Mike Ashley's Equation Chillers selection of Algernon Blackwood
commentary by rbadac
There are precious few Equation Chillers in the used bins, but back in 1989, when I was young and dumb and full of -- er, expendable income -- I got lucky & nabbed most of them at around seven bucks each. Several of these are becoming redundant, with their authors being reissued properly in more comprehensive formats. Though I like Blackwood, this is not my favorite Chiller, but it is a useful indicator of the more obscure facets of his work.
The Magic Mirror is edited by the redoubtable Mike Ashley, and a more qualified champion of Blackwood one would be hard-pressed to find. He subdivides his selection into four headings: nine stories make up 'The Early Years,' magazine discoveries from 1889 to 1921, or roughly up to the period of his collection Tongues of Fire (1924); the heading "Novels" has selections from Jimbo (1909), The Education of Uncle Paul (1909), The Centaur (1911), & Julius LeVallon (1916). Then there is the section "Radio Talks," with "five" print versions of Blackwood's BBC broadcasts (the fifth is actually five mini-stories which were supposedly true accounts); & the section "Later Stories" consists of seven tales that were written after his last major collection Shocks (1935) & did not, for one reason or another, make it to Arkham House's The Doll & One Other (1946), though a couple found print in issues of Weird Tales.
"A Mysterious House" is awful, just awful. Written in 1889 when Blackwood was twenty, it is apparently his first published story, & has the dreaded "and then I woke up" ending. I have no compunction about spoiling it for you in that respect. I felt so...so...violated (sob). Oh, Algie, how could you??
"The Kit-bag" from about twenty years later (from "The Listener" period) is much better. A junior barrister about to depart on vacation following a sensational murder trial seeks to borrow a kit-bag for his luggage, & is mistakenly given Exhibit A.
"The Laying Of A Red-Headed Ghost" is paradoxical in that it is written from a position of skepticism without being indicative of a larger viewpoint on Blackwood's part. Most writers tend to adopt either one or the other stance in their fiction; Blackwood, equally aware of the storytelling possibilities of fictitive ghosts & the reality of spiritualism, is comfortable with both, while acknowledging that the "composed" ghost is, inevitably, more interesting. But "The Message Of The Clock" turns the skeptic view on its head, & represents what Blackwood really wished of Spiritualism, though if he had found such an essence in reality (other than in nature), one wonders what would have become of his career. We might have ended up with another Arthur Conan Doyle.
"The Singular Death Of Morton" is evanescently told; Ashley notes it is Blackwood's only vampire story. Though finely-wrought, its message is a bit mixed in its attempt to use both this approach & another, more mystery-oriented device at the same time. In the general sweep of the prose, they nearly blend in an odd, almost fairytale fashion, but ultimately clash. The mood of the otherworldly is employed to much happier effect in "La Mauvaise Riche," and its exploration of the bond between an innocent young girl & an old, malevolent crone.
"The Soldier's Visitor" & "The Memory Of Beauty" are products both of World War One & Blackwood's occupational propaganda writing of the time; Ashley cites these two as better examples of a larger body of work done under similar influence in this period. Fantasy is tenuous in "Visitor," & gone completely in the amnesiac "Beauty," but Blackwood's writing retains that penetrating loveliness which is the lifeblood of his narrative style.
"Onanonanon" probably shouldn't work, but it does. A fever-dream, all logic insists it should fail the same way "A Mysterious House" does, but the difference seems to be crucial: there is no anti-climactic "waking" involved, & the images therefore linger. Logic is also refuted in the matter of its subject, a dog, which should hardly cause this particular kind of unquiet, especially in the ordinarily risible context of its ceaseless barking, but voila! Blackwood is also a magician.
Read the novels. The excerpts from them have no more reason than that impetus, & Ashley is well aware of this, damn him. Though they "stand alone," they are maddening if you do not have the complete book to follow through with afterwards.
The "Radio Talks" are lively & entertaining. "The Blackmailers" was Blackwood's first official radio debut. It is an unusual tale, mysterious & pathetic, of a man driven to desperation by a reluctant blackmailer. "The Wig" is short & quite droll. "King's Evidence" is a radio re-write of "Confession" from The Wolves if God (1921), & nicely done. "Lock Your Door," too disturbing for radio in 1934, finally aired in 1946, & maintains its punch especially well if one considers not only why the door should be locked, but who offers this advice.
The "Five Strange Stories" are admitted radio quickies, & about what you'd expect: anecdotal, inconclusive, & doubtful, the kind of thing only saved by their supposed provenance. Two of them smack of unintentional plagiarism, or at best a "duplicate index value." Ashley records Blackwood's hilarious reply to an accusation that he copied the plot of an Ambrose Bierce story printed in 1893, wherein Blackwood says he heard the account of it in 1892 ! Well, I guess that settles that.
Of the "Later Stories," "A Mayfair Luncheon" is an inspirational piece, which will make some smile & others cringe. I can't help but wonder if Blackwood attempted to wear more hats than was necessary, but sometimes the most sincere persons are the hardest to figure. "The Man-Eater" is a tale of Malay lycanthropy; "By Proxy" a Birkin-esque stinger, made somewhat ridiculous by Blackwood's attempt to talk like an American gangster (cf. Wakefield's "Used Car"), no more awkward, I suppose, than if Mickey Spillane had attempted to write stories for P. G. Wodehouse. Of course, if Jeeves had ever been confronted with a sultry dame whose breast had slipped out of her low-cut blouse, he would have assuredly replaced it with a warmed spoon.
"The Voice" is one of two stories narrated by the Fat Man on an ocean liner, & his hard-boiled Americanisms are even worse than Lefty's in "By Proxy," if that's possible. Being in a more tongue-in-cheek format helps. The story has a "stacked" ending which I found strange. In "The Magic Mirror," the Fat Man is in cahoots with the mystical gentleman from Tibet, & they've got a system that can't lose. They head for the roulette tables, and, well... On ne paye pas le morts.
"Roman Remains," a capably done stock story of pagan survivals, is made a bit more interesting than one usually finds in such by the characterizations of its players, who are possessed of a curious tension. "Wishful Thinking" is another example of human pathos finding a supernatural outlet. It seems to me that Blackwood was very concerned with this type of story.
All in all, a good Chiller, but an unusual one.