We Are the Uncanny

Uncanny Valley

2011-12-05T09:16:00.002-05:00

This is going around these days as the creepiest example of the "uncanny valley"--the idea that, as they approach real lifelikeness, robotic simulations actually get more unpleasant and weirder.

Ed The Happy Clown - Excerpt #3

2011-11-26T18:14:00.003-05:00

Ed The Happy Clown - Excerpt #2

2011-11-26T18:11:00.002-05:00

Something for us all to consider as we write our papers.....

2011-11-23T22:03:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The Comic O'Connor

2011-11-20T21:09:00.004-05:00

Following Michael's post, I thought I'd post some fan-generated comic book art for Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" — truly an uncanny tale.

Click here to view large.

O'Connor herself made linocut comics throughout her high school and college career. Here's one of them that's appropriate for this blog:

Ed The Happy Clown - Excerpt

2011-11-17T10:54:00.002-05:00

My presentation on underground comics and the uncanny will focus mainly on Chester Brown's award-winning feminist-hated series, Ed The Happy Clown. Brown, inspired after reading The Age of Surrealism, used the concept of spontaneous creation to make an unscripted, stream of consciousness series surrounding a child-like clown who is subjected to one horror after another.

I will be posting excerpts on here to help get everyone familiar with the series; I think it will help promote some interesting discussion.

I always feel like somebody's watching me.

2011-11-16T21:58:00.003-05:00

After weeks of covering the idea of the Uncanny, I have found that as varied as the definition is for each individual viewer, my personal views on the Uncanny as well vary from instance to instance. For example, the series of movies titled Paranormal Activity are very widely considered laughable by the regular horror/ghost cinema fanatics, but from a personal standpoint, I have rarely been as afraid throughout the duration of a movie viewing. Yet, while watching many other ghost movies, I find myself giggling about the nonsensical nature of the films. I think my personal definition of the Uncanny would be best exemplified by that which is not seen and cannot be explained. When a film or story leaves trace of the ghost or creature actually being something tangible and more real, I am not given the full uncanny effect. In such movies as Paranormal Activity, where the demon inhabiting the house is never shown (once in a book of demonology, but never in actuality) I am given more of the uncanny experience than almost anything else. I know, its seems to be an umbrella term to describe my personal experience of the Uncanny as things that I cannot comprehend, but generally this fact can only be applied to cinema. When it comes to the actual world, it becomes incredibly hard to describe my personal definition of what I find Uncanny. Most often I would say it stems from the entirely unsettling feeling of thinking I am being watched or followed, or in shadows cast that I cannot find a form to match. Although we have gone over many, many theories surrounding and regarding the definition, I find myself continuously going back to the definitions that we began with, such as uncanny as the absence of god or explanation, or the uncanny as something I have not yet come to terms or defined for myself. It is the the inexplicable that I find the strongest sense of the uncanny, which I also find mildly ironic as I am unable to explain the term either.

the late turn of the screw

2011-11-16T21:35:00.002-05:00

Both the text and movie forms of the Turn of the Screw provide incredibly strong evidence of the Uncanny and how much of its definition is entirely based on the personal experience of each idiosyncratic gaze of the viewer. As noted in Freud's definition of the Uncanny, one if one is comfortable with an object or scenario, its ability to provide the feeling of the uncanny is lost. Such is the case of both forms of the Turn of the Screw. Much of text provides clear instances where the reader is unable to decipher whether the event is at its base truly uncanny, or just a semblance of madness played out by the governess. Some key examples of this are provided in the following excerpts from the reading.

"That was exactly present to me-by which I mean the face was-when, on the first of these occasions, at the end of a long June day, I stopped short on emerging from one of the plantations and coming into view of the house. What arrested me on the spot-and with a shock much greater than any vision had allowed for-was the sense that my imagination had, in a flash turned real. He did stand there !"

"One step in had sufficed; my vision was instantaneous; it was all there. The person looking straight in was the person who had already appeared to me. He appeared thus again with I won't say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold. He was the same-he was the same, and seen, this time, as he had been seen before, from the waist up...."

It is clear throughout the text that the multiple appearances of this man (Peter Quint) are, on many levels, uncanny. It is first uncanny to the governess that such a vision should appear in the first place. Secondly, it is in the questioning of the governess's sanity that one could argue for an instance of the Uncanny. And third, if the governess is truly sane, the appearance of a ghost to both the characters and the reader provides a clear example of the Uncanny. With these excerpts and many others from the reading, it is clear that the idea of the Uncanny delves much deeper than the characters reaction, but rather deals more with the individual translation and understanding of the text by the readers themselves.

What If There Was No Uncanny?

