Jeremy Ross

  Weird is the word I would utilize to describe my experience reading this book. In fact, by the end of the novel, you don’t really know what was real and what wasn’t due to the sheer confusion and dream-like state of the characters. As evidence, the narration in the beginning is meant to create a sense of trust with the audience as the biologist, then hypnotized, seems to describe everything as a matter of factly, with clear lack of bias. However, as she inhales the spores and becomes immune to the psychologist’s hypnosis, the following pages start to mold into a blurry and confusing shape. This alters her perception almost to the point where the death of the other three seemed insignificant. She grew suspicious of the psychologist after finding the body of the anthropologist, but nothing more. That’s when you start to wonder whether the character was ever sane. In fact, having seen the movie first. In the movie, her reason for entering Area X is to find a cure for her husband, ho...

  This novel was quite interesting in its depiction of people. Characters never have full names, only nicknames and we see two important characters that are named after animals, those being: “Rat” and “Sheep”. Furthermore, the storytelling and introduction of the sheep is almost reminiscent of Camus’ absurdism. Throughout the book, you don’t quite understand what the sheep is supposed to represent. He was foretold that he would have to find it before Sensei dies, but why exactly? How is he a special sheep?  That’s the main question we’re pushed to have, as to the audience, the sheep seems to be strangely ubiquitous. In fact, he is first in the advertisement , he is then foretold of a discussion including him, you learn he’s associated to the Sensei in some way and the protagonist is now destined to find him, he later finds “Professor Sheep” and even finds an anthropomorphic sheep telling him to wait for his friend Rat.  Wherever you go, the sheep seems to be there. When...

For me, the narration of this book is what really piqued my interest. In fact, the interviewer, or rather, “the boy” only exists in the context of having Louis talk to someone in order to pass the tale of his long eternal life. As the book progresses you get a sense that the boy has actually quite a different purpose. In fact, this becomes a way for Louis to make a point against eternal life. In fact, throughout his life, all he has felt is confusion, dissatisfaction and hatred. At first he struggled feeding, focusing on only rats, but he ultimately realizes that he needs to do like Lestat and feast on humans. However, he always despises the way of vampires, and is disgusted at the way Lestat never held back when feasting on the slaves of the plantation.  What’s interesting is the fact that, while he struggled accepting his vampire self, others seemed to have no issue with it. For example, the French vampires of the theater, Lestat, and even Claudia all seemed to be okay with the l...

  Frankenstein’s monster has always been associated with terror, afterall it’s quite hard to think otherwise when his existence has only been composed of him killing and threatening. However, what I see in him is not a creature that should be hated and feared, but rather a lonely soul, that lacked the presence of any parents or any nurturing figures at birth, that would be willing to show him the ropes to living a fulfilling life.  In fact, I believe a strong ethics argument should be made about this piece. The doctor made him out of his love for science, not really of paternity. We live in a society with rules of conduct, we are taught what is evil and what is good. We are nurtured to be proper citizens that abide by those rules. However, what the doctor failed to realize is that along with life comes greater responsibility, not just of scientific discovery, but also as a parent. The lonely creature didn’t know what to think when he came to life. All he has seen in the few fi...

  Dune has been a book that was on my reading list for quite some time, and with the summer finally upon us along with the opportunity given by this class I decided it was time. What really surprised me with this book is the entire world building and storyline. In fact, throughout the book, I didn’t really feel I was reading a science fiction work, I felt that the entire story seemed to follow some guidelines of the fantasy genre.       In fact, I have read my fair share of fantasy novels, especially the ones written by David Gemmel. Within the fantasy genre we often tend to see themes of power directly associated with religion within feudal societies; and quite surprisingly, religion was all the more present in Dune. As shown through Leto’s rank of Duke, the Baron Harkonnen and most importantly, the Bene gesserit, which for millennia have been silently guiding society to enlightenment. Additionally, Paul seems to be the perfect example of a messiah as he’s alwa...