PROLOGUE: This past spring, very much at the last minute, I decided to grow an organic garden in my back yard. It started because I was at Home Depot for some other reason, and they had a display full of seed packets for 50 cents each. That's how you get sucked in. "Only 50 cents each? Cool! I can grow 10 different vegetables for 5 bucks plus tax!"
The title captures the four areas that I'd expect to be reporting on constantly.
"Veggies"--Well, I'll be growing a few flowers and fruits, but the bulk of the garden has been/will be vegetables.
"Varmints"--Birds, squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, and insects all caused issues this year, and need be factored into the discussion.
"ROI"--For me, this isn't just a financial concern, but also time invested and the enjoyment my family gets out of it. Basically I'll be using "ROI" in this thread as a proxy for "is it worth the time/energy/money?" To give a couple of examples, my daughters (ages 9 and 5) really got into it, so I found gardening to be a fun way to spend time with the girls and slip in a little natural science on the sly, but I spent wayyyyyy more time weeding this year than I'd like. Reducing the latter would greatly improve "ROI."
"Rotting"--Compost, baby! Let it ROT! I have excellent space and opportunity for composting, and probably much of what gets posted over the next few months will reflect the progress of my efforts in this arena. And of course if this goes well, the need for soil amendments will be reduced drastically.
The media don't understand the kinds of problems and pressures 54 million come wit'!
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-22-2018 at 08:55 AM.
Visit Ben E Lou's homepage!
Here's what I have going in my favor.
As you may also be able to tell from the pic, the yard slopes toward the back fairly significantly, a fact that I leveraged somewhat with a quickly-thrown-together rain barrel irrigation system, and will use much more extensively next year.
ABUNDANT SUNSHINE--As you view the pic above, the sun rises to the left, moves across the sky slightly toward the back of the yard, and sets to the right. Even the area a few inches on our side of the fence is in direct sunlight from roughly 7:30am-2:00pm for the entire spring and summer, and the plants farthest from it get direct sun until around 4:30 or 5.
EXCELLENT AREA FOR A COMPOST PILE--I can't dig or till in the little nook created by the storage shed and the corner of the fence, because electrical and cable TV lines run through that area. However, the hidden nature of it makes it a great location for composting. No worries about smell or eyesore back there. Behind it is a small treeline and then the golf course that you can glimpse through some breaks in the trees in the pic.
PLENTY OF GRASS CLIPPINGS TO COMPOST--Yeah..big yard ftw.
SUPPORTIVE/HELPFUL NEIGHBORS--On many fronts, the neighbors just on the other side of the fence from the garden are awesome, and they're pretty much all-in when it comes to helping with the composting effort in particular. The upcoming "liabilities" post would mention the fact that our yard has fewer trees, and thus fewer dead leaves, than any one of them around, and we need "brown" matter to offset all the "green" grass and kitchen scraps. (More on composting details later.) Besides the fact that they're a family of six and they save their kitchen scraps for my compost pile, in the past few weeks they've been texting me before they're about to rake leaves so I can dump the bags in my yard and then they re-use them.
Also, they own that fence between our yards. (It was already there. We built the other three sides in our yard when we moved in.) It's on its last legs, and they actually asked us if we are ok with them changing it to a different type. (Non-privacy.) Of course we said that it's 100% their decision, but they insisted that because it affects us, they want to know what we think. The honest answer is that we don't really need "privacy" in the back yard, and both of our back decks are so high that we can easily see one another over the fence as it is anyway. Not to mention that the type that they're likely going to do would allow the sun through, thus giving my entire garden 10+ hours.
LARGE RAIN BARREL--A month or two ago, I picked up a 275-gallon IBC tote, cut the top cap in the shape of a downspout adapter, elevated it 2 feet off the ground with cinder blocks, purchased a cam lock-->garden hose adapter for it, and will run drip irrigation from it next year.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-22-2018 at 10:29 AM.
Oh hell yes. The previous resident at my house had a very nice raised bed garden in the back yard, and I got really excited to take this up when I first moved in, and quickly got overwhelmed and just end up chopping down weeds instead. I'm looking forward to reading this and will hopefully join in next year!
I am not without challenges.
VARMINTS--Here's a quick rundown of the animal/insect issues I ran across this year.
Groundhogs or rabbits (both have been spotted in the back yard numerous times) wreaked havoc on my squash, zucchini, and cucumber leaves early in the season, though I'm happy to report that all the plants attacked did come back and produce, despite nearly all their leaves beating eaten. A cocktail of granulated garlic and ground cayenne seemed to do the trick in keeping them at bay for the rest of the season.
...the ones that stood a little too close to the fence had their entire tops eaten by squirrels perched on the fence, so several of them grew to 8-10 feet tall but with no bloom in the middle.
Either squirrels or rabbits (I'm thinking squirrels, as they seemed to ignore the garlic/cayenne smell in other places in the yard as well) ate my cilantro over and over. We were never able to harvest any of it at all.
From what I've gathered from talking to a couple of experts here, as well as from what of the classes I've taken, insects are particularly problematic for organic gardening in the NC Piedmont. We had both squash bugs and squash vine borers do some damage this year.
HOT DRY SUMMERS--I've never lived in a climate like this. The temperatures are similar to what I experienced in GA and SC, but the frequent summer thunderstorms we had in those states aren't really a thing in this neck of the woods. We got very little rain this year at the time the seeds needed to be watered daily, and had multiple periods of little/no rain for over a week during the summer. I'm hoping the drip irrigation from the rain barrel will be a much better solution to this than the copious use of the sprinkler this summer.
SURROUNDED BY A WEED-Y YARD--Combine a back yard as large as ours, most of which is in direct sunlight 10-12 hours every day, with long periods of little/no rain, it's no surprise that grass is extremely difficult to grow there. At some point, I intend to install a full irrigation system back there, but until I can do that, it's folly to even try to grow grass; its simply too much effort and cost to water it as much as it needs. (I tried one year. Ugh.) Even the lawn service guy who looked at it said something along the lines of, "we can treat it, overseed it, and fertilize it, but you're gonna have to water the HELL out of it to get it to grow and maintain. You need to know that before you hire us." So the back yard, though green in color most of the time, is, oh, 95-99% weeds. Even though I tilled the garden area last year, weeds galore grew there. I'm sure there were tons of seeds in the soil, and plenty of others flying around from the rest of the yard.
LONG FAMILY VACATION--We typically take a 10ish-day trip every summer. This year our great neighbors vacationed at the same time, so they couldn't help us out, either. I hired a middle school girl who lives nearby to pick some stuff and water it a couple of times, but it's not the same.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-24-2018 at 05:32 PM.
Nice! I'll drop in a few tips I've picked up.
Following. We save hundreds of dollars a year with our vegetable gardens, which are going on eight years at this location (and thus finally hitting their stride). I imagine the challenges between VT and NC are very, very different... e.g., we have a frost warning tonight.
Here's a quick plant-by-plant rundown of what I put in the ground this spring and how it did.
BASIL--Massive success. I bought three small basil plants from Home Depot. All produced extremely well and my wife made a ton of pesto. Had to give a fair bit away to next-door neighbors, as it was too much for even freezing the pesto at times. Came to enjoy a basil, bacon and tomato sandwich this summer. Three times I was able to cut off larger branches, stick 'em in the ground, and they grew entirely new basil plants.
BELL PEPPERS--Bought seedlings and transplanted them. Decent harvest. No real issues, but didn't produce a ton of peppers.
CANTELOPE--Grew from seeds. Thinned to two plants. They produced four tasty cantelopes over the course of the summer.
CILANTRO--One plant, bought as a seedling. It grew GREAT, but as mentioned earlier, rodents (likely squirrels) absolutely loved this one. We were never able to harvest any of it, though it continued growing back again and again after being just about completely stripped of leaves repeatedly. I'm going to grow this in a portable container on the deck next year, and bring it inside at night. My wife and I both love cilantro.
CUCUMBERS--Seeds. These were interesting. Early in the harvest we were getting a ton of these with AMAZING flavor. They were actually a bit sweet. Our 9-year-old was eating them as a snack, even. The mid-summer, they started becoming yellow and bitter-tasting. Not sure what happened. I couldn't find anything on the internet that looked like what was happening. In case it was a disease or fungus that's in the soil, I'm going to move these to a different location this year and make sure not to grow any squash or zucchini in that area, either.
MARIGOLDS--Small plants. I interspersed these flowers throughout the garden, as they repel a fair number of insects. Seemed to work well, as only a couple of plants had major insect issues. These grew like CRAZY to the point that I had to cut part of the mini-bushes out because they were prohibiting sunlight to some other plants.
MINT--Seedlings. Egad, I had no idea how invasive this could be. Fortunately I was talking with another home gardener who mentioned how they send out roots and new plants throughout their vicinity, so I checked mine fairly early in the summer before they had spread too much, and sure enough, the roots were running all over the place and tiny mint plants were coming up everywhere. My wife and one daughter both love mint in their tea and with some meals, so I'll see about growing this in a container.
ROSEMARY--Seedling. This herb did well, though nothing special. We don't really use rosemary much, so I'm not sure why my wife asked me to grow it.
SQUASH AND ZUCCHINI--Seeds. These were doing great early on, then suffered the great groundhog attack. They came back strong and produced a solid crop until squash bugs and squash vine borers destroyed them completely. I'm considering going non-organic with these next year by just using good ol' Sevin dust.
STRAWBERRIES--We planted one strawberry seedling because my 5-year-old was with me at Home Depot when I bought the herbs, and one strawberry seedling was misplaced among the herbs. She saw the picture of the strawberry, and we just HAD to plant strawberries. It wasn't expected to produce much until next year. We've probably had around 10 strawberries from it this year. Knowing it was a perennial, I put it in the corner of the garden so I can easily just till around it next spring, and maybe add a few more strawberry plants in that area.
SUNFLOWERS--Seeds. Did great once I realized that birds would eat the seedlings. All of the mammoths grew to 8ish feet or taller. If the neighbors change the fence before spring, I should be able to grow a bunch of these.
WATERMELON--Seeds. Just two made it, but each one produced a juicy, tasty melon.
