Bill Nye: A 21st Century Man's Worst Nightmare

     The nature of the updating of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most popular Sherlock tale is evident in the titles of these two adventures. Doyle’s original, The Hound of the Baskervilles, becomes The Hounds of Baskerville. The story, like the title, is changed just a bit. However, every shift or update successfully refers back to the original, linking the fears of the past to the fears of the present. As fear has evolved, old fears have been done away with, and require a revitalizing to make them scary again.

     Many gothic stories occur within the confines of a ruined castle or abbey. The original Hound story does not take place in a decaying building but instead accomplishes the same feat by occurring in a decaying landscape. The castle or abbey, stationed high in the mountains, is meant to serve as a place where the past, and the gothic, can run rampant. The moor accomplishes this by being isolated, mysterious, and unconquered.  Something similar to Hugo Baskeville’s exploits could be accomplished in a place like the moor. In fact, criminals are still fleeing into the moor (believable as of 1901) because the moor is a place where the long arm of the law gets snagged and cut on brambles or shrapnel.

     The moor is sufficiently isolated to allow the growth of the gothic, and in Doyle’s time an unconquered landscape was scary enough. Mysterious sounds, supernatural entities, and dangerous neighbors provided most of the fear in Doyle’s text. However, as modern society has progressed, old fears don’t shake us like they used to. Flashlights can be used to see in the dark. Shazam will tell you if that’s the howl of a death hound or merely the latest Justin Bieber chorus. A mysterious neighbor can be Facebooked until their intentions are made clear. Stuff that used to be scary just isn’t scary anymore. To regothic the gothic several changes had to be made.

     The original moor gets dark and scary at night, fog blocks your vision, there’s an escaped murderer on the loose, pits that’s will swallow you or your pony are scattered about, and there’s an undead dog on the loose. Flashlights eliminate a lot of the fear associated with night and fog. Escaped murderers rarely escape from modern prisoners, and are usually tracked down within hours. Google Maps and a developed road system means that no man need stray into the muck of the moor, and undead dogs are more attractive than scary. To bring the fear back to the moor the update laced the fog with drugs. Hidden mines replaced the pits scattered about the moor, a high security military installation doing questionable research makes the moor even more mysterious and serves as an updating of the prison at Dartmoor.

     The convict is mentioned in the updated tale only in passing and never shows up again. Relying on the military installation as an updated Dartmoor prison, the convict merges with a dangerous scientist to rehorrify our fear of escaped prisoners. The updated version relied heavily on science to horrify what was previously scary because of the supernatural. Supernatural isn’t scary to a modern society because we think we have a lot of the answers, science doesn’t support this theory or there’s no evidence of that monster, so it must not exist. That’s what makes science particularly scary, and particularly gothic. People in modern times trust science, its familiar, and we want to believe it. Science cure small pox and brought us the iPhone, when it’s turned into a malignant rather than benevolent agent, we’re scared. That’s why an evil scientist makes the perfect bad guy. Gas, and military agencies, and corporate greed, are all updates that play to our modern fears. A mutant hellhound is scary, but a hellhound that isn’t there at all is gothic.

     Holmes and Watson need updating because their dynamic is outdated. Crime fighting duos aren’t comprised of a genius and a fool anymore. Our world is built on teamwork between highly capable people who rely on each other to make a perfect team, a perfect team comprising of one man doesn’t exist. We have problems with someone who is that smart, so Holmes is given a diagnosis, this makes us feel okay about his perceived abnormality. Watson goes toe to toe with Holmes at times and we can see that Holmes is seriously flawed, and needs Watson to guide him through awkward social settings. Another factor that needed updating was how the story is presented to the audience. A modern audience isn’t happy enough sitting through the whole story in the dark. To update this the audience is allowed to look inside Holmes mind, and the story comes to a more conclusive and transparent ending than the original.

     Science is a huge factor in the update but the role of science in creating a scary dog was also present in the original. Phosphorous was used to make the hound appear more frightening, just like gas was used to make a normal dog appear hellish. Both bad guys were scientists, one a virologist and the other a lepidopterologist. A lot of cute throw backs were included like Holmes’ need for a stimulant, Sir Henry becoming Henry Knight, Holmes uncanny abilities to figure stuff out, and the introduction of the case (the visit from a distressed client, not the details).

