Recent Reading

[ToALonelyPeace]

I finish Moment of Freedom by Jens Bjorneboe, a book straight from The Literature of Cruelty-which is the first part of History of Bestiality. I expect the worst (of his characters), but instead I get a wandering prose with promise of things to come in another book. This is off-putting and the style isn't precise, lyrical, or explosive enough to help. There are, however, moments of unexpected cruelty. The narrator tells us stories of mass murders, village where beautiful boys have bellies full of gonorrhea and little girls' virgin heads are sold $30, an Estonian SS Nazi wholeheartedly devoted to Hitler's dream, etc...Though I am wary, I will purchase the other volumes.
If anyone has read the whole trilogy, let me know if things will get better (as in-will get they get much worse for the characters).

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

James- have you seen this Andreyev story? It's the only English version He: An Unknowns Story | Weird Fiction Review

I had not encountered it before. Thanks for this. Richly steeped in the Gothic tradition, but the forced party atmosphere is curiously unsettling.

[Mr. Veech]

I'm in love with this very short story by William Sansom. It's near perfect in its simplicity.

a woman seldom found | the evening redness in the west

[Spiral]

Can you people recommend me some Andreyev and Meyrink short stories? particularly of the dark/weird sort (and occult in the case of Meyrink), I've been reading a bit of Andreyev and read "The Golem"

[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by With Strength I Burn

Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Veech I'm in love with this very short story by William Sansom. It's near perfect in its simplicity. a woman seldom found | the evening redness in the west The supernatural twist at the end is powerful. It's analogous to unintentionally finding a blemish on a souvenir one likes and being disillusioned with it. Everything is insufficient in life, and our inability to be satiated is unending. We are and will be forever ravenous, and it is, as if, life mocks us by exposing our delusions by revealing these desires as irrational/misplaced in the first place. Then the lights finally go out, leaving us in the 'icy bleakness' as Ligotti adequately puts it.

The ending definitely gave me chills.

Quote Originally Posted by Spiral

Can you people recommend me some Andreyev and Meyrink short stories? particularly of the dark/weird sort (and occult in the case of Meyrink), I've been reading a bit of Andreyev and read "The Golem"

Have you read Andreyev's short story Lazarus?

[Mr. Veech]

Quote Originally Posted by Prince James Zaleski

Quote Originally Posted by Spiral Can you people recommend me some Andreyev and Meyrink short stories? particularly of the dark/weird sort (and occult in the case of Meyrink), I've been reading a bit of Andreyev and read "The Golem" Have you read Andreyev's short story Lazarus?

I literally just finished reading "Lazarus." I really don't want to sound hyperbolic, but I found it to be one of the most sublime and powerful things I've read in years.

I actually shed a tear near the end during Lazarus' encounter with Augustus.

[Mr. Veech]

All controversy aside, I read Mark Samuel's "The White Hands," which is part of an anthology I own. I thought it was superb! Samuel 's prose is both smooth and elegant; I wish I could write like that.

[paul b.]

Slowly going thru "Dissonant Intervals" by Louis Marvick, and thru Penguin's Beaumont collection. Enjoying the both very much, but my illness prevents me from reading them as fast or with as much attention as I wish I could. Out of Marvick collection, opening story is this great, moody Aickman-like piece permeated with cosmic pessimism, whilst the second and third one are in Jamesian vein (one of them, in contrast to that opening story, is infused with traditional Christian outlook - author is seemingly able to write his stories from vastly different worldviews with admirable ease). Fourth one, "The Madman of Tosterglope" is quite something, but it will require at least one proper re-read.
As for Beaumont, this is my first proper collection by him, I only ever read individual stories in various anthologies before. Very enjoyable so far, "The Jungle" would be my favorite out of what I've read: indictment of the Western scientistic arrogance that possesses a quality of genuine fever nightmare.

[Druidic]

Charles Beaumont was a master stylist. His style is powerful, precise and even poetic but intentionally transparent--most readers will never recognize his genius for the written word.
Read the opening paragraphs of "Free Dirt" or "The Howling Man." Wonderful stuff.
A hostile critic once complained of Nabokov's style that "You can hear the clutter and clamor of surgical implements in the background." Beaumont's style is far less ostentatious ...but brilliant.