I saw an interview today with Dr. Lamont Hill, professor at Columbia University, who was providing commentary as a progressive on the current in-fighting and blame casting going on within the Democratic Party as a result of the Martha Coakley defeat in Massachusetts which Hill did not seem surprised by. My mind immediately went to the scene depicted in the film clip above for Young Frankenstein, only with a twist. Coakley’s body lies on the table having just been infused with the electricity of President Obama and the Democratic Party which stands above her embodied by Dr. Frankenstein and his assistants. The stethoscope listens for signs of life but none are present. The experiment has failed. The filibuster-proof super majority is gone. But rather than expressing disappointment, the Democratic Party calmly says that “If politics teaches us anything we must accept our failures as well as our successes with quiet dignity and grace.” But after only a few moments of composure the Democratic Party turns around to vent its anger and frustration upon the lifeless candidate. Whatever your politics, it’s certainly an interesting time to live in, and the fantastic can help us think about current events in interesting ways. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh.
Regular readers of TheoFantastique may recall previous mention of a phenomenon called sleep paralysis in connection with posts on Diary of a Madman, and The Fourth Kind. Given the significance of this phenomenon in the lives of many individuals, and its influence in various aspects of pop culture, I will explore this topic in the first of several posts that delve into differing interpretations and explorations of it.
The groundbreaking and initial scholarly research into this phenomenon was conducted by Dr. David Hufford, Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Hufford began his research in Newfoundland through interviews with individuals who claimed experiences with an entity they called “the Old Hag.” As Hufford’s research continued he connected the dots to similar experiences in other countries and cultures. It is now common to see references to the Old Hag and sleep paralysis as expressions of the same phenomenon. Hufford compiled his research into the book The Terror That Comes at Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982). His research on this topic has continued and a more recent and updated form of his thoughts on the subject can be found in an article titled “Sleep Paralysis as Spiritual Experience” in the journal Transcultural Psychology Vol. 42, No. 1 (March 2005): 11-45.
For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, Hufford describes the Old Hag/sleep paralysis as including the following features: “(i) awakening, (ii) hearing and/or seeing something come into the room and approach the bed; (iii) being pressed on the chest or strangled; and (iv) being unable to move or cry out.” Consider a few of the stories of those who have lived through these frightening experiences. The first comes from William James as relayed in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience in Lecture III, “The Reality of the Unseen,” as he describes the experience of a friend of his:
It was about September of 1884 …. Suddenly I felt something come into the room and stay close to my bed. It remained only a minute or two. I did not recognize it by any ordinary sense, and yet there was a horrible ‘sensation’ connected with it. It stirred something more at the roots of my being than any ordinary perception. The feeling had something of the quality of a very large tearing vital pain spreading chiefly over the chest, but within the organism — and yet the feeling was not pain so much as abhorrence. At all events, something was present with me, and I knew its presence far more surely than I had ever known the presence of any fleshly living creature. I was conscious of its departure as of its coming; an almost instantaneously swift going through the door, and the ‘horrible sensation’ disappeared.
A more recent experience comes through one of the many interviews Hufford has conducted into this phenomenon, in this case with a Pennsylvania medical student:
What woke me up was the door slamming. ‘OK,’ I thought, ‘It’s my roommate….’ I was laying on my back just kinda looking up. And the door slammed, and I kinda opened my eyes. I was awake. Everything was light in the room. My roommate wasn’t there and the door was still closed….
But the next thing I knew, I realized that I couldn’t move…. But the next thing I knew, from one fo the areas of the room this grayish, brownish murky presence was there. And it kind of swept down over the bed and I was terrified….And I couldn’t move and I was helpless and I was really — I was really scared …. And this murky presence — just kind of — this was evil! This was evil! You know this is weird! You must think I’m a — … This thing was there! I felt a pressure on me and it was like enveloping me. It was a very, very, very strange thing.
While such experiences may be difficult to fathom for those who have never gone through them themselves, I struggled with this in my childhood years as a part of various sleep disorders, as did my brother. Thankfully insomnia is the worst that I suffer from at present. Hufford’s research, and the research of others into this phenomenon, indicates that sleep paralysis is experienced by a significant percentage of the population. Hufford also reminds us that “[u]ntil the seventeenth century the primary referent of nightmare actually was what we call sleep paralysis, and it was consistently associated with supernatural assault.”
