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Rory Power’s Wilder Girls: A Shocking Survival Tale

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“I think I’d been looking for it all my life
a storm in my body to match the one in my head.”
― Rory Power, Wilder Girls

Stories where people are trapped in an environment and must escape or succumb to whatever pursues them are always at the top of my list. The Thing, directed by John Carpenter, is one of my favorite films of all time and features a of group of scientists isolated in a snowy science lab and threatened by a protean enemy. Violence and madness ensue. In this post, we are going to analyze Wilder Girls by Rory power.

Summary

To begin, the book is set around the Raxter School for Girls, where the entire facility has been put on lockdown due to a mysterious disease known as the Tox. As such, they have been on lockdown for 18 months, and the girls in the school struggle to survive as they wait for a cure to arrive. However, they dare not venture into the woods around the facility as the Tox has made it too dangerous to brave. One girl, Hetty, must break the quarantine and venture into the woods to save her friend Byatt, which uncovers unsettling truths about their existence at the school.

Critical response

Reviews for Wilder Girls by Rory Power are as follows:

Kirkus Reviews: “This gritty, lush debut chronicling psychological and environmental tipping points…weaves a chilling narrative that disrupts readers’ expectations through an expertly crafted, slow-burn reveal of the deadly consequences of climate change….Part survival thriller, part post-apocalyptic romance, and part ecocritical feminist manifesto, a staggering gut punch of a book.”

Publishers Weekly: “Electric prose, compelling relationships, and visceral horror illuminate Power’s incisive debut…[and its] environmental and feminist themes are resonant, particularly the immeasurable costs of experimentation on female bodies, and the power of female solidarity and resilience amid ecological and political turmoil.”

Additionally, on Goodreads, Wilder Girls holds a 3.46 out of 5 stars based upon 83,294 ratings and 15,121 reviews.

Moreover, five-star reviews state that the book was “super weird, kind of gross,” but they “totally loved it.” Also, other reviewers stated that it was loaded with “eeriness, otherworldly dread, and baseline panic.”

At the same time, one-star reviews state that the book had “no plot” or “character development.” Similarly, other reviewers state that it is a “big no-no” when the book is compared to a classic, such as Lord of the Flies, which clearly has some parallels in children trapped in a youth society.

Trigger Warnings

Other reviewers cite the trigger and content warnings from the author’s website:

  • Graphic violence and body horror. Gore.
  • On the page character death, parental death, and animal death (the animals are not pets).
  • Behavior and descriptive language akin to self harm, and references to such.
  • Food scarcity and starvation. Emesis.
  • A scene depicting chemical gassing.
  • Suicide and suicidal ideation.
  • Non-consensual medical treatment.

Any one of these triggers could certainly keep somebody from wanting to engage with the text, but they might also draw others into the narrative.

Impressions

A book about a fight for survival with unknowable horror seems to be right up my alley. I enjoy that the book seems to try to step outside of the common people-trapped-in-a-spot-and-have-to-survive story. It also uses some modern realities to punch up the plot (plagues, quarantines, and the like). Upon reading the synopsis, I thought of the film Quarantine, which haunted me for years. I also thought about “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. I think in reading initial reactions, there seems to be some overlap in Wilder Girls, too.

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Examining Gary Paulsen’s ‘Dogsong’: Nature and Survival

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Gary Paulsen was an incredible author who wrote a delightful body of work. His novels have inspired many young adults to write their own stories of nature and survival. His 1985 novel Dogsong, which is another popular novel by Paulsen, carries this familiar theme. It has had an incredible impact on young adults and the world of young-adult fiction. 

Summary of the Novel

Dogsong tells the tale of 14-year-old Russel Susskit. Susskit falls out of love with modern society and government homes. So, he decides to leave his Inuit village in search of a “song” for himself, just as his ancestors once did. Modern “necessities” plague his village and have driven into his family’s culture by outside missionaries, including Christianity and smoking.

Before leaving, Russel speaks with Oogruk, an Inuit elder, who still clings to the old Inuit ways of living. The old man tells Russel of old Inuit traditions. These traditions include the search for individual songs that disappeared from the culture due to the missionaries. After a time, Russel is told to go North until he finds his own song. It is through his travels with Oorgruk’s sled dogs, that Russel finds his calling in life in the world.

Toward the end of Russel’s journey, he is confronted with a near-death, frozen pregnant woman, Nancy, who needs help during a vicious snowstorm. He helps her and finds her cover in an abandoned shack; after nursing her back to health, he eventually hunts a polar bear for food. When the woman gives birth, the child is stillborn, which profoundly effects Russel. Seeking medical attention, he takes Nancy to a village on the coast and ends his journey, having bonded with his sled dogs and finding a deeper, more traditional purpose. 

Background of Dogsong

Dogsong was written while Gary Paulsen was preparing for his first Iditarod and was published in 1985. Pauslen said that the story came to him during that 1983 Iditarod.

“It was – an Eskimo boy asked me to teach him about dogs,” he said in an NPR interview with Terry Gross. “And I thought then of a book about an Eskimo boy using a dog team to find his heritage. And I wrote the book, and then it won a Newbery honor … that kind of – everything took off then.”

Paulsen published the novel in 1986 and he received the Newbery Honor in 1986.

Analyzing Dogsong

Survival

Reviewers have defined Paulsen’s work by the harsh nature of the wilds and of hardships. Hatchet, for instance, is an unflinching look at survival, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Dogsong is much of the same. On his father’s smoking and coughing, the protagonist thinks: “The sound tore at Russel more than at his father. It meant something that did not belong on the coast of the sea in a small Eskimo village. The coughing came from Outside, came from the tobacco which came from Outside and Russell hated it” (Paulsen).

Russel’s musings on his hatred of his everyday life stems from the cause of missionaries and the effect it has had on his community. Religion hangs on his walls (literally), and his own father turns to a god that Russel doesn’t understand. In other words, Russel has a problem with how the world lives around him and the solution eludes him, because the traditional ways are no longer in existence, replaced by false theism.

Theism

Later, after Russel has moved in with Oogruk, he searches for meaning—an answer to his problem. In addition to his problems with the world he lives in as a child, he is also a poor hunter, so he studies to hunt small game even while other problems lay ahead. “So he made meat. Light meat. That’s what Oogruk called it. And it was good meat, as far as it went. The small birds tasted sweet and were tender and soft…But the dogs needed heavy meat, heavy red meat and fat or they could not work…” (Paulsen).

Russel loves the idea—the romanticized idea—of his Inuit tradition, but finds that the practical nature of the old way of life is challenging. His stoicism drives him forward in the face of ugliness and danger. He stands in the face of new religion for the old ways.

Nature

Nevertheless, Russel truly finds the beauty of nature and of the hunt later when he travels north. He soon learns that the beauty of the land comes from its danger. Oogruk, dead of old age, prompts Russel to find his “song” in the frozen lands where his people used to thrive. “It was hard to believe the beauty of that torn and forlorn place. The small mountains—large hills, really—were sculpted by the wind in shapes of rounded softness, and the light …” The contrast of danger and beauty is effective in this story. It illuminates the reality of nature: it is wholesome to look at and wonder. Yet, it is utterly dangerous for the uninitiated (see To Build a Fire).

Meanwhile, the dreams Russel stomachs during his journey mirrors his frustrations and struggles and gives him some insight into his own problems. These dreams revolve around the struggles of nature and mirror Russel’s own journey, providing him with solutions and ways to live and thrive with his new traditions.

Tradition

We can learn a lot from this book, and not necessarily in solely the rejection of modern amenities; but it doesn’t hurt to look at it that way. Our rejection of the niceties of the modern world may in fact allow us a deeper relationship with ourselves and our past traditions. As an urban contrast, My Dinner with Andre (1981) deals with a similar idea.

