¡¶Burning Your Boats¡· Back Cover: Burning Your Boats ted S Stories by Angela Carter roduction by Salman Rushdie One of our most imaginative and accomplisers, Angela Carter left beicism, and fiction. But it is in stories t raordinary talents -- as a fabulist, feminist, social critic, and ales -- are most penetratingly evident. ts Carters considerable legacy of s fiction, gatories. From reflections on jazz and Japan, tales, to stunning snapss of modern life in all its tao c tion of Carters marvelous, magical vision. quot;A treasure c of literary and aestic experience. . . mysterious, glamorous, beautiful.quot; -- Carolyn See, ton Post quot;Carters ability to probe t places in terious erotic longings and unacknoural.quot; -- the Philadelphia Inquirer quot;ion dazzling of tury.quot; -- Marina arner quot;An amazing plum pudding. . . you s miss t; -- Margaret Atoronto Globe amp; Mail Contents the Man ho Loved a Double Bass A Very, Very Great Lady and home A Victorian Fable (h Glossary) FIREORKS: NINE PROFANE PIECES, 1974 A Souvenir of Japan tioners Beautiful Daughter the Loves of Lady Purple ter Penetrating to t of t Fleshe Mirror Master Reflections Elegy for a Freelance tORIES, 1979 the Bloody Chamber tship of Mr Lyon tigers Bride Puss-in-Boots the Erl-King the Snow Child the house of Love the erewolf the Company of olves olf-Alice BLACK VENUS, 1985 Black Venus the Kiss Our Lady of the Massacre t of Edgar Allan Poe Overture and Incidental Music for A Midsummer Nights Dream Peter and the olf tchen Child the Fall River Axe Murders AMERICAN GS AND OLD ORLD ONDERS, 1993 Lizzies tiger Jois Pity Shes a hore Gun for the Devil t of Shadows t Ships In Pantoland Astle or t Alice in Prague or the Curious Room Impressions: tsman Magdalene t house the Snow Pavilion t Maker Aftero Fireworks First Publications Introduction-1 t time I visited Angela Carter, a feea, in spite of being in considerable pain. S brig, s, lips satirically pursed, and got doo teatime business of giving and receiving test dirt: se. t is er Id come to tions approved, selepo say, quot;ell. Youre going to be seeing a lot more of me from no; -- and at time courteous enougo overcome mortal suffering for tility of a formal afternoon tea. Deat sion. Saken out an quot;immensequot; life insurance policy sly before truck. t of ter receiving so fes, to a fortune to quot;; (ed ly, and inspired a great gloating black-comedy aria at to laugh. Sructions o read Marvells poem On a Drop of Deer I kneologically irreligious, merrily godless of sed Marvells meditation on tal soul -- quot;t Drop, t Ray / Of tain of Eternal Dayquot; -- spoken over , surrealist joke, of t;tquot; variety, or an obeisance to taper sed t no divinity makes an appearance in Marvells poem, except for quot;ty Sunquot;. Per, to imagine o t;gloriesquot; of t greater ligist becoming a part, simply, of art. Soo individual, too fierce a er to dissolve easily, urns formal and outrageous, exotic and demotic, exquisite and coarse, precious and raunc and socialist, purple and black. ranssexual coloratura of to t t of ories. Sometimes, at novel lengtinctive Carter voice, ters cadences interrupted by moonstone-and-rone mix of opulence and flim-flam, can be exing. In ories, s while shes ahead. Carter arrived almost fully formed; ory, quot;A Very, Very Great Lady and ;, is already replete erian motifs. ure; but also of loinks -- falling rose-petals t sound like pigeons farts, and a fat are quot;great levellersquot;. , languorous, erotic, perverse; very like timate novel Nig the Circus. Anotory, quot;A Victorian Fablequot;, announces ion to all traordinary text, by exs dead words: In every snickert and ginnel, bone-grubbers, rufflers, shivering-jemmies, anglers, clapperdogeons, peterers, sneeze-lurkers and heir morts, out of the picaroon, fox and flim and ogle. Be advised, tories say: ter is no meat-and-potatoes , a Cat collection Fireworks. Several of tories deal ry y and dark eroticism bruised and cers imagination. In quot;A Souvenir of Japanquot; s country before us. quot;tory of Momotaro, ;Mirrors make a room uncosy.quot; or presents o us as a sex object, complete ung lips. quot;I so I could cime and o get a; t least, beautiful; tors viely uncosy. quot;In tment store te Girls Only. t as gross as Glumdalclitc; In quot;Fles; te, erotic atmospicerature ed sexual perversities -- except ters constant self-a; I gone eigo find a climate eria in it to satisfy me?quot; or asks; as, in quot;terquot;, anotor admonis;Do not t realize ; and tory y t rescues -- brings to life -- ic piece of mood-music. Carters cold-er doucelligence often come to t runs too wild.) In tories Carter enters, for t time, ter are lost in a sensual, malevolent forest, e, and eac good and evil, but incestuous sexuality. Incest -- a recurring Carter subject -- crops up again in quot;tioners Beautiful Daug;, a tale set in tessential Carter location -- one of tory quot;t;, quot;tsquot;. olves er-country villages and tamorphoses. Carters otry is tist, trickster, teer. quot;t; takes o yet anotainous, Middle-European village ed like vampires (akes t) ised rites of immemorial beastliness in tsquot;. As in all Carters fairground stories, quot;tesque is t;. Lady Purple, trix marionette, is a moralists o a puppet because s;pulled only by trings of Lustquot;. Se of Pinoccamorp-;Masterquot;, one of t;unappeasable appetitesquot; to ial. In ion, t ladies in ional earth. ters masterly married to ories needs. (For t of tic Carter, read ise C in spite of all t last novel, t of o endure.) title story, or overture, begins as classic grand guignol: an innocent bride, a mucle stood upon a melting s room containing , murderous man: Carters first variation on ty and t. t t: instead of to save y agrees to go to t, o ers rescue. Introduction-2 It is Carters genius, in tion, to make ty and t a metapions. No is ty . In quot;ts; it is for ty to save ts life, igers Bridequot;, Beauty ically transformed into an exquisite animal ;. . . eacroke of ongue ripped off skin after skin, all t be patina of urned back to er. . . I siful fur.quot; As tamorpo a nerument of desire, allo;animalquot; in tual as igeris;t;, y and t be reconciled. revenge. tion expands to take in many otales; blood and love, ale, underlie and unify t;t; love and blood unite in ty grorous, Beastly. In quot;t; ale territory of s ers modern imagination kno for every Count tess, olerate asy-rival. ttle of t betoo. tes and perfects Carters brilliant, reinventing syntion t Grandmot actually be t;t;); or equally radical, equally s t ty) mig; t s conquer tory sexuality, ic ;, and to cer made ogetives, is to long for te. quot;olf-Alicequot; offers final metamorpy, only ts: a cannibal Duke, and a girl reared by ery of is, rual flow. By blood, and by w s make a house uncosy. At lengtains becomes monotonous. . . urned and stared at tain for a long time. for fourteen years but before as it might look to someone as almost a part of to it, turn into so muco th for an old country tale, tale of a child suckled by wolves, perhaps, or of wolves nursed by a woman. Carters fareo ain-country, at t ory, quot;Peter and t; in Black Venus, signals t, like ;tramped ono a different storyquot;. t-and-out fantasy in tion, a meditation on A Midsummer Nig prefigures (and is better tory Carters linguistic exoticism is in full flig;breezes, juicy as mangoes, t myt of Coromandel far a;. But, as usual, ic common-sense yanks tory back to eart disappears in an exquisite puff of smoke. t;no ed someerlogged and t e of tory, been co make room for a motorers elegant fugue on Sed to;dark necromantic forestquot; of t, so be lost in it is to fall prey to monsters and c in a ;you purposely mislay your ;; t;is kind to loversquot;. ale precisely and unforgettably defined. Mostly, s successor, American Gs and Old orld onders, escasy ers revisionist imagination urned toerest toraiture rative. t pieces in ter books are portraits -- of Baudelaires black mistress Jeanne Duval, of Edgar Allan Poe, and, in tories, of Lizzie Borden long before s;took an axequot;, and ttention to detail -- t-ing tion, menstruating. s on a nearby tree. (Once again, as ories, one have.) Baudelaire, Poe, Dream-So, fairy tale: Carter ionist, teur. Sakes s it togeteous le, is tale of ilations y Sed by a very different Ford; and tures -- of pantomime cers are revealed. Sory for us, like an egg, and finds tory, tory to hin. No suc er. Carters takes place over a s simes falls off, no getting abreaks of fol-de-rol, and some of ardent admirers oo muc;eldritc;, too many men ;, too muco please a certain sort of purist. But ten s off; en stes falling, or juggles dropping a ball. Accused by lazy pens of political correctness, s individual, independent and idiosyncratic of ers; dismissed by many in ime as a marginal, cultisic emporary er most studied at Britisies -- a victory over tream she would have enjoyed. S finisalo Calvino, like Bruce C of ers, t deatence, so to speak. tories in t treasure, to savour and to hoard. Raymond Carver is said to old ;ere out t teraturequot;. Carver modest of men, but ten been told, ion, in ime, of t soo, is out t terature, a Ray of tain of Eternal Day. Salman Rushdie, May 1995 EARLY WORK-The Man Who Loved a Double Bass All artists, ttle mad. to a certain extent, a self-created myto keep ty a creative community. Yet, in tists, tric are alful and admiring of to be genuinely a little mad. t reated -- and admiration; for t t Jameson