{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6594", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6594, "subject": "Short Story 79: Kevin Malone", "messages": 2, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-02T18:57:31+00:00", "last": "2014-08-02T21:55:48+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-02T18:57:31+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 79: Kevin Malone", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Kevin Malone appeared in *New Terrors* in 1980 and is collected in *Endangered\nSpecies*.\n\nSUMMARY: After getting married to Marcella in April, the narrator loses\nhis job by June and in desperation answers an ad calling for an attractive\nyoung couple that brings them to The Pines, an estate imitating the palaces\nof the Italian Renaissance. They are greeted by a servant named Priest,\nand though they do not meet the master, are given drinks and eventually\ndinner. When they retire, they are served by the staff at the Pines, and\nin the morning the narrator is even shaved by his servant Bateman and finds\nmoney in his pockets. When he inquires if anything out of the ordinary\nhappened overnight, since they were in separate chambers, Marcella denies\nit and fails to mention the money. He is certain someone attempted\nsomething with her and she did not protest, though given her later\nstraightforwardness, she doesn’t seem the type to conceal. They live for\na time there masquerading as the masters of The Pines, until the weather\nturns sour in October.\n\nHe puts his arm around Marcella and she reacts explosively, saying that\nPriest is more of a man than her husband, revealing her materialistic\nsuperficiality when she says, “If you want me, take me. If this house is\nyours, you can have me. We’ll send him to Vegas — or throw him on the dump.”\nWhen the narrator threatens to throw Priest on the fire unless he can see\nthe master, Priest agrees, saying it was because of the narrator, not\nMarcella. Then “Kevin Malone” appears, with a gust of wind from the French\nwindows, and “night entered with him, and remained in the room for as long\nas [they] talked”. He immediate claims that the house owns him and reveals\nthat his father was the man-of-all-work, and his mother the maid. He\nsays, “I grew up here, washing the cars and raking leaves out of the\nfountains.” He admits that this is his attempt to recreate the world of\nhis childhood, and playing the part of house-owner had no appeal to him, so\nhe hires young couples to be the wealthy and handsome young pair in the\nhouse, while he lives above the stables. Malone says that he was put in an\norphanage at 12 but always wanted to recreate The Pines of his childhood,\nso through luck and industry he amassed a fortune, but found that being\nmaster of the house did not serve his purpose, so he would play the part of\na servant, maintaining a fiction to create his own sense of home. The\nnarrator offers to stay, but Malone says that his fiction requires actors\nwho do not know what kind of role they are playing.\n\nWhen the narrator asks why Malone had to enter the orphanage, he says it is\na local legend — and Priest tells him that the elder Mr. Malone, the\nstableman, “murdered Betty Malone, who was one of the maids. Or at least\nhe was thought to have — They never found a body and it’s possible he was\naccused falsely.” Malone adds that she was buried on the estate, and that\n“they found bloody rags and the hammer, and he hanged himself in the\nstable.” When the narrator apologizes, Malone says that the maid was a\nmuch younger tramp; these things happen.\n\nIn the morning the narrator packs his bags without assistance and says that\nhe saw his wife for the last time, with circles under her eyes but a steady\nhand, dusting. He ponders, “I have sometimes wondered if I were wholly\nwrong in anticipating a ghost when the French windows opened. How did\nMalone know the time had come for him to appear.”\n\nHe reviews the case and finds no mention of a child, and seems to think\nthat the identical surnames of the victim and murderer were coincidental. He\nends, “Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for a man — even a rich man —\nto be possessed, and not to know it.”