Consider this: Russel does not have to deal with the traumas associated with social media and our algorithm-based society, which is less reliant on tradition and reflection and more consumed with selfish pursuits of personal idolatry. His father’s pursuit of a new religion for answers throws aside the historical importance of the Inuit society—the way they used to live—in pursuit of this new way. However, it stands in contrast to what the community needs to survive. Sure, Russel’s village hunts seals, but they do not engage with nature as they once did, as their ancestors once did, to survive.

Conclusion

When the missionaries and the new religion leave, what are they left with? In this question, we can understand Russel’s need for his culture and the culture of his ancestors. Russel’s rejection of this modernity allows him to touch base with his history and with his soul. In the closing poem of Dogsong, Paulsen, or Russel, tells us, “Come, see my dogs. / With them I ran, ran north to the sea. / I stand by the sea and I sing. / I sing of my hunts / and of Oogruk” (Paulsen).

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Exploring ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’ by Chris Van Allsburg

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I can vividly recall my first encounter with The Mysteries of Harris Burdick in my 5th-grade classroom. I was seated near the front, and my teacher presented each page of the book on a slideshow (probably an old wheeled-projector, given it was the 90s). As each image flashed by, my curiosity was piqued; it was all so strange.

The pictures, though numerous, summarily depicted something fantastical: a house shooting into the sky, children on a railroad trolley bound for a distant, otherworldly land. In one image, a child slept over a book, now overrun with vines. The caption read: He had warned her about the book. Now it was too late. The only other time I recall being equally perplexed involved learning about Roanoke Island in the same 5th-grade classroom. In a similar vein, Burdick’s illustrations match the baffling nature of “Croatoan.”

However, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick ignited the narrative writer in me at the time. Our assignment, as given by the teacher, was to choose an image and craft a story around it. Naturally, one image interested me the most. It is the image of an older man with glasses, hoisting a chair high above his head. A lump beneath his carpet menaces him in a dreadful manner.

Underneath the picture, the caption read: Two weeks passed and it happened again.

In this brief writing, we delve into the 1984 picture book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, exploring the author, its fictional background, and its textual and visual significance.

Who is Chris Van Allsburg?

Published in the mid-80s, Chris Van Allsburg, a celebrated writer and illustrator, created The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Allsburg was born on June 18, 1949, in Grand Rapids, MI. Allsburg attended the University of Michigan and the Rhode Island School of Design.

His inaugural work, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, debuted in 1979. He penned numerous more tales for children, including Bad Day at the Riverbend in 1995 and Probuditi! in 2006. Three of his books—Jumanji, The Polar Express, and Zathura—were adapted into popular films by film studios.

The Real Mystery of Harris Burdick

Returning to The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Allsburg conceived the fictional character of the titular author, who vanished after creating and illustrating the book of pictures himself. While seemingly an intentional (and enigmatic) creation, much like William Goldsmith’s meta-narrative introduction in The Princess Bride and Stephen King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, the character truly comes alive in the book’s introduction, also penned by Allsburg.

In the 1995 introduction, Allsburg recounts that a man named Peter Wenders, a children’s book publisher, arranged to meet Harris Burdick to discuss the illustrated book that would become The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. According to the introduction’s lore, Burdick brought only the images, which captivated Wenders. The publisher agreed to read Burdick’s companion stories the next day.

That was the last time Wenders saw Burdick.

“Harris Burdick was never heard from again,” writes Allsburg. “Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day, Harris Burdick remains a complete mystery.”

Later, as per the introduction, a literary antiquarian discovered another drawing (likely by Burdick) behind the glass of a mirror that had cracked in his shop. The picture bore “a title and caption written in the margin at the bottom”—the unmistakable signature of Harris Burdick. However, his whereabouts remain unknown, at least according to lore (Allsburg).

Why Harris Burdick Matters

Burdick’s Impact on Writers

Burdick’s pictures entranced not just my own 5th-grade mind, but also the minds of writers everywhere. As they encountered the book, whether through assignment, discovery, or presentation, they found themselves captivated by what lay between its covers. It’s a beautifully manufactured book, teeming with inspiration for writers within. The images are profoundly captivating, each a masterstroke of visual stimulation.

Allsburg attests that he has “received hundreds of Burdick stories written by children and adults” over the years, a tribute to how vital Burdick’s work has been as a wellspring of motivation for writers.

Lemony Snicket, the fictional author of A Series of Unfortunate Events, asserts in the foreword to The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales, that Harris Burdick’s true disappearance wasn’t one for the late-night crime shows, but one that empowered writers; it was a magic trick that held significance for every writer who ever grappled for inspiration.

Snicket suggests: “Mr. Burdick might have dispensed his stories, over many years, to his comrades in literature. Perhaps he bestowed them as gifts in appreciation of their hospitality. Perhaps he concealed them in their guest rooms, hoping they would never be found. In any case, it was always my hope that the rest of Mr. Burdick’s work would surface, even if the mysteries of Mr. Burdick—who by now is either very old, quite dead, or both—remained unsolved.”

Personal (Transcendental) Impact

Subconsciously, this book frequently crosses my mind, along with the story I penned in 5th grade featuring a man assaulting the carpet with a chair. In fact, I fancied myself the next great horror writer in America (even in 5th grade), but I ended up crafting a tale so horrifyingly dumb that it elicited uproarious laughter from my class—and even the teacher couldn’t contain herself. I remember her pulling her glasses off as streams of tears raced down her cheeks. Nevertheless, everybody seemed to appreciate my venture into horrific narrative, all thanks to the inspiration drawn from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Perhaps, you appreciated your own jaunts into the strangely picturesque world of Burdick’s images as well.

If you haven’t yet delved into The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Likewise, please share which image you find most intriguing as a source of inspiration in the comments!

Works Cited

Allsburg, Chris V. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. HarperCollins Publishers. 1996.

Allsburg, Chris V. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales. HarperCollins Publisher, 2011.

“Chris Van Allsburg.” All American Speakers. Web. https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/speakers/429875/Chris-Van-Allsburg

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A Look at ‘The Once and Future King’: Arthurian Insights

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If you’ve read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, you probably look at Arthurian Legend a little differently. Knights aren’t the noble stalwarts touted by history, but bloodthirsty marauders. Merlin is a conman, and Mordred is a monster. Yet, the original tales still exist, and there is a purity in these legends. For example, The Once and Future King (1958) by T.H. White gives readers a traditional telling of Arthurian legend that is simply a must read.

Summary

The novel is broken up into four parts: The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (1958). The novelette collection is heavily inspired by Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory. The story details Arthur’s beginnings to his end, covering his tutelage, reign, and downfall. The novel catalogues these stories, relaying their happenings in a traditional sense.

Book blurb

From the book:

“Once upon a time, a young boy called “Wart” was tutored by a magician named Merlyn in preparation for a future he couldn’t possibly imagine. A future in which he would ally himself with the greatest knights, love a legendary queen and unite a country dedicated to chivalrous values. A future that would see him crowned and known for all time as Arthur, King of the Britons.
 
“During Arthur’s reign, the kingdom of Camelot was founded to cast enlightenment on the Dark Ages, while the knights of the Round Table embarked on many a noble quest. But Merlyn foresaw the treachery that awaited his liege: the forbidden love between Queen Guenever and Lancelot, the wicked plots of Arthur’s half-sister Morgause and the hatred she fostered in Mordred that would bring an end to the king’s dreams for Britain—and to the king himself.”

Critical Response

T.H. White’s The Once and Future King has a 4.07 on Goodreads.

Five-star reviews reference the “classic” nature of the book and the “great characters” present between the covers. One reviewer writes that it is the “pinnacle of all fantasy,” which speaks to its stature in the annals of literature. Meanwhile, one-star reviews also referenced its “pinnacle” nature but as a detractor as it is far more “boring” than “crucial.” Moreover, other reviewers reference other interpretations as superior including Sir Thomas Mallory’s version.

Of course, separating these two ideas is essential, especially with a book that has an average of 4 out of 5 stars, as they offers some insight into its clout as a literary staple.

