I just finished reading 'The Trauma Cleaner' and watching the Netflix series'The Haunting of Hill House'and I have to say that these two go together like wine and cheese, as far as the themes these stories make your mind ponder on how we live our lives as souls in a meat puppet interacting with other souls in meat puppets.
I probably wouldn't have bothered watching 'The Haunting of Hill House' if I hadn't read a recent 'The Secret Sun'post about the show, just when I was in the middle of reading 'The Trauma Cleaner' -
I highly recommend reading this book and watching the series together for an enlightening (but maybe slightly traumatic) experience.
In the first chapter of 'The Trauma Cleaner' titled 'Kim' there is a lot of mention of the "artworks" scrawled on the walls of the house that Kim referred to as her therapy and I couldn't help thinking by the descriptions in that chapter if Kim hadn't seen the movie 'The Badadook'at some point in her life. If not, then the themes of her art and the themes in the movie are very similar.
I probably never would have read 'The Trauma Cleaner' if it wasn't for me attending an event in August called 'Bedtime Stories', where the author of 'The Trauma Cleaner' was one of the authors on the night telling their own "Bedtime Stories".
Sarah Kransnosteinin the centre at 'Bedtime Stories' in Byron Bay
I was staying down in Byron Bay for the weekend of the Byron Writers Festival and had already bought a ticket months before, as I had been to see 'BedtimeStories' the year before and enjoyed the night, as I wrote in this post - An Arrow, I Awake
Thomas Keneally telling his rather weird bedtime story on stage
The only person I knew anything about at the time I bought my ticket who was on the 'BedtimeStories' line-up this year was Thomas Keneally, who I've meet before and spent a lot of time over the years in Byron Bay listening to.
Tom's latest book, which I have, but I'm yet to read
The 'Bedtime Stories' chapter in 'Elephants on Acid'
Oddly enough, the day before I saw the 'Bedtime Stories' show I picked up a book in a Byron Bay bookshop I saw sitting on a shelf called 'Elephants on Acid'and as I'm flicking through it I saw a chapter titled 'Bedtime Stories' about such things as dreams, sleep deprivation, catsREMdreaming, sleep learning, sleep paralysis and other sleep investigations and stories. So, I bought the book and have since read it - The Elephants in the Room 2?
Sarah Kransnostein chairing the 'Making the Beast Beautiful' talk
The first time I had ever heard Sarah Krasnostein talk was the Friday afternoon at the 'Making theBeast Beautiful' talk at the Byron Writers Festival, just before seeing her that night in the 'BedtimesStories' show.
I was also surprised when waiting to go into the theatre to see 'Bedtime Stories' that I ran into SarahSentilles, who wasn't in the show, but just there to see her friend Sarah Krasnostein in the show. We had a chat about her book talk earlier in the year I went to in Brisbane and - Synchronicity, 42 and Owls?
And with the number 42 playing a bit of a synch role in that talk I went to see of Sarah's in Brisbane, I was surprised when I looked up Sarah Krasnostein on Twitter to see at the time she had 4242 tweets and 2222 followers. Four twos are 8, which to me is more meaningful than seeing the number 222, because my father's childhood home at West End and the house my Nan passed away in was #8 - Another Elephant in the Room and Baby in theWomb?
Reading through 'The Trauma Cleaner' and watching 'The Haunting of Hill House' I can't help but notice the parallels between metaphor and real life when lives fall apart.
In the Netflix series mold grows throughout the house ruining any chance of living in the perfect house the family wanted so much to do up and sell, so they could move into their ideal "forever house". In 'The Trauma Cleaner' real mold grows so badly around the hoarders "possessions" that some houses have to be condemned. The hoarders seem to live in fear like the haunted occupants of Hill House.
Art therapy anyone?
Draw your weapons perhaps?
I actually just listened to that new 'Rune Soup' podcastas I was halfway through writing this post, so I thought I would throw it in, since it was about trauma and art therapy.
"I think the whole show was just meant as a metaphorical horror walk though the tarot deck on some level. Although I'll need to go back at some point and watch it again to check out this theory. I'm sure there is a lot more to it than that, but Steven seems to be the Fool in the story, which is why his house number is 696 (and not 666;-) at the end of the story. 6+9+6=21. 21 trump cards in a tarot deck plus the Fool card (#0). The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool.
And with the 'Red Room' being the heart of the house, I think it is just a metaphor for the old saying'"home is where the heart is". Plus, that gold #2 on Luke's cake seems to be like an alchemical wedding of sorts between his male/female twin self. Anyway, there is a lot of food for thought (and the house) in watching this show, that's for sure."
Sarah writes in 'The Trauma Cleaner' in the chapter titled 'Marilyn', "I search in vain for a photo of Marilyn in full flight; an iron-tongued warrior in silken finery and bold beads. But such a photo would just be another proof, like the faces looking down from these walls or the pets in their funeral boxes, that the staggering difference between what we were once and what we are now is, sometimes, as true as it is false. I leave down the front path, past the STC trailer overflowing with garbage, and the roses - bright, still, under their wild tangle of leaf and thorn."
Home is where the heart is ... and that's more than any house you ever lived in, I think.
I highly recommend reading this book and watching the series together for an enlightening (but maybe slightly traumatic) experience.
In the first chapter of 'The Trauma Cleaner' titled 'Kim' there is a lot of mention of the "artworks" scrawled on the walls of the house that Kim referred to as her therapy and I couldn't help thinking by the descriptions in that chapter if Kim hadn't seen the movie 'The Badadook' at some point in her life.
Trauma, Crystal and Skulls?
I was also surprised when waiting to go into the theatre to see 'Bedtime Stories' that I ran into Sarah Sentilles, who wasn't in the show, but just there to see her friend Sarah Krasnostein in the show.
And with the number 42 playing a bit of a synch role in that talk I went to see of Sarah's in Brisbane, I was surprised when I looked up Sarah Krasnostein on Twitter to see at the time she had 4242 tweets and 2222 followers.
'42 Minutes' Episode 286: Todd Stein
I actually just listened to that new 'Rune Soup' podcast as I was halfway through writing this post, so I thought I would throw it in, since it was about trauma and art therapy.
Sarah writes in 'The Trauma Cleaner' in the chapter titled 'Marilyn', 
Home is where the heart is ... and that's more than any house you ever lived in, I think.
Loved haunting of Hill house - Netflix is doing great stuff!
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