[I spoil the main points of this story.]
Honestly, I didn't know what was going on for most of this story. I think it was by design. The story is written in extreme hillbilly dialect. It was very hard to translate what was being said in the dialog.
Much of it was the bickering between a mother, father, and an uncle. There is a son there too who has the same speech impediment. From what I can understand, the son was talking about how much he loved his girlfriend and how they might end up getting hitched. There was mixed approval for this it seems.
Now the very first thing that happens in the story is that the father's nose falls off into his food, and he gets ridiculed for it. I also noticed that the son had a problem with his leg falling out of joint. They were also all eating mushy food, basically jelly. At the end of the story, when he finally meets his girlfriend, he dances for joy which causes his legs to just fall off completely. "What the heck is going on here?" I said to myself.
And then it hit me. They don't have teeth. I don't think they have hair either. Their bodies are all failing and falling apart. That's not a hillbilly dialect; it's a toothless dialect. They have no teeth. This is a family friendly love story set in a post nuclear holocausts. Matheson was incredibly subtle on this point, but there are enough clues to pick up on it. He barely talks about the world they are in. He mainly sticks to the people. I do think its interesting that he leaves it up to the reader to solve this odd puzzle.
As to a recommendation, I am not sure what I should do with "'Tis the Season to Be Jelly." On the one hand, it is kind of clever in its construction, but you might find the toothless dialect annoying. You might want to decide for yourself on this one. Anyways, that's enough Richard Matheson for me. Time to move on.
This blog was written on May 7, 2023.
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The author's idea of funny was grim. He did write this when the threat of nuclear war was imminent: CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. I suppose he wanted to have fun with what could be his doom.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the world was thinking about this a lot at the time.
DeleteThat's rough... The reveal is that the world is ruined, and the people aren't lucky to be alive. I suppose it is clever to leave it to the reader to figure out, but boy is that grim.
ReplyDeleteIt's grim but somehow still comedy.
DeleteFor something to be clever, it must be communicated well. If you are struggling to read the work, this stymies what the author was trying to convey. Even if you figure it out, was it really worth the frustration?
ReplyDelete