Impressions

One of my earliest memories of film is The Sword in the Stone (1963) from Disney. This movie is largely taken from The Once and Future King’s first section, The Sword and the Stone. With that said, White’s book is a classic without stretching credulity. Though it is a longer work, it spells out the Arthurian legend in detail. For a reader, this is like watching a familiar movie–you can follow the story beats easily. There is satisfaction in this experience.

Furthermore, I think one of the strengths of the novel that it was written by T.H. White. White uses solid description and verbiage to convey a fantastical sentiment. His language is simple and direct. This often gets lost in Arthurian legend.

As White states in the book: “What did happen was that Merlyn, who had been saying the final spells under his breath, suddenly turned himself into a condor, leaving the Wart standing on tiptoe unchanged.” White does not play in ambiguity. He writes straightforward syntax that conveys the story plainly. Though it’s an old novel, it is somewhat refreshing to read White’s style.

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Palahniuk’s ‘Doomed’: A Critical Look at Death in Literature

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Death and purgatory have a certain beautiful connection, as one informs the other. Trapped in the between places, the tendrils of connection to life are still tangible threads, but death lingers closely. But this tie calls the fears of the latter to mind as doomsday approaches. In Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk, the reader learns the details and exploits about noxious teen, Madison Spencer. Her journey takes her from her death, to purgatory, to the revelation of her own behavior.

Summary of Doomed

The book tells the story of the aforementioned Madison Spencer. She is a young woman who manages to escape from Hell after a “botched Halloween ritual.” She is the protagonist from Palahniuk’s first novel Damned. Madison delves into a world filled with supernatural creatures and challenges that test her bravery and determination. It also critiques social media if only to speak to the torture of updating a profile. Yet, through technology, Madison communicates with her vapid parents, and she uncovers the mysteries of her past. Likewise, Madison is forced to confront the consequences of her actions. The responsibility that comes with being a pawn in the devil’s own plan also comes to light.

Book Blurb

From the book:

“After a Halloween ritual gone awry, Madison finds herself trapped in Purgatory—or, as mortals like you and I know it, Earth. She can see and hear every detail of the world she left behind, yet she’s invisible to everyone who’s still alive. Not only do people look right through her, they walk right through her as well. The upside is that, no longer subject to physical limitations, she can pass through doors and walls. Her first stop is her parents’ luxurious apartment, where she encounters the ghost of her long-deceased grandmother.

“For Madison, the encounter triggers memories of the awful summer she spent upstate with Nana Minnie and her grandfather, Papadaddy. As she revisits the painful truth of what transpired over those months (including a disturbing and finally fatal meeting in a rest stop’s fetid men’s room, in which . . . well, never mind), her saga of eternal damnation takes on a new and sinister meaning. Satan has had Madison in his sights from the very beginning: through her and her narcissistic celebrity parents, he plans to engineer an era of eternal damnation. For everyone.”

Critical Response

Goodreads has Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk rated as a 3.31 with 2,137 five-star reviews and 778 one-star reviews.

Five-star reviews comment on the “disgusting” aspects of the book. “This is perhaps the most brilliant end-of-the-world story” one reviewer comments. Other favorable reviews point out Palahniuk’s “‘satire” being “on point” and that “Any Palahniuk fan and/or anyone who enjoyed Damned” should read this one, too.

One-star reviews also address the raunchy aspects of the book, but in a much different light. “He really needed to keep the thirteen year-old, insufferably vapid Madison Spencer banished in hell,” said a reviewer. Other reviewers were willing to let Palahniuk’s books go altogether by saying that his “ratio of good : bad books has tipped in the wrong direction,” and “it was written in the most obnoxious way possible by the most annoying guy you know.”

Impressions

I truly believe Palahniuk’s Choke is one of the greatest pieces of transgressive fiction ever written. It’s strange and unnerving, and has some moments that you will never forget. Yet, I also felt that Survivor was a let down, as it didn’t deliver the more philosophical aspects of Choke, which addressed obsession, insecurity, and gave us a strange perspective from which to look at the world (it’s still a fine novel).

With that said, I can understand why Chuck Palahniuk’s Doomed has close to a 3-star rating, because Palahniuk is a divisive writer. Either you love him or you hate him, and there is no purgatorial in-between. Doomed is a book rife in Palahniuk’s style and taboo confrontation. He often does this in an overly comedic way, so you know he must be joking (even if it’s a stomach-churning description).

Works Cited

Palahniuk, Chuck. “Doomed.” Doubleday, 2013.

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Legends of the Fall Analysis: Themes and Meaning

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Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends. — Legends of the Fall

Family can be a complex and enduring aspect of our lives regardless of how we may push back and feel toward these relationships. Blood and history connect us to our families whether we like it or not. In the film (1994) and novella (1979) of Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison, the author realizes and challenges both family and brotherhood. Both the text and the film create family from complex themes, like hate and redemption. In this post, we analyze Legends of the Fall in both its iterations.

Summary of Legends of the Fall

Jim Harrison, the author of the novella Legends of the Fall, grew up in Grayling, MI, in 1937. Harrison was a prolific writer, known for his poems, books, screenplays, memoirs, and more. Legends of the Fall is part of a novella collection that also includes two other stories: Revenge and The Man Who Gave Up His Name.

The novella follows the tumultuous journey of the Ludlow family over multiple decades. It comprises father Colonel William Ludlow and his three sons: Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. World War I, as it does to many families, tears the brothers apart. After only two of them return—Alfred and Tristan—a conflict ensues over their younger brother’s wife, Susannah.

The perspective mainly centers on Tristan, a loner within the family. His story is one of tragedy, murder, romance, machismo, and historical significance. The family undergoes considerable trauma and hardship before finding solace in their familial connections, albeit through violence and heartache. In addition to that, the story explores themes of familial discord, love, and the mistakes of humanity.

Here’s an excerpt from the novel about Tristan finding his younger brother Samuel’s body:

“They sat still and fireless through the night and then at dawn in the fine sifting snow they crept forward in the snow and wiped it from the faces of the dozen or so dead until Tristan found Samuel, kissed him and bathed his icy face with his own tears: Samuel’s face gray and unmarked but his belly rended from its cage of ribs. Tristan detached the heart with a skinning knife and they rode back to camp where Noel melted down candles and they encased Samuel’s heart in paraffin in a small ammunition canister for burial back in Montana” (Harrison).

What this says of family and familial ties is that even in the loving embrace of those we know best–there is violence. As such, and throughout the novel, Tristan kills in vengeance and thus inflicts violence on those he loves as well. Ritual in brotherhood is strong, after all.

Analyzing Legends of the Fall

The film adaptation strives to remain faithful to the original work by enriching the setting and character development. While the story is epic in scope, the film effectively captures the emotions and struggles of each character. The issues that plague the character effectively distorts their motives and intentions throughout. In the end, the reader discovers a changed family through turmoil and strife.

The movie certainly maintains the novella’s violence, from Samuel’s death to Tristan scalping Nazis in a trench. However, some critics have noted that the novella leans toward “telling” rather than “showing,” leaving room for interpretation. For instance, Harrison tells us of Susannah’s madness in the book rather than shows us. Meanwhile, in the movie, subtle hints and expressions help viewers understand her dissatisfaction with her own life (Malek).

The cast, including Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn, Henry Thomas, Julia Ormond, and Anthony Hopkins, delivers mostly understated performances. Brad Pitt portrays an exaggerated version of the American outlaw and gunslinger, aligning well with the novella’s intent.

Themes and Symbolism

Both the novella and the film explore themes of family issues spanning nearly a century. The discord between the Ludlow brothers and their father underscores the complex relationships that brothers and fathers come into conflict with.

Meanwhile, Tristan’s adventures, in particular, highlight the multifaceted nature of love, from his love for his brother Samuel to his love for his father through military service in WWI, his love for Susannah, and ultimately, the love that leads to tragedy. Both versions of the story emphasize the importance of family bonds, their fragility, and the potential for repair through honor and dedication.

