So here's the deal, as we all know, or not, depending on your level of loserness we are have been submerged in the ABC's 13 nights of Halloween for about...11 days? Anyway, I am totally not ashmaed to say that I have watched it a couple times. I've watched two movies, while kind of. I've watched "It" by Stephen King, "Poltergiest" (Speilberg) and parts of the semi-new "Boogy-Man" and they managed to intertwine with my independent reading blog very nicely. We all know the basic story outlines of each, so I'm gunna jump right into it.
So, "It" first, scary movie? hell yea. This is actaully the second time I've watched it in full, and I'm a good deal older now. In fact, while I watched the movie, I was hardly scared. I understood the basic plot outlines and what would happen to the children/adults in the movie. So I thought I was fine. The next morning, I go to take a shower- can't stop staring at the drain waiting. IT moves through the sewers in the town of Derry, in fact there is an actual scene where IT comes out of a shower drain and starts talking to the little kid- so yah, needless to say I took a really fast shower.
With Poltergeist, I was more intruigued than scared. This was the first time I'd seen the movie and was generally just "Eh.." overall the movie was great, plot, characters and what nots. But I just wasn't scared.
Finally, Boogey Man, I only watched parts of this movie so I'm not exactly postitive of what happpened, but the parts I did see really shook me. I caught it at the end, where his girlfriend gets kidnapped and what nots. And there is a closet-in my bathroom. So I'm taking a shower, and I'm afraid IT is gunna come out of the drain and tag team with the B.M that has come out of my closet and together they are going to eat me alive. It was very scary.
Now, I KNEW they were just movies, at parts I even laughed, when they were over, I crawled in my bed and fell asleep-yet i was still scared, unconsiously. So here is my main question again, what scares us, and why do we want/allow ourselves to get scared.
So as I stated before, and JWong agreed, its when the everyday, the safe are questioned- a Shower, nice, relaxing part of the day. Yet here I was scared out of my mind and couldn't wait to get out. As far as the Why? goes, hmmm. Based on what I've seen so far, it's as if I crave the feeling of watching my back, of being surprised, because really the movie is scarier the more it makes you jump and go "AH" it was also like some kind of act for me. It was like I was facing my fears and coming out the other end better, which in a lame sense is true. I had seen the movie, lived through the night-after, and come out unscathed. So now, whenever I watch that movie again I won't be scared, so I had really faced myself, in a weird kind of pathetic way. I wouldn't be scared the same way twice, it's like when a rower trains all hard core for a race two months away, so that when that race comes up he is ready for anything. So too, would I be ready for any scary movie, unless it's "Jeepers Creepers" cause that one gets me everytime.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Here, here, Here we go again
So, I'm a good chunk into the book, less scary than I thought it would be. But I guess, it's not really about finding that scare, it's more about watching, watching what happens to theses characters and how they respond to it. So,looking at that, a particular part in the book occurred just recently that scared the pants off me. Here it goes.
Jack(the father of Danny, who is a recovering alcoholic) is out in the backward about to trim some of those topiary things that look like animals, there is a dog, bunny, and a couple of lions. He goes to work on the Bunny but quickly tires of it. After this he decides to go into the little kids' park a few feet away. The next thing, he turns around and swears that the animals have moved. From being in a cute happy position they are now in a position to pounce on a pray. Every time he looks at one animal another moves, however he can only look at one at time and therefore can't catch them all moving. Soon the animals are crowded in front of the path that will take Jack back to the Overlook, and he seems trapped. Freaking out, Jack (and myself) closes his eyes and waits a few moments. He then opens them and the animals are back in their old positions looking friendly.
