#blogtober

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/23/2024: POSSESSOR

It has come to my attention that I would like to do a very big project on Brandon Cronenberg. I need him to get his new projects out so I can have some more data points. In no time at all he has developed a really distinctive voice, as they say, and it's not just the body horror thing; he is asking these really probing questions about identity in a way that I think is unique and requires study. More input please.

Recently I got myself locked in this intense study of his debut feature ANTIVIRAL, which may not seem immediately similar to POSSESSOR and INFINITY POOL, but I think it starts a compelling conversation about make makes you "you". Like, to what degree is your body "you"? What percentage of your body can be considered "you", or are "you" only whatever is attached to your living brain? Which then activates questions about brain health, and deceased remains. The answer to what constitutes "you" may differ depending on who is being asked, too; what is their legal relation to you, or their sentimental relationship--or what is their attitude toward bodies and biomatter in general.

As I got deeper into this project, I contracted covid at the film festival I'd been working. I began to have an experience that was somewhat similar to what Brandon Cronenberg said inspired ANTIVIRAL: He was extremely sick with a virus, and he couldn't stop imagining how particles from someone else's body had penetrated his body, and he was being co-mingled with someone else. I started to connect with that, that I had just been at this conclave of the cultists of cinema and at the same time that our brains were syncing up, these particles were threading through our bodies, connecting us. This thought kept running in the background while I was watching ANTIVIRAL end to end to end, and being part of its deluge of blood and mucus and philosophizing about viruses and whether they represent an intimate interpersonal communion, whether your cells are imprinted with the existential, quasi-spiritual thing of your personal identity. And as my husband and I were housebound and chewing our way through all the groceries we had, we discovered that our entire dozen eggs had two yolks each. And it was like something that was coming out of my television in 3D, the proliferating cells of ANTIVIRAL, the clones of INFINITY POOL, the bifurcated people of POSSESSOR who have a body and a soul that are not necessarily monogamous with one another, people who experience bilocation. I got Brandon Cronenbergitis.

POSSESSOR is really a masterpiece, theories and philosophies aside. Gorgeous and engrossing, violent in a way that exposes the essential repulsiveness of violence, and with an inventiveness that returns to us the largely-lost experience of wondering, "How the fuck did they do that?" Living art object Andrea Riseborough plays Vos, an assassin whose modus operandus is to take over the body of someone close to her mark and use them to commit murder-suicide, thus hiding the real commissioner of the crime. Though Vos's usual approach is to make it appear that the possessed individual is having a psychotic break, she is approaching her own mental collapse, as evidenced by the increasing sadism of the executions. Her latest assignment is Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), future son-in-law of sociopathic CEO John Parse. Once inside and acting out the perfunctory nervous breakdown, Vos begins to lose control, and she is soon locked in a battle of wills with the understandably freaked out Colin.

Colin is an alternative version of INFINITY POOL'S protagonist James (Alexander Skarsgard), a failed novelist acquired by a rich heiress as a means of annoying her monstrous father. Both men are perfect submissives in some sense: They are owned by someone else, and their very identities are ultimately determined by someone else. James, who has a surplus of traditional male ego problems, is easily manipulated by a clique of rich psychopaths who make a game of destroying his sense of self--a process that is escalated by the existence of clones, vat-grown scapegoats for the crimes of the wealthy. The presentation of multiple, disposable Jameses, whose explicit purpose is to be degraded and annihilated, does something extra to the original James's sense of integrity, his brand as it were. When POSSESSOR'S Vos joins Colin in his body, it exacerbates the instability that already characterizes Colin's life; he is a sexual plaything for his fiancee's friends, he is a wage slave at her father's Amazon-like corporation, not even warranting a nepotistic promotion, and when he isn't working he's tuning out on hard drugs. His own poorly-established sense of integrity creates a sort of trap for Vos, who has been losing touch with her own personality as she sinks deeper into the bloody mire of her job.

