My Favourite Books: No.1 - The Exorcist

Hi folks, I was getting a bit bored so I thought I would write a post about some of my favorite books. That thought expanded and I figured I’d write a post on each of the books. That way I could create multiple posts and not restrict myself to itsy-bitsy and hurried descriptions. Well, here goes. The first in the list, a timeless classic:

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

An epic of a novel, but not in terms of size (I’ll come to those later). Not very well known, but this book is the one that the famous movie has been based upon. And who hasn’t heard of the movie. Only someone living in a cave probably, ‘coz even if someone is not a fan of horror flicks they still would have heard a mention of this movie.

The story deals with the possession of a young girl by a demon. Regan, the girl in question, starts playing with an Ouija board and soon becomes ill. She is plagued by poltergeist-phenomena which she blames on Captain Howdy, who she claims is the person she has been communicating with using the board. Initially Captain Howdy is very friendly but soon he begins abusing her and eventually possesses her body. Her mother, Chris, is worried by the signs that her daughter is showing and takes her to a psychiatrist.

After conducting several tests on her, he is unable to find anything wrong that he is able to explain. But during the tests Regan undergoes disturbing psychological and physical changes, which shock the psychiatrist. After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, he suggests that Regan be exorcised by a Catholic priest.

Chris is in shock and disbelieves him at first. But she quickly reconsiders when the thing that her daughter has become confesses to committing the murder of a friend of hers. She approaches Father Damien Karras who is a priest in the local church. He is extremely skeptical when she asks him to perform an exorcism on her daughter. He quickly changes his mind when he visits the girl and is confronted by its power. He applies for permission to perform the exorcism and is assigned to assist Father Merrin, a senior priest in the Jesuit order and more experienced in such matters.

What follows is a gut-wrenching chronicle of the horrors of the exorcism performed by the priests. They have to battle against the demon, both physically and spiritually. Father Karras, who has lost his mother recently, is forced to question his faith. Eventually, after a long battle the priests manage to overcome the demon, but at the cost of their own lives.

The part I liked best was the description of the strength, behavior, and powers of the demon. They made me feel as though I was in the room with the two priests, smelling the fear, adrenaline, and vomit. In fact, this was one of the few books that really took my breath away. It still gives me goose bumps when I recall a part where Regan crawls down the stairs upside-down on her hands and legs, imitating a spider.

I must admit that after reading this particular book, for several days afterwards, I was too scared to put my feet on the floor afraid that something was going to grab it from under the bed. For me that is the true mark of a horror novel. It must create fear in the readers to the extent that they have to always recall some particular scene even while going about some ordinary task and imagine what would happen if they were in that particular scenario in those circumstances. Chills rise in me even as I write about this masterpiece. This is what I consider a classic work of art (yes, A-R-T, art) to beat all the new authors, what with all their scribbling on what they call ‘new-age fears’, ‘modern nemeses’ and other fancy lingo for stuff that would have been kicked out of a college-level Creative Writing competition.

This is one book that is not to be missed at any cost, especially by fans of the movie.

P.S. The pics here are from the movie.

Books & My Never-Ending Affair With 'Em

Warning: Long & Rambling Post!!!

Ever since I can remember, I have had books all around me. My parents encouraged me and so did my some of my teachers. Due to this I have often been called a bookworm, and other unflattering, unprintable things, but that has never fazed me in the least. Give me a book and I’m lost to the world until I finish it.

Needless to say, this has caused a lot of ‘problems’, especially around the time of tests and examinations. Often I would hide a novel behind the text-book I was supposed to be mugging up. (Why would anyone in their right mind bother memorizing some arcane dates when someone drew up some useless treaty, when they could lose themselves in the world of Moby Dick?)

Usually, nothing short of the threats of cutting off my book allowance would make me put it down, only to pick it up again the moment my mom’s back was turned. Ask any dyed-in-the-wool bibliophile and I’m sure they have had similar experiences one time or another in their lives.

I started with Enid Blyton at the age of 10 or so and lost my soul to books for all intents and purposes. The world of The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and Br’er Rabbit was one to suck in your soul and make you fall in love with reading, whether you liked it or not. ‘Course, nobody I know encountered Enid Blyton or her ilk and emerged untouched by the experience or a long-lasting fondness for reading. My favorite among all the Enid Blyton novels still remains The Five Find-Outers and Dog, more so because this was the first book that I bought with the gift-certificate I had got for coming third in Std. IV. Honestly, there is nothing like having your own money to spend on the book of your choice the very first time in your life.

