Author Topic: Pseudopod 375: The Signalman  (Read 7592 times)

Bdoomed

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on: March 01, 2014, 12:36:25 AM
Pseudopod 375: The Signalman

by Charles Dickens.

“The Signal-Man” was first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of ALL THE YEAR ROUND. It is The Doctor’s favorite Dickens story and has been adapted many times in many formats, including a radio drama version by Ye Olde Editor when he was in college.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) surely needs no introduction so let’s talk a little bit about his relationship to the horror genre. Nearly everything Dickens wrote contains elements of the grotesque – exaggeration (used for both comic and chilling effects) was one of the devices most natural to him. He had a steady interest in the supernatural, albeit with reservations. Several of his stories make fun of spiritualism (“The Lawyer & The Ghost”, “The Haunted House”, “Well-Authenticated Rappings”) but Dickens thought ghost stories were especially appropriate for the Christmas season and encouraged other writers to produce ghost stories for the holidays including Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins. Dickens first and best ghost story was “A Christmas Carol” (1843), which was an enormous success, and later tales include “The Haunted Man & The Ghost’s Bargain” (1848) (an allegory) and “The Trial For Murder” (1865), along with this one. In THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELER (1860) he wrote that the horror stories told to him in childhood by his nurse had had a lasting effect – “If we all knew our own minds (in a more enlarged sense than the popular acceptation of that phrase), I suspect we should find our nurses responsible for most of the dark corners we are forced to go back to against our will.”

Your reader – Ian Stuart – is a writer/performer living in York. He has done work for the BBC and Manx Radio, as well as audiobooks, historical guides and promotional videos. He is also a storyteller/guide for The Ghost Trail of York, taking tourists round the city and telling them some of its darker secrets. You can read more about his poetry and his dog, Digby, on his blog, The Top Banana. If you wish to contact Ian about v/o work of any kind , you can get in touch with him on Twitter at @yorkwriter99. His greatest boast is that he is the father of a famous son.



This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the terms I used, for, besides that I am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.

He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel’s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and then looked at me.

That light was part of his charge? Was it not?

He answered in a low voice: “Don’t you know it is?”

The monstrous thought came into my mind as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind.

In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought to flight.

“You look at me,” I said, forcing a smile, “as if you had a dread of me.”

“I was doubtful,” he returned, “whether I had seen you before.”

“Where?”

He pointed to the red light he had looked at.

“There?” I said.

Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), Yes.





Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Fenrix

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Reply #1 on: March 01, 2014, 03:14:13 PM
I want to go on the Ghost Trail of York so much.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Scattercat

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Reply #2 on: March 02, 2014, 01:45:03 AM
There's a tone to old ghost stories that modern attempts just don't quite seem able to capture, even when they consciously invoke it.  I love this story.



kibitzer

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Reply #3 on: March 03, 2014, 07:35:54 AM
I want to go on the Ghost Trail of York so much.

I have actually done a ghost walk in York and it was, indeed, fantastic. I couldn't tell you if Ian Stuart led it -- this was, oh, maybe 1995? -- but whoever did was a consummate story teller and you really didn't need more than that. The background of York itself lent the perfect creepiness and verisimilitude to the stories. Excellent. One of my best-remembered experiences of living in England.


Moon_Goddess

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Reply #4 on: March 04, 2014, 02:39:38 PM
I didn't enjoy this story at first, it kinda bored me...I have too much modern sensabilities I guess.

But then at the end it really put a chill down my spine, it was just the right amount of campfire ghost story.


On a side note: I've never seen Mothman Prophacies, but anything that gives Alistair the creeps is a no go for me.     I find it interesting his talking about breaking down in the middle of nowhere being outside his understanding till visiting the US.      I grew up in rural oklahoma, I actually have broke down miles and miles from anyone.   But the nature of growing up there, I feel less afraid than breaking down in the city.

Was dream6601 but that's sounds awkward when Nathan reads my posts.


