#the borden dispatches

[ofliterarynature]

physical tbr of doom • read october 2024

Chapelwood Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury DNF

Sheets by Brenna Thummler

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi

[sassmill]

There are few things I love more than some deeply fucked up cosmic horror

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"On April 26, in a meeting room at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC, Chief Justice Thomas Mathers of the Manitoba Supreme Court opened the inaugural meeting of the Royal Commission on Industrial Relations. Justice Mathers told his audience:

The upheaval taking place throughout the world, and the state of men’s minds during this critical period, make this the time for drastic changes of the industrial and social systems of Canada

Before hearing any evidence at all, Mathers was serving notice that his Commission wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

The Commission was the public face of the Unionist government’s response to the wave of unrest sweeping the country. At the same time as White was secretly asking for naval support, and the military and police forces were dispatching their undercover agents to spy on and harass the Reds, the Borden cabinet wanted to show that it was at least considering the demands for progressive reform coming from many quarters of society. It also wanted to assess how much of the present discontent was based on legitimate grievances and how much on the infamous “outside agitators” that employers loved to blame. As a result, not many days after the Western Labor Conference in Calgary, Ottawa announced the creation of the Mathers Commission, consisting of the Chief Justice and six other commissioners: three business representatives and three from the world of labour, including Tom Moore, president of the national Trades and Labor Congress.

Many activists dismissed the commission as a ploy to camouflage the government’s actual disinterest in reform. After it was all over, John Bruce, one of the labour representatives on the Commission, said it was “one of the bitterest lessons that ever I learned about political chicanery.” But this was probably unfair. Government ministers certainly wanted to defuse the powder keg, but they hoped that the Commission might actually do some good, first of all by identifying the extent of the discontent and second by providing some ideas that would help map out a moderate middle ground between left and right. Or, in the words of Chairman Mathers, the commission wanted to find ways “for establishing permanent improvements in the relations between employers and employees.” Obviously the government hoped that organized labour would buy into the moderate option, but this is not the same thing as calling the Commission a cynical ploy designed to drown significant reform in an ocean of talk.

As they set about their business, commissioners could be in no doubt as to the state of mind of Canadian workers. On the second day of hearings in Victoria, E.S. Woodward, a member of the Victoria Trades and Labor Council, served notice that

no government has ever impressed the workers, as a class, with more distrust than the present Government that is sitting at Ottawa.

This defiant tone of opposition was typical of what commissioners would hear over the subsequent seven weeks of testimony as they made their way by train across the country. "I advocate government ownership of everything,” declared machinist Frederick Eldridge in Sudbury, to loud applause from his audience. “I am a Bolshevist,” labour organizer Clifford Dane announced at the Halifax hearing, “and I will warn these two governments that trouble is coming and the men will have what belongs to them.”

In all, commissioners heard from 486 witnesses in twenty-eight cities from Vancouver Island to Cape Breton. Of course, not every witness was a socialist firebrand. Some were business owners who indulged in the customary Red scaremongering. In Vancouver, for example, N.G. Neill, manager of the British Columbia Employers’ Association, warned that the Bolsheviks in the city were being allowed to “undermine our whole system” and warned the commission that “we have to take some steps to stop this intrigue.” Neill was supported by J.J. Coughlan, a shipyard manager, who blamed socialist labour leaders for all the unrest.

Labour representatives often agreed that a crisis was impending. “Yes, my opinion is that we are on the top of a volcano that is not in any way latent,” warned Thomas Barnard of the New Westminster Trades and Labour Council. But they rejected the notion that a conspiracy of extremists led the unrest. Instead they blamed worker discontent on more prosaic causes: low wages, long working hours, the high cost of living, and lack of security. Vancouver shipwright J.W. Wilkinson put it passionately:

They [the workers] just feel that they are like a piece of merchandise, and that their chances of life are a gamble consisting in the possibility of someone coming along tomorrow to buy them for a day or hire their labour just for a little while, having no personal interest in them whatever more than if they were a piece of wood or a piece of brick.

