If I’m understanding this correctly, Mountford has chosen the word citation because when cosplaying one has to be costuming as a certain character thus citing a certain form of media.
References:
Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom. Intellect Books.
Cosmicism is a literary philosophy that everything we do- as humans- is insignificant compared to the vast unknown universe. That “there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a God, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence.” (Nguyen, 2016)
Cosmicism capitalises on that feeling of helplessness in horror, that no matter what we do it’s all in vain. Some horrors that get the feeling of helplessness right are: ‘It Follows’ from 2014, a teenage girl finds herself being stalked by a demon that can shape shift and appears invisible to those around her, but it is restricted by it’s inability to run. The demon can only pursue her at a slow pace and thats how ‘It Follows’ hits that sense of dread perfectly, by having our main character be unable to rest while the demon is in pursuit.
‘Final Destination’, where the cast survives a catastrophic event that should’ve ended their lives, Death itself comes to finish the job. Having a omnipotent being as your enemy is horrifying, however it isn’t a physical being; you don’t have the luxury of knowing when it’ll happen, you simply have to wait as you watch the main cast attempt to outsmart a God.
The classic ‘Blair Witch Project’ has the sense of dread in spades. Not even being aware whether the characters are messing with each other, if they’re that inept, or that there really is a witch in the woods.
With ‘The Colour out of Space’ and ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’, they specifically gather dread from the anxiety of outer space. The fact that we don’t know everything that is out there, and maybe never will. However, this anxiety only works if there is an underlying fear about the universe within the audience, and if there is not- if the audience does not believe there is anything otherworldly to discover- then this literary philosophy falls flat.
References:
Lovecraft, H. P. (1936). The Shadow over Innsmouth.
Reyes, X. A. (2014). Body gothic: Corporeal transgression in contemporary literature and horror film. University of Wales Press.
Today, P. (2017, September 28). Lovecraft’s Cosmicism: What it is, how it works, and why it fails. Retrieved from https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloryseed/2017/08/lovecrafts-cosmicism-works-fails/
Nguyen, T. (2016). History of Humans. EnCognitive.com.
The three elements Stephen King defines are named ‘The Gross-Out’, ‘Horror’ and then ‘Terror’.
‘The Gross-Out’ is- as it sounds- designed to disgust the audience with its grotesque use of gore; whether it be a broken bone, a disembodied head or a flood of blood. Now certainly, some horror movies won’t have excessive use of gore if any at all, some examples include a demonic stalker that can only be seen by its victim (It Follows, 2014), or where you only see the monster once in the films entire runtime (The Babadook, 2014). On the other side of the spectrum, you have movies that are notorious for its gore it wouldn’t be the same without; including he movie that started it’s own genre called Torture Porn, (Saw, 2004), or the one that went so far as to be banned in several countries (The Human Centipede (First Sequence), 2009).
‘The Horror’ is the staple of the genre, it’s fear in its purest form. It’s meeting your body double who has a murderous vendetta against you (Us, 2019), witnessing the corpse of a woman emerge from your bed sheets (The Grudge, 2004), watching hundreds of spiders burst from your own pimple (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, 2019), etc. Without experiencing this fear, the whole story fails.
The final and- in Stephen King’s own words- the worst element is ‘The Terror’. Something not wholly explainable by conventional means, it’s not a deranged man in the walls, it’s not your adopted daughter, nor is it your vengeful neighbour. A true example of terror is gripping your friends hand tightly in the dark only for the lights to come on and see her on the other side of the room (The Haunting, 1963).
A great example of a movie that uses all three elements, aside from King’s own works, is Ari Aster’s Midsommar. ‘The Gross-out’ was the elders of this community jumping to their deaths in full view. ‘The Horror’ is watching them all be picked off one by one in different ways. ‘The Terror’ is realising this was planned from the start.
References:
Carroll, N. (2003). The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Routledge.
King, S. (2010). Danse Macabre. Simon & Schuster.
Regal Reel. (2019). Stephen King’s 3 Levels of Horror. Retrieved from https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/blog/stephen-king-3-levels-of-horror
Cyberpunk by definition is: a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology. It is most notable by its incredible setting design. Skyscrapers as tall as the clouds, neon lights around every corner, but not the picture perfect city life we may be used to. Indigo Gaming describes cyberpunk’s aesthetic as “High tech, low life.” (unknown, 2019), which is why you’ll see a lot of characters living in poor conditions if not straight up poverty.
Akira fits this description like a glove, it’s rife with the city life with both our main characters and surrounding extras. It’s extremely technologically advanced, while at the same time being exceedingly dirty with litter decorated along the streets, graffiti on almost every wall, even governmental funded institutions- such as the school- is given no care for its appearance.
The reason for this is as the writer from The Guardian states: “The genre was formed as a response to a world where corporate power was proliferating and expanding across the globe, inequality was growing, [and] new forms of technology offered both the promise of liberation and the potential for new and dangerous forms of domination.” (Walker-Emig, 2018) Cyberpunk was- and is still- a meta-commentary on current and future social economics. It’s a believable dystopian future that many of us believe is inevitable, where the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.
