Monthly Archives: October 2020

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‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’: Disturbing Imagery and Delightful Tales

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There are foundational books that shape the way we think about the world around us when we are kids. Some of those books are childish, such as Clifford or Amelia Bedelia. Meanwhile, some of those books are far more adult, like Goosebumps or the book we are analyzing today, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

All we really have to do is point out the illustrations of this book. No doubt, they are why most people remember the book fondly. Though, if we take a closer look, the stories are also designed in a way to be quickly consumed and universally shared. Join us as we delve into this strikingly dark collection of folklore.

About Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Schwartz was a journalist and author of more than 50 books, and he drew a great deal of inspiration from folklore and urban legends. He also wrote about folk tales and legends aside from this sinister collection. Likewise, he wrote poetry about similar subjects.

This was a controversial collection when it was published in Oct. of 1981. Considering this, advocacy groups frequently challenged this book for its disturbing imagery and dark content.

For instance, in an article written for The Argus-Press, an “enraged” mother shares her concern about the content in More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

“This was way past being scary,” she said. “There were two stories in there that were really objectionable. One was really disgusting. It was about a man who murders his wife, chops her up, puts her through a meat grinder and sells her as sausage” (The Argus-Press)

The woman above is angry at the story titled “Wonderful Sausage,” which, is an excellently wicked little story. Certainly, the graphic depictions within the book caused some alarm, as well as the artwork.

As such, the true selling point of this book outside of Schwartz’s excellent storytelling is Stephen Gammell’s drawings. Gammell has worked on many different projects and won the Caldecott Medal for US picture book illustration in 1989. In all three collections of scary stories, Gammell’s illustrations are truly something to marvel at because they are ungodly scary and so completely original. This is exactly what you want out of horror art.

Here is an article comparing Brett Helquist’s more modern drawings compared to Stephen Gammell’s bleak, esoteric ones. You can see the difference in visual impact almost immediately.

Contents

The original book was published on Oct. 14, 1981 and features 29 stories, including:

  • The Big Toe
  • Me Tie Dough-ty Walker!
  • Alligators
  • Room for One More
  • The Wendigo
  • The Hook
  • High Beams

The ones listed are certainly highlights. However, a book so wrapped up in nostalgia has endless highlights. The stories range from horror to comedy to just plain strange. There is a great variety in this collection and they have that “folkloric” quality, which borders on urban legend.

They are just astonishingly spooky all around.

Conclusion

Horror gives us insight into our own fears, anxieties, and humanity. This is important for us to understand so we can make better sense of the world around us. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a great example of a book that does just that. It puts the reader in the face of murder, mortality, and all things that go bump in the night.

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Four of the Most Evil Books Ever Written

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There are many evil books in the world. Some are real, like Mein Kampf, and some are fake, like The Necronomicon. Regardless of their validity, having some knowledge of these texts is a good thing. One must be able to take the necessary precautions after all, especially if they go digging in the darkest places in history and fiction.

1. Evil Book: Necronomicon

The first most evil book on this list is the king of all evil texts. The Necronomicon is “bound in human flesh and writ in human blood.” In some fictional depictions, the text has the face of a creature (or man) emblazoned on the front. Director Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films, for instance, have the face of a horrific monstrosity made of human flesh grimacing on the cover.

In its fictional history, it was banned after multiple translations and found itself “only heard of furtively.” In Arabic, it was known as the Kitab al Azif. Written by Abdul Alhazred, who “was a poet in the court of a minor nobleman in the city of Sanaa,” the text was a highly contentious one in the courts of kings and philosophers. The Necronomicon is capable of untold horrors, such as raising the Deadites, bringing back elder gods, and destroying Jason Voorhees.

2. Evil Book: The Hammer of Witches by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger (1486)

Also known as the Malleus Maleficarum, The Hammer of Witches was very much a real book. In it, it described the particularities of witches and provided the intellectual and theological weight “witch-hunters” (murderers) needed. In their pursuits, the witch-hungters falsely accused and slayed those who were, according to them, consorting with the devil. Published in 1487, the book “challenge(d) all arguments against the existence of witchcraft.” It also, “instruct(ed) magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches” (Malleus Maleficarum).