In Calgary, the commissioners heard from William Irvine, a thirty-four-year-old Unitarian minister whose church had removed him from the pulpit for his anti-war opinions. He told them:

I think what the working men generally want today is truly democratic control of industry. Some people talk of evolution and some of revolution. In Calgary evolution means doing nothing and revolution means doing something.

He reassured the panel that he was not proposing violence but rather “a complete fundamental change in the way we live and do business.”

(Another of the witnesses appearing in Calgary was the RNWMP secret agent Frank Zaneth, using his undercover identity of Harry Blask. Zaneth/Blask attended in his capacity as secretary to union leader George Sangster. The commissioners would have had no idea they were playing host to a police spy.)

Commissioners seemed keen on the idea of industrial councils, known in Great Britain as Whitley Councils after the politician who had conceived of them. These were committees that brought together workers and employers in formal sessions to discuss working conditions and other issues. Some witnesses agreed the idea was worth exploring, but most thought councils were a non-issue. "I do not recognize your authority to interfere with the management of the plant at all, declared a defiant Blythe Rogers, president of BC Sugar Refineries. While at the other end of the spectrum, “Why should labour confer with capital?” asked Socialist Party of Canada member Charles Lester.

It is an insult for it to do so. […] We are not going to compromise with the master class at all; not at all; we are going to fight this thing out to a finish; we are going to use our political power to get hold of the reins of government and introduce what measures we think fit, and we shall not show the master class the slightest consideration whatever.

Lester’s language was extreme, but his rejection of councils was typical of the majority of labour representatives meeting with the Commission. In Regina, Saskatchewan, J. Sanbrook, a bricklayer, opposed the idea of councils because they gave an advisory, not a controlling, role to labour. The Commission was operating on the assumption that cooperation was a good thing, he said. Not so. There was a class war going on and cooperation was simply a way

to make a more patient and contented work animal out of a live human being so that the war fattened profiteers may continue their period of prosperity and profit-making.

The Commission reached Winnipeg on May 10. Most of the city’s prominent labour leaders refused to come to City Hall where commissioners were hearing witnesses. One exception was William Ivens, editor of the Western Labor News and founder of the Labor Church (an organization that business leader A.J. Andrews later called “a camouflage for the preaching of sedition and for fanning the flames of unrest”). Like William Irvine in Calgary, Ivens was a former Methodist preacher who had been fired by his own church because he refused to tone down his anti-war rhetoric. Three months before the Royal Commission arrived in the city, he had warned employers in an editorial in the Labor News:

Your system will fall down about your ears with a suddenness and thoroughness that will surprise you. Such was the process in Russia […] and no man or set of men can stem the tide.

Ivens only attended the Commission’s hearing so that he could explain why his comrades were not there. Simply put, the inquiry had been appointed by a federal government “which we feel is entirely hostile to labour,” he said. As such, labour expected absolutely nothing from its deliberations. One of the great orators of the labour movement, Ivens finished his presentation by mocking the call from management for increased productivity and greater thrift:

Now, if I understand greater thrift, it means that the workers shall wear their overalls just a little bit longer, that they carry just a little bit less in their dinner pails, that their homes which today are not kept warm enough shall be kept one or two degrees colder.

(Meanwhile, as Ivens spoke, a boisterous crowd of veterans and their supporters were meeting around the corner from City Hall in Market Square to call on the provincial government either to deport aliens or resign from office.)

It is indicative of the speed with which events were unfolding in the country that the Winnipeg General Strike began just three days after the commissioners left the city. On the one hand, the strike threatened to make their proceedings redundant. The time for talk was over, thought the more alarmist observers; the revolution had already begun. On the other hand, the troubles in Winnipeg added urgency to the commissioners’ desire to hear for themselves what was disturbing labour peace across the country and to propose some solutions.

- Daniel Francis, Seeing Reds: the Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada’s First War on Terror. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. p. 85-88.

