The Funeral by Matheson: Is is Worth Your Time?

As far as short stories go, The Funeral by Richard Matheson is a quick 5 page read. It is very funny, and a quirky new take on funerals for the undead. However, I feel like the idea behind the story was much better in theory than when executed on the page.

From the very beginning, I found it hard for me to get drawn into the tale because of the language choices slowing my reading down. The word choice seemed a little superfluous. This could key in to the main character’s personality or social class, but for me it was a bit distracting. Within just the first two paragraphs, Matheson used the words “obsequies”, “placid clasp”, “sable leather”, and “curt acknowledgment”. One sentence that stood out to me and made me reread it was this bit of dialog: “Ah, good evening, sir,” he dulceted, his smile a precise compendium of sympathy and welcome, his voice a calculated drip of obeisance. I was always taught that unless it is necessary, always use ‘(s)he said’ so as not to distract the reader. I, for one, was very distracted by the language.

However, I still found this story a cute and silly read. I loved the twist of the funeral being for vampire Ludwig Asper himself. I also adore the hilarious entourage of supernatural beings that attended the funeral. The paragraph describing the monsters was the best part of the whole story.

This short story ties perfectly to the craft book my class is reading called Writers Workshop of Horror. We just read the chapter ‘Adding Humor to your Horror’ and this story is a perfect example of a tale that I feel isn’t actually horror, despite it’s inclusion of a lot of monsters. The humor leads more than the horror, and even though Silkline was scared of the monsters, I wasn’t. I feel this text falls more into the realm of fantasy rather than horror.

Silkline didn't feel like the protagonist of this story to me. He wasn't sympathetic in the beginning, being more a greedy salesman than someone for you to cry on and tell about your dead family. Then, during the funeral itself, he felt too passive, only reacting to the things he saw or what was said to him. He felt more like a camera to look through and less a character to relate to.

The beginning and end of this text I enjoyed. However, I felt the actual funeral part of the story was a little muddled. It became a mess of people talking over one another, between the witch, the waxen-faced man, the man giving the speech, and Ludwig himself. I know this was meant to be written this way, to emphasize the chaos that was happening during the funeral and make it feel jumbled, but it read confusing to me instead. I read ahead in Writers Workshop of Horror to the chapter ‘Middles: the Meat of the Matter’, and because of the funeral scene being a mess, I feel this story wasn’t able to fulfill the role of the middle of a story setting up the climax and satisfying the reader like a main course. It did set up the end scene of another monster coming in for a funeral well, but it didn’t leave me feeling closure for Asper’s funeral.

Overall, my take on The Funeral is it is a quirky read that I would recommend to people. Despite it’s flaws, it is a short enough read to be worth spending a few minutes getting through, and it is a good example of how to show up and coming writers how to incorporate humor into their writing.