08-15-2006 | #21 | |||||||||||
Mannikin
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 34
Quotes: 0
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Hmm...so hard to choose
"The Repairer of Reputations" Robert W. Chambers "The Horla" Guy De Maupassant "The White People" by Arthur Machen "Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen" by Robert Aickman " The Man Whom The Trees Loved" by Algernon Blackwood "Green Tea" by Sheridan LeFanu "The Change"by Ramsey Campbell "Our Temporary Supervisor" by Thomas Ligotti And about two billion others. | |||||||||||
4 Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (09-16-2015), fogus (07-12-2022), ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016), yellowish haze (03-09-2009) |
08-15-2006 | #22 |
Grimscribe
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"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and the Randolph Carter/Dream Quest series by HPL will always remain favorites of mine. And just about every story from the Teatro Grottesco cycle by TL
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson...love it "Le Horla" by Maupassant "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl. What was great about Dahl, was he wrote these seemingly innocent stories that, deep down, were quite disturbing at the core. |
there is no stronger drug than reality
yog-sothoth |
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2 Thanks From: | ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016), yellowish haze (03-09-2009) |
08-15-2006 | #23 | |||||||||||
Our Temporary Supervisor
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 26,614
Quotes: 397
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Mention of Roald Dahl's name made me think immediately of Gerald Kersh, yet another writer whose work is hard to categorize as this thing or that thing or the other thing. Both Roald Dahl and Gerald Kersh deserve to be remembered. This literary association session is over. | |||||||||||
"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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08-18-2006 | #24 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
Threadstarter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 3,338
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
In the late 1950s Roald Dahl was hired to recommend twenty-four ghost stories that could be adapted for television. Mr. Dahl has stated that he read over seven hundred stories to come up with the required twenty-four. (M.R. James is conspicuously absent). The series got only as far as the pilot stage, because the show offended the producers and sponsors so much that they cancelled the entire project. The guilty story was "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham" by E.F. Benson. It involves a priest, a confessional, etc., enough to offend the tender religious sensibilities of 1950s American audiences.
Much later, Roald Dahl was asked to put together a book of ghost stories. He started with his choices for the television show, but was forced to pare down his selection to fourteen. Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories W.S. by L.P. Hartley (T.E.D. Klein reprinted this one for The Twilight Zone Magazine. Great story). Harry by Rosemary Timperley The Corner Shop by Cynthia Asquith In the Tube by E.F. Benson Christmas Meeting by Rosemary Timperley Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie Playmates by A.M. Burrage Ringing the Changes by Robert Aickman The Telephone by Mary Treadgold The Ghost of a Hand by J. Sheridan Le Fanu The Sweeper by A.M. Burrage Afterward by Edith Wharton On the Brighton Road by Richard Middleton The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford | |||||||||||
Thanks From: | fogus (07-12-2022) |
08-18-2006 | #25 | |||||||||||
Grimscribe
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 4,889
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A very interesting selection! Its background was unknown to me.
As to its contents, I know them all except Jonas Lie and Mary Treadgold. | |||||||||||
10-25-2006 | #26 | |||||||||||
Our Temporary Supervisor
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 26,614
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
It has just dawned on me that much of what I personally consider to be horrifying concerns human transformation: deterioration, dehumanization, sinister manipulation, and various forms of reconstruction and evolution. My favorite horror film will always be The Wolf Man (1941). Larry Talbot's predicament is so poignant because he has no choice in the matter...
I list a few more favorites that suggest horror's ubiquity. In no order of preference: "Evening Primrose" by John Collier "I Live with You" by Carol Emshwiller "Pretty Boy Crossover" by Pat Cadigan "The Heat Death of the Universe" by Pamela Zoline "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg "Down Among the Dead Men" by William Tenn "Blood Music" by Greg Bear "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes "Flies" by Robert Silverberg | |||||||||||
"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) |
10-28-2006 | #27 | |||||||||||
Mannikin
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 8
Quotes: 0
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
I know this is a strange confession to make in such a setting, but I am a bit of a sentimental old fool. One of the effects horror fiction can create - and that is often overlooked - is a frisson of sadness. At about 11 years old my introduction to horror was helped by various Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies, particularly the Monster Museum and the Ghostly Gallery. It was in the former, I think, that I read The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury. I remember the part when the mother tells the little boy - the only mortal among a family of vampires, shape-shifters and the like - that, when he is dead, she will come and tend his grave. At 11 years old, this was devastating. Of course, I'm now much older and more cynical but, catch me in the right mood and...no,no...I've just got some dust in my eye, that's all...
