Nevermind...

So, I've decided to change my paper topic. I was having a lot of difficulty in researching for my other ideas, so I'm writing a compare/contrast paper on the roles of women in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (short story) and the film adaptation. The women, through their absence or presence, seem to have a profound impact on how Benjamin is raised and how he ends up living his life. I feel that the more loving, present women in the film helped him to have a more fulfilling life than the absent, objectified women in the short story.

Quantum Mechanics and Stephen King

I have to say that I'm glad that I chose this as a topic for my final paper because when again will I ever have the chance to write about Stephen King and quantum physics? I'm working on trying to make the paper as nontechnical as possible while not losing anything meaningful. Hopefully this will not turn into a huge convoluted mess.

The Most Disgusting Horror Movie of all Time?

An independent film was made that is being called the most disgusting horror movie of all time. It would've fit in perfectly with my first paper, the one about monster makers. In the movie, a crazy German surgeon connects three victims to make a human centipede. The most disturbing part of the film is supposed to be the realism. Writer/director Tom Six got a report from a Dutch doctor describing how this procedure could be performed. Here is the scene where the surgeon describes the procedure to his victims, and here is the interview with Six. The best part is where he explains he got the idea from a saying he uses to describe what punishment should be given to horrible people like child molesters. He says they should have their mouths stitched the asses of very, very fat truck drivers.

Trekkies

Last week, I wrote an article on a "Star Trek" club that's open to students and the public. Working on the article made me think of this class. The club meets once a month to watch episodes and discuss what they liked and thought, which is basically what we do during class. We have a common love/fascination of 21st Century Fantasy, and we have the opportunity to bounce ideas off eachother and share our thoughts. If you want to learn more about the club, here's my article: http://www.cw.ua.edu/2010/04/22/star-trek-club-is-more-than-%e2%80%98stereotypical-nerds%e2%80%99/

American Monster Movie

This title pretty much says it all. Recently there has been a big drought in Hollywood when it comes to a really solid monster movie. The last decent one was Cloverfield but we didn't even get a good look at the monster until the last 5 minutes of it. It hurts my heart when the only supernatural thing that people want to see in movies are vampires that bedazzle and big cuddly werewolves that look like collies.

Before Cloverfield it seems like the only way that people would see a monster movie is if it was actually a comedy like Gremlins or Little Shop of Horrors but I still think that if you put some big scary alien thing in the middle of a group of people they will be scared to death and there wont be anything funny about it.

Apparently this week Stephen Hawking says he believes that aliens do probably exist and if we ever do meet them then we are in trouble. For an example he used when new settlers wiped out the Indians when they came to this land. In that scenario we are the Indians. Maybe thoughts like these will inspire people to go back to the good old days of King Kong and Godzilla and come up with some mutated out of these world creatures that come down here and do the monster mash.

I really liked The Mist as a movie and the mist itsef was extremely scary but it bothers me when I can't even get a good look at the monsters that are causing all of this damage. The flies and pterodactyl things dont count because compared to those big monsters with legs that look like sequoias, those little things are ants.

Self Promo

As I was watching The Mist again I noticed that David's paintings looked rather familiar. The Mist is the only work by Stephen King that I've read, but I've seen the covers of The Dark Tower books before. I thought it was interesting to find references to other horror works in the beginning of the film. I've never seen another Stephen King-inspired movie, but I tried to find out if this happens in other Stephen King adaptations. I couldn't find anything, though. Sorry if this is all very obvious to the Stephen King fans!

The Fog vs. The Mist

I remember thinking when The Mist came out, "Hasn't this already been made like three times?" But no, that was The Fog. I saw neither of them in theater, and I didn't know that The Mist was based on a Stephen King book. I did know that The Fog was a remake of an older movie, and I thought at the time that The Mist was a cheap knock-off of The Fog. I thought maybe it was a new trend in horror movies. By now I've seen both of them, and I'm not a big fan of either of them.

Never as good as the book....

I guess the old saying holds true with "The Mist" — the book is always better than the movie. I read the book before watching the movie, and I felt that someone who only saw the movie might be confused at first. I especially enjoyed the beginning dialogue in the book because you get to see the dynamics of the family. The movie doesn't capture those relationships.

I also thought it was interesting that the movie didn't include the sex scene between Amanda and David. I'm not disappointed, but I thought movies normally liked to "sex it up."

Of course the endings were totally different. I normally don't like when things don't have a conclusion, but the book's ending was way better than the movie's ending. I don't know why screen writers drift so far away from the original.

My Uncle's Experience with the Possessed Man

I mentioned in class a few weeks ago about my uncle who had to deal with a man who was demon possessed. Well, I found his testimony and scanned it in so you all could read it. My uncle's name is Clay Quarterman and he has been a missionary in Portugal and Ukraine. This is his story:

I'm can't remember if anyone is writing about possession this time around, but feel free to cite him if you need to use this for your paper.

Art's Hands

In "Pop Art," Art does not have fingers. His hands are described as pads with thumbs. Take a look at the picture on the right: tileshop_pmc_inline.html. It's called severe acrosyndactyly.

The Amityville Horror

I have been trying to think of another book that included a good bit of animal's sensing the supernatural, paranormal, etc. And I've got it! The Amityville Horror. The dog in this story is very aware of the spirits in the house. I think this will be my other source, since I recently read the book and enjoyed it.

Not sure why I'm posting this, but I'm just happy to find another source. :) Good luck to everyone else.

True life chaos and horror

I debated on whether or not to talk about this, but I guess I will.

Friday evening, something happened that brought reality to scenes like the burning car in Crash and the plane wreck at the beginning of Lost. Tabatha and I were just about to leave the riverside park when we heard a crash occur up at the intersection of Jack Warner and Hackberry. I immediately called 911 and told them about it, but did not originally know the answer to the question when the dispatcher asked if we needed ambulances. In the end, I told them to send two before we hurried across the road on foot. We almost hesitated to go over but the crash looked severe enough that we felt we should see if help was needed. I am glad we did. A suburban had t-boned a tiny Mazda Protege and had resulted in a lack of passenger seat. Right before we crossed the road, a police officer happened to be passing by and we flagged him down, or he might not have seen the wreck. As we got across the road, we were yelling for them to turn the engine off, as it was revving repeatedly (the driver was in shock and had his foot on the gas, as we came to find out later). As soon as we got across the road, we knew there was a problem. The exhaust had caught fire, and the underside of the car was becoming embroiled in flame. Because of our vantage point, we were the first to know the car was on fire. Tabatha and I both started yelling for people to move but most were in shock. Some were helping get the victims out, some were standing around with their jaws open. I literally had to shove some of the waiting people to get them to start moving away. Beside the car, a man was helping get a college aged girl out of the back seat (we believe she was originally in the passenger seat and either got thrown or jumped out of the seat when she saw the wreck coming). I had to shove them away as well, and the man was able to drag her away from the car. I ran up to the police officer who was trying to cut the driver free and told him the car was on fire. He sent me running to his trunk for the fire extinguisher. When I got back, we moved the driver away and I ended up holding his neck steady to prevent further injury. Luckily, the fire was put out before it got to the gas tank. We remained to make statements and helped the paramedics get a grasp on their injuries once they arrived. According to a nurse who Tabatha had come help before the paramedics arrived, both victims looked like they would be fine, other than some bleeding and a broken ankle and such. What stuck me through the whole ordeal was the chaos of everything happening all at once. Seeing a crash on tv is one thing, but experiencing the aftermath in real life is something else. Another thing that deeply disturbed me is the mob mentality that most people exhibited. Most people that were closer to the crash and in a better position to help than Tabatha and I, across the street, simply rubbernecked and moved on. Even the nurse stopped and asked if we needed help, and only got out of her car at Tabatha's behest. I have always been horrified by how people can see something like a wreck happen in front of them, and simply keep driving instead of trying to help. It is one thing if the authorities are already there, but it takes time for them to arrive, and had it not been for about four people and a passing police officer, I am not confident that the victims or even some of the first rescuers would have made it away from the car before the fire reached the gas tank. Next time you see a bad wreck happen, consider this before simply driving away and assuming someone else will help. The mob mentality is more horrific to me than just about anything else we have read in this class.

(P.S. Although we found the drivers wallet, I do not remember anything but his first name through the adrenaline haze. I would have liked to check to make sure both of them were OK but have not seen anything in the papers, so I assume they were OK)

(P.P.S. Sorry for the long block and probably hazy reading, but it more accurately portrays the emotions and chaos of what we experienced.)

Endings of the Mist book and movie

I'm really glad that I watched the movie of The Mist before reading the book. I was so disgusted by the movie that I did not want to read the book at all. However, I had time to get over my aversion to it and decided that I could handle the book after all. When I saw how short it was and knew I could read it fairly quickly, I started and knocked it out in one night. 

