#(no but really also sal was so SO inspiring with the way they wrote hero in this and i was so happy to lean into it and follow his lead!)

[birdmitosis]

I think my favorite thing about that fic is the chirping? How it like- does something to the receiver?

They seem like they are unable to explain why, but the simple act of something like one of others uncontrollably chirping or cooing in glee at them causes them to just melt into a happy, gooey puddle.

Like, it reads to me as somewhere deep deep in their brain there’s a little bird that instinctually preens under the sound of happy bird noises (for Hunted that bird has probably taken up most of the real estate in his brain but bear with me here-).

These boys have bested drowning, being eaten, the horrible sensation of being sliced into tiny, tiny pieces- and a little noise is what makes them topple like a jenga tower.

!!!

I want to respond to this more intelligently but all my brain is wanting to say is ":D :D :D YES!"

okay okay okay

Yes, I really love this element of things. I think whether it is gentle touches, little instinctive happy noises, or little instinctive happy gestures... I think part of it is almost because they've gone through so much Bad Shit. Their entire existence for a large chunk of their initial lives was nothing but repeated horrible circumstances! And yet...

When they're together there can be gentle touches and vulnerability is no longer quite as scary, or someone might preen a bit at a compliment or there's a happy chirp and suddenly they're affecting someone they care about in a way that speaks to their hindbrain like yes! That is a happy sound!

I am so glad that you noticed and appreciate the idea of that making them fall to gleeful pieces <33

[talesofbritain]

Black Vaughan's Revenge: HALLOWEEN TALES!

MWAH-HA-HA-HAAAA! SAMHAIN APPROACHETH, LOYAL PLEDGERS! Here's wishing you a very Happy Halloween from Brother Bernard, Sister Sal and all at Tales of Britain!

If you have the slightest chance of making it to Somerset on Saturday afternoon, seek out the RING O'BELLS in Widcombe, five minutes' walk from Bath Spa train station, where we'll be performing a whole hour of spooky stories as part of our very first Halloween-themed show – with big news about our Yuletide shows in the offing!

Normally we like to keep details of the tales we're telling secret until the show itself, but as most of you are unlikely to attend – especially those in Australia, you lazy gets – we thought we'd use this blog to take a quick look at the chosen FOUR KINGDOMS OF HORROR, whose legends we will be rebooting at 4pm on Saturday, even though we have blogged about them before...

VENGEANCE WILL COME

From Bala in North Wales, we'll be giving our rendition of the tale of the flooding of Llyn Tegid – in truth, we have adapted this nasty story for both Xmas and the Bath Comedy Festival in the past, as we just enjoy it too much, and it gives us a chance to offer round a great big pie filled with sweeties! But it's certainly very nasty, and loads of folk die in it.

TAM O'SHANTER

Heading north of the border gives us our first ever performance of Rabby Burns' semi-true tale of the drunken Scotsman whose journey home across the Bridge O'Doon becomes a terrifying race for his life against a gang of outraged vicious witches! Cackling and spellcasting galore!

THE EXORCISM OF JAN TREGEAGLE

Finally we head down to Kernow, one of our newest tales – written only this summer in Bodmin, when our book manuscript was formally delivered to Unbound almost exactly one year ago, on Halloween 2017 (yes, that is a long time for post-production, we can only apologise to impatient pledgers, we've heard nothing from Unbound for months now, but we hope beyond hope that when they do get back in touch, it will be with a really well-designed manuscript at last, worth waiting for). Retold as a kind of 17th century Ghostbusters, Jan Tregeagle's haunting legend is a fresh and chilling note for us to end on...

BLACK VAUGHAN

But, keen-brained as you all are, you will have noted that that is only three stories, and England has been left out all together! That's because I was in no doubt whatsoever that one of the very first blogs ever written here was on the macabre Herefordshire tale of BLACK VAUGHAN, the shapeshifting spectre of Kington! And blow us up, down and across if on double-checking, it turns out that we never wrote any such blog in the first place!

This seems especially surprising, as Black Vaughan's tale is one of the few which was already well ingrained into my psyche from a young age – when I was around 14, my brother appeared in a Ludlow College adaptation of the legend, playing the hero, a drunken monk, as directed by our wonderful Theatre Studies teacher, an inspirational figure sadly no long with us, Ilid Landry. Ludlow being in South Shropshire, Black Vaughan's North Herefordshire setting was positively a walkable distance.