2011-11-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

Even after reading Freud, Todorov, Jackson, Poe, watching Cat People and Dead of Night, I’m still struggling to define the uncanny as it exists in film and literature. I’ve come to realize that this may be because the uncanny is not universal. It exists in a different scope for different people, it is not objective and it does not have a definitive presence. Trying to define the uncanny is like trying to define humor or comedy. What’s funny to one person may not be funny to the next. If asked to define comedy, I’d probably tell you that it exists because of social routine or habit, cultural tradition, differences between the sexes, politics, religion, more religion; basically anything and everything that involves the everyday life when seen from an alternate angle. I hope I’m making sense here. My interest in this came from the fine line that exists between the humorous and the uncanny. Notice that we haven’t watched a movie or a film clip as a class and haven’t laughed at least once? Like when Miles slapped the jell-o bunny? Had we been viewing this movie when it was first released, we may not have found slapping jell-o very funny. Similarly, the uncanny seems to exist because of these social nuances. What is unusual or strange, what makes us feel uneasy, uncomfortable, as if we’re seeing something we shouldn’t, exists because of the social boundaries that we’ve come to define. Why else would we feel as if we shouldn’t be seeing something?

THAT'S CRUMB-Y

2011-11-13T23:07:00.002-05:00

R. Crumb's rejected cover for The New Yorker

After getting word that this cover would not show, Crumb asked for an explanation. He received none.

He has since stopped any and all work for the magazine.

Could it have been... TOO UNCANNY?!?!?

Let's find out during my presentation on Underground Comics and the Uncanny;

COMING SOON TO AN AUDITORIUM NEAR YOU

Cat People - The Mystery Deepens

2011-11-03T17:36:00.001-04:00

When I went back to review the last moments of Cat People, I came away feeling that the film intentionally blurs the question of whether Irena reverts to cat form after her death. (I am amazed to find myself writing that sentence.)
The first shot below follows the shot of the panther's body under the taxi--then cut to this:

which to me looks like Irena as we've just seen her, face down, in her coat--but with a very deliberate suggestion of panther's ears in her shadow. The broken sword is not in evidence.
After Alice and Oliver arrive, they bend over her, but we do not see her again till after Oliver says, "She never lied to us"--then cut to her body again from the same angle but in a continuous pull-back shot that closes the film:

She still looks more like the body of Irena, with her hair splayed, than a panther to me, but the clear intention is to remain unclear. Is the difference between the shots just a continuity error or does it suggest transformation?
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Um, can we uncan me? A brief Uncanny.

2011-11-03T10:13:00.005-04:00

For me, the uncanny encompasses a derelict feeling that comes with a subject unknown or mysterious. I find it everywhere, in the music of the Javanese Court Gamelan, in a film like The Haunting, in the photography of Taryn Simon, in those hallways in the mall that lead nowhere and are filled with doors that have no knobs. It's almost exciting to encounter it and I feel a little voyeuristic seeking it out, like I'm looking at something I shouldn't be...

2011-11-03T00:12:00.003-04:00

There are a lot of options when dealing with the uncanny in art and media, which keeps expanding over time. In order for the viewer to really get a sense of the uncanny, the film industries create scenarios in which the viewer is able to relate themselves to. After watching many thrillers and fiction movies I started to realize that this uncanny sensation that occurs in films is nothing like the true sensation that occurs in real life.
After reading Aarons post I started to think of times or moments where I felt a true sense of the Uncanny, whether it be scary or just an odd feeling. There have been moments that I may not have thought to have been uncanny at the time, but were very closely related to the uneasy feeling that occurs during a thriller film.
There have been times when I am by myself, either driving or riding my bike very late at night, where I feel this unsettling feeling like someone is watching me when nobody is there. There was a moment, when driving back to my parents house in southern virginia, where I parked my car in front of the house and just stared down my street. There was nobody out and the houses were perfectly alined and yards were perfectly cut. The street lighting lined straight down the long narrow street and the whole neighborhood was silent. I got this feeling that wasn’t scary, but was unsettling. There is no source to why I felt this way or reasoning behind it but it was something that excited me yet at same time I wanted that feeling to go away. This feeling is indescribable which is why it is easy for me to relate the uncanny to horror and fiction films because the same unsettling feeling occurs, which I can relate myself to.

New Vocab

2011-11-02T22:53:00.001-04:00

While reflecting back on the first half of the semester I have been trying to pinpoint what it is that the uncanny really means to me. I think more than anything else, it has given me a new vocabulary and understanding for the strange and scary things that already excite me; especially in film. I have always loved scary movies, but never really been able to fully understand the reason I get goose-bumps from a scene where nothing really dramatic (by today’s Hollywood standards) has happened. When something is a little off and you can’t tell if it is real or imagined, it is the uncanny!