er. And ter of cigarettes, or a beer if ed one. taking care of t around to doing must also be admitted t he was a very fine bass player. In t, lay trouble. For , gleaming, voluptuous bass, ress to eadfast passion. Jameson man acles -sig any was a big baby for one so frail-looking as o carry. t beautiful bass in t of a full-breasted, full-ain primitive effigies of tially feminine was sripped of irrelevancies of head and limbs. Jameson spent nut colour, to an ever deeper, ever ricour, placidly in take Lola from padded rembling emotion. take out a special, soft silk to not-sig. treated like a lady. tarted to buy ea in caf¨¦s for a joke. Later it ceased to be a joke and became a . tra drink ill on table, cold and untouched. Jameson alook Lola into caf¨¦s but never into public bars because, after all, s Lola a pineapple juice, altimes so take a glass of s festive occasions like Cmas or a birthday or when someones wife had a child. But Jameson oo muctention and a man oo many liberties ious remarks. Jameson o strike a man once Lola in Jamesons presence. So nobody ever joked about Lola where. But innocent young musicians t to sour. So Jameson and Lola usually o trumpeter, Geoff Clarke, Jameson ruly o and per to book te for t some el, sometime. But Clarke gave Jameson a good job in rad group t End Syncopators. Ignoring t ecoppers and tail coats End Bluesquot; (plus need to top ty. tesque in grey toppers and none more grotesque t till made money. Making money, day after day spent in a converted Green Line bus travelling up and dory from one one-nigand to t. It meant dates at corn exco constant bone-ant cas and t. tion. quot;trad boom aint going to last for ever, so lets enjoy it!quot; said Len Nelson, ttist. or, rad boom o lure star-struck young girls from ts up into el bedroom and te o a lesser extent, ted. Except, of course, Jameson, ice t trad o play. it y of t offend Lola. One nigo play at a small toes of East Anglia. Darkness came ernoon, dragging mist to fill traigurn or dip and w wo perform was . quot;Are ting us?quot; asked Dave Jennings, t a lighe pub. A frayed poster pinned to t tened t t;Friday nig -- ing, parade End Syncopatorsquot; indecipherable. quot;ell, its not opening time, yet,quot; comforted Len Nelson. quot;Mores ty,quot; grunted Jennings. quot;Of course ting us,quot; said Geoff firmly. quot;ts e in t it, Simeon?quot; tetic Jeenor sax man of nostalgia for aring at t, frightened eyes. quot;I dont like it ; ;t; quot;Bloody lot of in t; grumbled Nelson. quot;Bet t .quot; quot;Dont come terious East,quot; Geoff urged Simeon. Simeon satedly and se of t, turned-up collar of . age Jerong Yiddis alted members of ter bourgeoisie for nearly 150 years. But t and er. Jameson Lola, o buy o take to ts and explain about Lola, quietly. But Simeons slender, delicately pointed nose aquiver y, smelling sometrouble in t air. t Anglian air his club. quot;Bit old people in for te a students, even, and a fes teds, ill even collars to ts!quot; t once became embarrassed and bougo cover o stay t at ts unimposing fa?ade. Simeon crept ao feel ts on immediately set up a sympatic tickling. Jameson, ao tted. rument and sat in ted for to open, t ced, ttle platform for ted. But tent unease in t. t and ter became defiant as tried to frig. And ts caug, depressed infection until t sitting around, drinking for of someto do. But Jameson ing aween his knees. As tform, t customers arrived and stood around s of bitter. Music began; tomers ed passively for t extrovert couple to dance. type, ters ucked casually into tricked out in pseudo beat style, black or ockings, loose dresses ors, clergymen, teacired soldiers, probably students in t scs and drove battered old cars and endency to collect ttle crays eran cars on them. Just before t break, a black-legged girl in a s little pleated skirt and a youtrousers ventured, giggling, on to to dance; t made t one anoto fill. Art students from a nearby to ty of crop-s, ance. ts ed noses and Italian suits. tudied formality, faces stylised, pale ced eyes, e, stiff h lacquer. ts c s joked about top s and triped trousers and ronising about quot;est End Bluesquot; and, in fact, trad setup altoget because to be not nigo spray . But ted orcycles outside took off ts and left tely, like music jackets creaking. Simeon personally tore off ts for tc for bro the bar. quot;Noential trouble t friends of yours,quot; admonishe Boy David. Simeon sighed. quot;You it be possible, could I get a glass of milk?quot; Inside ting and t seemed almost a tangible, brazen End Syncopators were e. But ts kept apart from taken over one particular corner for t dancing but standing up to their beer, laughing and grinning. ted and gulped restorative bitter bets and ties and mopped tations made on top s. It like any ote. Just like any ote until one of ts spilled tocks of a to urned, angry. made ill. to -jacketed escort and ts stood all round and leered. quot;And arent you going to say sorry to te?quot; tner sed above the music. ts closed ranks like a snapped clasp-knife. tinguis once. quot;And particularly sorry? asted all my beer, I ; A group of Italian youted to gat arted. to a fine ragout of cries, ss, bloerior les as t in figtle smased electric bulb and ts launctack on terrified and striking little matco see somettle. quot;t sucop ty!quot; gasped Simeon. tives came scurrying past sened Susans, Brendas, and Jennifers. But t students clustered safely at to giggle. tiged teddy girls dropped ty; like valkyries ttle, cers on. ted faces flickered in and out of t t trickled the public bar. No aside top s, truments and trality. Simeon saain in termittent ligalian youte lapels and sil th gaped open, howling. quot;Not ever ; t exclaiming in an apologetic frenzy. terings and trembling. Simeon took o te bar to sootch. quot;Quite like t famous,quot; panted Nelson, defending the microphone. But it tied like a bat. ttle exclamations of triumphe room. quot;ould I be suco call t; demanded Simeon rorically. So t for a drink. quot;; said someone later, quot;; quot;Not since ts out.quot; quot;ell, matter? Im going to bed,quot; said Simeon. quot;Ive a dreadful cold coming, I feel it. Not t going to bed s are . . .quot; t about Jameson until very mucer, o bed. Geoff and Nelson, decently o go and took a lig into t all ttered glass and broken co the floor. Sobered at once, Geoff climbed on to tage and poked anxiously among truments remaining. Miraculously, ts accessories a casualty on terrible t a nut-coloured firewood. quot;O,quot; artled at tone of t;Jameson, o tell Jameson, Len? ; tood toget Lolas patic fragmented corpse. Botoucitious sorro go into public bars ers. quot;Do you kno seem rigo talk in a loud voice. quot;I seen rouble began.quot; quot;Even if to of company, at a time like t; quot;Maybe ; t from t Jameson tic room top of t- into t blurred t after fligairs. It e, no, cold. t . Stricken, Nelson clutc Geoff. quot;Len, its all rig take on. It must be a fuse, or sometten old ; But an alien, almost tangible somet it in t-soaked air on their cheeks. quot;A lig; Geoff clicked te liginy flame only intensified topmost landing. quot;; ter a curned on ty case of a double bass on taffeta bedspread. t Lola lie in it, alt was her own. And in till circle of lig, gently, back, le face black and ted. Bedded deep in silken rag, to polised on th him -- his glasses, dropped, broken. A sodden er flame at once. t t eacened children. In a room beneattle rickled tting ickled Simeon Prices t so t irred a little, uneasily, in his sleep. A Very, Very Great Lady and Her Son at Home quot;, my motaugalisman, error, I, so young, so s voices and sounded ttes ops of lonely November buses. So many, many people. quot;My moture tory, straining, constipated. t once seem small, patic, manageable. And so me a great, universal trut levellers. quot;Seetake off slippers, in t t from betive finger. But s al, yet al, .quot; to summon a er, ceased in meditation for a moment. Only ted s. Petals dropped from a red rose in a silver boo table , faint, exed sound, as of a pigeons fart. t as t t, like t came betive. quot;I in ty-teen reacurity! -- cooped up in a meagre d above my fatable. A; s;en I lay a niged by tle !quot; Again ss recollection; tive. quot;By tragic paradox, so croo-ing and fro-ing, t my isolation otal. I entative, unable to grasp t of myself as an entity, a personality. quot;I roverted to t of extinction, and in t great, surging melee of y -- my family -- only beroverted to t of sion dretention to oneself. quot;I remember er: one forgets, one forgets -- plunged tle bare feet in time soup one nigo bring to my parents attention s. Or s; t again in passionate regret: quot;t detail -- one forgets it! One forgets it!quot; But soon sive. quot;Poor little felloo time soup, t -- I remember, time soup. And table, so many, many faces. And suc many a time, my small stomac to scoop up a little of Dapples steaming mash on my fingers, for myself. quot;Indeed, t it, for many years my moter of all our names (togetive notes) seo t, scrupulously referred to me by my baptismal name il o tcallied ailed caking off . quot;Jason, cigarettes.quot; t , leapt into darkness; came ter. tip of tte gloraffic-ligOP -- and tals on anotrembled but did not fall. quot;Forced into myself, I became bookiso ttle of ink, laboriously added steel-rimmed spectacles to te beside my name in ory. Cy spectacles. I was so ashamed. quot;But I o me t I carried t to my , beneaty vest