THE DEEP ONES: "The Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein

"The Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein

Discussion begins December 14

This is a fairly long one, so try to locate it now!

ONLINE VERSIONS:
None so far

PRINT VERSIONS:
American Fantastic Tales Vol. 2 edited by Peter Straub
Reassuring Tales by T.E.D. Klein
Eternal Lovecraft
The Year's Best Horror Stories Volume 2, ed. Richard Davis
First World Fantasy Awards, ed. Gahan Wilson
A Century of Horror 1970-1979, ed. David Drake & Martin H. Greenberg
Return to Lovecraft Country, ed. Scott David Aniolowski
American Supernatural Tales, ed. S. T. Joshi

MISCELLANY:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._D._Klein

Gotta love the cover of REASSURING TALES:

I believe I prefer the cover of the publication in which the story was first issued:

I really enjoy the description of the New Jersey environs at the beginning, especially since I live very close to the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border. In fact, some of the towns he mentions along the Rt. 22 corridor are actually here in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, this story was written in 1972, and overdevelopment and a massive population influx have destroyed a lot of the beautiful woodland areas. The story does take me back to when I was a kid, though, for which a lot of the imagery and "feel" rings true!

Along those lines, I love the way T.E.D. Klein allows nature to gradually intrude on the narrator during his stay. From the vines and marshy undergrowth to the seemingly excessive and hearty insect population (those spiders!), is it just nature being nature or is it being aggressive and helping to hide something malevolent? It's kind of hard for the city slicker to tell, which puts him - and the reader - off balance.

Strong echoes of both Machen and "The Dunwich Horror" era Lovecraft here.

I thought the neuraesthenic narrator in this one was a bit trying. Maybe he's just suffering brain damage from bug-spray abuse?

On the other hand, the metatextual element was groovy, even if it was English Gothic literature, rather than Weird. I like to read about reading. I noticed a lot of familiar authors, and I suppose some of them might have inspired posts over on the planning thread!

The thing I thought was the most enigmatic and interesting feature was one word in the "punch-line": the first person plural pronoun we. The narrator is convinced that the horrific entity is a possessing spirit that travels from a prior host to the corpse of its victim. But is there more than one monster? Does it simply lack a psychic unity and thus think of itself as multiple -- a composite of the cadaver and animating force, perhaps?

>6 paradoxosalpha:

Could have been the bug spray, but the narrator does seem to be a bit off, somehow, doesn't he? I think this is especially made evident with the strange, spastic gesturing he seems compelled to do at a couple of points. Doesn't he even go up a tree the first time? Is he actually an unwitting vector for the whatever-it-is? This is strange, highly suspect behavior - especially since Klein really seems to low-ball it.

Oh yeah - the ongoing trip through the history Gothic lit is really quite fun!

I thought that the narrator was simply referring to himself and the Poroths as far as "we" go.

> 7

No, no. On the "we" business, I guess I'll be more explicit. The date has arrived that we don't bother to avoid spoilers anyhow. The "we" I meant was in the entity's declaration: "Sometimes we forget to blink." Is that "we" the whole species of fallen angels that do this sort of nasty? Or one of the other alternatives I suggested in #6? The narrator seems to think that the thing is novel/unique, and perhaps a product of his spontaneous (?) evocation in the woods. But that's not an easy fit with its self-reference as "we." (Not that he's the least bit reliable as a narrator.)

Klein makes a lot more hay with the references to other texts and Jersey outback in The Ceremonies. The relationship with the Poroth's is developed quite well. He also throws in two more interesting characters (a sinister old man and a love interest) and a really chilling peek at the infernal beast prior to Jeremy's arrival. On the other hand, Events, if I may call it that, had a much better ending. (I could have used more of Jeremy's escape, but I too love ambiguous and not hopeful endings!)

There was a reference to Jeremy's regretting having made certain movements in the woods - and I didn't catch him doing that in Events, though I knew from Ceremonies what the reference was. I looked back through the story trying to find it and nada. Was I sloppy?

I also really liked Klein's use of nature and the cats.

> 9

It's there, very early:

Afterward, strolling toward the house, I was moved to climb the old tree in the side yard--the Poroths had already gone in to get dinner ready--and stood upright on a great heavy branch near the middle, making strange gestures and faces that no one could see. Can't say exactly what it was I did, or why. It was getting dark--fireflies below me and a mist rising off the field. I must ahve looked like a madman's shadow as I made signs to the woods and the moon.

Was there a lot more to it in The Ceremonies?