Conclusion

Jim Harrison’s Legends of the Fall is a romanticized tale that celebrates adventure, war, love, and violence. The film adaptation mirrors this romantic view by portraying a family navigating changing times and strife. There is a great wealth of creative works centered around autumn, and this is a story that will take you to that atmospheric time of year. While critical reception may be mixed, for those who appreciate Jim Harrison’s storytelling, Legends of the Fall offers a captivating exploration of family bonds and heartache.

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Underlying Gothic Terror: The Haunting of Hill House

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Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House is a quintessential novel in the horror genre. Yet, understanding the inner workings of her haunted house story is important, as it is firmly rooted in gothic horror. It’s also a novel about atmosphere and what lies under the surface. More so, it is all about the slow burn. By analyzing this text, we can understand more about the genre itself and what true horror looks like.

Synopsis of The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House has a great premise. A group of four disparate individuals gather at a haunted house to investigate paranormal activities. It is a very straightforward novel in the realm of horror. Even so, house itself is steeped in a history of violence. This makes the investigators’ exploration and examinations more intriguing.

Of course, the haunt begins soon enough. The characters are all plagued by their own experiences with noises and strange apparitions roaming throughout the house. The story soon descends upon one of the protagonists, Eleanor, and the plot moves quickly at that point. There are seances, spirit writing, hallucinations, outbursts, and other dramatic moments that pushes the action into bizarre places.

The Haunting of Hill House Analysis

This is an excellent gothic horror/thriller that surpasses even some of the older, more distinguished novels in the same genre. This is because Jackson uses a psychological approach to telling the story. It is also because the novel lives in a scenario most of us are familiar with through pop culture. Paranormal investigators travel to a haunted house and investigate strange occurrences. We have certainly seen that in television and in movies. What we are more unfamiliar with is the extant trauma and psychology of the investigators. In this way, Jackson paints these characters expertly.

Modernity and Family

Likewise, it is the modernity of The Haunting of Hill House that makes it so relevant and scary. The novel speaks volumes of our culture and of ourselves. Richard Pascal, author of “Walking Alone Together: Family Monsters in ‘The Haunting of Hill House’,” writes that familial arcs arise in the novel, whether through the characters’ interactions or through their backstories.  

“The most famous of Jackson’s novels, The Haunting of Hill House, conjured up postwar America’s disturbing anxieties about the modern family with wit, acuteness, and a healthy modicum of dread,” he writes. “In Hill House, the opening paragraph solemnly announces, ‘whatever walks there, walks alone’” (Pascal).

The modernity of this story stands in contrast to the gothic elements present. It is a slow read, but each moment adds up to something grander. The setting is desolate, spooky, unpredictable. And the most important point, there is sin there in the walls of the house: suicide and past trauma. There, the ghosts haunting the house are very real–at least through history.

What We Don’t Know

Jackson’s book has a lot in common with Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. James spends much of the novel convincing the reader of the hauntings. But, are they truly hauntings? Meanwhile, in Jackson’s book, she seems to tell us that these hauntings are very real. However, they are unlike the ones we are often familiar with. A ghost at the top of the stairs, or something grabbing your foot from under the bed at night.

The first line of the book seems to hint at this realization: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality …” Outright, the reader doesn’t understand this line in its full context, but they will come to understand it eventually. As in writing good ghost stories, the characterization is what works here in the novel. There are ghosts in the attic, and there are ghosts in our heads.

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro once said, “To learn what we fear is to learn who we are. Horror defies our boundaries and illuminates our souls.” In other words, for the characters in Jackson’s novel, they learn about themselves through the haunting. They also learn too much about each other.

Shirley Jackson in Her Own Words

Jackson has spoken about the inspiration of this novel in detail. Unsurprisingly, the story sprang up after seeing a specifically dark house while on vacation. Here is an excerpt from Shirley Jackson’s essay “Experience and Fiction.” In it, she discusses The Haunting of Hill House and the house that drove her to write the book.

Reading Psychic Literature

“I was [working] on a novel about a haunted house because I happened by chance, to read a book about a group of people, nineteenth-century psychic researchers, who rented a haunted house and recorded their impressions of the things they saw and heard and felt in order to contribute a learned paper to the Society for Psychic Research. They thought that they were being terribly scientific and proving all kinds of things, and yet the story that kept coming through their dry reports was not at all the story of a haunted house, it was the story of several earnest, I believe misguided, certainly determined people, with their differing motivation and background.

“I found it so exciting that I wanted more than anything else to set up my own haunted house, and put my own people in it, and see what I could make happen. As so often happens, the minute I started thinking about ghosts and haunted houses, all kinds of things turned up to enforce my intentions, or perhaps I was thinking so entirely about my new book that everything I saw turned to it; I can’t say, although I can say that I could do with some of the manifestation I have met.

The House of Nightmares

“The first thing that happened was in New York City; we–my husband and I –were on the train which stops briefly at the 125th Street station, and just outside the station, dim and horrible in the dusk, I saw a building so disagreeable that I could not stop looking at it; it was tall and black and as I looked at it when the train began to move again it faded away and disappeared.

“That night in our hotel room I woke up with nightmares, the kind where you have to get up and turn on the light and walk around for a few minutes just to make sure that there is a real world and this one is it, not the one you have been dreaming about; my nightmares had somehow settled around the building I had seen from the train. From that time on I completely ruined my whole vacation in New York City by dreading the moment when we would have to take the train back and pass that building again.

“Let me just point out right here and now that my unconscious mind has been unconscious for a number of years now and it is my firm intention to keep it that way. When I have nightmares about a horrid building, it is the horrid building I am having nightmares about, and no one is going to talk me out of it; that is final.”

Conclusion

The horror of Jackson’s novel comes from our own psychosis. It is the pain we feel from lack of love, and the phantom is in our own selves. It is the haunting we feel everyday when love does not return affection and when we are pushed out of our rightful place. In the end, it is almost as if Jackson is telling us something very important: we have been the ghosts the whole time.

Works Cited

Pascal, Richard. “Walking Alone Together: Family Monsters in ‘The Haunting of Hill House.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014, pp. 464–485. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43151007. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.

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Unpacking ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Danielewski

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“We all create stories to protect ourselves.”— Mark Z. Danielewski | House of Leaves

In House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, a book that is a book is not a book at all. The story it tells is both captivating and alarming. In this way, the majesty of a book that is “not a book” is an enchanting thing to encounter. Yet, these types of books can be the exact catalyst for something more strange and frightening. Doubling down on this, what if the narrator(s) is completely unreliable? House of Leaves presents the reader with a horrible contrast between the real world and the unreal possibilities of the truth–whatever that may be in it true form.

Summarizing the Impossible House

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is a “found” novel by an author named Zampano. Meanwhile, Johnny Truant, who has discovered the book, offers his own edits on the text to post posthumously for Zampano. Truant comments on its authorship is footnotes for clarifications and translations. Meanwhile, other editors opine on the text and Truant’s own edits, providing a super-meta commentary.

Moreover, House of Leaves is also about a house that is “bigger on the inside” than it is on the outside. A family moves into the house and begins recording all the strange happenings inside the home. The film, and other relics about this house becomes a documentary called The Navidson Record. This collection of evidence falls into the annals of folklore and falls under the scrutiny of critical examination as either being real or a hoax.

As a result, Zampano’s book is an academic approach to the documentary film The Navidson Record. The book’s literary attempt at examining the documentary includes historical context. It also shows the relationship to the world in which it was created. However, Zampano analyzes it from a horror perspective in his attempt to explain the oddness of the house. Truant’s descent into analyzing Zampano’s work results in him dismissing the writer’s claims and sources. But, by the end, readers call his own reliability into question. It seems the House of Leaves is just as mysterious as the documentary reports themselves.

Book Blurb: House of Leaves

From the Book:

“A young family moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.”

