{"id":724,"date":"2017-03-01T08:19:47","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T08:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=724"},"modified":"2017-03-02T02:58:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T02:58:24","slug":"digital-agency-and-schizophrenia-in-hbos-beware-the-slenderman-and-a-head-full-of-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/03\/01\/digital-agency-and-schizophrenia-in-hbos-beware-the-slenderman-and-a-head-full-of-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Agency and Schizophrenia in HBO\u2019s &#8220;Beware the Slenderman&#8221; and &#8220;A Head Full of Ghosts&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would like to examine two postmodern horror narratives that engage with young women struggling with mental illness\u2014specifically, schizophrenia\u2014and how their status as both female and schizophrenic is depicted through their respective narratives. Furthermore, I want to consider how their digital agency\u2014and how that digital agency is figured\u2014compounds and contradicts the narrative\u2019s status as a horror narrative. That is to say, what are these horror narratives saying about preteen girls with schizophrenia? How does digital media facilitate violence in the narrative? The two horror narratives I will look at are HBO\u2019s documentary <em>Beware the Slenderman, <\/em>and Paul Tremblay\u2019s novel <em>A Head Full of Ghosts. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Beware the Slenderman (HBO Documentary Films)\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6p1eVLEbOIw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>HBO&#8217;s trailer for\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Beware the Slenderman.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Beware the Slenderman<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In June of 2014, two twelve-year-old girls stabbed their classmate and friend 19 times, leaving her for dead in the woods. The victim, named Payton (but confusingly nicknamed Bella by her friends), survives after being discovered by a cyclist. Regardless, Morgan and Anissa, the two girls who stabbed her, were charged as adults with attempted homicide.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> Their motivation for the stabbing? A popular internet-generated horror meme called Slenderman. Earlier this year, HBO released a documentary about this story, called <em>Beware the Slenderman<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Peck, a folklore scholar who is the go-to expert on Slenderman, had already published his studies on Slenderman, sometimes stylized as Slender Man, by the time of the murders. According to Peck, Slenderman is \u201cA faceless, tall, eerily long-limbed humanoid clad in a black suit [that] emerged in an online forum as a pair of photoshops and a half-dozen lines of text.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> \u00a0It originated on June 8, 2009 when <a href=\"http:\/\/SomethingAwful.com\" class=\"autohyperlink\">SomethingAwful.com<\/a> forum member \u201cGerogerigegege\u201d created a discussion thread called \u201ccreate Paranormal images,\u201d inviting other users to create and share mundane images that had been manipulated to appear paranormal. Users began writing stories to accompany these images and suggested that the images were real by linking them to personal experience.<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> According to Peck, \u201cLocating authenticity in \u2018reality\u2019 reflects one of the earliest shared expectations that emerged around Slender Man legend performances.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> In other words, the best Slenderman narratives were those that took place in our world, but held on to the sense of ill-intentioned mystery.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Emergence of a Legend Matrix in the Digital Age\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/54951101?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"525\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>A digital version of a presentation Andrew Peck gave on\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Tall, Dark, and Loathsome.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to legend scholar Bill Ellis, \u201cLegend performances typically place events in the group\u2019s [the \u201cSomething Awful\u201d forum where Slenderman was conceived] conception of the real world while also challenging the boundaries of that world.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> When it comes to the case of Morgan Geyser, these boundaries were challenged to begin with: Morgan was beginning to show the signs of schizophrenia at the time of the murders. None of the subsequent news coverage, nor the first hour and twenty minutes of HBO\u2019s documentary on the matter, bridge the topic of Morgan\u2019s mental illness. The narrative structure of <em>Beware the Slenderman <\/em>is problematic because our discovery of Morgan\u2019s schizophrenia operates as the narrative sucker-punch, co-opted into the twist at the end of the documentary as opposed to a sustainable explanation for her behavior throughout the film. Indeed, in one courtroom clip, the psychiatrist on the stand explains that \u201cBelieving that Slenderman is real is a delusion [symptomatic of childhood schizophrenia.]\u201d He goes on to say, \u201cWhat\u2019s unique about Morgan\u2019s case is that a severe course is so predictable.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> Morgan\u2019s father also has a severe kind of schizophrenia, and even still her parents had neglected to keep an eye out for problematic behavior, or even to inform Morgan that her father also had schizophrenia. This information was unloaded upon Morgan at the hospital after the stabbing.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a> The majority of the narrative, however, would have you believe there is no such scientific explanation for Morgan\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<p>The draw of <em>Beware the Slenderman<\/em> has its basis in Creed\u2019s theory that \u201cPossession becomes the excuse for legitimizing a display of aberrant feminine behavior which is depicted as depraved, monstrous, abject\u2014and perversely appealing.