Wednesday evening, woozy

[cleolinda]

So I'm sick again. I think it's a relapse; I started coughing up phlegm again, and I was working at the table in the den when all of a sudden, about 9:30 am, I felt like I was pretty much going to fall down if I didn't lie down. The next thing I knew, it was nearly noon and Sister Girl was fumbling with the still-locked front door. Today was pretty much spent entirely in a coma. Wheeeeee.

(I'm also looking forward so much to my psych appointment next week. I had my last appointment on March 1st, and on Saturday, March 3rd, my mother got that wild hair on to get those puppies she'd seen at the vet. "So, did you make any headway on the things we talked about, like finishing some of your ongoing projects?" "No, we got puppies instead. But they're really, really cute.")

Anyway. I started thinking more about horror. I really like horror, actually, but I'm much more into psychological horror. Stephen King's short story "1408," for example (coming soon to a theater near you): the whole thing goes to hell for me as soon as the main character steps into that room. It's the hotel manager telling all the stories of what previously happened in that room and just why, exactly, Mike Enslin shouldn't go inside that makes the story for me. That first half is absolutely terrific, particularly because the hotel manager starts with the most mundane excuses and starts working his way up--he holds out as long as he can. "Are you sure?" "Cigar?" "You still don't think I can talk you out of this?" "Well, I was reading your previous books..." "What's in 1408 isn't like those ghosts you don't actually believe in..." "I'm begging you not to do this." There's eleven or twelve pages before Olin even starts talking about what's so hinky with Room 1408, and another twelve or so before they even get to the room itself. And it's not even that what King then puts into 1408 can't live up to what you've been imagining, not at all--I don't know that I was able to imagine something awful enough to match Olin's fear-mongering. That's almost what's so delicious about it. Given a half-open door and what's in the room itself, the door will always be scarier than anything that could be in the room, yes, but I almost think that the most awful-wonderful part of horror is the idea that there's something so terrible back there that you can't even comprehend it. Maybe that's what makes Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos tick--the cities with their unimaginable non-Euclidean geometry, the mad ancient texts too horrible to translate, the horrors that cannot be named. In the best Lovecraft stories, he gives you enough to understand that there's things out there too awful to imagine--too awful to see, even, because the people who do go mad.

And maybe that's why I'm so against the Hostel movies, because they're all about showing the very worst they can imagine, and what they imagine doesn't leave you lying awake at night wondering how many corners of the world, like Room 1408, are bigger and more awful than you can know; they imagine small, cruel, sleazy things and show you all of it.

So... that's my soapbox for the evening. Linkspam:

mustang_bex1126: Why some victims of domestic violence are too scared to leave.

Red Hair: Blessing Or Curse? Whoa, people still get persecuted in Europe over this?

jennnk: "Because Alabama is the center of the universe: Three men involved in medieval brawl; battle-axe, sword, and crossbow among weapons recovered." Trufax: We really do have a large Renaissance Faire.

("They pulled up in the truck, rolled the window down, said a few words that weren't very polite to me, 'you want something come get it', all that and spun the tires started taking off. I busted the passenger side window with the golf club, I admit that. They went up probably up past that pole, they both jumped out, one had an ax, it's an ax with a spike on the other end which is what he chopped me in the arm with." Only in Alabama, y'all.)

More Idiotic Panic About the Online World, or John Scalzi on "Andrew Keen, whose book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture takes the position that, well, the internet is killing culture, apparently because it lets anyone say anything, and then anyone can listen to them, instead of listening to the experts (provided to us, presumably, by a gracious and disinterested traditional media, which seeks only truth and knowledge)."

LOL'80s: A Picture Thread ("Oh hi, we upgraded your WHAM!"). Helps to be familiar with the lolcat tropes at I Can Has Cheezburger ("I has a flavor," "Noooo not mah bucket!," "I made you a cookie but I eated it," "Let me show you my Pokemans," etc.). Keep going and keep an eye out for "Would sir desire to push it?" and "Noooo they be stealin my perogative!"