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Reply #5 on: March 04, 2014, 04:48:43 PM
There's a tone to old ghost stories that modern attempts just don't quite seem able to capture, even when they consciously invoke it.  I love this story.

Yes, this.  I liked it.  I generally quite like what I've read of Dickens, even when it's clear that one of his chapters was written on a day he was short of ideas and just threw some fluff in there to get a paycheck.

A simple concept, nothing groundbreaking, but the mood and tone is very well done in a way that I would like to be able to do.



Thundercrack!

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Reply #6 on: March 12, 2014, 09:00:00 PM

I have actually done a ghost walk in York and it was, indeed, fantastic. I couldn't tell you if Ian Stuart led it -- this was, oh, maybe 1995? -- but whoever did was a consummate story teller and you really didn't need more than that. The background of York itself lent the perfect creepiness and verisimilitude to the stories. Excellent. One of my best-remembered experiences of living in England.

I did a ghost walk in York, about the same time. Mid-to-late 1990's. The guide was named something Pendragon, I think (I assume this was a stage name!).

The only story I remember from the walk was something to do with the disembodied feet of Roman soldiers, marching through a cellar.



Alasdair5000

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Reply #7 on: March 12, 2014, 09:32:43 PM
That's the Harry Martindale story:) Martindale was a plumber, who was called into the basement of Treasurer's House, a very large, very old building in the center of York (Google it it's lovely). I used to have lectures there when my University leased some of the rooms. Anyway, Martindale was there in the mid 1950s I think, and he was working away quite happily when he heard something. He looked round as it got closer and he realized it was the sound of people. Lots of people.

Marching.

Then, he watched as an entire unit of Roman soldiers, battered, unshaven and exhausted, marched out of one wall, across the room and into the other.

He did what anyone would do. Ran like Hell.

The story got around and he was interviewed by the University. He told them very specifically that the Romans he'd seen had round shields which was a detail of that particular unit's gear that wasn't widely known at that point. He was also adamant that he could only see them from the knee up. Later, excavations revealed there was a Roman road directly under where he'd seen them. About shin length under in fact:)

Now, I have no doubt that a lot of people won't believe it and I don't blame them, but I've always liked the Martindale story for personal reasons. Harry became a policeman not long after that and, one night in the mid 60s was called to a party to ask them to keep the noise down. It was a filthy night and they were a nice bunch of students so they made him a cup of tea and had a chat and he told them the story.

One of them was my Dad.

Small city, York:)



kibitzer

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Reply #8 on: March 12, 2014, 09:35:25 PM
Very nice! I remember that one and a few others. There's was one particularly hair-raising one about a haunted church or spire, something abut a guy camping out to find out if the stories were true.


davidthygod

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Reply #9 on: March 17, 2014, 04:36:22 PM
Can I get flagged by the moderators for making a direct personal attack on an author that has been dead for over 100 years.  Because, I generally find Dickens to be the most ridiculously wordy and overly descriptive author of all time, and I personally despise him on a high school level.  He is great at social commentary but holy crap, get to the point. 

As for the signal-man, I was impressed that he spent less than 3 pages to describe the narrators jacket.  Kidding, this was actually pretty good.  Good narration, sufficiently creepy, slow and methodical.  Not my favorite story of the year, but it did make me briefly question my hatred of Dickens.


The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.


adrianh

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Reply #10 on: March 17, 2014, 05:25:02 PM
As for the signal-man, I was impressed that he spent less than 3 pages to describe the narrators jacket.  Kidding, this was actually pretty good.  Good narration, sufficiently creepy, slow and methodical.  Not my favorite story of the year, but it did make me briefly question my hatred of Dickens.

I find I like some Dickens and others a bit of a slog. You might want to give him another go. I find his shorter stories are quite fun myself.

Something that I don't think that anybody has mentioned is when Dickens wrote this - it was a year after he was in the Staplehurst rail crash where his carriage was one of the few not to go off the bridge. He spent some time with the wounded and dying and apparently saved some lives. It unsurprisingly affected him a great deal and he died five years to the day after the accident.