As I was reading it, I felt as if I was watching the movie all over again. The creators of the movie did a great job of following the book while only leaving out certain parts that they were still able to hint at. Reading it was a lot easier than watching the gruesome parts again. Everyone who had already read the book told me that the ending was different, which also convinced me that I could handle the book. I thought that a different ending would mean that they made it out of the mist and no one had to die. What actually happens is an open ending. Stephen King has left it up to the reader to decide their ending. There is no way that his wife survives all of those creatures if she was out in the garden or in the house - keep in mind that the picture window was broken so they would have gotten in. If it was up to me though, I would have let everyone else survive until the mist clears up and the military comes through and clears everything out. The producers of the movie chose to make their own ending by using events that the narrator has hinted at. In the book, the narrator mentions the gun and the three bullets that are left and what could happen when they run out of gas and are still trapped in the mist. The movie creators took the liberty of making an ending out of those suggestions. I personally prefer the open ending because then I can imagine for myself a much happier ending.

Space Spiders

I had the ending of the movie version of The Mist spoiled for me back when it was in theaters, so I thought that I knew vaguely what to expect out of it. Some blood, some creepy thing in the mist, a lot of character death, I was prepared for all of the above. Only, no ever told me about the space spiders! Space spiders! Giant space spiders! With burn-y webs of death! Honestly, that was the scariest part of the movie for me.


Um... That's really all I came here to say, I wish it were something more constructive.

Misty Day

I don't think there could be a better day to watch "The Mist." The windows at my house always get fogged up when it rains and its cool inside. The tornado and fire truck sirens add good background noises.

I'm really enjoying the book, especially the chapter titles: "The Storage Area. Problems with the Generators. What Happened to the Bag-Boy." I like the journal-like feel because it fits the tone so well. There isn't time for fancy titles when tentacles are eating the bag-boy.

versions of death and child molester

Since class I have been watching a lot of movies and thought of Kent and Claire's papers.

The movie Meet Joe Black has a personified version of Death. I don't know if this could help any.

Also, The Lovely Bones contains a good example of a child molester character.

The clown/child predator story I was describing in class ...

... is "Holiday" by M. Rickert (2007), the title story of her upcoming collection from Golden Gryphon Press. In the meantime, it can be found in two 2008 volumes, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 2, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Paper Idea

Like Cassandra, I really liked how there were bits of fact and truth in From Hell. Especially since its a graphic novel which are normally associated with comic books and superheroes which are based in little to no fact. I've been a big comic book reader since I was little but I've always enjoyed comics and graphic novels that are based in realism. My favorite book, Craig Thompson's "Blankets" falls into this category because it is a semi-autobiographical tale that could have easily just been a novel and no one would have noticed the difference, but the artwork along with the story really makes the book something special.
I would like to base my paper on the idea of realism in the world of graphic novels and comic books using "From Hell", "Blankets", and Art Spigelman's graphic novel "Maus" which has a lot to do with the Holocaust only all of the human characters are actually portrayed as animals in the book. The Jews are mice, Germans cats, Americans dogs etc.. I think that focusing on how these books have broken new ground in a medium that had been reserved for capes and guns would be a really interesting paper.

Fantastical for no reason

This weekend I got a British movie I've been wanting to watch called "Franklyn". It stars Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green(Bond girl from Casino Royale). I had seen the poster and trailer for it and the main thing that I knew was that it had something to do with a masked vigilante. That will pull me in every time, plus the mask looks a lot like Rorschach's from Watchmen so that's a plus too. But when I started watching it, it turns out that the plot focuses on four seemingly unconnected stories that come together by the end of the movie. The section with the masked vigilante takes place in Meanwhile City which is actually just an extremely Gothic and visually stunning version of London. With how the movie kept flipping back and forth between the real life London and then this heightened version called Meanwhile City it was really a lot to take in. It seemed like what would happen if "The Golden Compass", "Crash", and "The Matrix" had a little British baby.

What bothered me was that all of the stories really seemed forced together by the end in a way that really made no sense to me. It was as if the filmmakers knew that adding this character who would make audiences think that the film was a comic book movie would immediately make it more watchable. The movie probably could have been a really solid character drama about relationships had they not decided to go that route, but instead, for me, it ended up being really jumbled and hard to follow just for the sake of adding a few CG sequences into a movie.

Paper Time

Here are my paper ideas...

1. Comparing/contrasting Sirius Black from Harry Potter and Silas from The Graveyard Book. I think it would be interesting to explore their roles as caretakers and guardians. I also would like to discuss their supernatural abilities (Black as a wizard and Silas as a vampire).

2. I would also like to discuss recursion, the extent to which the characters are aware that they're participating in a narrative. I could also discuss ways that fans become part of the stories through fan fiction and ways that characters break the fourth wall (ex: Deadpool from X-Men). I would also enjoy discussing the smash-ups we talked about in class because I'm currently taking a media law class, so I have a decent understanding of what's legal and what isn't. I need a way to narrow my focus, though.

Storm Stories??

So I am really enjoying The Mist, and am having trouble thinking of a paper topic. I was thinking maybe something about storms or weather in stories and the elements they add. Also maybe something about what happens after them?? I obviously need help figuring this out... any ideas??

Paper Thoughts

So I've been considering all we've read/seen this semester and after a lot of thoughts I think I may want to focus my paper on the two Spanish movies we watched. I really liked how they both had a fairytale integrated into their storyline and how they focused on the fantastic from a child's point of view. What I liked about how it focused on the children is that at the same time they also had real life terrors happening to them. Pan's Labyrinth had a war going on, and The Orphanage child was moving to a new house and had HIV/AIDs. But the whole time both fantastical and real world problems are presented in a child-like way with a fairy tale to accompany it. I'm really wondering if I should try to include both, or just focus on Pan's Labyrinth. It has so much in that one movie that can analyzed and talked about. Hmmmm. Thoughts?

Paper musings

While thinking about what I want to write about for my paper, I can't seem to get away from the relation of Kelly Link's Wizards of Perfil and Harry Potter. Seeing as I am a huge Harry Potter fan, I know a lot about it and I feel that I could make a good analysis and comparison. I know we talked in class about how Kelly Link likes to borrow ideas from other stories and we found that Harry Potter did come out before she wrote this story. I wrote another blog with my ideas about this right after we talked about the Pretty Monsters book. Does anyone have any suggestions or maybe some comparisons that they have made between Link and Harry Potter?

Paper Topic

I thought I wanted to do my paper on how clowns are used as villains, but after our last class I am kind of wanting to explore the role of the woman victim. It would be interesting to see why women victims are so often portrayed as promiscuous, especially in From Hell. I am still deciding which one to use, and probably wont be sure until I do some research this weekend.

Animal sense

Monday evening, my dad called me and said he had bad news. My dog, Luke, died. This was a devastating blow, especially since I am four hours away and could not be there during his final hours or be there when my dad buried him. (My family is an animal-loving family).

Anyway, to get away from the sad part and to where I'm going with this.. I started looking at pictures of my dog and was holding my cat. Eli, my cat, wanted to go outside. He went outside and was staring at nothing (I thought) and the fur on his back raised up and his tail flared out (being a solid black cat, he looked really spooky.) But it was weird, because I did not know what was bothering him..

Then I started thinking about times my dog, Luke, had done things like that. He would growl or bark at things I did not see or hear. I have horses at my parents, and I remember how riding at night they would often balk on me or whine. Animals sense so much more than humans, but are what they sensing real or maybe something supernatural??

We see this in Heart-Shaped Box, with the dogs..So I am thinking about writing my paper on animals and their sense of the supernatural. I've seen several people writing/ blogging about their experiences, but what are some instances that we've come across in our readings?

Pop Art Short Film

Amanda Boyle directed a short film adaptation of "Pop Art." I can't find it online. The BBC website has the video, but it says it is not available in our area. I can't believe our allies won't share their short films with us. You can see a picture from the film on this website. Let me know if someone finds a video that can be watched.

Playing Doctor for My Paper

I've been researching genetic disorders to diagnose Art from "Pop Art" for my paper. I think he may have a real disease, and the narrator has just exaggerated this into an inflatable boy. My differential diagnoses are Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome causes oculocutaneous albinism, bleeding disorders, and dysfunctions of the lungs and heart. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome causes extremely elastic skin and flexible joints.

Hurricane

The beginning of The Mist really reminds me of getting to go outside after a hurricane. Trees and power lines are down, and debris is everywhere. Has anyone else experienced this?

Paper topic

I've been thinking about the next paper, and I think I would like to write my paper on child molesters as villains, and why authors choose them to be their antagonists. I could definitely use Heart Shaped Box, but other than that there isn't much. Andy did mention some short stories by Peter Straub that featured child molesters, I would definitely have to read those. I could also make connections to Catcher in the Rye while discussing preservation of innocence. Most of all I want to explore why child molesters are good antagonists. Because of the nature of their crimes, they continue to haunt their victims long after the crime is committed. I think they're the closest thing you can get to a real life villain.

