I Am Number Four

So some people made fun of me when I said I wanted to see this movie (namely my 14 year old stepbrother), but it turned out to be really good and a little applicable to this class. Of course, it was a fantasy movie about...wait for it....ALIENS. The trailer explained almost nothing so I'm going to leave that for you all as well and not give anything away. It just brought up thoughts regarding this class. Our theme is the dark fantastic. We focus on the creepy, supernatural, etc. Now, watching this movie made me realize that in books in movies there always has to be a bad guy. And in I Am Number Four the bad guys really did fit into the idea of "the dark fantastic" while the good guys were...light fantastic? So my question is this: doesn't all fantasy kinda require some manner of the dark in order to develop an interesting story? I mean Casper the friendly ghost type stories really get old after a while. Heck even in those there are bad guys. Maybe this a stretch that my mind came up with to satisfy my need for a blog post this week...but hey here it is.

Oh and I also saw a trailer for the Jane Eyre movie when we went to see I Am Number Four. I had no idea Jane Eyre was a kind of dark tale. Any of you know anything more about the story than what the movie trailer lets on?

Oh, Dexter

Hey y'all! I hope everyone is chugging along with their papers. I just wanted to ask a quick question and see what y'all thought...
I have been a major Dexter addict lately (Andy if my paper sucks this will be why... I just can't stop watching) For those of you are aren't familiar with the show (come on people, get on it, it's phenomenal) Dexter is a serial killer that prefers cutting his victims in pieces--often while they are still alive--and then putting them in Hefty bags and chucking them in the ocean. There's a catch, however: he only kills murderers. So, I was wondering what y'all thought of this concept: I believe that both stories of serial killers and the kind of stories we have been reading are "horror" stories. But is one more horrific than the other? Is Dexter still a horrific character/monster if he only kills murderers? Does his practiced capability to blend in with the rest of the world as fairly normal, to the extent of having a job as a blood splatter analyst with the Miami Metro PD, make him more horrific? Would his story be more horrific if there was some sort of supernatural element tied in?

For those of you out of my loop here is a clip from the pilot episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPORpnPPnDY

Trust me, it only gets better from here. And do not blame me if I have sparked your new addiction...

Stardust

We started discussing Stardust by Neil Gaiman during class but went off topic and had to stop. I would like to go back off topic here. I read this novel about a year ago after watching the movie. I normally enjoy the book more than the movie but this was a rare case where I didn't. I found the story to be unintentionally misogynistic. The love story to me was unbelievable because what girl in her right mind would settle for being someone's second choice?! The protagonist is a remarkably unremarkable character who I doubt would ever be smart enough to complete this quest and who treats the star poorly and yet at the end she falls completely in love with him. Did this bother anyone else? Other thoughts?

Paper topic

Hey guys and girls

Unfortunately I caught a stomach bug from my roomate and couldn't make it to class today but I thought I'd get yalls input on the blog. I'm pretty set on my idea I'm just worried about it being too broad. I'm planning on exploring the theme of possession in The Haunting of Hill House and using some other stories we have read to discuss different types and aspects of possession. I am planning on focusing on the house's possession of Eleanor and Theodore's "possession" of Eleanor's identity while using other stories/movies to explore other types of possession (i.e demonic, partial possession, supernatural, etc.). I wanted to see what y'all thought about the different types of possession and if you guys saw any other major examples of possession in Hill House.

Thanks!
Matt

Feminism Paper Idea

My overall idea for my paper is to compare the way women are represented in "Luella Miller" and "The Yellow Wallpaper." "The Yellow Wallpaper is an empowerment piece for women, warning of the dangers of being oppressed, as well as a cautionary tale to misogynistic men. "Luella Miller" is from the perspective of Lydia who is the voice of the misogynistic oppressive man. Luella is a succubus who draws people in with sex and feeds off of their life force. She is plague upon mankind, because she isn't like the oppressed narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper." She doesn't have kids, she is the center of attention which a true lady never is. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the exact opposite. She has a child, she is not the center of attention, and she is being drained of her life force by society.

Any inputs or thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Sorry I couldn't make it to class today, it was for your best interests. I've been fighting with a cold for a week and developed a fever this afternoon. Trying to keep it quarantined until I can get it back below 100.

Show The Monster

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_zalewski?currentPage=all

Hey guys,

If you've got some free time check out this article on Guillermo del Toro. It's a pretty long read but it's very interesting. The article gives a look inside del Toro's life and shows how he goes about creating the monsters for his movies. I thought the article was relevant with us watching Pan's Labyrinth next week and it gives a lot of insight into his creative process. It also talks about his upcoming projects "The Hobit" and "At the Mountains of Madness" which sound amazing if he can make them exactly as he wants to.

Paper

Still haven't really made any definite decisions about the paper, but right now the idea I've been kicking around is writing a comparison of "Smoke Ghost" and "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and various other works where technology/progress/industrialization is the enemy.

Are there any other stories we read that fit into this theme that I'm forgetting. Also I'd also like to work in a movie or two that fits into this, The Matrix and terminator are the first that come to mind, but does anyone have any other suggestions?

Help me pick a paper topic!!

Alright everyone, I need a hand with this. I've narrowed my choice down to two possible paper topics. Here they are briefly, in order that we read the stories they are about:

1 - A comparison/contrast look at "His Unconquerable Enemy" and "Lukundoo" and their depictions of colonialism (probably also tying in Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Apocalypse Now)

2 - What the hell happened in "Nocturne". I would explore possible explanations of the symbols and actions that happen to try to flesh out our understanding of the story.

