Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, November 13, 1850 to Margaret and Thomas Stevenson. With the goal of following his father in the family business of Lighthouse design, Stevenson went to University to study engineering. With his interest not being peaked he then wen tin to law and his love for adventure began to blossom. He traveled to France and was surrounded by young artists including writers and painters. From this, he gained the realization that writing was his true calling but he did finish law school in 1875. By 1878, he started publishing his volume of work, some include "An Inland Voyage"and "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes" which is a continuation of the first story. Stevenson's stories helped introduce the United Kingdom to the world of short story, which was dominated by Russians, Americans and the French. He not only wrote fiction but non fiction along his travels and throughout his life. His pieces became stronger and helped solidify his fame after he was writing more mature works after traveling to the islands with his family and settling there. His imagination was stimulated and his work was depicted by the life he lived in the Pacific isles, for example, "Island Nights' Entertainments"(1893). Robert died of a stroke on December 3, 1984 in his home in Samoa and was buried at the top of Mount Vaea, overlooking the sea.

His famous piece that was an immediate success and helped cement his reputation was "Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde". This is one of my favorites it combines the works of horror and Romantic stories. The persona changing potion, murders, and final suicide represents the horror while science vs nature theme comes into play as well. The story is about a man who transforms between two people, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde but John Utterson, a lawyer and friend of Jekyll becomes curious as to why strange things keep going on and why Mr. Hyde is so cruel to blackmail Dr. Jekyll.

Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was the daughter of the early feminist and author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"(1792), Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, who won a place in "literary history" for his novel "Caleb Williams"(1794). Her mother died not even a month after Mary was born due to complications giving birth. Her father remarried and his new wife brought her kids so Mary felt defensive and was almost competing with them for her father's affection. Threatened by the amount of attention Mary was receiving, her stepmother sent her to Scotland supposedly for her "health". This isolated her even more from her father but all the while enhanced her literary imagination as she tells in the 1831 preface of the Standard Novels edition of "Frankenstein". Mary married Percy Shelley who continuously encouraged her to write. When writing Frankenstein, many versions are told but never the same exact way. The Shelley's and Mary's stepsister left for Geneva to meet George Gordon and that's where she began to write "Frankenstein" which actually started off as a short story. Mary was surrounded by a lot of death at one point in her life, with continuous miscarriages and her children dying.

Frankenstein itself is a symbolization of Mary's "new life" in literature, Shelley included direct quotes and references from her older poems and works and has the new text acting as a composite with "new life" same way Frankenstein was created.

Grimm Brothers

Jacob and Wihelm Grimm, the two eldest brothers of six were born in Hanau, Germany, to Dorothea and Philipp Grimm. They both studied law at the University of Marburg from 1802 to 1806 following their fathers footsteps. They were influenced by German Romanticism and studied the folklore in their region and they emphasized recording village oral storytelling, which was vanishing with the new technology. They came up with a collection of "Kinder-und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales), the first volume was published in 1812 and the second volume in 1815. These collections soon became known as "Grimms' Fairy Tales". These stories were not originally culminated by the Grimm brothers and actually was information shared by friends, family members and acquaintances. For example, Charles Perrault had written a version of "The Sleeping Beauty", known as Briar Rose in the brothers collection. The brothers settled in Berlin and became members of the Royal Academy of Science and lectured.

The Grimms' Fairy Tales was a collection of passed down stories that were not intended for children due to the type of content it included. These stories have helped build and shape the brothers legacy and have been retold and flipped to better suit children. Almost all of these stories have become movies whether it was detailing it in its original form or with a twist. The stories consistently included sex, violence, incest. For example, Rapunzel gets pregnant by the prince and the witch chops her hair off and sends her off to the wilderness. She then lures the prince back to the tower using Rapunzel's locks and pushes him into thorns making him lose his eyesight.

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, and critic, born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, known for his famous Gothic works. In his early life, Poe had no family; his father left, his mother passed when he was 3 and was separated from his siblings to live with John and Frances Allan, in Richmond, VA. At the age of 13, Poe was a "prolific poet" but was discouraged to continue by his headmaster and John. John and Poe didn't have the best relationship and John wasn't sending him enough money to cover the costs of college, which led Poe into gambling and soon in debt. As if his life wasn't going enough down hill, he came home to his fiancee engaged to someone else and moved to Boston. Around the time he published his first book Tamerlane and Other Poems he also joined the U.S. Army and John Allan was dying the same way his mother did, tuberculosis. He then attended West Point still living in poverty and when John Allan finally died he left no money to Poe. He started publishing more short stories and grew an interest with his younger cousin Virginia, and they got married. He was suffering from poor health and was still struggling financially and his death is still a mystery. After his death he was labeled as a womanizer and a drunk by his own literary adversary Rufus Griswold.

The Raven was one of his most popular pieces who main themes included undying devotion. A young man is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore and is trying to get over it through his studies but is brought back to his sorrow when a talking raven keeps repeating "nevermore" which is the painful reminder that he would never be rekindled with his Lenore.