Go away, Alice

While working at The Tuscaloosa News, one of the other designers said he was so lost, it was like he was "Alice, falling in a rabbit hole." If it isn't mentioned in the books, it's in my life. I'm almost tempted to write a paper about the influence of "Alice," but I regrettably have never read the book or seen any of the movies.

Visual

I'm definitely a visual learner, so I was confused why I didn't grasp the comic layout of this book. I found myself reading the words and not looking at the pictures at all. Maybe my mind saw it was a book and forgot the pictures, but I thought it was weird. I missed so much without the visuals, I had to go back and ONLY look at the pictures. Did anyone else have to adapt to the format?

Reality Strikes

While reading From Hell this week has had it's fair share of surprises, footnotes and nudity, I do like that this is a story that is based in facts. Ghosts, vampires, and creepy crawlers do not strike fear into my heart so much as the scary reality of what actually goes on in our world. Especially in cases as horrific as Jack the Ripper, and other serial killers.

I was so glad to have the Appendix to help me along as well. I usually dislike novels that require so much to be explained, but in this case I really feel like reading throught the Appendix while following the story kept me on track and very interested. Not being an avid graphic novel reader, the explanations also helped me to get into the groove of reading it.

Masons

Have any of you gone through those stages where you become fascinating with a subject and try to read as much as you can on it? I've gone from dinosaurs to the Titanic to the Bermuda Triangle to the Loch Ness monster and then to Masons. It all started with National Treasure, haha. Later, my mom got me a book on Free Masonry. I remember being on the wait list with Barnes and Noble came out with Dan Brown's Lost Symbol (although I was disappointed with the book and have since moved on from my interest in Masons.) Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see one of my old interests popping up in From Hell.

Any one else go through these odd stages?

No childhood face

I noticed that in From Hell, the reader does not see William's face until he is grown up. Why do you guys think the creators did this? I thought that maybe they wanted the reader to only think of the grown up William when they thought of the murders. Maybe they thought that thinking of him in his childhood state would bring innocence to a man that they wanted to be thought of as guilty. Or, maybe it was just for dramatic effect.

Autopsy pictures on Google

You can find autopsy pictures of all of the Whitechapel murder victims by doing a Google Image search. I thought it was interesting that many of the pictures in the graphic novel closely resemble pictures of the autopsies. They're pretty gross, so I wouldn't recommend them for people with weak stomachs.

Boudica

(There are several different spellings of her name, I'm going the with this one since it's closest, as far as I can tell, to the original spelling/pronunciation.)

My favorite part of From Hell has to be Gull and Netley's rambling journey across London. It made me want to go spend a couple of months wandering the city myself with a map and historical guide. What was really interesting though was the inclusion of Boudica's destruction of London, mostly because Moore is rather infamous for being more than a bit of a misogynist. That he decided to include such a powerful example of what happens when women are crossed is interesting. Although it makes a weird sort of sense, since the whole story can be seen as a cautionary tale of what happens when women are granted power and the lengths men must go to keep them in check. Or maybe I'm reading too much into things.

I tried to find a picture of the stratigraphic profile of London mentioned, but couldn't come up with anything. Anyone else have any luck?

From Hell

The film adaptation of From Hell was directed by the Hughes Brothers, the same duo that made Book of Eli. Although a few scenes are taken directly from the graphic novel, the majority of the movie is completely different than the book. One thing that I really like about the movie is that the audience doesn't know who the murderer is until the end. A difference I didn't like as much was that the psychic character is combined with the character of Inspector Abberline. I do like how he only has his visions while smoking opium. Another big difference is that Mary Kelly escapes to her home town in Ireland, and Abberline (In the movie, his wife died years ago, and he falls in love with Mary Kelly) knows that he will endanger her if he follows. He kills himself.

Dirty Looks From Hell

I received a few dirty looks while reading our graphic novel assignment this week in class. I realized that I was not the only one taken back by the intensity of the sex scenes in the novel. Wen I awkwardly tried to explain to the stranger sitting next to me that the plot of the book consisted of more than animated pornography and that it was a class assignment. I do not think she believed me at all. I am pretty sure she thought I was even more strange after I rambled on for five minutes in defense of the book and myself.

Minoans and Crete

While reading last night, I came across the point of the story where Dr. Gull is taking his driver around on a tour of the city highlighting the different masonic points. During this segment, he mentions recent archeological discoveries on the island of Crete that showed a civilization that was rather advanced for their time and could have possibly been related to the story of Atlantis. This brought me back to 9th grade when I did a report on the Minoans who are indeed the civilization mentioned in From Hell during this conversation. I've done a bit of research on these guys, and they are quite interesting. I'll just leave you guys with a link to the wikipedia article if you wish to read a bit more about them before I write a rambling two page blog post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization

Inquests

For the sake of just giving general information, I am going to use Wikipedia as my only source. Please don't faint!

I was a little curious about these inquests that happen after every murder, and was kind of surprised that the process is not much changed in modern day England. The purpose of an inquest, is to ascertain the following:

• "Identity of the deceased;
• Place of death;
• Time of death; and
• How the deceased came by his [or her] death."

Basically, in questionable deaths, a coroner conducts a inquest to answer those questions but not anything else. Some are held with juries, some are not. Obviously coroners seem to have more responsibility in England than in the US.

Source

Random

I figured I would write something about this since every now and then we get on the topic of demonic possession. I recently watched Paranormal Activity, and while I didn't find it anywhere near as scary as people had talked it up to be, I still found the idea fairly creepy. The thought that a malevolent spirit could come into a person's life and completely disrupt it for such a long period of time is pretty disturbing. Well, that's all I had to say about that so back to the discussions at hand.

Second Paper Thoughts

Well since the current topic seems to be papers, I'm giving some very surface level thought to what my next one should be about. I think I made a mistake on the last one by going a bit too broad. I really enjoyed "The Surfer" for a few reasons, and I think it may lend itself to a couple of possibilities. The first being the use of epidemics or biological disasters in science fiction, and the other being possibly comparing actions of the aliens within this story to those of another, but then again those are both very broad as well. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Possible Paper Topic?

So, after I finished reading Heart-Shaped Box, I'm still really stuck with the idea of familiars and witchcraft. And since we have another paper conveniently due at the end of the semester, I was thinking about maybe doing some more in depth research on familiars. Jude's dogs played a pretty important role in the book, even though they were these sort of minor animal characters, and I think I could use the idea of Jude's familiars as an opening into researching the sort of witchcraft feel to the events in Heart-Shaped Box. Anybody got any thoughts?

Second Paper Topic

It's a bit early in the game for this, but since others are posting about theirs, I figured I'd go ahead and stake a claim. I'm thinking about doing something on psychopomps in Neil Gaiman's works, possibly comparing them with classic portrayals of Death. I'm really not sure yet, but I know I'd be discussing the Lady on the Gray from The Graveyard Book, Death from Sandman, and possibly Anubis and Thoth from American Gods. I'm undecided about including the latter two because they don't really fit the mold of Death or the Lady.

Paper Ideas

I don't know if you have seen this, but in the Appendix part about page 2 of Chapter 2, he mentions Neil Gaiman: "This book is available at the British Library, and in this instance the necessary locating and photocopying was performed by Neil Gaiman, to whom many thanks."

I'm still trying to narrow down my paper topic. I don't know if this is too generic, but I like the idea of comparing/contrasting Harry Potter with Bod from "The Graveyard Book."

I also like the idea of focusing on the way the book look — from their cover to their illustrations — and how that relates to the material in the book.

I'm leaning more toward the first idea, but I'm open to suggestions.

Paper Two Topic

So this is (currently, at least) a half-baked idea but I think I want to write my second paper on From Hell. Specifically, I want to compare the Alan Moore fictionalization to what we currently know about the Whitechapel murders.

Does this work? Any suggestions?

Alice yet again

The obligatory Alice reference is also present in From Hell. In chapter three, Annie tells Sickert through her state of delirium that she and Albert named their daughter Alice, after of course Alice in Wonderland.

"I want my ALICE! I want her, but...but she's gone...down the rabbit hole."- Annie

Leave Animals Alone

After reading Heart Shaped Box I couldnt help but feel bad for the dogs. It reminded me how cruelty to animals is normally a trope that is associated with a villain. It's just like hanging out in shadows or wearing a black cowboy hat. Villains dont like animals, especially cute ones. I will make an exception for Dr. Evil and the James Bond guy who each had cats, but I think cats are evil so it makes sense that they hang out with bad guys. In movies and books sometimes the villain will make fun of an animal or kick a dog or something like that. An example is in a movie I watched last night, One Crazy Summer. The villain had a deep hatred for lobsters that was never really explained plus he kicked a dog. Therefore he=bad guy. If the good people over at PETA figured this out then the people who make movies are in for a lawsuit.

