1gwendetenebre
"Caterpillars" by E. F. Benson
Discussion begins on May 3, 2023.
First published in The Room in the Tower and Other Stories (1912).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?91796
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Wolf's Complete Book of Terror
The Century's Best Horror Fiction 1901-1950
The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson
65 Great Spine Chillers
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/06/caterpillars/
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niwTTqVaxM0
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Benson
https://darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas.org/e-f-benson-in-the-pulps/
https://tinyurl.com/w5tjhw6a
Discussion begins on May 3, 2023.
First published in The Room in the Tower and Other Stories (1912).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?91796
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Wolf's Complete Book of Terror
The Century's Best Horror Fiction 1901-1950
The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson
65 Great Spine Chillers
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/06/caterpillars/
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niwTTqVaxM0
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Benson
https://darkworldsquarterly.gwthomas.org/e-f-benson-in-the-pulps/
https://tinyurl.com/w5tjhw6a
2housefulofpaper
I will be reading this in the cheapo Wordsworth Editions paperback Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson.
3RandyStafford
This one didn't quite work for me. Are the strange caterpillars somehow carriers of infectious cancer? (I haven't really researched how prevalent the idea of cancer being infectious was though some cancers are thought to be from infections now.) Is this a revenge-of-nature plot from Inglis crushing the caterpillar?
Benson dubbing the creature with that name struck me as rather lazy.
Benson dubbing the creature with that name struck me as rather lazy.
4papijoe
I liked the way Benson took a mundane horror and made it even scarier. I couldn’t think of another horror tale quite like it.
>3 RandyStafford: Benson I think makes a mistake here in introducing a physical version of the caterpillars by daylight. I believe there is enough context, such as the hostile references to the occult by Inglis and the eerie grey glow of the creatures to consider them some kind of hyper dimensional version of the disease. But the smaller version muddles the distinction and in my opinion doesn’t add much to the story. I’ve noticed that Benson can have an annoying tic of being too coy and this might be related.
From the comments at the end of why the room was unoccupied it seems there was clearly a belief in the contagion of the disease we now believe is not communicable.
Based on some personal experience of its malign intelligence in resisting treatment, it’s not hard to be persuaded by Benson that you don’t catch it so much as it catches you.
>3 RandyStafford: Benson I think makes a mistake here in introducing a physical version of the caterpillars by daylight. I believe there is enough context, such as the hostile references to the occult by Inglis and the eerie grey glow of the creatures to consider them some kind of hyper dimensional version of the disease. But the smaller version muddles the distinction and in my opinion doesn’t add much to the story. I’ve noticed that Benson can have an annoying tic of being too coy and this might be related.
From the comments at the end of why the room was unoccupied it seems there was clearly a belief in the contagion of the disease we now believe is not communicable.
Based on some personal experience of its malign intelligence in resisting treatment, it’s not hard to be persuaded by Benson that you don’t catch it so much as it catches you.
5housefulofpaper
>3 RandyStafford:
Is this a revenge-of-nature plot from Inglis crushing the caterpillar? But it had already "chosen" him, apparently. Or we can infer that.
I agree that the metaphysical connections of real caterpillar, ghostly caterpillars, infected house are not satisfactorily explained. Not even in a "just enough information to hint at an answer" sort of way. With this sort of tale, you are supposed to "know" instinctively what's going on, even if the rational part of you is denying it. But here, I feel we were almost grabbing paper and pencil and trying to work out just how it all hangs together.
I also think that there are just too many stories where some bluff, hearty chap does "something" and pays the price. Too many to read without the law of diminishing returns starting to come into operation, in any case.
Is this a revenge-of-nature plot from Inglis crushing the caterpillar? But it had already "chosen" him, apparently. Or we can infer that.
I agree that the metaphysical connections of real caterpillar, ghostly caterpillars, infected house are not satisfactorily explained. Not even in a "just enough information to hint at an answer" sort of way. With this sort of tale, you are supposed to "know" instinctively what's going on, even if the rational part of you is denying it. But here, I feel we were almost grabbing paper and pencil and trying to work out just how it all hangs together.
I also think that there are just too many stories where some bluff, hearty chap does "something" and pays the price. Too many to read without the law of diminishing returns starting to come into operation, in any case.
