By Ted Gioia
The masters of horror—from Poe to Hitchcock and beyond—shrewdly realized that the
epicenter of fright resides in our psyches. Creating horror is more than just piling on the
gore and guts. A slaughterhouse is not the same thing as a haunted house, and anxiety
cannot be reduced to sheer disgust. The scariest juncture in any horror story is always
the moment of anticipation, that interval—sometimes ever so brief—when everything
still wears a mask of normalcy.
Examine the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock for examples.
His hypersensitive awareness could detect the latent
horror in a staircase, grasping hands, a drinking glass,
a flock of birds and other unlikely aspects of quotidian
reality. In the famous shower scene in Psycho, Hitchcock
spent two days shooting a three-minute sequence from
77 different camera angles—supported by extraordinary
string writing by composer Bernard Herrmann. This
interlude defined the epitome of horror for moviegoers
of the era, yet the audience never gets a clear glimpse
of any injury or of the killer’s knife penetrating flesh.
But is it still scary today? Here is Martin Scorsese's
assessment: "It’s so familiar that you think: great movie, but it’s not so scary
anymore. Then you watch it…and quickly start thinking again. The shower…the
swamp…the relationship between mother and son—it’s extremely disturbing on so
many levels. It’s also a great work of art." Hitchcock knew well that dismemberment
would actually create a sense of revulsion and disgust that would run counter to his
evocation of existential dread. If anyone had asked the great director, he could have
told you that the Zapruder film is not a horror movie, even though it is far more
revolting than anything Hitchcock ever concocted.
But apparently no one ever explained this difference to Jack Ketchum. And certainly
if horror could be achieved simply by multiplying mutilations, he would be the master
of the idiom. Instead his work stands as an example of how turn a horror book into a
horrible book. Off Season reads like the winning entry in a gross-out contest. But give
Ketchum some credit. He certainly managed to disgust a number of people—including
his publisher who, in a rare about-face, decided to pull the book from the market.
Even before publication, Ketchum battled with the
editorial staff at Ballantine, and the two sides bickered
over paragraphs, sentences, even phrases. ("I’ll give you
this bludgeoning if you leave me that beheading,"
Ketchum later explained, was a typical quid pro quo
in this process.) I wonder whether the rough handling
of a book editor by a gang of lunatics, which occurs
midway through this gruesome novel, was not the
author’s symbolic response to this laborious negotiation.
When Off Season returned to print in 1999, sponsored
by a new and less squeamish publishing house, Ketchum
put back much of the disputed material. In its first incarnation, it was filled to the
brim with blood, but now its cup truly runneth over with gore. If you want more
plasma and hemoglobin, you would need to rob a blood bank.
The book takes place in coastal Maine—why do so many horror stories take in the
Pine Tree State?—in a community fittingly called Dead River. Here a large gang of
cannibals have set up operations, but without alerting the local authorities. The local
police sit around, occasionally wondering why missing person stats are "just a little bit
higher than you’d expect them to be." But maybe it’s simply the rough coastal waters
claiming victims or disgruntled teens running away from home.
Even the police start taking notice when two different people report seeing a
strange gang of violent youngsters. Officer George Peters, a cardboard cop with a
weight problem and a tendency to talk in clichés, eventually decides to set up a
search team to get to the bottom of the mystery. But our slow-moving policeman
may have waited too long. Carla, a visitor who has rented a home in the area, has
already attracted the attention of the ghouls, and when they learn that she has
five friends staying with her, they decide that (despite the title of this novel)
hunting season in Maine is officially open.
I will spare you the details. But if you let your local butcher give you a tour of his
backroom, you will get a pretty good sense of what is going down in Dead River,
Maine on September 14, 1981.
Okay, unless I give you a little taste, you won’t full appreciate how low this book sinks
on the scale of horror literature. So here goes:
"She opened her eyes and saw that both Laura's arms were gone at the elbow, and
both legs at the knee. He had piled them beside her like firewood. And still Laura
lived, her glazed eyes still blinked and stared, her chest rose and fell in an irregular
broken tremor. Her mouth was open wide. He had impaled her tongue—the
offending member with which she had cried out to him before—on a fishhook. And
now he was pulling on it slowly, grinning with an imbecile’s ripe pleasure…."
Our imbecile (the character, not the author),
will now chop out her tongue and let her
watch while he eats it. And these kinds of
stunts go on for page after page after page. No,
this isn’t storytelling, just torture—and I’m
talking now merely of the reading experience.
And the revulsion is directed not so much at the
evil characters—who are less plausible than
Lego action figures—as at the writer who has
inflicted this mess on us. If only someone had threatened to clip his tongue with
a fishhook, perhaps he would have spared us. Instead he confidently sat down at
his typewriter, and delivered jumbled similes from hell. Read ‘em and weep: "Nick
fired at him a second time and saw half of his neck disappear and a huge whale spout
of gore shower the room as the head toppled sideways to his shoulder like a fallen
tree."
Which raises, of course, that classic philosophical question: If a blood-spouting head
falls like a tree in a novel devoid of plausible characters and events, does anyone care
to hear it?
If you don’t like whale spouts of gore, you won’t find much to enjoy in Off Season.
And you will certainly want to skip over the "recipes" that Ketchum proudly inserted
into the unexpurgated version of his novel. But at least Mr. Ketchum adds some
comic relief in his postscript to this edition his book. Here he explains that
dismembering, cooking and eating people was essential to his novel because "life’s
like that…the world’s like that." Let’s hope he’s joking. Just in case, don’t ever let
him prepare a meal for you. Here’s another tip: skip his books too.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to Listen to Jazz
from Basic Books.
Publication Date: May 23, 2016

This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
The Author as Butcher:
Jack Ketchum's Off Season
No, this isn’t storytelling,
just torture—and I’m
talking now merely of
the reading experience.
To purchase, click on image





Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
If horror could be
achieved simply by
multiplying mutilations,
Ketchum would be the
master of the idiom