The Yattering and Jack

     Demons and the structure of Hell is a playground horror writer's often delve into. That's not surprising, seeing as the religious underworld is ripe for all manner of mayhem and evil. In Clive Barker's short,The Yattering and Jack, there is an intriguing twist on the idea of  demonic conquest of a human soul. Barker creates a story that blends a dose of horror while the blurring the line between monster and man.

      The battle for Jack Polo is waged in his home with a humorous slant as the lower demon, the Yattering, is assigned to destroy his sanity and thereby acquire his soul. Barker paints Jack as a rather dull man. He's a pickle dealer, a 9 to 5 working man, who shrugs off any emotional turmoil that is slammed against him with a "che sera, sera." This drops the reader directly into tension from the start. The Yattering is charged by his underworld masters to remain in Jack's house and drive him mad, yet this unremarkable man seems numb to every attack. Barker uses this to create a strange sense of empathy for the lesser demon. He has a job that is frustrating and unrewarding. In some ways, the reader is rooting for both Jack and the Yattering, while feeling a smudge uncomfortable with the realization they feel something other than fear and contempt for a demon. This tension only further increases as Jack is revealed to be knowledgeable about the Yattering's plan. The addition of Jack's daughters during the holidays and the Yattering's increasing activity builds the tension even further and sets a time restraint. The Yattering needs to leverage the daughters during the visit to win Jack's soul. Jack needs to keep a calm front until the opportune moment to best the demon. The explosion is primed to go off.

     One of Barker's strong suits is to add just enough detail for the audience to get a feel for the characters and horror, but leave out enough for the individual reader to fill in the details. The Yattering itself is described visually very sparingly until the end (even then it is wide open to interpretation). During the Yatterings attacks, he often whispers obscenities in Jack's ear during showers, with the hope this will either make Jack question his own sanity/goodness or act upon the suggestions. Barker leaves the details of what these obscenities out, allowing the reader to conjure up their own twisted and/or perverse ideas. Such tactfully excluded details allow the reader to customize the horrorific elements of the story to what scares them personally.

     As I'm sure I've mentioned before, theme and message are elements of a story that I'm particularly fond of. This is another area where The Yattering and Jack shines. Although religion isn't discussed too in depth, it is vital to the story. Barker plants subtle ideas that reflect this theme. The showdown at the climax is set during Christmas, a time typically celebrated for religious reasons. His wife commits adultery and suicide, which are sins. While Jack isn't portrayed as religious, the idea of religion pops up to remind the reader of the weight of what's at stake for Jack.

      Hell is one of the key players in this story, and the idea of escaping damnation and receiving redemption are delightfully warped. Early in the story the reader is given a slim backstory as to why Jack is the target of the powers of Hell. His mother promised his soul, as well as her own, to them only to slip out of the deal by later joining the church. Hell has a claim on Jack and they intend to have him, especially after the insult of losing his mother. While Jack's mother was redeemed, it is also worth noting that she didn't make good on her word. She out tricked the tricksters. Jack follows her example, trapping the Yattering as his own slave. Barker makes the reader wonder if Jack is truly on the side of good if he is willing to engage the evil powers. This leads to the bigger message of the story: who is the real monster between man and demon? The Yattering does wicked things throughout the story including killing three pet cats, one by explosion (I'll admit, that was a particularly fun scene for me). The demon is there to complete an evil task, and is putting the innocent daughters in danger to do so. Yet, these are all his responsibility, his job. Jack is able to choose his course while the Yattering's hands are tied, and Jack chooses to enslave the demon at the risk of being denied Heaven.

      I was annoyed by the bit of head hopping during the later half of the story. Barker switches from only indulging the audience in the Yattering's thoughts to diving into Jack's mind as well. To some degree, I can understand the necessity for this in this piece. The beginning suspense of Jack's apparent lack of reaction to the Yattering's antics would have dissolved if the reader would have known from the get go that Jack was doing this on purpose. The Christmas chaos would have been hard to fully develop from only the Yattring's or Jack's view. Still, it is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine that knocks me out of the story when we are switched without warning to another head.

       The humor in the story wasn't as pronounced as it could have been. Barker describes the incident with the turkey and the spinning tree and living room items in a more serious tone. I'm not sure if he intended this to be funny, but the situations seemed ripe for amping up the ridiculousness of the occurrences, especially since it put the mischievous slant on the Yattering. This is a matter of opinion, of course, but I felt the humor wasn't quite at the level it needed to be.

     Overall, this is a great story that will unnerve readers a touch and give them something to think about while being entertaining. The flaws are small and easy to overlook once your engaged in the story. Well worth reading.