The facts in the case of the departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman
“The facts in the case of the departure of Miss Finch” was familiar to me in the sense that the scenery set was very alike to an old Hammer Horror movie I am very fond of called “The Vampire Circus”; though I am not suggesting that this story is a breach of copy-right, merely that the scenery was similar, for example; the movie was about a vampire count who fell in love with a local school-teacher and got her delivering her young pupils occasionally for his dietary needs, eventually she was discovered by her husband delivering a child and the vampire executed in the usual fashion and the woman outcast from the village. She was told formerly by the count that if they were ever discovered that she could contact a cousin of his on the other side of the country who were a traveling night time circus that advertises mesmerism; during the killing of the count, the count had threatened the lynch mob that if he should die, then so should all the children of the village. Many years past and the traveling night circus came and sought revenge for their cousin in the most innovative ways imaginable.
Some of their first victims were visitors of the circus; they entered a tent where they saw various acts and a hall of mirrors only for them never to return to their families alive. Though primarily the movie was about the circus seeking revenge, most of the other victims were seduced into giving up their lives, it was the burgomaster that died in the tent under suspicious circumstances; but because he was so incredibly fat, people presumed the fun and laughter of the hall of mirrors had caused him to succumb to a heart attack.
Similar acts happened in Neil Gaiman’s story, very captivating in more ways than one and a delight for me to read, particularly as not only was it so very similar to my most favorite Hammer Horror movie, but it was also read within a week of me finishing “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern and “Emerald Star” by Jacqueline Wilson, which oddly enough have mesmerism and circus’s in their themes too – reading all was a fluke.
I do love stories that have carnival and circus themes to them, another story I read months before I read this Neil Gaiman classic was “The man in the picture” by Susan Hill.
a victims wish
I’m not the same as you; I don’t watch soaps on TV
I’m not in agreement with you, when you use chemicals on spiders and bees
I am a different person, everyone is, and that’s true
So how can you judge me, just because I’m not like you?
Would you like it if I said, you’re better off dead, because you have blond hair?
Would you like it if I said, you’re bony and unnatural, no you wouldn’t that wouldn’t be fair
Would you ignore my harmful chants if I said that you looked gay?
Would you ever feel the same again, after the things I’d say?
So how can you judge me, for the way I am?
How can you past judgement to a stranger on the sand?
I don’t know you, nor you me
So why do you feel the need to always correct me for being me?
I am large and I wear glasses, I have a burden to bear
Why do you need to make life more difficult, by your comments and your stare?
Set aside your viper tongue and live at peace with all
Who are you to judge other people, on what they look like have some gall
It doesn’t make you look big around your friends you know
Because behind your back they say things about you, that you wouldn’t rather know
Just keep your poisoned tongue silent, look and love the world
Don’t judge the strangers on the street, or fate on you will whirl
You won’t always be perfect my dear, slim or unblemished – one day you’ll see what you’ve done
Punished by fate that your victims wished
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Filed under Poems A - C
Tagged as abuse, blond, bony, bullying, comment, criticise, fat, glasses, problems, silence, skinny, spiteful, street, tongue, underweight, vicious, viper, weight