Later, I graduated to Hardy Boys and the very, very occasional Nancy Drew, but not in front of my friends (what with being in a boys’ school, the ridicule would have been unbearable). Eventually, though, I came to realize that they only thing that remained consistent throughout the few Nancy Drew’s that I read was the mention of food on every other page. Didn’t these girls think of anything but food? It was a surprise they managed to solve any mysteries.

More or less the same could be said for the Hardy Boys series, but for me they were what made classes bearable, especially the post-lunch sessions. Life up to seventh standard would have been unbearable without these faithful companions. That was when we learnt the true meaning of multi-tasking, albeit with disproportionate processor allocation for novels.

 On top of the desk, you would usually find my algebra book, filled with meaningless scribbles, while under the desk the space would usually be occupied by a thick compilation of the Hardy Boys’ adventures.

Truth be told, being caught often meant confiscation of the illegal study material and an entry in the school diary. After accumulating three of these entries (something like ‘evil’ Wah points), a call was made to the parents of the student. They were asked to meet the teacher so they could listen to the teacher rant about the behavior of their son.

Unfortunately, this happened once after I accumulated 3 of these damned entries in my otherwise pristine diary, and my parents were summoned by the class teacher. I still get goose-bumps when I recall all the warnings of this born-again Ayatollah Khomeini who predicted the downfall of my life. Luckily, the very force of her screaming was enough to convince my mother that it was just a harmless episode blown out of proportion by a crazy lady. Being the consummate diplomat that I am (!), I didn’t bother to explain the significance of the episode to my mom. Why ruin a good thing, right? Thank God, my mom let me off with just a mild warning not to repeat the same thing. Of course, like a good boy, I humbly promised her that the teacher would never again catch me reading in class.

I kept my word and the Ayatollah never again caught me reading in class. Not to say that I stopped reading, but I never let her catch me at it again. I became quite good at dropping my novel into my bag and looking as innocent as an angel each time she came around. The disappointed look on her face was priceless and worth capturing for posterity. If only we had camera phones back then.

Another year or so I moved on to mainstream novels, my first one being Sidney Sheldon’s ‘Tell Me Your Dreams.’ My dad had left it outside after he had finished reading it, without realizing that I would pick it up and begin my foray into ‘adult’ novels with it. Man, was it an eye-opener! Thrilling story, interesting characters and a plot involving mental disorders… What more could a guy ask for? Sheldon was the mainstay in my life for a year or so until I slowly realized that his stories had the same basic story-line: girl gets trodden down by a man, girl finds the strength to overcome her persecutors, girl becomes successful, and life comes back in full circle. Different characters, different locales, but same plot. I guess he never really got out of the groove of his former profession of script-writing, ‘coz nearly all his books read like they were written primarily for B-grade flicks.

After that my next love was Wilbur Smith, Michael Crichton and Arthur Hailey. I liked Wilbur Smith for his grand sagas about the African outback, the violent land and aggressive men and women who stand up to elephant charges and gut-shot lions. Reading his novels made me feel like I was in the African outback, with the sun beating down on my back, sweating and waiting for the lion to make the first move. Pure adventures in the grandest sense of the term.

Michael Crichton (I get a different pronunciation of his last name from everyone!) wrote books that were technical, but put forth in such a manner as to make it understandable for the average reader with no technical knowledge. His books, Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Rising Sun, A Case of Need, The Great Train Robbery, Disclosure, etc have each dealt with a controversial or notorious topic/incident, technical in the extreme but ever-popular just the same. Usually when people pick up a book dealing with technical topics, it isn’t long before you see them dozing off. My roommate and I are prime examples of this. Each time we pick up one of the handouts (!), we are fast asleep within 20 minutes. Sometimes we had unsaid competitions as to who would fall asleep first while reading the handouts. It was a close-run thing, with no clear winner. Turns out that Java is my favorite poison, while DB2 usually put him out like a light.

Such is not the case with Crichton’s books. He has managed to incorporate technical scenarios into his stories without alienating the reader by boring them to no end. IMO Rising Sun and Disclosure were his best novels to date. Not that he’s going to write any more books from his grave, unless you summon him with an Ouija board!

Rising Sun dealt with the situation of the Japanese business culture and the extremes to which they take their slogan “Business is war.”  The murder of a hooker/call-girl on the opening night of a Japanese firm’s new office HQ assumes major proportions, with blame shifting from a politician to business executives and a local Japanese playboy. We see the contempt that the Japanese feel for anybody who is not Japanese in the way that they refer to them as gaijin, which literally translates to ‘barbarian.’ The manner in which the case is solved takes you through the intricate business deals in play at that point of time in the corporate world.