The tale concerns a vicious aristocrat from the 15th century, Thomas Vaughan, who was killed during the Wars of the Roses, and is buried at St. Mary's church, Kington, where his effigy can still be found – not far from his home at Hergest Court. So despised was this dark nob, however, that local lore would not let him rest, but brought him back in the form of a gigantic slavering big black ghost dog (yes, another one of those), and also, as his wicked powers allowed him to take many forms, a nasty black fly who buzzed horses and got up everybody's nose, and worst of all, a mighty, big black EVIL BULL who galloped into the church intending to gore all who got in his way... until a wily challenge from the aforementioned tiddly monk finally laid him to rest, at the bottom of Hergest pool, where his spirit is still imprisoned to this day.

Although the tale is packed with familiar tropes, Black Vaughan is right up there with Black Shuck as one of our greatest ghost hounds, and is considered a key inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles – a Halloween favourite if ever there was one.

And so this gory, haunting story will be the first tale with which we kick off our show in Bath this Saturday – we hope to see you there, and if not – WE'LL SET THE DOG ON YOU!

[nealcassatiel]

Neal Cassady/Dean Moriarty/Dean Winchester - The similarities between the ‘On The Road’ protagonist and Dean Winchester

Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ and a general introduction to The Beats

Jack Kerouac travelled across the USA with his friend Neal Cassady in the 1950s, and wrote about his travels in the book ‘On The Road’. Along with his friends William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and others, this group of friends (all of which were writers) declared themselves as The Beats – a play on words of both to be ‘beat down’ and also the more positive ‘beatific’. Along with Allen Ginsberg’s most known poem ‘Howl’, this work and ‘On the Road’ cemented this small group of writers in the American literary canon.

The Beats were inspired by Modernist poets such as William Carlos Williams, as well as the booming jazz musicians of the 1940s and 1950s, and Transcendentalist writers such as Thoreau, Whitman, and Emerson. ‘On the Road’ combines the sounds of scat singing in jazz, with transcendentalist philosophies, and tropes of American road literature. ‘On the Road’ is cool, in tune with nature, and details the philosophical and literal freedom of speeding down the highway across American.

Both Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) in On The Road travel across the states in search of something, whether that is something physical like human connection, or more importantly something spiritual.

 Neal Cassady

In the winter of 1946 Neal Cassady drove into New York and met Jack Kerouac and his friends.

Cassady was born in Salt Lake City in 1926 and spent his childhood travelling around the western states with his father who was a chronic alcoholic which resulted in him being unemployed for long periods and thus hoboing around the States. This resulted in Cassady being both independent and irresponsible. Although he was very intelligent, he never stayed in one place long enough to attend school regularly and spent much of his time in Denver pool halls, stealing cars for fun, and going to reform school. He was good looking and a highly sexual person with a huge sexual appetite which he tried to satiate at every opportunity. When he arrived in New York he was married to LuAnne Henderson (with whom he cheated on continuously). In the late 1940s he started sleeping with Allen Ginsberg, who wrote Howl in which Neal is written in as the hero of the poem. In 1966 he died by the side of a railroad track after walking home drunk after a wedding. (The Beat Generation, Christopher Gair)

Cassady was energetic, drove fast (some friends of his were scared to be in the same car as him), stole cars, hustled people at pool, drank to excess, got into trouble with the police, and had a lot of sex with both genders. Whilst Kerouac was more bookish and quiet, Neal was an energetic and outgoing character who was ‘sharp, witty, gregarious, and lived for excitement and sexual conquests.’ (I Celebrate Myself, 81).

(Neal Cassady)

Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg

In 1947, Allen reveled in a wild sexual weekend with Neal. Allen hoped that he could teach Neal about literature, and Neal could teach him about sex. Whilst other people simply saw Neal as a con man, Allen knew there was more to him. Allen fell in love with him instantly but Neal quickly got bored and always needed to be on the move as he could never stay in one place for too long. They continuously wrote to each other, however whilst Allen poured his heart out to Neal and in the early years hoped to be his partner, Neal tried to impress upon Allen that he was not interested in a long term homosexual affair. They both slept together in 1947, and certainly until 1955 (possibly later) they continued to sleep together sporadically.