WILDFLOWERS--Seeds. Home Depot sold a "pollinator attracting" wildflower package said to cover up to 250 square feet, and that can simply be thrown over the area and raked into loose soil. Easy to do right after tilling, and inexpensive to cover such an area. It worked great in the sense that there were tons of butterflies and bees in the wildflower area all spring and summer. I may use some of the wildflower area for composting next year. We'll see.
Following. We save hundreds of dollars a year with our vegetable gardens, which are going on eight years at this location (and thus finally hitting their stride).
I imagine the challenges between VT and NC are very, very different...e.g., we have a frost warning tonight.
Heh. Just checked. It's 88 degrees here right now. Low tonight expected to be 64.
We have a small garden we made in our yard. It's a 4 x 6 area enclosed by some boards. We did cauliflower, potatoes, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I don't know what happened to the potatoes. However, the tomatoes did well for a while we got one good bunch of tomatoes. Then the monarch caterpillars came. They destroyed both of the cauliflower plants and almost killed both of the tomato plants.
As of right now, we have a bell pepper plant that looks dead, another one that looks similar but has some small peppers on it. Our tomato plants are doing well and just started sprouting some more tomatoes. I imagine that will be our last bunch of the year.
Good luck in your adventure. I'll be watching.
Heh. I hadn't ever quantified it before, but some quick math says our gardens save us more than $700 per summer.
By way of context, we live in rural Vermont. Our county of about 30,000 people has exactly one stoplight, but strong agricultural traditions and diversified farms everywhere you turn. This combination has significant pros and cons for food.
Cons: It's about 40 minutes to supermarkets and intriguing restaurants. There is no local takeout, there is no delivery, period. You have to cook whether you feel like it or not.
Pros: We are surrounded by farms and fresh food. We grow lots ourselves and buy most directly from farmers. During the summer, we eat many meals where all the meats and vegetables come either from our yard or from the diversified farm two houses down. A substantial majority of our food comes from within 10 miles of our house. Almost all of it comes from within 50 miles.
We currently have about 900 square feet of vegetable gardens (three 25x12 beds). We grow asparagus, apples, kale, basil, snap peas, pole beans, carrots, garlic, cilantro, parsley, dill, tomatoes, tomatillos, halloween pumpkins, and lots of flowers and perennials. An additional herb garden has chives, oregano, more parsley, and several kinds of mint. Someday we hope to add fourth and fifth beds for mesclun, onions, blueberries and raspberries, along with a few more apple trees.
We do this mostly because its delicious. A carrot fresh out of the ground tastes completely different even than a carrot picked yesterday. Kale picked fresh is sweet and bears no resemblance to the bitter green stuff you find in stores. Eggs that were laid and collected this morning are a totally different color (vibrant orange, not yellow). That growing our own food saves so much money is a side benefit.
Wow. My 96 square feet of growing space this year (6 4x4 beds) and planned 210 square feet next year (2 3x30 areas and one 30-foot row) both pale by comparison. That's awesome!
Yup. Stuff tastes sooooo much better coming out of the garden.
Excited to follow along. I love gardening and have my own 25'x5' plot on the south side of my house in the DC suburbs. For both good and ill, however, the neighborhood is lush with 50+ year old oak trees, so no square inch of land in my yard gets more than 6 hours of sunshine a day. That's too little for a lot of veggies to thrive. But I can grow lettuce, kale, chard and other leafy greens successfully. The limited hours of sunlight keep them from bolting quite as quickly as they would otherwise.
It's been so rainy in NoVA this year that even crops that do OK for me--I'm usually able to get a few squash, zucchini and pole beans to grow, but all the rain in August and September made this year's crop really poor. I had one squash and had my first harvest of 30-40 beans just this weekend. Most years, we're already sick of both by now. Sounds like your growing season in NC was better than ours.
I'll be following along, looking for hints and ideas as a rookie vegetable growing hobbiest myself.
I started container vegetable growing on my deck about 4 years ago, started out with one container for a couple of tomato plants and got a bit carried away and ended up with eight containers spread across my deck. Due to tomato wilt, pests and rookie mistakes I didnt get a great harvest that year. The only successful harvests were a mountain of tomatillos (which we had no idea what to do with so most went to waste) and a buttload of Habanero peppers (which were a pretty bright shiny orange, but made any recipe taste worse).
Last couple of years I'd been a bit half-assed, occasional tomato plants but not the full set of containers, so this year was the first full return for Farmer Critch's Container Garden of Bounty.
Successes were tomatoes (10 assorted cherry and grape tomato plants provided regular handfuls of tomatoes, and kept Fatty the Groundhog visiting my deck every day), cucumbers (4 plants giving around a cucumber per day over the summer), Jalapenos (two plants, about 100 peppers picked and popped in freezer bags. Only ate one straight from the plant, it tasted of pain and burning), snow peas (from seeds, got a couple of bowl-fulls out of them), and eggplants (there's still about 10 on the plants, but we're sick of eggplants now). Courgettes just about earned their place after a slow start, and Squash plants were a waste of time (two plants produced 1 squash and about 40 billion squash bugs).
End of July/Beginning of August I tried clearing out some space for a second planting. Spinach, Turnips, Kale, Chard, Collards and Broccili all from seed. It's not worked out well, the previously mentioned NoVa rainy season held things back and then something came onto my deck and bit off all the leaves (maybe a deer, seen them on my deck before). The plants are bouncing back now, resprouting leaves despite squirrels digging in my containers, but first predicted frost is about 10 days away so probably too late. Looks like the second planting will result in no veggies.
Plans for next year are my containers again, plus adding two 12x6 raised garden areas in my back yard below the deck. I thought 2x12x6 was a bit ambitious until reading some of the plans on here.
It's wicked kewl science-y stuff. It's an interesting challenge to eyeball the right mix and layering of leaves, grass, water, and kitchen scraps to get that pile heated up to 150 degrees or more.
If all goes well, I could reduce costs by $250 or more on soil amendments.
That's pretty much it for me. Yeah, there are other good reasons to do it, but those two do it for me.
I'm doing an outdoor pile without any sort of framing/containing. From my reading, it seems like if doing it this way is an option for you (i.e. if you have enough space and there aren't aesthetic concerns,) that's the easiest and least expensive method. My pile is over 120 feet from the back of the house, in a corner of the yard shielded by the fence on two sides, storage shed on a third, and tall (over 4 feet in some cases) wildflowers on the fourth. For those unfamiliar with composting process, here are the key pieces as it relates to what I'm doing.
The decomposition process, when a "hot" pile is large enough to be self-insulating, produces heat. I'm shooting to maintain a temperature of 140 degrees or more, because 140 is consistently touted as the temperature above which weed seeds are killed, and a fair number of those are/will be in my pile.
Adding a bit of water and dirt is recommended when building a pile--something I've done previously, but forgot to do today when I expanded my pile greatly. We'll see if that hurts me.
I have virtually no dead leaves in my yard--not even enough to be bothered with raking them, so I have to get them elsewhere. I've previously been collecting them from my next-door neighbor, but today (lawn waste day in my part of Greensboro) I went all-out: took the back seat out of the Sienna, covered the bed with trashbags, dropped the girls off at school at 7:15, then rode throughout my neighborhood until I'd filled the back of the vehicle with bags of leaves.
Starbucks keeps their coffee grounds for gardeners. Apparently, those things are GOLD for compost piles. A couple of weeks ago I went around to six nearby Starbucks (yes, there are six of 'em within 3.5 miles of my house. I live in a yuppie-land...) and filled the aforementioned van with bags of grounds.
The main part of my pile right now is roughly 6 feet by 6 feet, and 2.5 feet high. Ideally, a pile should be turned when the temperature of it drops, roughly weekly, so I probably don't want mine to get much bigger than that. I may create a second pile next week with another run through the neighborhood. We'll see.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-24-2018 at 07:39 PM.
Golden, right? Well, I didn't feel like the pile was large enough. More on that in my next report. Time to respond to some comments first.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-25-2018 at 06:47 PM.
Better, but not as good as I would have hoped. Definitely not having as much sun is a challenge. Our next-door neighbors tried to grow on the other side of the fence and didn't fare well at all, likely because of the lack of sunlight.
I started container vegetable growing on my deck about 4 years ago, started out with one container for a couple of tomato plants and got a bit carried away and ended up with eight containers spread across my deck.
Due to tomato wilt, pests and rookie mistakes I didnt get a great harvest that year. The only successful harvests were a mountain of tomatillos (which we had no idea what to do with so most went to waste) and a buttload of Habanero peppers (which were a pretty bright shiny orange, but made any recipe taste worse).
Heh. Growing stuff you don't like to eat just 'cause you can? Yeah..I can see me doing that.
I mean, do we *really* need rodents????
I guess this is a good time to share my thinking on my general layout for next year--specific plants and locations subject to change, of course.
Each cell in Excel represents one square foot of land. The green areas are where I plan to grow stuff. The brown ones are just walkways that will be covered in landscape fabric and mulched over for near-100% weed prevention. (The 3-foot-wide walkway in the middle probably ends up being two feet if you turn me loose in the seed department, though, because I'll want another 30 square feet of growing space when all is said and done. Let's just be honest. ) Note that there are essentially six "rows" where root systems will begin. I intend to lay the drip lines from the rain barrels straight down those rows, and seed/plant in the areas right by the holes in the line, so I don't have to use city water to keep the seeds/seedlings moist in their critical times.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-25-2018 at 12:08 PM.
Your composting plan sounds great. Many farmers here believe in and talk about healthy soil: soil that is rich not just in the right kinds of nutrients but also in organic matter and bacteria.
If there are horses or cows near you, I'd recommend filling the back of the Sienna with that too. Cow manure is best, but horse manure will do just fine and is usually free. Enough natural fertilizer and there will be no need to buy soil amendments for a home garden.
Above is my private courtyard setup soon. I'm wondering if it's possible to have a dwarf peach tree in one corner, and maybe some other plants? I like the idea of planting some things there once I fully move in.
Sure, but you'll need to find plants that fit the conditions. It looks like dry sandy soil (?) and mostly shaded, so you'll want to find plants that are comfortable with that profile and with whatever climate zone you are in.
Golden, right? Well, I didn't feel like the pile was large enough. More on that in my next report.
COMPOSTING--Go Big And Get HOT!
