{"id":12000,"date":"2012-10-26T10:26:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T14:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=12000"},"modified":"2012-10-26T10:26:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T14:26:28","slug":"the-haunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/the-haunting\/","title":{"rendered":"The Haunting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sog3etUwtSk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: scene from 1963&#8217;s <\/em><a title=\"Wikipedia, on 'The Haunting' (1963)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Haunting_(1963_film)\" target=\"_blank\">The Haunting<\/a><em>, directed by Robert Wise,<br \/>\nstarring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. More below.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<em><a title=\"whiskey river: 'In This,' by Mikey Fatboy Delgado\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2012\/10\/in-this-in-this-house-you-would-come-to.html\" target=\"_blank\">whiskey river<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>In This<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this house you would come to believe<br \/>\nin ghosts and lives beyond the grave. Here<br \/>\nnoises configure themselves into the voices<br \/>\nof those who&#8217;ve gone. &#8220;Cyril!&#8221; calls a wife<br \/>\nlost to cancer; a dead dog&#8217;s nametag chinks<br \/>\nagainst the brass of her collar; the creak<br \/>\nof an opening door, a footstep<br \/>\non a warped floorboard, and someone<br \/>\nyou&#8217;ve loved comes to breathe your name<br \/>\nonce again, and now in Autumn the wind<br \/>\nmoaning beneath the eaves, and the small tornadoes<br \/>\nof leaves lifted in frenzied gusts<br \/>\nscratch against the window late at night<br \/>\nlike the feeble clawing of all our loves<br \/>\nwanting to come back, wanting to make us<br \/>\nbelieve that we can ever be reunited.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Mikey Fatboy Delgado [<a title=\"Mikey Fatboy Delgado's 'Life and War' Tumblr: 'In This'\" href=\"http:\/\/lifeandwar.tumblr.com\/post\/32738942914\/in-this-in-this-house-you-would-come-to-believe\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: Thaddeus Golas, on finding enlightenment in fear\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2012\/10\/anything-that-really-frightens-you-may.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Anything that really frightens you may contain a clue to enlightenment. It may indicate to you how deeply you are attached to structure, whether mental, physical, or social. Attachment and resistance are appearances with the same root: when you resist by pulling away your awareness, the emotion is one of fear, and the contraction is experienced as a pull like magnetism or gravity; that is, attachment.<\/p>\n<p>That is why we often fear to open our minds to more exalted spiritual beings. We think fear is a signal to withdraw, when in fact it is a sign we are already withdrawing too much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Thaddeus Golas,\u00a0<em>The Lazy Man&#8217;s Guide to Enlightenment<\/em> [<a title=\"'The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment,' by Thaddeus Golas\" href=\"http:\/\/freespace.virgin.net\/sarah.peter.nelson\/lazyman\/lazyman8.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: 'There is the sound of dust...,' by Mary Ruefle\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2012\/10\/there-is-sound-of-dust-heard-over.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is the sound of dust heard over the telephone.<br \/>\nThere is the sound of a piano with a faint heart<br \/>\ncoming from below, a hell where people are happy.<br \/>\nThere is the sound of someone standing on the grave<br \/>\nof someone they do not know and do not care about.<br \/>\nThere is the sound the same person makes<br \/>\nstanding on their own grave.<br \/>\nI love the sound of the iron on the ironing board<br \/>\nturning on and off, waiting for someone to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Mary Ruefle, from &#8220;Refrigerator&#8221; [<em>hear her reading the whole poem <a title=\"YouTube: University of California\/Lunch Poems: May Rueffle\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZDWUUyUB-Wg\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Record<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Late night July<br \/>\nin Minnesota, with John<br \/>\nasleep on the glassed-in porch,<\/p>\n<p>I listen (quietly)<br \/>\nto Bob Dylan on a cassette<br \/>\nyou made from an album<\/p>\n<p>I got rid of soon after<br \/>\nyou died. Years later,<br \/>\nI regret giving up<\/p>\n<p>your two moving boxes<br \/>\nof vinyl (which I loved)<br \/>\nin a stand against the futility<\/p>\n<p>of saving outdated things.<br \/>\nSurely they were too awkward,<br \/>\ntoo easily broken,<\/p>\n<p>too poorly mastered<br \/>\nfor people who loved music<br \/>\nthe way we did. But tonight<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m in the mood for ghosts<br \/>\nlike you, for being<br \/>\nyounger, since <em>you\u2019re a<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>big girl, now<\/em> I\u2019m thirty-one<br \/>\nto your unchanging twenty-five.<br \/>\nIn the mood for sounds<\/p>\n<p>we hated: pop, scratch,<br \/>\nhiss, the occasional<br \/>\nskip. The curtains balloon;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve got a beer; I\u2019m struck<br \/>\nby guilt, watching you<br \/>\nfrom a place ten years away,<\/p>\n<p>kneeling and cleaning each<br \/>\nwith a velvet brush before<br \/>\nand after, tucking them in<\/p>\n<p>their sleeves. Understand,<br \/>\nI was still moving then.<br \/>\nThe boxes were heavy.<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019d known I\u2019d stop here<br \/>\nwith a husband to help me<br \/>\ncarry, and room&#8212;too late,<\/p>\n<p>the college kids pick over<br \/>\nyour black bones on Mass. Ave.,<br \/>\n<em>we\u2019ll meet again some day<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>on the avenue<\/em> but still,<br \/>\nI want to hear it, the needle<br \/>\nhitting the end of a side<\/p>\n<p>and playing silence<br \/>\nuntil the arm gives up,<br \/>\npulls away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Katrina Vandenberg [<a title=\"Greensboro Review (Spring, 2003): 'Record,' by Katrina Vandenberg\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greensbororeview.org\/spring-2003\/record.