As I write this, I’m looking at another week of posts, and I’m far enough ahead that it is still technically the weekend.
As it happens, I was already working on something that spun off into another
post, the fiction of Ambrose Bierce, which was transformed into the “true” tale
of Oliver Larch. Here, I’m giving a wider, still anecdotal survey of his work.
For introduction, I’m not going to
try to cover the author’s life or his place in American literature. What I was
interested enough to run down is the background of the two collections I consulted,
The Ghost And Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce, which I bought in ebook
form, and the more luridly named Terror By Night. The former has an
introduction by one Dan Hawks, the latter by David Stuart Davies. Both
otherwise appear almost identical (I’ll get to that…) both to each other and to
the 1964 publication The Ghost And Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce, edited
and introduced by E.F. Bleiler, a scholar of science fiction and fantasy. On
working this out, I was immediately satisfied that the 1964 book was one which
I had read during college. (I distinctly recall reading it the same night I saw
the end of Eight Legged Freaks on TV, because my superpower is my torment.)
So, here’s a rundown of the ones that have stayed with me all this time.
“Moxon’s Master”- This is the most
historically significant story by Bierce, a proto-science fictional tale about
a chess-playing automaton that takes losing badly. In an unfortunate common
denominator, it’s not really his best work. A good chunk of it is a monologue
that lays out a kind of pantheism as a rationale for machine intelligence. The
actual bout between man and machine is well-paced and intriguing, but there
just isn’t much here.
“A Vine On A House”- This is an
example of the formulaic side of Bierce’s work, done better than usual. On
stopping at a crumbling and ill-reputed house, two travelers notice a vine shaking
without explanation. An investigation leads to a grisly discovery. Surely based
on the actual case of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, it’s another story
with overtones of animism, quite effective and still understated.
“Stanley Fleming’s Hallucination”-
This is perhaps the most oddly prescient of Bierce’s stories, concerning a man
who is threatened by nightly visions of a menacing hound in his bedroom. His
roundabout confessions reveal a darker backstory that will end in supernatural
revenge. One can find in it the conceptual bedrock of the Nightmare On Elm
Street franchise (which I had previously traced through the work of Robert E.
Howard). In a running theme, it feels underwhelming placed in context, which here
more than usual is clearly our fault, not Bierce’s.
“A Fruitless Assignment”- Now we
have Bierce’s true masterpiece, a brief misadventure of a journalist sent to
investigate a supposed haunted house where mysterious yet decidedly unghostly
figures come and go. It’s startling for how weak it should be on paper, less
than 3 pages with a buildup that’s too long and never makes sense. But there is
an incalculable impact in the utterly savage climax and the even more
frustrating aftermath, with a deceptively well-realized and decidedly
unsympathetic protagonist. On top of everything else, it’s a chillingly early
treatment of PTSD. Here, the greatest horror is to live and learn nothing.
“The Spook House”- A longer piece
by Bierce’s standards, another pair of travelers venture into a deserted house
whose original owners disappeared. Only one will come out. It’s more of the economical
savagery that the modern reader could easily overlook in familiarity, both
atmospheric and gruesome. What impresses even now is the “ambiguous” ending,
which Bierce truly excelled at.
“The Suitable Surroundings”- Here,
we see Bierce in full-blown deconstructionism, tweaking the Gothic horror genre
still in its prime. A writer challenges a reader to read his latest story under
uniquely unsettling conditions, with deadly and comical results. I freely admit
I didn’t try to re-read this one; what I remember is enough.
“The Difficulty of Crossing a
Field”- A much better entry in Bierce’s cycle of eerie disappearance tales, a
man disappears without a trace just outside his own front door. Again, the
deeper horror is the exploration of the aftermath.
“A Jug of Sirup”- An entry in the
“disappearing shop” niche genre as much as anything else, a storekeeper returns
from the grave, so much himself that it takes a while for his old customers to
notice. It’s another satire, not quite as subversive as “Suitable Surroundings”
but correspondingly more unsettling. This is incidentally the epitome of
Bierce’s view of the revenant dead, neither angelic nor vengeful, but merely acting
the parts they did in life.
“Visions of the Night”- And this
is the one that was only in the ebook, which I remembered from the 1964
edition. The author narrates a series of visions supposedly from his own
dreams, the last being a seemingly whimsical encounter with a talking horse. One
can take the authenticity with a heaping helping of salt, yet it is a
convincing picture of the world of dreams that lays out a path for much to
follow. (Fine, I’ll mention House…)
And that’s enough for me. Needless
to say, there are many, many more that I am passing over, including supposed “classics”,
but these are by all means representative of the stories that have impacted me.
It should be obvious that I hold this author’s work in the highest regard,
where it truly deserves it, and equally obvious that I am well aware of the
flaws. In the proverbial light of day, Bierce stands out first and foremost as
an author who didn’t and perhaps couldn’t pick a lane between satirizing what
was wrong with a genre and actually doing it well. He also gives an early
preview of the cycles of excess, self-parody, and revitalizing deconstruction
that have afflicted horror fiction. But he also does offer some of the very
best genre tales of his own or any other time, which are even now a breath of
fresh air for anyone who has truly gone through the trash heap of history. Read
him with my highest recommendation, perhaps ideally in small doses. The one
thing you will not do is forget.
Image credit ISFDB.
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