October - Horror Month (2015)

[j d worthington]

So, I'm about 150 pages in on "Carrion Comfort" and so far I think it's rather good although some of the violence/rape scenes feel a little gratuitous. I will have to see how it pans out.

I can see how they would strike one that way. Certainly, they are uncomfortable reading. However, they go a long way to show just what sort of characters we're dealing with, and these people only get darker as it goes along....

As for my own reading... despite a number of hold-ups, I've managed to get close to finishing the first volume of Joshi's 2-volume history of the supernatural tale. I am surprised at how much I disagree with him on certain points, particularly his dismissive attitude toward the Gothics (not only the lesser Goths, many of whom deserve such, but even Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, where I really feel he missed the entire point of the novel, reading it as something it was never intended to be), and Le Fanu. There I don't think I could be in more disagreement, and again, I think he entirely missed the subtleties of Le Fanu's tales. His reaction to them strikes me very much as my own back when I first read some of them over 40 years ago; but reading them at a later point I found I appreciated them an enormous deal more, and found them to be richly rewarding. They have since become among my favorites when it comes to tales of the supernatural....

Still, on the whole it remains an interesting and worthwhile guide to the highlights of the field (at least, as he points out, the "Anglophone" branch of it, though various European writers are also dealt with, such as Gautier and Erckmann-Chatrian) and certainly accessible in its style....

 

[dask]

As noted above have set Black Camelot aside for the month and have decided on this:

on my bookshelf for a long time and appears to be genuinely supernatural at least so far. Could turn all Analog later and attempt to rationalize the spooky goings-on but I doubt it. Character backgrounds sort of boring but the girl, Ariel, and her notebook diary, are captivating. High hopes for a good Halloween read.

As a side note, I found this at a book sale similar to a vinyl cut-out bin at Fred Meyer back in the early 80's for a buck or so but the intriguing part is it seems to be a signed copy unless someone felt like writing the author's name on the flyleaf for a joke.

 

[Randy M.]

Hi, Dask.

I've heard of that but never seen it. I'll be interested in hearing what you think.

My own reading has slowed down some. I dug out "Fishhead" by Irvin Cobb; I'd forgotten what a nasty little story that is. I suspect it gave Lovecraft ideas when he wrote "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"; I know he mentions it in Supernatural Horror in Literature.

Currently nearing the end of a reread of "The Beckoning Fair One" and enjoying it a good deal, though I might have enjoyed it more with a solid hour to apply to it.


Randy M.

 

[j d worthington]

Having finished the first volume of Joshi's history of the supernatural tale, I'm taking a break before going on to vol. 2 (which covers the twentieth and twenty-first centuries), and am concentrating largely on that volume of Kipling -- to be precise, Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy, edited by Stephen Jones and with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. It has a somewhat provoking number of typos and, even though is quite a recent book (2008), the paper is already becoming discolored... which is more than a bit disappointing. Aside from these physical deformities, there is little to complain about here, as it is a massive collection of Kipling's fantastic and psychological suspense tales (nearly 800 pages' worth) and shows to great advantage his strengths as a storyteller. I'm also continuing to go through Dreams of Fear, a collection of weird and fantastic poetry from Gilgamesh to the present, but am taking these a few at a time in order to best savor the experience. I've reached the section on the Goths and the Romantics; the next selection is Burns' "Tam o' Shanter"....

 

[Fried Egg]

My copy of "Songs of a dead dreamer and Grimscribe" has turned up but I'm thinking that "Carrion Comfort" is going to take me most of the month to read at this rate...

 

[dask]

Have set aside, probably permanently, Ariel by Lawrence Block. After a promising beginning it went nowhere fast. I don't have a lot of reading time and to be honest when the opportunity came along the thought of returning to it depressed me. So I decided to start Weird Tales. I couldn't remember where I put the hardback I got recently but I knew where this has been sitting for a long time:

and so far it is no disappointment.

 

[Randy M.]

Dask, I love that cover. Forget the bat perched on her head, I have no idea why any woman would hold her arms in that position ("Did I remember deodorant?") but it makes an effectively odd illustration.

Anyway, I've been picking away at the list of stories:

William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" -- I'd forgotten how low-key this was. Faulkner was known for experimentation and great rhetorical flourishes, but that's mostly in his novels. His short stories are usually straight-forward. This one holds its secret until the end, and it is an effective denouement; not necessarily logical, but startling on first read and somehow emotionally satisfying.

Vernon Lee, “Amour Dure” -- Since first reading it about 10-12 years ago it's been one of my favorite ghost stories. Besides the feeling of the past holding sway over the present, there's the creepy appearance and reappearance of her ghostly character and the changes in tone that signal a mind conquered and subjugated.

Bram Stoker, “The Judge’s House” -- Not a comfortingly scary ghost story, but a discomforting story of a sadistic ghost. Stoker's story-telling is quick, efficient and brutal, and he did not play the games of is or is it not a ghost.

W. C. Morrow: “The Monster-Maker” -- proto-s.f., a riff on Frankenstein: A surgeon with the perfect specimen experiments on the brain. What he creates may not be exactly what he meant to create. Morrow effectively draws out his story so that while you have an idea of what's coming, when you get there the ending satisfies.


Randy M.

