Scan barcode
joecam79's review
4.0
The heyday of the "classic English ghost story" was in the 19th and early 20th Century, when a host of authors - some brilliant, others clearly less so - shaped the genre as we know it. The ghost story is, of course, a much wider cultural phenomenon, with its roots in the folklore and traditions of different societies. Even within the supposedly limited confines of the literary genre, the sheer variety of supernatural manifestations portrayed is surprising. There are the "proper" ghosts, souls returning from the dead to communicate with the living, complete unfinished business, wreak vengeance or, on occasion, for purposes as elusive as their diaphanous shapes. In the folk-horrorish works of [a:Arthur Machen|33546|Arthur Machen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1263324471p2/33546.jpg] and [a:Algernon Blackwood|38840|Algernon Blackwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361603654p2/38840.jpg], the otherworldly beings have pagan overtones or are closely related to the faerie folk. Some apparitions are "demonic" and monster-like in nature - in [a:M.R. James|2995925|M.R. James|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254798756p2/2995925.jpg], the horrors are often unexpectedly physical - whilst, at the other end of the spectrum, the reader is occasionally left wondering whether the supposed hauntings are "all in the mind".
New Ghost Stories III is the eleventh Fiction Desk anthology and the third one to be exclusively dedicated to this genre. It features seven tales - six of which are the winners of the latest two ghost story competitions organised by the publication. Editor [a:Rob Redman|4773609|Rob Redman|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] provides an introduction to the collection, as well as a brief preface to each story.
Refreshingly, the featured pieces are authentic supernatural tales, rather than exercises in “magical realism” or metaphorical interpretations of the “ghost” figure. They also owe much to the literary canon. Look closer, however, and you will realise that the same horror tropes which make them familiar to the reader are subtly being undermined. A case in point is The Crypt Beneath the Library by [a:Barney Walsh|17229358|Barney Walsh|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]. The setting is one which M.R. James would have recognised – a crypt housing a collection of medieval illuminated manuscripts possibly haunted by a spectral monk and/or a demonic figure. The protagonist, however, couldn’t be more different than James’s male professorial types. Bethany, in fact, is a young undergraduate “atheist medievalist” and the story itself can be read as a protest against the patriarchal university and college hierarchies implied in James’s stories. Similarly, [a:Jerry Ibbotson|2679546|Jerry Ibbotson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1353769191p2/2679546.jpg]’s The Intruder and [a:Richard Agemo|17229356|Richard Agemo|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s The House Friends both explore the “haunted house” genre and take it into new and intriguing directions. The Archivist, by [a:Philippa East|17229357|Philippa East|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], evokes a different tradition – that of American scary movies. It is set in the sanatorium of an abandoned boarding school which will soon be pulled down. An archivist sent to catalogue the old school files comes across past horrors in the old documents, but also present fears in the shape of an uncanny doll and strange nocturnal noises. It’s all very unsettling, but can we rely on the narrator?
Two of the tales struck me for their originality. Des Nuits Blanches by [a:Will Dunn|17229359|Will Dunn|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] starts off as a sports story, a tale about an ambitious French cyclist and his strict regime of night-time training. When the supernatural element does kick in, it evokes ancient Alpine lore and its tales of evil spirits lurking in the mountains. Reads like Machen on a skiing holiday. [a:Seth Marlin|6985471|Seth Marlin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s The Dead Lie Dreaming, on the contrary, ventures into science fiction and presents us with a society in the near future where memories of dead persons are kept electronically alive. Like one of the oldest (Biblical) ghost stories – Saul’s meeting with the Witch of Endor – it is a cautionary tale which suggests we should keep away from the spirits of the dead, even when summoned by science.
This anthology shows that the ghost story is still very much alive, even if haunted by old forms. It is indeed telling that the collection ends with the most primeval fear of all. When the lights go out and the candles splutter – in other words, “When the Dark Comes Down”, as in [a:Amanda Mason|7602147|Amanda Mason|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s concluding piece of the same name – our oldest terrors are rekindled. And we get an idea of how the 'ghost story' might have begun.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2018/10/haunted-by-old-forms-contemporary-ghost.html
New Ghost Stories III is the eleventh Fiction Desk anthology and the third one to be exclusively dedicated to this genre. It features seven tales - six of which are the winners of the latest two ghost story competitions organised by the publication. Editor [a:Rob Redman|4773609|Rob Redman|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] provides an introduction to the collection, as well as a brief preface to each story.
Refreshingly, the featured pieces are authentic supernatural tales, rather than exercises in “magical realism” or metaphorical interpretations of the “ghost” figure. They also owe much to the literary canon. Look closer, however, and you will realise that the same horror tropes which make them familiar to the reader are subtly being undermined. A case in point is The Crypt Beneath the Library by [a:Barney Walsh|17229358|Barney Walsh|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]. The setting is one which M.R. James would have recognised – a crypt housing a collection of medieval illuminated manuscripts possibly haunted by a spectral monk and/or a demonic figure. The protagonist, however, couldn’t be more different than James’s male professorial types. Bethany, in fact, is a young undergraduate “atheist medievalist” and the story itself can be read as a protest against the patriarchal university and college hierarchies implied in James’s stories. Similarly, [a:Jerry Ibbotson|2679546|Jerry Ibbotson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1353769191p2/2679546.jpg]’s The Intruder and [a:Richard Agemo|17229356|Richard Agemo|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s The House Friends both explore the “haunted house” genre and take it into new and intriguing directions. The Archivist, by [a:Philippa East|17229357|Philippa East|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], evokes a different tradition – that of American scary movies. It is set in the sanatorium of an abandoned boarding school which will soon be pulled down. An archivist sent to catalogue the old school files comes across past horrors in the old documents, but also present fears in the shape of an uncanny doll and strange nocturnal noises. It’s all very unsettling, but can we rely on the narrator?
Two of the tales struck me for their originality. Des Nuits Blanches by [a:Will Dunn|17229359|Will Dunn|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] starts off as a sports story, a tale about an ambitious French cyclist and his strict regime of night-time training. When the supernatural element does kick in, it evokes ancient Alpine lore and its tales of evil spirits lurking in the mountains. Reads like Machen on a skiing holiday. [a:Seth Marlin|6985471|Seth Marlin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s The Dead Lie Dreaming, on the contrary, ventures into science fiction and presents us with a society in the near future where memories of dead persons are kept electronically alive. Like one of the oldest (Biblical) ghost stories – Saul’s meeting with the Witch of Endor – it is a cautionary tale which suggests we should keep away from the spirits of the dead, even when summoned by science.
This anthology shows that the ghost story is still very much alive, even if haunted by old forms. It is indeed telling that the collection ends with the most primeval fear of all. When the lights go out and the candles splutter – in other words, “When the Dark Comes Down”, as in [a:Amanda Mason|7602147|Amanda Mason|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]’s concluding piece of the same name – our oldest terrors are rekindled. And we get an idea of how the 'ghost story' might have begun.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2018/10/haunted-by-old-forms-contemporary-ghost.html
More...