February 2020 Group Read #1: The Wendigo

[Jon Recluse]

Our first Group Read for February is The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood.

Please use spoilers.

[Kimberly]

I haven't read this one in quite a while.

[Gary]

Kimberly wrote: "I haven't read this one in quite a while."

I have never read Blackwood. That’s a huge name in horror fiction.

[Annie]

Blackwood might be my all time favorite. Happy to reread The Wendigo. I always find something new.

[Chris]

Count me in!!!!

[Chris]

I read it in high school. Really going to enjoy reading it again.

[Rachel]

I haven’t had a chance to read this yet looking forward to it!

[Niquole]

Yay! I’m glad this was picked, I’ve wanted to read it.

[Mike]

Just listened to this on HorrorBabble recently. Fantastic story.

[Alan]

Loaded it on my Kindle and ready to go. Once I finish the rest of the books I took out of the library. :|

[Alastor]

Looking forward to it

[Marie Helene]

Happy to read it for the first time.

[Feli]

I haven't read this one before, but I thought The Willows was pretty good (if slow in the beginning) so I will give this one a try :)

[Marie Helene]

Public domain: available on Project Gutenberg
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10897

[Michael]

I enjoyed reading "The Wendigo." Blackwood reminds me of Poe and Lovecraft due to his setting up an atmosphere of tension and slowly amping it up throughout the story. He takes the Wendigo legend of a human being corrupted and made monstrous and lifts it to terrifying heights. The isolation of the group in the wilderness adds to the sense of palpable fear. This is a fine horror story.

[Rachel]

Excited to read this with everybody! I haven't read anything by Blackwood yet so this'll be a treat. I've heard other stories about the Wendigo before though and thought it was terrifying.

[Kelly]

My copy just came in. I'm so excited! I love stories about wendigos - they are so fascinating and unnerving.

[Monica]

I read this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll re-read with you guys.

[Jon]

I enjoy Blackwood's stories. Definitely a talented horror author. But sometimes he exhibits bias/stereotypes in the way he characterizes people who he perceives as "other" (meaning non-Brits--e.g., Germans, French, Indians, French Canadians...). I'll be interested to see if anyone has a similar reaction in reading "The Wendigo."

[Kimberly]

"The Willows" is my personal favorite by him. :)

[Katherine]

I’ve never done a group read before. Can someone please explain to me how it goes?

[Rachel]

Katherine wrote: "I’ve never done a group read before. Can someone please explain to me how it goes?"

Basically, we read the book and come to this thread to discuss our impressions. It's usual to post what page or chapter you're on too. And any spoilers should be put between spoiler tags.

< spoiler >These are spoiler tags. Just take the spaces out for them to work.< /spoiler >

(view spoiler)[This is what a spoiler tag looks like once you remove the spaces. (hide spoiler)]

[Sydney]

count me in to

[Brian]

Hey! Brand new to the group and looking forward to joining in on the Wendigo discussions.

[M.E.]

Kimberly wrote: ""The Willows" is my personal favorite by him. :)"

Mine too. I love "The Willows"!

[Kelly]

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but do we *have* to wait to start the book on Feb. 1? I ask b/c I just finished a book, and I wanted to start the Wendigo.....

[Kimberly]

Kelly wrote: "I hope this isn't a dumb question, but do we *have* to wait to start the book on Feb. 1? I ask b/c I just finished a book, and I wanted to start the Wendigo....."

No, read at your own pace. Just remember to use percentages and spoiler tags so others don't come across comments about parts they haven't read yet.

[Kelly]

Kimberly wrote: No, read at your own pace. Just remember to use percentages and spoiler tags so others don't come across comments about parts they haven't read yet."

Thanks a bunch!

[Kimberly]

Kelly wrote: "Kimberly wrote: No, read at your own pace. Just remember to use percentages and spoiler tags so others don't come across comments about parts they haven't read yet."

Thanks a bunch!"

No problem! :)

[jamako]

Jon wrote: "I enjoy Blackwood's stories. Definitely a talented horror author. But sometimes he exhibits bias/stereotypes in the way he characterizes people who he perceives as "other" (meaning non-Brits--e.g.,..."

It never bothered me, even though I'm one of those 'Germans' Blackwood didn't seem to like very much. It's part of the times he wrote in. For me, it just adds historic realism to his works and adds an extra layer of 'social'-horror – a layer that, most likely, was never intended by neither Blackwood nor his contemporaries like Lovecraft.
I also don't like it when new authors clean up historic cultures for modern sensitivities, especially in horror. I much rather have an honest look and learn from it, and what better genre is there to look directly into the darkness than horror?

[Feli]

Jannik wrote: "Jon wrote: "I enjoy Blackwood's stories. Definitely a talented horror author. But sometimes he exhibits bias/stereotypes in the way he characterizes people who he perceives as "other" (meaning non-..."

Absolutely agree on everything you just said.
I just stumbled about a German one-star review on Amazon where it's mentioned that the book is full of racism and the kind. I understand when people don't want to read about it but as you said, those are products of their times. Of course it wasn't 'right' even back then but that's just how it was and we learn from those historical aspects (hopefully).