[animar64]

Incident In Duwamish Bay Pt. 2

  I  am going to continue this story using Prompts from various writing site today I am the Word of The Day Challenge: Biology Part I of this story is HERE Artist Unknown Her name is Demetra Field and in a small island town in Washington state called Duwamish Bay she is wanted for the murder of her own Grandmother. She used an ax, just like Lizzie Borden, but unlike Lizzie she didn’t dispatch her…

[contre-qui]

Book 10 of 2020: Chapelwood

Chapelwood by Cherie Priest

      I just reviewed Maplecroft (read that one here), the previous book in The Borden Dispatches so maybe read that one first and beware of minor spoilers in this review.

   "'Cosmic...,' I echoed, because the word sounded correct when I wrapped my tongue around it.

'There is something cosmic about it all, isn't there? All these churches, every last one of them is looking up to the sky. It's not like the good old days, when you dug temples out of the earth and talked to snakes. [...]'

    'I don't believe churches typically think of prayer as space exploration, but I'd agree with the sentiment,' she granted.

    '[...] If there's any God out there, He's someplace we can't reach Him. Otherwise, all this nonsense would be put to rest with a quick interview and a sip of holy wine.'

    'You're tragically blasphemous, dear Inspector.'" (307-308)

        Approximately 30 years after the conclusion of Maplecroft, murders under mysterious circumstances begin cropping up in Birmingham, Alabama - considered potentially connected to racial divides. There is also a strange church spreading hatred and a strange darkness through Birmingham. When Inspector Wolf (a familiar face from the last book) arrives on the scene, he calls in Lizbeth Borden because he finds a potential connection to her lost love, Nance. The plot is pretty complicated and I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the book mostly follows a young woman named Ruth whose father attempts to pull her into the strange and dark happenings of the church at Chapelwood. Ruth is afraid of the church, and of its KKK connections. She also gets the feeling something much larger and much darker than the church itself lurks at Chapelwood. Working together with Inspector Wolf and Lizbeth, she attempts to uncover the secrets of the church while staying safe from her father and Chapelwood's reverend.

        While the first book mostly dealt with a Cthulhu-type of Eldritch horror, this book deals with more of a cosmic type of Lovecraftian creature. The character development continued into this novel, and I really enjoyed that Lizzie returned for this novel and seemed reasonable for a person who had aged 30-someodd years and lost multiple people in her life. I also liked that Inspector Wolf was a recurring character, and we find out more about the mysterious agency he works for towards the end of the novel. I also did appreciate that racial issues were discussed in this novel, particularly because the Klan and acts of massive racial discrimination were extremely prevalent at the time and place, so it made a lot of historical sense for this somewhat culty religious group to be tied in with thoughts like that. Just like the first book, Chapelwood was less overtly scary and more creepy and suspenseful, but this one was almost more intriguing because the themes were more existential and less creature-based. The scary part about this book wasn't the Eldritch horror, but rather the people involved in Chapelwood. Additionally, there were a few more traditionally supernatural elements in this novel as opposed to the last; seances were discussed and performed and the existence of other strange and inexplicable creatures/circumstances is discussed. I absolutely loved the ending of this novel and the way it ended in a satisfying yet mysterious way. Nothing is entirely confirmed about one of the questions that comes up partway through the novel, but the ending makes sense and has a touch of sweetness in a way that I wasn't expecting. All in all I thought it really wrapped up the duet and gave satisfying closure in a way fitting to the themes of the books.

        Just like the previous novel, Chapelwood has chapters in multiple perspectives and including multiple media forms. One of the things I really enjoyed about the novel was that one of the chapters was from the perspective of Chapelwood’s reverend. It really adds to the horror of the novel to see into the minds of those who are sympathetic to ideals like the Klan. Whereas in Maplecroft there were actual monsters, Chapelwood deals more with the idea that the people are what makes the story scary. The people become monsters as they fall deeper into hateful ideals.

