a word after a word after a word is power

[lunabee34]

1. Campus closed at noon today and is closed tomorrow because of the storm. I'm crossing my fingers that we don't lose power and looking forward to a long weekend.

2. Josh's endoscopy is scheduled for 6:30 Friday at a facility an hour away, and we really should be there a little before the appt. time. OMG, we will be getting up so early.

3. My Yuletide letter got linked to meme and received almost no attention except for one person who pointed out with dismay that one of my prompts for Haunting of Hill House is straight up Scooby Doo. I had not been thinking about that prompt in those terms, but it totally is Scooby Doo. Luke is haunting up the place because he is interested in inheriting after all. Dr. Montague *really* wants tenure and can only get it if his paranormal theories gain credence. Mrs. Montague will show her husband a ghost if she has to manufacture one herself, by gum. Yep. Totally Scooby Doo. I will own it. LOL

4. Uhura's Song and We Have Always Lived in the Castle have arrived. Whooooooooo! Man, I love Janet Kagan.

Comments

[cathexys]

hugs! just sent you a shout out, bc every time I look at the radar I'm thinking of you!!!

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

Thank you. I think we're going to be okay, but you never know.

[chelseagirl]

Your Yuletide letter got linked to meme? I have no idea what that means. People might look at my letter and make fun of it?

[lunabee34]

Somebody linked to it on a thread on FFA for Yuletide letters. To be fair, nobody made fun of it, and at least one person liked it (the one who linked it). LOL

But, yes, some people's letters do get made fun of (but I've only ever seen ones that were really strange or off-putting get dogpiled on).

[independence1776]

I hope Josh's endoscopy goes well!

[lunabee34]

Thank you!

<3

[kore]

Yeah, for some reason medical procedures require the procedure-ee to get up at the crack of whatever, like doctors are all fucking robins, I don't even know.

I had not been thinking about that prompt in those terms, but it totally is Scooby Doo. Luke is haunting up the place because he is interested in inheriting after all. Dr. Montague *really* wants tenure and can only get it if his paranormal theories gain credence. Mrs. Montague will show her husband a ghost if she has to manufacture one herself, by gum. Yep. Totally Scooby Doo. I will own it. LOL

THAT IS AWESOME. Didn't Jackson say in her lecture on the book that when she read one of the original sources, she found it wasn't so much about people who saw ghosts as much as they desperately wanted to see ghosts?

Mrs Montague thunderclapping onto the scene and completely being unaware of the goings-on (except for the writing, YEEK) is so great. I can just imagine her and Mrs Dudley in cahoots somehow.

Also, not to put on my English Major stompyboots which don't even fit anymore, but Hill House is also so obviously partly based on Turn of the Screw, with its wildly romantic isolated lovesick alienated completely unreliable narrator. I think a big part of Jackson's aesthetics isn't so much "is it true there are ghosts OR Eleanor is mad," she's balancing right there on the edge with MAYBE AND. Her work is so grounded in reality but it's also about such surreal things.

[lunabee34]

Oh, yeah. 100% unreliable narrator. For me half the horror is never getting a clear understanding of what is happening (and if anything is even happening at all); it's the same kind of horror we get from Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper.

I love the idea of Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Montague in cahoots with each other; there's that scene where Eleanor (and maybe Theo, too; not sure) overhears Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Montague having a normal people conversation in which the words "no one will hear you scream" is not uttered even once LOL and I love the idea of them being old childhood friends or whatever.

[kore]

For me half the horror is never getting a clear understanding of what is happening (and if anything is even happening at all); it's the same kind of horror we get from Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper.

Yes! Jackson is all about the slithery liminal, that place where you look up and go Oh God what the hell is going on and do I even want to know. Gaslighting would fit right into that!

I love the idea of Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Montague in cahoots with each other; there's that scene where Eleanor (and maybe Theo, too; not sure) overhears Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Montague having a normal people conversation

Aren't they going on about how nice it is that Luke and Theo are such nice young people and so suited for each other? LOL. It's like suddenly we're in a different book altogether. Mrs Dudley is usually just passed off as a figure of fun, but who cooks is always important in Jackson, especially if they're good at it. And of course the D links her to the infamous Mrs Danvers in Rebecca.

-- Did you ever read Stephen King's writing about Hill House in Danse Macabre? That was wayy back before she got any serious academic attention at all. He was pretty good.

