Baby, Seasons Change but People Don't...

Finally, the summer has come to a close. After what seemed like an unending myriad of hot drunken nights, wicked hangovers, and obscene bar tabs, we can all move into the quiet serenity of my favorite (and most underrated) season... FALL! Now, I tend to get more often than not, a sort of sardonic response when I express my adoration for this season...

"Oh... You like Fall? So... Do you have a thing for death or something? I mean... like... all the leaves die and stuff... What's there to like?"

Well, you ignorant dolt, EVERYTHING'S to like. First off, the profound beauty of the glorious color scheme produced by the withering landscape cannot be replicated, or remotely touched, by any other season. Second... My allergies finally die down, so I can go outside without constantly trying to obfiscated the fluids oozing from my eyes, nose, etc. Third, nothing can compare to the enchanting Fall breeze... that perfect temperature and beguiling scent that hugs your body like the blanket you carried with you as a child for comfort and security. Lastly, and most importantly, comes the time to prepare for the best holiday known to man... HALLOWEEN!

And in this preparation for my favorite season/holiday, I reflect on what seems to go unattended to during more celebratory and jovial stretches of time that make up the calendar year...

Allow me to preface my thoughts with a bit of personal background knowledge:
Ever since I was a kid I've always had this predilection for all things macabre... horror movies, ghost stories, cemeteries, oddities... you get where I'm going with this. As I got older, my interest channeled into a more pedagogical quest and exploration of the psyche of aberration... the study of serial killers, medical anomolies, historical witch hunts, and analytical inquiry into cross-cultural representations of the demonic.

Clearly, I was your typical teenage girl. Don't get me wrong... I'm a girly-girl at heart... sugar, spice and all that jazz, but there's something about that unnerving sense of forebodingness... that potential for sinister darkness that is so compelling about this season. I've always felt that fear is the greatest emotion known to man simply because there's nothing quite as satisfying as being forced to fend for youself in a precarious situation, surviving it, and then having the relief of a return to normalcy once you've endured your struggle. This could be taken quite literally by placing yourself in dicey predicaments (which wisdom would proffer is not recommended) OR you could do it the preferable way... simulate that same feeling through the use of less hazardous means such as haunted houses, night time hayrides, or exploration of Weird NJ-type locales. Regardless of how you choose to achieve a sense of fear, there's something about the Fall that makes the wheels of your imagination turn to a darker side of things... Shadows become more ominous, evening sounds instill a feeling of inquietude... but all of this creepy business is relegated to the night. A Fall day can be the epitome of resplendence, but at times nothing can be more anxiety-provoking than a Fall night. It's the duality of this season that makes me ponder more than I normally would the idea of good and evil. Read along and let me know your thoughts...

Regardless of my religous views, which tend to depart from my Roman Catholic upbringing and border more along the lines of a well-informed Agnostic, I've always felt strongly that good and evil exist in this world... Not so much that there's a God or a Devil, but that the human condition is such that within all of us lies a constant battle between what could be considered morally right or wrong as dictated by societal standards. To some, this is a simple Freudian assertion. To others, it is considered more of an all-out war where temptation and virtue clash fueling the fire that burns in every story worth telling: conflict. My favorite literary description of this contention comes from Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamozov. Depending on your Russian translation, it goes something like this: "God and the Devil are at war and the battlefield is the human heart." -Dmitri Karamozov

(For a more contemporary slant on the same idea, Brand New's latest album is entitled "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me" - an eloquent phrase and one hell of an amazing musical effort. )


In my personal opinion, no one can best the Russians in their description of evil. The Eastern Orthodox representation of the devil is one of the best I've ever come across. (Since I'm feeling a bit on the misandrist side of things right now, I'll refer to the devil as a male.) In their interpretation of the devil, a liminal creature is formed... He is neither this nor that... but in that ambiguity lies the potential for the most potent damage and destruction imaginable. Without being one extreme or another, he is difficult to describe and even harder to detect as pernicious. You can be lulled into complacancy because he appears to be friend and not foe. You can be decieved into perpetrating sin because his logic follows suit with your own unconscious desires. Really, what could be more menacing than the thought that you could have passed satan himself on your commute to work this morning unbeknownst to you? You could have held the door for him and never thought twice about it.

Let me spring for a pop-culture reference for a second... What was most frightening about Patrick Bateman in American Psycho?


He blended in completely with his yuppy pals and even upon admitting guilt for torturing and brutally murdering people, no one would have believed him because, well... he didn't look like a serial killer... He just didn't fit the part. Sure it's easy to convict a guy like Charles Manson



(who never actually murdered anyone himself) because he looked like, spoke like, and acted like a nutcase. But just think of how many people who have committed blood-curdling crimes that remain innocent because of our implacable justice system's 'beyond reasonable doubt' standard.*COUGH* OJ Simpson*COUGH*




Appearances are everything in this world and as someone with a cognitive psychology background, I can tell you for a fact that human perception is one of the most easily manipulated tools in a saditist's arsenal.

So what are we to do as simple, frail humans if A.) We're so inept at discerning evil and B.) so easily fall victim to vice? My recommendation is to indulge in a few cautionary tales during this bewitching season... Read up on the old Grimm's Fairy Tales, take in some of my favorite Russian novels... Sologub's Petty Demon is excellent, The Master and Margarita is possibly the greatest book I've read, and since The Brother's Karamozov is a bit of a chunky read - take an excerpt like the Grand Inquisitor for a spin. Also the history channel serves as a great wealth of ghastly knowledge this month... Salem Witch Trials, Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper... the list of haunting topics goes on... Re-assess how you feel about religion, life, death, good and evil... Fall is the perfect atmosphere for this sort of gritty introspection. Give it a try... Let me know what you come up with and if I should catch you at a bar one night, feel free to share your thoughts with me over some pumpkin spiced ale... as long as you're buying.

Cheers!