Weird Fiction discussion

This is the spoilers topic. As we get into the stories, we can discuss them in detail here. Light spoilers are allowed and even encouraged. Big spoilers should still go in spoiler tags please.

My copy of the book arrived today. I read the first three chapters and must say I am in awe at the power of the writing. Bradbury, in composing this book at eighty-one years of age, was clearly at the summit of his powers and in complete charge of his faculties. The precision and control of language makes every paragraph read like a poem. What I have read so far, and I am just starting, is absolutely amazing to me in its minimalist portrayal of this family.

I can see why the book might have had trouble with the general public unfamiliar with Weird Fiction aesthetics. Many in the general public wouldn't be able to deal well with ambiguity or indirect narration. Even readers of post-modern fiction or literary fiction of say the Faulkner school might have problems with the lightness of the subject matter, given the literariness of its treatment. We're not them. I'll be surprised if we have that sort of trouble understanding or appreciating what Bradbury is up to here.

The illustrations in a serious, adult work like this are a riot. Such a nice touch.

I am greatly reminded of a book we read for this group last year: Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness. Only this is less heavy, more fun. Bradbury doesn't need or want to impress us by obscuring his subject matter for artistic effect, as I feel Zelazny did. Bradbury is trying to entertain us while at the same time unleashing the full scope of his command and mastery of our language. It's incredible.

On chapter 3's reference to lapis lazuli, I personally have only heard of it once before from a Robert Browning dramatic monologue: "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church." I therefore looked up its significance and find that helped me understand this one-page chapter a little better.

From https://www.energymuse.com/lapis-lazu... "It was the iconic beauty and fashion icon Cleopatra who used the crushed powder of the Lapis Lazuli crystal in her eye shadow design, the quintessential symbol of an Egyptian pharaoh. Also used extensively to decorate the tombs of King Tutt and other famous pharaohs, the Lapis Lazuli crystal healing properties help to connect the physical world with the spiritual realm. If you are drawn to the Lapis Lazuli crystal, it's a sign that you're ready for spiritual transformation, which starts with going deep within your soul to discover your deepest desires. When you meditate with the Lapis Lazuli crystal properties, it will help expand your mind by revealing the truth about your authentic self. Known as 'The Wisdom Keeper,' Lapis Lazuli is an ideal stone for setting intentions that involve truth, awareness, and intuition." Crushed lapis lazuli was used as a pigment in a lot of paintings until the early 1800s. Without it the paintings would have been so less vividly blue.

I've started it. I agree with Dan that the language is very poetic. When I read Bradbury as a teen I didn't appreciate that. I was used to other kinds of writing. As an adult I read "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and fell in love with the style.

This one isn't as good as that one for me, at least not yet. There is a definite "Addams Family" vibe. I never actually liked "Addams Family", at least on TV. The original drawings are nice, and I like Wednesday in the movie version. I can relate to Wednesday. There is a current meme going around where someone asks her if she'd like a face mask. She responds: "Are they made from real faces?"

Anyhow, Bradbury's version of the idea is working better for me so far.

Much to my surprise I realized I have read chapter five before. It's titled "The April Witch" and is the leadoff story in this Asimov anthology: Young Witches and Warlocks. I thought it a highly odd story when I read it there five or ten years ago and forgot all about it. The story struck me as mediocre then because it was surrounded by mediocre stories. It fits much better in this novel. I consider it rescued.

By pure coincidence I just finished a set of "comic book" adaptations of stories called Shadow Show: Stories In Celebration of Ray Bradbury, based on the short-story collection of the same name: Shadow Show.

As with any such collection, some stories work for me and some don't. The lead story, by Joe Hill definitely works.

Ed wrote: " There is a definite "Addams Family" vibe. I never actually liked "Addams Family", at least on TV."

I agree Ed. Strong Addams family vibe. I was always rather ambivalent to the show, like I was with The Munsters, which I confuse it with to this day. Horror and comedy mix like oil and water. At least I don't detect comedy (yet) with Bradbury's work here.

I just started it: it’s the first thing by Ray Bradbury I’ve read I think? Really liking the prose and also getting very strong Addams Family vibes which I am enjoying! The April Witch is lovely as a story in itself.

One of my favourite chapters so far is chapter 12, On the Orient North.
In Chapter 13,they refer to the place in Illinois as the October Country. Has anyone read that book yet? I haven't read that one, but I did read Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes, also set in Illinois.

I finished the book and enjoyed his writing as always, but some of the stories were just too weird. In the afterword, Bradbury stated how the book came to be, which did help to explain some of the weirdness.
It was all right, but I prefer his other books.

Rosemarie wrote: "One of my favourite chapters so far is chapter 12, On the Orient North."

Yeah, that is a nice one. It is the one about an old man (a ghost?) traveling from eastern Europe to England, and how he grows stronger or weaker depending on whether people do or do not believe in ghosts. This idea of belief making supernatural creatures stronger is one that has been explored by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet, both together and separately, as well as others. Earlier used in the story of "Tinkerbell" and, I think, "Miracle on 34th Street."

I don't understand why he thinks belief will be stronger in England. I understand why he might think France has less belief, because of the French Revolution and Age of Enlightenment and all that, but is England really more credulous of ghosts?

