Author Archives: Bob Evans

My Two Unpopular Takes on Frankenstein

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rankenstein is not science-fiction.

The Creature/Creation is not sympathetic.

There is not a small number of people and fans who want to count Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s 1816 novel as one of the first if not the first work of science-fiction. I disagree, but not because I want to dismiss such an influenceable work. Frankenstein is one of the most important works of literature. Two hundred years plus after its publication we still not only debate and adapt the work itself, but the theme of irresponsible creation echoes in so many works it would be futile to list them all. Both HAL9000 and the Terminator owe a debt to Shelly’s vision. But the fact that so much science-fiction mines that productive vein that she uncovered doesn’t make the original science-fiction as well.

In a work of SF, the method of the fantastic is vitally important to genre. Taking a Pegasus to the moon is not science fiction, but using a cannon to shoot myself there is. Method defines the genre. While Shelly may have been inspired by Galvanism it is absent from the text. In fact, in the text of the novel Shelly doesn’t just hand-wave her way past how Frankenstein created life, she leaves out the method entirely. She leaves it out because the method is unimportant to her theme and her subject. She wasn’t interested in how he created life only the ethical issues that raised. Verne’s trip to the moon is built upon the method of getting there and far less interested in what that means. Shelly’s creation of life ignores the ‘how’ but explores the why and the consequences. Frankenstein is one of the most important works ever created but it is not science-fiction.

The Creature is not sympathetic to me because it comes off to me as a dangerous, murderous, narcissist. Much has been made about how the doctor abandoned the creature, leaving it to suffer torment in isolation. That’s fair enough and is Shelly’s point, but the creature’s actions following that are impossible to justify.

While I think we can agree that vengeance is at best a questionable course of action, and had the creature’s vengeance been directed solely at Frankenstein it would be far less reprehensible but that it is not how the text unfolds.

To make his creator suffer the creature not only murders a child only because the boy is a relation to his creator but then frames an innocent woman to suffer the mob justice for his own crime.

When the creature confronts his creator in the ice caves of Switzerland, he proclaims that no being could love as greatly as himself but hurt and abused he swore to hate as greatly. He betrays the classic profile of a narcissist, his own feelings are paramount and those of others, such a murdered child, grieving parents, or those unjustly lynched for his crimes are of no consequence. There is precious little difference between the creature taking his violent vengeance on innocent bystanders and the mass murders of American murdering strangers.

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The Prisoner, A Conservative Psychiatrist, & Our Dark Times

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In 1967 star and producer Patrick McGoohan released into the world a surreal allegory of television series The Prisoner about an unnamed espionage agent kidnapped to a secret island called ‘The Village’ with the reason for his sudden resignation of great interest to his captors. A full decade before the brilliant surrealist filmmaker Daid Lynch would burst onto the scene with Eraserhead, The Prisoner would be most people’s introduction to film and television that would later be called Lynchian.

An important aspect to The Village and its totalitarian governance is that dissidents, malcontent, and people who attempted to resist were not labeled criminal but rather sick, mentally unbalanced. after all, no sane person could possibly resent to idyllic life present by the Village.

36 years after the debut of The Prisoner, conservative columnist and former psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer commenting on Democratic politician Howard Dean toying with conspiracy theories that President Bush had been forewarn of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 coined the term ‘Bush Derangement Syndrome,’ mirroring the Village’s policy of treatment dissent and disagreement as mental illness allowing easy dismissal of any and all criticism. Granted, Krauthammer probably meant the term as merely play on words and not at all a serious rebuttal, but the fast adoption of the term and its repeated deployment negates whatever intent the writer had.

A dozen years after Krauthammer introduced mental illness as a dismissal and pejorative for those is disagreement the term ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ entered the political terminology with current events expanding it to include ‘Musk Derangement Syndrome’ to include the wealthiest man alive and the administration hatchment man for regulatory governance.

As this administration proves itself criminal, callous, careless, and cruel the terms ‘TDS’ and “MDS’ are employed more and more. After all, no ‘right thinking’ person could possibly oppose such ‘common sense’ actions such as ignoring the courts, holding due process in contempt, and persecuting ‘enemies of the people’ for their speech.

At the end of the Prisoner’s only season when our unnamed protagonist finally discovers who is ‘Number One’ the person in charge of the Village and all its conformity demanding madness, it is a person who looks precisely like himself. The allegory clear, we all live in the Village. We have put ourselves there, caged by our own conventions and demands for tranquility.

And now in reality we are trapped in a ‘Village’ of our own making. Our wardens insisting that our rejection of an insane, idiotic, and cruel administration proof of our mental illness. I, for one, wear the ‘syndrome’ badge with honor. The truth remains, this is a cruel, criminal and deeply stupid administration and the truly deranged are those who profess that is normal and good.