Although sleep paralysis is usually explained by researchers as a form of neurophysiological experience, there are a number of interpretations given to the phenomenon, both from those who experience and research it. These interpretations are found across a spectrum from naturalistic to the spiritual. These include physiological explanations, with the vast majority of those who experience the Old Hag opting for spiritual explanations, including Christians who view it as a form of demonic attack, to paranormal interpretations.
Sleep paralysis experiences have had a significant aspect on religion, spirituality, and popular culture. In the history of Christianity those who have experienced sleep paralysis have interpreted the phenomenon as a form of witchcraft (possibly a factor in the Salem witchcraft trials) or demonic activity, and those who understand it as paranormal make connections to out-of-body experiences, alien abductions, and spirit contact. In the history of folklore the experience may have played a part in stories of the incubus and succubus. The experience has also impacted the realm of the fantastic. As I commented previously, Guy de Maupassant had experiences with the Old Hag that inspired his story Le Horla, which in turn was adapted into the horror film Diary of a Madman starring Vincent Price. In science fiction sleep paralysis experiences have impacted portrayals of alien abductions as evidenced most recently by The Fourth Kind. It would make for an interesting project to research the creators of horror and science fiction to learn the extent to which sleep paralysis may have served as an inspiration.
Those who struggle with sleep paralysis experiences often do not share them with others for fear of ridicule. This situation is made worse by a large percentage of therapists who are unaware of the phenomenon, and many who are choose naturalistic physiological, anthropological, and physiological interpretations to the frequent consternation of many who experience the Hag and who understand it as a core spiritual experience. Interestingly, Hufford believes that folk belief concerning such experiences and scientific knowledge can co-exist. He states that “there is nothing specific within our scientific knowledge of SP that contradicts spirit interpretations.”
Those who wrestle with sleep paralysis should know they are not alone. As a way of addressing concerns several resources are available. These include David Hutton’s book, finding an online group in order to share experiences, and finding a professional knowledgeable in sleep paralysis who can discuss ways to address the phenomenon.
It had to happen eventually given the increasing and continued popularity of the fantastic in popular culture, and advances in special effects and digital wizardry on screen. MSN Entertainment is reporting that Avatar has now surpassed Star Wars for all-time domestic box office receipts at $491.8 million, moving into the number three spot. This means that Avatar now edges closer to The Dark Knight at number two and Cameron’s Titanic at number one.
The Popular Culture and American Culture Associations recently circulated a call for papers on the themes of the films of James Cameron:
With Avatar Canadian-born filmmaker James Cameron now has the top two all-time money making films in history, yet little in the way of critical attention has been paid to his work. His movies are often “the most expensive ever made,” and continually set new standards for special effects and the “movie event.”
Having received preliminary encouragement from an academic press we seek proposals for chapters for an edited volume of critical essays on Cameron’s work. We do not seek essays on individual Cameron films, but rather essays on the major themes of his work.
Proposals are encouraged from all disciplines. Final essays will be in the range of 7,000-10,000 words.
Proposals could include, but are not limited to:
The military
The female hero/heroine
gender
Special effects and filmmaking techniques
Corporate culture
Political culture
Ethnicity and “race”
Humanism and the humanistic impulse
Cameron’s documentary films
Dystopian imagery
Re-writing history
Proposals should be sent, by 15 March 2010, to the editors, Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh at: cameronthemes@googlemail.com.
We encourage general queries and questions concerning proposals and possible topics.
Preliminary decisions will be made by 1 April 2010.
Proposals should include:
An abstract of 200-400 words
A brief C.V.
Essays are expected by the end of July, 2010, with revisions due by the end of November. Dates are subject to change should the project move forward.
A recent article at CNN Entertainment presents some disturbing viewer reactions to James Cameron’s Avatar. In a piece titled “Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues,” Jo Piazza reports that some audience members have become seriously depressed and even suicidal after watching the film when contrasting the real-world situation of Earth with the beauty of the science fiction/fantasy world of the moon Pandora where Avatar‘s story unfolds:
On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.
“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.”
In some ways this situation is not difficult to understand. Presenting utopian (as well as dystopian) worlds has long been a facet of science fiction. Beyond this, as I’ve mentioned previously in discussing the work of Roger Aden’s Popular Stories and Promised Lands: Fan Cultures and Symbolic Pilgrimages (The University of Alabama Press, 1999), interaction with the fantastic through literature, television and film provides individuals with an opportunity to transcend the habitus of our daily lives in order to immerse themselves in alternative worlds of possibility. These journeys may be understood as functioning as a symbolic pilgrimage, and in some circumstances literal pilgrimage of a quasi-religious or sacred nature, as has been argued about some fans in connection with their participation at Star Trek conventions.
