Short stories by Kafka, H.F. Arnold, and Saki
Posted on: January 8, 2013
- In: Franz Kafka | H.F. Arnold | Saki
- 9 Comments
Two things I’m always tempted to do: bite off more than I can chew, and read books by authors I know I like.
Taking a look at the monstrous 1000+ page Weird Compendium edited by The Vandermeer’s, it looks like I’m not the only one who enjoys biting off more than they can chew. In a podcast interview, I believe Ann Vandermeer described the exponential growth of the Weird project as “scope-creep”. With weirdness going back to 1908, the Weird Compendium is exactly that: buckets and buckets of weird stuff from all over the world, some of it translated for the first time into English.
Two birds with one stone – more opportunities to post during Vintage month, and I’m going outside my comfort zone by reading folks I’ve never heard of. Are these stories science fiction? Sort of. They’re about things that couldn’t happen, that shouldn’t happen, things we don’t want to happen, things we can’t explain. It might not be pure scifi, but it’s certainly speculative, and that’s enough for me. I’ll read stories as I have time, and post my thoughts in bundles of a few stories. Who knows, maybe we’ll all discover a new favorite old time author!
In the Penal Colony (1919), by Franz Kafka – I remember learning about Kafka in high school, but I couldn’t tell you anything definitive about him. This horror story is about a foreigner given permission to visit an island penal colony, and tasked with observing the judicial practices of the colony. None of the characters are named, everyone is referred to by a descriptive of what they do – the Traveller, the Officer, the Soldier, and the Condemned Man. The Officer, an ally of the previous Commandant, is showing off his punishment machine to The Traveller. It’s quite the machine, and the Officer is very proud of it and takes care of it lovingly. While describing how and why it works to The Traveller, the Officer reminisces about the good old days, when entire families turned out to view the executions, and young children were allowed right up close to watch the facial expressions of the slowly dying. This is a deeply horrific and disturbing story, but you simply can’t stop reading it. Not knowing enough about Kafka I’m sure I missed out on a lot of social commentary.
The Night Wire (1926), by H.F. Arnold – Two newspaper wire men are working the late shift. Their job is to type up the news stories that come in through the wire. John, the more talented of the two, begins typing of portions of a story of a town that claims to be overcome by a living mist. The updates become more and more wild, and eventually the enmisted town, Xebico, is enveloped and can fight off the strangeness no longer. The office supervisor eventually realizes that there is no way John could have transcribed this particular piece of news, and the reason isn’t what you think. A wonderfully chilling story, I wanted to climb right in and be there, until the very end, when I was utterly creeped out. It’s too bad very little is known about this author, and that he published so little. One thing we do know, is that Lovecraft was a fan of his, and this story in particular.
Srendi Vashtar, by Saki (1910) – Conradin is ten years old and very lonely. Frail and ill, Conradin’s guardian Mrs. De Ropp vows to keep him away from germs and excitement. Friendless and under supervision at nearly all times, Conradin befriends a hen and a ferret that live behind his house. In his imagination, the ferret becomes a god-like creature, to the point where Conradin offers up food sacrifices and prayers to the little God Srendi Vashtar. Mrs. De Ropp is a rather horrid woman, whenever she finds something that brings Conradin joy, she takes it away from him, not wanting his health to be risked by too much excitement. When De Ropp decides her young charge is spending far too much time out in a shed with some animals, Conradin’s prayers are answered. Perhaps Conradin wasn’t imagining things after all. Saki is the pen name of British writer H. H. Munro, who was a journalist and satirist.
9 Responses to "Short stories by Kafka, H.F. Arnold, and Saki"
January 8, 2013 at 3:54 pm
This arrived a week and a half ago (yay, Christmas money!) and I’ve been slowly making my way through since. Fantastic stuff. I just finished “The Screaming Skull” which was pretty crazy.
January 10, 2013 at 8:21 am
Nice to see Saki included – I love his stories. ‘Sredni Vashtar’ doesn’t have the same humour in it as most of his work, but it’s one of my favourites; you really feel Conradin’s powerlessness under Mrs De Ropp’s tyranny. The other two sound very creepy (ones to read in the daytime, perhaps!).
January 11, 2013 at 8:42 am
I had never heard of Saki until now, he’s an author I’d like to read more of. Conradin was in an awful and inescapable position, I was applauding him at the end. i’ve always enjoy weird and unsettling fiction, i should have realized years ago that that’s pretty much the definition of good horror! and yes, you definitely want to be reading this stuff in broad daylight, with all the lights on, it is creepy!
January 10, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Oh, I like the sound of this – particular the night wire! Sounds like some of these stories would also fit right in with Carl’s RIP.
Lynn 
January 10, 2013 at 10:28 pm
anyone who has this anthology on hand will be well prepared for RIP later this year! very well prepared! there is even some Lovecraft in it, and that is one you definitely want to read in daylight, will all the lights in the house on.
January 11, 2013 at 2:48 pm
I need to get some Lovecraft – bonus point to the Kindle – Complete works of Lovecraft for £1.92 – just bought! 
January 12, 2013 at 10:34 pm
Call me crazy, but I doubt a book title has made me as excited as this one. Weird? What a title, sounds most certainly like my kind of book. I’ve read and liked some Kafka and I love many of the authors featured here. Also, I lately enjoy reading anthologies & collections a teensie bit more than novels, which take a lot longer. Thanks for the recommendation, I’m off to go buy it!
January 16, 2013 at 7:01 pm
[...] Short stories by Kafka, H.F. Arnold, and Saki (littleredreviewer.wordpress.com) [...]
January 8, 2013 at 10:05 am
I love anything and everything to do with the Weird. I’ve been reading this amazing collection slowly since last year and am loving every minute of it. I was particularly excited to see Axolotl by Julio Cortazar (1914-1984) translated and included in the Compendium.