| Author | Message | ||
     Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.102.238 |
I write articles for a website where I focus on a different horror master for each one. The one I just posted is about my favorite writer, Mr. Ramsey Campbell. For the site I'm supposed to focus on writers from before 1970 but I broke the rules in this case. If you are interested in reading it you can find it at the following link: http://www.vintagehorror.com/node/105 | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.87.217 |
Well, Ramsey was writing long before 1970, so technically... | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.254.183 |
I agree with you about 'Incarnate' being my favourite Campbell novel I've read to date. I'm trying to read him in roughly chronoligical order to get a sense of how he matured as a writer and have completed the first 5 novels so far. Every one is a stone cold horror classic in my opinion and I'd rank them thus: 1. 'Incarnate' (1983) 2. 'The Nameless' (1981) 3. 'To Wake The Dead' (1979) 4. 'The Doll Who Ate His Mother' (1976) 5. 'The Face That Must Die' (1979) And when I say that 'The Face That Must Die' is arguably the best written and certainly the most disturbing serial killer novel I have read it will give some indication of how much I admire the guy's work!! As for his short stories; I consider him the only living author who can hold a candle to Lovecraft, Aickman, James, Machen, Poe, etc... Yes, that good! I've read four anthologies to date: 'Demons By Daylight' (1973), 'Dark Companions' (1982), 'Scared Stiff' (1987) and 'Waking Nightmares' (1991) all of which are almost ridiculously entertaining and consistently frightening! Best horror writer ever? Maybe so... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Hi Stephen! You made it.  | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Doesn't this belong on an Amazon.co.uk top five list? | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.102.238 |
I agree with his stories being up there with those guys and although I love those authors and have even written articles about some of them, I still prefer Ramsey's to them even. His anthology Alone with the Horror's is my favorite book by any writer of horror ever. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
I've recently come to realise that I rate Needing Ghosts as the best thing Ramsey has ever written. I've read it three times, and the most recent experience left me completely awestruck. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of 'The Claw' (1982) for my next read but in the meantime am deeply engrossed in T.E.D. Klein's 'The Ceremonies' (1984) which for any lover of Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos is an absolute one-off masterpiece!! Favourite Campbell short story to date is probably 'Mackintosh Willy' (1979) to be found in 'Dark Companions'. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
The Klein is remarkable, Stephen. We all lament that the fact that the guy hasn't written more. Check out Dark Gods if you can. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Agreed - Dark Gods is a wonderful collection. I've got The Ceremonies on my book shelf but haven't read it yet. I'm sort of saving it for that impending day when I find that there's literally nothing on the horror shelves worth reading any more. Thieving Fear has postponed that day ever so slightly. But really, our corner of the bookstore is getting more and more depressing all the time. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
There's always us small presses! | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.254.183 |
I have 'Dark Gods' but haven't read it yet. The story of his I really want to get my hands on is 'The Events At Poroth Farm' (1972) though I'm not sure if it constitutes a "prologue" to 'The Ceremonies' or if the novel should be seen as an expansion/replacement? From what I've read the plots sound very similar and it clearly includes some of the same characters. Can anyone clarify? | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
The novel is an expansion, Stephen. The original version of the novella is available in Ted's Reassuring Tales. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.254.183 |
Uh, thanks for that! <gulp> 'Reassuring Tales' seems to be very hard to get. Was it only a limited release? Another thing I'd like clarified about Klein are the rumours of a second novel called 'Night Town'. Was this a myth or does the book exist? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.87.217 |
It's also in the very much earlier Year's Best Horror Stories no. 2 (I think; or 3). Story's called The Events at Poroth Farm. As for Night Town, Wikipedia carries this info - "A second novel, Nighttown, was announced by Klein soon afterwards and described by him in Faces of Fear as "a paranoid horror novel set entirely in New York City", but has not appeared." | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
"REASSURING TALES} seems to be very hard to get." Well, these are scary times. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Not as hard as all that - at least two copies here: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=t+e+d+klein&sts=t&tn=reassuring &x=73&y=7 But can there be another T. E. D.? I wouldn't associate him with biocomputing, but other listings on the site seem to. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Hey, and thanks for the essay, Matt! You and Huw both found that theatre scene in Grin of the Dark more unnerving than I thought it was at the time. I often use it at readings now. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Hopefully only as something to read out... | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.107.227 |
"Hey, and thanks for the essay, Matt! You and Huw both found that theatre scene in Grin of the Dark more unnerving than I thought it was at the time. I often use it at readings now." Thank you for all the great work you put out. Reading your novels and short stories are really what made me want to write. I'm always amazed by your vision. The theater scene made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and almost nothing does that to me anymore. I hope to one day get to hear you at one of your readings in person. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
