| Author | Message | ||
     Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I recently picked up a new anthology called "The New Uncanny", published by Comma Press, and this evening I sat back and read the first story, DOUBLE ROOM by our landlord. This is a stunning story, both moving and terrifying. Utilising some of his by now trademark ticks and mannerisms, Ramsey builds up an almost unbearable sense of dread in a one-room setting by manipulating a situation we can all recognise. The main character is a typical Cambellian protagonist: slightly unlikeable, rather dishevelled, and filled with an aching self doubt...but by the story's wonderfully heartbreaking finish, we completely empathise with him. The final paraghraphs of this one are masterful, showing just how much can be achieved in so little space. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.84 |
I've got that. It's from the publishers of Andy Murray's 'Phobic', isn't it? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
That's the one: Comma Press. They're putting out some good stuff. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.152.164 |
Was Double Room published somewhere else? I don't have The New Uncanny but a write-up sounds familiar. Just looked at Ramsery's bibliography but couldn't see it mentioned. Ah! He read it at FCon; I'm pretty sure... | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 99.225.111.224 |
Yes, Mick. He did. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
The New Uncanny is an excellent anthology - alongside Campbell's, I thought the Matthew Holness, Sara Maitland and Nicholas Royle stories were especially good. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.15 |
Ordered on your rec Zeddy! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.15 |
And Alan's! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.15 |
Comma Press mention ""In 1919 Sigmund Freud published an essay..." http://www.commapress.co.uk/?section=books&page=TheNewUncanny Just for interest sake here is the essay mentioned. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.0.112.152 |
"It may be true that the uncanny [unheimlich] is something which is secretly familiar [heimlich-heimisch], which has undergone repression and then returned from it, and that everything that is uncanny fulfils this condition." Typical Freud. Shoehorning everything into his psychological agenda.  | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.198.187 |
I've ordered a copy too - thanks for the tip, guys. I have Freud's The Uncanny (I think Penguin published it?). I liked that he used E.T.A. Hoffmann's seminal tale The Sandman to illustrate the 'unheimlich'. |