Sometimes he brings goodies. Today he brought his old cat, Tigger, who was in need of a new home. As luck would have it, our home is in need of a cat – the other day my youngest daughter, Ellie, went into screeching hysterics after seeing a mouse scurry out from under the bathroom counter. Tigger is a big, grouchy old cat. When I offered her a bowl of food, she hissed and slapped the bowl right out of my hand.
Chuck also brought me an interesting knife for my collection.
The knife is a Swiss Army SIG Rifle Bayonet, but modified for use in hand to hand fighting. The ring on the hand-guard, originally positioned to slide onto the end of the rifle tube, is repositioned so that the index finger slides into it while holding the knife. This, I’m told, makes it easier to keep hold of the knife while fighting, and allows for some rather showy twirling, as demonstrated by Chuck during his visit.
There is an interesting story behind this particular blade.
According to Chuck, this was one of many bayonets modified by Croatian fighters, who preferred to use them as fighting knifes rather than bayonets. As the story goes, he acquired it in a bar when a man he was drinking with - Chuck adopted a Russian accent while telling me about the man - told him if he could stick it in the far wall from where they sat, he could have it.
What was already an interesting story became even more interesting when Chuck informed me, in a tone of great seriousness, that the blade I was holding had seen battle many times, and had been used to kill several people.
How much of the story behind this knife is true?
None of it?
All of it?
I have no idea.
Why would that fact that it may have spilled blood and taken human life at one time make it more interesting (frightening to some, I imagine)?
That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? It’s a question of great interest to anyone working in the horror and dark fantasy genres. It’s a question I would have thought any horror writer would know the answer to, but strangely enough, I don’t have an answer. Just guesses and suspicions.
Perhaps there is no one answer. Maybe it’s simply the microcosm for a much larger question, for which there is no answer … not in this world anyway.
Maybe I’m just trying to hard. Maybe I’m just full of shit. Maybe I need a drink.
All doubts aside, the question does seem very important to me.
What is the attraction/repulsion of violence, blood, and death over the imagination?
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
David Niall Wilson
Heh… I was waiting for the punch line.
See, I saw a guy win a bit once. He placed a pool cue over the center of a pool table and showed a very drunk guy that if you rolled the ball across the table it went THUNK into that cue. He then bet him he could roll the ball under the cue without touching it. The guy thought, and thought, and bet…and lost.
The less drunk bettor rolled the ball under the table (heh).
I thought you were going to say he took the blade, walked across the room and whacked it in the wall.
Ask Poppy Brite about this sort of fascination, particularly in fans. She had an edition of her novel, “Drawing Blood,” I think it was, where several copies got stuck in a post office when a postal employee … well… went postal. With fire. These were delivered, stinking of smoke, and the dealer immediately shrink-wrapped them to keep them from stinking…then he sold them for over $600 apiece to collectors (donated the money to charity, I believe). People have odd fascinations, and the knife sounds very cool.
DNW
Dec 23rd, 2005
James Goodman
I collect knives as well. I buy a few new ones, but I prefer to aquire ones with an interesting story behind them.
Great post…
Happy Holidays,
James
Dec 23rd, 2005
Janet Berliner
Perhaps the fascination with blood lies in the fact that we all have it. Like life and death, it’s universal. Could that be the reason people love to watch it drip, drip, drip…?
Merry, happy.
–Janet
Dec 23rd, 2005
Brian
Hey David, that is a good story. I can see that too. Book collectors are a strange lot
Hey James, you should post pics of your collection on your site some time
Janet, sometimes you give me the creeps
Dec 24th, 2005
James Goodman
Will, do…
Dec 24th, 2005
Julian
I feel like a bit of a party crasher, but I had to leave a comment of my own.
First though, I just discovered this blog and am having a wonderful time reading all your posts! Thanks!
A neighbour of mine is a… well, now I have to put it in words, I’m not really sure what he is! He has a few guns and always has a story about guns and warfare… but what he actually does is he makes bullets. He then goes to ‘conventions’ where he buys and sells bullets. Over the years he has collected many rare bullets from what he tells me. His pièce de résistance is a bullet that is from the same batch of bullets made from which the “magic bullet” came. The “magic bullet” being the bullet that killed John F. Kennedy!
I found myself in a quandry after hearing of this. What kind of pride can there be in owning this “brother” bullet to a bullet that killed someone such as JFK?
“What is the attraction/repulsion of violence, blood, and death over the imagination? What is the power of blood?”
Indeed!
Dec 28th, 2005
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