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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2020 5:26:48 GMT
Paul Corupe & Kier-la Janisse [eds.] - Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (Fab Press, 2018: originally Spectacular Optical, 2015) Adam Parfrey - Foreword: Meeting Satan and his Family Kier-La Janisse - Introduction
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas - “The Only Word In The World Is Mine”: Remembering ‘Michelle Remembers’ Alison Nastasi - The Unholy Passion: Sex and Gender Anxiety in Russ Martin's Erotic Horror Paperbacks Gavin Baddeley - Dicing with the Devil: The Crusade against Gaming Paul Corupe - 20-sided Sins: How Jack T. Chick was drawn into the RPG War Joshua Benjamin Graham - Masters of the Imagination: Fundamentalist Readings of the Occult in Cartoons of the 1980s Kevin L. Ferguson - Devil on the Line: Technology and the Satanic Film Leslie Hatton - All Hail the Acid King: The Ricky Kasso case in Popular Culture Alison Lang - “What about these 10,000 Souls, Buster?” Geraldo's Devil Worship Special Liisa Ladouceur - The Filthy 15: When Venom and King Diamond met the Washington Wives Stacy Rusnak - Scapegoat of a Nation: The Demonization of MTV and the Music Video Samm Deighan - Trick or Treat: Heavy Metal and Devil Worship in ’80s Cult Cinema David Bertrand - Stealing the Devil's Music: The Rise of Christian Metal and Punk Wm. Conley - The Tracking of Evil: Home Video and the Proliferation of Satanic Panic Forrest Jackson - Bedeviling Bob: Pranking “Talk Back with Bob Larson” David Canfield - Confessions of a Creature Feature Preacher: Or, How I Learned to Stop worrying about Satanism and love Mike Warnke Ralph Elawani & Gil Nault - Bouc Emissaire: Manifestations of Satanic Anxiety in Quebec Alexandra Heller-Nicholas - The Devil Down Under: Satanic Panic in Australia, from Rosaleen Norton to 'Alison's Birthday' David Flint - Guiltless: Britain's Moral Panics, Satanic Hysteria and the Strange Case of Genesis P-Orridge Adrian Mack - False history Syndrome: HBO’s ‘Indictment: The McMartin Trial’ Kurt Halfyard - End of the ’80s: Paranoia as Comic Catharsis in Joe Dante's ‘The ‘Burbs’ Blurb: In the 1980s, everywhere you turned there were warnings about a widespread evil conspiracy to indoctrinate the vulnerable through the media they consumed. This percolating cultural hysteria - now known as the "Satanic Panic" - was both illuminated and propagated through every pop culture pathway in the 1980s, from heavy metal music to Dungeons & Dragons role playing games, Christian comics, direct-to-VHS scare films, pulp paperbacks, Saturday morning cartoons and TV talk shows - and created its own fascinating fascinating cultural legacy of Satan-battling VHS tapes, music and literature. From con artists to pranksters and moralists to martyrs, Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s aims to capture the untold story of how the Satanic Panic was fought on the pop culture frontlines and the serious consequences it had for many involved.Current non-fiction title on the go and strong best-read-of-2020 contender is this 368 page, judiciously illustrated anthology of essays exploring a modern outbreak of mass hysteria - The 'Ritual Satanic Abuse,' and 'recovered memory' panics which spanned a decade. For those who lived through it, truly this is the stuff of the most nauseating "You know you're in the 'Eighties, when ...." nostalgia. Michelle Remembers and the beginnings of the 'Satanic Survivor' industry ... Dungeons and Dragons ... Tipper Gore's "Filthy Fifteen": is Cyndi Lauper the Goat of Mendes? ... Blasphemous Rumours ... "Support THE MAJORITY for Musical Morality" ... Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters .... Backward masking .... Turmoil in the Toybox! ...Take the Ricky Kasso corpse tour ... Parental Advisory: Explicit Content ... He-Man: Master of the Universe or Pagan procurer of children? ... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - servants of the Illuminati ... Geraldo Rivera's Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground and the BBC's transmission of "genuine Satanic Ritual footage" during the outrageous Dispatches documentary, Beyond Belief. It's easy to take the piss and, while several of these articles make for grimly hilarious reading, the more terrifying entries (as when Adrian Mack posits that an insistence on seeing "Satanism" where there was none so hamstrung a trial it may ultimately have resulted in child abusers walking free) serve to remind that these so very enlightened times we live in, are, too often, anything but, and scapegoating never falls out of fashion. It's just the targets change. Jack Chick Angels?, 1994. "They started as a "Christian" rock group, and became slaves to rock. But Tom found that Jesus could set him free! "
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 7, 2020 11:16:34 GMT
