The gentle barrage of acid rain on the flat rooftop wakes me late at night. A dim light shines through the spaces in the cheap blinds. The soothing sounds of the sleeping night caress my aching body: a distant mechanical hum; the moan of an infant; the quickening tempo of the rain on the roof. My back is stiff and itchy as it sticks loosely to the clammy sheet that separates me from the coarse concrete floor. The stifling night air is sweltering and saturated. I now hear slow, faltering footsteps and muffled murmuring in the hall. Suddenly a ragged woman staggers in, mumbles, moans and passes out cold on the concrete. After a feverish dream I wane into consciousness. Sharp rows of sunlight beam through the blinds, dust rises, dancing …show more content…
He croaks, “Hey Mack”, and glances down, coughing hard. The only reason his shop still stands when all others fail is because his shop accepts barter. He is already aware of my desperate situation and lack of money, he waits patiently for me to make my choice of food. I pull out a gun, not for robbery but for trade. I found the gun yesterday in an alley, discarded after a crime perhaps. The old gun is dirty and faded; he may reject it. I wait with baited breath as the shop owner sizes up the weapon. He looks unimpressed, but nonetheless gives a shrug of approval. As I exit the shop I think about how I could have just as easily robbed the poor shop-owner for all he had with that gun; the law is powerless in this forgotten neighbourhood. Although the man seemed not to really care about much, maybe he would have risked ending his miserable life. I walk down the derelict boulevard, boarded up offices to the left, burnt out shops to the right. Where plants should have been growing peacefully, decaying garbage smoulders, smothering the growth. I approach a large six-lane motorway; I scale the dirt banking and start to walk along the hard shoulder. The occasional a car …show more content…
They are part of those who haven’t been replaced by machines. I once had a friend who tried to fight the system, he thought of himself as a modern day Luddite. He had a band of merry men who stole from the rich and gave to the poor or smashed machines. After about a week he and his co-conspirators were caught and executed. Resistance is futile. Just as we now mock the Luddites for being stuck in the past, those who try and resist the inevitable suffering are mocked and persecuted. Another car whooshes by, I lower my head and can feel the eyes boring into my skull. Eventually I reach a high vantage point over the metropolis. Visibility is poor due to pollution, but past the endless suburbs I can just see the soft outlines of metal skyscrapers. The city is living thing; it is constantly growing, spreading its tentacles out, consuming all things. I look out over the doomed population. Like a disease, unemployment is gradually consuming the many ranks of society. The corporate companies will keep on developing evermore technology to make life easier. But to make life easier for some must make life harder for others. Many are unaware of the amount of automation in their lives; they simply take all
The night was tempestuous and my emotions were subtle, like the flame upon a torch. They blew out at the same time that my sense of tranquility dispersed, as if the winds had simply come and gone. The shrill scream of a young girl ricocheted off the walls and for a few brief seconds, it was the only sound that I could hear. It was then that the waves of turmoil commenced to crash upon me. It seemed as though every last one of my senses were succumbed to disperse from my reach completely. As everything blurred, I could just barely make out the slam of a door from somewhere alongside me and soon, the only thing that was left in its place was an ominous silence.
us shall you leave this earthly abode. Oh no, you will run by my side
When it comes to Southern Gothic literature, most authors that had written in this genres stories were younger such as twenty-one through twenty-four when the stories were created. Southern Gothic Literature has always been around and it will continue being around as long as it remains a popular genre. Now, what is Southern Gothic literature? It is a type of writing that was created in the south. The genre surrounds itself “on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters”. (What Is Southern Gothic Literature? 1). The whole point of Southern Gothic Literature was to
“My revenge has just begun! I spread it over centuries and time is on my side”(Stoker 366). Nearly 200 years later, 18th-century gothic novels still influence modern-day Gothic literature. Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula is highly influential in regards to modern-day Gothic literature and films. The Twilight Saga, written by Stephanie Meyers and directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is a romance series about a human girl that falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Eventually, the human love interest, Bella, becomes a vampire and the two live on together forever. The Vampire Diaries television series, written by Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson, is about a town overrun by people with secret immortal lives, such as being a werewolf or vampire. There are
To conclude, it should be evident that a faded, future setting and a theme relating to the do not’s of something seemingly innocent will leave a sad mood so carefully described previously. If someone decides to write or read a story taking place in the future when no one else can read, and your mind is controlled by the machine that destroyed the world, it is inevitable that the reader will be left feeling stranded and alone. If this reader is reading this on a cold November evening when all else feels cold and dead, it should enjoy its company, and curl a little closer to the heater.
