Termush (Faber Editions): 'A classic―stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful' (Jeff VanderMeer)

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Termush (Faber Editions): 'A classic―stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful' (Jeff VanderMeer)

Termush (Faber Editions): 'A classic―stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful' (Jeff VanderMeer)

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It’s a series that puts the spotlight on rediscovered gems from Faber’s archive and beyond, resurrecting radical literary voices who speak to our present. Secrets! Secrets! My wife buys plenty of her own books — and as they are contemporary fiction they all tend to be more than mine. So she doesn’t say anything about my habit. I have been installed in one of the rooms on the top floor here in the hotel. Everything went according to plan, just as it had been run through for us beforehand, on the lines explained in the brochures we received with our enrolment forms. Introduced by Jeff VanderMeer, welcome to a luxury hotel at the end of the world in this post-apocalyptic 1967 dystopia …

I have discussed this with my neighbours and some of the other guests here in the hotel and they do not disagree with me, even if they feel that I attach too much importance to one small incident. The sun strikes a glitter from the surface of the sea and the light affects her outline like an unstable acid, threatening to obliterate it . . .’ N, and his fellow occupants, grapple with a disjointed experience. The hotel reproduces the world as if nothing has occurred–“We had unconsciously thought in terms of something more drastic, a radical transformation, with every single object showing traces of what had occurred, the furniture and the walls changing character and the view outside our window revealing a totally different world” (7). But even Termush isn’t spared from the tangible external signs of the apocalypse as survivors wander in from the surrounding towns, often on verge of death, and appear at the door.

This has an interesting premise, but the writing is very flat. I was hoping for more conflict between the folks who stay in the hotel, but there isn’t much characterization. It’s more a microcosm that represents larger societal patterns and human behavior (the rich avoiding disasters by hiding away with their money, more privileged folks ignoring the plight of everyone else, hoarding, etc.). So the people in the story are more often spoken about as groups, except for Maria who is just kind of there. 😂 Considering Termush was first published over half a century ago, it feels timeless, and has strong contemporary resonances with the 21st-century world. Exceptional writing. Since what the group will find in the way of undamaged foodstuffs cannot be predicted, they are taking tinned goods with them, but because of the weight they cannot be given drink to last for more than a few days. The management and the scouts themselves pin their faith to the underground fresh-water supplies marked on the map. In my view there is good reason to believe that these water installations have been destroyed—or if they are intact, they will already have been used. The map showing the underground water storage facilities was sent out officially several years ago. No, I mean after all we have experienced in the last few days. Or rather all that we have been spared from experiencing, but which we know has happened." Within twenty-four hours of our return to the hotel everyone has been busy—or has made himself busy—with the arrangement of the furniture, comparing pictures and the position of the various rooms.

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription This was a fascinating and gripping dystopian novel. The moral dilemmas that arose as well as how each person handled their new life was really interesting to watch as it unfolded. This was a short novel but one that will stay with me for a long time. The fact that this focussed on wealthy members of society gave the writing an extra level. The characters were forced to come to terms with the idea that they are, in fact, human, just like everyone else. They are not untouchable, and the moral battles that unfold between them showcased the questionable levels people hold both themselves and others to. The second round used a lot of photographic imagery, trying to dig into the surreal and uncanny atmosphere of the book. We did not envisage quite such a ruthless change in our environment. But one of the reasons for our feelings of weakness may be that things have retained their outward appearance, now that the disaster has happened. Without knowing it, we put our faith in the disaster; we thought our panic would be justified if we had to use symbols as violent as those our imagination needed earlier.

At first, things proceed as normally as could be expected after a nuclear war. The guests are comfortable, there's plenty of food, though there are alarms when excessive radiation levels are monitored and the guests have to go down to the shelters. The narrator is lucid yet enigmatic, his observations often understated, although they’re also punctuated by hallucinatory moments and ominous dreams. His unease is set off by a growing awareness of Termush’s underlying authoritarianism, the withholding of information, the insistence that “an inspired lie could be preferred to a malignant truth.” His is a portrait of a repressive, deeply unequal society in miniature, one in which nonconformity results in ostracization, where individual responses born out of trauma are swiftly pathologized and suitably medicated. Each hotel room is carefully furnished with classic works of art which act not to stimulate the imagination or inspire new ways of seeing but as a pacifying force, culture as opiate – something Holms found particularly disturbing. Increasingly hatred of the ‘other’ seems the only sure way of unifying Termush’s disparate inhabitants. It’s a deeply compelling, almost hypnotic piece, translated by Sylvia Clayton, it’s accompanied by an illuminating introduction from Jeff VanderMeer. Another great entry in Faber Editions’ impressive list of carefully-curated vintage titles centred on highlighting “radical rediscovered voices.” A vision of life after the Third World War, a fable about survival, atom-age man seen as Noah without God. Technically it could be called science fiction, in that it imagines the future, but its arguments and distinctions are ethical and emotional rather than scientific. It points the single moral that though to involve oneself with humanity is dangerous, to isolate oneself is fatal. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. I am so in love with this writing style, I can’t even describe it, it’s so poetic and stunning. The story and everything about this was captivating and perfect I adored it!



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