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a> Though Anissa and Morgan were not \u201cpossessed,\u201d as it were, they were motivated by a demonic, mysterious figure all the same\u2014or so the narrative of <em>Beware the Slenderman <\/em>would have you believe, seeing as the narrative of mental illness is largely absent. Creed writes that \u201cCentral to [possession films] was a strong sense of the vulnerability of the body and its susceptibility to possession.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a> HBO\u2019s official description of the documentary plays into this idea of vulnerability:<\/p>\n<p>It was a local story that horrified the nation: two 12-year-old girls lured a friend into the Waukesha woods, where they proceeded to stab her 19 times in an effort to appease a faceless mythical entity known online as &#8216;Slenderman.&#8217; This sobering documentary delves deep into the story and examines how an Internet urban myth could take root in impressionable young minds.<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Their \u201cimpressionable young minds,\u201d (female minds) are the nexus of this vulnerability, the place where the seed of Slenderman could grow until it became too much to bear. These 12-year-old girls in the suburban Midwest commit unthinkable evil, inspired by digitally mediated horror narratives, and represent the intersection of \u201cthe major boundaries [\u2026] between innocence and corruption, purity and impurity.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a> Ostensibly, this evil is a product of the internet.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the documentary, the internet and its digital mediations, specifically iPads, are demonized, especially by Anissa\u2019s father. Morgan is depicted as the mastermind, and Anissa the friendless sidekick, willing to do anything. Indeed, much of the film is spent describing Anissa\u2019s lonely, outcast status and how relieved her parents were when she found Morgan as a friend. He blames the iPad for his daughter\u2019s \u201ccorruption,\u201d as it were. Anissa\u2019s independence in the digital world facilitates her penchant for violence\u2014Anissa\u2019s disturbing YouTube history is revealed in <em>Beware the Slenderman, <\/em>and the montage is among the most harrowing moments of the film.<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a> As Peck explains it:<\/p>\n<p>Of all the details of this gruesome story, the involvement of the Slender man resonated most in subsequent news coverage. The relative obscurity of the character and its de-contextualized association with the stabbing served to kindle a classic moral panic narrative. Headlines and sound bites focused on the dangers of unsupervised tween media use and the corrupting allure of the dark corners of the internet.<a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A former FBI investigator, who happens to be female, described the case of the Slenderman stabbings as \u201cvery unusual &#8212; not just because is involves young females, but the brutality of it.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a> Think of Creed and the monstrous woman\u2014indeed, girl\u2014and how \u201cHorror emerges from the fact that woman has broken with her proper feminine roll\u2014she has \u2018made a spectacle of herself.\u2019\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To what extent can the internet be blamed for Morgan and Anissa\u2019s actions? A recent study conducted by John A. Oyewole found that \u201cat an average of 53.0% for males, and 53.3% for females across all ages, at least half of audiences who get exposed to violent media contents will develop a tendency to imitate such media contents.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn16\" name=\"_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a> In fact, Oyewole mentions the Slenderman stabbing by name as an example of this statistic.<a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a> This statistic fits into the documentary\u2019s message, which I believe prioritizes the demonization of the internet over a narrative of mental illness awareness.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-725\" style=\"width: 443px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-725\" src=\"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-01-at-7.24.22-PM-300x206.png\" width=\"443\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-01-at-7.24.22-PM-300x206.png 300w, https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-01-at-7.24.22-PM-768x528.png 768w, https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-01-at-7.24.22-PM-1024x704.png 1024w, https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/files\/2017\/03\/Screen-Shot-2017-03-01-at-7.24.22-PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 443px) 100vw, 443px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From the original &#8220;Something Awful&#8221; forum. &#8220;&#8216;We didn\u2019t want to go, we didn\u2019t want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horri ed and comforted us at the same time . . .\u2019 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.\u201d Posted by Victor Surge, June 10, 2009.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>A Head Full of Ghosts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Paul Tremblay\u2019s <em>A Head Full of Ghosts <\/em>approaches the issue of schizophrenia in a less opaque way than it is presented to us in <em>Beware the Slenderman. <\/em>Indeed, the back jacket of the book intones, \u201cThe lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents\u2019 despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie\u2019s bizarre outbursts and subsequent descent into madness.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a> Marjorie\u2019s \u201cdescent into madness,\u201d then, is at the forefront of Tremblay\u2019s presentation of the narrative. The ambiguity of Marjorie\u2019s schizophrenia relies on its \u201coff-screen\u201d (literally) nature\u2014the drama having to do with her diagnosis and institutionalization does not take place in the house, nor does it operate as a plot factor in the reality TV show being filmed.