Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:47:49 -0700 To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org From: The Independent Eye <eye-AT-independenteye.org> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Horrendousness >Something as horrible as the TRUE Frankenstein's Monster in the >original novel by Mary Shelley: something patched together from >corpses with the creator's intention of nobility, but that went >completely wrong and inspires deep terror and wrongness in anyone >but the blind... Dear Mathieu- Actually, as I recall, having done a stage adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN, in Shelley's novel there's virtually no description of the Creature - the only thing mentioned by Victor as horrible were his watery eyes. You have to break down the elements of what constitutes "horrendousness," and it's not so much what it looks like as it is what it triggers in us. The challenge (and the potential) is in your thoughts of "wrongness" and in your later post, "just enough 'off' to be disturbing." The offness can be either the sense of an utterly alien mind, as when one looks a very long time at an insect's head, or of a human mind inside something inhuman or distorted. The Neck-Biter in the YouTube reference fails the "horror" test just ugly and vile, not horror-inspiring. The same creature given extremely frightened eyes, or with very slow, balletic movement, might be much more terrifying. Though certainly not as funny or "horrible" in the usual sense. There's another element of horror that's contained in the sense of blurriness - shifting form - inability to quite comprehend what's there. That's harder to do with puppets (except shadows) because they have such concrete form. Can be done in light shifting on them or in aspects of their movement or in assymetry combined with movement that highlights it. In film, a horrific scene in Pasolini's SALO, possibly the most difficult-to-watch films of all time, where a torture is happening, but seen through binoculars with the torturer himself blotting out our view of the victim, except for hands and feet. Or the shower scene in PSYCHO: we see the shape approaching through the blur of the curtain, then the curtain is flung open and we see the murderer. Typical horror setup, but Hitchcock is smart enough to cut from the full-blown image of the killer so rapidly that we can barely register it, and on to the montage of violence. We never get a good look at him, and we're drawn into the murder itself as the victim herself would have sensed it, just a series of crazy images, beyond control. I guess my point is that it's not so much a thing that can be designed into the puppet as it is how the puppet is used, how our perception is affected, what's triggered in us. In the production that's currently wiping out all life on Earth for me, DESCENT OF THE GODDESS INANNA, the Gatekeeper of the Underworld is a pretty horrific guy, modeled on the Papa Gede of the Voudon tradition - skull head, reflective sunglasses, top hat & tails, a ruffled shirt cut away to reveal the rib cage, long skinny arms revealing the bones of the lower arm, and for good measure a 4 ft. scorpion tail emerging from his cummerbund. He's pretty spectacular, but I wouldn't claim that his appearance creates a sense of horror. The natural shadows of a skull produce a huge grin, and it's only when Inanna is stripped of all her godhood, and he speaks the words... And now, honey, now you have no power. No bank account, no house, no dog, no cat, nor your music, nor the birds. You do not have your baby doll. You have no hope of God, or Saviors, or Goddess, you have no eternal life, you have- No bladder control. You cannot feed yourself, or wipe yourself, you cannot laugh nor weep, and if you hear screaming you can't tell if it's you. You remember nothing, you are not remembered, you are not loved, you are not mourned, there are no snapshots of you, nor anywhere your name. That dear lady your mother does not recall your birth. That's about as low as it gets. ... that we actually feel horror. Because that's what we fear. Interestnig quest. Good luck. Peace & joy- Conrad B. -- Visit our website at <http://www.independenteye.org>, for listening to our public radio series Hitchhiking Off the Map and exploring our archives of 34 years of stage productions. _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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