:: The Wind and Halloween
The past few days have been amazingly beautiful and autumnal, especially the WIND. It howled and screamed, whipping trees, leaving vortices of huge colorful leaves in its wake. Seems no matter where I've lived Halloween ushers in such winds, reminding me always of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes". What a story teller! Bradbury could make chills run right up your spine and insinuate a damp clammy fear out of the mists that are the unknown right in our own backyard. That is what makes that story so scary-- the downright ordinariness of it all.
Odd how we seek a thrill in getting frightened. The orgy of slasher movies at this time of year is epidemic. It's become so extreme and graphic. The fear in Bradbury's story is far more subtle and in its own way, more memorable. I've not seen the Disney movie version, but Jonathan Pryce notwithstanding, it is said to be too prettied up. That is a remake I'd like to see, rather than the 30th version of Pride and Prejudice or Hamlet. Below is a sophisticated rendition for a bookcover by artist JK Potter. The "Reap the Wild Wind" is a bonus image-- WOW! That captures the nature of wind!
image credit: Cover Illustration for Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury), (c) JK Potter, www.jkpotter.com
