Story 7/31
The King in Yellow: The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask, The Court of the Dragon, The Yellow Sign, The Desmoiselle D
by Robert William Chambers
Listening Time: 4.6 hours (For part one, which includes the above stories)
Link: https://librivox.org/king-in-yellow-by-robert-w-chambers/
Themes: Entertainment, the Arts
Quote: "The ambition of ceasar and napoleon, that which could not rest until it seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts."
There is a laundry list of authors who have referenced this work, or aspects of it, in their own writings. (Link: scroll to "Other Appearances")
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why it's attracted that kind of appeal. This book contains many stories, in many different styles and genres, and a little less than half of them contain references to the popular titular figure (and, except in two of those stories, the references are somewhat obscure).
So why is "The King in Yellow" such an imposing figure? Well, my current theory is that it has to do with the little mystery the author's set up around him/it.
"The King in Yellow" is never a person or entity that we see. Everything we learn about him provided to us second-hand; through sometimes off-hand comments and impressions the characters give us about a book they read in which "The King in Yellow" is a character.
Except for a few short passages, we don't get to access the content of this fictional book. We don't even get to find out what the plot is supposed to be about. All we really know is that the people who read it are either entranced by it or repulsed by it, and that the second act of the story is said to make people go crazy.
(Literally. Like, they start worshiping "The King in Yellow", or they start getting really, really paranoid that someone is out to get them, they (questionably) see things that others cannot, and they feel as if a supernatural realm has been opened to them.)
Perhaps it's because I've been spending a lot of time reading from writers who use a bit more of a poetic or expressive style, but I found most of the stories themselves to be a bit dry. Notwithstanding the panic and paranoia going on within the characters.
For Example:
At one point in "The Repairer or Reputations", which takes place in a futuristic dystopian society, the primary character attends the unveiling of the town's local "Lethal Chamber", a community resource for those who have decided to commit suicide.
The concept of such a thing seems very unsettling to me, I can imagine it was even more so when this story was written in 1895, but no one within the story, not even the narrator, has much of a reaction to it. It's a minor footnote, compared to the impact that the book "The King in Yellow" has had on the characters and, we are led to assume, society in general.
(There are a lot of interesting ideas, just isn't enough atmosphere or worldbuilding to bring it all together for me.)
It's interesting to note that the people most at risk of falling victim to the madness induced by this book are not normal, healthy, well-adjusted people. (Either because the 'Normal, healthy, well-adjusted people' don't become mad from reading it, or because the 'normal, healthy, well-adjusted people' find it so appalling that they don't want to finish it.): One of them is disabled, another suffered a traumatic brain injury, another is distraught for (some unspecified reason) and seeking solace, and a couple are artists (I don't want to imply artists are unstable as people, but these particular artists are engaging in an unhealthy relationship that violates their personal principles).
It is not clear if there really is supernatural phenomena going on, especially since we have such a lovely array of narrators and all of them are unreliable. For me, that begs the question of whether there really is some sort of otherworldly or supernatural phenomena going on or not.
- But could a piece of literature or art really have that type of power over the way people think?
Now it's time for another life experience with Mormonhippie:
My church has a group for teenage girls called Young Women's. One year around Halloween time we had a sleepover activity. What do girls do at Halloween time at sleepovers? Mostly watch scary movies like "Psycho" and "Carrie" (...I guess...this is really the only time I recall going to one)
Those were movies I really wasn't encouraged to watch at home. I knew my parents probably wouldn't have encouraged me to go if they knew this was the activity of choice at the sleepover, and most importantly I didn't want to watch them.
(Just watching the Twilight Zone as a kid made me feel queasy,
although now I enjoy most of them.)
I just said, "Nope" and spent most of the time either in the other room or pretending to be asleep.
I don't think I did anything particularly wrong in this, and I don't think there is much wrong with watching scary movies per-say.
What strikes me is that we all have different sensibilities. These people could watch a woman being stabbed in the shower without flinching, I couldn't bear it. It was senseless, it was grotesque, it was gratuitous and I didn't like it at all.
Given the acute reactions people have in this story towards the fictional book, I have the feeling that "The King in Yellow" would not be the type of story for me.
- But could an ordinary book drive people mad?
Well, it's a little more complicated than that. All of the people in the book who went insane were already dealing with other problems. Did it make them go insane? Or did it bring their unresolved psychological problems to to the surface, before they were ready to deal with them?
I don't want to bash anybodies favorite show, but I have to bring up one movie that always comes to mind whenever I think about this book. And that's the most recent Batman Trilogy.
I watched the first two and I really liked them, probably in part because I was fascinated with how dark they were, but also because I liked how they emphasized the good vs. evil. I though the Joker was a really compelling character, but it was sad that the actor had died shortly after filming that character. I remember hearing that he was a method actor, and that he really got into his characters and thinking how horrible it must be to "live" in The Joker, and wondering if maybe that had an influence on him as a person.
I was working the noc shift on the night the third batman movie was released. On my lunch break I got on facebook and read what everyone had to say about how cool the movie was, but by the time I left work that morning, the Aurora, Texas shooting was in the news.
I'm not going to pretend that that didn't have a big impact on me. I mean, we're never gonna know if, as some people say, these things would have happened anyway, because people just unhappy and have messed up lives.
I don't necessarily feel the movie made anybody behave distructively, but I do feel that it's likely that the noir and themes of the movie tend to resonate with a certain type of person...perhaps helping them fill a need that should be filled in another way.
It still made me question myself: Is this an uplifting thing? Is this something that I'm getting something meaningful out of? To what extent do I want to expose myself to this type of entertainment?
- Is everyone going to have that reaction?
I don't think so.
- Should we not watch Batman and shows like it?
Well, that depends. If you're idolizing any franchise for the darkness and evil it depicts, that's definitely a bad thing and you should stop doing it.
- Are we a product of our surroundings?
In many ways, I believe we certainly are. But the good thing is, to a large extent, we choose the things that we watch, listen to, and read.
We can be mindful of the influences we bring ourselves under, and seek out things that bring us closer to the person we want to become.
I'm in my twenties now.
I'm a "grown up" and I could technically watch, read, or listen to anything I want. But there are still some things I choose not to watch because I don't think they are good for me. I don't feel this is limiting my life experiences in any way.
(I've read over 115 books this year, every single one of them has been enriching and a wealth of knowledge to me!)
So, no...still haven't seen the last batman movie, but you know what? I don't think I've missed out on anything...
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