Critical Response

Reviews on the back of the book are as follows:

”Simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a strange, dreamlike excursion into the subconscious.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Thrillingly alive, sublimely creepy, distressingly scary, breathtakingly intelligent—it renders most other fiction meaningless.” —Bret Easton Ellis, bestselling author of American Psycho

“This demonically brilliant book is impossible to ignore.” —Jonathan Lethem, award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn

Additionally, Good Reads has it listed as a 4.09 our of 5 stars.

Five-star reviewers state that “House of Leaves is not an easy book to read. Yet, readers believe it is an important read nonetheless. Another reviewer stated that the book is “a postmodernistic satire on the subject of epistemology.” That is to say, the novel connects sources and investigations into one book and calls into the question of reliability of sourcing in general.

Meanwhile, one-star reviews stated that the book made some readers feel” bored, and annoyed” and others found that “nothing seems to happen.” In addition to that, some readers felt that the book’s “overdone” narrative felt like a “dish served in a restaurant” that should be “sent back.”

Overall Impressions of House of Leaves

I heard of this House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski around the time I was finishing True Detective season one, as it seems to have quite a lot in common with weird fiction and The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. These commonalities include the narrative choices themselves, such as what information the reader discovers where and when Moreover, the overall eeriness of the story is far to intriguing to not investigate. Even after the fact, the reader never gets to know everything about the story.

Danielewski’s House of Leaves is an interesting book if you are interested in the macabre. It is a multilayered story that asks readers to go beyond the regular idea of a narrative. In this way, engaging with the content more critically is important, perhaps even by close reading each page.

In another instance, I own a book–a sort of manipulative biography–about Stephen King that features inserts of faux-posters and edited pages from real books. They are duplicates and copies, but it is an excellent way to experience the history of an author and his contributions to horror literature.

Similarly, the nearly experiential engagement of House of Leaves will pull you right in, but with the right mindset, just like the house, it’s a lot smaller on the inside.

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Stephen King’s The Running Man: Surveillance and Survival

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Survivors on an island, survivors in a house, drama in paradise, and Joe Millionaires. Reality TV is at its best when it’s laced with drama and suspense. What will happen on this episode? What will happen next time? So pervasive is television in American markets that these types of questions have been asked long before reality television got its start on the airwaves. But, could it be possible that networks would take this idea one step further in the coming decades? Stephen King’s The Running Man, a novel (and soon-to-be film adaptation), explores what this violent scenario might look like in execution.

Summary of Stephen King’s The Running Man

Originally published in 1984, The Running Man is set in the far off future of 2025, and tells the story of Ben Richards. Ben is a man in his late 20s who lives in Co-Op city under a dystopian US government. His life is ruthlessly oppressed, his daughter is terminally sick, and his wife has turned to sex work to make ends meet. Ben, meanwhile, turns to the Games Network to enlist in one of the shows to attain money for his family. After physical and mental testing and an interview with showrunner Dan Kilian, Ben is selected to participate in the Running Man–a popular game on the network.

The rules for the game are as follows:

  • Contestants win 100 dollars for every hour they stay alive/not captured.
  • An additional 100 dollars for every police officer/Hunter that they eliminate.
  • Winners receive one-billion dollars if they stay alive for 30 days.
  • Contestants are given a video camera and $4,800 before they leave the studio.

Without giving away too much, Ben embarks on a violent adventure through the world of the dystopian government, in which the impoverished live and breath in pollution and watch propagandistic television enabled by their leaders. At every turn, Ben is confronted by law enforcement, hunters, and betrayal. Does he survive the Running Man? You will have to read it (or watch it) to find out.

Conclusion

Much like The Long Walk, Richard Bachman’s The Running Man is a televised circus of violent proportions. The contestants are forced to survive in a dangerous and unwinnable situation and are pushed to their extremes. As such, we see humanity at its basest and barest form–brooding and visceral. The story critiques media consumption habits and pushes it to the most Dionysian limits. People are hunted, people are shot, and people are killed. This is not a kind world, but none of Bachman’s worlds are that kind to begin with, whether we look at the aforementioned The Long Walk, or his other works, like Roadwork, or Rage. If you are interested in reading this book, be prepared for some brutal confrontations and aggression.

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Stephen King’s The Long Walk: A Harrowing Journey of Sacrifice

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The thought of walking a 5k is miserable to some people, but walking endlessly until only one of you remain? Well, that would be a nightmare. However, what if your prize is anything that you choose? Money? Love? Richard Bachman (author Stephen King‘s famous alter-ego who died due to cancer of the pseudonym) executed this idea during his freshman year at the University of Maine in 1967. That story came out as Stephen King’s “The Long Walk.” It is also a story straight from King’s distinct Bachman-voice. These stories are a bit more violent, and a bit more pointed. Currently, the production company Lionsgate is producing a film directed by Francis Lawrence, which is due out Sept. 12, 2025. But what is this story about, and what does it say about who we are as a society?

Summary of Stephen King’s The Long Walk

The setting of the story is the United States under a totalitarian regime. The regime televises the titular “Long Walk.” It is a filmed contest in which 100 men walk along US Route 1 until only one remains. The rules for the game are as follows: contestants must walk at least 4 miles per hour; the escort soldier give three warnings if they drop below that speed for 30 seconds. The soldiers shoot and kill the contestant on the fourth.

Stephen King’s “The Long Walk” centers around Ray Garraty from Androscoggin County, Maine. He enters the walk and begins to get to know the people around him. Slowly, we learn more about the desperation of each contestant. We also learn why they have come to be in the “Long Walk” themselves. Nevertheless, the soldiers kill the contestants ruthlessly as the walk continues. Much infighting occurs throughout the day and night. Garraty befriends a number of walkers. The walk only fuels some of the others. The winner, as it stands, receives the prize of his choosing. This grand, open-ending prize pushes the contestants into the literal long walk. Throughout the story, alliances are made and broken, and friends sacrifice themselves to save each other.

Conclusion

Bachman and Roadwork

I initially read Bachman when I read a novella called “Roadwork.” It had all the markings of a good King story. It featured well-drawn characters, including the protagonist Barton Dawes. As well, the story is a compelling narrative in which municipality and highway construction imposes its imminent domain on the hero’s home. The events in the novel result in a final standoff between the protagonist and police. It posits the question as to whether villains are made or created.

The other element that Roadwork has is a certain amount of raw grittiness that other King stories simply don’t have. As it were, Roadwork is a political story about government overreach and the place of citizens in the US. While King has mentioned that he wrote the story about his mother’s death, one can only assume King’s political activism (and late night with road cones) played into the perspective of this novel. Therefore, we can see Bachman as a sort of soapbox for King to speak about issues in which he believes. In this way, he can remark about controversial issues and write about taboo subject matter (school shootings and the like).

The Long Walk Themes

In a similar vein, Stephen King’s The Long Walk has an air of violence and punchy discourse that cuts the reader to the bone. As it relates to this style of storytelling, the overused expression “unflinching” is fitting. Some critics–and the author himself–have pointed out that the book seems to mirror the Vietnam War. Think about the death marches and senseless sacrifice through violence.

Meanwhile, the book itself is a critique of sensationalism and viewership in the age of entertainment and TV. The reader can imagine the enthralled audience at home throwing their hands up and celebrating as each contestant falls to the ground and is shot (circa Bachman’s other novel The Running Man). After all, the television during the late 1960s (and modern media) were evolving in ways moral sensors felt unbecoming. As I get older (and more prudish), I see some of these arguments in a new light. If copulation and physical aggression are already on the platter, how far do we really have to go to show violence, bloodshed, and death?

Outside of the moralizing, it’s a great story worth reading from the king of horror.

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No Country for Old Men Analysis: The Decline of Bygone Morality

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Many readers became aware of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men through the 2007 Coen Brothers film. It is a challenging movie in many regards. It has an unconventional ending, strange characters, and an odd plot. Yet, it successfully utilizes conventions of the western genre and creates endlessly analytical moments. The book does this in the exact same way. But, perhaps the most important part of the novel is its meaning, which is difficult to parse. In this post, I am going to offer an analysis of No Country for Old Men and try to explain its significance. In this way, you may be able to view the film with fresh eyes.

