Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the Yellow Wallpaper // skeleton pleading (c. 1600s) // Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind on Blood On The Tracks (1975)

©️ Abigail Larson

absolutely fell in love with this story after reading it

Apotheosis of the Queen of Carcosa

We have before spoken of the peculiar position of our race in that the woman is the only female creature who carries the burden of sex ornament. This amazing reversal of the order of nature results at its mildest in a perversion of the natural feminine instincts of love and service, and an appearance of the masculine instincts of self-expression and display. Alone among all female things do women decorate and preen themselves and exhibit their borrowed plumage (literally!) to attract the favor of the male. This ignominy is forced upon them by their position of economic dependence; and their general helplessness. As all broader life is made to depend, for them, on whom they marry, indeed as even the necessities of life so often depend on their marrying someone, they have been driven into this form of competition, so alien to the true female attitude.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 'Our Androcentric Culture, or the Man-made world' (1911)

SHORT STORY TOURNAMENT - FINALS

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO by Edgar Allen Poe (1846) (link) - tw: death

“I drink,” he said, “to the buried that repose around us.”

THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS by Ursula K Le Guin (1973) (link) - tw: child abuse

Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing. In the basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas, there is a room. It has one locked door, and no window. ... In the room a child is sitting.

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1887) (link) - tw: depression, insanity

John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a little the other day, and said I seem to be flourishing in spite of my wall-paper. I turned it off with a laugh. I had no intentions of telling him it was because of the wall-paper — he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away.

An illustration I made for The Yellow Wallpaper as part of a university applicant assignment. This is a bit outside of my wheelhouse but of the five illustrations I made for the novel I quite like this one. 

Monster Girl October (tarot deck) Day 13: The Woman in the Wallpaper from "The Yellow Wallpaper" as the hanged man card!

“Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. […] And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so"

If you have not read this story, it is a must! And for Friday the 13th, I wanted to do a card inspired by a spooky story.

Review: "Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic"

Authors: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lucy H. Hooper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, H. G. Wells, Edmond Nolcini, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, Howard R. Garis, William Hope Hodgson, Edith Nesbit, H. C. McNeile, Abraham Meritt, Emma Vane

Editor: Daisy Butcher

Date: 03/01/2023

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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I think I ordered this book some time during summer, after I accidentally stumbled upon it on an online bookstore. I love anthologies and I love plants, so this title definitely intrigued me enough to order it. I finally decided to read it around Christmas and finished it during a recent trip, so it's officially my first finished book of the year.

"Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic" is an interesting anthology of short horror stories by quite a few well-known authors. From the creator of Sherlock Holmes, to the acclaimed writer of "The Yellow Wallpaper", all the way to the legendary H. G. Wells, this collections features some hidden gems of the late 19th and early 20th century. While the stories are certainly old-school, they could still be regarded as timeless classics and masterful creations.

Most stories revolve around the fascination of the exotic - of unknown plants that are in some way dangerous to humans (or other organisms) and which originate from far away places, like South America. There's mentions of exquisite poisonous flowers, murderous liana, mysterious wisteria, and the weirdest of them all - carnivorous plants.

It is interesting just how much the writers and, by default, the general public were fascinated by exotic flora which, in one way or another, transcended the known laws of nature. Plants were considered sedentary, passive, and at the bottom of the food chain, but as new discoveries were being presented and as more people, professionals and amateurs alike, from the western civilization started their expeditions in new places, society was being introduced with oddities that seemingly didn't follow any established rules. So while the horror in this collection is displayed through various flora, the true horror is derived from the simple fact that humans fear what they cannot understand. One of the most frightening things a person, especially a scientist, can experience is realizing that they will never be able to fully predict nature's capability to adapt and to evolve.

Of course, this theme goes hand in hand with the understanding that it is dangerous altering the natural order of things. While this could also be understood as criticism to the human tendency to play god, there isn't much religious commentary throughout the collection. The stories are centered around ecology, evolution, and biology, highlighting how humans shouldn't meddle with something as powerful as nature - which they will never fully understand, let alone be able to control. Even though the writers do create a feeling of dread through the fear of nature, the horror is actually realized through characters that underestimate its abilities and that have the need to disfigure nature in order to measure their own capabilities.

Furthermore, this collection highlights the uncomfortable fascination western civilization had with other cultures. The urge to study new exotic phenomena on their own accord, to test the limits of human science on something they don't fully understand with little to no regard of the laws of nature and the test subject's true needs, is somewhat perverse. These scientists are conducting experiments in uncontrolled environments, and playing with their test-subjects in order to test their own abilities and knowledge. It is a portrayal of poor research. They're acting out of curiosity with little to no regard of the consequences. It is not their subjects that are evil, for they have been brought up and mistreated in an environment completely unnatural to their habitat, but their tormentor, who butchers them through extreme studies. This is usually evident through a secondary character, most often a colleague, who tries to stop the scientist in their mad experiment before it's too late. The horror is, therefore, found in the abuse executed by the brazen oppressor, not in their vicious, abnormal creations.

The fact that the aforementioned themes barely scratch the surface of all the ideas featured in this collection, prove how layered and compelling all the featured stories are. The editor also did a marvelous job with a lovely foreword and an intriguing introduction to each of the authors and their respective work. Of course, as with every short story collection, not all works are equally strong, but "Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic" is still a gorgeous anthology and a noteworthy testament to a relatively overlooked category of horror.

few women ever experience themselves as real (x) / Like Differently Love - Malia Makana / Thoroughbreds / The Eye (2008) / The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Holly Wells) / Thirteen (2003) / Who’s That Girl? - Hilary Duff / Solaris / Angry Chair - Alice In Chains / God Turn Me Into a Flower - Weyes Blood / Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad; “Lost” tr. by Sholeh Wolpé

Was anyone going to tell me that Silas Weir Mitchell, the actor who plays Monroe in Grimm, shares his name with Silas Weir Mitchell, the physician responsible for the ‘rest cure’ that resulted in thousands of people with depression or PTSD being isolated to the point of having their symptoms become intolerable— or was I just supposed to find this out in the footnotes of The Yellow Wallpaper?

Some Yellow Wallpapers vibes

Her Ascended Majesty Greets her Husband on the Lake of Hali

(Follow up to the previous picture I did here of the lady in "The Yellow Wallpaper" clawing her way into apotheosis in Carcosa)

Reading 1 star reviews of The Yellow Wallpaper to amuse myself, and I’m giggling at every one that is like “1/5 stars, they kept talking about the wallpaper” like my bestie in christ did you not read the title??