Horror, Fantasy, and other non-sci-fi genres...

[monolith94]

I can't remember the details, but how do you see this as a Christian parable?

*spoilers!*

Xayide convinces Bastian that he needs to take over Fantasia (Fantastica in the translation I read) and in the name of doing good he does much bad — very reminiscent of an anti-christ figure. The second arc follows a clear sin-redemption Christian path. "The manipulators" have diabolical overtones, and the childlike empress clearly identifies herself as not fantastican, nor human. The implication that I got was that she is some angel-like being. In my Bastian as antichrist formula, the tower at the center of fantasia would be like Jerusalem. Juraselem, too, was thought to be the literal center of the world.

[D_Davis]

I rarely read books in a series back-to-back, and to continue this trend I am not turning to the second Eathsea book, but am instead turning to David "First Blood and Rambo" Morrell's The Totem. Often mentioned on 'best of horror lists,' I am looking forward to checking this out.

[D_Davis]

So far, about 100 paged in, The Totem is excellent. Morrell is a great writer, and I can't wait to read more from him. I am especially looking forward to the Rambo books.

His prose is clean and detailed, and he offers up the perfect amounts of plot and description.

His small town American setting of Potter's Field feels real, and he has a great ear for rural dialog.

So far, it is reminding me of Lansdale minus the mean-spirited misanthropic streak and the really powerful, signature style.

[D_Davis]

I got an e-mail from Kealan Patrick Burke this morning. He thanked me again for my review of his short story collection The Number 121 to Pennsylvania, and he also commented on my thoughts about expensive small-press horror.

And best of all, he did something about it! He's made his first three novellas available as free downloads.

http://www.kealanpatrickburke.com/Free_Fiction.htm

This is way awesome.

Check them out. You've got no excuse now.

[Dead & Messed Up]

So I finally started getting into Teatro Grottesco, and, surprise surprise, I'm really digging on it.

I've gotten through the first three shorts:

"Purity" was fascinating in how it jumped between the supernatural side of things and the mundanity of slum life. I didn't feel like there was a significant build; the story instead was a collection of striking images and concepts. The most memorable moment was, oddly enough, a scene where a fat woman sticks a hot dog into a jar of mayonnaise. Odd...

"The Town Manager" was very cool. The sense of deterioration and pessimism was palpable, and the mixture - again - of grounded human goals and an essential weirdness was assured and well-drawn.

"Sideshow and Other Stories" was just plain fun - a small collection of mini-stories in another short story. Little vignettes that suggests an overall personality and worldview. I really started getting the Lovecraft comparisons with this one, since they both seem to share an eternally bleak view of the world.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'm also listening to Something Wicked This Way Comes, and it sometimes seems like Bradbury's language borders on self-parody, with the constant repetitions of phrases or words and the endless sense of nostalgia - it feels like he applies that with a sledgehammer at times.

But Cooger and Dark are truly eerie, and I'm feeling some real affection for Jim and Will. I'm up through when the police are duped by Dark into thinking that Cooger's rapid aging was just a stunt. It wasn't, of course - the carousel shot him way past the age of a hundred.

[D_Davis]

Glad you're digging the Ligotti, I don't know what I'd do if you weren't.



The dude is a masterclass author, on par with any I have read, and probably on par with any writing now.

Just wait until the final story in the first section, The Red Tower, and then the second section - amazing, absolutely amazing.

While he often draws comparisons to HPL, it's not because of his prose style. Ligotti does not write HPL pastiche, he doesn't try to emulate. Instead he often gets compared to HPL, and Poe, simply because he is just that good.

I imagine that, like HPL, in 30 years or so the more literary minded crowd will stumble upon this long-dead author and declare him some lost, unknown national treasure and begin to embrace his work.

We're just at the vangaurd of the the inevitable Ligotti movement.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Glad you're digging the Ligotti, I don't know what I'd do if you weren't.



The dude is a masterclass author, on par with any I have read, and probably on par with any writing now.

Just wait until the final story in the first section, The Red Tower, and then the second section - amazing, absolutely amazing.

While he often draws comparisons to HPL, it's not because of his prose style. Ligotti does not write HPL pastiche, he doesn't try to emulate. Instead he often gets compared to HPL, and Poe, simply because he is just that good.

I imagine that, like HPL, in 30 years or so the more literary minded crowd will stumble upon this long-dead author and declare him some lost, unknown national treasure and begin to embrace his work.

