Post by Black PilgrimPerhaps I was just in the right mood or the moon is just full or not full
enough to be just proper but believe it or not of all the stories I have
read for this experiment so far I enjoyed this one the most. 9 out of 10
Aickman readers would probably tell you how bad it is but I kind of liked it
the first few times I read it. This time around I loved it. Handily his
funniest leg pull to date if you catch it just right. Or possibly I want to
like it cause everyone else seems not to.
Millie and Phineas Morke have two overgrowing teenage twin boys named Angus
and Rodney. The self-centered father/husband Phineas dumps their care on
Millie our central character who very uncharacteristically of Aickman is a
perfectly normal female trapped in a controlling using marriage. Out of
desperation Millie consults a psychic named Thelma for answers and Aickman
hits us with some non-sensational, white trashy spiritualism with a bit of
bizarre sexuality thrown in for giggles. Thelma tells Millie she had better
just run but she could tell her more if they had sex. The boys grow and grow
and become so large and uncontrollable that even the police station cannot
hold them. Bert I. Gordon would be proud. Millie leaves Phineas and retreats
to the haven of her Uncle Stephen's who battles the threatening near giant
"boys". Minnie is drawn back to Thelma through dreams and a promise to
return. She is again offered sexual escape and is shown a vision of the boys
eating their own father. On the way back home they waylay her but an
accident kills them during a snow storm.
The most obvious references are to eating. Phineas was of course the Greek
king punished with blindness and a buffet of food he could never eat. In
this story Millie's husband is near constantly thinking of his stomach and
even as she is leaving him he implores her repeatedly to make him his
breakfast. Also at the start of the tale a bit is made of "biting heads off"
during an exchange between the boys and Uncle Stephen. Bible scholars will
remember Saint Stephen of whom it was said "When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." in
ACTS 7:54(KJV). But most of it puts me in mind of "whose god is there
stomach" references in the Apostle Paul's writings.
It is also interesting that this is the only Aickman tale I can think of
" 'Oh God,' gulped Millie, sinking to the edge of the settee and almost to
her knees. 'God, please, God. What have I done to be punished? Please tell
me, God, and I'll do something else.' " (WINE-DARK SEE p. 106)
Presumably her prayer is answered in the form of Thelma offering an
alternative to inaction. The first psychic reading serves as a warning while
the second more elaborate reading/vision effectively divorces Millie from
fault and responsibility in the matter. As it was quite obviously Phineas
who should bear the blame it is fitting that his own sons would eat him for
it.
More could be said but if it is not obvious at this point I think this story
deserves more credit that it has been given. It certainly is never boring
and I personally found it very amusing at least this time around. It should
be noted that Aickman has dealt with this type of theme previously and that
it should come as no surprise to an Aickman reader that Offspring As
Monsters would reappear. It bears similarities to his earlier stories "The
School Friend" and "My Poor Friend" and possibly even "A Roman Question" to
some extent.