Karl Edward Wagner - Thoughts?

[Sargeant_Fox]

Valancourt Books reissued Karl Edward Wagner's In a Lonely Place. Is this a good collection of horror stories?

 

[BAYLOR]

Valancourt Books reissued Karl Edward Wagner's In a Lonely Place. Is this a good collection of horror stories?

Yes it is.

 

[Randy M.]

Valancourt Books reissued Karl Edward Wagner's In a Lonely Place. Is this a good collection of horror stories?

I second Baylor. Wagner writes in the American style handed down from Hammett and Hemingway via the pulps, so there's that. He knew how to arrange a story for maximum effect, and I consider "Sticks" and "The River of Night's Dreaming" two of the best horror stories coming out of the 1970s-'80s, both are included in the collection.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Days ago I read In a Lonely Place, and I heartily concur with your opinions.

As much as I enjoyed "Sticks", I don't think it's the pinnacle of the book. Once I understood what the underlying gag was, I thought, "Ah, here it is, the mandatory Lovecraft-centered story!" I swear, the last three or four horror books I've read all have a story about Howie. Warner loses points because it's not explicitly about Lovecraft, it's a surrogate.

“.220 Swift” physically unsettled me. The description of two cave explorers stuck in a tunnel really reminded me of how terrified I am of narrow places. I also loved the allusion to Manly Wade Wellman's "Shonokin" race.

"More Sinned Against" had one of the most unexpected and well-earned happy endings ever.

I can't think of a bad story in the bunch; and yet Wagner, like Wellman, isn't coming up with lots of new concepts, premises, ideas, situations, etc. In Wagner's case I'd say it's all thanks to good pacing. "Where the Summer Ends" in hindsight relies on a worn-out premise, but the tension grows so efficiently that I was captivated through and through.

The importance of his prose isn't negligible either; his evocative landscape descriptions are a corrective to the too plain prose modern authors favor.

It's a pity there's nothing else in print right now; I'd love to read more of his horror stories.

 

[Randy M.]

Days ago I read In a Lonely Place, and I heartily concur with your opinions.

As much as I enjoyed "Sticks", I don't think it's the pinnacle of the book. Once I understood what the underlying gag was, I thought, "Ah, here it is, the mandatory Lovecraft-centered story!" I swear, the last three or four horror books I've read all have a story about Howie. Warner loses points because it's not explicitly about Lovecraft, it's a surrogate.

I can understand this. Nowadays you can walk to the horror section in a bookstore, close your eyes and point, and chances are you'll find something HPL-ish at the end of your arm. At the time "Sticks" was published there were some short stories with Lovecraft influence, but most I came across were extremely derivative. This one, springing off "Pickman's Model" was so well written and so fully imagined it was refreshing.

“.220 Swift” physically unsettled me. The description of two cave explorers stuck in a tunnel really reminded me of how terrified I am of narrow places. I also loved the allusion to Manly Wade Wellman's "Shonokin" race.

"More Sinned Against" had one of the most unexpected and well-earned happy endings ever.

I can't think of a bad story in the bunch; and yet Wagner, like Wellman, isn't coming up with lots of new concepts, premises, ideas, situations, etc. In Wagner's case I'd say it's all thanks to good pacing. "Where the Summer Ends" in hindsight relies on a worn-out premise, but the tension grows so efficiently that I was captivated through and through.

The importance of his prose isn't negligible either; his evocative landscape descriptions are a corrective to the too plain prose modern authors favor.

It's a pity there's nothing else in print right now; I'd love to read more of his horror stories.

Agreed. Short story collections just don't get back into print as often as maybe they should, and that's a shame. You might be able to find his Kane story, "Undertow" and while it's Sword & Sorcery, it definitely has the kick of horror.

 

[BAYLOR]

I can understand this. Nowadays you can walk to the horror section in a bookstore, close your eyes and point, and chances are you'll find something HPL-ish at the end of your arm. At the time "Sticks" was published there were some short stories with Lovecraft influence, but most I came across were extremely derivative. This one, springing off "Pickman's Model" was so well written and so fully imagined it was refreshing.


Agreed. Short story collections just don't get back into print as often as maybe they should, and that's a shame. You might be able to find his Kane story, "Undertow" and while it's Sword & Sorcery, it definitely has the kick of horror.

I second Undertow, Also Sing A Last Song of Valdese and The Dark Muse.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I've been transcribing my marginalia, as usual, and once more luxuriated in this passage:

“She was being forced into a straitjacket, flung into a padded cell, and they were bricking up the door… no, it was some bizarre corset device, forcing her neck back, crushing her abdomen, arms laced painfully into a single glove at her back… Camilla was helping her into a gown of satin and velvet and lace, and then into a hood of padded leather that they buckled over her head as they led her to the gallows… and the nurses held her down while Dr. Archer penetrated her with a grotesque syringe of vile poison, and Mrs. Castigne forced the yellow tonic down her throat as she pinned her face between her thighs… And Camilla’s lips dripped blood as she rose from her kiss, and her fangs were hypodermic needles, injecting poison, sucking life… they were wheeling her into the torture chamber, where Dr. Archer awaited her (“It’s only a frontal lobotomy, just to relieve the pressure on these two diseased lobes.”) and plunges the bloody scalpel deep between her thighs… and they are strapping her into the metal chair in the death cell, shoving the rubber gag between her teeth and blinding her with the leather hood, and Dr. Archer grasps the thick black handle of the switch and pulls it down and sends the current ripping through her nerves… she stands naked in shackles before the black-masked judges, and Dr. Archer gloatingly exposes the giant needle (“Just an injection of my elixir, and she’s quite safe for two more weeks.”)… and the nurses in rubber aprons hold her writhing upon the altar, while Dr. Archer adjusts the hangman’s mask and thrusts the electrodes into her breast… (“Just a shot of my prolixir, and she’s quite sane for two more weeks.”)… then the judge in wig and mask and black robe smacks down the braided whip and screams “She must be locked away forever!... she tears away the mask and Mrs. Castaigne screams “She must be locked in here forever!”… she tears away the mask and her own face screams “She must be locked in you forever!”… then Camilla and Mrs. Castaigne lead her back into her cell, and they strap her to her bed and force the rubber gag between her teeth, and Mrs. Castaigne adjusts her surgeon’s mask while Camilla clamps the electrodes to her nipples, and the current rips into her and her brain screams and screams unheard… “I think she no longer needs to be drugged.” Mrs. Castaigne smiled, and her lips are bright with blood. “She’s one of us now. She always has been one of us”… and they leave her alone in darkness on the promise “We’ll begin again tomorrow” and the echo, “She’ll be good for two more weeks.””

Also, in the afterword I was amused that KEW's "In the Pines" is based on a folk song his friend Manly Wade Wellman by coincidence had also found inspiration on for a Silver john story.