All Souls

I think one interesting aspect of this book that plays out early on is the concept of animals possessing souls. What do you guys think? Do all animals have souls, or do we reserve that kind of thinking for more "household" animals? Or any animals at all?

It's always nice to imagine that at the end of life I'll find myself seeing all those great pets I've had and loved over the years, but what about all the other animals? Should I expect to see the soul of the sushi I ate last night? Just a thought.

Ghosts for sale

Here's the 2004 news story that novelist Gregory Frost forwarded me at the time with a note saying, in effect, "Someone should write a novel about this." (Caveat: Greg may not have sent this particular BBC News story, but this is definitely the same case, as I remember the grandson and the walking stick.) I didn't, and to my knowledge Greg didn't, but Joe Hill apparently did.

Granted, there have been similar kerfuffles involving other people and other "ghosts," and Hill may have been inspired by one of them, perhaps this later 2004 news story about a supposed bottle ghost in Ireland. This account had Michael Jackson's name attached, perhaps erroneously; at the time, Jackson tended to be invoked by the rumor mill whenever a rich eccentric was needed to give a story credibility. Howard Hughes fulfilled that same function in popular folklore, back when Jackson was a kid.

Alex Boese of the invaluable Museum of Hoaxes blogged about such things here and again here, but if the original sellers (as opposed to the countless imitators) believe in their merchandise, is "hoax" the right word?

Petty in Wonderland

I was listening to Tom Petty last week, and I remembered the music video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" is based on Alice in Wonderland. A lot of our stories have alluded to this one. I forgot to post it then, but it actually fits even better this week with all of the musical references in Heart-Shaped Box. I always liked this song and vaguely remembered seeing the music video when I was younger, but I forgot how weird the video is until I watched it again recently. You should definitely check it out. There is also an interesting article about the song on Wikipedia.

Use of italics

I didn't know if anyone else noticed this in the back of the book, but one of our other authors, Neil Gaiman, wrote a review: "A genuinely scary novel filled with people you care about; the kind of book that still stays in your mind after you've turned over the final page."

The characters were my favorite part of this book. Yea, it might seem hard to relate to a once stripper and a rock legend, but Hill builds a bond between the readers and characters that isn't based on appearances.

I also liked his use of italics. It's such a small detail, but it made all the difference. It makes you wonder, "Is this real?" and changes the tone and feel without saying a word.

This is definitely my favorite read so far... even though I keep telling myself no dogs were harmed in the writing of this book.

Joe Hill: Nirvana fan?

I couldn't help but think of Nirvana's song, "Heart-Shaped Box" while reading Hill's novel this week. Hill mentions Kurt Cobain throughout the novel as well. According to Wikipedia, Cobain originally titled the song "Heart-Shaped Coffin" and it was inspired by a heart shaped box his wife, Courtney Love, gave him. He also said the song was inspired by children with cancer. Here's the lyrics (which I got from www.sing365.com):

She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your Heart Shaped box for a weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
hey
wait
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice

...your advice

Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on Angel Hair and babys breath
Broken hymen of your highness I'm left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
...Your advice

*SOLO*

She has me like a pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your Heart-Shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could Eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
hey!
wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey!
Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice
Your advice
Your advice

A Heart-Shaped Post

Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

The thing, I think, that got to me most about this book is the way Hill presents Southerners. I'm not sure how much research he did in writing The Heart-Shaped Box, but it comes across as if he just read a book about the South and worked off that and whatever stereotypes came to mind. By the end of the book, I felt like if I had to sit through one more phonetic spelling of southern accents I was going to sic a ghost on someone myself.

I may be overreacting a bit, but did this bother anyone else?

You again, Alice?

I guess it is every authors goal to include one line about "Alice in Wonderland," and Joe Hill is no different:

"The hall turned into a corridor out of Alice in Wonderland, too small at one end, with little doors only a house cat could fit through..."

When things seem unreal and impossible, referencing "Alice" seems like the logical thing to do.

Ghost for sale

So curiosity led me to check to see if ghosts were really for sale online, and guess what. They are.

This site has some ghosts trapped in a bottle.
www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Museum-pieces-artifacts/auction-275074040.htm, but unfortunately the auction is over and so if you were interested in getting these ghosts, you'll have to search elsewhere..

Jude

From the minute I started reading The Heart Shaped Box I really liked it. I couldn't help but think that Jude would be the perfect student for our class. I also kind of imagined professor Duncan as being Jude sometimes because I feel like he might also buy a ghost.

Another thing I wondered is if he used the name Jude in relation to John Lennon's son Julian. It may make sense because they are both the sons of some of the most famous figures in popular culture, and Jude was a musician.

Facing my fear of clowns

I have been thinking about different paper topics, and I think I have decided to face my fear of clowns. I find out how the idea of using a character who is supposed to make people laugh and be happy to terrify people like me has developed in literature and film. I am still figuring out exactly what I want to do with this. Let me know if ya'll have any ideas.

Familiars in Heart Shaped Box

So, Heart-Shaped Box was in general a good book, and I liked the way it ended (more or less), but I've got to say the thing I liked best was Jude's dogs. It sounds weird that my favorite part of the book would be these two animals...who weren't exactly focused on in the text...and yet, here we are.
I think part of why I liked Jude's dogs is the fact that they're represented as these sort of familiar spirits. Familiar spirits were associated with English witchcraft from a long time back - I'm sure the idea pops up a ton of places, but the idea that Joe Hill's using seems to come down from the English idea. They were usually described as being small animals - like cats, ferrets, mice (I know - what good is a mouse protector?) or dogs. Their job was to be a servant and protector to the witch they served.
Jude's not a witch, obviously. But the idea of familiar spirits, especially of some kind of familiar spirit in Jude's dogs protecting him against Craddock, falls pretty nicely in line with the conception of familiars in English witchcraft. I thought the idea of "good" spirits protecting Jude - and animal spirits, at that - was a pretty cool one.

Ghosts/ spirits

I continue learning about all these different fantastic creatures, elements, what have you. Now that we're learning about a ghost story, I thought it would be interesting to see what some things define ghosts as. There is a difference between ghosts and spirits..

Here's some sites about ghosts..

http://www.true-ghost-stories.com/GhostInfo.html

http://www.angelsghosts.com/ghosts.html

I'm sure everyone else probably knew all this, but just in case, there's some new information.

Some background on Jack the Ripper

I thought I would suggest this for some light reading to get a general overview (or much more if you wish) of the Whitechapel murders. Should help with reading From Hell.

Edited to add:
This link gives an interactive map that shows the murder locations when you hover over their names.

Smelly ghost

I had an encounter with Craddock, the ghost from "Heart-Shaped Box." I had just opened my book to continue reading when I got to the spot about the suit being in his bed and smelling really bad. About the time I read those words I started to smell something horrible. I started sniffing everything around me until I realized this rank odor was coming from my book. This is the spot where I should have thought rationally, but instead I freaked out. I put the book down and a million thoughts raced through my mind. (I've always had a crazy imagination.) "Maybe Joe Hill put a scent on this page." "Surely this ghost isn't real." Thoughts that were over the top and wrong. I finally discovered where this scent had originated. I looked in my backpack, where the book had been, and I saw my umbrella. My pink, mildewed umbrella. It had happily attached its scent to everything in my bag, including my book. I must have looked a sight while I was sitting on the quad smelling everything from my hair to my clothes.

I guess that means Joe Hill is doing his job with this story. He made me believe that "sooner or later the dead catch up..."

Doctor Who?

The new season of Doctor Who premiered in the UK this Saturday and if you haven't seen it, you really ought to. I know, I know, y'all are all obsessed with Lost, but you can watch more than one hour of tv a week, right?

Doctor Who has been running off and on since the early 60's (if you want serious sf kitsch, check out some of the First Doctor episodes) and was rebooted in 2005 by Russel T. Davies. The basic premise is that the Doctor, a Time Lord, travels around space and time with his companions having wacky adventures with some scary moments thrown in.

The new season has a new Doctor, played by Matt Smith who I was a bit leery of at first but who totally won me over ten minutes in, and a new writing and production staff, headed up by Moffat, who is awesome. The whole thing is very accessible to first time viewers; with all the changes to the cast and crew, it feels like an entirely new show, while still harking back to the (45-ish year) legacy of the show. There's a wonderful scene near the end where Matt Smith steps through a montage of Classic Who monsters and the past Doctors.

I'd put up links, but all the ones I know of are...um...a bit on the illegal side, so you'll have to do your own googling. I wouldn't want to bring the BBC down on all our heads.

American Gothic

Just so everyone know, you have likely all seen the painting American Gothic that is referenced on page 168 in Heart-Shaped Box. Just thought I would make it a little more accessible.

In other news, not much of a bio of Joe Hill on his website's bio page, but I did like this line:

"He lives in a small stone cell at the bottom of a chasm; there is only one steep, treacherous trail leading down to it, and the way is protected by fierce goats."

