Skinwalkers

So for my paper I wrote about werewolves' portrayal in fantasy, and I touched a lot on the history of skinwalkers after all the suggestions from class two weeks ago. To my surprise I found A LOT of stuff about them online. My favorite was on Animal Planet's website this short video. http://animal.discovery.com/fantasy-creatures/skinwalker/

I paralleled the skinwalker tradition to Stephenie Meyer's wolf pack in her series. There are a lot of similarities but one huge difference. Skinwalkers scare Natives to death, and they are still a legitimate fear of theirs.
So furthered my quest to YouTube where I found this video which is kind of funny in a way but kind of creepy too. I thought I would share these interesting finds.

Scariest part of the movie

ok, so I wasn't there to discuss Labarinto del Fauno with you guys, and i apologize, but ive got a good, no GREAT excuse. I was interviewing for the position of Entry-Level Bank Examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. They are the foremost banking regulatory agency in the USA.

Here's the regulatory hierarchy
OCC>FDIC>State Regs

anyway, spending time working for a regulatory agency is a MUST for anyone who really wants to be a banker and move up in the ranks. (as i do)
plus, i'll be a federal agent and get to wear a suit and tie all the time, the salary isn't bad either. woot

so yeah, high fives!

Pan's Labyrinth (not really Pan but some other random faun) is a haunting and fantastic movie
this is my favorite scene from the movie,



i wanted ophelia to get eaten. she didnt listen to the faun or the fayries, what a bad child!
and those poor fayries get eaten because of her.

but sincerely, the set is exquisite. Notice the sumptous feast, but no other chairs at the table...
the paintings on the cieling are really scary too. Even, the fireplace is creepy with the teeth like metal grate and eye like exhaust vents. the mound of shoes is a nice detail too.

why is this pale man only hungry for children? that ham with pineapple slices on it would suffice for me.

and seriously, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OPHELIA? you deserved to get eaten and lucked out. i hope you feel bad about the fayries.

interesting parallels to the story of Persephone and Hades though (it's about time she returned to her mom, Demeter)
also, the cattle of Helios and Odysseus' men
one more but i can't think of it offhand...i'll edit it in when i remember

Moral of this episode, don't eat other people's food or you will get stuck in hell or eaten.

Rejecting the Underworld

Although some people view the ending of this story with the impression that the underworld is real (because, why not? anything can happen in fantasy), for once I have to depart from my ways of embracing the impossible and not accept that such a world actually existed for Ofelia. Rather, it was a fantastical world she imagined for herself as a way to seek escape from the political and personal turmoil around her.

I believe the film itself is structured to support my opinion. Ofelia's fantasies are obviously, just that, dreams and her imagination; nothing in them actually affects the real world, nor does anyone ever actually see the fairies and faun the she continuously seems to encounter. Given the fact that she constantly carries with her stacks of fantasy books, we can assume rationally, not unlike the adults in the movie, that such things have gone to her head.

We can even draw the comparison to Ofelia's namesake, the insane Ophelia from Hamlet who commits suicide. Ofelia's fantasies are a combination of her mad escape from reality and a rebellion and refusal to live in the Captain's world. However, such imaginations, although they resulted in her death, nevertheless were still able to free her. No longer would she be in such a world of turmoil and suffering; she may not have gone to underworld from her fantasies, but we can all agree she at least went to some form of heaven or Utopia that reunited her with her mother and father in a true symbolization of liberation.

Still though, despite all of this, it's fun to believe that such a fantasy land actually existed...wistful thinking, I suppose

Navigating the many Labyrinths

One the things that has always amused me is that while my best friend and her girlfriend are huge fans of David Bowie's Labyrinth, I was rather unimpressed with the film (though not David Bowie's hard-to-ignore codpiece). However, I (artsy fartsy film nerd that I am) love Pan's Labyrinth, yet I'm positive I could never get them to watch it.

Obviously, one is best recognized as a star vehicle pop piece and the other as an artistic comment on a number of different issues/conflicts (chief among them the living under Francisco Franco), I'm curious what people think are the similarities. There's a lot of superficial visual cues, but they also have the same basic plot framework: Baby Brother is held hostage in some way and Plucky Older Sister must face down a fantastic authority figure to get him back.

Thoughts?

