Unfilmable novels

[rich]

one of my absolute favorites

if u can track it down find the Robert Aickman story (or any of his stories
for that matter) Never Visit Venice. His stories are much like what the film
Don't Look Now

Rich

*he Collected Strange Stories of Robert Aickman*
(Tartarus Press <http://www.tartaruspress.com/>, 1999, 2 vols., ISBN:
1-872621-47-3 & 1-872621-48-1)
*Reviewed by David G. Rowlands (G&S 30, 2000).*

It all began with Cynthia Asquith. In deciding the parameters of what
constitutes a 'ghost story' for her famous *The Ghost Book* (1926), and in
drawing contributions from her circle of literary acquaintance (mostly
celebrated), she set them as wide as possible, to include a number of
strange, fantastic or weird tales that, whatever they might be, were hardly
ghost stories. When she made a second (and third) selection after some
twenty-six years, she continued sweeping with a wide net, and in the third
volume (1955), she included "Ringing the Changes" by Robert Aickman. Not a
'ghost story' within most readers' perception, I daresay, but very
reminiscent of the nightmarish, dream-like, nasty side of apparent reality,
which characterised the fantasies of Walter de la Mare, who had featured in
the two earlier volumes. You might almost say that Aickman succeeded to the
mantle of de la Mare (who died in 1956). James Turner (himself a writer of
excellent supernatural fiction) continued the Aickman presence in *The
Fourth Ghost Book *(1965), picking up from a further selection begun by Lady
Asquith. By this time, Aickman's reputation for tales that haunt the reader
(as distinct from being about a haunting) was well established, with the
collections *We Are For The Dark* (1951 - with Elizabeth Jane Howard), *Dark
Entries *(1964), and *Powers of Darkness* in press.

In his interesting introduction to these Tartarus volumes, David Tibet
recognises the strong similarity between Aickman's and de la Mare's uneasy
tales, but suggests even stronger links with the work of Thomas Ligotti.
David reminds us, as indeed does the title of this collection, that Aickman
himself preferred the term "strange" for his stories, though that did not
prevent him from including them in *The Fontana Book of Great Ghost
Stories*(1964) and succeeding selections, of which he edited the first
eight (to
1972), also presenting some thoughts on the subject in the various
introductions therein. Aickman actually says: "The majority of ghost
stories, however, have no actual ghost". Depends on your definition, old
son! He continues: "A better title for the genre might be found, but the
absence of the ghost seldom dispels the alarm". This is certainly true of
his own tales, in which either his cunningly-wrought settings, or what seem
to be the author's own prejudices, bring out the worst in us, the readers!
Interestingly, he then goes on to link his own and de la Mare's yarns: "It
can be almost worse if someone else apprehends the ghost, as in 'Seaton's
Aunt'; or if you cannot tell whether it is a ghost or not, as in 'The
Trains'." Well, this reviewer *can* tell, and it *isn't* a ghost in "The
Trains"... But worry not: among the fearsome, disturbing moods of these
forty-eight stories, there are ghosts (within the strictest of definitions)
aplenty. These range from a typical harbinger of doom ("The Fetch"); grisly
skeletal remains with the best Jamesian touches ("Never Visit Venice"); a
wonderfully horrid dolls' house ("The Inner Room", with which I can't help
thinking the author decided to 'improve upon' M.R. James's version); and the
undeniable cadaver of a telephonic ghost ("Your Tiny Hand"). With the
interests of this journal in mind, I have to say that while Jamesian
influences can be detected in such tales as those above, as well as "The
Cicerones", "Unsettled Dust" and "The School Friend", Aickman is essentially
his own man and indebted to no one.

He is original (a quality I always prize) and literate - indeed, he is very
much a 'writer's writer' (to use Lord Gorell's term about Nugent Barker -
and incidentally there are similarities between Barker and Aickman too). It
used to be easy to pick up his collections as they were published; even a
few of the earlier ones in paperback. Sadly for the late-comers, however,
Aickman became 'collectible' as a modern author not specifically within our
genre, and this pushed the prices of second-hand copies up to what I
consider to be ridiculously high figures; a situation that has pertained for
years.

Now, at last - salvation! This handsome new two-volume edition, beautifully
presented and printed, puts you in possession of the contents of all eight
of his collections, for the price you'd have to pay for a tatty copy of any
*one* of the originals.

Here you have the full range of Aickman's prose and talents. It would be
absurd to say that all the stories appeal to me. Even over many years of
reading and re-reading, I find some, like the grotesque "Growing Boys"
(definitely no ghosts!), "The Trains", "Ringing the Changes" and "The
Swords", quite uninteresting. But against that you have such little
masterpieces as "The Inner Room", "The Insufficient Answer" and "The View"
to exult in; and, for me, that allegorical myth-land of "The Wine-Dark Sea"
can never be bettered.


On 1/17/07, Spencer T. Campbell <spencer.t.campbell2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Don't forget 'Don't Look Now.'  Made my first trip to Venice a whole
> lot creepier.
>
>
> On 1/17/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > But both of these Roeg films were late 60's - early 70's, and he
> > hasn't made a decent film in a long time.  BTW, Walkabout (also from
> > that era) is also a great film.
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > On 1/17/07, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > "If anyone can do it: I'm not sure how anyone could even try to
> extract a story out of epic tomes like 'Gravity's Rainbow'. Nicholas Roeg
> springs to mind, with films like Performance and The Man Who Felt to Earth,
> being both confusing, visually verbose, and at times quite lofty."
> > >
> > >
> http://www.screenhead.com/reviews/the-unfilmables-a-list-of-the-hardest-novels-to-film/
> >
>
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