From lilynia: Some of the Golden Compass production footage screened at Cannes.

drpeprfan gives us the full lyrics to "Hoist the Colors," which are much more involved in terms of the POTC movies' mythology.

Peter O'Toole will play Pope Paul III on The Tudors.

Thundercats Headed for the Big Screen.

Ridley Scott's 'American Gangster' Gets a Trailer.

Shoot 'Em Up Trailer! Paul Giamatti's a hitman with weird verbal flourishes! Clive Owen's protecting another woman and baby, only it's a lot more fun this time! Also, he was recruited by Black Ops when he was, like, ten. Or something. GUNNNNNNNNNS! (Wait, that was Monica Bellucci?) Note: I will piss and moan about Hostel until the cows come home, but I will be at the theater watching this with bells on. C'est la vie.

Brian De Palma's 'Dressed to Kill' To Be Remade. Well, it's not like it could hurt: "Both Caine and De Palma even managed to earn Golden Raspberry nominations, and believe me, there was some pretty tough competition that year."

Wong Kar-Wai to Direct Eva Green in 'Midnight Poison.' Well, if nothing else, it'll be gorgeous.

Spike Lee Will Direct World War II Drama Set in Italy. "Lee, who announced the project while in Italy, informed a newspaper there that he had 'met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, and he told me how disappointed he was that there was not even one Afro-American (soldier) in Clint Eastwood's two films.' "

'Last Chance' for Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.

D.J. Caruso In Talks To Direct 'Wolverine,' Source Says. Hey, "the guy who directed Disturbia" works a lot better for me than "the guy who does the Rush Hour movies."

Warner Acquires Shannara Rights.

Premiere Magazine: The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time. Okay, I like American Beauty and I've got to admit that it's overrated. But the thing about overrating is, it depends on the "rating" itself--if everyone goes nuts about a certain movie for months at a time, particularly an Oscar contender, reactions can definitely be overblown. I thought it was a great movie when I saw it, particularly because that's basically the world I grew up in and it resonated with me, but even I can say, "Okay, the critical freakout that followed was really too much."

And now, I go to wash my hair before dinner, because tomorrow the carpet cleaners will be here bright and early to dedogstinkify the house.

Comments

[pennyverse.livejournal.com]

This seems vaguely stalkerish, BUT I saw your comment on the most recent f_w post about needing a "you are a bitch, QED" icon. I can't comment over there, but I made one (http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a348/miscellanelle/youareabitchqed.jpg) for the hell of it. Failboat MSPaint and all!

I hope you feel better soon!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks. (Heeeee, "failboat.")

[heroically.livejournal.com]

I've spent the last semester in England and I was surprised to find out how people talk about 'gingers' here. On one of the first days I was here I heard the joke:

'A woman has a baby and she asks how it is. The doctor says, "Well, there is good news and bad news." The woman asks for the bad news first: "It's ginger." And the good? "It's stillborn."'

From my observations I've gathered this sort of stereotype: You can't be attractive if you're ginger, you'll be picked on as a kid if you're ginger, you'll have a hard time socially if you're ginger, etc.

Coming from a family of redheads, it was uncomfortable to find out all the stigma having red hair has over here.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Any ideas where this comes from? Having grown up in Canada my entire life, I find the stereotype fascinating, in a sad sort of way.

[marginaliana]

Wow, the LOL80s is the best thing ever. First thing to make me laugh out loud in a loooong time.

"We can't stop here, this is big country!" :D

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

"My Banshees, let me show you them."