It is these uncanny moments that I have realized create a greater tension and anxiety in me as a viewer. These moments where I almost just want something bad to happen so it can be over and done! This is what creates the mystery, fear, and uncertainty for me. This is also what I am discovering can make a film so great, because these uncanny aspects often times have no clear resolution and it is up to me to come up with a conclusion. Uncanny for me is what I have always described as creepy, but now I have a clearer way of explaining and understanding what this aesthetic and feeling really is.

Siri gets me.

2011-11-02T19:15:00.001-04:00

I have heard a lot about the new iphone's personal assistant, Siri. "Ask Siri to help you get things done. Just speak naturally. Siri understands what you say."

Technology is not related to the uncanny in film and literature but there is an off putting correlation between the two. What is it that makes mankind want to create machines with human characteristics? The idea that we can create devices that we fully acknowledge as a machine but also familiarize it as a person is somewhat disturbing.

Looking up what Siri can assist you with led to looking up cyborgs and humanoids, which reminded me of Amber Case's lecture "We are all cyborgs now".

It's 8 minutes long which I know is more than what our youtube ADD can handle but she makes very interesting points on the interweaving of technology and humanity.

Why bother having human relationships when you can create one with a device that imitates itself as a person?

Uncanny Me

2011-11-01T21:00:00.004-04:00

As my general understanding of the world goes, I relate to what goes around me through stories. Most of the time stories happen to me while I'm taking pictures, or thinking about wanting to take a photo; these are the times I'm most in tune with what's going on around me—somehow my mind's eye or senses are a little heightened.

This past summer I was taking pictures in a little community called Eden in North Carolina. As you might expect, its name is taken directly from the Biblical garden of Eden and of course its residents embrace that fact. They remind you on their signage on about every street corner JESUS SAVES — about every two minutes I saw this sign in someone's backyard, in a secluded wooded area, but always with a gory picture of the Crucifixion. It was depicted in statues, paintings, even larger hand-painted signs: I just didn't feel comfortable here. I guess that's why I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to. Despite the town itself urging for souls to be saved, mine still felt in peril.

I realize now I can really only define my time in Eden, NC as being uncanny. For me, the uncanny comes at the intersection of fear and displacement. What may seem like a sleepy Southern town is much more—where it takes me out of my realm of comfort to something uneasy and something nearly violent on the surface. But the uncanny is always a fine line to trot. I guess I can acquaint it to a cooking recipe: a little bit of recognition, so much unease and stress, always fear, indirectness, never straightforward violence, but with always boiling over with potential. Gory slasher films are the stuff of kinetic energy, we know how much it moves and what endpoints it will go to, but films like The Innocents are made of potential energy. We simply don't know how far our suspension of reality and threshold will take us. Films do this and so does photography because it is widely seen as truth, even from the birth of the media.

More than anything I think what's uncanny stays with us and pushes us psychologically. It tests. It's the third thing in a dichotomy: the uneasy feeling between photographer and subject, the camera intervening. The happy sentiment of redemption beside a bloody religious icon. The space in which movies are shot test us to because there is an omniscient character seeing something and knowing something we don't. In The Haunting it was the house who ultimately had control, in Eden, it's, as writer Flannery O'Connor might say, "Christ-haunted" and redemption is in control.

Of course there's a drive-in in Eden.

Blog It - My Uncanny - for November 3

2011-10-30T18:37:00.000-04:00

This week should be a good time to review your own sense of the term uncanny. We've considered the major theories, and some of the most celebrated literary and cinematic instances.

You may define your own sense of the term and its usefulness in alliance or in contrast with one of the theories we've discussed, or you may find your interests leading you to an entirely different way of considering what strikes as uncanny.

An interesting way to explain your own idea would be to argue that a particular instance (in any medium) exemplifies the term uncanny as you understand it.

You may wish to argue that some medium or genre is an under-appreciated vehicle of the uncanny.

Your focus should be on identifying constituent concepts, ideas, or criteria that make your own idea of the uncanny clear and accessible to others--that give us something to argue over.

As usual, please comment by 9 am Thursday, Nov 3, to give others a chance to read your response.

Clarence John Laughlin

2011-10-29T12:18:00.006-04:00

Laughlin made this body of work called Ghosts Along the Mississippi in 1948. Re: our discussion regarding haunted houses, I think Laughlin's work is a very early example of Surrealism in the United States, specifically in the South. A Louisiana native, Clarence John Laughlin took his view camera and documented dilapidated Southern plantation homes that suggest its evil past was caused by the anthropomorphized structure. It's like they're looking at me and of course there's something uncanny about that.

Here are selections from Ghosts Along the Mississippi.

Uncanny - or just kinda icky?

