‘The first thing I think of when I think of Piper Laurie is ‘Movie Star’. This label is perhaps a bit inaccurate when considering her expansive body of work over seven decades, that stretches across nearly as many artistic mediums – acting in film, television, theater; sculpting, painting and now, with the release of her memoir, Learning to Live Out Loud, writing. When it comes to contemporary acting, however, distinct flashes of Laurie’s style can be glimpsed, albeit fleetingly, in the performance styles of starlets such as Carey Mulligan and Michelle Williams—women who are striking, intellectual, maybe a bit bruised, maybe a bit tough – tremulous gamines with hearts of steel. Piper Laurie began doing that in the 1950s as a contract player working with stalwarts like Douglas Sirk, and continued refining this type into the1960s with her iconic turn as Sarah in The Hustler (1961).

‘Known largely now for its stinging treatment of pool shark culture and the cool, The Hustler shined a spotlight on the hunky king of that world, Fast Eddie Felson (played of course by a never-hotter Paul Newman). Upon closer inspection, there is such an edgy nastiness to the film that makes its purposeful nihilism still feel shocking. Shocking not because of the frank dissection of its characters’ narcissistic, deliberately hurtful behavior and desperation (though those are incredible moments), but instead for how shockingly tough, scrappy and new the punched-in-the-guts emotional impact feels every time Laurie appears on screen to temper the overall machismo with her patented brand of tough cookie feminine energy. There’s real danger in this film, a thrilling sense of risk-taking.

‘The Hustler still feels that way more than fifty years later. Fresh. Exciting. Deadly. The film works largely thanks to Laurie’s contribution to the incredible ensemble that includes not only Newman but also towering greats George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason. The doomed, tragic romance between Laurie’s Sarah and Fast Eddie grounded The Hustler in a stark and bitter reality that hadn’t been depicted for the screen previously. After being nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her work in the film, Laurie soon found that Hollywood was an inhospitable place for women who didn’t necessarily fit into just one mold as an artist.

‘Rather than take work that wasn’t up to snuff, Laurie did something that might have been considered, again, a little shocking: she stopped playing the leading lady (or, in her words “perky starlet”) and promptly left movies for work on her own terms. The result was a daring collection of female characters who were not only close to the edge, but some who, in fact, went over that edge a long time ago. Colorful, memorable roles in films like Carrie (1976, for which she makes our Essential Performances list), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Twin Peaks (1990) solidified her reputation as a singular talent. When one digs a bit deeper into her body of work, into films like the 1979 Australian drama Tim opposite Mel Gibson or the Truman Capote-inspired realms of deeply-Southern magical realism in The Grass Harp (1995), the breadth of her characterizations is impressive, there is always a deliberateness to her portrayals, and each is impeccably constructed and thoughtful.

‘Female movie stars of today may possess the basic, bare minimum tenets of Piper Laurie’s blazingly original screen persona, but very few can claim the kind of honed, strong chops she can. They just don’t make them like this anymore, as the saying goes. However, as her revealing biography points out, a thirst for learning and a constant search for new ways of creatively expressing oneself can take a performer to spectacular heights, and she done both opposite some of the greatest artists ever to work, counting Maureen Stapleton, Jean Simmons, Kim Stanley, David Lynch, Douglas Sirk , Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Sissy Spacek and Brian De Palma amongst her closest collaborators. She no doubt also taught them a thing or two as well, which means the future is indeed bright for the Carey Mulligans and Michelle Williamses of the world after all.’ — Matt Mazur

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Piper Laurie @ IMDb
Book: ‘Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir’ by Piper Laurie
‘Piper Laurie On Her Big Twin Peaks Secret’
‘Why I had to reject Hollywood’
‘Piper Laurie Discusses Twin Peaks Revival & Carrie’
‘Piper Laurie in-depth, or ‘I’ll have what she’s having, hold the knives’
‘Piper Laurie remembers the smoldering genius of George C. Scott’
‘Why didn’t Piper Laurie win the Oscar for Carrie?’
‘Piper Laurie Emerges From Your Nightmares’
‘Piper Laurie On Not Winning The Oscar’
‘Piper Laurie claims Ronald Reagan was a ‘show-off’ in bed’
‘Piper Laurie reflects on the past’

 

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Extras

What’s My Line? MYSTERY GUEST: Piper Laurie

Twin Peaks Piper Laurie Bonhams Live Auction

Piper Laurie, 1987 TV Interview

Golden Globes 1991 Piper Laurie Wins the Award for Best Supporting Actress

 

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Interview
from Pop Matters

 

Your career began at a pivotal time in cinema history when the way movies were being made was quickly changing. What were your initial ambitions?

Piper Laurie: Well, I wanted to be a really good actress and I had planned on going to New York to work in the theater. I screen-tested before, several times, and they failed them. So I was sort of surprised when Universal decided to exercise the test option contract after the screen test that I made with Rock Hudson. It was so flattering, that they wanted me, and that they were going to pay me for doing what I loved to do. I got trapped into something that I wasn’t expecting. I knew nothing about the kind of movies that Universal made at that time. I was forced to lower my standards. I didn’t really lower my standards, it was just agony I must say, to have to play the parts in the movies that they gave me. On one hand I was grateful that I was getting a name, which I later had to live down, but it was certainly not what I had aspired to.

Do you ever revisit those movies, like the ones you did with Douglas Sirk?

PL: No, I haven’t seen them for years. I don’t think I ever saw any of them more than once. You know, modern people enjoyed them…

The Hustler is such a favorite of mine and I’ve recently revisited it. Talk about a movie that stands the test of time… when you were constructing your character for this film, what about playing Sarah was most intriguing to you?

PL: Well, I think not necessarily playing her, but the whole project: the meticulous, vibrant script and the opportunity to work with Robert Rossen and to play opposite the actors that were starring in it. The overall project was really the appeal, not necessarily her part. Those sad creatures require almost to dredge up a lot of sadness in one’s life and that’s never fun.

Speaking of great ensembles, I wish I could have seen you do The Glass Menagerie with Pat Hingle and Maureen Stapleton, I’m such a fan of that play and of Tennessee Williams.

PL: It was really a lovely production! That’s what I’ve been told by enough people so I believe it! (laughing)

What were the challenges of performing this demanding role for the stage? Did you for example take to the language naturally?

PL: You put it very well. I think most actors respond to his language. That’s why so many of us like to work on his material. I’d worked on a lot of things, plays, in my acting classes before I even went to Universal and became a professional actor. Tennessee Williams was a very important person to me. I got to meet him and know him a little bit while we were rehearsing and during the play and he came to many of the performances. The Tennessee Williams one-act play, This Property Is Condemned, was made into a movie that had nothing to do with the play, it was a completely different story. It was basically a two-character play, the main character was mainly a monologue, a 14-year-old girl. I played the main character, I worked on that in my acting class, and used it as an audition piece when I went to Universal.

They were going to give me three minutes, they were going to start the play, and I expected them to stop me, but they didn’t and I ended up doing the whole 25-minute play. And they signed me, and I made a screen test, and they put me into junk. Anyway…. Tennessee Williams is a fabulous part of my life and actually I just came back from the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans where I was on a number of the panels and did a reading, the Katharine Hepburn role [from Suddenly, Last Summer] from when she first appears in the movie. There was a whole afternoon devoted to Williams.

I’m so interested the women you mention in your book. Maureen, Kim Stanley, Jean Simmons, and Estelle Parsons. How did your associations with these talented women impact you?

PL: Greatly (laughing). Maureen was just… so human and tortured and dear and intelligent. Brilliant. As gifted as she was, that’s how intelligent she was as well. We spent a lot of time together while doing the play and then afterwards as well. She was a generous human person, who had a hard time with life and made a lot of bad choices like a lot of actors do. But I loved her very much, she was a wonderful person.

