Welcome to the Magic Numbers

I'm always amazed by how many people tell me they don't like numbers. Numbers, and by extension math, are a major part of our everyday lives. We use math to make purchases at the store, measurements to cook, and to calculate the restaurant tip (if you live in the United States).

You need math and numbers to cook

Numbers don't even have to be math or science related. They are used in music, art, and even literature. Numbers pop up even where the math evasive are least likely to suspect. Their uniqueness creating a language all it's self.

I'm not just being poetic with that last sentence. One of my parents got out of needing a foreign language requirement for their graduate school because math was considered a separate language from English at the time (they had an undergraduate degree in math).

My point is, that numbers have a larger meaning in our lives.

Religions often have significant numbers. The most common numbers in the Bible are one (denotes singleness), three (the Trinity), four (creation), six (man), seven (completeness), twelve (divine completeness), and forty (probation or trials). I am also somewhat familiar with the importance of numbers in Buddhism, paganism, and Wicca.

A five pointed star is significant to witches

Folklore and mythology also often have significant numbers. The "rule of three" is one of the most common, such as accomplishing three tasks to reach a reward (Psyche and Eros, Rumpelstiltskin), having a trio of protagonists (Three Little Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff), or a repeated phrase of three words (veni, vidi, vici). Seven is another number associated with auspicious meaning, such as the seventh son of a seventh son will be able to see spirits or it's association with magic (Harry Potter references this).

There are even numbers people are afraid of.

While 7 is often seen as lucky, 13 is incredibly unlucky (especially if the 13th lands on a Friday). In Japan 4 is associated with death (due to its pronunciation sounding very similar) and is equally avoided. Three sevens might mean heaven, but three sixes are a sign of demons.

Literature is full of numeric symbolism.

A few paragraphs before I mentioned the rule of three and that continues to pop up in modern literature. Three is also seen in the tropes third time's the charm and the power of three (Charmed anyone?). The five man band is a popular team structure, as seen in Avatar the Last Airbender, Voltron, and Power Rangers. These teams include the team lead, the lancer, the smart one, the big guy, and the "heart" (which is usually, but not necessarily, a girl).

We can't escape numbers. They're built into our universe.

There are multiple irrational numbers which occur naturally. Pi and the golden ratio (Fibonacci sequence) show up everywhere, but have decimal places so far out that we usually have to round them two places.  Any time you look at a circle, there's an example of pi, and the golden ratio can be found in flowers, sea shells, and hurricanes (click here to see more examples).

Hey guess what, I just wrote a blog post all about numbers and most of it wasn't even about mouth. Okay, a few of the paragraphs were about math, but a lot weren't.

It's numbers that make the world go round.

The number I am most currently focused on is 100. My goal for this year is to get 100 rejections. If I get 100 rejections, I'll know I have been submitting my writing enough. Writing is hard work and it's even harder to get published. Finding the right fit for a piece of fiction is tough. What one editor might hate, another might love. So, 100 is my number of the year.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Gothic: the Appeal of Darkness

The Gothic genre is filled with tales of mystery, macabre, and dark atemosphere. There are plenty of ghosts, monsters, and victims. Though not exclusively tied to the horror genre, most Gothic tales include elements of horror (as I have written in previous blog posts), but why?

What attracts us to that dark atemosphere?

I can only answer this question for myself. Personally, I find the dark side of life to be just as fascinating and beautiful as the dramatic and comedic, sometimes even more so. However, there’s one element that shines through above all else in Gothic tales and that’s mortality. Horror and Gothic stories bring audiences to the edge of death, whether through tragedy, mayhem, or the supernatural.

Everyone dies - it’s a guarantee of life - but we don’t often like to acknowledge it.

Young people often think they’re invincible, that the seductive hands of death won’t touch them for a long long time. Why should the young worry about death? Yet in the Gothic genre, it is the youth who are often facing the most horrific and tragic of situations. They must confront their mortality before the end of the story...or succumb to it.

I haven’t a clue how older people feel about death. I doubt that there is a collective feeling on the subject. Some might welcome it at the end of their lives, others might continue to fear it. I’d rather think of death as the end of one journey and the start of the other. The older individuals in the Gothic stories I’ve read were occasionally the victims of the younger generation’s ambition, such as in A Tale Tale Heart. There are other older people in these stories who help guide the younger generation, such as Van Helsing in Dracula.

Death is the overly dramatic lurker in these stories. It’s not quiet. Most characters know that it’s around, but not how to avoid it.

But death isn’t the only dark figure lurking around. The more Gothic tales I read, the more I feel like I’m being drawn into a twisted fairy tale. Ghosts, ghouls, and fairies all have the potential to pop up in Gothic tales. Magic, spells, and curses all seem more real in the Gothic setting. If I were to guess why, it would be because the main setting of these tales feels so different from my modern world.

Things weren’t nearly as clean and sterile as they are now. Indoor plumbing wasn’t common until the 1900s. Medical sciences are constantly improving, they feel so much more advanced than a hundred years ago, let alone two hundred. We know so much more now than ever before in human history.

I often feel that our modern world takes some of the mystery out of life, whereas the height of the Gothic period seems so very mysterious by comparison. I don’t know if people in the 1800s felt that way as well. Especially since they would have felt that their society was the panicle of modern science and technology.

Yet, superstitions and interest in the supernatural remain, even to today. People continue to try to spot the paranormal during historical ghost tours in some of the world’s oldest cities and as does the fear of crossing a black cat. Some people might laugh at the idea of witches casting spells in today’s modern world, but witchcraft has grown a large following since the early 1900s. Scientists agree that Earth is billions of years old, but some people are still convinced that the earth is actually flat.

I’m very curious as to how the decades surrounding the new millennia will be remembered. What will people a hundred years from now think about our superstitions and omens. Will they think the vampire craze of the mid 2000s meant that people actually thought vampires were sparkly?

But getting back to the topic at hand...

Darkness doesn’t have to be frightening. It can be a chance to conqure the unknown or hide within its mysterious embrace.

Humans have this uncanny need to be both uniquely special and a member of a group. Understanding the mysteries of the unknown, being able to see in the dark so to speak, can make us feel like we’ve stumbled onto information that is only meant for a select worthy few. It can make someone feel more knowledgeable and thus more powerful.

Sure, embracing the darkness in life can mark you as an outsider, but most people don’t go it alone. They have friends who are also interested in these topics, who want to know these secrets. People form their own group who accept their interests and share in their knowledge.

Regardless, it can be fun to Hear stories about the darker side of life...as long as I don’t live them.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please, like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope,you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.