Or, as I like to call it “Jurassic
Grizzly.”
This is another quick post for a short novella;
derivative and unusually unique at the same time, the premise behind this tale
is wild!
As several preceding blog posts of mine have
shown, I have a soft spot for certain time-travel tropes in fiction. Rawr takes the idea of a time traveler
to an extreme and wildly unusual degree.
I loved it!
The beast had no way of knowing or understanding that the light in her cave emerged from the random mixture of calcified iron and rhodium deposits that banked the unencumbered solar rays against the center of the planet’s gravitational pull in a medley that bent the speed of time within the cave.[Loc. 76]
§
Eddie Generous’ novella, RAWR, was published on 27 October 2019 by Severed Press. This blog
post considers the Kindle version.
§
There is not much biographical information
available.
Eddie Generous was born in Ontario and now lives
on the Canadian Pacific Coast. A new author on the horror scene, Generous is
also the host of the podcast, Unnerving
and the administrator for the Unnerving
website as well as the founder/editor/publisher of Unnerving Magazine.
§
Before getting into a brief summary and
discussion of Rawr, a brief
exploration of a related topic will prove instructive and is in order. As I
stated in a previous post, one of my favorite sub-genres of horror is the 80s
slasher film. But, a close second to my favorite horror sub-genres is that of
“natural horror.”
The “‘natural horror” sub-genre (also known as
“creature features”) highlights elements of nature that act to threaten (i.e.
eat) humans. In modern times, killer animal movies began in 1975 with Jaws.
§
Rawr opens with an
absolutely enormous example of a short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) resting at
the base of a mountain. For reference, this ancient bear stands over sixteen
feet tall on two legs and weighs in at 3,000 pounds plus! Truly, a colossus!
The image below is a recreation of an
average-sized short-faced bear, about twelve feet tall or so and 1,800 to 2,000
pounds. Not even close to this tale’s beast!
Without preamble, the area is struck by a
powerful earthquake. Terrified, the bear runs into a nearby cave, instinctively
seeking safety in it dark depths. With the shaking only growing in intensity,
the great bear is being thrown and bounced around the cave. Then, due to a
highly unusual combination of mineral deposits in the cave, a strange process
is begun whereby, within the cave, the rate of time is . . . altered. When the
shaking stops and the great bear regains its feet, it is 125,000 years later!
What?!
From this point on, Rawr’s plotline pretty much follows that of Jaws (but on land), and most other natural-horror tales. But in
particular, Rawr follows—almost scene
by scene—the story of the 1976 movie Grizzly.
Building on the Jaws craze and thoroughly panned by critics as a Jaws rip-off, was the 1976 movie Grizzly. I was 10 or 11 years old when I
first saw it at the drive-in with my older brother. It made a profound impression
upon me and, more so than even Jaws, sealed my love of “natural horror” into my
young soul.
§
This quote:
The beast had no way
of knowing or understanding that the light in her cave emerged from the random
mixture of calcified iron and rhodium deposits that banked the unencumbered
solar rays against the center of the planet’s gravitational pull in a medley
that bent the speed of time within the cave.
…is the only mention of time travel and the only
description of the method of time travel in the entire work. What calcified
iron, rhodium, solar rays and gravity
have to do with time travel, I have absolutely no idea. And not being a
chemist or a physicist, or any kind of person blessed with technological skill,
I have absolutely no idea what this means or if it even has any
significance. But it was an evocative
way to describe time travel.
As in nearly each of the time travel stories I
have discussed in previous posts, 11/22/63:
A Novel, The Lincoln Hunters, A Time to Remember and any other time
travel story I may have blogged about, all treat the science or the means of
time travel as a plot device utilized exclusively to get the characters WHEN
they need to be for the story’s sake. The means of time travel is strictly a
means to an end and once that end is achieved, quickly forgotten.
The actual mechanism of time travel is far less
important to the story than getting the creature from the original time to the
destination time. Rawr is no
exception. However, one “little” thing sets this work apart—a time-traveling,
gigantic, prehistoric bear!
§
I have to say it again. The idea of a
time-traveling gigantic, prehistoric bear is freakin’ fantastic! More than any
one thing, that right there is why I picked up this novella. And, as a novella
with limited space for exposition, Rawr
focuses the reader from the get-go onto the bear and the carnage that it
unleashes, satisfying its acquired taste for human flesh. The human characters
are superficial and, for the most part, disposable.
§
For those who adore Jaws and other similar tales
will enjoy Rawr. It successfully
merged the two horror tropes of natural horror and time travel stories. Rawr was violent, gory and a whole lot
of fun!
Good night.
References
Print
Resources
Digital
Resources
Generous,
Eddie. RAWR . Severed Press. 2019.
Kindle Edition. <https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZNCPNWH/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0>
Online
Resources
~.
“Home.” Eddie Generous. Eddie
Generous 2018. Web. 17 November 2019. <https://www.jiffypopandhorror.com/>
~.
“Home.” Blue Rhino Studio. Blue Rhino
Studio, LLC. Web. 28 November 2019. <https://www.rhinocentral.com//>
Wikipedia
contributors. "Short-faced bear." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 06 November 2019.
Web. 28 November 2019. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-faced_bear>
Zeroflash.
“Getting into Writing—An Interview with Eddie Generous of Unnerving Magazine.” Zeroflash. Wordpress.org. 8 December
2017. Web. 4 December 2019. <https://zeroflash.org/2017/12/08/getting-into-writing-an-interview-with-eddie-generous-of-unnerving-magazine/>
