Ilana Lemack Flash Fiction: Secret Life of Vampires

      The company Christmas party was intended to be a casual gathering among co-workers, an annual party to celebrate the success of the 2014 business year. Occasionally things that are out of the ordinary occur at these parties, but no one expected for it to turn out the way it did. Who would have thought that the Saks Fifth Avenue sales team had an infestation of vampires?
      Rose (not a vampire) had spent months planning for her first holiday party as a Saks employee. She had taken on the many roles of finding a venue, caterer, and coming up with games for the night. When the evening of the party finally arrived, Rose got dressed in her favorite pink heels and arrived at the venue 2 hours prior to the start of the party. At 7pm the company arrived and the festivities began, however rather than feasting on a glass of egg nog, Stefan and Damon were more interested in satisfying their thirst with a glass of blood.
      The task of finding a victim. feeding on that victim, and making sure that victim doesn't tell other potential victims may seem hard to the ordinary human, but not to a vampire that has the ability to compel away memories. Stefan and Damon had been immortal for over 2 centuries and had never run into any complications concerning their ability to feed on blood and then immediately compel away the memories of the victim.
      Damon and Stefan approached the secretary, Caroline, eager to start the night with a helping of warm, secretary blood. At first, the two vampires sweet talked her, praising her abilities to answer phone calls all day without losing her mind. After several minutes of small talk, Damon looked Caroline straight in the eyes and simple simply told her to follow him into the bathroom. She obeyed, of course, and two hungry vampires and one hopeless secretary walked into the bathroom.
      Several minutes later Caroline emerged from the men's bathroom with blood stains covering her white dress and bite marks on either side of her neck. It didn't take long for several company members to question Caroline on her condition, but all she has to say in response to her concerned friends was that she didn't remember what happened.
      The remainder of the night consisted of worried looks and cautious behavior. Damon and Stefan, however, weren't bothered because they knew that nothing would happen to them considering their victims could never remember what happened. For their second course, Damon and Stefan decided on Rose as their victim. They approached her and glorified her work on the glamorous Christmas party she planned and commented on how beautiful she looked in her black dress and pink pumps.
    Without the need for compulsion, Rose followed Damon and Stefan into the back room of the restaurant and the men enjoyed their dessert. When they were done, Stefan looked straight into Rose's eyes ready to compel away her memories. He told her to forget everything she had just seen and go back to enjoying the party. To Stefan and Damon's surprise (considering after 200 years this had never happened to them), Rose responded with a horrified, "NO" and ran back into the party screaming, "VAMPIRES!"

Business Shoes 

                                                                       Valerie Coahuilas

Nice to eat you, anyways (it's a Gavin DeGraw reference)

    What first caught my eye in this chapter was the last line in the first paragraph, "Still, it is equally true that just as cigars may be just cigars, so sometimes they are not." This reminds me of the  the "Ceci n' est pas une pipe" artwork (a painted pipe with that phrase underneath the picture). I know about this piece of art because it is referenced in The Fault in our Stars. This is significant in this specific work because although there is a painting of a pipe, it is not an actual pipe, meaning while something might seem one way at first glance, there is more than likely a more in depth meaning.
    Props to Foster for using that as his intro paragraph because he then goes right into talking about how food in books/movies is rarely ever just food. He says, "Whenever people eat or drink together, it is communion" This statement is true not in just novels, but in life (as Foster says). Think about the times when a large group of people get together...Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and even funerals. These are situations in which people are making peace. How many times do you sit down to break bread with your enemy? For me personally, eating with someone is an action you only do (or like to do) with people that you are comfortable with. When I meet new people I am very self conscious of how/what I eat and I think that is why eating/drinking is an act to do with familiar faces.
    What I have found is that it is far more common to see a meal scene in a movie than it is to read one in a book. However, when an author does include a meal scene in a novel it is for a reason. No one eats just to eat (contrary to popular belief). Since I already talked about The Fault in our Stars once already, I will do it again. There is a specific meal scene between Hazel and Augustus that occurs in Amsterdam. It probably is true that John Green included this scene just to name some fancy Dutch foods, but there is also another reason. This is the very scene where Augustus professes his love for Hazel, but it is also the very scene in which the title of the book comes into play. (I hope you've read this book or at least seen the movie or else you're going to be very confused). That is exactly why a drinking scene was incorporated into this book. Because while they are drinking champagne Hazel mentions that she is tasting the stars. On a side note (relating to the Shakespeare chapter), this book's title is obviously inspired by Julius Caesar's "The fault my dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."
     So, what I learned from this chapter is that whenever you are reading/ watching a scene involving food, pay very close attention because something important is about to happen. I think eating together can be a metaphor for getting closer, but it can also mean leaning on each other...for example in case of death. What is always true, however, is that food is never eaten just for fun.

Old friends/themes in new places- "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?"

