I'm open-minded about this (like a Yes Man!)

Hi everyone, I'm Mary Hagerman, the Advertising and Graphic Design major of our group! I haven't been acquainted with everyone yet, since I was stranded at the Toyota place getting my car serviced as this class was starting last week. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in class today. I wouldn't say that Horror is my favorite branch of the Fantastic, but I have definitely been a fan of fantasy for most of my life. I think it started with my mom and brother being avid Star Wars fans and then in middle and high school I branched off to Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings among others. Most recently I have read all the Twilight books and am obsessed with the Vampire Diaries show. I'm usually the one you have to drag to horror movies, but there have been a few that I've actually enjoyed. Growing up, I did enjoy reading scary books like Goosebumps and I owned a few books of horror short stories. I also admit that my favorite stories that I have read in English literature include Frankenstein and Beowulf, so the interest is definitely there! The readings for this class are not what I would normally choose for pleasure reading these days, but I'm excited about reading something different and discussing them with you all!

I agree that Clute's four-part model applies to genres other than Horror. My current favorite movie, Yes Man! is the opposite of horror, yet I think it can also fit this model.

1. Sighting: The beginning of the movie shows us the miserable life or Carl Allen. He is recently divorced, hates his job and he is so depressed that he won’t go out and he barely knows his best friend’s fiancé. The sighting occurs during his lunch break one day when Carl runs into an old friend, who tells him of a program that has turned his life around. He gives Carl a brochure and encourages him to come to the next conference.

2. Thickening: Carl goes to the conference and makes a “covenant” to become a Yes Man. He must say yes to everything. This gets him into several seemingly sticky situations, but good things result from them. He meets many interesting people, including a girlfriend Allison, takes language and guitar classes, and has many other interesting experiences he would not have had otherwise.

3. Revel: After Carl takes Allison on a spontaneous trip to Nebraska, they are stopped in the airport by the FBI, who question him about his “suspicious” activity. They wonder why he knows Korean, took flying lessons, and took a last minute trip to Nebraska. His best friend and lawyer comes to explain about the program that requires him to say yes to everything. After hearing this, Allison is angry that he follows this program and feels that she cannot trust him anymore, since he says yes without thinking.

4. Aftermath: Carl finds Terrence, the author of the program to get him to remove the “covenant”. He finds out that there is no covenant and saying yes to everything is supposed to open him up to things and then he can make educated decisions once he is more open. Carl hops on a motorcycle to find Allison. They talk and he convinces her to take him back.