I've commented before in other discussions about the relationship between horror and the absurd, and I think this piece, Funeral by Richard Matheson, can really be encompassed by the word absurd. However, the beginning of the short story starts out as more in line with a stereotypical "horror" narrative-- someone comes into a funeral home, asking for a funeral to be prepared for their own death, because their first death didn't have a "tasty" sending off.
However, the story quickly (as quickly as a five paged story can be paced) turns into one of hilarity and absurdity-- and indeed enough so it became hard for me to follow. Five more characters are introduced in quick succession in a way I found difficult to grasp, one right after the other. It took several times of rereading to parse out that each of them was representative of some of the more popular monsters within media, namely Ygor, Dracula, and a stereotypical witch. It took a Google search to figure out Ludwig was though the name was familiar, and I found out he was related to Frankenstein.
The story itself I found to be a little too chaotic and jumpy to really enjoy-- I spent too long trying to figure out what was going on rather than being able to enjoy what I was reading. However, I did appreciate the character of Morton Silkline, the narrator for the short story. Silkline is confronted with this rather horrific situation--a man has just declared his own funeral to take place the following Tuesday. Then, he meets creatures and monsters he's surely only heard of in fantasy or jest.
Yet at the end, the reader is able to see him come full circle with the arrival of a strange entity under recommendation of "a friend." At first he's petrified... then he touches the sack of gold he was just paid with and immediately overcomes his fears to start out a new line of work for the supernatural. Honestly, I kind of respect that decision. He realizes that maybe these things aren't so bad-- after all, he survived, nothing happened to him personally, and he got paid, as well as a recommendation already. Maybe it's shallow, but I think it's very real to be able to overcome certain fears or concerns especially when confronted with adequate compensation--more than adequate, honestly. And hey, there's always going to be a market for funerals, and I can't imagine monsters having been able to go very many places before Silkline's funeral home.
Hi, Sen!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the vocabulary and mode of expression Richard Matheson shotgunned throughout The Funeral played a role in making the story difficult to understand. I had to look up a lot of words, most of which were synonyms for different nouns used to describe a funeral or some aspect of it.
I pegged the story as a parody. I read in it a takedown of the gothic horror writing style of the late 1800s. Matheson alluded to it in I Am Legend.
Although rich with vocabulary, I didn't think the story was chaotic or jumpy. That's just my take on it. It followed a natural progression, and once the funeral director, Morton Silkline was able to overcome his unwarranted fears, he began to see referrals. He was tapping into a whole new market!
I think there is kind of a reverse or inverted parallel in the story. Just as the vampires needed a human to serve their earthly interests in the traditional stories, so they came to need Silkline for whatever reason they wanted a funeral. I don't think the ocher-dripping, tentacle monster had the same purpose as Ludwig Asper did.
I'd like to know more about the connection of the name Ludwig to the Frankenstein story, if I understood you correctly. I know the scientist that created the monster was Victor Frankenstein. I'm not familiar enough to know whether there is a character named Ludwig in the book or in the movie.
Hi Sen, I enjoyed the Matheson piece this week. I agree with your assessment that this story is more towards absurd. I enjoyed how Matheson began with a typical horror narrative and then put us into a downward spiral to the absurd. I felt the ride was fun. I did not realize we were traveling towards absurdity until everyone had arrived at the funeral and then all chaos broke loose. It reminded me of what one might expect at a funeral on my mothers side of the family.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your inverted parallel thought on the story. Monsters are people too! Just as people are monsters. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think the motivation of the tentacle monster at the end.
It definitely does go fast right when the funeral starts. I can say when I was reading and had the witch constantly interupting the scenes, it forced me to re-read it as well to parse together what was happening. In a way, I respected that chaos because it felt like how Silkline was feeling as well. He would be pushed and pulled around in a fantic as he is attempting to figure out his own situation at hand. If it had gone smooth, the humor and confusion of Silkline may have been lost a little by the slowing of the story. It's seen again of him slowing down when he gets back to his office and is talking to the new "client" and we get a moment to breath just as he is.
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