Outdated Characters in the Modern World

A Thematic View

I suppose a good starting point is the book thematically as a whole. The book reveals that the city of life informs its residents that death comes swiftly and abruptly. In many respects, so does the slow deterioration of one’s moral self. While I think nailing down a theme for No Country for Old Men can be difficult, there are some clues.

Reviewer Walter Kern writes that the novel relies on sparse elements that create a cohesive whole. This new whole has too much “temptation,” and a lack of “wisdom.” It has, “weak, bad men,” and a lack of, “strong, good ones.”

Yet, it’s conveying something else. Kern writes that it’s freedom and space to make poor choices to temporarily flee. The reader sees this with Moss running for his life with the drug money—the blood money.

“He sat there looking at it and then he closed the flap and sat with his head down,” McCarthy writes of Moss’s fateful decision. “His whole life was sitting there in front of him. Day after day from dawn till dark until he was dead.”

Fate and Chance

Thus, for me, the theme is tied to fate and chance. One’s actions will see literal outcomes. However, I also think an important theme to consider plays into the title. Time moves on whether one wants it to or not. Thus, people become outdated in their morality, philosophy, and ethics as the years pass. In other words, relevancy is not permanent. It can be inferred that one’s age dictates the currency of one’s life. With that being said, the looming irrelevancy of all of our lives encourages the meaning we derive from ourselves and our history.

Let’s analyze a few of the characters.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

Responsibility in an Irresponsible World

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell believes people should be responsible for their actions and for their justifications. Yet, this concept evolves throughout the novel as it attaches to each character in similar ways. For the sheriff, the endless procession of horrors jostles him to the point that he retires. At this point, he is disenfranchised due to his inability to exact any kind of justice in a bygone world.

“A few years ago and it wasn’t that many neither I was goin out one of these little two lane blacktop roads of a night and I come up on a pickup truck … so I hit the lights and whenever I done that I seen the slider window in the back of the cab open and here come somebody passin a shotgun out the window.”

During this scene, drug runners attack Bell. They shoot at him from their truck, and he crashes his car and realizes that times have changed. No longer is the world full of innocent barfights that lead to a few minor scrapes. Now it has morphed into a landscape rife with murderous rampages, violence, and killing. While he reminisces about future events, the real change isn’t apparent until the reader is let into two different scenes. One in which he visits Moss’s dad and one in which he discusses his dreams with his wife.

Modern Morality

In meeting with his Uncle Ellis, Bell learns a few things. One is about modern morality and ethics, as “better times” might have never existed. According to Uncle Ellis, men have always killed each other for the same reasons—or lack thereof. As Uncle Ellis states of Uncle Mac’s death, the violent times have never left the area.

“They was seven or eight of them come to the house,” Uncle Ellis tells Sheriff Bell. “Wantin this and wantin that. He (Uncle Mac) went back in the house and come out with a shotgun but they was way ahead of him and they shot him down in his doorway. She (his wife) run out and tried to stop the bleedin. Tried to get him back in the house. Said he kept tryin to get hold of the shotgun again. They just set there on their horses. Finally left.”

Bell is an honest, stalwart sheriff who oversees his county as best he can. Nevertheless, he can’t simply do enough anymore because the world has moved on. At the end of the book, he sees seeking justice as a trivial matter. Evil has forced its hand, the villain got away, and good people died. This is an interesting character progression. Bell reminisces about “better times” where kids used to play different games. Now, it’s too much violence. We see the theme of an evolving world taking place within the story of the book.

Llewelyn Moss

Values Gone Dry

The outdated sense of character and values can be seen in Llewelyn Moss. While hunting on the flats of New Mexico, he stumbles upon drug money, which he then decides to take in order to better his own life and those around him (maybe). This action dooms him, as he is then pursued from the start of the novel and to the finish by ruthless criminals, and he is finally left dead in the doorway of a motel after a shootout with cartel members.

“He (Bell) pulled back the sheet. Bell walked around the end of the table. There was no chock under Moss’s neck and his head was turned to the side. One eye partly opened. He looked like a badman on a slab. They’d sponged the blood off of him but there were holes in his face and his teeth were shot out.”

Morals Aren’t Permanent

In this, we can see Kern’s point—Moss had the freedom of choice and the freedom to flee, but we must also analyze the “outdated values” argument. Moss is impulsive and is willing follow his morality and ethics to the end to justify his theft. Moreover, he is willing to throw his life away, and he believes that, through simple ingenuity, he could survive and defeat the odds. But, as we see, this is not the case. Moss is killed, the money is gone, and his wife, Carla Jean, is murdered likewise.

Llewelyn’s outdated morals—honed in Vietnam—ultimately cause his death. He is too reliant on the skills he hopes to use to defeat the cartel and Chigurh. As such, his morals are outdated and thus lack rational logic (logic that fits into a modern world), which in McCarthy’s world, means you will leave either defeated or you will die. There is no winning.

Anton Chigurh

A Life By Chance

Anton Chigurh is vastly different from both Llewelyn and Bell in his moral code. He doesn’t believe that life has inherent meaning, and instead favors fate as the guiding principal. One follows a path that leads them to where they are going and they do not choose this path either.

“He’s a strict, conscientious, self-taught psychopath who vigilantly maintains his mental ill-health,” Kern writes. “He’s purged himself of all qualms and second thoughts so as to function smoothly in the world that Bell has grown unfit for.”

The march of time and “outdated morals” do not apply to Chigurh because his morality and ethical purity are made for a violent world. In other words, he lives strictly by his convictions, and he will not be deterred unless he is in an absolute dire strait, which isn’t often.

The Differences Show

As such, he is completely different from Bell in that way.

“… what makes Chigurh such a chilling antagonist is that by McCarthy’s reckoning, he seems like the right man for the times—an uncaring beast with no concern for anyone else,” Keith Phipps from the A.V. Club writes.

Llewelyn Moss is flawed, impulsive, and impractical, while Sheriff Bell is in over his head as times have moved on without him, but the world seems to reward people like Chigurh due to his convictions. Somebody who has no want of sensibility, community, and capital—those things that tie Bell and Moss together—will benefit them in the end…or, at least, that seems to be McCarthy’s suggestion.

Conclusion

Living with Outdated Morals

One of the final scenes in No Country for Old Men makes me think that the point of the novel is to touch on the theme of outdated morality. Anton Chigurh is driving his truck down the road after killing Carla Jean and is t-boned by another car that runs a stop sign. He is left in bad shape but is able to pay a bystander for their shirt and silence. Then he takes off into the backroads and byways of America, as though he is some mysterious, unkillable phantom of vengeance and retribution.

Taking a step back, one can see how Chigurh simply leaves the scene of the accident. In this way, he gets away, which literally means that there really is No Country for Old Men because the villain escapes without comeuppance. However, in applying the “outdated morals” concept, we must reflect on Chigurh’s confrontation with hitman Carson Wells. In this, we see his unwillingness to take money in exchange for Wells’ life. In fact, he kills Wells instead of taking his money. However, this should be odd to the reader because we then see Chigurh bribe two small children in order to ensure his own escape. Could it be that he is just a pragmatist who is cleaning up loose ends? I think not.

A Passing of Morality

As the two boys ride their bikes to Chigurh, he asks them for their help and gives them money.

“Chigurh thumbed a bill out of the clip and put the clip back in his pocket and took the bill from between his teeth and got to his feet and held it out…Take it. Take it and you don’t know what I looked like. You hear?”

But, why? If he is so sure of fate, wouldn’t it work itself out? In the novel, Wells asks Chigurh if he would take money in exchange for sparing his life, and Chigurh says it’s a good payday, but “It’s just in the wrong currency.” Nonetheless, according to Jack’s Movie Reviews about Chigurh’s own appreciation of bribery: “As he passes the one-hundred-dollar bill to them (the kids), it is a passing of generations. It is him being weak. It’s him becoming an old man. And, as we know, this is no country for old men.”

