Book #20 of 2020: The Unsettled Dust by Robert Aickman

How have I not read Mr. Aickman before? Perhaps I have, when I used to chug down enormous volumes of collected ghost or horror fiction anthologies as a teen. He must have been in one of those omnibus volumes featuring Machen, Poe, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James...

The quality of the writing is superb. The characters are deftly and subtly realized, and the settings painted with an astute attention to detail. Aickman understood that horror and occult fiction work best when everything is as real and regular and normal as possible, until that moment when it isn't. He also understood that the moment when things go askew should be quiet and unsettling in startlingly insignificant ways. The creep of his fictions develops slowly over a few dozen pages until an absolutely delicious effect is achieved. Often the climax is as much a puzzle as a fright, a bewildering haunt or murky resolution. Where Lovecraft would have the narrator swoon into forgetfulness upon witnessing some cosmic monster, Aickman has the narrator return unsettled to the office on the morning train.

These tales rank with the best--and by the best of course I mean M.R. James and Henry James, whose ghost fictions are of an undeniable literary craftsmanship. I'd throw Shirley Jackson in there as well, but her stories build subtly and then tend toward a garish or nightmarish or wickedly funny reveal. Aickman and the two Jameses are more subtle. Aickmans's narrators are reminiscent of M.R. James' artsy intellectuals and his settings are the same country villages and dark moors, but with modern John Cheever twists and turns. I loved this volume, and will read more!

Books 9 and 10 of 2018

Denis Johnson has passed away. While he was in the process of dying he composed some final stories which feature characters who ruminate largely on mortality and dying. Or at least on finding ways to kill time while waiting for death to arrive.

If you have loved Denis Johnson stories in the past--for example the collection Jesus' Son: Stories, which first caught my eye 25 years ago when I was Literature Department Bookseller at Borders Books & Music store 043 in Towson, MD--then you should definitely get this as a worthy final chapter in the work of a fine writer.

The stories are reminiscent of Cheever, or Carver, or even Sherwood Anderson. They have a thin veneer of middle-class suburban respectability belied by derangement and perversion, obsession and addiction. But there is a deep empathy for the misguided and lost souls in his work, along the lines of George Saunders. And though his work can shock or disgust, often the jolts are hilarious.




I read in this breezy esoteric rumination that Jupiter is the potential Sun of a new solar system, where certain advanced souls who've progressed beyond Earthly re-incarnation gather in order to work out their final karmic debts before becoming a glowing manifestation of perfection similar to our Sun. I've read this idea in Ouspensky as well, and of course if you've seen Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, you are also somewhat familiar with this ancient teaching.

I was of course fascinated to learn that Guatama Buddha has reincarnated on Mars in order to fulfill the Christ mission for its denizens. And that St. Francis is there to help him.

Steiner only achieved access to this knowledge by following Goethe's methods of scientific observation: ie, trying to meditate on plants and seeds until their true impulse was revealed. Soon he was visited by a representative of an esoteric order who initiated him into the Temple and allowed him access to the Reader's Digest Condensed Akhasic Records.

Books 4 and 5 of 2018

Taschen has produced hundreds of really well-done art and photography collections over the years. These volumes are high-quality in binding and the reproductions are exceptional--and they are amazingly affordable!

This collection keeps the Taschen standard of quality, and may be my favorite (after, of course, the lavish Butt Book). There is little text, but what there is illuminates the images thoughtfully with quotes from novels, poetry, plays, and hermetic manuscripts. James Joyce and William Blake share space with Basil Valentine and Dr. John Dee and Carl Jung. Occasionally there is commentary by the author/editor who appears to be an Adept or Sage given the wisdom of his guidance to those of us on the Path.

A volume worthy for either the curious dabbler who thinks occult or hermetic art is "cool" or for the serious seeker trying to uncover the hidden Truths.




As a Humanities teacher who works with middle graders in urban schools, I think this book is a great potential anchor text for teaching current events and historical trends in civil rights and "post-racial" America. The characters are not deep--they are types, and at times the dialogue is simply lame (putting "dawg" every sentence is just too much)--but the story is compelling, the issues are real, and I could envision teaching an entire unit about BLM and Martin and Malcolm and all of the recent police-involved tragedies with unarmed Black men using this novel as an engaging centerpiece. Nic Stone presents several points of view and it would be fun to read with a class and have Socratic Seminars after each couple chapters while learning the historical context and then researching the actual events re-hashed in this novel. The media spin on these cases is a key component of the novel, and any "woke" teacher whose kids are becoming "woke" would find something useful here.