IL CORRIDOIO DELLA PAURA



Il titolo italiano gioca con i termini macchina e corsia, e io, prima di aprire il libro, ci sono cascato, ho pensato a qualcosa che avesse a che fare con le corse automobilistiche.
In realtà, la macchina è quella per l’elettroshock.
E la corsia, o reparto (in originale ward), è quella di un ospedale psichiatrico.



Di conseguenza anche il mio titolo gioca un pochino, citando un magnifico film del 1963, stesso anno di pubblicazione di questo racconto (racconto lungo o novella breve? – che in verità fu pubblicato sulla rivista Playboy due anni prima) scritto e diretto dal grande Sam Fuller: Shock Corridor. Film terrorizzante per quanto inquietante (un giornalista sotto mentite spoglie entra in manicomio per studiarlo da vicino e finisce col restarci rinchiuso per sempre!).



Come ispira profonda inquietudine, che si trasforma in paura, questa storia allucinata e paranoica di Willeford, man mano che l’ospedale psichiatrico diventa sempre più manicomio, diventa sempre più reclusione forzata, con la terrorizzante presenza della macchina per l’elettroshock che giace in attesa d’essere impiegata accanto al gruppo che svolge terapia di gruppo.
Giustamente viene paragonata alla sedia elettrica: uniche differenze sono la temperatura, e il tempo di esposizione alla scarica elettrica.



Il protagonista è un figlio di Hollywood: regista di poco più di trent’anni non ha ancora imparato a piegare la testa ai capricci della star, o presunta tale, di turno. Finisce ricoverato. Ha paura di perdere la memoria. Rifiuta qualsiasi terapia. Poco prima di finire steso sul lettino dell’elettroshock…

Willeford costruisce la sua storia come un flusso di pensiero, un lungo monologo che contempla bei dialoghi, facendo ampio uso del flashback e con un finale a sorpresa. Che non smorza l’inquietudine.



Nel breve saggio introduttivo il traduttore Matteo Codignola scrive:
Sotto queste frasi ossessionanti, è infatti difficile sentire altro che il riff più persecutorio di tutta la musica recente, fra parentesi scritto solo due anni dopo: se non vi fidate mettete sul piatto il primo movimento di “A Love Supreme” e cominciate a leggere.
A prescindere se sia l’accompagnamento musicale giusto (personalmente dissento da abbinare musica alla lettura, una delle due finisce sprecata), il sax e la musica di Trane sono sempre grandiosi.

I am a big fan of Willeford. I hunted this title down, found it on Ebay, and tore into it. The book, which is very slim, coming in at just over 140 pages, is comprised of six related stories. The titular story is the best in the bunch. While they are all related, some more so than others, they are not all as strong as the first one, and I do not believe they can stand on their own, except for the first story, and the last one in the book. The book was written well over fifty years ago, and I feel that some of the writing is dated. The third piece, is well written and interesting, and fits in with the theme and flow, but I think needs to be tied in better. All in all I was disappointed with the book as a whole.

Read the first story. It was okay. Not sure that I feel inspired to continue. It was about a man in a psychiatric ward. It's unclear who he is, but he has memories of being a television director. A woman who says she's his wife comes to visit him every 30 days.

Slowly, one gets the impression that he's in the ward by choice. Then, he's threatened with electroshock therapy, and the story briefly gains some momentum.

The title story, and arguably the most famous story in the collection, I found to be just mediocre. The story that followed was even worse, but then the next few offerings were very good. Revolving around unreliable and very strange narrators. I like it a good bit.

Simply not a good book. I have loved every other Willeford book I have read. There is just nothing in this one. Avoid it.

#17 from willeford for me.

the machine in ward eleven, charles willeford, paperback, isbn 1568582102...copyright 1961 charles willeford...141 printed pages...and 13 glorious blank pages before the back cover. verily. insert your index here. something to do w/the way they bind books as the scuttlebutt has it.

contents
i the machine in ward eleven 7
ii selected incidents 36
iii a letter to a.a. (almost anybody) 55
iv jake's journal 67
v "just like on television--" 110
vi the alectryomancer 122 to 141

heh! and 6-blank pages...binding? something...comes in handy, insert your own index there

back cover: the re-issue of willeford's 1963 pulp classic features six incisive tales as fresh as the day they were first published. these stories are a timely reminder that madness is truly at the heart of 21st century politics.