Another (fictional) moneyless society

From Cory Doctorow's glowing review of Bruce Sterling's new sf novel (boldface emphasis mine):

In The Caryatids, global warming has melted practically every government in the world (except China) -- leaving behind a slurry of refugees, rising seas, and inconceivable misery. But there are two stable monoliths sticking out of the chaos, a pair of "civil society groups" that embody the two major schools of smart green thought today: the Dispensation are Al Gore green capitalists based out of California who understand that glamor and profits, properly aimed, achieve more than any amount of stern determination and chaste conservation; their rivals are the Aquis, mostly European anarcho-techno-geeks who have abandoned money in favor of technologically mediated communal life where giant, powerful, barely controlled machines are deployed to save the refugees and heal the Earth.

The Labyrinth vs. the Graveyard

In Pan's Labyrinth, the final scene of Ofelia alive where she is running through the Labyrinth and it opens for her to allow her to move to the middle faster made me sort of think of Bod moving through fixtures in the Graveyard at will. Both the Graveyard and the Labyrinth acted in a differing way in protecting the children. The main difference being that Bod was allowed to live while Ofelia had to die, even though her death took her to her Utopia.

Gaiman's Original Plan for The Graveyard Book

In an interview in another one of his books, Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman said,

The next novel I'm working on is called The Graveyard Book. It's a novel that consists of--I hope, if it works--short stories. Each chapter is a short story set a couple of years apart from the next, so together they form a novel going through somebody's life. It's about a young boy whose family is killed and who takes refuge in a graveyard and is brought up by dead people who teach him all the things that dead people know.

I didn't really pay attention to the way that Gaiman wrote each chapter. "The Witch's Headstone," for example, doesn't need too much additional material to be read and understood. I just thought it was interesting that this was his original direction for the book.

Kronos

I'm not sure if I'm right on this but is the monster in the room with the fruit supposed to be Kronos from Greek mythology? I don't really know much about him but I remember talking about him in art history and that he ate his own children. The paintings that were on the wall in the room were of the monster eating what looked like children. I'm not sure if I am right on that though.

Labyrinth

I noticed on the back of the movie case that this director also directed Hell Boy. I really like the first movie, although I have never read the comics. At the end of Pan's Labyrinth when she is lying on the ground and her blood drips into the portal (I know that's a gross description), I noticed that it looked a lot like the part of Hell Boy when the evil blonde girl and that crazy assassin kill that guy in the arctic to bring back their master. Or at least the miniature stone labyrinth on the ground full of blood, they looked very similar to me. Also I liked the part about the mandrake. It reminded me of the mandrakes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but I think I like the way the look in Pan's Labyrinth better.

Dissatisfied

This was the first time I had ever seen Pan's Labyrinth. And besides some pretty gruesome parts, enjoyed it. However, at the end of the movie if felt the story was incomplete. Yes, the story is about Ofelia and the movie ties up her story quite nicely. The fate of Ofelia's baby brother is left to the imagination, with some strong suggestions that he is left in the care of Mercedes. I think at the end I wanted conformation that this child Ofelia sacrificed her life for was taken care of. No dialog would be necessary, just a thirty second clip of him safe with Mercedes and Pedro. Did anyone else find this element lacking?

Labyrinth Recollections

As I was nearing the end of Pan's Labyrinth (which I greatly enjoyed, by the way) I had a couple of flashbacks during the movie and wanted to know if others felt the same.

When Pan tells Ofelia to bring her brother to the labyrinth, for some reason I was reminded of the beginning of the movie Labyrinth when the Goblin King (David Bowie) steals Sara's baby brother away from her. I am not sure why I thought of this, but it definitely rang some bells.

Also, when the captain is chasing Ofelia through the labyrinth, did anyone think of The Shining (the movie, not the book)? I just kept seeing Jack Nicholson stumbling through snowy hedges, haha.

Pan's Labyrinth

So I was just looking up the definition for a faun--because before I watched the movie I had never heard of the term--and Wikipedia describes a faun as "place-spirits of untamed woodlands." The creature derives from Roman mythology. It says they have horns and resemble goats below the waist, but resemble humans above.

One difference between this definition of a faun and the one in Pan's Labyrinth was the appearance in Pan's Labyrinth didn't really look like a goat to me. It looked like it had grass growing all over it. And Wikipedia even says that "the faun in this movie is different from most fauns, looking as if it was made of earth and trees rather than just a goat and a man."

Jim Morrison's grave, 1991

Our classroom discussion of cemeteries as festive gathering places, prompted by Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, inspired me to unearth these photos of Jim Morrison's grave in Pere Lachaise in Paris as it looked during my first visit in 1991.Note the perpetual crowd of celebrants, the offerings left by visitors, and the layers of graffiti on every hard surface for yards around, including all the neighboring tombs.Eventually the neighbors' living relatives complained loudly enough that the city cracked down on all this. Now such gatherings are prohibited, and all the graffiti had been scoured off or painted over by my 2003 visit.Of all the graffiti I saw, my favorite was this, hard to read in the photo: "Don't spend all your life sitin' [sic] on Jim Morrison's grave."

