literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Breaking The Audience
Breaking The Audience: Methods of Fear Elicitation in Stephen King’s The Shining By Brittany Nunez Abstract: This article analyzes Stephen King’s novel The Shining (1977) using a psychological and formalistic approach. Focus is placed on King’s methods of elicitation of fear in readers, which are argued to be (1) use of narrative elements such as setting, point of view, character, plot, and style in combination with prior successful writing styles by King to make readers feel empathy for the characters and their relatable problems; (2) exploitation of the vulnerable emotional state of the empathetic reader to induce a feeling of dread through specific phobias; (3) grasping at the insecurities of readers and implanting the fear of judgment by those whose opinions have significant meaning to them; and (4) capturing of multiple subgenres of horror to ensure fear is evoked from all readers based on their preferred form of horror. Several examples of narrative elements are provided with relevance to highly relatable themes. Stephen King’s On Writing is used to emphasize how his previously successful writing techniques are used in The Shining. Conclusions from an experiment on induced fear from “Relating Experimentally-Induced Fear to Pre-Existing Phobic Fear in the Human Brain” (Levine et al.) are used to prove the ability to create new forms of fear during heightened vulnerability with an explanation of specific phobias from the text. “From Big Sticks to Talking Sticks” (Davenport) is cited for its analysis of Jack Torrance with relevance to how King wrote this character to tear into the readers’ self-image. Horror is broken down into subcategories as defined in “The Genre of Horror” (Prohaszkova) and these are proven to each be present in The Shining, ensuring a scare from all horror enthusiasts.
By Brittany Nunez4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Talking it Over" by Julian Barnes
As you probably already know, Julian Barnes is one of my all-time favourite writers. He has written many books that I have read, enjoyed, reviewed and even studied, including but probably not limited to: Pulse, The Sense of an Ending, Arthur and George, Flaubert's Parrot, The Lemon Table, The Noise of Time, Metroland, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Cross Channel and, possibly my favourite by him, The Man in the Red Coat. This review is about one book I particularly enjoyed called Talking it Over - with all the major themes that signs it off as a Julian Barnes novel, I cannot for the life of me believe how I have not read this one in the past. But I am still glad I found it.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom" by John Boyne
Now, it's been a very long time since I have read anything by John Boyne and really, I have missed him a lot. A very long time ago, I read This House is Haunted and even longer before that I read the all-important The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I knew he wrote other books but after checking the blurb of The Heart's Invisible Furies I was kind of put off seeing that he was writing soppy romance-based stuff now. Recently, I decided to put that aside and check out a book called The Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom and now, I'm stuck because I think that this is possibly one of the best books I've read this year and yet, there are some points that I am really not getting about it. I am stuck on a very divisive fence.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the most prestigious awards in fiction writing and honestly, there have been some amazing winners in the past including: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and a whole bunch of others. Now that I've mentioned these alone, you can kind of see a common theme of emotional depth of character, intense descriptions and atmospheres, simplistic plots that overwhelm and intensify as the book goes on. That's all well and good and possibly some of the criteria for winning the award. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I understand entirely how The Goldfinch was chosen to stand next to these. With hardly any character development and clichés at every corner, The Goldfinch proves that its prose is a good start that turns into a bunch of washy nonsense as the book goes on.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Nocturnes" by Kazuo Ishiguro
There is no doubt about the fact that Kazuo Ishiguro is possibly one of the greatest writers of the 20th/21st centuries and that he has contributed to the evolution of modern literature in countless ways with his magnum opus Remains of the Day which has since become a classic British Novel and his book of dystopia, Never Let Me Go. He has also written some absolutely incredible books, some I have read more recently than others including, but not limited to: A Pale View of the Hills, The Unconsoled and, the intensely beautiful An Artist of the Floating World. Kazuo Ishiguro returned to the awe-inspiring emotionla dystopia he had created in Never Let Me Go to write his latest novel, Klara and the Sun which, in my opinion, was absolutely brilliant. I simply cannot wait to see what the Nobel Prize for Literature winner does next. But for now, this review is about his book: Nocturnes.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
10 Books You Need to Read Right Now.
10. It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1934). Originally written in the early half of the twentieth century. Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here returned to the spotlight in 2016, with the novel selling twice as many as it did when it was first published.
By Rosie J. Sargent4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" by Julian Barnes
As you probably know already, Julian Barnes is one of my favourite authors ever. My favourite book by him was Arthur and George before his epic The Man in the Red Coat came out and then, that was my favourite. Julian Barnes has a very particular way of writing, with a strange sense of humour, a brave social critique and often characters who are going through the depths of emotional or existential turmoil, even Julian Barnes' short stories have and intense impact on the soul. The most recent Julian Barnes book I have read was called The Lemon Table and it was a book of short sotries. It was absolutely fantastic. Now that I'm engaging in more of his short stories - I can honestly say that this man can pretty much write anything well.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Finkler Question" by Howard Jacobson
It's been many years since I read a book by Howard Jacobson, well - about six years really. I read his book Shylock Is My Name when it first came out in 2016 and I remember being absolutely engrossed in it from start to finish. I cannot imagine why I did not pick up another book by him until now, in 2022. The Finkler Question is a really heartfelt novel that kind of reminds me of things written by Julian Barnes. It's got such an incredible amount of emotion between the characters and, from start to finish, is an achievement of character development, identity discovery and a larger critique on human natures of desire, love and death.
By Annie Kapur4 years ago in Geeks
Bilbo's Mithril in US$
Did anyone else out there watch Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring and wonder, “Wow that Mithril Armor just saved Frodo’s life. I want one of those! How rare is that really? How much would something like that really cost?” If so, you’re in the right place.
By Mackenzie Tittle4 years ago in Geeks
Twelfth Night
The play tells the story of a brother and his twin sister, Sebastian and Viola, who are so similar to each other that if they wear the same clothes, no one can separate them. Only a few passengers were among them Viola, who searched for her brother but did not find him, so she thought that he was dead and began to weep for the loss of her brother.
By Phil Foden4 years ago in Geeks
