Reviews for Cabbages and Kings

The average rating for Cabbages and Kings based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-13 00:00:00 James Gravil Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ 5 Stars for the wonderful opening story "The Repairer of Reputations". although i wonder if 'wonderful' is the correct word. after all, this is a story that opens with a bizarre, sometimes dire alterna-history leading up to a 1920s America where on-lookers gather to contemplate terminally dispirited disportment within suicide-abetting "Lethal Chambers." and after this bit of surprising strangeness, the reader is plunged right into the mind of a classic Unreliable Narrator (the poor lad struck his head after a fall from a horse and was never quite the same again), complete with insanely grandiose ambitions and malicious thoughts of revenge and devious yet doltish plans for his enemies - who are everywhere, simply everywhere! with the added bonuses of various books of ill repute, some surreal shenanigans starring a peculiarly malevolent cat, and the creepy Repairer himself. all in all, it is a bracing and imaginative bit of darkness on the page. and, to me at least, quite wonderful. the style is so breezy, the pacing so brisk, the imagination so fertile and so oddly modern, the experience was pure pleasure. it is hard to believe that this story was written over a 100 years ago. i also enjoyed the three tales of weird horror that followed, chock-full of dread and formless despair. good stories. interesting and off-kilter and pleasingly sinister. the big take-away is the idea of a monstrous play ("The King in Yellow") that horribly impacts anyone who dares read it, and which is a key element in each of the first four stories. here's an excerpt from said monstrous play (please don't kill yourself or anyone else after reading): Camilla: You, sir, should unmask. Stranger: Indeed? Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you. Stranger: I wear no mask. Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask! hey, take a look at this cover for an edition i wish i owned: if you are at all familiar with this author or classic Weird Fiction in general, then you know the drill. those first four stories (along with Ambrose Bierce's "An Inhabitant of Carcosa") set the template for much Weird Fiction to come, from H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith to Karl Edward Wagner and beyond. the names, the places, the idea of fell books of unhealthy influence, creeping dread, hysterical romanticism, humans viewed as repulsive insects... this story-cycle's place at the beginning of it all is well-known. it is also a well-known disappointment. only those first four could be classified as Weird Fiction. a fifth, "The Demoiselle d'Ys", is an elegant, wispy ghost story/romance - and is also quite traditional. following that is "The Prophet's Paradise" - a collection of bits of ambiguous prose poetry, or impenetrable fable, or snatches from a larger tapestry never completed, or something. the remaining four tales (each fancifully titled after certain streets) have barely a whiff of horror about them and so have met a chilly reception over the years from Weird Fiction enthusiasts. they are all about living the lifestyle of a bohemian art student abroad in bohemian Paris' bohemian Latin Quarter. think Trilby minus Svengali. they are about romance, art, naive americans, lack of money, enticing but sometimes tragic whores, some bloodshed (at least in one story), a sad and lonely ending (in another story), some unbearable lightness of being... what it feels like to be young and artistic and ready to enjoy life in a bustling and sometimes violent big city. these stories were slim, rather quaint, rather witty, and quite vibrant. i particularly enjoyed "The Street of the First Shell", which plunges the reader into a you-are-there-now account of the milieu itself and then what it feels like to suddenly find yourself in the middle of a bloody, confusing battle full of heretofore-unexperienced chaos, terror, and death. overall this is an unusual and surprisingly quirky collection of stories. all of them were interesting and a couple really sang.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-11 00:00:00 Nico Lamer Can art drive a person insane? Could there be a book, or a film, or a piece of music that vibrates against the cortext in a certain way, or opens great gulfs of revelation so profound and so shattering that you could never be exposed to it without being changed forever? If the truth of such a piece got out, wouldn't anyone and everyone want to be exposed to it, scoffing and thinking that they, above all else, would be well equipped to handle any dangers, and yet feeling inescapably drawn to find out just what it is that makes such a thing work so potently on the human psyche? Of course, these vistas, this mind-altering vibration, could never, ever be described. They could only be experienced. And having had the experience, you would have to dissemanate it to others. You wouldn't even have to try. If you had the presence of mind to warn your friends against it, even that warning would plant the seed of gnosis, and before you could say "Tears shall dry and die in dim Carcosa", they would be turning those mouldering pages, their eyes soon wide, staring into nothingness, but seeing....what? It's the idea of the King in Yellow that's so powerful and sticks with you long after you've finished Robert Chambers's odes to the play that nobody's ever read and remained untouched. Throughout the first four stories of this book, you'll get tantalising glimpses of the first act of the play, which is apparently harmless. The second act is what shakes everyone to their very foundation, and Chambers wisely does not give us a taste, for anything he could say would pale in comparison to what we might imagine, even if that imagining is but the faintest dark inkling. The first story in this series, "The Repairer of Reputations", is one of my favourite short stories, rivalling, I think, the best of Poe and many other writers. It's strange and electrifying; set in New York of 1920 (twenty-five years after this book was written), and the future depicted is very odd indeed. The USA seems to have become a fascist state, and the tale begins on the eve of the opening of the first Suicide Chamber, little gas chambers to be set up all over the country where people will be permitted to cleanly destroy themselves if life becomes too difficult for them. In just a few pages, Chambers paints a sharp and eloquent picture of this altered, would-be-future new York, and it is here, among the clean streets and pristine boulevards, that our narrator resides. He's just recovered from an injury (falling from his horse, he says), and during his convalescence had little better to do than to read the now infamous The King in Yellow. He believes he's made a sterling recovery, but his friends are convinced that he's not a well man. Throughout the story he rails against comrades and family, secretly plotting to undermine the order of things with the mysterious and bizarrely freakish Mr. Wilde. Their "Reputation Repair" service is designed to make them a good deal of money...but to what end? Well, you simply have to read the story to find out. Then read it again to pick up on the little details you might have missed the first time. It's really good stuff; definitely an unsung classic of the highest order. The next few stories also deal with the play The King in Yellow in one way or another. "The Mask" is my second favourite tale, and its romantic and tragic and haunting, and set around the time when the play first emerged into the world. You may need to read the ending twice to realise what is going on. Just remember that anyone who has claimed to have read the play has perceptions that should not wholly be trusted. While I don't think Chambers ever manages to equal the glory of the first two tales, he does come pretty close at times. "The Court of the Dragon" is a short little piece with some extremely evocative writing. "The Yellow Sign" is a little more of a standard horror, but it still makes sense in the context of the play and the maddening effects it has apparently had on the world. From this point, things move into other territory as the concept of the play is abandoned and we get stories of mysterious love, possible time travel, war-torn France and even a very short and effective ghost story. The last of these is "The Street of the Four Winds", and it's really very good. The image of the young artist taking in this cat and trying to find out where it belongs is evoked so well that I found the story imprinted forever in my memory. This book has had a quiet, profound influence on many things, I feel. The most obvious would be H. P. Lovecraft and his Necronomicon, but the idea of books that rend the mind is a potent one that's burrowed into the literary conscious and has even showed up in a number of movies, too. One might even say that something like Borges's "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a perfect extension and elucidation of this very idea. In a way reading The King in Yellow makes me sad, because it seems that Chambers, upon receiving some literary success, became rather neutered and churned out a lot of average schlock that's of little consequence, even if perhaps fun to read. If nothing else (and it is many things), The King in Yellow is proof that the best work is produced in times when there can be no room for complacency and no substitute for the fire of strange passions, and and that the contentment of a fine house and back-patting acolaides are seldom the elements that conspire to create great works.