Chris Riddell's "Last dance!"

My copy of the British edition of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book just arrived, courtesy of Amazon UK, and while all Chris Riddell's illustrations are admirable, I thought Kellie Hensley would be especially interested in this one, of Bod sharing the last dance with the Lady on the Grey.

"Out of these moneyless mists"

Zach's paper idea on moneyless economies (Link's "The Hortlak," Star Trek: First Contact, Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, etc.), reminded me of a famously cranky passage of criticism that I finally have tracked down. It's from Brian W. Aldiss' classic history of science fiction, Trillion Year Spree. Aldiss argues that the great appeal of feudal fantasy landscapes is economic, and that the widespread popularity of fantasy since the 1970s is the result of economic uncertainty:

... Perhaps the most compelling attraction of a feudal background is that money never has to change hands.

We are talking, after all, when we deal with this welter of fantasy, of the dreams of our society, our capitalist society. That society works by the circulation of money. What is the adolescent reader, the typical reader of these fantasies, most short of? Money. And the power that money brings. The attractions of societies where no money changes hands are obvious. A young fantasy hero cast up on a strange planet can go straight into the nearest tavern and obtain a tankard of ale or bexjiquth. When did a fantasy hero ever fish a ten dollar bill from his pocket? When did milady seek alimony? When were travellers’ cheques needed in Atlantis or Cathay? When was the lead villain simply slung into prison for debt? When did the mortgage ever fall due on one of those labyrinthine castles? ...

In fantasies, banks –- those bastions of capitalist society –- are transformed into palaces or castles. Transactions take place in readily negotiable blood. It is not really science which yields to magic in these sagas, but the fiscal system. Hence the reason for their endless popularity. Witchcraft needs no bank loan. And, because such fantasies are always unsatisfying, it is also the reason why publishers need to keep up the supply of the drug, month by month. The Gor novels are for addicts, not adults. When economic policies weigh hardest on the people, dosages can be seen to increase. ...

Out of these moneyless mists come heroes, heroines, and gods to satisfy an insatiable demand, accompanied by wizards, warlocks, unicorns and dragons, dwarves and fairies. It is hard to understand why the contemporary world should so desperately need these antiquated props from earlier ages, unless intellect is less secure on its throne than we had hoped. ...

If we are confronting the untutored consciousness, the unembarrassed outpourings of the mind of the US as it grows towards being the globe’s dominating super-power of the Twenty-First Century –- infinitely more strong, glittering, and expensive than any previous state –- then we confront a mind almost willfully irrational, technophobic, embracing the horrid, bugged by unknown superstition, and hypnotized by the infantile fantasy of owning the universe.

-- Brian W. Aldiss with David Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. 1986. Thirsk: House of Stratus, 2001. 322-24. (From Ch. 11, “The Dawn of the Day of the Dumpbin.”)

The Nature of Labyrinths

So I watched the movie for this week and started to think about labyrinths in general. These can obviously be traced to Ancient Greece and Daedalus and the Minotaur, but what about the modern equivalents? In New England (where I'm from), it's fairly common to outline a labyrinth with various rocks in the shadow of a church or a garden or a new-agey retreat. This is a picture from one fairly close to my home:



That's basically just a classical interpretation: an actual maze in which one can get physically lost. But I'd argue that modern interpretations have moved past this simplicity. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a famous short story titled "The Garden of Forking Paths," in which he argued that the ultimate labyrinth is time, where each decision represents a turn in the maze and no backtracking is possible.

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski is a novel that explores labyrinths more as a concept of horror. At its most basic, the story is about a house that's bigger on the outside than on the inside, eventually branching into a labyrinth. But the main story is layered with editorial notes that are narrated to form an additional story, and those footnotes have yet other authors leaving notes. The complexity increases to the point where the pages of the book are literally re-arranged to take on the subject matter--you have to twist the book sideways and upside-down and skip pages to follow the text. The book is the labyrinth. It pretty much became a cult favorite (think Monty Python and the Holy Grail). If you're not familiar with it, I'll bring my copy on Wednesday for anyone interested to see.