 

[dask]

Dask, I love that cover. Forget the bat perched on her head, I have no idea why any woman would hold her arms in that position ("Did I remember deodorant?") but it makes an effectively odd illustration.
Randy M.

Yeah, it is pretty good. In fact it's so good it can't be held in check:

Kinda reminds me of that girl from SNL who stuck her fingers in her armpits and...

 

[dask]

Finished the Weird Tales collection. Pretty good, especially the Fritz Leiber story "Spider Mansion." Wasn't too impressed with August Derleth's story "The Drifting Snow" however. Kept wanting to rewrite sentences in my mind as I read them. Arrogant, I know, but I just didn't care for his writing, and I can't figure out just what his snow vampires are. No bite marks, no mention of blood drained bodies. How are they killed? The last sentence which contains the most information on how the vampires murder their victims doesn't help much: "But on his skin were signs of the snow vampire---the delicate small prints of a young girl's hand." So, what happened? Did she gently choke him to death?

Anyway, started this:

When I read the first story, "Same Time, Same Place" by Mervyn Peake in another anthology about a year ago I was really impressed. Good story well told. This time it struck me as little more than an ugly despicable story of human selfishness. The next three are good satisfying Halloween reads, especially "The Man Of The Crowd" by Edgar Allan Poe. Fascinating glimpse into the street life of mid-19th Century London. Can't wait to see how it ends.

 

[j d worthington]

"The Man of the Crowd" -- very much a mood piece, that. Have you ever read HPL's "Supernatural Horror in Literature"? This is one of the pieces he singles out for praise in that essay....

Unfortunately, my reading time has been narrowed to almost nothing the past few weeks, so I've not advanced much on anything... very frustrating, that, especially given that this is my favorite time of year, and I love to relax with a good eerie story during this weather change.....

 

[dask]

"The Man of the Crowd" -- very much a mood piece, that. Have you ever read HPL's "Supernatural Horror in Literature"? This is one of the pieces he singles out for praise in that essay....

Yes, read it last year. Don't remember the bit about "The Man of the Crowd" but remember HPL really liked Poe. Will pull it out and give it a quick review before Halloween.

 

[j d worthington]

Don't remember the bit about "The Man of the Crowd" but remember HPL really liked Poe.

Maybe just a little -- he called him his "God of Fiction".......

 

[Randy M.]

I've nearly hit saturation point on rereading short stories for Halloween, but I have been enjoying myself. Since my last post I've read,

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “Green Tea”: This is one of Le Fanu's stories in which I feel the threads are joined that later separated under the James boys, M. R. mainly writing ghost stories as ghost stories, and Henry moving toward the metaphorical value of the ghost. Maybe I'm just used to 19th century prose, but I'm always surprised how readable Le Fanu still is.

L. P. Hartley, “The Visitor from Down Under”: The application of traditional ghost story atmosphere (rainy streets, darkened rooms) in the age of electric light and radio, the use of a nursery rhyme to underscore the flow of the story and indicate its direction, the psychological ramifications for the main character, the way the back story is smoothed into the flow, the indications dropped that there is a ghost, this is just a beautifully orchestrated story in excellent prose.

Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Body Snatcher”: No objectivity here. It's been a favorite since I first read it because I enjoyed the Val Lewton/Robert Wise movie so much.

Walter de la Mare, “Seaton’s Aunt”: Probably the most unnerving story I've ever read in which nothing much happens but everyone listens for something to happen.

Marjorie Bowen, “The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes”: It's been years since I read this and I'd forgotten how color-drunk Bowen was in her descriptions and how she uses color at the end to signal some kind of change in the protagonist and the woman. Really a neat surreal fantasy more than a ghost story.

Anthony Boucher, “They Bite”: Nasty, brutal, vicious story. Love it. Everything I've ever read about Boucher makes this story seem out of place in his oeuvre, but it is effective and feels as contemporary in approach and pay off as any story from the 1940s I've read.

F. Marion Crawford, “The Upper Berth”: J. D., thanks for prodding me to reread this. It's still not one of my favorites, but on reread I can see it's much better than I'd previously felt. Well-constructed, forcefully written, I found it more effective this time than when I read it 20+ years ago.
“The Dead Smile”: Still have a few pages left. Oddly feels more old-fashioned than "The Upper Berth", but it occurs to me it would fit in very well with the Ray Russell stories I read about this time last year, like "Sardonicus" and "Sagittarius."


Randy M.

 

[dask]

Maybe just a little -- he called him his "God of Fiction".......

So, did Lovecraft ever get over his tendency to hold back?

 

[Fried Egg]

Still have under 200 pages of "Carrion Comfort" to read; this month's reading is definitely overrunning. Plus I still have other books I wanted to get to! Looks like Horror month is going to be more like two months this year!

 

[Fried Egg]

Finally finished "Carrion Comfort" last night. Phew, that was an epic piece of terror. Generally I thought it was very good and fortunately I didn't find too many of the scenes to be gratuitously violent.

It was interesting that the chapters from Melanie's perspective were in the first person, in the style of one giving an account of the past. Interesting because...

Spoiler

...she appeared to have been killed at the end only for the book to close with a few paragraphs hinting that she might some how have survived. Perhaps because she had somehow transcended need for a physical completely? I don't know if anyone who's read this can shed any light here?

Anyway, I'm going to carry on like it's still October with "The 3rd Mayflower Book of Black Magic Stories"...