The Purpose

After reading through the Skeleton Creek books (Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine) I was intrigued.  That isn’t unusual though, because it is an intriguing story.  That’d be like saying I decided to write a blog about chocolate because I just ate a Snickers and immediately knew that the amazing secret of chocolate was something I had to share with the world.  People know that Skeleton Creek is a different kind of story, but not everyone spends the deserving amount of time questioning, thinking about why it is different, why it is intriguing, or why it remains this intense mystery shrouded in debate and discussion.

That is where I will lend a helping hand.  I’m going to use this blog as my platform through which I will share my thoughts and explorations within the story of Skeleton Creek.  Skeletoncreekisreal.com did an excellent job of creating an open atmosphere in which theories could be shared and the videos that were posted brought a whole new level of conspiracy to these books that Patrick Carman has written.  However, I’ll be going in a slightly different direction.  The articles here at Skeleton Creek Analytics will be focused on hidden meanings that were passed over, specifically the passwords.  It’s easy to miss a small detail in a movie, even after watching it twice.  The same can be said for this book.  I’ll be going over these books with a fine-toothed comb, because I’m convinced that things we were supposed to uncover remain hidden.  Just as the saying goes, ‘there’s more to this than meets the eye’ and there’s more to this book than the words on the page.

[Warning: this blog contains spoilers, do not read these posts if you have yet to finish reading the two Skeleton Creek books.]

Analysis of ‘amontillado’

Analysis of “amontillado”

Stumbling upon the fourth password in the book, the first thing I notice is that it is another Poe reference.  This password is referencing the piece titled “Cask of Amontillado”, a short (6 page) story of a murderer who was never caught and a victim who was never found.  To understand exactly how this relates to our characters in Skeleton Creek we must go back to the original, or in my case, The Complete Stories by E.A. Poe.

In the “Cask of Amontillado” we have two main characters, Montresor who is also the narrator and the man he takes his revenge upon, Fortunato.  The story takes place during the Carnival, a time of extravagant celebration and gaiety.  Most of the town is inebriated as is Fortunato, heavily intoxicated and stumbling about in the streets.  Montresor lures the drunk Fortunato into a false sense of purpose by telling him that he recently came into possession of a cask (not quite 500 liters) of Amontillado, an exceptional sherry-like dessert wine.  Montresor tells Fortunato that he needs his help determining the quality of the wine in order to be positive he wasn’t cheated in his purchase.  Fortunato agrees to help, and is led down a dark, damp path into the wine cellar of Montresor.

Fortunato must realize that he is in danger and that Montresor has ulterior motives for the trip to the cellar, but he is far too drunk to be of any resistance.  Montresor leads him into a niche in the cellar wall and after chaining him, proceeds to build a wall closing off the niche completely.  Montresor finishes the wall and ends the story by professing that 50 years has passed and [he] the murderer was never caught and Fortunato, his victim, was never found; a confession to the perfect crime.

Obviously there is more to the story, but for a short synopsis, that will do just fine.  There is no use dawdling about, so we might as well jump right in: why this story, and why now?  I believe the placement of this literary reference and the intricacies within “Cask of Amontillado” demands a specific and unique interpretation of our characters within Skeleton Creek.  I have little doubt that within the story of Skeleton Creek, Henry is playing the part of Montresor.  Using Montresor as a piece of colored crepe paper held up to a light bulb, we can see different shades to Henry.  He is a madman, driven by one thing that we do not fully understand, just as we were never to understand why Montresor was obsessed with seeking his revenge.

One of the things that I picked up on was Poe’s use of the word “impunity” twice, which is only strange because the story is so short. Repetition of such a unique word stands out.  In the first paragraph while describing his vengeance, Montresor says, “I must not only punish, but punish with impunity.”  Then, again while dictating his family motto, “Nemo me impune lacessit,” which translates to “no one attacks me with impunity.” We get the feeling that Henry’s character also shares this feeling of impunity to do whatever he wishes, without regard to the consequences, without a care for the lives that he effects.  He is obsessed with only one thing, and to get in his way would only cause a person pain and misery.

I also found the reference to the Masons to be very interesting and worth consideration.  The Masons are a secret brotherhood, known throughout history for being of considerable sway and power, a club that Montresor was not a part of.  This seems to me to be transparent commentary on the situation between Henry and the Crossbones, a tight knit group bonded by a single goal that Henry did not belong to, but had no qualms destroying.

There were a few other similarities between the two stories, some small, like the idea of this secret niche within the wine cellar where a crime is committed and hidden away for 50 years.  I couldn’t help but think of the secret room within the dredge that went on being a secret for so long, not plastered up with brick and mortar to encase a body, but boarded up with wood and nails to encase a fortune.  Both provide motive enough for killing, though in the end, only one is discovered.  In Poe’s version, we never learn about Montresor’s cellar being uncovered by a 15-year-old girl with a video camera and her journal-clutching best friend.  Perhaps that would have lead astray from the macabre theme of the story.