I will start reading the book tomorrow I think. But I have one question to all from the US: is the wendigo common folklore or is it merely from a part of the US? Because I grew up with shows like Supernatural etc and just always took the Wendigo as a creature 'everyone knows', like a poltergeist or something. But then I talked to a few people at uni who are from the US and they said they have no idea what a Wendigo should be. So, I am just curious here.

[Chris]

Interesting question.

I live in Texas and have lived here quite some time. My understanding of the Wendigo as an American Indian myth/monster has been with me for a long time, probably since I was a young kid. Is it common knowledge? Hard for me to say because I have been reading and watching horror since I was a little kid so I have been familiar with all manner of monsters yet I suspect that people who are only passingly familiar with the genre wouldn't know what it is. I remember people not knowing what a poltergeist was until the movie came out. As a group, we read alot more than the average Joe. I have read that the average person reads only a half dozen books a year, only watches blockbuster movies, and sports and mainstream shows on TV. Not being critical. Everyone has their own taste and we are a rather well informed group, at least as far as the horror genre goes. One of my all time favorite actors is Peter Cushing and I am willing to bet that alot of folks don't know who he is although they may recognize him from Star Wars. They don't know H.P. Lovecraft either despite how famous he is in our genre. But then again some people have very detailed knowledge about American football and I would be hard pressed to name 5 players.

But then again, that's why I am here. To be with people like me.

[Chris]

On the issue of racism in old texts, it really can be shocking. I enjoy reading pulp every now and then and I think Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes is one of the best adventure novels ever written but his novels are absolutely full of nationalism, sexism, and racism to an extreme degree. And I don't think it is just the past. I watched Olympus has Fallen last night and was struck by how nationalistic it was and the negative light that it cast on Asian people as a group.

My familiy is a multicultural/multilingual family (6 adopted kids) and have had foreign exchange students in our home for the last few years--one from Madrid, another from Naples, and this year a girl from North Rhineland--and we discuss the whole "American" self image as it appears in movies etc. They all have been relieved to find that the regular Americans they meet are nothing like the stereotypical ones they see in the movies and TV. So I guess my point is that I don't think the stereotypes and racism/sexism/nationalism have disappeared at all from entertainment media although I believe that we as people are much less racist than we once were.

[Jon Recluse]

Chris wrote: "Interesting question.

I live in Texas and have lived here quite some time. My understanding of the Wendigo as an American Indian myth/monster has been with me for a long time, probably since I was..."

I discovered the Wendigo through Algernon Blackwood and the pages of The Incredible Hulk....when Big Green and the Beast of the North took turns kicking the living daylights out of a certain Canadian superhero with claws before getting serious and trying to kill each other.
Graham Masterton and Owl Goingback fired my interest in Native American mythology.....and I did spend quite a few of my formative years reading about the legendary creatures of world,
I've always been fond of the monsters that don't get the exposure they deserve.

[Jon Recluse]

Chris wrote: "On the issue of racism in old texts, it really can be shocking. I enjoy reading pulp every now and then and I think Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes is one of the best adventure novels ever written bu..."

Just read a current Swedish thriller with some real nasty racism against everyone not Swedish....including indigenous people of Sweden. Noticed it in some Scottish thrillers too....Poles seem to be a popular target.
And I just saw an article that pointed out how all the evil characters in animated movies having foreign accents may not be the best idea.

[Canavan]

I’ve read this 1910 classic a number of times over the decades, but it’s been a few years since my last exposure. (view spoiler)[The story shares a few thematic similarities with some of Algernon Blackwood’s other tales. In particular, we have the notion of a vast wilderness that is at once hauntingly beautiful, yet at the same time inscrutably alien and quite capable of being inimical to man. As noted by previous posters, there is an unfortunate racist component to “The Wendigo” that mars its effectiveness a bit. At one point, Blackwood casually drops the N-bomb, perhaps not all that unusual for the literature of that era, but unsettling nonetheless. Perhaps more disturbing is the notion of susceptibility along racial lines to the primal forces found in the north woods. Punk, the Indian guide, is clearly most attuned to these forces, but is at the same time canny enough to avoid them. Défago, a half-Indian, half-Québécois member of the party, seems to occupy an unfortunate middle ground: more perceptive than his more civilized counterparts concerning the dangers, but unable in the end to elude their grasp.

I was impressed by Défago’s anguished cry in the wake of his abduction (“Oh! oh! This fiery height! Oh, my feet of fire! My burning feet of fire ...!”); the episode struck me as at once improbable and yet remarkably eerie. Défago appears twice after his initial disappearance; the first appearance, while well written, was (I thought) unnecessary and the story might have been a better one without it.

Last thought on the story: It’s interesting how the wendigo, like other mythological beings, appears to have morphed over time, hewing to a given author’s notions or perhaps just to a more general Zeitgeist. Blackwood recasts the supernatural entity as reflective of his own view of the wilderness as somehow powerful and yet alien, unknowable. (The story as a whole strongly reminded me of various Arthur Machen tales; e.g., “The Great God Pan”, 1894). This is a far cry from the earlier, Native American conceptions of a malignant and cannibalistic being.

