Canavan’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Canavan’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

“The Thousand Eyes”, Jeffrey Ford

I consider Ford to be one of my literary blind spots; I’ve only read a handful of his stories, but what little I’ve read I’ve tended to like (e.g., “Down Atsion Road”, which appeared in Haunted Legends , 2010, edited by Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas). “The Thousand Eyes” is based on “The Voice of Death” (collected in Andrew Lang’s The Red Fairy Book , 1890; it can be read here). I thought Ford’s story demonstrated a solid sense of place and time (the hinterlands and small towns of New Jersey during the 60s). And I liked the language. At one point the author describes someone’s painting style as “Edward Hicks meets Edward Hopper in a bare-knuckle match.” That simile just tickled my fancy.

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Ronald said (in part):

I think it is very useful when trying to find a story.

For queries about SF and fantasy/horror fiction, it’s my first stop. Compared to most such sites, it’s remarkably accurate on matters such as publication date.

”Even the Crumbs Were Delicious”, Daryl Gregory

In the author’s afterword, Gregory notes that the setting for this story is “the same drug-addled future of my novel Afterparty ”. That’s maybe the crux of my problem with “Crumbs” — I just didn’t find the backdrop very interesting. Reasonably well-told story.

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Professing moral indignation that companies advertise as way to burnish their image and sell more of their widgets strikes me as being a bit like Captain Renault in Casablanca expressing shock that gambling is going on in Rick’s Café.

Lena commented (in part):

That one didn’t leave an impression and I read it less than a year ago.

’Fraid we differ in our opinion of that one, Lena. It’s one of my all-time faves. ;-)

Ronald said (in part):

I'll just add that I highly recommend the movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari . It is not only a great horror movie, but an important movie in cinematic history.

Absolutely!

Wendy asked:

Did anyone else get a "Gunslinger" vibe from "...Like a Bone?"

A little bit, yes. But the story “Like a Bone” most reminded me of was Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1987 novelette, “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You You Come Out Tonight”.

“Underground”, Karin Tidbeck

Tidbeck’s contribution to the anthology is based on a Norwegian folk tale, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”. Andrew Lang collected this tale in The Blue Fairy Book (1889). It’s closely related to other fairy tales/myths, viz., “Cupid and Psyche” and “Beauty and the Beast”. (view spoiler)[All involve a female heroine betraying the trust of a mysterious male figure and subsequently seeking redemption through a series adventures/quests. In adapting this story for her own use, Tidbeck makes a very cogent point — the heroine (Hedwig in Tidbeck’s version) is supposed to feel guilty for betraying the mysterious male (Ruben) and thus allowing his abduction by the villainous countess; but left unstated in the older versions of the story is the central irony that the male character’s actions vis-à-vis the heroine are very similar to (and just as reprehensible as) those of the countess.

I agree with the point Tidbeck is making here. I just wish I liked her story a bit more. My problem may be that I have never cared much for the underlying fairy tale; unlike Tidbeck (see her postscript), I’ve never found it very compelling or morally instructive. And the second part, the adventures to secure the release of the male figure, always seemed uninteresting and unnecessarily drawn out. (hide spoiler)]

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Lena said:

I think the title just means to shine a new light, and new angles, on an old format.

Perhaps, but the book cover might leader a prospective reader to a different conclusion.

Corinne commented:

I tried to read the first story but couldn’t get far. She and I are not a good match so I only half tried to read it. DNF

The author, Seanan McGuire, also wrote “Sister, Dearest Sister, Let Me Show to You the Sea” for the Ellen Datlow anthology, The Devil and the Deep ; as I recall that story was, in general, well received when it came up for group discussion here last year.

I found myself a bit nonplussed by the introduction to this collection. The editors (Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe), while admitting that many of our older, traditional fairy tales take place in the woods (“...the woods are almost ubiquitous in fairy tales”), make the case that this need not and perhaps should not be so, thus laying the groundwork for the present collection of stories: “We wanted our authors to move beyond the woods.” I’m fine with that decision as an organizing principle for the anthology, but then why on earth name it The Starlit Wood ?

“In the Desert Like a Bone”, Seanan McGuire

McGuire’s story is based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. As I suspect will be the case with many or all of the stories in this collection, the author uses that old tale as a framework to tell a different story, one that has a personal meaning for the author and/or one that has particular relevance in today's cultural milieu. There is a point early in this story where the author makes that more or less explicit (“That’s where the stories diverge.”), as she briefly describes an older, more traditional version of the fairy tale that housewives and rich women tell their daughters, and then lays out a radically different version of those events seen from a different perspective that snake-oil saleswomen and frontier wives tell their daughters. I liked those passages. What transpires in “Like a Bone” isn’t particularly surprising or original, but it is well told.

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“Porson’s Piece”, Reggie Oliver

“Porson’s Piece” is in many respects the most conventional of the tales in this volume (I admittedly haven’t yet read “Lady with a Rose”, the concluding story). It’s basically a meditation on death and on the possibility of existence after death, the final proof of which is revealed to our narrator and to the readers in somewhat predictable fashion in the story’s concluding passages. And yet I’ll confess that I liked the wrapper, if you will, that packages this somewhat ordinary tale. The characters seem authentic and I enjoyed the philosophical underpinnings of the story. (E.g., Oliver makes reference to William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience , which was itself a commentary, at least in part, on Pascal’s Wager.)

