The Stories of Robert Aickman

[Connavar]

Yeah thats the edition i have right now.

I like the lonely man in Venice story and the ending was a bit anticlimax though. Hope to get paperback version in a week or so and i can read more of the collection in new book condition.

I dislike huge, old hardcover. It got in the way of me enjoying the book.

[Fried Egg]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Hope to get paperback version in a week or so and i can read more of the collection in new book condition.

I dislike huge, old hardcover. It got in the way of me enjoying the book.

Watch out though, you may get a copy that excludes the stories I emboldened above. They're all good stories so many you should read those first...

[Fried Egg]

I re-read "The Real Road to the Church" last night. It stands out, I think, as being one of his stories with a somewhat upbeat/happy ending.

In this story, a woman has spent most of her life unsatisfied and unfulfilled without really knowing why and has ended up whiling away her days alone on an unspecified channel island. Perhaps she has been subconsciously drawn there because the house she lives in is on a historically holy site. She hears about a silent procession that makes it's way right past her house on a regular basis but she's never been aware of it before because she was not ready.

She is advised by her char woman and gossiping friends that if she ever hears the procession that she should definitely not look. However, she meets the vicar of the parish for the first time on her cliff walk and he gives her quite different advice. His coversation with her seems to be on two levels, the surface conversation which makes little sense to her and the under the surface converstation with her subconscious. She feels simultaneously enlightened and confused by the converstaion, but somehow relieved as if a weight has been lifted off her.

Back in the house she is only barely aware of what she is preparing for and is simultaneously afraid and expectant. When the silent procession arrives outside her house, we find that it is herself that they are baring and that the porters are the people she has known (and died) in her life. My take is that the changing of the porters is the trigger that allows her soul to depart, freeing her from it's melancholy and inertia. She can now get on with the rest of her life, enjoying it to the full.

[blacknorth]

Philip Challinor has written some interesting interpretations of Aickman's work; you could probably find them via google, if you haven't already.

I don't have any of the stories you've been discussing above so I can't add any insights. Not that I ever do, lol. I did pick up a lovely Gollancz 1st of Cold Hand In Mine and I'm going through that one at the moment.

[j. d. worthington]

Thank you for that suggestion. I've not had a chance to read it, but here's one, at least (complete or not, I do not yet know)....

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=Ff-0CpHJySQC

[Fried Egg]

Thanks for that link J.D., it shall prove interesting reading I'm sure.

[nomadman]

If anyone's interested BBC Radio 4 recently aired a programme about Aickman hosted by Jeremy Dyson. It can be found here.

[Fried Egg]

Originally Posted by nomadman

If anyone's interested BBC Radio 4 recently aired a programme about Aickman hosted by Jeremy Dyson. It can be found here.

Thanks nomadman, that sounds very interesting. I shall have to hav a listen shortly. Here's the program info in case anyone's interested:

Screenwriter Jeremy Dyson praises the supernatural stories of British author and conservationist Robert Aickman and argues they should receive greater recognition for their contribution to literature.

Robert Aickman was the grandson of the prolific Victorian novelist Richard Marsh whose occult thriller The Beetle (1897) was in its time as popular as Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Aickman is best remembered today for co-founding the Inland Waterways Association, but his Grandfather's work influenced him to write around fifty so called "strange" stories involving the supernatural and macabre over a thirty year period starting in the late forties.

In recent years League of Gentlemen writer Dyson has adapted Aickman's work into various forms of Drama including the BBC Radio Four play 'Ringing the Changes'.

By speaking with fans of Aickman and introducing students to his work for the first time, Dyson argues that Aickman's literary gifts have been undervalued and during his lifetime he should have received greater critical acclaim.

Contributions from horror writer Ramsey Campbell, Broadcaster Stuart Maconie and televisions Mark Gatiss.

Written and presented by Jeremy Dyson.

With readings by Jayne Ashbourne the programme is produced in Salford by Stephen Garner.

[Fried Egg]

Finally got around to listening to this programme today. Great to know that he has at least a few dedicated devotees out there.

[Fried Egg]

I just read this in the "Dark Entries" collection.

This story was, in some ways, quite unusual for Aickman in that there are some quite explicit references to something supernatural or overtly strange going on although pinning down its precise nature remains as elusive as ever. The narrative seems scattered with clues that enticingly hint at a meaning just below the surface but critical details are snatched away leaving us just short of enough information to put it all together in a cohesive manner.

