Recent Reading

[ChildofOldLeech]

I would second the excellence of John Dies at the End; it is one of the few novels I have read that works both as a comedy of 'laugh out loud' proportions and a genuinely unnerving horror tale. The author obviously has a great love and respect for the genre, and reads like a Douglas Adams take on cosmic horror, if Adams were a twenty-something burnout from the american midwest. This absurdist-slacker sense of humor can be often deliberately juvenile but is informed by a wit and intelligence that keeps it light-years away from what constitutes much of 'college/frat humor', and is closer to the likes of the original Nat. Lampoon and old-school Simpsons, or movies like Wet Hot American Summer, Super Troopers, and the early works of Kevin Smith. In my humble opinion, JDATE belongs somewhere on a list of best 21st century weird fiction, and I do not hesitate to recommend it to the forum. The sequel, This Book is Filled With Spiders, is also well worth reading.

[hopfrog]

I'm reading BAUDELAIRE IN ENGLISH (Penguin Classics 1997), edited by Carol Clark and Robert Sykes. It's fascinating to see different poets (I may be wrong, but most of ye translators seem to be poets themselves) approach Baudelaire: for "Correspondences" there are five separate versions by Frances Cornford, Allen Tate, Roy Campbell, Richard Wilbur, and Ciaran Carson. The fascinating Introduction is 40 pages in length. While reading the book, I am comparing these translations with those found in the Oxford Baudelaire (James McGowan translator, with a 26-page Introduction by Jonathan Culler) and Richard Howard's 1982 edition from David R. Godine, Publishers. (The language in some of Howard's translations strikes me as slightly peculiar. )

[Druidic]

The thing you have to understand about Blackwood is that his verbosity is an attempt to try and capture the Ineffable. He believed in the truth behind the symbols.
I think his best stories are far above all others in the field except for Lovecraft's most powerful works.
But...
On the down side, his belief in the occult made for some very boring ghost stories. But, as far as I'm concerned, that goes with the territory.

[Druidic]

Actually, to call Blackwood 'verbose' in the age of Stephen King and Peter Straub and others, is more than misleading. I have sinned.
There is considerable beauty to be found in Blackwood's major works. Like Borges, I find the greatest pleasure in rereading; and Blackwood's best stories hold up well.
It's undeniable that our response to all art is, to a degree, subjective. Sadly, Mr. Veech, if you didn't like "The Wendigo" it's unlikely you will find Blackwood's other tales to be more congenial. For myself, "The Willows" and "The Wendigo" are examples of weird fiction at its best. I read the former when I was 10 and was delighted, years later, to discover Lovecraft felt the same way my youthful self did. At 10, I believed "The Willows" was the greatest of all horror tales, Lovecraft was the single greatest writer in the field and Dracula was the greatest novel.
Some day I may post my Top Twenty best Horror stories. No one asked but that won't save you.

[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Actually, to call Blackwood 'verbose' in the age of Stephen King and Peter Straub and others, is more than misleading. I have sinned. There is considerable beauty to be found in Blackwood's major works. Like Borges, I find the greatest pleasure in rereading; and Blackwood's best stories hold up well. It's undeniable that our response to all art is, to a degree, subjective. Sadly, Mr. Veech, if you didn't like "The Wendigo" it's unlikely you will find Blackwood's other tales to be more congenial. For myself, "The Willows" and "The Wendigo" are examples of weird fiction at its best. I read the former when I was 10 and was delighted, years later, to discover Lovecraft felt the same way my youthful self did. At 10, I believed "The Willows" was the greatest of all horror tales, Lovecraft was the single greatest writer in the field and Dracula was the greatest novel. Some day I may post my Top Twenty best Horror stories. No one asked but that won't save you.

I thought both were great stories, especially "The Willows."

[Knygathin]

Ligotti's "The Lost Art of Twilight". Exquisite.

Aside from the wonderful and horrific weird details, it is amazing how he can conjure such a flow of elaborate events. Seems too elaborate and organically evolving, to be a figment of the imagination. If no one objects, and without intending to be rude, I will say it must be a retelling of documentary details from the author's own life. A very fascinating background indeed.

[Murony_Pyre]

Thanks ChildofOld. I'm almost finished JDATE and was wondering if the next one TBIFWS was worth it. I trust your judgement, sir!

The Face of Twilight is pants. The dimwit that wrote the book should be kicked up the backside time and time again by fellow weird writers who are more commercially successful and whom he's never met. Even if he has met them his work should still be hereafter ignored or ridiculed by all of the weird fiction community in perpetuity. Its loser author is a regular jackass. He's not interested in awards, conventions and mutual back-scratching. Don't mention him again. It's embarrassing to everyone who really matters or cares in our community and detrimental to our continued solidarity.



In short, yuck!

Mark S.

[ramonoski]

Mark, if you still have a copy of FoT lying around, I'd be more than glad to take such a foul volume off your hands. Glyphotech too, even. I'll endure owning them so no one else has to

[Druidic]

First I’d like to thank some of you for the kind words and well wishes. I’m going to be limited in the amount of time spent sitting and walking for a bit so I’ll have to take a short break from my desktop—which means more reading of real books (always a sensual treat), endless listening to music, a once a day splurge on pizza or Chinese take-out delivered to my door… financial ruin but not a completely bad deal, at least not until I get bored out of my skull. In a recent post, I wrote, “There’s always a price to pay.” A couple decades ago a brilliant surgeon performed an operation no other surgeon would touch; and he saved my life. But of necessity, there was a lot of what was then called “vein stripping” and the inferior vena cava was removed. Because of that (and the largely unilateral edema caused by the revamped plumbing) I’m now susceptible to the kinds of leg problems often seen in elderly diabetics. But I’m still grateful to that surgeon and I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the price for the rest of my life. I still regard the original operation as a good deal…considering the alternative. So this surgery was a skin graft, a last ditch effort to repair a leg wound that’s been trying to heal for over two years. And so far, it looks good.
NJ, did you ever catch the film version of Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out? It’s an enjoyable Hammer film with Chris Lee and (surprising for a Hammer) a script by Richard Matheson. It’s one of my favorite Wheatley books.
To Ramonoski: I believe they paged Dr. Uidic several times while I was recovering but I fear I was far too busy hitting the button of the Morphine Pump every 8 minutes to be sure…BTW, John Fante is a name new to me and now someone to look into.
Murony, ChildofOldLeech, thanks for the recommendations. I’ve wanted to check out Houellebecq and now is probably as good a time as ever. And I could use a laugh or two right about now, so John Dies at the End might provide it. Thanks again.
I always find it interesting to hear or read about what other intelligent human beings are reading. I’ve discovered some Good Things that way. I believe Lovecraft discovered Lord Dunsany in a similar fashion…Years ago I discovered Cormac McCarthy that way.
Mark S. is too hard on a good book. Granted, the scene where the eye patch guy freezes to death while simultaneously swigging from a flask and fighting off a pack of rabid Siberian Huskies (even as the apparition of a dead former friend mockingly lectures him on the impossibly beautiful Evil of it all) seemed just a mite overwrought…just possibly. But that could be the morphine affecting my memory...