The garden will be roughly 400 square feet total, 240 of that growing space. In order to get 2-3 inches of compost, it's ~40-60 cubic feet of compost for growing space only, ~70-100 cubic feet for the whole area. The pile I had as of the weekend was maybe 4x5, and 2ish feet high--only 40 cubic feet, and of course as everything decomposes, it's going to shrink.
This past weekend being the first one after Florence in our significantly-wooded neighborhood, there were lots of leaves to rake (well, for other people,) and twigs to gather. Coming home from a late Sunday afternoon errand, I couldn't help but notice the dozens upon dozens of bags of leaves and grass by the curbs, ready to be just WASTED, BEGGING to be composted instead. I wish I'd taken a picture of the back of the van when it was full. There were around a dozen large bags of pretty much pure leaves, and 2 or 3 grass/leaf mixtures (people who didn't rake before they cut the grass, in other words.) Perfect!
I've seen conflicting information regarding how much these piles reduce in size. It's currently roughly 90 cubic feet, but I'd expect it to drop to somewhere in the 40-70 range. (Like I said, conflicting info, so wide range.) Point being, I'm relatively confident I'm going to want to do one more pile roughly this same size to fill out my needs. Not sure if there will be enough bags out on the curbs Sunday night/Monday morning to do it on Monday, but we'll see. It's weird being at the mercy of all my neighbors to do this. I'm also completely out of used coffee grounds, so I'll try to find some time later this week or into the weekend to hit all those Starbucks Coffee stores again.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-25-2018 at 07:43 PM.
Five tomato plants have sprung up in a small area. I'm guessing these are from the poop of all the birds eating them from the vines. , as they're too far away from where the original tomatoes grew to be from fallen ones. Not sure if they'll have a chance to produce before it gets too cold, but kinda fun to see.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-25-2018 at 07:48 PM.
Very nice work with the compost! I've never sustained attention well enough to use our compost bins as anything other than a raccoon/skunk/chipmunk/squirrel feeder.
On manure, a wide variety of paths available, none of them wrong.
We use horse manure simply because the neighbors have horses and want to get rid of their waste. He brings it over in the fall with his tractor and dumps it into the middle of the gardens and then I spread it out about four inches deep with an iron rake. It's not well-composted at first but it breaks down fine beneath the snow by spring. The internet will tell you that this is the least efficient way of doing it but it's free so what do I care?
Others spread fresh cow manure in the fall or very early spring. Usually this is done with a spreader. If you don't have vehicle access to your backyard, don't bother with this approach. Fresh cow manure is . . . wet.
Many farms actively monetize their waste. Some local farms probably sell bulk manure, and probably there is someone with a dump truck who runs a delivery business on the side. Ask around. Other farms might sell bagged, composted manure as a value-added product. And there's the store-bought approach, which is fine too. Either way, generally think about spreading fresh manure in the fall, and composted manure in the spring--probably somewhere in the ballpark of one to four inches deep depending on whether it's fresh (more) or composted (less) and whether the soil is poor (more) or already rich (less). You can work it in a little bit but more and more I'm swayed towards a no- or less-till approach. Don't bury the good stuff.
Other common supplemental approaches involve chickens and worm bins.
All of this is fine in my view--whatever works best for you with available resources.
To be more specific, do we really need these two?
I put out a trail camera to see what was messing with my containers and these two were quite brazen.
Background shows the other problem, my backyard backs onto a wooded trail so the actual yard is a constant fight against weeds as the woods try to reclaim the ground. So my raised gardens down at ground level might be difficult. Sometime in the past somebody has covered the garden in landscaping fabric to try and squelch the weeds (failed), so I may have to rip that up first.
Last edited by Critch : 09-25-2018 at 09:15 PM.
Wednesday, 9/26--Measured in several places in the morning. Ranged from 158 to 163. The thermometer probe is 6 inches, and even when I didn't push it deeper than that, it was still in the upper 150s/low 160s.
Thursday, 9/27--Last night, for the first time since Florence (~10 days) we got serious rain--probably enough to get the outer parts of the pile too wet. This morning, the temperature at 6 inches was 151, but it was still in the upper 150s further in. Some more rain is expected today. I may end up turning the pile this weekend to get better wet/dry distribution.
Speaking of that, turning the pile is another area where there seems to be a pretty wide range of disagreement regarding what is the best practice. Rather than putting specific date/week times on it, I'm thinking that I'll base it on temperature. Given that so far it hasn't been hard to keep the temperature in the 150s, I'm thinking I'll just turn it when the temperature drops to around 145, to give it a few more degrees to drop at the time of the turn before it gets under weed-kill threshold.
Rained a lot yesterday afternoon and overnight. 6-inch depth temp down to 147, center is at 153. Looks like *maybe* a little more rain today, then likely dry for a while. I'm thinking if I can wait until Sunday evening/Monday morning to turn the pile again, I can probably pick up some dry leaves to mix into the pile.
1. As has been mentioned, I NEED to kill weed seeds. I hated dealing with weeds as much (if not more) than dealing with rodents last year.
2. Anyone who knows my MP gaming habits knows I'm an optimizer. I find doing it this way to be fun, at least for now. Even though I know 140 is fine to deal with the weeds, I like shooting for 160.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-28-2018 at 08:35 AM.
Count us among those who throw whatever into the compost bins all season long. In the spring there'll be some dirt in the bottom if I need it. It's the composting equivalent of the tried-and-true "set and forget!" approach to FOF gameplanning.
I'm also completely out of used coffee grounds, so I'll try to find some time later this week or into the weekend to hit all those Starbucks Coffee stores again.
Another comment on this. I've probably read more than a couple dozen pieces on composting, helpful hints, etc. Coffee grounds are mentioned quite frequently as composting/gardening gold. However, at least in the things I've read, it's extremely rare for someone to mention "oh yeah...just go to Starbucks and you can get all the grounds you need, and at no cost."
Anyway, here's what I got yesterday, and a close-up of what's written on them for more info.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 09-28-2018 at 11:59 AM.
As I mentioned earlier, the NC Extension service has been an outstanding resource for me. Besides just their web site--which gives a ton of detail regarding climate, terrain, and soil not just for the state, but is county-specific (which matters here...we've got mountains, piedmont, and coastal plains here, and even though, say, Charlotte is only 90 minutes away and both are piedmont, there are still some fairly significant differences between here and there)--they offer free classes several times per week on various aspects of agriculture. I've attended two of these classes so far, and both were gold mines of information, though one turned out to be more specific to my needs than the other.
Learning and following best practices will lead to best results in your vegetable garden. Topics will include how to prepare the soil, the selection and timing of vegetable varieties, good upkeep, and using integrated pest management techniques to control insects and diseases organically. Growing your own food can be economical, educational, and fun.
This course ended up being a near bulls-eye. In fact, in pulling up my notes from that class to write this entry, my only regret is that I didn't refer to those notes more frequently as I did my garden this year. I specifically recall when I came home and my wife asked how useful the class was, and my response was "it was overwhelmingly excellent," in the sense that there was a ton of outstanding info--enough to overwhelm me. Some key notes from that class boldfaced, and some comments today on those.
Indigenous soil here tends to be low ph and clay... ideal ph is 6.2 to 6.7 for most vegetables....our indigenous soil typically runs from 5 to 5.5.--Why on EARTH didn't I put down lime, then? It's a cheap and easy solution to this. The only reason I can think of that this didn't happen is that because I was drinking from a fire hose of information at that class, it just slipped my mind how important this was.
crysanthemums and marigolds for bug prevention--Totally missed/forgot about mums. I did put a fair number of marigolds throughout the garden.
don't guess - soil test--Didn't do this, even though they provided packets to collect soil and send. (The extension service does this at no cost from 4/1-11/30, $4.00 in peak season of 12/1-3/31.) Pretty sure I didn't simply because the class was on April 18th and I was planting on April 21st. I do intend to do this soon for next spring. The testing gives recomme Andations for amending soil for ideal ph. I may need that.
Yeah, sounds like ph matters, eh?
I have pics of 48 powerpoint slides from this class. What's the easiest way to share all of them? I don't want to have to link to each of them individually. I'm sure there's a free service somewhere where folks could scroll through them if so desired.
The only "quarrel" I had with this class is that the leader focused heavily on 4x4 raised-bed/square-foot gardening, which seems to be a superior method for those who have limited space (and if they want a larger space, are willing to drop significant cash on wood and spend a good bit of time building.) However, with space not being a limitation for me, I can do rows.
Spring and summer gardens are wonderful, but fall is a special season for gardening in the Piedmont! This is the perfect time for planting, transplanting, and starting fall-flowering containers - after the long hot summer, cooler temperatures make it easier on the plants and on the gardener too. Simple seasonal chores like winterizing tools are also on the list, to help you be prepared for future gardening seasons.
This one was useful, but not the near bulls-eye that the first one was. It wasn't that the information given wasn't as excellent as the vegetable gardening class; it was just that they covered some things (like planting trees, shrubs, and bulbs) that hold little/no interest for me. Still, it was worth my time to attend this class, as there were definitely some vegetable garden takeaways--not to mention the fact that they gave out soil testing kits, which I intend to use this time. Finally, there was good information on maintaining fescue lawns, and I've got ~5,000 square feet of fescue in the front of my house.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 10-03-2018 at 01:44 AM.
I gathered a bunch of leaves and grass from in front of neighbors' homes on Sunday night and built a new compost pile yesterday (October 1st). This time I remembered to add some soil and water it layer-by-layer. I checked the temperature this evening and it had already risen to 145.
I wish I'd had my camera when I did this. Actually had steam rising from the pile when I turned it early this morning. Quite cool....errrrr hot!
I put up a little bird netting *near* (not completely over) the tomatoes. I'm told that in some cases birds will avoid the vicinity of the nettling because it looks like something that could entangle them. We'll see.
Both compost piles measured in the upper 140s this morning.
I don't recall if I posted about it, but I scattered the remaining broccoli seed in an area where there was no longer anything growing. It's starting to germinate.
The "green" (growing) areas in the existing garden, where I amended heavily this spring.
The "brown" (walking) areas in the existing garden. That area was tilled, but only slightly amended, so I suppose it could be quite different from the growing areas.
The front yard. Looking to improve grass there.
