#chickentown

[dead-mans-house]

I think Letheo is still in Chickentown, scurrying around in beast form somewhere. Maybe one of the mean girls from Candy’s school is gonna find him.

[michaelpaulhenderson]

Kimchi. Eggs. #michaelpaulhenderson #kimchi #eggs #theparkwaygarden #chickentown (at East Memphis, Memphis) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpjN3D6tQ_L/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mekellogg]

Teriaki chicken cupbob at Chicken Town on S. Cushman is delicious #food #teriakichicken #chickentown https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn5vJYjLsFV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mudwerks]

(via Evidently Chickentown - John Cooper Clarke (1980)

[powerlineprincess]

Finished rewatching Sopranos and all I can think tbh is... fuck ing chickentown

[toyybox]

trick or treat!!!

you get….. AN EARLY DESIGN OF JACKIE???

Back when I couldn’t decide how to draw his hair <\3 Apparently his outfit looks like that guy from mob psycho. That was unintentional

[bunnywand]

when ppl are like “alex turner’s mind when he said i wanna be your vacuum cleaner?! 🥵🤯” i’m like you fool.. alex turner didn’t write those words, it’s an adaption of a poem by john cooper clarke.. john cooper clarke’s mind when he said i wanna be your vacuum cleaner

[cintademoebius]

water through my veins

I fucking need

to fucking numb

the fucking pain

I fucking feel

every fucking day

so I fucking wake

and I fucking gaslight

my fucking self

into fucking trusting

this fucking time

it fucking won’t

be the fucking same

cause I’ve fucking got

my fucking french press

and then fucking drink

the fucking coffee

I let my fucking father

fucking pick for me

until I fucking feel

like I fucking can

and every fucking thing

I get then fucking done

it’s only because of fucking caffeine

until all of a fucking sudden

it starts to fucking fade

and not only it fucking dies

it also fucking brings even worst

of a fucking dread

and it’s only fucking six

in the fucking afternoon

and I probably fucking got

half of my fucking work ahead

and then I start to fucking consider

going the other fucking way

so I fucking pop a fucking pill

and it will only fucking depend

on how fucking much

I’ve been fucking popping

the last fucking couple of days

sometimes it fucking works

but mostly it fucking runs

like fucking water through my veins

[nothingunrealistic]

Ari Spyros (Stephen Kunken), the proud, materialistic, coffee enthusiast, is the antagonist we all love to hate. The outspoken former SEC investigator has created his own lane at Axe Capital as their Head of Compliance, where he is known for his expensive taste and out-of-pocket comments. Check out Spyros’s most memorable moments and stream Billions on SHOWTIME now.

[theseimmortalsouls]

i did not expect danny gonzalez to post a video jamming to john cooper clarke this morning

[michaelpaulhenderson]

Who else likes a little crisp ring around their egg? #michaelpaulhenderson #eggs #breakfast #ChickenTown (at East Memphis, Memphis) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn9d-JygvJB/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[misskattylashes]

Teenage Alex falling in love with the poem I Wanna Be Yours instead of Evidently Chickentown, makes me think as a little boy he used to dream of growing up and finding his special person and his wedding day...

[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

The bloody pies are bloody old

The bloody chips are bloody cold

Bloody beer is bloody flat

The bloody flats have bloody rats

The bloody clocks are bloody wrong

Bloody days are bloody long

Bloody gets you bloody down

It's evidently Chickentown

[dead-mans-house]

I decided to try to figure out who is considered human and who isn't in The Abarat series. After doing a scour of the books, my conclusion is that "human" is a word that is used differently by different people. It can refer to the species of humans, to people who are shaped like humans but are a different species, and possibly to people who are descended from the human species who live in Abarat (debateable) The word "Abaratian" seems used as a demonym more than any kind of biology word.

"Which Abaratians are human" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate,

I started looking into this because I wanted to know if the Candy/Carrion ship was technically an interspecies thing. It doesn't really matter, I was just curious

read my EXTENSIVE notes below

-The Fantomaya in The Lyre in the Abarat Prologue are referred to as human.

-In Abarat ch. 7, Mendelson Shape is said to make a sound that is far from human. He later says, "The Abarat isn’t for human eyes. You belong in this world, the Hereafter." This suggests that every human in The Abarat might not be indiginous to it.

-The Sea Skippers and Vlitters are both described with human comparisons, suggesting they do not count as human.

-In Abarat ch. 13, Candy observes the populace: "As far as Candy could see there were plenty of people who resembled folks she might have expected to see on the streets of Chickentown, give or take a sartorial detail: a hat, a coat, a wooden snout. But for every one person that looked perfectly human, there were two who looked perfectly other than human. The children of a thousand marriages between humankind and the great bestiary of the Abarat were abroad on the streets of the city." In the same chapter, Candy sees humans on a television.

-In ch 18, "Abaratian merchants" and "Abaratian slaves" are mentioned. The A in Abaratian is always capitalized, suggesting that it is more like the word American than it is like the word human

-In Abarat ch. 19, Carrion uses mummified human cadavers for his spell. (This fact is brought up again, later, in chapter 22) Ignacio the stitchling is apparently made from at least some human parts, because, "Two thirds of his body were still functioning as ordinary human anatomy."

-The people of The Abarat are apparently very aware of human norms. In ch 22 we read that Carrion had "heard it said that every fear that had ever chilled the human heart was here on Gorgossium."