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STREAMING MOVIE REVIEW: AUDITION (1999)

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Omega Project

Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) a widower of about ten years and a workaholic with the help of a film producer friend sets up a series of auditions for a non-existent production in hopes of finding the right young woman to become his wife. From the moment Asami’s (Eihi Shiiina) headshot and CV cross his desk Shigeharu is fascinated and soon obsessed with the mysterious young woman, ignoring the communist parade of red flags surrounding Asami. Soon enough Shigeharu discovers the depths of Asami’s unbalanced mind the hatred she harbors for deceitful, manipulating men.

Audition came to my attention due to a YouTube video about frightening moments in film and I have to agree the scene where what appears to be a large laundry bag moves if startling and unsettling. While this film has a generally good score in its reviews and overall, I did enjoy it I think it runs a little long in duration. The second act, the middle of the film, feels a little aimless slows down just a tad too much for my tastes. It many ways the feels much like many Frankensteinadaptations first acts. We know what is coming and the delay in getting that building very little in tension of suspense. At an hour and fifty-five minutes I think Audition might benefits for just being 10 to 15 minutes shorter.

That said, if foreign film works for you and if subtitling doesn’t interfere with your suspension of disbelief than Audition is worth a watch.

Audition is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel and Shudder.

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Spaghetti Western Review: The Price of Power (ll prezzo del potere)

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I was never into the Italian produced westerns until my sweetie-wife came along and now we will seek them out, either on streaming or on disc. Some have been real gems and others rather tedious to screen. However, this one proved the most unique in the thematic structure of its story.

It is 1881 and President James Garfield (Van Johnson, dubbed even in the English Language version) is touring the western United States as he pushes for greater civil rights for the recently liberated enslaved people. In the sleep desert town of Dallas, Texas, a conspiracy of bitter-end Confederates plot to assassinate Garfield. Only a former Union officer, Jack Donovan (Ray Saunders) stands in the way of the powerful interests plotting the president’s murder.

As the film unspooled, I wondered just how much of the story, a presidential assassination plot in Dallas, was deliberately crafted to invoke the Kennedy killing. My answers came at the end of the second act when hidden gunmen shot and killed Garfield as he rode through the street in an open carriage with the lovely dark-haired wife at his side. This was quite directly a retelling of November 22, 1963, but with a different assassinated head of government. (Garfield was shot and killed while in office, but back east and by a disgruntled office seeker.)

I haven’t yet finished the film, but I strongly suspect that the third act will be fairly standard for a spaghetti western as our hero has plenty to avenge beyond the murder of a president. It’s a shame that the only version streaming in Tubi is the dubbed one but still it’s revealing itself to a most interest example of those late 60s Italian productions.

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A San Diego from Years past

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Saturday, I spent three hours at the Central Library downtown researching the movies that played in the summer of 1984 here is San Diego. I needed specific movies and theaters beyond the major studio productions and megahits of that year. And that year had a lot of megahits, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Star trek III, Indian Jones and The Temple of Doom and so many more, but those I can research on the internet and are far less importance to my coming novel. No, I needed the small arthouse films, and just which arthouse were in operation in my adopted hometown.

I was here in that summer. I watched many of those movies, but my memory is foggy on when in the season they player and names of those theaters that have long since shuttered their doors, hence the need to scan through rolls of microfiche looking at the newspaper ads of the day.

Man, that brought back memories. This city used to have so many movie theaters. I saw ads for movies I had nearly forgotten entirely and the old movie houses where they played.

I adore the era of streaming and the ease with which it makes it possible to watch a lot of material instead of waiting on the whims of late-night programmers, but I miss those theaters, the thrill of something wild and unexpected when you went to showing with little or no knowledge of the film and shared that discovery with a live audience.

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Tesla Vandalism Is Domestic Terrorism

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Before I start let me state without qualification or evasion that Elon Musk, unelected and unaccountable, should get the fuck out of our government.

A recent spate of vandalism against Tesla dealerships and charging stations has erupted on the news cycle prompting the President to declare the acts as ‘domestic terrorism’ with promises of persecution. This is turn has caused some corners of the left to insist that it is ‘just vandalism’ and not terrorism.

I would maintain that acts of violence, against people or property with the goal of effecting political change, in this case driving Musk from his position of power, is pretty much the definition of terrorism. It occurred within our national jurisdiction and presumably from American nationals making it thoroughly domestic. Simple logic renders the inescapable conclusion that these acts are indeed ‘domestic terrorism.’

That’s not the real fuck issue.

The real issue is that this administration will in no way or in no manner treat all acts of domestic terrorism equally. The pardoning of the violent insurrectionist who attempted to overthrow a fair, free, and legitimate election is proof of this. Further evidence is the legal action against the man who organized pro-Palestinian protests.

When Trump promises to use law enforcement against some persons but not others, he is employing the fascist credo ‘For my friends, everything; for my enemies the law.’

