ode to creepy clowns

 

Creepy clowns come out of the shadows,

Licking our faces with razor sharp tongues,

Hide all the children, get them out of the way,

The clowns are out to get them,

as night turns from day

Suck on your toxic liquorish

Chew at your marshmallow  brains

Yanking your hand to edge of the grave

As they kick you right into hell

 

Scaring you shitless,  with a cackle of laughter

A machete in one hand and  an axe in the other

With a shriek  and a glaring expression

They mock you  till you fall to the floor

Creepy clowns, I can’t stand them

These fuckers think their funny

Freaking you out is their only intention

They got weaned  on horror films

And a pathetic need to grab attention.

Part of a Halloween holiday  blog hop, read other articles by writers and bloggers.

click http://francishpowellauthor.weebly.com/halloween-holiday-blog-hop.html

https://twitter.com/Dreamheadz

Creepy clowns, they are at it again!

They are at it again…nowhere is exempt, the most recent attack a formal dinner at the hallowed ground of Cambridge University,  a creepy clown equipped with a machete.  Maybe this can be put down to university high jinx…

However…there has been a recent spate of people in the UK,  dressing up as clowns, jumping out and trying freak people out.  It has been dubbed “the creepy clown craze”.  The craze is not only limited to the UK, needless to say creepy clowns have been terrorizing America, clowns in at least 10 different states being sighted, some yelling at people in cars on desolate country roads, and worse besides carrying machetes and knives. Even Stephen King has had to weigh in telling the  US to ‘cool the clown hysteria’ after wave of sightings

 Horror films, must take some responsibility for this phenomenon, as they  are littered with sinister clowns, Pennywise from It, Mr Jingles, Chucky, the killer clowns from outer space  to name but a few.

This increasingly prevalent phenomenon has been fueled significantly by a Facebook page which shares photos and videos of the scary sightings. There’s even a label we can use for fear of clowns “coulrophobia”

Of course the primary function of a clown is to make an audience laugh. If we go back to the Middle Ages we discover that of the clown didn’t serve this function, they would pay heavily, meaning they would find themselves mutilated, to make their own smiles permanent. Our normal perception of smiles is usually positive, but constant smiles are unnerving . Clowns date back long before the Middle Ages, according to Dr Richard Talbot “The first recorded description of a clown was of a pygmy-type figure in Ancient Egypt, around 2000 BC”. Historically Britain’s first modern clown was Joseph Grimaldi, who in his time had a massive following, and could be deemed a real star . In the early 1800s, he is accredited with inventing  the trademark clown painted white face and red smile. The external image he projected was very different to what was going on in his own head, as he said himself “I am GRIM ALL DAY, but I make you laugh at night.”

Why is it that clowns are so unnerving?  In the world we live in, the face is one of the first things we look at. We search constantly for clues, to help us have a sense of how the other person is feeling. With clowns, that’s impossible. As Doctor Talbot puts it “There’s a technical confusion. There’s a painted face which stays static but the facial muscles are still moving underneath, so our brains can’t quite make sense of it.”  His idea mirrors an idea Sigmund Freud – the founder of psychoanalysis – called the “uncanny”. It’s when you look at something that’s recognizable but not quite right. And it makes you feel weird.

Clowns primary audience are supposed to be children. Maybe not so much these days but parents used to consider clowns for their children’s birthday parties.  However do children like clowns a survey done in 2008, by University of Sheffield, England, discovered of 250 children interviewed between the ages of four and 16 found that most of the children disliked and even feared images of clowns. A  child psychologist made the point , “Very few children like clowns. They are unfamiliar and come from a different era. They don’t look funny, they just look odd.”

Part of a Halloween holiday  blog hop, read other articles by writers and bloggers.

click http://francishpowellauthor.weebly.com/halloween-holiday-blog-hop.html

https://twitter.com/Dreamheadz

 

 

Am I a freak?

