Review: "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, the well-known author of  the amazing "The Lottery", is such a masterpiece that I find myself forced to go against one of my self-imposed rules. I shall warn you.

 In this review I will not only spoil the plot, but I will quote directly from the book, ending paragraph included.  Continue reading at your own risk.

Shirley Jackson

When "The Haunting of Hill House" (thereafter "THoHH") was published in 1959, Jackson was already known ("The Lottery" was published in 1948). 

At first, it might be surprising that such a provocative author decided to write about one of the most classical topics in modern literature, the ghost story and, even worse, a ghost in a haunted house. After all, Le Fanus's stories were publishing almost a century earlier.

As puzzling as it might be, Jackson is able to manage an outstanding novel using several characterization techniques that are now over-used, including in many movies.

The book's opening paragraph describes the milieu and its story so powerfully that it's a piece of art by itself. This is how Shirley Jackson introduces us to Hill House:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of  absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had  stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Now, isn't that paragraph incredible? To me, the shocking part is the description of Hill House as "not sane." How can a house be sane or insane? I think that those two words make the house so vividly alive that it's almost disturbing to think about it. Not content, THoHH's opening paragraph punches the reader once more: "whatever walked there, walked alone." This way, the house is linked together and forever to whatever is supposed to be in there.

Please notice that at this point, the reader is unaware of the reliability of the narrator.

Disneyland's "Haunted Mansion". Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize!

THoHH's plot follows a sort of expedition at Hill House organized by a professor, Doctor John Montague, interested in supernatural events. He invites three people that claim to have had previous supernatural events to Hill House. 

Eleanor Vance, is a weak individual that basically spent her life trying to help her ill mother and never enjoyed complete freedom. She can be considered the main character of the story, although in reality the main character is Hill House. Her being weak makes her also very sensitive to possible ghostly events.

Theodora ("Theo") is a strong willed woman and quite possibly a lesbian. She can be considered a sort of cultural rebel. 

Luke Sanderson "was a liar. He was also a thief. His aunt, who was the owner of Hill House, was fond of pointing out that her nephew had the best education, the best clothes, the best taste, and the worst companions of anyone she had ever known; she would have leaped at any chance to put him safely away for a few weeks."

After the characters are briefly introduced, the back story of Eleanor is narrated and culminates on her arrival to Hill House:

"She turned her car onto the last stretch of straight drive leading her directly, face to face, to Hill House and, moving without thought, pressed her foot on the  brake to stall the car and sat, staring. 

The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once."

Haunted House in Waxahachie, TX is now the "Catfish Plantation" restaurant.
Featured on Discovery Channel as a haunted place. The food is quite good; it's always nice to be in a Victorian house.

Reading the various chapters two things are easy to notice. First and foremost, not a single character is to be liked. I can't be positive that Jackson did it on purpose, but it's almost impossible to relate or prefer anyone.
Secondly, this story is terrifying but not in a modern Stephen King-ish sense. The true horror in my opinion is not really what happens in the house (if anything happened), but how easily social interactions quickly degrade. Theo and Eleanor start as best friends (lovers?) and they end up being as enemies.

Eleanor is portrayed as the most sensitive, therefore she is at the core of the story. The impression is that the house is focused on her, but during the entire time she is in the house we are not aware if she is simply going crazy by herself and nothing is really happening. After all, she lived as a sort of recluse and passive individual.

The book is just a few pages, a short novel, but is packed of dialogue and of Eleanor's inner thoughts which might make it a little slow for modern audiences. However, from a psychological and supernatural point of view the book remains a gem. Observing how Eleanor degenerates is quite an experience, up to her end in this world. Suicide is possibly her only truly free action and that's what she commits when the other characters decide that she is going too far. In her foolishness she makes her last decision in front of them:

"With what she perceived as quick cleverness she pressed her foot down hard on the accelerator; they can‟t run fast enough to catch me this time, she thought, but by now they must be beginning to realize; I wonder who notices first? Luke, almost certainly. I can hear them calling now, she thought, and the little footsteps running through Hill House and the soft sound of the hills pressing closer. I am really doing it, she thought, turning the wheel to send the car directly at the great tree at the curve of the driveway, I am really doing it, I am doing this all by myself, now, at last; this is me, I am really really really doing it by myself.

In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don‟t they stop me?"

This is how Eleanor dies. Looking for freedom, but finding herself doubting about her own choice, the only real choice she ever did. Is she ultimately free or not? We'll never know.

