Literature of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction

  A story about war, time travel and aliens? Everything is possible in Kurt Vonnegut’s works. The non-linear storytelling in a form of time travelling or most likely flashbacks adds chaos to the story as the reader does not know where and when they will be thrown on the next page. The way the protagonist Billy Pilgrim thinks and perceives the world around him illustrates the effects of war trauma on an individual. It is hard to write or read about war but Vonnegut had a different approach to this destruction. The protagonist refers to death the same way as the aliens with a phrase “so it goes”, without any emotions as they know time is relevant and they always live in different periods of time, and they always die as Billy Pilgrim always dies on February 13 in 1976. We are going through his memories, we are living with him all the moments of his life in no particular order but only Billy has to suffer over and over again. Having friends that just came from war now it makes me understan

  The Clockwork Orange was an interesting read. This was the first book from this semester I decided to read in russian without knowing that there are russian words in the original work which were written in latin letters to keep the originality of the author. This anglo-russian slang the characters use gives the story a unique look and completes its mood. However, it was very hard to understand what exactly the words meant because of the horrible spelling that I switched to listening to the audiobook from halfway through the book.  The story is pretty violent but at the same time very realistic. Mostly because of the amount of detail the protagonist gives while describing every single scene and character. The author makes the reader face the reality not letting them close their eyes on the dark sides of it. Alex is a complicated and interesting character. What surprised me the most about him was his love towards classical music juxtaposed with his cruel lifestyle. It seems like those

  Margaret Atwood created this totalitarian childless world that skillfully hides the actual historical events used to shape the novel. While reading the novel I noted that none of the characters are pure evil. Everyone is affected by the Gilead. There are memories showing the happy times of the pre-Gilead period and it always contrasts with the present Gileadean nightmare. The handmaids are affected the most in this new system as their sole role was to bear children for the Commanders whose wives could not. Even their names were formed by “of” plus the name of their commander, as Offred once said “everyone’s on the take” (Atwood). There is huge tension throughout the novel created by almost all the characters. As Gilead has intense power over everyone resistance is unavoidable. Even the Commander, having all the privilege, being a wealthy man, powerful and having a contribution in designing the Gilead performs small scaled rebellions. One of his rebellions is when he calls Offred to h

  Beloved tells a story about poor, black people who used to be slaves. Sethe was a slave before and even after being free she was trapped in her own house being unwelcome from the community and haunted by all the memories of her past. She does not know what happened to her husband and the only thing she has is her children. Sethe loves her children so much that when white people come she kills her daughter to keep her “safe” from slavery comparing that kind of life with death. Cincinnati’s black community plays a crucial role in Morrison’s Beloved.  Communities are complicated, it is not just a group of people living in one place. They help, accept and belong to each other. It is the community that betrayed the 124 and failed to warn them about the Schoolteacher approaching. Sethe, unable to hide, acts radically and kills her daughter. However, it is the same community that helped them to ban Beloved and prevent Sethe from making another mistake by killing Mr. Bodwin. Before the arriv

  It is hard to say I had a positive reaction to the Bloodchild. It was weird and confusing as it was lacking exposition and I was trying to figure out which world I am at. I was asking myself if T’gatoi was human or not even after the phrase “T’Gatoi used four of her limbs” until maybe the talk about stinging which still did not clarify what exactly T’Gatoi is.. The talk about eggs in the beginning seemed normal and I thought they were just talking about nutritions until I realized what eggs they are talking about exactly. Having a bright imagination did not help me here as some of the scenes were very disgusting. The story ended almost the same way as it started, abruptly. It is hard to say that I enjoyed the story but in my opinion it was a good piece of this genre.  Of course the humans being aliens in this world and being used by centipedes as hosts for their offsprings is a metaphor to black community feeling outsiders in this world. Gan being promised to T’Gatoi also reminds me

  Babel-17 was an interesting short novel and I would say revolutionary for its time. Samuel R. Delany choses a strong female protagonist which is rare for 1960s science fiction works. Rydra’s crew is unique as well, there is a huge ethnic and cultural variety which adds more interest to the story. However, they serve as a collective and only Rydra’s and Butcher’s characters stand out to be remembered from this novel. The character designs are very weird and did not make much sense to the point that it became too random for me and I was not interested in them. Rydra Wong is a famous poet and linguist that has to solve the language/code called Babel-17. I am amazed by the amount of dialogue the novel has. The goal of the characters is very clear  right from the beginning. In my opinion it helps to explain the situation, help the reader understand the underlying science and even aids worldbuilding even though there is not much. The language Babel-17 is used as a weapon that may alter rea