2011-10-27T18:48:00.000-04:00

Carrot Top describes kissing Elton John: "I invited Elton John and he said, 'Oh, yeah, we would love to come to your show.' He hasn't. And he gave me a big, wet kiss. Haven't washed my face since. And then he shook my girlfriend's hand. And she said, 'What was that about?' and I said, 'It's Elton John!' It was a little weird, though. But I went in for it. There was tongue, a little bit. It was like 'Rocket Man.'"

WHAT BEGINS IN FEAR...

2011-10-27T13:17:00.001-04:00

What begins in fear usually ends in folly, but in this case we don’t know. The Governess is a person with a head on her shoulder. With that said she also gives off a lack of experience. The scene where she first see’s the ghost, and engages in a starring contest, compared to once she is aware that who she was staring at was in fact dead. The difference in her attitude towards the entity reveals the confusion we gain from those experiences. What causes the disruption of reality, in a simple metaphor; her understanding is a pieces of glass, and the ghost represented that stone that shattered it. An example is the child Milles, lack of character or emptiness could be just a simple child behavior, but with her logic broken, she fills in the blanks with more sinister reasons.

The whole interaction with ghosts, how they return, and disappear, is like we are wavering through our realties. We calm down the moment they disappear in hopes that we can return to the way our world was, but they moment they return, they are back to question that precious reality.

DAZZLED

2011-10-27T12:43:00.001-04:00

"But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness

in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image

of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had

probably more than anything else to do with the restlessness

that, before morning, made me several times rise and wander

about my room to take in the whole picture and prospect; to

watch, from my open window, the faint summer dawn, to

look at such portions of the rest of the house as I could catch,

and to listen, while, in the fading dusk, the first birds began

to twitter, for the possible recurrence of a sound or two, less

natural and not without, but within, that I had fancied I

heard. There had been a moment when I believed I

recognised, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been

another when I found myself just consciously starting as at

the passage, before my door, of a light footstep."

I found the Governess' arrival at the house quite uncanny, perhaps it's just a matter of watching too much Walking Dead or American Horror Story, where the houses/settings always have a clause. She speaks of it to be such a pleasant place and immediately takes to the children. The affection she develops for them right away just struck me as odd. She talks about being "dazzled by their loveliness" and explains her restlessness the first night as most likely being a result of Flora, whom she after knowing just one day calls "her little girl". Then when meeting the boy explains she was swept away by his presence. I wouldn't be surprised if she starting calling them "my precious" (in a Golem voice of course).

Strange Encounters

2011-10-27T11:07:00.002-04:00

In the short novel Turn of the Screw by Henry James, there are many instances of the Uncanny. One specific instant early on that stood out to me is when the governess sees the "visitor" looking at her through the window. I find this whole situation uncanny for a few reasons. First, these strange encounters with this man are creepy! I am beginning to feel that I prefer slasher to uncanny because in these situations I find myself wanting the creepy presence or person to just do something already! The feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that I have in this situation where a man is watching the governess through the window yet he doesn't actually do anything, leave me with a very strong feeling of the uncanny. Another aspect of the uncanny in this situation, is also the fact that we are not certain if the man is really there. Maybe the governess is loosing her mind and just seeing things. As the reader we are in a position again of uncertainty. Finally there is a interesting occurrence of repetition upon the governess reentering the house after going outside to confront the visitor-

"As if, at this moment, to show me exactly what his range had been, Mrs. Grose, as I had done for himself just before, came in from the hall. With this I had the full image of a repetition of what had already occurred. She saw me as I had seen my own visitant; she pulled up short as I had done; I gave her something of the shock that I had received. She turned white,

and this made me ask myself if I had blanched as much. She stared, in short, and retreated on just my lines, and I knew she had then passed out and come round to me and that I

should presently meet her. I remained where I was, and while I waited I thought of more things than one. But there’s only one I take space to mention. I wondered why she should

be scared."

I find this passage uncanny for two reasons. First, the fact that the governess seems to experience a feeling of someone else's deja vu, and the idea of repetition in this removed way is very strange and disorienting. Finally, what actually did cause Mrs. Grose to have the reaction she did? As the governess said "why should she be scared?".

Turn of the Screw

2011-10-27T08:51:00.010-04:00

In The Turn of the Screw, the reader questions the mental stability of the young governess. It is possible that she is seeing hallucinations due to her own fears, anxieties, and repressed desires. The singular first person perspective of the narrative makes it likely that what she is seeing is not actual reality and that we are experiencing her perception of reality, which is distorted. She is not only under the pressure of her stressful job as head of the household, but her romantic interest in her employer whom she has no physical contact with leads to the repression of her sexual desires, which adds more emotional weight and stress to her situation. As the story progresses, there are instances that prove that she is suffering from extreme paranoia; for example, she assumes that the children whom she initially believes are innocent and beautiful, have become evil and they are communicating with the ghosts and plotting against her. This narration is a good example of how point of view affects the events that take place and sets the tone and overall feeling of a story.

