THE PROZESS MANIFESTATIONS (new collection)

[Gnosticangel]

Thanks Des and Frater for your tantalizing reviews.

My copy just arrived today and I am excited to open it this evening!

[waffles]

My copy arrived today (in Chicago).

[Jeff Matthews]

Ugh, still waiting for mine here in TX.

[Michael]

In Texas too. Still waiting. In a way good to hear; semi-paranoid something will happen to mine.

[Hidden X]

So, any thoughts about his much hyped "The Crimson Fog"? There is both a stab at transhumanism in there, as well as at the idea of "embracing the Other" (another prevalent trend in modern weird fiction that is, I imagine, repellent to Samuels).

[Nemonymous]

Quote Originally Posted by Hidden X

So, any thoughts about his much hyped "The Crimson Fog"? There is both a stab at transhumanism in there, as well as at the idea of "embracing the Other" (another prevalent trend in modern weird fiction that is, I imagine, repellent to Samuels).

My considered view of THE CRIMSON FOG is here:
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com...#comment-11399
But don’t read the second half of that before reading the novella yourself!

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by Hidden X

So, any thoughts about his much hyped "The Crimson Fog"? There is both a stab at transhumanism in there, as well as at the idea of "embracing the Other" (another prevalent trend in modern weird fiction that is, I imagine, repellent to Samuels).

That is the shoggoths meets Apocalypse Now one correct?

I thought that was a pretty standard take on one of his main themes, that is idea of something that happens in the future eating back through to consume its past as it were. The same idea is used (to greater effect in my opinion) in 'The Age of Decayed Futurity', where it is coupled in with another of his favorite themes, that is that the world of the living is in someway being created by the already dead.

Completely aside from Samuelsmania do you really think Weird Fiction is now about embracing the other? As in: in any significant way beyond 'And so X realized she enjoyed sex with Deep Ones'?

[Hidden X]

Entirety of that "I think they call it the numinous bit" was already posted on GR: The Prozess Manifestations Quotes by Mark Samuels
I am not sure if someone was helping him with that story, because it is sort of impressive how smoothly he pulled it of. Narrator speaks in very different voice to that of his usual protagonists, and the whole military pulp thing was pulled off very well. (though, I suppose that I can see why he choose to place the story in that particular timeframe, because it saved him from having to familiarize himself with the modern military tech and terminology, and the complications that the former would bring with it).

[Evans]

Quote Originally Posted by Hidden X

Entirety of that "I think they call it the numinous bit" was already posted on GR: The Prozess Manifestations Quotes by Mark Samuels

???

Was that in connection with the story? I have never seen it before (I also think it's wrong both in a literary historical sense and as an account of human nature).

Quote Originally Posted by Hidden X

I am not sure if someone was helping him with that story, because it is sort of impressive how smoothly he pulled it of. Narrator speaks in very different voice to that of his usual protagonists, and the whole military pulp thing was pulled off very well. (though, I suppose that I can see why he choose to place the story in that particular timeframe, because it saved him from having to familiarize himself with the modern military tech and terminology, and the complications that the former would bring with it).

Ironically (and I am not saying this to be contrary) I didn't for it so much, perhaps because his rather minimalist prose style doesn't really lead itself to suspense, at least not in the concrete 'are we going to get out of here alive' sense. The idea of the red jungle spreading was more effective than the descriptions of the concrete beings it contained.

[Hidden X]

Well, that story as printed in the collection is apparently somewhat different from the versions that appeared elsewhere (like that Joshi anthology), so I suppose that that exact bit maybe wasn't present it the version you've read? It is placed at the point where narrator first encounters the scent of "Fiends."
I liked it well enough btw, even if I think that it was a bit overhyped by some of his friends here. I can appreciate him going out of his comfort zone though. Story itself reminded of some early David Drake stories a bit, ones written prior to KEW's death, back when he was still experimenting with horror and deeper themes while keeping the pulpy package (later on, only the said package remained).