So my musing aside, "Pan's Labyrinth" obviously showcased an ancient labyrinth. But that's looking at things from a pretty basic level. The chalk let Ofelia walk seamlessly between worlds and pass physical boundaries in our own. The story itself seemed more like an inversion of the traditional purpose of the labyrinth, where it eventually allows her to escape rather than trapping her like the Minotaur of Crete. I'd wager that the movie walked the path of these more modern interpretations of the labyrinth, offering a deeper subtext that we could explore.

New Paper Topic

Ok, so I just e-mailed Andy about my new paper topic, but I thought I would share it with y'all as well to see what y'all thought, and if anyone had any further ideas. I'm going to explore Ford's choices of songs for The Shadow Year. I'm also going to look at how they relate to Ford's life and the time he grew up in, as well as their relationship to the story. I believe that the songs can show us even more how the story is somewhat autobiographical, and a great look at what was really going on in American suburbia in the 1950s. Let me kow what y'all think!

Cool Site

I was looking through Jeffrey Ford's Blog and found a link to a very useful website. It has close to 1700 older books posted in full text. Just thought it would be nice to share a resource. Forgotten Books

This year's Eaton Conference

In an earlier post, I encouraged y'all to become aware of the many academic conferences where people seriously discuss the things we discuss every week -- and to consider participating in those conferences. Now the schedule of this year's Eaton Science Fiction Conference, at UC-Riverside, has been posted; take a look.

"The Faery Handbag" on BBC Radio 7

This BBC Radio 7 adaptation of Kelly Link's "The Faery Handbag" is available only through the weekend.

More on the Signifcance of White

I hope the topic hasn't been exhausted too much. One of the things I thought about it class but didn't really get the chance to mention -- white is also the color of dress in the traditional images of God. White tends to be used in a lot of religious contexts as well.

In The Shadow Year, Mr. White is, in a way, playing God, if you will. He decides, apparently at random, who lives and who dies within the small town. I just thought that was another interesting correlation.

Also, here's a website with some historical and present significance of different colors. I thought it was rather interesting. Sorry, I can't do that cool link making thing...but I can copy and paste :)
http://www.socyberty.com/Folklore/Historical-Significance-of-Colors.77590

White Tomb

While doing some research for my paper I noticed that in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the name of the last chapter is called "The White Tomb". I guess this would connect the color white with nobility. Although we determined that Mr. White was not noble at all.

X-Files and Suburbia

All our talk about suburbia and its oft-dark underbelly reminded me of an X-Files episode called "Arcadia," where Mulder and Scully, as a married couple, infiltrate a suburban community that has had a slough of recent murders. It definitely has the eerie Pleasantville vibe, and I'd suggest that its mystery/suspense elements mirror Ford's book well enough to warrant a comparison.



Talk about a facade (at that point in the show, at least). Also, the aliases that Mulder and Scully chose for this undercover assignment were taken from The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Zombies

Even though this story has nothing to do with zombies, there are "zombies" in the story. Just thought that was interesting.

Stating the Obvious

It is obvious, but interesting how different authors and stories all incorporate a "library." As I read about Perno Shell I could not help, but think of the "The Library" in Magic for Beginners. Two beloved tales that are unmarked and must be sought out. Not to mention the occurances in the library that are essential to the overall plot of the story. I don't know exactly why this is. Maybe it is because writers are very attached to libraries. Or maybe it is because it is a border place between reality and the contents of a book. Or maybe it is just a cool place to set a scene.

The Protagonist

Did it bother anyone else that the name of the main protagonist is never revealed?  It seemed like he was inundating us with all these details about everyone who lived in this town, almost to the point where it was hard to keep who was who straight, but we never know the name of the main character in the story.  I suppose it makes sense, given the story is from his perspective, and I also think it adds to the mysterious feel of the story, but it still was the one thing that bothered me when I got to the end.  

Ford on His Own "Shadow Year"

I don't think I have quite read anything like The Shadow Year before. It was interesting, although i'm not sure I would call it "an obvious fantasy" by any means.

But anyways, I went looking for Ford's own take on his novel and found these quotes from his on his work:

"A lot of the Shadow Year is based on my life--it's very personal. I started writing it and then I got stuck. It wasn't anything too traumatic, but I wanted to really get down what had happened."

I wish we knew what exactly was personal about this story for him. Was it the characters? I could see them passing as believable people, mostly the mom. Or was it the events? While slightly....more difficult for me to image actually happening in real life, they would definitely be traumatic. (A  pedophiliac ice cream man turned clown? Holy crap, that's terrifying). Or perhaps it was just based off of little things like the play-village in the basement or the school projects that could have existed in Ford's childhood.