Both authors, Kramer and Sprenger, were members of the Dominican Order and were Inquisitors for the Catholic Church. While Kramer and Sprenger seemed like insufferable creatures who lusted after power, their attempts to get this wretched book endorsed by the Church was “rebuffed.” Nevertheless, their horrid carnage puts this treatise up there for one of the most evil books ever written.

“The Malleus recommends both torture and deception to obtain confessions from those accused of witchcraft. Scholars estimate that approximately 110,000 witch trials were held in Europe between 1450 and 1750, with half of the trials ending with execution.”

(Washington University in St. Louis)

Considering this, this book provided a lot of misery in the 1400s for many innocent people, and that makes it a pretty evil book.

3. Evil Book: The Grand Grimoire (1421, 1521, 1522, or 1702)

The Grand Grimoire is a book reportedly capable of summoning Lucifer. the book itself contains two books. The first tells the reader how to summon a demon. It also details the tools needed to control the demon. The second books tells of how to make a deal with the demon. It also describes spells and rituals, with some editions containing a section on necromancy.

As stated by History.com: “Often held as one of the most influential grimoires in existence, many believed the Grand Grimoire was penned in 1520, and later unearthed in a so-called ‘Tomb of Solomon’ in 1750.” Additionally: “… the most notorious content of the Grand Grimoire is the guidance it purportedly provides on summoning Lucifer or Lucifuge Rofocale. One required tool for this ritual is a Blasting Rod, used to compel the invoked Lucifer into submission” (Mingren).

4. Evil Book: To Serve Man by a Kanamit chef (1962)

The first time you see this episode of The Twilight Zone (1959), it’s terrifying. Subsequent viewings either make you giggle or frustrate you because you just want everybody to see the truth.

To start, the book To Serve Man by a Kanamit chef is not a rules and regulation book. It is also not intended to describe the alien race’s subservience to man. No, no, no. It is a gosh-darned cookbook. They are literally talking about serving man as a dish. As such, they whisk away a ton of people into space to feed their insatiable, cannibalistic urges.

Here’s host Rod Serling’s closing narration for that episode:

“The recollections of one Michal Chambers (protagonist) with appropriate flashbacks and soliloquy. Or more simply stated, the evolution of man. The cycle of going from dust to dessert. The metamorphosis from being the rulers of a planet to an ingredient in someone’s soup. It’s tonight bill of fare from the Twilight Zone.”

(Wikipedia)

Conclusion

While I’ve shared the most influential books in my life, I am still enthralled by the impact of stories in my life. For example, I once tried to look up The Necronomicon at my local library because I heard a strange story. Allegedly, somebody created an index card and stashed it away in a card catalogue. Alas, I never found the card or the book. But, with the existence of The Necronomicon in some circles, it makes me believe humans have an interest in unknown–often dangerous–texts.

I guess there are worse things out there than being endangered by literature.

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John Keats’ “This living hand … ” Poem Analysis

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It is untrue that most romantic poets were all desperate misanthropes who died young and brokenhearted. Nevertheless, the rumor persists because it is decidedly romantic. Where there are writers, there are myths and stories. Poet John Keats has a romantic aura about him to this day. His life is also a bit desperate and brokenhearted. However, he was extraordinarily talented, had friends in poetic circles, and wrote lasting poetry. In John Keats’ poem “This living hand, now warm and capable,” the poet immerses the reader in a shallow pool of romantic/gothic verse.

Who was John Keats?

John Keats, romantic poet, died at 26 years old. While critics panned him in his day, Keats’s creativity and commitment to the lyrical form is lauded. His poems featured, “vivid imagery and great sensuous appeal.” Though he died in his youth, Keats was a prolific author and wrote most of his major works in 1819. Keats’ “This living hand, now warm and capable” is a great example of the poet in execution.

Meanwhile, Keats’ reputation as a romantic writer did not keep him from dabbling in gothic forms. In the eight short lines of this poem, Keats demonstrates his ability at conveying these themes. Also consider that Keats wrote these lines “in a blank space on the manuscript” on which he wrote. These discarded lines are perhaps his most famous.

“This living hand, now warm and capable”

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed — see here it is —
I hold it towards you.

Analysis of “This Living Hand …”

The Poem’s Language

In the poem Keats begins with the lines, “This living hand, now warm and capable / Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold / And in the icy silence of a tomb.” In this first section, Keats is imagining his hand, though alive, cold and dead in the icy silence of a tomb. It is a flight of fancy for the author to imagine this deathly gesture.

