Horror Tropes and Magic in the Age of Goethe Jack Mourouzis
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Horror Tropes and Magic in the Age of Goethe Jack Mourouzis GERM 61: The Age of Goethe March 9, 2018 The novels of the Goethezeit incorporate a wide variety of themes, motifs, and tropes. Most notably, these novels – particularly those that draw upon more Romantic and fantastical elements, such as Ludwig Tieck’s der blonde Eckbert and E. T. A. Hoffmann’s der goldne Topf. These novellas in particular serve as an interesting reference point due to the prevalence of magical elements within the works, which contributes to an overall feeling of uncanniness and, ultimately, the appearance of the fantastic. These magical elements also serve as a clear foundation for common tropes found in modern horror stories, with these ideas stretching even into the 21st Century canon of fantasy and horror. In this investigation, I have decided to include five works – representative of five significantly different types of stories – that feature one or more of these three major tropes. Two of these works – der goldne Topf and der blonde Eckbert – were featured in the GERM 61 course, and represent the age of Goethe, Romanticism, the German Novella, and the concept of a Kunstmärchen. The other three works are representative of modern horror, and span the entirety of the genre’s lifespan, from the 1980s to the modern day. Each of them involves one of the major tropes that played a major role in both of the works of the Goethezeit. The first of the modern horror stories is Stephen King’s It. Based off a novel that was initially released in 1986, the 2017 film proved to be one of the most critically and financially successful horror films of all time.1 The story revolves around: the self-titled Losers’ Club, seven kids in their young teens… dealing with life in the small town of Derry. In the aftermath of the loss of George, the six-year-old brother of Bill, the group’s de facto leader – they all encounter the titular malevolent presence in one way or the other. Only, It doesn’t simply appear to the 1 “It,” IMDB, 8 September 2017, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/. Losers’ Club in the same way each time: instead, it manifests as the thing that they’re most afraid of. For two of them, the fear is a stereotype, a Wolfman and a Mummy… For the others, the fear gets more insidious: it takes the form of one of their own number; as a group of local boys who died where these kids play; and for Beverley, the group’s only girl, it comes in the form of torrents of blood.2 In the film adaptation (which is set in 1988), Beverly eventually goes missing, and the boys of the Losers’ Club hatch a plan to find her and, in the process, vanquish Pennywise, the clown form that It takes throughout the film. This is different from the Stephen King novel, which also incorporates older versions of the same characters as It returns thirty years later to wreak havoc once again. The film, however, follows only the storyline incorporating the characters as children. The Scream franchise was created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven in the mid- 1990s and encompasses four films, the first of which came out in 1996 and proved the most successful.3 The second two films were released in 1997 and 2000, respectively, with the fourth coming later in 2011. The first film, however, is of particular interest in this investigation. The plot involves “A quiet town with a Mainstreet, USA feel… battered by a series of brutal murders, mostly of teenagers, which seem to be linked to some unsolved murderous malarkey a decade or more ago. The local adolescent population respond by having a party and are knocked off one by one.”4 In particular, the film series focuses on the main character Sidney Prescott, a high school- aged (in Scream, and in later films is older) girl who is repeatedly tormented by a masked killer known as “Ghostface.” Sidney is followed and assaulted by the killer throughout the film until 2 Smythe, James, “Why Stephen King’s It still terrifies 30 years on,” The Guardian, 23 September 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/23/why-stephen-kings-it-still-terrifies-30-years-on. 3 “Scream,” IMDB, 20 December 1996, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/. 