Sarah Monette's Blog, page 24
February 16, 2014
not yet a book review: Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination
I am not giving up on Karen Halttunen's Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination (Harvard UP: 1998) because I have hopes that it's going to improve, but I have to note my dissatisfactions with the first couple of chapters while I can still remember how to articulate them:
1. Halttunen is portraying secular horror as the invention of the late eighteenth century Gothic movement, which it isn't. This is the result of two problems with her argument: (a) she can't quite seem to decide if she's writing about America only or if she wants to include British and European examples and (b) tunnel vision, which ignores pagan ideas of horror (granted, a millennium or two before the texts she wants to talk about) and secular horror before and contemporaneous with the Puritan American execution sermons that are where she starts her argument (see, for example, my icon, and the entire genre of revenge tragedy).
2. She is a very unnuanced reader, so that she is portraying Puritan execution sermons as if they represent, unproblematically, the reaction of Puritan society to murder. The fallacy in this argument is perfectly present in her commentary, which notes that these same sermons tend to bewail the falling away of Puritan people from godly Puritan ideals, and also notes that they are ritual and therefore a stereotypic series of literary gestures. Both of these characteristics suggest that these sermons may, in fact, have very little to do with how the members of Puritan societies reacted to murders and murderers in their midst.
3. I have been left with the impression that she finds the reaction to murder in the Puritan execution sermons more morally commendable than the Gothic reaction, because the Puritan reaction is more compassionate toward the murderer and more inclusive, portraying him or her as a fallen sinner like other human beings, instead of a horrifying monster completely alienated from the moral norm. My problems here are four:
(a) I fully admit to being a left-wing bleeding heart liberal, and I do believe that the practice of compassion is one of the most crucial and literally vital in the human species' capability, but I am made very uneasy when compassion for the murderer seems to eclipse any kind of judgment of their crime. I have not read any Puritan execution sermons and I frankly don't feel that I will be any time soon, so I don't know if the impression I have received from Halttunen's discussion of them is correct, but when compassion for a mother who murders her newborn is offered not on the basis of the terrible circumstances that forced her to it, but on the basis of "we're all depraved sinners whose sin is inherent and inescapable" I'm actually reluctant to call it "compassion" at all.
(b) I disagree with her implied contempt/distaste for the Gothic (because, duh, horror writer), so I feel that I am also being judged and found wanting (or "ungodly," to use a particularly Puritan piece of terminology). Any reader of genre fiction will be familiar with this feeling and will know why I am not happy about it.
(c) I don't particularly like moral judgments in my social/literary history ANYWAY, and if the author has to make them--and I fully grant that sometimes an author does--I want them to be EXPLICIT and honestly owned up to. (Robert Jay Lifton's The Nazi Doctors is the best example I know.)
(d) Puritanism, as a socioreligious movement, is all about intolerance and exclusion AS VIRTUES: the whole idea of the "godly community" is that you shut out everybody who isn't exactly what you want them to be. (Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, that is the reason the Puritans hired the Mayflower and sailed to America: religious "freedom" by way of eliminating everyone who disagrees with you; see also, gestures being made by certain people today.) So if we're going to argue for compassionate inclusion on the part of Puritan divines, I really need to see a lot more digging around in the contradictions invovled.
Now, I understand that the Puritans are not the point of Halttunen's book--which is why I have hopes for improvement--but I'm not best pleased with her handling of the material.
We shall see.
1. Halttunen is portraying secular horror as the invention of the late eighteenth century Gothic movement, which it isn't. This is the result of two problems with her argument: (a) she can't quite seem to decide if she's writing about America only or if she wants to include British and European examples and (b) tunnel vision, which ignores pagan ideas of horror (granted, a millennium or two before the texts she wants to talk about) and secular horror before and contemporaneous with the Puritan American execution sermons that are where she starts her argument (see, for example, my icon, and the entire genre of revenge tragedy).
2. She is a very unnuanced reader, so that she is portraying Puritan execution sermons as if they represent, unproblematically, the reaction of Puritan society to murder. The fallacy in this argument is perfectly present in her commentary, which notes that these same sermons tend to bewail the falling away of Puritan people from godly Puritan ideals, and also notes that they are ritual and therefore a stereotypic series of literary gestures. Both of these characteristics suggest that these sermons may, in fact, have very little to do with how the members of Puritan societies reacted to murders and murderers in their midst.
3. I have been left with the impression that she finds the reaction to murder in the Puritan execution sermons more morally commendable than the Gothic reaction, because the Puritan reaction is more compassionate toward the murderer and more inclusive, portraying him or her as a fallen sinner like other human beings, instead of a horrifying monster completely alienated from the moral norm. My problems here are four:
(a) I fully admit to being a left-wing bleeding heart liberal, and I do believe that the practice of compassion is one of the most crucial and literally vital in the human species' capability, but I am made very uneasy when compassion for the murderer seems to eclipse any kind of judgment of their crime. I have not read any Puritan execution sermons and I frankly don't feel that I will be any time soon, so I don't know if the impression I have received from Halttunen's discussion of them is correct, but when compassion for a mother who murders her newborn is offered not on the basis of the terrible circumstances that forced her to it, but on the basis of "we're all depraved sinners whose sin is inherent and inescapable" I'm actually reluctant to call it "compassion" at all.