"In Chapter 13,they refer to the place in Illinois as the October Country. Has anyone read that book yet? ..."

Nope. But I have also read "Something Wicked this Way Comes" and was impressed. That is the book that made me learn to appreciate Bradbury. (I had been unimpressed by him when reading other things in high school.)

I have read The October Country and think it is one of his stronger collections.

I think Chapter 12 is one of my favourites so far too. It’s so wistful and sad, but there’s something very hopeful about it. It’s a very idealised version of England but I liked that sense of it being the ‘home’ of the ghost story & the Gothic....

I really like the strangeness of the Family and I did enjoy the cousins in Grandpère’s head too... Cecy & Timothy are my favourite consistent characters.

I like how it just drifts along and carries you with it as a disjointed narrative: there is a flow to it, but it doesn’t really matter where it’s going. I’m ... about halfway now, I think.

I like the way you phrased that- it drifts along and carries you...

I made this long post my review. Rather than monopolize discussion I'll just link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thanks for your clear definition of metafiction, Dan. I had a vague idea what it was, but now I know.

If you want to compare Chapter 20 with what was originally published, the Weird Tales issue the story appeared in is the March 1946 issue, titled "The Traveller": http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/W.... It's quite different. Not only does the original have some neat illustrations, but the story itself goes in a different direction. In the book we're left wondering where did the sheriff come in? But if we have read the original we know.

Waiting for my review to post (I did it in the Kindle app and sometimes there’s a long delay in me posting it & it appearing here)

But I really liked this, thanks Dan for the comparative links!!
....

I really enjoyed these stories of the House and its Family: the influence on /of Charles Addams is readily apparent, which I loved, and I really enjoyed the ambiguity and open-ended nebulous feel of the stories. I like how the shorts that stand alone have been woven into the book with small interlinking chapters.

Timothy and Cecy are my favourite characters throughout the book, although there is no coherent plot except for Timothy’s gradual growing up and growing into his own path of life.

Standout chapters/stories for me were the ghastly passenger on the Orient Express, the wild cousins trapped in Grandpère’s head, Cecy wanting to fall in love, and Uncle Einar the winged man.

The ghastly passenger was my favourite as a story, and a concept. I loved the idea of feeding on belief, how a spectral apparition is solid and real but fades and withers in the face of relentless rationality that sucks the (un)life from it. It read to me like a love story with folklore and folk-belief, especially those things by which we are most frightened, mourning its loss as an enriching part of childhood and human experience. That England was its saving grace, a place where such beliefs linger and are nurtured, made me really sad. That’s a very idealised view of England which I’m not sure is true or ever was true, but I’d like it to be. England was as ‘rational’ as Germany etc at the time the story is set, so I didn’t think that worked more than as authorial wish-fulfilment. It would be nice to think that folklore (and folk horror) is now appreciated here again, though!

I think this ties in with Timothy’s childhood at the House: growing up spooky but choosing to live a full life ‘like others do’ resonated with me. You can be enriched by an awareness of death, mortality and immortality, and all the things in the world and beyond it which defy explanation, but you do have to choose how you live your own life, too. There’s a sense in which you leave these things behind and a sense in which you always carry them with you, both at once.

Some of these tales are not for everyone, I think, and not all of them struck a chord with me. I really liked this as a whole collection though, as (deliberately) disjointed and incomplete-jigsaw a book this is!

Interesting perspective as always CM. I never questioned Bradbury's identification of England with things ghostly or otherwise supernatural. It seems obvious from over here because so much of our own ghostly lore is British-derived. Never mind that Tolkien, Lewis, and the birth of fantasy is all British, like pretty much all things supernatural. Many of our best-loved ghost stories written in English originate from British authors, The Turn of the Screw, Vernon Lee, Algernon Blackwood, et. al. being the most high-brow of them. Besides ghosts, and the incredibly long history Britain enjoys from which to derive them, there are the werewolves, vampires, even zombies like Frankenstein's monster, all so British. We couldn't possibly make a serious domestic werewolf film in L.A. with Michael J. Fox; instead, we had to send Americans to London in 1982 to make a good, authentic one. Anyhow, I understand where Bradbury digs up this Barrie Peter Pan trope of belief vs. non-belief from.

I enjoyed to some extent the jigsaw puzzle aspect of this fix-up attempt to make a novel, too, but agree with your implication that it might be more of a weakness than strength. I've read some of the other stories in their originally published form now, and every single one I've read was more enjoyable in that form than the amputated, mutated form we see it in here, even if the fictional prose is more polished and mistake-free than the earlier forms. Stephen King often revises his work, too, and it never benefits from the treatment, however rational the revisions may seem. This collection, I think, would work even better with a more Asimovian treatment (as in I Robot): publish the original six short stories with one- or two-paragraph forewords or afterwords to link them. Doing this would have resulted in an even better book.

I finished it last night. I like it, but can't love it. The original stories were nice, but the short chapters trying to tie it together didn't work for me.

I like the poetic language, but also got tired of it pretty fast.

I don't feel like I really got to 'know' any of the characters. They were just vague sketches. That is fine for short stories, but to make this a novel I need to get more depth in the characters.

Yeah, I admit those linking chapters are a problem. I am taking my rating down to four stars. The book I would have rather seen, the short story collection with non-fiction linking material, or even better fictional linking material, would have received five.