October/November selection: The Willows

[MadArchitect]

October marks the beginning of what will hopefully be a new tradition for BookTalk: monthly short story readings. Each month, starting roughly mid-month, we'll present one "official" short story selection for reading and discussion, and everyone is, of course, invited to play along. To join in, simply read the story and reply to this thread to make your comments. All of the official selections will be available online, so you won't need to make any sort of financial investment to join the discussion, though I'll also try to link to good copies of books containing our selected short story in case you'd like to have a print edition at your disposal.The official selection will be pinned at the top of the "Short Stories" forum, but use of the "Short Stories" forum need by no means be restricted to official selections. Feel free to post in the rest of the forum threads about any stories you'd like to talk about.For the time being, I'll be picking the official selections myself, in part to cut down on the administrative work that goes into coming up with an official selection. That means no nomination process, and no voting, but I will have a suggestion thread in the "Short Stories" forum, and will take into consideration any suggestions made there when I go about picking each month's selection. If this system doesn't work out, or if you guys generally aren't happy with my selections, we'll try something different. For the immediate future, this seems like the most expedient method.Since our reading period for the first story extends through Halloween, I thought I'd pick a story with a horror theme, and I don't mind cheating a little by picking something I've already read. To that end, I've chosen the story H.P. Lovecraft considered to be the finest supernatural tale in the English language, Algernon Blackwood's classic The Willows.The story is available for free online at the Gutenberg project. You can access the story directly by clicking here. To avoid eyestrain you might consider printing it out before you read.The story is also featured prominantly in at least one book currently in print, Penguin's collection of Blackwood stories, Ancient Sorceries and Other Wierd Sorceries. If you think you might want to read more of Blackwood, I'd definitely suggest that volume as a great place to start.Also, check out this thread for a chance to win a copy of Frank Beddor's "The Looking Glass Wars" by playing BookTalk's Short Story Scavenger Hunt. Edited by: MadArchitect at: 10/23/06 9:35 pm

[Chris OConnor]

I don't see any follow up posts here, which is amazing. Mad is taking an active role in getting the Short Story section of BookTalk up and running, so please get involved.

[Mr. P]

Sorry, but with all the required reading, I just cannot keep up. I am also reading my own choices of material on top of the two non-fiction books.It is getting overwhelming for me anyway...everybody else has NO EXCUSE!!!Just kidding.Mr. P. Mr. P's place. I warned you!!!The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

[MadArchitect]

Mr. P, I think you'd really like this story, so if you find yourself with some downtime, I think it would be worth your while to give it a shot. It's slow reading at first, but the further you get into the story, the more it grips you.As for the lack of posts, I'm not worried yet. It's still early in the reading. Maybe we need to direct some attention to this forum. It's been inactive for so long that most people probably don't check it regularly.

[Chris OConnor]

I need to redo the top table and announce this new reading. Give me a few days as I am a bit slammed.

[Mr. P]

I just have to print out the story. I will do everything I can to get to it...Mr. P. Mr. P's place. I warned you!!!The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

[Chris OConnor]

How big is this story? I'm not sure I want to print it if it is more than 25 pages. I can just read it online. I'll go check now.

[Chris OConnor]

This story is not currently available on the Gutenberg site as their servers are overloaded. This must be a busy time of the night for them.Quote:503 Service Temporarily UnavailableError: could not connect to database server.Sorry, we are overloaded. Please try again later. Slack times are: 18.00 PM to 8.00 AM EST. Edited by: Chris OConnor  at: 10/23/06 11:53 pm

[irishrosem]

Being new here, I don't know what the conversation in short stories usually centers around. I didn't want to be the one to start the discussion, but I figured if I threw something out people might respond. Anyway, I have two thoughts on the short story--beware of spoilers below.The natural imagery in Blackwood's writing is just stunning, breathtaking. I could give innumerable examples, but, if you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. I feel it is that level of natural description, and not just physical but emotional elements, that invokes horror in the reader with regard to the willows. I don't read a lot of suspense/horror, but the only other natural description, I can recall, able to evoke that kind of anxiety, is Harper Lee's description of the tree in the Radley yard.Second I was disappointed that there was a body in the end. I would have much preferred if the whole mystery had stayed a mystery. Without the evidence of the body, I don't think it could be completely argued that the powers the protagonists felt were definitely malevolent. I know, at times, it is referred to as such, but this is from the point of view of the protagonists, not from an omniscient narrator. The power is also referred to as different, unknown, as that which the protagonists had never experienced. As we know in human nature, the unknown often leads to fear

[MadArchitect]

irishrosem: Being new here, I don't know what the conversation in short stories usually centers around.Short story discussion is a relatively new addition here, so we're sort of blazing new ground for BookTalk. The forum is only a few months old, and the monthly selections are only a few weeks old -- this being the first. So feel free to jump in on the ground floor. I've been holding off on posting mainly because I don't want the discussion to be a vanity project, so I'm hoping that you, Nick, or anyone else who's read the story, will get things moving. You seem to be making some waves in other sub-forums on BookTalk, so I'd be willing to bet that you'd give us a push in an interesting direction.The natural imagery in Blackwood's writing is just stunning, breathtaking.Definitely; he achieves at least two things with his descriptions. The first is a palpable sense of place. I've never been to the Danube, probably haven't even seen much in the way of pictures, but I could quite easily imagine the things Blackwood described.The second is, he quite effectively evokes the sense of awe that is so central to the story. Which is important -- he talks about it at great length, about the awe the characters feel, but pointing to the feeling in the characters doesn't have the same effect that we get from his descriptions of the region.I'd go so far as to say that it's the vitality of his natural description that elevates the story beyond its genre trappings. I've been reading a lot of nature writers lately -- Rachel Carson and Henry Beston, for instance -- and Blackwood's descriptions are on a par with theirs. Yes, it's a horror story, but you don't have to be the sort of person who routinely reads and enjoys horror to identify with the view of nature Blackwood presents. That's one of the reasons I chose this story. It's topical, given the season, but at the same time it transcends genre.Without the evidence of the body, I don't think it could be completely argued that the powers the protagonists felt were definitely malevolent.I don't know that you can say for sure that they were intentionally malevolent. I'm not bothered by the body at the end -- well, "not bothered" in the sense that it doesn't detract from the story, for me. I think the motivation is ambiguous enough that it maintains the kind of horror that is particular to the story. The Swede says that they've found a substitute sacrafice, but even he admits that the pagan perspective is a kind of rationalization of something that they are, by nature, incapable of understanding. They might have had just about any purpose in seeking out and killing the victim -- it might not have been their intention to kill him at all. The nature of these things is so obscure to us that we probably aren't warranted in assuming that they understand what it means to kill. It seems likely to me -- although this is an assumption never made explicit by the story -- that we're just as obscure to them as they are to us. In which case, they might have accidentally killed the nameless person in an attempt to figure out what he was.I would have much preferred that the intention of the power described remained a mystery.What do you think its intention was?Is it me or did they totally steal much of their concept from this short story?Wouldn't shock me. Blackwood has an interesting legacy in that the mainstream has almost totally forgotten him, but his ideas keep cropping up in the mainstream. Remember "Child's Play"? That was based on a Blackwood short story. And I remember a "X-Men"/"Alpha Flight" cross-over story that dealt with the Wendigo, a Canadian Indian folklore character that made it to Marvel's writers via a Blackwood story.