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

Discussion in 'Fan Town' started by jacktrash, Oct 18, 2019.

  1. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    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.
     
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  2. Codeless

    Codeless Cheshire Cat

    ...huh? Like, Cthulu apologists? How does one apologists a deep one?
     
    • Agree x 1
  3. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    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
    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.
     
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  4. OtherCat

    OtherCat a being of mysterious happenstance

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

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    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.
     
  6. OtherCat

    OtherCat a being of mysterious happenstance

    ????

    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?
     
  7. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

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

    OtherCat a being of mysterious happenstance

    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.)
     
  9. OtherCat

    OtherCat a being of mysterious happenstance

    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.)
     
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  10. jacktrash

    jacktrash spherical sockbox

    i hope this doesn't come across as rubbing it in re: your dearth of cute kidlets, but... i had SUCH a good run of trick-or-treaters. plenty enough to enjoy their adorableness and happy voices, not so many i ran out of candy.

    we realized that since we're in a small town, and thus generally don't get more than a couple dozen kids each year, we can afford to give out full size candy bars. so we got a handful of those 6- and 8-packs of full size candy, as well as a couple fun size bags of snickers and butterfinger because idk someone didn't get the memo re full size candy or something.

    so i was telling the kids "take one big one or two little ones," and watching their eyes get huge when they saw FULL SIZE REESES CUPS OMG even though a full size reeses is just two cups, and the fun size are one cup, and i always tell them to take two when i've got the fun size... but the psychological value is apparently significant. the older kids, about ten or eleven, were a bit more savvy, and went for the hersheys with almonds almost exclusively. we ran out of those. which saddened me slightly because those are my favorite, but hey, the candy's for the kids.

    meanwhile, we had my bro gui over, and my son and his boyfriend, and we played quiplash and ate the less popular candy. for once seebs didn't win every round. :D gui works at dominos, so he brought over some leftover pizza -- apparently workers get to take home the mistake orders at the end of the evening, and they were training in some new cooks, so there was plenty to go around.

    rather than carving jack-o-lanterns, i simply put some big pumpkins out as-is for decorations on the steps, surrounded by colorful leaves. then yesterday gui came over again, and he and barb and i cut up and gutted those pumpkins, and steamed the chunks in the rice cooker. well... some of the chunks. less than a tenth of the chunks. i've got a 15 gallon wash tub half full of pumpkin chunks in the porch entry, where it is hopefully cold enough that none of them will go bad before we can steam them. it's a lot of pumpkin y'all! we're freezing it in gallon ziplocs and i'll have homemade pumpkin puree for soup and pie and all sorts, all winter long!

    and now... i saved some seeds from a sweet little pie pumpkin and i'm going to try planting them in a large planter in my greenhouse. the pumpkin time will never end! mwahaha!
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2019
    • Winner x 7
  11. jacktrash

    jacktrash spherical sockbox

    i decided i love spooky stuff too much to let this thread end just because it's november now, so i renamed it, moved it to fan town, and propose we just keep sharing our spooky faves FOREVER.
     
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  12. Deresto

    Deresto Foolish Mortal

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Acey

    Acey hand extended, waiting for a shake

    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.)
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2019
    • Like x 1
  14. jacktrash

    jacktrash spherical sockbox

    whew, good thing you clarified that! :D
     
    • Agree x 1
  15. jacktrash

    jacktrash spherical sockbox

    https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-...li_source=LI&li_medium=desktop-top-collection

    listen to the wind whistling through the pines and read this selection of spooky true park ranger and camping stories from reddit. due to the 'rangers and experienced campers' criterion, there's far less of those annoyingly non-spooky tales of some city kid being freaked out by a fox's cry or a mountain lion's scream, or concluding that the remains of a normal predator's meal are proof of a serial killer. i got legit chills from some of these, and that's hard to do!
     
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  16. Kittenly

    Kittenly Just Squish That Cat!

    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.
     
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  17. jacktrash

    jacktrash spherical sockbox

    https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/li...99714/sacred-riana-americas-got-talent-recap/

    maybe i've just been reading too much harry dresden fic, but... is anyone else finding it disturbingly delightful that the episode sacred riana was on was plagued with technical difficulties?

    if you don't know sacred riana, btw, she's this adorably creepy magician with a 'ringu' vibe who does illusions with voodoo dolls, haunted dollhouses, and zombies. so talented, so goffic.

     
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  18. Deresto

    Deresto Foolish Mortal

    I love this Halloween parody of the boys are back:

     
    • Agree x 2
  19. swirlingflight

    swirlingflight inane analysis and story spinning is my passion

    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)
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2019
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  20. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    • Winner x 2
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