But while some fan reactions to Avatar and Pandora might be understandable at the levels of utopian thinking and the escape from the habitus, it is also tragic in that some are so depressed about the actual rather than the virtual world that they consider suicide. Perhaps the best kind of utopian thinking about imaginative realms is that which we not only yearn for but are also willing to work toward in making it a reality rather than contemplating the end of life because the ideal has not been made concrete.
TheoFantastique: John and David, thanks for coming back to discuss your latest exploration of myth and science fiction. This is your second exploration of this topic. What did you want to do differently, or perhaps expand upon, with this second foray into science fiction myth?
John Perlich: With each volume we’ve been slowly moving toward more unusual or unorthodox texts (films, programs, artifacts, etc). Because this project is post-structural in nature, it is important to look for subjects of analysis that can be “under the radar” per se. Usually the conventional ends up getting lots of acceptance and attention—so we’ve taken some interest in either deconstructing popular texts to illustrate a potential fly-in-the-ointment or analyzing a hidden-gem to reveal the inner beauty.
David Witt: I don’t see this volume being radically different from the first, but it is a little more unique. When the chapter proposals started coming in there were the popular mythic texts like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the NBC TV show Heroes. However, I remember we were especially intrigued with texts like the videogame Second Life and the complexity of evil exhibited in the book and musical Wicked. So, the book just naturally gravitated toward including more unusual subjects.
TheoFantastique: Myth is studied at times in connection with ancient civilizations and religion, but you suggest there is something significant here in understanding the modern period. Can you say a few words about the significance of modern myth in your view, and why science fiction is an important expression of this?
David Whitt: In my chapter I quote French poet and novelist Raymond Queneau who said “One can easily classify all works of fiction as descendants of [Homer’s] The Iliad or The Odyssey.” If he is correct then all genres, including science fiction and fantasy, have drawn upon Homer epic mythic poem for inspiration. In this way mythology, and certainly not just Greek mythology, is timeless and continually influential. For example, last week I read Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning “The Road” and was struck by how this post-apocalyptic story is a variation on the hero’s journey. Since being immersed in comparative mythology the past several years as an editor and writer I’ve seen mythic tropes in everything from comedy to drama.
John Perlich: It has been argued by Joseph Campbell himself that there are no new myths but that assertion is often taken out of context. In fact, myths are retold and reinvented—leaving the possibility for new myths (or at the very least a myth/tale/archetype that does not resemble established tales, stories, legends, and lore). You’ll often find that science fiction is a powerful medium for telling new tales while simultaneously challenging existing structures and templates. We’ve hit on this issue in the previous volume from a variety of angles ranging from the cyborg themes (in David’s chapter) to “new” heroes (and heroines). Fantasy and science fiction allow for an expansion (if not a reconfiguration) of old boundaries.
TheoFantastique: I’d like to ask a few questions from a sampling of the chapters by contributors that were of most interest to me. Planet of the Apes is my favorite sci fi film franchise so I was naturally attracted to Richard Besel and Renee Smith Besel’s chapter “Polysemous Myth: Incongruity in the Planet of the Apes“. While I greatly appreciate the body of Tim Burton’s work, I was less than happy with his 2001 reimagining of The Planet of the Apes. The Apes myth did not work as well in the new cultural context of the early 21st century as it did in the late 20th. Besel and Besel suggest that one of the reasons for the decline in popular and critical success in contrast with the original film was its lack of interpretive depth. In what ways have viewers found hermeneutical depth in the original film, and how was this different with Burton’s version?
John Perlich: As you quite accurately pointed out, the milieu surrounding the original film accounted for a tremendous resonance between the audience and the themes in the movie—and Rich and Renee have done a great job articulating this premise. As I read Rich and Renee’s chapter I found myself saddened by the opportunity that was squandered when this film was remade. I don’t want to give away too much of their chapter so I can’t say more.
David Whitt: Burton had the unenviable task of trying to remake a classic film which was a reflection of its time, the socio-cultural tensions of the 1960s. I was certainly intrigued by the idea of remaking Planet of the Apes for the new millennium, but as you said, the themes of race and social conflict just didn’t resonate as well thirty plus years later.
TheoFantastique: Besel and Besel comment on the confusing ending of Burton’s Apes film. As a viewer who has watched it several times in an effort to figure it out, but has still come up empty, can you shed a little light on it? Is this a case of trying to live up to the now iconic ending of the original but which fell short?
