Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves
by Rod Serling
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rod SerlingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1972
ISBN: 0553071424
Number of pages: 181
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves
Book Review: Although Serling did not write these stories, they do reflect his intellectual point of view
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was a treat, being someone who burrows through the stacks at used bookstores. It was a collection of unknown quantities, but attaching Serling's name was all the endorsement I needed.
Although Serling did not write these stories, they do reflect his intellectual point of view. And remember that many of the TZ episodes were not originals, but adaptations of other's tales. We, therefore, could consider this book as a collection of "More Lost Episodes."
These stores have that special quality that endears us to Serling: commentary on politics, society, sexuality, the general human condition, and that heavy doses Cosmic Justice that affirms our belief that there is more to life than blood, sweat, tears, and taxes.
This book is a mixture of old and new. He has Hawthorn's milieu/setting piece "Young Goodman Brown," an early--if not the earliest--example of Yankee/Puritan horror. Kipling's small morality play "The Mark of the Beast" was typical Kipling: displaced Brits in India displacing the natives and the native culture. However the moral, the dispensing of Cosmic Justice, was atypical for someone who seems so Anglocentric.
I would have liked more background for "The Story of Sidi Nonman." It feels like faux ancient literature, but who can tell with anonymous literature? I see why Serling included this tale: Even as a dog, Sidi bears no grudges against his master, and it is the small act of kindness--akin to Joseph (of Dreamcoat fame) suffering wrongly in prison, yest still having room for consistent acts of kindness to the other inmates. Both transcend their circumstances; both are examples for all of us.
"The Amulet" was a rough beginning to book, due to its Twain-esque dialect and Appalachian-eque setting. It does feel like a TZ story since it reminds us of "Jesse-Belle" or "The Bewitchin' Pool."
"The Final Ingredient" would have been a better beginning, since the story was both compact and contemporary, and ends with a triple serving of Cosmic Justice. We love that just dessert, be it for good or evil--evil for the bad, and good for the meek..
"Chestnut Beads" is the weakest story. The plot is plodding, longy, winding, windy, and duplicates themes brought up in "Hatchery." I think Serling included this story because it dealt with the fallout of an atomic war, and how to rebuild civilization. You also have the key elements of brainwashing, sexual politics, and science and superstition (". . . the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.")
"And Not Quote Human" is not an O. Henry, but has more of a 110% proof Saki ending, giving us a laugh-grimace similar to what we got at the end of "To Serve Man" or "A Small Talent for War."
There are merely two werewolf stories in this collection. "The Black Retriever" is a weak story, and is a shadow-child of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"--the same end-scene evidence that forces you to make a double take. The other lobophilic tale, "Wolves Don't Cry," was a fresh (i.e. inverted) approach to the classic lycanthrope legend. In comprehending the canine mind, Bruce Elliot gave Jack London a run for his money.
The last chapter is a historical monograph on the Witch Trials in France, Germany, and both old and New England. If you have seen a TLC/Discovery/History Channel program on Salem, then you already know this information. What impressed me was that this article brought out that Which Trials were not just localized to one city, but to other places in Europe.
*
Two of the stories, "Blind Alley" and "Hatchery of Dreams"--two strong stories--transpose hell into modern terms. Thus they have a distinct "Screwtape Letters" smell about them, which is why I ate them up rather quickly and with great satisfaction. What C. S. Lewis said of his own adult fairy tale, "That Hideous Strength," could equally apply to Rod Serling's weird morality plays:
"I am following the traditional fairy-tale. We do not always notice its method, because the cottages, castles, woodcutters, and petty kings with which a fairy-tale opens have become for us as remote as the witches and ogres to which it proceeds. But they were not remote at all to the men who made and first enjoyed the stories."
That is, Lewis advises us not to get too caught up on the conventions associated with setting--the gingerbread house, the flying broomsticks--but the underlying themes of evil beings in the world being confronted by us normal people. A light-saber does the same job as a metallic saber, but it the hand and the heart of the hero that wields the weapon that is the essential element. Scenery changes; the human condition does not.
So we end up with a Ghostbusters/X-Files/Kolchak mixture of the commonplace world being slightly tilted, with an undercurrent of "Macbeth" and "Paradise Lost." But isn't that how things REALLY are?
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