     The Hound of the Baskervilles reveals a bit about what scared people during the 19^th century, and about the evolution of fear since that time. A lot of the fears of that time have been conquered and to make the story scary again, new fears, unconquered fears, have to be introduced. A lot of that updating can be done with the aid of science, which serves the same role as the supernatural did in the 19^th century. The dynamic between Watson and Holmes, as well as the ending, needed updating to offer a more balanced relationship, and a clear satisfying ending. This story doesn’t represent a new definition of the gothic anymore than The Hound of the Baskervilles represented the gothic in its day. This was just another tale gothic tale, not “the” gothic tale.  The Hound of the Baskervilles is as different but as gothic as The Yellow Wall-Paper. The updating doesn’t define or usher in a new era of the gothic. This story like the original is simply a single manifestation of the gothic.  

The Adventure of the Unraveled Thread (Which Watson Frequently Ties Himself Up With)

The source of fear in The Hound of the Baskervilles is mostly the concern over seemingly unexplainable events and the implications of these events. The characters are worried chiefly about the hound but also the moor, and its inhabitants. Watson and Holmes present really one way to deal with fear. Watson deals with fear by turning to the guidance of Holmes. Metaphorically this indicates the confused man, caught between supernatural explanations and logical ones, turning towards the almost supernatural scientific mind.

Throughout The Hound of the Baskervilles Watson is less critical of the supernatural interpretation of the hound presented by Mortimer. Mortimer and Watson, both men of science are swayed by the belief that this hound may not be just material. Mortimer brings the case to the attention of Holmes because there is not much that he can do. Holmes is skeptical at first and accepts the supernatural theory as another explanation, but certainly not the most plausible. The occupational men of science believing in the supernatural and the wanderer being the logical one may be a statement about who is capable of unraveling events when distanced from any prior biases: everyone. Early on Watson presents some ideas to Holmes, but we find out that these are either off base, partially true, or deduced by Holmes long before Watson.

In a cunning use of Watson, displaying how science based investigation sometimes uses people for its own purposes, Holmes sends Watson along with Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall. Throughout his stay Watson experiences unexplained events and he is left without a solid conclusion. Sir Henry and Watson are easily frightened by the events surrounding them, and are able to deal with the fear of the criminal by relying on a logical plan. Watson comments that their plan is exactly what Holmes would do. Sir Henry’s plan to deal with the fear around him is to turn to Watson. Watson’s plan to deal with fear is to turn to Holmes. This displays the chain of more supernaturally inclined characters turning towards more science minded individuals.

Throughout the text Watson repeatedly wishes that Holmes were present this indicates that fear cannot not be completely overcome without Holmes and his science. Watson is able to combat fear by turning to Holmes. Holmes is able to combat fear by using his abnormal mind. Combatting fear changed from something that just happened (Japanese), or something which was divinely caused (Early gothic), to something that had observable and often correctable causes.  Holmes represents this shift in the psyche that occurred between Walpole and Doyle. Holmes on one extreme can track every incident to its cause, Raymond: A Fragment is on the other extreme, where supernatural spur is reason enough. Watson stands someplace in the middle allowing the mind of the reader to benefit from both perspectives.

By placing the reader in Watson’s mind we can relate to the events that are occurring in the text and use some of that learned reason to combat fear. The events that occur to Watson are frightening, and unclear. If placed in Holmes head all the events would be clearly traceable, would lose their frightening effect and also the ability to teach how to deal with fear. The events are familiar in that they remind us of the unfamiliar in our own lives, but in Sherlock tales the threads can be unraveled which provides hope that the events in our life may also be unraveled. 

The Latin American Freuds

The gothic expresses itself in each culture differently. Destroyed castles and anti-Catholic sentiments mark the European gothic; the Eastern gothic contains elements of honor and problems with modernization. Latin American gothic literature is often channeled through or coupled with magical realism. The relationship between gothic and magical realism is so interconnected because both deal with the uncanny and exploring what happens when things are not as they should be. 

            “The Gospel According to Mark” by Jorge Luis Borges contains gothic elements such as decaying structures, unusual weather, superstition, mistaken identity, and class struggle. The piece in “The Gospel According to Mark” which struck me as being related to the gothic is the family known as the Gutres. Borges says that: “They were tall, strong, and bony, and had hair that was on the reddish side and faces that showed traces of Indian blood. They were barely articulate” (Borges 479). This is very similar to the characters in “Olalla” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson uses these characters to explore the mental decay of the aristocrats in Spain. Borges is painting the gauchos of Argentina in this way to explore the problems with superstition and misunderstanding.

