Entries from October 7, 2007 - October 13, 2007
Mark Heath
I’m not sure how high the fidelity would be without guaraldi playing under him, but it still deserves applause. Once you’ve finished playing along.
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I’ve been reading Psycho by Robert Bloch. It’s a bit like watching The Sixth Sense a second time,* but there are surprises. For example, as Marion disrobes and steps into the shower, I’m not startled when the curtain whips back and we see Norman in his mother’s regalia, wielding a butcher knife. But it did catch me off guard when he lopped off her head.
*And it’s satisfying in the same way. It’s a masterful trick to have Norman reacting to the deeds of his mother, while hiding his dual identity from the reader. Bloch does this by hiding the mother’s identity from Norman. Through his point of view, we see plenty of clues to his secret life — makeup left in the kitchen, for example, that Norman assumes was used by his mother — so we read the novel backward, even as we move forward, marveling at Bloch’s sure steps.
It takes about two seconds for your ears to distinguish between the music track, and her playing. But it’s worth the wait.
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Here’s a song that should be packaged with How to Survive a Horror Movie. The band is Witches in Bikinis. Scroll down to hear Horror Flick Chicks, which begins this way:
Joan was home alone relaxing in the bath
When through the cellar window climbed a deadly psychopath
Then she heard what sounded like a growl
So she went down to the cellar wearing nothing but a towel
Beautiful and brave but no brains in her head
Doesn’t have a clue that any second she’ll be dead
She’s a horror flick chick
Dangerously thick
Misses every single trick
‘Cause she’s a horror flick chick
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s not a guide to surviving the watching of a movie. It’s a guide to surviving the Terrorverse, an alternate reality inspired by horror movies. The back cover offers a quiz to determine if you’re living in the mundane horror of reality, or if you’ve stumbled into something more cinematic:
Are you reading this book at summer camp?
Are you reading this book in a corn field?
Have you, within the last 24 hours, killed a hobo or socially challenged classmate and then hid the corpse so that no one will ever find it?
There have been fanciful books on how to survive a zombie or robot uprising. But here’s a book you can use.