that or demon-possession...aliens...crazy works.

four walls eight windows no exit press


there is an "acknowledgments" page:
"chapter i, the machine in ward eleven was published in playboy (1961) in slightly different form; chapter ii, selected incidents, appeared in gent as the sin of integrity; chapter iv, the alectryomancer, appeared in alfred hitchcock's mystery magazine

n  n    the machine in ward elevenn  n begins:
i like ruben. he is a nice guy. he doesn't lock my door at night. he closes it, naturally, so that none of the doctors nor any of the other nurses will notice that it isn't locked when they're just walking past, but he doesn't lock it. (an unlocked door gives me a delicately delightful sense of insecurity.) and this is the kind of thing a man appreciates in a place like this.

okee dokee then, as the good doctor said, (bullwinkle moose hockey team, 1968)...onward & upward.

time place scene settings
*a hospital
*the various wards of the hospital...#4...ward ten, a locked ward
*the little kitchen in ward ten
*patients' lounge
*ward fourteen's group therapy session meets in ward eleven, 4 patients, 2 docs
*ward eleven is also where they keep the electro-shock devices, etc
*state hospital...place for the criminally insane
*pasadena playhouse
*ward eleven was an unused ward

characters
*eye-narrator, j.c. blake...jake blake... and jake blake is also a character in Wild Wives from Charles Willeford...but in that one, he is a detective...i think. he is married to maria chavez, the movie star, he is a director, he lost it when he lost the director job on the film the pack rats when red faris, the star, made it so. he is a 32-yr-old. he wants to attain "the bottom of the pile" now. he is an "expert in the field of falsely induced emotions." he drives a porsche...has a redwood retreat in the verdugo woodlands. he is encouraged to solve chess problems to recover his memory, that he may or may not have lost...or regained it though he hides it. he reads The Silent Life by Thomas Merton. he fought in korea, the last three months of that war.
*ruben, a nurse, 25 or 6, good-looking young guy, has been working there at the hospital for two years
*doctors/ nurses
*fred, the day nurse
*privileged patients
*loose patients
*old man reddington in #4
*the gray lady, comes around w/the cigarettes
*the doctor making his rounds
*dr adams
*maria chavez, the eye-narrator's wife, under 30, a beauty
*red faris, star of the movies, the series, 3rd year
*danny olmstead, unit's chief film editor
*jake's agent, weldon "willy" murray
*dick tucker, an actor/patient...dies
*dr. fellerman...and dr. kevin mullinare
*w/narrator, 4 met in ward fourteen's group therapy group w/the above 2 doctors:
*tommy amato, 17-yr-old son of a movie star
*randolph hicks, ex-hotel manager
*marvin morris, pop song writer
*the male nurse, luchessi
*nathan wanless...who tells the eye-narrator about electro-shock treatments...and it it not so much the telling, what is said, as it is what is left unsaid that frightens our hero, jake blake.
*four male nurses who hold down the patient


a word, or two
meridional
camino real...the road to recovery

reminded of
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33... by Ken Kesey. what's interesting about this one is that the hero, the eye-narrator wants to attain the bottom of the pile. too, jake blake figures in the next chapter/story of this...collection...as background, as history.

ii selected incidents
there is a quote from anatole france before this chapter/story begins: the only art and the only creation possible to humanity is that of giving new form to an old idea.

well--you're right on time, charlie. come in, come in! sit down. drink?
i'll pour one for you, anyway, whether you drink it or not. it's a sort of stupid rule i have, at least here in the office. i happen to want a drink, and i don't feel right when i drink alone. one won't hurt you; one drink never did anything to anybody.

this one starts out a bit hokey-pinokey...we have that eye-narrator speaking to someone who does not answer...or, charlie does answer, but the reader is not privileged to those answers. or something.

