Mister B. Gone. Clive Barker. 2007.
This is a fun little novella that I don’t have much to say about. It finally happened! I’ve had at least something to say about everything else I’ve finished this year, but I’m not sure I do about this one.
It was funny, and a little scary, and pretty gay - about what I expected from a Barker joint. He just loves to write stuff about weird sex with demons, and you know, I respect him for it. I’ve written before about horror and comedy as sister genres, and they are, but a somewhat uncomfortable fact is that horror and pornography are just as closely linked. They’re both types of written or filmed or drawn work that primarily seek to arouse a physical reaction that mimics the character’s reaction - there’s a similar kind of raising of tension followed by (most of the time) a cathartic release. Barkers novels and stories get at that similarity better than anybody’s; not only because they so often feature weird sex, but because he is so interested in the erotic pull of the horrific and perverse.
So yes, there’s plenty of queer demon sex in this book, and that’s fun. It’s fairly obvious that Barker wanted to write a gayer, fucked up version of The Screwtape Letters, and good for him. There’s also a kind of picaresque quality to the story that is partially due to the medieval setting, I think - Barker pulls it off. It’s a fun experiment. I’m not sure, however, that it amounts to much more than a fun experiment. Read it, though, if you like Barker. You’ll enjoy it.