Ed Gein, the Ghoul of Plainfield

Ed Gein, the Ghoul of Plainfield

The original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ movie was made in the 70’s, but it was re-made a few years ago. The horror film is about a group of teenagers who get stranded in a small town which turns out to be a death trap. The Hewitt family preys on anyone who comes in their direction. By the end of the story, only one girl escapes the clutches of ‘leather face,’ which cut off his victims face and turns it into a mask. One might ask, who has not seen the film, why it is so scary? It is just another movie about some fictional character that kills people for his own sick fantasies. However, within the first 5 minutes of the movie, the audience discovers that this movie is based on true events, and that is why The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the scariest movies ever made. This movie is composed from the life of a serial killer known as Ed Gein. What caused this small town boy to become one of history's imfamous killers? Was it a genetic disposition that he could not control, or did something or someone cause his downward spiral into murder?

Although the ‘massacre’ did not occur in Texas, and no chainsaw was actually involved, the main idea behind this movie was referenced from Ed Gein, the ghoul of Plainfield, Wisconsin. He killed over 20 people in the 1950s. Because the 50s were a time where TV couples were not allowed to be seen in the same bed, his crimes were horrifying to everyone in his time. Police found a woman gutted and strung up by her heels like a deer in his shed. There were jars of noses, and a belt made of female nipples. He used skulls as soup bowls, and propped up his coffee table with shin bones. He grew up in Plainfield where the population fluctuated between 600 to 680 people. His house was a good distance from town, where he was isolated from all human contact except his crazy mother. She was domineering and fanatical in her religion and did not want Ed, or his brother Henry, have much to do with the outside world. On a conscious level he basically saw his mother as a god-like figure whom he worshipped, but I believe unconsciously he built up resentment against her because she would not let him have contact with anyone, especially women. One might argue that his lack of communication with the outside world led him to killing just because he did not know any better and had irreversable chemical imbalances. On the other hand, I would like to argue that his mother's influence on his life caused him to do the horrible things that would soon come.

After his mother grew ill and passed away, Ed’s life began to spiral down. His house became almost a symbolic representation of what was going on inside his head. It was complete chaos, you couldn’t move at all in his home because there was so much stuff in it. He had odd collections of dentures and chewed up gum. He also had an extraordinary collection of Tales of the Crypt and The Vault of Horror comic books that illustrated extreme and graphic violence. He became obsessed with these and decided it was time to act on his obsession, so before he went on a killing spree, he started robbing graves of women who reminded him of his mother, which was symbolic of the resurrecting of his mother. The most common thing he would do with the women he dug up was to cut their faces off and make masks with them. Gein was fascinated with the idea of transsexuals, and I believe he wanted to be a woman, more specifically, his mother. Because he had no contact with the outside world, he did not know how he was supposed to act, so he just emulated his mother.

Most psychiatrists and people who examine the lives of people like Ed Gein believe that serial killers are born with some genetic chemical imbalance that makes them want to kill, but in Ed’s case, I believe the serial killer was created inadvertently by his controlling mother. If he was allowed to associate with anyone outside his family, or have a girlfriend for crying out loud, maybe he would not have become one of the most infamous serial killers of our time.

Information about Ed Gein was researched from the special edition two disc ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ DVD!!!

Droplets

Droplets

I'm leaving you
I'm not sure if that’s what I should do
It hurts so bad
I'm wanting you but cant go back
Trying to find, to find
That all elusive peace of mind
Stuck here somehow
Shrouded beneath my fearAnd doubt, but I don’t need it

Cuz I'm walkin down this road alone
and figured all I'm thinking bout is you, is you my love
And my head is in a cloud of rain and the world it seems so far away
and I'm just waiting to fall
In droplets, droplets

You left a mark
I wear it proudly on my chest
Above my heart
To Remind me that I feel the best
When I'm with you
To me everything is effortless
You know its true
My eyes are painted with regret and I don’t need it
Cuz I'm walkin down this road alone and figured all I'm thinking bout is you,
is you my love
And my head is in a cloud of rain and the world it seems so far away
and I'm just waiting to fall and sink into your tears

You are like the raindrops, the raindrops falling down on me

You left a mark you left a mark
She left a mark he left
She left he left
And I don’t I don’tNeed it.

Colbie Caillat is by far my favorite artist. Not only are her melodies awesome, but the lyrics themselves are incredible. She finds ways to put into words what most people only attempt to. I have not found one song that I do not like because they all relate to some aspect of my life. I believe this is why she has become so popular because the songs are so simple yet incredibly meaningful at the same time. This song in particular is my favorite because it talks about having to let someone go that you don’t want to, but you know it has to be done for whatever reason it might be. Everything has a beginning, middle, and an end, but this song seems to be in the reverse order.