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Fake it Till You Make it

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The affirmation ‘fake it ’till you make it’ has long been one employed to fight the dreaded ‘impostor syndrome.’ To be a writer with confidence, act like you have that confidence, play the part until it because a reality for you. This applies to nearly all areas of human activity; act the way you want to be, and it will help you become exactly that.

I think there’s a dark mirror-universe version of this effect as well. I think if you want to be that thing you are act is fairly irrelevant. You will tend to become what you pretend to be, even if that was not your original intention.

There’s an activity, principally online, known as ‘owning the libs,’ where people, mostly men, perform in a manner to provoke anger and outrage from liberals and then rejoicing in the fact that you managed to make the outraged. The fact that there’s an entire community of people acting this way is of concern because in my opinion many of them are ‘faking it’, being homophobic racist until they ‘make it’ actually becoming homophobic racists.

Compounding this effect is the presence of actual homophobic racist all too eager to welcome anyone to their ranks. The pressure of conformity within any social group is powerful, humans are social creatures, and those drives are very hard to overcome. Pressure to conform to the hateful community eventually molds those ‘pretending’ into actual adherents.

So, maybe that ‘okay’ hand gesture wasn’t really and truly meant as a white power symbol, and maybe that ‘roman salute’ was just someone throwing their heart to the crowd, but such things a welcomed with great joy by the fascists and racists and positive reinforcement changes people. Sometimes they fake it until it makes them Nazis.

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The Flowering Phase of Creativity

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So, another post about my next novel and how my creative process works.

I am in what I can call ‘my flowering phase.’ I haven’t committed much to text as far as the next project goes, it’s still a little too indistinct for that, but enough of the project has firmed up that ideas and concepts are sprouting like springtime flowers. They are common enough and specific enough that even while having lunch with my sweetie-wife I can do quick research to validate them as they erupt.

Yesterday, after our quite enjoyable walk in the zoo under a gloriously clear blue sky, I realized that an element of my plot could be resolved by a second Adamas avenue theater, one that by the 80s had become a fabric store. Fast and accurate googling on my smart phone confirmed that what had once the Adams Avenue Theater, a movie palace of old, worked perfectly for my needs.

Soon it will be time to start crafting the details of the plot and putting the outline into shape. While a lot of the story and the plot remain hazy, just shapes in the fog on a dark night, they are there just waiting to be discovered.

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The Next Novel

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I have begun to earliest work on my next novel. Another horror, this one a bit of a period piece, but a period I know well, San Diego the summer of 1984. This one will be a ghost story centered on an arthouse/revival house movie theater in the Kensington area of the city. For people who know San Diego, yes, I am crafting a fictional version of the beloved Ken Cinema that ceased operations at the start of the pandemic. The Ken was part of the Landmark chain of theaters that once thrived here and now no theaters of that illustrious chain remain open in San Diego.

The summer of ’84 was an eventful summer for the nation and the city. Los Angeles hosted the Olympics, which the Soviets boycotted. Our mayor was embroiled in a scandal that seems so small and quaint by today’s degenerated politics. Ronald Reagan was riding to a massive electoral victory and San Diego erupted on the map with for a while the largest mass-murder event in the country’s history. Sadly, America has broken that record repeatedly.

That was the year I still performed as part of the fans that attended The Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screenings, made lifelong friends, and discovered some of my favorite films in class at college.

Amid all this crisis and confusion, I plan to play with ghosts and cinema. It should be a lot of fun.

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This is Far Worse Than I Expected

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I have been posting far less political content not because the environment has improved an in any manner but because I had nothing really new to say. My opposition to Trump, Trumpism, and the entire GOP has not changed or slackened in any manner. It is terrifying to see what has become of this nation and I fear terribly for what is yet to come.

That said, the fucked-up nature of what has transpired in the less than six weeks since the fool and narcissist took office is far worse than I had imagined.

Oh, I was pretty sure that idiot would abandon Ukraine. His sympathies are entirely with Putin. He imagines himself as a strong virile and tough man. In his deluded and stupid brain the man thinks he’s like some cinematic mafia boss when the reality is that his fragile ego and limited intelligence make him the plaything and tool of those vile and evil men. The bowing to Putin is hardly surprising, I just thought it would take a little longer.

I also though crashing the economy would take more time. I though the disaster of extending his massive tax giveaway to the world’s richest people would be the anchor that jerked the nation’s economy to a halt but we’re not waiting for such laws. No, we’re in a full-scale trade war with Canada now and already the markets are falling and if this shit goes on we are in for some serious monetary pain the likes of which we have not seen in decades.

I see no way out of this in the next two years. The Supreme Courts abdication of responsibility has locked in gerrymandered districts that assure us that no GOP house member will stand up for the nation, their district, or even their separated powers. Plus, the world’s richest person has already assured them that his vast wealth, growing greater by the day as he and he alone determines what government spending is to be enacted, that he will destroy them should they show the slightest evolution of a spine.

We may be witnessing a new world order coming into being. One that no longer has American’s hand on the helm.

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