of the world".
Sent from my iPad
1 comment:
Can I just say how happy I am that I get to spend 2 hours a week for a whole semester with so many LOTR nerds? I mean, seriously, most of us have mentioned it... NERD CLASS! :)
Post a Comment