2022 March: Dark Entries by Robert Aickman

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Dark Entries was first published in 1964 and contains six curious and macabre stories of love, death and the supernatural. The 'strange stories' (Aickman's preferred term) are constructed immaculately, the neuroses of his characters painted in subtle shades. He builds dread by the steady accrual of realistic detail, until the reader realizes that the protagonist is heading towards their doom as if in a dream.

The stories:
The School Friend
Ringing the Changes
Choice of Weapons
The Waiting Room
The View
Bind Your Hair

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) was the grandson of Richard Marsh, a leading Victorian novelist of the occult. Though his chief occupation in life was first as a conservationist of England's canals he eventually turned his talents to writing what he called 'strange stories.' Dark Entries (1964) was his first full collection, the debut in a body of work that would inspire Peter Straub to hail Aickman as 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories.' (197 pages)

[John]

I'll be reading this - looking forward to it.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Anyone else thinking of joining in? or is it too scary...

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I thought about it, but it looks too scary. I like my scary stuff weird and unrealistic-and no nightmares!

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

I totally understand Rosemarie. It is out of boundaries of safeness!

[Bernard]

I have taken some bravery enhancement pills, so I will try.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Bernard wrote: "I have taken some bravery enhancement pills, so I will try."

You are very brave Bernard. Please let us know if it works!!

[Pam, Southwest Enchanter]

I want to read the book but will have to wait! Scary doesn’t bother me. I can’t keep up with the pace in this group! I’m still reading Solaris. I keep getting distracted by other books.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

Pam, you can comment any time! I've commented on monthly reads many months later sometimes. I pick and choose which books I'm going to read because I can't read them all either.

[Canavan]

Rosemarie said: I thought about it, but it looks too scary. I like my scary stuff weird and unrealistic-and no nightmares!

I don’t think I’d describe Aickman’s stories as “scary”. His own description of them as “strange” is pretty apt. Aickman’s tales are often unsettling in an ambiguous kind of way. The reader may realize that something odd has occurred without being able to quite pinpoint the underlying nature or purpose of the events in question. Neil Gaiman once said of reading Aickman, “It’s as if you watched a magic trick being done, and at the end of it you’re not even sure what the trick was.”

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Canavan wrote: "I don’t think I’d describe Aickman’s stories as “scary..."

Ok I will give you that one Canavan.
Macabre means disturbing and horrifying...extremely shocking is still too much for me, but I am not saying no one else should take my judgment as not to read. If this is your genre than please read. It is rated 4 stars!

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

Pam wrote: "I want to read the book but will have to wait! Scary doesn’t bother me. I can’t keep up with the pace in this group! I’m still reading Solaris. I keep getting distracted by other books."
I understand. I probably won't get to this until next month.

[Canavan]

I participated in a discussion of these stories in another group about 8 years ago. Here are the (slightly edited) thoughts I had about “The School Friend”.

This is probably pretty typical Aickman at least in some ways. The author provides the reader with enough clues to dope out the broad outlines of what’s going on, but many of the plot details are left ambiguous. (I sometimes liken reading an Aickman story to putting together a jigsaw puzzle, only to discover at the end of the process that some of the pieces are missing.)

(view spoiler)[“The School Friend” appears at least superficially to be an Aickmanesque variation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, for example, that Tessler is described as a German doctor. A few Aickman scholars have noted the phonetic similarity of the name Tessler to Tesla, sometimes characterized as the archtypical “mad scientist” (e.g., Rebekah Brown in Aickman Studies, January 2014, Vol. 1., No. 1). The crucial line here is the one uttered by Sally when she somewhat hysterically tells Mel that “it’s possible for a child to be born in a manner you’d never dream of.”

What’s less clear to me is what’s going on with Mel throughout the story. There is the throw-away comment made relatively early on which refers to some personal “catastrophe” which led to her moving back in with her parents. However, the way in which the narrator (Mel) refuses to fill in the blanks about this catastrophe makes the reader wonder whether or not it might somehow relate to (or modify her reactions to) the later events in the Tessler house. It’s tempting, for example, to speculate that Mel’s catastrophe might involve childbirth — out of wedlock birth or illegal abortion. More to the point, I find myself puzzled about Mel’s reaction both during the height of the crisis and during the aftermath. Specifically, we have the scene in which after Mel leaves the Tessler house she is seen by a boy: “I must have presented a queer spectacle because the boy seemed to be standing petrified. His mouth, I saw, was wide open. I knew the boy quite well. It was essential for all kinds of reasons that I conduct myself suitably. The boy stood, in fact, for public opinion.” Perhaps this is a case of my reading too much into a passage, but it seems to me that Aickman is hinting at something significant here, but I’m not sure exactly what. Similarly at the story’s end, we have a role reversal in which Mel tells Sally that one day she will probably join her. What exactly does this signify? (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½

[Georgina]

I am definitely joining for this one. For those in the UK his stories have been likened to Inside number 9 and The league of gentleman, so definitely more strange than scary, but we will see. Sorry I don’t know of any US equivalents.