He continues: “So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights / That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood.” In these lines, Keats speaks of his death as haunting the poem’s targeted audience. Keats finishes his poem with, “So in my veins red life might stream again, / And though be conscience-calmed—see here it is—I hold it towards you.” Similarly, the reader would wish for their own death at the prospect of a life without him, perhaps even exchanging their own life for his.

In addition to this, we have to consider word choice. Keats’s laces his languag with darkness. He uses words like “grasping,” “cold,” “icy,” and “tomb” to set a darkened world of love and romance. The reason for this poem’s staying power is due to the sensual nature of these words. That these two ideas, death and love, can contrast so well reflects their intwined nature in our own hearts.

The Poem’s Meaning

While ostensibly written for his love, Fanny Brawne, the poem reaches for a deeper meaning of humanity and mortality. As stated by Dr. Oliver Tearle in “A short analysis of Keats’s ‘This Living Hand,’” the author writes that Keats has romanticized his own death. In this way, his love, “would wish that she had been the one to die instead, so that she might be relieved of her conscience” (Tearle).

Still, it is important to look into the life of John Keats to see what conjured such a poem. Keats’s brother Tom fell ill with tuberculosis in the early 1800s. By 1818, Keats sat bedside with his brother Tom as the latter expired. Additionally, over the next two years, Keats himself succumbed to Tuberculosis. He died in Rome with portraitist Joseph Severn after the poet’s doctor ordered Keats south for the winter.

Conclusion

John Keats’ poem “This living hand,” itself conjures vivid images of a disembodied hand “warm and capable” skittering across the floor. These gothic permeate the language. The true tale in the poem speaks of mortal impermanence. The nameless narrator’s thoughts–no doubt Keats’ own—remark on being alive and how death is as pervasive as the thoughts of it that cross his mind. The unnamed narrator has blood running in his hands, signifying life, but the dark shadow of the reaper always looms.

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The Witches’ Song in Macbeth: Lyrics, Meaning, and Symbolism

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Is there a more iconic moment in literature than Macbeth finding his way to the dark hovel of the witches? This scene is the embodiment of symbolism and theme in literary analysis. It’s also why one should tread lightly around witches and their bulging eyes and haggish faces. The following poem is from Macbeth Act IV, Scene I). It features a recital from the three evil witches shortly before Macbeth enters the scene. The witches’ song is a fantastic one, and understanding its lyricism sheds light on the story of Macbeth and his prophecy.

The Witches’ Song Lyrics

Round about the cauldron go:
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweated venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing.
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch’s mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat; and slips of yew
Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Analysis

To begin, the witches’ song in Macbeth acts as a prophecy for Macbeth. The anti-hero of the play, Macbeth, has entered their cave on the heath to glean information about his own rise to power. The Witches tell him the truth–though it is shrouded in obstruse language and riddles.

Furthermore, the lines are written in trochaic tetrameter, which acts as the progenitor for such chants and spells. The lyrics themselves are vile, but reflect the actions that are about to occur in the play. Macbeth will murder King Duncan shortly thereafter, and then hire assassins to kill Banquo and his son Fleance.

As Jacqueline Peveto states in “Sounding and Dressing the Part: Understanding Macbeth through Language and Costume“: “The witches, in giving Macbeth the prediction that he would become thane of Cawdor and then king, are the instigators of the play’s main action. After receiving confirmation of his new title, Macbeth’s thoughts immediately turn to murder to attain the second part of the prediction.”

Whether intentional or not, consider stanza one: “In the poisoned entrails throw. /
Toad, that under cold stone.” The words poison and cold are symbolic of danger and death. More so, the refrain states: “Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” The word choice is particularly subtle but telling. For example, “Trouble,” and “Fire burn,” tell the reader that there is peril ahead for those who dare. Take note that the items going into the cauldron go from animal (“eye of newt”) to human (“Finger of a birth-strangled babe“). The shift from innocuous to murder is thematically important.

Conclusion

The witches’ evil song is a lot more than just a chant about dumping disgusting ingredients into a pot. It actually symbolizes the play’s themes of violence, death, and shift from morality to immorality. The repetition of the language itself even factors into Macbeth’s repeated transgressions. The witches show the reader that while they are seemingly evil themselves, the true evil exists in the actions committed by Macbeth.