"The Portrait of Alatiel Salazar"
Genre: Gothic Revisionist Horror Literature
Length: 60 Pages
Immortal Ink Publishing
My 9 Reader 'Hot-Button' Considerations
1. World's Immersion:
Readers will enter Katriel's gothic-styled 1800's world through the frame of reading a journal...discovered and being read by initially unknown eyes, left behind by the disappearance of a woman, evidenced only in her body's blood-stained outline. Thus begins a haunted search, through an association of twisted souls, dark beliefs, lost beliefs, and the ghosts that find no rest.
"The Decorative Poor" are the beautiful but utterly lost muses...destitute human inspirations, discovered by a circle of bohemian artists...painters, poets, want-to-be novelists...with lusty, obsessive appetites. This decadent bunch becomes the artisan road-map to Hell, through which Readers track the bloody wake of ALATIEL. What draws one in deeper, is this promise of unveiling the darker appetites, and unspeakable prices exacted, for reveling in ecstasy of Darkness' desolate promises. At the furthest end of this hall-of-mirrors journey, awaits House Salvacio, with a godless cemetery for a moat, and abode to illusory, painted dimensions...the arena of flesh-chilling depravity.
2. Characters/Icons:
ALATIEL: She is the fearsome icon of this book, and a horrific figure of unsettling mysteries. "What is raised is imperishable." WHAT do Readers believe Alatiel is? If you say she is a 'vampire,' I will point out that Alatiel does not feed on blood...the feast is on something else. If you say she is a zombie, you haven't read the book. If you say she is a painting come to murderous life, I will assert that paintings are merely the medium through which she works her 'dark tricks.' I believe I understand what she actually is, which is what is intriguing about the creation. SK leaves the exact truth of her monstrous nature in searching question, but I feel I could put a finger on It.
HELENA: Tragic girl. She begins as 'the disappeared,' becomes our first rueful and foreboding P.O.V for what Readers immediately know, has already transpired...but also what is yet to be found. Do we ever meet Helena on equal ground, where she simply exists as she was meant to be? Helena is 'the doomed icon' and we are reading in search of her; and her fiancee journeys though nightmares to reclaim her back from abduction. Is she even alive? She wanted to be a writer...
GABRIEL HOLLAND: The fiancee, the first eyes to find Helena's left-behind, written thoughts. Holland backed away in fear from Alatiel. Unfortunately, this instinctive action of revulsion, may have been the mistake that allowed damnation to claim his wife-to-be...sweeping her away. He should never have turned away, never walked away. Too late. Holland must make up for this initial weakness, by doggedly pursuing the creeping clues which would have frightened away less courageous men.
CRISTIAN SALAZAR: Despot dictators...humanitarian reformists...larger than life characters often get the exaggerated treatment. What is Cristian really? One thing for certain is that he is a master-class painter by reputation, and on flip-side, a possibly murderous visionary whom very few art collectors will deign to associate with...he disturbs them so much. Salazar's art revolves around horrific massacres of the human spirit. Salazar is also reputedly the source through which Alatiel comes into 'ownership' by the ring-leader of this bohemian circle. Who knows where Salazar ever found her?
JULIAN PARADINE: It's easy to be arrogant when you're on top, and Julian is...of his little circle of art-enthusiasts. Julian has gained a certain acclaim for his paintings, and he indulges in his grandiose appointment. Julian wrenches Alatiel into their bohemian exchange of 'talent,' and claims Cristian Salazar handed off to him, this alluring muse property. What is the connection between Julian and his disreputable benefactor?
ELIZABETH, Julian's sister: She is the disquieting shadow stretching long behind the glamorous persona of Julian. Once dreaming of becoming a ballerina, she met a fateful day when her brother wasn't there for her...stricken into being invalid, forever after tapping haunted on the arms of her chair.