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

That's funny you should mention horror, because I've been re-reading a lot of Lovecraft's works (and am also making my way through a number of anthologies based on his works). I've always thought Stephen King's short stories were his best work because he is forced to be brief. He really is good at building up suspense with just a few pages. It's true the best horror is not the stuff that shows everything in order to shock--it's the stuff that hints at those things one does not speak of, and then the reader (or viewer) is left thinking "Oh no he didn't," but he did. When in doubt, pan to the fireplace. ;-D

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I definitely like his short stories best; he's really good at thinking of new, weirder shit over and over and OVER again, and I like the jolt of his ideas (and the buildup) without it going on for 600 pages.

[paradise-loved.livejournal.com]

I never usually comment here so no worries, I am not stranger. Most everyone just says stuff that I mean to say first.

I agree with your horror movie point completely. I enjoy horror - I just don't enjoy violence. That's why I get a lot more out of simple, psychological things like Secret Window where the violence is a lot more implied than shown. I am personally terrified of the blood and guts - but I don't mind being wigged out over something I don't actually see (if that makes any sense).

Speaking of Stephen King, have you read his guide On Writing. I started it yesterday to get a head start on summer reading for AP Lit next year and I would SO recommend it. It's great.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I never usually comment here so no worries, I am not stranger.

Don't worry--even if you were, it wouldn't matter. I have all kinds of fun new people drop by all the time. : )

And yeah, his On Writing is great--they're having you read it for class?

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

It's like Showtime is really, really trying to get me to watch The Tudors again.

And I kinda want to, despite the fact that I KNOW I'm going to spend the entire show going "NONOBADWRONGARGH!"

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

Really good horror movies are so rare to come by. You have a slew of mediocre ones, and some really godawful ones, and I know some people like having buckets of blood and guts thrown at them, but I think there's something so much scarier about there actually being something out there that's too frightening for you to even imagine. Or the manipulation of the everyday into something horrific (The Ring, and even The Descent to some extent because of its play on fear of the dark), I think an audience, desensitized as it may be, is more liable to get scared by a really well-directed psychological thriller than something like Hostel, which seems to gross out and nothing more.

You know, I heard such raves about American Beauty, yet when I saw it, couldn't find anything about it that was more than mediocre. Admittedly, though, this may be because I have some unfounded dislike of Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I saw AB in the theater pretty early on--I mean, not like it was a tiny little art film or anything, but I think I saw it early enough in its release that the tongue baths hadn't really started yet. And I think the movie had me from the cheerleading sequence on, because--I don't care if it was supposedly choreographed by Paula Abdul--it was SO COMPLETELY the same crap routine to the same crap song that we'd had at my high school. The residential streets with the trees hanging over them were so my neighborhood, one of my friends so lived in the house or apartment or whatever that Carolyn was trying to sell--and I mean, I admit that Oh Noes People in Suburbia Are UNHAPPY is such a cliché, but this specific variation on that cliché got me where I lived, literally.

As for horror, I try not to bring this up because I can't remember it properly, but I had a professor (who was teaching sentimental lit at the time, if you remember me talking about that class lo these many years ago) who said that the difference between terror and horror is that with terror, you feel everything, or you feel too much, and horror is that you're shocked into not feeling anything at all; you shut down. Again, I feel like I'm not getting the essential phrasing across correctly, because that doesn't quite sound right. But it does strike me that terror is something you feel *before* something bad happens, and horror is something you feel *after.* And that to me is, therefore, the defining nature of terror: you can only feel terror up until the thing you're terrified of happens. And maybe that's my problem with "1408"; the part I like is terror, and the part I don't like is horror. I guess you could blend them, though--like, this is horrible, but something worse could still happen.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree with all the Premiere overrated movie choices -- except The Wizard of Oz. WTF?! Who would have the audacity to put it on this list? What a bunch of tools. It's only one of the most influential movies of all time. Now, if they'd included Manhattan or practically every other Woody Allen movie post-Crimes and Misdemeanors, I would have said, "too right."

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

It's overdone. It's cheesy.

They mentioned how influential it was. Let me just say, I finally realized why it was so overrated when I was in a production of it. Maybe you like the cutesy "oh nos" and "oh dears," but man... enough is enough.