People named after states

I realized while reading Heart-Shaped Box that the writers of Zombieland might have taken a page out of Joe Hill's book. The characters in Zombieland are also named after states, but in their case it's their destinations, not their origins. I feel like I've also seen this somewhere else, but I don't remember where. Maybe Joe Hill is setting a new trend in the genre.

Wizards of Perfil and Harry P

So I was thinking after class today and I thought of some more similarities between The Wizards of Perfil and Harry Potter, other than the fact that both stories are about wizards. One big thing is The Cupboard Under the Stairs which I feel was taken directly from HP. Harry sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs for most of his life when he is living with the Dursleys and Halsa is given a room under the stairs when she arrives to the tower in Perfil. This living situation in both stories is supposed to be for someone like a servant, as Halsa is treated at first and as Harry was treated by the Dursleys.

I also think that Tolcet can be compared to Hagrid or Dumbledore, since he seems to be the person who goes to seek out magical children who know they are different, but are not sure why. Then he takes them to a new place full of magic. Harry Potter does not know that a magical world exists but he does know that he can talk to snakes and make strange things happen. I'm sure someone goes to the houses of muggle-born children like Hermione to explain about the school and why the child should attend.

I'm thinking this could be a good paper topic, but I'll have to see if I can make it more specific.

The "Dr. Who Files Lost Potter" Library

I really liked Magic for Beginners mostly because of what seemed like clear references to many famous sci-fi/fantasy shows on television in connection to "The Library". The conversation at the beginning of the story about why would Fox let Prince Wing kill her even though Fox was so much stronger reminds me of the endless debate about why Dumbledore would allow Snape to kill him. The idea that the actor playing Fox was normally a revolving stable of actors reminded me a lot of Dr. Who and how there have been multiple actors who've played the time lord. I was also reminded heavily of Doctor Who when they were talking about how The Library wasn't really a set network television show. It just came on whenever it came on. As an American I have no clue when BBC airs Dr. Who and I just catch it on random cable channels whenever a marathon or some random episode might be on. It also reminds me of how LOST was in the earlier seasons when they were constantly on hiatus and it would be an extremely long wait between episodes(sometimes months at a time). I'm not sure what this adds to the overall conversation and topic of Magic For Beginners but it was something that stuck in my mind throughout reading the story.

Simple

So my favorite line from "Pretty Monsters" was, "Not good," Bad says.

So simple. So concise.

Crazy endings

I don't know about what you all think, but these endings sure do leave me confused. I have many questions when each story ends, plus I never suspect the ending to be anything like it is. She just throws me off every time. Does this happen to y'all too?

Twins in the Fantastic

Has anyone noticed that alot of these stories seem to have mentions of twins in them? I thought this was kind of interesting seeing as twins has always been considered mystical or good/bad luck in folklore. they definitely made an appearance in Monster, Specialist's Hat and Wizards of Perfil. Which kind of makes me interested in this as a paper topic . . . hmmm.

This has been by far my favorite reading assignment we've had. The whole book, and especially Wizards of Perfil reminds me a lot of the writing style in Wicked. Did anyone else get that vibe?

I Gotta Feeling

I noticed a theme in "The Wizards of Perfil" that was also in "Stone Animals." The characters feel the supernatural qualities of objects. The characters in "Stone Animals" frequently state that objects feel haunted. In "The Wizards of Perfil," "Some things felt more magic-soaked than other things" (44).

The Specialist Hat

Oh, Kelly Link...

I actually liked this story of hers because I felt like I could finish the story without her help. It reminded me a great deal of "The Others" with Nicole Kidman.

I found another blog that was focusing on this story if anyone's interested: http://acurioussingularity.blogspot.com/

I looked up "The One Who is Watching Me Through the Window," but it is not a real book, unfortunately. And, as far as I can tell, Eight Chimneys is not a real place, either. Although, that would have added a lot to the story, at least for me.

Throughout Link's stories, it seems that's easier for her to not end the stories. This is purely my opinion, but I want someone who forms the plot and spells it out. But maybe you like the freedom of forming your own stories and conclusions.

Space Case

This week my dad reminded me of the first book I ever bought on my own. I was also the first science fiction book I ever read. The title was Space Case. I remember the opening lines were, " It came from outer space to have a look around, and to meet the natives who were not especially friendly." I loved this book so much that my dad and I memorized the lines and would recite them to each other. If you have a little brother or sister who is interested in science fiction I would highly recommend reading them this book.

The Surfer (Flu Epidemics Have Their High Points Too)

I really enjoyed the story because I have a thing for stories that involve some kind of global disaster or peril. What I would call the disaster in this story is a global flu epidemic that isn't so much of the kind with the swine flu, if that could even remotely be called an epidemic, but a flu that actually kills a high percentage of the people infected with it. Also, we find out in this story that America has become almost a disgrace in the minds of the rest of the world with a crippling national debt, wars raging in the middle east, and faltering health and education systems (almost sounds eerily familiar...). What I found most interesting is that unlike most stories that involve some sort of quarantine situation, the people put in quarantine just accept it as normal and don't disintegrate into a group of raving lunatics hell-bent on escaping. The aliens' arrival at the end left me wanting to know what future waited for that world, but alas, I guess it's just up to the imagination.

Magic for Beginners

So I am supposed to talk about "Magic for Beginners." Overall, I thought the story was really interesting and engaging. It was also somewhat confusing and left me with questions. Some of these include, and many may just have been an oversight on my part:

1. So The Library (with the people in the Free People's World Library) is a TV show, yet Jeremy and his friends are also part of a television show? Is that correct or did I misread that. If so, does that make The Library a show within a show, or a parallel universe, or what?
   
2. So is Fox dead?
3. Will Jeremy and his mom go back home to the dad?
4. What was so bad about the book his father wrote? I mean, change a name, publish it, and be done with it. No reason to split up the family.
5. Was someone really listening to Jeremy when he called his phone booth? Was it Fox?
   

I really have no insight, only questions from this story.

The Wrong Grave

I really enjoyed this story, but I am a little confused. So the wrong dead girl really was Bethany, and she didn't want Miles to know? Did she put all the poetry in the elephant/St. Francis statue, including the poetry Miles was looking for? The statue sort of reminds me of Mr. Blah-Blah.

So, this is completely off topic...but...

There was a post about the Phantom of the Opera. And I realize this has absolutely nothing to do with our class, but you guys really, really oughtta read this.

Phantoms, phantoms, phantoms

When I think about a phantom, my mind immediately goes to "The Phantom of the Opera." Although the phantom from this movie/play is very much alive, he seems to have powers. When Christine, the main character, first comes to know of the phantom, she thinks he is an angel who appears to her in dreams. Throughout, the phantom is able to, seemingly, be everywhere without others knowing, and he has a ghost-like presence. He is there in a material way, like Ray is through most of the book, but he still brings mystery and hints of the supernatural.

I also found this article about phantoms, which I thought was interesting because of the window incident. The ghosts/phantoms in this article are known to look out windows, whereas Ray looked into them. Maybe this connection to windows shows how these beings can see the living but cannot be a part of their world. Or, maybe he was just a perverted teenager. Take it how you will.

http://www.covnews.com/news/archive/9217/

Shadow Year Narrator=Jesus' Son??

I know this is a complete stretch since apparently the book is mostly autobiographical but the entire time I was reading it I kept being reminded of the book Jesus' Son which is set-up much like this one with many different, almost journal like, entries making up the book. If you've read Jesus' Son, you'll immediately recognize why this is a stretch because the narrator and main character is involved in some pretty heavy drug use and many other adult situations. But he also goes through so many insane situations and tells them in a very matter of fact way that really reminded me of the narrator of The Shadow Year. Also a similarity between the two is that neither character ever gives out his real name over the course of the book. I really like this idea of literature as a place where characters can be transported from story to story and while the narrator in The Shadow Year is just a kid, I could easily see how all of these situations like being stalked by Mr. White, his Mickey Mouse imitating, cigarette smoking little sister, and his often drunk mother could turn him into the very guarded and very troubled main character from Jesus' Son.

Autism signs according to the DSM

So, for lack of a chance to talk about it in class, I was going to go ahead and list the diagnosis criteria given in the DSM (in layman's terms, a psychological diagnosis manual) for Autism that I think fit for Mary.

• Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
• A lack of social or emotional reciprocity.
• In individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others.
• Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language.
• Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals.

Source

Based on this, I think it seems pretty obvious that Mary had at least some mild form of Autism or Asperger's, as we discussed in class.

Mens White Trench

Here is a Ralph Lauren modern white trench coat for men, a must-have for any hip young man.

http://www.oipolloi.com/oipolloi/gfx-items/1161-1-300.jpg

How to become a vampire

I was looking back on some older posts about vampires and I wanted to post a link from the 43 Things website. I am a member of this site and it's just an online community where people list their life goals and write blog entries about their progress and completion. It's a cool site, but there are some crazy goals on there. Many people have set goals to become vampires. Here is what came up with I typed "vampire" in the search box:

http://www.43things.com/search/query?q=vampire&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0

Go there and read some of their entries, They are crazy!

