Witches

As far back as I can remember, the idea of "Witches" fascinated me, there was such an allure about them, dark powerful women, who could cast a spell on you, for love, death, good and bad. It was as if I  wanted to become one, subconsciously for the power I felt as if they held.
Witches, in my opinion have always been the female equals, if not almost the more powerful female to the male, so it was interesting to me to hear a class discussion about the "gender" struggle between witches and wizards, and the "inequality" factor there is.
Ironically enough I read "Equal Rites"for class,  Esk, a young girl, it thrown into the position of becoming the new "Wizard", because Drum Billet, is soon going to die and has waited to long to find his male replacement. Also because the new born child was actually supposed to be a boy, but was apparently a girl.
The story is the struggle and rise of Esk, becoming and accepting her new given powers, and title. Though I thought the book was well written and I did in-fact enjoy reading this story, the discussions had in class left me wondering, as if all these "Witches", I once thought was so powerful, was actually all women fighting to over come their male "successors", or am I just at a place within life, and within this class is it actually is more of just a personal type of opinion deal. Granted yes "Equal Rites" was actually written for that purpose, if possibly I may have had a better overall feeling and outcome, with this read if I had gotten through the entire book with out a more biased class opinion.
With that said, I still personally find "Witches" to be powerful women roles, created to show and empower females, with the sense of being equal. strong, independent humans that have the ability to control their lives.

Archetypes of Women

A huge favorite in many movies types from, drama to fantasy has always been the simple plot, man saves the girl. You know, the pretty girl is captured, or in some sort of danger and the strong male heroine comes in and saves the day. Very rarely do we see something where the woman saves the day. 

From early on black and white films, to current horror movies we see in theaters today, the female 9 out of 10 times is the victim and needs assistance. 

Even in children's cartoons we had the typical archetype female, for example we have Scooby Doo, the beautiful Daphne need Fred to save her at most costs, granted we have the strong intelligent Daisy who tends to be one step ahead of even the boys. The show, and movie are a great example of not only the typical female archetype, but also that of the newer "stronger" woman, who does not always need the male figure to come in and save her. 

Even in books such as Twilight, we have Bella who just cant seem to keep herself out of all sorts of danger. She has the two strong male figures Edward, and Jacob who continue to fight for her and save her, what seems like day after day. Bella is your typical helpless girl, she can surly put herself in all sorts of danger, but can never see to get out alone. 

The Classical plot of boy saves girl, is a timeless tradition something readers and movie watchers for years to come will all forever find themeless getting completely wrapped up in.

The New Weird

What is "Weird" and why as humans are we completely obsessed with it. I feel like its a way for us to live out our secret fears and thoughts we wouldn't necessarily want to share otherwise. Horror movies, a perfect way for people to let out their inner weird, think about it like this, what other time aside from Halloween do we have to really tap into are inner darkness.
For generations we have been using the horror genre to let go of what we know of reality and embrace that which is not normal, from movies like "The Exorcist" to "Cabin in the Woods", we get to watch people doing everyday things, living everyday life suddenly have their worlds turned upside down. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, demons appear in their lives and completely alter everything that is normal. It is a way for us to live our nightmares,fantasies,day dreams whatever.
Today with the technologies we have to really enhance our experiences, the future of "weird" is going to push the boundaries in the future, make the ghosts more ghost like, the possessed seem more legitimate, I think we are going to keep out typical plot lines and darker style, but i think we are going to continue to twist weird, find new ways to make everything more life like, as if it really is something that could happen to anyone of us tomorrow. We want to see weird as if it was our own, the more real it becomes the more we will be drawn to it.

Interview With a Vampire

"Interview With a Vampire", is line no vampire story I have ever read before, this is not your typical horror story, where the vampire sucks your blood and you die, or the recently more common theme of romantically beautiful ones thats sparkle.
This is the story, of what it is like to be in the heads of essentially three different vampires. Lestat, the elder, responsible for turning both Louis, and Claudia into the beasts they will eternally be. Lestat, a blood thirsty beast has no remorse for killing mortals, his thirst for human blood over powers all other. We also have Louis, the main character who after feeling like he has nothing to live for in his human for, he is turned by the one and only Lestat. Unlike Lestat, Louis is not much for sucking the blood out of humans for pleasure. He has morals and regrets, he has compassion for the humans, and has completely conflicting emotions on being a vampire.
Lastly, we have Caludia, also changed by Lestat, at the amazingly young age of five. Her purpose was to be a companion/ family for Louis so he would not be alone. Her dilemma is that, vampires can mature mentally, but not physically. Claudia is trapped in a five year olds body for the rest of eternity.
Now, I must admit I am both a fan of classic vampire stories, as well as Twilight, after all I was a young teenage girl when they first came out, but the plot to this book definitely kept my attention. I liked how the book switched between first and third person, it kept you in a place where you had no choice but to read on. The emotion Ann Rice conveyed in this book, makes it almost as if these, blood sucking creatures could be real. It makes you love and hate them all in one.

Contemporary Gothic

When I think of "modern gothic" the first thing that came to mind was "The Addams Family" , they are your typical gothic family. From the dark clothing and pale skin, to the Victorian house and cemetery in the back yard, they are the poster "family" of goth. The shows and movies are dark comedies, making fun of the social-norms, from simple lessons like "running with scissors", something that is encouraged in the Addams house, as well as thinking up ideas on how to torture people, such as daughter Wednesday does. Also there are characters into the show like Cousin It, the large hairy object, Thing, the hand that crawls around, and Lurch the very tall Frankenstein like butler, just to name a few.

Another good example, a more recent show would be "Bates Motel", a spin off from the movie "Psycho". The show takes place when Norman Bates finds his father dead, Norma his mother quickly moves them to a new town, where she buys an old run down Victorian home, that over looks an out of business run down motel she plans on opening. Not even a few weeks after moving to a new town, Norma is confronted with by the old motel owner, and threatened. When she ignores the threats it leads her to being raped in her kitchen, where Norma has to come help kill the man raping her. From there they have to hide the body and hope the crooked police in town down catch on to her, her son, or any of the dark messy situations that arise throughout the first season. 

A last example of Gothic style in the media is a show called "American Horror Story". Each season of the show has a different theme, all falling under a more gothic/spooky style. In the first season we have a family who move into the house, better known as "Death House". Everyone who moves into the house dies, the worst part is no one in that house leaves. The family is forced to try and deal with and over come the unhappy souls left floating, while they try to take back the house and ultimately claim the members of the family.

The second season takes place in an old, poorly run Insane Asylum, where a supposed  killer is brought and left to rot. Between the not so great staff, the evil doctor scientist and the media, all sorts of things happen to the killer, who turns out to be the good guy, and a lesbian news reporter who the hold hostage in the asylum, to try and fix the "gay" in her. This show takes current and past issues in history and brings them to light in a dark and twister way.