tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post6515585004222973635..comments2023-11-02T02:14:31.901-06:00Comments on ReadMoreWriteMoreThinkMoreBeMore: Be afraid. Be very afraid.Doctor Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13189506916480012553noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-69745839117263728782008-07-16T16:25:00.000-05:002008-07-16T16:25:00.000-05:00I regret to report that, by all accounts I've hear...I regret to report that, by all accounts I've heard, Shamaylan's new movie is no good.Doctor Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13189506916480012553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-8277825665489357112008-06-16T09:53:00.000-05:002008-06-16T09:53:00.000-05:00I don't know much about the histories of Victorian...I don't know much about the histories of Victorian Gothics or fairy tales (or horror films, for that matter)... but what you both say sounds right to me. <BR/><BR/>But, to go back to another (even older) source, wasn't there a passage in Plato--I think it was in the <I>Republic</I>--where he claims that we can't help but look at things that horrify us. I have only a vague memory of this passage, unfortunately, but I want to say it involved someone looking at a corpse. Anyone else remember this?Doctor Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13189506916480012553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-50745250382991278592008-06-15T17:29:00.000-05:002008-06-15T17:29:00.000-05:00That's true, and the fairy tale does precede the g...That's true, and the fairy tale does precede the gothic novel as a predecessor of the horror story...Ammon Allredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16390979234756277892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-85641028552782170932008-06-15T00:11:00.000-05:002008-06-15T00:11:00.000-05:00I think you have hit on something, there is unavoi...I think you have hit on something, there is unavoidably an ideology of childhood. Everything we say about the child has been constructed by us the adults, or reconstructed in the memory of our own childhood. A problem with my comment was that I assumed there was some kind of "phenomenology of childhood" when probably there can be none because theorizing begins where childhood ends, in adulthood. But I guess I was trying to allow for the reality of what children experience or sense about the world. I had in mind something that would not be commonsense description but the world of the fairy tale, in which there are dangers but innocence is always vindicated. Would horror then be an inversion of the fairy tale?<BR/><BR/>I am rambling on somewhat but there would seem to be a common question of innocence and guilt , and a moral sense, in both readings for children (e.g. the fairy tale) and the "guilty pleasure" of jaded adults (the horror film).Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04740079839363651376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-18247471850753395992008-06-14T21:20:00.000-05:002008-06-14T21:20:00.000-05:00I see nothing odd about being scared by A & E.And ...I see nothing odd about being scared by A & E.<BR/><BR/>And the Shining, unlike Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was definitely worth seeing.<BR/><BR/>I agree with John that the expectation of innocence has something to do with the potential freakiness of children, but then it would be the violation of that expectation that strikes as unheimlich. . .<BR/><BR/>I'm thinking particularly here of the origin of horror out of the Victorian genre of the Gothic novel; there is certainly a Victorian ideology of the child (one which supposes them to be unaware of both death and sexuality when actual children are unaware of neither) --- do children, as the site of that repression, also mark the horror of its failure?Ammon Allredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16390979234756277892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-82356113106677472062008-06-14T14:07:00.000-05:002008-06-14T14:07:00.000-05:00Now that man in the poster is a BAD man. He's rea...Now that man in the poster is a BAD man. He's really scary!Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04740079839363651376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-36710886865991003642008-06-14T14:01:00.000-05:002008-06-14T14:01:00.000-05:00I also remember The Shining as a terrifying film. ...I also remember The Shining as a terrifying film. Leigh, I am wondering if you can expand on your comment, ironic no doubt, that when children are scary they are extremely scary. The vantage point of a child has become central to film seemingly, including as you are mentioning here horror films. I would suggest that the child represents true, unfiltered perception of reality-- so that when the child's world becomes filled with say imaginary friends, or spirits or ghosts we become terrified because we cannot rule out completely the possibility that these are real. If the child is innocence then something that represents the awreness of death, "from the mouth of babes" will strike fear in us. The figure of the double and the sense of the uncanny no doubt plays a role in the films you discussed.<BR/><BR/>Having said all that Hollywood sure knows how to manipulate us and hit "close to home" in our psyches!Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04740079839363651376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-78990190656798680372008-06-13T16:46:00.000-05:002008-06-13T16:46:00.000-05:00Funny, I also have a "serial killer" story...I was...Funny, I also have a "serial killer" story...<BR/><BR/>I was in my apartment one late afternoon watching an A&E biography during "serial killer" week that was on Jeffrey Dahmer. I can't remember exactly, but I want to say that the show started at, like, 6 or 7 pm and was an hour long. At any rate, sometime during the program, it actually got dark outside, and since it wasn't dark when the program started, I didn't have any lights on in my apartment. So, by the time the thing was over, I was there sitting on my couch with a pillow and a blanket, totally terrified by what I had just seen, and I couldn't motivate myself to get up and go turn on the lights. Now <I>that's</I> "paralyzing" fear... and it was just a freakin' A&E biography, for goodness sake.<BR/><BR/>Speaking of <I>The Shining</I> (which, despite the absolute terror it produced in me, is an incredible film), that scene where the kid rolls around the corner on his big-wheel and sees the blood-soaked twins who say "Johnny, come play with us" is one of the most unforgettably horrifying scenes I've ever seen. Couple that with the opening scene of <I>Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte</I> and you'll barely be able to stand the presence of children (who, when scary, are <I>extremely</I> scary) again.Doctor Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13189506916480012553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488833.post-59961209835131288222008-06-13T13:06:00.000-05:002008-06-13T13:06:00.000-05:00I am so glad to hear I'm not the only one who cate...I am so glad to hear I'm not the only one who categorically (or almost categorically) refuses to see scary movies (I've seen most of Shyamalan's and I also saw the Others but other than that have pretty much kept to my vow since college, when I saw The Shining and Texas Chainsaw Massacre two nights in a row).<BR/><BR/>When I mention this to my students they always make fun of me for the pretty tame stuff I'm willing to call scary (Heather locked her jaw in midscream when we saw Scream, and I was more scared than she was).<BR/><BR/>I'm sure I miss some good movies this way, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.<BR/><BR/>And like you, I can trace mine back to a moment. For me it was when I was 7 and my 12 year old brother was babysitting us (in my family, at 10 you were old enough to watch your siblings while your parents were out).<BR/><BR/>He started watching some made for TV movie about Jack the Ripper coming back from the dead, which I can only imagine was extremely tame. When my five year old sister and I begged him to turn it off, he said we could just go to a different room.<BR/><BR/>But by then it was too late . . . We weren't going anywhere there wasn't someone even (marginally) older than us. . . <BR/><BR/>To this day, I am terrified of Jack the Ripper.Ammon Allredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16390979234756277892noreply@blogger.com