Hi all,
Most of you will already be familiar with the routine by now. Let us know what literary gems you've embarked upon this month.
*Repost from end of March thread...'cause I wasn't paying due attention to the calendar...
Having finally had some time to myself to complete Susan Hill’s classic homage to the Victorian Gothic novel in the skilfully wrought Woman In Black (8.5 – 9 stars) my attention has more recently been returned to completing my own copy of a collection of short stories by the sadly neglected Polish master of the1920s and 30s in Stefan Grabinski entitled The Dark Domain, which some of you may recall I recently included in the hypothetical Horror Masterworks thread. A slightly more detailed review of this collection along with periodic contributions regarding other works I’ve been reading in 2010 will I hope begin to appear towards the end of the current Easter holidays.
Suffice to say that The Dark Domain for me represents a high watermark in supernatural horror or what I prefer to term psychological horror in Grabinski’s particular case or what the author himself was inclined to term as psychofantasies. Whilst the majority of the stories are IMO quite brilliantly constructed, there are probably a couple at least that whilst still above average are more straightforward in content. Therefore, this collection as a whole represents a near-masterpiece and as such I’ve duly rated it 9.5 stars and it obviously comes highly recommended. Briefly then, Grabinski’s genius or indeed most intriguing aspect, to expand upon China Mieville’s quoted comment, lies in the fact that for this writer, the supernatural horror is manifest in the practical realities and modernity of modern life itself. More than this though, Grabinksi not only uses these physical manifestations such as trains, structures, lighting etc. to great effect but also delves into metaphysical issues and particularly psychological aspects of the enigma we term the human mind, the ‘Dark Domain’, to highlight what he saw as society’s move away from a fundamental sense of self and the natural world as part of his anti-authoritarian and anti-materialistic world view. Indeed, a number of these so-called Grabinski-isms may be seen in another more modern masterpiece I also had the good fortune to stumble across this year in Roland Topor’s The Tenant.
Next up will be my completion of the Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm Of The Hand (distilled plots) stories before embarking upon the much anticipated Wittgenstein’s Nephew by the now deceased Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard.
Most of you will already be familiar with the routine by now. Let us know what literary gems you've embarked upon this month.
*Repost from end of March thread...'cause I wasn't paying due attention to the calendar...
Having finally had some time to myself to complete Susan Hill’s classic homage to the Victorian Gothic novel in the skilfully wrought Woman In Black (8.5 – 9 stars) my attention has more recently been returned to completing my own copy of a collection of short stories by the sadly neglected Polish master of the1920s and 30s in Stefan Grabinski entitled The Dark Domain, which some of you may recall I recently included in the hypothetical Horror Masterworks thread. A slightly more detailed review of this collection along with periodic contributions regarding other works I’ve been reading in 2010 will I hope begin to appear towards the end of the current Easter holidays.
Suffice to say that The Dark Domain for me represents a high watermark in supernatural horror or what I prefer to term psychological horror in Grabinski’s particular case or what the author himself was inclined to term as psychofantasies. Whilst the majority of the stories are IMO quite brilliantly constructed, there are probably a couple at least that whilst still above average are more straightforward in content. Therefore, this collection as a whole represents a near-masterpiece and as such I’ve duly rated it 9.5 stars and it obviously comes highly recommended. Briefly then, Grabinski’s genius or indeed most intriguing aspect, to expand upon China Mieville’s quoted comment, lies in the fact that for this writer, the supernatural horror is manifest in the practical realities and modernity of modern life itself. More than this though, Grabinksi not only uses these physical manifestations such as trains, structures, lighting etc. to great effect but also delves into metaphysical issues and particularly psychological aspects of the enigma we term the human mind, the ‘Dark Domain’, to highlight what he saw as society’s move away from a fundamental sense of self and the natural world as part of his anti-authoritarian and anti-materialistic world view. Indeed, a number of these so-called Grabinski-isms may be seen in another more modern masterpiece I also had the good fortune to stumble across this year in Roland Topor’s The Tenant.
Next up will be my completion of the Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm Of The Hand (distilled plots) stories before embarking upon the much anticipated Wittgenstein’s Nephew by the now deceased Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard.
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