FT389 61serialkillersthatwere running
around at the timegives youthe
ideathat maybe Leatherface and
hisfamilyweren’tall that out of
the ordinary. Wehear about the
ZodiacKiller and the Manson
Familyfor theumpteenthtime,
weget thegay side of serial
killing with the CandyMan Killer
and theDoodler, andwehave
radicalslike theSLAand the
Black Liberation Army, plus the
raciallycharged Zebrakillings.
Weturn to cultgroupslike
theMel LymanFamilyfor a
reminder that theMansons
were hardly the onlycommunal
groupthathad the authorities
worried.Forafurtherslice of
religious controversyweget a
look at MadalynMurray O’Hair,a
famouslyoutspokenatheist who
cametoagruesome end.Which
is allveryinteresting and
depressing,butwhatdoes
it have to dowiththe
movie?
I’m not sure thisisthe
bestwaytoappreciate a
work of art, be itapiece
of musicorascabrous
horror film. It’s abit like
trying to lookatGuernica
whileayappytourguideis
yellingfactsaboutthe Spanish
CivilWarinyour ear. Thebook
almostcomesacrossasanovel,
as Lanzaruminates on themany
disturbingthreadsrunning
throughthe1970s.The approach
wouldseemalmost too cute and
clever if the author’ssincerity
didn’tshinethrough.
Theidea thatthecannibalistic
cookwas intended asacaric
ature of Nixon seems pretty
ludicrous to me,but at least it
is an amusing notion.Iwas less
patient with thechapter onNo
Country forOld Men;the theme
of growingold inastrange land
is alot likethe theme of hippies
being carved up withchainsaws,
it seems.Really?
Adivertingbook,but it often
leftmethinking, “Oh,brother!”
BrettTaylor
HHHOf Mud&Flame
ThePenda’s Fen Sourcebook
Eds MatthewHarle&James Machin
Strange Attractor Press 2019
Pb,367pp,£16.99, illus,notes ,ind, ISBN
9781907222689In March 1974 theBBC screened
averystrange play in their Play
ForTodayslot.Pendas’s Fenalmost
defiesprécis; whenIreviewedthe newlyreleased BFIDVDof
it herein2016Iwrote: “Penda’s
Fenis undefinable andalmost
indescribable. It’s a90minute
mood piece; there’slittl eor
no storyline.” Thereis, butits
progressionisfragmentary.
Stephen,averyconservative,
somewhat priggish Alevel
student,istormentedby fellow
pupilswho realiseheisgay
long before he does; hehas
conversations with
hisadoptive father
on Manichaeism;he
encountersPenda, the
lastPaganSaxonking,
in theWorcestershire
hills;heultimately
rejects insularity and
MaryWhitehousetype
constricted morality;
and allto thepowerful
chords of Elgar’sDream
of Gerontius.
It’s more thanacomingofage
tale;it’sastory of awakening,
of rebirthand reimagining,
not just transformationbut
transfiguration,and of the
acceptance that Englishness is
somethingverybroad, essentially
mongrel, notnarrowandinsular:
“Myrace is mixed,mysex is
mixed,Iamwomanand man,
and lightwith darkness, mixed,
mixed!Iamnothingspecial,
nothingpure.Iammud and
flame!”Stephencries in the final
scene.
In 2017 twoBirkbeckCollege
alumni assembledspeakersfor
aonedaysymposium onPenda’s
Fen;this book is the outcome of
that conference. It contains some
20 essays, mainlybyacademics,
as well asacouple of short
piecesbyRudkin, interviews
with Spencer Banks,whoplayed
Stephen, and Christopher
Douglas,whoplayedanother
schoolboy, Honeybone, and the
completescript ofPenda’sFen.