Too bad I didn't start watching Lost years ago

I have recently started watching Lost from the very beginning in hopes of finishing before the Series Finale. I just watched the episode "Dave" from Season 2 about Hurley's imaginary friend, Dave. I really wish I would have already seen this episode before I wrote my paper on imaginary friends. I didn't use any TV shows as sources, but I definitely think this episode would have been good evidence. Oh well...

IT flashback

While reading The Shadow Year I couldn't help but be reminded of IT when they were peering down the drain looking for their friend who had crawled in search of the man. I was expecting clowns and that huge creepy spider to be at the end of the drain pipe, but was relieved when it was just the tiny soldier.

The Shadow Year

Was I the only one who after reading the description on the back of the book, thought that the changes made to Botch Town subsequently occurred in the real town? I thought this sounded like an interesting concept, but I like what actually happened in the book much more. Elaborate voodoo would have gotten old really quick. They could've just killed or made Mr. White disappear. I liked how Mary could only predict the locations of people. This gave the children an advantage, but it did not give them any control over Mr. White. They had warnings but were still in very serious danger.

Trick or treat

Halloween, as described in The Shadow Year, is somewhat different from what I grew up knowing. Egging houses, steeling candy and Nair bombs are new to me. Halloween was just a time to go around neighbors' houses asking for candy in a costume. No attacks from other kids were even thought of. While it is alot crazier, that poor kid that got hit by a Nair bomb and peed on is probably traumatized. Life sure is different, but I am surprised that 50 years ago was more aggressive than today's Halloween.

Botch Town

When I was reading about Botch Town in the Shadow Year, I couldn't help but get these little flashbacks to when I was a kid - my older brother and I did something pretty similar. Our Botch Town was built out of legos, though, and we just called it "the pretend world". It had most of the major landmarks of our neighborhood, although mostly they were just piles of legos we decided would be so-and-so's house or the school, or stuff like that. I guess we weren't quite as creative as the boys in the book.
Anyway, since my brother and I did something similar, it really struck a chord with me when Jim starts to spend more time out with his new friends, and Botch Town started just gathering dust in the basement. My brother is four years older than me, so when he was starting to grow out of his "pretend world" phase, I was still young enough to believe in it. So that image, of Botch Town being neglected and gathering dust, is a really strong image for me.
I noticed, though, that when the mom started drinking pretty heavily again, Jim started up with Botch Town again. I guess it was the way he coped with his mother drinking so much.

The Mist movie

I went ahead and rented The Mist so that I could watch it over spring break, but I didn't know what to expect because I remember the movie trailers being very vague. I had heard that it wasn't that scary and that it had an unexpected ending. However, I didn't expect it to be so bloody and to have such a horrible ending! My fiance and I were upset by most of the movie, and he wanted me to turn it off but my curiousity had the best of me so I wouldn't do it. I just had to know how it would end. I figured it would be disturbing because it is Stephen King, but the ending is almost too sad to handle. I don't want to spoil anything for anybody who hasn't read it or seen the movie, so I won't give any details. I should have read it first, but I think I would have been too mad to watch the movie. Now I don't know if I can sit through reading it. Does anyone know how well the movie followed the book or if it is a little different? I would like to know before I attempt to read it. Overall the story was interesting but it left me feeling really depressed and disappointed. That may also have something to do with the fact that we were watching it alone in our new mostly empty apartment in Cincinnati, so being in a strange new area didn't help. Next time I watch a disturbing movie, I want to be somewhere more comforting!

Manic-depressive?

I'm no psychologist, but the mom from The Shadow Year seems a little bipolar. The author describes her as having "bursts of energy" or creativity that last a little more than a week. It seems like she doesn't do much of anything for long periods of time, then all of sudden she paints a masterpiece. On top of this, she has sporadic fits of rage throughout the novel. Also, I think it's more than coincidence that many famous artists are bipolar, and her hobbies include painting and playing guitar. She also enjoys chain smoking and drinking, but I don't think those are creative outlets.

More Alice

I just wanted to point out another reference to "Alice in Wonderland" in "The Shadow Year" when they compare the pipe smoke is like that of the giant caterpillar on the mushroom (page 223). Obviously "Alice" has inspired or rubbed off on a lot of the authors we've read. It seems fitting that with all these references, I should go see "Alice" this week.

Windows and bubble lights

As I was reading "The Shadow Year," I couldn't help but wonder about the characters windows. Do they not have blinds or curtains? The "creeper" wouldn't be able to see in if they did. That seems like an easy fix for me that, so far in my reading, no one has addressed.

Also, I had never heard of bubble lights before, so I looked up some pictures of them. Here's a link to see what they look like. Hope everyone's having a great spring break!

http://www.bettyschristmashouse.com/lights/images/bubble_multi_sterling.jpg

Is Kelly Link human?

I will be talking about Kelly Link's "Stone Animals" in class today, but I think I will be asking more questions than giving answers. I kept waiting for there to be an explanation for the rabbits, the world below the house and everything becoming haunted, but I ended up being more confused by the ending. When learning more about Link, I found her Web site, and it has some really interesting information for anyone who is interested in her. I found this one quote, and I think it sums up how I feel after reading this story.

Kelly Link is almost certainly not human. I believe she is a story-telling elemental who has unearthly powers that she uses to create wondrous and deeply fascinating tales.
—Garth Nix, author of the Abhoresen Trilogy

http://kellylink.net/

The Writers of Pansu

Did anybody else get a kick out of the two hollywood type's in this story? Nothing really shocked them, they just kind of showed up, quoted a few movies and rolled with everything as it came along. It really reminded me of Harold and Kumar? Just two guys showing up and wanting to get stoned while these insane events are going on all around them. Personally I would like to see more of this in the actually Harold and Kumar movies. Harold and Kumar 3: Smoking the Pansu.

P.S. Did anyone else get the feeling that they had been possessed at the end of the story? They might have just been hungry after everything that had happened but since such a big deal was made about the demon's need to feed it just seemed a little off to me.

SeaWHAT

I'm discussing Sea Oak today in class. I read the story before for a creative writing class, and even though I knew what was going to happen this time, I could not help freaking out. Resurrected Bernie is just plain scary.

I've been trying to compare the resurrection in Sea Oak to something else we've read. I immediately thought of the Poe short story we read, since it involved someone being buried alive. Though it is not have many similarities, it does involve someone coming back after death. I also thought of the vampire stories, but I don't see Bernie as a vampire. I guess, if anything, she's a zombie with a functional mind. She's not trying to eat anyone, she just wants a better life.

Thoughts?

Dauphin Island

I went to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab this past weekend with my Biology of Algae class. Fort Gaines is right next to the facility. I figured with the rich war history of the landmark there would be a lot of paranormal research conducted at this location. I found this article that describes hauntings at Fort Gaines. It also mentioned that the location was featured in an episode of MTV's Fear. Youtube has the entire episode in five parts.

The Long Hall on the Top Floor

I thought it was cool to find the Harris Transfer and Warehouse Building on Google Street View (I love street view!) I don't really have that much more to say about the story, but I did want to point that out. It's not nearly so tall as I imagined from the description.

Also, there is a small article with two pictures of the fish market restaurant that was put in the building a few years ago at the bottom of this article.

Pansu Thoughts

Surprisingly enough, there's not that much information out there about Korean demonic possession. Most of what I turned up focused on the practices of the mudang, or shaman (although I'm not sure if they really are shamans in a technical sense). Oddly enough, this is the second story I've read in as many weeks that featured Korean exorcisms of one sort or another. Weird how things tend to travel in packs sometimes, huh?

Anyone have any guesses on the importance of the peach schnapps or peaches in general, 'cause I'm at a loss.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but I ran across a story yesterday that y'all should read. It's really short (it'll take all of 5 minutes to read) but it's fantastically creepy.

Hard Candy

Has anyone ever seen the movie Hard Candy? I watched it last night, and although it is not necessarily a horror film, I thought it was pretty creepy.

Are you the right Alice?

Did anyone catch the reference of Alice in "The Long Hall on the Top Floor"?

Anyone else go see Alice in Wonderland? Thoughts on that movie. It was a lot different than I expected..

Academy Awards

I am watching the Academy Awards and Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart just gave a tribute to horror films. Here is the link to a video of their presentation but not the clips of movies that came after (I couldn't find it this soon, but I will try again tomorrow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIO00EpWU0Y

Uno, dos, tres...

While walking around my house knocking on walls saying some form of, "Uno, dos, tres toca la pared," my fiance finally stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I told him about the Spanish movies we watched, and he was really interested (he majored in Spanish). He saw Franco's grave when he went to Spain, so I thought I'd put a link to an image of it. He said the cross could be seen for miles. We then spent a great deal of time trying to figure out if any of the characters from "Pan's Labyrinth" were based off of real people, but we couldn't find any links — other than Franco being the dictator.