[John]

Starting this one tonight, but maybe I should save it for bedtime......

[John]

Finished Dark Entries tonight (this was a re-read; I'd first read it around 2015 when they re-issued some of his books on the centenary of his birth).

Re-reading caused me to increase my rating to 4 stars, and I'd agree with Georgina that his stories are strange rather than scary, and are definitely not horror. He apparently preferred "strange tales" as the best description of his work.

His endings are strangest of all - and sometimes leave you wondering if you'd missed something in the build-up. But I'm glad to have re-read it, and grateful to Lesle for having included it in this years challenge.

For anyone who is interested, there's an hour-long 2015 documentary of his life and work available on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FyI...

[Canavan]

Thoughts on “Ringing the Changes”.

This is one of Robert Aickman’s more anthologized pieces and was, in fact, televised as “The Bells of Hell” in 1968. In some ways it’s actually a bit more accessible than many of Aickman’s stories — at least as to the surface action. But I find it just as murky as most of his other tales when it comes to trying to get a handle on what is intended on a more metaphorical level. (view spoiler)[Gary Crawford, in Robert Aickman: An Introduction postulates that the story illustrates “the theme of love linked to death”. I suppose so, but I came away with the feeling that Aickman had something much more specific in mind. Given that we’re talking about Aickman (and hence, more often than not, about sex), my own impression was that the entire piece reeked of male insecurity vis-à-vis women. Thus, Aickman continually emphasizes the age difference between Gerard and Phrynne in ways calculated to make the reader think that this mattered far more to Gerard than to Phrynne. Thus, when Phrynne runs ahead of Gerard the latter seems embarrassed when he is forced to pursue her (“he hoped there were not eyes behind blinds.”), and when he catches up “he knew she was silently indicating that his failure to keep up with her was not a matter for self-consciousness”. Gerard compensates for his feelings of physical inadequacy (or at least attempts to) in various ways — we are told, for example, at the story’s outset that during their courtship Gerard exaggerated his business position; and it is implied that Gerard has a fondness for displaying his erudition in Phyrnne’s presence (the bit about the train and later on the use of Latin [which seems to go over Phrynne’s head]). All of this comes to a head, of course, during the fevered dancing which accompanies the raising of the dead. Aickman imbues this rather bizarre rite with a pronounced sexual undertone, describing the crowd at various points as “beatic” and “ecstatic” — one might be forgiven for thinking of the event in terms of an unnatural orgy. Certainly Aickman’s description of Phrynne in the aftermath of the dance seem to emphasize the sensual — “her nightdress was so torn that she stood almost naked”. Gerard is horrified by the graveyard workers; not so his wife: “On the contrary, her cheeks reddened and her soft mouth became fleetingly more voluptuous still.” The final sentence seems almost to convey the idea of Gerard as a cuckolded husband. As a final (possibly relevant?) puzzle piece, I wonder whether anyone else has commented on the the similarity of the young wife’s name (Phyrnne) to that of the famous Greek courtesan (Phryne). (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭½

[Canavan]

For anyone interested in Aickman, Tartarus Press just published a biography of the writer, Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography by R. B. Russell.

[Canavan]

Thoughts on “Choice of Weapons”.

I’ll say at the outset that I wasn’t all that fond of this story. We’ve made mention previously about the ambiguous nature of most of Aickman’s fiction. I think everyone has their own personal criterion for how much ambiguity they are willing to tolerate in a story and for me Aickman crosses that boundary here. I felt while reading “Choice” as though I were stumbling around in a dark room and bumping into the furniture.

(view spoiler)[In general, “Choice” is another Aickman tale about the connection between love (lust?) and death. More specifically, Fenville’s infatuation with Dorabelle is repeatedly referred to as a potentially fatal illness. Various aspects of the story seem to hint at the author’s infatuation with Freudian theory, but I’m admittedly at a bit of a loss as to how these pieces fit together to form anything like a semi-coherent narrative. Andy has already, for example, commented on the dual of nature of Dorabelle (viz., Dorabelle and the unnamed male duelist) — this motif pops up in a number of Aickman stories and seems tied to Freud’s concept of the “double” as discussed in his 1919 essay, The Uncanny.

I found myself confused about the role of Bermuda and son in this story. On the one hand, Bermuda’s abilities make him seem almost omniscient; and yet “modern science” fails both Ann and Fenville. Ann dies from a possible overdose and at the story’s end it appears things will end similarly for Fenville. (My assumption is that Bermuda sends his son to bring back the pistols that we already know are in Dorabelle’s room.) I wondered whether the story obliquely represented Aickman’s own views on the efficacy of “modern science” — at the end of his life Aickman, suffering from cancer, refused traditional approaches and opted instead for a homeopathic course of treatment. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭½

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Canavan thank you for sharing your personal thoughts on the different tales.

[Bernard]

Many writers have derived inspiration from Freudian ideas, I suppose it's another iron in the development fire.

