Like most sensible people I loathe and abhor Mondays. Mondays take my weekend jauntiness and kick it in the face – before setting fire to it and throwing it down the cellar stairs. By way of tribute (or, actually, whatever the opposite of "tribute" is) to this rank and foul day I'm here to set you all some homework.

On a recent Saturday (now there's a good day) Ms. Sinéad Gleeson was kind enough to say nice things about Dreadful Thoughts – this blog's new horror writing and horror reading project.¹ Though I took the liberty of choosing the first offering for the "Story Club" (Fitz-James O'Brien's "What Was it?") Sinéad was quick off the mark in suggesting who/what the focus of story number two should be:

Given my obsession with those BBC Ghost stories, my suggestion will have to be something by MR James.

As I always say (or, at least, say in very specific circumstances…like now) you can't go wrong with M. R. James. As Sinéád didn't specify a particular James story I'll take a further liberty and pick one out of the hat myself.

2) "Casting The Runes" (pdf), (html)

It's a favourite of mine (for reasons that will become obvious later) and it's now your assignment for the week. Read it, enjoy it, think about it, and let's meet back here on Thursday the 14th at 8 p.m. (ish) to chew it over.²

P.S: fustar.info has survived the recent Blog Awards cull and now finds itself "short listed" (the lists are still quite long) in "Best Blog", "Best Blog Post" (for this one), and "Best Popculture Blog". My humble thanks to all those who gave me their upturned thumbs.

1. For details of what it's all about see here. [back]
2. Oh and keep the suggestions coming. [back]

1) "What Was it?" (pdf) (html) (Google Books)

Despite being described variously as "a lion of literary New York", "a Poe in the minor mode", and "the writer who to the weird and supernatural gave a setting definitely localized in time and place",¹ Fitz-James O'Brien's name seems scarcely recognised in the province of his birth. I know because I have (over the last few days) asked around and been met with nothing but blank looks. Not the most rigorous approach to research I'll grant you, but it does hint at a certain obscurity.

The facts of his short life are rather hard to discern (he himself was, apparently, a great embellisher of his own legend) but here's a brief chronology that I managed to glean from online sources.

Born in Cork (1828); moved to Castleconnell (Co. Limerick) in his teens (after the death of his father and his mother's subsequent remarriage); splashed about in the waters of the Shannon for a bit; took off up to TCD to study something or other; headed to London and blew an inheritance of £8,000 (no mean feat in the mid 19th century); was either embroiled in a scandal or suffered a broken heart; set sail for America; started writing more earnestly and became a member of the New York literati; fought in the American civil war; was wounded in a skirmish; lingered on for a while; died – aged 34. The end.

Three years prior to his untimely death he was kind enough to pen "What Was it?"² – the tale that is to be the focus of the Dreadful Thoughts Story Club's inaugural discussion:

Though I won't say much more about it here (as this is, after all, a place for conversation, not oration), a few brief observations might help to get our juices (or fluids) flowing (*spoilers follow*).

1) According to several sources the story was pioneering in its use of invisibility. Alan Gullette has this to say:

"What Was It? A Mystery" (March, 1859) caused a minor sensation, being one of the first to deal with an invisible creature. (It predated Maupassant's "The Horla," and while it is not known to have been translated, it is still possible the French short story master heard about the earlier tale. On the other hand, it is fairly certain that Ambrose Bierce was familiar with the story when he wrote "The Damned Thing.").

While the grand-daddy of the modern invisibility narrative seems to be James Dalton's (cautionary) The Invisible Gentleman (1833), the (supposed) originality of FJoB's story appears to lie in its use of a non-human entity.

2) The grounding of the "supernatural" (if you can call it that) in the physical – the creature sleeps, wants for food, is clearly mortal etc. – makes the story feel (to me at least) far more contemporary than it actually is.

3) While the creature is clearly aggressive and hostile, its motivations are never discussed or contextualised. It simply appears, horrifies all present, and then departs (in this case, by slowly dying). In this I'm reminded somewhat of M.R. James (of whom we'll be hearing much more I'm sure). He was a great man for "demonic" entities who, far from revelling in their malevolence, seem wretched and tormented by their diabolical natures. A slightly similar feel is present in "What Was it?" – although the tragic aspects of the unseen monster are much more to the fore.

Anyway, enough of my yappin'. Over to you folks.

"What was it?" – discuss.

