Courtney's Corner

This week I read "The Star" by Arthur C Clarke. This story was a mixture of confusion and heartbreak for me. It followed what I can assume Space Opera's cover, science, space travel, other worlds and species, and extinction. The story is written as a monologue by a Father of a group of travelers, who explore races. This particular piece focuses on the loss of a group of people, who were much like humans. They ended by the combustion of their star (or sun.) It's an interesting thing because the lines between who is watching and who is being watched blurs between us and another species, which I found to be mind-bending. This culture that dies left behind sculptures and paintings and show how civilized this world was. The race saved their culture, knowing that their planet was dying. I loved how moved both the Father and the scientist were by the extinction of this race. I also enjoyed the talk of faith. This story explores how someone could keep their faith high,

Stories often create their own mythologies and I find this mode of storytelling to be the best.  On "Ananzi Boys" --This is probably one of my favorite reads so far. “Ananzi Boys” was a relatively short story that entertained many stories within. (I want to make note of Gaiman’s obsession with spiders. Both “Ananzi Boys” and “Coraline” have them.) There are several myths within “Ananzi Boys” that I found interesting and new to me. The original myth of Spider and Fat Charlie being the sons of Anazi is interesting. As well as Charlie being able to summon his brother by talking to a spider.   The entire story is a created myth that's really engaging and fun to read. The tale of stories and how Spider wronged the tiger and the bird were also great and fun to read about. I loved when Spider was captured and made the little spider from his blood and sand. Also the "deal" that Charlie makes with bird is so fun to see happen. When the birds just fo

There’s a complex moral compass in most young adult stories, more specifically in the “Harry Potter” series. In these stories, the characters make rash and bad decisions. No character is all evil or all good. Even in the prequel that I read for this week, James Potter and Sirius Black are running from the police. Often time in these stories, the characters are young or teens. This is why the moral compass is complex. When you’re young, you often make mistakes or decisions that shape who we are, but not what we are. Potter and Black use magic to escape from the police. If I recall correctly, it’s illegal to use magic in front of Muggles and that is exactly what the kids do.   Power in these stories can easily be used for either good or bad. It is a character’s actions that determine whether or not you are good or bad. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, power will change you. In class, we talked about how in the end of “Harry Potter,” Harry breaks the wand, whic

Believe it or not, I watched this entire series after watching an episode for this weeks assignment. There are a lot of moral issues and questioning in this series. One of the main ones has to do with the story plot of Reynard, Julia, and Kady. After Reynard the trickster god kills, rapes, and eats several groups of witches who are trying to reach Persephone (Our Lady Underground,) Julia and Kady set out to kill him. By doing this Julia aborts Reynard's child, which causes her to lose her shade (morality and care.) This results in her ruining the killing of the beast to use him to kill Reynard. Finally when Julia and Kady have the opportunity to kill Reynard, Persephone shows up and asks her to spare him because he is her son. This entire storyline covers so many moral issues: abortion, murder, using people as bait, and so on and so forth. I found this story to be more relatable than the Harry Potter series. I also found that the characters in this story face a lot of decisions