Vooooooooooooodooooooooooooooooooooo

Butler, Camron

First off, I wanna begin with there is no such thing as "black" voodoo. Unless you're referring to cultures that have really taken it in. But we've associated black magic with voodoo in class before and as it turns out these two are distinctly different in some ways. Voodoo is a religion while black magic is something you either can or can't do, there is no practicing what you can't do. Black magic and voodoo have some effects in common, for example, they can both be used to curse people or contact spirits. However contacting spirits is someplace they are fundamentally different. Voodoo rituals are used to contact spirits when the gate to hell is open (night) and the rituals are supposed to gain their favor, perhaps with a sacrifice, so they will help out the person performing them (these spirits can also be gods). Night is when the gate to hell is open and the spirits can roam to earth for whatever purpose. Harnessing this is referred to as "nocturnal energy". Black magic users however, don't need nocturnal energy (however they do practice ritualistic worship of nocturnal spirits), instead, it is often found that they perform their magic at night because for 1 people are asleep and unable to defend themselves from the magic, and 2. because the nocturnal energy can increase the power of their spells.

Voodoo and black magic also have very different histories. Voodoo originated in west Africa and was brought to Haiti where it is still commonly practiced today. Voodoo is also a combination of different religious aspects from slaves brought from different places in Africa and the native Haitian population. But black magic is much older dating back before the Renaissance. Black magic has its roots in Europe where just as the slaves did. Practitioners had to hide black magic for fear of being executed. Eventually as the slaves disguised voodoo as harmless dance parties, black magic users called it nature magic to avoid prosecution.

So both black magic and Voodoo can heavily involve spirits and both can harness nocturnal power. But they have very different purposes, intentions, and histories.

(btw the only difference between white magic and black magic is what is needed to perform rituals and spells as well as intentions of said rituals or spells.)

Meta-fiction all day erry day

Butler, Camron

I don't know how much we discussed meta-fiction in class before ragtime and I don't think we covered how prevalent it really is in today's American culture. I believe it was alluded to that we're exposed to it much more that we think we are so we still find it rather daunting to think about. But if you've seen any parody movie ever, you've already got a heavy dose of meta-fiction. I'm sure it's self-explanatory how a parody works but here's an example anyway. Stan Hellsing is a horror movie about a man named Stan who gets stranded in a ghost town with his token friends. Stan is an average while male who's name is a parody of the famous vampire hunter Van Helsing. In his quest he has to confront some of the best known monsters in popular horror films; Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Pinhead, Leatherface, and Chucky, that stupid doll anyone could punt out of the room. And what makes the movie funny is that it throws away all horror movie conventions and just makes fun of the villains. Chucky for example, does, literally get punted out the window, and eaten by a dog the cast ran over earlier (the creepy owner turned it into a zombie or something).

Our cartoons are often meta, a lot of video games are very meta whether they interact with the player, via talking or the grab a HUD element and use it for something, or say grab the camera you're viewing from and mess with it. Additionally, our comic books are often meta, a lot of live action shows can be meta-fictional, as well as the obvious books and movies. If you think about it, even history can at times be considered meta-fictional. Well I don't know about the fictional aspect here but at least meta. I'm sure there have been plenty of times where important historical figures are aware that they are going to have an impact on the future and for the sake of the stories that will later be told do certain things to help their stories.

It's hard to judge how much I've written on blogger but I don't think I really have anymore to say. Just know meta-fiction is all around us (especially the freaking advertisements (they keep pointing at me)). And know that meta-fiction can open up all sorts of new possibilities that aren't things like denying the holocaust but new ways to move forward with plot, enter comedy, give filler, and so much more.