Jelly-Fish and Chocolate

After going over this weeks readings I was wondering if anyone else was reminded of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when reading " The Jelly-Fish"? All I could think about when the scientist went into the slide was Mike Teavee, who got shrunk and stuck in TV land in the movie. Although Mike enjoyed being inside TV and the scientist tragically died by jelly fish digestion, I thought the two were at least a bit similar.

Story volunteers for Feb. 3

According to my notes, here are the folks leading our Feb. 3 discussions, as we finish up the first volume of the Straub anthology. Correct me if I err, please. And keep in mind that you needn't wait till Feb. 3; the discussion can begin sooner, here on the blog.

Elizabeth Howell: Stevens, "Unseen -- Unfeared"

Deirdra Drinkard: Fitzgerald, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Charlie Newman: Keller, "The Jelly-Fish"

Paul Ayers: Howard, "The Black Stone"

Leigh Hunnicutt: Lovecraft, "The Thing on the Doorstep"

Broxton Miles: Smith, "Genius Loci"

Daniel Dye: Bloch, "The Cloak"

An "Adventure of the German Student" paper idea

One of y'all should go into the university's humanities databases, either at Gorgas or via the Gorgas online port, to see whether any scholars have identified any precursors to Washington Irving's "Adventures of the German Student." A number of popular writers have guessed that Irving's story is the first occurrence anywhere of the venerable "then her head fell off" folktale we discussed last week -- for example, Donna Bowman at The Onion A.V. Club calls Irving's "Probably the original version of this scary tale" -- but since Irving was much inspired by European folktales in all his work, I suspect the "then her head fell off" motif shows up even earlier, maybe in the Brothers Grimm?

Yuki-Onna

I found this story to be an easy read and also intriguing. It turns out that Yuki-Onna is a japanese mythologial character and appears in alot of other stories. She also has some different personalities that reoccure throughout the stories. If you google Yuki-Onna and click on images, you will see alot of interesting illistrations.
I also am struggling to understand why Straub included this Japanese folktale in his anthology. Any ideas?

I think i did the link to my previous post wrong

Sorry guys... not very familiar with blogs... here is the link.
http://www.realhaunts.com/united-states/the-university-of-alabama/#comments

The University is Haunted!!

I thought this article was interesting. Field trip anyone?
Also, I have a friend who lives in the tri-delt house and she says that it is also haunted. She is scared to sleep on the sleeping poarch(a big room with lots of beds in it because there are no beds in individual rooms) because two of her friends have said that they woke up with a girl laying/floating over them. I think that maybe someone died in the house, but I'm not positive. I'll ask her next time I see her and get the whole story.

The Bierce Mystery

I have found all the stories to be truly interesting and chill-bump inducing. I have never read any of these stories, so far — I guess I'm a product of English teachers who didn't like to read outside the box.

I'm presenting about "The Moonlit Road," and its mystery really interests me. I have read about it online, but I was wondering what you guys thought about the second section: "Statement of Caspar Grattan." I've read a few ideas of who he is, and I have my own ideas, but I wondered what you thought.