Akira may not have much to say on the class divide that other works in the genre have, but it speaks numbers about corruption and abuse of power. With examples from government officials, police brutality and even teachers whose one job is to take care of their students all because they hold power over them.
The story ends with a rebirth of sorts- as do most Cyberpunk stories I believe, whether simply in the character or society as a whole- with Tokyo destroyed but the land still stable. “Destruction may lurk in familiar yet fantastic forms, but the construction remains – a gritty, breathing Tokyo, alive with realism, and not going away anytime soon.” (Lee, 2018)
References:
Indigo Gaming. (2019, December 1). Cyberpunk Documentary PART 1 | Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Shadowrun, Akira. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sttm8Q9rOdQ&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0ZOnQmyGabIr8FMiM6Lkz-DBE1
Lee, G. (2018, January 15). Anime beyond Akira: The construction and destruction of cyberpunk Tokyo. Little White Lies. https://lwlies.com/articles/anime-beyond-akira-cyberpunk-tokyo/
Walker-Emig, P. (2020, April 16). Neon and corporate dystopias: Why does cyberpunk refuse to move on? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/oct/16/neon-corporate-dystopias-why-does-cyberpunk-refuse-move-on
There’s no such thing as a positive stereotype. Even the ones that seem harmless or even complimentary, such as all Canadians are kind, Asians are intelligent, women are kinder, etc, can actually support a toxic mindset, and the damage that stereotypes do can sometimes be irreversible.
Personally, I was told at a young age that all Muslims are terrorists (must’ve been around four or five), and it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I learnt that Muslims were actually a part of the Islam religion rather than a terrorist organization. Now, I was lucky that all this information actually came to me at a young age, not quite aware of the impact that 9/11 had nor had any chance to meet someone of the Islam faith attending a Christian school, or I likely would’ve hurt someone terribly.
Hergé promoted the idea that those of colour were less intelligent than white people to an insulting degree. That those who did not follow western customs were uncivilised ‘jungle-folk’ who needed guidance. Whether Hergé intended to do so or not, it likely would’ve grown the racial divide that already exists. To this day, people will say that black people are not smart enough to lead their own lives, that skin colour dictates our intelligence and that is why white people are the superior race.
Stereotypes like these reinforce past conceived notions that those of colour were savages, despite evidence to the contrary. For example, Native Americans were quite advanced in their inventions, so much so that Europeans were in awe and tried to explain away their skill by believing them to be descendants of Phoenician traders. They are credited with the invention of the kayak but they also made syringes made of hollow bird bones, and oral contraceptives that Western practices wouldn’t pick up until the 1960s. In spite of these facts, to this day, people only see Native Americans as those savage Indians Christopher Columbus discovered and aided (he didn’t).
Hergé was certainly a product of his time, while he held no ill will to those around him, his ignorance was his sharpest weapon. Unwilling to accept fault, and only changing for the sake of saving face rather than accepting responsibility.
References:
Kiger, P. J. (2019, November 14). 10 Native American inventions commonly used today. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/native-american-inventions
Mountfort, P. (2011). ‘Yellow skin, Black hair … careful, Tintin’: Hergé and orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.1.1.33_1
Mountfort. (2016). Tintin as spectacle: The Backstory of a popular franchise and late capital. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.1.1.0037
Zawisza, M. (2018, August 28). The terrifying power of stereotypes – and how to deal with them. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/the-terrifying-power-of-stereotypes-and-how-to-deal-with-them-101904
We’re in a new era of LGBT representation. Moving past the stereotypes that used to be the only way to write queer characters; the overtly feminine gay man, the promiscuous bisexual/pansexual/polysexual, or the classic sexually deviant lesbian. Where Triple A video games can have an LGBT cast as their main characters, and not simply NPCs to fulfill quotas. Where Netflix’s revival of ‘The Baby-Sitter’s Club’ can rewrite one of the sitter’s clients as Bailey, and have an entire segment of Mary-Anne calling out the prejudice of the doctors who purposefully misgendered her. The LGBT community is louder than ever, asking for appropriate representation from writers; where they don’t simply die because the writers don’t know how- or worse, don’t want- to write a satisfying end for them.
We’re also in an era of remakes, with companies picking up old stories and modernising them. Disney’s newest projects have been remaking all their old animated movies into live-action, Dreamworks picked up ‘Voltron’- a badly dubbed show from the 80s- and attempted to make the story into something cohesive; horror movies have also been doing this for a while longer, from classics like ‘The Thing’ and ‘Evil Dead,’ to less known horrors like ‘Let Me In’ and ‘The Crazies.’
