The Haunting of Hill House

Last night I watched another episode of the second season of True Blood on DVD. I'm a little over half way through it and I have been really enjoying this season so far.

I also finished reading the book The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The book tells the story of a group of three people: the neurotic Eleanor, artistic Theodora and wealthy playboy Luke who are brought to the supposedly haunted mansion of Hill House by a doctor who is trying to investigate the supernatural. While they are there they experience a variety of bizarre events. The book is very well-written and intriguing, the supernatural elements are of a very ambiguous and very subtle nature. In fact the book is more about the psychology of the characters rather than supernatural horror. It was filmed twice as The Haunting in 1963 and 1999. The 1963 version is a mastepriece of horror cinema but the 1999 version is, to be honest, garbage.

I was at work today and it was another very quiet and ordinary day. I have decided to take Thursday off, and the reason for that is because on Thursday the tickets for the Film Festival go on sale, and the popular events sell out very quickly, in fact I've learned form bitter experience that if you do want anything you have to book up as quickly as possible. The programme is officially announced tomorrow. The weather was really good today and so I left work after six hours and went home.

Back home I read a short story called "Beyond Lies the Wub" by Philip K. Dick, in which humans who are travelling home from Mars bring aboard their spaceship a Martian pig-like creature called a Wub which, despite it being intelligent, peaceful and able to communicate with them, the humans are intent on killing and eating. However they learn that, when necessary, the Wub has a unique method of self-defence. It was a pretty good story.