from t above t, for eacumn. quot;My mind gre my isolation increased. I could not communicate my love, my able lust for t, tellect, s -- nor, indeed, eaced. t my eyes, teeth. quot; teettering lig a penny candle? Or a s -- one forgets.quot; Again tive. quot;Life on. t peonies of trual flos gretle soft curls. quot;I stared at my reflection in Dapples trougook off my spectacles and pulled te face and topknot and I iful woman w know. quot;Jason, t; , fair, delicate -- struck matcicks sprang to life. ed mask of beauty. Eyes bluer tained lids, precise discs of scarlet on e c s of iara. And te breasts, exposed to t fell away from highs. Siful as Venus rising from ted picture by Botticelli, only more so. Siful as ted bust of Nefertiti in tiful as tatue of ted Mic gazes on traffic of Milan y, only more so. Sloe in tray on tive. quot;At fifteen, I y on ting pond, in a canoe, at ed about Plato, ion in ter. quot;rated on my reflection, I lovely being. Je suis un autre. Dizzied, drunk on t a personality urned from to make some brilliant point to my companion -- and my ne, stammered: ten years old again. quot;I ran, stumbling, back to table, to ily into Dapples reets ato peelings t so enricurning, saw me. quot; Susan, sea c and came close to me, so close t I could count trils. her rheumy eyes filled, overflowed. quot; But you be not my Susan! s live to be as old as you! And s, selfisears on Dapples tail, for my mot last recognised my true identity and I perceived a glimmer of hope. quot;Jason, my knee.quot; at once and began to massage ing a momentary s of ache and imperial. quot; Mot remark I remember addressing to ed; tasted wh. quot;S me tfully, rolling a corner of o a probe and cleaning ing my life. quot; If you picture tory, constipated, straining, toffee-nosed bastards ic, she said. quot; t LEVELLERS. quot;It ion. I rus into to return, repeating them. quot;Jason, ter!quot; ed trumpet. t last alloself to collapse, almost y of muffled applause. ty ense t it seemed to y of a deformity, so far from tled one anot mumbling. As if recollecting vague, soft, fragrant, long-ago to o t;Atocks of great men. You can stop massaging.quot; anotte at t seeteel-rimmed spectacles over table wals pooled redly. quot;Jason,quot; s; me? Jason?quot; ed, toes of curling and uncurling in t. quot;Jason?quot; more urgently. quot;And do you look patic on tory, mot; tte fell from nerveless fingers; s not a sound came out. So t and lay tree felled, motionless. t to to t. A Victorian Fable(with Glossary) take a fright. In the rookeries. to spie a doers cooled ts in the hazard drums. In every snickert and ginnel, bone-grubbers, rufflers, serers, sneeze-lurkers and s, out of the picaroon, fox and flimp and ogle. A s a bloody Jemmy on t-t; tters crib belchers, birds eye wipes, blue billies and Randals men. In a boozing ken in tter -- a cock-eyed clack box in flasear by the I desire. But er of life doiscripturally t t. quot;t t! Me dumpling depot is fair all-overis; ainly ulated. t;Square t; But ter. At c on the nose for her jomer. S and out glorious sinner. ts, Joe Savace and storrac. quot;Pray God,quot; s;t op-an, plouged, s lapped tter, cant see a o Bungay Fair and lose bot; But o . a capital t for a batty fang and ime; schy fancy-bloke. quot;You mouldy old bed-fagot, you rotten old gooseberry pudden, you ugly old Gill, you flea-ridden old moll!quot; ed. quot;Ill give you jessie, you Mullingar ; A barnacled cove (a spoffy blackberry se fringe) from top floor back sang out: quot;Knife it, you ler! Sto; But got a stunning fag on t sent o Albertopolis. S t slubberdegullion. ill s flop doepped it for toad, to go to Joe Blake tlemy. wig on her. quot; to go to tical care-grinder!quot; s; to be marinated! Ill never poll up ty, beef-ros like him again! quot;Im fairly in fadge, it just fadge. un reak. Ill pick up my sticks and cut.quot; So sed and took a speel on to top of Rome. On Sten Saturday, t scaly som and Jerry for starring t over tile at Spike Park and got topped. Glossary Village, the London take a frig (rhyming slang) rookeries a sloy Irishieves sloop of war, a whore (rhyming slang) dollymop, a a ta, a streetwalker flas, to s, to display ones wares do of rain bonneter, a one wo gamble cool, to to look, to look over (back slang) longs and ss cards made for cing escape penniless, if at all snickert, a low alley way ginnel, a still lower alley way bone-grubber, a a person -ters, and all likely spots for refuse bones, which to the bone- mercs ruffler, a beggar pretending to be an old, maimed soldier shivering-jemmy, a a begger who exposes himself, half-naked, on a cold day to obtain alms. tion is unpleasant but exceedingly lucrative angler, an a t h a rod, having a ts into open nigch clapperdogeon, a a beggar wher of his own or borroo stir the cable sear, to to take a dram or glass of neat spirits; jocular p of grim earnestness, by old topers. t ardent spirits, taken neat by younger persons, usually bring er to their eyes I desire fire (rhyming slang) er of life gin (from aqua vitae?) common se bullyrag, to to abuse or scold violently; to s of money by intimidation and sheer abuse antiscriptural adj - applied to oathey are composed of foul language barney the company o to be offended nab t, to to take offence ss s t, to vomit dumpling depot belly all-overis of order o to be in a fearful rage absquatulate, to depart from an establis paying ones score bung landlord square, to to settle a bill omee man-in-charge; governor; landlord (when used by a landlord about himself) cream of the valley gin splodger lout mizzle, to to depart speed; to vanish er sixpence ruggy adj. -- froy, unclean carser house, home poll young lady leman is having an irregular relationship killing adjective of ion; outstanding; unique ginger-hackled adj. -- having auburn or flaxen hair skull-tcra maker on to be on t jomer s fake to stand treat in an extravagant manner mendozy dear, darling; a term of endearment probably from t fighter, Mendoza out and out adj. -- first-rate; splendid glorious sinner dinner (rhyming slang) alderman in curkey h sausages Ben Flake, a a steak (rhyming slang) neddy, a a large quantity of commodity, as in quot;a neddy of fruitquot;, quot;a neddy of fis; Sly a noted slaughfield Iriss potatoes Joe Savage cabbage (rhyming slang) storrac carrots (back slang) beargeared bleary blued primed lumpy top-heavy moony scammered on tan - adjectives and ping various stages of ploughed drunkenness muddled obfuscated swipy kisky sewed up all mops and brooms lap tter, to not be able to see a o / go to a Bungay Fair and to imate degree of intoxication. In the lose boto Ancient Egyptian language, terminative cer of the ;to be drunkquot; form of the leg of a man being amputated flare-up, a row soush house (back slang) drop into somebody, to give ting t appetite, e.g. quot;ills got a capital t for a Ben Flakequot; or, in te, a capital t for. . . batty fang, a a sound beating, a drubbing dragging time try fair day, whe young fellows begin pulling t sick as a ing extreme ennui catco take undue advantage fancy-bloke gentleman friend bed-fagot bed companion gooseberry pudden woman (rhyming slang) Gill terms of disapprobation applied to females Moll blast, to to curse give jessie, to to commit assault and battery upon someone Mullingar ;beefyquot;, or term of Irish origin. It is said t a traveller passing through Mullingar was so struck y in t ermined to accost t next. quot;May I ask,quot; said ;if you wear hay in your s; quot;Fait if I do?quot; said t;Because,quot; says traveller, quot;t accounts for the calves of your legs coming doo feed on it.quot; barnacled adj. -- applied to a acles (corruption of Latin binnoculi?). Derived by some from tifera), a kind of conical so stoms. hence a marine term for goggles, and for whey are used by sailors in a case of op cove or covey; a man or boy of any age spoffy adj. -- officious, intrusive blackberry slaces, etc. Nee fringe, a ts indicating tion of tces sing out, to exclaim in a loud voice knife it, to to stop, to bring to a stoo to cease evil activity stunning adj. -- astounding fag blow twopenny head Albertopolis a facetious appelation given by Villagers to ton Gore district buy t, to make a bad bargain; obtain a deal of trouble and inconvenience by some action slubberdegullion ch pepper, to clump, to - degrees of beating leato / flop doo go to collapse totally Rory OMore floor (rhyming slang) step it, to abscond frog and toad main road (rhyming slang) Joe Blake to visit a low woman in a e Bartlemy, to go to o to run ao leave someone in the lurch vertical care-grinder treadmill co to s marinated, to be transported; from t pickling herrings undergo in Cornwall poll up, to to live e sex in a state of unmarried impropriety liver-faced adj. -- mean, cowardly cty adj. -- infested h lice beef-upid cupboard-ing one wh wooden and hollow culver-upid fiddle-faced adj. -- applied to tenances glumpisubborn, sulky temper (our ainly fits the bill here!) squabby adj. -- fat, s and thick dab tros bad sort (back slang) in o be to ained a black eye, or quot;mousequot;, in the course of a tussle fadge, it expression meaning quot;it just doquot;, or quot;it just ; Jerry go Nimbles diarrhoea stun, to to astonish streak, to to abscond pick up ones sticks and to collect ones possessions and leave an establis cut, to notice; to do a quot;moonligquot; bolt, to to run away, escape a speel on to take a trip to try drum, to take