\n\nCOMMENTARY: There are two interesting themes present in “Kevin Malone”\nwhich perhaps illustrate something of the rather complex ideology Wolfe\nexplores concerning freedom, service, and control. Even though the couple\nenjoys an easy existence, they cannot escape who they are — there is a\nreason that “Marcella’s family had disowned her”, and that, even in\npoverty, she is still “lying with her cocktail shaker on the chaise longue”.\nHer entitlement continues at the estate, clear when she asserts that they\ncan “live like human beings” again there. There is an immutability to the\ncharacter of the young couple that almost belies the idea of free will. In\nthe static environment of The Pines, they are still jealous, quibbling, and\nangry, though it seems they have very little to do save be themselves and\nplay the part of wealthy young couple. However, the passing of summer\ndefinitely escalates their discomfort, and perhaps the double death has\ninfiltrated the estate itself.\n\nMalone rules like God — unseen and acting with a different set of\nunderstandings than the couple who are expected to never seek concrete\nanswers to their masquerade. However, the parallels with Malone and the\ndivine break down once he shows up with the angry wind from the windows and\nwe sense that he, too, is subject to the same unseen, determined control,\nbeyond his understanding. While Priest is the mediator between Malone and\nthe couple, he seems to fear the direct presence of Malone.\n\nThe repetition of the wind blowing in through the windows, equated with the\nexpectation of “a ghost, or some turbulent elemental spirit” and even with\n“that pricking at the neck that comes when one reads Poe alone at night”\nadds the supernatural hint to the story that cannot be ignored, though on\nthe surface the mundane nature of the plot remains free of science fiction.\n\nMalone serves as a mouthpiece to all the themes at play: “You’re still\nre-creating the life you had as a child, or trying to. — None of us can be\nhappy any other way, and few of us even want to try. — That’s right, you\ncan’t go home. There’s one place where we can never go — haven’t you\nthought of that” We can dive to the bottom of the sea and some day NASA\nwill fly us to the stars, and I have known men to plunge into the past — or\nthe future — and drown. But there’s one place where we can’t go. We can’t\ngo where we are already. We can’t go home, because our minds, and our\nhearts, and our immortal souls are already there. Of course the immortal\nsoul at home over the stables is that of a murderer.\n\nEven trying to live as a rich man gave Malone little satisfaction, and he\nclaims “Home is three rooms above the stables. I live there now. I live\nat home, as a man should.” Yet the fiction of his servitude must remain\nfiction: “Another owner would have wanted to change things — when I was a\nboy this estate belonged to a fashionable young couple. Suppose a man of\nmy age had bought it” Or a young woman some whore. — The only actors who\ncan really do justice to their parts are the ones who don’t know what they\nare. He is visibly agitated when he speaks of a young woman as a “whore”\nhere, and having his home above the stables certainly equates him with the\nmalevolent spirit of the first Kevin Malone.\n\nTHE MURDER:\n\nThe local legend runs that the stableman, Kevin Malone, murdered Betty\nMalone, one of the maids, though “They never found the body, and it’s\npossible he was accused falsely.” Yet immediately the present Kevin Malone\nsays, “Buried her on the estate — They found bloody rags and the hammer,\nand he hanged himself in the stable.” This is the same stable that Malone\nclaims was, and is, his home. Upon this statement, the wind whips the\ndrapes “like wine-red flags.” Malone says, “She was twenty years younger\nand a tramp — Those things happen.” Of course this knowledge of her\nwhereabouts and the murder in general seem intimate, considering that there\nwas no corpse recovered, and the only witness, the elder Kevin Malone, hung\nhimself. Since the clippings make no mention of the child, it seems\npossible that Malone himself is unreal, though it seems more likely, as the\nWolfe-wiki concludes, that he was a wealthy man who came into possession of\nthe house — perhaps even the child of the original wealthy homeowners,\nthough now he is possessed of the malevolent spirit of Kevin Malone. However,\nif he is in fact the wind spirit born of the death of the Malones, then\nperhaps the recreation of “his” birth involves the same pattern of murder,\njealousy, and discontentment.