|
|
Post by weirdmonger on Jan 9, 2023 19:19:46 GMT
I encountered a candidate for this question today! THE POLICE by David Zane Mairowitz (1972) A conte cruel, and I felt as if the letter k in Kafka had been sharpened and enlarged, then inserted into me like a surgical umbrella… I have photocopied the whole of this brief story here, for any interested: dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-police-by-david-zane-mairowitz/ |
|
|
|
Post by pbsplatter on Jan 9, 2023 19:34:03 GMT
That's...really quite a story; it reminds me of Kafka, and of Ballard. I'm not sure whether it's gratuitously nasty, though--I think gratuitous suggests in excess of what's necessary to get the point across. Of course, the point itself must be worth something to justify the nastiness used to accomplish it.
One story that comes to mind is the very ending of "Miss Fletcher's Plum Tree" from the 12th Pan Book of Horror--it's a charming little tale of a spinster who kidnaps and alternatively coddles and abuses (but mostly just abuses) a boy stealing from the titular tree. At one point, his mother comes looking for him and he is unable to contact her in any way. All agonizing, and unpleasant, but not yet gratuitous.
But the very end of the story, he's thrown into the river--I can't recall if he's been killed already or if he drowns there--and we're given a loathsome description of the various river animals eating the child's corpse. That to me is gratuitously nasty, and I hate the story for it (although it did leave an impression, after all)...
|
|
