Monday, November 13, 2006
Clive Barker
A major player in the horror industry, Clive Barker’s had success in the film, publishing and gaming industries but is best known as a novelist and artist. He burst onto the scene with his six “Books of Blood” volumes that harked back to the good old days of Poe and Lovecraft with a distinctly modern twist. Blending the horror story with romance, melodrama, crime and fantasy it marked a new benchmark in horror anthology work that was quoted by Stephen King as “The future of Horror”. He wasn’t wrong.
His debut novel “The Damnation Game” was an international best seller and won universal 
acclaim for its pot-boiling build up and twist on the Faustian legend. It served as a precursor to many of his latter novels in that it worked towards a suggestive climax of other worlds and dimensions that would be explored in future projects.
“Weaveworld” came next and marked the transition from horror to adult fantasy, telling the story of an ancient world protected from mankind by existing within the weavings of a rug. This sounds ridiculous but marks one of Barker’s themes of another world kept hidden from us despite being under our noses. What sets Barker’s second novel apart from many other fantasies is their firm grounding in horror. This is a graphically gory novel with some horrific goings-on alongside some of the beautifully realised descriptive prose of Weaveworld itself. The wraiths stick in the mind, as does Shadwell’s twisted relationship with Immacolata, and the mental image of a magical world imprinted onto Liverpool never leaves you.
“Cabal”, to be filmed by Barker himself as “Nightbreed”, brought in another common theme of mankind as the monsters. The title village is ‘a place where the monsters go’, the souls of societies misfits live again in a place where they can show their ‘true face’. Hunted down after death by men who don’t understand them and can’t see past their inhuman appearances and shapeshifting abilities, the novel doesn’t quite live up to the ideas. However, it’s another example of a barker work that juxtaposes the disgusting with the beautiful in one moment and has more than enough moments to still stand as a superior work.
Other works of note include the Books of the Art starting with the truly incredible “The Great and Secret Show” and its inferior sequel “Everville”, the Tolkien-esque epic “Imajica” and “The Hellbound Heart” that became “Hellraiser”, all cemented his reputation as a metaphysical author capable of taking you to worlds you never dreamt of, and scaring you at the same time. It always seems strange to me that Barker’s reputation is that of a horror author when few of his novels beyond the short stories can be put into that category.
Unlike many of his counterparts, Barker has also delved into the world of the children’s novel, creating three compelling works perhaps a little too dark and complex for today’s “Harry Potter” generation. “The Thief of Always” reads like a Grimm Fairy Tale crossed with a Terry Gilliam film, telling the story of a young boy seduced by the sinister Mr Hood’s promise of magic and miracles at his holiday house. A cautionary tale that would no doubt frighten young readers, but isn’t that what it’s all about? Illustrated throughout with glorious sketches of mutated wonders and bat-like creatures, this is a moral tale, a modern day fable that will delight youngsters and adults.
Then of course there’s “Abarat”, the first two parts of a planned quartet, the subject of an 8 million pound deal with Disney that was offered without a page being written. Adapted from 400 original paintings by Barker, it deals with another youngster, Candy Quackenbush, bored with life and goes in search of
something more exciting, she finds it. In true fantasy fashion she winds up in the magical world of Abarat, a land of 24 islands, each representing an hour of the day with a mysterious 25th island shrouded in darkness. She discovers she’s been there before and has a pivotal role to play in the future of the world as she holds the key to preventing the Abarat being taken over by the Lord of Midnight. Incredible stuff that once again displays the theme of monstrous looking creatures being far from villainous, and of a world within our world of which we are not aware. All this with the glorious full colour paintings that inspired the novels.
It’s impossible to give a full run-down of each novel in the small space a blog can offer but this should help as a guide to Barker’s work:
RECOMMENDED: Weaveworld, Imajica, The Great and Secret Show, Thief of Always, Books of Blood. Abarat,
VERY GOOD: Damnation Game, Abarat, Sacrement, Hellbound Heart, Cabal
AVOID: Everville
I may return to the subject of Clive Barker either through his films or a retrospective on one of his novels, there’s so much scope it’d be difficult to leave alone. Until next time, keep safe and hope you find something here to facilitate the bedtime reading.
“Beware the moon and stay on the path…”