            The misunderstanding of the Gospel of Mark presents the magical realism aspects of “The Gospel According to Mark”. The mistaken identity and unusual weather of the gothic takes on a deeper more fantastical role in this text. The weather surrounds the ranch where Baltasar is staying, trapping him there, and recreated the conditions necessary to reenact the crucifixion. The growth of a beard, his background, and relationship with the Gutres all conspire against him to convince the Gutres that Baltasar must be crucified. The crucifixion is surprising and comes at the very end of the text (Borges 482), but when reexamined the magical realism of Baltasar’s similarity to Jesus and the familiar tale of Jesus’ crucifixion coming to life is troubling and terrifying.

            “If You Touched My Heart” by Isabel Allende contains gothic elements that include decaying structures, incarceration, transgressive love, and class struggle. Physical incarceration is a common gothic trope which is seen in “The Castle of Otranto”, “Olalla”, “The Ruins of the Abbey of Fitz-Martin” and other gothic tales. In “If You Touched Me Heart” the young innocent Hortensia (gothic maiden) succumbs to the charm of Peralta (evil man ie: Manfred, Baron) and is trapped in a ruined sugar mill (Allende 520).

Inside of the sugar mill Hortensia experiences a physical change. “She was unaware of the scales sprouting from her skin…she did not feel her ears growing to capture external sounds…her legs, once graceful and firm, were growing twisted as they adjusted to moving in that confined space” (Allende 523). Here the experience of someone transforming into a monster is presented as a very real result of being trapped in a sugar mill.

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is gothic because of the hidden identity of the angel, the perception of a transgressive divine, the decay of the angel and his chicken coop, and the unusual weather. The angel in this story has ‘an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds” (Marquez 2). The angel in this story is not the typical angel of Christianity and his decay, as the decay of a castle in Western gothic, provides the necessary device for the author to explore some gothic or allegorical idea.

The magical realism in this story takes place most noticeably in the angel. When he is first seen he is indiscernible, but “Pelayo and Elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar” (Marquez 1). This is textbook magical realism, taking something unfamiliar and making it familiar. The familiar is made unfamiliar when the response to the angel is covered by Marquez, which paints the bureaucracy of the church and carnival attraction to religious matters of his people as a real problem.

Just as Marquez uses gothic and magical realism devices to explore his problems with the glam and glitter of organized religion, Borges uses it to explore the problems of superstition and blind faith, and Allende is exploring the torture of people in her native Chile. The gothic according the Chris Baldick, the texts of “The Gospel According to Mark” and “If You Touched My Heart” can be found in his collection The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, is primarily concerned with creating an atmosphere which is then used to explore the fears of the past (Baldick xix-xx). This is true of these stories, which make use of gothic tropes to create an environment, which can then be used to explore concerns that have manifested themselves in the author’s life or country. The role of magical realism is related to the bias of the author, its connection to Latin America, as well as the tendency of magical realism to create gothic irony. That is to expose fears or issues, familiar or unfamiliar, that become more understood through the use of this uncanny manifestation.

Understanding the Understanding of Howl's Moving Castle: Westernizing the Eastern Take on A Western Novel: The Problems of Understanding

The creation of any piece of art is going to create fans and critics. Some might not understand the piece. Others might understand the piece and then feel betrayed, that they’re particular understanding of the story was not respected by the author. The transition of a piece across cultures means that a greater understanding can only be achieved a greater understanding of different cultures, art techniques and transitions and can offer a greater understanding of what it means to be gothic or anime or a remake.

The most obvious element of Japanese influence is the presentation of the story. Howl’s Moving Castle was adapted from a book, written by a Westerner, into a movie, directed and written by a Japanese man.  The film version does not occur in a traditionally Western format but is instead remade into the Japanese animation. The tropes of Japanese animation are then combined into the tropes exhibited in the written story. The audience member must not only take into account the effect that the original text had on the making of the film, but also the similar features that Japanese animation films would have in common.

The appearance of Japanese culture exhibited in this film and held in common with other animation I have seen (which is limited to two films, heavily influenced by the Gothic agenda being promoted) have included similar Japanese supernatural elements. These Japanese gothic animation films make heavy use of recognizable but also unfamiliar supernatural elements. The shikabane is not just a zombie, but also a zombie with a Japanese twist that can only be understood with an understanding of Japanese culture. In Howl’s Moving Castle supernatural elements include witches and wizards, demons, and curses. These pieces are obviously Western; they first appeared in a Western book. However, they have been reimagined and placed in Japanese cultural, gothic, and animation traditions. When they are placed in this new environment they acquire aspects that may be unfamiliar to Western audiences.  The idea of these things might not be unfamiliar but what is unfamiliar is how these ideas are delivered, which is in a traditionally Japanese animation way.