The Wicked Witch has some of the funniest lines in the entire movie. But Margaret Hamilton didn't treat them in a funny way. I mean, if she had? She would've stolen the show. (I know I did when I was in it)

It's one of those movies that everyone goes on and on and on about, but aside from the technicolor sets they complained about, I really thought they could have done a lot more with it.

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

Lawrence Lessig wrote up an excellent review of Keen's book (http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003784.shtml). Actually, he pretty much destroyed Keen's arguments, particularly where Keen misinterpreted his own (Lessig's) work.

But what is puzzling about this book is that it purports to be a book attacking the sloppiness, error and ignorance of the Internet, yet it itself is shot through with sloppiness, error and ignorance. It tells us that without institutions, and standards, to signal what we can trust (like the institution (Doubleday) that decided to print his book), we won’t know what’s true and what’s false. But the book itself is riddled with falsity — from simple errors of fact, to gross misreadings of arguments, to the most basic errors of economics.

ETA

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

Lessig is a fair use advocate and the creator of "creative commons" license. He was also part of the team who created this brilliant piece Fair(y) Use Tale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo). Know how Disney is OCD about copyright...?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I think the best thing about the medieval brawl story is that they're still friends. I'm really not sure I could be friends with someone who had SWUNG AN AXE AT ME.

[morgan-c-hoax.livejournal.com]

Thundercats Headed for the Big Screen.

The worst part is that I saw that coming. :(

[rockgeisha.livejournal.com]

Full disclosure: Eli Roth has been a huge sweetheart to me and while we don't always agree, I have a lot of respect for him. And now, my thoughts on yaoi...

I love all kinds of horror, as is well known. I like the subtle stuff, the bad stuff, the buckets of blood and flaying stuff. All of it. And what scares me about Hostel is the idea that there are situations you can't get out of. It doesn't matter if you throw money or sex or whatever at your tormentor, because they're not after that. It's like American Psycho--what made me sleep with the light on after I read that was not the gross-outs and violence but when Patrick Bateman said about a victim that what happened to her couldn't have been prevented, that no matter what she did or what club she went to, he would have found her and murdered her. Or when I was younger and saw I Know My First Name Is Steven--that shit terrified me. That someone could take me from my mommy and that would be the end of it for years? Eeeep!

In most horror movies, there are fairly easy ways to get out or get away. Don't go in the spooky hotel room, don't go to Camp Blood, don't go up the stairs, don't investigate a strange noise...don't (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka83i_e_v8M). But situations where helplessness is all you've got and where language, law, and leg irons combine to fuck you over are always scarier to me.

[pscopathictiger.livejournal.com]

I totally agree! I love it all too!

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

-sends healing soup to Cleo-

Maybe that's what makes Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos tick--the cities with their unimaginable non-Euclidean geometry, the mad ancient texts too horrible to translate, the horrors that cannot be named. In the best Lovecraft stories, he gives you enough to understand that there's things out there too awful to imagine--too awful to see, even, because the people who do go mad.
-nods-

[everstar3.livejournal.com]

This is probably kind of lame of me, but one of the reasons I don't like a lot of horror is that what people face is usually overwhelmingly powerful and corrosive and the people in the movies/books/what have you don't have a way of fighting back. The horrible thing is going to happen and it's going to KEEP happening and there's nothing you can do to stop it the end. That really, really bugs me.

I heard a segment on that Internet-killing-our-culture book on NPR. I shouldn't roll my eyes that hard when I drive.

[serizawa3000.livejournal.com]

I'm something of a horror nut... but I often wonder about my "street cred" as a horror fan. When it comes to the movies, I prefer monsters, not mad slashers. And I still like a lot of the older stuff. I feel a *little* guilty about not seeing the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes (especially since I met someone who was in it)... I also like a little comedy in my horror, which is why I'm hoping to see Fido...