Cronenberg said POSSESSOR came to him when he was promoting ANTIVIRAL, having to put on a kind of press persona to sell and explain his debut film to the public; he would wake up in the night feeling like he was living someone else's life, like he had lost contact with his core identity. It makes sense that he was beginning to develop INFINITY POOL around the same time, but I would argue that the much-earlier ANTIVIRAL deals with some of the same themes. Syd March (Caleb Landry) doesn't occupy the same rich failson archetype, but he lives in a world where the location of identity is up for debate; it isn't limited to the brain, or the face or whole body, but it has spread out to include the microbial components of disease, which are the new celebrity memorabilia. The belief that the persona is in these cells, and that taking the cells into oneself constitutes a form of intimacy or even unity, suggests the same attitude toward the mutability of the self. Around the time of INFINITY POOL, Cronenberg made a statement that contains a hint of dialog from ANTIVIRAL, and that I think unlocks all three movies:

“The brain creates a feeling of self. It's almost a controlled hallucination. We are each this chorus of ideas and influences. I think much of that comes externally, through ideas we’re infected with through our context, and much of it comes internally through our own biology. … It’s a process of the brain to essentially claim certain aspects of your experience. … But once you start to pick apart what it is to have a self, it’s this entirely neurological sensation rather than something that exists in a tangible, concrete way.”

It seems that Cronenberg will be working on the identity question for a long time. And as long as he is, so will I.

[scrub-slots]

Blogtober Day 7 - Favoritism Wins

Aster my beloved!! Also probably clear, I’ve been taking this as an opportunity to try out new brushes for backgrounds! Still a bit unsure on the grass, but I do think it looks a bit better than the air brush I typically use. Do think hand painted flowers are better though, even though these were MUCH quicker.

[kentnaturaltribrid]

13 facts about me, though 13 isn’t my favorite type of number, I felt like it was what was needed most. Regardless, a few things won’t exactly make the most sense, but I figured what is already there makes total sense and it actually fits well enough with the idea if there’s only 13.

[atlaswebdesigns]

31 days of blogging: Here’s what Blogtober taught me

This post was supposed to come out last week but because of some unexpected circumstances, I had to take a small break from blogging after Diwali. Well, I’m back now!! And as I promised in my Blogtober recap post, today I’m going to talk about some things I learned after participating for the first time in Blogtober and completing my goal of publishing 30 posts last month. One plan failed…

[dezithinks]

Blogtober 2024: Day 31

Happy Halloween Everyone! I can’t believe Halloween is here and October is over. As sad as I am to see all the spooks leave, I am actually excited to have a cozy November. Monthly Wrap up: Books- Scary Stories From Mexican Grandmothers The Book of Witches The Monsters of Elendhaven Death at Morning House The Dark Becomes Her Five Survive The October Country Nothing More To Tell Here…

[suewantsariot]

Autumnal Colours

I am one of those people that is cursed by those around me, as Autumn is my favourite season. I love the changing of the seasons, where things get a wee bit more cozy, and trees turn that wonderful shade of orange. Don’t ask where I got the romanticising of dead leaves from, I just like it. The snoods are on, the slippers are own, and we survive of cups of tea. I just like it. I could do without…

[marvelfangirl01]

10/4/24

Good evening all! I hope everyone had a great day! I am working on some new content. Soon, I will have some new health and fitness products to review. Until next time, keep eating your greens!

[nettienets]

Blogtober Day 3: Tasty Tuesday

Happy Tuesday! I hope this post finds you well! Last Tuesday, after I grocery shopped and put everything up, I did not feel like cooking. I am sure many of you can relate to this. We’ve been trying to eat a little better, so I also knew I did not want take-out. I remembered I had bought a few things for times like this. See below….. Less than 10 minutes, less than 300 calories, less than 20…

[megst13]

Blogmas Day 2: Christmas Characters Book Tag

Hi everyone! *EDIT* Yes I know that it is not in fact, the 2nd December BUT until I catch up we are pretending like the first 4 days of Blogmas happen on the same date – I definitely didn’t just forget to schedule my posts to go live I am a professional 👀Welcome to Day 2 of Blogmas, if you haven’t caught yesterdays post then you can find it here: Blogmas Day 1! Today we have our first Christmas…

[anhed-nia]

I like the Hans Bellmer stuff, even though it qualifies as super pretentious.

What were your thoughts on Ghost in the Shell 2?

Thanks for asking! My main reaction to INNOCENCE is that it's extremely cluttered. The snowballing mass of literary citations is interesting at first, and then it becomes so dense and relentless that it just started to feel haughty and I worried that it was taking the place of actual writing. It added extra stress to my already-paltry ability to keep track of what was going on in the movie; I had the feeling that the story wasn't as profound as the first film, and Oshii made up for lack of depth by just making everything really complicated. Overall I found it ambitious but sort of pretentious.

