Who is This Who is Coming?
May. 17th, 2009 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielRead M.R. James' short supernatural story "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" this morning. Because there was no way I was reading it at night.
What I find most disturbing about it, is the possibilities suggested by the title. Particularly after Parkins finds the whistle. Heightened somewhat more by his translation of the inscription to, "Who is this who is coming?" Because you don't know who or what it is or why they answer to the whistle or what the whistle is for. Or what the other part of the inscription means. (And that question is answered/explored here!)
While you never know exactly who or what it was that answers to the whistle, I did find the reveal of the linen sheets slightly less frightening than I was expecting. Of course, that's now while it's still light out. Ask me again how I feel about it at midnight.
However, the description of the animated sheets raised arms and the visual callback to Parkins' dream the first night gives me chills. There's something about the description of the movement that just...reminds me of something hunting. There's an episode of Ghost Hunters where they pick up lights on one of the videos that divide into three and move like a pack. That idea disturbs me.
And the figure sitting up abruptly in bed.
I found it interesting that Parkins was not exactly clueless, but so focused on his own views that nothing supernatural could ever exist that he had no idea what was going on until it was too late. He was so very practical about it all. Which almost cost him his life.
There are layers here. I want to talk about them.
Reading this story made me realize how much I love electricity. I don't know if I could handle being freaked out in the middle of the night and then have to have the patience and dexterity to find and light a candle.
What I find most disturbing about it, is the possibilities suggested by the title. Particularly after Parkins finds the whistle. Heightened somewhat more by his translation of the inscription to, "Who is this who is coming?" Because you don't know who or what it is or why they answer to the whistle or what the whistle is for. Or what the other part of the inscription means. (And that question is answered/explored here!)
While you never know exactly who or what it was that answers to the whistle, I did find the reveal of the linen sheets slightly less frightening than I was expecting. Of course, that's now while it's still light out. Ask me again how I feel about it at midnight.
However, the description of the animated sheets raised arms and the visual callback to Parkins' dream the first night gives me chills. There's something about the description of the movement that just...reminds me of something hunting. There's an episode of Ghost Hunters where they pick up lights on one of the videos that divide into three and move like a pack. That idea disturbs me.
And the figure sitting up abruptly in bed.
I found it interesting that Parkins was not exactly clueless, but so focused on his own views that nothing supernatural could ever exist that he had no idea what was going on until it was too late. He was so very practical about it all. Which almost cost him his life.
There are layers here. I want to talk about them.
Reading this story made me realize how much I love electricity. I don't know if I could handle being freaked out in the middle of the night and then have to have the patience and dexterity to find and light a candle.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-19 12:45 am (UTC)I didn't get the feeling that he was dreaming the first night. I thought that the "dream" or sequence would play in his head until he opened his eyes - and then it would stop. And when he closed his eyes again, it started from the beginning. And he never let it get to the point where the pursuer and pursuee encountered each other. I liken this to when I'm trying to go to sleep and my brain goes to scary places and I have to open my eyes to make myself stop.
The scary part is that the thing was doing stuff in his room the night before and he didn't know! Hence the bed being disheveled. Link that to the sequence in his head?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-19 03:27 am (UTC)It's the stories where the protagonist is level-headed and practical about things that really get to me. Because if I relate to them and their practicality and they're screwed, well. I would definitely be screwed.
And yes, you're right about the dreaming. I misspoke. Definitely more of a vision. Exactly like if you're lying in bed and maybe you hear a noise and you tell yourself it's nothing, but then you start picturing what might be there if you just opened your eyes.
he heard the thing the night before and thought it was rats. Just wrote it off as nothing. And then didn't even notice the disheveled bed until the maid pointed it out, which makes me wonder about his observational skills. Didn't he seem kind of...oblivious to some things? Because his non-belief masked the weirdness.
I was talking about it with another friend last night and wondering how long it might have gone on in his room without actually attacking him. If he hadn't seen it and then leapt from his bed upon seeing it sit up, would it have actually gone after him? If he had just stayed still, would it have attacked him that night or waited?
Does it like the chase, both literal and not so literal, because it winds the pursued up that much more?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-21 02:08 am (UTC)Yeah, he is not so observational. But I think that he is the type of person like myself who likes to come up with logical things to explain illogical things.