My old photo of a Thames Barge also, like Aickman’s in ’Raising the Wind’, on route for Southend Pier! Perhaps inadvertently the perfect expression of Aickman’s Zenoism. Half and half again.
“They say it never ends.” – Just A Song At Twilight (TimO as a time loop.)
Links to all my Aickmeanderings — A Fully-Conducted Tour
“Genius, however, comes normally in inverse measure to the capacity to impart. The two things are strongly opposed.” – Le Miroir
***
My reviews in 2021 when re-reading individual stories
THE INNER ROOM: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/the-2nd-fontana-book-of-great-ghost-stories/#comment-21599
THE TRAINS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/the-trains/
MEETING MR MILLAR: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/05/18/meeting-mr-millar/
THE VISITING STAR: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/06/07/the-visiting-star-robert-aickman-1966/
THE SWORDS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/06/11/the-swords/
THE CICERONES: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/06/07/the-7th-fontana-book-of-great-ghost-stories-edited-by-robert-aickman/#comment-22133
THE SAME DOG: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/11/the-same-dog-by-robert-aickman/
THE HOUSES OF THE RUSSIANS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/12/the-houses-of-the-russians/
RINGING THE CHANGES: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/13/ringing-the-changes/ ========= and THE WAITING ROOM
THE STAINS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/15/accretive-stains/
WOOD: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/16/wood-wood-wood-wood-wood/
THE FETCH: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/17/reeking-of-seabed-mortality/ ============ and NO TIME IS PASSING
MARRIAGE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/18/burdens-upon-an-immense-divan/
GROWING BOYS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/22/growing-boys-as-lordly-ones/
RAvissante: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/24/toward-golden-walls-and-golden-frames/
PAGES FROM A YOUNG GIRL’S JOURNAL: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/fiction-though-it-be/
THE UNSETTLED DUST: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/27/pushing-through-endless-thickets-of-dead-bramble-and-dogrose/
THE BREAKTHROUGH: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/28/a-fell-force/
LAURA: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/29414/
THE SCHOOL FRIEND: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/09/the-undying-aickman/
YOUR TINY HAND IS FROZEN: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/waiting-for-the-bread-delivery/
NO STRONGER THAN A FLOWER: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/11/writhing-candelabra/
JUST A SONG AT TWILIGHT: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/12/fierce-and-bleeding/
LARGER THAN ONESELF: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/13/mr-coner-and-sister-nuper/
THE REAL ROAD TO THE CHURCH: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/14/still-point-of-the-turning-world/
THE CLOCK WATCHER: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/29651-2
HAND IN GLOVE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/10/pansy-stock-and-others/
NIEMANDSWASSER: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/30153-2/
LE MIROIR: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/12/the-truth-of-youth/
BIND YOUR HAIR: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/18/can-i-change-my-shoes/
THE NEXT GLADE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/19/the-next-glade-of-light/
COMPULSORY GAMES: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/the-ornamental-waters/
RAISING THE WIND: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/21/the-forfeits-of-bashan/
LETTERS TO THE POSTMAN: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/protocols-of-romance-in-aickman/
A CHOICE OF WEAPONS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/23/macropsia-and-micropsia-in-free-will/
THE VIEW: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-view-by-robert-aickman/
THE WINE-DARK SEA: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/26/poisoned-with-masculinity/
NEVER VISIT VENICE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/27/an-affair-of-moments/
A ROMAN QUESTION: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/or-a-horse-breaking-itself-in/
THE INSUFFICIENT ANSWER: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/the-insufficient-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything/
ROSAMUND’S BOWER: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/30699-2/
MARK INGESTRE: THE CUSTOMER’S TALE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/30717-2/
THE STRANGERS: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/10/02/the-third-place/
The Case of Wallingford’s Tiger: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-case-of-wallingfords-tiger/
The Whistler: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-whistler/
A Disciple of Plato: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/a-disciple-of-plato/
The Coffin House: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-coffin-house/
The Flying Anglo-Dutchman: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-flying-anglo-dutchman/
The Fully-Conducted Tour: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-fully-conducted-tour/
RESIDENTS ONLY: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/history-turned-inside-out/
INTO THE WOOD: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/one-leg-shorter-than-another/
THE HOSPICE: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/the-hospice/
***
Detailed reviews of Aickman novels etc.
