Episode 569 - The School Friend - Part 2

These stories are kinda like watching "LOST". Lots and lots of mystery boxes being opened up but the resolution is damnably elusive. I'm curious if Aickman had a concrete story in his mind and just worked it to absolute ambiguity or if he deliberately cultivated that dreamlike state from the get go. If he has correspondence or a S.T. Joshi-esque scholar that has worked these issues, I'd love a podcast just on that.

This one was too disturbing for me to finish. The horrific reality of family sexual abuse with the authenticity of Mel considering leaving town got into my head too much. All of the gross and sad elements from Turn of the Screw with none of the aged prose style and hokeyness to soften the blow. Loved The Hospice, though.

These stories are my kind of unsettling tale, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more. As for this story, one thing that popped into my head as Mel discovered the torn items in Sally's house, and then when she hears the snuffling and sees her looking ragged and gaunt, was that it was a twin, or hidden sibling. Kind of a Hugo to Bart Simpson. And when she makes the comment about having a child in a way not dreamed of, that phrase had so many interpretations. Through a horrible but sadly real-world situation through her father's actions? Through some type of strange ritual or creation of a clone or homunculus? That phrase reminded me of the relationship between Laura Palmer and Donna in Twin Peaks, when Laura kind of taunts Donna with the glimpses of darkness she knows about. I see the comparison to Lynch's works - these have been strange and dreamlike stories this month, and I enjoy the ambiguity.

You know, thinking about it, a LOT of the weird in this story can be explained by Sally just not wanting to talk to Mel about her pregnancy. Suddenly avoiding Mel? Looking exhausted? Refusing to make future plans? Claiming to be busy with the house but clearly doing nothing with the house? Moving into her Dad’s old room-is she grappling with the memory of a complicated parent-child relationship in light of impending motherhood? Or maybe it’s just closer to the bathroom, and she has morning sickness? And then she gets hit by a car and Mel finds out anyway. After that- Sally looks weird? Well yeah, she just walked out of the hospital. This is the first time Mel has seen her post-accident. Sally’s dressed weird? Well yeah, Mel never picked up her stuff! Did she steal clothes to leave the hospital? And then, years later, Sally’s like “wow, last time I saw Mel we had a HUGE fight, but I was going through some shit. Mel’s cool, she understands!” And Mel is just sitting there with a thousand-yard stare. I think Mel’s experience must be as opaque to Sally as Sally’s is to Mel. If that’s really the thesis, it must run both ways. I realize this is the most boring explanation I could propose, but I am completely fascinated by it. We really only have a phantom and weird baby to explain. To be fair, it’s a very weird baby.

Don't want to get too personal but I feel compelled to say. The last bit you all mentioned about just accepting or overlooking strange or even abusive behavior really resonated with me as just a few days before my S/O cheated on me and we broke up. It destroyed be as I put everything into the relationship even though they had a history of being emotionally, mentally, and even physically abusive and even though I knew it was wrong I always forgave as I would tell myself they weren't always like that, etc. Anyway, I just wanted to share my experiences with that since it is so fresh and when you said that, it really resonated with me.

Avlin Starfall

I do love a story that allows you to make wildly different interpretations. Just for fun, I'll lean on the father being Zeus, the daughter any one of his weirdly begotten children, and the events of the story being the stuff of ancient myth come to life.

Not issues per se, but the episodes do seem to come out quite a bit later.

I second “Ringing the Changes”. A masterful tale with escalated suspense and dread despite what should be an obvious trope in other hands. The ending just seals the deal and The Commandant is one of the great unsung characters in all strange fiction.

Robert Bloch is gonna hear from my lawyer’s ghost. JeffCCartober will not be denied!

Jeff C. Carter

Such a great story, a return to the truly Weird, like some of Maupassant's tales. The bit near the end with the mysterious loud thing upstairs seemed reminiscent of the old werewolf story in which the parent of a locked away transformed child has a similar awkward moment with the protagonist of that story as they hear the creature. I think you guys may have covered that one long ago. Interesting that in both cases it's a (possible) parent and child relationship. I loved the awkwardness of it, with the social roles maintained at first, but then it all ending in one friend literally clawing the other while calling out to a mysterious creature. I found it interesting that one of the books that Sally gifted to the protagonist was a first edition of Faust, of all things. Can't help but think this may have hinted at something about the dark doings of Sally's father. I was intrigued to learn that Aickman kind of disliked M.R James stories, but was a buddy of a then young Ramsey Campbell. If you enjoyed the unusually overt implications of the supernatural, for an Aikman story, in The School Friend, I have to recommend "Ringing the Changes" as another fun story by him that has that aspect to it.