Miyazaki’s message about war might is Japanese and might be hard for a Western audience to understand. The Japanese as the “losers” in WW2 and the experience of mass destruction certainly shapes viewpoints on war. The Western audience, especially Americans have a much different viewpoint on WW2 and a much different view on war overall. This stance on war might be overlooked completely by Western audiences and if it is understood, it may be disagreed with.

Those who may not have issue with the war message, or might approve of Miyazaki’s message would be interested in this film. This film might appeal to other viewers who have a vested interest in the gothic, fantasy, remakes, or Japanese animation. The film combines various elements and genres and would appeal to fans of each genre. The variety of genres also opens the film up to critics that feel that their genre is misrepresented. Arguments might also be made from those who do not properly understand the film, or the direction that the director wanted to take this specific interpretation.

There is a lot of room for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Unfamiliarity with any of the genres of traditions can result in an incomplete understanding of the film, and the creation of issues that might not really exist. To understand the film as Miyazaki meant it to would probably mean being Miyazaki himself. A Western viewers perspective might mean that Miyazaki’s interpretation of Western elements into eastern elements, the experience of war, and supernatural elements might be misunderstood. A viewer who has broad but shallow knowledge might be able to understand better than a viewer who has narrow and deep knowledge and who would have problems with Miyazaki’s direction and the perceived disregard of traditional or appropriate traditions of Japanese gothic, Western literature, Japanese animation, filmmaking, and storytelling in general.

Number 5: A Whopper with a Side of Howl's Moving Castle, Hold the Creative License

Hushico’s review of Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle is deeply troubling because of their desire to “BK” their film viewing experience. When this viewer didn’t get the movie they had planned on they were disappointed. What this outlook does not provide for is a reinterpretation of the text, or a director who is working outside of his usual specialty. Of course, every viewer has ideas conjured up about a specific film and may be disappointed when the director’s creative discretion takes too many liberties, but to not give a movie a chance for trying something new with source material or different from previous movies, means missing out on some possibly great films.

The reviewer apparently takes issue from the very beginning. Miyazaki is committing a crime just by using Diana Wynne Jones’ novel as a source. The reviewer complains of Jones’ writing style but doesn’t elaborate on what exactly they find irritating. Based on this stance the reviewer should be happy that Miyazaki chose to change some fundamental elements of the story, but this disappoints them as well.

The biggest problem with this reviewer is their stance on Sophie and her romance with Howl. Hushicho writes: “Howl’s heroine has little real conviction except what other people persuade her to have. She doesn’t suit Miyazaki’s usual style of youthful yet strong heroines. She was just some stupid girl on the screen, nothing more.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. In a world occupied by narcissistic wizards, greedy witches, and wicked royals, Sophie offers the only source of goodness for goodness’ sake. Howl plays a convincingly young and egotistical wizard in over his head, who needs the help of a young woman to save him from himself. That is what romance is all about: A guy who thinks he has it all figured out, who is reminded of what’s really important by a girl who’s got a nice pure heart.

The viewer is made to sympathize with Sophie and really understands her. What young person hasn’t felt that they are ugly or unworthy of love? Who hasn’t stumbled into something over their heads and rejoiced and cried then rejoiced again as they fought to figure it out? As American as I am, and as American as the ending was, and although I knew that this may not have been done for innocent reasons, I sure did like to see everything work out okay.

Hushicho also has problems with Howl himself. The reviewer feels that Sophie was too ordinary, and nothing really happened between the two. Except, Howl saving Sophie from the guards, from the blob men, from the castle, inviting her into his garden, allowing him to stay in his home, and Sophie saves Howl’s heart, literally. What could be more romantic then holding someone’s heart in your hands and giving them life? Come on, that brings a tear to Stone Wall Jackson’s eye.

It seems evident that the reviewer took issue with Miyazaki’s film because it wasn’t typical Miyazaki. I suppose I could take issue with this film for not being typically gothic. Just because something isn’t what you’re used to, or what you expect does not make it a failure, perhaps this is due to me not seeing any other Miyazaki films but I was pleasantly surprised by Howl’s Moving Castle as a film in a vacuum, as an example of Japanese gothic, and as a translation of an English novel. By broadening my horizons I have a better understanding of Western and Eastern gothic. Perhaps a similar viewpoint would help the reviewer to put Miyazaki’s body of work into perspective. Sometimes when you "have it your way" you end up with a bacon sundae, and that's no good for you at all. Trust the experts.