One Week Was Allowed

[steepholm]

I spent a very pleaseant Halloween with my daughter, her boyfriend and my lodger, which ended with my reading them 'Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad'. It was the first time any of them had heard it, and I think I can say that it produced the desired effect (despite my halting performance in the Latin sections). I've promised another M. R. James classic for Christmas.

Which should I choose? 'Count Magnus' is the one that freaked me out the most when I first read it, but I'm not sure it's his best. 'The Mezzotint' and 'The Ash Tree' are justly celebrated, but if it's not too long (which I suspect it may be) I'm leaning towards 'Casting the Runes', which has one of my favourite final lines in literature.

Pondering that story as it might be seen by people in their 20s and 30s, it occurred to me that it may remind them of The Ring - with its time-delayed curse. Are there other examples of the phenomenon, especially pre-James? Plenty of curses only 'take' when certain conditions are met, but I can't think of any others that are on a simple time delay.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Other half is a huge M R James fan

He reckons: 'A Warning to the Curious'!

[steepholm]

Another banger.

[sovay]

Are there other examples of the phenomenon, especially pre-James? Plenty of curses only 'take' when certain conditions are met, but I can't think of any others that are on a simple time delay.

I can't think of any off the top of my head. It's also very early for the idea of a transferrable haunting, which can be evaded by being passed on to someone else, cf. again The Ring and It Follows.

(I am very fond of "Casting the Runes." I like the 1979 ITV adaptation, too.)

[steepholm]

Yes, good point - the transferability is another key feature. I'm sure ways of transferring bad luck (among other things) have been a staple of playground culture for a long time, mind.

[sovay]

I'm sure ways of transferring bad luck (among other things) have been a staple of playground culture for a long time, mind.

I'm pretty sure there are forms of folk magic which are all about vectoring a problem onto someone else! Just fictionally, I think of it as different from a contagious haunting, which wrecks everyone who encounters it regardless of where they fall in the chain, and James may be the earliest literary example I have encountered of the transferrable kind.

[flemmings]

Your daughter at least has her boyfriend (and vice versa) to lessen the fallout of Oh Whistle, but your poor lodger! Going to bed alone after that.

Count Magnus gave me the cold grues at eleven until, some 50 years later, someone said the exorcising wird 'vampires'. At which the grues melted like, well, a vampire in the sun. Oh, vampires? Is that all?

Lost Hearts is the one I'm not likely to get over ever.

[steepholm]

Luckily, my lodger (who is Japanese) only understood about 50% of it, which proved an effective prophylactic against terror.

[flemmings]

Mhh yes, however good one's English is, late 19th century writers would be a bit if a slog, especially if you're hearing-not-reading.

[azdak]

Forgive the drive-by comment, but Sleeping Beauty's curse doesn't activate until her 16th birthday, so that must count as a time-delayed one?

[steepholm]

That's a very good point!

[strange_complex]

Oh, what a great way to spend Halloween! And a superb gift to your daughter and her boyfriend to pass on the pleasure of M.R. James, too. I hope this becomes a long-running tradition for you all.

[steepholm]

I think it might! We all enjoyed it.