Other remakes have even revived themselves with LGBT rep in them. As the mentioned above ‘Voltron,’ has a gay man and a non-binary character within the main crew, or ‘She-Ra’ with both protagonist and antagonist as lesbian women- which isn’t even mentioning their entire cast of characters. So, remaking Tintin with either Tintin himself as a part of the LGBT community or with a crew of representation, wouldn’t be too far out of a concept.
The creators of Spongebob have- again- confirmed the title character to be asexual (since, y’know, sea sponges do reproduce asexually). A lovable character created in the 90s confirmed to be within the LGBT community. While this was confirmed back in the early 2000s, the news again made a resurgence when Nickelodeon let out a tweet hinting at his sexuality. I bring this up to show that even an iconic character like Spongebob Squarepants was met with positivity and support.
Reviving Tintin which included LGBT rep will certainly bring in a larger audience as well; while Tintin is widely known, a lot of people haven’t actually seen or read any of Tintin’s adventures. If a new series was to be made and made with new characters for this purpose, Tintin lovers would certainly go view it and it would also attract us LGBT folk who are starved for good representation.
References:
Flood, A., & Cain, S. (2017, September 25). Is Tintin a girl? Philosopher says his theory was ‘fake news’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/25/is-tintin-a-girl-philosopher-says-his-theory-was-fake-news
Gupta, S. (2017, September 23). Tintin is a girl, probably asexual, claims French philosopher. Deccan Chronicle. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/230917/tintin-is-a-girl-probably-asexual-claims-french-philosopher.html
Mountfort, P. (2020). ‘Tintin, gender and desire’. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829
Opie, D. (2020, June 15). SpongeBob Squarepants’ queer identity is more complicated than you think. Retrieved from https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a32866498/spongebob-squarepants-asexual-lgbtq-queer-gay/
Shoujo (romanised as shōjo) literally translates to English as “young woman.” A genre designed to aim itself at the female demographic which, “Unlike boys’ and men’s manga [known as shounen (or shōnen)], which tend to revolve around action or humor, shōjo manga are intensely personal in nature.” (Thorn, 2005.) Shoujo manga and anime usually cover subject genres like romance and slice of life within a realistic setting.
Now the line can be very thin in deciding which genre certain manga and anime fall into, as an example ‘My Hero Academia’ is about a young boy who is born enters a new school with his new “quirk” (which is the world’s term for a superpower). He meets other teens with their own unique quirks as they become a team to protect the innocent people of this world. Versus ‘Beyond the Boundary,’ which follows a high-school boy who is genetically half-demon and his encounters with a girl of a ‘cursed blood’ clan. Together, they battle the demons of their world and their personal problems.
‘My Hero Academia’ falls into the shounen line because the arcs focus more on the action battles and how the characters will escape unscathed. They have strong bonds with each other- focusing big on the strained relationship between Midori Crane and Katsuki Bakugo- and certain episodes will focus on their interactions with one another. However, the big draw in is the action. All of their quirks and how they play into the fights, how the animation will show them in all their glory.
Whereas, ‘Beyond the Boundary’ arcs focus more on the character’s relationships rather than the worldly risks. The biggest being the relationship between Akihito Kanbara and Mirai Kuriyama, and how the two naturally progress into a romantic relationship.
All in all, Shoujo stories are likely those from the romance genre focusing specifically on young love, such as From Me to You (Kimi ni Todoke), Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun), and Saint Tail (Kaitou Saint Tail). Or has a focus on female friendships, like Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium), and A Place Further Than The Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho).
References:
Toku, M. (2005). Shojo manga: Girl power! Chico Statements Magazine. https://web.archive.org/web/20111010233300/www.csuchico.edu/pub/cs/spring_06/feature_03.html
Thorn, R. M. (2001). What are Shoujo manga? The Japan Quarterly. https://web.archive.org/web/20070219032133/matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/japan_quarterly/index.html
Scully, R. (2015). What is Shoujo? SourceFedNERD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-8jpZ2GEOs
Literature was always a privileged male’s field by western standards, anything not by them was less than. As an example, R. M. Ballantyne published ‘The Coral Island’ in 1857, the novel watches three boys who survived a shipwreck and miraculously find their way home. A century later, William Golding turned to his wife, Ann, and said “Wouldn’t it be a good idea if I wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?” (Golding, n.d.) Now, ‘Lord of the Flies’ has always been praised on the way Golding depicted ‘human nature’- it is its biggest selling point- however, critics, lecturers and the like, love to ignore the fact that ‘Lord of the Flies’ only showcases the nature of middle class white boys.
This has been a very convoluted way of saying that literature has now been reclaimed from rich men, and with doing so has expanded storytelling to new heights.
Stories are told in all kinds of ways, with their own themes, context and message; sweeping them under the rug because they are ‘childish’ or foreign is simply ignorant. There have been great stories told outside of high literature that- even today- hold significance. Expanding your readings/research throughout different media develops your thinking, and can enlighten your ways of viewing certain topics.
References:
Carey, J. (2009). William Golding: The Man who Wrote Lord of the Flies. London, England: Faber & Faber.
Pop Genres 2020 