Insane in the Membrane: Analyzing the Governess' Unstable Mind

2011-10-26T21:40:00.003-04:00

The narration in Henry James' novel, The Turn of the Screw, is told by the unreliable perspective of the Governess, a young naive woman who agrees to care for the children of the man she has come to fancy, in hopes of winning his heart over. Is the Governess actually seeing supernatural figures or is it all in her head? It seems as though the ghosts that the Governess' encounters (that no other character is able to see) was produced in her mind due to the overwhelming responsibilities of taking care of the young children, Miles and Flora. Even though it is suggested that Miles saw the ghost of Peter Quint, we are not sure if he actually saw him, or if it is what the Governess wishes have happened. We can not fully rely on the Governess' narration because her actions and unusual thought process throughout the story exhibits certain mental paranoia. Once again, much like Poe's narrative characteristics, it is the enigmatic qualities in the narration and the unresolved mysteries in the plot that arouses the sense of what is real and unreal and induces the Freudian concept of the uncanny, as The Turn of the Screw ends with Miles dying. What is it exactly that made his heart stop? Intentionally ending the story with unanswered questions, ambiguity in the plot leaves it up to us to figure it out and make our own decisions.

Uncanny in the Eye of the Beholder

2011-10-26T00:16:00.003-04:00

Meatyard

I've been sort of dogged by this uncanny business for a while now. I see a runner stretching on the street with his arms pulled behind him and I have this sudden feeling of horror that he is in fact armless, trying to strangle me. The platform on the metro seems to float towards me as I look down at the tracks, bulging back and forth with flickering red lights like the door in The Haunting. Halfway through reading The Turn of the Screw, I watch HAUSU in the auditorium. It's funny and gross and I like it. When I get back to my apartment, the church outside my window and its parsonage begin flashing white strobes all around the windows and the burglary alarm goes off endlessly. I peer at it for a while a la James Stewart's character in Rear Window, but unwanting to have a similar demise as in this film, I turn away and think of Grace Kelly. And if these weird strobes in each window could have anything to do with a church organ devouring a Japanese girl. No, it's just a movie, I think, a movie that has slipped into a bit of my reality.

In the same way I've been dogged by uncertainty, that is, certain uncanny, the governess in The Turn of the Screw experiences much of the same. Is she madly unreliable or just mad? The governess remembers: "Suddenly, in these circumstances, I become aware that, on the other side of the Sea of Azof, we had an interested spectator. The way this knowledge gathered in me was the strangest thing in the world—the strangest, that is, except the very much stranger in which it quickly merged it self," she goes on, "I began to take in with certitude, and yet without direct vision, the presence, at a distance, of a third person."

Meatyard

She's battling some internal conflict here at the edge of the lake. Whether or not to suspend her belief, and therefore, the reader's, to see if something really uncanny is going on in just her mind or the supposed natural world. She's deciding if she ought to face the apparition she has been aquatinted with a couple of times before. "… I from one moment to another found myself forming as to what I should see straight before me and across the lake as a consequence of raising my eyes." It's a figure she "passionately questioned."

Is it Peter Quint? Miss Jessel? Or simply a figment of the governess' mind? Either way, it is the repressed material belonging to the aforementioned bubbling to the surface that makes it especially hard to decipher what's unfolding in this scene. I wonder if Henry James would've liked HAUSU? Did he at least own a cat?

House as Ship

2011-10-24T16:09:00.003-04:00

Henry James' The Turn of the Screw has the unnamed narrator and governess at Bly use the analogy of the house as a ship many a time in the novella:

No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!

This analogy provided an "uncanny moment" for me in that my brain turned the analogy into imagery, a floating house that had lost all control, and it also made a connection to ghosts. Being "half replaced and half utilized" relates to ghosts only being partially there (or not at all, since our narrator is yet again unreliable), and the "lost" passengers on the drifting ship references ghost's inability to go to either side. Lastly, the unreliable narrator seeing herself as "at the helm" surely foreshadows doom.

Blog It - For Oct 27: The Turn of the Screw

2011-10-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

The Turn of the Screw is a favorite text for students of the Uncanny because even when it makes us uneasy, it's as difficult to sort out just what is bothering us it is to decide just what is happening in the story. As with Poe's tales, it's another classic instance of the unreliable narrator: How much of the supernatural aura of the story is due to the events narrated, and how much is due to our questions about the narrator's state of mind, and peculiar logic?