The Cask of Amontillado  one of my favorite short stories that made me way more interested in Gothic literature. This story details of so much irony and revenge and death and misfortune. A man named Montresor decides to seek revenge against a man ironically named Fortunato who is wearing a fool's outfit the whole time. He meets Fortunato and is luring him down to where he plans to bury him alive.

The Tell-Tale Heart also one of my favorites from Poe, due to the fact that I love watching Snapped and all those murder shows. In this work, a nameless person tells the story of his murder but rather pleading insane he says he has a disease and further more explain with his story of his murder. He hated an old man's pale blue eye and decided to kill him over it. He kept sneaking into his room at night with a lantern in hopes the old man would wake to be executed. He waited up until the eighth night, when the old man finally opened his eyes and screamed, the narrator took him off the bed and puts the bed on him until he cant breathe. It was his disease of sensitive senses that made him get caught when cops came.

Gothic Literature

The term "Gothic" originated from the group of architects who made their designs with intricate shapes and complex patterns, called Goths. This form of design then became a sort of platform for the medieval times and then further expanded to becoming a "backdrop" for the psychological and physical settings for a new literary time periods. The type of literary style portrayed mystery, suspense, decay, ruin, terror,death, privileged irrationality, passion over rationality and reason and even superstition.
 The Gothic Period was roughly through the year of 1764-1840, which was ending around the same time Romanticism was starting. Horace Walpole was credited for being the first to introduce a Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, setting the elements that to this day are taken up by authors and flipped into their own. This story details a medieval castle with labyrinthine passages, haunted portraits, the ancient curse that is brought into the present, the innocent maiden pursued by a old nobleman. The themes include how people aren't who they seem to be it gives you a mood of ongoing fear and anxiety and imprisonment and isolation. The key elements you would usually find in Gothic fiction is Atmoshpere, Clergy, The Paranormal, Melodrama, Omens, Setting, Virginal Maiden in Distress(with exemptions).
People tend to mistake Horror and Goth for each other when in fact, there is a major difference in the two ways of literature even though Gothic includes some factors of Horror. There is a video of  Neil Gaiman's view on Horror versus Gothic that is pretty popular in which the author describes what he believes is the difference between the two. He says the biggest contrast is the mood. Horror aims to scare you, and attack your preconceptions; meanwhile the mood for Goth is more ominous and moving very slowly with anticipation.

Fun Facts

As a person with versatile personality traits my interests are very wide. I have always loved music and I am honestly open to listen to anything as long as it peaks my interests. Getting further into music, I play the viola and have been playing for about 11 years, I have the strangest passion for Classical, Jazz and Blues music style but I love playing it more. As I stated in my "Being a Gemini" post I tend to play when I am stressed or just in the mood and either make songs or redo my favorite songs.

I am one of those people who are always on their phone but hardly ever answer it. I have a strange addiction to watching tutorials and DIY's on any and everything. My favorite would be hair tutorials and like cool little inventions people make out of simple things. I also tend to watch food tutorials and those Asian people who make miniature food with miniature plates and pots. Or like watching the hot knife cut through dumb stuff and read the dumb comments about how it's "so satisfying". *rolls eyes*. I also watch make up and nail tutorials even though I don't ever wear it or get anything other than my toes and eyebrows done. Videos of mini food

I am the biggest fan of rainy weather and actual water in general, if I had it my way I would be a mermaid or a dolphin my favorite animal and just swim and chill in water all day. Not the ocean though I am deathly afraid of the ocean and the mystery of it.
 Pictures of why I am scared of the ocean

If I wasn't so hooked on being a Pathologist, I would pursue a writing career and probably write books under an anonymous name. As a child, I always had a passion for writing and was told I write quite well and that my reading was in the top percentile. I used to write little novels about my dreams that I would have combined with the movies I watched. My stories would always have an ending you wouldn't expect either a child or a girl to write, they never had a happy ending or ended the way you would think so. I was always fond of realistic and pessimistic just because I knew how the real life world worked.

Being a Gemini..

As a proud Gemini, I completely follow the astrological sayings and quotes because I find that somehow it always is accurate. Except for the yearly ones or monthly's I get a little skeptical, but the compatibility and ways of a certain sign I completely believe. There is truly two sides to me, I am either happy and friendly, socializing with everyone or I am quiet and conservative, analyzing everyone. Having these two moods, really portrays through my strange interests and I realize when my mood changes everything does as well.

When I am feeling like quiet and conservative, I find myself watching murder documentaries or remakes of serial killer movies, for example Snapped, Too Young To Kill, Monster or my favorite Dahmer. I can watch these type of shows and movies for hours and be intrigued and imagine myself being part of the forensic teams or trying to solve the murders before the show reveals everything. Also when I am feeling that way I tend to read more or listen to slower songs or even classical music. But the thing I enjoy to do the most is play my viola and make songs based off my mood or remake the songs I listen to.