So does anyone have a suggestion for which I should do? Or any hints about something more I could do with one? Or is anyone else planning on doing one of these? Lots of questions, I know, and I'm sure we'll talk about most of them during class, but I just wanted to throw this up on the blog to see if there were any tips I could get now. Thanks!

Paper Thoughts

So I was thinking about what Andy said in class last week about the connotations of a ghost story and the end results. I really liked the thought that if you don't go into a story with the expectation of it being scary, then it's not. I would also love to make Schrodinger's cat not just something gross that I had to learn in PChem. So I was thinking of discussing "Luella Miller" and possibly "The Haunting of Hill House" and their affects on the reader.

What do you guys think? I think I've got enough to make it through a paper, but I'm not terribly sure. Also, is this a paper where we need to be citing other essays and whatnot?

Thanks!

Like bad horror?

So, I saw the movie Jennifer's Body a couple days ago, and let me start off by saying it is just plain terrible. However, I did expect this going in, and it is why I would never spend any money on it, but I caught it on TV so I figured, for free? what do I have to lose.

Due to this class, I have a better appreciation for well planned horror, and in that respect Jennifer's Body deserves some props because it really sets itself up to make you ask, "did it really happen? or is she just crazy?" Ill save what "it" and "she" are to avoid spoilers in case you haven't seen it. The ending disappointed me a bit because it shoves you strongly in the direction of it really happening after building itself up so well, but it still is a valid question. Although, the movie is terrible for other reasons, but by actually making you wonder, it does more than most horror movies today that are just a slap in the face to the viewer due to their bluntness.

But as to the title, you will really enjoy this movie if you enjoy bad horror movies. It seems to me as if it was written to be a bad horror movie. Because some of the dialogue is just... well... so bad its good.

Anyone else seen this movie?

Paper Topics--I can't decide!!

Hey y'all, I am horrible at making decisions. And so I'm going to throw two potential paper topics at you and ask for your preference, if you would be so kind as to tell me. ^^;

IDEA ONE: There was something that just stuck out to me in "Stone Animals"... how things were "haunted." I mentioned it in class, but it stays with me: the use of that single word "haunted" has many implications, and yet it's left ambiguous (like so many other things in Link's story). What does "haunted" really mean? And does it frighten us? I would write about ambiguity in the story, focusing on the term "haunted"--maybe bringing in more obvious examples of "haunted" things from other stories. I think I will wind up spinning this into a discussion of something we mentioned in class--that sometimes the scariest things are perfectly ordinary, with new meaning invested in them. Like all the class ghost stories--the lid of the trash can, the weight on the bed, my personal experiences with lucid dreaming, the movement I just thought I saw out of the corner of my eye just now and how I turned to see only the kitchen stool (*shudder*)... we're good at being scared by perfectly normal things if we think about or notice them too much. Why might the house in "Stone Animals" be haunted? Where does the haunting come from? etc.

IDEA TWO: This idea is less horror-centered and more towards the "fantastic" or "uncanny" element, but of course it deals with a story we read. --I loved "The April Witch." It's light, lyric, bittersweet--easily one of my favorites we read, and not just because some of the other stories scared me. But it interested me how easily it read and how quickly we sympathize with Cecy, who is essentially possessing Ann Leary and using her body to do things she doesn't want to do--not an entirely innocent endeavor. We sympathize with Cecy because she just wants to be "normal." She just wants to "fit in." I got to thinking about this--I guess I call it the "witch metaphor": a young girl is different, and she can't help it; she wants to find her way into a community or what-have-you, but there are ~magical~ things preventing her from doing so; and the story arises out of her struggle. And yet there are still vague negative connotations associated with being a "witch." I guess I want to talk about this "witch metaphor" and its implications, both as a teachy element about "being different" and "fitting in" and any potential feminist connotations. While I hope to base my paper in "The April Witch," I will deal with two other modern witches, who have (on a large scale) similar struggles: Elphaba of Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked and Kiki of Hayao Miyazaki's film Kiki's Delivery Service. (The film is based on a children's book but I am a much bigger fan of the film, and the film is definitely more popular and widely-known than the book.)

I think really my witch idea is my favorite, but in case it's too unrelated to the dark fantastic I wanted to bring up the more horror-y idea about "haunted" things. What do y'all think? Which one should I go with? Do you like my witches idea?

Meg

Bailey's Slamming Paper 1 Topic

Figured I would go ahead and double dip the blog...
I wanted to go ahead and post before the paper topic discussion tomorrow. (I find these helpful in getting the paper set up, so feel free to leave and questions/comments/concerns/death threats, etc. etc.)

In my paper, I want to explore the necessity of psychological factors in horror stories. Basically, that fear is a psychological state, and often what makes stories truly horrifying is that we have a character experiencing psychological weaknesses or a complete breakdown. Without these psychological factors, many stories wouldn't even be horrific (unless you count horrifically boring... HWAHOH). I want to use Henry from "Stone Animals" by Kelly Link and Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House to show the necessity to the stories the psychological weakness of these two characters. Without Eleanor's final descent, and Eleanor being "preyed" upon, or if she is the one doing the haunting, etc etc, there is no real horror behind Hill House. Henry eventually collapsed in "Stone Animals" as well, and without picking up on the psychological descent through0ut the story, it's just a workoholic and rapidly multiplying rabbits.