The whole problem with this is that the reader knows that the hotel is haunted and therefore this could easily happen, yet when he closed his eyes it all went away, so the reader is left to wonder if it was just his imagination , hallucinating and wanting a drink-or did this really occur.The hotel seems to slowly be chipping away at the psychological stability of each family member. Danny has stopped eating and is afraid to go to sleep, his curiosity is continuously pushing him to go into room 217. This room he was warned no to go into by the cook before he left on vacation, the cook also has the ability to "shine" and warned Danny that this was a bad room, yet Danny is ever drawn to it. Everything in the hotel scares him and he becomes more and more distant, telling his parents little of his fears or worries. Jack, is feeling that he needs a drink badly. In fact, he is starting up on all his old drinking habits again-such as wiping his hand against his lips, and chewing Excedrin tablets (giving him a kind of high) the only one left is Wendy. At this point nothing has really happened that might lead Wendy to think the Overlook is evil- the only reason she doesn't like it is because of Danny's deteriorating health and change in behavior, she can also see that Jack is falling back into his old habits, getting mad at her over nothing and losing his temper. jack's temper is notorious, in fact it is the reason he lost his good teaching job at Stovington, Vermont- he "lost his temper" and ended up knocking one of his students unconscious. This job at the Overlook as caretaker is his "last chance". This hotel which was supposed to bring them all together is only bringing them apart.Really as much as the book is scary, it is really only a scary because we are viewing it through the eyes of this family that is falling apart and doesn't know what to make of it.
We, as readers, feel vulnerable because of the way they feel vulnerable. What they are afraid of we are afraid of. And it scares us becasue essentilly it is the everyday gone wrong. Trimming plants, waking past a fire extinguisher, this normal unthreating stuff has turned into constant nightmares.
Jack(the father of Danny, who is a recovering alcoholic) is out in the backward about to trim some of those topiary things that look like animals, there is a dog, bunny, and a couple of lions. He goes to work on the Bunny but quickly tires of it. After this he decides to go into the little kids' park a few feet away. The next thing, he turns around and swears that the animals have moved. From being in a cute happy position they are now in a position to pounce on a pray. Every time he looks at one animal another moves, however he can only look at one at time and therefore can't catch them all moving. Soon the animals are crowded in front of the path that will take Jack back to the Overlook, and he seems trapped. Freaking out, Jack (and myself) closes his eyes and waits a few moments. He then opens them and the animals are back in their old positions looking friendly.
The whole problem with this is that the reader knows that the hotel is haunted and therefore this could easily happen, yet when he closed his eyes it all went away, so the reader is left to wonder if it was just his imagination , hallucinating and wanting a drink-or did this really occur.The hotel seems to slowly be chipping away at the psychological stability of each family member. Danny has stopped eating and is afraid to go to sleep, his curiosity is continuously pushing him to go into room 217. This room he was warned no to go into by the cook before he left on vacation, the cook also has the ability to "shine" and warned Danny that this was a bad room, yet Danny is ever drawn to it. Everything in the hotel scares him and he becomes more and more distant, telling his parents little of his fears or worries. Jack, is feeling that he needs a drink badly. In fact, he is starting up on all his old drinking habits again-such as wiping his hand against his lips, and chewing Excedrin tablets (giving him a kind of high) the only one left is Wendy. At this point nothing has really happened that might lead Wendy to think the Overlook is evil- the only reason she doesn't like it is because of Danny's deteriorating health and change in behavior, she can also see that Jack is falling back into his old habits, getting mad at her over nothing and losing his temper. jack's temper is notorious, in fact it is the reason he lost his good teaching job at Stovington, Vermont- he "lost his temper" and ended up knocking one of his students unconscious. This job at the Overlook as caretaker is his "last chance". This hotel which was supposed to bring them all together is only bringing them apart.Really as much as the book is scary, it is really only a scary because we are viewing it through the eyes of this family that is falling apart and doesn't know what to make of it.
We, as readers, feel vulnerable because of the way they feel vulnerable. What they are afraid of we are afraid of. And it scares us becasue essentilly it is the everyday gone wrong. Trimming plants, waking past a fire extinguisher, this normal unthreating stuff has turned into constant nightmares.