I had a similar problem with it visually, like some of it is absolutely stunning, and then at some point it just becomes cluttered with so much detail that no distinct visual statement emerges. I think sometimes the desire to throw absolutely everything at the wall interferes with the movie's ability to articulate itself: Like, that CGI convenience store obviously took a lot of work, but it is so starkly different from everything around it that all I could think about was the craft and I was taken out of the story; or the parade looks great, but then there are those seagulls that are so cheap-looking I wondered if I was still watching the same movie.

I didn't hate it, though. I would say that I actually LOVED the first 30-40 minutes of it. The scene with Haraway was one of my favorites out of either movie, and I enjoyed the proof that Batou is charismatic enough to carry his own feature even though Motoko really dominates GITS iconographically and Oshii must have known that we would all be wondering if she would appear the whole time. I basically enjoyed INNOCENCE and I'm really glad I saw it in a theater, even if in the end I think it shoots itself in the foot by being overburdened with details, references, and various other complications.

When we got home we watched AVALON which I hadn't seen in a really long time. It's such a weird movie; for something that's partly an action film it's incredibly static, and it suffers from a this brooding silliness, but it takes itself so seriously that I kind of have to admire it, like there's just no self-doubt in it. I guess I sort of like it even though I would have a hard time saying it's really "good". And sometimes it's beautiful, naturally the dog-feeding scenes are the best thing in the whole picture. What is even going on with Oshii, I think he would turn into one of those dogs if he could.

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/8/2024 PART 3: ABBY

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: October 8 was another rabbit hole day of my Blogtober program, and I have managed to refrain from slapping a snarky nickname on this little marathon of American race-centric horror movies that raise some uncomfortable questions. Can white guys make compelling movies about Black anxieties? Can Black directors get away with making white actors say things white people shouldn't get away with saying? The answer is…it depends on who you ask!

And if you want to know why I'm capitalizing one word and not the other, it's because I generally agree with the AP statement about the lack of meaningful cultural commonalities between white-skinned people--other than generalized privilege, of course. In my mind, it is useful to talk about whiteness in political contexts, but it is not so useful to talk about a "White" ethnic identity unless you are into white pride, which I would prefer not to validate. I understand that this is not a perfect solution, and many people feel that the lowercase "w" supports the delusion of whiteness as the universal default for humanity. I do not want to invite a big heavy debate on my silly little movie blog, but you should feel free to comment with links to worthwhile discussions on this subject, as long as you are doing it in good faith and you are not a white supremacist asshole. END STANDARD DISCLAIMER

Due to Warner Bros' litigiousness, this poor movie is only available as a version pulled from a badly damaged print--but if you can make it through the fuzz and the scratches, it's pretty entertaining! The great William Marshall plays an archeologist-cum-exorcist who witlessly frees a Nigerian deity to possess his daughter-in-law Abby (Carol Speed), a pious suburban housewife. Abby soon transforms from a devout, hardworking preacher's wife into a sadistic sex maniac, and it will take more than the usual power of Christ to exorcise her.

ABBY is one of those films that reminds me to question what exactly is meant by "blaxploitation". There is a tendency to put that label on any all-Black genre film made between the 1960s and 1980s, though this is misguided. Blaxploitation is actually sort of hard to define. I tend to think of it as primarily describing movies that exploit Black stereotypes to entice audiences--Black or otherwise--who find them appealing; examples are BLACULA (great!) and BLACKENSTEIN (pretty dire). Such movies may be made by Black or white filmmakers. Blaxploitation can also describe exploitation movies made by and for Black audiences; Melvin van Peebles combined exploitation-style entertainment with sharp political messages, and Rudy Ray Moore made delightful vanity projects for himself and his friends from the Chitlin Circuit. You couldn't fairly say that either of those guys mainly exploited stereotypes and the audiences that enjoyed them, even though they did capitalize on them. On the other hand, I always bristle when people call GANJA & HESS a blaxploitation movie; I guess if the only older Black films you watch are in the blaxploitation category then that's what it looks like, but it is way too posh, intellectual, and experimental to participate in any exploitation category.