Looking forward to getting the report from the sampling.
Gathered a bunch more leaves and grass Sunday evening from around the 'hood, adding to both piles and also turned both on October 8th.
I wonder if I haven't been watering the piles enough. Temps were in the mid to upper 140s in both piles yesterday, but then it rained some in the evening, and both were in the upper 150s. One spot even measured 165!
My soil samples arrived in Raleigh on 10/4. Haven't heard anything yet.
Bird netting appears to be working. I've gotten two solid harvests of cherry and grape tomatoes (picking every other day,) and finally got a larger one to ripen without being pecked.
1. The accidental tomatoes (this is about 6 plants) are continuing to grow well. I'm going to put some stakes and and a cage in the area and see if we can get a harvest out of these before it gets too cold.
3. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but mid-summer, a rodent took a bite out of one of my watermelons. I never picked it up off the ground, and another plant has grown from it. Kinda fun.
...until Florence came and got it too wet, dropping the internal temperature into the 120s.
That was back in mid-September. And now here we are again. Both piles are in the upper 150s/lower 160s as of this morning. We're expecting 4-6 inches of rain from Michael over the next 36ish hours.
Just logged into the state's system, and I'm wayyyyyy too excited over the fact that my soil sample's status is "Verifying--Under Review."
Pretty much every remaining plant took damage from Michael. 4+ inches of rain just yesterday, and wind gusts of up to 50ish mph at our house. Three of the four tomato cages toppled over, some things (like tomatoes) were blown off the plants and into the mud, the young broccoli was no longer standing upright but was instead lying flat on the ground, etc. I attempted to prop up some plants by packing in extra dirt last night. Left the house before light this morning (still no power,) so I don't know how things are looking right now. It's possible that the 2018 garden is a total loss, though I'm guessing we'll recover at least *something*.
The tomatoes appear to be ok as plants (i.e. they're not dying.) It remains to be seen if they'll produce any more.
Just about every younger plant of the group I planted in August--other than the aforementioned broccoli--appears to be toast. Some of them were washed away entirely.
The much younger broccoli I put down in mid-September is basically a washout as well. There's *maybe* one of the six or seven seedlings that may survive.
I suppose at this stage we're getting into temperature issues. We had a *rapid* move from full-on hot summer temperatures (highs upper 80s to low 90s, lows upper 60s/low 70s) down to mid/late fall temperatures (highs upper 50s/low 60s, lows upper 30s/low 40s for most of this week). Maybe it'll come back up a bit next week, but we've had little/no 75/55 kinda days. My understanding is that some of the summer plants will slow down/stop producing due to lower soil temperatures. Honestly, I didn't look up which ones. Doesn't really matter to me at this point; whenever I see stuff dying, it'll get added to one of the compost piles.
Speaking of the compost piles, Michael was helpful to me in that regard in that there was so much debris on the ground that a lot of people evidently didn't bother to rake; they just used their mowers and bagged grass, leaves, and twigs together. So the stuff I gathered from the curbs Monday morning was wayyyyy more pre-mixed, chopped into fine pieces, and much damper than anything I've gathered. I didn't have to bother with layering or wetting as I dumped another full back-of-the-minivan load onto the piles, making it much faster and easier. And this morning, just 24 hours after doing so, pile #1 was in the mid 150s, and pile number 2 in the lower 160s.
Now through Monday, November 5th--Continue gathering materials from kitchen, neighborhood bags on Monday mornings, and Starbucks, and add to existing compost piles. Turn piles weekly. Over the next three Mondays, I'd expect to be able to add enough materials to the piles I have to make the overall production somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 cubic feet of compost. That would be enough to cover the entire planned garden area with 2.5 inches, and leave me around 20-25 cubic feet of it for other projects--flower beds, adding small amounts to areas where seeds are planted, etc.
Also at some point in the next three weeks I intend to add lime to the area that I'll be gardening next year in the amounts recommended by the soil testing.
Some time in mid/late November once lime is settled, re-test soil for pH.
January 1ish-February 28ish--Based on what I've read about time frames and how hot my piles have been, I'm hoping that at some point in mid to late December, the piles will be just about fully composted. Whenever they are, I won't need to do any more turning. If the outer stuff still hasn't fully rotted, perhaps one good turn during this time might be needed.
March 1st-March 29th--Gather/add kitchen scraps to compost piles once again, taking care to have a mixture of finely chopped and larger pieces. Basically this is where I'll be adding some free nitrogen-based slow-release fertilizer to the compost in preparation for planting.
March 29th-March 31st weekend--(Will probably have Friday off since the kids are out of school.) Spread 2-3 inches of compost over the entire 400ish square foot garden area, depending on how much I have. Till into the soil.
Put down weed-preventing fabric, with mulch on top.
April 20th or 27th weekend, depending on temperatures--Plant!
Oh...I just realized that I never posted the soil testing results, probably because they came in the day we would lose power and be without it for over 24 hours.
They provided extensive information--probably more than I know what to do with. Probably the most important thing I learned is that yes, the soil in my back yard is acidic. The three areas back there from which I took measurements all came in quite close to one another in pH: 5.8, 5.8, and 5.9. (Interestingly, the front yard was 7.0. I did put lime down there a couple of years ago.) The extension service recommends roughly 6.5 for vegetable gardens, so I'll be adding lime at their recommended levels soon, and testing again a few weeks later.
So this happened tonight. ROI = THROUGH THE ROOF!
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 10-19-2018 at 08:50 PM.
And the garden can take the damage. We've had three floods over the past eight years. It can take a bit of work to restore the healthy organic layers, which are sometimes stripped away in heavy rains and floods, but it seems to me that with all the composting you'll come out of it just fine next spring!
Heh. When I went to bed last night, the forecast was for a low of 36ish. At 3:37 am, the NWS issued a Freeze Warning for "NOW UNTIL 9AM." When I woke up at around 4:15ish, it was 30 degrees. I'm sure the farmers in the area really appreciated the notice.
I'm assuming this is going to put an end to pretty much everything but the broccoli. Plants still blooming had frost on their flower petals earlier this morning, even.
We had another surprise frost when we woke up on Wednesday morning. By Thursday morning, it was clear that all warm-weather crops were done, so I pulled them up, leaving just four broccoli plants and one strawberry plant (perennial).
Thursday evening was the composting class mentioned above. I attended it and mostly it confirmed what I've already been doing. The biggest new information I received is that the city-made compost ($20 per truckload) has some sort of national teh awesome composting certification. (i.e. it's not run-of-the-mill industrial-made compost; it's the real deal.) It's not available until April, but I intend to enlist the help of a neighbor and get some then.
I put down 40 lbs of lime on Thursday after pulling most of the plants up.
Their primary purpose will be to alleviate water run-off.
Both compost piles were over 155 degrees the last time I measured them (Thursday, I think.) I'm looking to turn the and add to them significantly this weekend.
Built 'em both up significantly this past weekend. Both are now over 3 feet high and around 7 feet in diameter. Temperature in the upper 150s/low 160s.
Also at some point in the next three weeks I intend to add lime to the area that I'll be gardening next year in the amounts recommended by the soil testing. Lime is complete. Did that on 10/25.
November 6th-December 31ish--No additions to existing compost piles. Let what's in them rot, only turning if/when temperatures fall below 140 degrees. Gather leaves as available but do not add to existing piles. After using them as a light mulch over the entire garden to inhibit weed growth over the winter, just throw the rest in a big pile for later use. (i.e. starting a new pile in spring/summer when all I have is grass/weeds and need that "brown" matter.) I've got the entire garden area (other than the part that's under compost piles, of course,) covered with leaves now--mostly shredded ones. However, I'm not sure what I was thinking about where I'd be able to store a big pile of leaves. until next spring. I *might* grab a few more bags and stick them under the deck, as my wife rarely goes in the back yard during the winter, so perhaps that might fly since she wouldn't have to look at them.
One other thing I'd like to do is actually pull back the leaves, put a half inch or so of used coffee grounds directly on the soil throughout the entire garden area, and then recover all of that with shredded leaves. We'll see if I get the energy to make that happen.
Some time in mid/late November once lime is settled, re-test soil for pH. Upon further reading, I'm probably going to wait a bit longer for this--probably early to mid March--as it takes a few months for lime to raise the pH.
There has also been a change in my projected planting dates and process, as I've discovered mini-greenhouses and read great reviews on them. I'm probably going to get this one. Combining that with earthen biodegradable planting media, and I'm thinking I can plant as early as mid-March, then transfer to the ground in late April after danger of frost has passed.
Pile #3 was completed Monday morning, and is up around 145 degrees. The others are in the upper 150s. As you can perhaps tell from this pic, the first two are starting to look a lot more like dirt.
Last edited by Ben E Lou : 11-09-2018 at 02:08 PM.
Just signed up for several Extension service classes that are scheduled January-April. (Schedule just went up today.) Yes, I'm taking the "Grow Your Best Vegetable Garden" for a second time. As I mentioned above, it was a fire hose of information, so I'm wanting to sit through it again.
Vegetable gardening is especially rewarding in the Piedmont because we can grow food at least 10 months of the year! The key is good planning and succession planting. January is the perfect time to start getting ready; let's talk about the simple ways to get the most out of your personal planting space.
It's time to start planning, that's the key to enjoying the taste of your own home-grown tomatoes. That's all we'll be talking about in this session – proven tips and techniques for successfully growing America's most popular garden vegetable (or is it a fruit?). Get ready for tomato sandwiches all summer long!
Have a sustainable lawn by knowing and using good growing practices all year, it will save you time and money as well as reduce environmental impact. Establish a healthy stand of grass with good planning and sensible management - you'll have a beautiful lawn and minimize issues with weeds and diseases.
Learning and following best practices leads to best results in your vegetable garden. Topics will include how to prepare soil, the selection and timing of vegetable varieties, good upkeep, and using integrated pest management techniques to control insects and diseases organically. Growing your own food can be economical, educational, and fun!
One of the many joys of gardening is the chance to observe and support nature. Birds, butterflies, and other creatures find needed habitat in our yards – this program is about how to make them welcome. We'll also talk about some ways to discourage a few of the uninvited guests who may sometimes come to the party.