time place scene setting
*eye-narrator's office, elgee productions, hollywood i believe...he is a producer, seems like, confirmation later if it comes...he knows jake blake from the previous chapter. charlie is a ghost-writer, writing the eye's autobiography.
*filling station...abandoned trapper's cabin where jake blake worked on his script

characters
*eye-narrator, as yet unnamed, hollywood producer, elgee productions
*charlie, chazz, carlos...does not speak...or, if he does, it is not included here, but the eye acts like charlie answers him, speaks, etc...the eye-narrator tells "charles" may it do ya fine (willeford?) about jake blake...hiring him as director...firing him as one...hiring him back
*jake blake
*chinese painters...work on scroll...images, images retained on the retina...etc.
*blake's movie, 16 mm, selected incidents
*f. scott fitzgerald...stories...about pat hobby, screenwriter
*ben hecht & selznick wrote the 1st 1/2 of gone w/the wind in a single weekend
*3 hypothetical writers
*john hansen...hypo hero
*tab hunter type (as definition/script...all one needs)
*jake blake was the night man for a filling station on the ridge route between here and bakersfield up in the mountains
*college professor critics...for 'everyman'...play by jake blake who'd gone east after firing
*new york audiences
*mammoth bought script...scenes on wagons..going by. see for instance the chinese scrolls mentioned earlier. too. see. John Barth's, The Floating Opera...appealed to latin americans...spanish...in middle english. heh!

the rise and fall and rise again of jake blake, director...

iii n  n    a letter to a.a. (almost anybody)n  n

story begins:
dear sir, or maybe you're a lady, or a disparate group--i don't know. i am an alcoholic, or should that be capitalized? all right. i make you a gift of the capital. i am an alcoholic, and i need your help. at least i think i do; i'm not sure. i'm not sure of anything anymore except that i am an alcoholic, and a sober one at that...

no jake blake in this one...alas.

time place scene setting
*another hospital story...
*a.a. meeetings...rented hall
*brand new supermarket
*herb and the eye-narrator were public accountants, taxes and such
*eye's home, porch, where varous good, god-fearing people dropped off things
*white springs hotel
*mary ellen whiteside's baby blue buick

characters
*eye-narrator, george
*his wife, louise
*herb, w/whom the eye was in bizzness
*doctor
*all the ministers
*social worker...miss whiteside, mary ellen whiteside
*the churches...ladies clubs & auxiliaries
*good, god-fearing people
*fred...who got the eye into a.a.
*those people
*manager of the supermarket
*only 32 cases left in the county relief rolls
*mrs. whiteside's mother

*a twist...fox news has been featuring the drive to sign people up on "food stamps" that are no longer stamps so as to avoid the stigma...yada yada...trying to overcome "mountain pride"...this that the other. this story is interesting for how it portrays a community that brought food, supplies, christmas gifts/trees, etc to this guy's house...and yes, county relief...$55/month? or was it week? week i think. but then, by story end...give me that new-time religion, give me that new-time religion! straight from the all-illinois church of the modern jesus.

iv n  n    jake's journaln  n

*this one...is...3rd one now, to-do w/jake...jake blake...eye-narrator.

story begins:
first entry (undated)
this ledger and more than two dozen ballpoint pens have all been here in the tower for a long time. i do not know why i did not start a journal, or diary, long before now. if i had started in the beginning i might have been able to at least put down the date...

time place scene setting
*time involves the immediate past and in brief the distant past of the eye-narrator, jacob c. blake, although the "now" is his journal, an undated time when he writes while alone tending to an airfield:
*the tower...associated w/the air force, w/an airfield of crushed black rock that melts the snow that falls on it...an airfield in tibet...an "evil atmosphere"
*the phillipine islands...where the eye had been prior to being dropped off here, at this place, an auxiliary landing field
*pampanga
*sunday school (the more distant past)
*two miles away from base in the p.i...the barrio of sapang bato...sloppy bottom...an air force settlement
*the hindu's gift shop, where one can purchase "honeymoon lotion"
*the well at the baluga village
*a dead-end street to the house at the end of it
*basic training at lackland air force base
*iron star in angeles, philippines islands
*mount pinatuba
*golf course, air base, tended by a baluga
*church
*orderly room
*major's office
*post #2...other night time places/guard duty
*squadron jeep
*a plane, an 0-19 all fabric prop job
*a small grassy field...an island field...a small diamond-shaped field
*stone shed
*a plane, two-engine job