>>>My favorite scene in the book takes place during a Christmas party of the tenants which involves passing around a paper where each person draws a section to create a funny, amalgamated person. The actual results they get turn out to be disturbing. Leaving the reader to suspect the influence of the house has played a part in the game. Matt, I loved this scene, too. One of those 'I wish I'd thought of that, the bastard' scenes. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.107.227 |
"Matt, I loved this scene, too. One of those 'I wish I'd thought of that, the bastard' scenes." Yes, I've always marveled at how many of those ideas he is able to produce so effectively. There are people who are able to do it on occasion but Ramsey does it routinely. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
That really was Ramsey Campbell!!!! Thanks (never has a word seemed more inadequate). I have to ask about my reading of 'The Face That Must Die'. Was Horridge himself the killer of the rent boys who when he saw a distorted image of his own face as a photofit in the paper subconsciously dissociated himself from his crimes and attached his own guilt to the first recognisably gay man he came across afterward? That's how I read the novel with him as a deeply repressed homosexual and I think the theory holds up as the text never tells us who the actual earlier killer was. The reason I admire your fiction so much is this multi-layered subtlety with character motivations being open to various interpretations. I find that "sticks in the head long after finishing with no pat explanations and a haunting need to know" quality to be the mark of true horror as literature and your books (and stories) pass that test easily! Gosh I can't believe this and hope that makes sense!! | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Stephenw let me know if you'll grab one of the two Klein abebooks editions! I won't order a copy until you've grabbed one ;-) Zed I'll agree with Needing Ghosts. More novella length pieces would also be excellent! | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Ramsey (The Ramster to his close friends) quite often pops in here to chat to us all. One of the more pleasant features of this board | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Stephen, that's never occurred to me but it's brilliant. I'm not sure his victim does look like Horridge, though – it's more that he fixates on the 'camp' face. If that's his face too, it adds so many possible levels to the story. Wow. Reminds me of a quite disturbed friend of mine who told me he "knew" a mutual acquaintance of ours was a paedophile because "he's got a weird mouth, they all do something weird with their mouths". The man in question is not a paedophile as far as I'm aware. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.186.17 |
That scene in The Grin of the Dark (Chapter 20: 'It Stirs', to be precise!) certainly unnerved me. It literally gave me the shivers. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
That's a great idea about Horridge, Stephen, but it hadn't occurred to me. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
So does that negate the theory? Gary advised me to respond as if I were speaking to God and I suppose in some ways you are the 'God' of the fictional worlds and characters you create. But once created those characters take on a life of their own in the minds of the readers that the author never intended. Guess we'd have to ask Horridge himself lol. Ever read the short story 'W.S.' (1951) by L.P. Hartley? Thanks for the info about 'Reassuring Tales' but it's a wee bit pricey for me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
>>>Gary advised me to respond as if I were speaking to God Context, context . . . >>>So does that negate the theory? I don't think it does. I'm sure Des will have something interesting to say about this. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
There's a great Harlan Ellison story about God realising the world is a machine that he has lost the power to control: it just does its own terrible thing regardless. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
There's a great lived world example of all the world's leaders realising that money is sentient and that they have lost the power to control it: it just does its own terrible thing regardless. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
But they never had that power. The ascendancy of capitalism just allowed them to pretend. Or, alternatively (and at the same time) to pretend that 'the market' was a sentient God that could safely be allowed to control human lives. Either way (and the myths of capitalism contradict each other), the ideology has crashed along with the reality. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Yes, its 'invisible' hand has just appeared and it's a rotted mishmash of bones encased in a made-in-Korea gauntlet. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
>>>Context, context . . . Joke, joke ... Probably the creepiest sequence of Campbell's I've read to date was what happened to that poor little girl Susan in 'Incarnate'. That chapter has haunted me ever since... very cruel. What was that thing in the room with her? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.197.55 |
I need to read Incarnate again - it's about twenty-five years since I read it! One of my favourite (perhaps my most favourite) scenes in all of Ramsey's work is the one in The Influence, in which Rowan is trying to find her way home at Christmas. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.107.227 |
The strange heavyset woman that walks through the snow to stay in one of the main characters house in 'Incarnate' has always stuck out in my mind. Her rythmic breathing from the room that started to unerve the guy was very creepy. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.107.227 |
"Ever read the short story 'W.S.' (1951) by L.P. Hartley?" I have. In fact I included a breif synopsis of it in my article about Hartley at http://www.vintagehorror.com/node/70 . | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
