I can’t believe I had never heard of Amphigorey (or even Edward Gorey) before in my life, because I think his work is fantastic. The Object-Lesson is one I find especially mysterious, because things seem to happen randomly, completely without order or reason. Maybe there is a comment somewhere in there about our society and how we act and react crazily to things we shouldn’t (Madame O flings herself over the parapet after realizing that her cousin’s mustache is not his own). One page reads, “On the shore a bat, or possibly an umbrella, disengaged itself from the shrubbery, causing those nearby to recollect the miseries of childhood.” In class we learned that Gorey was very uncomfortable around children, which makes me wonder what his childhood was like. Although I hope he didn’t personally connect to the grim fates presented in The Gashlycrumb Tinies, something must have inspired him to view kids as vulnerable to horrible experiences.
