The Entrance, with spoilers
bbar...@peabody.jhu.edu
Have read Gerald Durrell's "The Entrance" and am reporting back. I had the
good sense of timing not to get to the scary part until late at night after
the rest of the family were sensibly asleep in bed. Yikes! This is a story
with a definite moral: if you see a creature in a mirror that isn't in the
room with you, for God's sake leave it well enough alone!
But beyond being a mere monster/witchcraft story, it does introduce a chilling
concept: that there might be a parallel world in which our fates may be much
different, horrible and grisly in fact; and that the reality of that world is
kept from impinging on this one by the most delicate of barriers.
A bonus in this story is that the two main characters are excellently drawn,
and then we get to revel in the accoutrements of the classic ghost story:
bachelors with servants, sipping brandy by the fire in the library full of
fascinating and valuable books, valuing books, cataloguing books, bidding on
books, grimoires, London fog, wine cellars, horse-drawn carts, travels by
train, a candelabra... I'm sure I'm leaving out something. Did Durrell?
Thanks to Rob for recommending this one!
Some recommended related reading:
"The Sin-Eater", Elizabeth Walter, in the book of the same name (similar
ending)
"The Pipe Smoker", Martin Armstrong, in Hitchcock's BAR THE DOORS (similar
mirror theme)
"It Came to Dinner", R. Chetwynd-Hayes, in THE 14TH PAN BOOK OF HORROR STORIES
(similar monster)
Bill B.
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Dr. Nick
I don't think I read "the entrance" when I had some books from this series
borrowed from the library, so maybe I'll check em out again. In any case, if
you don't mind my persistent off-topicness, what of the intriguing Thomas M.
Disch story that I believe was in one of these "... of Fear" anthologies;
something about the kidnapping of some corporate bigshot fatcat, who's held
captive in a basement by a unique "terrorist". Did anybody read that one?
Strangely funny, very blackly humourous from what I recall.
John
bbar...@peabody.jhu.edu wrote in message
<6gpbfd$n4t$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
rba...@hotmail.com
Hi, guys!
I like Disch too, John- I'll look for that tale.
Well, 'The Entrance'- finally got it read, and I liked it! Durrell writes
quite nicely. The berry listed some other novels and collections, which
didn't look like 'contranatural' fiction, and a whole slew of naturalist
titles in non-fiction.
This story probably could have been a short rather than a novella, but it was
handled fine at the extra length. The story gains from the extra
characterization and description Gerry employs.
Since we're all acquainted with this, and the header states, 'with spoilers',
I'll hasten on to the meat of the matter.
So, how does this mirror creature work, anyway? 'I am your servant. Feed and
liberate me. I am you.' Far as I can tell, the Marquis is granted longer life
by a Dorian Grey-esque entity which must be fed reflections and/or real blood
in order to keep up its services. It appears to 'reflect' the original
petitioner's rightful state (old, rotted, evil), but also to somehow acquire
subsequent souls in the process, namely Gideon's and later Peter Letting's.
It is described as small, humpbacked, and wrapped in a yellow linen shroud,
with a limp and an opal ring (both the Marquis'), but whether the orange hair
and the hump and the smallness were attributes of the Marquis is not made
clear.
Also, WHAT does Gideon see when he first sees his reflection after his
uncle's death? Is it that he casts NO reflection, or does he cast the
reflection of his horrible dead uncle/the mirror cadaver? The same question
of course may be asked of Peter's vision in prison before he dies of a heart
attack, which in itself implies that he must be seeing the cadaverous
creature- but is it now HIM, as the mirror legend states?
'I am your servant' seems to imply the longevity-granting power of the Thing.
'Feed and liberate me' is fairly obvious. 'I am you' is the interesting
condition.
One would think that if one's reflection were devoured, then any subsequent
reflection would be that of the devourer. Yeah, one would think that,
wouldn't one. I'll have that strait-jacket now, please. ("My valuable antique
mirror! It's broken!!" "Sir, I wouldn't worry about your mirror if I were
you. A horrible cadaverous Thing came out of it and ate off your left arm."
"MY ROLEX!!!")
SO... when Peter whacks the Thing, it turns into (...out to be?) Gideon.
Gideon, dresses as Peter last saw him, not wanting to hang out with him in
the house, wanting to re-enter it perhaps as the Thing? Smaller, because it
ate a cat, a dog, and some birds? Was Gideon aware of this? Was Peter, later?
Good story! The pursuit portion was well done, and I didn't really mind that
it took 42 pages of a 59 page tale to get there.
rbadac
Biddler
>Well, 'The Entrance'- finally got it read, and I liked it! Durrell writes
>quite nicely. The berry listed some other novels and collections, >which
didn't look like 'contranatural' fiction, and a whole slew of >naturalist
titles in non-fiction.
>This story . . . (blah, blah)
Yeah, yeah.
