tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post1180363840827046672..comments2024-03-12T12:38:23.542-04:00Comments on The Kind of Face You Hate: The Kind of Face You Slash - Day 30: Good Fare, Some Accommodationbill r.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-75119709400234302612013-11-05T10:50:54.357-05:002013-11-05T10:50:54.357-05:00Was laid up with a stomach bug yesterday and figur...Was laid up with a stomach bug yesterday and figured it was as good a time as any to catch up with Aickman. On your recommendation, I went for this one first. I have little to add to the discussion (still head-swimmy from the bug) but: WOW. One of those stories (and, I'm assuming, writers) that is staggeringly direct in the writing but fathoms deep in its effect.<br /><br />You don't mention it here but, man, that Cromie scene... hilarious and unsettling.ptatlerivhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07570950256657235397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-52392977252172052592013-10-30T17:51:59.864-04:002013-10-30T17:51:59.864-04:00Ah, one of my favorite horror subjects. But absurd...Ah, one of my favorite horror subjects. But <i>absurdity,</i> implying a sophomoric reveling in the unconventional for amusement's sake, isn't the word I'd use here. Any absurd quality in Aickman's stories, I think, is probably a side effect of the conflict between the eerieness and incongruity of their stranger details, and his unfailingly dry, considered narrative tone, which maintains a coolly detached, sometimes wittily acerbic commentary on developments, even as they grow progressively unusual and perhaps sinister.<br /><br />The "cat attack" in this story offers a good example for consideration, I think. Whereas a typical horror writer would get this seemingly minor episode out of the way as straightforwardly as possible--cat bites guy, guy kicks cat, cat flees screeching into the night, story continues--that's almost exactly the opposite of how the scene is rendered by Aickman. <br /><br />Most significantly, maybe, it's never clear that there is in fact a cat, or that the wound sustained is a simple cat bite. Indeed, the amount of pain and physical trauma involved, as the story eventually makes clear, suggests something substantially worse than any cat-inflicted injury I've ever heard of.<br /><br />So right off the bat, things are starting to seem a little off-kilter. And this is a natural consequence of the inherent ambiguity--<i>intentional</i> ambiguity, importantly, as opposed to the unintended ambiguity of lax and lazy writing--of Aickman's style: he rarely, if ever tells stories in terms of plain facts set in stone. Rather, he relates proceedings from the standpoint of an imperfect observer--as all of us ultimately are, though too little storytelling actually accounts for this--whose not entirely definitive perceptions and conclusions remind us sometimes of our own, especially when we find ourselves in unfamiliar situations.<br /><br />(Note: this "imperfect observer" shouldn't be confused with the fashionable literary gimmick of the "unreliable narrator", a conceit I generally have little to no time for.)<br /><br />Anyway, I might try reading this story again at some point and coming back here if I have anything else to say about it, as the whole is a bit of a muddle in my mind now. But before I go I'll add that I don't agree that conversation necessarily reveals a coldness on Maybury's part; a certain guardedness, perhaps, but only as much as seems reasonable in conversation with a somewhat nosy, and strange, stranger, I would think.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05364322006357208797noreply@blogger.com