It is striking just how prescient Carrie is in its depiction of bullying and teenage horror. I have to ask – what are your thoughts on the planned remake and Julianne Moore tackling Margaret White?

PL: Oh, you know, I hope that they have fun like we did! Or like I did anyway. I wish them well and I know that they did another version of it on stage recently, and I did get to see the first of the previews. They had a different take on the story, and they had every right to. I loved our movie, our version of it, because I think that Brian De Palma brought a joyful sensibility to it, there was all that freshness. Even though it was about a lot of misery, there was still joy in all of those young people, in all the characters. There was flamboyance about Brian De Palma’s work, I think. I know he certainly made me feel comfortable. I think the people involved with the new version will do their own take on it and I wish them well.

I had a chance to research some of your filmography that I hadn’t seen previously and was so impressed with some of the more underrated titles. Particularly I loved watching Tim, with Mel Gibson, which had so many great observations about gender, age and atypical relationships. In the book you touch on working with Mel, but I was so fascinated with your character, she seemed so much different from anything else you had done until that point. What did you hope to express through Mary, your character in Tim?

PL: You know, I don’t really approach a part with what I want to express, I think my ambition during filming is to respect the material, to fulfill the nature of the character as written. I don’t feel I can take charge and be the playwright. I just saw her as a very decent woman, and a generous one. I don’t really think I had a motive to be a certain kind of person, I just wanted to fulfill the story.

What was the personal significance to you of being a woman of Jewish descent playing a Nazi like Magda Goebbels with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler in The Bunker?

PL: It was very interesting to do the research on Hitler, Goebbels and his beautiful wife, who I was playing. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time I was reading. I had, even as a child, a violent response to Hitler as, I suppose you can call him a ‘human being’, though I really don’t think he deserved that title. He was alive at one point, he was a person, but I just had nightmares about him when I was a little girl. It was kind of treacherous getting into this material and trying to empathize with people who were very close to him. Magda Goebbels was very close. He trusted her. She was the only person who could cook something for him and he wouldn’t demand a taster to see if it was safe to eat. So I approached it from another’s point of view and tried to imagine her as being a mother, a human and the feelings that she probably had about her children and being in that underground place that they had at the end.

I wanted to ask you about film criticism since you were married to one of the great film critics, Joe Morgenstern, and also knew Pauline Kael. What changes have you observed in film criticism throughout your career?

PL: For a long time, for many years, there were very few critics, most people who wrote about movies were called ‘reviewers.’ I suppose they still exist, they were the people who would spoil the movie by telling the story. It had no values at all [talking] about performance. It was just all very superficial. I think there are a lot of real critics now, I guess that’s good (laughing). I don’t like reading reviews myself about a movie I’m going to be seeing. I like reading the ones I respect after I see the movie, that’s really fun to do.

What did playing Catherine on Twin Peaks, and her Japanese businessman disguise Mr Tojamura, allow you to do as a performer that you’d never done before?

PL: I didn’t expect it. When I was little girl, I used to get into elaborate disguises. I remember there was an old folks home across the street, in this huge Victorian house, and the people would always sit out on the porch and rock or spend the afternoon. With the help of my sister, I got into the disguise of an old lady, powdered my hair, bent my body over, and put on some old clothes and clunky shoes. I actually had a following there! (laughing) My sister and some of the kids in the neighborhood thought ‘this is pretty bizarre and interesting!’ (laughing) I pretended to be an old lady and of course all of the old folks knew that it was a kid doing this and they went along with it, but I remember there was one man who tied my shoelace for me! I found such joy in being able to change who I was. It was fun, it’s why I loved Halloween, because we could wear costumes. So, to be handed the opportunity by David Lynch, to do that in the show, was pure heaven!

You’ve been awarded three career Oscar nominations – what did these Oscar nominations mean to you when you were first nominated and how did your perception change as you collected other awards and nominations?

PL: Well, the first Oscar nomination for The Hustler was meaningless to me. Because I didn’t have the perspective of the movie, I was too subjective when I viewed it. It wasn’t what I had expected. When I’d see a scene, I’d remember that my shoe was too tight or that we were having difficulty or had to shoot it a lot of times. You know, I just remembered all of the things we’d experienced on the set, rather than looking at it objectively as the story was going. I thought it was bullshit, frankly, that I had been nominated and I just didn’t believe in it. I didn’t even go out to California for the ceremony. I watched it on a little set with my mother-in-law and my husband. Then, later as I started getting nominations, I was a little more relaxed about myself, I was able to enjoy the fun and that my peers thought I had done a good job. I never really enjoyed going. I pretended I was enjoying going to the ceremonies, but it’s always difficult.

What about when you win and you have to give speeches?

PL: I’ve won things a few times. Once I won my Emmy, when I wasn’t there, not because I didn’t want to go but because I was doing a play somewhere. James Woods accepted for me and that was fun. The only other time I was present and actually won was the Golden Globe for Twin Peaks and that was hell, I’ll be honest with you! (laughing) When I heard my name, I really didn’t expect to hear it. I didn’t even bother to tidy up before the broadcast started. It took forever before I got to the podium, I don’t even know what I said. It was stupid, I’m sure! (laughing)

 

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19 of Piper Laurie’s 112 roles

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Douglas Sirk Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952)
‘The reason why Has Anybody Seen My Gal is enjoyable, even now over 60 years after it was made is because of Charles Coburn. Coburn was such a great comedic actor that even when he was playing a grouch he was likeable and so from the minute we meet Samuel Fulton, berating his staff as he dictates his Will you just smile because Coburn simply makes him fun. And it is the same throughout, be it a knowing look, his attempts to make soda-pops or the way he treats the Blaisdell’s home like his own without a care in the world he just makes you smile. As such whilst there are entertaining performances from Larry Gates, Lynn Bari as well as Piper Laurie and Rock Hudson it is Coburn who is the star and who makes it worth watching. Although for sheer cuteness Gigi Perreau as young Roberta deserves a mention because she maybe a childhood cliche but she is fun especially as she befriends Fulton.’ — The Movie Scene

Trailer

Excerpt with commentary by Piper Laurie

 

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Rudolph Maté The Mississippi Gambler (1953)
‘1953’s The Mississippi Gambler was the third Universal Studios film to bear this title–though with a different plot each time. Tyrone Power plays an all-around adventurer who cuts quite a swath through antebellum New Orleans. In between scenes of gambling, fist-fighting and swordplay, Power woos Piper Laurie, who chooses to marry wealthy Ron Randell; in turn, Power is wooed by Julie Adams, whose ardor is not reciprocated. The climax finds Power in a card table showdown with Ms. Laurie’s ill-tempered brother John Baer. Mississippi Gambler is consistently good to look at, even when the storyline threatens to snap under the pressure.’ — collaged

the entire film

 

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Edward Buzzell Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1955)
‘Up and coming hopefuls in the film arts have to cut their milk teeth somewhere, and Ain’t Misbehavin’ is the type of zwieback on which they chew. Yesterday at the Palace Piper Laurie and Rory Calhoun could be seen industriously learning their trade in the Universal-International color musical. The story line of rich young man and poor chorus line hoofer, set atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill, flits frantically about the place and never really goes anywhere. Miss Laurie sings and dances four alleged “production” numbers, and she’s in there batting every minute. It’s a forced, joyless thing that director Edward Buzzell has wrought. All surface and no distinction. The music is tired and the dances are flaccid repetitions of hundreds of other movie dances. But when the summer nights afflict you like wet wool, and the theatres beckon with their super-cooled zephyrs, Ain’t Misbehavin’ will fill the double bill. At worst it’s a soporific.’ — NY Times

Watch the film here

 