text:
Anthony Balducci's Journal
Available in Kindle and Nook formats. A print edition is available at CreateSpace and Amazon. Find more information about the book at http://lifelibertyandalltherest.blogspot.com/.
abaldu8246
Anthony Balducci, 60, studied journalism at Baruch College in Manhattan and earned a criminology degree at the University of Florida. His first book, a biography of film comedian Lloyd Hamilton, was published by McFarland in 2009. The Funny Parts, a book detailing the history of gags and routines, was published by McFarland in 2012.
The Ugliness of Modern Films, Part 2: The True Evi...
The Ugliness of Modern Films, Part 1: Butchered Bo...
The Great and Glorious Totò, Part 3 (1960 to 1967)...
Preview to "The Great and Glorious Totò" Articles ...
Recommended for Your Viewing Pleasure: Il vigile (...
Recommended for Your Viewing Pleasure: La Ragazza ...
For Your Viewing Pleasure: Lo scopone scientifico ...
An Eccentric Love Story: La drôlesse (English titl...
For Your Viewing Pleasure: Tutti a casa (English t...
More Early French Comedy Films
Tidbits for March, 2019
The Ugliness of Modern Films, Part 2: The True Evil of the Horror Film
I have been thinking about an article I wrote more than a year ago. In the article, I compared Annabelle: Creation (2017) to Poltergeist (1982) as a way to demonstrate the moral decline of the horror film. Since I wrote that article, an even more depraved horror film has been brought before the public. That film is Hereditary (2018).
Before I can discuss Hereditary, I need to establish a context for the film.
Horror films of Hollywood's Golden Age tended to have religious overtones. These were moral stories of good defeating evil. Dracula (1931) introduces a great evil.
The audience is thoroughly scared, but then the good guys restore order.
At the time, filmmakers respected religious morality, which is only reasonable. A group devotes itself to the cause of refinement as a way to advance themselves and produce a stable and productive society. Important to the refinement process is morals. It was under moral power that people turned away from their most barbaric impulses and produced great civilizations.
I have no problem with fair and sensible Breen-style censorship of films being used to protect morality and restrain malignant artists. A civilization cannot be sustained without the suppression of bad behavior. Behavior is a range of actions made by an individual in relationship with others. Communicating images, speech and expressions, which a filmmaker does, is a form of behavior and it should be regulated just as any other form of behavior. We can alternately categorize a film as a product and control it just as any other product. Just as we regulate bottled water for contaminants, we can regulate a film for contaminants. The question we must always ask is: Does this product inflict harm on the consumer?
A Hollywood film is far more commercial than artistic, but let's pretend for moment that it is plainly art. We imagine art as beautiful and life-affirming. We imagine the fantasy tales that are crafted by artists as escapist fun. But there is wicked art and sick fantasy. A film is a vile work if it acts to manipulate the viewer in a way that corrupts or diminishes him.
Plato believed that writers inspired bad behavior with stories that showed bad men succeeding and he believed that stories of this sort should be subjected to censorship. He wrote specifically, "[W]riters of prose. . . [say] that there are many examples of men who, though unjust, are happy, and of just men who are wretched, and that there is profit in injustice if it be concealed. . . I presume that we shall forbid them to say this sort of thing and command them to sing and fable the opposite."
Plato maintained that our manner "follow[s] and conform[s] to the disposition of the soul." He believed that art could upset our internal rhythms and that the disharmony that results will likely create bad thoughts and bad behavior. He wrote, "[S]eemliness and unseemliness are attendant upon the good rhythm and the bad."
Plato realized that man has something in his soul that "hunger[s] for tears and a good cry" and it is "[this] element in us that the poets satisfy and delight." But this is a part of us that, according to Plato, "has never been properly educated by reason or even by habit" and must be forcibly restrained to make us good people. The philosopher made it clear that there was no shame in "contemplating the woes of others," but it is wrong for a man to let prose cause him to "relax [his] guard" and "abandon himself to excess in his grief." He saw great danger in "vicarious pleasure." He wrote, "[W]hat we enjoy in others will inevitably react upon ourselves. For after feeding fat the emotion of pity there, it is not easy to restrain it in our own sufferings." He believed that "the same principle appl[ied] to the laughable." In his view, "comic representations. . . foster[ed] [a] youthful impudence." We are taught to detest clownish behavior as base and come to fear a loss of reputation if we, ourselves, behaved in that way. But our resistance is weakened when we "take intense pleasure in buffooneries that [we] would blush to practise [our]self."
Jessica Moss, a New York University philosophy professor, wrote:
[Plato] is not merely making the complaint that various influential poets happen to write ethically harmful poetry. Rather he has presented an argument "based on metaphysical and psychological theory" that only ethically harmful poetry - poetry that reflects and reinforces the flaws in popular morality - can compel us and move us with its portrayal of human affairs.
Socrates had similar views on the subject. His concern, according to Raphael Foshay of Athabasca University, was that "tragic displays. . . constitute dramatic force and evoke intense audience response " Parents teach their children restraint and fellowship while the tragic poets feed that part of the psyche that is excited by passion and conflict. Socrates wrote:
Now, then, irritable disposition affords much and varied imitation, while the prudent and quiet character, which is always nearly equal to itself, is neither easily imitated, nor, when imitated, easily understood especially by a festive assembly.
Foshay further explained:
Even "the best of us," [Socrates] says, "praise as a good poet the man who most puts us in this state" (605d) of heightened tragic emotion. In sum: "[F]or all the desires, pains, and pleasures in the soul that we say follow our action, poetic imitation produces similar results in us, for it fosters and waters them when they ought to be dried up, and sets them up as rulers in us" (606d). We ought, Socrates says, to be ruled by those things described in Book VI that do not draw us into conflict and contradiction, the ideals of "the just, fair, and moderate by nature" (501b).
Famed French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot talked to an interviewer about the origins of his film project L'enfer. He said, "It all started with insomnia. I had this idea which was to dramatize the anxiety attacks I suffer every night and which keep me awake. So I wrote a 50-page treatment." He explained that he wanted to convey to an audience the obsessions that can poison a man's mind. The interviewer asked him, "Are you personally interested in the morbid and pathological?" Clouzot pushed back on the question, denying that he himself was "a pathological case." But he didn't seem sure about this. In the end, he did admit to having suffered depression at one time.
In fact, the filmmaker was viewed by many of his collaborators as troubled. He was known for his pessimistic attitude, controlling work habits, and violent outbursts. Actress Brigitte Bardot described Clouzot as "a negative being, forever at odds with himself and the world around him."
Henri was indeed a pathological case and, by expressing his anxieties, depressive thoughts and obsessions in L'enfer, he sought to spread his unique form of psychopathology to others. These ills that poisoned his mind were now to be brought forth by him to poison other minds. This is a grave problem we have in engaging uncritically with the auteur.
An artist can convey his pathology in a painting. A person looks at the painting, finds themselves affected by it in some way, and then they move on to the next painting. But a film is different than a painting. It takes hold of us and controls us in a way that a painting can never do. Unlike a painting, it is wholly immersive, creating a new reality for the viewer. And films tend to blend together in crazes, a tidal wave of emotional, psychological and political manipulation that comes crashing down on a helpless and unsuspecting public.
Was "body horror" a thing until David Cronenberg made it a thing? Cronenberg believes that neurology is "an incredible theme" that we should discuss. He said, "So much of our understanding of the human body comes from the need to deal with disease, things that we would never have thought to consider." But Cronenberg's shocking films like Rapid (1977), Shivers (1979) and The Brood (1979) do not provide a helpful discussion of body-ravaging diseases. They provide, instead, fodder for nightmares. And we have various imitators, including Stuart Gordon, Lloyd Kaufman, Clive Barker, John Landis, Eli Roth and Peter Jackson, who reinforced Cronenberg's idea and made "body horror" part of the national psyche.
Charlie Brooker, the creator of the dark television series Black Mirror, made a significant admission while speaking at a Wired Live event. He said, "One thing that people sometimes say about the show that slightly annoys me is. . . the show is inherently anti-technology or that it's warning people of the dangers of technology, which I really don't think it is. I think it's partly that I'm neurotic and worry about everything. I can worry about germs on a glass as much I would worry about social media. . . I worry about a lot of things." He admitted that he felt uneasy having to be on a stage too high off the ground for his comfort. He admitted being afraid of the crowd because he could envision a random audience member or members suddenly coming forward to attack him and maybe even kill him. He admitted that he checked the exits of the auditorium on his arrival to make sure he could make a quick escape if trouble of any sort arose.
Forget it if you thought (like me) that the series was designed to provide a helpful warning about technology. The fact that he sees his crowd of fans as homicidal maniacs explains the true ethos behind Black Mirror. When asked to explain the series' success, Brooker said plainly, "Maybe people are just monsters and they just like seeing characters suffer. There's always that [possibility]." So, Brooker is turning out a wicked product to be consumed by wicked people. Or is it possible that he is turning out wicked product that inspires people to be wicked?
Brooker offers his fans a poor bargain. He was frank on this point as he toured to promote the series' third season. He said:
Overall, across the season, we have more of a variety in tone. Because we're doing six episodes [rather than the usual three] this time around, we wanted to not always fling you into a pit of despair. Sometimes we kick a few fucking hope biscuits at you on the way down. Having said that, there are a few stories where we do fling you into a pit of despair and then piss on you. Because people seem to like that. But we didn't want to be like that all the time. We wanted to broaden the scope of the show in general.
Business as usual, according to Brooker, is to "fling you into a pit of despair and then piss on you." It is only because he has more time and can add a bit of variety to the series that he will "kick a few fucking hope biscuits at you." Obviously, Brooker intensely dislikes his fans and seeks to do them harm. His fans are monstrous beasts that he needs to trap in a pit and torture.
This exceeds the traditional scares of the horror film pioneers. Today's horror film folk are different. The men who create modern horror films tend to have an abusive relationship with those unfortunates who consume their work. It is not their objective to delight or edify fans. It is their objective to make fans miserable.
Brooker is a neurotic misanthrope. But other filmmakers contribute more than personal neurosis and deep-seated cynicism to this trend. It appears that Satanists are using the modern horror film to spread their malevolent influence. Their films exalt and celebrate evil forces.