As I mentioned earlier, one other thing we'll never know is if the house was really haunted or if the happenings were a fruit of self-suggestion. Shirley Jackson gives us a clue in the beautiful ending paragraph, which mirror the firsts, and is aimed to keep the house... alive.

"Dr. Montague finally retired from active scholarly pursuits after the cool, almost contemptuous reception of his preliminary article analyzing the psychic phenomena of Hill House. Hill House itself, not sane, stood against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, its walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Reading "Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

Will review ASAP.

Review: Weird Tales - Fall 2012 - Issue 360 - Vol.66 No.4

I could not expect a better gift for Halloween than Weird Tales. And so it was: on October 31st 2012, while preparing the kids for trick or treating, the mailman delivered the magazine. Unfortunately, I failed to notice if his eyes showed the unmistakable empty look of a cultist who just read a small portion of the Necronomicon. He probably did.
With such excitement I started observing the creepy cover picture by Danielle Tunstall. Good news: the old WT logo is back.

Before I proceed in the analysis of Issue 360, some warning is due:

• This is the first issue edited by Marvin Kaye and his gang. Ann VanderMeer's involvement is now officially over. Thank you Ann for your amazing work in being the Herbert West of such a niche magazine.
• This issue contains an important tribute to late Ray Bradbury. I will not review it, but I suggest everyone to take a look at it. I loved the back cover by David Hartman.
• Although I generally enjoyed most of the stories, I have serious issues regarding two subjects. I will discuss them in the "Philosophical Issues" section of this post.

The Stories.

Issue 360 is packed with stories. There are no interviews or any other distracting material. I do not know if there were any originally intended for Issue 360 and later removed because of Bradbury's tribute, but I admit that at least quantitatively this is a packed up magazine, with seven stories related to the Elder Gods and four non-thematic stories. In addition there are four poetry pieces. I will try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

• "The Long Last Night" by Brian Lumley is quite enjoyable. London is overwhelmed by the usual monstrosities we would expect in a strange tale and is also towered by a weird twisted structure. In this story there are two characters, one is the narrator and one is an old guy; they are trying to reach the evil tower by using the subway (ok, tube!) tunnel system. The plot and setting are interesting, but the narrator seems like an idiot during the whole story except at the end. He is seriously too passive and this gave away the ending. This is a story themed around the Elder Gods.
• "Momma Durtt" by Michael Shea is another enjoyable story about small-time criminals, real human monsters and toxic environments. In this story we learn what a dude, Lazarian, is up to. This is a story themed around the Elder gods.
• "The Darkness at the Table Rock Road" by Michael Reyes. This is a dream-like state story in which two veterans meet after being together in a campaign located in the middle-East. One of the two, Robert Blake, claims to have become rich. Is he hiding something? Hell, yeah! This is a story themed around the Elder Gods.
• "The Runners Beyond the Wall" by Darrell Schweitzer. A poor kid dies in the XIX century when his ship, with his parents on it, wrecks on the Cornish coast. In his afterlife the kid will meet Lord Blessingleigh, an evil son of a bitch which expects the kid to accept him as father. This story is twisted enough to be probably the most enjoyable among the various works in this issue. This story has an aftertaste of "Dante meets the Elder Gods" and is quite well written. This is a story themed around the Elder Gods.
• "Drain" by Matthew Jackson. Have you ever feared that something might crawl from the drain hole in the bathtub? Well, if you do, this story will creep you out enough to pour gallons of acid in it, just for safety. Not that it would work. Read, sit back and enjoy even thou the story itself is pretty dumb. I admit I felt much pleasure in reading about the whole situation around the thing crawling in the narrator's house. This is a story themed around the Elder Gods.
• "The thing in the Cellar" by William Blake-Smith. Funny! Yes this flash-fiction story is quite funny and makes fun of all of us, the lovecraftian idiots that secretly wish that the Necronomicon was true and that Cthulhu was as sweet as the plushes. This exchange between the narrator and his stepfather was quite epic:

"Sir, I think that some dark spawn nameless terror has torn its way into our cellar seeking to swallow the living souls of the innocent." I spoke clearly and slowly.
He looked at me and winced. "What?" he moaned.
"Shapeless horrors are loose in the cellar. Mankind may be in danger." I said, rephrasing to correct for his ignorance of the proper nomenclature.
"You've been reading that Lovecraft crap again, haven't you?" he said.
"Uh, no Sir," I lied. "Just trying to keep you informed of the house's little quirks."
"Your mother and I told you not to read that junk," he said.