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Robert Rossen The Hustler (1961)
‘I wanted to do The Hustler before I had even gotten to the part in the script where my character came in. The words painted a picture that was so vivid in my imagination. It drew me in so quickly and completely, as the movie does. I didn’t have that in my mind while I was acting. I was very subjective in my relationship with Paul [Newman], so I had no idea where the camera was or what was going on. When I saw the finished movie, it was so different from what I imagined the first time I read the script that I was shocked and I hated the movie. It took me years before I could see it and realize how really wonderful it was.’ — Piper Laurie

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Brian De Palma Carrie (1976)
‘For anyone unfortunate enough to have caught Carrie as a child, you might remember Piper Laurie from every fucking nightmare you’ve ever had. In a film crowded with macabre images—a blood-soaked Sissy Spacek and a young John Travolta among them—Laurie manages to be the most singularly terrifying thing on the screen. One moment she’s seemingly calm and collected, and the next she’s grinning maniacally as she stalks her daughter with a kitchen knife. And she does it all in the name of God. Laurie’s performance just might be the scariest thing to come out of Christianity since Mormon underwear. But what’s even more startling about Laurie’s performance is how surprisingly well it has aged. Despite its revered status, Carrie as a whole doesn’t hold up very well. Its split-screen climax is about as dated as “Disco Duck.” But Laurie’s looney-tunes Margaret White remains terrifying, a diabolical mix of high camp and classic horror. Look at those crazy eyes and the way she seems to float down the hallway, her nightgown blowing ethereally as if by being sent aflutter by the breath of demons. She isn’t just the epitome of the warped righteousness of fundamentalism. She’s one of the best monsters ever committed to film.’ — Willamette Week

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Curtis Harrington Ruby (1977)
‘RUBY (1977) is not one Curtis Harrington’s better films, but it was his biggest moneymaker. In fact, it was the most successful American indie ever until the following year’s HALLOWEEN. The presence of veteran actress Piper Laurie, on the comeback trail after playing the demented mother of CARRIE, was a definite factor in its success. Curtis Harrington’s films were characterized by darkly atmospheric settings and dreamlike horror. Those things are in scant evidence on RUBY, which tends to rely on cheap shocks to achieve its effects–blood emitting from a vending machine, a seeping bullet wound appearing in Ruby’s daughter’s forehead–along with a seriously tacky PSYCHO-inspired score. Plus it cribs shamelessly from THE EXORCIST in its later scenes, as Ruby’s child becomes possessed and exhibits a full spectrum of Linda Blair-isms. The film is, however, trashily enjoyable. Gorehounds will get a kick out of all the exploitive bloodletting, and Piper Laurie gives a memorably histrionic performance as the title character. As for the loony ending, it would be better if it weren’t so abrupt; apparently Harrington’s original cut had a more elaborate fade-out that was jettisoned by producers.’ — fright.com

Trailer

Montage of scenes

 

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Glenn Jordan In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan (1977)
‘This is a true story. In April 1975, Karen Ann Quinlan suddenly lapsed into a coma, baffling hospital doctors. Her foster-parents realise that it is only a matter of time before she dies, because the brain damage is so severe that Karen could never recover. They have to make a terrible life or death decision. And then they have to face some bitter complications. Co-stars Brian Keith and Piper Laurie splendidly portray the tormented couple.’ — sky.com

Watch the film here

 

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Michael Pate Tim (1979)
‘The opening scenes of Tim are so indifferently shot and so sitcom-bright that I realized with a start that I’d never really seen Australia or Australian cinema look this way. I didn’t know Tim’s premise, just that the film debuted Down Under about three months after the first Mad Max did in 1979, rocketing Mel Gibson to superfame, and earning him the AFI award for this performance. Based on the Disney Channel palette and the juvenile scoring, all pan flutes and comic slide-whistles for no particular reason, I got ready to Learn Something About Life, the way you do in those movies where some girl called Christy or Rebecca or Anne stands around in tall-grass or in front of church-shaped schoolhouses, sporting a lot of long-sleeved gingham and wearing her goodness like sunblock, right there on the outside. Piper Laurie is Mary Horton, the single, middle-aged, school-marmish woman who sees Tim finishing up some home-repair project for her next-door neighbor and hires him to do some odd jobs for her. With everything in place, including a totally de-sexed teacher-confidant, we settle in for a less pastoral Mel of Avonlea, or some life-affirming combination of Charly and Gibson’s own directorial debut, The Man without a Face. Laurie plays Mary is a self-aware chicken-hawk who thinks she needs to play the innocent-mentor angle and ride it out patiently in order to get what she wants.’ — Nick’s Flick Picks

the entire film

 

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Lee Philips Mae West (1982)
‘The viewer is advised at the outset that the script, written by E. Arthur Kean, is ”based on events in the life of the legendary Mae West.” Legend, of course, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with truth. In this case, certain autobiographical facts are embellished with several of Miss West’s more famous comments about life and sex (”When I’m good, I’m very good; when I’m bad, I’m better”), some of them taken out of their original performance context and delivered as passing conversation. In the process, the woman behind the public image emerges as a trailblazing feminist and a brave denouncer of censorship. Her detractors, however, are offered a measure of comfort in the depiction of her private love life as a mess. The wicked, presumably, will still be punished. Her Mama is played with saintly reserve by Piper Laurie.’ — NY Times

Compilation of PL’s scenes in ‘Mae West’

 

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Walter Murch Return to Oz (1985)
‘A tween-aged Fairuza Balk plays Dorothy, whose insistence on recounting her adventures following her return from Oz has Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) and Uncle Henry (Matt Clark) convinced that she must be experiencing delusional depression. They nearly bankrupt themselves (in a town already so broke that it can’t afford a flagpole, no less) in order for Dorothy to see a psychiatrist. Dr. Worley (Nicol Williamson) is less interested in her mental health than in ensuring that Dorothy’s perceived problems stop bothering the adults around her, though. He is obsessed with what he perceives to be progress, declaring that the 20th century (the film is set in 1900) will be “a century of electricity.” During a storm, this relentless push for modernity quite literally backfires: The lights go out, and Dorothy is finally able to hear the screams of discarded patients in the absence of the ominously cheerful hum of electricity. With the help of a mysterious young girl, she escapes down a stream and miraculously wakes up in Oz.’ — City Paper

Trailer

Deleted scenes

 

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Randa Haines Children of a Lesser God (1986)
‘Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 romantic drama film that tells the story of a speech teacher at a school for deaf students who falls in love with a deaf woman who also works there. It stars William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie, and Philip Bosco. In her debut role as Sarah Norman, Matlin won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for William Hurt, Best Supporting Actress for Piper Laurie, Best Picture, and Best Writing for an Adapted Screenplay.’ — collaged

Excerpt

 

