I always found this story so creepy! Have you seen David Cronenberg’s recent movie “Crimes of the Future”? It features a chair…device…that is definitely related to Gorey’s couch.
i was the kind of little girl who would have immediately asked what “pornographic” and “well-endowed” meant. and i would have demanded to know what alice was doing in the taxi! the adult me would tell her “oh nothing… here, let’s read The Insect God instead. you will love it.”
I think the 70s is still the wildest decade for film. I just watched The Devils and that has a similar degree of insanity (although in service of a much more coherent plot)
What a great essay - you are so right - the hinted at, the unseen but referred to, the whispered but never explained - all the best ways to tittilate, intrigue, horrify and terrorize.....
Gorey's Curious Sofa, Procruste's Bed, Burrough's Steely Dan, Bradbury's Circus, Pynchon's hold in the yacht Anubis, Ellison's horrific sentiment concluding "A Boy and his Dog".
All the bestest stuff happens off stage - we'd all be better people if we'd pay closer attention to "the pricking of our thumbs".
Wow, such a great set of examples, and I love that you mention Macbeth because I’ve written about stage effects from early modern plays in some of my academic work. Sound effects used to contribute to that tension: when audiences heard the thunder sound they started quaking because *something* wicked was on its way…
Classic Gorey! I love how much he only hints at things. I remember watching an extra once where Alan Arkin explained that for Wait Until Dark he realized it amps up the horror if you leave certain things unsaid and unseen. That advice has stayed with me over the years and that sense of foreboding brought about by the unknown is something I try to emulate in my own stories...
As for Procrustes I can only say, judging by that urn, he seems like he was an incredibly ahem, well-formed young man 👀👀
Me too! I think reading Robert Aickman’s stories has really driven that point home for me too. He can do so much with so little, you always feel like there’s something utterly compelling and horrific happening just the other side of a door and he somehow keeps you with him even when he’s giving you so little!
And yes, I’m sure Freud would have had fun analysing Procrustes and his obsession with limbs…
I'm thinking of King Edward's bizarre Paris brothel chair. No one can work out who went where or who put what where on it! And to think he designed it...!!
I remember studying "Oedipus Rex" at school, and it was explained to us that the moments where he stabs his eyes out and Jocasta hangs herself are off stage to make it more horrifying. Which it is!
I think I remember watching a documentary about how that was because he was too fat to have sex the normal way. Makes me think of a similar piece of furniture in that Louis Theroux documentary about swingers…
Anything to do with eyeballs always really upsets me shudder
I am now obsessed with hoping that Alice was screaming at what was happening to other people rather than what was happening to her; i mean, probably bad either way but since they're complete strangers still & I nonsensically feel like Alice and I are fellow travelers by this point ...
Plus trying to figure out if the arms and legs referred to people on the sofa, and if the machinery chopped them up woodchipper style or opened a gate to another dimension from which some demon devoured them, and/or if it got poor Alice too, if that last instance.
All of which goes to confirm the power of hinting, I suppose!
There are so many possibilities… and they are all horrific! There’s something so grim about the detail of the machinery whirring inside. I love the idea that it has opened up some sort of portal, I hadn't even considered that!
Genuinely fascinating.
Thanks James! It’s such a strange little tale
I always found this story so creepy! Have you seen David Cronenberg’s recent movie “Crimes of the Future”? It features a chair…device…that is definitely related to Gorey’s couch.
Awesome as always, thanks, Rebekah!💕
i was the kind of little girl who would have immediately asked what “pornographic” and “well-endowed” meant. and i would have demanded to know what alice was doing in the taxi! the adult me would tell her “oh nothing… here, let’s read The Insect God instead. you will love it.”
When you’re re-directing a child towards The Insect God you know things have become pretty dark…
looooove gorey. studied him for my bachelor’s thesis on literary nonsense
Caligula - how much porn can be stuffed into a non-porn film? I love the photo with the umbrella - that was a wild scene.
I think the 70s is still the wildest decade for film. I just watched The Devils and that has a similar degree of insanity (although in service of a much more coherent plot)
What a great essay - you are so right - the hinted at, the unseen but referred to, the whispered but never explained - all the best ways to tittilate, intrigue, horrify and terrorize.....
Gorey's Curious Sofa, Procruste's Bed, Burrough's Steely Dan, Bradbury's Circus, Pynchon's hold in the yacht Anubis, Ellison's horrific sentiment concluding "A Boy and his Dog".
All the bestest stuff happens off stage - we'd all be better people if we'd pay closer attention to "the pricking of our thumbs".
Wow, such a great set of examples, and I love that you mention Macbeth because I’ve written about stage effects from early modern plays in some of my academic work. Sound effects used to contribute to that tension: when audiences heard the thunder sound they started quaking because *something* wicked was on its way…
Classic Gorey! I love how much he only hints at things. I remember watching an extra once where Alan Arkin explained that for Wait Until Dark he realized it amps up the horror if you leave certain things unsaid and unseen. That advice has stayed with me over the years and that sense of foreboding brought about by the unknown is something I try to emulate in my own stories...
As for Procrustes I can only say, judging by that urn, he seems like he was an incredibly ahem, well-formed young man 👀👀
Me too! I think reading Robert Aickman’s stories has really driven that point home for me too. He can do so much with so little, you always feel like there’s something utterly compelling and horrific happening just the other side of a door and he somehow keeps you with him even when he’s giving you so little!
And yes, I’m sure Freud would have had fun analysing Procrustes and his obsession with limbs…
I'm thinking of King Edward's bizarre Paris brothel chair. No one can work out who went where or who put what where on it! And to think he designed it...!!
I remember studying "Oedipus Rex" at school, and it was explained to us that the moments where he stabs his eyes out and Jocasta hangs herself are off stage to make it more horrifying. Which it is!
I think I remember watching a documentary about how that was because he was too fat to have sex the normal way. Makes me think of a similar piece of furniture in that Louis Theroux documentary about swingers…
Anything to do with eyeballs always really upsets me shudder
Wikipedia to the rescue! Complete with a how-to illustration. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Sex_Machines_Museum_Prague_-_Siege_D%27Amour.jpg
I think I remember reading that he had this built because he was too fat/lazy to have sex the usual way…
eeewwww.....
I had never heard of this. Gorey was even odder than I thought!
He was certainly an eclectic writer!
I am now obsessed with hoping that Alice was screaming at what was happening to other people rather than what was happening to her; i mean, probably bad either way but since they're complete strangers still & I nonsensically feel like Alice and I are fellow travelers by this point ...
Plus trying to figure out if the arms and legs referred to people on the sofa, and if the machinery chopped them up woodchipper style or opened a gate to another dimension from which some demon devoured them, and/or if it got poor Alice too, if that last instance.
All of which goes to confirm the power of hinting, I suppose!
There are so many possibilities… and they are all horrific! There’s something so grim about the detail of the machinery whirring inside. I love the idea that it has opened up some sort of portal, I hadn't even considered that!