characters
*eye-narrator, jake blake, jacob c. blake, he is a truck driver in the air forse, reassigned, his job, to change the bulbs in the various lights of the airfield, tower. he is there alone, w/fifty years of argentine corned beef to eat, that and white beans. repeated journal entries, no dates as yet...he is a basic airman/air force
*elena espeneida, a blind filipino girl he knew, the p.i.
*red galvin, bunkmate at pampanga
*our teacher (sunday school)
*sergeants & enlisted crew members
*filipino women
*the hindu
*a slender girl...turns out to be elena...
*an old man...her father
*three men jump the eye:
*1. ducky halpert
*2. airman first class vernon wilson
*3. melvin powell
*the man in the black robe...characterized as he, capital h, eee
*sinkiewicz, the pollack...suicide? or the man in the black robe?
*the charge-of-quarters, c.q....staff sergeant harby
*the mess sergeant, the first sergeant (top), 2 filipino kp-s
*a few other men
*"my house" poem...page 83 may it do ya & do ya well
*several whores from the bull-pen, the moro, two elenas, the igorote and blondie
*the chinaman's...in the p.i.
*a filipino and his girlfriend
*sergeant ratilinsky...pansit...a food i think
*a filipino army recruit
*the old mamasan
*abe harris
*the air police
*jake...w/o a beard...and mr. jake blake...w/a beard
*a baluga...the balugas of pinatuba in the p.i. are a negrito race
*20 families in all
*one of the balugas
*guard duty, 2 nco-s and 4 airmen
*leech hudson...from time to time a prisoner in the guardhouse
*sergeant irby...in the guardhouse...on duty, guard duty
*prince, a dog, boxer, of the squadron commander
*the major, squadron commander
*entire squadron lined up in a hand salute
*a filipino boy
*squadron jeep driver
*the pilot
*the man...a hundu
*an ancient chinaman...who provides jake blake w/the first meal of corned beef the last one he enjoyed

this story is my favorite out of the collection...notice it has more scenes/settings than the others...as it has more characters, this though jacob c blake is stationed in tibet tending a field that sees no action.

v n  n    "just like on television--"n  n
begins:

arresting off.:
det. sgt. g.e. rouse, lapd

interviewing off.:
det. lt. e.m. harbold, lapd

statement

i.o.: state your name and address
suspect: billy t. berkowitz, 3428 1/2 south normandy. the half's because i live around to the back. it's a garage apartment, but i don't have a car or anything--

okee dokee then, as the good doctor said...

time place scene setting
*october 23rd give or take a few...the interrogation room apparently, at l.a.p.d. okay then and yeah, billy sign's...october 25, 1962.

characters
*det. sgt. g.e. rouse arresting officer
*det. lt. e.m. harbold, interviewing officer
*steno
*billy t. (for terence) berkowitz, suspect, from 3428 1/2 normandy, makes 45/week at the supermarket...so he wants to be a professional habitue, little accent mark over the "e"...so it sounds like habit-tooey? nessay pass? ummm. he watches television, private eye shows, to study up
*eddie mcswain, figueroa hotel, room 419, bartender, at the dew drop inn, 1425 vermont avenue...(remember the twilight zone/outer limits show..."charles vermont! charles vermont!" no? good show. black & white, the old philco, had to move you self bodily from the floor/couch to tv to change the channel? sounded like a shotgun cocking? nevermind.
*mr bert plouden lives w/mother at 2715 41st place
*man enters w/photo (arresting officer)
*woman: gloria latham, the drexel arms, 2746 santa barbara avenue, apt 307

vi n  n    the alectryomancern  n
*****there's a note prior to story start: originally appeared in alfred hitchcock's mystery magazine as "a genuine alectryomancer," ["c" in a circle] 1959 by h.s.d. publications, inc."

story begins:
where did the old alectryomancer come from in the first place? i didn't see or hear him approach on the soft sand. i looked up from the sea and there he was, waiting patiently for me to recognize him. the blue denim rags covering his shanks were clean, and so was his faded blue work shirt...

