#† thread ... eleanor crain ⸸ my heart is a haunted house.

[mortaem-a]

⸸      eleanor   crain   for   @iraescible      (    theodora   crain    ) 

“    theo?    ”      an   audible   sigh   of   relief   as   nell   clutches   the   phone   tighter   still  ,    knuckles   going   white.       “    i  ...    i    --    i   couldn’t   get   a   hold   of   shirley   or   steve  ,    but   i     --     i   needed  ...      i   need   someone  ,    i   feel   like   i’m   going   crazy   and   i   keep   seeing ...    ”

[delicatebluebirdruins]

the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson

I enjoyed the first part of the book and then Mrs Montague/Arthur turned up and it lost steam with an added bonus of irritation to the point I wanted the house to torment them both and have them be the ones who die but oh no...

and the ending is so strange

and now onto the good stuff...  the reason I got and read the book for... references to the book inside the show by Mike Flanagan

“Hill House, not sane stood by itself against it’s hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.WIthin, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm and doors sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of hill house and whatever walked there walked alone“ this iconic quote bookends (hehe I know there is a technical term for it but I cannot think of it or don’t really have the inclination to look it up) the start and end of the book and does the same in the show but the shows ending version of this quote is very different (and whatever walked there walked together)

the introduction to Eleanor and the reason she was invited to Hill House “when she was twelve years old and her sister was eighteen, and their father had been dead not quite a month, showers of stones had fallen on their house, without any warning or any indication of purpose or reason, dropping from the ceilings, rolling loudly down the walls and pattering maddeningly on the roof“

in the youtube video Stretching Genre: a haunting of hill house essay the speaker noted that book Eleanors story was split between Eleanor and Olivia Crain. I was curious to see what they meant by that and saw their meaning of it clearly with this quote

“don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl, insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again...“

“she nearly stopped forever just outside Ashton, because she came to a tiny cottage buried in a garden. I could live there all alone, she thought... I will light a fire in the cool evenings and toast apples at my own hearth. I will raise white cats and sew white curtains for the windows and sometiimes come out of my door to go to the store to buy cinnamon and tea and thread. People will come to me to have their fortunes told, and I will brew love potions for sad maidens; I will have a robin...“

from page 36 “journeys end in lovers meeting“

when Eleanor gets shown the blueroom “i am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster... and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside“

on page 72 of my copy “perfectly splended“ and “I was whipped for throwing a brick through a greenhouse roof. I remember I thought about it for a long time the whipping but remembering also the lovely crash“

“the second Mrs Crain died of a fall“

“theodora’s hand on her own embarrsed her. She (eleanor) disliked being touched“

the location of the houses su1cide spots

page 110 “shimmering in the dim room, she waltzed alone“

118 the heart of the house

124 asking Eleanor to leave

128 knocking on the doors

134 chasing a dog like animal

141 bad ghosts drive out the good- this stood out to me more when rewatching Bly Manor

146 “help Eleanor come home“ and everyone blaming her for it

162 “she clutched Theo’s hand“.... “who’s hand was I holding?“

172 “fear and guilt are sisters“

I want Mrs Montague and Arthur to have a horrific accident I really don’t like them their intoduction in the story made my rating go from 4 to 2.5

188 “planchette was quite insistent about a nun“

every year National Book Tokens with Caboodle make a game and you have to look at a picture and guess a book title (I can’t complete I only found out about it this year) and this year in our scene there was a missing poster for a nun and it didn’t have me as stumped as some of the others did (that fucking lollipop man) but title is what is a nun also called “sister“ they had a story about a estranged sister earlier on but they all didn’t think about it did they (probably to busy wondering how much trouble they’d get into if they bashed Mrs M with it)

192 planchette rambles about mothers and home and Nell

219 the gratten murders

240 they made a solid line

246 last line (duh)

I liked it until Mrs M turned up and it went down hill and it just ends for everyone (that type of ending just seeing snapshots of later in life stuff is better on screen then on page)

[mortaem-a]

⸸      eleanor   crain   for   @iraescible      (    theodora   crain    )  ,    setting   starter   call.

“      i   don’t   like   it   here  ,    theo.      ”  ��    and   they’re   going   to   get   in   trouble   for   venturing   all   the   way   out   here.      though   her   sister   is   already   up   at   the   ruined   altar  ,    nellie   won’t   set   foot   in   the   crumbling   church.      she   stands   on   the   stairs   just   outside  ,    arms   wrapped   tight   around   herself  ,    and   struggles   with   the   childish   urge   to   cry.       “      can’t   you   feel   it?      it   feels  ...    bad.      let’s   go.      ”

[mortaem-a]

⸸    eleanor  crain.  

[mortaem-a]

⸸      eleanor   crain   for   @ermitana      (   the   tall   man   )

the   shadow   falls   across   the   floor   before   an   answering   scream   can   build   up   in   her   throat.      instead   the   child   draws   a   trembling   breath   that   catches   in   her   lungs   and   threatens   to   choke   her   as   frightened   gray  -  blues   slowly   lift   from   the   ground   to   look   up   into   the   shadow’s   face.      that   same   breath   leaves   her   in   a   sudden   gust      --      it’s   not   the   bent  -  neck   lady!      but   this   relief   is   short  -  lived      --      this   figure   isn’t   much   better  ,    and   the   cry   begins   to   build   again   as   she   fumbles   a   few   steps   backward.       “    go   away  ,    ”       she   manages  ,    tears   pricking.      a   little   spill.       it’s   just   a   little   spill  ,    daddy   would   say  ,    but   daddy   is   all   the   way   down   in   the   basement   and   will   never   be   able   to   hear   her.       “    go   away!    ”