#also glad i got to the bus-conductor and glad it wasn't a let-down

[lotrmusical]

catching up on e f benson-posting under the cut

outside the door

unsettlement: 3. this is a perfectly good haunting, if only we'd get to experience it properly. instead he's doing the reporting thing again - let me recount the time my friend told me all about a ghost - and it makes for a tone that's too cosy and knowing to be properly frightening.

homoeroticism: 3. points for bothering to mention that the characters were reading the green carnation.

good story: 4. a bit too much hypothesising on the nature of hauntings for me without thematically connecting it to the specific experience. i enjoyed the characters' bants though

gavon's eve

unsettlement: 4. my immediate reaction to this was 'please, not more pictish roundhouses'. whatever dread a pictish roundhouse holds for fred benson, he is not doing it justice. luckily the actual horror in this one is witchcraft, which is a step up from 'the concept of a pictish roundhouse'; unfortunately i'm a harder sell on witches than i am on ghosts. couple little ghost-y moments though.

homoeroticism: 4. it isn't necessary to read the narrator and his friend as catty gays, but it's also not discouraged by the narrative. points for referring to the handsome scottish man as 'adonis of the north'.

good story: 5. coherent but not gripping

the bus-conductor

unsettlement: 7. i have to go rethink what's un-scary about 'outside the door' now, because this is another 'my friend tells you about a ghost' tale, but this one IS scary. maybe it's just that he deliberately gave hugh the quality of 'good storyteller' and the narrator is keen to listen quietly, instead of piping up with asides. that plus the weirdness and vividness of the imagery.

homoeroticism: 5. first things first: RECURRING CHARACTER SPOTTED - hello again hugh grainger from 'the gardener'! no mention of a wife in this one, so presumably this is a pre-margaret hugh. i do like him. and so, evidently, does our narrator. 'Hugh is about six feet high, and as broad as he is long.' 'I do not care for his theories, or for his similes, but when it comes to facts, to things that happened, I like him to be lengthy.' If You Say So. i would also like to remark on hugh being put in the room that he thinks is ordinarily the narrator's room, because there really was no reason for that whatsoever.

good story: 9. yep! banger! i think this one's had a couple adaptations, and you can see why. it merits it.

the man who went too far

unsettlement: 2. like 'negotium perambulans', this one is very rich with an eerie absence of fear. very strong in atmosphere without trying to evoke shivers. maybe your average 1912 reader would be more disturbed by this one? points given for the moment of horrible realisation that the 'final revelation' may be one of horror. unfortunately (spoilers), when it actually does happen, it's Trampled By Goat. it's hard to pull off horror when you're using phrases like 'frolicsome skippings'.

homoeroticism: 10. ten out of ten!!! what in the dorian gray! i need to go lie down! i can't even pick the gayest quotes, because the whole thing is absolutely sodden with homoeroticism.

good story: 8. this one is making me want to read literary criticism. it's not short and it's not tightly-paced; it definitely wallows. but given how atmospheric of a hammock it's wallowing in, i have no complaints.

the shootings of achnaleish

unsettlement: 2. this one is supernatural-flavoured folk 'horror' and frankly i have a suspicion it's not intended to be scary, because the protagonists are so obviously 'in the wrong' that you really can't help but hope they'll be burned in their beds by the locals.

homoeroticism: 1. nothing going on here whatsoever.

good story: 6. this started off SO strong, and then the ending lets it down completely. premise: great. pacing: great. it would have been so easy to resolve this plot in a way that would actually tie things together. instead it just sort of falls apart. it's infuriating