To prepare for discussion on Thursday, please comment here on any passage or passages in the text--any moment, incident, or quotation--that shows the challenges of interpreting this text. Following one interesting use of the term to indicate difficulties in accounting for strange events, we'll call such an instance an uncanny moment and see what kinds of uncanny moments we find in The Turn of the Screw.

As usual, please comment by 9 am Thursday, Oct 27 to give others a chance to read your response.

THE WORLD IS A SCARY PLACE(S)....LOCK YOUR DOORS!

2011-10-20T21:38:00.003-04:00

Since our talk in class about how the uncanny can be found in our own sweet, sweet home. Here are a few places all over the world, that carry that scent of the uncanny. The first link is a video of the Winchester Mystery House, the second is a list by the very insightful and entertaining cracked.com, of the creepiest places on earth. I'd love to hear if anyone else knows of better places.

Winchester Mystery House

cracked.com- The Six Creepiest Places on Earth

Speaking of haunted houses . . .

2011-10-20T10:57:00.002-04:00

Bennett's Curse
Jessup MD - supposed to be the best Halloween haunted-house attraction in the Baltimore-DC area.
Featuring
THE HOUSE OF VAMPYRES!
THE ZOMBIE KINGDOM IN 3-D!
THE DOMINION OF DARKNESS
and
THE SANCTUARY OF INSANITY!!

Special "Treat": The Washington Rdskns Cheerleaders will appear at Bennett's Curse TONIGHT Thursday October 20 from 7-9 pm! A great opportunity to get a photo with the Cheerleaders!

(seriously, it actually says that on the website.)

It's great, isn't it?

2011-10-19T12:58:00.002-04:00

Hausu is one of the great haunted-house movies, demonstrating that they're not a matter of belief in ghosts so much as the creation of imaginary space that generates uncanny events and images. In the haunted house movie, what is actually behind the door is not as crucial as the fact of pressing you to ask, What's behind that door??!!! In Hausu, of course, it does matter, because it's always something a zillion times weirder than anything likely to pop up in a more conventional horror movie.

It's a good film to see while you're thinking about The Turn of the Screw, which will seem like The Brady Bunch by comparison. Hm m m . . . The Brady Bunch--what a crew of sick, twisted . . . OK, so Hausu is actually kind of more like The Brady Bunch . . .

If you're in Columbia/Howard County this weekend . . .

2011-10-18T09:40:00.002-04:00

Rep Stage to Present Tony Tsendeas in The Poe Show

By: Ryan Chavis · Oct 13, 2011 · Washington DC

Tony Tsendeas
in The Poe Show

In celebration of Edgar Allan Poe's work, Rep Stage will present The Poe Show at the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center's Studio Theatre, October 21-24.
The Poe Show will feature performances of The Raven,The Tell Tale Heart,The Black Cat and more. Actor, director and nationally recognized Edgar Allan Poe interpreter Tony Tsendeas will narrate Poe's grim masterpieces.
Rep Stage, a professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College, is in its 19th season. The company is a member of both League of Washington Theatres and Baltimore Theatre Alliance.
For tickets, please click here.

DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY

2011-10-15T16:31:00.001-04:00

(you have to get through the little ad before you see the video)

This little gem is from 1947, directed by the dada-ist filmmaker Hans Richter. It features the minds of Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and many other great surrealists.

The dialogue is just plain strange, the music a little stranger, and the whole poking-fun-at-self-awareness aspect makes it Super-Freudian!

Dolls come to life!

CASTRATION ANXIETYYYYYY

"You've discovered you can look inside yourself! You're no longer a bum! You're an artist!"

2011-10-14T09:06:00.000-04:00

For Those Who Love Footnotes

TICKTOCK

2011-10-13T12:32:00.001-04:00

The Tell-Tale Heart (by Edgar Allen Poe), I always thought it to be somewhat of a romantic title, perhaps solely because of the last word. Or perhaps because "tell-tale" entails some sort of revealing or disclosure and when the two are combined, naturally I had assumed it'd be a story of someone spilling their guts. However, I wasn't entirely wrong, atleast not about the gut spilling part, (though Poe would disagree, as he claims there was no blood nor evidence). "Tell-tale" can also be defined as, "any of various indicating or registering devices, as a timeclock." Which I found most intriguing, because Poe compares the ringing sounds he's hearing to a watch enveloped in cotton. I'm so curious as to why he makes this distinction not once but twice, and to what it may mean. Perhaps he's counting down until the minute he goes insane. Or perhaps the ticking of a watch enveloped in cotton is actually much like the beating of a heart buried beneath floorboards.