I haven't read 'The Influence' yet and am trying to stick to this chronological order thing so it's still a couple of books away. Other than some scattered short stories the only Ramsey Campbell book I read back in my schooldays (I'm now 43) was 'The Nameless' and I remember the half-glimpsed stick-thing (whatever it was) freaking me out but didn't really appreciate the full subtlety of the book at that age. I was heavily into Stephen King back then and only in recent years am I rediscovering and fully appreciating Ramsey's fiction - hence wanting to experience them as I should have back then. I'm doing the same thing with Jonathan Carroll and Clive Barker - and enjoying the process immensely! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Huw, I think Rowan's journey home in THE INFLUENCE is one of the outstanding passages in the entire weird fiction genre. I know that's a very Internet thing to say, but I said it back in the late 80s and I still find that chapter quite astonishing. Stuff like that isn't just good writing, it's unique and impossible to fabricate. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.197.55 |
God, yes - that awful woman he takes home in Incarnate really unnerved me. And yes, the half-glimpsed thing (these pop up a lot in Ramsey's fiction, don't they?) in The Nameless got to me, too. The sense of being pursued by something unknown but menacing is one of the things RC does best, I think. 'W.S.' is a great story - again, the theme of being pursued, of something sinister drawing ever closer. Hartley did this kind of thing well - 'A Visitor From Down Under' is another good example. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.197.55 |
Sorry, Joel - I only saw your post just now. I agree entirely about that sequence: it's brilliant, one of the most powerful, weird, moving things I've ever read. Another very powerful scene (and a very frightening one) was the encounter on the train with that... thing (I'll need to go back and read it again if I'm to describe it more clearly). J.K. Potter illustrated it, if I remember correctly (I hope it's in the forthcoming Centipede Press edition). | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
That 'thing' was something I've dreamed about years ago. It must be: it felt like my dream. Other highlights: the things in The Overnight. What the mum sees through the window of her friends' house in Midnight Sun. The search around the derelict house in The Nameless (surely Campbell's most terrifying scene). So many more. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.178.127 |
All great, memorable scenes, Gary! We should compile a couple of 'top ten' lists - favourite scenes from Ramsey's novels and stories. That scene in The Nameless is absolutely one of the most tense, dread-filled sequences I've read. I really need to go back and read it again (I read the novels basically as they were published, except for The Face That Must Die, which I caught up with later), but I do remember well the sense of evil and foreboding. I'd just read The Scourge of the Swastika (one of the books found in the building), so that struck a chord too. And how about finding that bird turned inside-out? Yeuchh! | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I wonder how long it will be before we read somewhere "Campbell demands that his readers regard him as God"... I think you're right about characters and indeed texts, Stephen: they take on their own life. Increasingly often I find resonances in my stuff that I didn't consciously put there, or extra meanings. It's as if (or not merely as if) the subconscious expresses itself while I get on with making the best I can of the surface of the text. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
>>>I wonder how long it will be before we read somewhere "Campbell demands that his readers regard him as God"... That was my first thought. I was actually riffing on the old Northern Echo quote. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
The ending of Thieving Fear is pretty damn scary. Actually, that whole book seemed to burrow its way inside me, and even now I'm aware of its presence. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Indeed. I found the scene in Obsession with the doctor and her mother intensely harrowing, too. And the suicide scene in The Long Lost. The bondage scene in Nazareth Hill. The extensive 'package' scene in Secret Stories. The Scotland and then the abduction sequence in The Last Voice They Hear. The comedian-in-the-back-of-the-car scene in Hungry Moon. Oh God, the desecration scene in The Influence. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
The stamp scene in Incarnate. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Roll on, Creatures of the Pool. When's it due, Ramsey? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.179.180 |
For all the creepy and downright frightening things in these books, there are also a lot of truly funny moments, many of which are hilarious yet at the same time almost painful to read, because you can feel acutely the awfulness of what the characters are going through. Woody's smiling lessons in The Overnight, for example. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.150.87.131 |
Hi all, first post here and glad to meet you all. Hi Stephen, i just checked my copy of Klein's 'The Events at Poroth Farm' and it's in an anthology called 'American Supernatural Tales' edited by S.T.Joshi. Not too pricey on Amazon. What a fantastic story ! This collection also contains the brilliant 'The Yellow Sign' by Robert Chambers. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 68.249.107.227 |
"What the mum sees through the window of her friends' house in Midnight Sun." That scene is also one that always comes to mind when I think of that novel. "The stamp scene in Incarnate." Yeah, that was a cool one too. And I can't wait for Theiving Fear to come out here in America. Does anybody know when that may happen. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
Hi Sean - great to see you on here! I shall order it right away (along with 'The Claw') but leave reading the story until I've finished 'The Ceremonies' to avoid any spoilers. Do you mean the chapter from 'The Nameless' when the reporter infiltrated the cult - that whole sequence was a tour-de-force and very cinematic I thought. I recently reread the book and was blown away all over again by it. A question - which title should 'To Wake The Dead'/'The Parasite' more properly be known by and is there any difference between the two? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
