“I love dreams. I know enough about them to know that dream logic is not story logic, and that you can rarely bring a dream back as a tale: it will have transformed from gold into leaves, from silk to cobwebs, on waking.”

~Neil Gaiman
Introduction to “Feeders and Eaters”

As hard as it is to believe, Sunday morning dawns with this, our 6th group discussion of the Fragile Things short story collection. Only two more Sundays to go. I can already tell I am going to miss spending my Sundays with you fine folk, talking about the highs and lows of our immersion into Neil Gaiman’s short fiction.

This week’s stories were fairly short indeed, as are next weeks. A word of advice for those who are reserving each story for the intended week: you might want to read ahead during week 7 as the four stories that make up our final week include a much longer novella.

This week’s reading contained two stories that I think work best when read aloud and I am once again thankful that I decided to revisit the audio collection for this group reading experience.

Spoilers are on the way, let’s go!

“My Life”

This story, more than any of the others, is the one I am most curious about this week in regards to your reactions. Rather than keeping you in suspense I’ll admit that I find it to be quite fun. And hearing Neil read it is such a treat. I remember after I had read Fragile Things for myself for the first time I went back and re-read certain stories aloud to Mary. This was one of those stories and it works really well read aloud. Neil mentions in his introduction that he has been asked often for permission to use this as an audition piece and I can see why. With the right rhythm it is a delight.

I enjoy the fact that what looks like yet another bar story with a narrator speaking to an unseen character as that person buys him drinks, quickly turns into a series of preposterous tall tales. Or are they? The way that Gaiman gives the protagonist voice lends so much to the story, his performance is quick paced, as if the story teller is one of those characters that prattles on so quickly one could nary get a word in edgewise.

This unnamed narrator reminds me of P.G. Wodehouse’s character, Mr. Mulliner, who is often coaxed to tell stories in the local pub. I can say without doubt that I would keep plying this gentlemen with drinks to keep him telling his absurd but entertaining tales.

I think different things about this character now that the first time I read this. I now wonder if he is one of those slightly cracked gentlemen who makes up strange, conspiratorial explanations for mundane things, like how his wife happens to deliquesce in their bed and coincidentally his truck disappears that same day. Makes me wonder…

Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot

The first time I read this I had a similar reaction to that of Strange Little Girls that we discussed previously. It did little for me. The second time I “read” this was on audio and I not only paid attention to what this was supposed to be: vampire stories to go with various characters from the tarot, but I actually “got it”. Many of these are actually very clever. The fact that Neil mentions that if he were to finish then artist Rick Berry would be painting the images makes me with he would get done. Rick Berry is incredible.

Anyway, if these stories didn’t do anything for you the first time around, I suggest giving them another chance, paying close attention to both the name of the tarot card and the undead elements of each story. I will only talk briefly about a few of these stories.

I am especially fond of “The Fool”. In this brief snippet of a story Neil Gaiman manages to capture the terrible reality of the fate of those who are immortal due to the bite of a vampire. “The Magician” cracks me up as it is the kind of line I would imagine being in a whimsical story of faerie by someone like Charles de Lint. “The Pope” is fantastic. Not only does Neil Gaiman write a story that appears to be about Jesus in such a way that on the surface it is perfectly acceptable and respectful of the faith, but also manages to convey, simply because of the type of stories these are, that he is really referring to a very old vampire. And perhaps they are one in the same. It is brilliant. “The Lovers” gives me chills while simultaneously making me a bit queasy.

“The Chariot” showcases how clever humanity can be in ridding itself of a vampire menace and at the same time makes a perfect two-paragraph pitch for a science fiction/horror genre blending novel. “The Wheel of Fortune” has a nice line of dark humor. Every time I read “Justice” I think it would be the perfect premise for one of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics. “The Devil” is another fantastic ones. In just a few lines Gaiman manages to turn good vs. evil on its head. We essentially see Van Helsing from the vampire’s point of view.

Okay, so I talked about more than “a few”. It won’t surprise me if this group of story fragments is a bust for most readers. It, like the aforementioned Strange Little Girls, is really just included for the benefit of Gaiman completists.

Feeders and Eaters

I couldn’t help but think of the stories in weeks past wherein a handful of us shared legitimate complaints about the gratuitous disturbing sex and/or violence in one of Gaiman’s otherwise entertaining short stories. I thought of that because here is a perfect example of Neil Gaiman telling a very disturbing, almost old-fashioned horror story without resorting to prurient detail. In this story Neil infers more often than he tells and when he does tell us something he does so in a manner that gives one chills without grossing them out with gory detail. This is an excellent little horror story. Very effective. It feels like the kind of story that would share kinship with writers like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. There is something of their sensibilities in this work. In the end I find myself feeling very sorry for Eddie. He couldn’t come right out and ask for his friend to give him release, but at the same time he spelled it out pretty well and his friend was just too oblivious to help.

I’m sure I am reading waaaay too much into this but given the fact that Gaiman often works fantasy/folklore elements into his stories I couldn’t help but wonder if Miss Corvier was in fact a crow in human form. Her need to feed on meat, the mention of her dark hair, and the fact that her last name is awfully close to Corvidae, or Corvids, the family of birds that crows, genus Corvus, belong to. Again, I’m probably just reading too much into it, but it made me wonder.

Diseasemaker’s Croup

If you take into account the collection this story was written for then you could judge it as being entertaining and witty. And it is that on some level but it doesn’t do much for me as a story to be read from a book. Again, if you are actually listening to Gaiman reading it then it is much more enjoyable. Even then, it doesn’t do a lot for me. I like its inclusion but it isn’t good enough for me to want to re-read it whenever I pick up this collection.
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Again I would ask that you put up links to your discussion posts below.

Next weeks stories are:

In the End

Goliath

Pages From a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties

See you here again next week, and until then I look forward to the trails our discussions will take for Week Six.