Week 14: Halloween

Dear Avid Reader,

Skip it. Just get to it already.

Well, Kiddo, I Thought You Outgrew Superstition

Fear. It's really powerful. And the fear of something is ALWAYS more intense than the actual experience. There are times when fear is appropriate. If held at gunpoint...start being terrified. If being chased by lizard-people...freak out. But a lot of times we should not be so scared. A lot of times, here in this country at least, our fear is just a complacent mind that is bored. Contentment, it seems, darkens the shadowy corners of the mind.

This is why Halloween was so scary at the time. It wasn't a European remake ala Dracula or Frankenstein. There were no demons like Rosemary's Baby. It wasn't an epic monster like Godzilla or King Kong or natural disaster like The Birds. The monster was a kid. From the suburbs. The monster was one of us.

But You Can't Kill The Boogie Man

Just look at the opening scene. The camera is behind the mask of the killer. The audience is made to feel complicit with the murder. This movie struck to the heart of the biggest fear in America...the good times are soon to be over. No more than right now can we feel this fear. No jobs, skyrocketing national debt, Glenn Beck has still not been brought up on crimes against humanity, and the list goes on. In essence, the fear of losing grip of wealth is the biggest unexplored terror of this country. Thanks a whole lot riches! You suck.

You Must Think Me A Very Sinister Doctor

Micheal Myers never explains why he is killing. He never says anything. He is just a maniac...end of story. A boy born in a tract home with easy middle-class privilege, just all of a sudden snaps. Not touched by drugs or some poor choices that he made, he just is evil.

And I argue that this movie is not about punishing the kids that have sex. Au contraire. I mean Laurie, the hero, smokes weed. Sure she coughs on the harsh, but that is beside the point. The point is that when it was her turn to be served, she snatched that spliff and took the hit. She seemed pretty adept at handling philly blunts for a "good kid". Maybe she coughed up da indo smoke cuz shawty can't take down a jay like east-sidaz! Cannonball! Yeaaaaaaaah boy! See, It's not so much that the sinners are killed, it's that the babysitters in the neighborhood are smokin' out and gettin' down. And that's gonna totes freak dem crazy white folks.

I Hate A Guy With A Car And No Sense Of Humor

And that is what fear really is...that beneath the surface something really bad is brewing. America has had crazy freaking growth in the past 20 years, but never once did anyone feel like they were high on the happy wave. But here in the burst, which follows EVERY bubble, folks are acting like it's the end of it all. Maybe it is. Maybe the fall will continue and America will become the next third world. The fact that we can conceive of that reality shows how tenuous we think things are, or is it how tenuous that we KNOW things are.

Or maybe it's just the fear talking.

Until Next I Blog,

James

P.S. Yes I know this would have been perfect for Halloween week. Just shut it smart alec.