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.

“Transmissions”, T. E. Grau

This story features Max, a vaguely unlikeable drifter in search of some greater truth. As all too often happens in these sorts of tales, he finds what he is looking for, although not in the place nor the manner he expects. (view spoiler)[This is a not wholly original Lovecraftian story, although I will admit to being occasionally partial to such efforts. I found myself, however, a bit put off by Grau’s prose. It’s often repetitive and replete with rather perplexing metaphors that hint of a writer who’s trying too hard. And there is an annoying shift in point of view near the conclusion from third person limited to third person omniscient (and back). On the whole, an okay story. (hide spoiler)]

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“The Dangsturm Interruption”, Joseph Bouthiette Jr.

(view spoiler)[Another Mythos story. I hope we’re not going to see too many of these. That could quickly become tiresome.

This story riffs, not only upon the central theme of this anthology, but on Lovecraft’s interest in astronomy (evinced in stories such as “Polaris”). I’m not the expert I was in my younger days, but I assume, given the reference to masks, flutes, etc., etc., that we’re talking about Nyarlathotep, one of Lovecraft’s many fictional deities.

There is the germ of an interesting idea here, but there’s almost no real story; just some jumbled exposition. Can’t really give this one a passing grade. (hide spoiler)]

✭½

I finally forced myself to finish watching the first season of Castle Rock, which is streaming on Hulu. I guess I’d give it a thumbs up, but I really wanted to like this one more than I actually did. The producers managed to assemble of a solid cast, and we get some quality performances from Sissy Spacek, Scott Glenn, Melanie Lynskey, etc. The creative team even rounded up Thomas Newman to do the score. Without getting spoilerish, the project’s primary flaw is that there is just enough plot for a feature-length film, but not nearly enough for a 10-episode season. Hulu has already greenlit a second season, although it will feature a new cast and storyline.

✭✭✭½

“If He Summons His Herd”, Matthew M. Bartlett

This is the first story I’ve read by Mr. Bartlett. As best I can tell, he started writing in this genre about four years ago. No novels, just short stories, many of them appearing in two collections entitled Gateways to Abomination and Creeping Waves , focusing to a large degree on the fictional city of Leeds, Massachusetts. There are things about the story that I think Bartlett does well — the way he uses urban legend to set up the story, the way in which he paints Leeds as being pervaded by a sort of hopelessness, and the way he ties the story to the theme of this particular anthology. But there are, I think, some weak points. (view spoiler)[I can’t help but feel that the story develops from something kinda interesting into something less interesting. It starts out with a Machenesque vibe in which we learn about a “real” Leeds existing hidden alongside the everyday locale. But the story disappointingly devolves into pseudo-Christian territory with cane-carrying goats. In the final paragraphs, Finn suddenly announces he wants to be worthy of inclusion in this nether world, but for my money Bartlett doesn’t adequately prepare us for this conclusion; I didn’t quite believe it given what had preceded. (hide spoiler)]

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Welcome back, Corinne. :)

Lena said (in part):

Corinne sent me a PM due to our concern:

Thanks for posting Corinne’s message, Lena.

Graeme said (in part):

Somewhat sad and disturbed.

Indeed. Regardless of the reason for her departure, her presence will be missed.

Lena, talking about “ ‘Oh, Whistle...’ ”, asked:

Did anyone else note the pre Disneyland use of the name Disney?

This is a Cambridge allusion. The Disney Professorship of Archaeology is an endowed chair in archaeology at the University of Cambridge and the person holding it is referred to as the Disney Professor. It was endowed by John Disney in 1851 with a donation of £1,000, followed by a further £2,500 bequeath upon his death in 1857. M. R. James considered standing for this chair in 1891.

Latasha wrote:

no, the one I have is edited by Richard dalby.

You’ve kinda piqued my curiosity, Latasha. I know who Dalby is, but I was not aware that he edited a collection of James stories with that title. No biggie, but if you find the time could you shoot me the name of the publisher and copyright date, either here or via pm?

