#universal harvester

[jessaerys]

john darnielle as a horror novelist has such a talent for narrating purposefully mundane interactions that make you feel like your heart is about to break and like something is dangling over the character's heads, just waiting to drop. rereading universal harvester right now and i get why the plebes gave it such bad reviews but that's because they don't Get It. it's such a bittersweet love letter to middle of nowhere midwester towns and their inhabitants and also the horror elements are SOOO fucking creepy if you're not too busy complaining that nothing is happening. he truly gets that horror comes from a lack of explanation like rare few writers do

[from-beyond]

A farmhouse has a way of feeling both timeless and impermanent without ever committing to either side. Seen from the road, buttressed by its fields, it bequeaths order to the frame: those fields, now that a farmhouse sits squarely in their midst, are there for someone. They re justified. Inside—in the narrow entry hall; in the kitchen opening onto the living room; upstairs-there's a lived-in feel; the house is there for the fields outside its windows. Coffee cans on pantry shelves, clean dishtowels embroidered with roosters or the sun and smartly draped over the handle of the stove —when, here, did people not live like this? But a farmhouse has no neighbors, not real ones, and if you try looking for them, it shrinks. Its architecture is functional, its staircase carpeted old pine, not oak or maple; its window frames were painted white once long ago and never touched up again. Walk twenty paces from its door and you're waist-high in corn or knee-high in bean fields, already forgetting the feel of being behind a door, safely shielded from the sky. Whether you're inside or out walking rows, though, you're in-visible. If we talk about seeing the house from the road, "in passing" is implied. No one inventories the shelves or the drawers or pulls up the staircase carpet, worn down from years of use. The only people likely to take much note of a farmhouse are the ones who go there on purpose: to get something, or to bring news, or because they live there.

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

[tenderperversion]

john darnielle, universal harvester

[meaningfall]

John Darnielle, Universal Harvester

[devilsskettle]

john darnielle thanking donna tartt in the acknowledgments of universal harvester…..

[bracketsoffear]

Burn the House Down: A Biography of America's First Woman President (Kenna Jenkins) "In 1935, Janine Moore was just another Congressman’s widow who ascended to his seat by promising to continue his legacy. Twelve years later, the White House burned, with President Janine Moore left standing in the ashes. It’s been fifty years since Janine Moore was president. Few remember her “Accidental Presidency,” and even fewer know that it was no real accident. After half a century of the truth gathering dust, the story of the first female president finally spills from the lips and pens of the most important people in her life—a gripping tale of political intrigue, heedless ambition, desperate motherhood, and a sixty-year forbidden love affair that will shake everyone’s ideas of what truly went down in an administration destined to burn. What lengths was a farmer’s daughter willing to go to in order to climb the stairs to the White House and break the greatest glass ceiling in the world? Why did her famously temperamental relationship with her second husband crash and burn? And most importantly, who burned down the White House that fateful night?"

Universal Harvester (John Darnielle) "Universal Harvester is perhaps best described as a thriller, a slow-burn manifestation of the Desolation. Jeremy (who has a dead mother) works at the local Video Hut when a customer comes in with the odd complaint, “There’s another movie on this tape.” Watching it later at home, he discovers a short clip on the film of a dark warehouse, with the sound of harsh breathing... Universal Harvester is a Desolation-Eye smoothie about the stories we construct out of trauma." Spoilers under the cut.

Eventually, after a nasty car crash, the culprit is revealed to be a half-orphan herself, who interviews Jeremy about his own loss.

[adamshallperish]

universal harvester is thee book. theee book of all time.

[toothpuulp]

seen a lot of people compare universal harvester to the ring which yeah, spooky tapes, i get it. kind of a basic take but valid whatever however. it’s soooo much more caché… the not supernatural nature of the tapes the format fuckery (caché making it ambiguous if we’re seeing a shot of the movie or watching a tape, universal harvester being mostly omniscient third person except when it’s first person; something something first person spliced in like the found footage bits are spliced into the vhs tapes) and also the fact that it’s not really a horror story. and that it’s a mystery box/ puzzle whose answer is totally besides the point. in both cases if you’re left asking “but what do the tapes mean, who made them, why” etc etc you’ve missed what it’s actually about and all that. anyways this makes a lot more sense in my head but i think universal harvester is the book pairing to caché the way cabin at the end of the world is the book pairing to funny games. not the same stories but kind of the same genres and definitely the same ummm. the same yo no se quoi

[chainsawcorazon]

midwestern gothic horror set in the late 90s/early 2000s be like: some of us wanna go out and see the world, but some of us wanna stay and grow into the world we were already born in. there’s a farmhouse. women be lyin but we don’t know which ones and why. a father and son have never talked about their wife/mother’s tragic death, and now it’s too late and the air is thicker than molasses. there’s someone splicing homemade torture scenes into popular movie cassettes. there’s a farmhouse.

[dismembered-narrator]

i do like universal harvester slightly more on the second read since i understand more of the themes and it doesn't feel like it keeps cutting away to random stuff for no reason. although i wish there was more support behind the main plot thematically, like if more characters were focused on creating a narrative to deal with their grief instead of just lisa

[spacewonder19]

September's Super Harvest Moon © astronycc

[without-ado]

Full Harvest Moon l Betul Turksoy

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Harvest Moon

[spiritofthemeadow]

September 2024 Harvest Moon

ig - afternoondreams

[dunyun-rings]

All my little fandom sketches from this past week in one post