James Dorr's Blog, page 136

A Hypothetical Herd of Cats, or, Horror Writers and Cults; Another Reading for Pre-Halloween

That title may be a little misleading.  Okay, a lot?  But it occurred to me that, as a horror writer, cults and people’s joining of cults is an area that might be worth exploring whether for story ideas, or defining characters within already written (or read) stories.  Does DRACULA, for instance, with vampire-in-progress Mina psychically linked to the one who is “turning” her, actually describe a cult, with the ritual of driving a stake through the count’s heart representing an ultimate means of deprogramming?  I think, myself, of my New Orleans-based “Casket Girls” (cf. August 4, March 6 this year; April 28 2015; April 17 2014; et al.) as having formed a polyamorous society of ladies with similar dining habits, but to what extent might that be cult-like too?  Or, more generally thinking, how many horror tales might simply feature bands of non-supernatural zealots who, possibly, might stick together after some menace has been conquered — think torch-bearing mobs following a charismatic burgermeister to seek more Frankensteins’ castles to burn.

Then there are the real cults, as that of Charles Manson.  Or in Waco Texas.  But are all cults bad?   Which all comes down to that, via the magic of today’s email, I ran across an interesting piece, “How Do People Become Indoctrinated Into Cults” by Derek Beres, on BIGTHINK.COM for which one may press here.  Is the horror writing community in itself a cult (well, for this one no, because we all run in different directions — at least when we’re left alone — so we’re probably more like a hypothetical herd of cats.  All after the mouse, yes, but. . . .)?

So, changing the subject, last night I and four others met in an old house on darkest 6th Street for a ritual of our own, a rehearsal for a reading performance of a play, to be presented on October 28 at local Bloomington pub The Back Door.   Scenes from a grisly play in progress, “The Unfinished” by Donald Mabbott, will be read by Writers Guild members Shayne Laughter, Joan Hawkins, Tony Brewer, and James Dorr.   Just in time for Halloween!, to quote the blurb for it.  A horror-themed open mic will follow.  For more on this one, one may press here.

“Tombs” Reading Sunday at Ryder Pre-Halloween Film Fest

We are screening 3 films at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater: Arsenic and Old Lace, The Exorcist and The Wailing.  Frank Capra’s Halloween comedy Arsenic and Old Lace stars Cary Grant as a man learns that his eccentric but sweet aunts have been seeking out lonely, elderly men, poisoning them, and burying them in the basement.  Controversial from the day it opened in 1973, The Exorcist is now recognized as a defining classic of the genre.  Our third film, The Wailing, is a 2016 release.  A foreigner’s mysterious appearance in a quiet, rural village causes suspicion among the locals in The Wailing.  Released in June of this year, The Wailing  has garnered enthusiastic reviews  on the film festival circuit and is currently the highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes.  You can read more detailed descriptions of these below.

The Halloween Fest will also include spine-tingling live performances in between films by James Dorr and by Cricket’s Bone Caravan, so come early and stay late.

So begins Bloomington’s local Ryder Film Series announcement of the coming weekend’s special showing, from 2:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m., “Halloween Fest:  Sunday, Oct 23 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.”  That’s right here, downtown on Kirkwood Avenue for those unfamiliar with the venue, with my part scheduled for the intermission between THE EXORCIST and THE WAILING.  And for what I’ll read (hint:  it’s the same tale I read for the 4th Street Arts Festival in September, cf. September 4), let us let the Ryder explain:  [Dorr] will be reading a selection from his newest book, TOMBS:  A CHRONICLE OF LATTER-DAY TIMES OF EARTH, a novel-in-stories scheduled for release by Elder Signs Press in spring-summer 2017.  Set on a far-future dying Earth in and around a vast necropolis known as the “Tombs,” “Raising the Dead” is about a young woman who seeks to restore the soul of her newly deceased husband to his body; a tale of necromancy, dark fantasy, airships, and doomed love.  “Raising the Dead,” I should add, has also been published in White Cat Publications’s 2015 steampunk anthology AIRSHIPS & AUTOMATONS (cf. May 27, April 7 2015, et al.).

Schedules, ticket prices.and more can be found on the Ryder’s own site by pressing here.  And, if all the above weren’t enough, they also add:  Wait, there’s a fourth film.  On Sunday, October 30th we will screen the 1958 classic, Horror of Dracula, at Bear’s Place.  If you purchase a movie pass for the films at the BCT on Oct 23rd, you can use it for Horror of Dracula as well.

At the Movies: So What About this Midnight Showing of Zardoz?

