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:sigh: i know there are many supporters, but seem like i can't make myself a fan of fleming's james bond -- unless goldfinger is a really poor representation. bond in a book is, imo, not any more interesting than what he has been in hollywood during these five decades. the book is dated in many other ways than just the cold war ended.
I read this a few years ago, and halfway through I had to put it down for a month because I couldn't sleep at night :( It's probably the most unnerving novel I've ever read, but I rarely read horror fiction.Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Davis
I am glad I waited until I was older to read Blatty's trilogy. There is no way I would have picked up the deeper themes had I read these books any younger. They are a pretty good examination of the problems of evil and pain in light of a benevolent God.Quote:
Originally Posted by Philosophe_rouge
I think Ninth Configuration is the best, with Legion second, and Exorcist third.
Ligotti's short story "The Cocoons" is freaking fantastic.
It just gets more and more freaky as it goes along, then the last line of the story is a hilarious kicker.
I loved it.
I'm about halfway through "The Tsalal" now.
"The Tsalal" was pretty good.
Certainly not my favorite of the collection (so far), as it doesn't really offer up a whole lot to ponder like the other stories do. It's also arranged in a jumbled manner, whereas the rest of the works are very organic in their structure and flow.
But still, it was good. Parts of it reminded me a bit of In the Mouth of Madness.
I didn't care The Tsalal at all. It did nothing for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Davis
What about it did you dislike so much?
It felt very empty and dull to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
I didn't really feel as if there was a story. It felt like a really long introduction to something not so interesting.
The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
By now I feel as though I must be one of the last admirers of the horror genre to have read William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. I've had friends and known of many who've read this book when they were kids or young adults. It wasn't until after my recent read of The Ninth Configuration, and a subsequent examination of Blatty's career and intentions, that I even felt compelled to read it at all.
I am thankful for this late-blooming desire to dive into Blatty's tale of a demonic possession, because if I had read this when I was younger I would not have appreciated it nearly as much. Sure, it would have scared the hell out of me. Really. I probably would have thought the gross stuff was really cool, and really gross. Yes, I probably would have thought it was one kick ass horror novel, and I probably would've talked in secret about the masturbation scene or the foul language; I could have been a part of the Exorcist cabal, with a secret to share amongst those “in the know.”
I think that reading this book at a young age is problematic, but not because of the obvious reasons. It's not that I think it is too gross or disturbing for a young readers, thinking it will scar their precious little snowflake minds. No, I think it is problematic because of the way a young mind might read the book. It is easy to read The Exorcist as nothing more than a well written and scary horror story, and I feel as though this does a disservice to the author and to the deeper themes of the novel - it disrespects the artist and his work.
Blatty's book is much more than a simple horror novel. At its core it is really a theological mystery; it is a book that deals directly with questions of faith and the problem of evil. Blatty does a pretty good job at conveying his themes through slow building tension and intense investigation. It is not until over half way through that his real intentions become clear, and by this point I was so enthralled by the plot that the introduction of a deeper more personal narrative caught me off guard - even though I new to expect it.
Blatty considers The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, and Legion to be his “trilogy of faith,” or as he comically puts it, “Taken together, they are all about the eternal questions that nag at Woody Allen.” You see, Blatty is a great humorist; one of the best I've ever read. The horror in The Exorcist is very real, tangible, and very horrific, but the humanity and sincerity of the theological mystery is even more immediate. The narrative rings with truth because of the breadth of emotion Blatty conveys through his characters; he captures the entire spectrum of human emotion in great detail.
There are two main narrative threads running through the book. One deals with Father Karras's examination and investigation of the supposed demonic possession of a young girl, Regan MacNeil. The other deals with Kindermann, a detective, and his investigation of a strange, seemingly accidental death that occurs outside of the MacNeil's townhouse. Each of these men is lead down a road fraught with penetrating questions dealing with morality, evil, faith, reason, logic, and the supernatural.
Blatty leads his the readers straight into the heart of one of the most puzzling theological questions, a question that has confounded theologians for years, and a question that is often raised by those who do not believe: how can there be evil and suffering in a world governed by a benevolent God? What is the purpose of pain? Why do the innocent suffer? What did little Regan MacNeil do to deserve the absolute hell she is put through?
While I don't think that Blatty is entirely successful at conveying or investigating his themes, I do give him the benefit of the doubt. This is, after all, a theological quandary that has plagued religious minds for centuries. I actually think it would be beneficial to read C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain in tandem with Blatty's books - it would strengthen the totality of theme greatly. I do appreciate that Blatty makes no attempt at giving an easy answer, or any answer really, because any answer available would, most likely, be silly and too pat.
However, Blatty excels masterfully at creating a compelling, engaging, and frightening tale. His prose is ripe with solid characterizations and nuanced, natural sounding dialog. Dialog seems to be Blatty's trump card, and throughout the course of this trilogy it only gets better - much better. And seeing as how strongly he starts out, this is really saying something. I was very impressed with The Exorcist, and I have become increasingly enamored with its author. The book touches upon topics that are important to me while it also offers up a thoughtful and entertaining story. It is a well written, engrossing, and interesting journey into the mind of an author with something to say.
Great review as always, D.
I actually have a funny story about this book.
Whenever I would go over to my uncle's house as a kid, I used to love looking at his book shelf. He was like you and I are now - totally into horror, sci-fi, fantasy, all the genre stuff, and he had a great selection.
Once I asked him to lend me a "scary" book, and he leant me "The Exorcist". A beat up copy he had bought when he was about 12. It had a pink/purple cover, and was tattered and worn in just about every way you can imagine.
