Yatter, Yatter, Yattering
So, my seemingly eternal trek to find an enjoyable Clive Barker story is sort of continued. I didn’t dislike this story as much as I found I disliked “Rawhead Rex,” but I can’t say that I really enjoyed it either. I think the reason for that was the ho hum nature of the story and the lack of a character that I could root for.
First, the ho hum nature of the story made for a blandish read. “The Yattering and Jack” had some potential. I could see it from the beginning. You have a character that has its own personal demon. I’ve never thought about the supernatural world in a way that we each have a personal demon that has a job to set us off the path to righteousness. I guess, if you can have a guardian angel, you can have a destroying demon. This demon was kind of boring though. Its strong suit was making lampshades swing and floorboards creak. I would think if a demon has supernatural power, enough to move things in the real world, that it could go beyond lampshades and floorboards. I will admit that it was fun to see the cats destroyed, but that’s only because I don’t like cats. Those scenes, especially the one where the cat explodes, were kind of fun. But we didn’t get enough of the reaction. I know the point was that Jack wasn’t really effected by this demon. He never really bowed to its powers, but we find out, too late I think, that Jack does know the demon is there. Why, then, don’t we get some internal reaction from Jack? That wouldn’t betray his outer calm, but we could see that he was irked, but knew better to show it.
For that reason, I think it was hard for me to root for Jack. We found out too late in the story that Jack knew of the Yattering’s existence. If we knew that Jack knew, we could root for Jack. We could join him in his fight against letting his temper flare, or letting his cards be revealed. I found it hard to sympathize with him when he only said che sera sera when he found out his wife was cheating and ultimately committed suicide. It was also hard to follow him on the quest to protect his children from the Yattering’s temper at the end because I didn’t care for Jack. Yes, he had an ultimate plan to save himself and his family, but the reveal to that came too late. It felt to me like Barker needed to add something to the story and thought this up on the fly and didn’t bother to go back and add little clues to this.
I guess, in hindsight, seeing that he had no reaction to the craziness around him was a clue enough, but that was only in hindsight and not enough for me.
I also didn’t find myself rooting for the Yattering either. He or it was too much of a pushover when it came to his try at conquering Jack. He failed at the little stuff and then suddenly gained an excess of strength and power, enough to make a roasting turkey come to life and to throw furniture and a Christmas tree through the house. Because I saw the demon as powerless, I couldn’t root for him either. This story left me rooting for nothing but the end.
So, where does this fit in with the other monsters we’ve read about in this class? I don’t think this is really a monster story. Monsters, to me, are physical manifestations that are able to affect their prey, both physically and mentally. They frighten their prey because of their sharp claws and deadly teeth. The Yattering had neither and was in fact forbidden to touch Jack. How scary would a game of tag be if you couldn’t be tagged? That, to me, removes all of the monster’s power.
On another note, if you had a demon that crossed your threshold and you had power over it, would you ask it to just clean up your house or would you want more out of it? I think I’d want nothing more to do with it.
First, the ho hum nature of the story made for a blandish read. “The Yattering and Jack” had some potential. I could see it from the beginning. You have a character that has its own personal demon. I’ve never thought about the supernatural world in a way that we each have a personal demon that has a job to set us off the path to righteousness. I guess, if you can have a guardian angel, you can have a destroying demon. This demon was kind of boring though. Its strong suit was making lampshades swing and floorboards creak. I would think if a demon has supernatural power, enough to move things in the real world, that it could go beyond lampshades and floorboards. I will admit that it was fun to see the cats destroyed, but that’s only because I don’t like cats. Those scenes, especially the one where the cat explodes, were kind of fun. But we didn’t get enough of the reaction. I know the point was that Jack wasn’t really effected by this demon. He never really bowed to its powers, but we find out, too late I think, that Jack does know the demon is there. Why, then, don’t we get some internal reaction from Jack? That wouldn’t betray his outer calm, but we could see that he was irked, but knew better to show it.
For that reason, I think it was hard for me to root for Jack. We found out too late in the story that Jack knew of the Yattering’s existence. If we knew that Jack knew, we could root for Jack. We could join him in his fight against letting his temper flare, or letting his cards be revealed. I found it hard to sympathize with him when he only said che sera sera when he found out his wife was cheating and ultimately committed suicide. It was also hard to follow him on the quest to protect his children from the Yattering’s temper at the end because I didn’t care for Jack. Yes, he had an ultimate plan to save himself and his family, but the reveal to that came too late. It felt to me like Barker needed to add something to the story and thought this up on the fly and didn’t bother to go back and add little clues to this.
I guess, in hindsight, seeing that he had no reaction to the craziness around him was a clue enough, but that was only in hindsight and not enough for me.
I also didn’t find myself rooting for the Yattering either. He or it was too much of a pushover when it came to his try at conquering Jack. He failed at the little stuff and then suddenly gained an excess of strength and power, enough to make a roasting turkey come to life and to throw furniture and a Christmas tree through the house. Because I saw the demon as powerless, I couldn’t root for him either. This story left me rooting for nothing but the end.
So, where does this fit in with the other monsters we’ve read about in this class? I don’t think this is really a monster story. Monsters, to me, are physical manifestations that are able to affect their prey, both physically and mentally. They frighten their prey because of their sharp claws and deadly teeth. The Yattering had neither and was in fact forbidden to touch Jack. How scary would a game of tag be if you couldn’t be tagged? That, to me, removes all of the monster’s power.
On another note, if you had a demon that crossed your threshold and you had power over it, would you ask it to just clean up your house or would you want more out of it? I think I’d want nothing more to do with it.