review of
James Gunn's The Witching Hour
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 5, 2015

When I previously read Gunn's The Magicians, in my review of it ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3033767-the-magicians ) I remarked that "After spending something like 6 mnths reading Joseph McElroy's Women and Men I've decided to only read short bks for a looooonnnnnggggggg while - bks that I can read in a day or a few days. Every time I reach for something over 300pp long I shrink back. It's time for 'beach reading', 'vacation bks' - but when I was at the beach on 'vacation' I was reading McElroy. The Magicians fit the bill perfectly - even more perfectly than I'd hoped."

NOW, I chose to read 2 Gunn bks while I was in the midst of the somewhat grueling process of spending 4 wks reviewing Source - Music of the Avant-Garde, 1966-1973 ( "Re: Source": https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/399063-re-source ) &, once again, they fit the bill. In the case of The Witching Hour, I'll be able to write this review in no time flat thusly proving that I'm a warlock or something b/c otherwise this review will really take me an hr or 2 to write.

Regarding p 29 I wrote a note to myself: "Influenced by Fort?" about the following:

"You can't just dismiss things, he thought. In any comprehensive scheme of the universe, you must include all valid phenomena. If the accepted scheme of things cannot find a place for it, then the scheme must change." - p 29

Then my note for p 3 says: "Bingo!" so I cashed in my cards & took my money off to buy alcohol:

"Matt thought about Charles Fort and his Book of the Damned, that strange and wonderful book that lists and documents the phenomena that science cannot explain in its own terms and which it therefore relegates to the inferno of the unacceptable." - p 30

In the same story, b/c after all, this IS a collection of short stories (but I didn't tell you that yet), "The Reluctant Witch", it is written:

"Between the middle of the fifteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth, one hundred thousand persons had been put to death for witchcraft. How many had come to the rack or the stake ir the drowning pool through the accusations of children? A child saw a hag at her door. The next moment she saw a hare run by and the woman had disappeared. On no more convincing evidence than that, the woman was accused of turning herself into a hare by witchcraft." - p 32

That type of 'evidence' is called "Spectral Evidence". I'm fascinated by its history. If you go to at least one presentation in Salem, Massachusetts, to hear about the girls who caused so much suffering w/ their own spectral evidence you'll be treated to the presenter telling you it was really all the patriarchy's fault, blah, blah.. Those little girls were sociopathic brats, don't make excuses for them. I made a movie called "Spectral Evidence". The trailer for it is here: http://youtu.be/PFtodKMQpXE . Chances are, it won't make a lick of sense to you. It'll make about as much sense as the following quote taken out of context:

"Matt looked up. He strangled, It was Abbie! Abbie's face bending over him! Matt choked and spluttered. Students turned to stare. Matt gazed around the room wildly. the girls—they all looked like Abbie!" - p 74

I reckon one cd say that "The Reluctant Witch" is a romantic comedy. As w/ all romantic comedies, I shd be so lucky as to have a girlfriend like that. "The beautiful brew"? It's another romantic comedy. "Is there anyone will not desert me? Oh, Dion, old friend, why have you deserted me, too? Dion! Is your name short for "Dionysus?"" (p 90) I shd be so lucky as to have a girlfriend made of beer. Then we cd have sex ""Under the table?" Jerry said with great dignity. "Of course not. Half seas over, yes. Also: fuddled, lush, mellow, merry, plastered, primed, sozzled, squiffy, topheavy, tight, oiled, and one over the eight. I am drunk as a piper, a fiddler, a lord, an owl, David's sow, or a wheelbarrow. I feel fine." (p 98)

The last story, "The Magicians", was also a novel of the same name. I didn't read the story here but I did review the novel, as already stated above, here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3033767-the-magicians . So there. ( )