Real Vampires

I found this link when I was researching for my paper and I thought it would be interesting to share with everyone:

"Vampire" discovered in mass grave

There is a picture too!

Story volunteers for March 10

According to my notes, here are the folks leading our March 10 discussions, as we finish up the second volume of the Straub anthology. Correct me if I err, please. And keep in mind that you needn't wait till March 10; the discussion can begin sooner, here on the blog.

Tara Bullock: Saunders, "Sea Oak"

Daniel Dye: Kiernan, "The Long Hall on the Top Floor"

Charlotte Brady: Hill, "Pop Art"

Claire Norrell: Brite, "Pansu"

Elizabeth Howell: Rickert, "The Chambered Fruit"

Lauren Heartsill: Link, "Stone Animals"

Here's a topic about John Wayne Gacy for Elizabeth

I have a weird fascination with serial killers, and talking about killer clowns last week reminded me of John Wayne Gacy. This guy was a living nightmare. He would dress up in a clown costume and rape and murder his victims. What a creep.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy

Surprisingly not burned out

After writing 2000 words about "His Unconquerable Enemy" and "The Monster Maker," I'm surprisingly not burned out on these stories. I still think "His Unconquerable Enemy" is a perfectly designed and written story, and I actually liked "The Monster Maker" more the second time I read it than the first time. Here it is if you'd like to join in on the messed-up fun: http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0438.pdf

Thank you Mercedes

So this whole time I feel as if the stories we've read have portrayed women as weak, pathetic or dependent. While Ofelia's mom is somewhat so, I was glad to see Mercedes step up to the Capitan.

I was very impressed with her bravery to sneak things to the enemy right the captain's nose. She defied the very man she worked under. Then when the captain threatens her to tell him everything by torturing her, she attacks him. ( I wonder how he lived and was able to continue moving around and all, he was a beast! haha) But even after that, when she tells the captain that his child would know nothing of his father, I smiled. She's tough, she was not putting up with his crap anymore.

So thank you Mercedes for finally going against this pathetic, weak, docile, stereotypical female archetype.

Yuki-Onna: Other versions

Not to use to corny of a blog post, but I wanted to link to this version of Yuki-Onna. It is quite different than the version we read, as you will discover if you read the short story. I also read an actual folktale version that lasted all of half a page, but as I am not sure about copyright, I will let Andy guide me on whether and how to post it. I found it interesting while writing my paper just how vast the different characters of Yuki-Onna can be. Each story I compared had very different features that I guess is common to all folklore.

Pan's Labyrinth & Hellboy

Did anybody else notice that in Pan's Labyrinth, when the faun is telling Ofelia about her heritage, he says that her parents are the king and queen of Bezmorra? If anybody's seen Hellboy 2, then it should sound familiar...del Toro uses Bezmorra as the kingdom that the elves are from in Hellboy 2. Which could be used as an argument for the faun and Ofelia's whole adventure actually happening as opposed to just being a fantasy that a little girl used to escape from the harsh reality of the Spanish civil war.

Family revisited

As I just wrote the last lines of my paper, I have come to the conclusion that "Family" is one of the more disturbing stories we've read. If you read it and pay attention to the details of the world around the compound, it's pretty clear that this is a portrait of world falling apart at the seams. It's a world ravaged by ecological disaster and social upheaval. I know this is random and a couple of weeks removed from the original discussion, but I thought it was very interesting, and as I found in doing the research for my paper, dystopian literature can be used as a way to critique a current society's policies by showing a possible future these policies could lead to. When looking at some of our environmental policies and most US citizens lackadaisical approach when it comes to keeping the government accountable for its cations, is it not possible that our society could be heading in such a direction? Just a random thought.

Narnia & Pan's Labyrinth

While watching Pan's Labyrinth, I noticed similarities between it and The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically The Lion, The With and The Wardrobe (which I absolutely love, by the way). Both tales involve a secret world and children escaping war. The two films also have a faun-type creature. Apparently, del Torro was asked to direct Narnia, but decided to work on Pan's instead. This is mentioned in the wikipedia article on Pan's Labyrinth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan%27s_Labyrinth

Spanish is still scary

I watched both of these movies for the first time in high school. First I watched Pan's Labyrinth, not realizing it was in Spanish, but decided to stick the movie out. I was really surprised at how scared and creeped out I got, even though, as a French student, I knew about two sentences of Spanish.

When deciding to watch The Orphanage, I based my experience off the one I had with Pan's Labyrinth and was really excited about the movie. Again I stayed interested the entire time and definitely felt allot of suspense.

I don't think I would have ever chosen to watch either of these Spanish movies if they had not been horror films. I would never sit through a Spanish love story or action movie. I was wondering if ya'll felt the same way about foreign films and if you felt that it says something about the ability of the genre to draw in viewers.

The Orphanage

I don't know how many of you guys have seen the Orphanage yet, but I wanted to post something I found interesting about it. The mother in the movie is played by Belen Rueda, who is a pretty well known Spanish actress. She's really well known for dramatic roles, though; she even won a Goya prize for Mar Adentro, which was most definitely a very different kind of movie than the Orphanage. She'd never been in any kind of horror or thriller type flick before.
I just wanted to see what people think about the director choosing a non-horror actress to play the lead in the movie. I can't decide whether I think that makes her reactions more genuine, as somebody who hadn't encountered that kind of tense situation before, or less genuine, since she doesn't have the experience from other thrillers.

Also, fun fact, the actress that plays Aurora is Geraldine Chaplin, who is American. She was in Cría Cuervos, arguably one of the more interesting films to come out of Spain in the 1970s. I completely recommend it for anybody that liked the Orphanage.

Don't judge a book, or movie, by its cover

I definitely was not ready for "Pan's Labyrinth." I don't want to spoil it for anyone hasn't watched it yet, but I was surprised how gruesome it was. I looked at the cover and was like, "Awww, look at the cute littler girl. This will probably be pretty tame. I wonder why it's rated 'R'." That question got answered real quick.

Did anyone else catch that Ofelia mentioned a black stone in the story she told her unborn brother? It made me think of Howard's story, but only for a second since this movie had so many unique elements.

Searching for the Opposite of Perfect

Well after searching Gorgas' oddly organized shelves of books I was able to find two volumes of criticism on dystopia in literature. After brining them home and cross referencing them with the stories in our anthologies and the list Andy gave me, it was found that none of the stories or authors were mentioned in these two volumes. Lame. However, the introductions and first couple chapters of each book deal with dystopia in literature as a whole and will give me a good bit of material to write on and then perhaps apply to my own analysis of "Family", "The Repairer of Reputations", and perhaps a couple more from the Straub anthology.

Oh, and for anyone interested these two sources are:

Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide - M. Keith Booker

The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature - M. Keith Booker

They both seem interesting, and I'll probably read the 2nd in full length after writing the paper as the first mainly deals with analyzing many works I've never read.

A corny comparison to break up all the hard work

As I've been researching, I've found some pretty neat things that I thought I would share. I read that a genius loci, which is from Roman mythology, is often depicted as a snake. And since I'm comparing "Genius Loci" to a vampire, I thought this was really interesting. Snakes kill their prey with fangs, as do vampires. Maybe that's a corny comparison, but that's the point I'm at right now. I also found how genius loci are, for the large part, intelligent spirits that inhabit a place — not spirits that draw you into your death, like from our readings. But, I guess a good ol' story about a magical, happy field would not be included in Straub's books.

This is NOT a source, of course, but if you want to see what Wikipedia has to say about genius loci, look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_loci.

"Invisible Flying Things"

So Andy asked me elaborate on what it I was referring to when I talked about the "invisible flying things" in class on wednesday and I had to do a little research. I remember hearing about it vaguely when I was younger on possibly the History Channel and only remembered snippets. It was some sort of conspiracy theory that went with UFO's or something similar. Well, after a little digging I found it! Here are a few links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(cryptozoology_and_ufology)

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4004

Basically, people thought an optical illusion on film was actually some sort of invisible flying insect. Not that long ago either, interestingly. I don't know why this stuck in my mind all these years after hearing about it, I couldn't have been very old when I heard of them. But this really reminded me of What Was It?

The IAFA conference program

Many people regularly go to conferences to present papers much like the ones you are writing. Many of these papers get published, as well. For example, if you visit the website of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and click on "Preliminary Online Program for ICFA-31" (in the right-hand column), you'll see the dozens of paper topics that will be presented at the association's conference in Orlando in March. (That's where I'll be during spring break, if the creek don't rise.) Topics of obvious interest to our class include, among many others:

Magical Numen vs. Magical Negro: A Defense of Stephen King

Latina Bodily Intersections: Woman on the Edge of Time and Pan’s Labyrinth

Heroic vs. Ordinary Virtues: The Role of Shadow in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

Imagined Nation: Space, Place and National Identity in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

Folklore and Intertextuality in the Works of Neil Gaiman

A Goddess or a Madwoman?: The Power of the Maternal in Stephen King’s Misery?

