The Collected Short Fiction

by Ramsey Campbell

  *How times change! These days not only the novel but Pasolini's bleak and distressing film of it are openly on sale in Britain.

  By then I had completed _Demons by Daylight__, my second book, though it wasn't published until 1973. It may not seem especially radical now, but it certainly was then, not least in dealing with characters whose guilts and fears and sexuality and, especially, emotional clumsiness were based on my experience. Indeed, if I hadn't felt driven by the need to bring horror fiction up to date, in line with the contemporary fiction I was reading, I might not have had the courage to continue; I felt that these stories were unlikely to receive August Derleth's approval--so much so that when I'd finished typing the book I fell into a horrible depression, because I both regarded Arkham House as my only market (as Lovecraft regarded _Weird Tales__ as his) and was convinced that Arkham wouldn't touch it. But Derleth bought it, though he never gave me his opinion of it, and I was set on my course.

  It is sometimes suggested (by Paul Schrader, for instance, in an attempt to justify his vulgar remake of _Cat People__) that all horror fiction is about sex. This is nonsense, and unhelpfully reductionist even when applied to tales with sexual themes: it's too easy to slide from "that's what the story is about" to "that's all the story is about." But it's true that many horror stories have a sexual subtext, and I think many of us in the field tended to assume that if the underlying sexual theme was made explicit, it would rob the fiction of its power.

  It was the anthologist Michel Parry, an old friend, who gave me the chance to test this theory, though I don't think he quite realised what he was helping to create. After editing three volumes of black magic stories for Mayflower, he complained to me that nobody was submitting tales on a sexual theme. Aroused by the suggestion, I wrote "Dolls," which enabled me both to explore what happened to the supernatural story when the underlying sexual theme (not always present, of course) became overt and to write a long short story that was stronger on narrative than atmosphere, a useful preparation for writing my first novel. Michel hadn't expected anything quite so sexually explicit, and I was amused when his publishers, Mayflower, felt compelled to show "Dolls" to their lawyers for advice. The lawyers advised them to publish, and over the next few years Michel commissioned several more such tales, all of which are included here.

  My original title for this book was _Horror Erotica__. The one it bears was the inspiration of Jeff Conner at Scream/Press. At least we didn't call it _Wanking Nightmares__. My correspondent Keith B. Johnston of Goshen came up with _Eldritchly Erect__, and Poppy Z. Brite suggested I should write a second such collection set in Liverpool and called _Mersey Beat-Off__, though admittedly that was after I proposed she call a book _The Phantom of the Okra__.

  I don't know if much need be said about most of the following stories. "The Other Woman" has offended some readers, and I probably wouldn't write it that way now if at all, but I think it's a story about fantasies of rape rather than merely being such a fantasy itself. I believe "The Seductress" was filmed for the cable television show _The Hunger__, but although I was paid for it I've never seen the episode. "Merry May" (which was written to tumefy the first edition of this book) became transformed into "Merry Way" on the cover of the American Warner paperback, which also toned the original subtitle ("Tales of Sex and Death") down to "Seven Tales of Seduction and Terror."

  "The Body in the Window" was written for the _Hot Blood__ paperback anthology series, while "Kill Me Hideously" suggested itself as soon as I agreed at a British science fiction convention to offer as an auction item the chance for the highest bidder to appear in my next novel. That was _The Last Voice They Hear__, but the charming bidder had nothing in common with the unlucky Lisette in the present book.

  "The Other Woman" and "Loveman's Comeback" were written for the short-lived _Devil's Kisses__ series of anthologies of erotic horror Michel edited as Linda Lovecraft, who was in fact the owner of a chain of sex shops and who is one more reason why asking for Lovecraft in a British bookshop may earn you a dubious look. Perhaps the anthologies were ahead of their time, because the second in the series was pulped shortly after publication, apparently in response to objections from Scotland Yard. Rumour had it that the problem was a tale reprinted from _National Lampoon__, involving a seven-year-old girl and a horse. Michel held on to "Stages" for a possible anthology about drugs, but after the above incident the story went into limbo. I confess to being more amused than irritated by the banning of _More Devil's Kisses__, much as I felt upon learning that my first novel had been seen (in a television documentary) on top of a pile of books for burning by Christian fundamentalists--something of a compliment as far as I'm concerned. On reflection, though, I think I wasn't entitled to feel quite so superior about censorship. Though my sexual tales had been, on the whole, progressively darker and more unpleasant, I'd suppressed the third of them, "In the Picture." It was the initial draft of the story published here as "The Limits of Fantasy."

  At the time (May 1975) I believed I had decided not to revise and submit the story because it wasn't up to publishable standard, and that was certainly the case. However, the reasons were more personal than I admitted to myself. All fiction is to some extent the product of censorship, whether by the culture within which it is produced or by the writer's own selection of material, both of which processes tend to be to some extent unconscious. Perhaps the most insidious form of censorship, insofar as it may be the most seductive for the writer, is by his own dishonesty. For me the most immediate proof is that it wasn't until Barry Hoffman asked me if I had any suppressed fiction he could publish in _Gauntlet__ that I realized, on rereading "In the Picture," that my dishonesty was its central flaw.