Monday, October 22, 2007
First Real Blog about My First Real Book in My First Actual Independent Reading for my SECOND Time Having Mrs. Clapp as an English Teacher.
I know, I know. After that amzing title, I bet you can't wait to read what comes next, right? Okay so this is my first one, I'm a good deal through the book.
Some background, I'm reading, King's "The Shining" It's about a family who goes out to stay in this deserted hotel called the overlook. Now, it's histroy is pretty dirty, consiting of suicide and mafia murders and what not....
So the little boy, Danny, who is 5 has this shining, he can read minds, sense feelings, see messages from the dead, and lot's of other paranormal ongoing's. The hotel is full of them. Danny has the shining real bad, his senses are through the roof, and there is little that he doesn't pick up on. Which brings us to my post. Something was talked about in English class today that really got my mind rolling, it's an idea we bring up often in our class analysis, and I think is important in this novel, innocence, that is the innocence of Danny and how he loses it. Well I haven't gotten to that part yet.
Anyway, Danny, only being five, has a lot more stuff being thrown at him than he understands, already he has had to worry about wheter or not his parents would get divorced, if his father would go back to drinking, and how they'd make it through alive to the next winter. Yet through al of this he has managed to keep that child-like innocence of most five year olds though he has been subjected to things most his age would never understand, yet he has an imaginary friend, Tony. He likes to spend time with his parents and especailly idealizes his father. This innocence, however is slowly being broken down by thier stay at the overlook. The fact that King makes this major character, not but a little boy is meant to bring a certain impact to the stroy. Being that he is so young, few people believe in the things he is saying or seeing and is simply putting it off as daydreams. And so too, is the reader having to doubt, how much can we believe. To what point can we believe that Danny is telling the truth, or that we are supposed to take everything he is seeing at face value. He is unexperienced in the ways of the world so at first we don't have any reason to doubt him, but at this point, I think there may even be stuff happening, that Danny is hiding. His innocence brings to the stroy an auroa of foreshadowing. often the theme of booko scontain the innocene of somethign being broken down, and that air of innocence is lost forever.
Some background, I'm reading, King's "The Shining" It's about a family who goes out to stay in this deserted hotel called the overlook. Now, it's histroy is pretty dirty, consiting of suicide and mafia murders and what not....
So the little boy, Danny, who is 5 has this shining, he can read minds, sense feelings, see messages from the dead, and lot's of other paranormal ongoing's. The hotel is full of them. Danny has the shining real bad, his senses are through the roof, and there is little that he doesn't pick up on. Which brings us to my post. Something was talked about in English class today that really got my mind rolling, it's an idea we bring up often in our class analysis, and I think is important in this novel, innocence, that is the innocence of Danny and how he loses it. Well I haven't gotten to that part yet.
Anyway, Danny, only being five, has a lot more stuff being thrown at him than he understands, already he has had to worry about wheter or not his parents would get divorced, if his father would go back to drinking, and how they'd make it through alive to the next winter. Yet through al of this he has managed to keep that child-like innocence of most five year olds though he has been subjected to things most his age would never understand, yet he has an imaginary friend, Tony. He likes to spend time with his parents and especailly idealizes his father. This innocence, however is slowly being broken down by thier stay at the overlook. The fact that King makes this major character, not but a little boy is meant to bring a certain impact to the stroy. Being that he is so young, few people believe in the things he is saying or seeing and is simply putting it off as daydreams. And so too, is the reader having to doubt, how much can we believe. To what point can we believe that Danny is telling the truth, or that we are supposed to take everything he is seeing at face value. He is unexperienced in the ways of the world so at first we don't have any reason to doubt him, but at this point, I think there may even be stuff happening, that Danny is hiding. His innocence brings to the stroy an auroa of foreshadowing. often the theme of booko scontain the innocene of somethign being broken down, and that air of innocence is lost forever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