We're just at the vangaurd of the the inevitable Ligotti movement.

I did read one comment - a review of some kind - that did say Ligotti shares one very interesting similarity with Poe and Lovecraft. His stories begin at weird and develop further. His characters are already off the beaten path, in these bizarre environs. Contemporary authors like King and Matheson usually feature a journey into the weird, after time has been spent developing relatively normal characters in a somewhat familiar location.

"The Town Manager"'s town, for example, begins in this twisted, Dionysian netherworld.

But yeah, his prose style is its own thing, for sure.

[D_Davis]

Right - I would say this is mostly a trait shared by authors of weird fiction, as opposed to authors of more general horror. In weird fiction, there is rarely a sense of normality - there is not a normal milieu with which to compare the world of the other. With horror fiction, it's usually something force from the other world breaking into ours that causes the strife, but with weird fiction it is different. Usually the characters find themselves already within the weird. This is one reason why weird fiction is often more associate with fantasy, or why authors of the two genres can so easily blur the lines between the two.

[monolith94]

My review of Gene Wolfe's new book "An Evil Guest" which I posted on Amazon:

It was hardly twenty pages into "An Evil Guest" that I realized: "my god, this is the very first Gene Wolfe novel I've read that's proven to be a chore!" (In the interest of full disclosure, I'd only read the Book of the New Sun, The Urth of the New Sun, and the Wizard Knight duo previously) It was a chore, and seemed to be, well, boring. How could such a thing be?

I believe it is because he has tried to strike out on a new stylistic path, trying some new authorial clothes: clothes that fit him not well at all. There are distinct differences between An Evil Guest (from hereon in described as AEG) and his previous works. For one thing, he follows a female protagonist. For another, the narrative descriptions and tone seem to be entirely cut-out. Finally, there just seems to be an overall lack of dread: he's taken Cthulhu and turned him into a Kraken, taken werewolves and turned them into pets. Perhaps the most sinister of the characters, a private investigator/wizard character is turned into a generic love interest, although to be fair to the old author by the end of the book his presence takes on a new light.

I think that most of the problems stem from the fact that Wolfe has tried to explore a female main-character based story. The great element from many of Wolfe's books has been transformation: the transformation of Severian, the metamorphosis of Able from a boy into a man. Cassie also undergoes a transformation--she is turned into a theater star. But while the transformations of Able and Severian were well-handled, and gave rise to wish-fulfillment tinged tinged with depth and drama, the female wish-fulfillment he seeks to illustrate stikes me as more cheesy than weighty. Her "star presence" as it is depicted is often so over the top to strain credulity. Perhaps a woman would be better suited to let me know if Wolfe has adroitly plumbed the motivations, desires, and dreams of femininity.

You know, while I could remember Able and Severian off the top of my head, a mere day after reading AEG I had to flip through the book to remind myself of Cassie's name. Again, a lack of dread and real, potent danger permeates much the book, the last fifty pages perhaps aside. Wolfe clearly draws on 1930s and 1940s era culture, but did he have to bring the lack of scares from these times with him? Perhaps his affection has blinded him to the relative toothlessness of many (though not all) plots from his childhood. Even when dread and danger does seem to come, he resurrects along with it islander caricatures which are painful to a young, modern reader: I grimaced. Actually, this element is present even earlier; AEG features a computer with a Japanese accent just as ham-fisted as Mickey Rooney's Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Sigh.

Just as AEG takes on a female protagonist, so does it take on a different style than earlier Wolfe works. Gone are lengthy blocks of rich, detail-filled narration. In its place are endless reams of dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. You could argue that this is appropriate, as the book is about stagecraft, but however appropriate this style may be to the theme of the novel, it doesn't change the fact that it is a style which is tremendously easy to put down and set aside. I turned the pages of this novel begrudgingly, on the basis of the earned reputation of the author.

There are moments of great imagination. There are times when the vivid imagery which Wolfe is so expertly capable of come through, and there are certainly mysteries piled on top of mysteries to be explored in the text. But when the flavor of the work itself comes off as so relatively bland. After I finished reading the book, I slept and had a very interesting dream, so I suppose the text is worthwhile in some regard.

[monolith94]

Pirate Freedom, on the other hand, was very good. Any other Gene Wolfe fans here?