Feedback, por favor, mis amores bonitos :)

just when you thought it was safe to go to work...

I learned something interesting today that I thought I would share with my horror buddies: I currently work in a haunted building. I just started an internship with Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority in down town Tuscaloosa. We are in the old city hall in downtown Tuscaloosa, and even though I knew that the building was 70+ years old from day 1 working there, I had not really dwelt on it... until today.

Climbing on the elevator with my boss for the first time (we usually use the stairs, but we were moving some heavy stuff), I noticed a "B" button. I asked my boss if the building had a basement, and she replies, nonchalantly, "Oh yeah. It's pretty creepy though. There are jail cells from when this building was the city hall."

WOAH. Hold up? Creepy jail cells in an old creaky creepy building that is connected to the old creaky creepy Bama Theater? Someone call Ghost Adventures (IT'S A GHOST, BRO!) Apparently the basement is now filled with the theater's storage (creepy props, costumes, etc) and the jail cells are just chilling down there. So I had to ask my boss if there were ghost stories, and she said that people get creeped out and there are randomly slamming doors all over the building (I will now be a nervous wreck every time I go to work). I bet there are all sorts of creepy stories, as the building has been used for all sorts of things. I will find out more, and if I can get into the basement (my boss said I could venture the next time someone has to go down there) I will get a picture and share it.

oh, and on a side note, tomorrow we are going through stuff in what was formerly known as the "drug closet." Oh, yes, the REINFORCED steel doored closet where the police used to store drugs from drug busts. And probably other evidence. Like murder weapons....

A Question

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would write about a discussion I had with my boyfriend last weekend. I wanted to watch a scary movie which lead to the topic of what "kind" of scary movie. I can't really decide which type of movie actually is the scariest.

I personally don't enjoy the movies based on true events (not ghosts, but like "Ted Bundy" and whatnot). I'll watch Criminal Minds and Law and Order any day, but for some reason, I don't like the full length movies detailing the crimes. Even the documentaries aren't so bad, it's just the movies. I guess these are scary because they actually did happen. Is anyone else with me on this?

I have seen few of the "classic" horror movies because I know how scary they're supposed to be. The ones with monsters, like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Halloween" have reputations that I've known my whole life, and so have avoided them. I finally watched the horrifying story of Freddy Kreuger last October and wasn't actually bothered. My mom, who's a horror aficionado, had to leave the theatre when this movie came out. Have we become less susceptible to monster movies lately? Does it take the real thing to scare us now? Now our monster movies try to be real, like "Paranormal Activity" using the whole documentary filming technique.

And then there's the psychological movies. These scare me, but in more of a "car heading my way in the street" rather than a "going down the first ramp of a rollercoaster" sort of way. They're fun sometimes, but they give me the worst nightmares for sure. "The Shining" has always and will always be the scariest movie to me. I can't even put into words why, but it is.

True, these all scare me and I'll be up all night after watching them, but I'm curious, if a group of people were polled, which would be called the "scariest" type of movie. What do you guys think?

My Bloody Valentine

In honor of our hatred for the stupidest holiday ever dreamed up and our obsession with Jensen Ackles, who is sadly married, Jordan and I watched an interesting movie yesterday after class. My Bloody Valentine came out in 2009 and is essentially a Texas Chainsaw Massacre type of scary movie. The movie also tied into our class because of the psychological aspect.

The story is based on Tom Hanniger (Ackles), a guy who was raised in a small mining town. When he was a young employee at the mine, he indirectly was at fault for the murder of 5 trapped miners (he slacked on his job above ground and caused the cave in). The guy who actually killed his fellow miners, Harry Warden, went into a coma immediately after. When he awakes from the coma he goes on a killing rampage on Valentine's Day. Of course he tries to kill Tom but fails and from that moment on Tom has serious psychological issues. He skips town and nobody sees him for ten years. But when he comes back to settle his deceased father's affairs (he owned the mine), the killings begin again. His high school friend is now sheriff and married to Tom's high school love and immediately assumes Tom is the one actually killing all these people because Harry Warden was, in fact, dead and buried at this point. I'm not going to give away the ending but this gives you the idea behind the psychological aspect.

In almost all of the stories we've read, we've discussed people and their mental states. We've justified some of the supernatural stories as the memories of mad men/women. So this is what came to mind while watching this movie. Even though the movie was not a major success, I think it did a great job of confusing you. It made you want Tom to be innocent and assume that Harry Warden had come back to life on the tenth anniversary of his previous rampage. It even made you want to peg the crimes on the sheriff/ex-friend of Tom's. At some point you're convinced Tom is doing it, then you doubt yourself. So not only is the movie psychological in itself, it makes the audiences mind spin.

I think most horror films and books require this psychological mind game for its entertainment value. Let's face it, not many of us would watch people get hacked to bits for fun unless we had the added entertainment of trying to figure out what is going on the entire time. Jordan and I were bouncing ideas off each other the whole time (she ended up being right, I admit) and I think that is what made the movie so entertaining to us...on top of getting to watch Jensen Ackles play a crazy person.

So I recommend the movie for anyone who likes that kinda stuff, which should be the majority of the class because of what we talk about and read every week. It really wasn't bad at all.

Was Hill House scary?