POE, A BLACK COMIC AT HEART

2011-10-13T12:03:00.005-04:00

The short stories revolve around people that at first seems to hold a logical thought process, but with insane reason, and are ultimately consumed with these insane reason. These characters are tragedies in that they seem to spiral down into this horrible situation not because they want to, but because they need to. These people are uncanny stories in that they push our human boundaries, and we the viewer, as a person would never tred, making them out of this world. We are force to dwell more in the imaginative then real life experiences, to explain their events.

These ultimately are disturbing stories in one perspective, but in another, such as mine, great black comedies.

The uncanny of the story comes from the character quite normal life, our seemed normal life into that takes a turn of events that are bizarre and lead to his unfortunate event. This is really no different then a comic characters roll, that we watch a character for their imperfections and failures at life.

The black cat may be referring to the idea of witch craft, but in the perspective of our time it just translates as bad karma, or fail after fail after fail in life. The story is a snowball rolling down a hill just getting bigger as it rolls.

Ultimately this leads to the uncanny of the narration. How every character makes it sound so logical, because it isn’t. They talk about how they plan things so well and how sly they are, but ultimately are brought down by them selves. Its scary because they sound so sane, but is in fact insane.

When we see murder’s we replace them with monsters, because we as people cannot believe they are like us. So we react in fear when we find out that those monsters are really people just like us. It brings to question our own humanity, and how similar we are to those we call monsters.

kitty cat

2011-10-13T09:38:00.002-04:00

In Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Black Cat we meet a man whose life quickly unravels before our eyes. At first this character seems to have a happy and caring disposition, but soon we see the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. He claims that he "is not mad" and while that may be true, the effects of his alcoholism certainly do have a strong resemblance to insanity. As you rapidly follow this man's demise there are strong aspects of the uncanny that cannot be ignored. Not only is the uncertainty of his state of mind a frequent theme in uncanny works, but also the fact that this man has a black cat that seems to be somewhat of a best friend deals with the uncanny. It addresses issues of superstitions that run in many cultures which is something that is theorized as an aspect of the uncanny. This is actually pointed out in the story itself when the main character mentions that his wife alludes to the notion in which black cats are regarded as witches in disguise. The twisted events that follow with this mans relationship to his cat are in my opinion mostly just creepy and disturbing, but how the death of this cat is followed by the adoption of another cat is where another feature of the uncanny lies. The man finds another cat (which seems to appear out of nowhere and not belong to anyone) that strongly resembles his first black cat, Pluto. This causes me to think of the uncanny theme of the double. It raises questions about the cat like; is it even real? Is it a ghost? Is it the spirit of Pluto coming back to haunt him? All of these thoughts strengthen the uncanny feel of this already strange story. Finally the fact that this supposedly un-mad man kills his own wife in a passionate craze against a CAT, buries her in the wall of his own house, and feels no remorse, is just f*ing crazy. The fact that this new cat, whether real or the spirit of Pluto, ends up leading to this mans demise is the icing on this uncanny cake. Like most of Poe's work this short story is creepy, uncanny, and pretty fantastic.

A Black Cat Crossing Your Path

2011-10-12T23:54:00.000-04:00

(googled cute black kitten instead of scary black cat)

The Black Cat, a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, is constructed in such a way that the events occurring in the story remain mildly ambiguous. As the narrator begins to tell his tale, the reader discovers that the narrator's personality has undergone a radical transformation which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol which, he claims to evoke the perverse side of his nature. Many of Poe's short stories are told in first person and the main character is nameless. Poe never bothers to give the reader a full explanation as to who the character is. Detailed description leads to unveiling the dark, enigmatic qualities that Poe's stories reputably holds. Part of the terror and the uncanny in Poe's narration is due to the vagueness- leaving our minds fearing what we do not know. Instead of standard narrative descriptions of place and time, Poe uses Gothic elements, foreshadowing, and sets the tone with ambiguity that continually magnifies the sense of the uncanny in Poe's short stories.

the black cat

2011-10-12T21:35:00.001-04:00

In Poe's short story the black cat, the narrator admits early on to being an alcoholic. As the narrator begins to recount the preceding days the reader is immediately struck by the understanding that the narrator is not to be trusted, not because his desire to explain the circumstances that lead up to his hanging are not genuine, but because from the beginning the reader is made aware that the narrator has made his decisions while under the influence of alcohol. As the reader begins to read further the sense and understanding that theses events are not just the happenings of an inebriated person become evident, but that in fact these are the actions of a mad man.
Through out the story, and in many of his other stories, Poe implants symbols and signs of what is to come. In this manner of foreshadowing, through the medium of a person that is already deemed to be insane or untrustworthy, these burgeoning ideas are quickly forgotten as the reader moves forward in the story. Mean while, still somewhere in the back of the mind the implanted ideas begin to transform, slowly taking shape and feeding off of the new material that is quickly being displaced by the consciousness mind and that fades towards the back. Then at the precipice of his stories all of the ideas that had been slowly developing all seem to burst forth at once, causing within the reader a sense of pre-recognition. Possibly his greatest contribution to our definition of the uncanny is the structure of his stories and how they manipulate the readers own senses.