David Whitt: I remember walking out of the theater and saying “That ending makes no sense within the context of the film!” Nobody has convinced me otherwise. Clearly, Burton was trying to go for the shock value of the original ending, but came up with one that left the audience scratching their heads.
John Perlich: I don’t have any additional insight on that ending, John—but I cannot confess to spending much time trying to figure it out. It does say something in my opinion that I wasn’t committed to making sense of the text. Other films, for example Memento, have brought me back repeatedly to solve the puzzle of an unusual ending. I was not equally compelled by Burton’s work.
TheoFantastique: John, your chapter addresses one of the great fantasy films of the last few years in “Rethinking the Monomyth: Pan’s Labyrinth and the Face of a New Hero(ine)”. Can you share a few examples of how Guillermo del Toro has challenged or redefined the hero of myth and fantasy through Ofelia/Princess Moanna as the heroine in a new form of monomyth?
John Perlich: I am so absolutely delighted that you share my admiration for that film! I hope my piece compels every reader to watch del Toro’s work. By his own admission, Campbell’s work in articulating the monomyth often leaves a place of mutedness with regard to the female protagonist. Although Campbell contends that women can also travel the path of the heroic journey, his articulation of that process is vague and not well-defended. This is clear when you read his famous interview with Bill Moyers. Not only is Ofelia a willful and disobedient heroine, her age should preclude her from this epic adventure in many ways. Ofelia, as a girl, confronts challenges that resemble stages in the monomyth—but these stages must be recast as a result of the makeup of del Toro’s protagonist. Again, it is a fantastic film and I encourage your readers to check out both the film and my analysis of this fine work.
David Whitt: John’s chapter is a brilliant and incredibly thorough analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth. I think he could have easily written another twenty pages without even thinking about it.
TheoFantastique: What are the implications of del Toro’s depiction of the heroine for girls and young women looking to contemporary myth as inspiration?
David Whitt: Aside from John’s concern about violence, I think young girls can draw inspiration from Ofelia. In the face of great danger and horror, in both the real world and the fantasy world, she exhibits remarkable bravery and intelligence. What’s not be inspired by?
John Perlich: My concern, as mentioned in the chapter, is that the violence of the film might preclude them from seeing this fine work and thus drawing from both Ofelia’s journey and character for inspiration.
TheoFantastique: Jay Scott Chipman discusses myth and posthumanism in “So Where Do I Go From Here?: Ghost in the Shell and Imagining Cyborg Mythology for the New Millennium”. Why does Japanese culture express a great volume of cyborg mythology through various media, particularly in manga and anime as in Ghost in the Shell?
John Perlich: I’d hate to be stereotypical in a prognosis but it seems to me that each culture might dwell on some archetypal themes as a result of cultural and historical forces. It is well documented that the aftermath of World War II and the birth of the atomic age has had a profound impact on the literature and art produced in Japan. I think the proliferation of cyborg mythology is an extension of this milieu.
David Whitt: I was fortunate to visit Tokyo last spring and witnessed firsthand Japan’s celebration of technology. Certainly John is correct with the claim that the nuclear age had a great impact on the cultural consciousness of the country. However, it’s more than that. Chipman explains how the Japanese have historically embraced technology for centuries, tracing narratives about artificiality back almost 500 years. So, you could argue that appreciating the technology and the merger between humanity and machine is part of Japanese culture.
TheoFantastique: With the continued exploration of cyborg themes in science fiction, in Surrogates, for example, do you see a continuing need for the exploration of this mythic thread in the genre? If so, how might the cyborg myth help us understand ourselves, our increasing interconnection with technology, and the possibility of the posthuman?
David Whitt: I have yet to see Terminator Salvation or James Cameron’s Avatar but their box office popularity seems to suggest a public intrigued with posthuman existence (or perhaps audiences just like to see things blown up). The merger between technology and humanity is unavoidable, but what we should be concerned about is how this impacts our individuality, and those qualities which make us human. Besides, I believe that everyone already is a cyborg (in one way or another), and welcome any text which continues to explore our inevitable cyborg development.
TheoFantastique: Thank you again for delving again into the area of myth and science fiction. I hope that both books are successful, and that perhaps there might indeed be a future volume to complete a trilogy.
One of the things I look forward to each New Year’s eve is the 48-hour Twilight Zone marathon on the Syfy Channel. With the close of 2009 and the shift into 2010 I spent several hours catching all the episodes I could and marveled again at how this series still holds up some fifty years later due to great television writing.