  One mode of fiction I dislike--one especially common in my field--is the kind where the act of writing about a character seems designed to announce that the character has nothing to do with the author. On the most basic level, it's nonsense, since by writing about a character the writer must draw that personality to some extent from within himself. More to the present point, it smells of protesting too much, and while that may be clear to the reader, for the writer it's a kind of censorship of self. I hope that "In the Picture" is the only tale in which I succumb to that temptation.

  "In the Picture" follows the broad outline of "The Limits of Fantasy," though much more humourlessly, up to the scene with Enid Stone, and then Sid Pym begins to indulge in fantasies of rape and degradation which I believe are foreign to his sexual makeup and which are contrived simply to demonstrate what a swine he is--in other words, that he is quite unlike myself. Nothing could be further from the truth. In response to Barry Hoffman I treated "In the Picture" as the first version of the story and rewrote it exactly as I would any other first draft, and I had the most fun writing Pym's boarding-school fantasy, which is at least as much my fantasy as his. For me his presentation of it is both comic and erotic.

  It seems to me that even the most liberal of us employ two definitions of pornography: the kind that turns ourselves on, which we're more prone to regard as erotic, and the kind which appeals to people with sexual tastes unlike our own and which we're more likely to condemn as pornographic. In my case the absurdity is that the group of scenarios which I sum up as the boarding-school fantasy (which is obviously as much fetishistic as sadistic) is the only species of pornography I find appealing, and it was therefore especially dishonest of me to include no more than a hint of it when I collected my sexual tales in _Scared Stiff__. I suppose, then and in my original suppression of "In the Picture," I was afraid of losing friends, but that really isn't something writers should take into account when writing. I suspect I was assuming that my readers and people in general are squarer when it comes to erotic fantasy than is in fact the case. Since the publication of _Scared Stiff__ I've heard from readers of various sexes that they found parts of the book erotic, and a female reader gave me a copy of _Caught Looking__, a polemic published by the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce, in which one of the illustration
s (all chosen by the FACT designers on the basis that they themselves found the images erotically appealing) is a still from _Moral Welfare__, a British spanking video. (The Spankarama Cinema in Soho, rather unfairly chastised in the winter 1982/83 _Sight and Sound__ and touched on by association in _Incarnate__, is long gone; perhaps I should have had a publicity photograph taken under the sign while it was there.) Incidentally, perhaps one minor reason for my reticence was the notion that this sexual taste is peculiarly British, but a few minutes on the Internet will give the lie to that. I keep feeling there's a novel in the theme, to be called _Adult Fun__, but who would publish it? Meanwhile "The Limits of Fantasy" adds variety to this collection, which has sometimes struck me as too mechanically including the standard variations in tale after tale.

  So I trust this hasn't been too embarrassing. I haven't found it so, but then I may sometimes lack tact in these areas: I once greeted a friend I met in a sex shop, who immediately fled. Still, I'm committed to telling as much of the truth as I can, as every writer should be. If we can't tell the truth about ourselves, how can we presume to do so about anyone or anything? Secretiveness is a weakness, whereas honesty is strength.

  If I'm told my field is incapable of something, I'll give it a try--hence these and others of my tales. No doubt the irritation of censorship also has something to do with it: here it seems to have behaved like Spanish fly. On that basis I should like to thank censors, especially the self-appointed, for helping me write. I love them all. After all, as they must recognize, we hate most in others what we can't admit about ourselves.

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  Wallasey, Merseyside

  28 May 2001

  Index Of Stories

  Struck-through links are currently missing from this collection.

  Above the World (1979)

  Accident (1987)

  Accident Zone (1977)

  After the Queen (1977)

  Again (1981)

  Agatha's Ghost (1999)

  All for Sale (2001)

  At The End of a Summer's Day (1973)

  The Alternative (1994)

  Among the pictures are these: (1980)

  The Announcement (2005)

  Another World (1987)

  Apples (1986)

  Ash (1976)

  At First Sight (1973)

  Baby (1976)

  Bait (1983)

  Becoming Visible (1999)

  Bedtime Story (1986)

  Before the Storm (1980)

  Being an Angel (1989)

  Beside the Seaside (1976)

  Between the Floors (1997)

  Beyond Words (1986)

  Beyond Worlds (1986)

  Blacked Out (1984)

  The Body in the Window (1995)

  Boiled Alive (1986)

  Bradmoor (1987)

  Breaking Up (2004)

  Broadcast (1971)

  The Brood (1980)

  The Burning (1981)

  Burning (2009)

  Call First (1975)

  Calling Card (1982)

  Cat and Mouse (1972)

  The Cellars (1967)

  The Change (1980)

  The Childish Fear (1966)

  The Chimney (1977)

  The Christmas Present (1975)

  Chucky Comes to Liverpool (2010)

  The Church in High Street (1962)

  Cold Print (1969)

  The Companion (1976)

  Concussion (1973)

  Conversation in a Railway Carriage (1987)

  Conversion (1977)

