Of Friends Not There

I was watching a video series of ghost stories told partly by a narrator and partly by witness interviews. One of those fine shows complete with creepy recreations and lots of mood inducing music. I think I had known about a couple of the cases. As often happens some of the cases involve families with children. In some of these tales, before the phenomena becomes too frightening and out of hand one parent, or both, will hear one of their young children talking to their new imaginary friend. Imaginary friends are a somewhat common experience in the grand scheme of parenting. At least we are led to believe this is true. I cannot say for certain if it is a reality. All children anthropomorphise their toys. They pretend that they have all sorts of adventures with those physical if inanimate friends. What then of those children that go the step further to a completely unreal playmate?

I never had an imaginary friend of the non-corporeal type. I wouldn't want to say it was due to any lack of imagination. Real was real and imaginary was imaginary, but still better with something you could hang onto. Not to mention a friend that would not steer you into doing wrong and getting in trouble, because with that foreknowledge that pretend was only pretend you knew you were responsible for what if anything you imagined any particular toy saying. Now, you know this isn't a parenting blog, and not even really a nostalgia blog. The first line today also tells you where this is going. The child will have given their imaginary friend a name, and they tell bits of this friend's history to anyone who will listen. What comes as a surprise to the parents is that often the imaginary friend is significantly older than the child. This is the first warning bell.

The ghostly phenomena will become more and more apparent. The parents fear will get worse and worse. It takes a lot though to push a family out of it's home because it is a massive financial burden otherwise and it effectively always has been. That means people will put up with a lot because the other option is to live on the street or have two mortgages until you can offload the haunted house on some other unsuspecting person. Remember, don't get publicity for having a haunted home then turn around and try to sell the house without disclosing the haunting or the law will get you. Invariably, in researching the house's history it will be discovered that a former occupant that died in the house has the exact name and details as the child's imaginary friend. Cue very natural and expected freak out...

Mood: relaxed
Music: Slick Black Cadillac by Quiet Riot and When The Wild Wind Blows by Iron Maiden.

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Subtle, Real Subtle... Actually No

I just watched the movie "Paranormal Activity" for the first time on Monday. It is a slow burning film with subtle horror for the most part, as far as horror movie goes. It is very inline with movies like "What Lies Beneath" as much it is similar to "The Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield" in their strict documentary style with less than stable camera shots (though P.A. is much smoother with the camera) and lack of soundtrack or score unless such sounds are rooted in the scene. After watching the movie I was struck with the idea for this Hump Day Horror. This mostly applies to movies but it could also be to used for novels and creating scenarios for role-playing games. Subtle is good, but sometimes, or rather there reaches a point where, it's time to take off the gloves and go for the blatant. It can be a fine balancing act to decide when and where to do either.

Looking through the discussions for a movie like Paranormal Activity at the different sites illustrates the vast differences between people expectation of what is scary. There is a disappointment with the scare levels, with, in essence, the film's reality as it pertains to how paranormal happenings occur. There is also the old incorrect stand-by that one person's preference overrides everyone else's. This is all a part of that balance in its own subtle ways, but isn't exactly my point. I was watching the movie and thinking how I like subtle, but I like it to pay off too. While I enjoy these slow little movies as I call them I like the in your face horrors more. That does not preclude subtle. This is especially true if the subtle parts stick with you and provides ongoing horror after the movie or book or game session is over.

The point is that subtle is fine, subtle is great. It's a needed part of good layering. It can bind action to themes. It can be a by-product of deep thinking peeking through, things only hinted at, hiding in the fringes of a subject matter. That is the way much of the world works and that approximation in fiction adds realism, grounds the fantastical, and as previously stated provides something to mull over, debate about and savour after the fact. The benefit of subtlety and layering is the strength it adds to a work upon repeat reading or viewing. It also widens the audience. Everyone gets something out of it. It's like the grown up or horror equivalent to animated comedies with obvious jokes for the children and the savvier, mature or more intellectual humour--or requiring foreknowledge such as with in-jokes--for the parents watching the feature with them.