John Boorman’s ZARDOZ is a psychedelic, science-fiction allegory 0f 1970s America on a path to possible destruction.  Zed (Sean Connery) is an ‘Enforcer,’ part of a warrior/exterminating clan controlled by the God-like Zardoz, who appears as a giant floating head in the sky.  Zed discovers the secret of Zardoz and infiltrates a secret, utopian land of eternal life (and apathy), whose residents are fascinated by their newest specimen from the outland.  Zed’s presence, however, may upset their society’s balance in profound ways.

So says the the Indiana University Cinema program book of Friday night’s midnight showing, to which Wikipedia adds:  The film received mixed-to-negative reviews.  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it a “genuinely quirky movie, a trip into a future that seems ruled by perpetually stoned set decorators. . .  The movie is an exercise in self-indulgence (if often an interesting one) by Boorman, who more or less had carte blanche to do a personal project after his immensely successful Deliverance.”  Jay Cocks of Time called the film “visually bounteous”, with “bright intervals of self-deprecatory humor that lighten the occasional pomposity of the material.”  Nora Sayre, in a 7 February 1974 review for The New York Times, called Zardoz a melodrama that is a “good deal less effective than its special visual effects”. . . a film “more confusing than exciting even with a frenetic, shoot-em-up climax.”  Decades later, Channel 4 called it “Boorman’s finest film” and a “wonderfully eccentric and visually exciting sci-fi quest” that “deserves reappraisal”.

Other reviewers have said things ranging from pointing out, as is explained in the film, that the name of the God himself comes from THE WIZARD OF OZ (wiZARD of OZ — get it?), the carnival fake discovered by Dorothy behind the screen, to the fact that Sean Connery spends most of the film wearing an orange diaper.  And all this is true:  the film is fascinating, yet draggy in places; overly violent in other places yet circling around a sort of philosophical center; visually lovely in places yet, as it ends, at least somewhat disappointing.

So see it.  It’s worth at least one look.  And as to what it’s about, well, while some point to an H.G. Wells-ish Eloi/Morlock element,* perhaps half way through I began channeling a different book, by Robert Graves, that I’d read many decades ago called SEVEN DAYS IN NEW CRETE.(a.k.a. WATCH THE NORTH WIND RISE depending on whether one has the US or British edition).  Graves, noted for novelizations based on Ancient Greece and Rome (e.g. HERCULES, MY SHIPMATE [“retelling” the ARGONAUTICA, the voyage to win the Golden Fleece]; I, CLAUDIUS), wrote this one as his take on a re-created matriocentric utopia as might have existed in Minoan culture before men took over and messed everything up (one may note that, while a point isn’t made of it, the ZARDOZ utopia also appears very woman-based).  But Graves’s point is that every so often the “North Wind” must rise, there represented by a contemporary English poet brought purposefully to New Crete and unwittingly bringing about its destruction, because perfection is ultimately, of necessity, a static condition, leaving a choice of knocking it down and starting over or seeing it atrophy.

Or at least that’s the way I remember it.

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*One might also see in Zed an echo of the “savage” John in Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD.

Speak of the Flame Tree, Crime & Mystery Has Just Arrived!

So four days following MURDER MAYHEM, just below, its companion volume CRIME & MYSTERY SHORT STORIES (cf. September 6, et al.) has made a Wednesday arrival from Flame Tree Publishing.  My tale in this is “Paperboxing Art,” a 1998 Anthony short story finalist originally published in the Summer 1997 NEW MYSTERY, a science fiction associational tale of a sculptor with overtones of insanity and horror.  Or at least an attempted murder — and lethal defense.  With MURDER MAYHEM, this will actually be my third appearance in Flame Tree’s “Gothic Fantasy” series, the first being “Victorians,” originally published in GOTHIC GHOSTS (Tor, 1997), in November 2015’s CHILLING GHOST SHORT STORIES (cf. November 4 2015, et. al).

In this one my close companions are, once again, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, preceding my story, a first-time publication by contemporary writer Jennifer Dornan-Fish.

Saturday Spent at “Dark Carnival” Movies; Mr. Happy Head, Murder Mayhem Arrive in Maibox

Saturday this week offered a farewell of sorts, afternoon and evening retrospectives as a final tip of the hat to ten years of the Dark Carnival Film Festival, a.k.a. in its final sessions, Diabolique International Film Festival at the Indiana University Cinema (cf. September 28 2015; September 21, 20, 19 2014).  These were films from past years, fifteen shorts for the matinee session that proved to be favorites from previous screenings, some that I’d seen before, some that I hadn’t, starting with one in a dentist’s office and ending with killer shopping carts, and by small boys reading an Ancient Tome from their devil-worshiping deceased grandfather’s chest.  The best of these tended to be black humor, of which there were quite a few, while another trend was for movies that set up horror situations, then left the outcomes to viewers’ imaginations.