In a previous post I used an episode of The Twilight Zone as a metaphor in application to current events. I will do the same with this post as I consider the episode “The Midnight Sun.”
This episode was written by Rod Serling and it aired on November 17, 1961 as a part of the third season for the series. Serling’s opening narration, which can be seen in the video clip below, is as follows:
“The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, sodden air is ‘doomed,’ because the people you’ve just seen have been handed a death sentence. One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the sun. And all of man’s little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries — they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it’s high noon, the hottest day in history, and you’re about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.”
The story surrounds two women, Norma, and her neighbor, Mrs. Bronson, who are trying to cope with their last days on the dying planet. As the episode nears its conclusion the heat continues to mount, Mrs. Bronson dies as a result, and Norma collapses as the camera shows a thermometer bursting and one of Norma’s paintings with its colors running from the extreme temperature. But soon after her collapse Norma revives to find that the world of rampant heat was nothing more than a hallucination caused by a fever. Then comes the signature Serling twist-ending: the world is not dying a heat death but is in fact moving away from the sun, plunging it into increasing cold as it builds to a frozen fate.
I think this episode can be connected in some sense metaphorically to a significant current issue and debate. Although allegations of global warming, now called climate change, were once considered fringe years ago, now they are mainstream. Indeed, those who are skeptical of it, or acknowledge its existence and yet question whether its cause may be traced to human activity, are considered on the fringe as global warming has achieved popular consensus, at times approaching the status of scientific if not quasi-religious dogma. For many, global warming represents one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and the world is heating up much like it was for Brenda in “The Midnight Sun.”
Surely it must be acknowledged that the West has often not exercised the care for the environment that it should have. But even with far greater emphasis on caring for the environment perhaps there are reasons for pause in regards to global warming before making major economic decisions related to carbon emissions while in the midst of a global recession. The hypothesis has come under greater scrutiny and skepticism recently, and many parts of the world are experiencing extremely low temperatures and snow falls. Recall that in “The Midnight Sun” Brenda’s fear was that she was dying in an overheating world when in fact she was really dying in a freezing one. Have we come to the place where global warming has achieved the place of political and scientific dogma so that we won’t engage in rational discussion over the issue or tolerate differences of opinion concerning it? And is it possible that our global warming “fever” might prevent us from considering other interpretive possibilities for the climate data, and the cyclical nature of weather patterns that at times move not only toward warmer periods but also toward ice ages?
This post might raise the ire of some as questions are raised about a “hot topic” in society, but Serling’s entertaining vision from decades ago provides us with metaphorical food for thought related to this important issue. I conclude with Serling’s closing narration for this episode:
“The poles of fear, the extremes of how the Earth might conceivably be doomed. Minor exercise in the care and feeding of a nightmare, respectfully submitted by all the thermometer-watchers in the Twilight Zone.”
For those interested in exploring The Twilight Zone in more depth I recommend The Twilight Zone Companion, 2nd ed., by Marc Scott Zicree (Silman-James Press, 1989). See my previous interview with Zicree for further discussion of this classic program.
Like many people of my generation and older who love monsters, one of the magazines that nurtured this passion when I was a kid was Famous Monsters of Filmland started by the late Forrest J. Ackerman. The magazine had its ups and downs over the years, but it is back, not only in terms of offering website content, but also in a new print edition set for publishing in the summer of 2010. This is good news for fans of the magazine from the past, and a new generation of fans who will discover it in the present.
Philip Kim, Senior Manager for Famous Monsters, shared a few responses to some questions in a recent interview.
TheoFantastique: Phil, thanks for making some time for us to talk. To begin, can you share how you came to appreciate horror and science fiction, and the original Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine?
Philip Kim: Silicon Valley in the 70’s was the most incredible place on the planet. The amount of energy and technology that was developing was unreal. Science fiction became fact. I suppose I was a product of that environment. I grew up in San Jose watching Creature Features on Friday nights, Godzilla reruns on rainy Saturday mornings and playing D&D and building models. I spent a large amount of my preteen time and income at the comic-shops. Just couldn’t get enough. I don’t remember where it was but my first issue was in 1977, #137. I saw the Yearbook with all the Star Wars pics on the cover and had to have it. Much like Forry, I was a huge sci-fi fan. It was a valued part of my literary arsenal. Unfortunately, that issue was the beginning of the end for Warren Publishing.
TheoFantastique: For those who may not be familiar with some of the history, can you briefly sketch Forrest Ackerman’s founding of the magazine, the legal problems for the publication that followed, and how you eventually came to be involved with the project?
