The Writing Desk of Jakebe Rabbit

If you're a Changeling freak, you'll know that today is the day the Seelie Court traditionally hands over the reigns of power to the Unseelie Court. Since the rise of High King David and the establishment of Concordia, however, this day has largely taken on a symbolic role. Fae -- regardless of Court affiliation -- drop whatever discipline they can impose on themselves and revel in their darker natures on this day. Even trolls can be found doing things they would never dream of doing any other day of the year.

Of course, things *actually* happen today as well; the Mists are especially thin on Samhain, so kinain and those with any sort of touch to the Dreaming might notice your seeming slip a little bit. Don't be alarmed if this happens; they won't remember a thing when the sun comes up tomorrow. Unless they do -- and then they're a problem you're responsible for until the following Beltaine.

If you're *not* a Changeling freak, then this is the perfect day to watch movies as scary as you can stand them, hand out candy to costumed strangers, or celebrate in a myriad other ways you may find appropriate. :D Any way you want to, have a wonderful Samhain.

On a related note, I've rediscovered my love for 'fake' mythology. One of the things that White Wolf was very, very good at with the Old World of Darkness is reinterpreting holidays, modern sites of power and (in only some cases) historical events to allow for supernatural creatures. This gave the presence of vampires, werewolves and faeries a kind of weight they wouldn't have had otherwise, and made it easier to buy into the world. When I was in high school, I even remember 'celebrating' some of the Kithain holidays with my friends. My first introduction to a lot of the old pagan holidays, rituals and beliefs were in Changeling: the Dreaming. Sad, I know. I'm sure a lot of people are apoplectic at this point. :D

As part of our Horrorfest this weekend, I caught Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 for the first time yesterday. It had gotten such horrible reviews when it came out, and I was such a big fan of the original, I refused to see it up until this point. One of the reasons I remember the original so fondly is the ingenious way they spun a plausible-sounding history/mythology around the Blair Witch. It was one of the first movies where the 'culture' surrounding it was just as interesting (and in some cases, more so) as the movie itself. Ultimately, though, the movie was a nice commentary on the hysteria surrounding The Blair Witch Project and the phenomena of inventing a mythology that catches onto the public consciousness. Just how valid is a culture that's completely made up?

I think the movie ultimately falls into the camp that people can't just make up their own reality. That perceptive filters, no matter how many people adopt them, will always be trumped by actuality. It doesn't have the time or inclination to investigate the worth of these filters, though. No, you can't change your reality by believing things will be different. What you change is your ability to deal with things and the way you react to them. Perceptive filters (mythologies you subscribe to, religious beliefs, personal philosophies) give you the tools to play the hand you're dealt to the best of your ability.

Where people fall into trouble, I think, is forgetting what perceptive filters are (ways that you interpret reality, not necessarily reality itself) and mistaking them for the end itself. In my opinion, if what you believe makes you a better person, more able to deal with your life than otherwise, then go for it. We all need some kind of distortion, I think. But we should also be aware that the way we see things might not be the way things actually are.

So, I guess that what Samhain has become for me, to tie this all together. I enjoy looking at the things people believe and why. I love looking at the things I believe (am I really in tune with Rabbit in some way?) and reviewing why I believe them and what that belief gives me. Am I a better person for believing this? If not, what should I do about that? It's something I'll be thinking about between movies today. Well, that and how much I miss Changeling.

I've just finished reading Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, the debut collection of short stories from ZZ Packer. It's a really excellent set of fiction, with mostly young black folks, poor and naive, traveling to some other place and having these enormous, conflicting experiences that changes something fundamental in them. Then, somehow, they must take their realizations back and not integrate them in themselves, but very probably into the community around them.

What's great about these stories is while there's a strong connective thread of race and class, that's not the focus. The background of these characters remains just that, and while it informs what they say, how they think (how could it not?), it doesn't necessarily feel like you're just reading a bunch of stories about po' Negroes and their Earthly troubles. Alienation, familial obligation, the dissonance between thought and reality, all of it is in there, living and breathing, under the trappings of Pentecostal churches and blasted neighborhoods with boarded-up homes.

Packer has a tremendous grasp on language and dialogue that makes me envious. Her characters speak and I'm immediately transported back to my childhood in the heart of Baltimore City, hearing ten year old girls using words they've yet to grow into and doing all the things I've always thought of as distinctly black: rolling their eyes, sucking their teeth, frying their hair until it can be plastered to their skulls in crispy, wavy strips. She knows this world intimately, and while she's certainly in a different place these days (she lives in Pacifica, CA of all places) her memories are firmly rooted to her formative experiences. From her writing it seems that she wasn't the most comfortable with her childhood environment but she's learned to love it, because it's hers. There's a lesson in there for me, I know.

As soon as I finished with the last story in the set, "Doris Is Coming," I immediately started doing a bit of research on her. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere has made a lot of noise in the literary world, becoming a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, being personally selected by John Updike for the Today Book Club, earning rapturous reviews in O Magazine and from Zadie Smith, whom she's frequently compared to. I can totally see why. :) (Note to self: Read White Teeth.)

The greatest find, though, is this essay on America and religion, which I couldn't agree more with. While there's been an understandable uptick in adherents to aggressive atheism ("It's not OK to just disagree with religion any more, it must be purged from society if we expect to survive."), I'm not sure the current tack of the liberal movement in America is one that's destined to work. Like it or not, religion isn't something that people will wake up one day and realize they don't need. It's been here since we've learned to think in abstractions and it'll continue to endure to the last man. A sense of mysticism has been hard-wired into our brains, and while it's true that it can be expressed through science, reason and logic, it's simply not something everyone will flock to. If we're really going to be effective in tackling the religious and moral quantities that have popped up in politics, we're going to need to speak the language of the people who really view them as important, even if we don't believe them.

I'm really excited that she's coming to San Jose State sometime next year. :)