Ray's Vectors: Needful Things

A book's greatness can be measured not merely by its intrinsic qualities, but by its effect on subsequent written works (that praise the original via imitation and echo).  Case in point: Something Wicked This Way Comes, which casts a long shadow over narratives involving dark carnivals and October incursions.  "Ray's Vectors," a feature appearing throughout Ray Bradbury Month here at Macabre Republic, will highlight several examples of texts that proudly bear their marks of influence by Bradbury's horror/ fantasy masterpiece.

I can think of no better place to begin than with the work of Stephen King.

King has analyzed Something Wicked in his nonfiction study Danse Macabre, and referenced the book by title in a scene in The Dead Zone (during Johnny and Sarah's visit to a rural fair).  But the author hearkens back to Bradbury most extensively in his 1991 novel Needful Things.  Leland Gaunt rolls (not far ahead of a terrible storm) into Castle Rock one October, and surreptitiously precipitates chaos.  His titular storefront (with window sign
heralding a grand opening) recalls the rented building space in Bradbury's novel where poster bills advertise the arrival of "Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show" (and where the enticing, ice-encased "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" has been left on strategic display).  The dirty dealing that Gaunt engages in--entrapping unsuspecting patrons by selling spurious objects of heart's desire--reflects the business tactics of Something Wicked's Mr. Dark, whose deceptive carnival attractions tempt the foolhardy with "empty promises."

Just as King works to expose the hypocrisy and lurking animosity of Castle Rock's populace, Bradbury's American Gothicism digs into the secrets of small town life.  The novel's hero (and fount of wisdom) Charles Halloway explains to his son Will: "Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin."  King's flawed characters make easy marks for the glamouring Gaunt, but Bradbury's inhabitants of the idyllic Green Town are no less innocent.  If anything, they have invited their own victimization, calling the carnival into their very midst.  Again, in the words of Charles Halloway:

Need, want, desire, we burn those in our fluids, oxidize those in our souls, which jet streams out lips, nostrils, eyes, ears, broadcasts from antennae-fingers, long or short wave, God only knows, but the freak-masters perceive Itches and come crab-clustering to Scratch.  [The carnival has] traveled a long way on an easy map, with people handy by every crossroad to lend it lustful pints of agony to power it on.  So maybe the carnival survives, living off the poison of the sins we do each other, and the ferment of our most terrible regrets.

Surely it's no coincidence that the first person in King's novel subjected to Gaunt's Machiavellian scheming is an 11-year-old boy, Brian Rusk (counterpart to Will and Jim, the 13-year-old targets of the carnival's evil in Something Wicked).  The clearest character parallel, though, is between Gaunt--a seemingly urbane figure fueled by sinister motive--and Mr. Dark.  We've encountered Gaunt-type antagonists before in King's canon: the Salem's Lot antiques dealer Richard Straker (whose vampiric partner, Mr. Barlow, also pairs with Bradbury's beastly Mr. Cooger); the malicious trickster Pennywise in It (preying periodically on Derry, just as Mr. Dark's carnival returns every few decades to reap Green Town's residents); even the nomadic troublemaker, the "Walking Dude" Randall Flagg.  In retrospect (with Gaunt's character obviating the homage), these various villains can all be seen to find their prototype in Bradbury's tattooed carnival proprietor.

If you are a fan of the classic Bradbury novel, I encourage you to read it back to back with Needful Things this October.  Do so and you will soon discover that Something Wicked has come again.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I'm sorry to report that my computer crapped out last night (I'm posting this from work).  I had yesterday's post ready to go, so you'll find it below.  But Ray Bradbury Month will have to be put on hold for a few days while I get my computer fixed.  Once I get up and running again, I will catch up with the posts.  There will be no less than 31 posts this month, I promise.

Countdown: Ray Bradbury's Top 10 Dark Carnival/October Country Stories--#10

This latest Countdown here at Macabre Republic focuses squarely on Ray Bradbury's carnivalesque and autumnal short fiction (i.e. not every story gathered in the collections Dark Carnival and The October Country will be eligible, and some selections will come from other Bradbury volumes).  Kicking off the Countdown today is...

#10."The Dead Man" (collected in Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales)

Without a doubt, this is Bradbury's most subtle piece of Halloween fiction.  It unfolds as an offbeat bit of American Gothic, concerning a vagabond who walks around--when he's not stretching himself out supine in the gutter--claiming that he died by drowning during the flood that destroyed his farm.  The townspeople treat "Odd Martin" as a local kook more than a metaphysical marvel (one resident, though, suggests that the reason everyone jokes about Odd is because deep down they are scared to take him seriously).  It's not until about two-thirds of the way through the story that the time of year becomes clear, when a group of teens try to recruit Odd as an animated prop for their Halloween party.  The scene is brief yet pivotal, because the teens' callous, condescending attitudes leave Odd in a "strange and bitter" mood; soon thereafter he decides to get himself cleaned up and to propose marriage to Miss Weldon, the lonely manicurist who has always been kind to him.  This decision in turn facilitates the story's twist ending:the revelation of where the newlyweds have made their home (hint: Odd didn't deal with the town's sole real estate broker when purchasing the place).