"The first time I finished The Shadow Year, it was too subtle. Nobody could figure out what the hell was going on. Then, with a lot of encouragement from my editor, I went back to it. She said, 'Here's the secret: it's fiction. Make it a story.' So when I went back I kept that in mind, and that allowed me to finish it. Before that it was really kind of a memoir (god forbid). It's based on the novella 'Botch Town'."

Honestly, I still can't figure out what the hell is going on. I mean, I have interpreted Ford's work to fit my own perception of what it means to me, but I am almost positive it has a completely different meaning to him; it has to, seeing as how personal it is to him and how it originally was a memoir-ish creation.  I also looked for the "Botch Town" novella online, but I can't seem to locate it. 

Ford seems a very mysterious author and person to me. His own website is very....simplistic, and I wasn't able to find too many interviews with him out there. While it annoys me because I want to know why his book was written how it was and what it meant to him, I can accept his secretive ways just because it gives respect to his work almost by leaving it with such an anonymous atmosphere around it.

Golden Compass?

I'm not really sure where the thread about the Golden Compass went, but I was commenting and all the sudden it vanished. I was going to say, "How exactly was the Magisterium involved in the story? I have not seen the movie or read the book, but obviously it was frowned on by most Christian denominations rather publicly. The Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Catholic Church over its entirety that has been handed down in the lineage of popes and bishops since Peter and the apostles. So it would be a symbol of the Catholic Church. Any insight?"

Futuristic Sci-Fi

I mentioned this show in class last week, and received a bunch of blank stares. I wanted to share the wealth with you all. Fringe is a new hit show based on the job of FBI agent Olivia Dunham. She is assigned to freak cases that seem too impossible to be real. The show attempts to explain these phenomena by stretching scientific evidences and hypotheses. Here is a link the the show's site and a link to the episode featuring the "werewolf."

http://www.fox.com/fringe/

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56018/fringe-the-transformation

"The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford

In this interview with The Toronto Star, Neil Gaiman says Coraline was partially inspired by "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford (1882), which he calls "haunting like a nightmare is haunting." Indeed it is. Here's the text.

Gaiman on scary children's stories

From this Montreal Mirror interview about Coraline:

Adults are always much more disturbed by Coraline, because I think it’s a different genre of book for them. From a kid’s-eye view, it’s an adventure. It’s about a little girl who goes up against something bad and wins, and they never have any doubt that she’ll get into trouble, and it’s cool, it’s okay, it’s like The Wizard of Oz. Adults, on the other hand, are reading about a child in danger, and a child in danger is a much stranger, more difficult field of literature to cope with, I suspect. Once you’re a parent, reading about a child in danger is really problematic.

Maybe The Graveyard Book, then, isn't as scary to y'all because you aren't parents yet.

The Dragon Book

I've posted to my own blog John Jude Palencar's cover for The Dragon Book, an anthology I'm proud to be in, due in November from Penguin Putnam. Take a look if you're interested.

Stephen King on Stephenie Meyer

A few weeks back, Stephen King commented on the Rowling/Meyer phenomenon. I found it amusing, considering this class' obsession with both authors. I suppose the Harry Potter fans should feel vindicated now.

"...I think that I serve that purpose [of influencing] some writers, and that’s a good thing. Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. ... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

And this is completely unrelated to anything, but since I know about Mr. Duncan's fetish for Elijah Wood, I figured he would find this video particularly distressing:



(I'm going through a Eurodance phase right now, so forgive me)

I have been reading too many reviews lately, and my brain is filled with things.

Since someone requested it, the post I was referencing in class:

Usually, when an article begins "A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom itself," it is a sign of hope--someone who understands active fan culture beyond the shallow "lolnerds." However, it saddened me that the rest of the review, Roger Ebert's look at the movie Fanboys, didn't deliver; instead, Ebert chose to uncritically focus on the loud extremes while criticizing a movie whose biggest fault is uncritically parroting a stereotype. (I haven't seen Fanboys, nor do I intend to, so I don't have an opinion on Ebert's view of the movie.)

One of the things I value most about fandom, and why I love going to conventions is experiencing the love others have for their chosen interests. I don't care what it is, as long as you love it intelligently, seeing both the good and bad. This is, in part, what I have enjoyed most about reading reviews of Takashi Miike's latest true "labor of love", Yatterman--that Miike's exuberance for the original material has shown through, even as he's also not afraid to get in a few jabs. Quoting from the Twitchfilm review by Grady Hendrix:

In an interview, Miike talked about the way that Yatterman offered reassurances when it aired only 30 years after the war. He felt like it was a message from adults to kids that everything was going to be alright. No matter how many battles were fought or how many mushroom clouds rose up in the sky, next week things were going to be fine again so don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world.