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David Lynch Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
‘After we wrapped up the first season, David called me at home and said, in his Jimmy Stewart drawl, “Rosie, I want you to give some thought to the next season. Your character was last seen at the fire in the sawmill. We don’t know whether Catherine escaped or not. When we come back, I want the audience to think you died in the fire. Your husband, Jack Nance, will think you’re dead. Everyone will think you’re dead, and we’ll take your name off the credits of the show.” It crossed my mind for a millisecond that this was David’s original way of telling me I was being fired. But he continued, “Now, Rosie, this is the part I want you to think about. You will return in some sort of disguise, as a man, and you’ll spy on the town and create trouble for everyone -your husband, your lover, everyone. You should probably be a businessman. I want you to decide what kind of businessman you would like to be. Maybe a Frenchman or a Mexican. Think about it for a while and let me know.” I was so enchanted with the open possibilities and the power of being able to choose my part. (…) I decided I’d be a Japanese businessman because I thought it would be less predictable. I was so filled with excitement and laughter: this was joyful children’s play. There was no argument from David when I told him my choice, no attempt to influence me. He simply accepted it. Then came the hard part. David wished me to keep it a secret from the entire cast and crew. Not even my agent or my family was to know. That was important to him. I wasn’t to tell a soul. There was so much preparation involved in pulling off the subterfuge. There were secret makeup and wardrobe tests at a laboratory in the Valley. Paula Shimatsu-u, who was Mark Frost’s assistant and one of the few people who knew, was helpful in making tape recordings of Japanese friends reciting my lines. I practicec imitating them while driving to and from work. I had assumed that, of course, the placement of my voice would be electronically altered, but they had given it no thought and were not prepared on the morning of my first scene. I am trained to keep going no matter what, and when I realized I was on my own, I ended up going to a place in my chest and throat to get that appropriate guttural sound. It turned out to be painful to sustainm, and I sipped liquids constantly between takes. I shall never do that again for fear of injuring my voice permanently.’ — Piper Laurie

Trailers and previews

Excerpt

Excerpt

Piper Laurie talks Twin Peaks

 

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Dario Argento Trauma (1993)
‘You know, I haven’t seen that since I made it. I had a lot of fun on that film when we shot it because it was so silly. [laughs] I felt silly acting in my black wig and I had some sort of funny accent. It was over the top and I just had fun laughing in between takes.’ — Piper Laurie

Excerpt

 

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Charles Matthau The Grass Harp (1995)
‘Helmer Charles Matthau combines a sensitive screenplay adaptation of Truman Capote’s autobiographical novel The Grass Harp with a wonderful ensemble cast to create a jewel of a film. Collin Fenwick, Capote’s alter ego, loses both his parents at an early age. The young Collin (Grayson Frick) is forced to move in with two of his father’s cousins, the Talbo sisters. In an inspired bit of casting, they’re played by Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek (who portrayed mother and daughter in Carrie). All the performers do superior work but Piper Laurie stands above them all with a performance that is exquisite, touching and real.’ — Variety

Trailer

 

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Yves Simoneau Intensity (1997)
‘A young woman staying as a guest in a Napa Valley farmhouse becomes trapped in a fight for survival with a self-proclaimed homicidal adventurer, and races to save his next intended victim. Teleplay by Stephen Tolkin based on the novel by Dean Koontz. Directed by Yves Simoneau. Starring Molly Parker, John C. McGinley and Piper Laurie. TV so quality isn’t great, but it’s decent and I don’t think this was ever released on video or dvd. Pretty intense at times with fine acting, in particular by John C. McGinley. I haven’t read the book so I can’t vouch for how close this is to the Dean Koontz’s original story.’ — IMDb

Trailer

 

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Robert Rodriguez The Faculty (1998)
‘Robert Rodriguez is a vastly fun director. He is always very kinetic and edits his own films. There is no such thing as a slow-paced Rodriguez film. He knows how to make the most out of a shoestring budget and has a good eye for gore effects. Rodriguez gets fun (not good but fun) performances from everyone including Bebe Neuwirth and Piper Laurie as other faculty members. While Rodriguez normally writes, edits, and directs, here he wisely turns the writing chores over to Kevin Williamson. Rodriguez writes efficiently but Williamson really knows how to write young people. He throws in the usual pop culture references including a hilarious one about Invasion of the Body Snatchers ripping off Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters (which it did). The Faculty is essentially the same story.’ — collaged

Trailer

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Conrad Janis Bad Blood (2006)
‘Summer vacation will never be the same for nine College students on their way to Lake Tahoe when they are derailed from their plans and land at ‘Millie’s Cherry Pie Inn and Diner’ and the very ‘normalcy’ of both ‘Lawrence’ the Charming Patriarch of this group of “Outlanders” and his wife “Millie”, and their grandson “Jim” prove to be chillingly threatening in their simplicity and rejection of all that is ‘Modern’…Our nine enthusiastic young travelers are lulled into a false sense of security until they are forced to face the fact that the Devil sometimes wears a gray suit and smile, and that their only hope of survival is to stick together and escape the cloyingly sweet tentacles of terror and death woven by the seemingly benign inhabitants of this secret Clan.’ — IMDb

Excerpt

 

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Spencer Susser Hesher (2010)
‘Hesher is a violent, uncontrollable wild man who might easily hail from Borneo, but in time the script is hell-bent on revealing a sensitivity to the plight of others that is as bracing as electro-shock therapy. Natalie Portman makes an unlucky cameo appearance as a penniless supermarket cashier named Nicole who becomes T.J.’s only friend when she rescues him from a sadistic bully. Hesher wrecks everyone’s trust by throwing Nicole into bed (she likes tattoos) but redeems himself by showing up at a funeral stoned and dragging the corpse away on a motorbike. Don’t ask. The whole thing seems to have been directed by long-distance cell phone and edited with a rotary jigsaw. Mr. Gordon-Levitt, in the title role, never makes the lobotomized Hesher a coherent character. The only thing he doesn’t set fire to is the negative. The kid who plays T.J. looks like a miniature version of the already miniature Justin Bieber. Only the great Piper Laurie delivers dollar value. Otherwise, Hesher is to movies what graffiti is to a rotting fence.’ — New York Observer

Trailer

Behind the scenes

 

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Conrad Janis Bad Blood … the Hunger (2012)
‘Laurie’s most recent role was in the cannibalism themed low budget horror movie Bad Blood… the Hunger, which opened on ten screens in 2012 and brought in under $2,000 on opening weekend.’ — screenrant

Trailer

Watch the film here

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Yeah, the Facebook infractions have become no limits. And yet I’ve never been sent to jail. Odd. I just finally qualified for the vaccine over here. Now to figure out how to do that as a ‘visitor’. ** Tosh Berman, Hi. Tutuola must be extremely difficult to translate. It’s hard to imagine, but Queneau might just be the guy to have aced that unfathomable task. ** David Ehrenstein, He’s amazing. I did like Crawford in ‘Trog’, ha ha. A perfect fit. ** Jack Skelley, Hey, Jack. Right, isn’t his prose trippy and juicy? Super glad you dug it. Kind of thought you might feel some kind of kinship or something. Write that Granny Uber story, obvs. It wuz rad! May your week cause you to see the glazed eyes, touch the dead skin, feel the cold lips, and know the warmth of the hip death goddess. Psychedelic lurve. ** The Black Prince, Yes, your haircut can take my approval to the bank. I’m happy to hear you’re reopening. Counting the days, minutes, seconds here. Paris is treating me okay considering its beleaguered state. Oh, wow, yes, vibes galore and as gorgeous as my imagination can costume them for your interview today. How did it go, pray tell? Boomerang sizeable kiss. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, I too hope my clone’s devising will be a far distant job. Thank you. Now, I’m not recommending catsup on cottage cheese necessarily, but my much younger self would have been able to make a case for it. Yeah, my love required a very long sentence. I thought it would never end. Your love had a nice, very dark comedic quality. Love as a deck of cards with which your VK clone and my LH clone are playing strip poker (in the middle of your living room floor, of course), G. ** T, Hi, T. Ack, I hate when that happens. I have been to Akihabara and Nakano Broadway in Tokyo, and it was total sensory overload. I felt like I would need to go to them multiple times before my eyes could actually focus enough to make a purchasing choice (or more like a hundred purchases). Amazing. I can’t wait until I can go back. I have a kind of big fake food fetish, and I also went to that street in Tokyo where there’s nothing but stores selling fake food, and it was the same deal. I wanted to buy everything, and it was so overwhelming that I ended up buying nothing. I think you’d really like Tutuola based on what you wrote. Thank you kindly about the Gif piece. Like I said, when I made that chateau thing it was early on in my playing with gifs when I was still thinking, Wow. maybe I can write fiction using gifs, and I was experimenting with different prospects to see if that was feasible. Looking back at that one, I do think the mix of jpegs and gifs is pretty interesting. I might try working in that way again when I start a new gif novel. In the five gif books I’ve made, there are about five jpegs, but they’re so blended in that you don’t really notice them. Anyway, thanks for thinking about that piece and asking me. I really appreciate it. Hope stuff is awesome in your hood. ** Brendan, Hi! Oh, man, so cool, and serious envy on that Dodger game. So hoping I’ll get back there while the season is still in swing. ** Steve Erickson, Congrats on #2! Agree about Goldie. I interviewed him for Spin circa ‘Timeless’ and asked him about the smoothing out, and of course he said it was maturity. Nice about the Screen Slate assignment at least! ** Brian, Morning, Brian. It’s a gorgeous book. That does sound and even feel stressful. Here’s to passing and getting their premise of logic in the rear view. I too thought France would ace the vaccine thing. It is improving. They are talking about reopening things soon. Please, dear god. One definitely has to be in the mood for ‘Irreversible’. It does get less horrifying after the long head crushing sequence. Your spending daydream makes a lot of sense. Me? Hm. Pay for Zac’s and my new film and, well, maybe a bunch of future films. Buy a Switch. Hire someone to delete files. Set up a foundation to give giant grants to writers and artists and filmmakers and so on of an experimental bent. Buy a large piece of property somewhere and start collecting dark rides that would eventually become a giant amusement park featuring nothing but dark rides. Uh, … I think by that point I’d probably be broke again. I’ll wish us both a remaining week that contains no stress whatsoever. ** Right. Something came over me, and I decided to do a post about Piper Laurie, an often fascinating actor with a very hit or miss oeuvre. See if you can get with her today, thank you. See you tomorrow.