Spoilers ahead, everyone's probably finished at this point, but I figured I'd give a heads up anyway

Did anyone really find The Haunting of Hill House scary? I felt like the book did a very good job building up the tension and setting the atmosphere, but I felt like this never actually led to anything. The actual supernatural events like the banging on the door, and the writing on the wall, seemed kind of disappointing to me. And by the time Eleanor commits suicide at the end, I wasn't surprised by it, not that I could see it coming from a mile away or anything, but I just wasn't surprised.

On another note I was also disappointed that nothing terrifying happened to Mrs. Montague or Arthur. Not that it would have made the story better or anything, I just really wanted something to happen to them.

Hill House = Daemon Lover?

Something I felt throughout is how real is everything going on? My suspicions lie in that the only time something is manifested, it is around Eleanor. Anyone not around her is unaffected. And when stuff happens, everyone else seems to be far more calm than they should be. Eleanor often even asks herself, "am I the only one who is afraid?". As such, I almost feel it is like the story we read a few weeks back called the Daemon Lover where the woman certainly feels like what is happening is real, but everyone around her is quite amused by her.

What do you guys think, could this be the same sort of thing where she's the crazy one and everyone else plays along? Is everyone else even real?

Honestly, this story left me with a lot more questions than answers. haha.

Foreshadowing

Just wanted to post about a note I made while reading the book. I think it's really clever how on page 54 Luke says "I thought he was going to send the car into a tree." This foreshadows the ending where Eleanor crashes. (Sorry if I spoiled the ending, but we do have class today so if you haven't finished you should probably get on that...)I love it when things foreshadow the ending, because it's always fun at the ending to go "OH! They hinted at that in chapter ____ !" Anyone else pick up on any foreshadowing?

The shortest horror story ever

Clicking the title of this post will take you to a Futility Closet, an interesting little website that is just filled with information.

I discovered this particular link a while back, and I have just now remembered to share it with all of you! These are two incredibly short (they make Nocturne look like a novel) stories. The first, I suppose, is more science fiction, but the second certainly fits in the realm of the dark fantastic. It is by Frederic Brown, and it is exactly two sentences long. For those too lazy to travel across the internet, here is the horror copied for you:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.

A modification of this story is actually shorter (and, I think, scarier). It is credited to Ron Smith, and simply changes the word knock to lock:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door.

What do you think? Does anyone else feel the horror in these stories? I actually think their brevity makes them more eerie.

Happily ever after actually began rather Grimm...

So I'm sure some of you know this, but some of you may not, so I want to mention it here. Many of our favorite Disney fairy tales were actually inspired by The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, who were from Hanau, Germany. They wrote tales of fantasy and published many of their most famous ones in their book Children's and Household Tales in 1812 and volume II of the book in 1815. This books included many of our still-favorites today, such as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and over 200 other tales.

What most people don't realize, though, is that what we saw on our Disney VHS tapes as toddlers and young children has been highly modified from the original versions, and I don't mean it's English instead of German.

The Grimm Brothers were known for being, well, grim. Rapunzel? She was taken into the woods and beaten by the sorceress, who cut off her hair and, when the prince came to the tower, told him his love was gone forever. He threw himself off, landed in thorns which poked out his eyes, and wandered in the woods for years before he found Rapunzel there. Only then did they live happily ever after when she cried tears into his eyes, which became whole again, and they went back into the kingdom together. Disney definitely left out the whole suicide attempt, eye-gouging thing from Tangled.

Then there's Little Red Cap, or Red Riding Hood, as we know her, whose grandmother was eaten by the wolf who put on her clothes as a disguise. Red was eaten too, don't you know, and when the hunter came along, he cut them both out of the wolf's belly. Somehow they miraculously survived... And then filled the wolf's stomach with stones and sewed it up, so he was too heavy to run away and died immediately. No idea how he wasn't dead already, but the huntsman must've been an excellent surgeon.

Cinderella's stepsisters cut off pieces of their feet to fit into her golden slipper. Then at the end, pigeons pecked their eyes out.

The evil queen ate the pig's lungs and liver that the hunter told her were Snow White's organs. And there was no true love's kiss, either. The prince's men stumbled when carrying Snow White's coffin, which dislodged the piece of poison apple from her throat and she woke up. I find that kind of funny.

You can read the original versions of many of Grimm's fairy tales here.

And, just to throw this in here, I will be working on a story about Germany's "Fairy Tale Road" in March, which traces The Brothers Grimm's footsteps through Germany and stops at many places they were inspired by for their tales. Sleeping Beauty Castle and Rapunzel's Tower are just a couple of places I will be visiting during spring break and the following week as I go with Alpine Living to gather all the info for our magazine. I'll be sure to post pics and such on the blog of this fantastic journey!

AHH! REAL ZOMBIES

Yeah, the title is just a moment. Does anyone remember "Ahh! Real Monsters!"? That show was the bomb.com/net. Anyway, I'm sitting here watching my boyfriend play Call of Duty: Black Ops, and his new obsession is to play zombies. Apparently Black Ops is set in post WWII times and the nazis were experimenting with weapons and accidentally created a gas or whatever that turned them all into zombies. So the players are Russians trying to kill all the Nazi zombies. It's decently entertaining (do NOT tell him I said that or I will NEVER get him to stop playing and pay attention to me). But as a bit of a zombie fanatic who is reallyyyyy anticipating the fall return of "The Walking Dead" I have to ask, why zombies? Who first came up with the concept of a "walker"? And why are they so damn entertaining?

Grammy fantasy fun...