The Message Overall

In conducting this analysis of No Country for Old Men, there is no right or wrong. There are just those who have outdated morals or ethical impurity and suffer from their own actions and those who adhere strictly to a moral compass that ensures ethical behavior. Bell realizes he is outdated and is no longer fit for the modern world. Once, he used to break up barfights. Now, drug dealers shoot at him, and he follows a destructive swath cut by Anton Chigurh. The world has shifted to something violently unrecognizable.

Overall, I think I would propose that this book is about changing times and how that has a lessening effect on one’s own immediate surroundings. Toward the end of the novel, Bell states that by trying to live by his own morals he would be living life correctly.

“I thought if I lived my life in the strictest way I knew how then I would not ever again have a thing that would eat on me thataway.”

We of course find out that this mental outlook can’t be true and that Bell is wasting away in a sense–literally and morally.

Perhaps it is a little about mental change as one gets older, too, and the realization that these moments you once lived are now just shaky memories. I believe McCarthy wants us to believe that regardless of one’s morals—or their ability to survive, or their patience, or their violence toward others—everyone becomes outdated one day. Yet, by understanding and accepting this notion, one can adjust their life so that the reliance on the past has less of an impact on the future. At least this rationale could let us rest easy with our own irrelevancy as we get older—perhaps a little easier than Sheriff Bell at least.

Works Cited

Cheuse, Alan. “McCarthy’s ‘No Country for Old Men.” NPR. July 28, 2005. Web.

Kern, Walter. “‘No Country for Old Men’: Texas Noir.” The New York Times. July 24, 2005. Web.

Phipps, Keith. “Cormac McCarthy: No Country for Old Men.” A.V. Club. Aug. 16, 2005. Web.

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The Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac, Indigenous Horror

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Joseph Bruchac’s The Skeleton Man is a fantastic young-adult read. It has just the right level of gross out and disturbing mixed with mystery and adventure. With that said, it caters to young readers with an interest in horror stories. Additionally, it offers an exploration of indigenous folklore through a terrifying tale.

A Summary of The Skeleton Man

The novel begins with the retelling of a story about a man getting so hungry that he eats his own fingers and legs. Then, he devours his family and the rest of his village. It’s brutal stuff, but completely engaging for readers. From there, the story settles into a dark mood where a young girl named Molly searches for answers. Molly, the protagonist, goes to live with her uncle after her parents go missing. Slowly, she begins to suspect that her uncle had something to do with her parent’s disappearances.

From the book description:

“Molly remembers the Mohawk legend of a man so hungry he ate himself and everyone in his village, except for one brave girl. Now her parents have mysteriously disappeared, and an unknown great-uncle has shown up to claim her. He has fingers like talons and eyes like twin blue flames. Somehow Molly must escape to find her parents – because the Skeleton Man may be more than just a legend!”

(Scholastic)

The Skeleton Man Background

Joseph Bruchac’s inspiration for the novel came from a Mohawk legend about a man who eats himself, his relatives, and the rest of his tribe. In an interview with Scholastic students, Bruchac said the idea for the novel from legends and from kids he knew.

“They are kids who have a lot of courage and ingenuity and I wanted to both pay tribute to them and also write a story that would remind other kids that even a child can defeat a monster if they use their intelligence and are brave in the face of great danger,” he said.

Furthermore, Bruchac said he wanted to write a “modern-day story about American Indians” due to the pervasiveness of stories about indigenous cultures from the past.” In an interview with Teaching Books, Bruchac said kids have made The Skeleton Man his most popular novel. This was in part due to the macabre subject material.

“It takes place in modern times, but it’s based on traditional storytelling and deals with an issue that kids are always worried about, which is losing your parents,” Bruchac said. “It puts a child in a situation where, like our traditional stories, they’re confronted with a monster. But because they’ve learned the right things to do, they can overcome or escape that monster. And that’s one of the messages in our monster stories: they’re scary, but they’re also instructive.”

Conclusion

For teachers and parents, this is a perfect story for younger readers, akin to the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stein, or Michigan’s own Michigan Chillers by Jonathan Rand. It hits all the right marks with horror tropes and mystery elements. The novel is also steeped in a Mohawk legend, which is excellent for young learners. Students and children get real-life indigenous folklore interjected into a chilling narrative.

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’20th Century Ghosts’ by Joe Hill, Haunting and Emotional

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Author of 20th Century Ghosts Joe Hill is something truly unique. While it has many great short stories inside, it also showcases the talents of an author capable of moving through multiple genres. Through this collection Hill has put together one of the finest assemblages of short stories in recent memory. While sounding hyperbolic, it is true. The sheer quality of the novel places it high on a literary pedestal.

A 20th Century Background

Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts is a short story collection that features 19 excellent stories. They range from a unique, and familiar, writing voice that successfully builds on the tropes of horror without rehashing old ground. There are vampire stories here, and there are tales of outcasts. Yet, they all have something new or interesting to say about who we are and what great evil lies in the hearts of man.

The novel was published in Oct. 2005 in the United Kingdom under PS Publishing. In 2007, it was released in the United States. An award winning collection, the novel has been praised by critics worldwide. won multiple awards including the Bram Stoker Award for the best short story collection and the British Fantasy Award, as well.

And all these encomiums are well deserved, in my opinion. 

A Collective Summary of 20th Century Ghosts

The first story worth mentioning from the collection is, “Best New Horror.” The story is both terrific and terrifying for two reasons: its atmosphere, pacing, and its omission of details. In the story, Eddie Carrol, an anthology editor for America’s Best New Horror, laments his position as cataloguer of these stories. However, his interest grows once again when he reads a story title “Buttonboy” by Peter Kilrue. In searching for the author for publication, he discovers a horrific truth.

The more reflective story “20th Century Ghost” pulls the reader into the world of movie theatres and specters. In the tale, theatre owner Alec Sheldon discuss mortality and his retirement from the theater. Meanwhile the ghost of a young girl engages with moviegoers at the Rosebud Theatre. Her spirt haunts the cinema after her untimely death during a screening of The Wizard of Oz. It is a story about aging and the world moving on. While the story has horror elements, its emotional tone makes it a worthwhile venture.

Moreover, the story “Pop Art” continue the emotional stakes of the collection. It discusses the relationship between the narrator and his friend Arthur Roth, who is an inflatable boy. Much like the story “20th Century Ghost,” it steers the reader away from the idea of horror is something specific. In some ways, horror is beyond some awful creature hiding in the dark. Often, horror is the sadness of a fatal friendship and the misanthropy that comes from a cruel world.

Finally, Hill’s “Abraham’s Boys” elaborates on the idea that killing our heroes really is a life-altering event. The story tells the story of the sons of vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, and their realization that their father is not who they thought he was as children. Likewise, the story is also an exploration of parsing fact from fiction. It is one of the rare stories that truly makes the reader think about the role models in their life and how we can believe something even though reality stands in contrast.

Conclusion

Good short story collections can be hard to come by for a variety of reasons. Often, many stories retread old ground or don’t utilize the genre of short fiction well. But, that is simply not the case with 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. There are a variety of different stories and genres in this collection, from the truly horrific to the heartwarming and approachable.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Art and Murder

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The story of Oscar Wilde is an intriguing one. Much like Thomas Pynchon, there is a lot of mythos surrounding his character and exploits. His literary achievements are notable, and he is also responsible for writing a pivotal piece of Victorian literature, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This novel explores the meaning of art and its reflection against hedonistic values. It’s quite a compelling piece.

The Plot of Dorian Gray

The story tells the tale of Dorian Gray, whose friend, Basil Hallward, painted a picture for and that hangs in Dorian’s home. Due to this fact, Dorian falls in love with his own attractiveness, and wishes that he could stay young forever.