<\/p>\n<p>There are many moments when technology both mediates and facilitates the performance of Marjorie\u2019s possession, which she claims is for the benefit of her father, who is really the sick one.<a href=\"#_ftn19\" name=\"_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a> If you read the novel with the assumption that Marjorie is not actually possessed (which is certainly a possibility), Marjorie\u2019s digital agency is crucial to her performance of possession: she gleans the knowledge she needs to fool the clergymen and viewers of the TV show from the internet. During the exorcism, the following exchange takes place:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marjorie<\/strong>: I\u2019m looking shit up on the Internet, looking up the same stuff over and over, and I memorize it because I\u2019m wicked smart, because I have to fill my head with something other than the ghosts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Father Wanderly<\/strong>: I suggest that you no longer allow her access to the laptop until after the rite has been performed successfully.<a href=\"#_ftn20\" name=\"_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This exchange demonstrates two things: one, that Wanderly\u2019s belief in her demonic possession is too deep to accept this rational answer to her struggle with the \u201cghosts\u201d (her schizophrenic delusions, perhaps); and his unwillingness to acknowledge Marjorie\u2014the \u201cyou\u201d here is her parents. Afterwards, when the adults are discussing Marjorie\u2019s knowledge, one of the producers defends the internet standpoint: \u201cShe could\u2019ve made the connection on her own. Or maybe she Googled my T-shirt, found Lovecraft and Yidhara on Wikipedia. Not a huge leap, there, I don\u2019t think\u2014\u201c<a href=\"#_ftn21\" name=\"_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a> Merry, writing as her blog persona, compounds the idea that the internet is the logical source of her knowledge, explaining that \u201cJohn Barrett duly informs us that Marjorie claims she <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through\">never heard of the Internet or the library <\/span>[sic] doesn\u2019t know where she heard the stories or the song [\u2026] but swears she hadn\u2019t learned of them or heard them from outside sources.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn22\" name=\"_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a> Her sarcastic strikethrough reads clearly: digital agency in the form of internet access facilitates Marjorie\u2019s convincing performance of possession, as the adults around her refuse to believe she could pull such a thing off\u2014consider this frenzied exchange after her performance:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2014even if she had looked it up on the computer\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2014no way she could\u2019ve memorized it all\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2014a girl like her can\u2019t speak as eloquently as she did\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2014a girl wouldn\u2019t ask the questions she asked\u2014\u201c<a href=\"#_ftn23\" name=\"_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Merry\u2019s persona explains this phenomena well: \u201c\u2026Marjorie\u2019s knowledge of the rite is <em>again <\/em>[sic] presented to us as proof positive of her possession. This is one of the most misogynistic aspects of the show: not only is it impossible for a silly <em>girl<\/em> [sic] to know what the patriarchy knows[\u2026]we\u2019re supposed to actively fear that she has acquired that knowledge.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn24\" name=\"_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Paul Tremblay is aware of the figuration of mental illness is his novel. Goodreads user Shiv Eloise asked of Treblay, \u201cWhere you at all considering what harm you might cause by linking schizophrenia and possession?\u201d Tremblay responded curtly:<\/p>\n<p>Harm? No. If anything, I wanted some readers to realize that religious figures have used and conflated the symptoms of various mental illnesses as (bogus) signs of possession for hundreds of years. On the other side of it, I certainly wasn\u2019t intending to vilify people who suffer from schizophrenia. That\u2019s not in the book either.<a href=\"#_ftn25\" name=\"_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The thread discussion continues regarding the debate between the merits of each side: religious \u201cfanatics\u201d mis-assigning possession to mental illness, and the potentially negative figuration of schizophrenia as the product of the devil\u2019s spirit. Tremblay\u2019s dismissive line, \u201cThat\u2019s not in the book either,\u201d makes me wonder to what extent Tremblay had considered the reception of his book\u2014and if, as an author, he should even be asked to consider that. Regardless, the link between schizophrenia and possession in the book is obviously very strong\u2014it drives its entire sense of ambiguous malaise. Furthermore, Marjorie\u2019s digital agency mitigates her isolation even as it also operates as a mechanism for her to convince the adults she is really possessed: \u201cMarjorie kept texting, fingers crawling over the phone\u2019s keyboard screen while she talked at the same time.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn26\" name=\"_ftnref26\">[26]<\/a> Marjorie navigates her schizophrenia by manipulating digital media to her advantage; it enables her to trick the bumbling adults around her that she is truly possessed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synthesis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We can pinpoint digital agency as the catalyst in each of these schizophrenia horror narratives. In <em>Beware the Slenderman, <\/em>Anissa and Morgan are motivated by the internet-made Slenderman, whose ambiguous digital presence is a perfect storm when combined with Morgan\u2019s childhood schizophrenia. Indeed, Anissa\u2019s father would rather blame technology than his daughter\u2019s own troubles, and Morgan\u2019s parents did not pay enough attention to their daughter\u2019s slow disappearance into a virtual obsession with Slenderman. In <em>A Head Full of Ghosts, <\/em>internet access enables Marjorie to perform her possession in the face of her schizophrenia. On the structural level of each of these narratives, schizophrenia is figured problematically. <em>Beware the Slenderman <\/em>saves the reveal of Morgan\u2019s mental illness for the end of the film, problematically placing her condition and her parents\u2019 treatment of it as a plot twist. When it comes <em>A Head Full of Ghosts, <\/em>the author is ultimately unconcerned with thoroughly explaining the link he provides between mental illness and possession. We should think further about how the representation of schizophrenia, especially in young women, motivates and operates postmodern horror narratives, and what both the construction and reception of these narratives says about mental illness in the digital age.