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Post by wireman on Jul 28, 2021 12:13:51 GMT
Today we will discuss The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub from Interior Darkness
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 28, 2021 15:40:15 GMT
I liked this story a lot despite its confusing nature. The jumping from time period to time period (Ballard and Sandrine take the same trip over several decades), and they don't seem to acknowledge anything that happened in previous visits, its weird. I really liked the thriller part of the story when Sandrine decides to visit the mainland and comes across a town that reminds of a lot of Innsmouth front HP Lovecraft mythos, a place that isn't right, but what isn't right about it isn't obvious. Speaking of HP, I think this is obviously a Cthulu mythos story; Straub makes numerous references to the Old One himself (especially towards the end), as well as making reference to the make-believe language that HP created to mimic the sounds of the creatures. There are a lot of nods to HP throughout, the idea of the disappearing, unseen horror of the crew members is prevalent throughout the work.
I don't really know what to make of the ending. Did they end up joining the masses that serve the creatures of the river and the forest? I'm not sure, but I think its intentionally vague.
Overall, to give concluding thoughts about this collection, considering that this is the final story, I've quite enjoyed this collection. I was confused for numerous of the stories, but it was still a fun read. These are very different kinds of stories than what you would expect of a horror author; this is a very different kind of horror.
We should select another author to do this with. Someone SK related or someone completely different, I don't think it would matter.
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Post by wireman on Jul 28, 2021 17:36:49 GMT
I liked this story a lot despite its confusing nature. The jumping from time period to time period (Ballard and Sandrine take the same trip over several decades), and they don't seem to acknowledge anything that happened in previous visits, its weird. I really liked the thriller part of the story when Sandrine decides to visit the mainland and comes across a town that reminds of a lot of Innsmouth front HP Lovecraft mythos, a place that isn't right, but what isn't right about it isn't obvious. Speaking of HP, I think this is obviously a Cthulu mythos story; Straub makes numerous references to the Old One himself (especially towards the end), as well as making reference to the make-believe language that HP created to mimic the sounds of the creatures. There are a lot of nods to HP throughout, the idea of the disappearing, unseen horror of the crew members is prevalent throughout the work.
I don't really know what to make of the ending. Did they end up joining the masses that serve the creatures of the river and the forest? I'm not sure, but I think its intentionally vague.
Overall, to give concluding thoughts about this collection, considering that this is the final story, I've quite enjoyed this collection. I was confused for numerous of the stories, but it was still a fun read. These are very different kinds of stories than what you would expect of a horror author; this is a very different kind of horror.
We should select another author to do this with. Someone SK related or someone completely different, I don't think it would matter. Thank you for that because I was lost with this one. 
It read like a hallucination to me.
I did enjoy this book. I had never read Straub before except for the SK books. Some of the stories were challenging and some of the stories were unsettling but they were always interesting, often weird and never boring. Most of the stories had ambiguous endings and Straub left a lot of room in these short stories for the reader to fill in the empty spaces. Straub really impressed me with his writing.
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Post by spideyman on Jul 28, 2021 20:39:25 GMT
This story had a wow factor. Time travel on a yacht down the Amazon. Horror , suspense, an unforgettable ending.
I've read a few of Straub's other books, and must admit this one too a roller coaster ride of such different stories.
Here is a quote by Straub re this story,taken from an article about Interior Darkness:.........
“The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine” has so many fascinating elements: the central relationship, the location, and the way the structure moves through time. Was there any one of those that came first when you conceived of it and were writing it?
The element that really came first, and it occurred to me many years ago, was the idea of two intense, pain-driven lovers on a boat going down the Amazon. I made a note of fewer words than that in my notebook, thinking that one day I might do something with that, and then I forgot about it. Twenty years later, I opened up the notebook again, and there it was. I said, “Well, I’m not going to write it the way I would have then, but I like the idea a lot.” It was deeply enjoyable to write. It’s a love story of the simplest possible kind; it’s simply expressed in this outrageous, extravagant manner that also seems to involve time travel and a destabilized environment and a location that makes subtle changes over and over. The same thing appears to happen over and over and over. I simply like all of that. It helps me say things that I couldn’t say in any other way about the operations of memory and feeling in the passage of emotion between two people. You sometimes feel as though something had happened before. You wonder exactly where you were when another alteration in your basic pattern occurred. Life suddenly seems a little deeper and richer than it had. That’s about all I had in mind.
vol1brooklyn.com/2016/02/25/the-whole-thing-was-built-on-nuance-peter-straub-on-fiction-jazz-and-the-making-of-interior-darkness/
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Post by spideyman on Jul 29, 2021 13:26:06 GMT
Any suggestions for next week? And possible heads up for future alternate readings.
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Post by edwardjohn on Jul 29, 2021 14:14:34 GMT
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Post by wireman on Jul 29, 2021 22:13:57 GMT
Sounds good to me.
Next Wed, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune by Robert E Howard
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Post by neesy on Jul 30, 2021 3:26:47 GMT
I liked this story a lot despite its confusing nature. The jumping from time period to time period (Ballard and Sandrine take the same trip over several decades), and they don't seem to acknowledge anything that happened in previous visits, its weird. I really liked the thriller part of the story when Sandrine decides to visit the mainland and comes across a town that reminds of a lot of Innsmouth front HP Lovecraft mythos, a place that isn't right, but what isn't right about it isn't obvious. Speaking of HP, I think this is obviously a Cthulu mythos story; Straub makes numerous references to the Old One himself (especially towards the end), as well as making reference to the make-believe language that HP created to mimic the sounds of the creatures. There are a lot of nods to HP throughout, the idea of the disappearing, unseen horror of the crew members is prevalent throughout the work.
I don't really know what to make of the ending. Did they end up joining the masses that serve the creatures of the river and the forest? I'm not sure, but I think its intentionally vague.
Overall, to give concluding thoughts about this collection, considering that this is the final story, I've quite enjoyed this collection. I was confused for numerous of the stories, but it was still a fun read. These are very different kinds of stories than what you would expect of a horror author; this is a very different kind of horror.
We should select another author to do this with. Someone SK related or someone completely different, I don't think it would matter. Thank you for that because I was lost with this one.
It read like a hallucination to me.
I did enjoy this book. I had never read Straub before except for the SK books. Some of the stories were challenging and some of the stories were unsettling but they were always interesting, often weird and never boring. Most of the stories had ambiguous endings and Straub left a lot of room in these short stories for the reader to fill in the empty spaces. Straub really impressed me with his writing.
Just picked up the book today so I will comment further down the road
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Post by neesy on Aug 6, 2021 17:50:18 GMT
This story was pretty good - a bit weird but it caught my attention and made me want to read more; it was very dream-like (or maybe I should say nightmare-like)
Congrats to Peter Straub for winning an award for this story
Winner of the 2011 Bram Stoker Award in Long Fiction
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Post by cat on Nov 7, 2021 17:21:50 GMT
This one was very unsettling to me. I thought they were caught in some kind of time loop, maybe helped along by voodoo or something. They knew they were repeating things over and over again with only small deviations, that they then experienced as some kind of vague memory.
I don't know if I'm being too literal but I believe their delicious meals were them eating themselves. The nightmare journey ends when there is nothing left of them to eat.
I got the creeps too by the inappropriate underage thing. And they were both into hurting themselves and each other which I think is why they never really questioned anything.
Very weird story. Definitely dream like.
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