{"id":306,"date":"2017-02-02T04:13:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T04:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=306"},"modified":"2017-02-02T04:13:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T04:13:14","slug":"from-scared-to-sympathetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/02\/02\/from-scared-to-sympathetic\/","title":{"rendered":"From Scared to Sympathetic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I have continued reading <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Head Full of Ghosts<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the evolution of Marjorie\u2019s schizophrenia constantly changes how I view the horror in the book. Throughout the story, Marjorie has been the cause of the majority of the terrifying events but the lens through which I view these has shifted from fear to pity. My perspective shifted in chapter 16, simultaneously with Merry\u2019s view of her sister, when Marjorie explains, \u201cI\u2019ve been faking it\u2026 What do you mean why?&#8230; then I started hearing the voices, stress induced probably, yeah, but still it sort of freaked me out\u2026 I decided I\u2019d just keep pushing it, see how far I could go\u2026 You guys should be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">thanking<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> me. I saved the house. I saved us, all of us, and I\u2019m going to make us famous\u201d (124-25). <\/span><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1442px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.viralnova.com\/schizophrenic-art\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/endofthegame.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/11\/schizophrenic-cat-1.jpg\" width=\"1442\" height=\"596\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As artist Louis Wain&#8217;s schizophrenia progressed, the image of a cat becomes more difficult to discern.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marjorie\u2019s elaborate story comes across as fake and her pretense of control makes Merry realize she \u201cwas afraid for her instead of being afraid of her\u201d (125). Merry\u2019s pity humanizes Marjorie. Marjorie is no longer some wild animal, lurking around the house, whose behavior is erratic and unsettling (to say the least). Now that she has talked about her behavior and has some memory and understanding of the damage, Marjorie is elevated from her status as a rabid, mindless, demon-possessed monster to a human recognizing her behavior as her own (not the act of a demon). As readers, we can now evaluate future scenes and recall previous scenes and question how Marjorie\u2019s strange behavior is influenced in combination by her schizophrenia, her own theatrics, and her own fears. Terrifying as reading these scenes may be, imagining being Marjorie is much more painful. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I have continued reading A Head Full of Ghosts, the evolution of Marjorie\u2019s schizophrenia constantly changes how I view the horror in the book. Throughout the story, Marjorie has been the cause of the majority of the terrifying events but the lens through which I view these has shifted from fear to pity. My &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/02\/02\/from-scared-to-sympathetic\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;From Scared to Sympathetic&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[39,41,42,40],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-a","tag-a-head-full-of-ghosts","tag-horror","tag-pity","tag-schizophrenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}