Current non-fiction title on the go and strong best-read-of-2020 contender is this 368 page, judiciously illustrated anthology of essays exploring a modern outbreak of mass hysteria - The 'Ritual Satanic Abuse,' and 'recovered memory' panics which spanned a decade. For those who lived through it, truly this is the stuff of the most nauseating "You know you're in the 'Eighties, when ...." nostalgia. Michelle Remembers and the beginnings of the 'Satanic Survivor' industry ... Dungeons and Dragons ... Tipper Gore's "Filthy Fifteen": is Cyndi Lauper the Goat of Mendes? ... Blasphemous Rumours ... "Support THE MAJORITY for Musical Morality" ... Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters .... Backward masking .... Turmoil in the Toybox! ...Take the Ricky Kasso corpse tour ... Parental Advisory: Explicit Content ... He-Man: Master of the Universe or Pagan procurer of children? ... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - servants of the Illuminati ... Geraldo Rivera's Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground and the BBC's transmission of "genuine Satanic Ritual footage" during the outrageous Dispatches documentary, Beyond Belief. It's easy to take the piss and, while several of these articles make for grimly hilarious reading, the more terrifying entries (as when Adrian Mack posits that an insistence on seeing "Satanism" where there was none so hamstrung a trial it may ultimately have resulted in child abusers walking free) serve to remind that these so very enlightened times we live in, are, too often, anything but, and scapegoating never falls out of fashion. It's just the targets change. This looks fascinating! I'm especially intrigued by the chapters on D&D and heavy metal.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 7, 2020 16:43:21 GMT
The whole cultural complex of the "Satanic panic" destroyed so many people's lives during the time of the 1980s and 1990s... a lot of it was the mediaeval Witch-hunt motif come back just as insidious and insatiably bloodthirsty as it had been hundreds of years back in the past.
H.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2020 18:51:17 GMT
This looks fascinating! I'm especially intrigued by the chapters on D&D and heavy metal. The editors claim to have attempted something even-handed - I believe them, although it's unlikely Evangelical Alliance types would see it that way. The anthology approach suits. Should an entry fall a little flat, there's sure to be something more of interest along shortly. Will Errickson and Andrew Nette each receive a credit for providing cover scans, and I'd not be at all surprised if Grady Hendrix consulted a copy while researching the much admired Paperbacks from Hell. The Dungeons & Dragons piece is among personal pick of the articles. The Metal/ MTV content also very good. 'The Filthy 15' listing is bizarre as it seems random and self-defeating as the 'Parental Advisory' stickers ("perhaps the greatest promotional tool for marketing music to underage buyers the record companies could ever have dreamed of.") Goth doesn't get a look in - guess it was more of an English thing just then. David Flint is excellent on the persecution of Genesis P-Orridge - the late TG/ PTV icon emerges as a person whose altruism was a whole lot more in keeping with the Christian message than the slags who cynically misrepresented footage from a TOPY video in the Dispatches exposé. Most provocative - and upsetting - piece is Adrian Mack's reexamination of McMartin Pre-School trial. The chapter on the Australian witchy scene brought back fond memories of friend James' round-up of sensationalist Kings Cross paperbacks & Co in The Sleazy Reader.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2020 18:59:47 GMT
The whole cultural complex of the "Satanic panic" destroyed so many people's lives during the time of the 1980s and 1990s... a lot of it was the mediaeval Witch-hunt motif come back just as insidious and insatiably bloodthirsty as it had been hundreds of years back in the past. H. I only ever had John Parker's At The Heart of Darkness as a library loan, but fortunately, took photocopies of certain chapters struck me as the most affecting. This quote is a fine example.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 7, 2020 19:18:10 GMT
The whole cultural complex of the "Satanic panic" destroyed so many people's lives during the time of the 1980s and 1990s... a lot of it was the mediaeval Witch-hunt motif come back just as insidious and insatiably bloodthirsty as it had been hundreds of years back in the past. H. I only ever had John Parker's At The Heart of Darkness as a library loan, but fortunately, took photocopies of certain chapters struck me as the most affecting. This quote is a fine example. The truly remarkable thing here is that a book from 1983 was able to predict conditions in 1992!