 

‘Published in 1952, the Nigerian author Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard tells the story of a man who is such a dedicated drunk that when his personal palm-wine tapster dies, cutting off his supply, he goes on a quest into the bush to find the Dead’s Town and bring the man back. The bush is the bush of Yoruban folklore, populated by an array of dangerous spirits, ghosts, and gods, but our hero has his own juju and an unassailable self-belief; asked his name, he replies glibly: ‘Father of gods who could do anything in this world’.

‘The book is written in Tutuola’s idiosyncratic Yoruban English, and the language travels unpredictably through various registers, routinely violating conventional grammar to both comedic and poetic effect. The plot is full of surreal wit; in a typical episode, the drinkard and his wife find a colossal white tree in the bush, which they enter through a door. They would normally find this terrifying, but ‘before we entered inside the white tree, we had “sold our death” to somebody at the door for the sum of £70: 18: 6d and “lent our fear” to somebody at the door as well on interest of £3: 10: 0d per month, so we did not care about death and we did not fear again.’ On departing from the tree, they retrieve their fear, but the buyer of their death refuses to part with it. After that, they know they can’t die, and whenever something menaces them, the wife says: ‘This is only fear for the heart but not dangerous to the heart.’

‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard has always been beloved by readers, but its reception by critics has been at best uneven. After Dylan Thomas lauded it, other Western intellectuals felt compelled to read it, only to dismiss it as ‘primitive,’ ‘naive,’ and ‘barbaric.’ Meanwhile many African intellectuals felt its ungrammatical English, tales of spirits, and unapologetic celebration of boozing played into the worst European stereotypes of African people. There has been an enduring unwillingness to admit that any merit in the book is the result of Tutuola’s abilities as a writer. On its first publication, the New York Times called its style ‘unwilled’ and said the interest of the text had ‘nothing to do with its author’s intentions.’ Forty-five years later, the author Michael Swanwick wrote in an obituary of Tutuola: ‘I do not know if Amos Tutuola was a literary genius or merely a conduit for the storytelling genius of his people.’ Even Nigerians have often been cautious about the merits of the book; the writer Nnedi Okorafor, while admiring it, also denigrates its style, saying, ‘I don’t see it as a style, I see it as Tutuola’s English not being strong (it wasn’t his first language) and him needing an editor.’

‘While not wishing to make assumptions about Amos Tutuola’s state of mind in the early 1950s, my impression has always been that he has his own very deliberate aesthetic – one that owes a debt both to the Yoruba language and oral storytelling – and tuning into it can enrich our idea of what a literary style can be. And regardless of whether you attribute the success of the book to Tutuola’s genius or just to the richness of Yoruban folklore, it’s an undeniably amazing read: bizarre, exquisite, consistently hilarious, and at once lighthearted and profound.’ — Sandra Newman

 

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Further

Amos Tutuola @ Wikipedia
The Palm-Wine Drinkard @ goodreads
African science fiction: rereading The Palm-wine Drinkard
The Natural Artist: Publishing Amos Tutuola’s “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” in Postwar Britain
HE PALMWINE DRINKARD @ Wow Network
Amos Tutuola: Debts and Assets
The Palm Wine Drinkard : a Reassessment of Amos Tutuola
On (Not) Defining ‘The African’: Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard
I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age.
THE SUPERNATURAL IN AMOS TUTUOLA’S THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD
THE MYTHOLOGICAL ICONS IN AMOS TUTUOLA THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD
The Palm-wine Drinkard @ Spike Magazine
Africanism: Theme, And Technique In Amos Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard
Amos Tutuola and the Elusiveness of Completeness
Writing body in amos tutuola’s the palm-wine drinkard
Non-Realism in The Palm-Wine Drinkard
Amos Tutuola and the Colonial Carnival
Out of Abeokuta; Amos Tutuola’s only poem
‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard’ @ Dead End on Progressive Ave.
Buy ‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard’

 

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Ephemera

 

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Extras

The Palm Wine Drinkard – Amos Tutuola BOOK REVIEW

Amos Tutuola and the Gendering of Peace in Africa

Amos Tutuola: The Palm-Wine Drinkard| Nigerian Writers| Postcolonialism

 

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Interview

 

We first of all thank you, sir, for granting us this interview.
Thank you.

We learnt you have not been well for some time. Hope you are okay now?
I thank God.

Apart from your illness, you’ve been rather quiet now for some time. What’s been happening?
You mean about writing another book?

Yes…
Well, you know, my policy is that when I finish working on a book, and it is published, I always hesitate to lay hands on another book because I always [have to] think, go out collecting materials here and there, and then sit down, think both day and night. That is why it takes a long time before I write the next book.

Sir, you just said you were collecting material for other books. Where do you collect these materials?
From my village, or villages around my village.

In what form? Do you interview people? How do you collect stories?
You know that nothing goes for nothing nowadays. Before, I didn’t give anything to them, when I invited them at night during the leisure hours after the day’s work. In those days, there was nothing to amuse people, like radio, television and so forth, except to tell tales at night. Well, I invited people together – this papa, the brother, and so on – to tell me some tales. They started. When one finishes his own, another would start, and so on. [Then] I gathered the stories together.

With a tape recorder?
No, no, no! There was nothing like a tape recorder then. Just listening. I may listen up to six or eight stories. When they went to sleep, I put on light and then start to write them down from the brain. That is why I have got soot on my eye.

Okay, what about now?
Now, as I did now (i.e. recently), it is with money and drink. I bought some ogogoro and palm wine, then in the form of telling them what is happening in the town… Later I produce…

But I thought [by now] you must have heard all the stories available in Yorubaland?
In Yoruba? Er… no…

Do you still collect new stories then?
Of course, still. But many of them tell me those which I already heard and written down. It is a sort of repetition, but that one I don’t take as anything because I have already got that one in hand… but it is very difficult to get proper folk tales now.

Why?
Well, you know, I think this civilization has affected everything.