I don't know if you all watched The Grammys last night, but I was very entertained by the fantastic elements thrown into a lot of the performances. I thought I'd share a little picture album of some of my favorites, or at least the most obscure ones.

Of course we have Gaga, who arrived on the red carpet in a giant egg being carried by gold-clad servants.

She "hatched" during her performance...


And.. if I had to guess, I'd say that Cee Lo Green is the one who laid the egg in the first place. He looked like a giant rainbow turkey, and was surrounded by singing puppets (and Gwyneth Paltrow) during his song otherwise known as "Forget You."


There were more, but in attempt not to bore any of you or kill too many servers with this post by not rehosting my pictures, I'll end it with Katy Perry's performance, which as a friend of mine said, "looked like a burlesque exploded into a Gigi's Cupcakes."


Arcade Fire's performance had so many strobes I thought I was going to have a seizure from my living room...

So what I'm getting at here... Do you think performance art like this is moving even more towards adding elements of fantasy and the obscure, or has it always been that way? What's the appeal of adding something like this as opposed to having performers on stage singing their songs in pretty dresses or suits and then taking a bow and walking off? Obviously it's more fun, but what else do you think?

The skeleton key

I watched the movie the skeleton key this weekend and thought it went well with our class. If you have seen it you will know that it has to do with new Orleans vodoo or that type of magic and takes place in an old plantation style house. I think it is a very interesting movie that many would enjoy but my question was this: how many people think that the vodoo type magic is real? Also has anyone had any experiences or know of any that others have had with this type of magic?

I'm using you, classmates

I read The Haunting of Hill House a while ago, and now that everybody at least has to be trying to read it, I won't feel like I'm giving anything away here.

I loved the book far more than any of the short stories interested me. So I'm using that as a starting point for picking a paper topic. However, beyond that I'm a little stuck and I need your help. I've had a few thoughts on topics but none of them are standing out beyond the rest. So the favor I ask is that if you happen to read this post, please comment on my ideas and help me decide what to pursue further. I hope the documents Andy sent will help me too.

-Something along the lines of how the the book is different from the movies. For instance, why did they make the changes they did? (Such as Dr. Montague's name). I do know that Andy does not want a compare and contrast paper, so this is probably my weakest idea.
-The interesting architecture of the house got my attention. Why was it built that way? What impact does it have on the strange activity? Does it have any significance at all?
-And then there's the psychological aspect as far as Eleanor is concerned. *SPOILER ALERT* At the end, Jackson never explains exactly what is going on with the house, they just decide Eleanor needs to leave because she can't handle it. The house had been targeting her the entire time. So did her earlier life drive her crazy? Did the house know she had a weakened mind? There's more to this idea, I just can't put it in words at the moment. I think this is my strongest idea.

I would greatly appreciate all comments and thoughts and will be happy to return the favor when everyone's paper topics start bubbling into their minds. I admit, I'm ahead of the game.

Thanks all!

Please excuse me while I blow up the blog...

...because I was without internet on my laptop for about a week or two. This is why I haven't been posting and Andy, I hope it won't affect my grade! :( I will try posting extra to make up for it, starting with this lovely music video which Neil Gaiman tweeted an hour or so ago. (His account is @Neilhimself if you want to stalk him too! @GeoffJohns0 is also a good one for you fantasy lovers.)

It's a song by Josh Ritter, called "The Curse," about a girl who falls in love with a mummy. <3 Enjoy!

Creepy Places

http://listverse.com/2010/07/07/10-most-terrifying-places-on-earth/

I stumbled upon this link while I was purposefully not doing my schoolwork and thought it rather appropriate to share.

It's the, arguably, ten most terrifying places on Earth. They certainly creeped me out just reading about them. I may not necessarily believe in ghosts, but i don't not believe in them, if that makes any sense.

Mary Grace

Mannequins

I remember I mentioned this during class one day and decided I should post the pictures. There's an antique store in my hometown--they've since reorganized--that used to have these broken, painted mannequins all over the place. One day I happened to take a bunch of pictures...

First, the wall of mannequins, from far away. They were all standing on a very top shelf that's much taller than me--this was taken from the other side of the warehouse-like room.

Next, my friend and I ran into this lovely lady in the middle of the room of old clothes. She was just in the middle of everything, and when I saw her over my shoulder I thought she was another human. Then my friend said she was much too creeped out by her painted eyes...

...so I covered her up with a veil. I don't know if this actually makes it any better. Maybe it's worse this way because you can't see her face clearly.

Hat model. She's not creepy, just amusing.

Now, this one is really painted pretty horribly, and the nose is just wrong. Creeeepy.

Lastly, some mannequin friends, seen from beneath where they were set upon the high shelf.

Note how they're missing various appendages. Kind of macabre.

Aaaaaand that's all for now! Hope I haven't terrified anyone! ^^;

Meg

Story volunteers for Feb. 9

According to my notes, here are the folks leading our Feb. 9 discussions, story by story. Correct me if I err, please.

• Joe Yardley: Oates, "Family"
• Matt LaCoste: Saunders, "Sea Oak"
• Shauna McDaniel: Kiernan, "The Long Hall on the Top Floor"
• Parker Dennison: Tessier, "Nocturne"
• Jordan Staggs, Hill, "Pop Art"
• Matt Meng: Brite, "Pansu"
• Mary Grace Cassity: Millhauser, "Dangerous Laughter"
• Bailey Carpenter: Rickert, "The Chambered Fruit"
• Mark Penner: Link, "Stone Animals"
• Kirstin Sockwell: Percy, "Dial Tone"

Creepy...

