Halloween Horror Round Up: Crimson Peak, The Last Witch Hunter, Hellraiser 7-9

Today is Halloween, which at least for those of us in the United States is, like Ron Burgundy, kind of a big deal.  I've been gearing up for the last week by watching horror movies, which I have reviewed for your convenience.  Here are some movies that might make your Halloween a little creepier.

Crimson Peak

This newest offering from director Guillermo del Toro is as much a gothic romance as it is a ghost story (a point highlighted by the fact that the main character, Edith, is an author working on a ghost story to which she is told to add some romance).  There's less ghostly creepiness than I was expecting, and a good chunk of the movie doesn't even take place in that lushly designed English manor from the previews (get ready for a lot of Buffalo, New York, circa 1901).

Nonetheless, using the ghosts sparingly works.  We're shown just enough to maintain a timbre of dread.  When the ghosts do show up, they're as beautiful as they are horrifying.  And when we do get to that creepy mansion, the sets become characters in their own right.  See the preview below for some great shots of both the ghosts and the sets.  I definitely recommend seeing this one on the big screen if you can.

Occasionally the plot drags on a bit (especially toward the beginning), but if you trust that it's setting you up for some good old fashioned spookiness, you won't be disappointed.

Weird Knowledge: Lovecraft as Science Fiction and Philosophy

Credit: http://www.murphypop.com/2011/06/03/h-p-lovecraft/

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age.” - H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"


Lovecraft as Science Fiction


Halloween will soon be upon us, so a horrific post is the eldritch thing to do. And few people have shaped modern horror like H. P. Lovecraft, who has influenced big names like Stephen King, Clive Barker, H. R. Giger, Neil Gaiman, and Guillermo del Toro. He also inspired one of my favorite role-playing games.  I've been reading Lovecraft since my teens and I've long suspected that, while he's obviously a giant of the horror genre, he also wrote a weird kind of science fiction. I was pleased to hear a series of radio stories on Lovecraft this weekend on National Public Radio here in the US; I tuned in while an actor was reading from "The Call of Cthulhu" and immediately recognized Lovecraft's distinctive prose. In the first interview, author Erik Davis argued that Lovecraft's popular Cthulhu Mythos is really a kind of science fiction (see also his essay on Lovecraft).

The Once and Future Past: Science Fiction with Ancient Themes

Everyone knows that science fiction is about the future.  But that's not quite right.  Steampunk is science fiction that takes place in the past, time travel stories can take place any time, and parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey take place millions of years ago and the rest of it takes place in a future that is now the past.

Bill and Ted and Socrates

In my post, "Is the study of ancient philosophy like science fiction?," I explained that science fiction and ancient philosophy are two of my favorite things because they put us in touch with other worlds. Whether you're reading the Culture series of Iain M. Banks or the works of the 2nd century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna, you are temporarily inhabiting another world.

As if to highlight my point, some science fiction stories make use of ancient themes.  From Stargate to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, science fiction is no stranger to the past.  Below are some reviews of books that also work with this theme, which I like to call "the once and future past."

The Martian: Book/Movie Review

You could make a distinction in science fiction between Engineers' SF (like Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise) and Big Ideas SF (like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Stanley Kubrick's film version).  Engineers' SF focuses on how we might solve problems.  Big Ideas SF focuses on why we might solve problems, and are they really problems, anyway?  I've always been partial to Big Ideas SF myself.  I'm a philosopher. Go figure.  I have nothing against engineers.  I love the stuff they make!  But we also need people to come up with the Big Ideas.  It's basic division of labor.

Both the book and the film version of The Martian are definitely Engineers' SF, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.  I read the book (see my Goodreads review) about a week before seeing the movie with the idea that I might compare them here as well as offer some of my reflections.

Book vs. Movie

The movie more-or-less faithfully follows the plot of the book: astronaut Mark Watney is accidentally stranded on Mars and struggles to survive until he can be rescued.  This article by Mike Reyes gets most of the major differences, but I'd sum it up like this:

• The film lacks most of the book's swearing, much of its intricate detail, some of the jokes, and a couple of Watney's near-death experiences.
• Ridley Scott's film gives us hauntingly beautiful Martian landscapes (see below) set to Harry Gregson-Williams's score and makes it easier to keep track of the non-Watney characters by giving them faces in addition to names.

Sci-Fi Plato, Continued: The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton

"Then, if in the limitless past, those who were foremost in philosophy were forced to take charge of a city or if this is happening now in some foreign place far beyond our ken or if it will happen in the future, we are prepared to maintain our argument that, at whatever time the muse of philosophy controls a city, the constitution we've described will also exist at that time, whether it is past, present, or future.  Since it is not impossible for this to happen, we are not speaking of impossibilities.  That it is difficult for it to happen, however, we agree ourselves."  

- Socrates in Plato's Republic (499d) 

(Grube and Reeve translation)

Jo Walton's The Philosopher Kings is a direct sequel to her earlier book, The Just City, which concerns the time-traveling goddess Athena's attempt to set up the city of Plato's Republic in the distant past, all with some help from Socrates and robots!  In my review of that book, I noted that, as a science fiction fan and philosophy professor who regularly teaches Plato, the book was pretty much tailor made for me.  While the same can be said of the sequel, I have to admit I didn't enjoy it quite as much.

The main reason for this: Socrates is gone along with most of his favorite interlocutors: the robot Workers (their dialogues were my favorite part of the first book).  Without Socrates and the robots, the one isn't as much fun.  

The sequel takes place 20 years after The Just City ends.  We meet the daughter of Apollo and Simmea: Arete (her name means "excellence" or "virtue," which provides plenty of fun word play).  Arete's story is interesting, but it does turn into typical YA fare of a young girl discovering that she's "special."

Birthdays and Deathdays: Why Birthdays are Worth Celebrating

Today is my birthday.  In a world with an unseemly amount of suffering and disappointment (and that’s just high school) I think birthdays are worth celebrating.  Another year older.  Another year wiser, or at least closer to being of an age where people will assume you’re wise. A birthday represents another year of life, but also another year closer to death.

At 39 I’m just about middle aged, statistically speaking.  According to the 2011 US Social Security Actuarial Table I’m almost exactly middle aged with a life expectancy of 39.39 more years. 

Academic types often refer to historical figures with dates after their names.  Some of my favorite philosophers and science fiction authors, for instance, would be referred to as such: Socrates (470-399 BCE), Hypatia (c. 350-415 CE), Jayarāśi (c. 770-830 CE), David Hume (1711-1776), Octavia Butler (1947-2006), Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), Iain M. Banks (1954-2013), etc.  This convention allows us to place these figures in their historical contexts, but it also allows us to reflect on a fact of human life: it comes to an end.

Is the Believing Feeling Good for Us?: Part Two -- The Self, Dogmatism, and Donald Trump

In Part One I discussed what I called, echoing the band Journey, the believing feeling, the feeling that most of us get when we have certain kinds of beliefs.  But is this feeling good for us?

The Good Kind

I feel good when I believe that my family and friends care about me and when I believe that I care about them.  Luckily there seems to be pretty good evidence in favor of these beliefs.  Even when the immediately available evidence is questionable (for instance, when we annoy each other), we’re probably better off maintaining this belief for the sake of fostering healthy relationships.

Skeptical Therapy from the Cross-Cultural Trio

The problem comes when the believing feeling makes us worse off, intellectually and morally.