[MadMan]

Today I finally reached page 107 of Pet Sementary, and I'm pretty much hooked. It is my first non-Dark Tower Stephen King book, and I really dig the whole thing so far. A lot of atmosphere to start things out, and the characters are pretty likable. King's prose may be simple, but I like how he describes things and paints a very realistic, easily imaginable environment. I was hoping to get my hands on The Shining, but this is a very suitable replacement.

[megladon8]

Glad you're enjoying some King, MadMan, though I have to admit "Pet Semetary" isn't one of my favorites by him.

You should definitely check out "Salem's Lot". One of the best pieces of horror fiction ever written.

[MadMan]

Glad you're enjoying some King, MadMan, though I have to admit "Pet Semetary" isn't one of my favorites by him.

You should definitely check out "Salem's Lot". One of the best pieces of horror fiction ever written.

If I can get my hands on it, I will. I want to read the book before I see the two movie adaptations of it.

[D_Davis]

I started William Hope Hodgson's House on the Borderlands this morning - and it is really good so far.

It seems to be far more accessible than Hodgson's nautical-themed weird fiction, and I am totally digging the set up.

The first two chapters are overflowing with dense atmosphere.

[D_Davis]

House on the Borderland is tremendous, and I cannot recommend it enough. For fans of Lovecraft, Blackwood, Smith, et al., this book will be welcomed with open arms. It was one of Lovecraft's favorite books, and his praise for it is not unwarranted.

It creates a very real, tangible, and immediate sense of terror, a terror that is also unrelenting.

It reminds me, a lot, of the Evil Dead films, only without the humor. I would be shocked if this book was not a part of Raimi's inspiration.

The typical purple prose style is sometimes awkward, and the over use of the word 'presently,' along with too many other adverbs, can be problematic at times, but for the most part it is a very good read.

I'm about 1/2 through it now, and I wish I could just stay at home this morning to finish it. It's a cold, rainy day here in Seattle, and the natural atmosphere could only help to make this narrative all the more unsettling.

[megladon8]

That sounds great, D.

*looking up*

[MadMan]

I guess I'll have to head to my local library (which was finally re-established in town after the floods wiped it out last summer) and hope they have a copy of Salem's Lot.

And now I wonder if the film adapation even managed to capture the true creepiness and freaky moments of Pet Sementary. That ending is just flat out perfect. [

Show Spoiler

The book just keeps getting horrible and worse until the last act, where the main character loses his best friend and his wife. Plus he has to kill his re-animated, murderous psychopathic son. And oh yeah, on top of that the dude ends up taking his wife up there, thus continuing on the never ending nightmare. Its just beyond messed up.

]

I'd say that the swamp journey scene in that book is so eerie and frightening, that its easily the best part of the book.

[D_Davis]

I'm sure any library will have Salem's Lot, and if not, any thrift store with books should have it.

That's a great think about liking King - you can find his books almost anywhere for next to nothing.

[Mara]

Onion article that made me think of you guys.

[D_Davis]

Onion article that made me think of you guys.

Ha!

Oh man, that's great!

[D_Davis]

This is by far my favorite part of that Onion article:

"Our schools are orderly, sanitary places where students dwell in blissful ignorance of the chaos that awaits," West said. "Should our facilities be repaired? No, they must be razed to the ground and rebuilt in the image of the Cyclopean dwellings of the Elder Gods, the very geometry of which will drive them to be possessed by visions of the realms beyond."

[Dead & Messed Up]

Onion article that made me think of you guys.

As soon as I saw this, I figured someone already posted it.

:lol:

My favorite: "West's previous failed proposals include requiring the high school band to perform the tuneless flute songs of the blind idiot god Azathoth..."

Although they lost a point by misspelling "Nyarlathotep."

[MadMan]

I've never read a single Lovecraft tale. But that article had me laughing my ass off. One of my favorite parts:

Charles sure likes to bang on that madness drum," fellow school board member Danielle Kolker said. "I'm not totally sold on his plan to let gibbering, half-formed creatures dripping with ichor feed off the flesh and fear of our students. But he is always on time to help set up for our spaghetti suppers, and his bake sale goods are among the most popular."

[Mara]

I've never read a single Lovecraft tale. But that article had me laughing my ass off. One of my favorite parts:

His style is great, but the qualities of his stories can be hit-or-miss. When he's on, though, he's great. I'd recommend "The Rats in the Walls." I'm sure you can find it online.