Tobias Reckermann’s Gloom & Glow Review: German Weird Fiction Untold
Anyone interested in the small weird fiction community in Germany will likely have come across Tobias Reckermann’s name at some point. As the operator—or stoker, as he calls himself—for Whitetrain/Nighttrain, he gave many upcoming authors of the German weird a place to publish and helped them develop their unique style.
He and the small publishing house also made great efforts to introduce English-language weird fiction authors such as Louis Marvick,Alexander Zelenyj,D. P. Watt,T.E. Grau,Rosanne Rabinowitz, Scott Nicolay, Jon Padgett, David Rix (who also runs Eibonvale Press) Matt Cardin or Rhys Hughes to a German-speaking audience. His own works largely remain untranslated though. While Xulhu, his post-colonial approach on Lovecraft and the included Machina Obscura have been published before, Gloom & Glow is the first time that translations of him have been published in a volume solely dedicated to him.
The work of Reckermann is not easy to describe. His writing ranges from classic sword and sorcery and wuxia to science fiction and contemporary themes. He is best known for his distinctive brand of industrialised horror, as seen in the fictional city of ‘Gotheim an der Ur’, the setting for an impressive trilogy of the same name. Despite the thematic diversity of his work, his roots in weird fiction are clearly evident across all his writing. His subtle stories always exude that certain atmosphere of cosmic horror that Lovecraft deemed essential to weird fiction.
Reckermann is not an author of rapid cuts, but rather of the careful decomposition of our fragile construct of reality. In his stories, magicians risk their sanity rather than throw fireballs, primeval rituals demand brutal sacrifices, dreams merge with surreal reality and protagonists often find themselves crushed by merciless reality. Added to this is his sensitive awareness of society and its criticism. Reckermann is a political author.
However, he wields a rapier rather than a sledgehammer. His works critically examine and reflect on current social developments, posing fundamental socio-philosophical questions, rather than providing manifestos. Central to his work, and unfortunately still relevant, is his unwavering stance against fascism. He makes clear where the danger to humanity and artistic freedom lurks, whether it’s reactionary forces in Gotheim or the ominous Kasper in his little-noticed “Lieber Herr Mordio”.
His style is equally remarkable. He writes slowly, often in a complex and convoluted manner, but never without reason. His writing is complex because it deals with complex topics, not because he wants to make things difficult for us. In doing so, Reckermann excels with a keen eye for detail and a lot of empathy for his characters. Consequently, his stories are not easy to translate. It goes without saying that this publication is not a mere AI translation, but done by a professional human translator. Amy Hammack Turner does a brilliant job of catching the unique atmosphere of Reckermann’s works, doing them justice.
The collection itself offers a carefully curated glimpse into the author’s work. ‘Nachtland’, the title of the first story, is one of the few German terms in the collection. Loosely translated as ‘night land’, the story follows a underground band who must accompany a band member on a surreal journey. It captures the unique atmosphere of a German indie band and looks emphatically into the feelings of the members.
The story slowly guides us into the more surreal ‘Nachtland’, maintaining a slow and steady rhythm throughout. In a sense, it doesn’t even have a plot, but rather paints a gloomy picture of a band in decline and the deep sorrow for their friend that left the band. ‘Machina Obscura’ is quite the opposite. I would call it one of the author’s few true horror stories. With themes such as snuff movies and torture, it is horribly dark. The protagonist’s obsession with horror becomes the subject itself. For our protagonist “[v]iolence was just porn, a hardcore substitute for the real thing, the well-crafted subtle horror, which was rare or achieved with cinema-effects that were repeated too often.”
This is easily one of my favorite short stories by Reckermann. “Ironclad” takes us right into Gotheim. The story about a massive war train covers politics, war industry and the the nazi occult. Definitely a “weird” story it shows his fascination for trains as a mighty symbol (something that Reckermann followed along with me in thisarticle).
The final story is ‘The True Face’, what is kind of a self-discovery trip with a cosmic dimension. Solely focused on our protagonist we know about her dark history and are thrown into an abysmal malmstrom centered around a mask with unknown consequences. I’ll leave it at such a vague description but want to point out that it is quite genius that the whole book ends with a literal “happy ending.”
Gloom and Glow is a short glimpse into current German based weird fiction. It proofs that even works with a demanding language can be successfully translated. I can only hope that more of his works—especially the iconic Gotheim books—will see a professional translation in the near future.
Gloom and Glow By Tobias Reckermann Translated by Amy Hammack Turner
The Irony in ironclad machines works wonders when an egomaniac liar is telling the tale. Why, you haven’t visited Nachtland, yet? The land of the dead lies right round the next corner, but don’t forget the drum set when you go! Masks are the real faces – faces are inanimate masks.
This is an atmospheric, moody and surreal mini-collection of four stories from the stranger end of psychological horror fiction. With these obscurities and strange encounters, lunacy is just another word for love.
| Tobias Reckermann lives and writes in Darmstadt, Germany and works as a stoker for Whitetrain/Nighttrain (www.whitetrain.de). As a writer, he concentrates on Weird and Speculative Fiction. His works comprise numerous contributions to magazines and anthologies, novels and collections published by Whitetrain/Nighttrain, and a trilogy of Weird fiction volumes published by Blitz Verlag. |
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