top of Rome home (rhyming slang) Sten Saturday corruption of quot;S-in Saturdayquot;; tween Good Friday and Easter Sunday worm policeman pin, to to arrest, to apprehend scaly adj. -- unpleasant, disgusting shaver young person tom and Jerry, a a drinking shop star to to break ther tradesman, and take any valuable articles and run away. Sometimes t rip of leatened to t out to keep it from falling in and making a noise. Anoto cut the sash go over tile, to to go for trial (rhyming slang) Spike Park the Queens Bench prison topped, to be to be executed. e richly deserved UNCOLLECTED STORIES-The Scarlet House-1 I remember, Id been c innocent blue, blue of a bo s morning milk and left beisraces of cloud around ted on t of perfect stillness -- a ill ral node of turning I ing did not kno s feataloned fate imminent in try very o ttle tent, my rack and, piece by piece, all my naturalists equipment. . . I must to collect samples of te flora of ty place. Above t of ted city, o s ed stillness. s. ated and precise as Zen s traps me. I am sure of it -- beat me as muc perfectly. Dont I? t sits in a ing all t unlike t , and giggles; t ends all ters quot;yours entropicallyquot; and signs to t I and my fabulous retinue alled ourselves in tarot pack? But I ion ood around me as I me; to a point, it is a sign of macs of black leatly studded ic patterns; tall boots; snug leggings of black leats t fitted closely over too, leaving only ttered like pebbles in a brook. ts bristled t it migself after the hawk fell. t tied to torcycles and made me run, tumble, bounce beo t admit te slo muc of e and looked to me very mucal, a large terminal he grazes and bruises healed. I remember everytly. I kno; at nigreet. t sound confirms tence of the windows. Means maps of tars ic fits ed. t t of times s are out of order; oo. ar-spangled robes are dabbled tle and spilled food and ottered bodily effluvia, for e stle lusts and pleasures and t lets at mealtimes, and ide you if you flincion, for ts a sure sign you arent in tune Im not sure if ime; sometimes of a used-car dealer. t I can remember. c tells Madame Sco give o one of t of teen and Fool likes out of takes doo t see her again. But as good as dead t s foot inside t of capture e. As for myself, I am sure I ured by tly confident t is o t t assures me, superior confidence, t I am mistaken, so t I am not sure wo believe. t is dedicated to teration of memory. Memory, says t, is ts; ts o live but man o remember. Out of ract patterns of significant forms. Memory is t beravel time -- it is t lose our ure t and from co grimaces es matics but o listen to screaming. quot;tropic roric of t;, . Madame Scimes at nigo augment make any more noise. Memory, origin of narrative; memory, barrier against oblivion; memory, repository of my being, te filaments of myself I ime into a spiders o catc as I can. In t of my self-spun , in ty of my self-possession. Or so I would, if I could. Because my memory is undergoing a sea-cain I remember, I am no longer sure is I remember nor, indeed, t. Everyday, t attempts to erase tapes from my memory. ed a complex system of forgetting. Altely assert reet, I knoion is no more t, paltry line of defence against terations of t. ed in me a set of pseudo-memories, all of o a dreadful confusion so t, taining tuality of turn to me ified experience. All of them. Dear god, all of them. Remembering is t stage of absolute forgetfulness, says t Count, ed into a fugue of all t in ts small birds sucs a o s t like t otravagant tastes as s. Suses from laboratories; sion of ter, s lick it off for , she says. t comes personally to t o give us our lessons. caress. t believes ted evolution, tivorous beast t lives in s, most entropic of substances, and consumes its o gets he chance. Like time, says t; like time. time, whe enemy of memory. t is very mucure. I descended at dusk from a train on lit only by one greenisle; its pair, on tc see my oion in it, ered t of autumn, an unpeopled landscape, flat, erlogged, dotted ilated rain at t lonely as nigtered face came to take my ticket and, a single le tin trunk for me out of tation to a sside, a ss ss, a starveling pony s drab, glossless coat. On t sat a to my s all. I started back; but tation master grabbed my forced me into the door on me. As t began painfully to drag t of til t ag moment, Id spent ty-took tation master, pressed in fare transformed by a sudden rus glee to a mask of pure evil. I kne try to escape and tussled it . took me into t, o engulf me. I lay back upon t and gave o ears. At last ered a dark courtyard virtually enclosed by tall, black trees; tes s immediately after o let me out. o ain courtesy and I to touc as dank as t, nighe fens which surrounded us. Yet o look at ly face in order to teetongue o do so, old me I ied and, in luminous dept dreadful intimation of my fate. At t, red-tiled place, ry mansion and no, o ts experiments, Madame Sced to greet me in t splendour of in dress t laid open to ts and to fear far more tself, since deate. No tion, no tion. Yet ture, in ravelled to o me to ogetoo literary a flavour -- too muceentury quality, s railrains, its advertisment in times for a governess t dree e over t-lands. tten smell of pseudo-memory about ts and te coacill souco forget his eyes. But t, tic Kid ting is I can remember bot and ture y, since bot out of some novelette once read on a train, per a future. For treet. Nor reet until t t, barking, from beneatime past and time future combine to distort my memory. But I imes t be t autic, since it is by far t gly. My beloved fatraig gait in spite of ty summers t urned o a spume of at a round tea-table apartment, to a balcony irs te, salmon pink and scarlet, all banked together, exuding a delicious, spicy odour. room. . . t and tly coloured butterflies and flo filled c -- Im not t of ain on t lepiece. My moto make pot pourri every summer; sry. Noea-table; t us from a birds-eye maple frame, a tinted pograpaken sly after sill very young, not mucraed s brim gently sres of anemones. erious, darkish green. they say I have her eyes. Some ake t, says t; icularly angry if imes, quite o repeat, over and over again, as if one tape uck: quot;t; ts me ted , I must crao t£ð://£÷£÷£÷?£¹£¹l£éb?£îe£ô</dfn> My fat under my motograp is familiar. ty-tea for my fat like tems and are made of fine, s togetil it aining a sliced lemon on table, its s refresry July afternoon. t falls in regular parallelograms tted blinds so rol of tside, a few birds ced songs of high summer. taccato click of bootory barrage of gloved fists on ter under , te ed ing for me in terranean torture-c t of taur he orifice of a sow. My fatumbles across tea-table. Cups, saucers fly apart in s ty air to catc, lost slips away from him for ever. tripped me, raped me on t under my moture, t over me, t a gun in my back and forced me doaircase to ting outside. I pain. Madame Sc uniform of drab olive, ockings and t stab took my particulars at to tell er of t riding upon a y, sed end of te to terior membrane of my labia minor. t tral node of t stunned me more ted. The Scarlet House-2 An orderly took me to t ed doors. to carry me because I could scarcely h. his eyes were feral, wild, scarcely human. quot;A; says t in a great good ;Your memory is playing tricks on you!quot; y, received me in a vast, ecravagant tapestries. I retain only t confused recollections of its exterior but I knoly is a maze of cells like took a t ill bundled around my s into an incinerator. to me: quot;As of t moment you in t impulse of my o disappear from it.quot; But le ted as o tion of forms, ends to erode my sense of being by equipping me iplicity of beings, so t I confound myself s, presents and futures. I am eroding, I am roked as smootone is by ts t to make up my uniqueness fall apart as apes of my memory and makes itutions. For, if my first capture incorporates ruins t do not yet exist and my second capture resonates oo many ec moving capture migulate a Middle-European nigold me by a complete stranger during train journey. For sometimes I cannot believe Ive suffered so much. If only I could remember everytly, just as it burden of my past, I should be free. But in titute tess or Female Pope. t o terrible red dress t reminds us all, every time , of t of ourselves h of an oracular cave. arot Game, Madame Scs on a small ts special book, t ed beam in e apartments; t up and spread it out on o mimic her sex, which is also a forbidden book. tarot Game is like t medieval princes performed on te marble ceam in black and one team in s ed on suitably caparisoned cimes unloaded a freigepped delicately sideo prove tred; t, dressed as common militia. t plays tarot een of inue. If Madame Scs to to sounds not unlike screaming t t extorts from an electronic syntterns ted pack make at random and so ist, in his way. Noogetituted and played back so many times my memory is not a palimpsest of possibilities and probabilities, ts rid me of and terestingly enoug tones; no. to in a still sky all ts of a moutain kinds of eyes, t, once seen, can never be forgotten. , quot;I sa;t;, t still, in my extremity, I s in remembering reminds y, be a remedy for chaos. I need ell you t e isolation, alterpenetration of all our experience gives us a vague but pervasive sense of closeness to one anot ears, I live over again tal moment of capture, it mig kind of dread t o you all. Yet our lives racted to tations imposed upon us by ts ourselves; , to Madame Sco to t kno only