[Georgina]

I finished this a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I agree that some of the endings are ambiguous, but that adds to the intrigue for me.
I’m sat listening to the bell ringing practice in my village and every week since I finished Ringing the Changes it has sent a shiver down my spine.
We read The Beetle by Richard Marsh a little while ago and I can see a lot of inspiration must have come from his grandfathers gothic tales.

[Canavan]

Brief comment on “The Waiting Room”.

Not much here other than a very traditionally-flavored ghost tale of the type once popular with readers during the Christmas season. In fact, this one originally appeared in 1956 in the December issue of a magazine called The Sketch. Kind of pedestrian for Aickman, but still well crafted.

✭✭✭

[Bernard]

Yes, I liked Ringing the Changes too, though it took a while to get to the meat of the story.

[Canavan]

Thoughts on “The View”.

I don’t profess to understand it completely, but it is an interesting read.

(view spoiler)[The story is yet another in which love/sex is linked to death, although the causal relationship between the two is (for me at least) difficult to discern. Aickman also throws into the mix some other notions for the reader to consider. The predominant one seems to couple the state of happiness/love with the adoption of an uncritical, unanalytical view of a constantly changing and evolving environment. Thus, at one point Ariel, responding to Carfax’s attempt to grapple with his failure as an artist to adequately capture or understand the “mystery of view”, tells him: “Everything changes. All the time. Very fast. I’m no exception, I’m glad to say. Only the dead fear change.” It’s tempting to see this statement as presaging Carfax’s woeful end. He doesn’t exactly die, but the experience seems to literally transform him into an old man. I found this aspect of the story reminiscent of Irish folklore in which a mortal is through some means spirited away “under the hill” where he experiences for a time great joy and happiness; he is typically all the sadder when he “awakes” to find himself back in the real world of mortals.

On the other hand I’m not quite sure what the trigger mechanism is whereby Carfax loses his connection to Ariel’s world. It doesn’t seem to be the case that Carfax precipitates the break. It is instead Ariel who insists on the walk to sea, while Carfax fears the effect of leaving the house on his psyche: “Although when he first came to Fleet Ariel had spoken enthusiastically of the joys of tramping the Island, Carfax, when he almost immediately afterwards became fully aware of the mystery of the view, had, he now realized, unconsciously resolved that to leave the demesne might be unwise — inimical, he increasingly felt, to his intense but rather precarious happiness.” The walk culminates in a moment of bliss when the two “at last met and recognised one another.” For reasons I don’t quite understand it is this moment which marks the beginning of the end of Carfax’s happiness and his hold on Ariel’s worldview.

Tied to the the theme of how we view the world (logical-analytic versus uncritical acceptance) is the concept of sanity as an ultimately meaningless concept — one dependent entirely upon point of view. Carfax constantly worries about his state of mind, but — as usual — Ariel responds to these concerns with indifference. At one point, responding to Carfax’s questions about the relationship of the mind to truth, she tellingly comments: “Cosi e se vi pare”, which roughly translates to “right you are (if you think so)”. It is possibly not a coincidence that the phrase is the title of a fairly well-known 1917 Pirandello play that deals with the mutability of truth and attempt of the cast members to determine which of the others is truly insane.

I could speak to other aspects of the story, but have certainly droned on long enough. Suffice to say that Aickman packs numerous ideas and allusions into this novella. It doesn’t make complete sense, but it hangs together just enough to make for a sometimes fascinating study. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

I just read The School Friend.
Didn't understand it.

[Bernard]

Yes, I was disappointed by The School Friend too, but fortunately the other stories are better. All I can fathom is that Sally gave birth to some kind of monster. And the ending gave no disclosure at all.

[Bernard]

In The View, Carfax achieves happiness with Ariel, but afterwards finds he has aged terribly. Perhaps happiness is not a right, but has to be paid for?
But I enjoyed it overall, there is indeed an atmosphere of strangeness

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

Bernard wrote: "Yes, I was disappointed by The School Friend too, but fortunately the other stories are better. All I can fathom is that Sally gave birth to some kind of monster. And the ending gave no disclosure at all."
It was like lots of pieces of horror stories that didn't actually connect.

I didn't finish Ringing the Changes at work but it seems pretty good.

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

I just finished The Waiting Room. Yeah, definitely reminded me of something by Dickens.

So they're all about sex and death? I guess that makes a kind of sense.

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

"The first, so far as he could make out, told of a youth who, on being offered by a sage alternative gifts of Wisdom, Wealth, or Virtue, the gifts losing nothing of impressiveness by their Teuttonic initial capitals, selected Wealth. The sage thereupon remarked that the choice proved the youth already had Wisdom as he would now be able to afford Virtue."

[Bernard]

There is a saying that money doesn't bring happiness, but this is patently untrue. But research shows that the relationship is a complex one.

[Book Nerd, Purple Book Horse]

They say money can't buy love or health. But it can buy everything else. And it makes even those easier.

Bind Your Hair was weird and fun. Yes, now that Canavan pointed it out I can see that there's a lot of sex in these.

[Bernard]

Yes, money does make life much easier. Imagine having to batter for everything!

[Bernard]

Oops! BARTER !!!!!