MATTHEW, Helena's brother: He reacted in shy wonderment when he first laid eyes on Alatiel. Matthew is something of a pot-stirrer and that subtly derisive humor is the part Helena can't help but side with. Matthew is an artist who has seen his beautiful vision...nothing Helena can do about that.
CALLUM FLYNN: He is visibly struck hard, when first seeing Alatiel, and he has to walk away; but what did he see? Hard to tell with this strange poet, whose company seems vaguely off-putting. In order to discover his side, one will first have to enter the ragged boarding house he disappears into.
DANIELE NAVARRO: This painter wastes no time locking his obsessive eye on to Alatiel...yes, he will paint her, he must think, because he is first to spirit her away! The new artistic muse overtakes his range of talent, and engulfs it, to become his body of work...
IAN JARDINE: An old chum of Holland's, and also a priest, who is Holland's personal connection into Salazar's world; but there may be something wrong with this holy man, he seems too anxious. Not the strongest quality one hopes to find in a man of the guidance.
BEATRIZ SALAZAR: Cousin to Cristian, and co-conspirator.
3. Structural Appointments:
Katriel has chosen a classic frame to open his ghost-story up, which is the reading of a letter, or in this case, a character's journal, establishing a period voice appeal. This movement of learning what has brought us to the opening point, then shifts with the writer of that voice, into a stranger amalgamation giving insight to the darker viewpoint in this piece. This section is macabre fun. Ultimately, the 'present' moving events of the story strides with the searching vantage of Gabriel Holland, fiancee in search of truth; and others in the spider-web of this world.
4. "Visuality":
Steven Katriel places images in Readers' minds which will compel an intellectual response from the language, with crystal clarity in affecting textures, elemental atmospheres, or dense emotional moods. Pay close attention to the memorably arresting descriptions which chart our understanding of the being we come to know as Alatiel.
The metaphor of this piece is that of "Painting," and so the reading experience is a succession of striking descriptions that burrow into the memory. The 1800's was a particular mind-set in the arts, a part of the Victorian period. Poets of this Time were often metaphysically minded, and the themes expressed were known to range into the darker corridors of thought...discover the visualized thoughts of Callum Flynn in his appraisal of what is moving through his world.
5. Thematic/Mythic Appeal:
The food-chain divide between "heartless carefree" and the "decorative poor"...the killing joke of OBSESSION...blinding darkness of DENIAL...what we are willing to trade for our vanities...OBLIVION and what comes up out of It. There is a source to the madness of Alatiel, and without spoilers, it may be grasped by answering what Cristian Salazar's mysterious nature holds as key. Knowing what Salazar is, begins to answer what Alatiel actually is. What form of evil is driving these black events, and these darker human natures to prevail?
6. Story Flow:
This story is deceptively simple...because it is complicated. In the flow of the story, the Reader may be surprised that P.O.V. has just switched off to another character, that we are perceiving the events through another's eyes. One may follow the events with a grounding in each setting or event, but those subtle, small flourishes of intimation may slip beneath conscious notice...unless one reads through a second time, with an understanding of where the story is moving. What boosts one's rhythm of reading within the contexts of events is drinking in the decadence of behaviors exhibited, the rendering of visual calamities, and a trim editing.
7. Innovation/Genre-Blend:
"Revisionist" has been added to the Genre because of the fresh choices Katriel makes. In the traditional treatments of the Horror Genre, "good" is often depicted with a fidelity to Religious Rightness in the face of clearly evil agents or agencies; but what happens when that orthodoxy is subverted by the very monsters you go in search of? The symbol of power used against the evil agents of this tale, is also not the one you would typically expect to get you through the night. Those comfortable stand-by's are smashed into shards pointing jaggedly at the heavens; but something else is in place to keep evil territories in line, at once ancient, and fresh for its under-usage.
The traditional monsters who have always dominated Horror...are not here. Something else has been manifested in their place, that crosses into a few territories, by means of power that transcends the material form; and yet interacts mercilessly with us. The monster here, invades new places of savaging, that speaks metaphorically for those destructive agents within ourselves, giving birth to abominations in our Lives.