A theatregoer daring a filmmaker to momentarily scare them is different than what a theatregoer will likely experience today with the newest horror films. In the latest reboot of Halloween, Michael Myers's first victim is a child. Of course it is. This is an ongoing trend meant to coarsen our spirits and normalize the murder of children. Is it any wonder legislators in New York cheered after passing a law that allowed the murder of babies? This is the same crowd roaring with glee to watch Michael Myers on a murderous rampage. In the end, they have had the idea of killing babies insinuated into their consciousness.
It wasn't always like this. The Exorcist (1973) involves a young girl possessed by an ancient Assyrian demon, Pazuzu. William Peter Blatty designed the "Exorcist" novel to strengthen the reader's faith in God. "It's an argument for God," he said. "I intended it to be an apostolic work, to help people in their faith." He made this clear in a 2000 interview with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans that people should understand the point of his story was, simply: "That God exists and the universe itself will have a happy ending." As the novel, the film adaptation The Exorcist told us that faith in God gives us the power to ward off demons. Blatty emphasized to the film's director, William Friedkin, that he didn't want the film to give victory to the demon. This was such an important issue that, in 2000, Friedkin recut the film's ending to better clarify Blatty's point. A priest, Father Karras (Jason Miller), ends up sacrificing his life to expel Pazuzu from the girl's body.
Poltergeist (1982), which features a tight-knit family named the Freelings, is a film about the love, intimacy and faithfulness of a family. Spirits suddenly start to communicate with five-year-old daughter Carol Anne through the family's television set. The spirits are under the control of a demon known as the "Beast." As a result of their efforts, Carol Anne is sucked into an interdimensional portal that suddenly opens up in her closet. The family must work together as passionately as they ever have to rescue the child. The rescue in Poltergeist is a birth metaphor. Standing directly outside the portal, the mother Diane (JoBeth Williams) exclaims, "She just moved through me. My God! I felt her." She sounds like a pregnant mother who can feel her baby kick for the first time.
The couple reaffirms their wedding vows during the rescue.
Once the child is extracted from the portal, mother and daughter pass out from exhaustion covered in an ectoplasmic goo clearly meant to resemble afterbirth.
The film ends with the family checking into a hotel room after their entire home has been sucked into the portal. Dad (Craig T. Nelson) quickly unplugs the television and rolls it out onto the walkway outside the room. He now understands that the demons come to get you through the television.
We learn in the sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, that the demon had taken human form in the 19th century to lead a utopian cult. He now sees a chance to return to Earth by possessing Carol Anne.
Again, the family rallies to protect the girl.
The film's Dracula figure doesn't stand a chance against them.
The demon assumes a large monstrous form, but the future "Mr. Incredible" Nelson stabs the beast in the heart with a charmed Native American spear.
The modern world is filled with dark men who mock the good messages of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. We are wise to avoid dark men and their works. One such dark man is Guillermo Del Toro, who is infatuated with satanic myths, occult symbolism and alchemy. Del Toro indicated in his Oscar acceptance speech that he made a deal with a devil to become a filmmaker. I have no reason to take this as a joke. A person cannot surround himself with devil worship symbols for years and claim it's just an act. At some point, the act becomes who you are. A person devoted to throwing up devil signs is, in the end, a loyal marketer of Satan.
Del Toro said that he intended for Pan's Labyrinth to be "a truly profane film." He said, "Some of my favorite writers (Borges, Blackwood, Machen, Dunsany) have explored the figure of the god Pan and the symbol of the labyrinth. These are things that I find very compelling and I am trying to mix them and play with them." (Del Toro message board, Answers Archive, Nov. 24, 2004)
Pan is the pagan god of sexual fertility, lust, sexual deviance, rape and torture. He is known for promoting sex orgies, bestiality and pedophilia. He is the inspiration for the satyr devil. The horns and cloven hooves of Satan, as depicted in much Christian literature and art, were taken directly from the images of Pan. Pan enjoys brutally raping virgin maidens, leaving them with their minds destroyed.
Del Toro said that a major influence of Pan's Labyrinth was Arthur Machen's 1890 novella "The Great God Pan," in which Pan impregnates a young woman to create the antichrist. The heroes of the book catch up to the antichrist, a demonic woman named Helen Vaughan, and force her to hang herself. Machen wrote:
Helen Vaughan did well to bind the cord about her neck and die, though the death was horrible. The blackened face, the hideous form upon the bed, changing and melting before your eyes from woman to man, from man to beast, and from beast to worse than beast, all the strange horror that you witness, surprises me but little.
Yet, del Toro leads a young girl into the arms of this seducer and devastator of young girls.
The entrance into this strange new place is more elaborate and seductive than Carole Anne's closet.
We see a similar relationship between Pan and a young girl in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
The girl in Pan's Labyrinth has no one to protect her. She lost her father before the story started and her mother is gravely ill (and eventually dies). She is fatally shot at the end of the film and she is taken (or dreams she is taken) into a supernatural realm.
Fantasy novelist Kevin Hearne is a passionate defender of Pan, who he believes has been besmirched by Christian writers. He noted:
Pan was unabashedly libidinous. A survey of statuary and bas-relief sculpture conducted by Fiona Pitt-Kethley left no doubt of this. In almost every instance she recorded, Pan's manhood was fully aroused. . . Since Pan's sexual nature was so evident, this might explain the Church's readiness to hold up Pan as an example of profound moral turpitude. "Sexual passion, which suspends reason and easily leads to excess, was alien. . . to the asceticism of the Christians; a god of sexuality could easily be assimilated to the principle of evil" (Russell 126). Pan's sexuality, when combined with his unwholesome visage, thus gave the ascetics exactly what they needed. . . Pan became the image of the devil. Pan's entire physique was so gruesome to behold that the Church could almost point to Pan and say, "This is what happens to the sexually immoral."
It is not difficult to see here how Pan's rampant sexuality, so sinful to Christians, made him an ideal candidate for demonization. This defamation of a once pastoral god was part of a vast campaign of religious propaganda designed to put the fear of the devil (where the fear of God didn't seem to work) in the people's hearts, for Christianity had several pantheons of old gods to conquer, and a personification of evil was efficacious in helping the process along. Thanks to Christianity, Pan literally became the world's biggest scapegoat.
Hearne added, "St. Augustine of Hippo. . . rails at length in his Confessions about the perils of sexuality. He was the first to demonize Pan specifically for his sexuality (approximately 400 C.E.), going beyond the general Christian tendency to equate pagan deities with demons on general principle. . . Augustine's ideas were brought to America by the Puritans centuries later; they thought that the devil, horned and goat-footed, actually lived in the forest around Plymouth."
The Witch (2015), a film that clearly promotes devil worship, exploits the old New England lore that warns of evil supernatural beings that lurk in the woods. The Pan myth is conveyed in the film when a young boy goes mad after being raped in the woods by a witch. This is very similar to a scene in "The Great God Pan."
Annabelle: Creation is about death and sadism. Orphan children are running loose throughout the film without a strong parental figure in sight. The children's caretaker nun is useless. She doesn't even look or act like a real nun.
Could a scene have been deleted showing that this is really a sorority sister on her way to a Halloween party?
A crucifix shows up in the film, but it does nothing to ward off the demon. Dracula has the crucifix-wielding Professor Abraham Van Helsing to save the day while the man wielding a crucifix in Annabelle: Creation is brutally murdered within seconds.
To the makers of Annabelle: Creation, a crucifix is just a good design motif for marketing materials.
In the end, an orphan girl is abandoned by her negligent guardian to a demon. No one comes forth to rescue her. Look at how isolated this young girl looks in this scene.
How about this scene?
The frightened girls have no loving mother to take them in her arms. They simply go wandering through the film on their own.
Compare this to the imagery of Poltergeist.
Storytelling was created to empower man. It was meant to provide guidance, encouragement, inspiration and clarity. Today, storytelling is designed to confuse, frighten, corrupt and demoralize. These days, mass media works to frighten people and make them see themselves as perpetual victims. Why? Because it is easy to control weak and frightened people.
This video for the Billie Eilish song "Bury a Friend," which has 47 million views, is dark, demonic and depressing. What is the point of it if not to poison a person and make them feel weak?
Most people can tell you of a story about a horror film that traumatized them. I found an interesting comment in an Internet forum.
When I was 10 years old, I saw a TV commercial for the film 'The Shining'. It robbed me of sleep for a good month. The commercial wasn't gory. But the image of a father staggering after his own son with an axe in an otherwise serene snowfall was enough to make my brain implode at 10 years old. It's a testament to the emotional and spiritual impact a short scene, or image can have on your heart and mind.
Advertisers now spend 5.25 million dollars to run a 30-second ad during super bowl. They know the power and influence of cleverly crafted visuals and sound. So what is the result when millions of people – especially young boys and girls – are bombarded with disturbing visual and musical messaging all day, every day? The media are literally traumatizing society all day long – and we call it "entertainment".
Ari Aster wrote and directed last year's biggest horror hit, Hereditary. He said of the horror films that influenced him:
I remember that those films really just insinuated themselves into my consciousness and just didn't let go. And I hated them for it. I really didn't like it. I saw them when I was too young. But. . . I guess when I started making [Hereditary], I was thinking about those. I was thinking. . . I feel like there's this dialogue that happens between an audience and a filmmaker. And especially in horror films, it's like the audience is going in and saying, I dare you. I dare you to scare me. I'm going in, and I hope you do, 'cause that's why I'm here.
Poltergeist is, at its core, a family drama. So is Hereditary. Aster said, "[E]verything that's there is family drama stuff, which actually, I think makes it more punishing, but it also makes it more. . . [T]here was about an hour more of material that was not horror, that was just about the family going through what they're going through, and not communicating, and not doing what they need to do to come together." He said in another interview, "What do you do with the suspicion that you don't really know the people you're closest to? What do you do with fear of abandonment? The fear of somebody close to you changing? The film is really feeding on those fears." This is a neurotic view of family, which can only come from a person who belonged to a deeply dysfunctional family.
Aster said, "The beautiful thing about the horror genre or just genre filmmaking in general is that you can take personal material and you can just sort of push it through the genre filter and out comes a work of relative invention, right? So I can say that the feelings that fueled the writing of the film were very personal and coming from personal experiences." We get a fair idea what those personal experiences might have been after watching the film. More on that later.
