First Things First…
I’m always excited to read another Clive Barker story. I kicked off Volume Two of his Books of Blood earlier this year with a good story called “Dread.” Now I’m ready for the second story in the volume. As usual, I don’t know anything about it, but it has a cool title.
5 Things I Like
5. Stealing from God’s Playbook
“Behind him, the room was filling with smoke and sights, and Cameron, like Lot’s wife fleeing from the destruction of Sodom, glanced back just once to see the forbidden sight behind him.”
Narrator
Hell steals a page out of God’s playbook.
“Don’t look back” becomes a bit of a mantra throughout the story. Because just as Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt in the Book of Genesis for turning around to see the forbidden sight of Sodom being destroyed, everyone who turns around and sees the forbidden sight of Hell dies a gruesome death.
This goes for Joel during the race, it goes for Cameron before he exits the icy room where the portal to the Ninth Circle of Hell sits, and it even goes for Hell’s henchman, Gregory Burgess…
After screwing up by not accounting for every possibility in the race, allowing Kinderman to win from behind, Burgess refuses to turn back and look at his master, even as he’s repeatedly asked to. But in the end, his head is forcefully twisted all the way around while his neck and body remain still.
4. Shaky Faith
Cameron’s back-and-forth internal monologue regarding whether or not God is with him is so human and recognizable.
Something good happens—God must be with him. But as soon as things go sideways—nope, he’s been abandoned.
When he first seems to have perfect timing and avoids detection by slipping through an ominous door, it says, “God was with him.” But the very next line says…
“Even as he closed the door he knew he’d made an error. God wasn’t with him at all.”
That’s because he would’ve been better off getting caught before making it into that chamber and discovering the entryway to the Ninth Circle of Hell. And yet, against all odds, after some conversation with Burgess, he seems to escape…
“Outside the day was blindingly bright, and he began to feel the exhilaration of escape. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before. To have been so close, yet survived. God had been with him after all.”
Sadly, he never quite has the opposite realization again. But he discovers his look back at Hell actually mattered, because his body basically spontaneously combusts and incinerates.
I’d have to assume, if his mind wasn’t preoccupied by being burned alive from the inside, he might’ve thought once again that God wasn’t with him.
3. The Tortoise Strikes Again
“Kinderman was quite a way behind, unable to compete with these fast boys. He was the tortoise in this race, for sure.”
Narrator
As soon as Joel identifies Kinderman as the tortoise in the race, I thought to myself, “Hey, the tortoise always wins.”
But Kinderman is barely a character in the story, so it’s easy to forget about him. That’s why it still came as a surprise when he grabs the “W” right from out of Hell’s grasp.
The element of surprise wouldn’t have worked as well if Kinderman was more fleshed out. So it was a good decision to make him one-dimensional, easy for his competitors—and readers—to overlook.
2. Courage Comes in Many Forms
“But more, he had courage. Courage had won him the gold, and courage would take him first to the finish again and again. That’s what made Joel different. Any number of technical whizz kids came and went, but without courage to supplement those skills they went for almost nothing. To risk when it was worth risking, to run ‘til the pain blinded you, that was special…”
Narrator
I’ve never thought about runners as needing courage. But if we can describe athletes who play team sports, and combat athletes, as having courage, then it makes sense here, too. And I love how it’s his courage that sets Joel apart from other runners.
But apparently, it’s not just about needing courage to overcome adversity and pain in a race…
Knowing that courage is his defining characteristic makes it easier to believe Joel would reach out and pull down a representative of Hell—to do battle with something unnatural and evil. It’s this act of courage that allows Kinderman the Tortoise to come through and win the race, preventing Hell from taking over.
1. The Coldness of Hell
When Cameron unwittingly comes into a room that contains an entry to the Ninth Circle of Hell, there are great descriptions of the extremity of how it affects him…
“Needles of cold penetrated his head, his teeth, his eyes, his fingers. He felt as though he’d been thrown naked into the heart of an iceberg. His blood seemed to stand still in his veins: the spit of his tongue crystallized, the mucus on the lining of his nose pricked as it turned to ice. The cold seemed to cripple him: he couldn’t even turn round.”
I especially like how this runs against conventional wisdom. The cavern is bitingly, unbearably cold—not hot. It’s a different way of thinking about Hell, and it makes it seem incapable of sustaining any sort of life.
1 Thing I’m Mixed On
1. Hell Itself
It’s odd that Burgess’s and Voight’s master, the creature that emerges from the portal and kills Burgess at the end of the story, is never called the devil. It’s referred to as Hell.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s harder to wrap my head around what it actually is. It’d be easier to comprehend if it was the devil, or a demon, or some other representative of Hell.
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. Hell’s Lack of Discretion
“Once every century this race is run from St. Paul’s to the Palace of Westminster. Often it has been run at the dead of night, unheralded, unapplauded. Today it is run in full sunshine, watched by thousands.”
Gregory Burgess
I wish there was some explanation—any would suffice—for why the race this time around was being run “in full sunshine, watched by thousands.” Considering multiple runners drop dead in very odd circumstances mid-race, it seems like it would make sense to run under the cover of night, with no crowd. I guess that would need an explanation, too, though—otherwise how would they get runners like Joel and the others to compete?
It just seems like Hell wouldn’t be so brazen, but would rather rely on discretion.
Tim Matassa