The architects of this malevolent being, are no less diabolical...and no less, unexpected, by nature.
8. Author's Voice/Language:
SK's language is through the conduit of an 1800's stylized thought process. As if we are listening to the thoughts of an artist's phrasing from that Time. The author's elegant phrasing to turn a spinal shiver ~ "Fingers appeared to grow in length until they resembled the thin, scampering legs of a spider." ~ "iced water slithered through her thin veins." ~ "The color of those hideous plump worms one sometimes encounters in woodlands, under stones...blind worms." Elegant turns to capture an essentially chilling essence. To creep at us, our visualization. Yet SK will also flow other turns with "We spread our hands out, as if we might capture the wild rain, like wonder-struck children often do."
SK also has a notably subversive voice in his treatment of sacred cows...
9. The After Resonance:
I find it remarkable how many layers of content and meaning Steven Katriel can fit inside of a mere 60 pages. This is a fast novella in terms of its size, but carries great weight of complexity. With a debut such as this, one wonders how SK will play in the format of more extended stories.
This read was rich with tasty Genre re-booting. While I felt I was reading classic goth-style horror, I also feel that there were savvy amendments made here, that only a free-roving modern mind could concoct, with an independent spirit, revising traditional expectations. This mixture of 'feel' between classic and revisionist, gives "The Portrait of Alatiel Salazar," a post-2000 edge on the Genre.
Steven Katriel emerges in his debut novella as a stylish and disturbing poet of Gothic Revisionist Horror Literature, leading Readers into a fearful, nightmare-evocative dream.
"The Portrait of Alatiel Salazar" by Steven Katriel, with Immortal Ink Publishing, may be further discovered at: http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-Alatiel-Salazar-Novella-ebook/dp/B008C2GUG6
During this review analysis of Steven Katriel's work, I touched on his use of "painting as metaphor"...which sparked Steven to discuss his purposeful intention of a "blank canvas." Steven, if you pick up this thread, would you mind elaborating on what you meant?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I'd like to state that Andre's review is an absolutely superb piece of work - it's more of an in-depth analysis than a review, and I'm very grateful that he expended so much time and thought on my book. To address my friend's question, I'll discuss our anti-heroine Alatiel. With this character, I had the best of both worlds: I deliberately wanted her to be silent - mute - as this (hopefully) makes her somewhat enigmatic, and different to the stereotypical villain who makes threats and routinely delivers grandiose speeches or snappy one-liners empty of any real intellectual depth. More importantly, this silence allows the reader to ponder on her motives and effectively ask: "What is she really like? Who or what, exactly, is she?"
ReplyDeleteIt appears that Alatiel has a long, rich history: she is named after a character from the Italian masterpiece The Decameron. Boccaccio wrote that Alatiel was a courtesan, the lover of a thousand men, who "reinvented" herself as a virgin bride fit for a king; at one point, I hint that "my" Alatiel lived in Renaissance Italy before making a fresh début in the Victorian era. Yet a truth in fiction is often a lie, for Alatiel has never really lived or died, and this is because she is an artificial creation, a timeless, faceless creature conjured by the collective imagination of artists and Romantics. Her still beauty offers to each of her admirers (and victims) a portrait of their idealised selves but her actions reveal their base instincts. One could say that her body is motivated by their inner turmoil - the puppeteers find they cannot control the marionette who is no longer still but granted life by virtue of anxiety and guilt. Her beauty is a mere mask - remove it, reveal the truth, and a mirror confronts the observer...
Earlier I mentioned that, in the character Alatiel, I had "the best of both words" to work with; I'll now explain the secondary part of this fictional world: I could - at once - make her silence the stuff of dreams, in that her admirers (and by extension, the book's readers) are obliged to imagine what she is like. Nevertheless she has a voice, channelled through Helena in the latter part of her journal. As one might expect, Alatiel's version of events is tainted by malice - she takes her pleasure in such things.
