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08-01-2006 | #1 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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My Favorite Horror Story
I have an entertaining book that is called My Favorite Horror Story. It was published by DAW Books in 2000. The editors asked fifteen contemporary horror authors what their favorite horror story was. The story was then prefaced by a brief reason why the author liked the story.This book is similar to Horror 100 Best Books except it deals with the short story. This is the contents page:
Sweets to the Sweet by Robert Bloch Chosen by Stephen King The Father-Thing by Philip K. Dick Chosen by Ed Gorman The Distributor by Richard Matheson Chosen by F. Paul Wilson A Warning to the Curious by M.R. James Chosen by Ramsey Campbell Opening the Door by Arthur Machen Chosen by Peter Adkins The Colour Out of Space by HPL Chosen by Richard Laymon The Inner Room by Robert Aickman Chosen by Peter Straub Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne Chosen by Rick Hautala The Rats in the Walls by HPL Chosen by Michael Slade The Dog Park by Dennis Etchison Chosen by Richard Christian Matheson The Animal Fair by Robert Bloch Chosen by Joe R. Lansdale The Pattern by Ramsey Campbell Chosen by Poppy Z. Brite The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe Chosen by Joyce Carol Oates An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce Chosen by Dennis Etchison The Human Chair by Edigawa Rampo Chosen by Harlan Ellison A number of Poe and Ligotti stories are among my favorites. Also a couple of Lovecraft's. Maybe M.R. Jame's "Count Magnus" or "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, or "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, or T.E.D. Klein's "Nadelman's God." But I think I will go with the paranoid animal fable "The Burrow" by Franz Kafka. This story is essentially about the futility of trying to fend off death. A mole-like creature is plagued with dread imaginings of being torn to shreds. It sees enemies everywhere. All of the animal's thought and energy is focused on strengthening the fortifications of its burrow. Its thoughts become incoherent due to the unmitigated anxiety of trying to defend itself from predators, both real and imagined. As with most of Kafka's stories, it is very funny too. What is your favorite horror story? | |||||||||||
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08-01-2006 | #2 | |||||||||||
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
I was completely done in by the claustrophobia of "The Graveyard Rats" by Henry Kuttner. "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers has left me feeling tainted since I first encountered it many years ago...
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"What does it mean to be alive except to court disaster and suffering at every moment?"
Tibet: Carnivals? Ligotti: Ceremonies for initiating children into the cult of the sinister. Tibet: Gas stations? Ligotti: Nothing to say about gas stations as such, although I've always responded to the smell of gasoline as if it were a kind of perfume. |
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Thanks From: | ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016) |
08-01-2006 | #3 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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'The Upper Berth' and 'The Dead Smile' both by F Marion Crawford.
And if it can been seen as a separate story (as I think it can be), the second chapter of 'The Beetle' by Richard Marsh. | |||||||||||
2 Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (09-16-2015), ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016) |
08-06-2006 | #4 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
I remember reading and liking both "The Yellow Sign" by Robert W.Chambers and "The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford. I'll have to track down "The Dead Smile." I know Necronomicon Press published a chapbook of this one in their Lovecraft's Favorite Stories series.
I have had a copy of Richard Marsh's The Beetle for ages, but I haven't gotten around to readng it yet. I read "The Graveyard Rats" last night. I was blown away! Thanks GSC. That is as gruesome as any EC Comic that I have ever read. I bet Poe would have loved it. "Belated fears were beginning to crawl, maggot-like, within his mind, but greed urged him on." Henry Kuttner - "The Graveyard Rats" | |||||||||||
Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (09-16-2015) |
08-07-2006 | #5 | |||||||||||
Chymist
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
OK, so far everyone has mentioned tales I also would have listed, for the most part.
I'll add E. F. Benson's "Caterpillers", Chamber's "The Repairer of Reputations", and a story entitled "What Was It?", whose author's name eludes me for the moment. If we are counting stories beyond shorts, I must forward William Hope Hodgson's THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. -Aether | |||||||||||
"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."
-Nikola Tesla, July of 1934 |
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Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (09-16-2015) |
08-07-2006 | #6 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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Wasn't What Was It? by Fitz-James O'Brien?
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08-07-2006 | #7 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
Hey, Des! "The Diamond Lens"?
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"In my imagination, I have a small apartment in a small town where I live alone and gaze through a window at a wintry landscape." -- TL
Confusio Linguarum - visionary literature, translingualism & bibliophily
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08-07-2006 | #8 | |||||||||||
Chymist
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
You are correct, sir. O'Brien it is. Thanks for the memory-jog, DF.
For your prize, I would reward you with your very own Star Vampire, but I see you already have your own... _Aether | |||||||||||
"The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."
-Nikola Tesla, July of 1934 |
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03-13-2017 | #9 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
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Lucian pigeon-holed the letter solemnly in the receptacle lettered 'Barbarians.' ~ The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
“The wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” – Oscar Wilde Last edited by njhorror; 05-08-2017 at 03:41 PM.. |
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Thanks From: | miguel1984 (03-13-2017) |
03-13-2017 | #10 | |||||||||||
Chymist
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
Lovecraft - The Whisperer in the Darkness, Hypnos, The Quest of Iranon
Blackwood - The Willows Leiber - The Black Gondolier Collier - Evening Primrose Grabinski - The Glance, In the Compartment, On a Tangent, Szamota's Mistress Ligotti - The Town Manager, Our Temporary Supervisor Wittkrop - Idalia on the Tower, A Descent Krzhizhanovsky - The Collector of Cracks Akutagawa - Spinning Gears; not really a horror story and not really fiction, but reading it coupled with the knowledge that Akutagawa committed suicide shortly after writing it left me physically sick with depression. I'm not sure I would consider or recommend it as a "favorite", but it is the only piece of writing that's ever had a visceral effect on me. | |||||||||||
2 Thanks From: | ChildofOldLeech (03-13-2017), miguel1984 (03-14-2017) |
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