rbadac (May 5, 1998)Not to go too off-topic from the impending 'Beckoning Fair One' discussion, but I read this last night (in THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH GHOST STORIES, Rob!!), and I have to say it flabbergasted me.May Sinclair is of course the authoress of 'Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched', that horrible, horrible story about the adulterous couple who end up in a hell of their own making, but that tale is apparently not merely a moralistic cautionary one (as might be supposed taken by itself alone), but rather indicative of Sinclair's truly bizarre Otherworld-view.
I'm fortunate to own a copy of UNCANNY STORIES (the American edition, Macmillan 1923), which contains these two plus four or five more that are to say the least shocking for their time, maybe shocking for ours. In 'The Victim' (OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH GHOST STORIES, Rob!!), Steven Acroyd, a chauffeur of a Mr. Greathead (a joke?) is insanely jealous of anyone who might come between him and his sweetheart Dorsy, and his handling of a resultant 'situation' and its consequences is the plot of the story.
I wouldn't dream of spoiling this; not least because I'm curious to know what you guys might make of the way this is handled. It's not too long, so if anyone wants to give it a look, let me know what your feelings were about its end. After I read it, I was frankly appalled, indignant, awe-struck, and finally convulsed with laughter, and a few more stories like this one will send me to the madhouse yet.
But being a glutton for punishment of this sort, I then read 'The Price Of The Absolute' in the UNCANNY volume (didn't check to see if it was available elsewhere-sorry!), and my suspicions were quite confirmed that May Sinclair is either an imaginative genius, mad as a hatter, or both. Yeah, I loved every minute of 'em.
rbadac
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Robert Suggs (May 5, 1998)
Well, May Sinclair also wrote "The Nature of the Evidence" which is in, now keep up with me rbadac, The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories (the Oxford English is SO passe, but I guess you hadn't figured that out). I had similar reactions to this story. Perhaps not as shocking as what you've seemed to encounter, but very frankly sexual for the early 1920s. Man is widowed, marries him a hot little number, and by golly he has a honeymoon night with both wives--and it's less fun than it sounds. Just a bit reminiscent of the comic bit in "Dead of Night," also surprisingly knowing for its time. In both tales, two's a party, three's a nasty situation.I'll check out "The Victim," though I think my cat has my Oxford English. I give him my books when I'm tired of them.
RoboOo
rbadac (May 6, 1998)
> Well, May Sinclair also wrote "The Nature of the Evidence" which is
> in, now keep up with me rbadac, The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century
> Ghost Stories (the Oxford English is SO passe, but I guess you hadn't
> figured that out).Grrrrrrrr....I'll be faxing you some pages from my Advance Reading Copy of THE OXFORD BOOK OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GHOST STORIES, featuring 'The Death of Rob Suggs' by R. Badac. Don't give away the ending, buddy.
> In both tales, two's a party, three's a nasty situation.
No kidding! 'Absolute' had a love triangle in it, too- May appears to have had some real-life experiences to draw upon for this stuff, it's such a recurring theme. Oddly, most of her treatments (except for 'Quenched') are from the male point of view.
Besides the frankness of Sinclair's writing, the concepts touched upon in her stories are really thought-provoking in their implications. Almost science- fiction, especially when they wander into the nature of reality, laced with some philosophies which couldn't have been popular with her social or time period.
That was the striking feature of 'The Victim', and its remarkable free play with the contextual morality of murder.
> I'll check out "The Victim," though I think my cat has my Oxford
> English. I give him my books when I'm tired of them.Lucky cat. Maybe I should ask HIM. What's his name-Mammoth? If he's anything like his namesake, you're probably using him as a bookend, you animal exploiter!
rbadacat-lover
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Robert Suggs (May 6, 1998)
[May flowers: The Victim]SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Okay, I checked this one out and remembered it immediately. A fun story, particularly with the dialects. May Sinclair seems to be the splatterpunk writer of her time. She's a contemporary of such as E. G. Swain and Arthur Gray, and here she's got a fellow cutting his master up into 17 pieces. For a story concluding with the dreaded humorous ghost, she actually does a nice job dealing with his initial sightings. First he is seen on the evening reflection of a window, in a way that Steven isn't sure which side of the window he is on. Then he dematerializes from a room so that he seems almost to seep into the carpet! The old boy is having some fun, and so is May. As for the ending, I'm looking forward to hearing just what it was that so shocked and delighted you, Rbadac. I'm not sure I would have noted anything startling without your prompting. The moral does seem to be, "Murder's not so bad; it's hate that's really unattractive in a person." Then I found the revelation about the girl a bit shocking. She has said she's not afraid of him anymore, but she's willing to overlook his murder of a benevolent, innocent man who wanted only to bring them together? Well, now, that does make the story quite interesting. But what have I missed? How exactly does she appear to be insane?
Rob
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rbadac (May 7, 1998)
> Well, now, that does make the story quite
> interesting. But what have I missed? How exactly does she appear to be
> insane?Hello? Hello? Earth to Rob???
rbadac, who KNOWS it's only a story.
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Bill Barnett (May 7, 1998)
Obviously, she is an enabler for his tendency toward violence. This willingness to overlook a violent murder probably stems from low self-esteem.I pulled out OBOE-GS and read it last night, it's quite remarkable how Ms. Sinclair managed to contrive a happy ending for every character, even the gruesomely murdered Mr. Greathead. I drew the same moral from it as you did, Rob, and I think it's loony. But looniness can be fun, and it is in this case; I hope to track down some of her others sometime.
Bill B.
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Robert Suggs (May 7, 1998)
Well, if you like these stories about ghosts and low self-esteem (". . . and BY GOLLY, people LIKE me!"--Stuart Smalley), try Sinclair's story, "The Token," found in the Viagra Book of Ghost Stories. No, that's not the title. It's another Dalby one. Virago, I just went and checked. But I LIKE the idea of Viagra. That's another theme anthology Martin Greenberg hasn't gotten to yet, and the corporate sponsorship could be good for everybody. What was that Frederic Brown story about the swimming trunks? Anyway, now I'm WAY off topic. In "The Token," a sulky little adoring wife just really needs her non-emotive Scotch husband to say those three little words all wives need to hear (non-Viagra related). The token is a little Buddha statue presented to the husband by the great literary lion, George Meredith, and he reveres it more than his new wife. She's always wanting to polish ink stains from it, and she tells him not to EVER touch it. (Someone I'm seeing now there were elements in this story I missed.) At any rate, she dies--NOT KNOWING, CHOKE SOB--and haunts the library until he tells her and throws the little Buddha across the room. This is not a spoiler, by the way, because I'm keeping you from spoiling a good evening by reading this retro-Victorian invisible-woman lament-fest. I did like the little statue with the inscription from literary lion George Meredith, however. Somehow that tickles me. But don't YOU ever touch it!
RoboOo
Steve Wise (May 8, 1998)
rbadac wrote:
>After I read it, I was frankly appalled, indignant, awe-struck, and
>finally convulsed with laughter, and a few more stories like this one will
>send me to the madhouse yet.I read this recently and was very favorably impressed, most of all with the ending which takes the story beyond the level of mere entertainment. It is the best kind of horror story, one about the horror (and heroism) that can be found in the real world of human relations. Of course, taking it on a purely literal level, I remember thinking that in the real world bottomless pits are a little hard to come by, but then this story was written in the days before blenders...
--Steve Wise
ooOoo