The Box

    To understand Sala, we already know that she has been traumatized by the earthquake news on TV and has been dreaming of the Earthquake Man and waking up to do a complete inspection of the house to make sure the Man is gone. The Man here, in her dreams, tries to forcefully put her into a tiny box. Later toward the end, the Earthquake Man reappears in her dream saying he's got a box ready and big enough for everyone. And she does not seem to be afraid anymore. These objects represent certain boundaries. The Earthquake is destructive and destroys al boundaries while The Earthquake Man is the boundary maker because he picks Sala to be in the box. The box for everyone represents a family boundary between nuclear family and extended family.

Super Frog

   In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” the magic serves a healing purpose. If we choose to accept Frog’s claims at face value—that Tokyo is indeed being threatened with destruction—then magic is there to heal the city’s psychic damage by destroying Worm. But even if we don’t believe this and believe that Katagiri has imagined Frog, then we can still say that magic has healed him—even if the magic only lives in Katagiri’s mind. Katagiri is a lonely, friendless man with no real connection to the world he lives in. When Frog comes to him, telling him that he has secretly been selected for a dangerous task, Katagiri’s life gains a sense of meaning. Everything he has done thus far in his life has prepared him for this moment. Katagiri has gained a true friend in the  monstrous Frog, someone he is drawn to, cares for, and respects.

Sensory and Sensual

Aura's a really good read, phenomenal, and unlike any other text I've read before. Its engrossing and unique  because outside of work arrangements between Fillipe's and Consuela, there's hardly any dialogue, most of the text is just imagery and sensory text reflecting on Fillipe's surroundings. Filipe hardly even matters himself because the text directly addresses 'you' with great displays of imagery and sensory text that unlike supertoad aren't impossibly foreign.
The book is like a drug induced haze or a dream, quick and sensational. The pages were turning so fast that I don't think I was absorbing anything below the surface. I'd like to reread the story and I probably will, sooner than later. One thing that did strike me though was the rats. The rats haunt the artifacts of Consuela and the General's past lives and the idea of their youth. The rats have proliferated because the cats have disappeared from the house. Consuela hasn't had use for cats in years. I was reading into the rats as a symbol of plague on the youth but if the sexually devious Consuela was murdering the cats when she was younger maybe they wouldn't have been around to control the rats anyways. I'm not quite sure what their significance is. Since the rats and the cats seem to be visible only to some I imagine they have a deeper meaning that I'll discover after another (few?) readings.

"Aura" writing style

“Aura” by Carlos Fuentes captivated me. I think I was so enthralled by Aura because the story was so vague, walking through his actions methodically. The descriptions lacked emotions, which would make you think that a reader would be less attracted to the story. But on the other hand, maybe this is a better way of doing that. Maybe allowing the reader to become the character and create his or her own interpretations of the story causes the reader to become more attached. The reader has moved into the shoes of the character, and having their own real feelings towards what is occurring connects them more, causing the reader to have an investment. This writing style that Fuentes uses in his magical realism story is intriguing and inviting.

Super-Frog

"Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" is closer to the fantastic than supernatural on the spectrum because the reader is constantly questioning whether the frog is real or a figment of Mr. Katagiri's imagination. There are moments of proof that Frog is real, like when he frightens Katagiri's toughest client into paying back his loan on time. Yet the story allows its reader to believe that the whole event could be Katagiri's dream. Supernatural events definitely happened in his dream but the battle could have been just a dream or Katagiri could have truly did help Frog defeat the giant worm in his sleep. Often when arguing that a story is uncanny one can say that the main character was just insane or the entire event was a dream, so the idea that Katagiri helped Frog in his dream is interesting. The argument for the supernatural in this story does not argue with the fact that the events happened in a dream. Another contradictory point is that Frog tells Katagiri that no one else can see him, this fact is usually proof that the character is not sane but since the issue is addressed it allows the story to still be supernatural.

Political Critique in Aura and Magical Realism -- Felipe and History

In Aura, Felipe tells himself that he was drawn to the job listing for the 4000 pesos, but the attraction goes deeper than that. It's just his interest in acting as a historian either. Felipe has a fascination with the conquerors of the past, the Spanish who colonized the new world, and deep down he longs for a similar glory and grand accomplishment. His current place in life is humiliating, he is essentially at the mercy of school children, so he longs for something more. And as the story progresses, so too does Felipe's interest in the General Llorente. Becoming Llorente, as he seems to do in the end, is actually the realization of Felipe's dreams, and I think it was for that reason Consuelo targeted him, or people like him -- she needed someone who wanted to become the past, relive it with her.