Doubled Selves, Shattered Tales: The Feminist Fairy-Tale Techniques of Kelly Link and Catherynne M. Valente

“Who Ever Said There Were Answers?”: Tim Underhill and the Fear of the Open in Peter Straub's lost boy lost girl

Revisioning the Gothic Other: Race in Peter Straub's Mr. X

Doorways to Liminal Spaces, Cartesian Doubt, and the Reproduction of Reality in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline

Race, Miscegenation & the Grammar(s) of the “Weird” in H. P. Lovecraft and China Miéville

Dancing the Macabray: Life and Death in The Graveyard Book

The Horror and Beauty of Miscegenation in H.P. Lovecraft and Octavia E. Butler

Tracing the Alternative City: Miéville, Gaiman, Zelazny, Spenser, et alia.

A Secret Society of Doppelgängers in Conspiracy: Fantastical Revenge and Paranoiac Pursuit in Poe and Maupassant

Should any of you at any point be interested in attending or presenting at this conference or any other such conference, I would be happy to hear from you.

Home of Nymphs and Vampires

Mary's paper idea inspires me to share the oddly bucolic cover of a 1929 book in my collection.The book flap describes some of the contents:

There are nereids in the Greek isles today and -- in a parlance not quite Homer's -- a man is out of luck if he marries one. There are dracos, too. Dracos have supernatural strength and are fond of roasted children, but are incredibly stupid. There are vampires also, male and female, who frequently try to be good citizens but who labor under handicaps, partly because they are swollen like drums and give forth the same sound when beaten.

Journalist turned diplomat George Horton lived for decades in Greece, where, among other things, he championed the revival of the Olympic Games and U.S. participation in them. He also was down on Muslims, especially Turks, so some of his writings have been controversial then and now.

Bermuda Triangle theories

As if on cue, because Kent got us talking about it in class Wednesday, Stephen Wagner's always interesting About.com: Paranormal Phenomena newsletter this week presented this fine roundup of theories to explain the Bermuda Triangle, from the obvious to the somewhat plausible to the absurd. Note the link to the text of the apparent first print reference to a "Bermuda Triangle," an article by Vincent Gaddis in the venerable pulp magazine Argosy in 1964, the year of my birth.

Queer fantasy resources

Claire's paper topic prompted me to do some poking around. The university libraries have both editions (1983 and 1990) of Uranian Worlds: A Reader's Guide to Alternative Science Fiction and Fantasy, a groundbreaking reference for LGBT fantasy. It's shelved in the annex, however, so better get your request in ASAP, Claire.

In the mid-1990s, about the time I was entering the field, White Wolf Publishing released three excellent original anthologies titled Bending the Landscape, each devoted to LGBT characters and themes; one was devoted to science fiction, one to fantasy and one to horror. Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel were the editors. The university libraries have the fantasy volume, but it's checked out at the moment -- perhaps to you, Claire? Hope so.

In fandom, the Gaylactic Network was founded to bring LGBT folks together and highlight LGBT issues. It has sponsored both conventions and awards.

Mark R. Kelly's invaluable Locus Index to SF Awards has thorough lists of winners and nominees for the Gaylactic Spectrum Award and the spec-fic categories of the Lambda Literary Award, which we mentioned in class.

Hope all this is helpful.

For Charlotte: Fairy tale links

Cinderella versions.

Little Red Riding Hood versions.

Snow White versions.

Paper Topic the Second

I just got back from Gorgas and I found the anthology I was thinking of, it's called Blending the Landscape: Fantasy (the link is to Amazon). There was also a volume of Feminist fantasy that I grabbed just in case.

The thing online I was thinking of is Crossed Genres and is a magazine available online only that publishes sf/fantasy stories which "openly encourage submissions which address the issues surrounding these topics [gender, race, religion and sexual orientation], as we wish to promote open dialogue." There's actually a LGBTQ section in their archives. I'm not sure how much of the site you can get at without buying a subscription, though.

There also seems to be quite a bit of work available on JSTOR.

If any other sources come to mind, by all means, send them my way.

Paper Topic

I've really had trouble coming up with a paper topic that seems VERY interesting to me. So far I have come up with two. Something focusing on the girl with the green ribbon story and the german student. Possibly expanding on common elements in children's scary stories and some of the stories we have read. Also, I know we have talked about this in class a lot but I am interested in stories that present women as a threat and dangerous...

Fake Books of Great Significance

I've been struggling with developing a paper topic for the last few weeks. I knew that I wanted to have a focus on "The Black Stone" since it was a story that I really enjoyed more than others. I also found the Repairer of Reputations to be an extremely interesting story and I found a tie between the two stories in the mythical text that no one was allowed to read but most were aware of. It reminded me of Catch 22 because allegedly nobody was allowed to have read it or nobody had seen the text for years but somehow everyone was still very aware of it and knew that there was something very wrong about what was in those pages. I then stumbled upon the Necronomicon, a fake book of great significance in the Lovecraft mythos much like the book "Nameless Cults" in Howard's "The Black Stone". I would like to focus my paper on the three fake but mythic books from these authors: "Nameless Cults", "Necronomicon", and "The King in Yellow". I'd like to write about what made these books so important in the grand scheme of things in their respective stories and then go into how this idea of a banned evil book or in the case of "The King in Yellow", play, has evolved into popular culture with movies like The Number 23 and Lovecraft's own Necronomicon playing a major part in the Evil Dead series.

Luella: Unconcious or Deliberate?

I was thinking that I would try to prove whether Luella Miller is actually conscious of her malevolent, life draining actions. I feel that she is unaware that she's the cause of her helpers' deaths until Lydia confronts her in the kitchen one day. After that, she stops seeing anyone, apparently realizing that she has in fact killed those who help her. So, I hope to prove that up to that point, she did not realize what she was doing. What do you all think?

Glimpses of Terror Idea

So, as I started thinking more and more about my paper topic, I tried to imagine what I found to be the most terrifying/scary/unnerving for myself. Something I found really interesting, and will talk about more in class, is the idea of something being horrific or unnerving because it is glimpsed, but never fully discovered or unveiled. The three texts I'd like to focus on with this idea (but will gladly take any and all suggestions!) are What Was It?, For the Blood is the Life, and Unseen - Unfeared. Over the course we have talked about how things that were not well understood in those times (medicine, insanity, new technologies, science in general) led to stories about the fear of the "unknown." I think I would like to focus on how, in these particular stories, seeing only a glimpse of the fantastic is as or more terrifying than fully understanding as it leaves a window open to wonder what else is wandering around unnkown among us. I'd love any feedback on this!

Pan's Labyrinth Cameo by Frog of Cthulhu

I know we don't watch Pan's Labyrinth until next week but I couldn't help but post this. I was rewatching Pan's last night when I saw that intense and kind of gross scene with the giant tree frog and I was immediately reminded of the giant toad in "The Black Stone". It had me curious if there was some giant dark fantasy conspiracy going around to make frogs even creepier than they already are. Makes me wonder what has these people choosing frog's as these mythic disturbing creatures. I dont know if it has anything to do with frogs being one of the Lord's plagues on Egypt and these writers are just running off that supernatural vibe or what. I just thought it would be a neat topic of discussion.

Gone to St. Augustine

So I'm about to leave for St. Augustine, FL for my future sister-in-law's wedding and I won't be able to discuss paper topics in class with you all this afternoon. I've had trouble thinking of something to write about, but I am very interested in the questions "To what extent is there a distinct Mediterranean vampire tradition, and to what extent is that tradition depicted in “For the Blood Is the Life”?" and "To what extent is Lydia Anderson one of Luella Miller’s victims?  To what extent is Luella herself a victim?" If anyone has any suggestions for either of these topics, I will greatly appreciate it. I do not know if I will have internet access at our beach house, but if I do I will try to update on what I have been thinking about. If not, I'll just have to call Andy on my way back or just start working as soon as I get back to Tuscaloosa. Have fun in class later, I hate I'll miss the paper discussion. I know you all will come up with some interesting ideas.

Vampires

So in learning about vampires, I wanted to include characteristics from stories we've read that include vampires. To make sure I include everything, what all stories have vampires as people in them?

Thanks for the help. I'm going to compare and contrast vampires throughout the stories.

Possession

I haven't really narrowed this topic down, but I was thinking of comparing a few of the possession stories we have read. "The April Witch," was really different from the "The Thing on the Doorstep." I think that this shows that a basic idea can evolve into just about anything depending on where the author chooses to take it. I was also struck by the similarity of the possessions in "The Thing on the Doorstep" and a series of three books I read by Anne Rice, "The Mayfair Witch Chronicles." Those are just my first thoughts on the paper. Hopefully ya'll can help me develop it more during class.