Edinburgh the Erie

In class I mentioned that while in Edinburgh, Scotland I could identify with the sense of a place being inherently creepy just as the glen in "Genis Loci." As soon as we arrived I was overtaken by the gloomy atmosphere that had settled in the city just below the highlands, and going on a ghost tour surly did not help to brighten the mood. Here is the link to the website of the company who gave us our tour. It has lots of cool facts and lore about the city and outlines the different tours available. Also I wanted to add that J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the "Chamber of Secretes" in Edinburgh at a cafe called The Elephant House.

The primitive future

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," seems to fit the typical '60s persona, at least in my eyes. It mixes futuristic ideas, like the computer, while keeping a primitive basis. The captives don't have any sort of technology, like a car or other means of escape. The computer seems to have taken away the scientific means that led to his own assembly.

I say it reminds me of the '60s because it makes me think of "Planet of the Apes" for some reason. Like the show, things are primitive while being in the future, at least that's my take. Both examples show humans as the captive, or the ones who don't belong.

Where are the women?

Women continue to get the short-end of the stick with the stories for this week. I have never seen "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" movie, but I wonder if his mom had more of a role than she did in the book. I would think the mom, who gave birth to this phenomenon, would be mentioned more to give her perspective. What did she think when she gave birth to Benjamin? Did she have any idea things were wrong during the pregnancy? I feel like a whole side of the story is missing without more input from her. At least a woman had some whole in this story — Hildegarde — unlike stories like "Unseen — Unfeared," with no female characters, and "The Jelly-Fish," which stated that the graduates were all male.

What A Coincidence

Robert E. Howard's "The Black Stone" was really fun and interesting to read. It did an outstanding job of grabbing and keeping my attention throughout the story. However, I had a bad taste in my mouth after reading it and it wont quite go away. Throughout the story's buildup you just know that sooner or later this guy is going to see the black stone and sure enough he does. Howard adds this great backstory to the black stone and its rich history and the people who worship it and make up the small town that surrounds the stone but then he is sure to mention that the real crazy stuff at the stone happens on Midsummer's Night. I get that its a ritual and its spookier if it happens once a year but it really upsets me when the narrator just matter of factly declares that this very night is...you guessed it..Midsummer's Night.

It's still a very rich and creepy story, but I cant help but feel like just randomly throwing that in just so the story fits better was a bit of a cop-out. If anybody else has ever been disappointed like this by a story/movie/play/whatever and feel that that one specific part of the story ruined what otherwise would have been a really enjoyable experience I would love to know about it just for the comfort that somewhere out there people are just as confused as I am.

all the best,

Paul

Don't let the movie fool you

Before reading the short story, I had seen the movie the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The movie however has little to do with the story. The plot of the movie does not follow that of the short story. In fact, I believe the people who wrote the movie script just like Fitzgerald's idea of aging backwards and built another story around that, but kept the title of Fitzgerald's story.

Other than comparing movie to story, I thought it was interesting that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote this. I did not know who had written this until this class, and I am somewhat shocked to find out it was Fitzgerald because he totally broke away from his traditional style of writing when he wrote this fantasy piece.

The idea behind this came from what some sources say as a quote from Mark Twain. You can find the source here. Paraphrasing what was said..It's a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst at the end. On a weird note, Fitzgerald apparently called this story, the funniest story he had ever written, which is kind of odd, I think. Any one else think that's weird?

"The Cloak"

"The Cloak" by Robert Bloch was a fun story to read and a far different take on Vampires. Apparently all it takes to become Vampire-like is to wear one of their cloaks. The story has a twist at the end which, In my opinion, was a little obvious. Maybe I am jsut to cynical for twists of that nature to phase me.

As for Bloch himself, I found a few interesting tidbits here. Some of those tidbits include:

1. When Bloch was nine he saw a version of The Phantom of the Opera which had him sleeping with the light on.
   
2. Influenced by Poe and H.P. Lovecraft
3. Once said "Comedy and horror are opposite sides of the same coin," which plays out in this story.

Auburn Hauntings

After reading the post about the good Alabama school's hauntings and going to the other school last weekend for the basketball game, I decided to look up information on Auburn's ghost stories.

http://www.realhaunts.com/haunted-houses/united-states/alabama/auburn/

http://www.ghostsofamerica.com/3/Alabama_Auburn_University_ghost_sightings.html