What do we understand by the word freak?
Why are most humans so cruel?
Why are we all so desperate to be part of the “norm”?

Freak
one that is markedly unusual or abnormal: as
a : a person or animal having a physical oddity and appearing in a circus sideshow
b slang (1) : a sexual deviate (2) : a person who uses an illicit drug
c : hippie
d : an atypical postage stamp usually caused by a unique defect in paper (as a crease) or a unique event in the manufacturing process (as a speck of dirt on the plate) that does not produce a constant or systematic effect
4
a : an ardent enthusiast <film freaks>
b : a person who is obsessed with something <a control freak>
See freak defined for English-language learners
See freak defined for kids
Examples of FREAK
1. eccentric, artistic types whom many regarded as freaks
2. I had a terrible rash on my face, and I felt like a freak.

It seems to be part of human nature to constantly judge others physical appearance. Perhaps the human race is getting even more narcissistic, after all don’t we go around taking “selfies” and plant them on the social media. God help anyone with an over-sized nose, ears that jut out, bulging eyes, a prominent pimple, a mole that is so eye-catching it directs people’s focus, like a ship to lighthouse in a thick fog. Anyone with extreme characteristics is liable to a lifetime of abusive comments, ridicule, being stared at…fingers pointed at them on public transport. Parts in horror films beckon, but the front cover of vogue does not.

In Victorian times those deemed to be “freaks” were placed on the stage, were put “on show”. The Victorians had a bizarre curiosity, there were the bearded ladies, included amongst these was Julia Pastrana resembled more of an ape than a woman. Pastrana, a Mexican-born woman suffered from hypertrichosis, a disease that causes the person to be covered from head to toe in long, thick hair. To compound things…she had a large nose and thick lips. She later had the indignity of being mummified, along with the still born child she gave birth to, who had the same features as her. Freak shows are a terrible indictment of the Victorian times, a time when Britain was at the height of imperialism.
John Merrick, more commonly known as “The Elephant man” had the most unimaginable skin disease, allegedly suffering from elephantiasis. Like some of the characters in my book, poor John Merrick, was an object of curiosity and ridicule throughout his life. His body was characterized by his malformed head, curved spine, “lumpy” skin and overgrown right arm and hand. His life was brought further to the public’s attention, with David Lynch’s file “The Elephant man”. The real reason for Merrick’s severe condition is even to this day open to conjecture.

What we can say is you are unfortunate to be born with a condition like John Merrick’s you will have much suffering to endure and will need the kind of indomitable spirit that John Merrick possessed. From the moment we are born, we are dealt different cards of fate, some are born lucky others face a life of hardship on account of their atypical physical appearance.
As children we are conditioned to be like the pack…we want to be like the others, included within the group of those deemed “normal”. Even a child with ginger hair, might suffer at the hands of others…vicious name calling…In my school if you did not match up what was considered “the norm” for example if you were effeminate, or had an atypical name (it was an all-boys school full of pubescent boys) you would be showered with all manner of insults, “lesbo” “lesy” or the likes. We had dormitories with up to twelve boys crammed together , like an army camp for privates. We were there for thirty-six weeks of the year, the other boys were “inescapable”. For this reason I escaped to the art room, where I could be at least express myself on paper or canvas and get away from this existence I really despised. I guess it was where I began to feel an “outsider”. I was never going to join the army, I was never going to be a businessman, like many of the other boys, primed for such activities… I was going to blessed with some comfortable life, with a comfortable career beckoning.

My Short stories are littered with freaks…for example there is “Bugeyes”…who is rejected at birth, on account of his extraordinary large eyes…and needless to say he is ridiculed by all…with a myriad of jokes that involve large eyes…for example “moth eyes”. People assume he is “stupid” but this is far from being the case.

Francis H Powell is the author of Flight of Destiny a book of short stories. He is also a musician and video maker…check out this video…it’s called “Bring out the freaks” and features Rayo, a multi-musician, who plays guitar and piano on this track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAzcq4hejqQ