Sorry for the late post!
Find an article that relates in some way to the things we have been talking about in class. Summarize the article, then respond to it in some way. Explain the argument you believe they are making? Why did you pick it? How does it connect to our class?
- One paragraph summary of source.
- One paragraph response to source.
Include a link to the text. Should be about 250 words in length. Comment below with your response.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
Enter an eerie seen of fog and overgrown vegetation. The place an abandon enclosed area where screams cannot be heard. A woman which is referred to as the survivor comes into the scene running full sprint passing some sort of generator in the background. The survivor continues to run, then falls from exhaustion only to frantically pull herself up continuing to fumble around. The woman survivor gains her composer running full speed around the foggy grassy area until she comes to a clearing where she sees a man screaming for help caught in a bear trap. She takes about 5 seconds to contemplate whether she should help him but decides to run the other way leaving him. The woman finds a decaying shack and climbs into the window only to duck seconds before a serial killer named The Trapper walks by with a bloody machete. She is now the hunted and in order to remain a survivor she will have to elude and escape this towering monstrous figure bent on sacrificing her to an invisible evil entity.
The gaming horror hit Dead by Daylight features different serial killers who hunt down their victims killing them and hanging them on hooks. What makes these games so fascinating to play? Is it the fact that you can become a serial killer for a day or is it the thrill of being chased by an unstoppable killing machine? According to Joshua Blackstock author of Why is society so fascinated with serial killers he argues that “today, many people have a fascination with serial killers, yet few are able to describe exactly what interests them about the perpetrators of these atrocious crimes” (The Student Newspaper). There may be never a straightforward answer or reason to the allure of this mysterious interest but as long that there are people interested in the psyche of a serial killer the industry will continue to make games, movies and write books on the subject.
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The Last of Us
Naughty Dog. The video game studio which has produced the very successful and popular “Tomb Raider” and “Uncharted” series. In 2013 Naughty Dog released a new original game called “The Last of Us”. This game is revolved around zombies with a very emotionally complex narrative. The two main protagonists in the story are Joel and Ellie who embark on a long and grieffully task to find a cure. Ellie the 17-year-old teenager who is traveling with Joel has been bitten by a zombie. Joel prepares to do the unthinkable and end her life before she can turn but doesn’t have the will to bring himself to do such a heinous task. So, they come to an agreement that they will travel as far as she can before turning than they will go their separate ways. But days past and both Ellie and Joel realize she is the cure to stopping the infection from spreading. The cure is within her blood. That is when their horrid adventure begins. The article is relating this video game to more of a cry for helping at today’s societal events. Hinting that this will happen to us to a certain extent if we do not change our ways.
Am I relating this article and video game to the class because recently we’ve discussed monsters and zombies fall right into that category. Throughout the video, the characters are always being faced with the “Seven Monster Theories”. The main theory is Theory seven, “monsters are our children”. In this video game we literally created the monsters and now as we play as the characters Joel and Ellie we must stop “our children”.
https://critical-distance.com/2019/01/09/the-last-of-us/
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On December 24, 2018, Netflix released the thriller/horror film, Bird Box which involves a mysterious set of monsters that are never really shown or explained in the film. This may be the reason that the movie Bird Box appeals to so many people. Because of the lack of information about the monsters, a great deal of suspense is developed. In an article by IGN.com, the theories about the monsters is explained. The article goes on to reiterate that the monsters are never actually seen, aside from a few drawings of the monsters in the film. Throughout the film, the monsters seem to prey on those to set their eyes on them, so in an effort to avoid them, the characters in the movie blindfold themselves in order to prevent themselves from locking into their eyes. With that, the theories on the movie are countless. There are people who assert that there is a religious implication and that the monsters are a being formed through different religious and others that compare the monsters to mythological creatures that exist solely to reap havoc. So, all the theories in the article are interpretations that are not necessarily able to be confirmed. The sense of mystery is what people may be drawn to in the first place.
The movie, Bird Box is appropriate to bring up for our class because it shows how fear can be developed with other senses of the body aside from sight. Although sight is what, in essence, triggers the effects of the monsters, the true fear is an imaginary image that creates fear in all of the characters and the audience. Fear is a relatable topic because it is what intrigues a person and engages them as an audience member. The monster’s effectiveness draws directly from each character’s fear of the unknown. The movie is placed in an apocalyptic setting that sets up for very relatable stage for the action to take place. Though it may be a stretch, the idea of apocalypse has been a hot topic in the past 100 years. The “end-times” are often inserted into stories in an effort to tap into that fear of the inevitable demise of the human-race. Although that may not have been main point of Bird Box, it was definitely something that interested viewers and created the conversation about monsters and fear throughout the movie.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/01/18/netflixs-bird-box-monster-theories-explained
The trailer for Bird Box:
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https://www.apnews.com/dbffd68685474e8eb94b7e31020c7d1c
This is an article about the recent shooting at a Northern California garlic festival. The shooter managed to kill three attendees, and then was subsequently killed by police. One of the victims of the shooting was a six year old child. No clear motive has emerged at this point. The shooter was of Italian and Iranian descent.
The uniquely American issue of mass shootings by citizens continues with no end in sight. There is no pattern to where the shootings occur, thus nowhere is safe from this phenomenon. Since we have moved onto discussing real life monsters, and the public’s fascination with serial killers, I figured this was an appropriate article. Clearly, since the days of Ed Gein, our society has had an odd interest in the macabre. Perhaps the mythologizing of these incidents and those involved has made the acts themselves attractive to those looking to be noticed. One of the most recurring components of any of these shootings is the social placement of the shooter. Most are disenfranchised in one way or another. I wonder if this fascination, which is baked into our culture, can ever be removed. Especially considering that every year, several movies, documentaries, and television series are released which play into this fascination.
