Just thinking about how Paranorman uses ghosts to represent the loving gestures we hold onto or leave behind. Then it uses zombies to show how hateful acts and systems echo across history to harm people in the present. Then at the center of this is someone who is both/neither spirit or material, wrapped up in shame, spite, and isolation. She has been so maligned that she’s become this flashpoint of internalized self-hatred and violent outbursts toward the world for being so cruel. Is she fighting against the hatred she experienced? Absolutely. But it’s not healing. It’s not transformative. The care that she so needs and desires can barely come close to her because she is afraid it’ll just be more zombies coming to take swipes at her, afraid of what the past holds in its meaty grip. Norman is able to help her because above everyone else, he cherishes the kind memories that remain with us. In having compassion for the monsters, for those who are different, Norman has felt the pain while his father and the kids at school tormented him. But he leaned into and appreciated his few friends, the memories and hidden histories of radically kind acts. And on top of that, he developed an understanding for why others lashed out with prejudice and disdain, so that he never had to personalize their sentiments. Idk. Got me in my feels for this spoopy season.
Fitting critique for the past month’s season.