Final thoughts on the book for this month.

This is one my “desert island” books. I still vividly remember stumbling across an old copy of James’ Collected Ghost Stories (1931), which contained these stories as well as others, and reading through the entire thing in a couple of days.

“Count Magnus” is my personal favorite of the stories in James’ first collection, although “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book” runs a very close second. But, while I obviously like some of these stories more than others, there are no real clinkers in this volume. Great stuff.

✭✭✭✭½

“The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”

My reaction to this story as a whole is sorta similar to my reaction to “Lost Hearts” — “Treasure” is a very good story by most standards, but I’ve always regarded it as lessor James. (view spoiler)[The climax in the abbot’s well is quite creepy, but my gripe is that the tale seems to take a long time to get to that point and the cryptographic element that dominates the first three-quarters is relatively uninteresting (in my opinion, of course). (hide spoiler)]

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Latasha wrote:

I have the collection Casting the Runes.

This is the one published by Oxford and edited by the late Michael Cox? I have that one too. It’s a solid edition. Barbara Roden and Christopher Roden, who edited A Pleasing Terror , co-opted most or all of Cox’s notes on the stories and added additional ones as well. And, of course, both Cox and the Rodens owe a huge intellectual debt to Rosemary Pardoe, who has for decades been editing a newsletter on M. R. James containing both fiction and scholarly articles.

M.L. said:

I like James's writing so much I bought a hard copy with first and second. :)

I know that for many folks, it’s hard to justify spending hard-earned dollars for books that are freely available, but for my money the best electronic version of M. R. James’ work is A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings . Originally published back in 2001 by Ash-Tree Press, hardback copies are now incredibly expensive, but the e-version is available for $10. It’s comprehensive and well annotated.

“ ‘Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad’ ”

First of all — a nifty title for the story; maybe the only story title M. R. James ever came up with that showed a little panache.

(view spoiler)[I could probably do without James’ little golfing jokes (which he seems to like, but which I find distracting), but I otherwise quite like the first three-quarters of the story. Parkins’ description of the fleeing man and his pursuer is especially well done. Where I run into a bit of trouble is with the tale’s closing pages; in most of James’ stories, the supernatural entities present a tangible threat to those who get in their way. That’s not quite the case with “ ‘Oh, Whistle’ ”. Yes, Parkins might have fallen out of the window, but the narrator makes it fairly clear that entity called up by the whistle achieved its effects solely by eliciting fear. I suppose at the end of the day I just don’t find an animated sheet as effective as I do the demon in “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book” or the thin arm in “Number 13”. This is not to say I find “ ‘Oh, Whistle’ ” to be a bad story — it’s just not one I appreciate quite as much as some of the others in this collection.

I mentioned before James McBryde’s illustrations for the first edition of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Before he died, he produced two for the present story. The best known (by far) of the pair shows Parkins cowering before the possessed sheet. In fact, the illustration was used for the cover of the 1971 Dover edition of this collection (edited by E. F. Bleiler.) Here it is:

(hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

James’ story has been adapted a number of times, twice by the BBC for the small screen (both times under the truncated title Whistle and I'll Come to You). It was first adapted in 1968 (directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Michael Hordern); the second appeared in 2010 and starred John Hurt. Most people (myself included) prefer the earlier work. (The Hurt version takes more liberties with the text.) The last time I checked, both versions could be found on YouTube.

“Count Magnus” is perhaps my favorite of the stories in James’ first collection, but that may in part be because it was the very first James story I ever read, stumbling across it many years ago in an old anthology, Sleep No More (1944), edited by August Derleth and illustrated by Lee Brown Coye.

(view spoiler)[I think James does an excellent job in providing the reader with background on Magnus; I especially enjoy the landlord’s story about the night visit to the forest. James is frequently admired by critics for his relatively “quiet” brand of horror, but one shouldn't forget that — although much of the horror occurs “off stage” — some of the events (such as getting one’s face sucked off) are pretty darned gruesome.