I found this video last week and meant to post it earlier. It's pretty freaky and the group that made it has a lot of other short horror videos, even though this is one of the best ones that I have seen by them. What makes this one scary for me is not just the twist that comes when the man realizes he is not hearing his wife, but also that they decide not to show the conclusion. I can guess at what happened but I can't be sure, and I can guess at who(or what) was in that room but I really don't know. That fear that is left in the dark really gets me.

The Chambered UHOH Icky Pervert

So, "The Chambered Fruit" was sort of interesting (aside from it being WAY to long and filled with WAY TOO MUCH USELESS AND NON STORY PERTINENT INFO... HELLO it's a SHORT story...) because it was so modern set. It was different from what we have read so far because it is no longer that a dead girl comes back to chill with her mama. Nope, what really freaked me out was that it was an internet PERVERT that raped and strangled her after posing as a 12 year old girl on the internet. People who commit crimes like this scare me more than anything, and make me seriously want to to a fire poker to a computer as well. Glad I plan on having 15 cats and no kids because this would be awful to think about... I have seen kids as young as 4 (yes FOUR YEARS OLD) who are able to get on the internet now and make their way around it.

So what do y'all think about this new fear of technology? I think that it is interesting that one of our most modern stories (this one was 2003) uses a bit of internet scare tactic.

Sea Oaks

People in class last week said that "Sea Oak" was about zombies, so when I went into it expecting a dawn of the dead, zombie rampage kind of thing. I really did not expect it to go in the direction that it did.

This was definitely a pretty shocking story, not because the aunt came back as a falling apart corpse, but because of the complete change in her personality. The fact that, this sweet, little old lady is suddenly this vulgar, angry...thing, who keeps telling her nephew to show his cock, was definitely the most disturbing aspect of the story to me.

Also I know we can discuss this for pretty much every story we read, but I'm leaning a bit towards this all being in the speaker's mind. Mostly because there was nothing even remotely supernatural happening until suddenly the aunt shows up in their apartment, and because vulgar as she was, she was still trying to help them improve their life, so I'm thinking it was all some horrific nightmare.

Change in expression.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the more modern these stories become the more vulgar they are also? I mean, pretty much every story had some form of crude language or acts. Do you think it's because of a change in the morals of the times? I also think this week was more uncanny stories than frightening. I laughed during most of them, anyone else find them comical?

How did you fight it?

A few of these posts have brought me back to my childhood fears of the dark and monsters and skeleton-pool ghosts from "kids shows." With that, I also started to think about how I, as a child, combated those fears, and I was wondering what the rest of had to say on that subject.
My main strategy was performed exclusively while I was in bed. I would always go to sleep in what I thought was the most defensible position bedsheets could afford me. I would always sleep facing my window (since, clearly, if something were to come through the window I would be more quickly alerted to it and be able to beat a hasty retreat) with the rest of my blankets pulled up around my head. I was completely covered except for a little hole at my face from which I could see and breathe. The hole was for watching the window, but the rest of the covering was equally as important. That is what protected me from anything that may come from my closet or bedroom door. Now I'm not sure how I rationalized this one, but two options come to mind. First, I may have hoped that night time invaders (supernatural or not) would be very dumb and not realize there was a terrified child in the bed because, clearly, it was just a pile of blankets. Second, (and the more likely, I think) I convinced myself that what couldn't directly see you couldn't touch you. This was my thin, cotton armor, and nothing could touch me in it.

Also, again thanks to that Are You Afraid of the Dark episode, I actively avoided drains in bathrooms (or watched them with a wary eye if I didn't have another choice). The episode was called The Tale of Dead Man's Float, and I encourage you all to see it.

...At Night

So I've found that it's really unproductive of me to read for our class at night--at least it was this week. A few of the stories would give me the heebie-jeebies because the apartment was quiet and I'd be thinking too much about one thing or another... and when I respond to blog posts at night and have to think about things like "the scariest thing ever" I really start to freak myself out.

Now, I know that I have a problem with dark, but in general, what do you think is the reason we're so scared at night? That monsters and ghosts and whatever come out after dark? I have a theory that it's because the later it gets, the greater chance that everyone you'd need help from is asleep, or that when you end up running around outside you can't see very well (and it's my understanding that that happens a lot in horror movies). But is that all? What are y'all's theories as to why the night is so creepy? Also, please elaborate if it isn't creepy for you, because that's pretty interesting...

(P.S.--Bonus points if you get my Spongebob reference. ^^)

The scariest thing ever

So, from the few topics scattered around, it would seem horror is very varied from person to person. So I am just curious about what you think the scariest thing you've ever experienced is (event, literature, movie, game, etc)? Additionally, if you have any rationale behind it, why do you think it scared you so much?

For me, (in recent memory and off the top of my head) was an episode of Dr. Who. Dr. Who and his lady companion (I think it was from season 4 of the new series) were in this library where the monsters were like little bugs that make up a shadow. If you are in the dark, they would devour you down to the bone. And the scary part was that the corpses would still have voices and one of them chases them a ways. For me, skeletons and the dark freak me out. I know its sad for someone who is looking to go to med school be grosses out by skeletons, but, well, thats the way it is for me. If it has some muscle or flesh on it, im ok with it, but plain skeletons are freaky for me. Haha.

How about you guys?

