Yuhan Yan

This week I read the Hobbit. This week is about a heroic journey. Bilbo Baggins is definitely not a typical hero. He is more like we don't have any special powers as a hobbit. But in the whole novel, we can see the change. Bilbo Baggins is on a journey of self-discovery, uncovering unknown talents and overcoming dangers throughout the mission. The Hobbit is an adventure story that exemplifies the journey of a classic hero. In the traditional template, the hero begins with an ordinary life, and this place will remain in the journey. The protagonist is asked to take action or leave the family mentioned above. Along the way, the hero encountered a mentor and was tested by the enemy. Is this the story of the Hobbit?     What makes this story interesting is greed. This is the central theme of the novel, and almost every character shows a kind of greed, including Bilbo, when he keeps Arkenstone and Ring. Thorin Oakenshield showed the worst greed. He had a h...

I read the Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It is a novel published I 1995 written by Gregory Maguire, it is a revisionist exploration of the character s and land of Oz from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I watched the musical before I felt it’s really interesting to see the story from the wicked witch of the West's perspective. I was expecting this to be a children book, but it is definitely not for children, it contains adult language and content, which make the story more realistic and more believable. In this novel, the image of Elphaba and Galinda are way different from the original novel. In the original Elphaba is the evilest witch in the land of Oz and Galinda is present kind and gentle, but in this novel, nothing is truly evil or kind, every single person has a story behind it and it makes them motivated to act differently. It’s not a simple story It reveals all the good part and all the bad part of a character and the ...

I never read any new weird novel in my life, so this is a whole new experience for me. For this week, I read King Rat by China Mieville. After reading the book I was so confused because the book gets very messy at its timeline, the whole story just seems so weird for me. First story begins with Saul (the protagonist) awakened by the police pounding on the door and come to arrest him, because he is the lone suspect in his father’s murder case, and a stranger helped him to escape tells him he is his uncle and he is a king rat, but actually the stranger is his true father. Let’s pause and image if this happened on you, how is that feels like? It’s really weird!  As I said the timeline of this book it’s pretty messy, it makes me so confused because is beyond my expectation. Also, the writer does a really good job describes the smells and the tastes very vividly, maybe to vividly, because Saul being a hybrid one of his ability is able to eat anything, even garbage. And there are ...

This week I read Kwaidan from Koizumi Yakumo, I heard about this book a long time ago form a friend, she told me it is the Japanese of the 聊斋志异 (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio).     After reading it I felt even Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and Kwaidan based two different cultural backgrounds but the concept is extremely similar. In both of the Books is a collection of the folk legend based on the superstitions. Both books portrait the “Monster” as a spirit of nature, and the story is always about karma or breaking the taboo. Therefore, in this response I want to compare and contrast the female ghost character in both of the novels, In Kwaidan there is two story about female ghost  痴女纲目and 毁约 (I read both books in Chinese so I’m not sure with the translation) the common between this 2 female ghost is they were in a relationship of marriage with a human male, they become to a ghost they were abandoned or betrayed, their hate gives them the power to hurt. Sa...

I watched this film before, I was so immersed by the plot and the complex relationship between the character, so I’m pretty excited to read the novel version. The novel interview with the vampire is narrated from a third-person limited point of view, which is focused on the main character, Louis. In this novel, Annie Rice definitely focused on how human nature, immortality, and mortality plays in a relationship. From the outset Louis struggles with his vampire nature, refusing for a long time to feed on human blood, eating only small animals instead. On the other side, Lesta and Armand contests Loui’s sense of humanity and morality urging him to embrace his essence pushes Louis to accept he is no longer a human, but he is a much more powerful and supreme creature, and when Louis makes the conscious choice to turn madeleine into a vampire, he surrenders to his “nature” of being a vampire. He finally destroying the obvious remnants of his humanity. On the other hand, humans like...

I have heard Frankenstein so many time, however, I never get a chance to finish the Novel. Before I start reading this novel, the word “Frankenstein” gives me the impression of a brutal heartless man-made monster. When I started to read it, I was amazed. This novel illustrates both romantic and gothic elements and creates a magnificent story. Even some people considered this novel as science fiction, but I think the novel did not focus on the scientific explanation behind the creation of the monster, it mainly focuses on the moral issues and consequences of such a creation. Frankenstein was written to take place in Switzerland and Germany which creates sort of a fantasy and distant atmosphere for the reader. In addition to this, Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, where he creates life, is a concept people never heard of, which adds mystery and suspense.  In Frankenstein, just like other gothic horrors, it contains darkness, lonely, horror and despair, and it’s a reflection of ...