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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2020 19:31:10 GMT
Sorry! My mistake - have corrected it in original post.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 7, 2020 19:33:54 GMT
Sorry! My mistake - have corrected it in original post. Oh.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 9, 2020 17:54:30 GMT
The editors claim to have attempted something even-handed - I believe them, although it's unlikely Evangelical Alliance types would see it that way. The anthology approach suits. Should an entry fall a little flat, there's sure to be something more of interest along shortly. Will Errickson and Andrew Nette each receive a credit for providing cover scans, and I'd not be at all surprised if Grady Hendrix consulted a copy while researching the much admired Paperbacks from Hell. The Dungeons & Dragons piece is among personal pick of the articles. The Metal/ MTV content also very good. 'The Filthy 15' listing is bizarre as it seems random and self-defeating as the 'Parental Advisory' stickers ("perhaps the greatest promotional tool for marketing music to underage buyers the record companies could ever have dreamed of.") Goth doesn't get a look in - guess it was more of an English thing just then. David Flint is excellent on the persecution of Genesis P-Orridge - the late TG/ PTV icon emerges as a person whose altruism was a whole lot more in keeping with the Christian message than the slags who cynically misrepresented footage from a TOPY video in the Dispatches exposé. Most provocative - and upsetting - piece is Adrian Mack's reexamination of McMartin Pre-School trial. The chapter on the Australian witchy scene brought back fond memories of friend James' round-up of sensationalist Kings Cross paperbacks & Co in The Sleazy Reader. My copy arrived today, and it would be worth it just for the photographs. The articles I've glanced at have all been interesting, too. In addition to the pair of D&D chapters (one focused on Jack Chick's infamous "Dark Dungeons" comic) and the heavy metal ones, I'm looking forward to reading more of the chapter on children's cartoons and the one on Christian metal (a scene I know too much about: some of my friends from back in the day were devotees, and the woman who cuts my hair is still a big Stryper fan).
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Post by dem bones on Aug 10, 2020 8:40:46 GMT
My copy arrived today, and it would be worth it just for the photographs. The articles I've glanced at have all been interesting, too. In addition to the pair of D&D chapters (one focused on Jack Chick's infamous "Dark Dungeons" comic) and the heavy metal ones, I'm looking forward to reading more of the chapter on children's cartoons and the one on Christian metal (a scene I know too much about: some of my friends from back in the day were devotees, and the woman who cuts my hair is still a big Stryper fan). Hope you find it worthwhile, Mr. B! Not sure I ever heard any white metal acts, but can only admire their dedication (the real deal in particular). If David Bertrand is correct, Christian metalheads and punks are onto a hiding to nothing, despised by both the devil horns hard core and the Christian Right, who see all this heathen jungle beat stuff as much of a sinful muchness. Have a copy of at least one Jack Chick original, You Goofed. It still reads like something nightmared up by John Quel's delightful Hoax fanzine. There was a brief attempt at a Satanic Abuse revival in the wake of the Jimmy Savile revelations. Sample story. Further front page revelations would follow. Beyond Belief: Sicko Savile had sex with dead bodies & made rings out of eyes. ( Daily Star, 27 June 2014) SHOCK NHS SAVILE REPORT. CHILD KILLER? Police probing claim perv DJ was involved in death of care home girl He stole false eyes from dead people and made them into rings Beast boasted of having sex with corpses on visits to hospital morgue 103 victims age 5 to 75 ... and he was still abusing when he was 82 ( Daily Mirror, 27 June 2014). To be fair, the necrophilia allegations had been doing the rounds for years. Dr. Valerie Sinason's books include Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse (1994), so not what you could call a disinterested party. The big question is: was any of this stuff ever proved?
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Post by helrunar on Aug 11, 2020 12:39:39 GMT
Quote from Valerie Sinason's Wikipedia entry:
In 1994, Sinason edited a collection of essays entitled Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse that claimed satanic ritual abuse existed in the United Kingdom and that she had treated victims.[3] Satanic ritual abuse is now considered to be a moral panic.[4] Despite this and a three-year Department of Health inquiry by the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine into 84 alleged cases of ritual abuse that found no evidence to support such claims,[5] Sinason claimed in 2001 and 2002 she had clinical evidence for the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the United Kingdom.[6] Her own report on the topic, prepared with colleague Robert Hale, was funded as a pilot study by the Department of Health.[7] It was released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act,[8] and the Department of Health stated in response to an inquiry by a reporter that they do not believe the Sinason-Hale report rendered LaFontaine's report invalid.[9] LaFontaine commented on the story saying "It is not surprising to me that patients who are having treatment by Valerie Sinason would produce stories that echo such topical issues as the recent trial for receiving internet pornography and the publicity for the film Hannibal. There is good research that shows the "memories" of abuse are produced in and by the therapy."[9]
Given the above, I would seriously doubt that any objective proof exists outside Sinason's own files regarding Savile's activities as some sort of Satanic porno-Pope (perhaps that phrase featured in a subsequent tabloid expose in one of these publcations).
H.
