Essays on Fantastic

The Maltese Falcon is widely considered to be one of the best mystery stories all time. It has a gritty style and realism about it that makes it unique in my opinion. When looking into more about this book I learned that Hammett (the author)...

The story begins with our protagonist, Arthur Dent, having a normal morning in his house, though it is interrupted by a bulldozer standing outside his house, waiting to demolish it to build a bypass. Promptly, Arthur decides to lie in front of the bulldozer. Ford...

In Atonement, Ian McEwan suggests the dangers of confusing our fantasies with reality; that we have become so accustomed to choosing to see what we wish to see rather than reality and this leads to destruction in our lives. Our refusal to accept or want...

Colson Whitehead has written an inordinately compelling post-apocalyptic science fiction novel centering around the zombie archetype. In Zone One, he deftly uses the zombie model to create a mediocracy—a populace of dependent thinkers who accept, without question, a system of existence that is not favorable...

In Doris Lessing’s short story, “To Room Nineteen” Susan and Matthew Rawling seem to be the perfect couple, until Matthew begins to have affairs and Susan is left alone to her own thoughts and eventually goes mad and kills herself. An underlying theme that Lessing...

Art lives in a realm of ambiguity, and it is ambiguity that grants it greater applicability to the average life. In Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham, three narratives lack detail as to draw greater attention to the ideas within the narratives and the idea of...

Humanity constantly seeks change to improve itself, be it through economic restructuring, political reforms, or educational agendas. When a collection of these changes towards progress mesh nicely together, while possessing a common, encompassing goal, an author is able to construct his or her version of...

Prologue Tyrone was starting to get scared. His team was supposed to meet for a Pyroball practice, but no one showed up. At first he thought it was a prank, but he searched all around the vast, labyrinthine Academy, and he couldn’t find any of...

Edward Bellamy, in his novel Looking Backward, delineates a futuristic utopia set in the twentieth century in which humanity lives in a much more collaborative and unified manner. No longer do such concepts as currency or laws exist, while the motivation to pilfer or deceive...

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. Those who love fast paced adventure, magic, and a little bit of romance will love this book. It is angled mostly towards young adults, but anyone can pick up the book and enjoy it. Other books similar to...

Henry David Thoreau, a leading philosopher of the 19th century, stated that “Men have become the tools of their tools.” Machine Man, written by Max Barry, holds true to this quote. In this fiction novel, scientist Charles Neumann surrounds his entire life based on mechanical...

A creature that has been drooled over in the human world, but despised in the magical world. Over the past couple of decades, werewolves have made many grand appearances in shows and movies such as Wolfman (2010), the Howling (1981), Stephen King’s Silver Bullet (1985)...

Temptation lures people to succumb to suppressed human instincts, yet together with surveillance, the opposing forces create a precarious balance between resurgence and restraint. This conflict influences the characters in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, which follows cipher D-503’s experience in the oppressed One State as he...

There has been a big growth in the importance and the presence of entertainment in our daily life and of course with such large demand there has also been a large supply of content ranging from books, to movies, comic books and a plethora of...

In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We, the reader sees what was supposed to be a utopian society. From the characters’ painfully regimented daily lives to the clandestine desire to break free from the monotony of OneState, we see that not all is perfect; freedom does...

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a science-fiction parody novel by Douglas Adams. It can be classified as an absurdist story where the protagonist searches a meaning to life. Throughout this character’s journey, he’s faced with multiple obstacles which are totally absurd events that...

Zamyatin’s excerpt “Evening…. digestible concept, by…” illustrates the landscape of D-503’s shambolic mind, in order to establish the roots as the irrational pursuit of perfection. Zamyatin begins by establishing the metaphor between the terrestrial world and a notion of paradise, in which there is perfection....

I will try to present a critical analysis on Nil Alt’s translation of Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, published in 2017 by Alfa Publishing House Firstly, I would like to mention the book. As its name suggests, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the...

In Zamyatin’s We, the One-State society is structured to eliminate all aspects of life that may contribute to negativity. A totalitarian government controlled by the Benefactor sets up a world in which people – referred to by numbers – do not have to make choices....

Jane Eyre is a book written about a fictional girl living most likely during the Victorian era. In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte, the books author, uses both gothic and romantic elements to set the scenes and tell the story of this girl. There is two...

When it comes to innovative stylistic and thematic techniques in We, Zamyatin does not disappoint. Every detail of this novel is deliberate, from the colors of objects to characterization of names. While a heavy emphasis is often placed on the dystopian aspect of We, just...

Robert Anthony once said, “The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity”. Zamyatin’s We depicts the advantages and disadvantages of conforming to a small group of people, an authoritative society in general, and to the extreme totalitarian society of OneState. Through the heroic actions...