Then evening brought, well, to quote the catalog:  Long one of the Dark Carnival Film Festival’s favorite features, THE TAINT is a throwback to classic Troma films — with all the goopy horror and absurd humor that implies.  Tainted water begins turning men into misogynistic head-smashing psychopaths, and our two young heroes must brave the bizarre world that results in order to find a cure.  Contains mature content, including violence, language, and sexuality.  To which the docent offered before the screening, “A great one to go out on . . . a very extreme film,” and, “offensive is a dime a dozen [but] is wonderfully measured.  [Director Drew Bolduc] knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Or as Kevin Dudley on Amazon put it:  one particular quote from the Fangoria.com review stated “THE TAINT is exactly what happens when smart filmmakers intentionally make a stupid movie.”  The basic plot involves an experimental penis enlargement drug that turns men into oversexed misogynistic maniacs is unleashed into the public water supply and all manners of depravity cut loose.  To which I might add, while not one to invite the whole family to, as Troma films go it was not a bad one.

Then back at home, Saturday’s street mail brought its own prize, Flame Tree Publishing’s deluxe edition of MURDER MAYHEM SHORT STORIES (see September 6, July 11, et al.).  My story in this is “Mr. Happy Head,” originally published in WICKED MYSTIC, Spring 1996, and sandwiched between Dick Donovan (J. E. Preston Muddock, 1843-1934, who took his pen name from his fictional Glasgow detective, who in turn, some theorize, supplied the slang term “dick” [to pardon the expression] for an American private detective) and, in a non-Sherlock Holmes adventure, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Also expected from Flame Tree Publishing is CRIME & MYSTERY SHORT STORIES, for which keep watching here.

Poetry Essay to Appear in Illumen

At the end of August I posted a piece with the partial title “The Death of Poetry?” (cf. August 31) on the relative lack of interest in reading poetry these days as compared with centuries past.  In it I included a quasi-announcement, that is, one to be followed up on if only a certain condition was met, to wit:  “And yesterday I finished and submitted an essay, somewhat on request, to answer the question of why new generations don’t seem to appreciate poetry even as much as we do now.  What can we do to tempt them to read it and, hopefully, thus immersed discover for themselves its joys.  What do we as readers and writers find that attracts us?  (More on this later, the essay that is, if it is accepted — if not, you didn’t hear about it here either.)”

And so, a piece of good news e-arrived Saturday evening.  The above-mentioned essay, “It Begins With the Sound,” has been accepted by ILLUMEN for their newly instituted “Why Should I Read Poetry Project,” an attempt to reach out to younger, and possibly not so young, possible future readers of speculative verse.  To quote today’s email from Tyree Campbell, “Yes, absolutely this goes in ILLUMEN.  I think I still have room for it in the Autumn 2016.  If not, then the Winter 2016-17.”

More to be reported here as it becomes known.

Re. Witches (Good and Bad), a Second Look

It occurred to me yesterday after posting the piece on witches, just below, that Mike Olsen had also posted a piece that day on Facebook’s ON THE EDGE CINEMA on BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (see September 24), including links to such sites as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.  To see for oneself, one may press here (though, warning, my glance through some of the Rotten Tomatoes reviews, including the professional ones, suggests to me that not enough attention may be being paid to the final few minutes of the film, especially in terms of its inspiration, Jules Michelet’s LA SORCIÈRE — but then that’s what this will be about).  So then, my next thought, it seemed to me BELLADONNA OF SORROW could stand as an example of Sarah Gailey’s thesis of witches and power, for good, for bad, and possibly something new and more ambiguous:  They outline a new narrative for witches — that they might use their powers not for Good, and not for Evil, but for Greatness.  And they let us ask again the question we have always been asking of witches:  with access to unlimited power, what might they become?

And so my thought:  Consider the fate of Jeanne in BELLADONNA OF SADNESS as a sort of progress, where first she becomes the good witch.  When the lord goes to war and most of the men of the village follow, she becomes a sort of protector of those that are left, a ruler of sorts of the townspeople filling the vacuum left by their missing leaders, and ruling the village benignly and well.  Then, after the war as she seeks more power, she turns toward the evil — at the least as others might see her.  True, in the case of the lord’s wife and her would-be lover, some critics have pointed out that Jeanne does no more than what she had been asked.  But doesn’t that seem to be just an excuse?  That is, even without its violent ending, what she had been asked was in itself evil in terms of the society of its day (and probably, really, in our times too).

But then, the “new narrative” is what happens after Jeanne is herself crucified — the passing of her spirit to the onlooking women, and this is the all-important ending, consistent as well to the movie’s nineteenth century French source.  With the power of metaphorical witchcraft, “what might they become?”

In this case no less than the changers of their society from top to bottom through La Révolution.

Witches: The Good, the Bad, and the Frivolous

Fictional witches come in many forms — good and bad, of the East and of the West, Baba Yaga and Sabrina.  They live in towers, or in boarding schools, or in castles, or in the woods.  They eat children or they brew tea.  But they all have one thing in common:  powers.

