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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 4, whole no. 12, Fall 1945
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ghost story.) "Such alarming features as it has, if they are expected to produce their one effect, must be introduced gradually. An explosion, as of a maroon, is often legitimate enough, but the reader must be put into the mood of expecting it." (12) "I am well aware that mine is a nineteenth (and not a twentieth) century conception of this class of tale; but were not the prototypes of all the best ghost stories written in the sixties and seventies?" (8) Frequently James proceeds in a more or less indirect manner in telling the story, in order that the supernatural revelations may come in an ascending order of creepiness, with the most horrible reserved for the climax; this is obviously necessary when the latter occurred some time previous to more recent manifestations. Seven of the stories are pieced together from "historical" accounts in the manner of a researcher gathering evidence from several different sources, and this scholarly approach increases measurably the plausibility and the fascination of these tales, gives them something of the intellectual allurement of a good detective story. Others are related to the author or narrator by a friend or acquaintance, who usually remembers the events from several decades ago. Occasionally just straight third-person narration is used, but always James uses the "author-omniscient" angle of narration--the point of view of someone who knows all that anyone now knows about what happened and who does not hesitate to inject personal comments now and then, though not enough to hold up the story, as many nineteenth century authors did. He believes in telling the story directly and straightforwardly, without extraneous matter except such as aids the story by creating atmosphere or plausibility or emotional effectiveness. This sometimes results in a somewhat telescoped and swift presentation of the more trivial portions of the narrative, as in the three letters which abruptly open "Casting the Runes" and the later transition, "It is not necessary to tell in further detail the steps by which Henry Harrington and Dunning were brought together." This technique would seem to contradict James' belief in leisureliness; but actually his speed of narration was governed by the exingencies of each particular story: he put in everything that would help to tell the story effectively and left out everything that would not. He does not believe, either, in telling too much or in trying to explain the ghostly event according to psychic laws of some sort. Of his stories he says, "I have not sought to embody in them any well-considered scheme of 'psychical' theory," (8) although "I have tried to make my ghosts act in ways consistent with the rules of folklore." (13) "The reading of many ghost stories has show me that the greatest successes have been scored by the authors who can make us envisage a definite time and place, and give us plenty of clear-cut and matter-of-fact detail, but who, when the climax is reached, allow us to be just a little in the dark as to the working of their machinery. We do not want to see the bones of their theory about the supernatural. (14) Like Lovecraft, he disliked the "Cagliostro element" in stories like those of Bulwer-Lytton and Blackwood's "John Silence" series, and said, "I feel that the technical terms of 'occultism', if they are not very carefully handled, tend to put the mere ghost story (which is all that I am attempting) upon a quasi-scientific plane, and to call into play faculties quite other than the imaginative." (8) The only "theories about the supernatural" which are implied by his stories are those already mentioned in connection with his ghosts and demons--that they resent being disturbed, leave psychic unrest behind them, and are quick to destroy anyone who incurs their wrath, and are not daunted by a pure heart and clean conscience, though they sometimes flee from the interruption or from the forces of Christianity. Anything more he is apt to pass off with a laconic "These things are rather beyond us at present," or "I suppose-- -- 16 --
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ghost story.) "Such alarming features as it has, if they are expected to produce their one effect, must be introduced gradually. An explosion, as of a maroon, is often legitimate enough, but the reader must be put into the mood of expecting it." (12) "I am well aware that mine is a nineteenth (and not a twentieth) century conception of this class of tale; but were not the prototypes of all the best ghost stories written in the sixties and seventies?" (8) Frequently James proceeds in a more or less indirect manner in telling the story, in order that the supernatural revelations may come in an ascending order of creepiness, with the most horrible reserved for the climax; this is obviously necessary when the latter occurred some time previous to more recent manifestations. Seven of the stories are pieced together from "historical" accounts in the manner of a researcher gathering evidence from several different sources, and this scholarly approach increases measurably the plausibility and the fascination of these tales, gives them something of the intellectual allurement of a good detective story. Others are related to the author or narrator by a friend or acquaintance, who usually remembers the events from several decades ago. Occasionally just straight third-person narration is used, but always James uses the "author-omniscient" angle of narration--the point of view of someone who knows all that anyone now knows about what happened and who does not hesitate to inject personal comments now and then, though not enough to hold up the story, as many nineteenth century authors did. He believes in telling the story directly and straightforwardly, without extraneous matter except such as aids the story by creating atmosphere or plausibility or emotional effectiveness. This sometimes results in a somewhat telescoped and swift presentation of the more trivial portions of the narrative, as in the three letters which abruptly open "Casting the Runes" and the later transition, "It is not necessary to tell in further detail the steps by which Henry Harrington and Dunning were brought together." This technique would seem to contradict James' belief in leisureliness; but actually his speed of narration was governed by the exingencies of each particular story: he put in everything that would help to tell the story effectively and left out everything that would not. He does not believe, either, in telling too much or in trying to explain the ghostly event according to psychic laws of some sort. Of his stories he says, "I have not sought to embody in them any well-considered scheme of 'psychical' theory," (8) although "I have tried to make my ghosts act in ways consistent with the rules of folklore." (13) "The reading of many ghost stories has show me that the greatest successes have been scored by the authors who can make us envisage a definite time and place, and give us plenty of clear-cut and matter-of-fact detail, but who, when the climax is reached, allow us to be just a little in the dark as to the working of their machinery. We do not want to see the bones of their theory about the supernatural. (14) Like Lovecraft, he disliked the "Cagliostro element" in stories like those of Bulwer-Lytton and Blackwood's "John Silence" series, and said, "I feel that the technical terms of 'occultism', if they are not very carefully handled, tend to put the mere ghost story (which is all that I am attempting) upon a quasi-scientific plane, and to call into play faculties quite other than the imaginative." (8) The only "theories about the supernatural" which are implied by his stories are those already mentioned in connection with his ghosts and demons--that they resent being disturbed, leave psychic unrest behind them, and are quick to destroy anyone who incurs their wrath, and are not daunted by a pure heart and clean conscience, though they sometimes flee from the interruption or from the forces of Christianity. Anything more he is apt to pass off with a laconic "These things are rather beyond us at present," or "I suppose-- -- 16 --
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