By embracing the repetitive nature of the original Yatterman, Miike’s telling us that it’s the things we do over and over again that are keeping us immature and stop us from growing up, but they’re also our protection against a tough old world. That teddy bear you’ve kept since you were a kid IS childish and immature, but isn’t he sort of your best friend, too? Yatterman points out the problems, but also celebrates the comfort they provide. In a world that feels like it’s rapidly spinning down the toilet, it’s nice to have an adult come in the room and tell all of us that hey, don’t worry, no matter what we do everything’s going to be just fine.

These juxtaposed impulses of condemnation and comfort are what I think Ebert (and most people who look in at fandom from a distance) misses with his analysis of fannish culture. It's not just the social interaction shortcut but the sense of a safe identity and community that cannot be invalidated. As a culture has fewer and fewer large-scale shared experiences, shared fannishness can ensure that even when one can't always live up to the standards of society, there will be a space for them. Yet when this community space becomes a tool for exclusiveism--when fannish Gollums try to deny their fellows the experience and identity in which they revel--it morphs from an experience to a possession, kept forever "perfect" by being polybagged in its original clamshell packaging.

The problem with Gollum is not that he loved an object too much, after all. It's that he become obsessed with being its sole possessor and arbiter of its existence.

-----

In relation to my paper, I see Link's killing of Fox as forcing Jeremy to examine his own "childish" fannishness, which wishes to immaturely posses the media work he loves. In being given the chance to interface with the work, learns to enjoy and grow with the experience, entering into "mature" fannish culture.

Also, since I discovered it through The Google, this post does a fantastic job of synthesizing fannish experience with Link's story (as well as explaining why I, a child of modern fandom, love it so much).

Apologies and Questions

First, I want to apologize once again for missing everyone's presentations yesterday - from what I have heard before class and what Natalie told me about, everyone's papers sound really interesting.

Also, I have a few questions about the actual...style, I guess, of the papers. Like I said, my paper is going to be comparative. It has been quite a while since I have written a class paper, and I definitely feel a little rusty starting out. What types of sources are most likely going to be useful when writing these? I was planning to first compare/contrast different definitions of immortality from a fantasy perspective, then compare/contrast the ways it is portrayed in the sources I choose to use. Hopefully I will also be able to include some information on the author's thoughts on the topic. Does this sound appropriate? I just don't want my paper to end up too informal or anything. I don't know if this was discussed anymore in class yesterday.

Again, thanks for the ideas for sources, I am very sorry for not getting to stay for everyone's proposal, and thanks in advance for helping me with this question!

Thoughts

This is a little late but here is what I've been thinking about for my paper. I am really interested in the art and art references in The Graveyard book. My first inclination is to write about the Dance Macabre - Its origins, its purpose in Gaiman's book, and its modern applications. As far as modern applications I would not limit it to just fantasy examples but not-fantasy references and non-literary references. Secondly, I am interested in the impact art has on a literary piece. Which comes first the picture or the book. And how cover art/inside art enhances or detracts from the book. My concern with the second idea is its lack of concrete evidence and its emphasis on opinion.

Is There Such a Thing As Too Much Harry?

It is an obvious fact, whether you like the books or not (although you would be rather insane not to...) that Harry Potter will indeed go down in history as one of the greatest phenomenon ever.  While the movies may eventually get pushed to the back of the DVD stand, it is clear that the books will forever remain well-read, by this generation and many to come. 

However, how far are the media and corporations willing to go to continue making a profit off this series, despite it being finished? Turning the books into movies was a given. JKR's extension of books within the books ("Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Beedle the Bard) was predicted. Even board games, clothing, and other products like the production of actual chocolate frogs and BB's Ever Flavor Beans was to be expected.

However, the kicker for me is Universal's great undertaking to build "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park".  At a predicted cost of $265 million dollars, it is set to open June of 2010.  The park is set to include the areas of Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Castle, and the Forbidden Forest, and it is to encompass various elements from books 1 through 7. JKR herself is even involved with the production (thank god).

So, is this too far? Should an actual, physical representation of the world I came to live in figuratively during my childhood be allowed to become materialized in front me, sans the main element that truly makes it in the books: magic?  I feel it would cheapen these places you can never do justice in real life by building.