        Trigger warnings for racial discrimination/violence, mentions of the KKK and their beliefs, use of racist terms, injuries, character death, weaponry (axe, gun), mentions of a mental institution/altered cognitive function caused by head injury, discussions of Christianity, and general horror/creep/suspense.

        My final opinion: A great follow-up to an excellent suspense novel!

[badalijewelry]

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[feedergoldfish]

So when there is nothing left but magic, we start learning spells.

Emma Borden in Maplecroft: The Borden Dispatches, Book 1 by Cherie Priest.

[beardedmrbean]

Syracuse, N.Y. — A 25-year-old man is dead after he was shot in the head and then crashed a vehicle into a house in Syracuse on Sunday night.

A Carbon Street resident called 911 at 10:38 p.m. to report someone had been shot and drove into their home, according to 911 dispatches.

Police found the man on the 200 block of Carbon Street when they arrived, said Lt. Matthew Malinowski, a spokesperson for Syracuse Police.

The man had been shot while in a vehicle around the area, Malinowski said. The man tried to drive away after being shot and crashed into a home, he said.

He was taken to Upstate University Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Malinowski said.

A few hours earlier, at 7:11 p.m., officers responded to another shooting on West Borden Avenue after two people — including a 13-year-old Syracuse boy — showed up at Upstate University Hospital with gunshot wounds, police said.

[anotherenglishmajorxo]

Currently reading:

The Borden Dispatches: Maplecroft by Cherie Prest

Critical Role Vox Machina: Kith & Kin by Marieke Nijkamp

The Mortal Instruments: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

[cheshirelibrary]

Horror Retellings Of Your Favorite Classic Stories

[via Bustle]

Obviously, if you don't like novels based on fairy tales or spooky true stories, this isn't the list of reading recommendations for you. Each of the books on the list below draws from one or more classic sources, such as folktales or century-old novels, to weave a new and scary narrative.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Maplecroft: the Borden Dispatches by Cherie Priest

Speak Easy by Catherynne M. Valente

Strange Practice: a Greta Helsing novel by Vivian Shaw

Alice by Christina Henry

[historyisgaypodcast]

Episode 15: Lizzie Borden Took a Labrys

Way back in the first episode, Leigh and Gretchen formed a historical ‘murder wives’ ship starting with Anne Bonny; in this episode, they take a closer look at murder wife #2: Lizzie Borden! That’s right folks, she too may very well have had a thing for the ladies as well as possibly murdering her father and stepmother. Just how queer was she? Did she have an affair with her maid and her stepmother caught them? Did she fall in love with a glamorous lesbian movie star after the murders? Why was she acquitted and what was society like for a single, Victorian woman who wanted to be in possession of a large fortune and upward social mobility? Find out on this week’s History is Gay!

A Closer Look at Lizzie Borden, The Trial, and Her Potential Loves

If you liked hearing about Lizzie Borden, you may also like…

Plays:

1948: Fall River Legend, a ballet choreographed by Agnes De Mille, most famously known as the choreographer for Oklahoma!, Carousel, Brigadoon, and other classic 1950s American musicals. Takes the Lizzie Borden story and changes the outcome of the jury sentence to guilty.

1965: Lizzie, an opera by Jack Beeson

1990: Lizzie the Musical a rock opera by Tim Maner, Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt called “a gothic rock ritual with a ‘riotgirl’ attitude by NYT and the Village Voice describes the music as “lush tunes that retch sex, rage, dyke heat, misanthropy, and incest.”

Axed: An Evening of One Ax by Carolyn Gage, a collection of two one-act plays, Lace Curtain Irish and The Greatest Actress Who Ever Lived, both focused on women who were intimate with Lizzie during her lifetime, Bridget Sullivan and Nance O’Neil, respectively. Carolyn Gage is the playwright that called Nance O’Neil an “outrageous lesbian”.

