rbadac (June 19, 1999)[See rbadac's commentary on 'The First Sheaf' by H. R. Wakefield online at The Weird Review.]oOo
Robert Suggs (June 21, 1999)
Yessir, Wakefield shows with this grisly little exercise that he knows how to open a story and close it with an unforgettable flourish. With the use of body parts in both cases. Here we have an example of several cherished conventions, all handled expertly. First, there's the Enigmatic Little Town. Newcomers seek to part the veil and discover the village's dark secret--and they wish they hadn't. It's been done over and over with countless variations, and still we love this formula. Then, a sub- category: Gimme That Old Time Religion. REAL Old Time. Arthur Machen does this kind of thing well, and Algernon Blackwood knew his way around Secret Worship. Eleanor Scott did it with Randall's Round, and we can even throw in Ligotti's Last Feast of Harlequin, perhaps his most accessible tale. Hey, why not include Aickman's Ringing the Changes and maybe we'll get the bulk rate. Enigmatic Little Towns with That Old Time Religion--usually some twisted town landmark that goes a bit further than the ol' Maypole. But there's one other enjoyable touch here. Let's call it The Doctor's Awful Revelation. Usually it comes with the last line of the story or thereabouts. There's a dandy one here. I certainly didn't see it coming, which is rare for these pagan ritual stories which have a formula to them. By the time HR produced The Clock Strikes Twelve (7 Escape With Minor Injuries), his very best stories were behind him. By all accounts it was difficult for him to climb out of the bottle long conjure a good tale--but he still had a bit of zap in his fountain pen from time to time. I'm looking forward to the new version of Strayers From Sheol, because the stories from it I've seen are strong, and they indicate some fresh approaches from one of the best ghost story masters of the century.
RoboOo
rbadac (June 22, 1999)
Robert Suggs wrote:(a funny and true encapsulation of the formula this story uses)
> By all accounts it was difficult for
> him to climb out of the bottle long
> conjure a good tale--but he still had a
> bit of zap in his fountain pen from
> time to time.Wakefield was a boozer ?? Whoa. You learn something disillusioning about your heroes every day. SHEOL is indeed cool, and even in its Arkham version the stories seem to lean more in a modern direction, hopefully also acting as a rally from his drinking problem.
'Breach mah levee at yoah peril !'-- W.P. Mayhew
rbadac
oOo
Paul Montelone (June 22, 1999)
>SHEOL is indeed cool, and even in its Arkham version the
> stories seem to lean more in a modern direction, hopefully also acting as a
> rally from his drinking problem.
>
> 'Breach mah levee at yoah peril !'-- W.P. Mayhew
>
> rbadac
I've always been partial to "Ghost Hunt." In fact, I used to regularly read it aloud to my little brothers at bedtime. They loved it.
Paul M.
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 22, 1999)
>Wakefield was a boozer ?? Whoa. You learn something disillusioning about your
>heroes every day. SHEOL is indeed cool, and even in its Arkham version the
>stories seem to lean more in a modern direction, hopefully also acting as a
>rally from his drinking problem.
>
> 'Breach mah levee at yoah peril !'-- W.P. Mayhew
>
>rbadacBreach mah what? Never mind. Barbara Roden has done a superb job introducing the first four Wakefield collections, and managed to compile more biographical details (and one never-printed photo) than probably anyone had assembled before. It would seem Wakefield had a drinking problem that cut down sadly on his production, and was known to skip after a skirt or two besides. As one learns these things, they make sense in the context of some of his stories. Many of them are marked by a certain sour misogyny, such as "Damp Sheets," an Imagine a Man in a Box story I've just read. It's given to the shrew in this tale to be devious and calculating enough to do away with her husband's uncle as a shortcut to his fortune to be left to them. The husband himself is a bit weak and ineffectual, frittering away his life in debts (autobiography?). Of course, she meets a chilling and appropriate end very reminiscent of the later "Triumph of Death" (if I have the title right; Edith Wharton had a similar title, perhaps "Triumph of the Night"). A far better story in the same volume is "Frontier Guards," a welcome Wakefield return to a nasty Queen Anne structure. As one of the characters remarks at the beginning, most of these houses don't actually harm the occupants. Not so with the Red Lodge, the "Blind Man's Buff" residence or the forboding manor in this tale. A psychic (Wakefield, a believer, had a number of spiritually adept characters) has never set foot in this particular house, because the last five or so who have lived there met with very sad little accidents. Perhaps a bit unaccountably, he agrees to accompany a curious friend, who wants one little sniff of a ghost, into the house. And I really, absolutely, postively can't say any more than that. The nasty surprises are the thing. Another short work of perfection, in the mode of "Buff." No dogs named Chunks, either.
