The Salem Branch - Your thoughts

Twenty-some years ago, a little voice said to me, "One day in the future, Midnite is going to need the bejeebers scared out of her. Frequently." So I took it to heart to start writing scary things and haven't looked back since.

But why should I, or any fan, buy something that they don't want because they think it's not worth the money.  That seems a little silly to me.  I'm more than happy to support the stars in their new endeavors as much as possilbe, and have done so by going to the Frid show at Hofstra, buying most of KLS's books, even some of the non-DS themed ones, buying Marie's, Diana's and David's books, Louie's CD, Nancy's tape, Chris's comics and even one of Lara's books.  But I'm not going to throw away good money for something I know is going to be bad.   :-

Think of it as an investment.  Look how much people are now getting for Angelique's Descent on Ebay.  If I had been smart, I would've purchased two copies, one to keep for my DS memorabalia, and one for future sales, but who knew back then?   When I was a kid, I had a Lost In Space lunch box, and the LIS "laser gun" toy set.  That lunch box probably cost a few bucks, if that much.  I saw one in an antique shop a few years back and the asking price was $1,000.  That's a lotta peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.  What happened to my lunch box and toy laser guns?  Long gone; probably went into the dump or to some rummage sale.  I could've also gotten the LIS robot toy when I was a kid, but didn't want it back then because it had two protruding handles in the back to move the arms in front, and that bugged me.  I don't even want to think what it goes for now; I'll cry.

Gerard

I skimmed the first chapter and spotted this:

The blue satin of his inner sanctum bore not even a faint silhouette of his slumbering form.

Not a noun was left unqualfied.  The coffin was empty; we get it. 

ROTFLMAOPIMP!!!!!!!!!!!  That was TOO funny Midnite!  

Think of it as an investment.  Look how much people are now getting for Angelique's Descent on Ebay. 

Hmmm....excellant point Gerard!  Hadn't really thought about that.  Maybe I will purchase it after all!  

I just finished reading "The Salem Branch" last night.  In many ways I found it beguiling, though yes, Ms. Parker does give the impression that she hits the old Thesaurus as frequently as
[spoiler]some of the characters, both the DS and her own, took hits of illegal pharmaceuticals[/spoiler]

My understanding is that she was combining some memories of her personal experiences with the unworldly hippie culture and the otherworldly DS.  That's a fair gambit and some of it works, like some of "Angelique's Descent" worked, whether or not you agree with the premise of mixing real-world situations with purely DS situations.  Her use of psychological insight in both was close to the mark, IMO; however the second book has some problems aside from inaccuracies in detailing the seasonal changes of  Maine. 

There was some spotty editing--- one of the hippy girls' names switches back and forth in the same chapter, for example.  OK, perhaps that's forgiveable--- though this is almost half the length of AD, one would think that would have been easy to cull out.  But to me, there seemed a confusing sequence of events where it should seem that
[spoiler]Barnabas should have recognized, or acknowledged exactly who David's new girlfriend is[/spoiler]
but whether that's intentional or due to
[spoiler]all the free-wheeling drugging of even the Collins characters[/spoiler]
 one can't be sure.  Also, I thought at first, that Ms. Parker had somehow confused Carolyn with HALLIE STOKES---
[spoiler]in one of the early 1971 chapters, she refers to both David and Carolyn as "children"[/spoiler]
though later it IS clarified.  Not too thrilled with Carolyn's portrayal here in any case.

 Also, I realize Ms. Parker was highly influenced by her visits to Salem in recent years, but were ALL those cheesy-sounding attractions around in 1971?  And why no mention of something classic like the House of Seven Gables for that matter?  (Heck, they mentioned THAT on "Bewitched", way back in the day.) 

Plus, IMO, the sections that parallel the witch trials
[spoiler]with a SWAT-style raid on the hippy encampment[/spoiler]
bear a lot of quite up-to-date politically-correct influence.... I say no more, but you'll probably catch my drift. 

Also, it would have paid for Ms. Parker to review the old episodes BEFORE she launched her description of 1692's Miranda Du Val because:
[spoiler]for reasons unknown, Miranda is described as having long, lush BLACK hair, a'la Cassandra perhaps, while in the series, Ms. Parker retained her blonde locks, modestly contained in a Puritan bonnet, in those scenes[/spoiler] 
This is clearly shown in a screen cap on Lara's own offiical website!!!  Not to mention Miranda's ultimate fate, which, if you've watched the series through, I don't have to recap with spoiler warnings here...  Maybe to make the story even more in line with what would appear to be socio-political agenda....

However, while I also disagree with her portrayal of Quentin's character---
[spoiler]It's SO pre-1897 flashback![/spoiler]
 perhaps because I like tweaking the storylines lines in some twisted ways, I did like how the various love stories played out.  I appreciated the irony of the resolution
[spoiler]of Barnabas's treatments--- actually this would explain in part, how Julia might have formulated them--- AND his love life[/spoiler]
though to be honest, IMO, it might make future sequels---- DIFFICULT!

