The small cemetery is said to be haunted by a young girl’s ragdoll; the girl wanted to be buried with the doll but was not, and the legend is that the doll wanders the cemetery looking for her grave.
This is another instance in which this article could use some clarification. Which part of the story is real? Was there really a girl buried here without her doll or is the whole thing made up?
“It was known as a party spot, a drinking spot.”
This is interesting because the few times I've visited the bridge, it was completely quiet. I wonder if the stories have scared people away. The last time I was there, there was an RV parked nearby that looked as if someone was living there, but I don't know if they were just staying the night or taking up a long term residence.
Tons of stories get passed around about it, like a patient who took an axe to every person in the building, or a person who locked all the doors and windows, leaving everyone to “bedlam,” Kleen said.
The writing of this article isn't super clear. There is no evidence that any of these events happened- people just think that all old asylums are haunted.
“The Confession Killer,”
This is an interesting story to look into if you're interested in true crime. The Confession Killer was a serial killer, but once he was in prison, he started confessing to murders he didn't do, because confessions were rewarded with nice meals and things like that. His case changed how investigators handle prisoners.
Even the old Will Rogers Theater is said to be haunted
Now this is one place that I wish I could interact with for the film portion of this project. The theater is super cool, but this is the first I've heard of a haunting.
if they visit these places, to respect the property.
This is such a big problem with ghost hunting, especially on TV. There's such a rush to find evidence of hauntings that ghost hunters forget that these are real places in real communities. Small towns can be disrupted pretty easily, so don't be disrespectful on top of everything.
the weapons the Nazis were using.”
There is a valid point here, because some people did think that people were being gassed by an escaped Nazi prisoner. While the gasser was likely real, there were some crazy conspiracies surrounding those events.
The second most known story in the area is of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon.
I won't be discussing this story in this project since I have previously made an entire podcast focusing on the legends surrounding it. The podcast is available on the same blog where I'll share these annotations.
But later it was found that he wasn’t the killer.
The woman's husband was eventually imprisoned, four years after this article was written. Her identity had been found with DNA testing, and the husband made some suspicious comments about the murder. He plead guilty "so his family wouldn't have to deal with the trial."
it is quiet and accumulates dense fog because of the bowl-like shape it covers over the Embarras River.
During the daytime, the location is actually pretty scenic. The river is flanked by beautiful old trees, and you can just see the corn and bean fields by peering between the trunks.
Stories that bounce around the hall are about furniture moving around mysteriously, footprints appearing on the floor, and a woman walking toward the door to the fourth floor and disappearing.
There are also stories of mysterious tapping and knocking noises which are supposedly caused by the ghost of the unnamed victim who is still trying to get into a room for help.
The ironic part of her story, Kleen said, is that Hawkins’ diagnosis was syphilis, so she apparently did not follow the rules she had for the women she watched over in her residence hall.
This is a poor explanation- she was sent to the mental hospital for syphilis and died there due to lack of appropriate treatments at the time. As far as anyone knows, the murder didn't happen at all.
But he said not to believe anything from the episode, which claimed the place was haunted by demons.
I'd love to know more about this. Does he think it isn't haunted at all? Does he think there are ghosts, not demons? What process do the creators of the show use to find this stuff out?
each has numerous versions, and none are really nailed down as truth.
As I was researching for this project, this is one of the main things I noticed. For example, I heard at least three different possible reasons for the Airtight Bridge's name.
Kleen said he was surprised that the few who did not would come to such an event.
I understand his surprise, but it also seems like nonbelievers like myself would still be interested in the stories. A lot of people look for proof of ghosts even if they don't believe in them.
The Boys is some pure metamodernist BS, so committed to sharpening its edge on the whetstone of canon it forgets to cut anything with its trenchant blade.
This is another valid criticism but it is written in a very pretentious way. I hope the author doesn't talk to his friends this way.
These social-justice shocks the show seems forced to administer, in an effort to make you feel more alive than you are, sinking into your couch, losing your head
I think there is valid criticism in pointing out when people try to force a "woke" narrative in their show, but there's a fine line between wokeness and diversity. Having a varied group of people and stories doesn't make you an SJW; you might just be trying to give people something to identify with in your art.
On and on like this it goes, as if individuality can be carved from the conformity of riding the same many-mirrored carousel as everyone else.
This almost seems like a witty observation until you realize that you could apply this to literally any facet of human existence. The fact that each of us is unique also means that you almost always have something in common with everyone around you.
Mid-pandemic, heads are rolling—scrolling—at unprecedented rates through the virtual plenitude, a kind of pre-death bardo state of perfect mind-body disconnection
Oh absolutely. I have watched more terrible television this year than the entire rest of my life and I had already considered myself a connoisseur of bad movies and TV.
For to watch TV in 2020 is to put your head, as they have done, on the line
THIS is what the kids mean when we say "OK Boomer." I can list any number of shows like Pose, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, The Good Place, and The End of the F**ing World* which are all very recent and very good.
The heads belong to minor characters, whose lives are the same as their deaths—pointless.
I mean, that is what background characters are for.
Barely. You haven’t been told which heads explode, or when
I haven't watched the show yet so I'm glad this warning is here, but the tone is already super dismissive for a piece I'm only a few sentence into.
One exploding head makes for great television, but the effect is not multiplicative
In general I absolutely agree; excessive gore is not something I enjoy. However, as a fan of the Kingsman movies, I would claim that there is at least one exception.
which, structurally, seem to forget that they’re television shows
It honestly seems like Jason Keche doesn't like TV shows. Maybe he should explore different media.
They’d rather believe that a show like The Boys is supersmart and supercool, so that when their heads finally do explode, from overstimulation or rapid-onset depression, they can convince themselves, in their final moment of consciousness, that their minds were truly blown.
This sentence is actually the worst thing I've ever read. Sometimes people just like things. Not every single piece of media has to be an outstanding work of art; maybe the average fan just enjoys watching fight scenes.
When you sit down to a new TV show at the end of your day, you’re not distracting yourself or escaping. You’re reinforcing the escalating, episodic tension of your everyday existence
Okay so watch a movie then? The author is acting like we're all being forced to watch this show.
There’s not just an expectation of quality but of seeing something new, like a whale-murdering boat, or lightning Nazis
I agree with this! Forcing everything to be a new novel idea is annoying. There's nothing new under the sun so just accept that you might be using an old idea.
Guardians
... Okay. Guardians of the Galaxy is barely postmodernist. The comic books have been around for way longer than the movies. I was watching the special Guardians episode of a Spiderman cartoon in 2014.
Boy oh Boys. It’s easily the best and worst of the bunch. If there’s a way to push superheroes any further than this—full-on rapey murderers whose villainy is covered up by the pharmaceutical giant that not-so-secretly made them—the culture would have to combust.
To be fair, I haven't seen the show. Regardless, blaming the entire demise of the superhero genre on one show seems wild. I've already seen this weird forced postmodernist idea in other media. The only example I'm thinking of at the moment is the popular anime My Hero Academia, but that is still a good example because it came out years ago.
Just listen to yourself. When you’re not watching TV, you’re talking about watching TV.
Two things.
bathetically burst balloons
"Bathetic" is an annoying word that isn't used very much. Was the alliteration really worth it? No.