Well, this is pretty high on the list of questions I never thought I'd ask

[lesbiassparrow]

So, I am teaching a class on necromancy in the classical world. (It's not an entire semester/quarter, just one class out of many on a related topic (magic)). But I realized that while I am pretty okay on the classical material I can't really think of any really good/famous necromantic (?) scenes in modern literature/films/tv. Any suggestions? I'm really looking for scenes of making the dead walk or speak via magic rather than vampires/zombies/assorted other beings that rise from the dead as part of their unnatural existence.

ETA: Or I'd take anything weird involving the dead that involves getting a prophecy. Which is why you bring back the dead in Rome rather than for other reasons.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Dresden Files had some of that.

*thinks*

Uhm...all I got. I'll have to think to give you specific examples, though.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking that surely I've seen something but I can remember anything specific.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

In Dresden Files, one of the main characters is a ghost who was bound to his own skull for eternity(I GET TO SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!) for practicing necromancy. The main character's uncle was a necromancer, and since he raised Harry, Harry is always Under Suspicion by the other wizards.

For storylines:

There's a female necromancer and her partner...they have an insurance scam going where the partner gets married, they off hubby, then partner dies, necromancer collects money, resurrects partner, and off they go tothe next guy.

There's one story where a guy jumps bodies to escape death, using black magic.

There's a corrupt cop who buys himself extra lives by "giving" his own deaths to to former criminals who got a second chance.

At one point, the uncle comes back to life...kinda. He created a duplicate/clone/thing that exists to resurrect him. He resurrects the ghost to win his partnership, and plans to put the uncle's original soul in Harry's body.

And, without rewatching, that's all I got.

[morwen_peredhil]

Doesn't Ged unleash serious badness while attempting to speak with a long-dead princess in A Wizard of Earthsea? I haven't read those since I was a kid, but I vaguely remember something like that.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I've never read it sadly, so I can say if that's the case or not. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Torchwood has the whole Resurrection Glove thing: bring back the dead for a few minutes so they can tell you who killed them. Not exactly 'magic', but not exactly 'skience' either.

Then there's the Buffy S7 business of the First appearing in the form of dead people, in order to be scary and make people do evil deeds. Not literal corpse-possession, but sort of the same idea?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

OOOh, I missed the Resurrection Glove thing on Torchwood. And I'd completely forgotten about the Buffy stuff. Thank you!

[ancarett]

Well, if you like gaming, there are necromancers in games such as "Everquest", "Guild Wars" or "Diablo" who animate skeletons to fight on their behalf.

I'm geeky. I know.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I remember the Necromancers from Diablo from my lost summer of computer gaming when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation. Happy times!

[ancarett]

Yeah, I've had spells like that with my gaming!

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

So my mind immediately went to Weekend at Bernie's II. God, I have no class.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Is there really a Weekend at Bernie's II? I am a little scared to know the answer to that one...

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

Indeed, there was. It's...about as good as you'd expect. Which is to say it's utter crap.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

What about Pushing Daisies? Or maybe even Tru Calling. And in the first Laurell K. Hamilton, before the books became all about teh sex, doesn't Anita raise the dead to ask them questions about various things?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Those are excellent. I did think of Pushing Daisies but I couldn't think so much if that's about manipulating the dead to see the future as letting the dead tell stories they want to.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I only saw one ep, so I'm no expert, but don't they tell him who killed them so he can bring the murderer to justice? Which sort of changes the future, if they would have gotten away with it otherwise.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

That's true. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that some more.

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

This is going to drive me crazy because nothing specific comes to mind! But I bet there's tons of New Orleans folklore/stories that deal with it--somewhere in the continuum between vodoo and zombies must be prophecies with the dead, right?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

You would think there would be tons, wouldn't you? And there should be stuff that easily comes to mind but I think we don't use/think of the dead that way as much, maybe?

[lage-nom-ai.livejournal.com]

For me, it's really a sad commentary on how my reading/viewing habits changed over grad school and the job. I used to read tons of sf/f and watch every cheesy genre movies, but in the last 6 years that's just dropped off substantially... too much reading for my diss or to be "current" in related fields, so nothing comes to mind. When I was a kind of geeky 15 I could have nailed this question for you. :D

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

I am almost tempted to say one of the versions of Frankenstien but I can't put my finger on which one.

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

The wench recommends Harry Potter and the web comic Dominic Deegan and I think some of Constantine graphic novel might apply.

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

Husband says Sabriel, Abhorsen series from Garth Nix.

[oxymoronassoc.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that series! They're all about a Necromancer.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Oh! I thought you would like to know I got 'Sunshine' and 'Dead until Dark' from Amazon today.

[oxymoronassoc.livejournal.com]

OMG yey! Let me know if you like either of them!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to the both of them but it might be a bit before I get to them so don't take internet silence about them as disapproval!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I haven't read any of them except the Harry Potter so it's great to know about the rest. (And I'd totally forgotten about Harry Potter.)

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

There's a scene in the Sandman comics (the graphic novel volume is A Game of You) where a witch cuts off a dead man's face, nails it to a wall and uses magic to make it speak.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I wish I could get a scan of that. Ah well, given that none of them had even seen things like Pushing Daisies, my search for modern references was a bit in vain.

Thanks so much for the suggestion, though; another time I'll look for the comic.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Here you go, apologies for the slantiness of the scan:

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Thank you!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean for you to have to go to all that trouble, but thank you so much!

Re: Thank you!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

No trouble, hope it's of some use!

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

How about the Bruce Willis / Meryl Streep / Goldie Hawn black comedy from the 90s, Death Becomes Her? Streep and Hawn's characters are lovers feuding over Willis, a weak-willed and weedy plastic surgeon. They use magic to give themselves eternal youth and beauty. Then both get killed and find that the downside of the magic is that they can't die properly - they just keep existing in deteriorating bodies.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I remember that! Next time I'm going to do a better search of clips, images involving the dead and magic.

Sadly, my class and I ended up coming to the conclusion that outside of zombies eating our brains or vampires we're surprisingly not that interested in the dead coming back to life. A shocking slip in standard, I call it.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

A trilogy by Garth Nix - "Sabriel", "Lirael" and "Abhorsen" is most excellent. All up your street - all about necromancy, prophecies and all such things.

Amazon link :http://www.amazon.com/Sabriel-Abhorsen-Trilogy-Garth-Nix/dp/0060273224

Shortly, (Amazon Editorial review): Garth Nix delves deep into the mystical underworld of necromancy, magic, and the monstrous undead. This tale is not for the faint of heart; embedded in the classic good-versus-evil story line are subplots of grisly ghouls hungry for human life to perpetuate their stay in the world of the living, and dark, devastating secrets of betrayal and loss.

I lurved it , much more than Pullman's trilogy (which I liked too at the time).

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention Garth Nix - aren't they wonderful? And it's specifically ABOUT necromancy (and I too love these books much more than Pullman!)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion! I think if I ever do this class again I'll spend longer thinking about the modern end of things and this book will go on the 'research' end.

[ysrith.livejournal.com]

Dare I even mention the Evil that is Laurell K Hamilton and the Anita Blake series. Anita is an officially licensed Necromancer. And given that this drivel sells like hot-cakes and has even hit comic-book format, it is quite possible that people in your class will have read it.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

They Were all shockingly impervious to things of this sort, I found! None of them had read/seen anything I suggested though they'd read/seen other horror. As a class they decided that the things that scared them were other real people in films and not the dead telling you the future. Or even coming to get you.