time place scene setting
*eye narrator has spent more than three months on the island
*tiny island of bequia, an island in the grenadines
*the seer's shack on mt pleasant
*from the top you can see nine miles distant st vincent
*princess margaret beach
*eye-narrator came here after departing from trinidad
*seer went to baliol college, 1.5 years only
*serviced london's west end
*eye's past...worked two years at the desk of a los angeles hotel
*freddy ming's cafe
*port-of-spain, trinidad

characters
*the eye-narrator, mr waxman, author of cockfighting in the zone of the interior which is really nothing more than a pamphlet. he is a writer, although he has not written anything while on the island. alas.
*two well-heeled cockfighters
*bequian native
*the seer...two moons wainscoting...who went to oxford...etc.
*the alectryomancer...a whitehackle cross...rooster...tied to a stake, a circle described around, corn placed there/letters at the corn, rooster picks a corn, write letter down...m-o-r-t
*bob corbett...
*eye-narrator's maid...who also tastes his food for him.
*m.v. madinina...when she steams into harbor, narrator meets her to get his provisions.
*nattering...a game of trading insults...first to react loses.
*barmaid
*administrator on st. vincent island.

a quote...from red galvin
a man should always observe fanaticism when he gets the chance.

update finished 15 aug 13 thursday evening 6:47 p.m. e.s.t.
good read...quite a variety here...some w/that twilight zone/alfred-hitchcock-presents mode going for them...these are stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end, some more so than the others.

An odd collection of stories, most of which do not fall neatly into any genre. The title story and "Just Like on Televisions" are nice crime stories and Jake's Journal and The Alectryomancer have some supernatural elements, while the remaining two stories are just dramas. None of the stories are bad but I wouldn't say any of them are particularly impressive. The book is just a nice quick read that doesn't tax the brain too much.

I liked this book of Willeford short stories. I liked it. I didn't love it as much as did some of his novels. It's a must if you consider yourself a Willeford fan. That is if you've seen the movie, The Woman Chaser, read all the Hoke Mosleys, including the manuscript of Grimhaven, and have scoured used book stories for impossible-to-find paperbacks of his then you have to read this. But, if all that is true, then you've already have read this. Sorry. Never mind.

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERTS!

My 17th Willeford book. There aren't too many left to read now. The remaining ones are rare and very very expensive.

I adored The Machine in Ward Eleven. It consists of six short stories. They may best be described as strange. Willeford experiments with different formats - one sided conversation, a letter, a police interview and entries from a journal. The central themes are intervention in an individual’s life by the man and madness.

The first story is The Machine in Ward Eleven - it is about a famous film director J.C.Blake (I've read that you're supposed to watch out for the initials J.C. in a name) who has retreated into a mental asylum. He is sort of hiding out at the asylum after he breaks down on a movie set and becomes disillusioned with the American dream. But the doctors at the mental asylum decide that they are going to give him electric shocks and send him home. But he does not want to. Willeford once said that madness was a predominant theme and a normal condition for Americans living in the second half of the 20th century. So this film director guy hides out in a mental asylum to escape the mad outside world but the powers that be (the doctors) try to smoke him out of there. I like the way Willeford gets to the central theme in this story. Written in first person, we are treated to the director's daily life in the asylum which involves smoking lots of cigarettes, reminiscing about his days as a director and barely interacting with fellow inmates.

The second story is a long one sided conversation where a producer talks about the mad director Blake. It is a long and candid meditation on the nature of cinema from a producer’s point of view.

The third story is a letter written by an alcoholic about how the system tries to prevent him from joining alcoholics anonymous. I thought it was quite funny.

The fourth story contains entries from the journal of a solitary soldier who is posted at a remote airfield in Tibet (possibly for deliberately murdering his superior's dog). One of the entries had bits from Willeford’s autobiography Something about a Soldier. I liked the setting of the remote airfield and the lonely life of the soldier eating beans and corned beef every day of his life.

The fifth story is about this loser who is inspired by television to become a barroom habitué and answerman. This one was really tongue in cheek.

The final story “The Alectryomancer” was set in the West Indies. I wasn’t sure what it meant. But it was entertaining and intriguing as hell. This collection of short stories is among my favorite Willeford books now.

I've wanted to read this collection of novellas/short stories for some time. Thanks to Centipede Press for getting the book back in print. Charles Willeford takes the reader on a descent into madness.

This book contains the following:
The Machine in Ward Eleven, Selected Incidents, A Letter to A. A. (Almost Anybody), Jake's Journal, Just Like on Television, and The Alectryomancer.

Short stories, observances, add up to an unusual insight into Willeford, the young soldier of fortune.

psycho/sci fi? Creepy, crazy Kosinsky meets, well, Willeford.