  The Correspondence of Cameron Thaddeus Nash (2010)

  Cyril (1969)

  The Dark Show (1976)

  Dead Letters (1978)

  The Dead Must Die (1992)

  The Decorations (2005)

  The Depths (1982)

  The Devil's Cart (1987)

  Digging Deep (2006)

  Direct Line (2004)

  Dolls (1976)

  Double Room (2008)

  Down There (1978)

  Dragged Down (2009)

  Drawing In (1978)

  The Enchanted Fruit (1973)

  End of the Line (1991)

  The Entertainment (1999)

  Eye of Childhood (1982)

  Eyes End (2002)

  The Face in the Desert (1986)

  The Faces at Pine Dunes (1980)

  Facing It (1995)

  Fear the Dead (2003)

  Feeling Remains (2003)

  The Ferries (1982)

  The Fit (1980)

  For You to Judge / See How They Run (1993)

  The Franklyn Paragraphs (1973)

  The Friend (1987)

  The Gap (1980)

  Getting It Wrong (2011)

  Going Under (1995)

  The Grave in the Desert (1987)

  The Grip of Peace (1988)

  The Guide (1989)

  The Guy (1973)

  Hain's Island (2002)

  The Hands (1986)

  Heading Home (1978)

  Hearing Is Believing (1981)

  The Height of the Scream (1976)

  The Hollow in the Woods (1987)

  The Horror from the Bridge (1964)

  Horror House of Blood (1976)

  The Horror Under Warrendown (1995)

  Hybrid (1987)

  I Am It And It Is I (1983)

  In the Bag (1977)

  Incarnate (1983)

  The Inhabitant of the Lake (1964)

  The Insects from Shaggai (1964)

  In the Shadows (1976)

  The Interloper (1973)

  In the Trees (1986)

  The Invocation (1982)

  It Helps If You Sing (1989)

  Jack's Little Friend (1975)

  Jack in the Box (1983)

  Just Behind You (2005)

  Just Waiting (1983)

  Kill Me Hideously (1997)

  Laid Down (2004)

  The Last Hand (1975)

  Lilith's (1976)

  The Limits of Fantasy (1992)

  Limits of Fantasy (1992)

  Litter (1974)

  Little Man (1986)

  Little Ones (1999)

  The Little Voice (1978)

  The Long Way (2008)

  Looking Out (1986)

  The Lost (1973)

  Loveman's Comeback (1977)

  Mackintosh Willy (1979)

  Made in Goatswood (1973)

  A Madness from the Vaults (1972)

  A Madness from the Vaults I (1986)

  The Man in the Underpass (1975)

  The Mask (1987)

  The Maze (1995)

  McGonagall in the Head (1992)

  Medusa (1987)

  Meeting the Author (1989)

  Merry May (1987)

  Midnight Hobo (1979)

  The Mine on Yuggoth (1964)

  Missed Connection (1986)

  Missing (1976)

  The Moon-Lens (1964)

  Morning Call (1995)

  Murders (1975)

  Napier Court (1971)

  Needing Ghosts (1990)

  Never to Be Heard (1998)

  A New Life (1987)

  The Next Sideshow (1981)

  Next Time You'll Know Me (1988)

  Night Beat (1973)

  No End of Fun (2002)

  No Story in It (2000)

  No Strings (2000)

  The Oak Chest (1987)

  The Offering to the Dead (1995)

  Old Clothes (1985)

  The Old Horns (1973)

  The Old School (1989)

  One Copy Only (2002)

  The One Safe Place (excerpt) (1994)

  Only the Wind (1990)

  The Other House (1972)

  The Other Names (1998)

  The Other Side (1986)

  The Other Woman (1976)

  Out of Copyright (1980)

  Out of the Woods (1996)

  Passing Phase (1985)

  The Pattern (1976)

  Peep (2007
)

  Pet (2008)

  The Pit (1996)

  The Place of Revelation (2003)

  The Plain of Sound (1964)

  A Play for the Jaded (1994)

  Playing the Game (1988)

  Point of View (2000)

  Potential (1973)

  The Precognitive Trip (2008)

  Premonition (1987)

  The Previous Tenant (1975)

  Property of the Ring (2000)

  The Proxy (1979)

  The Puppets (1982)

  Ra*e (1998)

  Raised by the Moon (2001)

  The Render of the Veils (1964)

  Reply Guaranteed (1968)

  The Reshaping of Rossiter (1990)

  Respects (2009)

  The Retrospective (2002)

  Return Journey (2000)

  The Return of the Witch (1964)

  The Revelations of Glaaki (1984)

  Rising Generation (1975)

  The Room Beyond (2011)

  The Room in the Castle (1964)

  Root Cause (1986)

  The Rounds (2010)

  Run Through (1975)

  Safe Words (2009)

  The Same in Any Language (1991)

  The Scar (1969)

  Second Chance (1976)

  Second Sight (1987)

  The Second Staircase (1973)

  The Seductress (1977)

  Seeing the World (1984)

  The Sentinels (1973)

  The Shadows in the Barn (1975)