Film & Television

1975: The Legend of Lizzie Borden, an ABC television film starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Borden and Fionnula Flanagan as Bridget Sullivan. Fun fact: It was discovered after Elizabeth Montgomery’s death that she was actually Lizzie Borden’s sixth cousin once removed!

2014: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, a Lifetime television film starring Christina Ricci

2017: Lizzie Borden Documentary on the ‘Female Killers’ YouTube channel that we’ll link in the show notes.

2018: Lizzie movie starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny. The film centers around the intimacy between Borden (played by Sevigny) and maid Bridget Sullivan (played by Stewart) in the face of Lizzie’s gross father. Seems pretty gay! By the time this episode airs, it will have just released, which is why we wanted to do this episode!

Other

The Borden Dispatches a duology that reimagines Lizzie as a warrior against supernatural horrors and her parents as possessed.  

Lizzie Borden: Girl Detective novels by the late Richard Behrens are a fictional series of books where young Lizzie solves crimes.

Plus, lots of other fiction books about Lizzie, Bridget, and the murders. Wikipedia is a great place to start your search.

Lizzie Borden Podcast discusses Lizzie’s life, history, background of Fall River, has live readings from plays or radio dramas, and more! There are 11 episodes out and it seems to no longer be running.

The podcast Most Notorious! A true crime podcast also has a Lizzie Borden episode, as do The History Chicks.

If you want to learn more about Lizzie Borden, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles:

An awesome collection of primary source documents from the trial, inquest, and even Lizzie’s will!

Lizzie Borden Didn't Kill Her Parents (Maybe)

The Trial of Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden Took an Axe

Lizzie Borden: Why a 19th-Century Axe Murder Still Fascinates Us

Lizzie Borden and the 1892 Borden Murders

Representing 'Miss Lizzie'

History Goddess: Lizzie Borden Biography

How Lizzie Borden Spent Her Life After Being Acquitted

Silence is Platinum: Nance O'Neil

SISTERS ESTRANGED OVER NANCE O'NEILL

Boston Discovers Miss Nance O'Neil

Testimony of Bridget Sullivan in the Trial of Lizzie Borden

Why Are We So Obsessed With Lizzie Borden?

Early Asexual Feminists: The Asexual History of Social Purity Activists and Spinsters

Original Spin: On the History of the Spinster

Books and Print Articles:

Parallel Lives: A social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River by Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette

A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight by Victoria Lincoln

The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden by Charles River Editors

The Life, Legend, and Mystery of Lizzie Borden by Trey Wyatt

Lizzie: A Novel by Evan Hunter

Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter by Arnold R. Brown

Videos:

Lizzie Borden Documentary

Lizzie the Musical

Chloe Sevigny's Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden Podcast

Most Notorious! Podcast Lizzie Borden

The History Chicks Podcast Lizzie Borden

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

[sassmill]

A playlist for Maplecroft and Chapelwood

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Blood Rose

According to John Fasano’s BLOOD ROSES (1988), 1980s parents were right. Heavy metal really was a tool of the devil. Or at least it is when the mythical band of the title arrives in Mill Basin (played by Hamilton, Ontario) for a series of concerts there that turn the local teens into demons acting out their most violent desires. Before long, nagging mothers, abusive stepfathers and the hot teacher’s girlfriend are being dispatched in various colorful ways. Lest that sound too appealing, I should point out that this Troma release is so loony, I suspect Bugs, Daffy and Elmer were among the concert crowd. Fasano had a larger than usual budget with which to work, so he actually has two name actors in the cast: Julie Adams, who’s pretty much wasted as the local Priscilla Goodbody, and Ken Swofford, who doesn’t just give a performance as the town mayor (clearly a graduate of the same school as the mayor of Amity Island) but actually gives a pretty fine one. The film has some genuinely loopy moments: the studly English teacher relaxing with a beer while listening to Mozart; a monster that must have cost all of $3.50 popping out of a stereo speaker to eat a strict Italian father (played by “Big Pussy” himself, Vincent Pastore), concert goers transformed into plastic skeletons (maybe they didn’t hate their parents enough). It also has some great music by Lizzy Borden and Kult Kobra, which dubbed Black Roses’ performances. “Let’s make blood sing!”