However, in strict justice, it IS a helluva lot better than "Hawkes Harbor"....

OK, y'all have me curious.

I have no interest in reading The Salem Branch--can somebody PLEASE post the details of the plot, and specifically that outrageous ending, with spoiler coding?  I need a good laugh this week.

cheers, G.

Again, I'm sure that I am in the party-pooper minority.  Why can't people just leave Dark Shadows alone?  It aired 1225 times.  It began in 1966 and ended in 1841 pararell time.  A lot of interesting and exciting things happened in between.  I wish the show had gone on for many more years, but it did not.  It ended on April 2, 1971.  Why can't people accept that?  I love the show for its characters and storylines (well, some more than others), but also for its actors and familiar scenery and music.  Those ended when the show ended.  Dark Shadows ended with them.  Remakes, audio dramas, and novels might all tell interesting and entertaining stories about the same-named characters, but they are not "Dark Shadows" and never will be.

I have been married for 15 years.  My wife and I have a past and are living the present.  One day death will us part.  When that day comes, our marriage will be ended.  If I should live longer and another woman comes along, she and I might start a new marriage.  However, it will not be the same marriage, even if she uses my first wife's name, creates accounts of our past life together, and even if we re-live past scenes from my first marriage.  We might have just as much fun and it might be just as interesting, but it will not be the same marriage.

I love Dark Shadows for what it was and remains through MPI's videos and DVD's (of which I have them all).  Let writers create new books and TV shows about witches, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, but don't say that they are Dark Shadows.

OK, y'all have me curious.

I have no interest in reading The Salem Branch--can somebody PLEASE post the details of the plot, and specifically that outrageous ending, with spoiler coding?  I need a good laugh this week.

Okay the outrageous ending is.....

[spoiler]Because of Julia's treatments to Barnabas, and apparently injecting herself using the same hypodermic needle she used on Barnabas, their blood gets mixed and Julia rises as a vampire at the end of the book, then returns Barnabas to vampirism and they go on vacation at the end with David and I already forgot her name, but she's the re-incarnation of Miranda Duval.[/spoiler]

Okay the outrageous ending is.....

Oh My God ! 

Okay the outrageous ending is.....

Oh My God !  (shockeyes smiley)

Quite!

Glorioski!

But this isn't the first tale I've heard with this theme.  There was one in the old Grayson Hall tribute zine, A Gift of Memory, that was both poignant and rather harrowingly told.

Nevertheless, the way Parker handles this sounds beyond absurd, particularly the final punchline.  Bleargh!

Thanks, Arashi, for sharing.

G.

Gott in himmel. Boy, I could just see the Collinsport Players picking up this one and running with it...

Gott in himmel. Boy, I could just see the Collinsport Players picking up this one and running with it...

Well, after giving the matter some thought (which you all might think is more than it deserves, but a lot of us already spent our $$$ on the book, well both books in some cases, and not all are going to re-sell them on EBay or whatever), I wondered if it was all kind of literary trick on Ms. Parker's part....  My own fan fiction has played around with the concept of how many of the Collinsport problems may have been delusions caused by mere superstition or mental illness or booze or dope or misinterpretation of earthly-- if unusual-- occurrences (brought smack-home to me recently by the recent decease of my next-town neighbor Ed Warren).  I suppose Ms. Parker MIGHT intend for people to see some of the incidents in the book as
[spoiler]the results of heavy drug use, particularly the girl Jacqueline (the actual reincarnation of Miranda/Angelique in the story, not her blonde Mum, Antoinette, whom Barnabas THINKS is Ange).  The poor kid has literally been on everything since she was BORN and it led to her institutionalization at good old Breezy Bluff--- heheh, I mean WINDCLIFF.  By the same token, maybe the climactic scen involving Julia's new little orthodontic anomaly might be attributed to LSD flashbacks on Barn's part.[/spoiler]   
In short a lot is left unexplained and left to personal interpretation which, perhaps, in other stories might be a plus.  Think of it, if you can, as another dimension of Parallel Time, especially (one more spoiler)
[spoiler]Otherwise, I can't see how a 15-year-old kid could be the reincarnation of someone who had just seemed to cease existing a year before, unless you count back to the denouement of Real Time 1841 and skip over the whole Cassandra/ Angelique Rumson period, which makes MY head hurt.[/spoiler]
 And the ultimate moral of the story is, our parents were right on when they warned us not to leave our drinks unattended or to accept brownies from strangers.

I have enjoyed this book, for the most part, and now I have one chapter left (more on that later, I'm sure), but I feel I should share my thoughts on the "descriptive nature" of the writing in the early parts of the book, such as overuse of adjectives and adverbs..."can you say Edward George Bulwer-Lytton?"

For my own personal taste, less is more, and Stephen King knows how to use his adjectives and adverbs to create images that my brain can visualize.

Still, thanks to Lara Parker for carrying the DS story forward.  There were times when reading the novel that I was totally captivated by the story, characters and imagery.

Now, on to that last chapter. . .

Brian

Okay the outrageous ending is.....

What??!!!! Oh my wordy!