A Hysterical Paranormal

I am reading The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. It's more historical fiction than vampire/paranormal. Qualification: I'm only halfway through the very long book, although I have to confess that at 48% I'm thinking Rosebud and when will Orson Welles show up; and at 49% I'm thinking, OMG, here comes Dr. Freud. It's kind of comprehensive like that.

Or if not Dr. Freud, then maybe Dr. Jung. And everyone in the vicinity of THE INSTITUTION of Princeton could just self-actualize before it's all said and done. But that's not Jung that's Maslow…see how confusing all these historical figures are, and, now, alongside fictional figures?

I mean…if Sherlock Holmes can show up with Woodrow Wilson Grover Cleveland Teddy Roosevelt and Upton Sinclar, why not the others? I know, I know, The Accursed is set well before Citizen Kane's TIME, 1905-1906 to be exact (and the book is very exact about that time frame) but … maybe there could have been a premonition…or a foretelling…or a vision…better yet…A NIGHTMARE. You know about the sleigh. Sled. Okay.

It's also hard not to think about Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer, I mean Hunter, although I only saw the movie—didn't read the book...

So I picked up The Accursed in a Joyce Carol Oates frenzy. I'd just finished The Falls which, I have to tell you, I loved madly. It's exquisite, telling the story of Ariah (like pariah with the P left off—and you've got to wonder if that's a coincidence or the author being clever) anyway…where was I?

Oh, yes. The story of Ariah that is told in The Falls. I love it because it is a story, basically, about how life breaks you down, pulls you apart, puts you back together, and then sets you free. See, I wrote that JCO is mean to her characters (she is) (she is really mean to her characters in The Accursed. Am I supposed to like Annabel?) but at the end of The Falls there is Juliet and Bud and, well, they are grace.

Personified.

But so far, The Accursed, is kind of like a hysterical paranormal … you know … kind of like those Salem witch trials.