Recent Reading

[Robin Davies]

I've just finished Damage by Rosalie Parker. Like her previous collection The Old Knowledge the stories have a haunting, enigmatic quality and might appeal to those who like Robert Aickman.

[njhorror]

Still reading The Spirit of the Place And Other Strange Tales: The Complete Short Stories of Elizabeth Walter. Still enjoying it very much.

[ToALonelyPeace]

I read The Silence by Jens Bjørneboe this week. It's the third book of "The History of Bestiality" and shows Bjørneboe at his best and worst. The first part focuses on the New World discoverer Columbus and the mass pillaging, raping, razing done to the Aztec and Inca by Cortez and Pizarro. I speed through this part since it's repetitive of the same message "Paradise was a desert. In thirty years nineteen million had been slaughtered. It isn't given to everyone to destroy a culture." Then there is a brief account of the torture methods the US used against Indochina population, including: bamboo splitting, waterboarding, the modern drawn and quartered, tucker telephone, German chair. To this I might add the use of Agent Orange.

The second half of the book is more about Bjørneboe's childhood, how he couldn't stand his swinish classmates and teachers at school and began drinking at 10, how he drowns in alcohol to forget the "executioner" and "devil" following him around, and his worldviews. Bjørneboe believes in Revolution and Justice. There are 14 pages of an incredibly dull interview with Maximilien where the latter's speech on black's rights and capital punishment are inserted word-for-word. Then a shift of tone in "Chapter 5", Bjørneboe recalls a tale he wrote as a young man. I have to say it moves me the same way "The Grand Inquisitor" did, this tale of a young man in search for the greatest pain in the world.

"Now came the day when he no longer wished to go out into the desert. He understood that he could no longer leave what he saw, but that he was bound to it, and that he had no eyes for anything save suffering and guilt. All else appeared to him like a dream or a mirage. If he saw a child play and laugh, at the same time he saw within himself all the suffering he had seen in his life; then he no longer saw the child smiling in play, he saw it bowed with tears over pain to come. Then he understood that the wish of his youth was accomplished; he knew that he had seen all the world's pain and that he would never forget it. Now he himself belonged to that which he had seen."

The ending...once again Bjørneboe believes in Revolution, so it doesn't surprise me that he says:

"I don't believe that humanity is evil, nor that humanity is good-I believe that a human being is partly evil and partly good. Which side shall be permitted to grow and develop depends on ourselves. On a planet where people have freely chosen to let themselves be burned alive for the sake of truth, the good must have great possibilities. The court sat, the charges were read, the witnesses heard, the evidence presented; humanity was found guilty. I kept the trial records. But I miss one voice in the courtroom: that of the defense.
His plea will be a song of praise--of man the incomprehensible--endlessly evil, endlessly good--all-renewing, all-destroying. "

When I read the last paragraph, I wonder what Bjørneboe thought toward the end of his life. He committed suicide by hanging in 1976. Did he find light in the blue ocean of suffering after all? Or nothingness?

[Patrick G.P]

I am halfway done with Basil Copper's The House of The Wolf, a gothic thriller with a large castle surrounded by snowy woods, troubled family secrets, a congress on folklore and the occult and maybe even a werewolf or two. An absolutely delightful read now during the winter season!

[Frater_Tsalal]

I recently re-read Mr. Bump by Roger Hargreaves (of the Mr. Men series). Was feeling nostalgic... I loved the Mr. Men books when I was a kid.

[In A Dark Light]

Quote Originally Posted by Patrick G.P

I am halfway done with Basil Copper's The House of The Wolf, a gothic thriller with a large castle surrounded by snowy woods, troubled family secrets, a congress on folklore and the occult and maybe even a werewolf or two. An absolutely delightful read now during the winter season!

I read that a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It retains its presence within my book case.

[Ibrahim]

Quote Originally Posted by Patrick G.P

I am halfway done with Basil Copper's The House of The Wolf, a gothic thriller with a large castle surrounded by snowy woods, troubled family secrets, a congress on folklore and the occult and maybe even a werewolf or two. An absolutely delightful read now during the winter season!

I admit - i don't think i'd ever heard of Basil Copper before; but it sounds like i might want to give his work a try - if & where i find it available at a suitable price...
prose any good?

[Gnosticangel]

Ibrahim wrote, "I admit - i don't think i'd ever heard of Basil Copper before; but it sounds like i might want to give his work a try - if & where i find it available at a suitable price... prose any good?"

There is a lot of variety in his work based on the different storylines, from sci-fi to werewolves to detective fiction. If you enjoy Lovecraftian cosmic themes, "The Great White Space" is considered pretty good, I enjoyed it.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-White-Space-Basil-Copper/dp/1939140382/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513197978&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+white+space

 

https://www.amazon.com/Great-White-Space-Basil-Copper/dp/1939140382/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513197978&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+white+space

[Zaharoff]

Quote Originally Posted by Ibrahim

I admit - i don't think i'd ever heard of Basil Copper before; but it sounds like i might want to give his work a try - if & where i find it available at a suitable price... prose any good?

From Evil's Pillow, as well as And Afterward The Dark are available at decent used prices and have fine stories. Both are Arkham books.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I've seen photos of him at gatherings and he looked like a guy from an Edwardian ghost story. I read one story and it was okay. He has lots of collections.