Ostensibly, this wish is granted, and as Gray explores a lifestyle of moral degradation, his portrait becomes more and more disgusting and corrupted. Gray, meanwhile, remains young and beautiful. The conniving, hedonistic Lord Henry Wotton also pushes Gray further into his immoral lifestyle. Others experience Gray’s attitudes more severely, and soon murder and death are on the table. Like a Shakespearean sonnet, Gray’s guilt conflicts with his ambitions.

Over the course of the next 18 years, Gray is “drawn to evil” and finds that the portrait of himself is truly suffering the effects of his own violent and untoward behavior. At the conclusion of the novel, Dorian attempts to do away with the painting, as he is bent on being a better and more moral person, and so he stabs the portrait with a knife. However, by stabbing the portrait, Gray feels the full effects of the blow. His servants find the remains of “a loathsome old man dead on the floor with a knife in his chest and a portrait of a beautiful young man” on the wall (Britannica). On the wall, a portrait of a beautiful, young Dorian Gray stands resolute.

Dorian Gray Background

The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890. It is a story perfect for the Victorian age due to its attitudes in modesty and artistic exploration. While a novel about aesthetics, it also falls into a few genres, whether that be a cautionary tale, horror story, or historical drama.

“… it is as much a philosophical treatise on morality and the meaning of life as a Gothic horror,” states critic Tony Canavan. “In fact there is little horror in the conventional sense—no rampaging monsters, haunted castles and so on. The action is more psychological, as Dorian, aided by Lord Henry and a ‘little yellow book’, is seduced by the license to do anything” (Canavan).

After publication, it became a controversial book. It challenged the values of contemporary society, which created its scandalous reputation. At the same time, the novel explores Wilde’s values as a writer and artist, and his values has a human being. Immoral action in the novel is a direct critique of those in society that live without consideration to others.

Lasting Impression of Dorian Gray

The idea of “art for art’s sake”–one of Wilde’s approaches to creativity–is alive in this book. The themes it tackles are heady issues, yet the never get muddled in the boredom of excessive description. Wilde once stated that he would use every word in the dictionary if possible when writing a novel if he could, and one gets this from reading his verbose diction. Still, it is artistic in the way Wilde sees art—somehow more open and seemingly reflective of one’s true self, both literally and figuratively.

Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray also discusses morality in a pretty black and white way. Again, the Victorian era’s influence is evident in the novel. The novel informs us of the perils of narcissism and of hedonistic value. As some sources have stated, while Dorian Gray is not one of Wilde’s best books, it is certainly unique due to its earnestness.

“For me, Dorian Gray is special – not necessarily Wilde’s best work but unique in his canon – because it’s so sincere: ineffably, inescapably, absolutely,” he writes. “It’s a very good novel anyway: moving, exciting, full of dread, angst, horror, lucidity… and a great love, I think, for mankind and for the artist’s own self” (McManus).

Works

“The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Britannica. Web.

Canavan, Tony. “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Books Ireland, no. 381, 2018, pp. 26–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26564228. Accessed 12 Oct. 2020.

McManus, Darragh. “Dorian Gray’s true picture of Oscar Wilde.” The Guardian. April 29, 2010. Web.

Blog, Book Reviews

Mark Twain’s ‘A Connecticut Yankee’: Parental Love

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As I had read Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, I couldn’t help but think of the many themes in the text. Twain manages to explore a variety of disparate ideas. These include science and technology in an age when superstitions reigned, and the violence of society throughout time. He also analyzes the permanence of history, and even parental sympathies and loved ones. In this post, I would like to examine just one of these themes: parental love.

Parental Love

Small Pox Episode

Throughout the book, our protagonist Hank Morgan finds himself in situations where individuals are either sick or dying at the hands of society. Nearby are their loved ones. For example, during a plague outbreak in the kingdom, King Arthur and Hank stumble upon a home afflicted with smallpox. A woman lies in bed, dying of sickness. King Arthur, meanwhile, retrieves her daughter from the eaves. He steps over the bodies of her other loved ones on the way out. He places the smallpox-afflicted child into the arms of her dying mother.

As Twain states: “She gave a sharp, quick glance at her eldest daughter, then cried out, ‘Oh, my darling!’ and feebly gathered the stiffening form to her sheltering arms. She had recognized the death rattle.” It is a poignant moment in a book otherwise rife in wackiness.

Later in the book, Hank expresses his own tenderness toward children. He states that childhood is marked by “mispronunciations” and “there’s no music that can touch it …” He also states that “one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness…” In other words, the loss of a child’s innocence is the real tragedy of life, and cherishing their naivety is the essence of loving parenthood.

Burned at the Stake and Accused of a Crime

Furthermore, a woman is burned at the stake while Hank and Arthur are held captive. The woman in question clings to her children before they are pulled from her and she is set ablaze. This horrifying scene illustrates the betrayal and heinous violence of the Middle Ages. In the scene, the woman is “fastened her to a post,” and “they brought wood and piled it about her.” Eventually, “they applied the torch while she shrieked and pleaded and strained her two young daughters to her breast; and our brute, with a heart solely for business, lashed us into position about the stake and warmed us into life” (Twain).

At one point, somebody accuses a woman of a crime for which she is guilty. However, the story reveals that she stole to afford food for herself and her child. In medieval Europe, “extenuating circumstances” did not exist, so the court’s have her hanged. Yet, before she is executed, she gives her child to a local cleric and thanks him for his generosity in protecting the child.

The scene plays out after “they put the noose around the young girl’s neck,” and then struggled to get the knot in the correct spot because “she was clutching the baby all the time, showering it with kisses, and holding it to her face and her breast, drenching it with tears, and half moaning.” Even the baby cannot understand what is happening, so it is “cooing, laughing, and kicking its feet with delight” (Twain).

Hank’s Paternal Love

Yet, as society changes around Hank, he himself experiences a personal transformation. Initially, he acts in a self-serving manner, leveraging his superior knowledge to gain power and influence. However, as he witnesses the consequences of his actions, Hank begins to question the ethics of his choices. Gradually, Hank begins to see the customs of the kingdom as something nuanced and stunted. This is in part due to the lack of innovation within society. This shift in mindset is a testament to the growth of his character. We see him wed to Sandy years after his initial adventures due to her love and adoration. Finally, Hank Morgan himself lies in bed, holding the narrator’s hand and deliriously calling out to his wife, Sandy, and his child, Hello Central.

Conclusion

Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is replete with themes of parental love and sacrifice. Hank Morgan, as a character, undergoes a transformation throughout the story. At first, he is portrayed as someone who is completely dumbfounded by the foolishness of the medieval kingdom. He views the society around him, with its superstitions and antiquated customs, with a mixture of disgust and disdain. As we know now, he had a paradigm shift and saw the light of love for his family.

As it relates to Mark Twain, he lost three of his four children before his own death. These included Langdon Clemens (19 Months), Olivia Susan Clemens (24 years old), Jane Lampton Clemens (29 years old). This paternal instinct is apparent in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Twain himself had already lost his son Langdon at this point in his life. In Twain’s writings, children were a poignant subject. Twain, too, had a deep care for his children and for the wonder that pervades them.

Twain stated in a letter to Dorothy Quick, daughter of Henry Stanhope Quick and a member of Twain’s Aquarium Club, on August 9, 1907: “I thought this was a home. It was a superstition. What is a home without a child?” Twain was referencing her absence, but in this we see Twain as having effecting for childhood youth as a sort of rejuvenate. His death is made all the more affecting as he held his only remaining daughter’s hand as he pressed on into twilight.

As it appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, and as stated on this blog, in his final moments, Twain held his loved one’s hand and uttered, “If we meet…” before falling asleep and dying. While we will never know what he wanted to say, the initial sentiment seems both loving and paternal.

Works Cited

Schmidt, Barbara. “Mark Twain’s Angel-Fish Roster and other young women of interest.” Twainquotes.com. Web. [Link to the source]

Project Gutenberg. (n.d.). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain. [Link to the source]