It may not be the central cause to the problem of violence in the country, but it’s certainly an aspect worth looking at. If society made an effort not to pour themselves over every act of violence, it may in turn inspire less of it.
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“How Horror Films Effect the World”
In this article by Jaren Joseph Lewis he explains how horror movies have changed throughout the years. How they effected the world and controlled what we were afraid of during that time. For movies about aliens and vampires people could go home and say “It’s just a movie”, but when movies like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Psycho” came to theaters people became horrified because they knew that things like this could happen especially since those movies were based off real people. That went from fears of monsters to fears of serial killers. Later on, “Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws hit theaters, it changed the world” Sharks wasn’t much of a fear before this movie came out, and when it did it created a fear of the ocean for many people. Then the fear of the paranormal came into play with movies like the “Exorcist”, “Sinister”, “Paranormal Activity”, etc. It mostly scared religious people because they realized that this could actually happen. For other religious people it just became offensive. “History has shown us how much horror has shaped society and we can continue to watch many people create and give us something new to be afraid of.”
It’s interesting to see the evolution of horror movies and how they have actually affected us more than we realize. This connects to our class because we talked about Ed Gein and how because of him that has changed horror movies during that time from monsters to slasher films and I wanted to see how the evolution of horror movies continued and what else influenced the horror film genre.
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-horror-effects-the-world
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Recently this video was posted on Instagram of a father “Millan- Vasquez” who was pull over by I.C.E. requesting him to open his door which Millan denied doing because he had kids on the car which he did not want to let them go. Which they did not care if kids were care so they warn him that they were going to break the window open and take him anyway. Its scary and sad because you could see how terrified his children were. Having to see your father be taken away not knowing if they were going to be united with him again. Also bother me are the comments people leave there harsh because they say that kids are acting this isn’t real and it’s the father fault for coming to this country illegal. Since President Trump law pass ICE started to do mass deportation on illegals and more videos are popping out, you could clearly see there only targeting one group of people and that the Hispanics.
How its related to are lecture. The similarities from the past to present, we could now experience what Nazi did to the Jews and others and got booted or deceased outta there country. They use pictures, strong language and blaming them for cause of their problems and that what President Trump is doing and that’s what Hitler did Germany blaming other for there problems. The past repeats itself in some way or form we need to fix this before it gets really outta control.
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Gang violence has been a big a problem for decades. It is a problem that increasing very quickly, and it is hard to control or to adjust. The lust of money, drugs, and number of women attract those hungry young men that feel they have nothing else to left to live for their life. It is also been said that entering or joining gives a young generation men a sense of motivation and make them feel like they belong some where else. On June 20, 2018, a 15 years old boy names Lesandro’ Junior’Guzman- Feliz was mistekenly recognize by members of the New York Industrious as rival gang member. Later, he was dragged out of a liquor store by a group of grown men, and he was frequently stabbed and slashed with knives and matches. Guzman-Feliz wanted to be police officer and was an explorer for NYDD. This sad story has been getting heavy description and even some attention and shout outs from celebrities. I find this story interesting because, even tho this is a very sad story, and also it was a n accident to the gang members parts. I feel like these media posts are related to the straw man fallacy, because they want to get their name on television and of the world.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Formal-Indictments-Announced-for-12-Alleged-Gang-Members-in-Killing-of-Junior–488533761.html?akmobile=o&nms=y
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Witches in Modern Times
https://qz.com/quartzy/1411909/
This article is covers the growth in popularity in those who identify as a witch. So much in the mainstream that the cosmetics company “Sephora” went as far as to make a “Starter Witch Kit.” Not only was this sure to make many religious fundamentalist uncomfortable, but according to this article authored by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz & Dan Kopf, “they managed to piss off a bunch of actual witches, forcing the kit’s manufacturer to apologize and pull the product.” They explain how the difficulty of getting accurate numbers with religious populations with government help because of issues with “separation of church and state.” Nevertheless, they try to give some numbers on the growing population of witches/Wiccans/Pagans in the US. Three large religious surveys were done at the Trinity College in Connecticut. From 1990 to 2008, these studies found “that Wicca grew tremendously over this period. From an estimated 8,000 Wiccans in 1990, they found there were about 340,000 practitioners in 2008.” An interesting note that this article makes is the religions effect on modern women specifically. Pointing out that “the term “witch” itself has been used as a multipurpose misogynist slur.” However language has shown to evolve with time and the term “witch” has different meanings connoted with it. A women associated with this term, in American culture, will no longer see the end of a noose. Put perfectly “The mainstreaming of mysticism makes sense when you consider how it overlaps with the interests of the millennial women. As Wicker noted, witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials who are already involved in yoga and meditation, mindfulness, and new-age spirituality.”
I picked this article because I’m always drawn to differences in culture and how it can change overtime. Especially to view how much popular culture impacts the views of the common folk. The perception of witches has changed drastically in the mainstream in the past couple of decades. This was largely to do to entertainment industry giants like Disney putting witchcraft and magic in the majority of their film and television productions, normalizing the subject to generations to come. Entertainment has a huge influence on culture and this is a prime example. What was once seen as a heinous act against God, is now being mostly welcomed in popular culture.
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