An Irreverent Look at ‘Christmas’ Customs from approx. 600 – 1600 CE

Todd Fischer, written for an SCA journal in 2002.

It Begins

So. It’s freezing. There’s snow on the ground. You’re about to face the shortest day of the year, and the longest night. It’s a time of darkness and cold. What are you going to do?

Set things on fire of course.

Quickie Reviews: Blood and Chocolate, The Breed, Hoboken Hollow.

Todd H. C. Fischer, October 2007

This past weekend my brother and his girlfriend dropped by my house for a horror movie marathon. Armed with pop and chips we settled back with the lights off, preparing to experience some frights. Unfortunately the only horror we endured was the actual excruciating task of getting through the movies.

Up first was ‘Blood and Chocolate’ about werewolves in Romania. Sounds good, but unfortunately all the werewolves were Euro-trash, lounging around in black clothes and moaning about how rough their life was. Their transformation sequences were all in slow motion and angelic, as they leaped through the air and were surrounded by mist and swirls of white light. (Leaping like monkeys for the most part; one wonders if the makers of this movie had actually seen wolves move before beginning filming.) Hopefully some day werewolf and vampire movies will no longer be made by Emos.

Next was ‘The Breed’, where a bunch of idiot young adults have their vacation ruined by smart and angry doggies. Not high art by any stretch of the imagination, though there was fun to be had in seeing horror movie victims actually fight back, knocking dogs out of the air with arrows or a bat. Of course, the characters make very bad life choices (such as leaving the bow and arrows behind when going outside, or leaving the windows rolled down on the car). These people were too dumb to live, so they don’t.

Finally we watched the worst of the bunch, ‘Hoboken Hollow’. This film (complete with a voice over lifted right from ‘The Dukes of Hazard’ TV show) concerns a ranch in Texas where hitch-hikers are forced to labour doing chores, or else get gutted and turned into jerky sold at the local store. Slow and plodding this film tries very hard (too hard) to be menacing and surreal and just comes off as a lazy man’s version of movies we’ve already seen (‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ being the most obvious parallel). Even when the ex-army guy gets loose—and grabs an axe—there is no reprieve from the boredom since all he does is run away. We should have too.

Have none of today’s horror movie filmmakers ever heard of musical cues (used most masterfully in ‘Jaws’)? Do they know nothing of nuance or subtlety (like in ‘Psycho’)? How about blocking, camera angles, shadow and light (see ‘The Ring’)? It is the art of mixing all of these together that create truly frightening moves.

As a postscript, I also have to ask, is racism so unconsciously ingrained in American filmmaking that the black character always has to die first? In both ‘The Breed’ and ‘Hoboken Hollow’ it is the young black man who falls victim first (and the only reason it didn’t happen in ‘Blood and Chocolate’ is because Romania appears to be peopled completely by white folk). What are white filmmakers saying when they do this?

Todd H. C. Fischer, July 2007

(Originally posted in my non-writing related journal.)
 

Was Severus Snape—the much maligned true hero of the Harry Potter series—ever truly evil? I emphatically say “no!”

While Rowling was writing the series fans would often debate Severus’s motives, trying to decide if he was a hero or a villain. These debates fascinated me, for I thought he was quite clearly a hero. How could anyone misunderstand this poor tortured soul?

I can hear people now shouting “But he was a Death Eater!” Yes, Snape did go over to the Dark Lord during Voldemort’s first grasp at power. However, he did so out of loneliness and bitterness, not out of greed, hatred or intolerance. He was a lonely man, made fun of at school, bullied, ostracized and reviled. When Tom Riddle took on the persona of Voldemort he would have promised the lonely and downtrodden around him a new world, where they would have the power (not unlike how cults and terrorists recruit in the real world). Snape will have been drawn to the Death Eaters, made to feel like he belonged, given authority and power.

However, as it soon turned out, this feeling of inclusion was a ruse. When Voldemort reneged on his agreement not to harm Lilly Potter—who, we find out in the new book, has been Snape’s unrequited love for many years—Snape’s world is thrown upside down. He discovers that those who said they accepted him did not care for his feelings anymore than those who had been bullying him all his life.

Severus went to Dumbledore in his grief and the wise, old, flawed wizard was revealed to be a man who accepted all for what they were. He accepted Snape for what he was: a talented and ambitious wizard, with deep emotions and skill in many types of magic (most notably potions and Occlumency).

Snape’s loyalty was forever granted to Dumbledore. He went undercover, back to the Death Eaters, as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. He went so far undercover that the Order thought he had truly gone back over to Voldemort. That, of course, was how Snape needed them to feel, so he could truly fool the Dark Lord. However, this ostracized him from those who should have been his friends, those who should have understood what he was going through.

Throughout the series Snape defended Harry, though due to Harry’s quickly formed opinion of the Head of Slytherin, the boy never realized this until it was too late. In ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ Snape thrust Ron and Harry behind him to defend them from danger. In ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ he counteracted Quirrel’s spells during the quidditch match. Again and again Snape saved the life of the boy he both loved and hated. Part of Snape hated Harry for being the son of James Potter, but part of him loved him as well. Harry is all that remained of Lily, was the son that he and Lily never had.

In ‘Half-blood Prince’ Snape killed Dumbledore. This, some argued, was proof that he was evil after all. I argued however, that Snape did what he did to protect Draco Malfoy. Draco had been ordered to kill the Hogwart’s Headmaster by Voldemort, and if he did not, the Dark Lord would surely have killed him for failing. At the beginning of the book, to maintain his cover Snape had made an Unbreakable Oath to protect Draco to Draco’s mother. If Dumbledore had not died, then Draco would have died. The magical compulsion he was under would not have allowed him to walk away and leave Dumbledore alive. What’s more, a close reading of that scene seemed to reveal that Dumbledore knew what was coming and accepted it, even encouraged it. (After the publication of ‘Deathly Hallows’ we now know that this was exactly the case; Dumbledore had already made Snape promise to kill him.)

When fleeing after the act, Snape is confronted by Harry and in an emotional scene Severus completely looses control. He yells at Harry, telling him that no one suffered like he suffered. This was further proof that his act had not been motivated by evil. How could it have been? He had just killed the only person who had ever truly accepted him.

Luckily, when Snape is casually mortally wounded by Voldemort, the Potions teacher is able to pass some of his memories to Harry. When he shares them, Harry is finally able to see the love Snape held for his mother, and how much Snape had helped him and defended him over the years. Snape is finally revealed as the hero he truly is.

Loyal, dedicated, brave and courageous. Words many likely never thought to apply to poor Severus. Truly Snape is one of the most tragic heroes of modern literature.

Long have I lain dormant, not dead but dreaming, curled up amongst the debris of unfinished stories, unpublished articles and infantile half-formed poems. A scent then assailed me, the smell of corn husks and apples, of pumpkin and all spice, of dead leaves and candy.

I raised my head slowly, blinking away the detritus from my long unused eyes. I looked about me, blinking, wondering why I was now awake.

Then I realized. He had need of me again.

Arising from my nest I looked out the twin windows, saw his face reflected back at me from a glowing screen. A blank white glowing screen. A screen waiting to be filled with words.

Joyously I reached out and gave life to his fingers, drinking in each tap of the keys.

Reborn.

Yup. I am writing again. I haven't been at it for a while now, I've been so busy with other hobbies. However, I feel the time to flush my brain of accumulated ideas is long past, so ti was time to take pen to paper again (figuratively speaking).

This journal will be a record of a journey. My journey as I reccomence my writing, as I step back out onto the unlceared pathways through the thickets of my mind.

I invite you to come along with me.