        Am I the only one that thinks every Nicholas Sparks novel is the same story with a different setting and character names? And how many parodies have you seen of John Hughes's, "The Breakfast Club" or "Sixteen Candles"? Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of a classic love story or camaraderie amongst outcast teens, but how many times do you have to see a movie or read a novel before you can make the connections? As Foster mentioned the "connect the dots" analogy, are you someone that can see the picture before you connect the dots or do you have to wait until the dots are already connected? How many times do the common themes and characters have to appear for the reader to clearly distinguish that the author is referencing (either purposely or accidentally) another storyline?
       In the 10th grade, I spent a great deal of time learning about archetypes and how they are used in literally everything you can read/watch. Archetypes such as "The Hero" or "The Scapegoat" take on roles that are constant every time they are used. I think this is a reason why all literature looks similar, or as Foster would say, why literature grows from other literature. Because each specific archetype has the same (or similar) role in whatever situation they are used, it is common that the novels in which they are used in look familiar.  Fosters says that "there's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature" and that is precisely because of the stereotypical roles that each individual archetype is attached to.
     Sometimes I think that authors/movie producers (I consider them to have the same job) purposely pull in details to enhance their movies. Nicholas Sparks is very well aware of the fact "A Walk to Remember" was a fan favorite. A classic love story gets everyone. Therefore, I think that he used a common theme for his novels several years later such as "The Notebook", "Dear John", and "Safe Haven". If you look at the cover picture they are all of the same thing, a boy and a girl hugging/kissing/cuddling. Same goes for "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles". Everyone knows that those two movies are probably two of the most popular movies...ever. The storyline is so recognizable that other authors/movie producers know that using that storyline is a sure hit. They are well aware of their using of prior texts, they are doing so consciously and purposely.
      While much of the time the author's use of previous text is intentional, (hoping that the reader will automatically realize the common grounds) there are times (as mentioned by Foster) that authors are using common themes with hopes that the reader will make the connection unconsciously. Although I have not read "Going After Cacciato" I do understand how O'Brien wanted the main character, Sarkin Aung Wan to resemble Sacajawea. I think that using a real life example to base a character off of is a sure way to make the reader make the connection, whether that is on purpose or on accident.
     So, what I learned from this chapter is that there is a lot of "coping" in literature. However, who is the author really copying? Old friends (characters/themes) appear in new places (novels/movies) and each time they seem to capture the reader's attention.

Ya see what I mean?>>>

The Quest to find the Quest; Chapter 1- Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It's Not) Ilana Lemack

     In this first chapter of the novel, Foster is simply explaining that event in movies or books or plays do not just happen for the heck of it, but rather because it is a part of something greater, a Quest. Quests are seen commonly in literature and while they all may have different ways of showing how the quest progresses, they all have the following components: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there.
    The quester is typically a young boy or girl and more times than not, is unaware that he/she even started on a quest. The quester is sent to go to a particular location (a place to go) usually to retrieve something or someone (a stated reason to go there), however frequently never makes it to the place they intended to go. It eventually becomes clear that the real reason for the quest is self-knowledge. Along the way the quester endures difficult tasks that they must overcome (challenges and trials en route) to ultimately discover new things about themselves (real reason to go there). The quester is normally a young age because the majority of self-knowledge and self-learning take place at around sixteen or seventeen. A naive teenage is likely to discover a lot more about themselves than if an adult were to go on a quest.
      Although the above characteristics may be true the majority of the time (a young quester or the quester not making it to the intended location), it is not appropriate to say that they are always true. Foster says " 'Always' and 'never' are not words that have much meaning in literary study." I agree in the sense that any theory that a person has or any statement a person makes can be proven wrong. There will always be an instance where a widely known belief or pattern can be proven wrong. For example, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he made the statement that the earth was flat. (I'm guessing) he probably said that it had always been flat and therefore will always be flat. However, someone was there to prove him wrong and it was scientifically discovered that Earth is, in fact, round.
     Now that I've described what the traditional quest looks like, it's only fair that I give an example, right? I hope we've all seen The Parent Trap (Lindsay Lohan version of course). There are 2 questers in this movie; 11 year old twins, Annie James and Halle Parker who were separated at birth. While one twin lives in London with the mother, Elizabeth, the other twin lives in Napa Valley, California with the dad, Nick. Both twins were sent to the same sumer camp where they met for the first time. Because they are identical, they decided to switch places. Halle went to London and Annie to California. While on separate sides of the world they both come into several difficult tasks. For instance, Halle's dad is getting remarried (to Cruela Devil) which completely ruins the twins' plan to reunite their parents. Although the twins' said reason to split up at the end of summer camp is to reunite their parents, along the way they realize the relationship they missed out on with either their mom or dad. Once the truth comes out and Elizabeth realizes his daughter is in London, a meeting to switch them back is arranged. Although it is necessary to switch Annie and Halle back, they became closer to their parents and each other in the short time they were switched. It ends happy though because Nick's fiance turns out to be a brat and Nick and Elizabeth get married again. The point is, even though the intended reason for the quest was to reunite their parents, the true reason turned out to be becoming closer as sisters and finding out new things about not only themselves, but the life that they missed out on on opposite sides of the world.
     Basically, quests are everywhere and Foster makes them easily identifiable by listing out the characteristics. Once you know what you're looking for, identifying a quest won't be so much of a quest.