I didn't notice that before but you have a point , that's actually very interesting. So almost as it's all ringing out from a singular incident

I also enjoyed the playful use of language - did anyone else notice that the characters on the periphery of the story also have peripheral names? Rind, Edge, and Orbit are all bit players.

Christine M

This is interesting - I had been puzzling over his reason for being shut in. It was a publicly known fact that it wasn't illness: "The tale went that Dr. Tessler had once been the victim of some serious injustice, or considered that he had: certainly it seemed to be true that, as his neighbours put it, he “never went out.” If he viewed himself as being unduly punished or trapped in a bad bargain by some supernatural entity, that would certainly fit the odd wording about "injustice."

Christine M

I commented on "The Hospice" that I just didn't really like Aickman, but your positive comments on this story inspired me to give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did! This story really worked for me - it has the right balance of concrete details and ambiguous mysteries to have me thinking about it for a week, and eagerly awaiting your thoughts on the second half. I guess I need to check out "The Swords" next!

Christine M

This is the first Aickman story I ever read and I knew right away that this was my guy. I got a similar feeling to the one I get when I watch David Lynch's later stuff. It's like I can't clearly spell out exactly what is happening and what it means but it's still clearly meaningful. It's like I can make sense of it emotionally but not intellectually. Almost like being in a dream or listening to a particularly moving piece of music.

Anders Olsson

Great story, now I have to check out more of his stories. As for this one, definitely gave me some Minotaur vibes from it. The reference to the "child" sounding like a beast and her saying birth by unnatural means, made me think maybe it was with something non human. Also the leaving to the Aegean sea, which though Crete is in the Mediterranean technically,  the myth was of Greek origin. The locked rooms around the house made my think kind of like the labyrinth. As for the mystery of the father. In the myth the  king fails to properly sacrifice to Poseidon and thus Poseidon takes his wife and creates the minotaur. That and the reference of Faust and that he died long before she was born, what if he pulled a deal with the devil type of thing and swore in return to give his first born or something.

I first read Aickman in the 90's in that first rush of weird fiction one does after devouring all of Lovecraft. Somehow he must have got lost for me in that crowd. Thanks for rekindling my interest almost 30 years later! Great tales, and you two were in top form for these, equal parts entertaining and insightful. These shows should definitely go in any future "Best-Of" compilation.

What. The. Hell. Okay, twice I been tricked and I'm adult enough to admit it. Taking two episodes to cover each of these Aickman stories put me out both times. Episode one I'm left with "What is the big deal? This is kind of lame" and then in each second episode some really weird stuff happens and I'm reeling. I guess I'm still not fully sold on the author, but I think I can understand why everyone else seems to be.

I was going to make a comment like this but you beat me to it, and you made it much more clear than I would’ve been able to. I’ll just add what Al Zambone said in the Historically Thinking podcast, that back then “your face was your credit card”. All about the trust.

Those greasy mouldering papers... did they contain Aickman’s actual story of these events?

Alan Ricks

I read this story with equal amounts of dread and wonder. I have no idea why any of these weird events happened but I have this nagging suspicion if I could just step back far enough or perhaps have a few scraps more of information I could solve what was really happening. If before I read this story you asked me if something written like this would hold my attention or annoy me I would of answered the latter but Aickman somehow threads the needle and leaves me spellbound. Here is something I have been thinking about. Does Aickman know what is going on? Did he develop a fully revealed plot then write “The School Friend” AROUND it, just skirting the edges? I would think he would have to otherwise you’d get a less capable author just throwing out vague off-the-wall notions that don’t stay together as a whole.

Alan Ricks

Rachel is such a great reader

Thunk

I am so glad you are covering Aickman and The Swords would be a great choice! It inspired the first adventure in a successful modern Cthulhu-adjacent GURPS Horror campaign of mine. The Inner Room is another favorite, maybe because I stumbled upon it in a paperback anthology and snuck off to read it over the lunch break when I was working a difficult job. Read it under fluorescent light in a basement cafeteria that had the sole advantage of offering real roasted carved turkey sandwiches and homemade apple pie. I think Ravissante was the first Aickman story I read in an actual Aickman collection and it still stands out in my memory as one of the most dreamlike of his stories. I should revisit it. The School Friend was not one I remembered well but you guys really sold it. I enjoy listening to Rachel say things more than I like to admit.