[allbestnet]

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Silent History, The by Horowitz, Eli et al. (Appears on 2 Lists)

Smiler's Fair by Levene, Rebecca (Appears on 2 Lists)

Spirits Abroad by Cho, Zen (Appears on 2 Lists)

Sworn in Steel by Hulick, Douglas (Appears on 2 Lists)

Three Souls by Chang, Janie (Appears on 2 Lists)

Tropic of Serpents: a Memoir by Lady Trent, The by Brennan, Marie (Appears on 2 Lists)

Valour and Vanity by Kowal, Mary Robinette (Appears on 2 Lists)

War Dogs by Bear, Greg (Appears on 2 Lists)

Weirdness, The by Bushnell, Jeremy (Appears on 2 Lists)

Witch with No Name, The by Harrison, Kim (Appears on 2 Lists)

You can view the rest on https://www.bookadvice.co/the-greatest-books-speculative-fiction.html

[contre-qui]

Book 9 of 2020: Maplecroft

(at this point I'm not going to bother with the quarantine tally because this thing is gonna last for like a year)

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest

"'You're looking for magic, Lizzie. God doesn't give us magic, only science.'

'Last century's magic is this year's science,' I argued. [...]

'You're treading on dangerous ground.'

'We're living on dangerous ground. And we can't seem to leave it, so I'll work on making it less dangerous - which, yes, is a dangerous effort in itself.' Exasperated with both her and myself, I threw up my hands. 'I'm not sure what you want from me, Emma. I am doing my best and that's all that can be asked of me.'

'No one is asking more. But I fear for you, out there, downstairs, fighting monsters. You touch those things, and they touch you back.'" (112)

I haven't read a Cherie Priest book in years, but when my mom loaned me this one I was super excited. I had mentioned offhand to her about the Borden murders and my personal theories behind the killer(s), and she grabbed this little beauty for me to read.

       Maplecroft is a sci-fi/Eldritch horror take on the murders of Abigail and Andrew Borden in Fall River, MA. The book doesn't actually focus on their murders; it opens a few years after they have occured and Lizzie Borden has been found innocent by the court. Now, Lizbeth lives with her sister Emma in a new house they call Maplecroft, on the other side of town. Rumors abound about the both of them, especially Lizbeth. Lizbeth, however has bigger issues. Strange monsters threaten her home on a regular basis.  A collection of strange stones she keeps in her basement laboratory call to her. Her research has led to few answers as to what these creatures might be, or what they want. But her trusty axe tends to take care of them. Emma is significantly older than Lizzie, and is suffering from consumption. She has a correspondence partner at a university who believes her to be a man - a doctor of marine biology like himself. When Emma mails him a strange specimen she found on the beach for his examination and interest, he becomes sucked into this world of monsters too. And back in Fall River, people are starting to become affected with a strange sickness that bloats and slows the body, addles the mind, and looks eerily similar to what affected Andrew and Abigail Borden before their murders. These strange happenings are all connected somehow, but the full picture is unclear until the very end.

       This was such a well-written novel. The word choice was excellent, and I loved the way Priest was able to write her characters and their development. The novel switches between perspectives by using different correspondences and journal entries of the characters to round out the story and clue readers in to a number of factors and details before the characters themselves are able to get the whole picture. We also get perspective from the affected professor, which really adds a level of creep-factor to the whole thing. As he falls deeper into madness, his justification for his actions becomes twisted and terrifying, really adding to the strangeness of the story. I loved the cast of characters - from real people like Emma and Lizzie, to fictional add-ons like a local doctor, an actress, a government investigator, and even the one-off perspectives of people like telegram operators. Even characters we met only once were interesting and dynamic. I personally enjoyed the inclusion of a small romance between Lizbeth and an actress named Nance, who became involved in the whole situation as well. Not only was I pleased to see a queer relationship written so casually, even in a novel set Victorian Massachusetts, but it wasn't even the main focus of the book. I think the fact that Nance could have been a man without much changing the story really makes that little inclusion special because it shows a conscious choice on Priest's part to represent queer people in a time period when we are often written out of history.