With its seamless blend of the sentimental and the macabre, "The Dead Man" is vintage Bradbury.  And if Halloween represents a time when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurs, then the October-ending holiday is perfectly suited to themes of this pleasantly haunting tale.  

Kicking Off Ray Bradbury Month

First of all, it was October...

So what better time to celebrate Ray Bradbury Month here at Macabre Republic?  Each and every day this October will be devoted to the author's autumnal novels and tales.  The familiar Features of the blog will be given a Bradbury slant, including a new (top 10) Countdown.  Also, fans who can't get enough of Something Wicked This Way Comes will take special interest in the series of posts titled "Ray's Vectors."

But today we start the month off with a trivia quiz.  Test your Bradbury expertise with the thirteen questions below (the answers appear in the Comments section of this post).  Good luck!


1.The title of Something Wicked This Way Comes is drawn from a line in what classic work of literature?


2.In The Halloween Tree, which of the following is not a stop on the Moundshroud-led tour of "the Undiscovered Country"?

(A) Notre Dame cathedral in Paris
(B) the pyramids of Egypt
(C) an oak grove in England
(D) a crematorium in Moscow
(E) the catacombs beneath a Mexican graveyard


3.In the concluding chapter of From the Dust Returned, what "gift" does Timothy give to the museum curator?


4.The recurring setting Green Town is based on Bradbury's home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  True or False?


5.How does the mother character, Alice Leiber, die in the short story "The Small Assassin"?


6.In Something Wicked This Way Comes, what does Charles Halloway carve into the tip of the bullet that fells the Gypsy Dust Witch?


7.In The Halloween Tree, what do the boys use (at Mr. Moundshroud's urging) to build an impromptu kite?


8.Which of the following stories is not collected in The October Country?

(A) "The Wind"
(B) "The Illustrated Man"
(C) "Homecoming"
(D) "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone"
(E) "The Lake"


9.A fourth Bradbury novel (along with Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, and From the Dust Returned) that is set at the time of Halloween is...


10.In Something Wicked This Way Comes, where do Will and Jim hide out during the carnival people's parade through the streets of Green Town?


11.In The Halloween Tree, Pipkin's brush with death is caused by appendicitis.  True or False?


12.Match the attribute to the Family member in From the Dust Returned:

___  Cecy                                         (A) has giant wings
___  A Thousand-Times-     (B) ages backward
              Great Grandmere
___  Uncle Einar                        (C) The Sleeper Who Dreams
___  cousin Ran                          (D) invisible
___  Angelina Marguerite   (E) an Egyptian mummy


13.The following lines form the conclusion to what October Country story?

Many times as a little girl Clarisse had run on the beach sands, stepped on a jellyfish and screamed.  It was not so bad, finding an intact, gelatin-skinned jellyfish in one's living room.  One could step back from it.

It was when the jellyfish called you by name...

************************************************************
Your Score:

0-6 Correct:  For shame.  Your passport to October Country is going to be revoked.
7-9 Correct:  Not bad, but you might want to revisit your collection of Bradbury books.
10-13 Correct:  Congratulations! You've won an all-access pass to the dark carnival.

Book Review: Halloween Nation

Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (Pelican Publishing Company, 2011)


America's leading black-and-orange journalist returns to investi-gate and celebrate the October holiday season.  In Halloween Nation, Bannatyne poses the key questions (the most overarching one being: "What does Halloween mean right now and what purpose does it serve?") and considers all the relevant elements (witches, ghosts, zombies, pumpkins, pranksters, etc.).  Her study is at once fascinatingly informative (in particular the chapter tracing the origin of the jack-o'-lantern) and endlessly entertaining.  Bannatyne writes with a sense of humor, a prose style reminiscent of Mary Roach (whose work she cites).  For instance, when learning of the amazing growth rate of giant-sized pumpkins, the author observes:
"Forty pounds a day? That's like growing a six-year-old over the weekend."  Describing a weigh-off of such gargantuan gourds, Bannatyne offers: "When a 1,180-pounder knocks the rest out of the competition, the crowd roars, and the pumpkin glides through the arena on the forklift like a plus-sized beauty queen on a parade float."

All this is not to suggest that the author has taken a flippant attitude toward her subject matter, or that she didn't work hard to produce this book.  Like a Charles Kuralt for our macabre republic, Bannatyne spent two years on the road interviewing haunters, performers, and other holiday celebrants across the country.  Halloween Nation is an undeniably democratic tome:  Bannatyne doesn't just forward her own ideas but gives voice to the perspectives of countless others.  The book seems as populous throughout as the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (which Bannatyne covers in Chapter Seven).

Brimming with brilliant color photos and illustrations, Halloween Nation is a perfect coffee table book to engross visitors to your home this October.  The book's written content (not to mention its extensive "Resources" appendix) is guaranteed to send you surfing the Internet to learn more about the people, places, and events Bannatyne discusses.  Such extra-textual forays, though, will not keep you from delving eagerly back into Bannatyne's pages again and again.  I'm not waxing hyperbolic when I state that this insightful and delightful book is an absolute must-read for every unabashed Halloween-ophile.