It's interesting that Jeremy has The Glass Harmonica on hand. And it seems that he's reading in The Confessions of Aleister Crowley rather than Crowley's fiction. The style of the story makes me reluctant to discard any detail as irrelevant.

The things that were moved in his room: was that him? Is this a Fight Club without the happy ending?

>8 paradoxosalpha:

Ah, got it this time, thanks. "Sometimes we forget to blink" is a really, really chilling line when taken in context.

Maybe Klein is actually referencing HPL's own "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young". "We" could be taken in a god-like sense. As the story features both that little misshapen monstrosity that bites Sarr's thumb and something very large stumbling about the woods at night (the Black Goat - a rather Pan-like entity?), there does seem to be more than one representation of the thing(s) that came through the "rift" - if that's what happened.

10: Thanks! I didn't look back far enough and didn't notice it going forward. I think there is a bit more in Ceremonies about how Jeremy gets the impulse to make the signs.

The things in the room got moved/interfered with by the cat is how I interpreted it based upon Jeremy's allergies - and, again, I think there was a bit more in Ceremonies that made me think that: slashed screen, I think he catches the cat looking at his books or something, too.

The Ceremonies was great, except for the end. Very highly recommended.

>9 slickdpdx:

I read The Ceremonies too long ago to make a comparison - thanks for those details. Klein's use of nature is pretty stunning throughout. The reader really feels that close, buggy atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the "mouse-sized" garden spider encountered at one point. This past fall, while carrying out the garbage, I went face-first into a web which a very large Orb Weaver had constructed across my path. The thing ended up crawling over a crushed can until I managed to flick it back into the bushes. I'm not afraid of spiders (I've even had tarantulas as pets), but the hackles do rise in such circumstances. I enjoyed the cats in the story, too, as I have two of my own. I actually owned a black "pole cat" once. I can tell you that an aggressive cat can be quite a fearsome beast!

I went back and looked at Jeremy's mention of reading Crowley, and it seems to tie in to his earlier "ceremony":

Inspired by Crowley, walked back to the pool in the woods. Had visions of climbing a tree, swinging on vines, anything to commemorate his exploits . . . Saw something dead floating in the center of the pool and ran back to the farm. Copperhead? Caterpillar? It had somehow opened up. . . .

With his reference to Crowley's "sunny disposition," I imagine Jeremy reading this passage from Chapter 66 of Confessions:

The nineteenth Key contains the text of the original curse on creation. Each phrase formulates some calamity. I had always shuddered at its horror as I recited it. But now, the Abyss being crossed, and all its horror faced and mastered, the words of the Key suddenly thrilled with a meaning that I had never suspected. Each curse concealed a blessing. I understood that sorrow had no substance; that only my ignorance and lack of intelligence had made me imagine the existence of evil. As soon as I had destroyed my personality, as soon as I had expelled my ego, the universe which to it was indeed a frightful and fatal force, fraught with every form of fear, was so only in relation to this idea "I"; so long as "I am I", all else must seem hostile. Now that there was no longer any "I" to suffer, all these ideas which had inflicted suffering became innocent. I could praise the perfection of every part; I could wonder and worship the whole.

Perhaps this is a clue to the first-person plural? I note the tree-and-serpent motif of Jeremy's magick as a fit with "the original curse on creation," i.e. the Fall.

My Amazon review:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1KRUUR75PLAX0/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0...

Lots to talk about that I didn't touch on in the review. I've been wanting to read this one ever since reading Joshi's chapter on Klein in The Modern Weird Tale; glad our group finally gave me the impetus to do so.

The most fascinating aspect of the story to me is the fact that it's a first-person narrative. This always intrigues me because it always calls up the "unreliable narrator" question, particularly in supernatural/horror fiction (a classic example of this would be Edgar Allan Poe's "Cask of Amantillado", which ironically seems to be just about the only piece of classic horror fiction Klein doesn't discuss in the story (intentionally, I think)). The reader has to contemplate the possibility that the combination of too much horror fiction (to steal the name of one of my favorite blogs) and (as paradoxosalpha points out) too much bug spray (it says "For Outdoor Use Only", dumbass!) has caused our narrator to have a psychotic break and correspondingly is imagine all the supernatural stuff he thinks he sees from about mid-June on.

>5 semdetenebre:

The rural Jersey stuff reminded me of (of all things) Dave Marsh's Born to Run: the Bruce Springsteen Story, where it talks about Springsteen growing up in tiny Freehold, NJ.

>6 paradoxosalpha:

On the other hand, the metatextual element was groovy, even if it was English Gothic literature, rather than Weird. I like to read about reading. I noticed a lot of familiar authors, and I suppose some of them might have inspired posts over on the planning thread!