The power to ride across the sea in a teacup.  The power to disguise their withered husks as young and beautiful.  The power to make monkeys fly.

So begins the article “Why We Write About Witches” on TOR.COM, by Sarah Gailey (who we’ve met before on the bad, bad women of movie cartoons, see August 11).   And so, why indeed?  Why should we write about witches?   Do vampiresses count too?  In fairness, that last strays a bit from the subject, but I’ve written several stories about them (well, maybe one or two witch stories too).  But back to topic, and what the heck Halloween’s in only a few weeks anyway, for more press here.

Blurring the Line Arrives at Last from Australian Voyage; Top Movie Horror Films Ranked by Decade

Another arrival in my groaning mailbox, BLURRING THE LINE (see June 12 this year; December 3, November 26 2015, et al) is finally here!  Published in Australia by Cohesion Press, BLURRING THE LINE, with Editor Marty Young, asks us the question of when fiction starts and reality ends.  That is, these are stories that are fiction, aren’t they?  But tales nevertheless of the kind that just might, possibly, maybe, like wasn’t there something like that last week on the Discovery Channel, be true.  And so, my action in the anthology is “The Good Work,” of young Christmas carolers in a Dickensian London who actually have a different agenda, getting invited in people’s houses to hunt for witches.  There are witches, aren’t there — at least in people’s beliefs back then?

All in all there are 20 stories, arranged in sections interspersed with factual essays.  For more, one can check the Amazon listing, including several detailed reviews, by pressing here.

Then second, consider this from MONKEYSFIGHTINGROBOTS.COM:  “Ranking The Top 3 Horror Films From EVERY Decade Since The 1920’s” by EJ Moreno, brought to our attention courtesy of Jamie Carpenter on Facebook.  I wouldn’t say I necessarily agree with all choices, or rankings, but given his criteria (which I do agree with, reminiscent in a way, I might add, to discussions when I was on the jury for the HWA’s 2012 special award for Best Vampire Novel in the 100 years since Bram Stoker’s death, cf. April 3, 2 2012, et al.) I think he’s made a noble attempt.  Or, to let EJ explain it himself, “[t]his list was tough to create because limiting myself to only 3 movies over the span of ten years within each decade is maddening.  Also, where do you begin ranking films?  So I attempted to form this list by including films based on the film itself, the quality, the legacy, the impact to the genre, and audience reception.”

Agree yourself?  Disagree?  Or just to find out which ones you’ve seen (or not yet seen) press here.

By Force Leading in Misfit Stories, Reader’s Choice Poll — Bards and Sages Author of Year Also to Be Chosen

Remember THE SOCIETY OF MISFIT STORIES?  See August 22, below, plus July 6 and June 23.  But the thing is, I missed announcing at the time that the reprint story they bought from me (originally published in ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE), “By Force and Against the King’s Peace,” was published there on September 9th.  Oops!  And if you don’t believe it, you can check it out (and even buy it on Kindle, if desired) here*.

But now it comes up again in this announcement from Julie Ann Dawson of Bards and Sages Publications:  With the release of the October issue of the BARDS AND SAGES QUARTERLY, the voting period has started for our Reader’s Choice Awards.  The purpose of the Reader’s Choice awards is to celebrate our writers.  Readers get to vote for their favorite story from each issue of the BARDS AND SAGES QUARTERLY.  Authors are invited to have their winning stories republished in the annual BARDIC TALES AND SAGE ADVICE anthology (it is always nice to get paid for the same story twice, right?)

We are changing things up a little this year.  This year, for the Author of the Year award, we are including authors from THE SOCIETY OF MISFIT STORIES and the three current GREAT TOME anthologies.  

And the thing here is that, as of this writing, “By Force and Against the King’s Peace” is leading, with 42 percent of the vote, in the SOCIETY OF MISFIT STORIES category.

For more information on the Bards and Sages Reader’s Choice Awards one can press here.  And best of all, one can vote there too — just scroll down and down, through the four BARDS AND SAGES QUARTERLY listings, and you’ll come to the nine titles published thus far under Favorite “Misfit”.  About in the middle you’ll find “By Force and Against the King’s Peace” and to give it your vote you need but click on it.  Try it.  It’s easy!

And, if scrolling down farther, one will also find a ballot for “Author of the Year,” with my name first (although nowhere near in the lead for this one), which, were one to truly desire to, one could vote for also.  In that this is for all appearances in Bards and Sages publications, I might remind, too, that I have stories in all three of the published GREAT TOMES volumes (for which see variously below, October 1, September 21, June 9, May 10, etc.)

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*Also, more information on the MISFIT STORIES series in general, including ordering links by title, can be found here.