Finally, no small part of the pleasure of reading is the reader's own composition - the areas in which a reader's imagination "creates" the cast of characters and their specific attributes; for example, in Portrait there are few detailed descriptions of the characters' appearances. Naturally, I have my own ideas on how these fictional people look - in my mind's eye - and I wanted to give readers that same freedom to create or imagine. In one sense, this absence of detail means the reader isn't restricted to my vision of the story.
To sum-up, the reader must always bear in mind that The Portrait of Alatiel Salazar is no less a "hall of mirrors" than Cristian Salazar's Salvació House, and has its own illusions...or are they realities? Bear in mind that the "true-life" journal is written by Helena, the amateur writer who loves to tell stories of the supernatural; bear in mind that Helena is a fictional character created by a man, just as Alatiel was created or summoned by men; these fictional people are the "blank canvas" and both the reader and writer bring the Portrait to life.
I'm glad I immersed in your book, Steven, impromtu (since I am supposed to be on myindiebook hiatus), because this turned out to be a very rewarding exchange for us both; from your sincere appreciation and our camaraderie, to my pleasure at having your richly conceived novel enter the gallery of my blog's indie author posterity.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your 'blank canvas' technique ~ brilliantly effective. I usually prefer not to make comparisons to other authors and novels when I focus on the portrait of a writer (certainly not within the portrait analysis itself), but in this case, it's an appropriate comparison. Bram Stoker kept his Dracula largely out of view, making his monster loom larger in the imaginations of the other characters' minds, and consequently, the minds and fears of Readers.
By comparison to 'the Stoker technique', Katriel's Alatiel made many appearances, but her silence, in effect, was effectively sinister. Unlike the other 'blank canvases,' (and make no mistake, the characters are clearly delineated, beyond their open interpretations), Alatiel communicated often to our fears with her MINIMALIST EXPRESSIONS, clarifying the venom of her thoughts. What enhances this creation's charisma, is the disturbing range of her victims' insanity, reflecting how monstrous her powers are, over them all. When Alatiel does speak through the body she has possessed, her choice words 'to share' are chilling.
That SK extends the blank canvas, not only to Alatiel, but to all the characters and environs within the book's world vision, is what impresses most. A rigorously observed and accomplished thesis, which makes this book a must-read for enthusiasts of edgy indie innovation :)
I think Stoker's character Dracula is peerless, and nigh-on impossible to top. Reports of 'genuine' vampires described them as shambling, dishevelled creatures, virtually mindless - the very opposite of Dracula who, one feels, is in control of events and can never really be defeated.
ReplyDeleteI recalled that, as Andre noted, Stoker 'kept his Dracula largely out of view, making his monster loom larger in the imaginations of the other characters' minds, and consequently, the minds and fears of readers.' Consequently, I did the same with my character Cristian Salazar. Like Dracula, Cristian has a long and inglorious history (which I intend to explore fully in a 'Portrait' prequel); like Dracula, Salazar is, one feels, only truly alive in the stories and myths surrounding him; such is the power of imagination. In Peter Straub's modern classic Ghost Story, the supernatural character Eva Galli taunts her potential victims and simultaneously reveals the truth about our real, imagined and indistinct horrors:
"You are at the mercy of your human imaginations, and when you look for us, you should always look in the places of your imagination. In the places of your dreams. But despite all this talk about imagination, we are implacably real, as real as bullets and knives - for aren't they too tools of the imagination? And if we want to frighten you it is to frighten you to death..."
Portrait's Alatiel has precious little need for words, in spite of her gleeful hijacking of Helena Graham's journal - our thoughts, our nightmares are enough to give her a kind of life, a kind of semblance of self-expression. Iin truth, we alone are the vampires, ghosts and monsters; as Helena writes on behalf of us all: "I haunted and tortured myself, as always."