And as for the most extensive scene in the ouevre: how about the whole of The Grin of the Dark and Needing Ghosts? And oh God Part 2, the 'stamping' scene in The One Safe Place . . . | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Creatures of the Pool will be released at Fantasycon, Gary. Cover and introduction by Bryan Talbot. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Bryan Talbot? Wow, that's a very cool move. I'm currently reading the extraordinary Alice in Sunderland. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Grand. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Lovely. You can't beat Talbot on art duties. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.150.87.131 |
Yeah, Talbot's 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright' is an awesome comic. His artwork on that is just incredible - such detail. He wrote it too if i remember correctly. Long overdue a second reading i think. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
Thanks for considering my theory re 'The Face That Must Die' Ramsey/Mr Campbell/Sir. It was something that I just assumed from the opening chapter with Horridge being drawn to the photofit and strangely disturbed by it. This initial idea seemed to be reinforced by subliminal hints throughout the text. The victims of both killers being hidden in the wardrobe, Horridge's aversion to girls' advances in school and most of all the title - coupled with (SPOILER ALERT)... the vivid destruction of his own face at the climax (another highly visual/cinematic scene). I have since cajoled a non-horror fan, psychologist friend into reading the novel and this was her take on it (disagreeing to some extent with my own interpretation): "I thought TFTMD was very well executed. Very gripping. I think what it did best was create an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension that seemed to emanate beyond Horridge's inner world and infect the setting with gloom. The moments of rupture from this - Cathy's and Fanny's perspectives, for example, only served to increase the feeling of impending horror for being so brief. The description of Horridge's psychology, by the way, is textbook paranoid schizophrenia perfectly observed, from the conspiracy theories, messages coming through the TV, nightmares and voices, to his escalating violence. Ramsey Campbell has done some reading in psychiatry. Which title should I read next?" Clearly she was impressed and I hope that goes some way toward thanking you for entertaining and mentally stimulating me so much and toward putting those silly Amazon reviews in some perspective. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.77.197 |
>>>Ramsey Campbell has done some reading in psychiatry. But probably more from reality. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.77.197 |
Interestingly, Stephen, this was my take on the nov, too. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Thanks, Stephen! Tell your friend I haven't read up on it - just lived with it. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
I had gathered that from the intro to the book. Actually one of the most disturbing things you have ever written and the most moving. I think that's the very reason your prose is so effective - you write from experience not textbook "swotting up" and I'll tell her that (you know these academic types). Thanks again. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
Hi Gary, what the "two killers being the same person" idea or Lisa, my friend's reading of the book? Either way I believe it's the sign of a truly great writer to be able to invest a text with so much ambiguity it cries out for individual interpretation yet still retains its grip on the reader as a good story well told. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.155.106.11 |
Stephen, you should post your interpretation of 'Incarnate' up here. I thought that theory was bloody clever as well ! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Your idea, Stephen. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.3.2 |
Thanks Gary but I'm relieved I'm not the only one who thought of it! I would need to write a book to explain the ideas 'Incarnate' struck in my consciousness but basically I saw it working as a text with three possible interpretations representing the three states of "belief". Obviously (given the title) it is about the embodiment in flesh of an immaterial entity – that’s the dictionary definition – but whether that embodiment is actual or imagined (making it none the less real for the experiencer) was, I believe, what the book was really about. A madman who has a vision of a solid dragon that exists only in his mind makes the solidity of the beast none the less real for him. An empirical rationalist could read ‘Incarnate’ as the shared delusion of a group of psychotically damaged people who were experimented on like lab rats thus reinforcing their bond and feeding their group psychosis which goes on to gradually infect all those around them. This makes the text “untrustworthy” as straight narrative with each sequence being subjective from one point of view so we are never sure what is actually happening and what is being imagined. Mental disturbance or strong enough belief is said to be able to manifest physically in the outside world while still emanating from the inner (as in what may happen with poltergeists or tulpas). The book could be read by an agnostic as emanating from the mental breakdown of an ultra-rational scientist (Dr Kent) languishing in a mental institution whose discoveries in dream research shattered her well ordered world view. The very last page of the novel seemed to point directly to this interpretation with Dr Kent acting as some kind of deranged narrator while her assistant (can’t remember his name) acted as the conduit to the outside world – he was troubled but still in control while her powers of empirical analysis had been completely destroyed. So the force or entity emanated directly from the breakdown of the scientific method with those letters being the catalyst that lead the five (living peacefully for the intervening 11 years) into the realms of contagious madness that unleashes an incarnate force from within. Then there is the belief in the spirit world and sentient beings with independent existence detached from the physical realm we inhabit but that may on occasion manifest in physical form whether for good or ill... Those mystic believers in such entities can equally read ‘Incarnate’ as the physical intrusion into our world of an unimaginable evil from the void beyond human ken that used the five collectively as its gateway with scientific meddling as the agent which brought them together. Whichever interpretation you go for it is still a damn frightening read! Gave me bad dreams!! |