Early thoughts on Pansu

I absolutely loved this story. Between the sex-crazed, possessed Korean woman, the duo of pot smoking Exorcist experts, and the Korean restaurant owner who believes everything can be solved with food, I had no clue what to expect next. It starts off fast and never lets up. One question I had was why did the peach schnapps catch the demon? I thought this had to do with the discussion going on under the Supernatural post where we talked about how dragons haven't changed much over the years because possession hasn't changed much over the years either. From green vomit to body contortions and different voices there really haven't been any changes in how people are possessed. I think part of it is that possession is more of a real life thing than dragons, at least according to most people.

Paranormal Activity

First off, I wanted mention a video I saw online. It is a mysterious orb descending on Jerusalem, a UFO if you will. While that sounds just like every other video of supposed alien objects, this one is set apart by the fact that it is observed and filmed from multiple angles by multiple groups of unrelated people. Proof? Probably not. But it's kinda cool. The link to one story about it is in the title but if you just search youtube for Israel UFO there are more videos and angles.

I also watched the movie Paranormal Activity for the first time last night. I was actually impressed. It was the first movie that had me even remotely on edge in a long time (perhaps starting it alone at 2 AM was at least a partial cause but who knows). I thought it was better than The Blair Witch Project which uses the same fake documentary style. Has anyone else seen it? And did it work for you as it did for me or are the bloggers who called it boring and unoriginal correct?

And just out of curiosity, what is scarier, unexplainable occurrences or crazy human beings?

Supernatural

This is a wonderful show. Fits perfectly with our class. Gives me ammo for the blog :)

A new episode came on last night: dragons. But not big fire breathing lizards that fall in love with donkeys (had to make a Shrek reference). These dragons were men that had the typical abilities of dragons of lore. The show is clearly based on the supernatural but occasionally, like last night, will lean closer to the world of legends and myths. However, they have an amazing ability to create their own versions of things.

These man-dragons got me thinking. For the most part, legends and myths describe fantastical creatures in the same ways. For example, there really isn't any variance (at least physically) from the Inheritance Cycle's dragons and the dragon the Redcrosse Knight slays in The Faerie Queene. But fantasy is fantasy: because it isn't real, you can make anything up like Supernatural did with their new age dragons. So why do many writers stick towards the "norm" in a genre that's characterized by its fantastical nature?

A little more discussion...

So I was trying to find what an April Witch was when I found a Swedish book called "The April Witch" which has some resemblance to Bradbury's story. The link is in the title. I have no clue if this book is a reference to the story or if an April Witch is something outside of his writings. In the story, he says it as if we should know what one is, so I feel like there must be a myth or something behind it. Maybe one of you has heard it or can find it? Maybe it's just something he came up with all on his own.

I'm scared... But not really

I just wanted to get some early thoughts going for I'm scared. I was wondering if anyone else thought that this was one of the least scary stories they had ever read? I'm assuming it made it into the book for it's "uncanny" because it's definitely not in there for "terror". It was still an interesting and enjoyable tale and I can see how certain things going back and forth through time could have huge impacts on people and events in our world but it doesn't scare me. I did like his explanation of why this phenomenon was happening. Also I was terribly saddened by the case involving the lady and her dog and I was wondering if any other cases jumped out to anyone?

Is it real?

So we have definitely been all about the blog today, but I had one last thought I wanted to submit before class:

In the first two stories for this week "Evening Primrose" and "Smoke Ghost" the entire time I just doubted either of the stories were actually "happening". I know we have talked about it in class in reference to some other stories, I just found these two to be really good examples (plus they came one right after the other)

In "Evening Primrose" I just figured the entire time that he was some driven-crazy poet runoff to live in a department store. Oh, and schizophrenic. I don't actually think any of the other people in the store are real. Or that there are random dark people that eat people and turn their outer shells into wax persona.

In "Smoke Ghost" I think that there is a classic case of mommy-pression causing this guy to have a nervous breakdown and see stuff. And he knocked Ms. Millick over the head and carried her to the roof in the prime of said breakdown.

Thoughts?

Story volunteers for Feb. 2

According to my notes, here are the folks leading our Feb. 2 discussions, story by story. Correct me if I err, please. My biggest error was in forgetting to assign anyone the marvelous John Collier story "Evening Primrose," which we'll begin with. A last-minute volunteer, perhaps someone who spends a lot of time in department stores, would be welcome.

• Meg Brandl: Leiber, "Smoke Ghost"
• Jennifer Palm: Williams, "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio"
• Katy Santi: Jackson, "The Daemon Lover"
• Matt Meng: Finney, "I'm Scared"
• Kirstin Sockwell: Bradbury, "The April Witch"
• Shauna McDaniel: Grubb, "Where the Woodbine Twineth"
• Ken Geller: Ellison, "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"
• John Harris: Matheson, "Prey"
• Bailey Carpenter: Carroll, "Mr. Fiddlehead"

Are you scared yet?

There was an earlier post about how The Haunting of Hill House wasn't very scary, and it got me thinking about what makes a truly scary story. This, of course, will be different for everyone, but it is certainly worth thinking about. Nothing gets me like the old "monster/killer-just-stands-there-and-watches-from-the-shadows-across-the-room" bit that we see in so many movies. That almost always freaks me out. As far as literature goes, tension and danger in the form of a very real threat (like in Prey, for example) get my heart pumping a little faster. So have any of you been scared at all by the stories we've read? If not, what does it for you? Can you be scared by the printed word, or have movies made that a little obsolete?

