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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Dark Entries by Robert Aickman
4.0
A reviewer or a group of reviewers ( I don’t remember who specifically) called Robert Aickman a writer who has produced fantastic works in the horror genre. If ‘Dark Entries’ is any indicator, then Aickman is not a horror writer at all ! His prose is lush and the emotion that it switches on is unease, a very profound one at that too. The kind of unease that makes a clammy sweat break out, give you an itch behind your eyeballs and makes your head jerk up when the curtain by your window sways in the unseen wind. Ambling, slithering, slimy monstrosities do not crawl out of these pages, blood and gore are not splattered all over and yet you feel a sense of dread for no explicable reason whatsoever. Through five short stories, Aickman offers glimpses into the enigmatic labyrinth of the human mind. After two stories, I was totally in awe of Aickman’s writing prowess.
The tool that Aickman uses to terrific effect is the minor imbalances and hallucinations of the human mind. The neuroses that plague some of his characters are like tumours which grow slowly yet surely and become life threatening in the end. His short story ‘Ringing the changes’ is a fantastic piece of work. For a story that lasts approximately 40 pages, this is sheer dynamite. A strange place, even stranger people, noise that makes you want to tear your hair out looking for some peace and a realization that attempting to escape would be rather futile an endeavour are all captured grimly in this tale. This is a fine example of the craft involved when it comes to writing an unsettling tale for the horror is in watching on helplessly as things start spiralling out of control. The story is a tightrope walk between the real and the surreal and Aickman slips in and out of both these with consummate ease. Undoubtedly this is one of the tightest written short stories that I have read. Another such unsettling tale is ‘Bind your hair’. This is the last story in the book and I am still wondering what to make out of it. At first, it is a tongue-in-cheek look at the horrors of living a weekend with your in-law’s but all the while Aickman weaves a web of strangeness around the setting of the story. The Dinoysian experiences that Clarinda Hartley undergoes and bears witness to in the British countryside are enough to shake her out of the mental turgidity of living with her over loving yet tepid fiancé and family. The strangeness of this story is bested only by ‘Ringing the changes’. The other three tales are also no less stunning in execution. Aickman does not conform his stories to the three act structure but goes for taking an instance or occurrence in the lives of these characters and showing it to us in all its oddness and after stirring up our mind, he moves on to the next one. I am completely impressed, Mr. Aickman !
Ramsey Campbell writes in the afterword about Aickman’s disdain for all horror writers and their incapability in coming up with plot lines that do not step out of the ordinary. Considering the skill that he possessed in the field of weird fiction, I can completely understand Mr. Aickman’s POV on this too. Highly recommended !
The tool that Aickman uses to terrific effect is the minor imbalances and hallucinations of the human mind. The neuroses that plague some of his characters are like tumours which grow slowly yet surely and become life threatening in the end. His short story ‘Ringing the changes’ is a fantastic piece of work. For a story that lasts approximately 40 pages, this is sheer dynamite. A strange place, even stranger people, noise that makes you want to tear your hair out looking for some peace and a realization that attempting to escape would be rather futile an endeavour are all captured grimly in this tale. This is a fine example of the craft involved when it comes to writing an unsettling tale for the horror is in watching on helplessly as things start spiralling out of control. The story is a tightrope walk between the real and the surreal and Aickman slips in and out of both these with consummate ease. Undoubtedly this is one of the tightest written short stories that I have read. Another such unsettling tale is ‘Bind your hair’. This is the last story in the book and I am still wondering what to make out of it. At first, it is a tongue-in-cheek look at the horrors of living a weekend with your in-law’s but all the while Aickman weaves a web of strangeness around the setting of the story. The Dinoysian experiences that Clarinda Hartley undergoes and bears witness to in the British countryside are enough to shake her out of the mental turgidity of living with her over loving yet tepid fiancé and family. The strangeness of this story is bested only by ‘Ringing the changes’. The other three tales are also no less stunning in execution. Aickman does not conform his stories to the three act structure but goes for taking an instance or occurrence in the lives of these characters and showing it to us in all its oddness and after stirring up our mind, he moves on to the next one. I am completely impressed, Mr. Aickman !
Ramsey Campbell writes in the afterword about Aickman’s disdain for all horror writers and their incapability in coming up with plot lines that do not step out of the ordinary. Considering the skill that he possessed in the field of weird fiction, I can completely understand Mr. Aickman’s POV on this too. Highly recommended !