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Episode 568 - The School Friend - Part 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-22 17:51:46
Imported:
2022-01

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Content

Aicktober continues with Fifer's new favorite story, The School Friend, available in the Robert Aickman anthology Dark Entries.

Special thanks to our dear reader, Rachel Lackey!

And please contribute to Miskatonic Missives: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft by Voluminous and Helios House Press!

Comments

Anonymous

So glad you guys are doing this story. I just finished reading the Dark Entries collection a few nights ago. The View was my favourite in that collection but this was a close second. It left so much unsaid and I'm looking forward to hearing what your interpretation of this story is.

Jason Thompson

I haven’t read the text so I only know what y’all say on the show, but this story vaguely reminds me of “Seaton’s Aunt.” They both have an element of age and regret and the sadness of wasted lives; material that would have passed right over the head of my teenage horror-reading self but now in middle age it feels so resonant.

Anonymous

This one has an interesting mood to it. I may need to give it a read in between perusals of the SCP wiki. Though I gotta say, the paternal metempsychosis angle rubs me the wrong way. I used to think "Thing on the Doorstep" was so unsettling to me because it was well written; but I'm now older, wiser, and taking estradiol. Turns out a tale about a naive young man marrying a domineering woman who's "really" a predatory man that wants to forcefully enter his body is...less an on-the-nose trans panic plot as it is a nose-breaking one. Still, the possession reading seems to only be one possibility for *this* tale, so hopefully I'll find the time to read it proper and form my own interpretation.

Anonymous

I don't know, gang. I enjoy a certain amount of ambiguity in my fiction, but I think I prefer a strong narrative to hang the plot upon. Your HP Lovecrafts or your Grant Morrison's are more my speed, where there are some things left open ended to let your imagination play, but you've also got a strong story besides. Listening to this episode - which I enjoyed, I feel compelled to add - it sounds like you guys are writing the other half of the story for Aickman. That's more work than I am generally inclined to do for an author. Clearly, in testament to Aickman's skill, you guys are along for the ride, because I've heard you do otherwise for worse stories, but I'm not sure its the type of thing I would want to read on my own. A little like Dune, just to be topical.

Richard Horsman

We recently saw The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, a movie about a 13 year old living on her own and trying to keep any adults from finding out. It just struck me that you could turn The School Friend into its sequel with just a few tweaks.

Richard Horsman

Also I like the plan for the expanded direction! Did we get a little hint that you might do Faust at some point?

Anonymous

I'm loving you guys bouncing ideas for what's happening off each other. I find the ambiguity of Aickman absolutely thrilling but don't know anyone else that's read him so can never have these discussions. It occurred to me that if Lovecraft is cosmic horror then Aickman is Minutiae Horror, both are vague and unknowable but on an entirely different scale.

Anonymous

You guys are really giddy about this one! I’m very interested in picking up this collection now.

Anonymous

Love Aickman. Thank You. Perfect for Halloween.

Anonymous

Aickman is the master of suggesting that there might be something deeply awful and depraved going on without actually giving the reader anything to put their finger on. I feel like this is an extremely rare talent to have (another name that comes to mind is Kafka). It is easy to be deliberately vague, but 99% of the time it just comes off as pretentious and fails to evoke any real apprehension. Interestingly, some people seem to feel this way about Aickman as well, but for me he strikes the perfect balance.

Anonymous

After reading Dark Entries and half of Cold Hand in Mine, I have to say this is my favourite Aickman story so far, with Ringing the Changes, and then The Swords as my next two. It was also my first Aickman. I’m so thankful you did his stories this month and inspired me to get into them. They cry out for group discussion and ideas thrown around of what is really happening. The idea that her father faked his death to get her to come back and capture her again is horrific. I didn’t think of that interpretation!

Anonymous

Guys, thanks so much introducing me to an interesting new (to me) author -- I will definitely be checking my local bookstores for Robert Aickman. Since I haven't read "The School Friends," my reactions are based solely on this episode. My first thought, while listening to the précis of Mel and Sally's scholastic careers, was, "Oh, this is like M. R. James, but with ladies." Later, when you were discussing the implications of Sally's familiarity with Petronius, I was reminded of Park Chan-wook's THE HANDMAIDEN, his film adaptation of the novel FINGERSMITH by Sarah Walters, in which a female character is forced by her uncle to read pornography from a young age. I'm looking forward to seeing if part two will confirm or negate these impressions.

Thunk

It's like the X-files without Mulder. This is great!

Ben Gilbert

My first encounter with Aickman was "The Swords" in David Hartwell's massive The Dark Descent anthology and later Cold Hand In Mine by Aickman.