I prefer to think of this entire discovery process an organic progression; we have something that remains hidden in plain sight, which only needs to be looked at under a magnifying glass in order to appreciate its importance to the story as a whole.  What we have here is a literary ecosystem.  It takes more than one element to grow a plant, just as it takes more than one idea to create a story.  You must look into these passwords, not beyond them, in order to fully discover what is hiding within the cellars and dungeons of this story.  James Joyce once said, “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”  Perhaps Patrick Carman took a page out of Joyce’s book and has created a bit of his own immortality within the depths of Skeleton Creek.

Analysis of ‘pitandpendulum’

Pit and Pendulum analysis:

The third password that we receive in Skeleton Creek happens to be another reference to a written piece by Edgar Allen Poe.  I’m beginning to see a trend.  But why try to fix something that isn’t broken?  Using these references to Poe’s pieces has given incredible insight into the characters and nuances within the story that are otherwise lost.  Perhaps the same effect can be achieved through other references, but for now it seems as though the sad, somber, and significantly psychotic parables of E.A. Poe add a great deal to the Skeleton Creek story.

As with the last few analyses of Poe’s passwords, it is key to spend time studying the story in order to understand why it is embedded within Skeleton Creek.  The more we know, the more we can learn.  “The Pit and the Pendulum” is the story of a prisoner sentenced to death during the Spanish Inquisition.  After receiving his death penalty, the narrator loses consciousness, but soon awakens in a shapeless, darkened room.  Under the impression that most prisoners are given public hangings, the narrator is confused as to why his punishment would be any different.  After considering the possibilities and finding his bearings, he realizes that he’s in a dungeon at Toledo, one of the notorious Inquisition prisons.   Between his spells of unconsciousness, through exploration our narrator discovers a pit of indeterminable depth in the center of the cell.

The narrator wakes once more to find himself strapped to a board, looking up at a scythe that is moving back and forth across his body in a pendulous motion.  He realizes that the blade is only getting closer and in an act of desperation, lures the dungeon-dwelling rats to chew through his binds.  The situation only grows more ominous as the walls heat up and begin to enclose.  However, at the last possible moment the walls cease their movement and the narrator is grabbed by a mysterious arm, saving his life from the certain-death that awaited him in the pit.  The French army had taken control of the prison at Toledo, saving this man’s life at the last possible instant.

Exactly how historically accurate this story is, remains up for debate. Just the same, the story lends itself to some pretty powerful commentary within the context of Skeleton Creek.  The first question that comes to mind is, why now?  What makes the reference relevant within this part of the story?  I believe the answer to that question is hidden aurally.  A great deal of the descriptions given within the story relies on auditory (aural) stimulus.  The same thing can be said for the Sarah’s ‘pitandpendulum’ video.  As she talks to Ryan, Sarah is analyzing the audio from the dredge.  She has him focus on the sounds of Joe Bush’s leg dragging across the wooden floor and the noises she heard while standing outside the dredge.  She questions her own ears saying, “maybe I’m hearing something that isn’t even there.”  The most important thing to take away from all this being, all information can be twisted and distorted.  Even trusting something as basic as your own senses; touch, sound, sight, can you have you relying on false facts.  Never accept anything at face value because even in the best circumstances your own instincts can be the culprit playing tricks on you.

This piece also seems to be achieving relevant commentary on Ryan’s accident within the dredge.  The similarities between the narrator and Ryan are unmistakable.  The narrator in Poe’s story is tortured through fear knowing that the entire time he’s being held captive, his captors are watching.  Ryan’s situation is remarkably similar, as he feels like a captive in his own home unable to see Sarah, his parents constantly watching him.  The possibility exists that instead of Ryan’s parents being the equivalent of the captors, it is instead the ghost of Joe Bush that is watching Ryan, torturing him and holding him captive with fright.

Continuing down the same path of questioning, whose arm is it that extends to the narrator of Poe’s story?  We can imagine the arm reaching out at the last second, a nameless and faceless savior.  Is Sarah also reaching out to Ryan, trying to help him from falling deeper into his own cavernous pit of paranoia and fear?  Or perhaps in Ryan’s case, the arm that extends is not there to pull him back up to safety, but instead belongs to the ghost who has pushed him over the railing.

This password provides less in the way of foreshadow than it does in passive commentary on what is happening with Ryan and Sarah and this moment.  It is clear that looking into Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” allows us to look further into Skeleton Creek at the same time.  The similarities are there and it doesn’t take a keen eye to spot them, just an inquisitive nature.