 



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Reply #11 on: March 18, 2014, 01:39:58 PM
Can I get flagged by the moderators for making a direct personal attack on an author that has been dead for over 100 years.  Because, I generally find Dickens to be the most ridiculously wordy and overly descriptive author of all time, and I personally despise him on a high school level.  He is great at social commentary but holy crap, get to the point. 

IIRC, most of Dickens's longer stuff was published serially to make a living, so when you gotta write the next section of your story and the plot just isn't flowing, you write what you can write so you can get paid!



evrgrn_monster

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Reply #12 on: March 24, 2014, 02:12:09 AM
Yeah, I normally love me some classic horror, but this one was not doing it for me. I was intrigued to hear a Dickens horror piece, but I found it to be a bit long-winded and not really that interesting. However, it was a smooth, pretty listen, partly because the narrator had a voice like butter.


albionmoonlight

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Reply #13 on: March 26, 2014, 04:55:14 PM
I agree that there is no real way to replicate the feeling of classic stories.  I lack the skills to figure out just what is off with modern attempts, but something intangible (to me) is missing.

Knowing that this was a classic going in, I was prepared for the slow pace and mood-focused narration.  I would not want this every week.  But it is a great change of pace from modern stories and really captures something that you just can't replicate today.



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Reply #14 on: March 27, 2014, 01:46:37 PM
I agree that there is no real way to replicate the feeling of classic stories.  I lack the skills to figure out just what is off with modern attempts, but something intangible (to me) is missing.

You can certainly try to do it!  I've tried to do a Dickens style and some have told me I did a good job of it.  But even then, I realized the story would be judged by modern sensibilities since it couldn't be prefaced with "This was written by a well-respected old-timey author", so while I tried to use the same kind of voice it still probably had to be made modern to have a chance of selling anywhere.



davidthygod

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Reply #15 on: March 27, 2014, 02:45:15 PM
You can certainly try to do it!  I've tried to do a Dickens style and some have told me I did a good job of it.  But even then, I realized the story would be judged by modern sensibilities since it couldn't be prefaced with "This was written by a well-respected old-timey author", so while I tried to use the same kind of voice it still probably had to be made modern to have a chance of selling anywhere.

I read some article, which I could not find in a 2 minute Google search to post here, about a famous author who submitted one of his works verbatim under a pen name and got a dozen rejections, and then submitted it under his real name and had one of his most acclaimed novels and biggest bestsellers.  This is not a perfect comparison, but I think it proves the point that the name at front of the book is a very powerful tool that often sets the tone of a story in people's minds.  And also that the publishing industry selection process is horribly flawed.

Maybe you should try the "pen name" Charles Dickens and see how that same story is received.

The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad.


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Reply #16 on: March 28, 2014, 11:46:21 AM
You can certainly try to do it!  I've tried to do a Dickens style and some have told me I did a good job of it.  But even then, I realized the story would be judged by modern sensibilities since it couldn't be prefaced with "This was written by a well-respected old-timey author", so while I tried to use the same kind of voice it still probably had to be made modern to have a chance of selling anywhere.

I read some article, which I could not find in a 2 minute Google search to post here, about a famous author who submitted one of his works verbatim under a pen name and got a dozen rejections, and then submitted it under his real name and had one of his most acclaimed novels and biggest bestsellers.  This is not a perfect comparison, but I think it proves the point that the name at front of the book is a very powerful tool that often sets the tone of a story in people's minds.  And also that the publishing industry selection process is horribly flawed.

Maybe you should try the "pen name" Charles Dickens and see how that same story is received.


Probably a little late for that, it's already published on Escape Pod.  :)  I actually did consider putting Charles Dickens name on it since it actually claims that A Christmas Carol is a sequel to it, but in this case the subject matter was decidedly not-Dickens even though the style was.

Also I wanted my name on it.  And they wouldn't need to pay me if I were a long-dead author!



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Reply #17 on: January 05, 2015, 02:55:28 PM
I put this as #6 on my Best of Pseudopod 2014 list posted this morning:
http://www.diabolicalplots.com/?p=12662