THE DEEP ONES: "A Garden of Blackred Roses" by Charles L. Grant

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THE DEEP ONES: "A Garden of Blackred Roses" by Charles L. Grant

2semdetenebre
Modificato: Giu 18, 2021, 12:38 pm

I have all four of the titles listed above but I think I'll read from Masters of Darkness II, simply because I still crave the feel and smell of a good ol' fashioned beat-up paperback in my paws.

3housefulofpaper
Giu 19, 2021, 9:40 pm

I've got the UK edition of Dark Forces and I'll aim to be on time with this one.

4semdetenebre
Modificato: Giu 23, 2021, 8:30 am

As I was reading, I kept thinking of how this short story was very much like one of Grant's novels in miniature. This was subsequently confirmed by the author himself in his Masters of Darkness II post-story note.

I've always liked Grant's so-called quiet horror very much. He goes heavy on parsing the dark corners of small town atmosphere, usually with an accent on the seasons on the year. I think his strong suit as far as horror goes is in providing a solid feeling of place with something menacing hovering just out-of-reach. Of his novels, I re-read The Grave every now and then. Not sure why I gravitate toward that one in particular. Just like the feel, I guess.

5elenchus
Giu 23, 2021, 11:03 am

Atmosphere / literary tone is one of the aspects of supernatural fiction I value highly. Haven't read any Grant that I recall, and unfortunately didn't have this story available. Will try to remember this characterization so I can pick up any chance finds I may come across.

6paradoxosalpha
Giu 23, 2021, 1:16 pm

I guess this might have been meant to be a contemporary setting in 1980? It seems sort of nostalgic even for then. It's so very *quiet* by our jacked-up 21st-century standards (even with the stir-crazy pandemic inflection). The string of vignettes made it seem sort of cinematic, somehow, and the narration was very impressionistic, the way that it centered on each principal character's concerns and left a lot unsaid.

7RandyStafford
Giu 23, 2021, 7:36 pm

>6 paradoxosalpha: Yes, there is a lot unsaid. Does Steven die in the snow or does something happen to his wife or child? What's up with Ginny? Is she a vampire now? What happened to Barney among the shadows? Is picking a bloodred rose always bad?

Perhaps I wasn't paying attention, but this story annoyed me greatly, so much so that it seemed mumbling, incoherent horror rather than quiet.

8housefulofpaper
Giu 23, 2021, 8:33 pm

>7 RandyStafford:

I definitely felt that I was missing something, and it wasn't simply because I don't have any direct experience of small-town America. I haven't read The Scarlet Letter but I have picked up just enough scraps of knowledge about it to see that it hovers in the background of this story. It's important enough for Grant to use Steven's musings to ensure the reader doesn't miss the allusion.

Reading the Wikipedia summary of Hawthorne's novel, I see that Dimmesdale had some sort of stigmata on hs chest (I assume an adulterous "A" to match the embroidered one Hester Prynne is forced to wear - Wikipedia doesn't quite make it clear) and a rosebush is used symbolically in the text. So, is the Dimmesdale in the story actually the Minister of the novel? Or is he (considering the waiting for a young boy or girl to enter the house) something like a bad witch from a fairytale? Could be both. Or neither.

Hang on though, there's plenty of realist fiction that draws parallels between the Puritan settlers and modern American society (especially on the East coast - the site of the original colonies). Isn't there?And repression and hypocrisy would be two of the ills that such fictions would throw spotlight on, as constants through time. Add witchcraft...

Yes, i think I can see what Grant's doing here, but I have to confess that the experience of reading the story for the first time (before the research & reflection needed to write this) was a bit unsatisfying, all a bit nebulous.

9RandyStafford
Giu 23, 2021, 10:34 pm

>8 housefulofpaper: Well, I have read The Scarlet Letter -- and the allusions add nothing, for me, to Grant's story. So Dimmesdale doesn't want the world to be happy? Or, to be precise, there's too much laughter in the world. Is he just a bitter wizard? Or is the frivolity distracting people -- and you could, maybe, see this as being puritanical -- from some higher calling?

For awhile, I thought, with the references to Hawthorne and flowers, we were dealing with a takeoff on another Hawthorne story, "Rappacinni's Daughter". But that wasn't the case either.

10housefulofpaper
Giu 24, 2021, 8:23 pm

>9 RandyStafford:

I hadn't thought of "Rappacinni's Daughter", but Grant could have been drawing on it too. Not strong links between the three stories, but allusions to Hawthorne running through Grant's story. I'm not convinced, but it's possible.