The first line IS the end because she says “I’m leaving you.” As the song progresses, it appears that the song is going backwards and forwards at the same time. The girl is at the end, but the guy wants to go anywhere EXCEPT the end. The first verse and chorus of the song are from the girl’s perspective. She is making the tough decision to leave her boyfriend because of he made an unknown mistake. When she says “trying to find that all elusive peace of mind, stuck here but somehow shrouded beneath my fear and doubt,” she wishes she could remember a time she was at peace with herself and more than likely her boyfriend. She can’t seem to find this peace because her fears and doubts about her boyfriend are keeping her from seeing it clearly. She wants to go back to the beginning, but simply cannot. The chorus is a metaphor about her not being grounded, but in the rain clouds. I believe the rain clouds also signify her elusiveness caused by her conflicting thoughts. “I’m just waiting to fall in droplets” indicates her tears.

The second verse is the guy talking back to his girlfriend, sung by Jason Reeves. He is clearly trying to convince her that she is the only one he wants and loves and wishes he could take her back to any place before this specific time. The second verse almost makes you forget that the song is about a bitter ending because it is so sweet. But let’s not get distracted! He knows he messed up and he is actually a very nice job sweet talking her. He is trying to convince her that they are good together and he deserves another chance. My favorite line is when he says “My eyes are painted with regret and I don’t need it.” He is looking at his girlfriend, knowing what he did and he wishes he could take it back, but he can’t. He can’t turn back the clock and change what he did, but he knows whatever he did is unforgivable to her.

The last line of the second chorus says “I’m just waiting fall and sink into your tears.” I believe this line means he is just waiting for the bottom to fall out of the relationship when she tells him that they are over. The ‘fall’ in the song is the fall from the rain clouds, but it can be translated to the fall back into reality: the reality that he has lost the love of his life because he messed up. It also signifies the fall back to the end. Back to where they were when she said “I’m leaving you.” The closing lines of the song are the couple going back and forth saying the other left a mark on them. The mark for the girl is a bad mark because she was hurt by her boyfriend. The mark on the guy was a good mark left by the girl he loves and he will never forget how he felt when they were together. Do you forgive and forget? How do you move on after a heart ache like this? This song illustrates the back and forth struggle that couples face when one person makes a bad decision. I think the group The Fray said it best when they sang, “Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”

Is it safe to go in the water?

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

In 1975, Steven Spielberg directed the classic entitled “Jaws.” The film was originated from a Peter Benchley novel about a small, fictional summer resort town that is terrorized by a rogue Great White Shark. It grossed over $260,000,000 in the box office to become the highest grossing movie of all time (that is until 1977 when Star Wars was made). The reason this movie worked was because it tapped into a true primal fear about the unseen lurking just out of site at our beaches (www.wikipedia.com). After the movie came out, people were literally scared to go back in the water. I refuse to go in the ocean past waist deep myself, but that’s just me. This movie created a man-eating reputation for sharks. Fishermen became shark hunters and killed every shark they came into contact with because they thought they were keeping humans safe by doing so. But how threatening are sharks in reality? Are they really man-eating beasts who should be feared, or has our perspective of these fascinating creatures been blurred by the fear evoked from “Jaws?”

The video above was filmed to prove that unless a shark feels threatened, it will not attack. Yes, that was a silly, silly experiment. A typical shark attack usually happens as follows. First, the shark sees something that could be its next meal, because they are hunters, it’s what they are supposed to do. Second, it comes in and nudges its possible victim to find out whether it is edible. Thirdly, the shark will take an exploratory bite, which might feel something like a puppy biting on you, no big deal. Lastly, after it realizes, ‘hmm, this taste kind of yummy,’ it chomps down and guess what? The victim has officially become a statistic. There are actually fewer than 100 shark attacks each year on humans and only 5 of those are fatal. A person is more likely to be struck by lightening that get attacked by a shark (www.wikipedia.com).

The three kinds of sharks that are associated to most, if not all, attacks on humans are the great white, tiger, and the bull shark. The shark that attacked Eric Ritter was a bull shark, known as on one of the most aggressive and feared species. It has an unusual adaptation for fresh water, as it swims up rivers to mate as opposed to the open sea. They also hunt in extremely shallow waters, as the footage reveals. But what caused this bull shark to attack Dr. Ritter? The water was not murky, it was not dawn or dusk, and the shark was not provoked in any way. The answer to this question can be explained in one word: instinct. We may be on the top of the food chain on land, but in the ocean, we are in shark’s territory. They are the dominating creatures in the water. We kill animals everyday because they are our food source. In the same respect, sharks do the same thing in the water. Sharks do not seek out humans to eat as their meal, but when we enter the water, we are no longer the hunter, but rather the hunted.

From underneath, a surfer, boogie boarder, or a swimmer looks like a fish that is part of a shark’s regular diet. Most attacks are merely mistaken identity, and once the shark realizes the person is NOT on their usual diet plan, they let go. Think of it this way: if you are in the woods hunting deer, and some idiot decides to dress up like a deer and walk through the woods (clearly a hypothetical situation here), you are going to shoot it aren’t you because it LOOKS like what you came into the woods to kill! As you move closer to your prize ‘deer’ you realize it was not a deer after all: mistaken identity. Hopefully that situation will never happen, but, it proves my point that sharks are not out to eat humans, they just want to eat.