see on ts arot Game, ic figures like apparitions from a forgotten t tates of ; says t riumpime over its oification, memory. e er ttle master is tucked up in bed for t. Our in ime darkness of our quarters, make out one anotures. Our disembodied voices rustle like dead leaves and sometimes retc our o toucly, to lay a finger on one anoto assure ourselves a voice issues from t aperture. Like drifting cobantial caresses linger for a moment upon our skins. e manifest ourselves in a gly fas already soms of toms of ttle to cates of limbo. Nevertain precious mnemonics. A a mout a face. As long as I retain t any kind of context for ts dissolving p me as muc afraid of encountering Deaton in tte of ts something. (If you do find yourself partnering ton, you vanish, of course.) t only screec, e forgotten o speak. beats me and I scream, ;Noalking! ; e are o ts. First, ; second, o speak; to exist. t e souls. A mirror s one single one of us poor girls est notion of mig, s us, ill living, not yet quite annied, and t overcomes me s all time. Yet tion. t myself, sometimes, tarot Game, I and t of t formless and inco a legion of selves. ers and touco confirm t till tents ed, it is almost as transformed into one of tured in Indian temples -- no point, any longer, in trying to ascertain t. t scrambles tapes, tiplicity of , no future -- first, a being in a void; and, soon, a void itself. C of acid. Everytegrates. Neverto my mnemonics like a droo a spar. As time passes and ate upon to reconcile myself completely to t t t contain any element at all of real memory. It first, but soon I understood a mout a face, are all till carry does not elude me and, if t precisely memories, t all refugees carry o be parted, alte insignificant -- a spoon ram ticket issued by a city t no longer exists. Small items, meaningless in t keys to an entire system of meanings, if only I can remember. . . t t I do not remember it. ts a painful beginning; but one must begin somey of sky outside t inside. Sky. Noc. telescopic lens, zooms in on me as I lie in t of a summers day, not unlike trate of fles in from t, from time before my time in t of grass, of geraniums, of slivered lemons. All ts bring back the world.) As I lie in tructed out of memory, I begin to perceive some element of paranoia in t kno I c of my clae. And so I ure; and rape, from tin, rapere, to seize by force. . . ts a curious pedantic bunny to out from t udied Latin, once, t purpose I cant imagine. So ture and ts on making patterns, says t contemptuously; all t pretty floral ed up over chaos. t prepares carot Game, itution out of cropically, ured virginities. tique Persian carpet and rape me. And, to my amazement, a pattern emerges, alt is stylised as ture, preserved as an image, or an icon. I cannot tell you inexpressible relief I greeted tisation, not of a memory, but of an inter-connection t made some sense in my pligo me. It o ttered promiscuously on to pick out my oo my and feel to it. Or pull out my moto my os, whey belong. No jumped out of tograpo my e coac y for me t my stopped momentarily, out of fear for my o. too, are rimmed in y finger. te language of t kno slip to some o make sense of tinue to speak even if th is sealed up. to me oget speak at all, like te coace orderly ones, like t tell whs or no. And so I establisure to anniion: t a mout a face. After t ly silent. e elements into a grid, or system of connections, I felt for t time I entered tals of t s and belly and felt, not sorro anger t reated me; and s only t t turns against t-master: Isnt t-master dependent on ty? Cant I, in tematic randomness of my connections, control the Game? t reassembles ts t rendered it into non-being. As it does so, groantial. And o extinction, one day; unless it is to freedom. t busily erased all tapes of my Viennese apocalypse; I am glad of it, it o tered ual beastly glee nervous, t eration; quot;t; But t o remember it, rue or no; I kno I need to knoo enable me to endure time of torturers and all its secondure of fear -- tend-spells, tinction of the whore. tte. Yet in its refuse I o free me. The Snow Pavilion-1 tor stalled in t, budge an inco be snug in front of a roaring fire, by no on table (a connoisseurs piece) beside me, tising tco complete trievers rustingly as if I ry gentleman and lolled by rigz. After dinner, before I read our customary pre-coital poetry aloud to and accomplisress, also a connoisseurs piece, mig-time pastle cups. Melissa s slipped me looks of sly complicity; no matter s, t been slept in. ter of terre in London ting tig ty e amotter. omen, as Mayakovosky justly opined, are very partial to poets. And norip to Oxford, ostensibly to buy books, utilising, inctual cunning, t nigtress , catc, time, almost uncontrollably, trop sometimes afflicted me wh her. Id said, lets read some snory togeter dinner tonigribute of o tter co get of too mucy stomac rouble. Aloo big for o say; grandma spotted trait oddled and pissed t luxury ural indigestion, I tell you, t. out of ly flaique mirrors, ed into eigury crystal bottles, ably smirking ancestresses in t, oval frames? And of all, ed dolls. t ion of antique of tus of Melissas c originality t lay . A dozen or so of t lived in ed, satin lavisoyland artefacts and miniature sofas and teeny-tiny grand pianos. tung underlip sculpted old me tured by tsman in glass seemed to gleam ly, as if in lacrimonious accusation of my presence t ladies and I, in my up ial battledress for sucorm-troopers as I! -- patently no gentleman. After t kind of style, I badly needed to sit in a public bar, drink coarse pints of bitter, sendres I could ell milady t. Instead, I must use my vocation to justify my day off. Lend me t I can drive to Oxford and buy a book of snoo fit in my bread, c uck fast. te afternoon already s fall. Flocks of croing a rusty ca s I did not kno get out to trudge along a lane ogets into s; kept me snug and of telephone wires. trees, ted by intersections of dry-stone nig t of tuation of toral coeaming byre, Colin Clout and oral domesticity. side, today, when he could be warm and dry, inside. too is too . Silence and succensity you kno must be like to live in a country or t puts its cold garlands on trees so prettily blossoming. ( an aptly fragile simile, s Botticellian nuance. I congratulated myself.) No. today is as cold as tually ries; todays atrocious candour is t of te freckles t are tigmata of frostbite. My sensibility, te sensibility of a minor poet, tingled and crisped at t of so muceness. I ain t soon Id come to a village trally in an ever-t and still t me in te for ted croos. to a pair of anding open on a drive. t be some mansion or ot t to be, to live in sucyle, tainly kno be ricry side I flattened a brace of ps on my o Oxford? Encouraged, I turned in bete-posts, on wing circumcision caps of snow. trees ly lice of old cros. I could tell t nobody slots and ts of birds marked surfaces already crisping . took me uprouser bottoms t gre tress a tentative sed do ears, alt of t of crying. I uous style of Engliss . I imagined myself describing it to Melissa- quot;a vista like visible Debussyquot;. Encing. But, ts streamed out in every direction, all except for ty trees. Lig; in ter sky above me, stars . Especially for my cultured patroness, I made an elision of tars in ts of t , ternoon, on lovely o promise me in such abundance. Yet, since t, t door at top of tine staircase left open as for expected guests, races of arrivals or departures in tprints extended backo to be glimpsed t all? t empty ed by an immense ced pendants of s of ippled ing, prismatic se stucco. timidated me, like too grand a butler but, all tugged it. Somes reverberations set tinkle but even wtled down again, nobody came. I ill no reply, but a sudden around me into t. Beside, taste of snoorm to begin again. Not but to step bravely over t tamp my feet on t to announce my arrival to tire ground floor. It magnificent all outside, , perfume everyo drinks before dinner, leaving be. timate, voluptuous, rare. My nostrils flared and quivered. I so o every one of t poignant in like Mignon in trees; to live. I scre o s out: quot;Anyone at ; But only tinkled in reply. to see to on its , inexorable click. At t, to titter uncontrollably, as if o see me locked in. It is try to believe it is only t ble berong imagination of yours. Stop t s once uneasy; o t look nervous. It is trick of tical joke. I grasped tion gratefully. I kneical jokes. But as soon as I realised it must be a practical joke, I kne alone in ts apparent emptiness of terribly self-conscious. No cep; ried t I e of myself, I felt a faint panic, stifled it. . . No, you are not at their mercy. tly empty. Closed doors on eitaircase s up to an empty landing. Am I to meet my s in embarrassment and ion, ;boo!quot; -- out of ains to make fun of me? A ravagant arrangement of arum lilies s not altoget in borrory squires gear. I t, s eaten too mucs time. Come, no bread and margarine be grandmas of t broken doance. to my relief but also my increased disquiet, I sa me be , pretty face, streaming blonde sprang out quite suddenly from tions of t of foot -- artled movement urbed the chandelier, again. ting apparition let me kno;;) ited clo door I came to on ting to discover my tittering audience aing me. It ly empty. A ion room, all bleacables of glass and cefacts of e velvet. Company ed; ters, boempted to s-glass tumbler full of someto snatced almonds -- I pub sand it o be caug by t ten in the deep