But a Spanish conqueror must have significance beyond Felipe's character, making some statement about the culture or attitude of Mexico at the time. The meaning seems to be that intellectuals and academics have an obsession with the achievements of the past, and would rather wallow in nostalgia than move forward. Similarly, Felipe chooses to pour over musty volumes in a dark, cramped house rather than be out living new experiences. But, as we can see with the decay of Consuelo and how she drains Felipe of his youthful opportunity, this obsession with the past is ultimately self-destructive.

Religious Aspect of Aura

Being a religious individual, I have always been greatly disturbed by the ways in which religion is used through practicing certain rituals, particularly those where people feel bound to God through their actions and therefore can justify what they are doing. The ways in which I practice my religion are traditional and according to what my religion expects from me. The most disturbing part of this novel for me was when Aura breaks the wafer over her body to symbolize a form of communion for Felipe. As well, the way he falls over her naked body positioned as if she were crucified. When he fell upon her, I viewed this as a form of personal sacrifice, as if Felipe was willingly assuming the crucified position to give his life to Aura, similar to the way Jesus did on the cross. These disturbing images violate the ways in which I view my own religion, and in turn, are greatly unsettling to me. It is almost as if Aura feels she has some divine power within her to perform this ritual--a sense of divinity which is greatly misplaced. I feel that this connection to religion only exists to fill Aura with some sense of empowerment, rather than to maintain some faith she has in a higher power.

After the Quake

The story of “super-frog saves Tokyo” reminds me of the episode of Futurama called “Godfellas” where Bender is drifting in space and small creatures inhabit his body. Bender becomes a god and the creatures who worship him ask him for help. Eventually rival factions start and a nuclear holocaust kills most of them. Bender doesn’t know what to do to remedy the situation and becomes frustrated. Eventually Bender meets what appears to be God and gets help being reunited with Fry and Lela.

It seems like Katagiri is in the same situation. He is just drifting in life and tries to help people as best he can like his siblings with their college educations. But Katagiri never gets any recognition and especially at his work, where he is apparently excellent at collecting unpaid loans. This appears to be the reason Frog selects him to help save the city. If the city knew that Katagiri helped save the city would they care? Or perhaps he is just insane altogether. The parallel is that in Futurama Bender is eventually saved by God and Tokyo is saved by a random debt collector. Perhaps it was fate or maybe just happenstance? Whatever the case, I agree with the ending of the Futurama episode: “When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”

Eyes in Aura

While reading "Aura" I thought it was interesting how Felipe described the characters' eyes.  He begins with describing Consuelo's eyes as, "clear, liquid, enormous, almost the same color as the yellowish whites around them, so that only the black dots of the pupils mar that clarity."  Next, he describes Aura's eyes as, "sea green and that they surge, break to foam, grow calm again, then surge again like a wave...offering you a landscape that only you can see and desire."  Lastly, he describes his own eyes, but he only mentions that they are black.  Looking into someone's eyes can arouse emotion and start a sense of nonverbal communication.  Felipe immediately becomes entranced with Aura's eyes because of the life he sees in them.  Both Felipe and Consuelo's eyes are dull and lacking emotion or depth.  It is strange that Aura's eyes are the only ones that seem to have life and vibrant color because she is not even real, she is just a creation of Consuelo.  Eyes are sometimes considered "windows of the soul."  If Consuelo and Felipe both have dead eyes and Aura's have life, how is it that they are real and she is not?  It gives an altered sense of reality.

Aura

Of the two readings this week, what I found most disturbing was Aura. The way the protagonist Felipe accepted the things that he saw or was told was alarming, and made me question what was real or fantasy. For example when Felipe mentions the cats to Senora Consuelo, she dismisses their existence and he doesn’t question anything. Some reasons I think he wouldn’t bother questioning her are that he thinks she is senile or his own perception is not quite right. But still this bothers the reader because we want to be able to make sense of things. And when he sees the cats twining on fire and smells burnt fur, we are not given any indication that he thinks what he has seen is odd, again throwing the reader into confusion. What I would like to explore deeper though is the use of animals in this text. Cats, rats, and a rabbit are frequently present and the first two are not acknowledged by Senora Consuelo to even exist in the house even though Aura told Felipe that there were cats in the house to ward off the rats. Why is cat torture present? And why are the rats ignored by the trunk that Felipe goes to to get Senor Llorente’s manuscript? And I would also like to know why Senora Consuelo says that animals would rather have people be alone?

