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Spirituality in the Novel

There are many ways fantasy novels can deal with social, moral, or spiritual issues in a way that young adults or even children can understand and relate to them. Harry Potter does an excellent job at this through many of the issues among the characters. Such as the most blatant and prominent issue between good and bad witches and wizards (Voldemort vs Harry) which can be seen as any good vs evil figures in life. However, there are other issues that aren't as blatantly obvious, such as the social issues of "mudblood". The word "mudblood" is a slang for a child born from one magical parent and one muggle. Hermione is a mudblood which is looked down upon those of "purebread" stature. This can be seen as a parallel to a bastard, or even just a lower class of people. There is also the way of dividing the kids into houses, which helps them build their own sense of structure, team, morals, and responsibilities that are hugely important to their growing up, ...
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Cyberpunk and Steampunk

There is a certain distinct reality created in most cyberpunk and steampunk narratives which can stem from or be centered around augmented or artificial realities. We can see different types rendered in some of this weeks material such as Blade Runner and Cyborg Manifesto. Blade Runner takes place in a futuristic  alternative reality. Some elements that support the believability of this reality are the buildings and the city's design, the advertisements on electronic billboards as large as the skyscrapers they are on, and the vehicles "flown". There are definitely elements of artificial reality as well, with the "robotic" and augmented people who are hunted down. Cyborg Manifesto is a different yet similar take on this artificial reality. Cyborgs are part human part machine and this text does go into the differences and some of the aspects of cyborgs and their version of their artificial and augmented realities. For both of these medias, there is a distinct and...
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J Horror

  The nature of J horror and its origins is widely different than those of western horrors. To break it down, in most asian horror stories or films there is not the same blatant good vs evil theme as in westerns. We are used to a formal distinction, possibly in the form of a monster (or evil person) and the "hero" or protagonist as the good element. We are used to an evil that you can directly "see" or identify physically, such as a killer monster, killer human, or evil entity. These ideas are easy to take in and understand, without usually having to reach far below the surface (even though in some cases there is an underlying message).   However, within the sub genre of asian horror, there is a distinct difference in the "evils" opposed to western's. J horror stories seem to have a higher meaning than just a blood thirsty creature, or psychotic human. They deal with the order of the universe, or the nature of the spirit world, rather than the demoniz...
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