Fragile Things -- Week 2

A Bluebeardesque picture from my Alma Mater (late 1800s).

I really enjoyed all of the stories in this week's Fragile Things read along.  Click here to see what everyone else thought about this week's reading. 

"The Hidden Chamber"

This is a Bluebeard poem and I simply couldn't help myself from comparing it to Angela Carter's short story "The Bloody Chamber."  I've always been fascinated by Bluebeard (I even wrote my own Bluebeard poem for my college thesis*).  On one hand Bluebeard is a nefarious man, luring women and keeping one secret room locked away and then virtually taunting them to open it so he has an opportunity to punish (i.e. slaughter) his brides.  But if the story isn't tangible, it there isn't a literal room and if there isn't actually murder committed the story shifts.  As a deeply introverted person, I understand the need for something that is a haven for oneself, be that a room, a journal, an hour in the day.  And I can't stand that some people feel the need to grope and pry one's entire life, space, thoughts. 

What I'm trying to convey is that one can interpret Bluebeard tales on a spectrum.  The grisly murder of one's bride is obviously a Bad Thing, but what if you're simply pissed off and emotionally distant because your bride read your diary (or in Sam's case that would be like me going through his Spawn action figures in the man cave).  In Gaiman's poem I feel as if this is an emotional locked room and the Bluebeard has an inability to emotionally connect.  Try as she might, the bride will never be able to figure out his secret, his self locked away in his own loneliness.  I thought the last lines particularly beautiful:  "The world flutters like insects.  I think this / is how I shall remember you, / my head between the white swell of your breasts, / listening to the chambers of your heart."


"Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire"

It took me a bit to orient myself to this story.  Filled with the typically Gothic tropes of lighting, creatures, fleeing maidens, talking ravens, family secrets, and curses, this story is one that would laughingly frighten someone like Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey.   This story is about a writer trying to write literary fiction and to do so taking his cue from his reality (which just happens to be a reality of Gothic horror).  A raven suggests he writes fantasy and the author writes a novel from our rather boring, rational world.  It is an interesting take.  To tell the truth, I've often wondered how things would be if my world was fantastical imagination and someone simply made me up.  But then again, I'm completely nuts.


"The Flints of Memory Lane"

My least favorite of this week's read, "The Flints of Memory Lane" sounds closest to a real ghost story.  By real, I mean those creepy things that happen that one cannot easily explain.  It is only my least favorite because it is so brief.  It concerns a teenager who has an encounter with what very well could have been a ghost.  The best part of this brief tale is the writing; I love the phrase "I like things to be story-shaped."

"Closing Time"

In his introduction, Gaiman says that this story is styled like an MR James story.  I LOVE MR JAMES (in fact, I read one of his collections a few years ago for RIP).  This story scared the living shit out of me.  A little boy hangs out with some older boys.  Pranks and jokes are played and then they find a creepy playhouse and the boys taunt the little boy into going in.  The little boy doesn't go in and instead dares the older boys to go in.  They older boys go in the terrifying playhouse and ....... never come out.  But then we learn that the boys did survive, at least to adulthood.  The terrifying part is that my stupid brain fills in the blanks.  Either this was all an elaborate ruse to scare the little boy or there is something evil and supernatural going on or there is (even scarier to me) an evil sexually abusive dad torturing the older boys.

This story really emphasized my own sense of "what is horror."  Vampires, ghosts, ghouls, and supernatural evil are creepy and thrilling.  I'll read a book or watch a movie filled with spookiness.  Human horror and horribleness is the stuff of nightmares for me.  I don't watch movies like The Accused or watch shows like Criminal Minds because to me the stuff that humans do to hurt each other is far more frightening and ghoulish then the creepiest MR James story one could conjure.

Excellent reading this week and I can't wait to continue on with the collection.

(*it was a three-part poem of pretentious drivel.  It sucked.) 

Fragile Things Readalong: Post the First

Of course I'm a day late posting my thoughts on Neil Gaiman's first four stories in the collection Fragile Things.  Yesterday started off badly, but ended up happy.  I spent my evening hours blithely stitching away and listening to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.  Then I crawled in bed and read a RIP read (Lady Audley's Secret).  It was an enjoyable read, but it isn't wise to stay up until one in the morning reading when one has a non-sleeping baby boy.

But I digress...

This morning I woke up and realized that in all my introvert retreating into books and stitchy things I forgot to post.  So here we are, belated posting. 

The first four pieces of Fragile Things are the introduction, "A Study in Emerald", "The Fairy Reel", and "October in the Chair."  I'll try to describe what I loved and what I didn't, but with no spoilers.

• Introduction:  I love Neil Gaiman introductions and I remember being especially delighted with the last collection's, Smoke and Mirrors, introduction.  Gaiman goes through each piece of his collection and describes a special something; a memory connected with writing the piece, an image, the history of the writing, a significant influence.... It all makes for fascinating reading and I feel as if he is in the room across from me chatting away over a cup of coffee.  It is so lovely to feel quite chummy with an author one has never met.
• "A Study in Emerald":  A Lovecraft meets Sherlock Holmes meets Victorian alternative universe.  Need I say more?
• "The Fairy Reel":  Alas, my brain slid over each lovely phrase in this poem.  I recall that it is about fairies and dreams and it seemed sinister and I enjoyed it, but I can't recall the details.  Yay for book remember #FAIL. 
• "October in the Chair":  I loved this story.  October -- yes, the month -- is sharing a story with all the other months as they sit around a large campfire.  The story concerns a runaway boy named Runt and a little ghost boy named Dearly.  This story drove me mad, but in a good way.  SPOILER !!!!!!!!!!!!!  Basically Runt wants to join his ghostly friend and Dearly sends him to an creepy house with the warning that "one of them may do it."  October's story ends with Runt entering a sinister house with rustlings and then....... NOTHING. The story ends.  I'm dying to know what happens to Runt!  

I'm already digging into the next set of stories and hopefully I'll post on time next week. 

Happy RIP Reading!