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and (Mr. Pounder is the local opera house&#8217;s professional rat catcher; he has just recently met with an unfortunate accident &#8212; his last):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was <em>very<\/em> dark.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Squeak?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He looked up.<\/p>\n<p>Standing in the air, at eye-level, was a robed figure about six inches high. A bony nose, with bent gray whiskers, protruded from the hood. Tiny skeletal fingers gripped a very small scythe.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Pounder nodded thoughtfully to himself. You didn&#8217;t rise to membership of the Inner Circle of the Guild of Rat Catchers without hearing a few whispered rumors. Rats had their own Death, they said, as well as their own kings, parliaments, and nations. No human had ever seen it, though.<\/p>\n<p>Up until now.<\/p>\n<p>He felt honored. He&#8217;d won the Golden Mallet for most rats caught every year for the past five years, but he respected them, as a soldier might respect a cunning and valiant enemy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Er&#8230; I&#8217;m dead, aren&#8217;t I&#8230;?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Squeak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Pounder felt that many eyes were watching him. Many small, shining eyes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And&#8230; what happens now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Squeak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The soul of Mr. Pounder looked at his hands. They seemed to be elongating, and getting hairier. He could feel his ears growing, and a certain rather embarrassing elongation happening at the base of his spine. He&#8217;d spent most of his life in a single-minded activity in dark places, yet even so&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t <em>believe<\/em> in reincarnation!&#8221; he protested.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Squeak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And this, Mr Pounder understood with absolute rodent clarity, meant: reincarnation believes in <em>you<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Terry Pratchett [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Maskerade,' by Terry Pratchett\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=8mgJ6yHRLHEC&amp;pg=PA108#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the video:\u00a0<\/strong>When I first saw Robert Wise&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The Haunting<\/em>, I thought I&#8217;d pass out. This would have been sometime when I was in my late teens (and I wasn&#8217;t even seeing it in a theater but on a plain-old non-HD TV set, with a 20-some-inch screen). I&#8217;ve heard people say they&#8217;re more creeped out by\u00a0<a title=\"Wikipedia, on 'The Uninvited'\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Uninvited_(1944_film)\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Uninvited<\/em><\/a> &#8212; and those same people tend to shrug off <em>The Haunting<\/em> &#8212; but I never got the same sense of sustained, almost movie-length dread from that one. (Martin Scorcese put The Haunting at the top of <a title=\"The Daily Beast: '11 Scariest Horror Movies,' by Martin Scorsese\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2009\/10\/28\/martin-scorseses-top-11-horror-films-of-all-time.html\" target=\"_blank\">his &#8220;11 Scariest Horror Movies&#8221; list<\/a>; The Uninvited is down at <a rel=\"tag\" class=\"hashtag u-tag u-category\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/tag\/3\/\">#3<\/a>.)\u00a0<em>The Uninvited<\/em>, to me, is like a polite, tea-drinking <a title=\"Wikipedia, on cozy mysteries\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cozy_mystery\" target=\"_blank\">cozy mystery<\/a>, a drawing-room thriller.\u00a0But again, just from my perspective: <em>The Haunting<\/em>\u00a0= fingernails scraping down the blackboard of my normally placid self.)<\/p>\n<p>The Wikipedia entry on <em>The Haunting<\/em> includes <a title=\"Wikipedia, on 'The Haunting's' special effects and editing\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Haunting_(1963_film)#Effects_and_editing\" target=\"_blank\">some interesting details<\/a> about how it achieved its effects. No CGI back then, of course. No blood. And when it comes right down to it, almost no actual violence, even\u00a0<em>action<\/em>. Just&#8230; just&#8230;\u00a0eeeek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: scene from 1963&#8217;s The Haunting, directed by Robert Wise, starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, and Russ Tamblyn. More below.] From\u00a0whiskey river: In This In this house you would come to believe in ghosts and lives beyond the grave. Here noises configure themselves into the voices of those who&#8217;ve gone. &#8220;Cyril!&#8221; calls a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,247,1393,53,5,251],"tags":[142,646,890,3075,3242,3243,3244,3245,3246],"class_list":{"0":"post-12000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-backwards","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-movies-media","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-terry-pratchett","13":"tag-halloween","14":"tag-fear","15":"tag-mary-ruefle","16":"tag-the-haunting","17":"tag-mikey-fatboy-delgado","18":"tag-thaddeus-golas","19":"tag-katrina-vandenberg","20":"tag-the-uninvited","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-37y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12000"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12018,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12000\/revisions\/12018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}