The last few pages include some of this story’s best stuff. I like, for example, the description of the barge trip back to England, during which Mr. Wraxell painfully attempts to determine whether or not he is being pursued. This is the sort of thing that I always thought James did so well — describing a menace that is just on the periphery of one’s ability to sense it. Similarly, we have the crossroads scene, which seems to be one favored by illustrators of this story. Here is the scene as envisaged by the aforementioned Coye:

(hide spoiler)]

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“Number 13”

When I first read this one years ago, I wasn’t all that impressed, but the story has grown on me with repeated readings. (view spoiler)[This is yet another story of Faustian arrangements gone amiss, although — as with “Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book” — the details of the agreement are never made clear to the reader. The climactic scene involving the emerging arm is both memorable and effective; but, for whatever reason, the passage that I find most disquieting is the one in which Anderson first describes his barely-seen neighbor in 13 and comments (without understanding, of course, the import of his observations) on the flickering red light thrown upon the wall opposite the Golden Lion. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

“The Mezzotint” is probably one of the more famous stories in this collection. (view spoiler)[I would imagine that there exist antecedents that have as a major element the ghostly portrait, but I can't think of an earlier one that is as influential or as well-known as this particular tale. (The most recent story I can think of that riffs on this theme is Stephen King’s 1999 story, “The Road Virus Heads North”.) For my money the story’s best moments center around the description of Gawdy; it boasts that sort of trademark imprecision that James was so good at — “...the black drapery hung over its face so that only hints of that could be seen, and what was visible made the spectators profoundly thankful that they could see no more than a dome-like forehead and a few straggling hairs.” (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

“The Ash-Tree”

Although this story seems to be a favorite of many, it is, in all honesty, my least favorite of those in this collection, although my lukewarm response may be more a product of my own biases than a comment on the author’s talents. (view spoiler)[The story is set in the 17th and 18th centuries and, for that reason, relies in part on epistolary accounts that make use of archaic English — I usually find this tactic distracting. Second, I’m often uncomfortable with the supernatural subgenre that deals with the persecution of so-called witches that occurred in early modern Europe. James is a little weasely about the historical existence of witchcraft in the story’s opening paragraphs, but the way events play out one is left with the clear idea than Mrs. Mothersole pretty much had it coming. Finally, the story derives its impact from the spiders that inhabit the ash tree. James, by all accounts, had a pronounced phobia when it came to spiders. (One can even see this reflected in Dennistoun's description of the demon in “Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book”: “Imagine one of the awful bird-catching spiders of South America translated into human form…”) If one shares James’ fear, all is well and good, but as for myself — meh — I've never been all that bothered by spiders and when I see one indoors my inclination is to leave it alone. (hide spoiler)]

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Lena said:

It’s the earliest story I’ve read where the monsters go for brains. Ghosts phantom brain eaters. What do you think the uncle was? Or was trying to become?

It’s actually hearts that everyone is so keen about in this story; both Mr. Abney, who seeks to consume “the hearts of not less than three human beings”, and the revenants of the Abney’s two victims, who, in wreaking their spectral vengeance, leave him with “a terrible lacerated wound, exposing the heart”.

Abney is a type of character that pops up now and again in James’ fiction — an individual dabbling in the black arts as way to acquire personal power. James paints him as, not so much evil, but as totally amoral; in his notes, for example, he repeatedly stresses how he views himself as being above laws and norms. Another example of such a character might be Mr. Karswell from “Casting the Runes”.

Kimberly, discussing “Lost Hearts”, said (in part):

He has so many stories out, I wonder why he'd use one that he wasn't especially fond of???

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was M. R. James’ first story collection (published in 1904), so options were limited. Only two of his stories, “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book” and “Lost Hearts”, had at that time seen prior magazine publication.

Lena said:

I had to go back to my review to remind myself of this little disaster movie. Obviously, not one of the memorable stories.

Yes, I suspect I’ll be in the same boat (no pun intended) a month or so from now.