Overall, if you're into creepy, Lovecraftian horror, you'll probably like this. Maplecroft veers more towards creepy and suspenseful than actually scary, but maybe if you're more sensitive to monsters/suspense than I am that might make it scarier. Plus, if you're also a fan of true crime or you know about the Borden murders, this is a super interesting take on a real event that doesn't have a distinct conclusion.

        Trigger warnings for violence, blood, monsters, character death, killing/murder/self defence, illness, weaponry (axe, gun), mentions of Christianity/religion, and general creepiness. Also Lovecraft was a massive racist so if you don't like things based on that type of Eldritch horror I guess keep that in mind, but this does not have racist leanings; it's just a use of that type of monster.

       My overall opinion: An extremely creative idea, executed brilliantly!

[vansypencil]

Reading Report Task – Walking

1, The theory of Derive- Guy Debord

 In 1956, Guy Debord introduced to the world with a creative method, the Derive. His definition was to encourage artists to go out and walk fast through various terrains without minding their work, relations, leisure activities or any other occupations in order to put attention to where they are and what they encounter.

 He firmly strengthened his points of view in the essay. He argued that it is best to have a derive in an urban area where one can freely access from one specific neighbourhood to the next one, despite the factor, chance. One still has diversity of information, because the characteristics of area are not defined by boundary lines, whether by geographical and economic factors. The derive has been unwillingly to dispatch itself from the historical landscape, even though other conventions have been attached on it to emphasise its resistant characteristics over its revolutionary ones, said Lavery (2018, p. 3).

 It is how the psychogeography of how residents perceive them. His idea is supported by a student’s habit living in the 16th Arrondissement, who shows how modest one acknowledges perceived zones.

 With his highly critical voice on the mentioned derive, his argument become more solid, such as four surrealists in 1923, Pierre Vendryes in May 1954 for uncareful selected places and careless mind. However, inadvertent journey often gives the significant result. Doing differently does not mean derive is considered to be failure, new idea and definition might come unexpectedly.

 The number of people and the chosen area that derive might be draw from the experience of surrealists above. Derive can be done as small groups of people or individuals with the same level of acknowledgement, highlighted Debord. Additionally, the country is not the most ideal regions to derive, as its limitation of variation in the environment. His point might be correct at that period of time; nevertheless, in this continuously changing era, countryside can become full of potential.

 Debord provided that the most beneficial duration of a derive is one day. It is not a specific amount of time. Multiple of derive are constrained for a few moments or hours, even months. He does not highly recommend these durations spent on derive.

 The next point he mentioned loosely that derive can involve in talking to strangers, walking or exploring illegal areas and hitchhiking interminable throughout a city. Random ingredients can be added. Lavery (2018, p. 2) supported: “derive is a condition full of hope and terror, pleasure and pain, possibility and danger, and different subjects undergo it in different ways.” Pyyry (2018) reckoned the derive can become a process of “becoming with” to herself: an on-going discovery of the urban through transitory encounters.

  REFERENCES:

 Debord, G. (1958) Theory of the Derive. Available at: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm (Accessed: 21 October 2020)

 Lavery, C. (2018) ‘Rethinking the Dérive: Drifting and theatricality in theatre and performance studies’, Performance research, 23(7), pp. 1–15.

 Pyyry, N. (2018) ‘From psychogeography to hanging‐out‐knowing: Situationist dérive in nonrepresentational urban research’, Area (London 1969), 51(2), pp. 315–323.