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Post by samdawson on Aug 11, 2020 16:14:31 GMT
Private Eye has spent years challenging Sinason and demolishing her claims, in a way that you would hope a mainstream paper would have.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 11, 2020 16:29:21 GMT
Quote from Valerie Sinason's Wikipedia entry: In 1994, Sinason edited a collection of essays entitled Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse that claimed satanic ritual abuse existed in the United Kingdom and that she had treated victims.[3] Satanic ritual abuse is now considered to be a moral panic.[4] Despite this and a three-year Department of Health inquiry by the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine into 84 alleged cases of ritual abuse that found no evidence to support such claims,[5] Sinason claimed in 2001 and 2002 she had clinical evidence for the widespread practice of satanic ritual abuse in the United Kingdom.[6] Her own report on the topic, prepared with colleague Robert Hale, was funded as a pilot study by the Department of Health.[7] It was released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act,[8] and the Department of Health stated in response to an inquiry by a reporter that they do not believe the Sinason-Hale report rendered LaFontaine's report invalid.[9] LaFontaine commented on the story saying "It is not surprising to me that patients who are having treatment by Valerie Sinason would produce stories that echo such topical issues as the recent trial for receiving internet pornography and the publicity for the film Hannibal. There is good research that shows the "memories" of abuse are produced in and by the therapy."[9]Given the above, I would seriously doubt that any objective proof exists outside Sinason's own files regarding Savile's activities as some sort of Satanic porno-Pope (perhaps that phrase featured in a subsequent tabloid expose in one of these publcations). H. Far as I know, it was only the Mail who ran the story. I guess the rest of the media were wary of being burned twice, having aggressively backed the wrong horse throughout the 'eighties 'Ritual Child Abuse'-Recovered Memory witch-trials. Besides, the "necrophilia" allegations made Sinason's tired "are you living next door to imaginary child-murdering Satanists?" routine seem so last century. It was as if she were unable to accept that Sir Jimmy Savile, OBE, could be a serial abuser of children/ OAP's/ psychiatric patients/ corpse and not be a Devil-worshiper. Though again, I'm still none the wiser as to what, if anything, he was actually found guilty of (and please don't quote Wikipedia at me or I'll scream). On a lighter note, my 'wants list' is now at its all time most lunatic as a direct result of reading this bloody book.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 11, 2020 17:33:36 GMT
Talking of Witch Trials, it's fascinating to me how health care "professionals" such as Sinason repeated the behavior of church Inquisition officers with an uncanny degree of exactitude in how they collected "evidence" from their targets. Seems pretty clear that there were specific narratives that were prompted, sought and confirmed through carefully guided interrogative protocols... the only difference was that in the 1980s and 90s it was called therapy, not torture. Obviously the differences went beyond the semantic, but recalling some film footage I have seen here and there over the years, it may have been a somewhat thin line. Shuddering...
I've only heard really weird little echoes and snapshots of the Jimmy Savile scandal over here. I'd never heard of him until I started looking at some UK video material from the 1960s thirty some years on in the late 1990s--he showed up in footage I saw at a friend's home, hosting some kind of NME year end awards gala at which various big names performed in '64 or '65. I thought "who the hell IS that freak" but never really bothered to investigate because he just did not seem all that interesting. Awful about the victims but he seems to have been safely dead by the time anybody came forward, unless Sinason published what her clients said about him back in the early 1990s.
So many lives were destroyed in the Satanic Panic fallout... I think even today how much truth there was in various scandals and court cases remains obscure. It produced a lot of wildly campy material such as that Fail thing but it's hard for me, personally, to enjoy looking through all that stuff.
H.
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Post by pulphack on Aug 11, 2020 19:30:26 GMT
Ah Steve, don't confuse the Satanic child abuse crap with Saville (easy to do when it's another country). I kn ew someone who had a breakdown on the early 90's and was convinced they had been abused and wondered why they hadn't remembered... until they started digging aftre a little prompting from a Fortean Times article. There was a lot of crap said by therapists who were making a lot of money from it...
As for Saville - my first wife was in Stoke Mandeville hospital in the 70's as a kid when Saville was always on TV there doing his 'good works'. The patients would mostly run a mile from him, nd the rumours about necrophilia started there as he did have access to the morgue via a porter who seemed to have similar interests. Before meeting her, I was at a party in the early 80's where I met a cameraman at the BBC who said they had a little saying - 'if it's under five, Jim'll fuck it'. As in Jim'll Fix It, his hit TV show. There were always stories, and people ask why no-one said anything. Well, because the victims weren't listened to, those who knew something was going on did not have concrete proof (these days he'd be outed by smart phone in an instant) and he also had powerful friends. He once said he spent Xmas at No10 wiht the Thatchers and was laughed at - when the cabinet papers were released thrity years later, turns out he was telling the truth. He made a lot of money for good causes, and this gave him power and access. He was a sly one.
Most abuse stuff - like the Carl Beech stuff - is delusional crap. But Saville was unfortunately the real deal.
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