Me and my Dolls

[ellen_datlow]

Sherry Austin has a blog called Strangeness and decided to interview me about my doll collection. Which reminds me that I need to do some more photographing of them.


WEIRD STUFF: A Conversation with Ellen Datlow--Editor, Anthologist, and Weird Doll Collector

Comments

[doortoriver.livejournal.com]

Woohoo dolls! Mine are a lot less interesting than yours, but it's good to see another collector. :D

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Are you some of yours on the web?

[doortoriver.livejournal.com]

Ahh, and to think, I just took the "photostories" down! However, you can at least see headshots here: http://doortoriver.com/dolls/

I'm trying very hard to stick to one size for ease of clothing-swap. :)

[perishtwice.livejournal.com]

Chimney Sweeps is adorable. =)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Isn't he?

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you collected dolls! Me too! Ironically, whenever I post my antique/reproduction Bleuette etc dolls, everyone thinks they're creepy...but when I post the demon and/or satyr baby dolls that I make, everyone loves them! Go figure! lol.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You gotta give me your url for the demon/satyr baby dolls. Now I'm curious.

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

Fearzone did an article on them awhile ago:
http://www.fearzone.com/gallery/curse-of-the-doll-woman

I've got a new mold and might do a handful of vampire dolls this summer. I sold all the red demons, flesh demons, satyrs, and all the aliens but 1.

They're a LOT of work though! I think I liked the satyrs best, they were fun to make.

[perishtwice.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see the satyr baby dolls too! I googled...are they these?

Baby satyrs for adoption (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pics.livejournal.com/angelinehawkes/pic/0004etfs/s320x240&imgrefurl=http://angelinehawkes.livejournal.com/tag/mythology&usg=__5oNf50sE7vY2S1Abt46sNfdLK5Q=&h=240&w=319&sz=19&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=DYNK_ePP2Jp9KM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsatyr%2Bbaby%2Bdoll%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DVRU%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1)

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

Yes, those were mine :) Sold pretty fast. I used real goat pelts on their lower halves...I think the next time I make them I might experiment with a different type of pelt at the sacrifice of the actual goat-ness...but the goat pelts seemed to sew up stiffer than I wanted.

[neojess.livejournal.com]

There seems to be more than a few of us here who collect dolls and figures. I have both a collection of stuffed rabbits - there's something about the eyes - and I've been starting to get customizable dolls (Asian Ball-Joint dolls, and a few others) just because I like the idea of playing with the parts.

I've learned that many people really do have doll-phobia (pediophobia) - once you realize it, it's kind of neat to go back and see how some older horror and dark fantasy stories play on that.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, thanks to BJDs, I learned that some people even have Omukae (http://www.winter-light.net/Victorian/2007/05/omukae-ceremony.html) ceremonies for their dolls. There're some interesting dynamics going on in our relationships to effigies!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I actually think I love my baby doll heads the best--with and without eyes --is that too weird? Did you see the rabbit doll/sculpture that my friends Mikey and Richard gave me?

I'm very much hoping to edit a doll horror antho at some point.

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

A doll horror antho would be awesome. I've only written 2 dealing with dolls...wanted to write more but dolls and cats seem to be a hard sell these days with editors...maybe it was due to the proliferation of creepy doll and/or cat stories in the 80s? I missed that era of publishing for the most part [literary mags aside] as I was still in my teens. Oh, to have been born a decade earlier! lol.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

"I've learned that many people really do have doll-phobia (pediophobia) - once you realize it, it's kind of neat to go back and see how some older horror and dark fantasy stories play on that."

If any of my childhood friends developed that, it's probably my fault for telling scary sleepover stories, and/or owning some semi-creepy collectible dolls. ;)

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

I had dolls that I made creepy and none of my friends wanted to play with. There was skipper with the shaved head who was "concentration camp skipper", I was morbid as crap....then there was the barbie whose head refused to stay on who got transformed into sometimes Mary Queen of Scots and other times, Marie Antoinette.

Then I had a whole slew of 666 forehead "tribulation" barbies...they also met their demise on the same popsicle-stick guillotine that the above loose-headed barbie died 1000 deaths upon. lol.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

You sound like you were a cool kid. Weird, but cool. ;)

My Barbies drove Tonka trucks, and went all Godzilla on tiny toy cars. I was also pretty weird.

[angelinehawkes.livejournal.com]

ooooo, Godzilla...never thought of that one!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

If you're interested in a mostly-cloth doll/figure on a stand from the Philippines, Cricket, or Coleco Cabbage Patch kids, let me know. I'm looking to get rid of what I don't need or really, really want to own, and prefer them to go to a good home over eBay, but probably will host a virtual yard sale in the near future.

[morbidloren.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you so much for the link to this interview and to your pictures! You've inspired me to photograph my own dolls. The newest one is from October Effigies (http://www.octobereffigies.com/Gallery/pages/anni.htm), but I just had repairs done on a Colombian folk doll my aunt gave me 40 years ago. Thanks to your example, I can come out as a collector of creepy dolls. :-)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Some neat dolls there--I like the poison dolls.
You're very welcome!
Btw, did you find a roomie yet for those two days?

[morbidloren.livejournal.com]

No roommate yet. I just don't know that many women going to the Stoker weekend. Or most of the women I do know live down there... Did you find someone?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

No one for all three days so if you want to share those two days I guess we can--Friday and Saturday? Email me and we can arrange--I haven't made my hotel reservation yet.

[rick1844.livejournal.com]

You do have a very strong collection - lots of it is stuff I'd never seen before. One wierdness with dolls is that voodoo or fetish figures are no stranger really than ones intended as toys for kids. The one I'm using as my icon was a commercial toy product.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I'm so proud that I have items you've never seen before :-)

[sherryaustin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your time, Ellen!

[inf-matrix.livejournal.com]

Hey, Ellen! Great interview, great photos. Must visit Sherry's blog now.

I have to say that you plucked all the best kokeshi right off the shelves while I was still wondering if I really _needed_ kokeshi....

Eileen

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I apologize--you inspired me to buy them.

[inf-matrix.livejournal.com]

No apology necessary. It was inspiring to see a professional at work.

[inf-matrix.livejournal.com]

A professional shopper, of course.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I knew what you meant and I hunger to shop with you again soon :-).
When will we be in the same city again?

[inf-matrix.livejournal.com]

Worldcon? (I think we can do better than that.)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Are you coming east?
I'll be in Kansas City toastmastering Conquest Memorial Day weekend, in Burbank in June for the Stokers, and Readercon before Worldcon...How about you?

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I've just finished reading The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Comma Press), which makes use of an essay by Freud from 1919 setting out his definition of uncanny tropes, that is, “irrational causes of fear deployed in literature.” Those eight tropes are:

1. inanimate objects mistaken as animate (dolls, waxworks, automata, severed limbs etc)
2. animate beings behaving as if inanimate or mechanical (trances, epileptic fits, etc).
3. being blinded
4. the double (twins, doppelgangers, etc)
5. coincidences or repetitions
6. being buried alive
7. some all-controlling evil genius
8. confusions between reality and imagination (waking dreams, etc)

Interestingly, in the anthology no fewer than five of the fourteen stories focus on dolls.

It's a very good original anthology and I highly recommend it.