In what way?
The people don’t mind to tell tales any more. So they have no interest in telling tales. Instead of that, they listen to radio, to television. They play tapes and so on.

But they all know you, don’t they?
They know me. Why?

If you call them now, they know it is for a story?
It is for a story, yes. But really, if they tell me about ten, may be only two of them would be okay and it may be in the form a small boy, who wouldn’t mind….

Do you, therefore, modify those stories, or do you use them exactly as they tell you?
Thank you. When I want to use a folktale, Yoruba folktale is the main material I use in my stories. Then second, Yoruba proverbs… Third, Yoruba religion; I use it in my stories. [Fourth] I use Yoruba beliefs. Then jokes. After, I add my own self-imaginations, and my imaginations are those of Yoruba.

Well, I was going to ask those questions later. I thought maybe we should finish with the personal details first… So, what I’d like to know is, what has kept you going since then?
Well, you know, just as, for example, if someone has started to drink bit by bit, or is following a drunkard, and then he too started to take bit by bit, later it would become his habit. Well, I started storytelling from school. Later, when I read several books about stories, that gave me inspiration to write my own. I write it first, then dumped it somewhere. Later, when that one was published, I saw the fame it gave me, and that encouraged me to continue.

And have you been satisfied with the fame and success…?
Am always happy about the fame it gave me, my writing.

But it seems that, when the fame came, it was not from the country itself? Seems as if your fame was largely from the outside?…
From abroad…

Yes, how did you feel about that?
That they don’t take it serious, or that they don’t pay much interest in my own country? Well, in those days, we were not serious about our own things, but we were much interested in white man’s things. So, immediately the white man recognized my work, I was more interested. So it did not give me much headache that my people, my own country, did not take my work so serious.

But what is the situation now? Do you feel now that nowadays they take it seriously in the country? Is there a change from when you first started?
Well, gradually my people here started, I think… I don’t know whether [it’s because] when they go overseas, they see my book there, and when they return… I know, …what I know is that my people, our people here, are now interested in my book bit by bit, because in so many universities now they use my books.

That is very good. Still, going on the personal side, what do you actually do now for a living? Is it this writing?
Not at all! Well, I am a farmer [laughter]. As Jare knows, I work hard on the farm because, you know, I was born by a farmer and we were trained how to do farming.

I was wondering, does that farming, does it come into your writing?
It does not affect my writing.

You don’t get ideas when you are on the farm?
When I am working on the farm, ehn, that’s why I say my own imagination comes from my mind. Having collected stories, then the religious shade, the type of religion which I will add to the story, the views of Yoruba people and so on – then the imagination of the society worry me… but working on, singing and so on, then it would come to my mind bit by bit.

Where is your farm, sir?
It is around Ibadan here.

What things do you plant?
I plant yams, cassava, maize, pepper and so on.

So that’s what you live on?
Yes. I don’t eat any… Sometimes even if it has pepper, I don’t eat it. I don’t eat cassava…er, garri. I don’t eat yam…

So what do you eat?
I eat this, er, semovita, when it was available [in the market]. And now I just take small bread and tea. That is all right.

And that has been since your childhood?
Never, never; if I did not eat eba twice a day, I don’t think I would… I would not, in fact, be happy!

So what happened?
Before I left it? And pepper… When I returned from farm, I eat pepper, make garri elepo, then put pepper, raw pepper, and eat it first before I make eba in those days. What then made me stop eating all these things is that I developed ulcer, for several years now.

So, how do you find the time to write, sir?
You know, in the daytime I cannot sit down and write, except to go to farm. When I return in the evening, by seven, then whatever I get for food…I eat my food in the night. After that, when the whole people in the house sleep, I start to write.

Till when?
Till sometimes 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock.

Do you sleep in the afternoon then?
I do, I do. When I return from the farm by 1pm, I take my bath, then I eat… drink my ogi, then after, I sleep till 4pm. Then I go to farm again.

Which do you like better now, farming or writing?
I prefer both the same. I have the same interest in both.

Some people want to entertain; some people say they want to teach. What is your own aim in writing?
Before I started to write, abi? Er… it is a sort of amusement for me. Writing is an amusement for me. Though we all need money, em… as for me – I don’t know if it’s for all people or artists, er… — I have more interest in writing than to get money on it. If get money, it is all right; if I don’t, I don’t mind, and that does not disturb me to write another.

When you want to write, when you’ve already constructed the story in your mind, [and] you want to put your pen to the paper…your aim at that time, is it to educate people, to say that this is the kind of thing, the kind of story we have in our land, so I want you to know it? Or are there certain morals which you want to teach through that story? Or you just feel like writing, and you just write? Or is it a combination of these things?
Oh yes, em…now…we know, er, certain musicians, like Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey… when they start to play their music, they want all people to enjoy it. That is how it is for me. I want people to enjoy what I do. That is what forces me. And I am happy that if the thing I do the people like it, are happy to see it, they will appreciate it. So that gives me much encouragement.

So you want people to be happy.
Happy, yes.

So you are not writing, as some people do, because they want to correct something in the society?
I don’t mean to do that for my own people here, but abroad. [I want] foreign people to know that we too have something in our own country… our culture…

The reason I am asking is that we think that writing can play a role in the society, say, for instance, as there are problems in the country now…like, say, poverty, or some people are hungry… some writers think that if they write about it, they can make people aware of what is happening, and may be help them to find a solution, and all that. Do you ever find yourself writing in that kind of way?
No, I don’t have such aim. I don’t write about the present things, but I always write about the past, about what has happened in the past to our people.

How do you feel about using the English language for your stories?
That gives me a lot of problem, but I don’t bother much about that. I always have Yoruba/English dictionary, which I look at when I want to use language in English… I open it, and then find the English which I will use for the story. So that helps me a lot. In fact, I have much problem when I am writing in English.

What is your attitude to European culture then?
Well, when my eye opened, I preferred my own culture. I keep to my own culture. You know, I have thrown away shirts and trousers… I don’t say European culture is bad on our own, but we have kept to it, thrown away our own too much. But now we have come to our senses and we have realised that we have lost something important which we had.

You said just now you have thrown away shirts and trousers, and prefer Yoruba attire. But when you were younger, that was what you wore?…
Well, in those days, I would never to put on buba and soro, or native dresses. No, no, never! Those who wore it in those days, we would call ara oke – bush man… [laughter].

At what point then did you change your attitude?
Well, as soon as my second or third book was published and the African Congress, the meeting… the year we got our independence (in 1960). Yes, as soon as we got our independence.

Did this have any effect on you in your place of work?
When I wear…? Not at all. Even when I travel to overseas I wear my own dress, and I see that even many of them come to me to touch it… and are surprised to see adire and our aso oke…

Okay. Anyway, we shall be coming to your travels abroad later. But let’s consider another issue first. You are one of our foremost writers. I am wondering – what is your relationship with other writers? Do you have any relationship with other writers at all in Nigeria?
In Nigeria? I can mention Achebe. Though I don’t move with them too much because of distance, but I take their work very serious as I take my own and I appreciate their work as I appreciate my own.

But you don’t have any personal relationship with them at all? With Achebe, Soyinka, Clark?… You don’t go to visit them?
No. We meet on occasions, then we embrace each other and so on.

What of Yoruba writers? What about the state government?
No.

The Federal Government?
Not at all.

So who, or let me say, what institution, has helped you most in your career?
Well, I can say, my publisher.

But these are the people who were not paying you…?
Well, that is why I say that if I write in order to make money, I would have stopped writing!

Talking about your writing again, do you see any influence from other writers – Achebe, Soyinka, etc – on your writing?
No, no influence.

But you see the influence of your own work on theirs?
No, I don’t see… That’s why I don’t read English novel so much, because I don’t want to have any influence which can inspire, to give a foreign inspiration.

