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Post by wireman on Jun 30, 2021 9:10:11 GMT
Today's discussion is Mr Aikman's Air Rifle by Peter Straub from the collection Interior Darkness.
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Post by wireman on Jun 30, 2021 12:23:46 GMT
I'm not sure what to think about this one. The story is of course beautifully written and engaging but Straub leaves a lot of room for interpenetration (like a couple other stories in this collection).
The collection of hospital patients, (critic, writers and publisher) makes me think this story is at least a little autobiographical as the characters bicker about the way their paths have crossed in the past.
Then, towards the end, the possibility of this being a story of the afterlife is raised but it's not certain (at least to me). I think in hindsight, as plush as the hospital seemed, it probably is an afterlife story.
It's also a story of the shared memories these characters have and the different ways they remember them.
I think it's an engaging story, I just don't have a clue as to what it's supposed to be about.  I even read it twice.
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Post by spideyman on Jun 30, 2021 14:33:39 GMT
I'm not sure what to think about this one. The story is of course beautifully written and engaging but Straub leaves a lot of room for interpenetration (like a couple other stories in this collection).
The collection of hospital patients, (critic, writers and publisher) makes me think this story is at least a little autobiographical as the characters bicker about the way their paths have crossed in the past.
Then, towards the end, the possibility of this being a story of the afterlife is raised but it's not certain (at least to me). I think in hindsight, as plush as the hospital seemed, it probably is an afterlife story.
It's also a story of the shared memories these characters have and the different ways they remember them.
I think it's an engaging story, I just don't have a clue as to what it's supposed to be about. I even read it twice.
Found this interview between Straub and Tremblay:
How writers write and musicians create/perform are well-represented and investigated within Interior Darkness. Hat from "Pork Pie Hat" manages to survive and achieve his own brand of greatness, but it doesn’t end so well for our writer friend in "Mr. Aickman’s Air Rifle." These characters long for an apotheosis through art that doesn’t come, or only comes when they are greatly diminished in some way. Is there a price to the ambition of art or creativity?
There’s a price to everything, after all. The whole process of writing and artistic creation itself is one of the most beautiful, valuable ways to approach the world that we have and one of the most fascinating facets of what it means to be alive.
Nobody gets anywhere at all without some bit of woundedness about them. This idea is not original to me. There’s a great book by Edmund Wilson called The Wound and the Bow. It looks back to Greek myth and Achilles, and the idea is that writers accrete fiction pearl-like around the places they’ve been hurt. I think there’s a great deal of truth in that. I think the woundedness amounts to a separation, an awakening of the mind where you realize you and the world are very different, and the world has no interest in you whatsoever. The more you understand that and see that, the more you see that other people have gone through the same thing. Every single person on earth has experienced pain, grief, loss, and these things deepen them. There’s a genuine humanity in the recognition that other people bear their own agonies and miseries and bandaged places through the world. The world intends to undermine our innocent narcissism and has to undermine it if you are to have a soul at all.
I could go on and on and name the specific wounds that happen to people as they get older … I’m not even old, Tremblay.
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 1, 2021 23:09:05 GMT
I really liked this story. It actually seemed to go somewhere and wasn't as ambiguous as other Straub stories. I echo what has been said previously, this certainly is an afterlife story. The setting seems to be a limbo of some sort which eventually leads into the next life and I fear, in the case of the publisher, the historian, and the critic, that that next life is Hell. It seems, to me, that each of the men has done something very bad in their lifetimes and this limbo is some way of reminding them of that. There was the instance where the publisher suddenly remembers the occasion when he murdered his father, for example.
Also, all the patients meet their demise of disappear. The orderlies also seem to disappear. And towards the end Straub is really putting forward this idea of the setting turning into disaster, which, to me, seems like Hell. Also, the historian comes out and says he thinks he's going somewhere much worse, which, again, reminds me of Hell.
I also found the characters, the historian, the publisher and the critic to be really interesting and it was great to read their interactions.
Awesome story.
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Post by spideyman on Jul 2, 2021 15:17:56 GMT
Any suggestions for the next group discussion?
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 2, 2021 16:04:35 GMT
Any suggestions for the next group discussion?
A story called The Alchemist:
www.lovecraft-stories.com/pdf/the-alchemist.pdf |
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 2, 2021 16:06:55 GMT
Any suggestions for the next group discussion?
A story called The Alchemist:
www.lovecraft-stories.com/pdf/the-alchemist.pdf
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Post by wireman on Jul 2, 2021 17:21:31 GMT
Any suggestions for the next group discussion?
A story called The Alchemist:
www.lovecraft-stories.com/pdf/the-alchemist.pdfThe Alchemist it is
Discussion for Wednesday: The Alchemist by HP Lovecraft
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Post by wolf on Jul 2, 2021 17:22:48 GMT
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Post by wolf on Jul 2, 2021 17:31:41 GMT
Just posting these vids for future reference in case y'all might be interested.
This artists vids are easy to listen to. 🙂...
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Post by wolf on Jul 2, 2021 18:29:40 GMT
...one more for future consideration, and I'll not bother y'all any more. 🙂...
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Post by spideyman on Jul 2, 2021 19:10:14 GMT
Any suggestions for the next group discussion?
A story called The Alchemist:
www.lovecraft-stories.com/pdf/the-alchemist.pdf |
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Post by wolf on Jul 2, 2021 22:13:44 GMT
Here's audio, if anyone is so inclined.
I can listen to these while I'm working!
...I try to make time to read whenever I can. |
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 2, 2021 22:22:33 GMT
Here's audio, if anyone is so inclined.
I can listen to these while I'm working!
...I try to make time to read whenever I can. |
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Post by wolf on Jul 2, 2021 22:26:19 GMT
Thanks for posting this vid Edders. Appreciate it.
I can listen to these while I'm working!
...I try to make time to read whenever I can.  c017 |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2021 4:20:47 GMT
I love HorrorBable. Except when I don't. I love Straub! If he was anymore uneven I'd call him a genius. I've loved much of his writing. I have not read this yet. Can can someone put Straub's recent work (last ten years) in perspective for me? His most recent work I read was 'Mrs. G-d'. I guess it was about ten years old then. It was pretty awful. But I loved it. The Blue Rose books were good. Koko was a masterpiece, Ghost Story even more so. But that was a long time ago. What happened? As my favorite movie reviewer Mr. Plinkett says, "Did he forget to take his brain medicine?"
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Post by cat on Nov 7, 2021 17:13:14 GMT
Trying to catch up a bit. This was a weird kind of limbo between death and whatever comes after, for sure. But I was thinking they were all dead. That would be some coincidence though...unless some of them had to spend more time in this particular purgatory than others.
The shared dream they all had seemed to me to be some kind of deal with the devil scenario which led to their further success in life...but each one's success was also spoiled by a failure or scandal of some sort.
I didn't not like this story but as with so many of Straub's stories, left me very confused.
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Post by wireman on Nov 8, 2021 19:32:49 GMT
Trying to catch up a bit. This was a weird kind of limbo between death and whatever comes after, for sure. But I was thinking they were all dead. That would be some coincidence though...unless some of them had to spend more time in this particular purgatory than others. The shared dream they all had seemed to me to be some kind of deal with the devil scenario which led to their further success in life...but each one's success was also spoiled by a failure or scandal of some sort. I didn't not like this story but as with so many of Straub's stories, left me very confused. Hi Cat,
Good to see you here again.
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I even read it twice.
