Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lee_foust 's review for:
Bottled Abyss
by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
Once I had thought to become the scholar of the representation of the land of the dead in literature. This was indeed the original plan for my PhD dissertation, a history of Hades from Homer to H.D., until one pithy advisor quipped: "In how many volumes again?" Still, in recent years I have read often of the otherworld in Gothic and Horror texts and could still probably write up a little something about this sub-tradition within the Gothic sub-genre of the short story, novel, and even, occasionally, verse. (If you want a recommendation, try Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come.) Thesis statement: Whilst flirting with Greek mythology, this modern horror story was incapable, for me, of selling the combination of ancient mythic monsters with Stephen King-like flawed American middle-class characters and consequently prompted more laughter than chills from my reading and therefore remained a disappointment for me as either social commentary or classic fabula.
Well, my earlier status update whilst reading just about sums up my reading experience: There is a moment in the novel in which an ancient Greek fury steals a cellphone in order to call up a prospective victim and to threaten her. I just couldn't--and still can't--reconcile these disparate elements (iphone and ancient fury) without laughter--deadly in a novel to be filed in the horror section of your local independent bookstore, God-love-'em. For a while I tried to excuse the laughter, really wanting to cut the author slack on the whole ancient/modern blending, because I liked the idea of incorporating the ancient Greek goddess Nyx and the rivers of Hades and Charon the boatman into a contemporary setting, and I can see how hard it would be to write the tones of the two types of narrative convincingly, and then I realized that it has often been done by the greats--Lovecraft and Arthur Machen specialize in such blending, in representing the threshold-lurking old Gods just around that London or Providence street corner, and they never make me laugh and their images and descriptions always stick with me on windy, rainy, gloomy evenings when I'm home alone and my imagination runs riot with the night.
Sadly, it will be the funny, awkward ill-blended and incongruous pieces of corporate chincery (Uh, I made it up but I think you know what I mean) and the lost dignity of its representation of a faded mythology of Bottled Abyss, I fear, that will return to me later. Most laughable: the first person narrators who describe the Fury killing them. Ouch. Very poor choice for dignity.
I'm still searching for well-written contemporary Gothic--please, recommendations anyone????
Well, my earlier status update whilst reading just about sums up my reading experience: There is a moment in the novel in which an ancient Greek fury steals a cellphone in order to call up a prospective victim and to threaten her. I just couldn't--and still can't--reconcile these disparate elements (iphone and ancient fury) without laughter--deadly in a novel to be filed in the horror section of your local independent bookstore, God-love-'em. For a while I tried to excuse the laughter, really wanting to cut the author slack on the whole ancient/modern blending, because I liked the idea of incorporating the ancient Greek goddess Nyx and the rivers of Hades and Charon the boatman into a contemporary setting, and I can see how hard it would be to write the tones of the two types of narrative convincingly, and then I realized that it has often been done by the greats--Lovecraft and Arthur Machen specialize in such blending, in representing the threshold-lurking old Gods just around that London or Providence street corner, and they never make me laugh and their images and descriptions always stick with me on windy, rainy, gloomy evenings when I'm home alone and my imagination runs riot with the night.
Sadly, it will be the funny, awkward ill-blended and incongruous pieces of corporate chincery (Uh, I made it up but I think you know what I mean) and the lost dignity of its representation of a faded mythology of Bottled Abyss, I fear, that will return to me later. Most laughable: the first person narrators who describe the Fury killing them. Ouch. Very poor choice for dignity.
I'm still searching for well-written contemporary Gothic--please, recommendations anyone????