Questions still linger as to what the relationship between Sarah and Ryan is like from their respective perspectives.  Is Sarah compassionate at all to Ryan’s fears and anxieties, or does she enjoy the ability to take advantage of those qualities and manipulate him as her own personal marionette?  Does Ryan believe in any of this or is he embellishing the story to add realism to his perceived sense of fear?  Could it be possible that what we are reading is in fact not Ryan’s journal at all, but a fictional story that he’s fabricated?  He is a writer after all, living as a teenager in a small town.  What do we have that proves it isn’t all based on something that a bored teenager thought up and put on paper?  These are exactly the kinds of questions that these intricate literary references should cause you to ask.

Analysis of ‘theraven’

Theraven’ analysis.

The second password that appears on page 38 in Skeleton Creek, ‘theraven,’ is the second Edgar Allen Poe reference that we are given.  Similar to the ‘houseofusher’ I strongly believe that this password holds significant meaning, something that deserves being discussed and debated.  I hope to accomplish that here by asking ‘why?’

Very little analysis would be possible without first analyzing the poem itself.  For those of you who aren’t as familiar with the poem, I’ve gone ahead and posted it.

The Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door –

Only this, and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore –

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore –

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me – filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,

“‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door –

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; –

This it is, and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you”- here I opened wide the door; –

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!” –

Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice:

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore –

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; –

‘Tis the wind and nothing more.”

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door –

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door –

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.

“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore –

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door –

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as “Nevermore.”

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered –

Till I scarcely more than muttered, “other friends have flown before –

On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.”

Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,

Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore –

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore

Of ‘Never – nevermore’.”

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;

Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore –

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o’er,

But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o’er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.

“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee

Respite – respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore:

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! –

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted –

On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore –

Is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me – tell me, I implore!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil – prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us – by that God we both adore –

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore –

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend,” I shrieked, upstarting –

“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted – nevermore!

There are certain elements to the poem that are important to this discussion, but there is no need to discuss things like rhyme and meter.  The use of trochaic octameter has no bearing on its placement in Skeleton Creek.  That being said, there is plenty in this poem that speaks volumes to Skeleton Creek and the characters we follow.  In the poem, the raven sits upon a bust (statue) of Pallas, a symbol of wisdom.  Through small details like this, we learn that the narrator is a young scholar, something that he has in common with our two main characters from Skeleton Creek.

“The Raven” is famous for being this piece that Poe claimed to have written very methodically, logically.  When delicate art is presented as something that can be well thought out, planned, and premeditated I begin to become suspicious.  I prefer to think of poetry as a spontaneous pursuit, organic in its roots.  Are we to assume that Sarah has been doing the same with her own art?

These videos that she produces, what purpose are they serving?  When I watch these videos I am watching from Ryan’s perspective, as if a friend had sent me some urgent message to help pass along useful information.  But the possibility exists that Sarah isn’t the kind of friend Ryan believes her to be.  The possibility exists that these videos are premeditated attempts to scare Ryan into relying on Sarah for more information.  He begins to use her as a crutch, his primary source of investigative information.  Sarah knows all this, so tampering with the story and the evidence would be well within her abilities.

If you continue with this theory you begin to see more connections.  The narrator in “The Raven” understands and is completely aware of the fact that the raven can only speak the word ‘nevermore’.  However, that doesn’t stop him from questioning the bird.  As a third party, we get to see this play out: the narrator prods the raven to tell him more but being conscious of the situation he knows that he can anticipate the answers.  This is a strong reflection of Sarah’s relationship with Ryan.  She sends these videos knowing exactly how he’ll react, providing her the ability to treat their relationship as a game of chess, always 3 steps ahead.  She’s anticipating his fear and paranoia, playing off of it, all the while pushing him in the direction she wants him to go.

This would all be conjecture without providing motive, but motive isn’t a stretch in this case.  Sarah loves the idea that Ryan relies on her and by pushing his buttons she can play off his anxiety, his paranoia, and convince him that she’s the only one who can help.  People with power want only one thing; more power.  If this is the case, we would be able to see that in the videos.  If we step out of Ryan’s shoes and become a non-committed viewer able to provide unbiased analysis, would we see that Sarah’s videos are skewed to create fear where there is nothing?  This poem shows us just how much we can potentially learn about Sarah’s character by how she relays information through her videos.

Analysis of ‘houseofusher’

Analysis of “houseofusher” password-

One thing that I immediately noticed about the passwords that appear throughout Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine is that the majority of them are literary and film references.  To really get a feel for why these passwords were chosen, I have to go directly to the source.   Directly to the source, in this case, means I’m going directly to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

I’m a big believer in the idea that not very many things just happen without a reason, without a motive, without logical rationale.  Things are placed in a particular spot for a specific reason, they don’t just end up there.  I’m also a big believer in the question, ‘why?’  No other word holds as much inquisitive power, and the answers to that question are always the most important of answers.  All evangelism of practicality aside, these are the questions that must be answered.  Why reference Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” piece, and why now?