However, I stand before you as the biggest hypocrite ever. Does this theme park disgust me? Oh, most definitely. It's repulsing. Will I go when it opens? Oh, I've already got my ticket paid for, so watch out. In the end, I'm just as bad as corporations like WB I guess, because I fall right into that trap where I'm willing to shill out good money to see something like this.

And here may be the best thing yet:

Here is a link to concept art of what the park would look like

Pretty much the shit, no? 

And Here is an example of what Warner Bros actually has produced

Fail.

So what are everyone else's thoughts on this?

The Graveyard Book as a Children's Story

I was searching over Gaiman's blog and found this nugget. It was written in 2004, before he had completed the book. I thought this would be relevant to the discussion we were having last week regarding the degree to which it is a book for children. I wonder if Gaiman succeeded in creating the kind of "deeply scary" story he initially sought, or if the work tempered this ambition.

... And then once I've finished ANANSI BOYS (a novel for adults) I'll write THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (a novel for kids).

The strange thing is that I suspect that THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (a kids book) will have much more sex, more death, and be deeply scarier on most levels than ANANSI BOYS (an adult book). ANANSI BOYS is, at least so far, a huge big funny enthusiastic puppy of a book that just wants to be loved, and will probably be pressed on kids by librarians. THE GRAVEYARD BOOK will be something else -- something really creepy and cool, I hope. The first few pages of THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (more or less all that exists) follows a serial killer called Jack around the empty house in which he's just killed everyone in the family but the baby. He's looking for the baby.

Psychonauts

Back when we were discussing definitions of fantasy and listing examples, I realized that I'd totally forgotten one of my favorite video game examples: Psychonauts. The basic plot is pretty simple: Raz, a cadet at a summer camp for psychics, discovers that his fellow campers' brains are being stolen for use in psychic death tanks. To stop this, he must journey into the warped minds of other, including his enemies, to stop the brain theft.

Playing Psychonauts is very reminiscent of reading a Kelly Link story, though the plot of Psychonauts is far more coherent. Each deranged step is more fun than the next, and the art direction does a great job moving from static concept of living world. Many of the worlds are riffs on pop culture or references to bits fo the creators' own childhoods.

And if you don't believe me, the Zero Punctuation review does a great job encapsulating why the game is so good. (Please note, the audio for this review is not exactly SFW.)

My Possible Paper Topics

I have been jugging two ideas for paper topics the past few days and was just wanting to get some input on them. The first goes back to my ghouls post, I think it would be fun to compare other characters in the "The Graveyard Book" with the characters of the world of Harry Potter. It's possible. Also I was thinking about some very, very broad movie comparisons I have been making with the stories of Kelly Link. They have very broad connections but it might be interesting to try and connect them. Some of the movies/ books include Beetlejuice, Pet Semetary, The Shining, and I Am Legend. Again the connections are very vague but I make them somehow. Just wanted to get some opinions.

Gaiman's oration

Professor Duncan mentioned last Wednesday the talent that Neil Gaiman has for orating his novels as well as writing. I found on his blog a link to a live reading of ch 1 of The Graveyard Book.

http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx

His wonderful accent paired with his calm tone reading his words is easy and relaxing, but also keeps you completely involved in the story. I went to a live reading two years ago in Smith Hall for another honors class and wanted to gouge my eyes out. This is a MUCH better experience.

missed class on friday

hey everyone and professor duncan, I deeply regret missing our usual wednesday afternoon conversation. I was having a painful time elsewhere in this all-american city of Tuscaloosa.

anyway, what did i miss? besides the discussion of Neil Gaimans classic "the graveyard book"

I noticed someone speak of paper topics? are those due soon?

also, what should i be reading interim the week?

is there a place where i can download the syllabus/reading guide?

is this one too many questions?

Ghost Marriages

I was reading over the Kelly Link interview that was posted by Kayla on Jan. 29 mainly about "The Great Divorce" and how the story came about. One of the interview question asked Link about how she came upon the "concept of the living marrying the dead." Link's reply to the question mentioned how zombies were on her mind because she was watching numerous zombie movies around that time as well as writing about certain haunting qualities that the dead seem to possess over the living. While her reply was satisfactory, I was reminded of a certain key phrase, "Ghost marriages." I first learned about ghost marriages when I took a Defining Marriage class last semester and found this particular custom to be bizarre at first but logical after considering the circumstances in which some of these brides will take a deceased husband, which in some cases is to hold on to personal wealth and property rights. So I guess the question for everyone is, if anyone ever found themselves in a situation where a ghost marriage might be considered a possibility, would anyone ever consider it as an alternative? They say communication is key to a happy marriage, I guess frequent seances would be in order, huh? In that case, who is to say the living can only marry "ghosts"/"the dead"......maybe it would considered discrimination to leave all the other undead or dead-like creatures out of the equation when talking about this particular type of marriage.....no?