• "Found in a Bus shelter at 3:00AM, Under a Mostly Empty Sky" by Stephen Garcia. At first the strange editing looks cool, but it distracted me too much. Honestly I do not really understand the meaning of the whole concept other than "looking cool". This is a story themed around the Elder Gods.
• "To be a Star" by Parke Godwin. When you prepare your Christmas tree you feel that someone is telling you... something. Well, this story explains why. Very enjoyable.
• "The empty city" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. This is more fantasy than anything else, it is a nice voyage in a forgotten city. Will you get stuck in there?
• "Abbey at the Edge of the Earth" by Collin B. Greenwood. Flash-fiction. There isn't much to say other than it's a trip in someone's doomed destiny.
• "Alien Abduction" by M.A. Brines. Another piece of flash fiction. I will just say it's not exceptional and it is very very short.

Philosophical Issues.

While I certainly enjoyed reading WT360, I have some issues with two concepts that have been introduced with the new management: 

1. The anthological idea
2. Lovecraft (I can't believe I am saying that).

According to the editors, from now on WT will have one theme which will differ from issue to issue. For example, WT360 was "The Elder Gods Issue" and WT361 will be the "Fairy Tales Issue". This might lock WT writers from releasing new interesting material and, especially, new ideas. The editors claim to be available to publishing every sort of genre, but putting such a limit - leaving complete freedom to just a few stories - might damage irremediably the freedom that is necessary to an "out of the boundaries" magazine. I could understand two "locked" issues in a six-issues a year magazine, but I really can't accept that all the four issues are bounded so tightly. I personally think that this move will remove good parts of the necessary imagination that made Weird Tales the important pulp magazine it is. In other words, I think anthologies exist already and I am not sure the public needs an anthological magazine. If I want several works related to the Elder Gods, I simply go to my local library or B&N and I get it. If I want several works related to Fairy Tales, I just go get it. A magazine, such as Asimov's SF, Analog, Ellery Queen and so on contain variety. That's their strength. In Ellery Queen I read a story inspired by Agatha Christie and the next story is completely different. How beautiful is that in a magazine? I might be wrong - I hope I am, and it wouldn't be the first time I am; just ask my wife! - but I think that in the long term this will be a move that will be regretted.

The second issue, is Lovecraft. Disclaimer: I love HPL. I love Cthulhu, I think Azathoth is quite cool. I play Arkham Horror and I love reading HPL's epistolary. However, Lovecraft is not Weird Tales and Weird Tales is not Lovecraft. The editors affirm that HPL will be an integral part of the magazine and I dread this decision. I do not even get the meaning of their idea. Okay, HPL is cool and made WT what it is today. So does R.E. Howard (his Conan is more famous than Cthulhu and any of the Elder Gods). So does Seabury Quinn that published in WT more than HPL and any other author (see S. Connors in "The Weird Fiction Review", Number 1, Fall 2010). So, why HPL over Howard? Why HPL over Quinn? I don't see why Lovecraft's shadow should be all over Weird Tales, why should we expect the readers to read lovecraftian horror? I strongly suggest reading Jeff VanderMeer's article about Lovecraft on his Weird Fiction Review (http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/09/moving-past-lovecraft/). I completely agree with him. One day I will explain how R.E. Howard liberated me from the tentacular fiction of H.P.Lovecraft. WT editors claim that one of the reason is that they have a lot of material intended for H.P.Lovecraft Magazine. Well, then publish that magazine and leave WT free of any chain. Do not hold readers and writers accountable of the apparently sinful idea that Lovecraft is necessary to Weird Tales. He is NOT. The weird tale used Lovecraft, he was merely a tool. A darn good tool, nonetheless a tool. Lovecraft's spirit will always live in one form or the other on Weird Tales, and he will always affect strange tales writers anywhere. He will always be somewhere in any writing even from new masters such as Stephen King. It doesn't need any push from the editors. Listen to Mr. VanderMeer, and listen to Lovecraft: Cthulhu doesn't need the cultists and so Weird Tales doesn't need Lovecraft. 

"The yellow wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one of those stories that albeit short (about 6000 words) it can be read on many separate levels that any dissertation should discuss in order to avoid a void in the interpretative function.

