As I have little else to do on my down time but go through my book, CD, and DVD collections, I have discovered some gems I might not have noticed in normal times when I am more selective about what I read. Back in the 90s I bought an anthology entitled Dark Imaginings: A Collection of Gothic Fantasy. I was exploring the world of Dark Fantasy at the time and it seemed up my alley, so I picked it up but never really read through it because it wasn’t dark enough for my taste, despite the title.
Dark Imaginings: A Collection of Gothic Fantasy (1978, Delta).
It has some worthy fantasy tales for sure, by some of it’s most celebrated authors, but there are only a handful of tales in there which I believe truly fit the theme, and they are by the usual authors associated with the genre like Algernon Blackwood, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and H.P. Lovecraft, all of whom I was very familiar with already. Anyway, I set it aside and eventually it ended up in my storage unit where it, unfortunately, got pretty banged up. I found it again in recent months and left it out so I could take a fresh look. I read the introduction by co-editors Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, then I flipped through the pages looking for something that caught my eye. I settled on Lila the Werewolf, by author Peter S. Beagle, which had been touted in the introduction as a perfect example of contemporary Gothic Fantasy.
Chapbook of Lila the Werewolf (1974, Capra Press)
Without giving too much away, the story is told by a jaded New York bohemian musician, Sam Farrell, who finds out that his new girlfriend, Lila, is a werewolf. His blasé attitude and frankly cavalier handling of the situation are a bit off-putting and surprising, considering Beagle’s sensitivity and deft manipulation of the miraculous intruding upon the mundane in his 2017 novella In Calabria. Of course, there is an almost 50 year difference between the tales, and the author writing in 2017 had the benefit of experience and maturity to inform him. Beagle himself is quoted online as having said of Lila:
This story was written very long ago, in another world, by a young man to whom the idea of equating womanhood with lycanthropy, sexual desire with blood and death and humiliation, seemed no more at the time than a casual grisly joke. I would write ‘Lila the Werewolf’ today, but not for that reason, and not in that way.
There are some inspired moments and, at times, some humorous situations, but overall I think this is a werewolf story with no bite. Had he been more thoughtful, I think Beagle could have had a great story, as I feel that Lila is an interesting and sympathetic character. Most significantly, to me anyway, I found nothing at all Gothic about it. Lila’s lycanthropy is handled very matter-of-factly, with none of the customary allusions to folklore or the occult, and one never feels any impending threat save for the occasional menacing growl from the wolf. What’s more, had he not described her as a wolf in the beginning of the story, one would almost swear she was a just a peevish dog, despite her dietary inclinations. The story fell apart for me in the farcical third act, which I thought went on for way too long. As I said, I don’t think he took the material very seriously, which is a shame, as I think the idea had great potential. That said, I’d be curious to see what Beagle might have to say if he were to check in on Lila today.
manny's book of shadows 