tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post6873103730900804076..comments2023-12-18T23:20:31.042-06:00Comments on Scriblerus Club: Tiger in the Snow (1984).PrisonerNumber6http://www.blogger.com/profile/03156430802462353459noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-11930152053666318632021-06-21T06:33:38.182-05:002021-06-21T06:33:38.182-05:00(3) Still sounds like an interesting surrealist pu...(3) Still sounds like an interesting surrealist puzzle, anyway.PrisonerNumber6https://www.blogger.com/profile/03156430802462353459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-66702652827394439852021-06-21T03:59:09.122-05:002021-06-21T03:59:09.122-05:00(3) It was part of that online Dollar Baby film f...(3) It was part of that online Dollar Baby film festival which was held in April. I had to miss that, but an acquaintance had me covered with most of them. It's a shame some of these are not available to people, but I guess that's just how Dollar Babies work.Bryant Burnettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01189356171455609865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-15028729256195591062021-06-21T01:20:34.777-05:002021-06-21T01:20:34.777-05:00(1) I was really blending fact with fiction on thi...(1) I was really blending fact with fiction on this one, and the result is still kind of surprising, yet also maybe somewhat gratifying. The funny thing is that it's possible to say I got lucky. Craven, on the other hand? Not so much. Well, okay, it's like yes, he got lucky too. From what I recall of that more famous encounter, it was almost touch and go there for a while.<br /><br />And now I'm left to wonder if it wasn't thoughts about this sort of subject might not have been the author's inspiration for the story. Or maybe it's like there are some autobiographical elements to the Barber story. Maybe not as exact and threatening as Craven's, just more that it wouldn't surprise me to learn a lot of the story is really the writer exorcising some old childhood fears that involved imagining bad things waiting for him on walks home as a kid. It just makes me reiterate what I said above, what sane person walks alone at night, let alone lets their freakin' kids do it! That's just sick if you ask me. Who knows, maybe Barber shares (shared?) the sentiment.<br /><br />(2) While I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it the ultimate kind of fame, it's probably something that's like, pretty high up there. There's probably needs to be some anthology dedicated to these sorts of writers.<br /><br />(3) Hmm, that sounds interesting, at the very least. I guess I never thought of that one as filmable. Then again, anything is possible, I guess.<br /><br />From the description, it all sounds like an adolescent, symbolist revenge fantasy. Where did you see this Dollar Film, exactly?<br /><br />(4) I's also urge your to read the Norjordet essay cited above, this time just or its own merits. What I like is how it can help clarify not just Jackson, yet also a few (if perhaps not all) things about King's approaches toe writing, especially in relation to Jackson. It's got to be one of the few recommendable pieces of English Major work out there.<br /><br />(5) You could also extrapolate further from there, and argue that maybe all Peter Straub did with a novel like "Ghost Story" is to give the trope a gender flip and a change of costume. Trade in the red suit and horns for a sheet and voila! The Ghost Lover (which sounds like a bad V.C. Andrews parody, although hopefully the point doesn't get lost in the irony)!<br /><br />ChrisC.PrisonerNumber6https://www.blogger.com/profile/03156430802462353459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3917612005522287441.post-38246358280745749272021-06-20T21:32:16.521-05:002021-06-20T21:32:16.521-05:00(1) That story about the guy in the coat and hood...(1) That story about the guy in the coat and hoodie is not terribly dissimilar to Wes Craven's story about the inspiration for Freddy Kruger's look! Pretty creepy, too. I figure, listen to dogs; they know what they're talking about.<br /><br />(2) It stands to reason that there are bound to be a legion of good stories in the world whose authors were, essentially, one-hit wonders. It's a bummer in some ways to consider that they are more or less lost to time, but it's kind of cool in another way -- it's like they've left behind these intriguing one-offs scattered around for the random person to discover once in a while. It's obscurity, but it's an appealing sort of obscurity.<br /><br />Anyway, I never read Barber's story, but it sounds like it's fun.<br /><br />(3) I've certainly read King's, though. It's not one of my favorites, necessarily, but that's elite company; no shame to not make it onto that list. I like the story fine, and probably get closer to loving it than to not.<br /><br />Interestingly, I just last night watched a Dollar Baby adaptation of it which changed the tone from semi-mythical to ominous and troubled, and to better results than I'd have expected. The main character in this is a girl, and she needs to go to the restroom because she's just had her first period. So there's a Carrie-esque layer of bullying tacked on; this worked better than I'd have expected, too.<br /><br />Since it was an amateur film, the "tiger" is dealt with in interesting fashion. I don't really know what to make of it, but that experience seems to have been accounted for in some way. As she's going to the bathroom, she walks past a bunch of art-project animal masks on the wall. One is missing, and in the bathroom, we see a tiger mask lying there rather than a tiger itself. When the other student goes around the corner, though, we hear sounds of her being eaten; same thing happens to the teacher.<br /><br />After that, we see the main kid walking back to class wearing the tiger mask, and when she goes inside all the other kids are wearing masks, too; but of different animals. What's it mean? Beats me, but it's kind of creepy, and that sense of illogical menace kind of works itself around to being similar to the story's go-for-broke illogic.<br /><br />(4) It's kind of awful, but I love the cover for that paperback edition of "The Lottery." Well, both of them, actually. I need to read more of her stuff one of these days; all I have ever read is "Hill House," and that only via audiobook.<br /><br />(5) Ooh, that's an interesting point about "The Stand." Bryant Burnettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01189356171455609865noreply@blogger.com