Algernon Blackwood Review: Up and Down

I am sure that some readers are fans of Blackwood’s humorous stories. As I mentioned in my last few posts, they don’t quite work for me. Blackwood’s ghost stories and weird tales deserve more readership. I can’t say that about his comic pieces.

“Up and Down” is about an encounter by a first-person narrator with a scatter-brained friend. Throughout a lunch, the friend couldn’t compose a coherent thought until he lost his temper at the narrator for not paying closer attention to him.

That’s the joke.

I can find 400 words to write about a Clark Ashton Smith story where the narrator sees a half-octopus/half-turnip in a dream and then wakes up, but there’s not much I can say about this one.

Time can destroy styles of comedy quicker than it rots bananas so I don’t begrudge Blackwood. While I doubt if many readers today will respond well to “Up and Down,” I’m glad Blackwood had it published and hope he was paid well.

He wrote “The Willows.” In the grand scope of life, he could afford a few stories with humor that doesn’t stand the test of time.