| Author | Message | ||
     Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Thought this might be a book which would appeal to many people here - saw this and thought of you! http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/news/the-weird-strange-and-dark-stories/ | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Here's the table of contents, Caroline: http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/08/30/table-of-contents-the-weird-edited-by-a nn-and-jeff-vandermeer/ | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.102.179 |
Not the most inspired of titles. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.56.49 |
Saw the link Steve Duffy put on Facebook - that was the first I'd heard of it. Waterstones are selling it for £25, but W H Smith are doing it for £16.49 or so... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Ooo, in that case I might nip over to WHS. I'd really like to get my hands on a copy - but hubby would kill me if I spent another £25 on a book (he thinks I've been spending too much on books recently  ) | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.56.49 |
Caroline - you can get it with free p&p if you can't find it in your local WHS:- http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=97818488 76873 | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
Bitten off more than I can chew! Reviewing this book received today: http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/weird-a-compendium-of-dark-and-st range-stories/ | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
That's going to take you a while to review, Des - it's huge! Mick - thanks for the tip!  | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.208.112.232 |
Amazon have it for £15.50 with free delivery at the minute, too. I just ordered my copy. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Compendium-Strange-Dark-Stories/dp/1848876874/ref= sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320448644&sr=1-2 | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.56.49 |
Cheers Steve - even cheaper! | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.102.179 |
Des, did you say the text on each page is in two columns? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
Yes, it is, Jamie. Caroline, I don't think I'll live long enough to complete the review (and I'm not particularly unhealthly for a 63 year old, touch wood - just volume of traffic). | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
>Des, did you say the text on each page is in two columns?< >Yes, it is, Jamie.< How... well, weird. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.102.179 |
My thoughts exactly. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.242.104 |
Our copy was waiting for us when we got home today - what a splendid doorstop of a volume, one that I suspect will remain by the bedside for a good year at least as I work through it. Good luck with reviewing it, Des - I shall read your comments with interest after I have read the stories themselves. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 49.225.172.232 |
Would like to get hold of a copy of the book eventually. | ||
| Lincoln (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 203.171.197.25 |
Ally, are you still in NZ? If you can't find it locally, this shop in Sydney will be stocking it. Their service is excellent and postage shouldn't be too bad. http://www.galaxybooks.com.au/book/weird-a-compendium-of-dark-and-strange-storie s.do#fragment-1 | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 49.225.172.232 |
Yes Lincoln. I'm a permanent resident now. I actually received my NZ driving licence today so that sort of makes it even more official. Thank you for the link! Much obliged | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
Srednidipity…a word coined here from the classic ’Sredni Vashtar’ by Saki. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
The Weird: Sustained Readings by D.F. Lewis and Maureen Kincaid-Speller | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/the-weird-3/ The Night Wire – H. F. Arnold “Queer story, wasn’t it? Not that we aren’t used to it, for a lot of unusual stories come in over the wire.” Hard-Wired over the Weird | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.250.213 |
My copy arrived today - tome and a half, isn't it? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.250.213 |
Mind you, if it'd arrived on a sunday it would have been double tome. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.142.242.104 |
It's so big it may even be tome much. Oh dear.... | ||
| Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts) Username: Tom_alaerts Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.176.135.141 |
I have it on order from Amazon, but it seems that this would be a lot more comfortable to read as an ebook. I think that it is in general a very good one-volume collection, including remarkably eclectic choices such as Seignolle and Krohn (her novella Tainaron in the book is truly excellent !). As always, some choices will be different from what you'd have picked for a certain author (I think that the Lovecraft and Ligotti selections are not the best examples of their talent), and everybody will have a fave author that is missing - I think that Machen's The White People should have been included. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.19.170 |
Its power stems at least partially from its tangible 'bookness', please let me assure you. My real-time review continues apace. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
What, the power to strain a muscle in your wrist? If I were a patient man, I would wait for the ebook - but it's not certain there'll be one anway. So I guess this is just another big, unweildly book I'll never get round to reading but looks nice on my floor (I've run out of shelves)... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
Are your wrists really that weak Zed? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
Being so literal is only funny when you're about 7 or 8, Weber. After that it's just tiresome.  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
Sorry, I forgot your wrists get plenty of excecise...  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
Yes, I read a lot of big books. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 217.20.16.180 |
Its power stems at least partially from its tangible 'bookness', please let me assure you. Ach, they should have just filled it with any old rubbish then, instead of selecting the stories they liked the best.  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.19.170 |
That's why I said 'partially'. (partial - 'in part' as well as partial - 'biased'). Some of the stories take power from the paper because that's what they are about - in my partial view. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
John:  The formatting is horrible - that two columns per page thing. I find it difficult to read. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
Fucking great selection of stories, though. Fucking. Great. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Any notable absences?... I'll nominate one, based on how I understand the theme of the anthology: Philip K. Dick's "Upon The Dull Earth" (1954). | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.19.170 |
I like the double columns. Omissions: every reader is bound to have ideas on possible omissions. Part of the territory. Mine:- Arthur Machen (but is he in the period?), Elizabeth Bowen, William Hope Hodgson, Tommaso Landolfi.... I'm bound to think of some more. | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.21.11.200 |
I'm really looking forward to this. Will be ordering my copy at the end of the month... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.156.32.76 |
http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/the-weird-5/ Bixby, Tutuola, Borges, Bloch, Warhol... Re Campbell's Soup? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.156.32.76 |