4 Smith, Adam, “Scream Review,” Empire Online, 11 October 2015, https://www.empireonline.com/movies/scream/review/. the grand unmasking at a house party during the film’s climax. The Insidious franchise, created by Leigh Whannell and James Wan, rose to prominence with its first installment in 2010, with three installments following in 2013, 2015, and 2018.5 The plot deals with a young couple, Josh and Renai, who move into a new home with their two sons, Dalton and Foster. After suffering a fall, Dalton slips into a coma. After several months, Renai begins seeing various apparitions in the house, which appears to be haunted. The couple consult a medium named Elise, who, along with her team of ghost hunters, explains that Dalton is the one who is haunted, who is trapped in a different spiritual plane (known as “The Further”) by means of astral projection, and through whom various demons are tormenting the family in the physical world. Ultimately, Elise explains that Josh also has this ability of astral projection, and he proceeds to enter the Further to rescue Dalton from a particularly evil demon. The first major trope that is found consistently in the era of Goethe and in the modern horror genre is that of a separate, mysterious world at play in the narrative. This trope incorporates not simply one world – be it magical or realistic – into the narrative, but rather weaves multiple worlds in and out of each other, causing general confusion and unnerving feelings in the recipient. This element is present in four of the noteworthy works: both novels of the Goethezeit, Insidious, and It. In der goldne Topf, this world is perhaps the most clear-cut, distinct, and standalone; the reader learns in the eighth Vigil, during a conversation between the student Anselmus and the magical denizen Serpentina that “In uralter Zeit herrschte in dem Wunderlande Atlantis der mächtige Geisterfürst Phosphorus.”6 This is the first time that we experience the distinct magical world by name through Serpentina’s detailed explanation of the goings-on in Atlantis to Anselmus, who is newly-introduced to this magical realm. However, up 5 “Insidious,” IMDB, 1 April 2011, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/. 6 E. T. A. Hoffmann, der goldne Topf (Stuttgart: Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, 1953), 67. until that point, his encounters with magic had been quite clear and obvious, such has encounter with the Holunderbaum, three talking snakes, and green fire on the Elbe that he experiences at the conclusion of the first vigil. In der blonde Eckbert, this world is much less distinct and clear-cut. The reader does not have any direct, ‘confirmed’ interactions with the separate world like in der goldne Topf; however, the world can be implied from the dealings of the novel. Bertha’s first encounter with die Alte – also the reader’s first – serves as a kind of entrance into this mysterious other world: Ich ging näher und ward an der Ecke des Waldes eine alte Frau gewahr, die auszuruhen schien. Sie war fast ganz schwarz gekleidet, und eine schwarze Kappe bedeckte ihren Kopf und einen großen Teil des Gesichtes, in der Hand hielt sie einen Krückenstock. Ich näherte mich ihr und bat um ihre Hülfe; sie ließ mich neben sich niedersitzen und gab mir Brot und etwas Wein. Indem ich aß, sang sie mit kreischendem Ton ein geistliches Lied. Als sie geendet hatte, sagte sie mir, ich möchte ihr folgen…. Als wir heraustraten, ging die Sonne gerade unter, und ich werde den Anblick und die Empfindung dieses Abends nie vergessen. In das sanfteste Rot und Gold war alles verschmolzen, die Bäume standen mit ihren Wipfeln in der Abendröte, und über den Feldern lag der entzückende Schein; die Wälder und die Blätter der Bäume standen still, der reine Himmel sah aus wie ein aufgeschlossenes Paradies, und das Rieseln der Quellen und von Zeit zu Zeit das Flüstern der Bäume tönte durch die heitere Stille wie in wehmütiger Freude. Meine junge Seele bekam jetzt zuerst eine Ahndung von der Welt und ihren Begebenheiten. Ich vergaß mich und meine Führerin, mein Geist und meine Augen schwärmten nur zwischen den goldenen Wolken.7 Though there is no explicit entrance for Bertha into the magical world, the reader can infer a difference occurring upon her encounter with die Alte, as evidenced by the vivid description of her surroundings on this particular occasion; something is clearly difference once she (figuratively) breaks bread with die Alte. Finally, this shift in world is implied by her forgetting herself through the experience – something that would not have happened without the influence of magic and the presence of the separate magical world. This trope of a separate, mysterious, and magical world is also present in two of the horror works of interest: Whannell’s Insidious and King’s It. In the Insidious franchise, this world plays a major role in the storyline, and is both defined, dynamic, and self-contained. In the film, Elise (the spiritual medium called in to help the family with their haunted house situation) explains to Josh (the father in the haunted family) that their son Dalton is lost in a separate realm known as the Further, “a world far beyond our own, yet it’s all around us, a place without time as we knw it.