Blog-o-ween 2024: Day 18

Lots of ‘Salem’s Lot

Part Two

Chapter 11: Ben (IV)

Sections 1-7

Sunrise: 7:01 AM

Sunset: 6:14 PM

Susan and Ben visit Matt in the hospital. Ben and Matt try to pull Susan away from her “can’t” thoughts and towards the possibility that there are real, live (or un-live) vampires in the Lot. It is decided that Matt’s doctor, Jimmy Cody, and the local Catholic priest, Father Callahan, should be pressed into service.

Later, while receiving his check-up, Ben tells Dr. Cody everything that has happened and what he thinks it all means. Dr. Cody, much to the surprise of Susan, agrees to issue an exhumation order for Danny Glick’s body.

At the Glicks’ house to ask for permission to dig up their son, Ben and Jimmy are told by a neighbor that Mrs. Glick died early that morning. Her body has been taken to Maury Green’s Mortuary in Cumberland County. Ben and Jimmy head off to Cumberland in hopes of sitting up with Mrs. Glick’s corpse and seeing what happens when the sun goes down.

Once again…what did I tell you about Susan Norton? Have you given yourself a concussion yet from the amount of times you slapped your forehead at her infuriating “I just can’t believe that you think that there are vampires in the Lot!”

 

At this point, I’m starting to wonder if the portrayal of the character of Susan is misogynistic or not. From a narrative point-of-view, I understand what is happening. We need at least one or two characters to be incredulous about the existence of vampires. We need a little sand in the ointment, so to speak. Something to make Ben and Matt’s jobs more difficult. But this…oy!

I’ve brought up Agent Scully and The X-Files when talking about Susan. I remember when I was mainlining all of the seasons of the The X-Files a few years ago. I had friend (a woman) mention that she thought that the presentation of Scully as the lone skeptic was essentially misogynistic. (This was during my time in grad school, so we often busted out a little film theory while discussing everything.) I didn’t understand why, and she explained that the show was set up so that what we usually assume to be the “gender roles” of the male and female agents are reversed. Male characters throughout pop culture are usually associated with rationality, science, etc.; female characters correspond to the emotions, to feelings, to intuition. In The X-Files, those roles and characteristics are reversed. Scully is the agent of reason; Mulder is ruled by his feelings. But because the show is what it is — in that we are never in a position to doubt that the aliens or Bigfoot or demons are anything other than what they really are — we will always be on the side of Mulder against Scully. Like ‘Salem’s Lot, we spend a lot of time muttering, “Godammit, Scully! What more do you need to see?!” In this way, I think Susan has been done dirty. She’s in an impossible position. We’re always going to be annoyed by her and her reticence to believe.

There’s a moment after Dr. Cody has agreed to exhume Danny Glick’s body when he describes what they are bound to discover in the casket:

“When the coffin is opened, there’s apt to be a rush of gas and a rather offensive smell. The body may be bloated. The hair will have grown down over his collar—it continues to grow for an amazing period of time—and the fingernails will also be quite long…”

That is an old wives’ tale. (See! We say “old wives’ tale” and not “old husbands’s tale” when we are discussing rumors and legends. You ladies just can’t win.) The hair and nails only appear to become longer after death, and that is mainly due to the retraction of the skin around them. This shrinkage is caused by dehydration.

C’mon, Doc…you should know better. Unless you’re talking about Barbara Steele, there is no long hair of death…

Later, as Ben and Doc Cody make their way to Maury Green’s—

You certainly are, sir, but we’re actually talking the man who owns the funeral parlor in Cumberland County where Mrs. Glick’s body has been taken.

Sheesh! Can someone take care of this guy, please?

Thank you!

Anyhoo…while they drive along the turnpike heading to Maury Greene's, Jimmy and Ben wonder at the relative ease with which a vampire colony could be established in bedroom communities like the Lot:

“‘There’s no in-town industry where a rise in absenteeism would be noticed. The schools are three-town consolidated, and if the absence list starts getting a little longer, who notices? A lot of people go to church over in Cumberland, a lot more don’t go at all. And TV has pretty well put the kibosh on the old neighborhood get-togethers, except for the duffers who hang around Milt’s store. All this could be going on with great effectiveness behind the scenes.’”

Wow! Looks like Jimmy was around twenty-five years ahead of Robert D. Putnam’s study of the collapse of American social networks (actual, real-life social networks…not…whatever the hell this all is).

Jimmy also says, “This is beginning to seem like a paranoid’s dream…or a Gahan Wilson cartoon.”

Who now?

Gahan Wilson was born in 1930 in Evanston, Illinois. Inspired by magazines such as Mad and Punch, Wilson soon developed his own style that was deeply influenced by the horror films of the 1950s. His work is similar to that of Charles Addams in that the comedy on display is of the darkest, blackest variety.

I think that is as good a place to stop as any, don’t you, Blog-o-weeners? Ben and Jimmy are heading into the mortuary to check out Mrs. Glick. If you’ll read Part 2, Chapter 11: Ben (IV), Sections 8-13 for tomorrow, you will find out just what that poor lady has to say for herself. Something tells me it ain’t nothing good.

We will also find out what kind of trouble Susan’s stubborn streak will get her into. When it comes to Susan, I need to follow my own advice. I need to…