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

"Caught in a landslide No escape from realityyy!"-Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

"Aura" was an interesting read, mostly because I really felt the effects of magical realism in the book. Reading from Felipe's perspective, we can observe the events as they occur, but since it's magical realism, nothing is really explained. For example, on page 59 when Felipe sees the tangle of burning cats from the skylight, he gets down and he's like, "Hm. Did I really see that? Oh well..." and goes on being Felipe. In a way it is a bit aggravating to not understand the events as they are happening but it also forces you to keep reading in search of a conclusion.
In the end, it's a bit weird that Felipe accepts that he's Consuela's deceased hubby. I admit it is a bit like (planned) fate that he meets the job requirements, but it's strange how he falls in love with Aura. He doesn't know her or anything about her, but she "falls in love" with him as well (though that part might have been Consuela's doing). I just think Felipe's a bit of a fool to just fit right into all these events, but that's the story.
When Aura leaves I thought maybe it had to do with how youth flees as time progresses, but then that leaves Felipe's case a bit unexplained. He's basically General Llorente reincarnated...which doesn't exactly align with what I previously thought. Because he's kind of like youth returning to an old lady, then falling in love with her youth, who leaves, and then continues to be in love with the old lady. But then he's still "youth"? Hm.
Another thing I want to note is the cover of these books (if you bought the one from the bookstore with the cat). I understand the cat is like the cats that get sacrificed by Aura/Consuela as part of her witchcraft stuff, but I don't understand why they chose to give it green eyes like Aura/Consuela. To me it seems the two kind of conflict and seems pretty unnatural. But maybe that's the point.

I didn't really understand the stories from "after the quake" or how they interconnected. Maybe I should have kept track of the characters a bit more, but it seems scattered and strange to me. The only thing that seemed consistent was the earthquakes and the disruption of the characters' lives. To me, it seems like the earthquakes symbolize the shifting, changing and instability of the events that occur and/or will occur. For example, in the first story, Komura's wife leaves after watching the earthquake on the television for days. Maybe by witnessing the massive change she understands that her marriage might need to change. Change causes ripples in which other things are affected...

After the quake

The whole time I'm reading UFO in Kushiro, it has a very ominous tone and feeling to it. It starts off just a few days after the earthquake and right from the start you get a weird notion about Komura’a wife. She barely moves a muscle when he’s around and she’s described as being stolid and rather unattractive, both physically and personality-wise. Komura is the exact opposite but enjoys having his wife around for his own reasons, up until his wife randomly vanishes and takes all her belongings with her. This is where we start seeing the components of magical realism begin.When he goes to Hokkaido to deliver a small box to a colleague’s sister, he realizes that she knew who he was at the airport, without him having to hold the box out in the open in order for her to recognize him. Authorial resistance is displayed here as he merely asks himself how were they able to recognize him, but then ignores the situation and offers no explanation as to how they did. We get a sense of mystery throughout the entire story also, as we wonder why his wife left in the first place and especially, what was inside the box his colleague gave him. He doesn’t bother asking about the box until the very end, and gets a chilling answer that it was something inside him and now he’ll never get it back. He sits up, upset with what he just heard, but calms down after Shimao explains she’s only joking. The ending rather surprised me, as it ended rather abruptly and a bit mundane, whereas I felt it was building up to a mysterious/magical ending, only to have nothing actually happen.

Fascinating or Disturbing?

Aura was fascinating. This book had the greatest impact on me because it was so weird. Magical realism is definitely interesting to me. From the first page, I got that feeling that said, “pay close attention or you’ll miss it.” I thought “miss what?” I was drawn into this peculiar mystery. The house inside is mainly dark. This darkness meant Montero had to rely on his other senses more than his sight. Essentially, we as the readers lost our sight as well. Uncertainty is definitely a key factor. We do not know why the memoirs are so important, yet, as he learns more Montero begins to believe he could essentially be a copy of her deceased husband. During all of this, he quickly becomes entangled with Aura, Consuelo’s niece. She is awkward, seemingly trapped with Mrs. Consuelo, and feels almost like a puppet mimicking her master. Many strange things seem to tie Aura and Consuelo together, almost like they were one person. In the end you find out they may actually be the same person or Consuelo created Aura. A twisted ending ties their invisible knot. Though it seems Aura spoke it was Consuelo in the bed with Montero. Montero gives in, choosing to believe in what is going on. It’s definitely disturbing.

Aura

        In Aura, I found it interesting how magical realism was portrayed here. At the very end, the main character, Felipe realizes that her is the General, but does not go about screaming and shouting with terror rather he wonders about it in a calm manner. Montero realizes a strange connection between the old widow and Aura- often, whenever Consuelo is speaking, Aura's lips will move as well, and motions that Consuelo makes are also made by Aura at the same time. These fantasies eventually begin to grow stronger, and often take over many of Montero's thoughts. And at the end, Aura is transformed into Consuelo, which indicates her rebirth; this is when Montero’s fantasies become real.

