Humans think of themselves – quite rightly – as predators. I’m
referring at the moment to the food chain, not to other uses of the term. But
of course we also are prey. Let us put aside for the moment attacks on us by
tiny feeders such as mosquitoes even though they (or rather the diseases they
carry) kill 725,000 people per year worldwide. Consider just the big ones. Even
in the 21st century 100 people per year are killed by lions. 25,000
are killed by dogs, but of course that is because there are so many more dogs
than lions. The risk is very very low in today’s urbanized world, but it still
happens. People still get eaten. For our hominin ancestors the risk was high
and constant. For them the world really was full of monsters, and among them were
fellow humans. Over millennia they honed the instinctual fears later exploited
by horror writers and filmmakers.
There are many analyses in both popular and academic
literatures on the appeal of horror fiction. They talk of catharsis and of the
combination of fear with safety – much as a good roller coaster combines the
two for enjoyable thrills. Whatever the source of the appeal truly may be, there
always is a market for the stuff. While it’s not my first choice of genres, I’m
not immune to its allure. I can and do read HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe,
Robert Bloch, and Stephen King with pleasure. One of the best authors, though
not for the squeamish, is fellow New Jersey native Dallas Mayr, who died today
at age 71. Mayr wrote under several pseudonyms for various genres, but for his
horror fiction he went by Jack Ketchum.
Ketchum rarely flirts with the supernatural. You won’t find
any ghosts, werewolves or vampires. In She Wakes he did unleash Hecate –
yes, that Hecate – but that was an
anomaly. It was an effective anomaly, it must be said. Nine times out of ten
his monsters are all too human, and all scarier for that. Be aware that Ketchum
pulls no punches anywhere in his prose. When the plot turns violent (and it
will) we get the full in-your-face unexpurgated picture. This unsettles some
readers. Ballantine Books despite reservations took a chance with his first
novel Off Season in 1981 and was pleasantly surprised by its commercial
success. Yet, the very same publisher turned down his next manuscript Ladies' Night, a tale of a chemical spill that eliminates women’s (and only women’s)
inhibitions against violence. It was published only in 1997 after Ketchum’s
success with other novels.
Critics are of two minds about Ketchum. Early on, a reviewer
in The Village Voice decried his graphic style. Yet he won a string of
writing awards, including the Bram Stoker Award, and he counts many
accomplished authors, including Stephen King, among his fans. Even his harshest
critics admit Ketchum writes well: graphically but well.
Jack doesn’t just shock for the sake of shock. He has
something to say. He likes to tell us that we all have a dark side, and that
the difference between monsters and the rest of us sometimes comes down only to
chance and circumstance.
Ketchum’s most successful novel is The Girl Next Door,
which was made into a deeply disturbing movie (not the comedy of the same name)
that Stephen King called a dark side Stand by Me. Based loosely on the
very real Sylvia Likens case, the book and movie detail the abuse and eventual
murder of a teenage girl by a suburban woman, her sons, and neighboring teens
of both sexes. The protagonist of the novel, a neighbor boy, is fundamentally a
good kid, but he is drawn into witnessing the abuse by the dark fascination of
it all. He wants to intervene when the cruelty becomes extreme, but by then his
own tacit complicity is an issue that delays him from seeking help. His dilemma
is both appalling and understandable; adults as well as kids all too often fail
to act morally when in similar binds.
A few other Ketchum novels also have been adapted to film
including Offspring, The Lost, and Red. Red is probably the
most successful. Once again, Ketchum is not for the easily
offended, but neither for that matter is Poe, a granddaddy of the genre. The
quality of the writing nonetheless stands out. I regret there will be no more
titles from Mayr/Ketchum, but his books are on my shelf and I regard every one
as a keeper.
Trailer: Red
I didn't know he pasted until the other day. I've not read any of his work, but have seen The Girl Next Door. I think I was indifferent to it--I may or didn't know it came from a true event.
ReplyDeleteI find I watch quite a bit of the ID Channel. It's like you said, we really don't need made up monsters when people can be pretty horrible. The other part to that though that I find fascinating is what motivates some individuals to such cruel extremes--it can't all just be aberrant behavior. I guess that behavior comes from all sort of disorders. The couple with thirteen kids recently in the news, which they kept tortured and starved is just another such deviant behavior, not just purportrated by one, but by a couple. Personally I think the guy's haircut gave him away as to being, lets say a bit off. I know if I see a guy with a Dutch boy haircut, I'm turning his ass in. ;)
I suppose people want influence and power – as all mammals do – and cruelty is one way of expressing it. Most of us learn there are other ways. The photos of that couple do raise an eyebrow. Nor were they on some isolated rural ranch; they were in a dense suburb with neighbors all around. Of course, people don’t know their neighbors the way they used to, but it is still surprising no one noticed anything odd. I’ll have to add a tonsorial warning sign to the well-known one of going by all three names.
DeleteHis name is familiar of course, but I've never read any of his stuff. Your recommendation has inspired me to add a couple books to my reading list. I'm always up for some good horror, supernatural and otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDe gustibus and all that, but I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's a fun mix of quality lit and (in a good way) trash.
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