A critical point that has been mentioned in Rising Sun is the manner in which the Japanese have managed to keep other countries from operating freely in their countries. It’s all very subtle, ranging from frequent auditing of the company to those of the Japanese who have bought the products of that company. These intrusions of the government into the individual’s life, while legitimate, are always disconcerting. Soon enough, the people had got the message and stopped buying imported products or products manufactured by gaijin companies. No customers, no sales. No sales, no more gaijin companies on Japanese soil. A lot of emphasis is placed on the concept of honor and image in the Japanese world, which is shown here. All said and done a memorable and deeply thought-provoking book.

Disclosure dealt with sexual harassment and the whether it is the same when it’s alleged by a man or a woman. Usually it is thought that allegations of sexual harassment are brought forward by women against men because it is the man’s fault. But this novel involves a role-reversal. Spurning his female boss’ amorous advances causes her to file a harassment suit against him, leading to his social ostracism and a corporate battle. Eventually he is saved by his wife, lawyer and his new boss (all of them women- well, the wife part is pretty obvious). I later learnt that the novel created a huge furore amongst feminist groups for its content, but irrespective of that it remains a compelling story.

Arthur Hailey wrote about different sorts of businesses and the nitty-gritty details about their day-to-day functioning. For instance, Detective deals with the working of a police department and how they go about solving crimes. Other novels penned by him are Wheels, In High Places, Hotel, Airport, The Final Diagnosis, Strong Medicine, and The Moneychangers.

In each book he chooses a particular business and over the span of a week or a particular situation, manages to describe all the behind-the-scene operations that take place. These are the kind of things that most people outside that particular industry have no clue about or have never even thought about. You might think that writing a book about a single industry spanning over 450-500 pages is a pointless exercise, and it’s a waste of time actually reading such a book. Well, maybe so. I definitely thought so, until I actually read one of his books. After that I did not rest until I had devoured all his novels from front to back (I don’t know why people say that. Unless it’s Urdu, is there any other way to read it apart from start to end?!)

My favorite author is Stephen King. Among his many works, his old ones have always been the best, still managing to retain their originality and keep me up until all hours of the night. His best work in my opinion is Pet Sematary. Louis Creed, a doctor by profession, moves in with his family to a little town in Maine, where he is about to take up work at the local university. Their neighbor, Jud Crandall who is an old man living across the road from them, warns them to keep their children away from the road as the trucks travelling on it have claimed the lives of many pets and wild animals in the past. Jud takes the family on a walk in the woods behind their home which leads to a cemetery maintained by local kids for their deceased pets.

On the first day of his job, Louis has a traumatic experience when a young man is brought into his clinic, dying. The man addresses his last words to Louis even though they have never met before. That night he is visited by the corpse of the young man who takes him to the cemetery and shows him a barricade and warns him never, under any circumstances, to cross this deadfall. The next morning Louis wakes up to find his bed covered with dirt and pine needles. Writing it off to an episode of somnambulism brought about by the traumatic experience of the day, he dismisses it from his mind.

During Halloween, Jud’s wife suffers a cardiac attack and Louis manages to save her life. Grateful for his help, Jud decides to repay him when Louis’ cat, Church, is run over by a truck. Knowing how his daughter will be desolate over the loss of the cat, Jud tells Louis that there is a way that the problem can be fixed. Skeptical, but willing to do anything to avoid the confrontation with his daughter, Louis puts the cat’s corpse in a bag and follows Jud to the cemetery. Once there, Jud makes him cross the deadfall of branches, telling him that the real cemetery was beyond the barricade. Louis buries the cat and they leave.

The cat returns the next afternoon, alive and well. More or less. Louis is quick to notice that the cat is no longer as active and lively as it used to be. Also it begins hunting small animals and ripping them apart, without eating them.

Later that year, Louis’ son, Gage, is run over by a truck. Louis is devastated, but even as the burial arrangements are being made, he has begun thinking that there is a way he can bring his son back to life. Jud, guessing what is going on his mind, advises him not to attempt anything of the sort. He describes to him an earlier attempt of the same sort, where a young man who was killed in the war was brought back to life by his father. But the boy was no longer the same; his body is inhabited now by an evil demon, who takes pleasure in describing the indiscretions of the town folk. Soon enough, the thing is shot by its father and burnt. Jud again warns Louis not to attempt anything that he might regret.

Ignoring all warnings, and spurred by his grief Louis carries out his plan. There is a chilling description about how he visits the cemetery in which his son is buried and exhumes the corpse. The slow deterioration of his mind is graphically explained and you can almost feel the emotions in your mind yourself (or that could just be me!) He manages to retrieve the corpse of his boy and takes a ride with it to his home, with the corpse sitting upright beside him. Louis lugs the body beyond the deadfall and buries it in the hard ground and stumbles back home and falls into a deep sleep.