In today’s literature there are many types of genres that people find fascinating, all the way from fantasy to non-fiction. A very interesting genre is Gothic Fiction, where many elements are used to such as violence, ghosts, monsters and many other dark and mystical elements that make up Gothic Fiction. There are many great authors who are well known for their dark gothic style such as Edgar Poe, who has written the short story “Fall of the House of Usher” and the “Black Cat,” or Horacio Quiroga who has written “Feather Pillow” and a more recent author, Ransom Riggs who has written Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. These three author’s stories all have gothic elements, such as psychological issues, death and fear that parallel one other which shows a common trend between gothic literatures.
Elements of Southern Gothic Literature Literature comes in all types of styles and one type is Southern Gothic. But what makes a story develop into this type of Southern Gothic style? There are many characteristics that are apparent in literature, so what conditions are distinct that would give them the term Southern Gothic literature? What kind of elements do we call for when trying to find this type of literature? Southern Gothic is a literature that has a style all its own.
Gothic encompasses many genres of expression. Gothic artists speak out through the forms of literature, architecture, film, sculptures, paintings, and music. Many times, one genre of Gothic inspires another, creating fusing parallels between the two. In this way, each genre of Gothic rises to a more universal level, coalescing into the much broader understanding of Gothic. Gothic writers, such as Mary Shelley, influence Gothic music, as one sees in stylistic devices including diction, setting, and tone.
I peered around through the rain, desperately searching for some shelter, I was drowning out here. The trouble was, I wasn’t in the best part of town, and in fact it was more than a little dodgy. I know this is my home turf but even I had to be careful. At least I seemed to be the only one out here on such an awful night. The rain was so powerfully loud I couldn’t hear should anyone try and creep up on me. I also couldn’t see very far with the rain so heavy and of course there were no street lights, they’d been broken long ago. The one place I knew I could safely enter was the church, so I dashed.
As we walked through the woods on the dark cold night in October we notice screaming of what we had thought to be the neighbor girl. We creep closer to the large mansion and climb the gates to get in the massive front yard. As me and my friends Kevin, Douglas, and randy reach the front door, we slowly creep open the front door, we hear screams and yells and very quickly leave the situation. We head back to the house for the night and decide that we will make a plan and return to the mansion tomorrow.
Southern Gothic Literature is a subgenre of Gothic fiction writing, which takes place in the American South. The Southern Gothic style is one of that employs the topics such as death, bizarre, violent, madness, and supernatural. These tools are used “to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South (Wikipedia).” The view of the South which is self-identified as the “national” or “American” view is basically a colonial Romance, with the rest of the nation identified with the forces of the light and the South with the forces of the darkness (Wacker 107).The authors of Southern Gothic typically use damaged characters to make their stories better, and to show deeper meanings of unpleasant Southern characteristics. These characters are diverse from society due to social, physical or mental disabilities. However, not all characteristics of the characters are bad; it is that a mixture of good and bad is found in most of the characters. Two authors who express the Southern Gothic writing style are William Faulkner, who wrote “A Rose for Emily,” and Flanner O Conner, the author of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Throughout these lines, we intend to present typical Gothic elements of the homonymous novel, analyzing, discussing and comparing next the similar characteristics found in the detective story. Gothic literature is the forerunner of detective fiction. The object of the present work is to explore, concisely, the evolution of detective fiction, starting from the Gothic genre, and their close connection, being the former the father of the suspense in fiction and detective stories.
I move aside to the footpath after roaming here and there like a vagabond in the streets. It has been half an hour I am exploring this city like a dumb. If I feel I take a turn, If I don’t I keep strolling straight. I am lost here already, lost in these yellow woods of hazy aspirations, without any
There is one known very influential writing style called Gothic Literature. It is not only considered to involve the horror or gothic element but is combined with romance, superstition, women in distress, omens, portents, vision and supernatural events to name a few (Beesly). The history and beginning of this era is not well known. From a few writers came this writing style that has impacted the world. A famous artists known for this type of writing is a man named Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many short stories and poems that include horror, gothic, and romance just mentioned.
The street is quiet, and seems like it is dead. The sounds I can hear are the leaves rustling in the breeze, and the pitter-patter sounds of raindrops falling on the ground. Together, they compose a brilliant song of nature. No din from the high-school students, no irritating noise from the car. No one, not even a soul dares to make a sound to disturb this moment. Everything is silent, as if it isn’t even alive, just like a ghost street that only emerges in the mid-night and will vanish when the first sunlight strikes down from the sky. Wet dirt mixes with the smells of perfumes that left behind by people suffuse the air. Making me think of the mixture of sodas and expired apple juices.