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by Clive Barker
The Yattering, essentially a poltergeist but described variously in the text as a demon and as a fury, is a small, invisible, demon sent from hell to drive Jack Polo insane. He fails.
Like Rawhead Rex, this story suffers a bit from character POV switching - in my opinion, the end effect is more problematic here than it was in Rawhead. Letting the reader know that Jack is aware of his antagonist and is ignoring him is amusing, but it is revealed far too early in the text. The second reveal, when the Yattering finally figures it out, is robbed of impact because Jack is no longer a 'victim'. He's been playing with the demon (and the lives of his family) all along. It'd have been funnier to save that for the end.
The Yattering itself is a low-level demon, presumably with limited powers. His situation reminded me strongly of the set-up in C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, in which an older middle-management demon mentors his nephew. The idea of Hell as a bureaucracy is a fitting one - it is something most people will have to interact with at some point, and it will never be a pleasant experience. And we can all relate to the feelings of helplessness and the sense that we've been given an impossible task.
The Yattering is described as being fairly small, but also strong - he fantasizes about crushing Jack's head between his hands, which indicates that if he were able to touch people he could do some damage. The extent of his supernatural abilities isn't clear, but they include invisibility and telekinesis, and he doesn't seem limited in touching his environment. He is able to animate dead things, and can torture other living creatures. In a nod to Faust, he is surprised when Jack doesn't ask him to perform the same miracles as Mephistopheles - leading me to think he has considerably more power than he was able to use against Jack. He is cruel - three cats are slaughtered with increasing violence, the fish get boiled, and one of the daughters has her mind essentially broken. But with those strengths are key weaknesses - he is unable to touch Jack physically, and unable to leave the house. However, he breaks both rules, which leaves me to wonder if he could do so again and break away from his new master.
The Yattering wasn't terribly scary. The story plays him to a comedic effect rather than straight horror, and Jack ignoring almost all of it detracted from what would be terrifying if it actually happened. I wanted to sympathize with the Yattering but he was too cruel for me to really feel bad about the situation - if I felt bad for anyone, it was the two daughters. They've got nothing at stake and no idea what's going on. If Jack was any sort of a decent parent he'd have gone to their house for Christmas where they'd be safe - he knew the Yattering couldn't follow him. Then he and the Yattering could duke it out on New Years or something.
Besides which, the Yattering wasted a perfectly good turkey dinner. And it had bacon on it. BACON.
I didn't even think about the Screwtape Letters--good connection! I definitely agree with you that it would have been better to save the reveal until the end. For me, the humor was diminished the moment I knew that Jack was aware of the truth.
ReplyDeleteI got the impression Jack felt he had to have his daughters come to his house, because otherwise the Yattering might suspect that he knew something. It still makes Jack an awful parent, but I think that was his reasoning.
The real horror of this story was the wasted bacon.... I'm only partially kidding.
ReplyDeleteWhile I did feel sympathy for the Yattering, I didn't feel any for Jack and like you, I felt the worst for Jack's daughters. They had no idea what they were getting into. Couldn't Jack have let them know when he was outside the house so the Yattering wouldn't hear?
Actually, are we sure he didn't warn them of anything? They panic, of course, but it seems like it could have been worse. Furthermore, perhaps he didn't trust them not to say anything even if he only told them outside, and if they DIDN'T panic, the Yattering would have been on to him.
DeleteIf he'd told his daughters when he was outside of the house, the Yattering wouldn't know, but his bosses would. The point of the whole whispering obscenities in the ear thing was to get Jack to do unspeakable things out in the world, where the Yattering can't go. I don't think Jack could let on in any way that he knew about or was resisting the Yattering.
DeleteThe Yattering ruined a perfectly good Christmas dinner, and I would have been really pissed. That turkey sounded damn good, even if it was animated. It would be more...adventurous eating. Imagine if, instead of running away, Jack had grabbed the carving knife and tried to duel with the turkey?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the reveal being later. It would have been so much more impactful to think that this guy was really just that dense and oblivious to the Yattering. And great connection with Screwtape Letters. I didn't even think about that.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the Yattering not being terribly scary. The scariest thing about the Yattering is that he can tie his genitals into knots. This alarmed me.
ReplyDeleteThe opening line to this post perfectly encapsulates the story. Will you write me synopsis for me?
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