2011-10-12T20:43:00.003-04:00

In the story The Black Cat, the narrator proceeds to make almost every aspect of the Uncanny appear to us while simultaneously attempting to make the situation seem quite everyday and natural. Through the estranging wording of the first paragraph to the following paragraph describing the adoption of a cat, the narrator touches lightly on the initial definitions of Freud's "Heimliche" and "Umhemliche'. By making the reader comfortable and engaged with his life, the narrator draws us to the more homely or natural aspects of his existence. Yet the tale is written in such a way that the reader immediately questions the narrator and aspects of his own uncanniness. It is not until the black color of the cat is mentioned that we feel the true terror quietly begin. It is by including the known but slightly disregarded superstition that causes the initial reaction of the uncanny in our minds. Also, it should be noted that the idea of madness and loss of control of action are classic examples of the Uncanny often used by Poe. Again and again the character subtly asks us to question his sanity, first with his depiction of his unknown wild terror in the opening paragraph and then darker and darker with each following action made after the cat appears. Themes of castration and death/re-animation are easily seen, especially in the ending scene, which seem to be somewhat typical of Poe. Both the Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart end in such viscerally described scenes dealing with death. Poe lures the reader with the characters he so craftily forms, of with the use of grotesque action and thought, but without ever delving into the realm of the unbelievable. This use of first person narrative makes the situations seem incredibly possible, and I believe that it is this exact use of insanity that truly makes him legendary for his use of the Uncanny.

Man Gone Mad

2011-10-12T10:18:00.002-04:00

The narrator in The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe, is the main character and speaks of his personal experiences allowing the reader to view only one perspective of the story. This leads to the Uncanniness that the character creates throughout the story and the Uncanny is focused more on his mental state of mind. The narrator has gone mad but there is no explanation for his actions nor does he seem to explore more in depth any curiosity about the unusual events that keep occurring. He starts to claim that the cat is his reasoning for his madness and after brutally murdering the cat he unexpectedly murders his wife. He claims in the end that she is the real monster and reasoning behind this. While experiencing these urges of anger and violence, the narrator never shows any grief towards his actions. He is almost unaware in what he has done and he focuses more on how to hide it. This story mainly focuses on the mental state of mind where man has gone mad leaving no explanation for his madness leading to this Uncanny sense of having no control over oneself.

HERE, KITTY: Edgar Allan Poe's Mad Narrator in THE BLACK CAT.

2011-10-11T21:26:00.006-04:00

I went to the Edgar Allan Poe House in Baltimore, Md. the summer before I applied to Corcoran. In addition to probably being the only white guy within several minutes, I was a bit nonplussed at what at what the Poe House actually housed. A fake corpse of the man himself, a tight stairwell my large frame could barely squeeze through, and a few scrolls of reprinted poems, including "The Raven" which Poe allegedly wrote in this very structure. By far the most creepy feeling I got from going here other than the constant fear of witnessing a robbery or homicide, was the caretaker that particular day. He looked a bit like the Poe, gaunt, pale, spoke in a high voice that sounded rough from disuse, and wore a wool coat despite the climbing temperatures.

I felt like a character in one of Poe's stories, except now I was seeing a Double of the author as I imagined him. In The Black Cat, the narrator has an episode of this kind of feeling, too, when he decides to keep a cat similar to the one he destroyed. As the story progresses, it sounds more and more like a confession to the police. The narrator's vehement denial of his madness at the beginning of the story solidifies his unstable mind. The narrator is strung out on madness; in fact, he in addition to using his pets as punching bags, he's also a wife-beater. He's redolent with rage and paranoia as he notices the image of gallows on the back of his new cat. The narrator says, "Yet, mad I am not" and it's laughable.

Boris Karloff in The Black Cat (Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)

The narrator suffers from many aspects of the Uncanny. His new feline, oddly reminiscent and considered an instance of the Double of his former feline, Pluto, follows him around like a nightmare. The narrator's hatred grows and as the cat follows him relentlessly as if to remind him of his crime against the previous cat, and ultimately, his impending death on the gallows. What happens at the end is Uncanny because it borders on the comic and terrifying. To prove what a solid structure he's built to hide his wife's body, he knocks on it with a cane and unearths the thing he was trying to conceal. I didn't hold back my laughter there, but it was immediately squelched by the Hell of his unconscious he surfaces.