(b) I disagree with her implied contempt/distaste for the Gothic (because, duh, horror writer), so I feel that I am also being judged and found wanting (or "ungodly," to use a particularly Puritan piece of terminology). Any reader of genre fiction will be familiar with this feeling and will know why I am not happy about it.
(c) I don't particularly like moral judgments in my social/literary history ANYWAY, and if the author has to make them--and I fully grant that sometimes an author does--I want them to be EXPLICIT and honestly owned up to. (Robert Jay Lifton's The Nazi Doctors is the best example I know.)
(d) Puritanism, as a socioreligious movement, is all about intolerance and exclusion AS VIRTUES: the whole idea of the "godly community" is that you shut out everybody who isn't exactly what you want them to be. (Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, that is the reason the Puritans hired the Mayflower and sailed to America: religious "freedom" by way of eliminating everyone who disagrees with you; see also, gestures being made by certain people today.) So if we're going to argue for compassionate inclusion on the part of Puritan divines, I really need to see a lot more digging around in the contradictions invovled.
Now, I understand that the Puritans are not the point of Halttunen's book--which is why I have hopes for improvement--but I'm not best pleased with her handling of the material.
We shall see.
February 11, 2014
5 things (at least my disorganization is better contained)
1. I swear to god I was going to stop, but then I looked at the window this morning.
2. The bidding for Unnatural Creatures has reached $75, and the bidding for The Goblin Emperor has reached $100 (!). Y'all are awesome.
3. Apparently, I will be at C2E2 this April.(I say "apparently" because I can't quite believe I agreed to anything that terrifies me as much as a convention with 50,000 (FIFTY THOUSAND) attendees.) I will provide more details as I am able.
4. In case you missed it yesterday, the first two chapters of The Goblin Emperor are available for free download at katherineaddison.com. And, no, I am unlikely to put up more. That's why they call it a teaser.
5. This really is the best picture of a wildlife photographer ever taken. EVER.
2. The bidding for Unnatural Creatures has reached $75, and the bidding for The Goblin Emperor has reached $100 (!). Y'all are awesome.
3. Apparently, I will be at C2E2 this April.(I say "apparently" because I can't quite believe I agreed to anything that terrifies me as much as a convention with 50,000 (FIFTY THOUSAND) attendees.) I will provide more details as I am able.
4. In case you missed it yesterday, the first two chapters of The Goblin Emperor are available for free download at katherineaddison.com. And, no, I am unlikely to put up more. That's why they call it a teaser.
5. This really is the best picture of a wildlife photographer ever taken. EVER.
February 10, 2014
sample chapters, The Goblin Emperor
The first two chapters of The Goblin Emperor are available for free download at katherineaddison.com. Spread the word!
My complete disorganization, I shows you it
So anyway, in my THIRD POST TODAY:
1. Publishers Weekly reviews The Goblin Emperor
2. Goodreads & Tor are apparently conducting a sweepstakes for The Goblin Emperor, which I know about because I know how to use Google.
3. My beloved friends Lynne and Michael's daughter Caitlin has Aicardi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes all sorts of problems, including potentially life-threatening scoliosis (spine gets too far out of whack, lungs can't work properly). Caitlin just had surgery on her spine, in which she nearly died, and one of her Aicardi sisters, Annie, is now fighting one of the worst possible outcomes this surgery can have. Please keep both Caitlin and Annie, and their parents, in your thoughts.
4. I have started watching The Magnificent Seven TV series on Hulu. I will probably make a post about it when I've finished, but for now I will just say that every single episode I have watched would be improved by MOAR EZRA.
5. Via @UrsulaV, a picture of baby Eastern Screech Owls and from @EmergencyKittens this really quite remarkable Persian in midair plus some kittens. (Because when in doubt, add pictures of (a) baby animals, (b) cats, (c) both.)
1. Publishers Weekly reviews The Goblin Emperor
2. Goodreads & Tor are apparently conducting a sweepstakes for The Goblin Emperor, which I know about because I know how to use Google.
3. My beloved friends Lynne and Michael's daughter Caitlin has Aicardi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes all sorts of problems, including potentially life-threatening scoliosis (spine gets too far out of whack, lungs can't work properly). Caitlin just had surgery on her spine, in which she nearly died, and one of her Aicardi sisters, Annie, is now fighting one of the worst possible outcomes this surgery can have. Please keep both Caitlin and Annie, and their parents, in your thoughts.
4. I have started watching The Magnificent Seven TV series on Hulu. I will probably make a post about it when I've finished, but for now I will just say that every single episode I have watched would be improved by MOAR EZRA.