I cannot think of a film more demoralizing than Hereditary. The following plot synopsis was provided in the film's marketing materials:
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, trying to outrun the sinister fate they have inherited.
Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal called the film a "carnival of grief." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commended Hereditary for providing the viewer with a "bonechilling terror [they] won't be able to shake."
Haleigh Foutch of Collider asked Aster, "Are you ready for people to hold you personally accountable for their trauma and nightmares?" He replied, "Hey, I asked for it."
A film that was a major influence on Aster was Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989), in which a woman plots a macabre revenge against her vicious mobster husband for murdering her lover. In the final scene, the woman has her lover's cooked body presented to the mobster. He is appalled and is unable to comprehend the point of this act. His wife forces him at gunpoint to eat a mouthful of the body before she shoots him in the head. The scene resembles a satanic mass. In the end, the mobster's blood is shed on a table that resembles a sacrificial altar.
Aster said, "[The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover] is made by somebody who I believe is an authentic misanthrope. You can feel that [Greenaway] hates people. He hasn't even really given them personalities. That's how little he believes in people. And then beyond that, he's such an aesthete, that he's putting aesthetics so far above people. . ."
He went into greater depth in another interview:
I saw The Cook, The Thief when I was very young, because my dad said that it scared him, and nothing scared him. So my dad said I couldn't see it. I was like 12 or 13, and we'd go every Friday to rent movies. And I remember pulling the videotape out of the box and putting it into Troop Beverly Hills or something. And I really regretted it. Whenever I would walk around in the dark at night, I would project those images onto the walls, of the lover's body that looks like a roasted turkey. But a big part of it is the beauty of the film: there's a real ugliness to the content, to the cold eye he's casting on all this stuff. You have Michael Gambon as the thief and he's a repugnant person, but you don't feel that Peter Greenaway has warmer feelings for Helen Mirren or the lover. . . [I]f anything you feel he has more affection for the thief simply because he's more alive than they are.
Here, Aster supports my contention that a misanthropic filmmaker can suffuse a film with his bitter feelings and neurotic ideas and that the people who are to exposed to this ugly product will forever suffer trauma as a result. Again, it is a poor bargain. But Aster went even further. He made an important point that, as a child, he was not adequately protected from this type of material. Ugly material that is put out into the world reaches many, many people with no regard to age. And, finally, Aster admitted that he identified mostly with the vicious mobster who, though terrible, is the most forceful and dominant character of the film. It is always a demon's power, not his morals, that attract worshipers.
Hereditary opens with a funeral for Ellen Graham. Her daughter, Annie, is deeply troubled by her mother's death. Lindsey Romain of Thrilllist wrote:
In Annie's early grief counseling sessions, she recalls her family's troubled history. Her mother was diagnosed with D.I.D. (dissociative identity disorder) and her brother was a paranoid schizophrenic who eventually took his own life. These disorders manifest in the next generation, too; after Charlie's death, Annie dovetails into mania, having middle-of-the-night episodes that feel like early symptoms of bipolar disorder, but also might be her mother's D.I.D. passed along, too. She flips between moods the way a dissociative person might. . . In one scene, we catch a glimpse of an email her husband is drafting, which seems to indicate that Annie has had manic episodes in the past, and he's worried she might be having another one. Peter's own descent into apparent self-harm and unexplained visions might symbolize the schizophrenia also present in his uncle.
We can see from these revelations that this is really a film about the genetic links that pass mental disorders from generation to generation.
We learn during the course of the story that Ellen was the leader of a demon-worshipping cult and only had children to pay familial tithes to the demon. At some point, she arranged for the demon, Paimon, to possess her 13-year-old granddaughter Charlie. Charlie is only a temporary host as Paimon needs a male body to come to full power.
Romain wrote:
What does Paimon actually represent? The brilliance of Hereditary lies in metaphor, like all truly great horror films ultimately do. It's clear from the beginning that Annie's family is cursed in some way, and obviously the name itself is a bit of an on-the-nose description of the evil we can inherit from our ancestors - genetically or spiritually. The movie gets literal with the demon stuff, but it's all subtext for the real stigma plaguing them: mental illness.
Aster engaged in extensive research into actual devil cults to assure that the film was realistic. He said, "I did do research into witchcraft and the occult. It's something I had no ties to and I found the research pretty disturbing, to be honest. But hopefully it does feel real. . . The idea of witches has always scared me because of the idea that there are Machiavellian forces out there that conspire to hurt others. There are people who do not have your best interest at heart and are actively willing to do harm to you and actively sending energy in that direction." Aster incriminates himself in these remarks as he, as a filmmaker, employs sneaky dramatic methods to traumatize people and send dark energies out into the world.
The film made Paimon so appealing that it inspired film critics to conduct further research into the demon and write articles that were essentially instructional essays for people interested in worshiping this master of evil. Romain wrote:
Paimon first appeared in the anonymously written grimoire called "Lesser Key of Solomon," where he's called a great king, one of Lucifer's most obedient devotees, and a master of art and science. In most lore, he is known for riding a camel, having an effeminate face, and for following a procession of demons playing instruments like cymbals and trumpets. Solomon also states that Paimon is the ruler of 200 legions of spirits, most of them angels, and that to summon him, "thou must make him some offering."
The study of the St. James Bible brings us closer to God. The study of Anton Lavey's Satanic Bible brings us closer to Satan. Much like Hearne, film critics spoke favorably of Paimon and accused Christian writers of giving this pagan god a raw deal. Tony Sokol of Den of Geek discussed the matter with Greg Bismarck, an Adept Initiate magician. Bismarck said, "Paimon is a 'demon' only to those who demonize him." Besmirching an ancient boner-brandishing pagan god is a bad thing now?
Aleister Crowley insisted that Paimon offers his followers great knowledge and that he promises many rewards will come from this knowledge. In the words of the film's cult leader Joan (Ann Dowd), Paimon will "bring us honor, wealth and good familiars." Poltergeist told us that family protects us from demons. Hereditary is the exact opposite. It is about a mother who, through very deliberate action, sacrifices her off-spring to a demon.
Hereditary, apart from its evil themes, is bad storytelling. Chris Evangelista of SlashFilm wrote:
Annie forces Alex [her 16-year-old son] to bring Charlie to a party, and at said party, Charlie consumes some chocolate cake with nuts in it. Sounds harmless, right? Wrong – Charlie is allergic to nuts, and her throat immediately begins to close up. Panicked, Alex throws Charlie in the car and speeds down a dark highway towards a hospital. In the backseat, Charlie, struggling for air, rolls down the window and sticks her head out. As this happens, Alex swerves the car to avoid a dead deer in the road. The car violently veers to the side of the road – and towards a telephone pole. Charlie's face slams into the telephone pole – the force powerful enough to rip her head clear off (cue loud, startled screams in the audience).
This pivotal event of the film, the death of Charlie, is contrived, nonsensical "idiot plot" stuff. It makes no sense for the mother to force her teenage son to take his weirdo young sister to a hangout with his friends. It makes no sense for a girl with a severe nut allergy to indiscriminately stuff food into her mouth. It is obvious when nuts have been baked into a cake. Did she bother for a moment to check? It makes no sense for a girl with a severe nut allergy to leave her home without the medication she needs to take if she falls into anaphylactic shock. It makes no sense for a girl suffering an allergy attack to stand up in the back of a car and stick her head so far outside the window that she can be decapitated by a telephone pole. But Aster later explained that the events leading up to Charlie's decapitation were meant to look contrived because the cult was actually controlling everything that happened. The cult is obsessed with decapitation, which they believe symbolizes a person's detachment from their ego. Romain wrote:
[Charlie's] death appears to be the machination of either Paimon himself or the coven that desires him, as she is decapitated like the other women in her family eventually are. (Hereditary writer/director Ari Aster has confirmed that Charlie's death was, indeed, "designed by the cult.")
Does this mean that Paimon baked the cake? Did he throw the deer into the road? There has to have been an easier way for him to have worked this out.
Romain continued, "After she's gone, Paimon targets Peter, ready for the male host he's been seeking all along."
The events of the film serve no other purpose than to lead the family to madness and their inevitable slaughter. Evangelista wrote:
From here, Hereditary descends into a gleeful madness that I couldn't help smile at (while also being creeped the hell out). Alex is haunted by alarming visions, and Annie grows more and more unhinged. . . Oh, and Annie's dead mother's headless body is just chilling up in the attic. Annie attempts to rid her family of the demonic forces plaguing them, but that backfires, badly. Steve dies after going up in flames (literally), Annie becomes possessed and starts crawling up the walls in true Exorcistfashion, and Alex attempts to flee this house of hell, only to find more terrifying things awaiting him in seemingly every room.
Storytelling is about the protagonist. It is the protagonist's motives, choices, actions and lessons that shape the story. We judge a character and learn from the character based on his actions and the outcome of his actions. But Aster discards all of that. He said, "[T]he family has absolutely no agency. . . [T]hey're dolls in a dollhouse being manipulated by outside forces. Any control they try to seize is hopeless." Annie tries to sacrifice herself to save her son. He said, "[T]hat scene is meant to play as Annie's big redemptive moment. . . It's a beautiful gesture but part of the cruel logic of the film is it's an empty gesture. Ultimately, it's not her choice to make. She thinks there's a design here and she can end things if she sacrifices herself. But there's no design and there are no rules. There is a malicious logic at play."
Nick Allen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote:
In contrast to other contemporary films that use occult scenes as a type of nervous climax, Aster treats Peter's acceptance of Paimon as a rare moment of comfort. The boy no longer fears his [berserk possessed] mother, he has stopped crying, and he has a new family and home. In the upside-down world of Hereditary, it's almost a happy ending.
Blatty would be unhappy to see a film that gives a demon a victory.
I discussed in an earlier article the fact that the modern horror film has done away with the catharsis, which has always been a vital element of the horror story. Aster addressed this subject at length in two interviews. He said to The Dread Central:
The challenge in making a horror film, especially when you're trying to do peripheral things, as I was with this, is that you do have to find the catharsis in whatever story you're telling. And so I imagine people who are enjoying the movie and having fun, are responding to the catharsis because that's ultimately, that's the major demand that a genre film makes on a film maker, is that you – if you're setting smears up in the beginning, you have to set them off later. And so this is a movie that has things that are resolved. I'm hoping that there's a certain amount of irresolution in the resolution. I do see the film as being an existential horror film that that preys on fears that don't have any remedy, because it's just the way things are. What do you do with a fear of death? You either come to terms with it or you don't.
