Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988)

CW: Being Held Against One's Will, Creepy Uncle, Sexual Assault, Incest

I have been broadening my artistic horizons after seeing a friend mention they wanted to read The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington and Ithell Colquhoun is someone who is often brought up in the same breath as Carrington, so after loving The Hearing Trumpet and having mixed feelings about Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America and very negative feelings about his A Confederate General From Big Sur and the utter cavalcade of homophobia that book opens with that made it a very quick DNF, Colquhoun was next on the list. (She only got bumped as Brautigan has a bunch of books in the Audible Included library and I was desperately trying to track down am audiobook for the Goose of Hermogenes, before plunging on with the text). So far I am loving my surrealist exploration, while finding, particularly with the literature, piece by piece can elicit polarising results.

The fruitless task of giving an overview of the plot of surrealist fiction:
The Goose of Hermogenes follows a nameless female protagonist a prisoner in her uncle's mansion with some force repelling any attempts to get too far from the property. She discovers a strange manuscript with a variation on classic fairytale tropes. After reading it things become very strange, things about the island are revealed to her. More family arrive. Things get creepy and spooky and then really creepy and occult, before she heads home and hugs a naked ghost.

I have to admit to reading this book in either the best or worst states for this kind of story. For the first part I was in that locked into reading, while half asleep, and the bulk of it I read after a night of zero sleep following a C-PTSD episode.

***Vague Spoilers Ahead***

I was really excited going in and actually found the first part incredibly slow and mundane, giving me concerns for the rest of the book. I am reminded that one should be careful what they wish for. The descriptions of the wild geography and bizarreness that blossoms after the fairytale are beautiful and enchanting. The dreamlike strangeness that takes over is gloriously disorienting. The sudden plunging into the occult, suggested incest, and non-consensual rituals is disturbing, as is the way the narrative and protagonist handwave the whole thing. Finally, just like a dream, there's a little more weirdness and it just ends.

My enjoyment and appreciation of this story definitely waxed and waned. When the prose and imagery takes centre stage it really is pure, surreal beauty. The plot and pacing is likely to be a little off in something like this, but I do think it suffered from taking up a grey area of having clearly demarcated parts corresponding to alchemical processes, while playing fast, loose, and just dropping the beat at times. Beyond the incredible descriptions, this uncanny valley (yeah, I really need to go more than one review without banging on about this) of compromised structure and how the narrative fell apart in a way that didn't seem particularly artistic to my, and I cannot stress this enough, utter uneducated on and only vaguely familiar art in general, particularly surrealism, are what I came away with.

***Actual SPOILER Spoilers***

A few momentss that made me uncomfortable in a not necessarily intended manner There is a nameless, dancing Black character in an odd sequence that seems racially fetished. A very strange consideration of incest that seems to draw the difference between incest as sex with a half brother and sister, but female twins doing the same as just being lesbianism is not cool. The creepiness of the uncle always seemed like it was building to some kind of assault, but the drugging and referenced and implied rape both having happened and just not happened so the protagonist handwaves it away seemed a bit of a yikes way to handle it and the whole concept of consent and intent. Also, why the fresh out the shower naked ghost dad hug?

There's a lot of strange shit going on in this story ranging from beautiful and weird, to downright creepy and problematic(?). My experience was definitely mixed, but I really did love the bits that really clicked with me and definitely need to check out more of Colquhoun's work.… (more)