Hatrack River Forum: Homebody

This is topic Homebody in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :

A question for those of you who’ve read it . . .

If you were buying an older house that needed some work, and both you and your spouse had gotten the feeling that the house liked you, and wanted the current owners out so that you would come in and take care of it and fix and restore it, and you had read Homebody and your spouse had not, would you suggest that s/he read it? Or not?

Posted by Kiwi (Member # 7982) on :

[ROFL]

I'd probably say no... but then again it was a good book, so ... hmm.

If you do recommend they read it, do it before you buy so they have a chance to change their mind. [Wink]

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Probably not. [ROFL]

Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :

Too late.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

I know it's too late on the buying, but too late on the recommending, too?

Posted by gnixing (Member # 768) on :

Spoilers for those who haven't read the book [me]?

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

So...this is like a horror novel...

Um...no thanks.

I have such a good feeling from this place. I don't need any help getting spooked though. It's got a giant scary basement with a wavy floor and little nooks and crannies everywhere. And an attic. wooooooooooo

Thanks anyway.

Besides, if I really want to be scared, I'll just read the inspection report. Or the mortgage truth in lending statement.

[Wink]

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

I wouldn't actually recommend reading the book, I'd just mention it in appropriate context on a public forum my hypothetical spouse is likely to read, like perhaps the one where we (hypothetically) met.

--Enigmatic

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

You have a hypothetical spouse? I'm hurt that I wasn't invited to the hypothetical wedding.

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

Consider yourself invited to the hypothetical matrimony retroactively.

Enigmatically Yours,
--Me

Posted by Grisha (Member # 6871) on :

MILD SPOILER WARNING

well it said in the book that a house's strenght at drawing people in came from there having been a great deal of love in the house at one point, the house being original, and the house itself being strong. So if you just go by being drawn to it, then it would be a god sign from the criteria in Homebody, if however things are disappearing, and there is a permanent house gueast who seems to aoppear out of no where, then it is a less good sign.

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

I got absolutely zero bad vibes from this house. It's amazing. I'm pretty easily spooked by silly nonsense that wouldn't bother anyone. It stems from a bad experience with my grandmother's basement and an older cousin who could teach Stephen King a thing or two about horror. (She's a probation officer now...) (and a great mom too!)

Anyway, I don't think I'll be reading this book.

Thanks anyway.

I'll wait for the movie.

And avoid that too.

[Eek!]

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

In fact, dkw knows that if she ever tires of me and wants to collect the insurance quickly, all she has to do is lock me in the cellar at night. I'll die of a coronary and all she'll have to do is unblock the door and pretend it was an accident.

The perfect crime.

by the way, what would you say is the scariest movie you've ever seen?

My vote would be for "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman being attacked in her own home.

Poltergeist got to me because of the creepy little kid.

Posted by whiskysunrise (Member # 6819) on :

I saw "Wait Until Dark" as a play. It was very well done.

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

Poltergeist has a scene with the best horror-movie timing EVER. I like timing. Comedy and Horror = Timing.

I digress.

The scariest movie I ever saw, I'd have to think about quite a bit more to answer. But I know what movie scared me the most (a fine, yet valid, distinction). The Blob.

The Blob, the original version with Steve McQueen, scared me for years and gave me nightmares. Years before I ever saw it, mind you. Mom (KrabbyPatty to you non-Williamses) was talking to some friends about movies when they were kids. I was in the room, and about 5 years old at the time. She talked about The Blob, and how it oozed around and squeezed through any space at digested people. This horrified my young mind.

But that's not the bad part yet. Because, young though I was, I had a fairly rational approach to being told about a movie where a gelatinous monster ate everyone: I asked how you killed the Blob. I was no idiot: I knew that you had silver bullets for the Wolfman and crossed garlic sunrises for Dracula, and for Frankenstein Monsters... um, pitchforks and torches, apparently. (Child psychologists recommend reassuring the child that it's only a make-believe. I recommend preparedness.) Anyway, I asked how you killed the Blob. Mom couldn't remember.

That's why the Blob was so scary! I had no idea what to do if the Blob came after me! Not that I had a ready access to silver bullets as a small child, but at least I knew that's what was needed, and I had been thoroughly convinced that knowing was half the battle. In the coming weeks I asked Mom often how they killed the Blob. She said she thought the teenagers came up with something, but they didn't actually kill it. THEY DIDN'T KILL IT? You can imagine how much this information helped. And of course she wouldn't let me watch The Blob until I was much older, because after all it was "too scary" for a 5 year old.
Nightmares.
Traumatized.
Enigmatic.
Edited. (It was an honest typo, really Ma!)

[ May 15, 2005, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Enigmatic ]

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

[ROFL]

And now that I know her, I have at least a small suspicion that your mom might've just withheld the crucial information from you on purpose!!!

[Evil Laugh]

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Oooh, are we telling how Mom traumatized us as children stories? I like Dana's best!

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

I hadn't really meant for that to become such a long story. The Mom traumatizing us as children stories deserve their own thread. Why didn't we think of this last week! On Sunday!

(and Dana's is really, really good)

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

Dana, have you checked with the next-door neighbors?

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

I sense a deeper insight into my spouse's character, and that of her entire family, is just on the edge of realization.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

I actually don't have any Mom traumatizing me as a child stories. [Frown]

I feel left out.

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

I thought you had one, but just not one with a song that traumatized you. Or maybe you just made one up for long car rides?

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

Hmmmmm. I don't remember a trauma story. Or making one up, for that matter. Neither of those means that one or the other didn't actually happen. [Smile]

Posted by KrabbyPatty (Member # 7055) on :

Since this thread has been thoroughly derailed ... why is it that the males in my family can't distinguish the letter "p" from the letter "b"? It's beginning to make me krabby. Enigmatic, ElJay wasn't on the "pick on Mom" car trip - we were heading to Tulsa to visit her for Thanksgiving. We stopped in Ames to pick up dkw - and somehow, you and she started the "Mommy Dearest" theme as we headed south.

And Bob, how could you say such a thing about your favorite mother-in-law? I'm crushed. Really crushed. [Wink]

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

The scariest movie I have ever seen(I do tend to avoid them) was "The Other." It still terrifies me when I think of it. I was about eleven, and my grandmother and I watched it, huddled together on the couch.

Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :

You tell 'em, Mommy!

Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :

The scariest movie I ever saw wasn't even a movie, but an episode of the original "Twilight Zone". It was called "Little Girl Lost" and was written by Richard Matheson based on one of his short stories. A man and woman can't find their little girl. When they start to look for her, they can hear her but not see her. Then the dog disappears too. Turns out they have fallen through the wall into another world or dimension or something. The dog finally leads her out and the family is reunited.

I was five years old when that episode first aired, although I think I might have seen a re-run of it as we were living in our second house when I saw it, and I was six when we moved there. I clearly remember being so horrified by that show that I would not sleep next to a wall, and would barely touch walls, for several years after that, I was so convinced that it was possible to fall through walls.

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

If I really couldn't tell the difference between p and b I would have called you KrappyBatty, which would have been worse. If only slightly.

And what makes you think there was only ONE car trip where we told Mom-traumatized-us stories? I seem to remember that becoming a recurring road trip game! Which may explain why we started taking less and less road trips...

--Enigmatic
(see also: Mom hit a skunk!)