Philip Kim: Okay, so a brief synopsis. 1958, Warren and Ackerman give birth to a phenomena. FM becomes part of our culture until it shuts down in 1983. There was much speculation about the reasoning for the demise. Warren Publishing had lost out to newcomers such as Fangoria, Starlog, etc. Some say that the move away from a painted cover to a more conventional photo cover had been the start…consequently this happened to be my introductory issue. Go figure. In 1993, a fan named Ray Ferry revived FM with Ackerman back at the helm. Between the conventions and the print, things were going well until egos flared. Ferry stopped paying Ackerman and Ackerman walked. Ferry continued to print under pseudonyms of Ackerman, which ended in a victorious lawsuit for Ackerman. Unfortunately, the settlement would never be paid. Ferry filed bankruptcy and seven years later, I was awarded the ownership after a successful bid through the bankruptcy courts. But the fun didn’t end there.
TheoFantastique: What will your approach be for the new magazine? Will you attempt to blend the ways in which the original magazine dealt with its subject matter, coupled with new treatments of the topics to appeal to contemporary readers, or will you consider a different way forward?
Philip Kim: FM has birthed a lot of fans. These fans went on to do great things. All of them had an idea of how FM impacted their lives and career. This was the essence of the publication, to get aspiring creatives to reach their goal. To make fantasies and dreams a closer reality. FM wants to be a part of that again but our challenge is a new generation and an ever-changing landscape. Unlike a new publication, FM does not have the luxury of trial and error. Existing fans will expect a certain element of nostalgia; young readers will want current relevance. It’s not hard to weave the two together if you have the people and the talent.
TheoFantastique: Do you think the web format for the magazine presents new opportunities not possible for a more traditional print publication?
Philip Kim: I can tell you that the Internet has forever changed print. The days of deadlines and breaking news are over for print. The web is where you get the news, rantings and social connections. The web gives you a connection that print could never do. But print gives you the longtail. Print becomes historical reference. Print gives you legitimacy because it is tactile and rich. A website without a print companion can disappear faster than it came in.
TheoFantastique: Every horror and sci fi fan loves a good trailer of coming attractions. Do you have any projects you’re working on for viewers and readers that you’d like to share?
Philip Kim: I came to own FM during the production of two sci-fi features. The first is Radio Free Albemuth (a Philip K. Dick novel adaptation), which is still in post-production, and my second film which is Downstream. Downstream is an original story that I wrote. About three years ago, my hometown had lost power for 36 hours. The meat and milk went bad and we couldn’t get on the Internet. I had never been without power for that long. I realized that our civilization is always 36 hours away from the Dark Ages. Downstream is releasing in a limited number of theaters around the country.
TheoFantastique: Phil, thanks again for your time and for sharing your great work.
If we probe horror in cinema more deeply we find it touches on a number of aspects of the human experience. One of these is related to gender. An excellent book that looks at various facets of this topic is The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (University of Texas Press, 1996). (The book’s Table of Contents and Introduction can be previewed here.) The book is edited by Barry Keith Grant, Professor of Film Studies and Popular Culture at Brock University in Ontario, Canada. Grant discusses his chapter in the book, “Taking Back the Night of the Living Dead: George Romero, Feminism, and the Horror Film” in the following interview.
TheoFantastique: Barry, thank you for making time in connection with your New Year’s celebration to discuss your book. In The Dread of Difference, you note in the introduction that traditionally science fiction and horror films have focused on the question of difference, the other, usually understood in terms fears such as of communism or late capitalism. You suggest, and the contributors to the volume demonstrate through their chapters, that “issues of gender remain central to the genre.” How has feminist theory impacted film interpretation as a means of providing another interpretive layer to our understanding of horror and science fiction?
Barry Keith Grant: I think the explanation is simply a matter of criticism catching up with social change. Sociological, mythic, and vaguely psychoanalytic theory and concepts informed earlier analyses of horror films. These ideas were informed by unquestioned assumptions about “man” and consequently, gender wasn’t regarded as an important issue. It took certain developments in feminist theory and feminist film theory to get people thinking differently and to inspire a new interest in popular film generally and in horror specifically. Not coincidentally, these developments in academic theory were happening roughly simultaneously with the feminist new wave in science fiction.
In my view, it is impossible to underestimate the impact of feminist theory and feminist film theory for our understanding of cinema generally and for horror and science fiction especially. Laura Mulvey’s 1975 discussion of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in which she posited the idea of a gendered gaze and the patriarchal “look” of the camera in mainstream film, and Robin Wood’s late 1970s writings on ideology in the horror film, informed by Marxist and feminist theory, set the stage for much of the understanding and analysis of both science fiction and horror in the decades to follow.