 

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Book

Amos Tutuola The Palm-Wine Drinkard
faber

‘This classic novel tells the phantasmagorical story of an alcoholic man and his search for his dead palm-wine tapster. As he travels through the land of the dead, he encounters a host of supernatural and often terrifying beings – among them the complete gentleman who returns his body parts to their owners and the insatiable hungry-creature. Mixing Yoruba folktales with what T. S. Eliot described as a ‘creepy crawly imagination’, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is regarded as the seminal work of African literature.’ — faber

‘Brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching.’ — Dylan Thomas

‘Tutuola’s art conceals – or rather clothes – his purpose, as all good art must do.’ — Chinua Achebe

Excerpt

Now we started our journey from the Deads’ Town directly to my home town which I had left for many years. As we were going on this road, we met over a thousand deads who were just going to the Deads’ Town and if they saw us coming towards them on that road, they would branch into the bush and come back to the road at our back. Whenever they saw us, they would be making bad noise which showed us that they hated us and also were very annoyed to see alives. These deads were not talking to one another at all; even they were not talking plain words except murmuring. They always seemed as if they were mourning, their eyes would be very wild and brown and every one of them wore white clothes without a single stain.

NONE OF THE DEADS TOO YOUNG TO ASSAULT.
DEAD BABIES ON THE ROAD-MARCH TO THE DEADS’ TOWN

We met about 400 dead babies on that road who were singing the song of mourning and marching to Deads’ Town at about two o’clock in the mid-night and marching towards the town like soldiers, but these dead babies did not branch into the bush as the adult-deads were doing if they met us, all of them held sticks in their hands. But when we saw that these dead babies did not care to branch for us then we stopped at the side for them to pass peacefully, but instead of that, they started to beat us with the sticks in their hands, then we began to run away inside the bush from these babies, although we did not care about any risk of that bush which might happen to us at night, because these dead babies were the most fearful creatures for us. But as we were running inside the bush very far off that road, they were still chasing us until we met a very huge man who had hung a very large bag on his shoulder and at the same time that he met us, he caught us (my wife and myself) inside the bag as a fisherman catches fishes inside his net. But when he caught us inside his bag, then all of the dead babies went back to the road and went away. As that man caught us with that bag, we met inside it many other creatures there which I could not describe here yet, so he was taking us far away into the bush. We tried with all our power to come out of the bag, but we could not do it, because it was woven with strong and thick ropes, its size was about 150 feet diameter and it could contain 45 persons. He put the bag on his shoulder as he was going and we did not know where he was taking us to by that night and again we did not know who was taking us away, whether he was a human-being or spirit or if he was going to kill us, we never knew yet at all.

AFRAID OF TOUCHING TERRIBLE CREATURES IN BAG

We were afraid of touching the other creatures that we met inside that bag, because every part of their bodies was as cold as ice and hairy and sharp as sand-paper. The air of their noses and mouths was hot as steam, none of them talked inside the bag. But as that man was carrying us away inside the bush with the bag on his shoulder the bag was always striking trees and ground but he did not care or stop, and he himself did not talk too. As he was carrying us far away into that bush, he met a creature of his kind, then he stopped and they began to throw the bag to and fro and they would take it up again and continue. After a while they stopped that, then he kept going as before, but he travelled as far as 30 miles from that road before daybreak.

HARD TO SALUTE EACH OTHER, HARDER TO DESCRIBE EACH OTHER, AND HARDEST TO LOOK AT EACH OTHER AT DESTINATION

Hard to salute each other, harder to describe each other, and hardest to look at each other at our destination. When it was 8 o’clock in the morning, this huge creature stopped when he reached his destination, and turned upside-down the bag and the whole of us in the bag came down unexpectedly. It was in that place that we saw that there were 9 terrible creatures in that bag before he caught us. Then we saw each other when we came down, but the nine terrible creatures were the hardest creatures for us to look at, then we saw the huge creature who was carrying us about in the bush throughout that night, he was just like a giant, very huge and tall, his head resembled a big pot of about ten feet in diameter, there were two large eyes on his forehead which were as big as bowls and his eyes would be turning whenever he was looking at somebody. He could see a pin at a distance of about three miles. His both feet were very long and thick as a pillar of a house, but no shoes could size his feet in this world. The description of the 9 terrible creatures in the bag is as follows. These 9 terrible creatures were short or 3 feet high, their skin as sharp as sand-paper with small short horns on their palms, very hot steam was rushing out of their noses and mouths whenever breathing, their bodies were as cold as ice and we did not understand their language, because it was sounding as a church bell. Their hands were thick about 5 inches and very short, with fingers, and also their feet were just like blocks. They had no shape at all like human-beings or like other bush-creatures that we met in the past, their heads were covered with a kind of hair like sponge. Though they were very smart while walking, of course their feet would be sounding on either hard or soft ground as if somebody was walking over or knocking a covered deep hole. Rut immediately we came down with them from the bag and when my wife and I myself saw these terrible creatures, we closed our eyes, because of their terrible and fearful appearance. After a while, the huge creature carried us to another place, opened a rise-up hill which was in that place, he told the whole of us to enter it, then he followed us and closed the hole back, we not knowing that he would not kill us but he had only captured us as slaves. When we entered the hole, there we met other more fearful creatures who I could not describe here. So when it was early in the morning, he took us out of the hole and showed us his farm to clear as the other more fearful creatures we met in the hole were doing. As I was working with these nine creatures in the farm, one day, one of them abused me with their language which I did not understand, then we started to fight, but when the rest saw that I wanted to kill him, then the whole of them started to fight me one by one. I killed the first one who faced me, then the second came and I killed him too, so I killed all of them one by one until the last one came who was their champion. When I started to fight him, he began to scrape my body with his sand-paper body and also with small thorns on his palms, so that every part of my body was bleeding. But I tried with all my power to knock him down and I was unable to as I could not grip him firmly with my hands, so he knocked me down and I fainted. Of course, I could not die because we had sold our death away. I did not know that my wife hid herself behind a big tree which was near the farm and that she was looking at us as we were fighting.

As there remained only the champion of the nine terrible creatures, when he saw that I had fainted, he went to a kind of plant and cut 8 leaves on it. But my wife was looking at him by that time. Then he came back to his people. After that, he squeezed the leaves with both his palms until water came out, then he began to put the water into the eyes of his people one by one and the whole of them woke up at once and all of them went to our boss (the huge creature who brought us to that place) to report what had happened in the farm to him. But at the same time that they left the farm, my wife went to that plant and cut one leaf and did as the champion did to his people, and when she pressed the water in that leaf to my eyes, then I woke up at once. As she had managed to take our loads before she left that hole and followed us to the .farm, we escaped from that farm and before the nine terrible creatures reached the hole of our boss, we had gone far away. That was how we were saved from the huge creature who caught us in his bag.

As we had escaped, we were travelling both day and night so that the huge creature might not re-capture us again. When we travelled for two and half days, we reached the Deads’ road from which dead babies drove us, and when we reached there, we could not travel on it because of fearful dead babies, etc. which were still on it.

TO TRAVEL IN THE BUSH WAS MORE DANGEROUS AND TO TRAVEL ON THE DEADS’ ROAD WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS

Then we began to travel inside the bush, but closely to the road, so that we might not be lost in the bush again.

When we had travelled for two weeks, I began to see the leaves which were suitable for the preparation of my juju, then we stopped and prepared four kinds which could save us whenever and wherever we met any dangerous creature.

