Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

There are few books that I read multiple times, but The Hellbound Heart is one I keep coming back to.   Slim at one hundred and sixty four pages in trade paperback, and with somewhat obscenely large print, this really is a short, but worthwhile read.   

Not only is the page count, and in fact the word count, short, but its is a short easy read.   Not easy in the way one might suspect, not light, nor easily understood in full as the themes and undercurrents are far too vast in number and complexity to be understood upon either the first read or a quick read.   Easy in that Clive Barker  is a poet as well as a novelist.   Even if he doesn't actually write poetry, he has a poet's sense, a use of words that illuminates, that makes even the most banal or ugly act shine with a luminescence that brings wonder to the smallest and vilest of moments.   

"Polished surfaces which scintillated like the finest mother-of-pearl, colored shadows seeming to move in the gloss."

Which brings us to Lemarchand's box, the puzzle that calls forth the Cenobites and their particular brand of sensual pleasure.   It is pleasure beyond pleasure, an overabundance that makes even the most minute sound, or sight, so overwhelming it's painful.   It's an inverse: pleasure is pain and pain is pleasure to the Cenobites.   For those uninspired by the mundane word, they offer more.   

Lemarchand's box comes with it's own set of rules, rules that include how to open it, and what happens when one does.   These rules are clever, not only because they allow the story to unfold as it does, for that inevitable conclusion to come to pass, but because it allows this to become a true retelling of the Faustian tale.   The true horror is not the Cenobites, so much as the greed and lust and depravity of those who are drawn to the Cenobites are the truly horrifying reveal.   

Although Julia as a character is a chilling portrait of a spiral into moral depravity.  

This would still be unconvincing if Barker didn't have such a strong sense of human character, and human motivation, or if he were unable to understand the world around him with such clarity.   

"What punishment could be meted out worse than the thought of pain without the hope of release?"

And with this echoing of the sentiment abandon hope, can it be any clearer that the Cenobites have invited their wannabe disciples to hell rather than the heaven they had so fervently hoped for?   Oh, yes, this is a Faustian deal, indeed, and Barker understands exactly how our own drives can lead us to these hells.   

"Somehow the theft of Rory's name was as unforgivable as stealing his skin; or so her grief told her."

Naming things is very important, and a crux of this novel.   A catalyst, a turning point, which is fascinating if you consider how misnamed and misunderstood certain things are.   The Cenobites are named angels until they're revealed to be the opposite, and the phrase 'pain is pleasure and pleasure is pain' is used even if not in that exact wording.   However, the fact that one thing is misnamed, or misunderstood, or turned into something else, and then names are given such importance at the end?   There are too many small moments like this that I've overlooked, or haven't fully taken in, and now do.   This is why I will continue to reread this every now and then. 

"He was in extremis, hooked through in a  dozen or more places, fresh wounds gouged in him even as she watched."

Sex, and the pleasure and pain of sexual experiences, is the most overt theme in this novel.   It's pretty explicit, especially towards the end, although it comes into play even at the beginning when Julia considers her tryst with Frank.  While she gave her consent, it's described as having the joylessness of rape, and this is a strong image.   Not only that, it ties into how Frank experiences sexual pleasure at the hands of the Cenobites, and thus ties the first of his experiences that you really experience - that with Julia - to the last one that I mention in this quote.  

It's actually all quite intricate, and quite a heavy subject.   While it's done with a glee, it's never taken lightly, and the graveness lends this novella its terror.   

"And then, in one last act of defiance, he cranked up his heavy head and stared at her, meeting her gaze with eyes from which all bafflement and all malice had fled.   They glittered as they rested on her, pearls in offal. 

In response, the chains were drawn an inch tighter..."

It's interesting that Frank is wiped clean as he's just told Kirsty that it's best if she's lost her mind.   But more than that, this is a lovely wrap up line - although not the last line of the novel - as the theme of punishment and innocence are also planted throughout this slim book.   

If I haven't convinced you, and these brief quotes haven't, I'm not sure anything will.   Because I love this like crazy. 

So I leave you with this description of the lead Cenobite: "'Do you understand?' the figure beside the first speaker demanded.   Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy - the voice of an excited girl.   Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jeweled pin driven through to the bone.  Its tongue was similarly decorated."

Now imagine him talking in the voice of an excited girl.   Light and breathy.