Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: On the Downhill Side [Short Story Review]

"On the Downhill Side" is a short story written by Harlan Ellison. It was published in 1972. It is a ghost story.

But this isn't just any ghost story. It is a ghost story about ghosts... not people encountering ghosts. In fact, ghosts are the only characters in the story. There is also a unicorn. I'm not sure why... but there is a unicorn.

The story is about two ghosts, male and female, who are trying to mend mistakes of their past lives, which seem to be fairly ancient. They are meant for one another, but they can't seem to tie the knot. This is like a "last chance" scenario. They have to figure this out, or else someone needs to be sacrificed.

I won't spoil this one because the ending is actually kind of shocking and dramatic, but I will say that this one took me a while to even get into. It was written in such a sudden way... with there being a random unicorn in it and all... that I was already kind of bored of it by the time I got to the good parts. I basically finished it because I was going to do that anyhow.

The thing that makes this special is that it is a ghost-only story. That's cool. I haven't seen anything like that before. However I don't think I'll recommend it. He's written better stuff than this that were more fun to digest.

This blog was written on August 9, 2024.

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4 comments:

  1. It seems the ghosts were the story because the theme was regret. The lost opportunities are gone... just like the people we lose... but they (memories) still HAUNT us.

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  2. When a story is written from the ghost's perspective, they typically have something they need to do before moving on. Humans tend to live with regret, so it is natural to assume there are those who die with it. There is still the hope that it is not too late.

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    1. Yeah, and that is still cool. I do not believe in human ghosts but they still make for interesting fiction.

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