1. Wolfe, Francis, "Fitz-James O'Brien in Ireland and England, 1828-1851″, in American Literature, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Nov., 1942), pg. 234. [back]
2. Harper's. March, 1859. [back]

While the fústar/Tuppenceworth crossover FIZZOO!¹ slowly gathers momentum (quietly bubbling and fizzing away) I thought I'd fill an idle hour by launching another partially baked project.

Though I have, as regular visitors may be aware, a great affection for horror in all its many forms and guises (literary, cinematic, comic-booky, video-gamey etc) I only rarely find myself experiencing that delicious frisson of dreadful pleasure that the best horror can elicit.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy the "Boo!" factor of much mainstream (cinematic) horror. Sudden, unexpected jolts of shock and surprise are always fun…at least in this context. What the exact psychological mechanics of this "enjoyment" actually are is a (much-discussed) issue that need not detain us here. I've my own thoughts about why people part with their hard-earned mula to be terrified or (in the case of torture/body horror) disgusted but have no real desire to submit this phenomenon to prosaic (banal) analysis.

A feature of such (entertaining) "Boo!" horror is that feelings of fear/anxiety tend to fade quickly from memory when the credits roll (or with the break of day). While this is (on one level) comforting, I often find the speedy return to "normality" disappointing! I want to be freaked out, unnerved, shaken up, challenged (etc) and I want those feelings to last.

Lingering feelings of dread (and that's a key word in terms of the project) might not, on the face of it, seem all that desirable but they can be liberating and intoxicating (at least for me). Dread can, after all, bypass the rational mind and punch you where it hurts – in deeply-buried and (dodgy word this) "primal" fear centres. Being thus penetrated (ooer) can temporarily banish the burdens of the quotidian and give us glimpses of the sublime (with the end product possibly being the kind of "taken out of oneself" sensation people often associate with "feeling alive").

I could ramble on like this for hours but I'll cut to the chase. The simple aim of this little project (provisionally called "Dreadful Thoughts") is to get "us" reading and writing horror (since written horror is what's most capable of giving me the heebie-jeebies). This will work as follows…

1) Dreadful Thoughts Story Club: Once a week/fortnight (or whenever takes my fancy) a short horror story will be chosen (by me or a reader) for the club. Anyone who feels the urge can then go off and read it before returning here for friendly discussion, debate and dissection (preferably with the assistance of a glass of wine or two). I'll be putting up separate posts for this purpose and this is where all comments can go.

The one restriction (other than the focus being exclusively on short stories) is that the chosen tale must be available to read online in its entirety (ensuring that everyone can access it). Links to a few useful story archives can be found at the bottom of this post.²

2) The second part of the Dreadful Thoughts project is more demanding (and may over-burden those already struggling with FIZZOO! scripts). Given that horror benefits (in my opinion) from the limited space and tight restrictions of the short story form I thought it'd be fun to try and write our own. To make this doable and easily readable (for people with limited time on their hands) I suggest a 500 word limit on each story.

This might seem to limit the tales to mere vignettes or snapshots of horror but such severe restrictions can be advantageous – focusing the mind and forcing the narrative to be peeled back to its essentials. I'll (hopefully) kick this off next week with my own offering about a stain! That may, for good or ill, set the tone and kick-start some contributions from you dear readers. Go ahead. Scare me shitless.

As for the Dreadful Thoughts Story Club the first choice is (unsurprisingly) mine. My pick comes from the Poe-like pen of Munster's own Fitz-James O'Brien (1828-1862). Here it be:

1) "What Was it?" (pdf) (html) (Google Books)³

Off ye go now and do yer homework. We'll reconvene in a few days to pour over the story's bones.

Links:

Classic Horror Short Stories

Horror Masters

Update 04/02/08 – The Story Club shall meet around 8-ish this coming Wednesday to discuss "What Was it?". Hope that suits everyone.

P.S: The blog has received several nominations in the Irish Blog Awards long lists: Best Blog, Best Blog Post (x2), Most Humorous Post, Best Designed Blog, Best Arts & Culture Blog & Best Pop-Culture Blog. Greetings Earthlings got a couple of nods too. Many thanks to all who voted.

1. A girl's comic by boys…and maybe some girls. [back]
2. If anyone knows of other interesting sources then please pop them in the comments section and I'll add them in as we go along. [back]
3. From H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural: 20 Classics of the Macabre [back]