5. Via @UrsulaV, a picture of baby Eastern Screech Owls and from @EmergencyKittens this really quite remarkable Persian in midair plus some kittens. (Because when in doubt, add pictures of (a) baby animals, (b) cats, (c) both.)
Mirkwood by Tiffany
Same window.
The pictures aren't as good, for which I apologize, but it's hard to be Ansel Adams with a cellphone when you're supposed to be getting ready for work. But you CAN see that we have the more traditional feathery frost farther up the window. And Mirkwood all along the bottom.
The pictures aren't as good, for which I apologize, but it's hard to be Ansel Adams with a cellphone when you're supposed to be getting ready for work. But you CAN see that we have the more traditional feathery frost farther up the window. And Mirkwood all along the bottom.
Con or Bust!
Con or Bust auctions are live!
I have two items in the auction (and believe me, there are pages and pages and pages of COMPLETELY AWESOME SHIT):
1. the absolute last copy of the Kyle Murchison Booth chapbook Unnatural Creatures
2. a copy of The Goblin Emperor, just as soon as my author copies come
Also, just in general, Con or Bust is an excellent endeavor. Even if you can't bid, please spread the word!
I have two items in the auction (and believe me, there are pages and pages and pages of COMPLETELY AWESOME SHIT):
1. the absolute last copy of the Kyle Murchison Booth chapbook Unnatural Creatures
2. a copy of The Goblin Emperor, just as soon as my author copies come
Also, just in general, Con or Bust is an excellent endeavor. Even if you can't bid, please spread the word!
February 8, 2014
Who'd have thought that after all / something as simple as rock'n'roll would save us all?
Frank Turner, "I Still Believe." Because goddamn it this song (and the video) make me feel better about just about everything.
Or if that doesn't do it for you, this kitten-laden commercial for McVitie's chocolate digestives probably will.
Or if that doesn't do it for you, this kitten-laden commercial for McVitie's chocolate digestives probably will.
February 7, 2014
Storm windows / keep away the cold
No actual content, but the frost on the windows this morning was remarkably beautiful:
(Also, happy birthday to the world's most awesome sister-in-law!)
(Also, happy birthday to the world's most awesome sister-in-law!)
February 2, 2014
as it turns out, I have five things to share
1. The annual auction for Con or Bust starts February 10. I have donated two items:
(a.) the absolute last copy of Unnatural Creatures
(b.) a signed copy of The Goblin Emperor (yes, this is ANOTHER way you can win! aside from naming my sock elephant, that is)
There are many other fabulous items, also. Please check it out!
2. Katherine Addison has a webpage! There isn't much on it yet, and I welcome suggestions for material you all would like to see.
3. And while I'm on the subject, the release date for The Goblin Emperor is April 1st, should you desire to know. Katherine's currently minimalist website has links to pre-order options.
4. The Kelpies by Andy Scott is JAW-DROPPINGLY AMAZING. Also? Ponies! By which, of course, I mean draft horses.
5. The Locus Recommended Reading List for 2013 is up. Go read something!
+1. Peter Mulvey's Kickstarter for his new album Silver Ladder is going just swimmingly, but he's reaching for his stretch goal of $50k or 1,000 backers. If you know Mr. Mulvey's music, you know why I'm signal-boosting this. If you don't know Mr. Mulvey's music, I heartily encourage you to give him a try.
(a.) the absolute last copy of Unnatural Creatures
(b.) a signed copy of The Goblin Emperor (yes, this is ANOTHER way you can win! aside from naming my sock elephant, that is)
There are many other fabulous items, also. Please check it out!
2. Katherine Addison has a webpage! There isn't much on it yet, and I welcome suggestions for material you all would like to see.
3. And while I'm on the subject, the release date for The Goblin Emperor is April 1st, should you desire to know. Katherine's currently minimalist website has links to pre-order options.
4. The Kelpies by Andy Scott is JAW-DROPPINGLY AMAZING. Also? Ponies! By which, of course, I mean draft horses.
5. The Locus Recommended Reading List for 2013 is up. Go read something!
+1. Peter Mulvey's Kickstarter for his new album Silver Ladder is going just swimmingly, but he's reaching for his stretch goal of $50k or 1,000 backers. If you know Mr. Mulvey's music, you know why I'm signal-boosting this. If you don't know Mr. Mulvey's music, I heartily encourage you to give him a try.
January 26, 2014
YBDF&H 2014
The Table of Contents for
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014
has been announced, and "To Die for Moonlight" made the list.
Since it is the only thing I published last year, I am obviously EXTREMELY HAPPY about this. Many thanks to Lynne and Michael and Apex Magazine for giving my werewolves a home.
Since it is the only thing I published last year, I am obviously EXTREMELY HAPPY about this. Many thanks to Lynne and Michael and Apex Magazine for giving my werewolves a home.
