An essay on different genres including the Ghost genre and the Fantasy
& Adventure genre
I have chosen two completely different genres to base my essay on.
Firstly, I have the mysterious and gripping Ghost Genre; the books I
have studied are “The Woman in Black”, “The Langoliers” and the spooky
film, “The Others”. The second genre is Fantasy & Adventure. The book
I am studying is “Lirael”, a recent book written by Australian author
Garth Nix. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring”,
directed by Peter Jackson is the film that I am analysing.
There are many, definite trends to ghost stories, no matter what the
novel is about. They are all usually set in remote areas and are about
haunting. Death is usually common in scary stories also. Dense fog
creates mysteriousness in the ghost genre and scary stories. It is not
just used in books, but is a frequent trick displayed in films.
The Langoliers is a gripping novel about a flight from L.A. to Boston,
where the passengers somehow disappear when the plane is caught in a
time warp, and pilot Brian Engle is left on his own, attempting to
land the stray flight.
“Brian peered out of the cockpit window. Outside, all that was visible
were peaks of the Rocky Mountains, which were engulfed in a dense,
dark fog.”
The above quote is used by writer Stephen King to make the reader
believe that the plane is now completely lost as the pilot cannot see
any landmarks to pinpoint where he is!
In the film “The Others” mist is constantly used when snapshots of
the outside of the house are shown to create an eerie atmosphere. This
works very well as it looks like the mansion is in the middle of
nowhere and that the inhabitants are trapped inside, because if...
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...the “L.O.T.R.” Merry and Pippin (two
hobbits) are captured, Boromir is slain by an Orc and Frodo and Sam
leave and decide to complete their task alone.
In “Lirael” Sameth realizes that his friend Nicholas has been captured
by Hedge and sets off to find him, ending the book on a cliff-hanger!
I have found that, like Ghost stories, the Fantasy Genre has certain
trends too. There are two sides, good and evil, the main characters
are usually on quests and have a companion, and the weather matches
the mood of people involved in the story. Also, in both “Lirael” of
course the “L.O.T.R.” magic is used frequently. ‘Train of thought’ is
not used often though as so much is happening in the novel.
To summarise although all stories within a certain Genre are totally
contrasting, they are similar in their sentence structure, characters,
and of course… storyline.
The book “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction” was published in the year 2008 on the 12th of February by Knopf Canada. The author of this book is Dr. Gabor Mate who has worked for twelve years in the eastside Vancouver with patients suffering from addiction, mental illness and HIV. He is also a renowned speaker and a bestselling author. He also received the Hubert Evans Prize for Literary Non-Fiction and the 2012 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award for his work. (….)
The telling of a ghost story entails more than the text itself. Lighting, environment, tone of voice, and many other factors affect how well a ghost story is told. As one can see by reading the following story, simply reading a ghost story on paper does not have the same effect as hearing it performed by the teller in a fitting atmosphere. The following story was told one night in a dark, shadowy room filled with five or six college guys. The teller used long pauses, emphasis on certain words, and body gestures to make the story all the more believable and chilling.
This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically.
How W.W. Jacobs, H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens Create Suspense in their Gothic Horror Stories
Monsters have been depicted in different ways throughout history, but scholars like Jeffrey Jerome Cohen have been able to dissect how monsters are viewed by culture along with examining the various functions that monsters serve in horror fiction and films. His theses cover a broad expanse of interpretations, ranging from topics as different as how monsters represent cultural and societal conflicts to how they fascinate us. Stories like Peter Crowther’s “Ghosts with Teeth” make the reader reflect on a different type of monster, one that constantly undermines our societal and cultural expectations through taking the form of a human. Crowther’s story is profitably interpreted through Jerome Cohen’s “Seven Theses” about monsters, suggesting that “Ghosts with Teeth” is more than the horror story seen at face value.
Pictured on the back cover of the comic book "Ghost World," by Daniel Clowes, are the two main characters of the book in full color. This strikingly significant image, surely shrugged off by most Clowes' readers, represents worlds of diversity within the frames of the book. Sporting pink spandex pants underneath her goldfinch yellow skirt and a blue t-shirt to match perfectly, Enid seems to live her life outside the bubble. She's a very dynamic girl, especially interested in her surroundings and people around her. On the other hand, Becky is dressed like a "typical" girl, with a long black skirt and a white blouse, thus representing her conforming presence in the world. Becky is much more passive than Enid, going with the flow of things just living life. The contrasting personalities of Enid and Becky come ironically, being best friends. However, it brings out their defining qualities in the comic book while quietly calling attention to the values of life, what is real and what is not.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father is intended to be seen as a real ghost. Around 1600, when the play Hamlet was written, many people believed in mystical creatures like witches, monsters, and most importantly: ghosts. With so many people believing in these characters, it makes sense that Shakespeare portrays the ghost of Hamlet’s father as a real figure. Many examples support this, such as when the guards in Act I scene i see the ghost, which proves it’s not just in Hamlet’s imagination. But some people can not see the ghost, such as Hamlet’s mother in Act III scene iiiii. Hamlet sees the ghost but she can not. This could be used as evidence to say the ghost is not real though. Shakespeare shows us though this information, the high complications oh having ghosts in a story.
The atmosphere of each novel plays a significant role in setting the scene for the ensuing horror to evolve. The atmosphere in each novel is different; the horror in each novel is different
show the audience that the film is in this style, such as the mise en
works that had emerged from it, has become a part of our lives. It's a
This depends on the location - is it a business mans office or an old
Have you ever had any paranormal experiences in your life? Did you feel like you were being watched, or see weird things? If you think you had ghostly experiences, then you might have. Only 43% percent of Americans believe that ghosts are real. The reason why I think it is that low is because many people gave false reports, and peoplestoped believing in spirits. For centuries people believed that flames turned blue in the presence of a ghost.
Each author sets a gothic tone first and foremost by the techniques used to describe setting and characters. Irving and Hawthorne set their stories in ghostly mysterious forests. Each author uses phenomenal to truly connect the reader with the stories. Hawthorne’s use of similes to tie in what the forest was like gives a sense of letting the readers feel like they are there with young goodman Brown, “ . . . surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems
The novella "The Dead" by James Joyce tells the tale of early twentieth century upper class society in the Irish city of Dublin. The story tells of the characters' entrapment, and the tragic lives they lead, hiding behind the conventions of their society. Joyce uses the symbolism to draw a parallel between the natural way in which the snow covers the land and the way in which the characters use their culture unnatural to cover reality. This story comes together, not only to tell of the individual tragedy of these peoples lives, but to tell the tragic story of all of Ireland, as it's true problems become obscured in so many ways.
The question is whether it is possible to distinguish between fantasy and true science fiction. I am reminded of the analogy, attributable I believe, to Theodore Sturgeon, of the elf ascending vertically the side of a brick wall. In a science fiction story the knees of the elf would be bent, his center of gravity thrown forward, his stocking cap hanging down his neck, with his feet quite possibly equipped with some form of suction cups. In a fantasy, on the other hand, the elf would simply stride up the wall in a normal walking posture, with his stocking cap standing straight out from his brow. What is the difference between these scenarios? The typical answer is that the science fiction story must play by the implicit rules of the universe; in this instance, gravitation. Fantasy, however, need not "tip its hat" to the Law of Universal Gravitation the story can bend the rules in which gives it the fantasy genre.