      2,     Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique if Architecture - Iain Borden

        Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique if Architecture of Iain Borden concentrates on how modern architecture utilizes space and the manner it is perceived and used by the city dwellers. Specifically, from the point of view of skateboarder, he criticises the rigid conception that urban metropolitans have on the manner in which architecture and city space is exploited. Borden applies closely the urban and social theories of Henri Lefebvre, and complements the Situationist International to support his points.

 In the first paragraph of his critique, Lefebvre’s quote is used to predict the form of city might become in the future as the new element is developing within the centre of the urban infrastructure. According to Karl- Max political theory, the conflict between new arising conceptions and deep-rooted prejudices will happen, then new intellectual will be born in the end of the fight, and fresh definition will appear and deconstruct old one, like a loop of either development or destruction. Skateboarding is the new definition, turned from ocean surf into suburban drive, invaded from semi-suburban terrain to the city central (Stevens, 2001).

 From that, skateboarding has a rough experience with invisible relations such as finance, place, time, gender, ideology, etc., which means skaters are standing against predominant conceptual area obviously governed by geographical and economic factors (Debord, 1958). Due to, being emptied by industrialization and commercialization, the city has lost its meanings, and skateboarding is going upstream to be shape the image of city infrastructure in the future.

 Similar arguments, based on Borden’ skateboarding idea, could be on roller skating or street football since they also make use of urban architecture with the comparable development history.

Skateboarding within the inner city become a challenge to break themselves out of their closed boundaries, a critique of the emptiness of meanings. “In part this is to prevent social conflict, but it is also an attempt to write anew, not to change meaning but to insert a meaning where previously there was none.”, said Borden (2001, p. 6). The handrail is just for safety meaning until skaters grind on it; without cars, parking lot is just formal and unfunctional. Monaghan (2001) provided the answer from her interview, skateboarding does have a meaning with it, however, it’s critique that only appears when they skate. The act of skateboarding does not only enlarge the meanings of the surrounds, but also of skaters simultaneously. Additionally, Freeman and Riordan (2002) stated the relationship between young millennials, public space and the tools combine as one and implement meanings for each another.

Industrialization and commercialization also divide urban infrastructure into fragmented sections according to its function. Skaters have the role to unite the whole macro architecture urbanism as one unlimited playground, “anything is a part of the run” (Peralta). This playground includes micro non-attractive things such as bench, fire hydrant, kerb or rail, … As skating, they notice the smallest cracks on the terrain information beneath their feet, whether it’s smooth or rough.

Life drawing activity has the similarity to skating. Sketchers notice the most ordinary elements in the world, which minority of metropolitans look at them more than five seconds. They know how buildings line up together, how big the tree is comparing with a person sitting underneath it, … Everything is brought to attention, with eyes. However, skateboarding involves the thorough sense of senses and body.  Skaters are responsive to the sounds of the environment, such as siren, car’s engine, people, … to adjust their speed, grip and predictability. Like sketchers, they utilize the “canvas” condition for creations and randomness; such as how the brushes work on the canvas/ paper comparing to how the wheels or/and the board grind on the surface. They adapt to the provided conditions, turn them into personal enjoyment.

The questions of nature, “Who am I?”/ “What are you?”, raised, after unanswered political questions paragraph. The questions are in present tense, nonetheless, the answers are not for the present, they are for the future, with skateboarding within it.

    REFERENCES:

 Borden, I. (2001) Another Pavement, Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique if Architecture.

 Debord, G. (1958) Theory of the Derive. Available at: http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/2.derive.htm (Accessed: 22 October 2020)

 Monaghan, P. (2001) ‘Skateboarding as “Liberation Architecture”.(Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body )’, The Chronicle of higher education, 48(4), p. A.16.A.–

 Stevens, Q. (2001) ‘Skateboarding, Space, and the City: Architecture and the Body’. Sage Publications, Inc, p. 2087–.

 Freeman, C. and Riordan, T. (2002) ‘Locating Skateparks: The Planner’s Dilemma’, Planning, practice & research, 17(3), pp. 297–316.