[pscopathictiger.livejournal.com]

I love all kinds of horror!

But the psychological thrillers are my favorite. Like, Identity and such.

The worst horror movie I ever saw was Darkness Falls. It was so disappointing. Did you see it?

[pscopathictiger.livejournal.com]

I love gingers! That's so heartbreaking that they get rocks thrown at them in Europe.

Kids are mean.

[gannet-guts.livejournal.com]

Mmmm redheads.

I unashamedly love Stephen King, and I'll defend him to the death, but I do agree that his short stories are much better. The Road Virus Heads North? The one with the shrieking crazy waiter? You Know They've Got a Hell of a Band? Freak me the ever living fuck out. Road Virus - I'm imagining that painting, the waiter one, that scream, the last, the fact they can never leave. That shit is scary, yo.

As a UK resident (though I don't speak for the entire country)

[7tree-hugger.livejournal.com]

Yes. We laugh at gingers. Yes, I've done it (though not in an overly evil way - we do take the micky out of everything). If you are ginger in the UK your nickname becomes Ginna, or Ginge, or something of that ilk. Similarly, if you're short, your nickname becomes Shorty etc.

All name calling gets cruel in school yards. Kids are mean m'kay. But I've not previously heard of anyone being discriminated against socially or at work.
Relationship wise: Everyone knows gingers are more "experimental" and fun, plus there are quite a few women who want "ginger babies!"

As to the source of it, it may come out of our discrimination of the Irish or other Celtic groups (them forigners at the outskirts of our beloved country).

p.s. I'm not saying it's right at all. But to put it in proportion, you get a worse deal for having a northern accent than ginger hair. We're obviously a discriminatory group of people.

Redheads and whataboutery

[gilmorje.livejournal.com]

Delurks to comment: I'm looking from (sort-of) the outside (Rep of Irel) with bewilderment at the ginger-hate. What I can suggest is that since in UK slang, ginger is often pronounced to sound like 'singer' with a hard 'g' at the start, which rhymes (unfortunately) with 'minger', a catch-all insult implying a lack of personal hygiene and unattractive body/ face/ hair/ personality etc....

But... just in case you think the UK is full of crazed ginger-haters:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2095404,00.html


And whataboutery is now officially a word (!!) http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2094614,00.html

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

I LOVED 1408, but I listened to it read aloud before I read it, and I have to say that reading it was a disappointment. Listening to Stephen King reading it...I was driving, and had to pull to the side of the road and try not to be sick, thats how freaked I was. The first part was wonderfully built up and scary, but the freaky stuff that happened in the room "this is nine, nine"...urgh.

I vowed to myself not to see the movie, because it could only ruin the short story for me, but I've now seen the trailers, and it looks like a completely different story. Like, I bet he's not as fond of his tape recorder, and that was one of my favorite things in the story. I like the cast, I just don't like all of the obvious changes that they made, that they had to make to make it a 1.5 hour film. If it gets awesome reviews I might go see it, but otherwise, no.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

LOLcats hit the big screen?

[punzerel.livejournal.com]

Wow, that "ginger" thing is so totally ridiculous. I assume it has something to do with England's attitude to Scotland and Ireland?

[swirlnghellfire.livejournal.com]

just for the record: "dedogstinkify" = my new favourite word ever.

::laughs self to jupiter::

i love reading your journal.

:D

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

D.J. Caruso In Talks To Direct 'Wolverine,' Source Says. Hey, "the guy who directed Disturbia" works a lot better for me than "the guy who does the Rush Hour movies."

For a moment, I read this as David Caruso to direct Wolverine and my brain almost shut down at the thought of HoCaine telling other actors what to do! There would probably be head tilts a-plenty!

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

Oh God, the way Kidman walked up those stairs in the golden dress *swoons* This is gonna be awesome.

Plus: this is killing me, what soundtrack was playing there for the last 50 seconds of the footage? I know that I know and even own it, but what is it again??