Anatomy of a Weird Tale: Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Houses Under the Sea"

Today marks the debut of another new feature here at Macabre Republic. Anatomy of a Weird Tale (vs. the more review-oriented Short Story Spotlight) delves into literary analysis of standout works of contemporary weird fiction.  First up, a 2007 novelette reprinted in last year’s Lovecraft Unbound anthology: Caitlin R. Kiernan’s “Houses Under the Sea,” whose story of a bizarre religious cult and monstrous underwater gods riffs brilliantly on the classic Mythos work “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

Kiernan shifts the setting from remote and moldering Innsmouth, Massachusetts, to the modern, everyday world of left-coast California.  Offering no mere pastiche of Lovecraft’s oftentimes-unwieldy prose, Kiernan also performs a stylistic makeover.  Boxy, expository paragraphs give way to lines of almost poetic quality. For instance, Kiernan employs the device of anaphora throughout, via the anonymous narrator’s recurring “I close my eyes, and...” construction.  The various completions of such lines all involve the narrator’s ex-lover Jacova Angevine, a former Berkeley professor expelled from academia due to her esoteric research interests.  Jacova is now presumed dead; as the prophetic head of the Open Door of Night cult (with its return-to-the-sea creed), she led her followers into seeming mass suicide in Monterey Bay.  The fact that the narrator can’t help but see her whenever he closes his eyes signals the extent to which Jacova haunts his memories, his dreams.

The narrator realizes that Jacova has become “my ghost, my private haunting” (163), and labels his own narrative as a “ghost story” (179) [in fact, Kiernan’s scenes of an enigmatic female lover gazing raptly out of a bedroom window form striking parallels to Peter Straub’s Ghost Story].  Citing a line he attributes to Joseph Campbell—“Draw a circle around a stone and the stone will become an incarnation of mystery”—the narrator writes that Jacova had “drawn a circle about herself” (183), and (thanks to their short-lived affair) around him as well.  Jacova has bewitched him, figuratively speaking, and now he struggles to make sense of her weird beliefs and endeavors.  His recollections of the suddenly-infamous figure are disordered, fragmented: “All these divided moments, disconnected, or connected in so many different ways, that I’ll never be able to pull them apart and find a coherent narrative.  That’s my folly, my conceit, that I can make a mere story of what has happened” (162).

Fantastic Casting: The Dark Tower

Late last week the news broke that Stephen King's Dark Tower books were going to be brought to the big and small screens (as a trio of theatrical films and an interconnecting television series).  Naturally, this revelation ignited a burning question: what actors would be chosen for the lead roles?  Fans have been posting their dream casts all over the Internet; here are the stars I would line up if I were at the helm...

Roland: Viggo Mortensen is a no-brainer to play the rugged, Eastwood-esque gunslinger.  Mortensen has done epic fantasy (The Lord of the Rings); he's done the western (Appaloosa); now he can tackle both genres at once.   Alternate choice: Guy Pearce.

Jake: This will be the toughest casting task for producers, to find an actor both talented enough and young enough so that he won't outgrow the role of the 11-year-old Jake before all the movies/episodes are filmed.  The part will likely go to an as-yet unknown, but I'll toss out a name anyway: Mortensen's co-star in The Road, Kodi-Smit McPhee (which would be apropos, since The Road has definite Gunslinger overtones [i.e. man and child trek across a dangerous, post-apocalyptic landscape]).

Eddie: Ah, if only Adrien Brody were younger.  He would have been perfect for the part of the ex-junkie New Yorker.  But I'll go with the versatile and incredibly underrated Casey Affleck here.  Second choice: Matt Bomer, of TV's White Collar.

Susannah: King himself has stated that he always envisioned Angela Bassett in this role, but alas she's a little too long in the tooth at this stage of her career.  I think Jada Pinkett-Smith has the moxie to make an excellent Susannah, though.  Alternately: Thandie Newton.

The Man in Black: Walter O'Dim is not your standard wizened wizard, as seen at the end of The Gunslinger when he pulls back his hood (King actually describes him as black-haired and handsome).  Johnny Depp no doubt would have a field day playing this dark and slyly humerous character.  Jackie Earle Haley comes to mind here as well (well, except for the "handsome" part).

Oy: Andy Serkis (just kidding!--although if he can embody Gollum, he'd probably have no problems as a Billy-Bumbler).  