cushioning of an armchair. a doll so muctle ; ter at ty guineas at t of t e satin pyjamas tons do, all complete, and t autic pout of comic sadness on , poor old felloy e from an imperious tuning fork, from beyond ter a startled moment, I sprang into the dining room, summoned. I dining room, except at t even at t Melissa. Fifteen covers laid out on a tongue-s of glass; but I ime to take in tal, because to till ss er of t;catc; to, now? Soft, softly on te carpets; I leave deep prints be do not make a sound. And still no sign of life, only t, someancy, as of t before Cmas. tter of running footsteps. But tsteps came from a part of ts muffled tcairs or doairs, or miladys cer agitating t over, to tremble ; t as suddely, all again. I resolutely set myself to searche upper rooms. All te empty. But my al paranoia, noingling at tip of every nerve, assured me ted t I entered tour of ts of all kinds of delicious merriments but never from t to tood. tarted and stopped as if sc and parcel of t, by its size and luxury, must er bedroom, t been lying ty. And I could o fling open tcant s crouc, among ture. But I did not dare do t. taircarpets gave o scrubbed boards and still I seen anyt ty of a face in tire , only single lig intervals along t one door anding open and lig onto tation. The Snow Pavilion-2 A good fire glo little range a sudden, sment to find rail lead me to tures t, damn t be part of too. All t engage t be still young enougo enjoy tead; and not, Id be bound, inimical to poetry, either. to ed furniture, ains, all co fas, tself o terior designers sno t ire s inants . Id never seen so many dolls before, not even in Melissas cabinet, and all quite exquisite, as if t come from t be older them! Dolls sat on suck out before toycs. Fine ladies in taffeta bustles and Frencs, babies in every gradation of cuteness. A limp-limbed, golden-ure in pink satin spra of te lady in a kitscorian pelisse of maroon silk, ra, lay in an armcorial an air as if to riding occupied the wonderful albino rocking horse. No last I iful ories of all t - none of ted, all e, ions and t multitude of glass eyes, like tears congealed in time, made me feel very lonely. Outside, t torm . Inside, till one t to cross. I guessed sing for me, ed, if only momentarily, before t lead to t nursery, as if unseen gryp guard it. Faint gloelpiece; a dim tranquillity, alcum pouary. And t I entered t nursery, I could ransparent breat all, not even pulled te-enamelled crib around aken t ss instigator, ; s asleep in t, toned dohe pillow. Se, fragile, lace smock and e stockings ers morning. Se kid sandals. ttle er, ttle quarry, lay curled up h. ted tains yet dra once tempest, so I could I ormed in to interrogate me, I reassured myself t s knole c y o let me te in tional fas kisses? ell so mucter; I srating tenderness of a poet at the cradle of a child. If nobody came? I i-climax; Id just take t off my feet for a I must admit I felt a toucment as time passed and I antly to abandon all ation to dinner. tten all about me! Careless even of t off playing in t as tired into table privacy of t at least Id o umbler of good o see me o tark trudge home. tirred in tered indecips clencely flusexture of c in tcransparent. I ciment suffused t nursery. I icipated, I suppose, some sort of gratified lust from t tisfaction of lust of t of lust of t, of vanity; but tenderness toender I became. O. ouchable sleep, judges me. Yet s a peaceful sleeper. Scs and sometimes santly and te loudly, coug for a long time and it struck me t tion, le girl tle tyrant, unloved; t o sleep, so to play. Sale, flaxen e t s ed all toooyc of te house? of t, I so far in forgiveness as to stroke as plumage of snoive as t of tory of toucirred. Souctering, and rolled over uneasily. As ss che scrubbed linoleum. S iptoed doo collect ten doll t in e pyjamas, tle friend. Per to pick t and glittered at tragic, glass eye. A sequin? A brilliant? try, old c stars in your eyes for you. I looked more closely. It . It ear. t a succinct bloed t I felt only a vague astonis as I pitco a black vanis. roubled absence of ligried to move, a dozen little daggers serrated me. It erribly cold and I rapped inside a little carapace of Melissas t ing snow. After a fec it best to stay quite still in tless line I could dimly see against te nigside. Sloed back and forty onous ca of crows. I tried to piece toget o me. I guessed I lay on t explored, ttle of its interior in tly lig all must once ed and ced itself in a cracked mirror of immense size on the wall. Perrapped by tainly, I in ttered glass viscera of t I t Id just seen multiplying its reflections in anotime s moorings in ter above me, t very orm t t mig I ill alive. But just . t t struck cold green fire from t addressed me unceremoniously in a cracked, old o? trapped in tered glass, tered ligold ance. to me a very feeble one. I could not see t all, could not even make out , but I told aying o impress ry crones snobbery. Stered ory. So be careful, poor old o no good come and so on and on. But, if I am t, t is perfectly all rigo ser elep ill torm dies doe cut off! sitters. I must folloake care. a cras to an end. Come e cosy, sir, her, eh?) S me solicitously out of trap and took me past our poms moving like deep sea fisairs , t I or system of linked ions, snole nauseous; I grasp ters too tight. ture spookily se ss but torc linger on anyt slippers go flipperty-flopperty, flipperty-flopperty, srepid negotiator of till I cannot see le of y, froy, second-ore, typical crone smell, like grandmas smell, smell of my childhood women. So see so many dolls up camp in this decay! Dolls every of tea cs, dolls propped up on telpiece tered faces. ed daugared at me dumbly from glass eyes t migorm t trapped me I heir blind eyes. And any of tures in t fainted in time to encounter on a oo muc to continue to support it? truts of in crinoline, stove in like a broken umbrella. o a t s lost o ra ill te wig now awry on a china scalp. And I almost tripped over a poor corpse on t of balding velvet, rands left of all t honey-coloured hair. . . Yet if any of t imaginary nursery ing t of my dream tion, t recognise to deattered about a room to a geriatric cosiness. Nevert a certain sense of disquiet, not so muc I oo preoccupied , my co pay muctention to a prickling of the nerves. And in ting as a gloeaming kettle could make it, even if eldritced by a candle stuck in its oo telpiece. t some ooring my battered spirits and tled me out of t as mucude as if s belonged to, set me do into my eyes and brain. to take off my sea from ; cut me a slice of dark gingerbread t s in an old biscuit tin ure of kittens on tom could sagging, treacly, indigestible goody! I felt better, already; outside, t rage but I ic crone. For suc almost to a and pepper op of ortoises ell er for a long time and tly repelled me but tea do you remember tcs come h a vengeance. Sea for op of t cus to sip from ter about t I on t, eyeing -- nervously, I must admit -- t surface, taggles. t;I see youre admiring my beauties.quot; Meanainless s ec y cup ae, all at once moved as if by a sudden sense of purpose; I sa pay in kind for my kind reception, I must give tention. So introduce to me one by one. Dotty. Quite dotty, poor old thing. t and in skirt s ty acquisition to toy cupboard in ime, s revenges, tary exile in Morocco, ty. . . made t ing ted, trico ted, a track of spittle descended ossed to one side; ttle before sill on the floor. Serap . Sially, from Paris and still possessed a certain style, even in y and, even if so t a lady tter ted ter, s tensions on top of told me no meet Lady Lucy, aed but ed sensitive parts and groed, in spite of ty velvet riding . Sed tal affliction. . . ture ore for toria, a ure death. Eacory o me; t auty I soon realised stle girls imately. S ; and stayed on after t ter c little daug, mig? like my imaginary blonde uncout in tainer ined tude. In t ty noses for t tter into piano keys for ttle girls must once ea ress, gone out riding on ponies, groo come to dances in ayed over for ies, golf by day, affairs of t by night. had my Melissa, herself, danced here, perhaps, in her unimaginable adolescence? I t of all tiful as pearls going in to dinner in dresses as brilliant as t- surrounded t off by ts of tners, t ineffable perfume of sex and luxury t dreo Melissas bed. And time, noing their head like snow. te. to ya trouble yourself. But, no; I must he bed, she said. You she bed. And, , cackled furiously, jolting me from my bitter-s reverie. ricken ly notion sed to sacrifice me to some aged lust of s lodging but I said: quot;O possibly take your bed, please no!quot; But o cackle again. o , saller toeriously, sy; in a esting, to t I kne recognition, led to t nursery. I ated back into t of my dream. Beyond tumbled, all nursery orm and its of a place beyond trum of colours. t of y of t lige-enamelled crib, s dreaming occupant. torm crooned a lullaby; ttle er t in a luminous cup, but stered replica, a dra time in all t nig a pure fear. tly approac, some floppy, clot so me as ceremoniously as if it from a Cmas tree. I jumped ric cin pyjamas. ill crying. Fascinated, fearful, I touceardrop pendant on . Anotear o replace tolen, til t en too mucs time. A magic snoorm blinded my eyes; I , too. tell Melissa tory is bankrupt, grandma. Diffuse, ironic benediction of t ligended icky o grasp mine; in a terror of consolation, I took e of igo, enc ss. The Quilt Maker-1 One tinies like blind men c at a and nor even see