Thunk

By the way guys, the name change is a smart move. I was wondering if the old name might have been boxing you in a bit. If it means you feel freer to bring us more great content like Aickman and Saki I'm all for it. Crom!

Thunk
>>70353867

What do you reckon is going on in The Swords?

Darth Pseudonym

I just wanted to comment on the discussion of the "she doesn't know she's beautiful" trope. While "...and so I, a schlub, have a chance with her" may be part of it, I've always read the trope as more of a sexist take on women -- the thought that if she knew she's beautiful, she'd be a manipulative harpy who uses her beauty as a weapon, so by saying "she doesn't know it", what they mean is "she's beautiful but kind". On the other hand, there's a truth to the trope too. Young women are bombarded by advertising and social structures that constantly shout "You aren't good enough, you need to do more to be perfect" and there are indeed a lot of very pretty women who have internalized that so much that they can't feel attractive. The thing of "when I look in a mirror all I see are my flaws". So, I don't know. Life imitates art imitates life, I suppose.

Anonymous
>>70354945

I get a big MR James vibe from many of Aickman’s stories. I think mostly from their buildup to an event that just comes along unexpectedly in a single understated moment of usually tactile wtf horror. The Podcast to the Curious guys call it the “Jamesian Wallop”.

Anonymous

Well, listen and learn: a writer who is totally new to me. Always love it when you discover something like this that has been around for your whole life and you had no idea it was there; very Lovecraftian. Anyway, itunes is selling Dark Entries in epub format for 99p at the moment, for those of us who need to be careful with the pennies.

Jason Thompson
>>70314586

Personally I dunno about “Doorstep”; I think if we assume that Lovecraft had basically no conception of being trans, it can be read as simply the ultimate form of abuse: total bodily control, complete eradication and appropriation of the other’s body. Lovecraft seems totally blind to the subtext of queerness in that story, for better or worse.

Anonymous

To be clear, will all of the old episodes still be available on Patreon, or should I get to downloading? Thanks as always for an intriguing episode, guys. I've been creeped out by the furniture description, of all things, in this story since listening.

Anonymous

This is probably my favorite Aickman story, so I'm thrilled to see it covered here. I think this one borrows a bit from earlier stories in its ending, but perhaps more on that when you get to that part. I'm enjoying your conjectures on what could be going on in this story, as it always had a lot of potential interpretations of the weirdness going on. One aspect of Aickman's brand of pessimism and awkwardness for his characters is the tendency to not allow his characters to have any lasting satisfaction in any form, like in a Russian play or something by Ibsen. I mean, one is either too young and awkward, or too old and...too old. A character can never be the right age or type in an Aickman story. And given the time he was writing in, a day over forty is way too old, especially for this unmarried female character. As it says in the story, her life is over. Now all that's left is the weirdness to come. That perhaps overdone dreariness for his characters aside, I enjoy the truly weird aspects of Aickman's works and look forward to more coverage.

Anonymous

I would like to see more of this author, it is intellectual, interesting, and complicated and worthy of exploration.

Anonymous

I don’t want to be the Giorgio Tsoukalos of lesbian subtext, but that is how I read Mel’s comment that Sally knew things none of the other girls at her school knew (and that this affected her the rest of her life).

Anonymous

“Mr Zuckerberg!!!” “What?” “Fifer and Lackey are rebranding the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast to Strange Studies of Strange Stories!!!” “WHAT?!? Those sneaky sons of bitches…. Now we’ll have to rebrand too! Get our best people on it RIGHT NOW!!!”

Anonymous
>>70772964

I think that’s a very plausible reading, Bret - other bits of the story can also feed into that, like Mel’s comment that she’s not surprised Sally never married, the possibility that Mel’s unspecified personal catastrophe is a failed marriage, and the end where Sally invites Mel to stay with her because she knows that Mel can’t be happy where she is.

Anonymous

I do so enjoy listening in on your excited conversations, gents. I am reminded of a woman I knew growing up. She was always kind to me, but rather eccentric. I wrote this off at the time as due to her being blind. Later, I learned that her eccentricities were spiraling out of control. She would impulsively purchase things she could not use - several cameras, for example - and neglected to take her guide dog out to do its business (with predictable results). She was clearly suffering. Physical issues. Mental issues. And, unfortunately, she became so unpleasant that she drove away those who wanted to help. She spiraled. The end was not a happy one.

Anonymous

I love this story but do agree that, unlike most Aikman stories, this one keeps a lot more hidden than it gives in answer. I appreciate ambiguity and letting my mind make connections, and I love this story, but this one is hard to give a certain kind of logic to. Still, it's unsettling as hell, like all of his stories, and I've come to admire this writer a great because of you guys. So, definitely thanks for that.