Lifestyles of the Eldritch and Squamous

Practically immortal, they spend most of their sunless days in amphibian splendor far under the sea, wearing their tall golden tiaras and other exotically-engraved jewelry.  They're not averse, though, to trading with the upper-earth men, offering gold and the secrets of propitious fishing in exchange for idol worship and the occasional human sacrifice.  And on every April 30th and October 31st they swim to the surface and hop ashore to the churches of coastal Massachusetts to take part in some of that old-time religious worship--ceremonies inevitably followed by frolicsome party mixers.  But then it's back down to their underwater hideaways in Y'ha-nthlei, their phosphorescent palaces of many terraces, with gardens of strange leprous corals and grotesque brachiate efflorescences.  There they'll wait patiently for the influx of new citizens, all the while drinking in the world with their bulging, unblinking eyes.  These greyish-green fish-frogs with a passion for miscegenation are none Other than...

[Answer appears in the Comments section below]

American Meth (Documentary Film Review)

Yesterday's post addressed Stephen King's Under the Dome, a novel in which methamphetamine production/usage proves central to the plot (e.g. think of the civic havoc that the tweeked-out addict Phil "Chef" Bushey ends up wreaking).  While reading the novel over the past few weeks, I also stumbled upon (it's available for Instant Viewing on Netflix) the 2008 documentary American Meth (a film whose very title smacks of "American Gothic").

Producer/director Justin Hunt and narrator Val Kilmer take viewers on a Blue Collar Tragedy Tour through Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and New Mexico--areas where methamphetamine has posed an alarming drug problem.  The documentary offers candid interviews with addicts, as well as the local authorities, activists, and company officials committed to battling the epidemic.  Some eye-popping details are provided along the way (e.g. the lists of products used to make meth), and the photos of "meth mouth" (the tooth decay and gum disease resulting from prolonged usage) are enough to scare anyone off from ever trying the drug.  Admittedly, American Meth does bog down about halfway through the film, devolving into a trashy reality-TV program as it focuses on the (trailer-)home life of husband-and-wife meth addicts and their four neglected children.  Still, this does not blunt the overall impact of the documentary.  "The devil's serum" (as meth is dubbed by one interview subject) is poisoning the American heartland, blighting communities and destroying families--a stark reality more frightening than any storyline Stephen King can imagine.

Living Under the Dome

In his epic novel Under the Dome, Stephen King combines American Gothic horror (the secrets, scandals, and deadly intrigues in a seemingly idyllic town) with apocalyptic science fiction (extrapolating from the premise of an entire community cut off from the surrounding world by being sealed inside an invisible, technologically-advanced dome).  The novel is King at his world-building best, and after spending nearly 1100 pages trapped with the people of the fictional Chester's Mill, Maine, I got to thinking: what would it be like if my own hometown was placed under the Dome? Would the developments be the same as in the novel, or would there be some key differences?  Here are some of the points that came to mind as I speculated:

*My northern New Jersey town lies within miles of Manhattan, so the tragedy of 9/11 literally hit close to home.  I suspect that the sudden encapsulation by a Dome would trigger a massive terrorism scare in the townspeople.

*Three major airports (Newark, LaGuardia, JFK) operate nearby, so not only would the nation's air traffic suffer a serious disruption, but there would also be an increased risk (initially) of planes crashing into the unseen Dome.

*Many residents commute to Hoboken and Manhattan via the train line running through town, and many out-of-towners drive here, park their cars, and then hop on the train.  A Dome would break apart a significant number of families in town and potentially strand a horde of non-residents.

*The back end of town is comprised of swampy meadowlands.  If conditions got particularly sultry under the Dome, mosquitoes could form a terrible plague.

*Since the town is more densely populated than King's Maine setting, there would be an increased demand for the now-finite resources.  I'm betting that a food riot wouldn't have to be orchestrated by a sinister political leader like Big Jim Rennie (who, incidentally, is one of the best villains King has created in years).

*A chemical manufacturer has a huge plant set up in town; if an explosion ever occurred there, the fiery destruction would no doubt rival the inferno that rages through Chester's Mill.

*There's a medi-center but no hospital located within the town borders, so caring for the sick/injured would be a daunting task.

*For years there have been rumblings of a growing gang presence in town.  One could imagine such groups more openly and brazenly defying authorities while under the Dome.

*I'd venture to say that the townspeople would be much less likely than King's Maine folk to have generators on hand to combat the loss of electricity.  In that sense, matters could take a much darker turn than they did in Chester's Mill.


So what about your hometown?  How does its location, geography, and demographics compare to that of Chester's Mill?  What if you and your neighbors were forced to live under the Dome?

What then?