October without end (spooky stuff rec-and-share thread)

It is a miserable rainy Halloween and I've been catching up on the Tor Lovecraft reread. Despite the title, it doesn't only cover Lovecraft, and they give links to a lot of the stories, so lots of reading material. And then a couple of Deep One apologists blogging about it.

 

...huh? Like, Cthulu apologists? How does one apologists a deep one?

 

Quite easily, actually! The Deep Ones aren't Cthulhu, they're a race of fish-people in The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It's one of Lovecraft's more well-known works and works pretty well as a face-value horror story, but it's, uh, awkwardly obvious that the author's batshit crazy frothing racism plays something of a role in what he chose to find horror in. But what the bloggers also pointed out was

Spoiler

that every single bad thing attributed to Deep Ones in the text comes from the town drunk who hates them. The worst thing they actually do on-camera is look funny and try to open a locked hotel room door.

 

Ruthanna Emrys' Winter Tide and Deep Roots (which deals with the Deep Ones) is so fucking good. Her deconstructed Lovecraft is pretty good.

 

She mentions in that blog post that she regularly gets people complimenting her on how clever and subversive it was to make her books based around the idea that the US Government would put the residents of Innsmouth in concentration camps, at which point she has to explain that it is literally stated in those words in the opening paragraphs of the original story.

 

????

I know? Or at least I know because I read that blog post? Though not so much from the story because it's been years since I've read the story?

I meant how the characters in the books are written? And how they interact with each other while feeling very apart from society because that's how they're treated because racism and other isms? And how accurately she writes the time period and it's attitudes in the novels?

 

Er. Sorry, I'm not entirely sure who I intended that comment to be addressed at. >_>

 

Well you quoted me? And I feel kind of confused? Because I feel like I'm being told my reading comprehension is poor and/or that I'm one of the people who felt the concentration camps were "subversive" despite not remembering that the opening pretty much alludes to concentration camps. (which might be fair as accusations go, since I mostly remember the voice character going batshit because he finds out he's related to the Deep Ones, not the rounding up of citizens of a small town because xenophobia being played as right and good because Lovecraft was just like that.)

So I felt the need to clarify what exactly was drawing me to Winter Tide and Deep Roots. (The way the writer handles historical prejudice and character interactions as influenced by same.)

 

In other news I am sad because I only got one tricker treater but had no candy for her because I usually get NO tricker treaters. :( (She had cute little cat ears and make up whiskers. v. cute.)

 

love the way you think my dude

here is a halloween-adjacent tmbg song from a while back as a tribute



edit: for context, marty beller is their drummer. (he is not, however, actually whitney houston.)

 

Behold, one of my very very favorite mini series:


The trailer for some reason doesn't feature Greg (little brother) very much, even though he's just as much of a main character as Wirt. But it's surreal and wonderful and has a great Americana Gothic feel to it.

 

I love this Halloween parody of the boys are back:

 

a friend of mine and i like to share that one at each other, because it has some incredible ear worm power

(we also share BUSTIN at each other, because of spooky ghost beds)

 

On a related note.