Every Tuesday, a member of the horror community shares what they are reading with us! This week, it’s author Paula Cappa. She writes:
Joyce Carol Oates’ A Darker Shade of Noir is a stunning selection of literary horror. These short stories by women writers about ‘body horror’ are a mesmerizing read. I’m not one to read body horror because of the grotesque elements (physical mutilations, unglamorous sexuality, and cruel vulnerability) that are expected in this subgenre. This anthology, though, carries an elegance I was pleased to read. And while there are some loathsome and gruesome descriptions, I found myself reading through gracefully because they were so intelligently written. The whole point of horror, I think, is not to use gore and yet strike the depth of fear and mystery without offense.
“Muzzle” by Cassandra Khaw will thrill lycanthropy fans for sure if you love the shivers. The star cast of women writers like Margaret Atwood—as brilliant a writer as she is, her story “Metempsychosis” of a snail’s soul wins as the weirdest tale. My favorite stories are Sheila Kohler’s “Sydney” and Elizabeth Hand’s “The Seventh Bride.” Haunting, bold, sophisticated, both stories are evocative and quite sinister that will glide the reader along the repeated chills. At the finish, I was certainly scathed by some stories, others deeply moved, especially Joyce Carol Oates’s “The Chair of Tranquility,” a shocking, and enlightening, abhorrent look at 19th-century medical treatment of ‘female hysteria.’ As always, Oates has a talent for shining bright lights on the brutal truth. I’m guessing that if Mary Shelley read this anthology, she’d give it 5 stars. Highly recommended.
Purchase A Darker Shade of Noir here. And be sure to check out Paula’s books here!
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I’m in the middle of this too, and it’s very good! The body horror is less Cronenburg (for the most part) and more metaphors for losing control and agency. The “noir” in the title is not the crime genre, but maybe meant to exemplify the darkness and violence inherent in the theme. Oats is known to play fast and lose with genre expectations and her editing here is no exception.
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I’m in the middle of this too, and it’s very good! The body horror is less Cronenburg (for the most part) and more metaphors for losing control and agency. The “noir” in the title is not the crime genre, but maybe meant to exemplify the dark elegance of the subject matter. Oats is known to play fast and lose with genre expectations and her editing here is no exception.
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Good point, Magus. I agree the dark elegance is key to the literary value of the stories. The book title is perfect.
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Noir is a term normally associated with crime fiction. Do these stories have a crime element or does the title relate to another, less well-known connotation of the word?
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Aussie, I would say there’s more horror than classic crime fiction. Not the “dames and guns” you might be expecting. I love that stuff and am a big fan of Raymond Chandler. I think the term “noir fiction” has grown beyond the hard-boiled detective stories, and moved into the realm of ‘dark fiction’ and certainly more grim in the nature of the characters (neo-noir, maybe?). These stories carry violence, mental instability, and weird aspects. With writers taking creative leaps out of the confines of traditional genre, (“genre-bending”) the readers of these stories are navigating in a deep darkness of dread. Joyce Carol Oates has written a number of noir works, so she knows exactly what she was doing with this remarkable anthology A Darker Shade of Noir. Thank you for such an interesting question!
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Leo, I am not familiar with Cronenberg, but that does sound pretty wicked. Whatever the level of body horror in fiction, it certainly is visceral for the reader. These tales will give you shivers, for sure, but the feminine perspectives create insightful and chilling narratives.
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For me the words ” body horror” is exemplified by Cronenberg, that 1950s horror film called “freaks” and a stack of British art porn magazines I found it a bookstore in Pasadena in the late 1970s which featured elegantly coiffed and dressed ladies with arm and leg stumps and a series of mysterious stainless steel attachments all very black leather and Chrome. Is what I am to expect? Burning Chrome and Captain Hook?
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