the “uncanny” is that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar
"The uncanny" is an essay by Sigmund Freud written in 1919. My reading of the essay was accompanied by a critique by The Lost Signals .
Freud starts the essay with an etymology of the word, "uncanny" comes from the German word unheimlich, witch translates roughly to unhomely or unfamiliar. The Lost Signals (2016) note how If Heimlich is referring to familiar as in home or house, perhaps this is the house of our mind. Then in this house are things you possess, including things that's must not leave the house, things that are secret, things we keep hidden away in our closet. They also make a reference to a quote by Stephen King in regards to the question of horror (Though I have been unable to verify this) "Its your house but its not quite your house" wich fits nicely into this idea of unhomely and relates the concept back to the frightning and to horror (If only I could find the source of the quote). Moving back to the idea of the house of our mind, unheimlich allows the things the we hide away to be brought out into the Open. Uncanny is a secret revealed, to find something uncanny is perhaps to find something that could reveal a secret about ones self.
Referencing Jentch, Freud brings up the idea that the uncanny can be created within literature casting doubt that human is in fact human, giving the idea that perhaps it is an automaton, or conversely that's something such as a doll may in fact be sentient.
Jentsch has taken as a very good instance “doubts whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or conversely, whether a lifeless object might not be in fact animate”; and he refers in this connection to the impression made by wax-work figures, artificial dolls and automatons.
Some fetishes involve covering the body entirely in a synthetic material, PVC neoprene leather and so on, it dehumanises the person and recreates the look of a life size figure made of plastic, as demonstrated in this photograph by Robert Maplethorpe. The covering of the human body in a synthetic material casts doubt on whether the figure is sentient or simply autonomous. This could go someway to explain the use of fetish gear in certain horror novels and films, for example the Cenobytes from Hellraiser (1987) are all expressly sexual characters dressed in various forms of fetish and S&M attire, though with the addition of body horror aspects in the form of body gruesome body modification, less so in the case of the character pinhead himself in my own opinion (though that could simply be down to the contemporary visual effects used for he pins on his head). Other depictions include the Gimp from Pulp Fiction (1994), described as "An emblem of creepiness" in an article by NPR (2014)
The Gimp has become an emblem of creepiness — an essential part of the adrenaline machine that was Pulp Fiction.
NPR, 2014
Freud comes onto the idea of the double, this relates back to lacan and Dolar, the idea of seeing in the mirror reflection that blinks when you do not. An experience that comes to mind of my own is actually from fifth Silent Hill game, homecoming, in the Attic The protagonist finds a photograph of himself screaming but he does not recognise it. Silent Hill homecoming is a game that for one reason or another that I am unaware of I related to to the protagonist, finding that photograph was actually one of the most scary moments video games for me personally and I wondered now if a part of that is because of the uncanniness of finding something of myself that I do not remember . I have recently had a much less frightening together just as uncanny experience real life, converting old video tapes to DVD and I found a home video of myself child that I did not recognise, it was me and my cousin lake has children splashing sticks into the lake nothing about this video I did not recognise it I thought I had seen all the home videos and this is one I feel I had never seen and yet here it was. I find it interesting the obvious to experiences of the uncanny it's is experience I am disconnected from, the video game, will I find more horror within, warehouse real-life experience is simply more one of curiosity.
Freud sets out his own definition of the uncanny in two parts one part of which is the concept that the uncanny is when a repressed state from childhood is brought back to the surface, and I wonder if this might explain my reaction to the photograph in Silent Hill homecoming, where my reaction to home video is not a strong because the memory was not repressed just forgotten
Barker, Clive. 1987. Hellraiser. Entertainment Film Distributers.
Freud, S. (1919) The “Uncanny”. [online] Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Available at: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf [Accessed December 6. 2018]
NPR. 2014. ''Bring Out the Gimp': The Man Behind the Mask in 'Pulp Fiction''. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2014/05/24/315251305/bring-out-the-gimp-the-man-behind-the-mask-in-pulp-fiction?t=1555847691693.
Tarantino, Quentin. 1994. Pulp Fiction. Mirramax Films.
The Lost Signals. 2016. 'Narratology: Sigmund Freud's The "Uncanny" [Online Video]'.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlNfGPKmex8. [Accessed March 10. 2019].
Vineyard, Jennifer. 2014. 'The Gimp Unleashed: Pulp Fiction’s Creepy Bondage Slave Tells All'. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/steve-hibbert-gimp-pulp-fiction-interview.html. [Accessed March 10.].
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