RS
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 25, 1999)
[Wakefield's "Lucky Grove"]H.R. Wakefield's The Clock Strikes Twelve is a rather underrated collection, all in all; I think the poor fellow spent the rest of his life trying to measure up to They Return at Evening. One thing that often happens to authors is they spend several years having their best stuff published in magazines here and there, moving heaven and earth to get that first rapturous book contract. Predictably, the resulting book represents years of perspiration in perfecting the craft, set against low expectations for a newcomer. Then, when the praises come in, the delirious author gets a BETTER contract for a quick sophomore effort, which of course is rapidly assembly-line gathered and comes off and perplexes the audience as a mild disappointment (happens to cartoonists, too).
Not that Old Man's Beard is anything like a disappointment. Several classics in there, simply a few indifferent efforts not to be found in the first book. By the time Wakefield produced the British and American versions of Clock, however, he at least knew what he did well and what he did not. What he did too MUCH of, for some readers including H.P. Lovecraft, was insert wry poor-man's-Noel-Coward repartee, with a tart twist. Usually it indicates Wakefield's basic discontent with marriage and the social context around him, and it doesn't always integrate well into the story. If often involves punishing the shrewish wife, though the men are little better (just better tolerated).
"Lucky's Grove" is a nice exception. It's also an exception to Wakefield's usual terse, economical presentation. This story is expansive, nicely paced, and even a bit experimental as it piles on suggestively creepy incidents, all of them physically explicable, before the set-piece climax--rather than banking on one great ghostly event. Contrast and compare with the sublimely creepy "Blind's Man Buff." The character count is sufficient for a small novel. The piling up of ghostly effects suggests Ramsey Campbell, oddly enough, and even Stephen King (in the use of cultural icons, in this case Disney characters that seem oddly lifelike on a Christmas tree).
But what, after all, is this story about? I always forget to give the rbadac-patented (TM) plot summary. A wealthy and powerful grandfather prepares for his Christmas gathering. A large and odd, possibly ancient, tree is cut down and prepared. Some think the tree may once have been the center of pagan worship. It seems to trail something like, once again, "reddened rust" (see "The First Sheaf"). And one worker unfortunately is pricked by a flailing branch. And as children and grandchildren arrive, all sorts of strange things, from supernaturally-messaged gift cards to thermostat abnormalities, begin to crop up in the old manse. What shape do the children find the snowman to have taken? And why do the Big Bad Wolf and the old witch on the tree seem so lifelike? The tree has a bite worse than its bark.
I find this to be a departure for Wakefield, and a fine story. Check it out either in the Ash-Tree release, in Mary Danby's collection Realms of Darkness (1985) or in Richard Dalby's Ghosts at Christmas (1985).
Rob
oOo
rbadac (June 27, 1999)
Arf, arf ! Rob's thrown me a bone ! He KNOWS I like that pagan stuff. Blast you, Chunks, leggo of that... !It's likely the only story you'll read all summer that features Hel, Fenris, and Nidnogg together, and there is something perversely attractive about reading a Christmas story out of season, with one's chestnuts roasting on an open fire, a festive garland of fir tightening around one's neck, and a steaming cup of nidnogg (this may actually be a misprint in my Arkham, as a more correct spelling of the serpent's name that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil would be * Nidhogg*).
Wakefield really does seem more comfortable with the added length, and one wonders why he kept the majority of his ghost stories fairly short (with a few exceptions, such as 'He Cometh And He Passeth By !', most of them don't exceed 5000 words or so). I suspect the Christmas family reunion setting may have had something to do with this, dwelling as he does upon virtually every attendant member. Is he composing a story with possible parallels to one of his own actual family gatherings, or using a multi-character device to help 'spread out' the various supernatural events that converge, well, like trees in the grove around the central malevolent item?
Christmas means Wakefield gets to use children, always an effective way of suggesting evil, viewed through the frank yet uninformed eyes of innocence. The moments with them are arguably the best ones, as they, more so than the adults, seem to 'see' the encroaching representatives of Norse catastrophe in the Disney figures, in the snowman they build (which, fascinatingly, seems to be a hybrid creation), in the strangely vicious weather, and in the tree itself; though the adults have fully their share of baleful visions.
And you can blame the Norwegians for this one, too.
rbadac
oOo
[Not to worry - here is the bit to explain the Norwegians. For the 'Chunks' reference, try rbadac's commentary on "The Recluse" by Walter de la Mare at The Weird Review.]
Christopher Roden (June 22, 1999)
[Ash-Tree Press and Jonathan Aycliffe]Ash-Tree Press is pleased to announce that it will be publishing a new Jonathan Aycliffe novel, THE TALISMAN, at the end of the year.
Full details available in due course.
Christopher Roden
oOo
rbadac (June 23, 1999)
Hot damn ! Good save on the lad's career, Chris and Barb !Bill B., your wish came true. Now there's that small matter of payment we discussed. I don't have to remind you I still have the little moth that is your soul in my pocket handkerchief...
rbadac, and a whiff of sulphur
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 23, 1999)
>Bill B., your wish came true. Now there's that small matter of payment we
>discussed. I don't have to remind you I still have the little moth that is
>your soul in my pocket handkerchief...