I'm really happy you guys are doing Aickman and loving these episodes!

So you guys are thinking of changing the podcast name, how high a patreon tier do we all need to join to make it the R. Aickman Literary podcast?

Rob_Hellfire_Graves (Cult organ donor, wrestler, poet & Satanic Reverend)

This has nothing to do with horror- just in reference to the throwaway quip about running a tab. I always used to wonder about the old-fashioned running a tab for everything concept (down to Victorian novels where everyone seems eternally indebted to their tailors etc). I wondered how business was practical if this was a norm. Anyway I asked about this on r/AskHistorians and the answer is fascinating. Apparently part of it is down to the seasonality of income- in a still only partially industrialized society, agriculture was still the main economic driver for the wealthy (since land rents were ultimately their main source of income) and this meant that while you might not have ready cash on hand, there would be an influx of income around harvest which is when you'd ideally pay off the larger bills you ran up over the course of the year. If your status and reputation meant people perceived you as being good for the debt they'd let you run a tab.

The ending is perfect. It has a bit of the feel of vampire stories. You can stay in your boring life living with your parents doing nothing, or you can go off for an exciting unknown life with this charismatic wonderful person. And if you do go with them, they’ll probably kill you horribly. But maybe they won’t. And in any case, it’ll be something different, so maybe it’s worth it

Jason Thompson

I’m commenting too much but this story was just so good. I need to read more Aickman!!

Jason Thompson

I liked this review of this story. They seem not to like it, but then realise that it is working its magic by haunting them. https://tashaharlow.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/dark-entries-the-school-friend/

Steve

I have all the Aickman too. I'll have to leave it a few years before I read them again but the strangeness doesn't leave you. Here's what seems to be an homage to M.R. James, but still definitely an Aickman: The Cicerones (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7vyaki), with Mark Gatiss and directed by your friend Jeremy Dyson.

Steve

I drew a similar comparison to Arthur Machen. Aickman uses a similar form of indirect, implicit descriptive style, where the line between literary restraint and narrative uncertainty is blurry, that I find in "The White People" or "The Great God Pan." It's funny how much HPL loved that style of writing, despite the fact that he was personally incapable of it despite his best efforts. He always blew the effect by making it far too clear what was really going on. This story's premise reminded me a bit of both "Charles Dexter Ward" and "The Dunwich Horror." The "child" thing upstairs in this story is a bit like Wilbur Whateley's invisible brother. It seems as though Sally perhaps gave birth to a monstrous product of her father's incestuous abuse, and is perhaps pregnant with a second one. But Aickman steadfastly refuses to ever tell us. Ol' Lovecraft would never have been able to hold back an explanation, in some final italicized sentence.

Ethan Cordray

I know that up through now the rule has been to only do non-living authors, but gosh, I'd love to hear you guys do a couple of stories from Thomas Ligotti.

Ethan Cordray

I'll also note the sinister quality in what Aickman omits in his writing is very similar to the work of Walter de la Mare. I just listened to the HPLHS release of Andrew Leman's excellent reading of Seaton's Aunt, and the juxtaposition with Aickman immediately leapt out to me. Perhaps it would be worth returning to a couple of de la Mare's tales, like Missing, Mr. Kempe, or A:B:O. (I was about to suggest The Tree, but then realized you guys already covered it four years ago!)