Thoughts on the Sandman

The sandman was an interesting piece. I liked how it began as a series of letters between 
Nathaniel and Lothar/Klara, where you could see Nathaniel 's warped perception and the more logical/dismissal view point of Lothar and Klara. I also thought it was odd that this style was kind of abandoned and went in to a narration from the point of Nathaniel. This loss of communication with his closes friends comes at the same point when Nathaniel starts to become obsessed with the 'girl' Olympia, and shows his loss of reality and stability.
Throughout the story there is repetition when it comes to the eyes of the characters. Nathaniel almost loses his to the Sandman Coppelius as a child, but Coppelius decides not to take them, though in the end uses his eyes against him.

Sandman

What intrigued me about the Sandman was that there seemed to be tension between whether these occurrences were coming from Nathaniel himself or were in fact true events. Even he is trying to convince others of his fear, trying to justify it. He tells the stories as if other people believed in them as well. For example, when he was discussing his childhood, he talked as though his mother was in on the story of the Sandman. Though this could be an exaggeration made by a terrified child. Furthermore, the future events concerning Olympia could be all accounts of a madman. Though, there is a possibility that all of these could be real and we could be in a supernatural world, I think more analysis of the story could prove either way.

Theodora No-Last-Name-Given

The last lecture got me thinking a lot about family in Hill House. We heard arguments for each character belonging to several different family groups, some biological and some metaphorical. Looking at characters' last names, I noticed something that we didn't talk about, but I think is important: Theodora doesn't have a last name. Not one that the reader ever hears, at least. This automatically sets her apart from the rest of the characters. For the others, their last name represents their personal history, as well as the sphere of society they come from -- Montague the academic truth seeker, Sanderson the rich and "masters" of the house, Dudley the servants, and so on. But Theodora is restricted by no such label, explaining how she can act more free-spirited and independent than the rest. Sure, she talks with Eleanor about relatives long ago, and she lives with a friend (companion? lover? I'm not sure), but those are all very distant, and it doesn't seem that Theodora lets her connections impede her life. Eleanor, on the other hand, essentially had an entire decade of her life defined by her family when she cared for her mother, and has just recently escaped from under her sister's thumb, causing her to despise someone like Theodora who has lived so freely. Hill House only amplifies this deep-seated jealousy and resentment inside Eleanor, which manifest in her mad behavior, whereas Theodora's psyche was untouched by the house.

Human? Doll? Robot?

In ETA Hoffman’s, “The Sandman,” it was hard to imagine how Olympia appeared to the party goers who believed she was human, but noticed something odd about her movements and behavior. Siegmund describers her as a “wax-faced wooden puppet,” foreshadowing that she is definitely not human. He says, “She seems…strangely stiff and soulless. Her figure is symmetrical, so is her face…Her step is particularly measured; all of her movements seem to stem from some kind of clock work “ (161).

When thinking about how a woman with these characteristics would really behave, I thought of a person, with robot like movements, but obviously convincing enough to possibly be human. It reminded me of the human like robots created in Japan, called “Actoid” that are so creepily life like that for a moment you believe they are human, but when looking at their movements, you can tell they are not natural. They imitate the movements of the people around them. Very creepy!

Here is a link to the youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF39Ygp53mQ

I wonder if Coppelius and Spalanzini’s “best automaton” was this realistic or if their scientific technology/supernatural forces/alchemy was not this advanced? Pay attention to the eyes--very realistic in these robots as well! 

Haunting of Hill House and Sandman

Toward the end of Haunting of Hill House, we finally see Eleanor's sanity spiral down. She knocks on doors and goes to the library and up the stairs where she hears someone calling her as she calls out 'Mother'. I think in this event, Eleanor's grip with reality is greatly loose because of the guilt she carries about her mother dying. In earlier passages, Eleanor talks about how her mother's death would be her fault anyway. This guilt I think was feeding into her fantasies. And sadly, because she put herself into a dangerous situation by going up the stairs, she meets a gruesome end as she is forced to leave the house. When Eleanor crashed into the tree it was like a cry for attention from her. Its like she wanted to feel like they would care about her if she could hear them telling her to stop.