The VanderMeers' MASSIVE attack of 'The WEIRD' (Corvus). I count myself up on Weird stories but this book is continually bringing new old classics to my attention. Still doing a real-time review of it. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.158.59.116 |
I have just naturally reached, read and real-time reviewed the Ramsey Campbell story in 'The WEIRD' -http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/the-weird-8/ | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.158.237.2 |
The complete index of links for my now complete real-time review of The WEIRD (3/11/11 - 3/12//11): http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/df-lewiss-real-time-review-of-the -vandermeers-massive-the-weird/ | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.213 |
Jeff VanderMeer's reaction to my real-time review of The WEIRD: http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/12/09/the-weird-the-generosity-of-a-story-by- story-review/ | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.159.145.243 |
An interesting review of the VanderMeers' massive 'The WEIRD': http://jhstevens.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/the-weirdness-addendum/ | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.40.152 |
Nice quotation: "This is one of the effects of reading weird fiction: it does not dictate your imaginative path, but impels you to make your own. This is one reason why I believe that many readers have such a strong response to weird fiction, either positive or negative: you are not led in either a straightforward or impressionistic way. While some stories (such as Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows”) are moving towards a particular resolution, much is still left up to the reader in getting to that point, and as with all good weird fiction, there are many questions, discomfitures, and morasses along the story’s route, which is more like a map than a photograph of the territory. Reliability and mimetic reproduction are shown for the fragile constructs that they are, and the reader must come to terms with the fact that it is they who are the agent, the translator, the pathfinder, the decision-maker for what constitutes meaning and effect. To read so much writing that causes you to do this creates a realization of your own power as a reader, and the laziness and habit that has been cultivated in you by most of the writing in your life." | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.159.145.243 |
I agree, gary. the review explains a lot about my own cited ‘pigging’ and having to reappraise (weeks later) at least three of the stories. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.40.152 |
I've always felt with Ramsey's stuff that reading is an intensely interactive process. He teases and suggests more than any other. You have to do the work, too. Which is why, I guess, some Amazon idiots find him unreadable. Fools. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.40.152 |
Reading Creatures of the Pool was such a discomforting pleasure because I felt throughout that the things he alluded to were dredged out of my pool. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.40.152 |
Now with an adequate distance to judge, I feel confident in claiming that I find Ramsey's later stuff more powerful than either Lovecraft's or Blackwood's. I think it's very much to do with the seriously weird and involving prose. The Darkest Part of the Wood, Creatures of the Pool, The Overnight - all burn in my mind like the later, 'difficult' work of many great stylists. I don't think Lovecraft or Blackwood ever really achieved such linguistic heights, relying instead on solid, evocative, workmanlike writing. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.40.152 |
Machen may be different - I need to revisit him soonest. It's been too long. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.154.251.221 |
Link from Weird Fiction Review regarding my RTR of THE BEAK DOCTOR in 'The WEIRD': http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/03/an-encounter-with-the-beak-doctor/ | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.30.6 |
Interesting discussion. I've always felt the best weird fiction writers make you think about the supernatural in new ways. That's true of Machen and Leiber, and it's true of Campbell across his whole body of work. But of course, making the reader think about the supernatural in new ways is not only Amazon fail, as far as the commercial genre is concerned it's absolute fail. It's almost as bad as having a protagonist the reader doesn't 'identify with'. I think the purest moment of horror in cinema is Heather's scream "O my God what the fuck was THAT?" in The Blair Witch Project. The goal of weird fiction should be to make the reader feel like that. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.145.215.43 |
>>>"O my God what the fuck was THAT?" Yeah, The Willows, The Colour Out of Space, The Overnight. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.134.7.191 |
My old flats, the ones I grew up in, also called The Willows, are being pulled down. I popped along to see them the other night while in Newcastle and there they were looming up in the dark, all empty sockets and bare concrete. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
"O my God what the fuck was THAT?" Good: At night in bed with someone else. Bad: At night in woods with no one else. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>"O my God what the fuck was THAT?" Good: At night in bed with someone else.<< Not so good if it's a burglar you've just heard downstairs!  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Actually, it's still better. Because then you can just hide behind the other. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.154.251.221 |
Fiction is like currency: belief is everything. I like TS Eliot's concept of 'objective correlative'. But I prefer my own term of 'disarming strangenesses' that I've coined for describing Aickman's objective correlatives | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
Maybe it's just me but no other author has so completely stranged me out as Jonathan Carroll. His books worm their way into your consciousness and change your perceptions of the everyday, I find. It's both a wonderful and incredibly unsettling experience. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.155.216.211 |
Or maybe it was your flu medication??? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
I didn't take that many Lemsip, Weber! No, I've experienced this every time with Carroll going right back to my teens when I first read 'Voice Of Our Shadow'. I just get hypnotised by his voice. He paints reality exactly as it is and then fractures it by introducing patently ridiculous flights of fantasy which he then reins in and somehow integrates into his characters' lives seamlessly, while whispering in your ear about what he really means the whole time. I find him unique in that respect and I've read the Latin American magic realists... he is something completely other. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.154.251.221 |
This is from Jason A Wyckoff's book 'Black Horse and Other Strange Stories': "…the indefinable ‘extra’ in the dream’s essence, a purity of instinctual, primal connectivity against which any appeal to rationality faltered.” | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
I like that quote, Des, and agree entirely with the sentiment. The universe speaks to us through the unconscious. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.130.96.10 |
A vey nice review of my review!!!! http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=85667&postcount=39 And congratulations to AV and JV for winning the World Fantasy Award for this anthology! | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.18.52 |
Indeed so! |