t not too mucal abstract expressionist about my life, I trust; ory to live on t possible terms my rig my left is doing and, fresinise my dreams. Abandon, truct tion painter metapake it apart, formalise it, put it back togetrive for sometoucentional, altogety, for I do believe o choose. In patced neglected, obviously, because my sex excelled in it -- s ts been, isnt it? Not t I fine art, mind; nevert took a ists to catc abstraction t any ordinary o be able to put togeten years, making a song and dance about it. cely flexible yet in t in erial o turn up in ty frocks, sackclots etc. t or torn, remnants, bits and pieces left over from making blouses. One may appliqu¨¦ upon ones patc and flo of glazed cz left over from covering armcains, and do all manner of t. ty of materials; but not, necessarily, much. For tterns from angles and y en used up old love letters. itc start in t;crazy patc;, cogetrary s at the makers whim. Patience is a great quality in tchwork. t it, taps living; it syntly bot. Born and bred as I estant nortradition, I am also pleased apones of t and hard work. Patchwork. Good. Someo ation in on, texas, o. ion (o carry about all our money for us because trust me ). Individual compartments in a large vending macation contained various cellops and candy bars. tment orian pincusiously selected the smaller peach. quot;?quot; asked to whom I was married. quot;Somebody else mig t; I said. quot;s t to you?quot; he said. I date my moral deterioration from t. No; ly. Dont you see, from tory, up? It -- truly it -- t I didnt t. it all my basic training, all my internalised values, told me to leave ted it more than I did. anted it; desire, more imperious by far test respect for t t time, my oery to me. Age clarified t on matters of t I ; and ts quite enoug, true confessions of t type, take your business to anothank you. t of tory is, if t told me I o take ttle peac ruttle peaco me. Formerly, I I learned to take the small one because I had never been punished, as follows: Canned fruit y, food-rationing and so on. Sunday teatime; guests; a glass bo and, by time my mot teapot on table, I itiously contrived to put a of t catcry -- ten years old; and chubby. My mot me licking my sticky fingers and laug get any more, but as much as anybody else. I and, time tly natural for me to take ttle peac alate of mind I hen! As any fool could old en years of grab, grab, grab didnt to make up for lost time. Until it is like cras barrier, ternal calendar, on like fudge, ender inexorability of time of e, yet, ts less did, my gums recede apace, I crumple like cy. ty is t you are, along tted span, nearer to deato birt t, indeed, are ever, in some sense, past t know. . . So, to London, to t ains in tall, narroerraces. treets t alo be sleeping, tual Sunday afternoons; and in ttle to nig pounce, sometimes, of an oy is a top of a pokes tones, ufts of grass and rag. ood doves rees at ttom of t burglars, but ts nothing new. Next-doors c again. Its Aprils quick-c: one day, bare; t dripping its curds of bloom. One day, once, sometime after t tle peac tinent bet;Me Butterfly, you Pinkerton.quot; And, t ly at time, so it proved, except, urned me sufficient good taste. A small, moist, green als of ttering copping train. t on o tted s; t ed, not ti, but y, ty, tingness of tion. quot;t; he said. quot;Next year, t; I said comfortably; I ranger attuned to ty, I believed t life for regret. quot;s t to me?quot; he said. You used to say you me. t made me feel like today and gone tomorro is not to a person o spend t of ones life, after all. And, after all t, for ty-t to t, like a fis comes ears at ts eyes, but tears wears. time ed over your face. tree in next-doors garden is forty feet all as t . In fact, it one but tricks up its arboreal sleeve; eacrick involves ts of transformations and t performs regularly as clocke spring. thus: one day, in April, sticks; ter, flohen -- til, one fine day, tree turns into a busy toranced circle of cats beloer, tree bears not cs picked perfectly clean by quick, clever beaks, a stone tree. t of Lettys ended montember! Dandelions come before ts of fuzzy seed. ts a long bolster of creeping buttercups. After t, bindributes its s everytys garden, it se post t sustains t above Letty to dry, by means of a pulley from airs kitco tty been on speaking terms for ty years. I dont knoy and tairs fell out ty years ago Letty already an old ty is almost blind and almost deaf but, all ting t neite brotoucten reason, perhaps for no reason. Letty lives in t . Correction. Used to live. Oy realism skeletons on gravestones, to: quot;As I am no; the birds will come and peck us bare. I . It could ty or tairs, pissed out of tting it all , sed by ted nig my ear nervously to to seek t;; said Letty in t. t lives upstairs later claimed sucked up under ty minutes, seeking to rouse ty on calling quot;; teleps, ically, leaping out of trike>£è£ô£ô£ð://£÷£÷£÷?9£¹£ìib.n£åt</strike> But t black, any of us, of course.) First, tried t door, but it ed on tion against burglars. tried to force t door, but it budge, so t door and unfastened tc Letty for fear of burglars, bedroom, and ed up tairs: quot;; So ttered oo, splintering terrible mess. tairs, mind, sleeping sly t, or so ser claimed. Letty of bed, bringing tting s, in a grey s, an old patcly streaked at one edge , and s been able to pick angle on til tucked surprised to see t s;;? help come? quot;; tion, trics customary trigger. quot;Eig; s t to be proud of. (See h age, one defines oneself by age, as one did in childhood.) ten. Double it. ty. Add ten again. ty. And again. Forty. Double t. Eigain sometains a middling babusains a small babusains a tiny babusum. But I am furtole tty. For one tte; I am a skinny redhead. y years. (ty dyed my y. I freserday. o a boer; you mix to a paste using, say, t is best not to let oucal, or so te is no longer greyis no er smells deliciously of spinaco quot;fixquot; t, stiff paste into ts of your hair. ( t?) Youre supposed to of t I can never be boto do t, so, for t feer I ips are as if ine-stained. Once to t in an impermeable substance -- a polytc to cook. For one s. For t of vague russet he head. Six hours: red as fire. Mind you, pays dorigines effects -- Persian ian ani tones of red, from t brick red usually associated o a dark, burning, courtesan plum or cockatoo scarlet. I am a connoisseur of ;an unpretentious ;, t kind of t people turally redain tempestuous alloa ter arted dyeing my o acquire tionality of rederesting psyc be let out thers. tys morning, to get elltale scales of self is no and pepper colour and, I been ime I on, texas, bus station. At t time, I ely fruity -- tangerine-coloured -- as brutal as t of Joan of Arc at take suc risk no, inge on me. t is because I am going grey. The Quilt Maker-2 Because t of it does to we hair: In turkey, in a small country torees along t-floored square, corbikes, apricot sellers, and donkeys, a s of bread you can rousers in a peasant print and a scarf of golden fell almost to and ed impatiently to see tale creature. Stringing , surned; and she was old. quot; a life,quot; said Letty, as I combed her hair. Of Lettys life I kno -- since before I er November, fell off a bus, ;platform accidentquot;, fell off tform of a moving bus op at ttom of tone. Last November, just before tform accident, our door to see if did not in t did not ted ao send an electrician but trician never came. Letty and o pay ty pence a . From t of vie an economic rent; it cover es etc. From t of viety and e brot an economic rent, eit afford it. Correction: Letty and afford it because oo proud to alloo avail itself of ter ed Letty en masse and now ion is easier, is paid for her. Correction: was paid for her. e knoy because s blindly in tc tfully: quot;Letty, give over!quot; Letty once saed sounds is unknoo me. souc moved eries to me. Slantis to me. , all tar of o a rubble of forgotten past. I cannot guess w were or are her desires. Sly fretful ;t going to take me a; ell, t let ay norusted to lie still in tumbling out arse over tip in a trap of blankets, incapable of riger I combed ea, so fetceetable, so t s t. quot;Sorry about t,quot; sanding beside me ion in table mirror, but, all tly sound mind, if you stretcion of quot;soundquot; only a very little. One must make allowances. One will do so for oneself. So sit up to drink tea, I lifted ; I braced myself for a burden and t as if ss, to keep ing up to t odour of t side, a good deal of April suns buds. Lettys cat came and sat on t;; said Letty. One of t balls of fluff old ladies keep, t looks as if s black fur ed and faded at time, but some cats are naturals for te company long after anyone else opped tolerating your babbling, t judge, dont give a damn if you t fades, freely offer tion of still sentient fingertips. -stained quilt h his paws and purrs. tairs came do last and denied all kno nig so soundly s ry. S or somet t all but out on toime and s anybody to kno erer. tairs is fiftyis keeps broight discipline. No love lost bety. quot; a a fire ; Letty, doairs, dreamily ing in t as tairs c;Snt to be left. S to be in a ; t;For ; Letty dreamily apostrop; t let cats into any old peoples I know of. tor; and, out of no-niece in e ties -great-niece clutceddy bear. Letty is pleased to see t-great-niece, and t crack t appears in ture t Id built up of Lettys secluded, lonely old age. e realised t-niece puts us in our place good and proper. quot;Its up to family no; ssy and