Insert Stupid Christmas Pun Here.
Us kids today, with our i-Pods, and our pets rocks, and our zoot suits, and our reversible jackets. We tend to forget that the yuletide was not always a joyous occasion. There's a reason Samhain-as the gateway to the Winter Solstice-was not just a festival of the harvest, but of the dead. During the harsh months of ice and biting wind, food became scarce, illness well expected; the weak were not long to linger. As our ancestors huddled shivering in their dark huts, they could not pray that death would be absent this year-such was childish fancy-only that his touch be light. (Wow, I'm in a mood today!)
As civilization progressed to the point where people could effectively heat their habitations and reliably store food stocks, a statistically if not numerically lesser percentage of people tended to freeze to death in dank hovels. (Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!) However, lingering elements of our primeval dread of the bleak, bitter months tended to filter through western culture. For example, it was well-established tradition during the Victorian era, to gather around a glowing Christmas tree and regale the youngin's with blood-curdling tales of terror. (In case you didn't know, that what that "scary ghost stories" line in 'Most Wonderful Time of the Year' is all about.) No siree, Christmas was never just about presents, carols, and off-brand eggnog; and no writer understood this better than Charles Dickens.
Now normally, I have no taste for Dickens. I
find his writing to be pedantic and meandering. (His rabid devotees tend to
gloss over the fact that he was basically the 1800's equivalent of a pulp
fiction writer; paid by installment-if not theoretically by the word-and it damn
well showed.) His subject matter tends to be mawkish at best, morbid at worst.
(And not my kind of fun, happy morbidity!) However, I've always felt that like
Shakespeare, his work may be laborious to read, but an absolute joy to see
performed. Dickens' cannon does abound with vibrant, memorable characters, each
one just perfectly ripe for the exploratory machinations of a seemingly
never-ending cadre of adaptors. (Criminies, just thinking about Dickens has made
me even more pedantic and long-winded than usual, if such a thing is
conceivable.)
Of course, no work of his has been more thoroughly explored (some might say,
drummed into the ground) than 'A Christmas Carol'. (And the reader breathes a
sigh of relief, as it seems that I have approached some semblance of a point.)
Let's not forget that underneath the themes of redemption, charity, family, and all that other crap, 'Christmas Carol' remains a rollicking good ghost story. Everybody knows the spirits are the best part of the narrative, and that's why I've set up this brand new sectional seasonal tradition. I'm not here to examine differing version of Dickens' work on grounds of authenticity, style, or general filminess. I'm here to let you know how scary they are! (With a few notes on other matters if an adaptation is especially noteworthy, or lame.) That's more than enough of my blather; let's get things underway.
(Actual content coming "soon")