 Supernatural and On The Road

Eric Kripke has stated that Sam and Dean are based off the characters from On The Road (Sal and Dean). In the episode in S4 where Chuck is introduced and they go into a comic book store where the owner asks if they are larping, at one point asking if their names are ‘Sal and Dane’. So, it is quite clear that their names are based off On The Road.

Also, On the Road is a semi-fictional/semi-autobiographical work. The characters in the book are based off real life people, much like how the Supernatural books are based off the lives of Sam and Dean.

On The Road is a foremost example of American Road fiction – two guys driving across the states in a car searching for something – sounds pretty much the same as the premise for Supernatural. Take away the ghosts and hunting and Supernatural is about two guys driving across the states, with no place they’re really heading, meeting people, listening to music, hustling pool, and getting into trouble with the police. That could also be a great summary of On The Road.

Specifically in the early seasons, Supernatural sets itself up as a Road movie, but on TV. It is cool, the guys are cool, the music used is cool, they drink, steal cars, and live a free life on the road.

On the Road has two main protagonists; Sal and Dean. Sal is more bookish and quiet, slightly in awe of Dean’s wild ways. Whilst in Supernatural Sam is more bookish and quiet, both in awe and disgruntled about Dean’s wilder ways.

I mean..... come ON

Neal Cassady and Dean Winchester

Lets go over again what Neal Cassady (who Dean Moriarty was based on) was like;

- He spent his childhood travelling around the western states with his father.

- His father was a chronic alcoholic which resulted in him being unemployed for long periods and thus hoboing around the States.

- Cassady (due to his upbringing) was both independent and irresponsible.

- Although he was very intelligent, he never stayed in one place long enough    to attend school regularly.

- Although he never had a formal education, in his 20s he started reading a great deal.

- He could never stay in one place for too long, both as a child, teen, and adult.

- He spent much of his time in Denver pool halls

- He stole cars, loved cars, was good at fixing cars. 

- He went to reform school.

- He was good looking in a jock kind of way.

- He was a highly sexual person with a huge sexual appetite which he tried to satiate at every opportunity.

- He drank a lot and took drugs, but mainly drank.

- He slept with both men and women, notably Allen Ginsberg who was friends with both Cassady and Kerouac.

- Although he slept with both men and women, he presented himself to most people as heterosexual. It is worth noting that he was alive during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, and being bisexual or gay was incredibly difficult during those years. Neal was somewhat of a celebrity and it is understandable that Neal denied his attraction to men.

- He was energetic.

- He loved cars and drove incredibly fast

- He hustled pool.

- He got in trouble with the police.

- He was sharp, witty, and funny.

- He was likened to a James Dean kind of person.

 I don’t think there is any need for me to go through each of these points and give evidence as to how Dean Winchester fits every single one of these character traits as well. I would expect any viewer of the show to look at that list and assume that one is describing Dean Winchester. From the alcoholic father who drove with him round the States, to his own excessive drinking, need for sex, intelligence yet lack of education, hustling of pool, stealing cars….. you get the idea. They are highly highly highly similar.

The bisexuality question

It is common knowledge that Neal Cassady slept with both men and women, and the similarities between Neal and Dean Winchester are so strong that it would be easy to argue that because Neal Cassady sleeps with men and women, so does Dean Winchester. Every single description of Cassady could apply to Dean Winchester, so it doesn’t make sense to say ‘every single one applies apart from the bisexuality.’ Of course, there are aspects of both Cassady and Dean Winchester which don’t match up, however the core information about Cassady which readers and scholars know about does match up.

I hope this has been a good introduction to Neal Cassady and Dean Winchester. This is my basic summary of this discussion, however if you have more questions then don’t hesitate to send in an ask! My undergraduate and postgraduate research focuses were the Beats and American Road Narratives so if you want to know more about any of this let me know :) 

I’m also thinking of writing a bit about Allen Ginsberg and Cas, as well as some stuff on SPN and spirituality in particular transcendentalism and Buddhism, so I’ll try and get that done at some point. Any general questions about the Beats, especially Ginsberg I am more than happy to answer :)