\n\nThe twenty year age difference between Priest and Marcella echoes the\ndifference in age between the Malones. Priest does claim that all of this\noccurred “before his time”, so his identity and involvement seems second\nhand. He is, however, afraid to close the windows when Kevin Malone is\npresent, granting some credence to the idea that Malone is something like\nan evil wind spirit. The death of the maid does not bode well for Marcella,\nand if this Kevin Malone is a possessed man, perhaps his life, too, will be\ncaught up in the murderous and suicidal circle of repetition — another\nactor who does not fully understand his role.\n\nLITERARY ALLUSIONS:\n\n“Kevin Malone” is fairly obvious in its references to the freeloading\nKlipspringer in *The Great Gatsby* and Poe in general, and while Marcella\nseems every bit as decadent and inclined to alcoholism as the stereotyped\njazz age girl of money, that seems to be her natural character even before\ncoming to live at the house. (However, the economy she displays with a\nsteady hand in dusting the Sevres porcelain figures with a steady hand\ndespite her immense hangover does seem to imply the spirit of the maid\nBetty Malone at work).\n\nIt seems Thomas Wolfe’s *You Can’t Go Home Again* plays the part of the\nwolf mention in this story in addition to its catch phrase nature in\nMalone’s discussion of home.\n\nNAMES:\n\nWhile most of the names don’t seem to connote very much, that of Lloyd\nBateman, who shaves the master and whose name means grey boatman, certainly\ndoes seem to resonate with some sinister crossing over imagery.\n\nMarcella: the name means warlike and strong. The Wolfe-Wiki also\nclaims, “Marcella\nis the name of a saint, from a noble family in ancient Rome. She had been\nrich but devoted herself to asceticism. She was martyred by being beaten to\ndeath.”\n\nKevin means handsome by Birth, Malone means a servant or disciple of St.\nJohn.\n\nThe Pines: the narrator speculates that estate was originally called La\nCapanna (the hut or cabin) or Il Eremo (the hermitage or monastery).\n\nPriest: the butler who serves as the intermediary between the couple and\nthe master — his name means exactly what it says, a priest of holy man.\n\nCarter: the footman who holds the tray, his name means transporter of\nmaterials.\n\nThe names on the picture include James Sutton (he who supplants, from the\nsouth farm), Edna DeBuck (Edna means wealthy friend), Lloyd Bateman (grey\nboatman).\n\nThe firm for which the narrator worked consisted of Jim Bruce (one who\nseizes or supplants, the willowlands) who actually told him he was through,\nKetterly (while the meaning is unclear, an incompetent and importance\nseeking practitioner of magic from C.S. Lewis? Narnia books, who fails in\nhis ambitions), and Drake (snake or dragon).\n\nRELIGIOUS ALLUSIONS: There really is a commentary in here somewhere about\nservant and master that I think applies to God and the world. In *Attending\nDaedalus*, Wright picks up on some of the almost deterministic elements in\nKevin Malone — at first the lack of control and the determined behavior and\nexpectations of the narrator and his wife seems to jive with soft\ndeterminism — everything is fine as long as they go along with it, but\nlater there is a hardness to it — they must be ignorant of the roles they\nplay for Malone to be happy, even though he never sees them directly, and\nPriest reacts oddly to the question, “Will the master be able to see us?”\nas if he can see them whenever they are in the house. The atmosphere Kevin\nMalone tries to recreate is one that demands the ignorance of his actors.\nThe Wolfe-wiki mentions that the attempt to seek knowledge dooms them in an\nalmost Garden of Eden parallel, though from my point of view the\nrelationship was doomed and self-destructive even before the couple came to\nthe Pines.\n\nIt also claims, “There are religious hints in the butler named Priest, the\nrose gardener, the lamb for dinner, etc.”\n\nIf the Pines was originally called Il Eremo, the monastery, then perhaps\nPriest serves an unholy spirit (the holy spirit usually depicted as a\nflame, and the threat of fire finally prompting the appearance of Kevin\nMalone on the wind)\n\nTHE HOUSE AND THE WIND:\n\nThe house itself at several points seems to hold some sway: Malone says,\n“this house owns me,” and Marcella stands straighter when she says, “It\nowns me too.” Since Betty Malone is buried on the estate and Kevin Malone\nkilled himself in the very stable that the current Kevin Malone claims as\nhis home,?the three rooms above the stable?, perhaps the estate itself has\nattained something of a malevolent awareness.