At first, Gilman's story can be simply classified as Gothic fiction. In the story we have the classical unreliable narrator, a strange situation, an uncanny event and some satellite characters that are unable to understand what is happening, worsening the whole situation. As in Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart", the narration is obsessed with something or someone, although it should be noted that the typologies of obsessions are slightly different. Poe's narrator tries to find freedom from the evil eye but committing a murder, which is a traumatic event external to the problem. Gilman's narrator tries to find freedom by using, spoiling and interpretating the meaning of tapestry, which is an event intrinsic to the problem. In other words, Gilman's narrator needs the tapestry, while Poe's narrator wants to get rid of it. In both stories we do not know much of the details of the narrator; however in "The Yellow Wallpaper" we know that she is diagnosed with some sort of post-partum depression. For this reason her husband decides to confine her to the attic, removing any sort of intellectual stimuli. She desires to do some work around the house, but she is not allowed to. She desires to do something than just getting bored, but she is not allowed. Bored to death, she starts believing that the wallpaper is not just a regular yellow wallpaper but it hides some mysterious secret. Day and night she is so obsessed in her belief that she starts seeing it move. Her condition worsening, she thinks that women are hidden behind it and come out at night and by tearing it apart she will free them and free herself. In the final scene, the husbands finds out that her condition is now unrecoverable (I won't spoil the precise ending).

The story itself is quite intriguing, and it interesting to observe how the narrator's mental health worsens daily.

The second level of interpretation of this story is feminism. Gilman's story is a small manifesto for woman's liberation. Here's where the husband comes in play. Although he may seem a simple single dimensional character (honestly, in part he is), he is actually the stereotype of the possessive husband, very popular in the years Gilman lived in but being a doctor he has seemingly good motivations for his choices. He is a doctor convinced that is wife is going crazy and he tries to cure her. His solution? Drive her even crazier. The problem which Gilman is clearly talking about is not that the husband is wrong, but that he does not listen to what she says. In every conversation he never believes her (and he is right) and never listen to her suggestion (and he is plainly wrong). Clearly he works as a metaphor for the low value that men placed on women's opinion back then. With her story, Gilman tries to explain that a woman by the use of her head is free, no matter what chain is she constrained to. 

Another level is the scientific one. By researching online (well... reading on wikipedia) it becomes clear that Gilman had issues with an early psychologist/doctor who treated her depression by removing almost all distractions from her. In a figure of speech, there is not much difference between Gilman and the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper". Clearly, the author wants to criticize certain scientific methods that are based on traditions, guesswork and little else. She also criticizes those doctors that don't listen to patients because they are so sure of their methods that they would not change them even if hard proof is in front of them. Until irreparable damage is done.

Obviously, I strongly suggest reading this classic. It was one of Lovecraft's favorites and for a good reason. The text is freely available on Project Gutenberg. In addition two movies, one transposition by BBC and one that took some liberties, have been made (I haven't seen either).

Weird Tales is back. #359

After many months of wait, Weird Tales the (in)famous magazine which once hosted none other than HPL himself, is back.A few weeks ago I received an envelope containing #359. This issue is the bridge between the old and the new editorial staff.
First of all, the cover is amazing. Designed by Dave Buchwald (known for his 2600 covers) it leaves the reader with a strange feeling. The message is clear: be ready.
Here it is, if you do not believe me:

Second, the stories. I really liked "Notes from the apocalypse" by Stephen Grahm Jones. I warn you: this story is pretty twisted and the ending is quite original; it won't make you hungry. Another interesting story is "f/8" by Conrad Williams, which I should read again to better enjoy its quirks... I never thought such a beautiful story could come out by the idea of a guy with a camera hit by lighting during a storm. The other weird story is "The one that's worse than mine" by Tom Underberg. Here we follow a sin-eater in his quest to find, let's say, the perfect sin. However, the award for most original "story" goes to "Five films reviewed by Frankenstein's creature" by Evan J. Peterson. The title says it all (be warned, it's just two pages).

Third, the bad. First story at page twenty-six?!? Unacceptable. Yes, the interviews are interesting  and Richard Kirk's art is impressive. But we want stories.
I would like to point out that I found "The Magician's apprentice" by Tamsyn Muir interesting but poorly developed.

My vote to this issue: 7 stars out of 10.
According to the back cover the next issue is going to be dedicated to the  Elder Gods... oh wow... not an easy one.