"When myth incarnates in the waking world...”
Clive Barker
The Unbeheld’s Many Mansions: The Fiction of Clive Barker
by C. S. Thompson
Clive Barker is usually described as a horror writer, but that isn’t really accurate. This description has stuck with him because of the Books of Blood, the uneven but sometimes awe-inspiring collection of short horror fiction that made him famous. He also created the Cenobites of the popular Hellraiser series of movies, inspired by his novella The Hellbound Heart, and he wrote and directed the movie Lord of Illusions.
Still, even though Barker’s work is almost always horrific, he would be more accurately described as a fantasy writer, and his fantasy has everything to do with the realms of myth and their tendency to bleed over into our reality. Even in the Hellraiser series, which is overtly horrifying, the action turns around a mysterious puzzle box, which has the ability to open the gateway between the worlds, allowing the entities of the mythic realm to come through to our own. (An outcome which is very much to be avoided in this particular series!)
You can read the entire article here, when you visit C.S. Thompson's blog, Night Wandering: Myth, Magic and Religion.