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> \u201c12-year-old Wisconsin girl stabbed 19 times; friends arrested,\u201d last modified June 4 2014, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/06\/03\/justice\/wisconsin-girl-stabbed\">www.cnn.com\/2014\/06\/03\/justice\/wisconsin-girl-stabbed<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Andrew Peck, \u201cTall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Emergence of a Legend Cycle in the Digital Age,\u201d <em>Journal of American Folklore <\/em>128.590 (2015): 333.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Peck, \u201cTall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Emergence of a Legend Cycle in the Digital Age,\u201d 337<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> <em>Ibid.<\/em>, 343.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> <em>Ibid.<\/em>, 335.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> <em>Beware the Slenderman, <\/em>directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, 2016, Home Box Office, 1:23:15.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> <em>Beware the Slenderman<\/em>, 1:24:00.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> Barbara Creed, \u201cWoman as Possessed Monster: <em>The Exorcist<\/em>,\u201d in <em>The Monstrous-Feminine <\/em>(New York: Routledge, 1993) 31.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Creed, \u201cWoman as Possessed Monster: <em>The Exorcist<\/em>,\u201d 31.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> <em>Beware the Slenderman.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Creed, \u201cWoman as Possessed Monster: <em>The Exorcist<\/em>,\u201d 32.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> <em>Beware the Slenderman<\/em>, 43:00.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> \u201cTall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Emergence of a Legend Cycle in the Digital Age,\u201d 346.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn14\">[14]<\/a> CNN, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/06\/03\/justice\/wisconsin-girl-stabbed\">www.cnn.com\/2014\/06\/03\/justice\/wisconsin-girl-stabbed<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> Creed, \u201cWoman as Possessed Monster: <em>The Exorcist<\/em>,\u201d 42.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" name=\"_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> John Ayodele Oyewole, \u201cGory Attractions in the Threshold of the Contemporary Media: The Level of Influence on Young People,\u201d in <em>International Journal of Arts &amp; Sciences<\/em> 9.3 (2016): 334.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> Oyewole \u201cGory Attractions in the Threshold of the Contemporary Media: The Level of Influence on Young People,\u201d 334.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> Paul Tremblay, <em>A Head Full of Ghosts <\/em>(New York: HarperCollins, 2013).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" name=\"_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> Tremblay, <em>A Head Full of Ghosts,<\/em> 270.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref20\" name=\"_ftn20\">[20]<\/a> <em>Ibid.,<\/em> 171.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref21\" name=\"_ftn21\">[21]<\/a> <em>Ibid.,<\/em> 179.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref22\" name=\"_ftn22\">[22]<\/a> <em>Ibid.,<\/em> 99.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref23\" name=\"_ftn23\">[23]<\/a> <em>Ibid.,<\/em> 179.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref24\" name=\"_ftn24\">[24]<\/a> <em>Ibid.,<\/em> 243.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref25\" name=\"_ftn25\">[25]<\/a> Goodreads, \u201cWere you at all considering what harm you might cause by linking schizophrenia and possession?\u201d Last modified December 29, 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/questions\/528468-were-you-at-all-considering-what-harm-you\">www.goodreads.com\/questions\/528468-were-you-at-all-considering-what-harm-you<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref26\" name=\"_ftn26\">[26]<\/a> Tremblay, <em>A Head Full of Ghosts,<\/em> 66.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=0B57WSxhLtxO3NHJ6ek0tOXhZMTA\">Bibliography PDF<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction I would like to examine two postmodern horror narratives that engage with young women struggling with mental illness\u2014specifically, schizophrenia\u2014and how their status as both female and schizophrenic is depicted through their respective narratives. Furthermore, I want to consider how their digital agency\u2014and how that digital agency is figured\u2014compounds and contradicts the narrative\u2019s status as &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/03\/01\/digital-agency-and-schizophrenia-in-hbos-beware-the-slenderman-and-a-head-full-of-ghosts\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Digital Agency and Schizophrenia in HBO\u2019s &#8220;Beware the Slenderman&#8221; and &#8220;A Head Full of Ghosts&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[39,105],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comparative-horror","tag-a-head-full-of-ghosts","tag-slenderman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","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\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":744,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}