When I got home and cracked the book open, I was stunned to find that my hilariously pervy pre-pubescent uncle had underlined every instance of the word "fuck" or of any sexual language, and made notes in the margins about it like "gross!" and "awesome!".
That's my story.
That's funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
Blatty uses the word "cunting" a lot, as in "Turn down that cunting noise!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Davis
I love unorthodox uses of cursing.
Like "what the shit?"
"The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" was a great short story collection.
A few duds, but even those had something to offer in the writing style and quasi-philosophical concepts.
Ligotti's work is very sophisticated, and very, very rarely delves into "gross out" material. The story "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" is perhaps my favorite of the collection, and is the most disturbing. It's a very Lovecraft-ish story in both its execution and its themes, and I could see Lovecraft junkies really loving Ligotti's work.
Some of his stories - like "The Bungalow House" - almost edge on a David Lynch level of dream-like absurdism, and are more disturbing in their complete disregard for reality and overall ominous tone than in their actual content.
This Moorcock Elric saga is unbelievably confusing. I just bought "Elric" assuming this was the first title to read in the series. Turns out maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe I'm supposed to read 18 novels in between. Screw this, I'm taking it back and getting something else. You've lost me Moorcock.
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Originally Posted by Winston*
There is a numbered order. The saga was written and published (serialized) out of chronological narrative order, but they've gone back and put everything into two volumes in the proper order. The "novels" are mostly just collections of the serialized adventures put in chron order:
These are the core books.
- Elric of Melniboné ISBN 042508843X
- The Sailor on the Seas of Fate ISBN 0441748635
- The Weird of the White Wolf ISBN 0441888054
- The Sleeping Sorceress ISBN 0441860397
- The Bane of the Black Sword ISBN 0441048854
- Stormbringer ISBN 0425065596
I totally wouldn't give up on Moorcock. He is one of the most inventive, consistent, and original voices in the SF&F genres. He was instrumental in the new wave, and is also a major voice in genre-lit criticism.
The Elric Saga is my favorite fantasy series. There is nothing else like it.
I would like to give the series a go but the book I bought is like 400 pages long and goes like this:
The Dreaming City
While the Gods Laugh
The Stealer of Souls
Kings in Darkness
The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams
Stormbringer
Would you recommend just taking it back? Any different Moorcock you'd recommend for me to start with?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Winston*
I'm a member of the Science Fiction Book Club, and their volumes are put in chronological order, if I'm not mistaken.
And a lot of libraries carry SFBC editions.
Any chance you can get the SFBC Volume 1 of the series?
The way I understand it, I think what I have is actually chronologically the first stuff released in the series but not exactly chronologically the first stuff in the Elric narrative, since Moorcock kept adding bits and pieces to the series over the years in some crazy haphazard manner.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
These are the volumes I have, and I also have the single volume novels.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
So, Winston, it looks like the volume you got is putting them in the order they were originally written and serialized.
The Dreaming City was the first thing Moorcock wrote in the Elric saga.
Truth be told, they are not really required to be read in any certain order. Like Conan, each story can be read as a stand alone tale, and as each is read connections can be made. While they can be read in chron order, it isn't required, that is until you get to the later trilogy written in 2001-2003. I have not read these.
It's not that he wrote these in some haphazard manner. Like Howard, he just wasn't thinking in terms of one large epic. This is the way these kinds of stories were largely written at this time. Because they were mostly published as short, serialized stories in magazines, the tales were more episodic in nature, and thus they could be collected in various ways.
As far as other Moorcock goes, there is so much out there it is almost impossible to recommend anything in particular. My personal favorite is the Elric sage, but there is also the other Eternal Champion books. Elric is just one incarnation of the Eternal Champion.
The Life and Times of Jerry Cornelius is supposed to be good - it collects the entire Cornelius saga, of which I've read one.
Behold the Man is a very interesting little SF book about a time traveler who basically becomes Jesus Christ.
Gloriana is a good romantic/alternate history fantasy.
The Dancers at the End of Time trilogy is good. The first is An Alien Heat, followed by The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs, and these are also accompanied by a series of short stories. I have only read An Alien Heat and it is good - I recently purchased the others.
Incidentally, I recently purchased New Worlds, a collection of short SF stories edited by Moorcock when he was EIC at New Worlds SF mag. Moorcock's time at the mag is widely considered one of the most interesting times in SF publishing - he strove to deliver stories that pushed the boundaries of SF.
Anyone read Michael Cisco?
Small press horror author - has written Cthulhu stories. I just got his book, "Secret Hours" published by Mythos Books.
On the back is a quote by Ligotti:
"MC's works are indispensable to contemporary fantastic literature. They not only elevate this genre, the hover over it."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Davis
Never heard of him, but this certainly sounds promising.
Yeah - I'm looking forward to checking his stuff out. After a bit of research I found that he is often lumped in with Ligotti.Quote:
Originally Posted by megladon8
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Davis
I find that the Lovecraftian themes just really work for me in horror and weird fiction.
Rarely do I ever find just a ghost story, or serial killer story, or anything else to be frightening. But Lovecraft's work really creeps me out, and some of the stories in Ligotti's "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" frightened me as well.
I think it's the expansiveness of the themes, and the idea that we are really not in control of our own destinies, when something like Cthulhu is capable of controlling and/or destroying us with the slightest thought.
I think it is because this literary style truly taps into our fear of the unknown, and our fear that once we do know, we'd wish we didn't.
Has anybody here read World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks? It plays out like some sorta Ken Burns documentary of some global Zombie holocaust that happened sometime in the early 21st century. So far, it's an enjoyable enough read to keep my brand new xbox from getting hooked up.