Here is perhaps my favorite illustration of this story. The artist was Matt Fox and the work was done for the June 1944 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries.
(hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

[Jon Recluse]

Canavan wrote: "I’ve read this 1910 classic a number of times over the decades, but it’s been a few years since my last exposure. The story shares a few thematic similarities with some of [author:Algernon Blackwoo..."

(view spoiler)[I found Blackwood's Wendigo to be closer to the description of Ithaqua, the Windwalker of the Cthulhu Mythos. (hide spoiler)]

[Feli]

Chris wrote: "On the issue of racism in old texts, it really can be shocking. I enjoy reading pulp every now and then and I think Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes is one of the best adventure novels ever written bu..."

I agree with that but then again, I guess it depends. One can always have bad luck. We had a boy in school who went to New York for an exchange year and he had to return after 2 months because he was treaded very badly cause he came from Germany. Also, he doesn't even look like a 'typical German', his roots are very obviously Latin American so is his name. But he was treaded like we still had 1940. Another friend of mine went to Texas and she had the time of her life there. So, yes, racism and nationalism etc aren't over yet and every country seems to still have its share of it.

About the Wendigo myth. Of course, you are absolutely right, Chris. I guess themes like that are also more common nowadays with modern pop culture than it was a few decades ago. I remember having heard of a Wendigo in multiple American series, so have most of my generation. Thus I just thought that it would be something most people know about. But I guess that's not automatically the case.

[Canavan]

Jon wrote:

I found Blackwood's Wendigo to be (view spoiler)[closer to the description of Ithaqua, the Windwalker of the Cthulhu Mythos. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[According to Robert M. Price in his introduction to the 1998 anthology The Ithaqua Cycle, August Derleth’s creation of Ithaqua was directly inspired by Blackwood’s wendigo. (hide spoiler)]

[Chris]

Feli--our students have told us each year about foreign exchange kids that were either mistreated or ignored and it makes me furious. If someone is coming all the way from, in our case Europe, the host family needs to be ready and willing to make them a family member and make it a priority to make their experience the best it can be. We are "family" with our exchange kids' families. They have come to visit us and we are going to spend a couple weeks in Spain this summer and visit with them.

Back on point, is it possible that Blackwood's portrayal of nature as hostile and potentially dangerous is a response to the Romantic movement of the 19th century that idolized and idealized nature?

[Canavan]

Chris said (in part):

is it possible that Blackwood's portrayal of nature as hostile and potentially dangerous is a response to the Romantic movement of the 19th century that idolized and idealized nature?

I’m not an expert, but I might phrase that a little differently — that “The Wendigo” (and other Blackwood works) embodied the author’s own version of Romanticism. Blackwood was a huge fan of the Romantics, particularly Shelley, and as such he absorbed a lot of the their ideas about man and nature, ideas that found hold in his works and in his personal life.

[Chris]

interesting point Canavan. You know much more about Blackwood than I do. I am going to read The Wendigo today and will read with that thought in mind.

[Jon Recluse]

I really need to read Blackwood's biography. Fascinating man.

[Canavan]

Jon said:

I really need to read Blackwood's biography. Fascinating man.

I’ll admit to having only read portions of the Mike Ashley biography Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life , but I can certainly recommend the book based on what I have read.

[Jon Recluse]

Canavan wrote: "Jon said:


I really need to read Blackwood's biography. Fascinating man.


I’ll admit to having only read portions of the Mike Ashley biography [book:Algernon Blackwood: An Extrao..."

Put in a request for it through inter-library loan.

[Bob]

Seems like we got ourselves a great book and a good thread going already. Glad to see more new faces here as well!

[Nyt]

New to the group. Found yall through a group on Facebook. Recently rediscovered my love of reading. Drive a lot for work, so audiobooks are my go to for entertainment. If I get into actually reading, I fall asleep after a few pages.

[Kelly]

Just finished the book! It was definitely interesting and has piqued my interest in Blackwood.

[Rachel]

Started this one today! (I had something else I was reading that I had to finish, ha ha.)

Just based on the first chapter, I wondered if there was any connection between Algernon Blackwood's story and the Wendigo story from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection. (Like if the Scary Stories one was an adaptation for children.) They do share a character in Defago and the setting seems to be similar so I'm interested in being able to compare them.

[Canavan]

Rachel said (in part):

Just based on the first chapter, I wondered if there was any connection between Algernon Blackwood's story and the Wendigo story from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collection. (Like if the Scary Stories one was an adaptation for children.) They do share a character in Defago and the setting seems to be similar so I'm interested in being able to compare them.

According to Alvin Schwartz’s source notes, his own adaptation derives from a “summer camp tale” that was passed along to him by a Professor Edward M. Ives of the University of Maine, who in turn first heard it in a Boy Scout camp in the 1930s. Schwartz says that he borrowed DéFago’s name from Blackwood and also suggests that the 1910 Blackwood story is merely a literary version of the same source material (i.e., the camp tale). Based on what I know about the Blackwood story, that is almost certainly not the case. Instead, I would assert that the camp tale that was circulating in the first half of the 20th century and heard by Ives was a garbled version of the earlier Blackwood story.