When I am feeling bubbly and social, I find myself rarely indoors, I would be outside with my speaker and laptop jamming out or watching cartoons just enjoying nature and everything that comes with it. My favorite thing to watch is Fairly Odd Parents, Rick & Morty, and Teen Titans. I would be outside for hours just how I would as a child and make my own fun or invite friends over and chill with them. I make jokes, I am active on social media, I am active physically, I would be able to talk and have a great time for how ever long my mood lasts.

My Future

Ever since I was younger I always had my mindset on being one profession and one profession ONLY. That was to be a Forensic Pathologist. The only thing unrealistic was that I wanted to be the top one in Australia by day and later on in the night I wanted to be a dance teacher or back up dancer for a music performer. I never was actually in a professional dance class growing up but YouTube.com definitely helped me develop techniques and become a pretty good dancer. Being so little with those type of dreams and everyone wanting to be a singer, a princess, or even a transformer, I always felt mine was more realistic and that if I was serious I should start focusing now. When I would speak on my future and work on little experiments with my forensic kits, everyone would look at me impressed but then turn to my mom and say "Oh shes going to change her mind soon, I wouldn't bother spending all this money on stuff now". I would always hear what they say and some times it would annoy me but it just  made me want to do it even more, not only for myself but to prove everyone wrong.

A Forensic Pathologist performs similar work of a Medical Examiner, the difference is that Medical Examiners are medically qualified public officers who investigates suspicious deaths, they either perform the autopsy or order one. On the other hand, a Forensic Pathologist is a MD, who performs the autopsies for legal reasons during the investigation of a crime, they examine and analyze injuries/organs to determine cause of death. Some pathologists are even called upon in court to speak on their findings. 

With having this dream, I realized I can't work in any of the places I frequent due to the simple fact that if someone I know is presented to me at work I wouldn't be able to handle it. So my new goal to replace Australia is Texas, I love hot weather, it's affordable and I don't know a soul out there.

Childhood Adventures

As a child, I always found myself -well rather my mom found ME-, outside doing something ridiculous and letting my imagination roam free. I would be outside from the time I woke up to waking back up in my brothers and uncles arms, coming back inside. As a child, I realized I was always traveling to different areas and places mostly because it was free or really cheap for children.

 I have gone to Dominican Republic to visit family and was able to be part of dance shows which was my greatest passion other than sports and adventures. I performed as a lion and a hula dancer in a cultural dance piece with my cousin and brother. Dominican Republic brought me so much adventure with all the open land and beaches everywhere. Around where my uncle lives, we would sneak out and explore the country, I was always encouraging my cousin and brother to go everywhere and try climbing the palm trees or traveling off into parks.

Other than Dominican Republic, I would always go back home to Niagara Falls and visit my family and old friends over there as well. Being over there it was such a small town so everyone knew everyone, which either meant everyone knows you're not supposed to be out and runs back to your parents or everyone will watch out for you while you're out playing. I would call up my friends and cousins we would go to theme parks and recreation and just be there exploring all day.

 Another place I frequented as a child was Florida, my uncle bought a house out near Miramar, we would always and still do go there and stay at the house while going to visit family, which I couldn't stand and going to Disneyland or other theme parks. I always found friends when I went but preferred to stick with my family.

Get to know me

My name is Naia Gabrielle Lewis, pronounced ni-yuh, I am 18 years old turning 19 June 6, 2017. My favorite color is sky blue but my favorite colors to wear are black and grey. I am from Haitian and Dominican descent but I was born in Niagara Falls on the border of Canada and United States. Niagara Falls is a very small town with high trafficking due to the tourists coming to see the falls and people crossing through the border. I only lived there for a few years before coming to my current residence in Uniondale, NY. Uniondale is a town where you have to make it beneficial for yourself and be surrounded by good people to have a good time. The town doesn't really have a lot of places to go to hang out other than parks, my friends or family and I usually travel to the next towns to see movies or bowl and actually go somewhere and have fun. I find myself always intrigued by sports and adventure ever since I was younger.

Playing sports and making my own adventures was and continues to remain my way of coping with stress and keeping myself entertained. Some sports I have indulged my time and talent into is soccer for seven years, volleyball and softball from middle school up to now, badminton, bowling and basketball as a time consumer. I found myself very fond of volleyball and softball and because of those sports I had the opportunity to travel and meet wonderful new people.

I have had multiple pets when I was younger, my first pet was a Dwarf Hamster named Phillip Edward Squeaker Lewis Georges (I am very dramatic), my first love he was my best friend and so smart, we would take naps together, eat fries together even terrorize my mom together, but one day he died in my hands right before I left for school from disease. After Phillip my mom got me a teddy bear hamster to switch it up, we named him Theodore and he absolutely hated me every time I would walk by he'd follow me or hiss when I called his name and when he went to pee he would prop his legs up and pee on the glass cage. We had to return Theodore because I thought he was plotting on me and we got a guinea pig named Cookie Dough because of his fur. Cookie Dough and I had a relationship like me and Phillip until he died of heart disease. After that my mom and I decided to stray away from rodents and got a cat named Leo, he's currently alive and our bond grows closer everyday.