Schism of Fantasy and Sci-fi

In commenting on Katy's post and then reading Meg's post got me thinking about sci-fi, fantasy, and their most common elements of technology and magic respectively.

In case you didn't read my comment, my musings really stem from the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and then there is also the flip version that "any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology".

Where do we draw the line between the two? Is there even a line between the two or are they just the two ends/extremes of a continuum?

For example, Harry Potter is clearly fantasy with magic. Right? But looking at it closer, is it really? What is the one thing that is an absolute requirement to cast magic. Wands. So as such, could the wands just be some fancy advanced technological device? I don't personally see why not. (Just for the record, thats how I view HP, just saying the argument could be made :-P)

Very few fantasy stories exist that cannot be analyzed in this way. Even horror. Demons, vampires, zombies, all can be explained away through science. Demons can be creatures either of this world, or not, that use "magic" that we cannot understand to make us submit to their will. Vampires and zombies both can simply be diseases. Vampires being a type of hemophilia (i mean, look at the word roots there. Hemo - blood, philia - love. A hemophiliac is literally a person who loves blood. Of course, thats not what the word means, but still). And zombies can be any number of diseases with the most recent interest being a mutant rabies, which is actually not far from being a zombie virus.

It is likely due to my scientific centered mind, but in my personal opinion, I feel magic is typically only a means to easily explain that which has no conceivable or logical explanation. Thus why, as time moves on and technology advances, things that were once magic are now just technology.

But, at the same time, you can make the counter argument that humans try to explain away magic through the only thing evolution/nature has provided for us. Our brains. The things that we can explain and understand cannot scare us, thus, if we can explain magic, it cannot scare us.

So, what do you guys think?

Gratuitous Cosplay pics from PixelCon

I just had to share. ^^

Peach and Toad vs. a ZOMBIE!!

Boyfriend and me in all our ridiculousness. He was "gangsta" Toad and I was a stylized (think foreign dignitary-meets-Japanese loli street fashion?) Princess Peach.

It was fun. :D

~Meg

Fantasy and Magical Realism

I was going to write this as a response to Katy's post, but I realized it would be too long entirely and have started a new post altogether.

First, thoughts on the question Katy posed, similar to those already expressed--I think that fantasy is generally, in one way or another, "magical," but it's not always the kind that we want to stereotype as "magic" (e.g. that of witches, wizards, etc.). Sometimes it's paranormal, but in my opinion such things fall under a blanket category of something like magic because it can't be explained how they got there. --I have a friend who, when asked a certain type question he didn't know the answer to (e.g., "How did you end up getting that grade when you didn't study?" or "How did you get problem 4 on the calculus test?"), would reply, "Magic." Oddly enough, that's kind of how I think of "magic"--it's the force behind unexplained things (at least in fictional worlds of the type we mention... in reality I attribute unexplained things to God in one way or another, but that's another matter entirely, as God is not generally considered much in ghost stories except as a force that characters in terror pray to without answer) (or does anyone want to contest that? That could be another topic to discuss).

Anyway, reading how Katy wrote about the relationship between magic and fantasy reminded me of a genre of writing called "magical realism." The example everyone seems to give is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," which hopefully you have come across in a literature class at one point. If you haven't read it and would like to see what I mean, click here.

From what I understand, the difference between fantasy writing and magical realism is not the element of magic but the element of doubt. In stories like "Smoke Ghost," which I would label fantastic, the thing the man sees may or may not be there, and while he begins questioning it, there is the possibility that he is simply crazy, and so there is always doubt. However, in stories like Marquez's (linked above) that are magical realism, the point is generally that somehow something unexplained has come to exist in this world--and no one questions it.

In Marquez's story, basically, an angel crashes down by the home of some people and then becomes something of a spectacle. They really can't decide in the end if he's an angel--because he doesn't look the way one would normally envision an angel, nor is he very extraordinary in his abilities except for a few little tricks and the fact that he has wings--but there follows a natural progression of him becoming a tourist attraction, becoming a nuisance, etc.... All the characters in the story are very matter-of-fact about the angel that has crashed into their midst, and they deal with it; when he leaves, they're no more surprised or in awe than they were in the beginning. It seems that in fantastic stories characters are often not believed and sometimes leave even the reader questioning what really happened; magic realism never explains how but leaves no doubt that something extraordinary appears or occurs, but it's no big deal.

On the other hand entirely, I've heard the argument made that magic realism is just a literary way of saying fantasy or of making the fact that one writes fantasy sound "better." I would not claim this personally--as a creative writing exercise I recently wrote a story about a mermaid** that I intended as magical realism (in that her presence in a Laundromat is nothing particularly surprising--if anything, just rare). In my head, it is not the same kind of story as what I would call a fantasy story.

Any other thoughts? Anyone read any other magic realism and have an opinion either way? Are they different or should they all just be called the same thing?

~Meg

** If you want to read my mermaid story, buy a copy of Sigma Tau Delta's new literary journal DewPoint--we should be releasing it next month, and it will be awesome. ^^ Also if you buy the journal you'll get to read loads of things that are way better than my mermaid story.

Where the Woodbine Twineth

Below is "Where the Woodbine Twineth" from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. I know, it's 45 minutes long, but I think it was worth the watch! How do you guys think it compares to Grubb's tale? I think that this was a fairly good representation. The little girl creeps me out, but children in general do that.