Mood: bifurcated.
Music: Dragula by Rob Zombie and La Mer by Nine Inch Nails.

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Looking Back at 2009

It's February, but since this is the first entry of the year to this blog I would like to say, Happy New Year. I thought this year that I would begin all of my blogs with two particular articles. The first is a look back at 2009 and the highlights of the year. The second is a look forward at some of the things that I want to talk about in 2010. One of the perennial series of entries in these dark corners is the annual 13 Nights of Hallowe'en. In 2009 all of the movies were my favourites. Most recently I wrote a couple of role-playing game themed articles that are useful for creating characters for any media. Still in the RPG vein there were articles about game changing alterations to settings, such as travel times and instant communication, which can have massive impact on a number of fronts even outside of gaming.

At one point in the year there was a bit of a lengthy look at changing perspectives, and perspectives versus reality on several levels. That got into the realities that we surround ourselves in and they way that it affects, well, everything. Those perspective shifts work their way beyond our view of the world and they effect our interactions with everyone--a handy understanding for writing. Another topic that surfaced with a need to be covered by more than one entry was a look at where publishing is going and where the writer can take their work as new paradigms emerge. There I likened one of the possible experiences, with only text being a requirement, to extras and deleted scenes on a DVD. That plays into my favourite topic of taint, which comes up now and again and will continue to do so.

It’s hard to forget as well that at the beginning of 2009 there were the last couple parts of Anatomy of a Horror Setting #3 about mixing the horror and sci-fi genres. That of course was followed by all of Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4, which looked at combining horror and fantasy moving from the typical medieval European fantasy settings up to Industrial Era settings. The rest of the series of course was a part of 2008. The whole set of them are still on my list to be lengthened, re-edited, and turned into a book. It was both easy and hard to devote so many weeks to a small set of topics and examine all of the angles. It was easy in that I knew one week to the next what I writing about and hard to come up with some of those angles and try to keep some kind of order in the progression.

Mood: progressive.

Music: Music: This Day We Fight! by Megadeth and Hitchin' A Ride by Green Day.

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Conceptions, Intuition, and Truthiness

The other day the following interesting article came to my attention. It was titled "Would You Wear a Serial Killer's Sweater?" It also asked, and I asked again on Twitter, "Would you fear the volunteer who did put on the sweater?" All sorts of factors surrounding social interactions, concepts of what is real and what isn't, intuition about what's real, among others, come into play in this discussion. This is a different tack toward the same kind of idea being explored here lately. All of them come together to build connections between the characters in a story, the plot, and both the expectations and impact upon the audience of the work. Many narratives carry one singular reality, whether or not it is an exact replication of the real world or something very fantastical and different.

How does the sweater play into this? First it does not matter that it is not actually a serial killer's sweater. The insinuation or claim that it is such is enough on its own. Likewise it does not matter that the item is laundered. It still carries the connotations as if it were still stained with the blood of the killer's victims. The idea makes people nervous and uncomfortable. Its proximity causes anger in some even before the outrageous request for someone to don it. It is a tainted item. Worse, that taint may rub off. Conceptually it is an artefact of evil. Fascination with it, shown by taking the offer to wear it, points to the evil nature of that volunteer. It is something that should be reviled and likely feared. Those not espousing such emotions are questionable. Or so the theory goes.

It is a gut instinct, an emotional response that the sweater is bad. This is the same intuitive sense people have upon learning of a person's criminal record. It is of course worse if the intuiting person is familiar with the exact crime, and hard to look past if it was violent. This all begs the question, which is more important, actual fact, or just perception of the truth of something? That word truthiness, trite as its origins are, and frightening as the concept is, seems to sum up the answer to that question as today's society would answer it. Perception is everything in a large segment of the population. This is something that can and should be capitalised on in fiction. It comes up on this blog more than once for a reason. It is depth well used for characterisation, direct plot, and secondary conflict.