Sure enough, a demonic version of the child comes back to life and goes to Jud’s house. There it taunts him about his wife’s infidelity and finally murders him for trying to stop Louis from using the burial ground and interfering with it. Rachel is also killed by it and when Louis discovers this, he is finally driven over the edge. He kills the cat and his demon-child by injecting them with fatal doses of morphine.

Now totally insane, the shock having turned his hair completely white, he decides in his mind that the reason Gage became evil was that he waited so long before he buried him. He vows not to make the same mistake with his wife. To cover up the evidence of the crimes, he sets fire to Jud’s house, and lugs his wife’s corpse to the ancient burial ground and returns home. At the end he is playing solitaire when he feels a hand on his shoulder and hears his wife say, “Darling.”

As spooky an ending that you will find in any Stephen King book. He is one of the great contributors to the modern horror genre, making the most mundane things come alive with horrific intentions and abilities, such as a pair of walking teeth, a finger sticking out of the drain, etc. Some of his books/stories have been converted to blockbuster films, the prime example being The Shawshank Redemption from his collection of novellas Different Seasons. Another critically acclaimed book turned film is The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. His series, Creepshow, was a bit mild and not too well received, although the stories they were based on are quite chilling to read.

So the list goes on and on. Sometimes I regret leaving all my books back home in Bangalore. But that lasted only until I received my first month’s salary. The first thing I purchased was a copy of The Lord of the Rings, to replace the one that my friend had borrowed from me, permanently, and Freakonomics. I purchased both from Odyssey bookstore, which was the first one I visited in Chennai. I started visiting bookstores only after I received my pay-cheque, otherwise, knowing myself very well, I would have spent all the money I had brought with me, which was supposed to tide me over until I was paid. Not that it was much to begin with but it was supposed to pay for my food any other incidentals that might come up. I did not know that it was the 14th anniversary of Odyssey and was pleasantly surprised when I heard that they had a 25% discount on all items. Well, it was a good start. Since that first visit if I do not visit some bookstore I feel restless the entire week. Even if I cannot read the books that week my spirit feels restless until it has been appeased by the purchase of some book, be it a classic or a work by some new author.

A few days back we were told that some of us were being posted to Bangalore. I was ecstatic about going back home. When I began packing my stuff, three-fourths of my camping bag was taken up by the books that I had purchased. Not that I minded, but I kind of regretted that the entire bag was not full. Why leave a job unfinished, right? I am sure that once I get home this ‘addiction’ of mine will not cease. Now that I do not have to spend anything on rent, all that money has to be laundered. What better way of going legit than spending on books? I have an entire cupboard free and it is going to be a personal challenge to fill it up with books. I will not be able to tolerate the yawning emptiness that it presents to me every day. If you’re thinking what I’m going to do once that gets filled, I can always buy a bookshelf. And so on and so forth.

To end it all, I just want to mention a quote that I came across, which describes my never-ending affair with books:

“I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.”

-George Robert Gissing

[MEME][English] My Life According to Movies

Hello everyone, this is my first post on Blogger. Most of the regulars, I'm sure, know that this topic is quite old, but since I couldn’t really think of anything ‘meaningful’ to post, I figured this one was as good as any with which I could start blogging. Easing into the flow, so to speak. Anyway, enough of the pointless stuff, let’s get to the meat of the matter! 

Describe Yourself:  The Dark Knight (2008) 

How do you feel:  Dazed and Confused (1993)

Describe where you currently live: Hostel (2005)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Back to the Future (1985) 

Your favorite form of transportation: The Love Bug (1968)

Your best friend is: The Great Dictator (1940)

You and your friends are:  I would like to say “Children of Heaven” (1997) but the more appropriate choices would be “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), Natural Born Killers” (1994) & “Inglourious Basterds” (2009)

What’s the weather like:  Mungaru Male (Kannada) (2006)  (or, at least I wish it was L, but we can’t expect that too often in summer)

Favorite time of day: Before Sunrise (1995)

What is life to you:  Apocalypse Now (1979)

Your fear:  The Exorcist (1973)

What is the best advice you have to give: Live and Let Die (1973)

Thought for the Day: Double Indemnity (1944)

How you would like to die:  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Your soul’s present condition:  À bout de souffle (French) (1960) aka Breathless 

Comments welcome (read wanted!) 

P.S. If there are any errors or some rules I have overlooked or ignored, please lemme know.