ABBY was made by William Girdler, who is white, and an interesting character in exploitation history. He turned out nine films in six years, including the incredible terrestrial JAWS knockoff GRIZZLY. Even when he was making a cash grab, he didn't skimp on entertainment value, and ABBY succeeds with its strong characters played by an absolutely stellar cast. This is certainly a blaxploitation film, as an African-flavored coattail-rider of a mainstream hit, replacing THE EXORCIST'S Pazuzu with a horny Yoruban Orisha. However, the main characters are all hardworking, upstanding suburbanites; even the nightclub scenes are full of regular folks having a good time, not insulting caricatures. Those scenes are actually the weakest of the film since they break up the movie's core cast with a bunch of extras.

William Marshall, best known as Blacula and also the King of Cartoons, is fabulous in this...although he also has a tendency to slow things down just because of his flamboyant style of speech-making. Carol Speed gives a gleefully perverted performance as Abby, though the Orisha is voiced by Bob Holt, who in 1972 voiced the Lorax and the Onceler. I know I shouldn't say "the Onceler" on this website, but the freaks who react to that could really stand to watch something as good as ABBY instead of continuously beating off to children's media. Uh anyway, the actual biggest star of this movie is Juanita Moore, who may not have much to do here, but she was nominated for a fucking Oscar for fucking Douglas Sirk's remake of fucking IMITATION OF LIFE. She is no fucking joke. And there's also the great Austin Stoker, famous for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. This movie may be a typical exploitation picture in many respects, but it is full of talent and made with care.

With all that said, just so I don't run the risk of making ABBY sound like more than it is, I should note that William Marshall expressed dismay at the loosely-handled African elements of the story. It sounds like he recommended some more respectful revisions, and was ignored. However, Carol Speed defended the film, for all that it misrepresents and rips off, as a terrific piece of entertainment. What she said could be applied to any number of exploitation classics: "There are no (new) stories since the Bible."

[scrub-slots]

Blogtober Day 10 - Favorite Magic Anon

Had to draw sword doggo! Also been drawing Lint a lot for these prompts, which wasn’t what I expected??

[kentnaturaltribrid]

Eternally dark and beautiful!

List of Superstitions that I believe in. There’s at least 7 on the list, and of course it’s complicated. About time to have fun with them.

[atlaswebdesigns]

Participating in Blogtober: Worth it or not?

A few days ago, this fellow blogger was trying to prove it to me how unreasonable it is for me to post everyday on my blog as if I’m being forced and when I’m not even getting paid to do it. While, in all honesty, my mind was straight going for a ‘mind your own business’ kind of reply, I decided to keep my calm. The thought suddenly crossed my mind that what if someone else who might be genuinely…

[dezithinks]

Blogtober 2024: Day 30

My little cousin came over for an entire spooky craft day! We of course put on a movie, and got to crafting. She wanted to learn how to crochet, work with polymer clay, air dry clay, foam clay, bracelets, and charms. So, we did it all. Crochet: Spooky Cow (keychain) Pumpkin (Keychain) Ghost (keychain) Clay: Ghost Pumpkin Dinosaur Cat Dog Bracelets: Boo orange and black Purple and…

[iivocom]

A Writer's Block: A Very Serious Problem

Or is it?

So, here we are, smack dab near the end of Blogtober, and I’ve hit a snag. A big, juicy, writer’s block kind of snag. It’s like my brain has suddenly decided to go on vacation, leaving me stranded with a blank page and a deadline looming.

I’ve exhausted my list of ideas, which, let’s be honest, was probably a bit ambitious to begin with. Anyway I picked all the topics I felt I could write about.

I’m starting to think I might be experiencing a full-blown mind-life crisis, but for my writing career. Is that even a thing? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s happening to me right now.

I’ve tried all the usual tricks: staring at the ceiling, drinking excessive amounts of coffee, and listening to inspirational music. But nothing seems to be working. Maybe I should try a more unconventional approach, like writing a blog post about my lack of blog post ideas. Or maybe I should just give up and go watch cat videos on YouTube or sink my mind into another Korean show on Netflix.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll be here, staring at this blank page, hoping for a miracle.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to this year's epic tale of writer’s block (or not) .

for my fellow writer with a case of writer's block - Fun Fact: Did you know that writer’s block is a common experience for writers of all levels? Even the greats like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling have admitted to struggling with it. So, if you’re feeling stuck, don’t worry, you’re not alone.