Mood: airy.

Music: The Unforgiven III by Metallica and Inconclusion by Dee Snider.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-7: Out of the Woodwork

The grand exploration of the world that took place in the Victorian age opened the doors to different stages upon which familiar characters held sway cementing the validity of their imagined reality even as it forced alterations. Wherever the British went they found tales of what could only be faeries and other familiar beings and creatures of legend. There were some differences and occasionally new and strange additions to add to the lore of the day. As with at home there were good faeries and evil faeries though dealing with either was something to be avoided if possible. Of course there were exceptions such as the Brownies, which were reminiscent of the Domovoi or house spirits of Russian lore, at least in terms of helpfulness around the house and farm.

It can be hard to differentiate the origins of the beliefs in the fae even between the English, the Scottish, and the Irish so an amalgamation of the mythologies is the way to go. The division between the Seelie--good faeries--and the Unseelie, nasty faeries--courts is a common one. Court in this case indicates groupings or members of the royal fae court more than a place of judgment though the Seelie certain had those and used them to enforce their will upon humans who interfered with their affairs. The fae also fall into several categories or species each with a particular name, or some overlapping names depending on which culture was describing them. Many of them were of human size and stature while others were diminutive, unlike in fantasy where most are small.

Changelings in particular were normal human size, which helped them in stealing a human infant and replacing it with their own baby for the humans to raise, similar to cuckoos laying their eggs in other bird’s nests. As strange as their customs, and in spite of their innate magical qualities, the fae are seen as native to the world, a natural part of it, and in tune with it. This adds to the mystique of the world, the idea that the strange and fantastical is the norm. When dealing with faeries for the setting use less focus on the mischievous members of the Seelie court and more on the malicious and violent types of the Unseelie court. The Unseelie are more frightening figures any way. They are solitary, greedy selfish, and enjoy terrifying their victims even before the real torment beings.

Mood: relaxed.
Music: My Fairy King by Queen and The Power and the Glory by Twisted Sister.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #2-13: Things From Beyond

Previously there has been some discussion of Summoning with a tiny bit about creatures not native to the regular, normal world, or to reality even on occasion. Not all of them only come when summoned by the men and women of magic mastery. A small few are summoned by the uninitiated or neophyte to the ways of the greater possibilities of the full spectrum of reality. Some of these beings find their own way into the mundane world. They can do so under more than one method. They can use magic spells. They can also have innate magical abilities to pass through the veils from one existence to another. Other beings already in the normal world may summon more of their brethren or minions or contemporaries of another species.

A spell caster might use some kind of portal to deliver the desired being or beings to be summoned to him or her, rather than simply force individuals to appear within a summoning circle. Doing this, other unwanted visitors may come calling. Such portals can be magnets for non-corporeal entities on either side of the portal. Malevolent forces can hitch a ride on or within a desired being. Unattended portals let anything through. They might be unattended because a cranky visitor has killed the magic practitioner, or the portal was incorrectly closed, or the spot where the portal appeared has become a weak spot in the fabric of the universe and there will be periodic bleed through from other places. It is through such weak spots that other beings may make their own arrivals.

A weak spot might not be the only precipitator to an otherworldly being crossing the veil of space and time. Many creatures that find themselves suddenly in a strange reality--or come one purpose--are drawn irresistibly by the results of normal if extreme human interactions. Scenes of great violence are one such example. Another is great tragedy and more importantly the intense sorrow that accompanies it. Additionally any of the traditional seven sins in great concentration may be sufficient incentive or catalyst for the appearance of an unnatural being. Some of these creatures may even be born, at least in physical form, as a result of these emanations colliding with other specific conditions such as weak spots, celestial alignments, and such.

Mood: edgy.
Music: Abduction by Bruce Dickinson and Keeper of the Seven Keys by Helloween.

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