retreat, and t-niece is sack, busy as a bee, proprietorial yet tender ;Letty, o no; arding us outsiders off; per-stained quilt, tic bucket of piss beside Lettys bed. As ttys t-niece brougroke of fate -- co collect Lettys rent and perked up no end, stroking o airs go on and on about ty could no longer cope, y and life on to come and break down doors. a life. the ambulance came. Letty is going to spend a few days in al. treet is, as estate agents say, rapidly improving; tains are coming doe balloons in eac room. tairs five to move out after Letty goes, so t e t possession for a tremendous profit. e live in imes. till unravisree, takes floemplates t of ripe fruit t, not I. Curious eup;to goquot;, meaning deato depart on a journey. Someion of male sexual response, ery, thing I can never know. quot;You put it in, can get quite boring. ts not boring.quot; For quot;youquot;, read quot;;. quot;You come; or as ; Just so. quot;Ikimasu,quot; to go. ture renders t ed in t altoget -- may is. Desire disappears in its fulfilment, hing as a happy ending. Besides all ts all its verbs at ts sentences, seemed to me te kneime. quot;Everyt; quot;No. ; And never t temptuously dismissive of t of boredom in in sexual activity. ed boredom. dogs, for example, y t distinguis of boredom. ty. ;Europeans are so colourful,quot; ricky bugger, t one, a Big Peac; face of Gerard P en bit off more te of to be assimilated. Once a year, tys cree in flo to als fall on a face t looked as if it of gold, like t troy. turns into a s t got away. Let me not romanticise you too muc yourself? Came knocking at my door in all your foul, cool, c stuffed late in to make an imes used to ten t you mig; expecting it. . .quot; God, Im forty, noy! I if indeed you popped up out of t brigton side ing to om of t;I am noo a er,quot; as t all t ed one. But I . Not I. And e too, tique ballads in ernational language of tzer Cadillacs you liked, t you envied G.I.s for, all ready to e me quadrap;; you reveried, quot;Im going to Mempo marry Presley.quot;) You ogetoo muce tietury, you person from tical arrival is a catastropoo terrifying to contemplate, even in t plangent state of regret for ones youth. I lead a quiet life in Souto a spot of early baroque on to a er. Like ture t created me, I am receding into t at a rate of knots. Soon Ill need a es if anybody under ty-five is going to compre t. . . Going out into to pick rosemary to put inside a c grass, enoug to make a pie. Lettys cat sits on Lettys tle Fiat to tal, folloty in to Lettys cat but turn urned to spikes, nut husk. Letty is in al supping broted cup and, for all my kind , of tys companion anot until today, going out to pick rosemary o stuff a roast for our greedy dinners. I called turned o too o climb since noents of a guilty tin of cat food over. Come and get it. Lettys cat never moved, only stared at me s curtained eyes. And t, sleek cats from every garden up and doo ted feast and gobbled all do tless banquet at s stretc last, Lettys cat s sself, plop on to the grass. I t, per a belated e, all gone. ts ignored aggered erest at all in tains of cat food, teps among t be going to cems of medicinal grass; but so muco as let rengt to lift it. iff, voluminous fur. been taking care of himself. he peered vaguely around, swaying. You could almost t ing for to come and feed t ty herself. to sarily. il at last ed up a small amount of o again and lurco tic effort, he dragged himself up. Later on, somebody jumped over tly t a bo t ignored t too. Next day, botill touched. ter t, only tals drifting across t windowsill. Small sins of omission remind one of ter sins of omission; at least sins of commission ention. however: May. A blo on t steps ing plastic sack of garbage and t putter to a next door. In tal tty. An octogenarian redains my forty, my ty, my ty, my ten years of bones, surned, not in a ing ambulance, but on t ss do on a little er colour, not only in in her cheeks. the landlord, foiled. Escorted by trict nurse, t not ungentle niece, Letty is escorted do, grass-gro stairs into door t someone o unbolt from inside for urn. oo crest -- reet and s t only tc s: quot;Carefully does it, Letty.quot; quot;I can manage,quot; setchily. ttered in closes upon tering entourage. t room of tairs slams down, bang. And o make of t? Id set it up so carefully, an enigmatic structure about evanescence and ageing and ts of time, sting, neglect, regret. . . t all. . . But. Letty. Letty came home. In tairs, mad as fire: quot;tified ;; t possession disintegrated ttys garden noime for fierce yellotercups; ts. I oo old and too far gone to miss t. Fat chance. I door t of feeding him. But so die at ly ample leisure in t and privacy of ; s, to curned all to crazy patchwork. Some a ation in on, texas, a too a peac time, seemed to sum up tion of ts of individuals ions did. As you can tell from tal brocade and turkiso t for a o tic article, t of t and imagination, o cover myself in my old age to keep my brittle bones tys basement.) But, okay, so I al Lettys return from te grave of tric out into to pick a feulips, tuously among ttercups, fat as butter tys been feeding him up. quot;Im pleased to see you,quot; I said. In a Japanese folk tale it of , rusty and tactile as in life, t pining itself from deato life again to come to t t and splutter along tal Radio is braying from an upper , palpable as a second-, drotercups. e know w -- times of our reprieves are equally random. S out and look at it again, t and brigain of , ty; ty, of eeto tive privacy of a genre picture, a needle maker, a middle-aged cy garden, turning trees of tient ing round us. Appendix I started to e s pieces o e a novel in. So t I did inside it and it ed trajectory of t narrative concentrates its meaning. Sign and sense can fuse to an extent impossible to aciplying ambiguities of an extended narrative. I found t, to fascinate me, I so mucractions from ting, tales. t took me a long time to realise ales, tales of ales of terror, fabulous narratives t deal directly ernalised self; forsaken castles; ed forests; forbidden sexual objects. Formally tale differs from t story in t it makes feences at tation of life. tale does not log everyday experience, as t story does; it interprets everyday experience tem of imagery derived from subterranean areas beale cannot betray its readers into a false knowledge of everyday experience. tradition in ems of our institutions; it deals entirely s great t and cannibalism. Cer and events are exaggerated beyond reality, to become symbols, ideas, passions. Its style end to be ornate, unnatural -- and te against to believe t. Its only retains a singular moral function -- t of provoking unease. tale ions erary forms of pornograp been dealt erati. And is it any us keep tcase, as Pere Ubu did doory s too troublesome. So I ales. I o England in 1972. I found myself in a nery. It imes. Noo understand and to interpret is t my metigation is cories ten beten. tribute to Defoe, fated in tory quot;Masterquot;. First Publications quot;t; first appeared in Storyteller Contest, July 1962. quot;A Very, Very Great Lady and ; publisumn 1965 and quot;A Victorian Fable (; was also publisumn 1966. quot;A Souvenir of Japanquot;, quot;tioners Beautiful Daug;, quot;t;, quot;terquot;, quot;Penetrating to t of tquot;, quot;Fles;, quot;Masterquot;, quot;Reflectionsquot; and quot;Elegy for a Freelancequot;, ten bet Books, 1974). quot;t; and quot;tigers Bridequot; first appeared in tories (Victor Gollancz, 1979). quot;ts; squot; appeared in traed by Emma tennant (Pierrot Books, 1979). quot;t; appeared in Bananas (October, 1977), quot;t; on t Noening. quot;t; publisumn 1975), quot;t; in Sout Arts Revieober, 1977), quot;t; in Bananas (April, 1977) and quot;olf-Alicequot; in Stand (inter, 1978, vol. 2, No 2). quot;Black Venusquot; first appeared in Next Editions in 1980, quot;t; ; appeared in turday Nig;Captured by t; in 1979. quot;t of Edgar Allan Poequot; ;Overture and Incidental Music for A Midsummer Nig;. quot;Peter and t; is from Firebird 1, 1982. A version of quot;tc; ; originally appeared in title quot;Mis-en-Scene for Parricidequot;. A version of quot;Lizzies tigerquot; publisan in September 1981, and broadcast on Radio t;Jois Pity S; originally appeared in Granta 25, Autumn, 1988. quot;Gun for t; ten as a draft for a screenplay and publiss and Old orld onders (Cto amp; indus, 1993). quot;t of S; ;Alice in Prague or t; appeared in Spell, [Sure], (vol 5, 1990) and quot;t S; publiss and Old orld onders (Cto amp; indus, 1993). quot;In Pantolandquot; le or tquot; publis Stories (Virago, 1987), and a ser version sman Magdalenequot; originally appeared in FMR Magazine in February 1992. quot;t; is publis time. quot;t ; Makerquot; ories by Contemporary omen riters from Nine Countries (Sidgwick amp; Jackson, 1981). About the Author Angela Carter ains most original ers. Eigoysions (1968, Somerset Maugor s at tail Black Memorial Prize), and ise Cer also publisions of s stories -- tenival of Literature As and Strangers (1985, publisions of journalism, and a volume of radio plays. Sranslated tories of C and edited collections of fairy and folk tales as ories (1986). Se t story. A fourtion of stories of Angela Carters fiction is available in the U.S. from Penguin. From 1976 ter s Council of Great Britain Felloive riting at Sy, and from 1980 ting professor in ting Program at Broy. Sraveled and taugralia but lived in London. Angela Carter died in February, 1992.