Such criticism has given us an awareness of “the dread of difference” that seems to haunt horror and offers utopian alternatives in science fiction. In a way, the criticism about these genres by scholars such as Christopher Sharrett, Vivian Sobchack, Harry Benshoff, and Carol Clover is like the science fiction of, say, James Tiptree, Jr., Marge Piercy, or Joanna Russ — it makes us all more conscious of the way our assumptions about gender inform our relations with other people and with the world.
TheoFantastique: You suggest in your contribution to the book that George Romero, through the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead, has sought in some senses to overcome “his own monstrous offspring.” Can you touch briefly on what you mean by this?
Barry Keith Grant: I was referring to the less distinguished but nonetheless prevalent — even dominant — presence of horror and science fiction movies that are formulaic recyclings of ideas that were fresh and innovative, even political, in earlier films. Such fare is characteristic of all popular culture genres that are as popular as horror and science fiction, and are probably further evidence of “Sturgeon’s Law.” Cheap knock-offs can be found in art and entertainment just as in brand name fashion wear and electronics. In the case of movies, “cheap” doesn’t apply simply to budget, but also to imagination. So, in other words, I was arguing that in reconceptualizing Night of the Living Dead the way he did for the remake, Romero was trying to redress way too many horror films had reduced his social messages to mindless misogynist violence.
TheoFantastique: Romero’s zombie myth has been interpreted as offering a critique of consumerism and racism. You address issues of gender and sexual politics. Why do you think this aspect of Romero’s zombie myth has not been given the same treatment as other aspects of his storytelling?
Barry Keith Grant: The essay was first published in 1992 in a special genre issue of Wide Angle, once an important academic journal in film studies. Of course, I had written it a year, perhaps two, earlier, as the essay then had to go through the standard and time-consuming peer review process of academic journals, then accepted and placed in the queue before it actually appeared in print. At this time, there were few critics taking George Romero seriously — Robin Wood, Christopher Sharrett, Tony Williams, a few others. The reason for this, clearly, was the lowbrow status with which horror was regarded, for anyone who cared to look seriously at Romero’s films would see an intelligence, an auteur, working within the genre with some serious ideas. It was a puzzle to me why more film scholars weren’t paying more attention to Romero, and to the genre more generally.
Today, almost twenty years later, the situation is rather different, and I don’t think I would make this claim. Indeed, critical commentary on horror, both in traditional print form in journals and books, and in newer digital forms of websites and blogs, such as your own, issues of gender are now common topics in discussions of horror and science fiction, as they are in discussions of other popular genres such as action movies.
TheoFantastique: In your chapter you make an interesting connection between the work of Howard Hawks and its influence on Romero. How do you see this as playing out in 1990’s Night?
Barry Keith Grant: Well, I think to summarize this argument is essentially to summarize the essay, and of course I would prefer that your readers read the essay itself. But in a nutshell, as I tried to argue in the essay is that Romero conceives of the threat of the undead in his zombie films as a situation that calls for violent and unsentimental resistance in order to survive. This is analogous to the frequent situation in Hawks’s action films wherein a mostly male group must employ their own code of professionalism, dictated by the situation rather than some institutional system, to get their job done and reach their goal. (Unlike Hawks, though, Romero’s films follow through on the revolutionary potential of this idea.)
The remake’s major change is in the reconceptualizing of Barbara. Rather than a completely helpless women who must be cared for throughout the siege of the farmhouse by the zombies, as in the original film, the makeover Barbara of the second version transforms from an archetypally meek female into a self-sufficient fighter able to meet the threat of the attacking undead. In order to meet this challenge, and to survive, Barbara must learn to do what is necessary, without sentimentality. The film carefully contextualizes the zombie threat as a metaphor for the horrors of masculine violence and aggression, and her deliberate shooting of Harry this time around makes this point clear.
TheoFantastique: You reference R. H. W. Dillard who has stated that the original Night articulated “a fundamental nihilism and negation of human dignity.” To what extent do you see Romero’s successive zombie films overcoming this, if at all, and if not, how strong an influence might the original Night continue to be on the nihilism of contemporary postmodern horror?
Barry Keith Grant: Romero’s vision is a rather pessimistic view of contemporary society, particularly as it is informed by the values of patriarchy and capitalism. The follies of homo Americanus are amply demonstrated in Land of the Dead, where the political critique becomes most explicit. In the end, there is nothing for the protagonists to do but light out for the territory of Canada, like Romero himself.
