D_Davis
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- Jan 14, 2008
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I've started to write a reading journal to keep track of all the short weird fiction I am reading. Because I tend to skip around from one anthology and collection to the next, I find it hard to remember certain stories from certain books. It's easier if I just jot down a few notes about each as I read them. I plan on reading a lot throughout the year.
Feel free to comment!
Weird Fiction – Reading Journal
January
Story: The Drunkard's Dream
Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Read in: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream...Nightmare (anthology)
Rating: 4/5
Effective little morality tale. Le Fanu conveys his dream imagery with haunting authenticity. After reading this and falling asleep, I had very bizarre dreams. I don't know if the story informed my dreams or not, but I wouldn't doubt it.
This is the story of a town drunk who dies and has a vision of hell. He then comes back to life, seemingly given a second chance, but the town's priest doesn't trust him. The drunkard seems to have become a model citizen; he's cleaned up his act. But after having the hell scared into him, what do you expect?
The ending is vague enough to allow for multiple interpretations (was the vision real, did the drunkard really die?), but what is not up for debate is the moral lesson the reader is to take away. Many older horror stories are thinly disguised morality tales, warnings of terrible fates that await evil men and women, and some are better than others. The Drunkard's Dream is one of the better ones I've read.
Highly recommended.
***
Stories: The Willow Landscape, The Ninth Skeleton, The Phantoms of the Fire, The Eternal World, Vulthoom, A Star-Change
Author: Clark Ashton Smith
Read in: Genius Loci (collection)
Rating: varies, but most 3/5
More so than any other author I've read, CAS is a painter of landscapes, using words as his medium of choice. The first few stories in this volume are basically landscape descriptions detailed with a threadbare narrative and even thinner character development - but I'm sure this can be said for many in Lovecraft's circle of authors. I wish there was more plot here, and I'm sure the longer stories in this collection will deliver (Lord knows CAS can spin a kick-ass yarn), but as studies of mystical and haunting places, these pieces are ace.
Feel free to comment!
Weird Fiction – Reading Journal
January
Story: The Drunkard's Dream
Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Read in: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream...Nightmare (anthology)
Rating: 4/5
Effective little morality tale. Le Fanu conveys his dream imagery with haunting authenticity. After reading this and falling asleep, I had very bizarre dreams. I don't know if the story informed my dreams or not, but I wouldn't doubt it.
This is the story of a town drunk who dies and has a vision of hell. He then comes back to life, seemingly given a second chance, but the town's priest doesn't trust him. The drunkard seems to have become a model citizen; he's cleaned up his act. But after having the hell scared into him, what do you expect?
The ending is vague enough to allow for multiple interpretations (was the vision real, did the drunkard really die?), but what is not up for debate is the moral lesson the reader is to take away. Many older horror stories are thinly disguised morality tales, warnings of terrible fates that await evil men and women, and some are better than others. The Drunkard's Dream is one of the better ones I've read.
Highly recommended.
***
Stories: The Willow Landscape, The Ninth Skeleton, The Phantoms of the Fire, The Eternal World, Vulthoom, A Star-Change
Author: Clark Ashton Smith
Read in: Genius Loci (collection)
Rating: varies, but most 3/5
More so than any other author I've read, CAS is a painter of landscapes, using words as his medium of choice. The first few stories in this volume are basically landscape descriptions detailed with a threadbare narrative and even thinner character development - but I'm sure this can be said for many in Lovecraft's circle of authors. I wish there was more plot here, and I'm sure the longer stories in this collection will deliver (Lord knows CAS can spin a kick-ass yarn), but as studies of mystical and haunting places, these pieces are ace.