[lunabee34]

Gaslighting would fit right into that!

That's what I thought! Especially since so much of Eleanor's problems seem to come from internalizing the nasty things her mom/sister had to say to about her.

They are indeed talking about Luke and Theo as a nice couple; it's a completely mundane conversation.

I did read Danse Macabre as part of my research for the paper I wrote; I think he's pretty insightful when he writes about horror and what makes it tick and why it appeals to us.

[kore]

Ooh, imagine if her sister had something to do with it too, what with the details about rocks falling and pounding on the wall and so on. Hah.

I think Mrs Dudley actually says "young master of the house" or whatever! It's HILARIOUS.

Yeah, from what I heard, that was basically his syllabus while he was teaching his brand of EngLit, and it was pretty well done, altho he alienated some friends of mine forever by dumping on grad school and Ph.D.s in it. I was like "Just ignore that, the rest of it's really good!"

[lunabee34]

I didn't read the whole thing this go-round, just the 30ish pages that were about Haunting of Hill House. At some point, I'll get around to reading the whole thing (I don't think I've ever read all of it before).

[kore]

I remember that was one of the first times I had ever seen anybody take Jackson seriously, like looking at her symbols and plots and themes seriously. (I wonder if that Castle adaptation is going to be any good....)

[zulu]

Best of luck through the storm (and the early rising!).

[lunabee34]

Both have been successfully accomplished.

[rahirah]

Hope the storm passes you by safely!

[lunabee34]

Thank you! We have been so lucky. We've got power back though it's still out in a lot of the town, and no property damage.

[timespirt]

"HUGS"

Stay safe hon and good vibes for your hubby and his procedure.

[lunabee34]

THanks on both counts, sweetie!

*hugs*

[archersangel]

about #2; hope things go well.

my dad had to get up early for a certain procedure & they wanted him there at 5:30. yes a.m. but then after they got him checked in, changed int the gown & stuff he had to sit around and wait until like 8:00 or 8:30. it was such BS!

icon is about how angry i was that last situation.

[lunabee34]

It went great! Now just waiting for results; maybe at the follow up in a few weeks, we'll have something more to know.

Sorry that happened to your dad; that really sucks.

[spikedluv]

Good luck getting through the storm safely, and with Josh' endoscopy. *hugs*

[lunabee34]

Successful on both counts!

*hugs*

[spikedluv]

Yay!

[monanotlisa]

What does "linked to meme" mean?

Shit, I really need to sign up for Yuletide. And drum up support for PoE...

[lunabee34]

Meme is Fail Fandom Anon (FFA).

Sign up, sign up!

It's my fave time of year.

Hope the job stuff is going well!

[lyr]

Good luck with the storm, and also Josh's endoscopy.

Also, Uhura's Song shout out! I love that book. When I think about positive examples of authorial inserts, I think of that one first.

[lunabee34]

Both completed successfully!

I love Janet Kagan so hard. She is such a good writer. And, I mean, you're right. Evan Wilson is such a Mary Sue, but she is the best Mary Sue ever and I love her so hard. Such a great character.

Such awesome worldbuilding. She just excels at that.

[ariadne83]

Ooh have you seen the Netflix series of The Haunting of Hill House? I enjoyed it a lot (even if it feels more like Amityville than Hill House).

[lunabee34]

No! It looks like it bears no relationship to the book. I think it would actually scare me as opposed to being creepy like the book.

I'm willing to be convinced though. Sell me on it, my friend!!

[ariadne83]

Not going to lie, some of it scared me and I had to pause to take a break. But they telegraph it with music pretty well so you can brace yourself for the jump scares.

Honestly though, for the most part it's a mystery/psychological examination of the effects and aftermath of a haunting. It's about how your personality shapes your experience, and how even if you all went through the same thing the way you react to it is going to be vastly different. And how stress and trauma cause some people to be more empathetic and open, and some people to shut down to cope.

It's sad and riveting and I liked all of the characters in very different ways. It rang true to me, as someone from an objectively fucked up background with a bunch of siblings who all had extremely different reactions to it.

[lunabee34]

Awww, damn you! You're making it sound really interesting! LOL

I do like the idea of it being about an aftermath rather than a beginning of a haunting. That's a cool idea.

How are you doing?