The legend of Haunchyville is florid and violent, like a half-remembered synopsis of Tod Browning's Freaks. A group of little people are employed by the circus. Their boss is an abusive prick. When they've had enough, they kill him by cutting off his arms and legs. Then they make their own settlement in Wisconsin's Waukesha County. An albino child visits the town and they take him in. He becomes their guardian, a deadly one if needs be.
Stories like this, even warnings like "Here be dragons", individualize the world. They make it possible to believe that more than one kind of place exists.
A writer on his second professional trip to the part of Wisconsin where all this was supposed to have happened found a disappointing sequel:
Returning to the site on a bright and clear early afternoon five years later, I find my old fears confirmed: what was once a tantalizingly wild and undeveloped area—perfect for a colony of vindictive little people!—is now an upscale and bland subdivision. Pre-fab houses dot the bulldozed landscape. Front lawns the size of golf courses stretch on for miles.
The word for this is "Empire". Power expands far from where it was before, and reshapes its new settings in the image of the one it just left.
But empire can't expand forever. Eventually the new logos fall off and the land is in new hands.
1 comment:
I salute you for finding a reference to Haunchyville, a story and a place I've never heard of previously. I agree that we need to know there are wild and inexplicable places on Earth. The story about Haunchyville is particularly weird as it described a place I'd be reluctant to visit.
There are any number of weird and somewhat macabre spots in England as you won't be surprised to learn. One of the strangest that I remember hearing about was the Culloden Battlefield in Scotland. The battle happened in 1746 when the Jacobite army led by Bonnie Prince Charlie was massacred by British goverment troops. The battlefield is widely understood to be haunted with many visitors describing strange sights and sounds. The one that struck me most was hearing about a pair of walkers who happened to be near the battlefield on the anniversary of the fight when they found themselves surrounded by ghostly armies battling to the death. After some minutes had passed the vision ended.
I don't think anyone has attempted to build a subdivision in the area but it's likely true life wouldn't be very tranquil for anyone who moved in. I can easily envision the neighborhood you described as being foisted on the land. But things can and do change over the course of time but a remnant of the stories will persist when the empire is gone.
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