Survival of the Dead offers some clever new ways to kill zombies, including sticking the hose of a fire extinguisher in their mouths and filling their heads with fire retardant until it oozes from their various facial orifices and their eyes pop out as in a Frank Tashlin cartoon. But such creative carnage is minimized in favor of excessively broad political satire about two warring clans on an island off the U.S. east coast. Focusing on a Hatfield-McCoy type feud between the two groups, Romero pours southern Gothic and western movie iconography into Delaware, which the last time I looked was a middle Atlantic state. Well, why not? We already have Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.
This composite portrait may be seen as an attempt to subvert the America represented in the westerns of John Ford, which Romero has said he wanted to acknowledge as an influence. Alternatively, perhaps Romero has been based outside of the U.S. so long (the film was shot in rural Ontario) that he may have lost all sense of the country’s geography. Ultimately, the satire is even thicker than the blood this time around, and it suggests that Romero’s view is no less bleak than before.
As for the influence of Romero’s zombie films on contemporary nihilism, I think while tit has certainly inspired and influenced so many others, and the direction of the genre generally in the 1980s toward splatter, at the same time it also expresses through a resonant horror mythology a nihilism that we have every good reason to be feeling in any case as we continue to ravage the planet and make war on each other. Olaf Stapeldon’s Last and First Men should be required reading of anyone holding political power!
TheoFantastique: Barry, thank you again for making some time to discuss your chapter. I hope this discussion gives readers new reasons to pick up a copy of the book.
2010 is here, and it begins with a month that includes three films that hold promise for fans of the fantastic.
The first is the vampire film Daybreakers. It tells the story of a a plague that spreads across the earth in 2019. This transforms “the majority of the world’s population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction.
It’s all up to Edward Dalton, a vampire researcher who refuses to feed on human blood to perfect a blood substitute that might sustain vampires and spare the few remaining humans. But time and hope are running out – until Ed meets Audrey, a human survivor who leads him to a startling medical breakthrough. Armed with knowledge that both humans and vampires will kill for, Ed must battle his own kind in a deadly struggle that will decide the fate of the human race.
The film includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill, and is directed by Peter Spierig and Michael Spierig.See the film’s official website for more information, and for the interesting related website Capture Humans. Daybreakers premiers in theaters January 8.
The second movie I am looking forward to is The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic story.
In the not-too-distant future, some 30 years after the final war, a solitary man walks across the wasteland that was once America. Empty cities, broken highways, seared earth – all around him the marks of catastrophic destruction. There is no civilization here, no law. The roads belong to gangs that would murder a man for his shoes, an ounce of water…or for nothing at all.
But they’re not match for this traveler.
A warrior not by choice but by necessity, Eli seeks only peace, but, if challenged, will cut his attackers down before they realize their fatal mistake. It’s not his life he guards so fiercely but his hope for the future; a hope he has carried and protected for 30 years and is determined to realize. Driven by his commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself, Eli does what he must to survive – and continue.
Only one other man in this ruined world understands the power Eli holds, and is determined to make it his own. Carnegie, the self-appointed despot of a makeshift town of thieves and gunman. Meanwhile, Carnegie’s adopted daughter Solara, is fascinated by Eli for another reason: the glimpse he offers of what may exist beyond her stepfather’s domain.
But neither will find it easy to deter him. Nothing – and no one – can stand in his way. Eli must keep moving to fulfill his destiny and bring help to a ravaged humanity.
The cast includes Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, and the film is directed by Allan Hughes and Albert Hughes. It opens in theaters January 15.
The final film is also related to the end of the world, but in this case it is pre-apocalyptic. It is Legion. Like previous postmodern treatments of apocalyptic, this film turns Judeo-Christian notions of judgment, apocalyptic, angelic roles, messianic themes and apocalyptic in general upside down. As the film’s website describes, “When God loses faith in mankind, he sends his legions of angels to bring on the apocalypse. Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the Archangel Michael.” Michael goes rogue, turning against God as he unleashes judgment in the form of the angelic host under the leadership of the Archangel Gabriel trying to murder a child of promise.
The cast includes Paul Bettany as the Archangel Michael, Kevin Durand as the Archangel Gabriel, Dennis Quaid, and Charles Dutton. It is directed by Scott Stewart and is scheduled for release on January 22.
Mark your calendars and prepare for a fantastic January.
