rbadac (April 11, 1999)[Please see rbadac's review of this story in violetbooks.com's The Weird Review.]oOo
Bill Barnett (April 12, 1999)
>SPOILERS !!!
>Was it Venny or Ora?
>It had to have been Ora, otherwise IT'S NOT A GHOST STORY, and you couldn't have posted your message to this newsgroup. Q.E.D.
Bill B.
Ghost-fondleroOo
rbadac (April 13, 1999)
Man, that spam filter works even BETTER than I could have ever dreamed !!!rbadac
oOo
Robert Kunath (April 13, 1999)
A la rbadac, note the spoilers ahead!I've always liked Wharton's "Bewitched." Kind of the *Ethan Frome* of ghost stories, with all those taciturn, dour, hardscrabble New Englanders mumbling and shrugging and generally struggling to repress every emotion. I can only envy rbadac his first edition (what a find!): I, alas, refer to the Fawcett Popular Library paperback of *The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton* ($2.95 back in 1982).
My ability to detect nuance may be sadly rusty from not having re-read Aickman recently, but, looking back over "Bewitched," it seems hard to find any ambiguity about the specter in the deserted house. As the men go up to it they see the bare footprints of a woman in the snow, and Bosworth thinks "[N]o live woman would travel with naked feet across that freezing wilderness." Rutledge himself claims it's Ora whom he meets. And, after Venny's burial, Mrs. Rutledge says her husband will sleep quieter, "and *her* too, maybe, now she don't lay alone any longer." I assume she means Ora will now have company, and won't need to come visit Rutledge.
What is a bit puzzling is the suggestion of vampirism--the way Brand's wife, then Ora, then Venny, all waste away. One gets the feeling that the community may be getting three revenants for the price of one (of course, Mrs. Rutledge has the all-purpose remedy: "A stake through the breast!").
A good, grim story. Got any other Wharton ghouls in that collection? "Kerfol," "Afterward," "Pomegranate Seed," and "Mr. Jones" are other favorites of mine.
Robert
oOo
rbadac (April 14, 1999)
I love that word, 'hardscrabble.' It's so alliterative. Gotta use all your tiles on every turn around here.I thought it was pretty clear in the story, too, Robert ! That damn Granada production intentionally muddied the waters, I think. They kept inserting flashbacks of Venny dancing barefoot on the beach, angling that she was perhaps mentally unsound, and cast her as a smallish-framed girl, as if to imply the possibility of the snow footprints being hers. But in the story she's not crazy, just 'wild and ignorant,' plus she's described as 'swarthy.'
It just confirms that the easy majority of my problems stem directly from watching television. Even PBS fare is not safe. Granada tried to make Mrs. Rutledge out as a witch also, by the way, completely ignoring the Brand connection you noted.
Those are great picks, too, those other stories. 'Afterward' was the first one of Wharton's I ever read, way back when I was a wee lad, when Cokes were a dime and lids were fifteen dollars. Bill A. read this recently and thought it a bit staccato-- am I misquoting you correctly, Bill ? Maybe he read it on a vibrating bed in a motel. Hey, save those quarters for the ice machine, willya?
I think we were agonising over 'Pomegranate Seed' around here not long ago-- I seem to remember an embarrassed silence descending when I suggested that the Persephone character was actually the husband. Then somebody coughed, and somebody else said my gosh, will you look at the time? and...I dunno. 'Kerfol' is the one with the dogs, isn't it? 'Mr Jones' is another good one-- what a nudge *he* was !
Before I stop waving around my copy of HERE AND BEYOND (which bears a pencilled inscription on the half-title: 'Alida Carey Gulick, Edgartown 1926'-- someone on the Vineyard bought it *new*) I really should mention the story 'Miss Mary Pask,' which-- oh my, I'm afraid I can't say anything about it at all.
Well, maybe I can. One, it's great. Two, it is possibly the only story of its type I have ever liked.
rbadac
oOo
William Allison (April 14, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
-snip-
>It just confirms that the easy majority of my problems stem directly from
>watching television. Even PBS fare is not safe.Just so. When my wife and I split up, she took the "big TV" and the VCR. I stuck an old clapped-out set in the gaping hole in the entertainment center just to give prospective buyers of the house a feeling of "saneness" in the home. Wouldn't want the folks thinking the owner was some sort of nut that didn't watch TV or something... Ha ha ha ha ha... Hee hee hee hee...
>Those are great picks, too, those other stories. 'Afterward' was the first
>one of Wharton's I ever read, way back when I was a wee lad, when Cokes were
>a dime and lids were fifteen dollars. Bill A. read this recently and thought
>it a bit staccato-- am I misquoting you correctly, Bill ? Maybe he read it on
>a vibrating bed in a motel. Hey, save those quarters for the ice machine,
>willya?Lazy nut, 'er person that I am, I'm taking the liberty of pasting in the remarks that I made on this august forum 11/24 regarding "Afterward":
"Afterward"- Edith Wharton. This one was frustrating. I really liked Wharton's prose style, and the story could have been excellent if not for a mechanical breakdown (for me anyway). I refer to the whole idea that Mary could have *completely forgotten* directing the stranger to her husband, especially after the amount of attention she paid him- noting his businesslike air, his slight build, and his American accent. The whole time she was interrogating the maids I wanted to yell: "Hey Laadyyy! HELLO! HELLO!" Yeah, I know, she was supposed to be "absorbed in her meeting with the boiler-maker", but I just couldn't buy it. If Mary had perhaps just seen Elwell approaching the house and Trimmle had let him in (and supplied the details regarding his person) it would have been easier to accept Mary's forgetting him. But I suppose that would have weakened the whole "afterward" effect. I'm impressed enough with Wharton to have high hopes for her other stories, and just hope they don't "suffer a puncture" partway through like "Afterward" did... I'd still recommend it as a worthy read, in case I'm just being too picky.
Perhaps I'd like the story better if I'd watch some TV...
Bill A. (who, when he had a TV, was a Weather Channel junkie...)
oOo
Robert Kunath (April 15, 1999)
Reading rbadac's comments on the TV production of "Bewitched" I am moved to declare that I know of NO successful video production of a ghost story. There are some effective horror movies (not many), but ghost stories really can't be done on film as effectively as in print. I hasten to admit that I haven't seen that many, biut one reason is that I was always so disappointed by them. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong with recommendations of first-rate ghost stories on tv or in movies.I think it might be especially hard to put Wharton on the screen. In many of her stories--and "Bewitched" partly fits that model--not a whole lot happens. The ne plus ultra of this in Wharton is the story "All Souls'" in which absolutely nothing happens. It's effective, though, because she is able to create an atmosphere of uncanniness and dread so well. The lady could write!
I'm sorry I missed the discussion of Pomegranate Seed. My memories are a bit vague, but, as I mull it over, I think your suggestion that the husband is the Persephone figure makes a lot of sense. His disappearance means that he's gone to the underworld to be with his dead wife, right? Unlike Persephone, though, one suspects he'll be there longer than three months. My question about that story is about the title--what's the "pomegranate seed" in the story? The husband's remarriage? I've never been quite sure.
I'll have to look back at 'Mary Pask'--I remember it was one of those very grim stories of a failed life, and I've always found those a bit painful.
Nice talking Wharton--I hope some more join in.
Robert
ooOoo
[Robert Kunath's post above prompted rbadac to write about The Good Ghost Film.]