The Funeral

There were several things I really enjoyed in The Funeral. For one, I really enjoyed Morton Silkline. He’s presented at first as a greedy but business-like man, and you can’t help but be amused at his less-than-proper mindset. He thinks of money, even when surrounded by death. And then, when the tables are turned on him and he realizes that he’s throwing a funeral for a supernatural, undead creature…his reaction is perfect. He passes out. But he still gains strength from the money he earns, so he stays true to his despicable character. So, at the end, I really enjoyed that he’s bringing in new undead clients and turning it into a business that both scares and pleases him. That he’d face these unnatural beings that find him ”tasty” just to earn a little bit of cash…well, I had a good laugh at that.

I also enjoyed the character interactions in this story. While in I Am Legend, the story starts off with the main character alone, this story starts off with characters meeting and reacting to one another. You see the internal and external actions of these characters and they engaged me more than Mattheson’s first story. Asper is a unique character in that he wants a better funeral to celebrate his undead state, and that premise really pulled me in. The second he stated that the funeral was for him, I was hooked. When the story progressed to the actual funeral, the character interactions really took off. Even though he doesn’t say much, Silkline’s actions speak louder than words, and the things that Ludwig Asper’s friends say and do inspired both fear and laughter. I could understand why Silkline was rigid in his seat, but I couldn’t help but laugh as a reader. Picturing the scene was kind of like watching Death at a Funeral, another comedy. Everything at the funeral goes wrong in the worst sort of way in both stories, and it garners laughter more than fear.

The crone was by far my favorite character, with her cat meowing and responding to her comments. I think I enjoyed her the most because while she is a witch with some stereotypical attributes, she adds flair to the group. She isn’t all morose and serious, like the Count and Asper. She isn’t a grunting beast, like the creature that left half-way through, and she isn’t as stereotypical as the hunchback who calls the vampires “master.” She manages to call Silkline a duck and a pretty boy all on one page, spark lightning without chanting any typical spells, and she doesn’t have your usual wart-covered face. So, I found her unique. And the fact that it wasn’t only vampires at the funeral adds a whole new dimension to the story. Usually it’s one type of being in a story, or at most two (Werewolves AND vampires), but the presence of multiple undead beings in one group of friends was entertaining.

The one thing I didn’t like was the language. While the formality struck me as appropriate for a funeral home—Silkline himself adapts a formal air when dealing with clients—at times it read as though Mattheson just went through a thesaurus to replace all the common words. So, at times I felt I was fighting with the words to follow the story. Descriptions weren’t always clear (Silkline’s eyes are both liver-colored and cinnamon on the first page, which creates two different images in my mind, one a dull brown and the other a bright one), and that kept me from seeing some aspects of the story. I’m not sure if this was a structure Mattheson used on purpose, or if it’s just his style of writing. Any thoughts on this? Any thoughts on why the language was so…over the top literary? Or is that just me? Maybe I was just reading too fast and missed something.

Edit: After scanning this story a second time, I thought the language added humor. I think that the first read through, which I did immediately after I Am Legend, really bothered me because it was so different from I Am Legend. I was prepared for more doom and gloom, straightforward language, and the switch was jarring. After a few days away from Mattheson, I was able to appreciate his word choices. The purple prose was enjoyable rather than jarring. Go figure...maybe that says more about my reading style than Mattheson's writing.