\n\nWhether Kevin Malone is the name of the original master of the house is\nopen for speculation — the clean handkerchief the narrator finds in his\npocket was made of Irish linen, though the two being identified as man of\nall work and maid preclude them from being the masters, one would assume.\n\nThere is definitely an association between the wind, the darkness of night,\nand Malone, and his claim to grow up washing the cars and raking leaves\ncould very well resonate with a windy storm born of the murder “his\nmetaphorical father’s suicide and his mother’s murder mystically creating\nhim like an unholy spirit in their violent deaths, his childhood simply a\nrecreation, thus his accusation, ?You’re still re-creating the life you had\nas a child, or trying to”.\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS: What has the narrator done to lose his job? Is it\npart of his aggressive character? Are we to assume some kind of genetic\nproclivity for self-destruction?\n\nIt seems that since Marcella is dusting and staying at the house at the end\nthat she has taken up the role of Betty Malone in her black dress, and that\nsince the narrator never sees her again, something rather permanent happens\nto her. She is approximately 20 years younger than the servant Priest, as\nBetty Malone was 20 years younger than Kevin Malone. Therefore, our\nquestion should be — how is Priest involved in all of this? There is a\nmoment, when Kevin Malone threatens him with being thrown in the fire, when\nPriest asserts that “It was not the lady, sir. It was you. I want that\nunderstood this time — I’m not doing this because of what she said.” When\nthey first arrive, he says “Very well?” and is amused when they ask, “Will\nyour master be able to see us?” as if perhaps the master is all seeing. Why\nwould the threat of fire impel Priest to bring the master, who immediately\nenters with the wind?\n\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:\n“Kevin Malone” is fairly straightforward as a possession story, and while,\nmuch like “Suzanne Delage”, it can be read straight without the\nsupernatural element without truly affecting its theme, as a Wolfe story we\nmust expect that it is still fantasy, especially since it appeared in a\npublication called *New Terrors*. The large, self-sufficient but\nultimately unsettling house motif runs through Wolfe: “Many Mansions”, “In\nthe House of Gingerbread”, “And When They Appear”, ?Josh?, *The Sorcerer’s\nHouse*, and *The Land Across* all feature these types of often sinister but\noccasionally benign dwellings. (I think the house in *Free Live Free* is\nintrinsically different, even though it, too, serves as a portal to a\ndifferent ontological existence).\n\nI think there is a definite switch to fantasy in 1980 which has been for\nthe most part, except for *Peace*, “Thag”, and “The Changeling” (*Devil in\na Forest* has a realistic reading) absent in Wolfe’s work up to that point,\nand it makes it both richer in mysticism but at the same time less subject\nto structural logic." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-02T21:55:48+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 79: Kevin Malone", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Wait wait ...\n\nThe twenty year difference between priest and Marcella and between Betty\nand Kevin Malone must resonate ... The guilt of Kevin is assumed by his\nnamesake but Priest says it was never proven. Both Marcella and the\nnarrator are jealous of Priest, the older man.\n\nCould it be that Betty was the master's mistress and fell for Kevin Malone\n(since they were not related in fact). Yet the younger Kevin seems\nmalevolent when he thinks of young women, and he is home in the stables\nwhere the older Kevin died, so that scenario doesn't quite pan out. It\nseems most likely that Kevin's spirit motivated the scenario to repeat,\nunless he feels that justice was not done the first time through the\ncycle and killed himself in grief. Was Betty ever pregnant? The news report\nindicates no relationship between Kevin and Betty Malone and no child...\nBut Kevin Malone the younger exists and the new cycle has a couple jealous\nof an older servant ..." } ] } ] }