The story seems to suggest that Sally came into this world through some form of inverted immaculate conception. She has a father but no mother (in the conventional sense). Her father, it would appear, had stumbled upon some method of producing off-spring in a profoundly unconventional manner. The details and nature of which presumably become apparent to Sally when she moves back in to the family home after her father dies. She then sets about undergoing some form of variation of the process in order to produce an offspring of her own.

One of the things that I find most strange about this story is that the protagonist seems to be directly affected in some oblique way, more directly than merely as a consequence of being Sally's friend. What was happening to Mel as she returned to Sally's house for the last time, when the boy in the street was shocked at the sight of her?

This is most definitely aimed at disturbing the reader's sense of reality, their sense of the proper order of things.

[Fried Egg]

Erm...I just realised I forgot to name the story I was talking about in the previous post......It was called "The School Friend".

Anyway, I'm slowly making my way through this collection, taking my time so that I can savour the stories.

I was looking forward to reading "Ringing the Changes" as this appears to be one of his most celebrated stories and I can see why. A classic and quite conventional horror story (by Aickman's standards) which doesn't leave your head throbbing with confusion after reading it. Atmospheric and scary, brilliant stuff.

And then I came to "Choice of Weapons". Wow, what an incredible, mind-blowing, insane story that is. Not so much horror as just weird, this is a tale of lust, obsession, and madness. What a brilliant term for the subconscious that Aickman coined in this story: The magnetic under-mind.

I've read it twice through now and I still can't make much sense of it. If anyone else has read it and can shed some light on it, I would greatly appreciate it...

[Fried Egg]

I just read this story in the collection Powers of Darkness and find myself with the familiar feeling of being simultaneously satisfied and confused.

I'll definitely need to read it again before I can offer any kind of interpretation of what went on here but I did find it very interesting how this revealed some of the inner workings of parliament and wonder how much Aickman drew from his own experiences with his involvement with the Inland Waterways Association.

[Fried Egg]

Hmmm...I keep forgetting to name the stories I'm talking about! Above refers to: "My Poor Friend".

Anyway, I've just read another story (for the second time) called: "Your Tiny Hand is Frozen". I love this story and here are my thoughts on it:

It often comes across that Aickman had a general dislike for all things modern. In this story, it is the horror of telephones that the author attempts to illustrate, in his own rather oblique way.

Aickman must have seen the rise of popularity of telephones as something of a social sickness that was destroying our capacity for "real" social interaction making us agoraphobic and dependent on a faceless, bureaucratic organisation.

Throughout the story Edmund's phone is behaving strangely. He is beset by frequent miscalls, sometimes silence, sometimes wrong numbers but always clips, pops and hissing in the background. Unable to penetrate the uncaring, unresponsive attitude of the telephone company, he is forced to endure these problems.

While initially quite disdainful of the telephone, he finds himself forced to use it to seek out acquaintances who might want to join him for Christmas day. Once he stumbles upon the mysterious Nera, the telephone becomes an increasingly important part of his life. He becomes obsessed by Nera and the thought of her next phone call that every other aspect of his life begins to suffer. He begins to ignore letters from his convalescing girl friend Teddie, his quality of work deteriorates until he is no longer employed, he is barely able to go out and feed himself. The analogue is clear, he has become a telephone junkie.

Throughout the story we are increasingly lead to believe the telephone system has somehow become connected to the spirit world and that Nera is the spirit of someone who has died. In the end Nera manifests in some undefined way in Edmund's flat but he cannot overcome his fear to face her, she is ultimately rejected.

But the last scene turns that idea on it's head. When the now sick Edmund mutters her name in hospital, it is revealed that Teddie knows Nera. Nera was infact some kind of agoraphobic telephone stalker who used to pester Teddie. Somehow, Nera had managed to inject her essence into the phone system in order to travel to Edmund's flat, rather than endure going outside. Obviously the process was irreversible but she was able to make one last act of defiance after Edmund's rejection, cutting herself off from the telephone system for good by sawing through the flex cable with a bread knife.

I always thought this was a great name for a story but it gives us no clue to what lies within as far as I can see, unless it is an oblique reference to Nera's "still well formed hand" that clutched the bread knife in the final scene.

[j. d. worthington]

It may also be an oblique reference to a line in Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers, as they are escaping the castle and the young man is attempting to comfort his love (whom they've just rescued from the vampires). As he attempts to keep her warm in the icy landscape, he makes this remark... the first real indication that she herself has now become a vampire and is about to, with their unwitting help, spread the plague throughout the world....

Given your comments on the telephone here......

[Fried Egg]

J.D., your explanation sounds more likely although I am unfamiliar with the work you refer to.