Cool it with the 'contranatural' already, willya?
Rob
rba...@hotmail.com
In article <199804140336...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
Hey, if it's good enough for Bleiler, it's good enough for ME. And if it's
good enough for me, it's good enough for YOU.
I'll mail you photos of my old girlfriends, just to prove my point. They
won't include addresses, however, as that thesis doesn't work both ways.
bbar...@peabody.jhu.edu
In article <6gtpk0$pci$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
rba...@hotmail.com wrote:
> I like Disch too, John- I'll look for that tale.
Read his THE BUSINESSMAN, too, a great ghost novel of the comic (biting, not
charming) variety.
> So, how does this mirror creature work, anyway? 'I am your servant. Feed and
> liberate me. I am you.' Far as I can tell, the Marquis is granted longer
life
> by a Dorian Grey-esque entity which must be fed reflections and/or real
blood
> in order to keep up its services. It appears to 'reflect' the original
> petitioner's rightful state (old, rotted, evil), but also to somehow acquire
> subsequent souls in the process, namely Gideon's and later Peter Letting's.
Dammit, I forgot about that inscription! That makes it even better, since
with "I am you" the Thing has programmed its own perpetuation, one life (or
soul) to the next.
(Do we have to consider the "unreliable narrator" angle, i.e. that the writer
of the journal was actually guilty of the crimes attributed to him but came up
with a wild tale to shift the blame off himself? It doesn't seem to work in
this case, does it? Rob?)
> Also, WHAT does Gideon see when he first sees his reflection after his
> uncle's death? Is it that he casts NO reflection, or does he cast the
> reflection of his horrible dead uncle/the mirror cadaver?
I think Gideon does see his own reflection, as this can't be the first time
he's looked in a mirror since his uncle's death. (It's a nice touch how the
uncle's being "put to death" anticipates Letting's fate.) I actually thought
he saw the Thing creep up "behind" him, and that this is the moment when he
stole Gideon's soul. I also thought that... oh, I hate trying to pin down the
mechanics of these things. "Evil feeds on the living and never dies" is good
enough for me, the rest is just engineering.
Anyone read "The Same Dog" yet? Why does the dog appear briefly as a naked
man?! (Why do so many of Aickman's characters appear briefly transfigured?
cf. "The Hospice", "The School Friend", ...)
Bill B.
Biddler
> It doesn't seem to work in
>this case, does it? Rob?)
Geez, guys, I'm kind of at a loss here. I'm the one that proposed this story,
twiddled my thumbs smugly waiting for you guys to read this potboiler, and now
that I read your comments, I find I've forgotten all KINDS of stuff about it.
Like the inscription. One thing I THINK I remember. It seemed to me that the
poor guy's friend came home at the end and was murdered accidentally, because
the terrified guy thought he was the monster. When I read Rbadac's account, I
thought, MAN, I remember it wrong, read it wrong, or something. I'll check it
again. Memory does seem to simplify, but I don't remember it being QUITE as
ambiguous as it now seems to be. Since Hartwell suggests that it "repays
careful re-reading" (I wonder if the publishers do repay him, and if so, how
much? Another 50%? 25% third time around? He seems to do a lot of re-reading),
I'm assuming there is indeed the possibility that this is a madness story, or
more probably presented so that that possibility is left open. He's shut up
with his books in a house . . . and one big, long, mirror. Interesting setup,
right? Gotta be a bit significant that the beast emerges from the mirror? And,
at least as I THINK I remember the ending, the monster is not there--just a
dead pal. That said, I definitely read it as, and concluded it was, a super-
natural story. The possibility of madness is one of the elements that always
lends ghostly atmosphere, but we always want to err on the side of the
unexplainable, because where's the fun otherwise? Looks like I gotta look over
this one again--pardon me if I skip around a bit, though.
Rob
rba...@hotmail.com
All right, guys, tighten up! You can sit around and read these things for
pleasure on your own time! Come in here, you better take notes! :)
Heck, I TOOK notes, and I STILL don't know what's going on...
Peter Letting better not be a lying crazy, that's all I've got to say. I HATE
THAT. Nothing sounds the knell of doom on a good contra- er, SUPERnatural
story like a cheap justification. At least in Val Lewton movies, you can have
it both ways.
I bet Gerry had some sort of internal logic going on this one, though, even
if it's not pinned down yet. Not that it matters, of course, or takes away
from enjoying the story, as any good AA (Aickmans Anonymous) member would
attest. But Durrell was a naturalist/non-fiction writer, and that seems to
indicate that he would be more likely to have a plan in mind.
If there are any linguistic experts out there, maybe they can let us know if
that little snippet of French meant anything, or if it was just a verse of
the 'Marseillaise'?
Or we could just go on to another story! Pick a shorter one this time,
though- these novellas are KILLING me...
rbad