# Any Saki(H.H. Munro) fans on the SDMB? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747 "2006-07-09T16:15:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/1 "2006-07-09T16:15:22Z")
I don’t want to hijack this thread talking about twist endings. > **[Famous movie twists you saw coming a mile away](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=378861)** > > Don’t you feel so clever when you figure out a movie’s twist before it happens, and also a little left out that everyone else was blown away and you weren’t? Sixth Sense - I had this one pegged half way through the film. Admittedly, people were... One of my favorite authors of short stories, Saki, is mentioned, so I wondered, how many fans of this author are there on the SDMB? I read one of his stories “The Interlopers” in a high school textbook, and went to find more. I got hooked enough that one of my current cats is name Tobermory, for a cat in a story of the same name. Some of my other favorites are “The Toys of Peace” a story about trying to make children play in a civilized fashion. It’s just as good now as it was when first written. Then there’s “The Un-Rest Cure”, “The Schartz-Metterlume Method”, “Gabriel-Ernest”, and, of course, the famous “Sredni Vashtar” So, how many Dopers like Saki’s work? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/2 "2006-07-09T16:23:12Z")
Oh, I adore him, I’ve read eveything he’s written, and even read the only (not very good) biography of him. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/3 "2006-07-09T16:28:18Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] how many Dopers like Saki’s work? [/QUOTE] Well, there’s me… Surprised you haven’t mentioned my favorite, “The Open Door.” I even allude to it in my own least-unknown published story, which begins “Like Saki’s heroine, I specialize in romance at short notice. In other words, I’m a harmless but dedicated liar…” ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/4 "2006-07-09T16:42:36Z")
I love Saki. You’ve already picked a few classics. I also love “The Lumber Room,” “Tobermory” (exactly what a real talking cat would be like), “The Open Window,” and “The Story of the Great Weep.” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/5 "2006-07-09T16:44:22Z")
I’d like to meet someone like Clovis, although I’d be rather wary around him. I’ve seen “The Schartz-Metterklume Method” dramatized on an old episode of Alfred Hitchcock, and someone told me the show did “Srendi Vashtar” as well. Now that would be an eery one. Saki often sounded as if he could be writing for “The Twilight Zone”, although of course the stories came before television. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/6 "2006-07-09T16:48:22Z")
I inherited a book of his short stories from my mom. Srendi Vashtar is awesome. I also loved the story in which a boy who’s in disgrace is left behind with his aunt while his siblings go to the beach. His aunt ends up getting trapped in the garden somehow, and asks the boy for help. The boy points out that he has been told never to go into the garden under any circumstances, and surmises that the voice asking for help is really the Devil trying to get him to misbehave. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/7 "2006-07-09T16:50:32Z")
[QUOTE=pseudotriton ruber ruber] my favorite, “The Open Door.” [/QUOTE] :smack: Door=Window (though they DO walk through the window, which is weird.) ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/8 "2006-07-09T17:06:49Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] I inherited a book of his short stories from my mom. Srendi Vashtar is awesome. I also loved the story in which a boy who’s in disgrace is left behind with his aunt while his siblings go to the beach. His aunt ends up getting trapped in the garden somehow, and asks the boy for help. The boy points out that he has been told never to go into the garden under any circumstances, and surmises that the voice asking for help is really the Devil trying to get him to misbehave. [/QUOTE] That’s “The Lumber Room.” You can read it [here](http://www.online-literature.com/hh-munro/1839/). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/9 "2006-07-09T18:10:37Z")
I do like Saki, even if he was horribly racist and sexist (he did write one where women suffragettes were fed to the lions for trying to get the right to vote). However, “Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse that Helped” is one of the most prophetic stories ever, and I liked quite a few “The Open Window” is great if you understand the final line, which mean something different his his day. (“Romance”=“storytelling.”) ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/10 "2006-07-09T18:15:57Z")
I love Saki. “Louise” contains one of my favorite puns of all time: “…she said, ‘She’s leaving her present house and going to Lower Seymour Street.’ ‘I dare say she will, if she stays there long enough’, I said. Ada didn’t see it for about three minutes, and then she was positively uncivil.” Others I’ve read and re-read: “The Brogue”, “The Quest”, “Filboid Studge, or the Story of a Mouse that Helped”, “The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope”, and for a change of pace from comedy, “The Interlopers” and “The Easter Egg”. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/11 "2006-07-09T18:16:14Z")
Another fan here. heh “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” Didn’t know that about Saki being racist and sexist. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/12 "2006-07-09T18:42:34Z")
Racism and sexism are words you could throw at most older writers and have some of it stick.It’s a rather pointless exercise, unless you actually intend only to read those authors who pass some sort of litmus test of correct attitudes. Personally, I couldn’t give a hoot what a writer did or believed; I’m reading his books not cultivating his friendship. And I’ve loved Saki ever since discovering him in a library in the 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/13 "2006-07-09T18:44:05Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] I read one of his stories “The Interlopers” in a high school textbook, and went to find more. [/QUOTE] Heh, oddly enough my brother the high school English teacher was just talking about this story the other night; apparently it’s in a book he uses. I’m sure my first exposure to Saki was in some school anthology/textbook or other (maybe first “The Open Window” or “The Story Teller”); they’d often include one of his stories, which would typically be one of the most fun ones in the whole book. And thanks to this I went and got his complete works. We have had a previous Saki thread here, but it’s been awhile. ([Thread to celebrate Saki](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=194400)) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/14 "2006-07-09T19:13:11Z")
I haven’t read him in years, but have (had?) a collection of his short stories. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/15 "2006-07-09T19:39:46Z")
My goodness, I’d forgotten about that thread **Thudlow Boink**! But it never hurts to go over the same ground again, since we have many new posters in the last three years. Now I need to make a reminder for myself, for 2009. The last sentence in “Tobermory” made me thing of Mark Twain, of all things, and his essay “The Awful German Language”. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/16 "2006-07-09T20:22:52Z")
I got one word for you: “Wolves” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/17 "2006-07-09T20:52:57Z")
[QUOTE=5 time champ] I got one word for you: “Wolves” [/QUOTE] Spoken while trapped under a fallen tree, right? ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/18 "2006-07-10T00:42:13Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] Spoken while trapped under a fallen tree, right? [/QUOTE] Hmm- would want to spoil it for any new readers. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/19 "2006-07-10T00:54:30Z")
When I was ten years old, I discovered both Lovecraft and Saki while I was rummaging around in some old books in the garage. I owe a lot to the influence of Lovecraft and Saki. They gave me a taste for twisty chills in literature which endures to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747/20 "2006-07-10T04:32:45Z")
Oh, I’d forgotten how good Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger was: > [@](#): > > As for Loona Bimberton, she refused to look at an illustrated paper for weeks, and her letter of thanks for the gift of a tiger-claw brooch was a model of repressed emotions. The luncheon-party she declined; there are limits beyond which repressed emotions become dangerous. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-saki-h-h-munro-fans-on-the-sdmb/363747.md?page=2)