>
>rbadac, and a whiff of sulphurVan: Murk zoetenwap
Onderwerp: Who Want to write?
Datum: woensdag 7 april 1999 21:36Maybe this note doesn't arrive in the proper newsgroup AGAIN, so excuse me if i interfere. Please to shoot me. You good writer. You make story of moth and handkerchief. You write serial story with me? You send parts, I put on milk and sugar from fine norwegian farm. You ever make story with norwegian? You write good, I send you helmet with horns. And three cows. Again if i interfere excuse and shoot me. Or make story. Either way I still be norwegian. Life is sad.
Zapf Donkerwink
failed opera characteroOo
William Allison (June 23, 1999)
What about Moose and Squirrel?Bill A.
oOo
[Bill Allison, below, is refering to rbadac's commentary on Elizabeth Bowen's "The Happy Autumn Fields" online at The Weird Review - {trust us, this does come back around to include the Norwegians}]
William Allison (June 23, 1999)
rbadac wrote:-nice stuff snipped-
>lucid abnormality
Pretty well sums up this ng doesn't it...
Bill A. (thinking the phrase has a nice Ballardian ring to it...)
oOo
rbadac (June 23, 1999)
Ballard ! A lucid abnormal, all right !Oh everybody, Bill will be bringing us a review of 'Mr. Justice Harbottle' any day now...
Heh heh. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 23, 1999)
>Ballard ! A lucid abnormal, all right !
>
>Oh everybody, Bill will be bringing us a review of 'Mr. Justice Harbottle'
>any day now...
>
>Heh heh. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
>
>rbadacOnderwerp.
Datum: woensdag
What above sound good. You write serial story with me? Me in wrong place? Forgive me. You send me more parts. I make story. I sell as neo-primitive literary novel. I make millions.Wagdonk
doomed norwegiantagoOo
William Allison (June 24, 1999)
rbadac wrote:>Oh everybody, Bill will be bringing us a review of 'Mr. Justice Harbottle'
>any day now...Well I was, but...the story's fake! It's a "fiction", it's not "TRUE"!!! I'll look for a better TRUE story in the Weekly World News...
>Heh heh. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Rocky & Bullwinkle?
Bill A. (newest recruit to Jack's Asses- "The Truth Is Somewhere")
oOo
rbadac (June 25, 1999)
> Rocky & Bullwinkle?
>
> Bill A. (newest recruit to Jack's Asses- "The Truth Is Somewhere")
This place is getting weirder by the minute.
And we need some SERIOUS Norweigan filters. Once they get a foothold, there's no getting rid of them.
rbadac
Professor Emeritus
Wassamatta U.oOo
Randy Money (June 29, 1999)
Thanks to both Steve and rbadac for getting me back to reading Bowen, a pleasure I've deferred for far too long.Something that struck me about "The Happy Autumn Fields" is that Bowen's sentence structure and phrasing in the first section are significantly different than in her other stories. The past that Mary escapes to, while not as urban as in Henry James' stories, is still well off and genteel and she reflects that by adopting a Jamesian style(huh - this is probably the only branch of fiction where you have to be sure to mention Henry when talking about a Jamesian style). The story itself struck me as a variation on "Mysterious Kor" (or vice versa), where the pressures of the war force a woman to look elsewhere for peace and solace. There's even a further variation of that in "Green Holly".
Lovely stories. Again, thanks for prodding me in their direction.
Randy
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 24, 1999)
[So you won't think I'm nuts . . .]So you won't think I've totally lost it (please say you care), I'm reposting the following e-mail which showed up in my newsgroup reader but, from what I can see, DID NOT make it to Deja News. Thus when I posted not one but two parodies on it, I'm certain I appeared even more irrational and irrelevant than usual, rather than merely juvenile and moronic as I intended. Anyway, here's what the nice fella said:
Onderwerp: Want to write?
Datum: woensdag 7 april 1999 19:49Maybe this note doesn't arrive in the proper newsgroup, so excuse me
if i interfere in this news.I just want to find people who interested to write a serial story with
me. Every next piece will be send to another person who wants to join
me. Copies have to be send to me and i'll transmit them to all
(current)writers. Who's in? Suggestions for a topic are also welcome!See ya!
If interested you can mail me...oOo
rbadac (June 25, 1999)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!Thanks for clearing that up, Rob !
Not that I was worried. The parody was easily funny enough to stand on its own !
rbadac
oOo
[OK, if you want to find out what Steve said, what *does* rbadac have on Bill Barnett, and what is the skittle with The Weekly World News, you're on your own, but Bill Allison *did* review "Justice Harbottle" after all.]