As I had prepared the juju, we did not fear anything which might happen to us inside the bush and we were travelling both day and night as we liked. So one night, we met a “hungry- creature” who was always crying “hungry” and as soon as that he saw us, he was coming to us directly. When he was about five feet away from us, we stopped and looked at him, because I had got some juju in hand already and because I remembered that we had sold our death before entering inside the white tree of the Faithful- Mother, and so I did not care about approaching him. But as he was coming towards us, he was asking us repeatedly whether we had anything for him to eat and by that time we had only bananas which were not ripe. We gave him the bananas but he swallowed all at the same moment and began to ask for another thing to eat again and he did not stop crying “hungry-hungry-hungry” once, but when we could not bear his crying, then we loosened our loads. Perhaps we could get another edible thing there to give him, but we found only a split bean and before we gave it to him, he had taken it from us and swallowed it without hesitation and began to cry “hungry-hungry-hungry” as usual. We did not know that this “hungry-creature” could not satisfy with any food in this world, and he might eat the whole food in this world, but he would be still feeling hungry as if he had not tasted anything for a year. But as we were searching our loads, as perhaps we could get something for him again, the egg which my tapster gave me in the Deads’ Town fell down from my wife. The hungry-creature saw it, and he wanted to take it and swallow but my wife was very clever to pick it up before him.

When he saw that he could not pick it up before my wife, then he began to fight her and he said that he wanted to swallow her. As this hungry-creature was fighting with my wife, he did not stop to cry “hungry” once. But when I thought within myself that he might harm us, then I performed one of my jujus and it changed my wife and our loads to a wooden-doll and I put it in my pocket. But when the hungry-creature saw my wife no more, he told me to bring out the wooden-doll for identification, so I brought it and he was asking me with doubtful mind, was this not my wife and loads? Then I replied that it was not my wife etc., but it only resembled her, so he gave the wooden-doll back to me, then I returned it to my pocket as before and I kept going. But he was following me as I was going on, and still crying “hungry.” Of course, I did not listen to him. When he-had travelled with me to a distance of about a milt‑, he asked me again to bring out the wooden-doll for more identification and I brought it out to him, then he looked at it for more than ten minutes and asked me again was this not my wife? I replied that it was not my wife etc. but it only resembled her, then he gave it to me back and I was going as usual, but he was still following me and crying “hungry” as well. When he had travelled with me again to about two miles, he asked for it for the third time and I gave it to him, but as he held it he looked at it more than an hour and said that this was my wife and he swallowed it unexpectedly. As he swallowed the wooden-doll, it meant he swallowed my wife, gun, cutlass, egg and load and nothing remained with me again, except my juju.

So immediately he had swallowed the wooden-doll, he was going far away from me and crying “hungry” as well. Now the wife was lost and how to get her back from the hungry-creature’s stomach? For the safety of an egg the wife was in hungry-creature’s stomach. As I stood in that place and was looking at him as he was going far away, I saw him go so far from me that I could hardly see him, then I thought that my wife, who had been following me about in the bush to Deads’ Town had not shrunk from any suffering, so I said that, she should not leave me like this and I would not leave her for the hungry-creature to carry away. So I followed, and when I met him I told him to vomit out the wooden-doll which he had swallowed, but he refused to vomit it out totally.

BOTH WIFE AND HUSBAND IN THE HUNGRY-CREATURE’S STOMACH

I said that, rather than leave my wife with him, I would die with him, so I began to fight him, but as he was not a human-being, he swallowed me too and he was still crying “hungry” and going away with us. As I was in his stomach, I commanded my juju which changed the wooden-doll back to my wife, gun, egg, cutlass and loads at once. Then I loaded the gun and fired into his stomach, but he walked for a few yards before he fell down, and I loaded the gun for the second time and shot him again. After that I began to cut his stomach with the cutlass, then we got out from his stomach with our loads etc. That was how we were freed from the hungry-creature, but I could not describe him fully here, because it was about 4 o’clock a.m. and that time was very dark too. So we left him safely and thanked God for that.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** The Black Prince, Hi! Wow, you’re The Black Prince again. Suave. Thanks about the interview, pal. I like your haircut. How’s stuff? Hugs, me. ** Misanthrope, With this blog, I’ve learned not to take too many chances. I think maybe with some actors there’s this initial feeling that they’re going to be one of those very rare actors who mange to keep surprising you, but then you realise after a handful of movies that they only ever do what they do and you’ve already seen it. Not vaccinated, eh? Living up to your screen name, eh? ** tomk, Ha ha, no. No relationship. I made that post after I’d finished the ‘Swarm’. Too in love with your own concepts? That sounds like one lame-o editor, frankly. The novel sounds extremely interesting. I like that you’re working with a plot. Plot + peculiarities of style can = killer, obviously. Exciting, man. Yeah, huge, vibe-emitting encouragement from this head on this side of the pond. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, that chateau’s owner deserves the Novel Prize for hosting. My friend Benjamin, who assigned us ‘Johnny Guitar’, was telling us about the epic on set feuding/hatred between Mercedes McCambridge and Crawford, and that was pretty wild. They don’t make them like Crawford anymore, I’ll give her that. ** Damien Ark, Hi. Nope, way, way too much rococo for the Marbled Swarm. If I were Walt Disney in 1953, I would build that chateau and give you an ‘E’ ticket. ** Sypha, My policy is to write what your excitement and enthusiasm and focus puts in front of you, whatever form it may take. So, if it’s stories, awesome. But of course I get you on the novel longing. ** Bill, Thanks. Kind of a perfect place to dream visit in these pandemic-y times. Oh, yeah, I was considering that Carrington too. Hm. How’s your week proceeding? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks! Me too: a holiday there. If I ever write a will, which I guess I actually should do, eek, I’ll put it in writing that you are in charge of designing the clone of me that they send out on reading tours to entertain my bereft fanbase. I actually had a period long ago in which I loved cottage cheese. I used to pour catsup on it and gobble that down. I don’t know what that was about. So your love would work, and I’d just have to carry a catsup bottle around with me everywhere instead of Mace, which I suppose is doable. Love as a guy who watches that James Bond movie ‘Goldfinger’ and believes you can kill people just by painting them gold and becomes a wannabe serial killer who goes around painting cute people gold but of course it doesn’t work and instead starts a worldwide fad where people who think they’re cute paint themselves gold which of course has the unintended effect of making it possible to immediately identify people who are narcissists, G. ** Steve Erickson, I’ve heard that about Kanopy, and that’s a real drawback, but I know a lot of people, mostly in academia, who have it, and it’s a real boon even with those limitations. I totally get the freelance writing stress. Do those Patreon things actually work in terms of luring enough subscribers? I feel there are so many people doing that now. I think I only subscribe to one Patreon critical writing person, and he’s a friend who asked me to please subscribe. But maybe it does work. I mean I guess it must to some degree or people wouldn’t keep making accounts. I think the viewing problem must’ve been on your end because all the images I put there are there. ** Brendan, Hi, B! I know you’re a hard man to exhaust, so thank you. Got your Dodger tickets? ** Brian, Hi Brian! Thanks for taking a stroll through my dastardly doll house. Oops, sorry about the logic quiz crash. I’m sure it was the quiz’s fault. Good old ‘Persona’, nice. It’s sad that even the mere turning of gears turns out to be a chore here. I would have thought France would have that all figured out, but I guess that was my Francophilia thinking. Again, I’m so sorry to hear that it’s serious with your dog. That’s so hard. All of the dogs that I or my family had when I was growing up died tragically, and I swore off having a tight canine friend ever since. Imagine if we actually are swimming in riches by Friday! Wow! What’s the first thing you would use your newfound wealth to buy? ** Okay. Do y’all know the work of Amos Tutuola? If not, it’s exciting stuff, in my opinion. The novel I’m spotlighting today and also his novel ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ are probably his best. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the visit with his work whether he’s new to you or not. See you tomorrow.