Ben A

Great episodes, as always, you two! Like you two, Aickman has generally been a blind spot in my weird fiction reading; I've only read a couple of his stories (The Swords and this one) before, both at the behest of a friend who is a big fan of Aickman. I read these a decade ago (when it was much harder to get copies of his work), and at the time was frustrated with the amount of story left to interpretation. Many of the interpretations and thoughts you shared on The School Friend were similar to those I had, and I _was_ one of those frustrated readers who was put off when I first read it. I picked up the story again a couple weeks ago to give it another reading. This time around, it was a _very_ different experience. I appreciate the style of storytelling in ways I did not before, maybe because I have read so much more weird fiction over the last decade (in part thanks to you guys!). I have a few additional interpretations: The unlocked doors in the house are perhaps the transgression that opens the way for the strangeness of the second half of the tale. Perhaps the opened doors are both metaphorical as well as literal apertures for the horrors of the tale to creep in on Mel. The story takes a stark turn once she enters the house to investigate. Her desire to see the library, a reinforced oubliette within the house, also delivers a creepy undertone of impropriety within Sally's home. Was her father a prisoner, or was Sally? Did this represent occurrences that are supernatural or horrifying but mundane? There is a starkly Lynchian quality to The School Friend; I wouldn't be surprised if Lynch were a fan. And like Lynch's work--especially the dark undertones of Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive (that diner scene!)--this tale is very unsettling and its imagery is hard to shake. It think it's because Aickman's writing exists in a space between the completely surreal and the commonplace. Like Twin Peaks, there is a sinister subtext about Sally and her father, perhaps involving emotional and sexual abuse, or maybe something more supernatural (or both). Also like Lynch, the end of the tale is very dreamlike for Mel. Did she simply fall asleep in the house, a place Aickman suffices with psychic terror and menace? That might explain why Mel contemplated burning the house down, especially if she divined the truth of the horrors that had occurred within. Was Sally's appearance at the end a nightmare? Is Sally real or a projection of Mel's subconcious? As you note, there are too many interpretations to count. What an interesting tale; I'm a convert!

Ben A

Your comment makes me think the ghost like figure Mel sees her first time entering the house may be some spectral imprint of Sally's mother. Mel says it cant possibly be the Dr. after all!

Quick general question: Anyone having issues listening with iTunes? Patreon works still.

doctorpandaman

Great story, after part one I bought Dark Entries and am really enjoying this introduction to Aickman. Now that you guys are moving to some fresher stories in the later half of the 20th century is there any chance of seeing some Murakami stories? Seems like it would fit in pretty well.

Jeremey Guttilla

Really enjoyed Aicktober, guys - great stories, and great episodes! There’s a definite tension in this story that you captured nicely when you said that you can see the argument that this story is a bunch of nonsense, but it’s not though! There are strange threads woven through it that keep it hanging together and give a tantalising, frustrating feeling that there’s something there - some kind of explanation, just out of reach. I keep looking for some connection between whatever’s going on in this story and Greco-Roman myth; we get repeated references to myth, antiquity and the geographical area – Petronius, nymphs, the Hellenes, the Cyclades. The strange vaulted ceiling of Tessler’s ‘library’ that Mel notes “resembled a tomb” could be a tholoi, an ancient type of beehive tomb found in Crete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_tomb), and Sally’s bestial thing-baby snuffling around in the dark put me in mind of a newborn minotaur. What is Sally’s ‘baby’? Is it a legacy of her father's (spectral?) abuse? And what is its connection with the nursery, from which something tore apart all of the woolly animals and smashed the nursery door down to escape long ago? How could Sally have been pregnant (presumably in the early stages, as it took a test at the hospital to discover) and then a child be born within a matter of weeks “in a manner you’d never dream of”? Like in "The Hospice", the main character loses consciousness (here faints, there falls asleep) and when they regain it, they are confronted by a changed (aged, drained or deathlike) version of the antagonist, who then ‘assaults’ them – in Bannard’s case by invading Maybury’s physical space and with invasive questions, or in Sally’s case actual assault. The protagonist then escapes (back into sleep for Maybury, fleeing the house for Mel), and when they next see the antagonist they are back to their ‘normal’ self, casting doubt as to how real the interaction may have been. Was it actually Sally Mel encountered in the house? When Mel says, “Sally! It was you,” Sally answers with a question – “Who do you think it was? It’s my house,” and then asks Mel, “Will you please return my keys?” My house – my keys – that could be Tessler answering. What is the curious way she is dressed, about which Mel will not say more? Is it her old school uniform? Is it a burial shroud - is it Sally’s dead mother (hence the massively altered bone structure and voice), and the baby upstairs is Sally? Is Mel interacting with the past? Is Sally both her own dead mother and the beast-baby?!? Why is she wearing steel-capped boots?!?!? Whatever explanation (if any) one cobbles together from the scraps and hints Aickman casts before us, Sally’s comment towards the end rings true - “My father left me more than I expected.” Damn straight he did!