“Porson’s Piece” appeared in Oliver’s recently published (2018) collection, The Ballet of Dr. Caligari and Madder Mysteries . (In fact, it is one of two stories original to the collection, the others having seen previous publication elsewhere.)

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“SomethingintheCode”, James Newman

(view spoiler)[Beginning in the 1980s, social critics sought to link video game content to violent behavior in children, although study results have been inconsistent and study methodology is often flawed. Newman’s story takes this idea and pushes it to a rather extreme degree. I sorta liked the story concept (although it’s not terribly original), but thought the execution was a little off. The epistolary format had the effect of distancing me from what is supposed to be the horrific outcome of viewing this fictional video game. Thus, when Newman is blandly describing the deaths of hundreds of children, I was left shrugging my shoulders. He also spells things out a bit too clearly for my tastes. And the ending, which is supposed be clever, had the effect of jerking me out of the story. (hide spoiler)]

Side notes: Podcasters in Newman’s story refer to Project MKUltra, an actual CIA program (1953-1973) in which experimenters sought to manipulate subjects’ mental states by various means, including the surreptitious administration of illegal drugs. The public was made aware of the program during Senate hearings conducted in the 70s.

The podcasters also reference a lesser known piece of history: Atari’s development in the early 80s of E.T., an adventure video game based on the film of the same name. By most accounts it was a huge commercial failure, and was considered a leading reason for Atari’s demise. Millions of unsold cartridges were supposedly buried in a landfill in Alamogordo. In a rather entertaining documentary, Atari: Game Over, filmmakers excavated the landfill in search of buried cartridges. (I think this movie may still be available on Netflix.)

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“Andie”, Adam Golaski

I was recently reading a piece Adam Golaski wrote regarding the Shadows anthologies edited by the late Charles L. Grant. Grant, writes Golaski, was an exponent, not just of “quiet” horror, but of the type of fiction in which plot and underlying meaning are not necessarily “spoon-fed” to the reader. That sort of approach typifies a lot of Golaski’s own work and this story in particular. A young man (in a somewhat emotionally fragile state) is traveling cross country via plane. Weather delays the final leg of his journey and during the layover a series of odd occurrences befall him. He encounters a somewhat mysterious woman who relates to him a grim story involving the 18th-century Russian empress, Anna Ivanovna; a story which may (or may not?) have a bearing on the events that follow. The surreal events that do follow have the flavor of a fever dream and in the end the reader is left to ponder what happened and why.

The story appears in Issue 11 of Supernatural Tales, edited by David Longhorn (2007).

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“The Ballet of Dr. Caligari”, Reggie Oliver

A young composer is commissioned to write a ballet score based on the 1920 German expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The story itself evokes many of the film’s themes (e.g., the nature of insanity and control). In addition, (view spoiler)[we see as the tale unfolds events paralleling those in the film (as often happens in such stories). (hide spoiler)] I thought the author’s effort was largely successful; if the story’s structure rendered it’s outcome a tad predictable, it was nevertheless elegantly accomplished.

The story originally appeared in the 2016 themed anthology, The Madness of Dr. Caligari , edited by Joseph S. Pulver Sr. It is also the title story in the Oliver’s recently published collection, The Ballet of Dr. Caligari and Madder Mysteries .

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I have not yet listened to this myself, but it has received good notices from individuals whose opinions I generally respect. It is a 10-episode BBC podcast that is a (very?) loose adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward . Episodes can be downloaded here.

“Slow Birds”, Ian Watson

“Slow Birds” is an apocalyptic piece of science fiction with a premise unlike just about any other I’ve been exposed to. I’ll avoid venturing too far into spoiler territory and say merely that the story is ultimately about clashing belief systems that might on one level be described as rational activism versus faith-based fatalism. The novelette is now over 30 years old, but as we move forward into the current century increasingly unsure of our future on this planet, the issues Watson raises here remain relevant.

“Slow Birds” first appeared in the June 1983 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

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“Day-Dream in Macedon”, H. R. Wakefield (1930)

“Day-Dream” originally appeared in The Sketch, 2 April 1930, before showing up in the author’s third story collection, Imagine a Man in a Box , 1931. In this wartime story, we first find our young protagonist, Lieutenant Eastleigh, with the other members of his unit near Amiens. At some point, because of his proficiency with languages, he is transferred to the Balkan theatre. Nevertheless, as events unfold, he maintains a psychic link of sorts with his old comrades on the Western Front.

The bare bones of this story are the stuff of hundreds if not thousands of other supernatural tales. What distinguishes this one are the writing and the reader’s conviction that Wakefield knows what he’s talking about when detailing the surrounding country and the rather grim wartime events. (Indeed, coincidentally, I was just reading a short biographical piece on Wakefield by Richard Dalby in which the latter mentions Wakefield’s wartime service in Macedon as a member of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.)

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Cool. I’m looking forward to your posts.

Corinne said:

Pack master. Be sure you claim it. Hard when they are so damn adorable.