Christianity is not negligent in this area. The Gospels teach us to accept death because, as Jesus said, "The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."
Aster said to Collider:
The goal is to meet the demands of the genre, and then to startle people a few times, but then let them off the hook. And I have never felt that that's really what the purpose of the genre is. And when I think about the films that really affected me as a kid, they were the ones that left me in a place of not just irresolution, but also, I had to contend with not just what had happened in the film, but the themes of that film.
Jenelle Riley of Variety wrote:
While the film ends on a despondent note, with Peter's body being possessed by Paimon, Aster says there's another way to look at things. "Ultimately, the film is ultimately a success story from the grandmother's point of view and the coven's point of view," he notes, admitting, "That's a dark way to see it."
Plato warned that the consumers of tragic poems would imitate the poems' characters in their own lives. He wrote, "[I]mitations. . . settle down into habits and (second) nature in the body, the speech, and the thought. . . We will not then allow our charges, whom we expect to prove good men, being men, to play [these] parts. . ." Obvious imitation was evident soon after Hereditary was released. Charlie acts weirdly from the start, presumably because she's possessed by Paimon. Romain wrote:
That's why. . . she clucks her tongue, why she decapitates birds, why she makes her spooky art projects.
Fans of the film have been so taken with the strange, pigeon-decapitating, possessed girl's clucking that they, too, make clucking noises during the film.
Alfred Hitchcock insisted that films only have a momentary effect on the audience. He said, "I suppose if one stood outside any movie house, most of the faces are either giggling or smiling even when they come out of a horror picture. You don't see them coming out pondering deeply." He insisted that films have a lasting effect when it comes to fashion choices and nothing more. Yet, he said that he liked to hear The Birds gave people nightmares. So, if he had his way, a person just didn't giggle exiting the theatre and leave the experience behind them.
Hitchcock likened himself to a mother saying "Boo!" to a three-month-old baby. But Psycho is far more horrendous than a kindly mother's "Boo!" just as Hereditary is far more horrendous than the carefully refined frights of Psycho. No one is giggling after the cruel and bloody cataclysm of Hereditary.
Hitchcock admitted that he was after achieving mass hypnotism. Take a look at this clip.
Hitchcock further admitted that he was not a moviegoer. He also made the point that he never sat down with a fiction book. He preferred, instead, to read biographies and travel books. The effort of filmmakers and authors to unsettle people's emotions didn't appeal to the film director known for his Buddha-like calm. He said, "I know we're only human, we do go in for these various emotions - call them 'negative emotions' - but, when all these are removed and you can look forward and the road is clear ahead, now you're going to create something. I think that's as happy as I would ever want to be." So, Hitchcock believed that we are wrong to relent to our natural desire for negative emotions (the "hunger" for heightened emotions described by Plato and Socrates) and he understood that we are happy and productive if we remove negative emotions from our lives. Watching a film that gives us nightmares is not removing negative emotions from our lives. The modern horror film does more than inspire nightmares. It has a dark energy that we would do best to avoid.
Romain wrote multiple articles and multiple tweets on Hereditary. In general, the writer is obsessed with films and television shows that celebrate the occult. She writes a lot about American Horror Story. She is one of many young people intoxicated by these works. She accepts that this content harms her psyche, but she just doesn't care. She tweeted, "HEREDITARY. . . moved me, devastated me, spoke directly to so many of my insecurities and fears as a woman and human being. it's an ugly film, and i love it for that."
Strangely, she imagined the end of the film having a catharsis that it didn't have. She wrote on her blog, Bright Wall/Dark Room:
It's bleak as hell, yes, but for someone who lives that reality, there's a catharsis as well. It is always validating to be seen, even when a film reveals parts you wish you could expel. It also serves as a lesson — a visual guide of what not to do. Here is what happens when you let the darkness win. It's made others sleep with the light on. It made me call a therapist.
Romain is wrong, for a film about shock, torture and helplessness does not serve as a guide. Aster has made it clear that the film's characters have no agency and he suggests at the same time that we have no agency. The film is designed to deny us release from its horrors. It wants its horrors to devastate and imprison us.
Mental illness can be shared through genetics, but it can also be shared through mutual experiences and environmental factors. We share the experiences of a character when we watch a film. Our minds cannot necessarily disassociate from these experiences. People often find cinematic experiences getting tangled up with real-life experiences. A thin line divides fantasy and reality. Like Aster once found himself projecting the image of Greenaway's roasted corpse onto walls, those who were unfortunate enough to see Hereditary will project images of decapitated corpses onto walls. And, as this barrage of possessed-child, demon-victory films pervade our culture, we will find our culture being reshaped around us and we will wonder in the end how everything around us has become so ugly.
It doesn't matter to me if Aster is a depraved neurotic or a gleeful Satanist. A thin line divides the two. But Hereditary has certainly been successful in sharing the filmmaker's ill thinking if Romain (like many others) left the theatre wanting to call her therapist.
- "How the Catholic author of 'The Exorcist' saw good and evil," Catholic News Agency (January 13, 2017). https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-the-catholic-author-of-the-exorcist-saw-good-and-evil-88270.
Nick Allen, "The Ending of 'Hereditary' Feels Inevitable," The Hollywood Reporter (June 12, 2018). https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/hereditary-ending-paimon-explained-1119476.
Nicholas Barber, "Film Review: The Favourite," BBC (August 31, 2018). http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180831-film-review-the-favourite.
Todd Clark, "A Homeric Challenge: The Purpose and Meaning of the Poetry Critique in Book 10 of Plato's Republic." https://www.academia.edu/15863918/A_Homeric_Challenge_The_Purpose_and_Meaning_of_the_Poetry_Critique_in_Book_10_of_Plato_s_Republic.
Chris Evangelista, "Making Sense of the Terrifying 'Hereditary' Ending," SlashFilm (June 11, 2018). https://www.slashfilm.com/the-hereditary-ending-explained/.
Raphael Foshay, "Mimesis in Plato's Republic and Its Interpretation by Girard and Gans," Anthropoetics XV, no. 1 Fall 2009: GA Summer Conference Issue. http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1501/1501foshay/.
Haleigh Foutch, "Ari Aster on 'Hereditary' and the 3-Hour Cut We Might Never See," Collider (June 10, 2018). www.collider.com/hereditary-interview-ari-aster/.
Kevin Hearne, "The Demonization of Pan," Mesa Community College (1998). https://www.mesacc.edu/~thoqh49081/StudentPapers/pan.html.
Michael Koresky, "Interview: Ari Aster," Film Comment (May 1, 2018). https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-ari-aster/.
James Morgan, "Decoding the symbols on Satan's statue," BBC News, Washington DC (August 1, 2015). https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33682878.
Jenelle Riley, "'Hereditary' Filmmaker Ari Aster Answers Burning Questions (Spoilers)," Variety (June 11, 2018). https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/hereditary-ari-aster-answers-burning-questions-1202841448/.
Lindsey Romain, "What You Need to Know About King Paimon in 'Hereditary,'" Thrilllist (June 8, 2018). https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/hereditary-movie-king-paimon.
Lindsey Romain, "Hereditary and the Antipathy of Grief," Bright Wall/Dark Room (June 14, 2018). https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2018/06/14/hereditary-and-the-antipathy-of-grief/.
Tony Sokol, "Hereditary: The Real Story of King Paimon," Den of Geek (October 21, 2018). https://www.denofgeek.com/us/culture/hereditary/274189/hereditary-the-real-story-of-king-paimon.
Theodore Valentine, "Guillermo Del Toro Entertains with Beastiality," Lies of the Devil (August 31, 2017). https://www.liesofthedevil.com/beastiality-in-the-shape-of-water-film-by-guillermo-del-toro/.
Chris Wallace, "David Cronenberg," Interview (October 15, 2014). https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/david-cronenberg.
Staci Layne Wilson, "HEREDITARY – Interview with Writer-Director Ari Aster and the Cast," The Dread Central (June 12, 2018). https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/276164/hereditary-interview-with-writer-director-ari-aster-and-the-cast/.
Satanism is now out in the open in the fashion world and entertainment world. Here are some of the photos used to market Celine Dion's new clothing line for children.
Posted by abaldu8246 at 3:24 PM 2 comments:
The Spirits Come Forward: The Ouija Board in Films and Television
It is farfetched to expect a flat square of pressed cardboard to be a magical threshold into the afterlife. Look at it. It has no tra...
The Dark Violent Truth About Hollywood's Obsession with the Female Robot
This is a transcript of a video that I posted to my YouTube channel in February. Good day, my friends. We are here today to talk abo...
A Non-Leering Look at Helen Mirren's Pleasure Pillows and Blake Lively's Orange Bikini
The one thing that occurs to me as I watch old movies is that actresses were so pretty back then. Yes, the ladies of Hollywood's G...
The Toe Stuck in the Bathtub Spout Routine
The great British comedian Eric Sykes died this month. Early in his career, Sykes developed a reputation for his ability to take a simp...
Is There No Comedy in Likeable?
Phillip Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond , said, "There's no comedy in likeable." He made the point that ...
The Three Stooges Go To Heaven
By 1975, the famous long-running slapstick act of the Three Stooges had ended and few people seemed to have noticed. Where once had existed...
Stuck on You: The Handcuffs Routine
The handcuffs routine has been a stock sitcom routine for the last 64 years. It is the simplicity of the routine that has allowed it to...
I have been thinking about an article I wrote more than a year ago. In the article, I compared Annabelle: Creation (2017) to Poltergeist...
The Great and Glorious Totò, Part 1 (1937 to 1949)
Totò in Fifa e arena (English title: Fear and Sand ) (1948) It is worthwhile for English-speaking comedy fans to break through language...
"Put 'em up. Put 'em Up": Bert Lahr Goes to War with Joke Thieves
Bert Lahr was neurotic about other comedians stealing his material. I wrote in a previous article about Lahr threatening to sue Warner ...
Copyright © Anthony Balducci's Journal | Powered by Blogger

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl