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.