| Author | Message | ||
     Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Anyone fancy buying a letter from HPL? This guy's got four of them for sale: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1934-Letter-Handwritten-Signed-by-Weird-Fiction-Writer-H -P-Lovecraft-NR-/320877702151?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item4ab5cd2c07 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1934-Letter-Handwritten-Signed-by-Weird-Fiction-Writer-H -P-Lovecraft-NR-/320877702141?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item4ab5cd2bfd http://www.ebay.com/itm/1934-Letter-Handwritten-Signed-by-Weird-Fiction-Writer-H -P-Lovecraft-NR-/320877702129?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item4ab5cd2bf1 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1934-Letter-Handwritten-Signed-by-Weird-Fiction-Writer-H -P-Lovecraft-NR-/320877707018?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item4ab5cd3f0a That is, if they're genuine as I don't trust eBay sellers very much - there are a hell of a lot of fakes on eBay. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.54.135 |
All manner of clever fakery is possible, of course; all I can say is that the handwriting is genuine - you couldn't convince me HPL's scrawl can be copied successfully by anyone. If it's real I should think $300 isn't all that much, considering the prices I've seen in America. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.34.133 |
Interesting stuff, and quite possibly genuine, although one bit of negative feedback accuses the seller of sending a xerox copy of something rather than an original. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.26.230 |
Odd that the seller finds so much of the script illegible - for instance, the second letter begins 'I note yours of the 8th with much interest, though I can’t second your endorsements of the Wright letter in the Eyrie. Certainly, only a very few of the WT stories have even a rudimentary claim to mature literary standing. The conceptions are trite, the characters artificial & wooden, & the development slovenly & mechanical. This weird stuff follows a set of lifeless & meaningless formulas just as closely as does any other pulp junk. However – Smith, Howard, Whitehead, Moore & (less often) others occasionally get beyond this welter of mediocrity & produce things worth remembering. In the October issue “The Black God’s Kiss”, “The Seven Geases,” & (very possibly) “Old Sledge” are worth saving from the waste–basket.' | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
The Robert E. Howard story I read last night, 'Wings In The Night' (1932), is certainly worth remembering! In fact I can't get it out of my head. That petrifying attack on the village with its final image of the skies raining blood amid tortured screams and hideous laughter while Solomon Kane descends into wild-eyed howling insanity really is breathtaking. One of the best Howard stories I have read. For the moment I can't think who the "Moore" mentioned above is? | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.26.230 |
C. L., Stevie. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.54.135 |
C.L. Moore, the spouse of Henry Kuttner. She wrote "The Black God's Kiss", which was published by Weird Tales in 1934. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Ah, yes... she went on to marry and collaborate with Henry Kuttner. I have two collections of their stories together but haven't actually read any of her solo material. Is it commonly available? Thanks, Ramsey. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.26.230 |
Shambleau (the collection) is a good introduction: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=shambleau&sts=t&x=65&y=4 | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
C.L. Moore is a fascinating writer. Her early stories in WT formed two series: the Northwest Smith stories (weird SF) and the Jirel of Joiry stories (weird fantasy) – a unique blend of eroticism, myth and fever dream. The stories incline towards similarity, but their boldness and imaginative intensity makes that forgivable. The outstanding NS story is 'Shambleau', a stunning tale of sexual vampirism on another world which led A. Merritt to imply (in a letter to a friend) that it had, as it were, left him wanting Moore. The outstanding Jirel story is all of them, though 'Black God's Shadow' has the edge. Both series are available in numerous editions, separately or in combination (as in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks volume). Shambleau samples both series and is, as Ramsey says, a good place to start. C.L. Moore lived until 1987, though her later years were silenced by Alzheimer's disease. She dropped out of SF after Henry Kuttner's death and turned to non-genre radio work. In the 1970s, still in good health, she turned up unannounced at an SF convention and was surprised to learn that not only was her early work remembered, it was greatly admired. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Imdb tells me that in Hollywood (among other things), she wrote the source novel (along with husband Kuttner) to a strange sounding scifi film I don't think I've ever seen, called TIMESCAPE (1992). It was directed by David Twohy early on in his career, who went on to script/direct the pretty good sci-fi/horrors PITCH BLACK and CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (a third is coming!); and adapt/direct a little-discussed-but-much-loved-by-me P.K. Dick film, IMPOSTER. He also peddled around Hollywood for years and years (I know this through a friend) his original thriller A PERFECT GETAWAY, which sports one of those snaps-your-neck-in-half twists, but alas, after that kind of thing went out of vogue.... Fwiw. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.25.51 |
I suspect Timescape is based on the short story "Vintage Season". I haven't seen it, but we did also like Twohy's Below. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.25.51 |
Yes indeed, it's "Vintage Season". The only presently available DVD is a cheap German release. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I was a big fan of David Twohy as I've said on here in the past. He hadn't put a foot wrong up until the execrable 'Chronicles Of Riddick' (2004) - I can't believe there's to be a sequel after that overblown mess! 'The Arrival' (1996), 'Pitch Black' (2000) & 'Below' (2002) are three of the best genre pictures of their era. Haven't seen 'Timescape' (1992) or 'A Perfect Getaway' (2009) and must seek them out. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I haven't seen BELOW, or even heard of it! I will have to go find that (and TIMESCAPE). You didn't like CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, Stevie? I thought it was underrated at the time - it was more action-scifi, as opposed to PITCH BLACK's horror-scifi. Maybe you went in expecting something else? A PERFECT GETAWAY... I've not seen it, but I read the original spec that went around: it went to every studio and prodco for years, and despite his name and the low-budget, no one wanted to make it - he finally gave up and found his own financing, if I remember correctly, which got Rogue (the prodco) on board. I believe there's a good reason why no one wanted to do it - it's not about quality of the story/writing (that's all anyone had from the spec), but something else... but to bring it up, is to spoiler it.... Whoops! This has gone a long way from Lovecraft! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I didn't think the character merited the grandiose epic treatment, Craig. 'Pitch Black' was a well nigh perfect horror/suspense thriller with a sci-fi setting - one of the best of its kind since the original 'Alien' - and worked so well because of the containment of the action and enjoyably stereotypical characters that Twohy had fun turning on their heads. 'Chronicles Of Riddick' was just too pompously ambitious and Vin Diesel's character too weak for the project ever to have worked. Twohy revealed himself as a wide-eyed fanboy let loose with a mega-budget and throwing every hardcore sci-fi cliché he could think of into the script while imagining he could become the next George Lucas. He should have stuck to the perfectly crafted B-pictures where his real talent lies, imo. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
... But Stevie, it had Dame Judi Dench!!!!  I liked PITCH BLACK, but actually wasn't so over-the-top enamored of it myself, liking CHRONICLES oddly more—maybe good old expectations syndrome in both cases, one built too high, the other too low.... | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.29.148 |
We just saw and very much enjoyed A Perfect Getaway. I suppose I see why Twohy had problems getting it financed, but I thought he dealt with the narrative issue very skilfully (I won't spoil it by saying more) - to me that's proved by the considerable suspense of the last part of the film. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I will have to finally check this one out, then, Ramsey! I too won't spoil it for others. But you're right, the intense suspense towards the end sort of carries the reader/viewer through the initial... well, now I must shut up.  |