THE DEEP ONES: "Horrible Imaginings" by Fritz Leiber

"Horrible Imaginings" by Fritz Leiber

Discussion begins September 2.

First published in Death (Playboy Paperbacks, 1982).



ONLINE VERSIONS

No legal online versions found to date.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41308

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Horrible Imaginings
The Century's Best Horror Fiction: Volume 2
Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories

MISCELLANY

http://marclaidlaw.com/fritz-leiber/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Leiber
http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/11/101-weird-writers-31-fritz-leiber/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFBfdvbkmOg
http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-master-of-horror-outspooked-...
http://tinyurl.com/o2sy8zx

I have this in four different volumes. Think I'll choose the Midnight House edition of Horrible Imaginings.

I'll be buying Horrible Imaginings.

I just checked Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories out of the public library this afternoon. I read the Neil Gaiman intro with some pleasure, although I can't agree with him that REH had no wit.

I've got this in Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories.

Edited to add: It is the Night Shade Books edition. I bought it in my local branch of Waterstones, which was doubly surprising because, firstly I'm in the UK, and secondly I assume their books weren't widely available through high street shops even in the US.

Reading it in the 2014 Open Road Integrated Media eBook version of Horrible Imaginings, which I purchased from Amazon on Thursday:

http://amzn.com/B00J84KWZW

The SF Encyclopedia entry on Leiber is worth a read:

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/leiber_fritz

This story is all about liminality, it seems. The whole notion of the "apartment tree" as a space-between is an interesting one.

I was startled when the perspective first shifted to center on the experience of the Vanishing Lady herself, rather than Ryker. And the ending was one of those that wasn't a twist, exactly, but rather a shove out of the previously-defined narrative boundaries, not merely spatial but conceptual.

>8 paradoxosalpha:

The apartment tree is intriguing, including the squat subhumans who seem to dwell on the 13th floor and the idea that they made some kind of murderous (sacrificial?) deal with the Vanishing Lady. I too found the shift in viewpoints to be rather startling.

Late period Leiber often takes my breath away and this is no exception. It's top-notch weird fiction featuring his usual semi-autobiographical, megapolisomantic obsessions including a strangely menacing entity with a triangular face (or cat-triangular, in this case).

Leiber has never been one to shy away from sexual themes in his work, but I can't think of another piece that is is as explicit as this one is. The oddball tenants and the hooker invasion were delightful little side-bars.

The hidden and short 13th floor reminded me of Being John Malkovitch.

>9 gwendetenebre: I can't think of another piece that is is as explicit as this one is.

Too sexy for the Deep Ones? Or just too long? Where is everybody?

Too paper-based for me, though from the comments so far it seems I'd enjoy it. I did wonder where everyone else was, I'm usually in the minority when relying on online versions.

>11 paradoxosalpha:

Yeah! I actually have a couple more comments to make, but I want to quote text which means I have to type it out. Probably tonight!

Finished it this morning.

Every time I read Leiber he seems to be on to a different style. A very versatile writer.

The story, on one hand, was pretty slight if you were to do a plot description, but the minute descriptions, that startling shift in viewpoint was startling as was the end.

Did Ryker embrace Death or just an addict spirit? I think the later, but I was strongly reminded of Leiber's shorter, not as successful "Richmond, Late September, 1849" where Poe meets a similar femme fatale.

The idea that a spirit could be tied down to so narrow a place, that her addiction seems to have damned her in some way, was another of Leiber's attempt to bring the weird to the urbus. I wonder how much Leiber's alcoholism is reflected in the idea of a junkie ghost.

And I was having a bit of a flashback reading this one. I used to live in an apartment building -- way smaller and way shorter -- that had a very similar elevator.

I also recently came across a bit of second-hand Leiber trivia. In a recent Coode Street Podcast, Michael Swanwick mentioned the debt his Darger and Surplus stories owe to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Swanwick says he asked Leiber once if he considered himself a fantasy writer or a horror writer. He replied, "All my stories are horror stories."

Gives new meaning to the phrase "coke fiend."

I thought that the bit with the straw was one of the..errr... weirder aspects of the story. Especially in that it was given to the Vanishing Lady by the squat humanoids, if I remember correctly. As a bribe/reward?

>14 RandyStafford:

I read that Swanick piece. Funny to think about this young whippersnapper dropping in on one of the great writers of horror/fantasy/SF. Just like that. Fritz seems to have been a most tolerant older gentleman.

I wasn't sure what to make of it. My thoughts were pretty much in accord with >9 gwendetenebre: but I was left with questions. Although this was a re-read for me I couldn't remember much in the way of detail. Was this an ostensible ghost story that was going to have a science-fictional resolution? Was everything going to be explained? No, and no.

I looked online for some guidance/other thoughts, etc., and found author John Howard's Warden East website. He says this IS a ghost story - and as he specifically identifies the Vanishing Lady as a personification of death and, by the way, also pairing it thematically with "Richmond, Late September, 1849". A Freudian take on the ghost story, then?

I have no idea where the homunculi living between the floors come from, why they apparently evoke the atmosphere of a seedy strip club (who, indeed, they seem to be tiny patrons of the same). Gremlins? The Return of the Repressed? If there's anything in the story to provide a clue, I didn't pick up on it. Is this a failing? Well, my being left with a feeling of bemusement did blunt my enjoyment a bit, I think.

Edited to add: if I can try to clarify my reporting of John Howard's essay...he says that Leiber does not write conventional ghost stories (i.e. the apparition is rarely if ever the spirit of a deceased person) but their structure and effect make them classifiable as such.

And today is the anniversary of Leiber's death. Happy trails, Fritz!

Just finished this one today. Took me a while but I'm glad I stuck with it. Man, that end was wrenching.

None of the ghost stories she knew told it from the ghosts' side - what they thought and felt, how much they understood, and whether they ever knew what they were (ghosts) and what they were doing (haunting).

A nice metafictional touch, that. Also, upon reflection, I realize that I don't know any ghost stories that tell the story from the ghost's side either, although surely somebody else thought to use this device before 1982 (there were, after all, quite a few ghost stories written before this one).

A question for those here who have read Our Lady of Darkness (I still haven't - shame on me) - does this tale tie in explicitly with that novel? I know both are set in San Francisco - are there other links?

>19 artturnerjr:

A question for those here who have read Our Lady of Darkness (I still haven't - shame on me) - does this tale tie in explicitly with that novel? I know both are set in San Francisco - are there other links?

In "Horrible Imaginings", Leiber revisits some of the ideas he explored in OLoD, "Smoke Ghost" and other tales which focus on urban paranormal entities and megapolisomancy, but I don't think there are any direct references between them. Even so, I think San Francisco in particular represented one big haunted city to him.