Go Back At Once by Robert Aickman
The Late Breakfasters by Robert Aickman
THE STRANGERS and other writings
***
THE TIME LOOP’S SLOWTH
My story by story reviews of Aickman’s Fontana Anthologies
The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 4th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 6th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 8th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The (1st) Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 3rd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 5th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert Aickman
The 7th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories edited by Robert
Gluey Zenoism in Residents Only: https://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=148154&postcount=446
My real-time review of The Hospice as part of the VanderMeers’ ‘The Weird’
Many references to Aickman in my real-time reviews of The Magic Mountain and The Inmates
Earlier real-time thoughts on Aickman
My review of Shearman’s BOBBO: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/we-all-hear-stories-in-the-dark-robert-shearman/#comment-19457
and countless references to Aickman in my general real-time reviewing of other books
***
The Aickman Islands (The River Runs Uphill etc)
John Magwitch’s Thesis on Robert Aickman & Cannibalism and HERE
The Hospice – before making the connection with Thomas Mann
Main TLO Aickman discussion thread to which I contribute
***
THE R.B. RUSSELL BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT AICKMAN
***
At the end, satisfyingly for me, time ticks more and more slowly… and I wonder if the whole of Aickman’s work was fundamentally geared to T.S. Eliot’s ‘still point of the turning world’ whereby the ill-resolutions and desires between genders, opposite or same genders alike, as well as all humanity’s hopes and despairs, can be parked at least for a while… a ‘while’ that is still transpiring even now as we ‘porters’, upon the pathway of life and death, change shift… (from my review of ‘The Real Road To The Church’)
“Reading alone will not avail. Words reach only the mind. It is the spirit, the Geist, we grope for, nicht wahr?”
“‘He’s a Lewisite. He’s misplaced like me.’”
Both above quotes from ‘Larger Than Oneself”
“There was an embarrassing blank in time, while an angel flitted through the room, or perhaps a demon.” — Hand in Glove
“Time flies when we watch it, but has no need to fly when we ignore it.” – Le Miroir
“So eat up your mört, Margaret, and take no notice of all these gloomy thoughts.” – from Into The Wood
One review so far of my reviews: https://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=159174&postcount=570
“; and I could imagine that speed could well be of the essence.” — RAISING THE WIND
The Des Lewis Gestalt Real-Time Reviews 
“It’s only in fiction that there’s anything *really* dangerous.”
— #RobertAickman, #TheUnsettledDust
Cross-referenced this page with chapter 7 of Mark Samuels’ book here: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/witch-cult-abbey-mark-samuels/#comment-22581
“horizonless desert” amid the “terrifying abuse and curses; at other times, groans and screams, as of the dying and the damned” — Aickman’s prophecy of our on-line today.
From my review of YOUR TINY HAND IS FROZEN
“As there is no intrinsic virtue in denigration, the critic who resorts to it, should be required to pass a test of qualification and sensitivity, at least twice as stringent as that imposed upon a critic who loves. Normally, love is not blind but clairvoyant. […] Moreover, there is some degree of absolute nobility in praise; and a high degree of ignominy in belittlement, even in justified belittlement. The capacity for praise that is at once warm and discerning implies a degree of fineness in the critic that is, alas, rare in anyone. These truths are so simple and obvious as to call for unfailing repetition.”
— Robert Aickman
As if birth ever rejects us ab initio to a new master called death … and we try to resist time’s passing, a passing (in more ways than one) that brings such a transference about?
…from my concurrent review here: https://elizabethbowensite.wordpress.com/685-2/#comment-1281
The quote below was first drawn to my attention when quoted by Robert Aickman in his ‘The River Runs Uphill’…..
“A ball is almost a short lifetime in itself. Everything that happened beforehand retreats, for the time being, into a kind of pre-natal oblivion, and the world waiting for you when you wake up next day, seems as vague and shadowy as the eternity that waits beyond the tomb. Like somebody’s life, the ball goes on and on, and the incidents stand out in retrospect like a life’s milestones against a flux of time when miniature years are measured out in dance tunes.” — Patrick Leigh-Fermor
“There are no beautiful clocks. Everything to do with time is hideous.”
— Robert Aickman, The Clock Watcher
=============================
A quote from another favourite author of mine —
“‘I’ll tell you something, Clara. Have you ever SEEN a minute? Have you actually had one wriggling inside your hand? Did you know if you keep your finger inside a clock for a minute, you can pick out that very minute and take it home for your own?’ So it is Paul who stealthily lifts the dome off. It is Paul who selects the finger of Clara’s that is to be guided, shrinking, then forced wincing into the works, to be wedged in them, bruised in them, bitten into and eaten up by the cogs. ‘No you have got to keep it there, or you will lose the minute. I am doing the counting – the counting up to sixty.’ . . . But there is to be no sixty. The ticking stops.”