Me, too. Actually, I enjoy all manner of cultural references in art - passing references to authors or musicians in books and films have often led me to treasure troves of great books, music, movies, etc. I thought Klein nailed "The White People" in particular - it is "staggering", indeed.

> 12 moved/interfered with by the cat

That works for many of the disturbances, and it's what I was thinking of while reading it. But the journal was put in the wrong drawer, and while the cat might have been able to disorder the books, reshelving them in the wrong sequence seems like a tall order.

>15 artturnerjr:

Like any good Lovecraftian-style narrator, maybe the one in Klein's story has actually been driven insane by the events described? I'm not sold on the bug spray idea, since it's summer and the place is well ventilated. :)

>16 paradoxosalpha:

Cats do that kind of thing all the time!

> 15

Hey, we'll all get staggered later this month!

15 & 10: Great points about the unreliable narrator - something Klein gives up in The Ceremonies - for better or worse ( a bit of both, really).

>19 paradoxosalpha:

Can't wait. 8)

>19 paradoxosalpha:, 21

You mean the Xmas tequila?

> 22

I'm for eggnog, myself. Not that stuff they sell in cartons in the supermarket; I use the Joy of Cooking recipe. A dozen eggs, a pound of confectioner's sugar, a half-gallon of whipping cream, and a fifth of dark liquor, plus a little alchemical know-how! It's enough holiday spirit for a good-sized party.

>22 semdetenebre: & 23

Hell, let's just spray a whole can of industrial-strength bug killer indoors - ought to have about the same effect. ;)

>23 paradoxosalpha:

I'd try that!

>24 artturnerjr:

I'd try that! No -wait!

Hey - what where did this thread go!?!

Back on topic - forgot to mention I read this in American Fantastic Tales and, as I'm pretty sure someone mentioned elsewhere, these are incredibly beautiful books (looks- as well as content-wise). The footnotes come in handy, too, particularly for the more obscure literary references in the Klein story. 8)

#26

I read it in American Fantastic Tales, too. The footnotes are useful, although as a Monster Kid, I must say that I recognized the name Maria Ouspenskya immediately!

Footnote 255.1.12: Lafcadio Hearn on "The belief in a mysterious relation between ghosts and insects, or rather between spirits and insects" provides some interesting food for thought as far as Poroth farm goes.

I too read it in American Fantastic Tales.

> 24
De gustibus non est disputandum, I guess. Fewer calories in the bug spray, to be sure.

>28 paradoxosalpha:

:)

I see Powells has a copy of Ceremonies for under three bucks!

>30 slickdpdx:

Yeah, it looks like decent reading copies are pretty widely available on the cheap online.

I read this story back in 2008, in the S. T. Joshi anthology American Supernatural Tales. That's a very strong collections, as I remember (foolishly I leant it out, pre-Covid) and this was one of the stand-out stories. And it was the only T.E.D. Klein I had read, for a while. This was also early days in my engagement with weird and gothic fiction in general. There was a lot I hadn't read and didn't know.

Between 2016 and 2017 I read the reworked and expanded version of this story, The Ceremonies, and the stories in Dark Gods.

I've just re-read the story in American Fantastic Tales. I wondered if I would think less of it the second time around - would it seem like a thin summary of the novel, for example?

Thankfully it didn't. And actually, I also thought the ending of the novel was weaker than the ending of this story. I also realised they're not the same story - not in the way Leiber's The Pale Brown Thing and Our Lady of Darkness are the same story. The evil in the story doesn't really have any hint of the planning and direction that it has in the novel. It could have been simply summoned by Jeremy's ritualistic shape-throwing - as casual as the summoning in "With and Without Buttons" (but perhaps the cause was reading Machen's "The White People").

But also, Jeremy could be an unreliable narrator. We only have his journal to go on. He might be as guilty as the authorities believe him to be, maybe poisoned to psychosis by his reckless use of insecticide (can circa-1972 insecticides do that? From the warnings about the modern versions I would have assumed the risks were immediate death or a long-term raised risk of cancer). Even that part of the story might not be true. Whatever, if our sympathies stay with Jeremy, then the ending of the story is nicely Lovecraftian, from the written testimony and the unbelieving authorities to - with the hippy watching from the Courthouse - the paranoid sense of a "Them" amongst us, which is brought more to the fore in The Ceremonies (at least I think so, it doesn't seem five minutes since I read it, but it was actually over four years ago, and the details have gone a bit hazy.* sigh *).