Twofer: “Mr. Pigsny” by Reggie Oliver & “Bird of Prey” by John Collier
“Mr. Pigsny” by Reggie Oliver (
The Best Horror of the Year: Vol. 3 ed. Ellen Datlow)
It was, I suppose, a typical gangster's funeral. There were the extravagantly insincere floral tributes: TO REG, A DIAMOND GEEZER in white carnations; there was “My Way” played by the reluctant organist; there was the coffin bourne by six burly, black-coated thugs into a church which Reg would never have entered in his lifetime except to marry or to bury. (first paragraph)
Professor Chibnall, a former in-law of the deceased gangster, is deputized by his sister to take her two sons, the gangster’s nephews as well as the professor’s, to the funeral. While there he meets a friend Reg made near the time of his (natural) death: Mr. Pigsny. During the funeral, Mr. Pigsny shows the Professor and Reg’s brother, Den, a … well, the Professor isn’t quite sure what it is, a lithograph, an engraving or what, of a frozen lake on which Reg is standing. Mr. Pigsny assures them it is not a naturalistic picture, since Hell cannot be depicted that way.
The story begins with a quietly amused and bemused air, the professor perhaps wary of the gangsters but also appreciative of a culture and behavior different from his own, an amusement Reg seemed to share when regarding the professor. The introduction of Mr. Pigsny slides us into M. R. James territory – for instance, the lithograph is reminiscent of James “The Mezzotint” – though Oliver’s story is earthier in some ways than a James story; James would never have written about gangsters and certainly would not have mimicked their language in one of his stories.
Reggie Oliver has worked on the British stage and in the entertainment industry since 1975 as actor, theater director and playwright. About a decade ago he began to publish short stories. Three of his first four story collections are sold out, the other,
Masques of Satan from Ash-Tree Press, is still available. Oliver seems to be revisiting and reconfiguring the Jamesian ghost story for the 21st century, opening up the stage for a broader range of character and experience, while maintaining a level of elegant, assured prose and phrasing that is, even when earthy, precise.
Demons and Imps: “
The Imp of the Perverse” by Edgar Allan Poe (
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe; also available on the Internet); “
Green Tea” by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (
Green Tea And Other Ghost Stories;
The Haunted Baronet and Others: Ghost Stories, 1861–70;
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce ed. Michael Newton); “
The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benet (
The American Fantasy Tradition ed. Brian Thomsen;
Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed ed. John Skipp); “
Thus I Refute Beelzy” & “
Bird of Prey” by John Collier (
Fancies and Goodnights; “…Beelzy” also in
Sympathy for the Devil ed. Tim Pratt); “
Enoch” by Robert Bloch (
The Early Fears); “
The Man in the Black Suit” by Stephen King (
Everything’s Eventual;
Sympathy for the Devil ed. Tim Pratt)
School horror:
The Perils and Dangers of This Night by Stephen Gregory (not for the faint of heart); “
The School Story” by M. R. James; “
The Interloper” by Ramsey Campbell (
Demons by Daylight;
Alone with the Horrors); “
Boobs” by Suzy McKee Charnas (
Stagestruck Vampires;
Urban Fantasy eds. Peter Beagle, Joe R. Lansdale)
“Bird of Prey” by John Collier (
Fancies and Goodnights;
The John Collier Reader)
The house they call the Engineer’s House is now deserted. The new man from Baton Rouge gave it up after living less than a month in it, and built himself a two-room shack with his own money, on the very farthest corner of the company’s land. (first paragraph)
Edna and Jack are happy in their new house, settled in with their pet parrot. One night the parrot, chained to his perch on the porch, squeaks and squawks and sounds like it’s being killed. The husband arrives on the porch in time to see the parrot struggling back onto its perch and something huge flying away. A few weeks later, the parrot lays an egg, and when it hatches the hatchling does not look like a parrot. And it seems clever. Far too clever.
In some ways “Bird of Prey” is very much of its time, the married couple distinctly of a vintage from around WWII, hopeful for the future, touchingly innocent in their concern for the parrot and their conversations with each other. But Collier creates a force of malignance and spite that overcomes the indicators of time period. The hatchling doesn’t do much, but it is a presence in the house, a reflection, really, of a flaw in the marriage.
I think of John Collier as a literary descendant of the outré aspects of Saki, employing the eerie and macabre with a dry, mischievous sense of humor, and a perhaps skewed but clear view of his contemporary society and the individuals who populated it. Although Collier wrote during the time of the pulps, he published in slick magazines like
The New Yorker, his work possessing an urbane quality, a leisurely (but not slow) story-telling pace wherein he selects those details that add to the story, that push the story along to a fitting and often ironic conclusion, all of which must have appealed to editors and publishers trying to please a sophisticated audience. Note that not all of his stories use the supernatural to create their effect; for instance, “Back for Christmas,” a crime story with an ending that made it ripe for adaptation to TV drama by Hitchcock (you can find it on hulu), “The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It,” and “Evening Primrose,” a story that starts with an infectious jauntiness and ends with a sharpness that cuts.
Other stories of interest by John Collier, all in Fancies and Goodnights: “
The Lady on the Grey”; “
Bottle Party”; “
De Mortuis”; “
Thus I Refute Beelzy” (also in
Sympathy for the Devil ed. Tim Pratt)
Note:
Fancies and Goodnights is not only a horror collection, it’s a significant 20th century collection of short fantasy that would reward most any reader, particularly those interested in the roots of the recent urban fantasy boom.
Other birds of ill-omen: “
The Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; “
The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe (both the Coleridge and the Poe are available on the Internet); “
Pigeons from Hell” by Robert E. Howard (
The Black Stranger And Other American Tales;
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard); “
The Nightcharmer” by Claude Seignolle (
The Nightcharmer and Other Tales of Claude Seignolle; as “Ghoulbird” in
The Weird ed. Jeff & Ann Vandeermeer);
The Cormorant by Stephen Gregory
Randy M.