From ‘The Inherited Clock’ by Elizabeth Bowen
https://twitter.com/elizabe50286054/status/1427156315969769473?s=21
THE CLOCK WATCHER by Robert Aickman
I think I need to make this truly remarkable story the culmination of my reviews of specific Aickman stories, even though I still have many of his stories not re-read for my timely processes of gestalt real-time reviewing.
This one is a story that I cannot now step beyond. At least for the time being.
It completes a fitting, if chance, gestalt of the Aickman stories I have recently re-read and also of other authors’ stories he himself chose for the Fontana anthology series — a gestalt of Time’s Slowth or Gluey Zenoism and now here it is in its starkest terms, a story that is also in relation to a topic that arises often in Aickman:- the nature of sexual urges with, as well as between, women, and the nature of marriage at the time Aickman wrote it. And also it reveals views of its time, its post-war time.
It is a story of Gluey Zenoism, in the same way as RESIDENTS ONLY is. Turning pages interminably until suddenly one is not.
It is staggeringly Aickman-absurd as well as frightening in itself, but it’s even more frightening in the context of the gestalt I have, perhaps unintentionally, now reached…
Full review of this story: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/29651-2/
The River Runs Uphill
https://www.facebook.com/groups/236163389788645/permalink/5966717546733172/
Independent review on my latest Aickman story reviews … https://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=159174&postcount=570
The title of The River Runs Uphill has taken on new significance for me in recent weeks! And also Go Back At Once, for that matter!
While synthesizing a controller for timed automata one should be careful not letting any of the players win by “Zenonism“, that is, by preventing the time from progressing as does the Tortoise in its race against Achilles.
Zenonism (which regards the continuum as composed of points) was defended on various occasions in the Jesuit context, and was also repressed and condemned a number of times.
[…] Nietzsche’s thinking on time was mediated by Boscovich, which in turn was an attempt to take further and refine the insights of Leibniz and Newton and, perhaps most significant of all, to go beyond various kinds of Zenonism […]
Above is taken from the Internet.
Zenoism / Null Immortalism?
Thus it should be ZENONISM not ZENOISM?
Cf the Zeroist Group (1967) that I helped found!
Cross-reference here: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/08/29/justle-as-bustle/
— Brian Evenson
As we readers struggle with dark meanings always hovering halfway through to the next glade of light. At a time when colour TVs needed to be specifically called, as in this story, colour ones, to differentiate from black and white.
—- from my review of THE NEXT GLADE
“A year ago, all the words that matter had suddenly changed their meanings and changed them for ever. Nor was this process of change going to cease. Colin felt that he would never even die. Rather was he to be endlessly dragged out of himself; moulded, melted, and miniaturized: while all the time, his real self remained entirely conscious but entirely powerless, like a discarded chrysalis still with feeling. A manikin was materializing while the man watched, having first been paralysed.”
— Compulsory Games
Aickman’s portrayal of Null Immortalis
Time:
‘“The ruined clock lay between them.”
— A Choice of Weapons
The River Runs Up Hill
My Aickman fiction collection:
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Cross-referenced with Bowen’s ‘The Inherited Clock’ here; https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/10/08/lungfuls-of-horror/
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…. as rough contemporaries, Bowen and Aickman were great mutual literary spirit influences as synergy upon and from each other, but without letting the literary world know. Or the literary world has kept wartime secrets about it, by not mixing apparent horror genre with literature? Till now.
From my review of Green Holly
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/31260-2/ Elizabeth Bowen
“Morning Tea” by Serge N. Kozintsev
This photograph could well be the optimum picture for many Aickman stories:
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From my ongoing review of Elizabeth Bowen stories here: https://howivi.wordpress.com/341-2/
So far in this series of reviews of all Bowen stories, I am struck by her Evadne Price girls, and her Zeno’s Paradox in Thirds not Halves, and the stages of the Second World War in London as the stages of Covid….,all creatively fractured by Bowenesque style. And there is of course her links with Aickman, probably in real life, a mutual synergy in gender/sexual/marriage trains and ghostly-horror absurdism.
Also her Disinherited* ‘Forever Autumn’, see my https://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/forever-autumn/ in 2012, links with Ligotti and general Weird Fiction anthologised by the VanderMeers.
* “This first phase of autumn was lovely; decay first made itself felt as an extreme sweetness: with just such a touch of delicious morbidity a lover might contemplate the idea of death. […] Everything rotted slowly. […] eternity seemed to have set in at late autumn.”
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