When doing my own research on “House of Usher” I found that this piece is considered the best example of Poe’s “totality” where every element and detail is related and relevant.  This is a perfect example of what I was referencing earlier, that everything is in its place, and its place was chosen for a reason.  There are no accidents in Poe’s stories, just as I believe that using this “houseofusher” reference was no accident.

You cannot possibly accomplish much in the way of analysis without reading the piece itself.  As it begins, the narrator receives a letter from his friend, Roderick Usher, asking him to visit and stay in his house for an extended period of time.  I’m immediately reminded of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and can’t help but feel like the narrator has been invited into a trap from the very beginning, sans shrieking werewolves.  When he arrives, he finds Usher to be a sick man suffering from what appears to be severe anxiety and hypochondria.  In other words, he has scared himself half to death.  The reader is soon introduced to Usher’s twin sister, Madeline, who has also fallen victim to this strange sickness.  Usher reveals that he believes the house to be the cause of the sickness, and that the building and its surroundings are haunted.

Roderick Usher later notifies the narrator that his sister, Madeline, has passed.  He then decides it best to entomb her body for two weeks before she is given a proper burial.  The next two weeks prove to be difficult for Roderick and the narrator as they feel a haunting presence in the house that grows.  Then one violently stormy evening while the narrator reads “The Mad Trist” to Roderick, a shriek is heard in congruence to the shriek in the story.  Roderick believes the shriek and subsequent noises are being made by his entombed sister.  After swinging open the door to the vault in which she was placed, her body (bloodied from what appears to be a physical struggle to escape the vault) falls upon Roderick in his moment of anagnorisis, killing him of fright.  As the narrator flees the house, he looks back to see the structure split in two, collapsing and sinking into the tarn (lake).

So back to the question, ‘why?’  I believe the story is closely tied to our characters Ryan and Sarah, as well as the dredge.  While reading and re-reading, I have found the house belonging to Usher a strong metaphor for Skeleton Creek’s dredge.   The way Poe describes the house makes it out to be this place, forgotten, but not yet destroyed.  All the pieces are there, though with fungi growing on the walls and weeds overgrown, it is obvious the place doesn’t get many visitors.  The fact that it has this aura of para-normality brings it even closer to the dredge, both giving the sense that they have been abandoned by the living, but not by the dead.  Poe describes the house surrounded by “a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.”  Strangely enough, I couldn’t come up with better words to describe our deserted piece of swamp-machinery in Skeleton Creek, Oregon.

The connections run deeper.  Poe writes, “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream…” while Skeleton Creek begins with Ryan also awaking from his dreams.  The similarities are many, perhaps the strongest being the idea of entombment.  Madeline spends weeks entombed in a vault within the same house that her brother lives in, struggling to the moment of her death trying to escape.  When she does, she and her brother both sink into the surrounding swampy tarn, as if swallowed whole.  The same has happened to Joe Bush; swallowed whole by the swampy surrounding waters, pulled under, and entombed there.

Each time I ask a question about the relevance of something within the story of Skeleton Creek it only seems to spark another question or lead to a different train of thought.  Reading “The Fall of the House of Usher” made me question the importance of the password itself, but now I’m beginning to question the characters.  Is Ryan just a different form of Roderick, victim to a deep level of paranoia, so intensely schizophrenic that most of us couldn’t begin to understand?  Roderick shows us his true colors and cruel intentions when his sister Madeline is released from the vault.  He was a crazed, sick man who lied and buried his sister alive.  Are we to assume that Ryan is capable of the same psychosomatically perverse deeds that Roderick has shown?  These questions only seem to lead to more questions.  Is Ryan capable of telling the truth?  What is this journal to him?  To most, a journal is a mirror, reflecting the author’s thoughts verbatim, in perfection translation from mind to pen to paper.  However, a journal belonging to a person capable of murder and deceit would just as easily be able to lie to one’s self, the journal reflecting only superficial thoughts, reflecting only the things that someone would want others to see in them.  I think Ted Bundy would agree with me on this one.

At some point, you have to question Ryan’s motivation and his ability to even tell the truth.  As the reader, you are tempted to believe Ryan and believe in Ryan because he is narrating, but be careful not to let that lead you into some false pretense.  At this point, we really know very little about him and what makes him tick and I think that is what ‘houseofusher’ warns us about.

It seems to me that the mention of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is more than a random literary reference picked out by the author, but is instead an intense foreshadowing of what is to come.  From this password alone we are able to infer so much about the possibilities within the story and the characters.  Confused?  Good, you should be.  Someone obviously put a lot of thought into all this to confuse you, for you to ask the kinds of questions that make you uncomfortable.  We’ll see if that is the case with any of the other passwords, but I can confidently say that these references add an entire additional layer to Skeleton Creek’s story.