Link to Ghost Marriage in General
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_marriage

Link to Chinese Ghost Marriage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Ghost_Marriage

Kayla's Link to Kelly Link's interview for immediate access
http://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=story&story_id=59

Music of the Shadow Year

For all those interested, there is a blog called the largehearted boy. It is a music blog, but I found an interesting link called the, "Book Notes" series, where they asked Jeffrey Ford if had to chose music for his book, The Shadow Year, to be set to, what songs would be included. The songs are a mantra to his youth. His examples also include personnel experiences, and why they are relevant, in his perspective, to the novel. It's really interesting the reason he chooses a few of the songs.

Here is the link for those of you who want to check it out: http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2008/03/book_notes_jeff_3.html

Immortality....

So, not to ruin the surprise, as I know we're all on the edge of our seats wanting to hear everyone's paper topics...but....

I am considering the topic of immortality as a focus for my paper. I won't go into the details here, I don't want to be repetitive in class. But I am looking for some additional sources/angles to consider that aren't in the books already covered in class.

So, if anyone has any books/movies/anything where the topic of immortality is considered, I am very open to suggestions - that would be so helpful! I want to have a wide variety to pull from, and everyone has such a varied interests that I definitely wanted your input. Thanks!

Blogging, Neil Gaiman Does It Too

Neil Gaiman doesn't only have his own webpage, as any person does now, but he actually has an up-to-date blog that, in all honestly, provides quite the interesting read:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com

He is able to masterfully mix in not only news on himself (of course) and interesting information about the upcoming Coraline movie (with links, pictures, and reviews), but also news on what other fantasy writers are up to and other tidbits he refers to as the "nothing to do with me department".

For those who have read his past works, it is nice to hear someone whose writing you appreciate put down the pen and talk to their readers, while still maintaining some of his evident personality quirks.  And for those just getting into the world of Gaiman, his blog and website present a nice little ice breaker of sorts of getting to know the author outside of "The Graveyard Book"

The Graveyard Book and American Gods

These two books by Neil Gaiman have some similarities. They both focus on a joining of the supernatural world and the "real" world. Shadow from American Gods and Bod from The Graveyard Book share some qualities.

Shadow
Shadow is an ex-con just out of prison. His wife has just died. He has to start a new life. He tends to fade into crowds and dark places without being noticed. He gets pulled into a war between old world gods and new world gods. He is deceived by one of the Gods who is playing both sides.

Nobody "Bod"
Starting a life. He has the ability to fade into objects and shadows in the graveyard. He can always fall away from the normal eye. He is fooled into trusting Mr. Frost/Jack Frost and that trust is betrayed.

If you have a chance to read American Gods, I would recommend it. It is a little more of an adult novel than a teen's or YA.

Ghouls

I found a very interesting definition of ghouls on Wikipedia, I know that's not the best source but it had a lot of good information. In the definition it mentions that ghouls eat young children, which is an interesting thought considering the ghouls came across Bod. At the end of this it also says that a ghoul can be described as "anyone who delights in the macabre". Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul

Danse Macabre

Chapter Five of The Graveyard Book is entitled " The Danse Macabre". The Danse Macabre or the Dance of Death is a medieval allegory of the universality of death.  Illustrations of the allegory typically include four skeletons including one in power, a youth, and one of great beauty. Hans Holbein created a series of  41 woodcut engravings of the Dance of Death from 1522-24. They depict religious scenes of death of individuals from all levels of society.  The allegory was meant to be a reminder of how fragile and vain earthly life is.

Every Man Jack

In addition to being a popular idiom and an integral chapter of Gaiman's book, Every Man Jack is also a line of natural male grooming products. The face wash is especially exfoliating.

The Graveyard Jungle

One of the things that struck me while reading the Graveyard Book, even though I was already expecting it, was how closely Kipling's Jungle Book and The Graveyard Book ran to each other. Since this was done by design, it's not hugely surprising. However, I'm wondering what little details they shared. I randomly just happened to bring a copy of the Jungle Book from home with me to school, so I'm going to look over it tonight and try to get a list together.

So what similarities did others notice outside of the obvious structural similarities? Also, out of curiosity, what is everyone's opinion on the Jungle Book being possibly classified as a fantasy novel?