Not a particularly cool choice, I know but I'll have to crave your indulgence. On a somewhat darker note, The Room in the Tower by EF Benson never fails to give me the willies, along with with the same author's The Caterpillars. | |||||||||||
2 Thanks From: | J.T. Edwards (04-12-2018), Robert Adam Gilmour (10-10-2015) |
10-29-2006 | #28 | |||||||||||
Mannikin
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 33
Quotes: 0
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
Here are some of my favorites:
"His Unconquerable Enemy" by W.C. Morrow- a fiendish tale by a neglected master of the macabre, set in India. "Talking in the Dark" by Dennis Etchison-- an atmosphere of menace grows steadily in this short piece. "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft-- a superb sense of place, exquisite descriptions of dilapidation and decay, and a monstrous yet strangely beautiful climax. "Sardonicus" by Ray Russell-- the main character inspires both revulsion and sympathy- a man whose face is locked in a perpetual grin. "The Skull of the Marquis De Sade" by Robert Bloch-- an interesting blend of history and fiction, definitely worth reading. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" by Edgar Allan Poe-- be sure to check out Vincent Price's interpretation of Valdemar in one segment of the movie Tales of Terror. "Skeleton" by Ray Bradbury-- a story of a man afraid of his own skeleton. "Lot No. 249" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-- features a reanimated mummy. "The Cone" by H.G. Wells-- descriptions of the unique beauties of factories and industrialization can be found in this tale of psychological horror. "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne-- an excellent example of quiet horror and Hawthorne's obsession with the problem of sin. | |||||||||||
2 Thanks From: | Doctor Dugald Eldritch (06-23-2014), ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016) |
11-06-2006 | #29 | |||||||||||
Chymist
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 435
Quotes: 0
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
Quite a few, these are the ones that come to mind right not, but in no particular order
-The Ash tree, M.R. James -Green Tea, J. S. Lefanu -Carmila, J. S. Lefanu -The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen -A voice in the Night, William Hope Hodgson -The Color out of Space, H. P. Lovecraft -Netherscurial, TL, of course! -Apartment 205, Mark Samuels -An Abhorrence to al Flesh, Matt Cardin (When's the next anthology out, Matt?!) -The Midnight Meat Train", Clive Barker -partofit, Simon Logan (Not exactly horror, but eerie) -The Pit and the Pendulum, E.A. Poe -The Night, Guy de Maupassnt -I have no mouth and I must scream, Harlan Ellison -The Area, Stefan Grabinski -The Spider, Hanns Heinz Ewers -The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman -The Decapitated Chicken, Horacio Quiroga. Plenty of stories by HPL ad TL… plenty | |||||||||||
Anyway, people die...
-Current 93 I am simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously? -Emil Cioran |
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2 Thanks From: | ToALonelyPeace (01-29-2016), yellowish haze (03-09-2009) |
11-06-2006 | #30 | |||||||||||
Chymist
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 435
Quotes: 0
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Re: My Favorite Horror Story
Spanish translation of this book (I'm told it is the only translation in any language other than the original English, that rare is that book supposed to be) but I am not that thrilled about it. Legend has it none other but Ramsey Campbell stumbled upon it, collecting dust in an old box he had stored somewhere in his attic... some actually think the book was penned by Campbell himself using the Adrian Ross pseudonym, although there are supposedly some historical records that claim M. R. James actually was a friend of Ross... so who knows.
I own the Some of the material in that book is similar to what one could find in the works of William Hope Hodgson (Specifically in "The House at the Borderland" ) and even HPL, but most of the book is centered around other issues and the slimy grotesquerie is thrown on stage as a second rate attraction, or at least that's the way I perceived it. | |||||||||||
Anyway, people die...
-Current 93 I am simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously? -Emil Cioran |
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