RWatson Lit. of Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

Asian horror presents itself in many ways very similarly and very differently than western horror does. They both share many tropes. They both have their own canons of monsters that seem to wish ill upon the human characters of the stories they’re presented in, and they come in a variety of seemingly supernatural forms. The monsters are even repelled by similar conventions, such as religious prayer and iconography. As the vampire is repelled by the sign of the cross, so too does religious scripture keep one hidden from ghosts in eastern horror. They even are occasionally very specific in their comparisons, such as some creatures being marked as such with a physical symbol to show their difference from humanity. The primary difference between the two is one of philosophy. Eastern philosophy has always been noticeably different from western philosophy, which is always preoccupied with explanation and categorization, by acknowledging the possibility that things can simply be, without...

Throughout “Interview with a Vampire”, the strongest dichotomy that I saw was that of man’s primal, animal nature versus his greater conscience, and which of the two serves as more important. Every character struggles with these opposing forces in some way, and there is no clearer divide between the two than the differences between the protagonist and the antagonist of the book, Louis and Lestat. Louis is very conscious of his human nature. Louis eats only animals for most of his ‘early’ vampire years, almost having fainted as Lestat tried to set him up for his first kill. Lestat, in contrast, loves the thrill of hunting humans, or seducing them, befriending them, getting them to love him, all before committing an ultimate betrayal, and reveling in the sadistic nature of his actions. Lestat is, in outward appearances, a primal version of man. This version of man is driven by simple things, a desire to eat, a desire to look wealthy and garner social status, and a desire to complete...