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.