In the Sandman, what I found most interesting was that the character Nathanael felt that Klara was a cold person when he read things to her or she made remarks he didn't like. He even called her a 'lifeless automaton' at one point. And ironically he ends up falling for an automaton called Olympia, despite signs that there was something strange about Olympia. I think perhaps this story could be commenting on relationships between men and women, just with a twist on it with a scientific feel.

The ending of the Haunting of Hill House is very open ended. It's assumed that Eleanor commits suicide by crashing her car. It's interesting because throughout the novel Eleanor constantly remind us about how she wants to belong somewhere. She doesn't truly have a home for herself. The manifestation produced by house  to entice Eleanor could have been part of Eleanor's imagination. Her will to find a home was so strong. Once she was rejected by Theodora she may have found there was no other option other to kill herself and supposedly become a spirit of hill house. Also, her desperation may have been caused by the fact that no one has ever really wanted her. She alludes to this throughout the text. The house seems to have an attraction towards her and Eleanor appreciates this. Of course no one knows for sure what exactly happened but the author does tell us that hill house will never be the same again.

Eyes.

Upon reading "The Sandman" by Hoffman, what I noticed most were eyes. The author emphasized the use of eyes and sight to show themes of deception; "how the eyes can deceive," and "what's real and what isn't." For instance, Hoffman uses "automatons" in this story when it comes to the woman in Nathanael's life. I find it interesting that Thanael first accuses his lover of being an automaton because she thinks he is deceiving himself into believing in Coppelius, then after he falls in love with a real automaton, which Professor Spalanzini is trying to hide in normal society. Since an automaton is just a doll, the professor's attempts to hide her in society was scandalous, and brought about more fear of deception. The automaton, Olympia, also played a part in Thanael's deception. Thanael, who trusted his sight through a spyglass, and formed a "love" with Olympia through their eyes. So were his eyes deceiving him, or were her eyes deceiving her, or was Coppola's spyglass the culprit? I also thought it was interesting that Thanael initially thought the spyglass had "such clarity and distinctness." His trust in the wares of the person he thought was the eye thief Coppelius is astounding. There was also a point where Klara, Thanael's lover, tells him that his childhood nightmare could have all been childhood fancy, at which point we can question who is right and who is wrong? What role does each character play in Thanael's deception and madness?
In the end, Thanael's deception of himself or Coppelius' guidance of Thanael led to his demise.
We cannot be sure whether Coppelius killed Thanael or not because everything is not concrete. Even though Coppelius laughed and said "Ha, ha! Just wait; he'll come down on his own.," we cannot assume that Coppelius knew he would compel Thanael to jump, but rather, we can think that Coppelius assumed after Thanael's ravings, he would climb down himself, naturally. Is Coppelius really the culprit?

The Haunting of Hill House

None of the characters in The Haunting of Hill House come from a traditional family, showing Shirley Jackson’s ability to twist the idea of family in her writing. Even the original owners of Hill House, the Crains, had warped family interaction. The father created a book for his daughter to “educate and enlighten” her about the world. He seemed to have good intentions, yet this book was much too graphic for a young child. This distorted parenting technique is reflected in the way he built his home; everything is a little bit crooked. Mr. Montague seems to come from a possibly “normal” family but when we meet his wife and Arthur, there is a definite strain in his relationship with Mrs. Montague and uneasiness with Arthur. Arthur and the doctor’s wife have a strong connection and easily agree upon their “fact collecting” strategies which are strongly at odds with Dr. Montague’s techniques. This disjoint is a symbol of the gap that the couple has in their family. The crookedness of Hill House seems to draw in people originating in nontraditional homes.

The Sandman

“The Sandman” is a strange story in which the reader is left wondering whether the events did or did not actually take place. We have Nathaniel, who seems to be an unreliable character, as we don’t know whether his anecdotes are reality or figments of his mind. He seems to be suffering from posttraumatic stress occurring from the point of his father death in the explosion. And ever since, has associated Coppelius, as the “Sandman” who has an affixation with eyes. Coppelius disappears but comes back into Nathaniel’s life as Coppola, an optician and barometer dealer, which Nathaniel once again becomes obsessive over. Klara is depicted as the more grounded character in the story, and tells Nathaniel to forget about his hatred over Coppelius/Coppola and her letter makes the reader wonder whether or not to believe Nathaniel’s story in his first letter to Lothar. The story takes an uncanny turn, when Nathaniel falls in love with an automaton and soon finds out who was behind its creation, Coppola again, along with his professor, Spalanzani. This makes him turn mad, but also gives further reason to believe that his earlier tale about Coppelius might be true. The ending steers it more towards mere hallucinations, because he attacks Klara and jumps over the rail, killing himself, which no one in the right mind, would have done so.