-In ch 23, Candy doesn't seem to think that Pixler is fully human. The narrative says, "he seemed more like an ordinary human being than many of the creatures she’d met on her travels" which could mean many things.

-In ch 28, Malingo is said to be not "quite as vulnerable as a human being."

-In ch 30, the stitchling mires are of "inhuman design."

-In the Abarat appendix, we learn that Kalukwa birds "reportedly hatch downy human babies from their eggs every ninth year. These children—if saved from being pecked to death by juveniles of the previous year’s hatching_are often saved by the pirates and raised as their children." So this means that humans can be born from non-human parents. It also says that Alice Point, once home to the Fantomaya, no longer has human residents.

-in the DoMNoW prologue, Carrion specifically identifies Candy as a human when he refers to her head as "that human head of hers." It doesn't seem like a very human thing to say.

-in DoMNoW ch 3, Candy looks through a telescope at some carvings on Gorgossium and one is said to be "vaguely human."

-in DoMNoW ch 12, Our Earth/The Hereafter is called The Human World.

-Filth the munkee has a "human cast to his crooked face" in ch 14. What this means precisely is hard to determine because the next description of him doesn't seem very human at all

-DoMNoW chapter 16 includes a part where there is a mural on the wall with two people, "one human, one Abaratian" on it. This implies that the human and Abaratian identities are mutually exclusive. In the same chapter, there is a description of the Totemix. "There were none among the Totemix that were completely human; but then there were none that were completely animal either."

-Ch 21 calls not-yet-finished stitchlings "half-human sacks." This is a scene that just refers to them generally rather than any specific stitchlings.

-Ch 25, of a group of people on a ship: "the flames illuminated a great crowd of folks, some human, many not, assembled in the middle of the deck."

-Ch 26, Jimothi is called "the most humanoid of the tarries" because he walks on two feet. The soldiers sent to patrol ninnyhammer by the high court of the hours are called "human" in contrast to the tarrie cats. When the three monsters killing tarrie cats and humans combine to form mater motley, her shape is described as "unmistakeably human" and the narrative says "Its humanity was no great comfort to Wolfswinkel"

-ch 39 a baby dragon bites finnegan. Later the baby dragon has "the taste of human blood in his throat"

-DoMNoW chapter 43, Candy wonders why Carrion didn't try to mind-control her when he is able to mind-control Malingo. Her guess is that it is because she has a "human mind" as opposed to Malingo's Geshrat one.

-ch 46 Elathuria has a "human form"

-ch50 refers to Candy's family as "human food" and a "human meal" for Abaratian fish

-ch51 Mater Motley's stitchlings are "not all human"

-ch 56 candy's father refers to the people with candy as "not human" and explicitly points out the brothers john and finnegan. He is almost certainly just being a racist shithead about finnegan. The narrative describes Letheo's face as human

-Absolute Midnight chapter 2, Helio Fatha says "humankind can't hold on to a mystery." Jimothi is "purebred Abaratian"

-Chapter 3 involves a crowd of abaratians suggesting that all humans be killed. Izarith gives Candy her hat so Candy can hide her identity. So despite being bepedal and bearing a passing resemblance to a human, Izarith is clearly not going to be considered human by her peers.

-ch4 has a conversation between Pixler and Voorzangler

“Don’t look so worried, Voorzangler,” Pixler said. “I know what I’m doing.” “Of course, sir,” the doctor replied. “But I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t a little concerned.” “Boasting now?” Pixler said. “About what, sir?” “About your humanity. There aren’t very many employees of the company who could say such a thing.”

I think that this is probably supposed to be a metaphorical discussion of humanity rather than a literal one, but I leave it in the notes in case anyone wants to interpret it differently.

-AM ch 10, Covenantis hears princess boa's "human voice"

-ch18, Covenantis sings a spell described with, "These were the primal sounds of an Abarat that was holding the Hours in trust for humankind to one day possess."

-ch 21, the narrative around Boa calls earth the human world.

-ch36 one of the monsters is a pot and one of its ingredients is human meat

-ch 40 maas the half-dragon is compared to a human, but mostly to show how unusual he is

-ch 41 Boa says of Maas, "The closest he gets to having any real humanity in him is when he dines on it."

-ch 50 Rojo Pixler has "human anatomy"

-ch 52 there are "human-headed birds"

-ch 54 the baby Hemosh kills is said to sound like a human but not look like one

-ch 63 a pig looks "almost human"

-ch 71 Carrion reflects on Candy's behavior and thinks about how her human ancestry must make things difficult for her because she has fears of predators and the dark, but he is impressed by her bravery

[bracketsoffear]

Abarat (Clive Barker) "Candy lives in Chickentown USA: the most boring place in the world, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future may hold. She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely… The Abarat: a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion. (…)" Half of the islands in Abarat are night islands and most of the main bad guys work for forces of darkness trying to bring eternal monstrous darkness to all islands. Spoilers under cut"

The Night Land (William Hope Hodgson) "The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in the Last Redoubt, a gigantic metal pyramid, nearly eight miles high, which is under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a shield known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For thousands of years vast living shapes known as the Watchers have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought that they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human."

Can't speak of it in detail cuz I have not read that part yet, but the bad guys apparently succeeded in bringing forces of darkness to the islands.