Manyofthe essaysare
illuminating; severalrightly
draw comparisons between
Rudkin’splayand Alan Garner’s
work:the untamable powerof
myth andlandscape unleashed
on presentdaypeople. Others
mentionlinksoften drawn
betweenPenda’sFenand“the
recentlycanonised 1970sFolk
Horror triumvirate ofWitchfinder
General,Blood on Satan’sClaw
andTheWicker Man”–while
pointingout that Rudkinhimself
distanced the playfromFolk
Horror,saying: “It’sabloody
politicalpiece.”The Texas
Chain Saw
Massacre
The Film that TerrifiedaRattled
Nation
Joseph Lanza
Skyh orsePublishing 2019
Hb,296pp,illus,notes, ind, $24.95, ISBN
9781510737907
Themaking ofTheTexasChain
SawMassacrehasalready been
detailed inadefinitivebookby
StefanJaworzyn andahandful
of documentaries.Does Joseph
Lanza’s book addanythingnew?
Clearly,directorTobe Hooper
wasinterested infortean
subjects;the moviebegins with
ominoussunspots andvague
astrologicalwarnings.I’ve
no doubtHooper wouldhave
enjoyedthe coupleof
pages on CharlesFort
and thefactthatthis
bookleadsoff with a
quote fromTheBook of
the Damned:“Allthings
merge intoeverything
else”.
Afterthat,muchof
the book isdebatable.
Theauthor frequentlyquotes
fromamemoirby chainsaw
wieldingactorpoet Gunnar
Hansen, butInoticehedoesn’t
quote the interviewinwhich
Hansen dismissed all theories
about deep subtext in the movie
as “bunk”.
Theauthor considersTexas
Chain SawMassacrearebuketo
Charles AReich’sTheGreening
of America;certainly thefilmhas
gruesomefunatthe expenseof
hippies.He also believes Fort
predicted theNixon cabinet,
an intriguing suggestion. I
wasalittletakenabackbyhis
claim thatthe relativelybenign
armadillo ,ahumblearmour
plated symbol of the southwest,
is arepulsive and “alien”
creature“even when dead”.
Those arejustafewofthe
tangents inJoseph Lanza’s
book,whichisonlyhalf about
the movie.The rest of thebook
is astudyofthe events of the
lateSixtiesandearly Seventies.
It’salwaysfascinatingto be
reminded thatNixonhenchman
EHowardHuntwrote abook on
witchcraft conspiracy.But there
arealreadyplenty of indepth
historiesabout this turbulent
era, andyoumay wish youwere
reading one oftheminstead.
Learningaboutthe various
Severalofthe essayswould
have benefited from an editor’s
redpen,for theirlengthor
their opacity.Somewriters
seemmoreinterestedintheir
ownspecialisms than in the
playitself.One picksup on
the briefestreferenceto afilm
director in Rudkin’s script –
“Nowthescene is like aportrait,
or astill fromaCarlDreyer
film”–towrite a10pageessay
farmoreabout Dreyer’s
work thanaboutPenda’s
Fen.Another starts his
essay by sayingthat a
onetime TV critic of
TheListener,Raymond
Williams,had left the
postbythe timePenda’s
Fenscreened, and may
noteven have watchedit.
He thenlaunches into 17
pages allaboutWilliams
(on whom,the Notestell us, he
wrote hisMA dissertation),only
occasionally referring toPenda’s
Fen.
Butdespite these caveats this
is aworthwhileproject;reading
so manydifferent perspectives
on theplaygives ahostofnew
insights intowhat is still,nearly
50 yearslater, aremarkablepiece
of televisionhistory.
David VBarrett
HHHStrange but True
10 of theWorld’sGreatest Mysteries
Explained
KathrynHulick, illustrated by GordyWright
Fran cisLincoln 2019
Hb,128pp,£14.99,illus,notes ,ISBN97817860 37855Everyone of uswould have
lovedtohavehadthisbookat
the ageof1214. It’s big,it’s
colourful,it’sexciting.
It covers UFOencount
ers,haunted houses,
lostworlds,the mystery
of ancient civilisations,
“zombi slaves”, psychic
phenomena, themummy’s
curse, the Bermuda Triangle, the
DyatlovPassdeaths and Nessie,
amongstmuchelse.
Butmostimportantlyitcaut
ionsyoungreaders to “practise
the art of doubt”.“Check the
sources. Interrogatethe evidence.
Watchout forcoincidences.”It
even explains sleep paralysis and
false memories.
Anabsolutelyexcellent
introductionforyoungforteans.
Chris Hayhurst
HHHHH