| Author | Message | ||
     Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.97.200.24 |
I just got back to Copenhagen after having spent the Easter weekend in the countryside. I read Ramsey Campbell's 'The Influence' there (for the first time) and really enjoyed it--Quite fitting I thought, as different kinds of resurrections can have different consequences... I thought the decription of Rowan's ordeal from the cemetery onwards was really powerful. It also has one of the most memorable 'death by oncoming breaking train sequences' that I can remember. My summary of that scene would be (screetch of breaking wheels, thump, clink- then splat!)I'm sure it has been a while since others have read this, but Queennie was certainly a memorable character in whatever guise she makes herself present in the novel. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
I feel the need to read this again. All I can recall is a soft wall. And that was because I read about it in a Ramsey interview. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Queenie. *shivers and looks over shoulder* The train sequence and journey home were incredibly well crafted. However, there were other touches that made the book stand out "not just as a good horror novel" but as a good novel full stop. *Dons tin hat* | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Thanks, Griff! My cue to say that a Millipede Press edition is in the works, using the illustrations J. K. Potter created for the aborted Scream/Press edition. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
I know Gary Fry calls this one the perfect horror novel. It's a belter, all right. I'm due for a re-read.. Speaking of which, I've just started re-reading "Incarnate". I haven't picked up this book in over 20 years, and I'd almost forgotten how brilliant it is. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
*passes out* | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.189.60 |
There's no train scene like the one in THE LONG LOST. Fun and tragedy at the same time  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.151.135.41 |
"My cue to say that a Millipede Press edition is in the works, using the illustrations J. K. Potter created for the aborted Scream/Press edition." That's brilliant news, Ramsey. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Indeed it is - I just wish I could afford to buy a copy...  | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.93.30.31 |
Excellent news! Rick Kleffel has two excellent pictures here with an 03 review: http://trashotron.com/agony/reviews/2003/campbell-the_influence.htm | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Holy shit...that picture on the left is absoluely terrifying. Imagine seeing that walking towards you on the night bus... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I think INFLUENCE is James Herbert's favourite Ramsey novel too. It is quite wonderful, and it's the one I direct people to when I can persuade them to start with Ramsey's stuff. The dream/death sequence is quite wonderful; its imagery remains firmly planted in my mind. And the telescope stuff was a wonderfully Jamesian device, I thought. Ramsey's the best. (See how I finished there? With a full stop.) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
... | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.144.42.211 |
I must re-read The Influence! I read it when it came out and enjoyed it...but for some reason at the time (memory gets hazy..) I seem to think I preferred its immediate predecessor 'The Hungry Moon'. Yet since, everyone seems to much prefer 'The Influence'. gcw | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
I'm with you Re: "The hungry Moon", GCW. One of my favourites. Like you, I read it at just the right time to make a huge impression. I may re-read this one next, actually. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.92.55.66 |
Ramsey wrote: "My cue to say that a Millipede Press edition is in the works, using the illustrations J. K. Potter created for the aborted Scream/Press edition." You just made my day, Ramsey. I've been hoping to see the Potter-illustrated edition for years. In fact I once dreamed that I found the non-existent Scream/Press hardcover in a used-book store for five dollars. I think of all your novels, The Influence terrified me the most...and it lodged itself so deeply in my psyche that it may have influenced me to name my daughter Rowan! Best, Richard | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.53.161 |
It's the scene where the aunt digs up the mother that's the scariest thing in the history of scary things. God, why hasn't made this into a film yet? It's gagging to be one of the finest horror moves (n)ever made. Pah! Curses! Contempt! Seriously, every new writer of horror fiction should study this book. An effortless masterwork - simple/complex and full of sublime invention. Concise prose, too - not a wasted word. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.97.200.24 |
Gary I agree that this is indeed a fine (great book) and I would also love to see more of Mr. Campbell's work on the big screen- alot more. The Potter illustrations certainly help make a strong case for the powerful imagry in the text. The only thing in my opinion (to play the Devil's advocate here), is that a number of powerful effects in the novel belong to the realm of the language I found, not just the visuals: seeing some of the effects might take away from the experience. But, but, but, having said that, there is a great deal of amazing scenes to film here for sure! It would make a great picture! Zed: Yeah I love that one as well in the train! The figure is almost tumbling towards us with the long tilted arms, but because of the composition of the image, I found that it feels like we are actually falling towards the figure ourselves. Frightening image! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.53.161 |
[spoiler] I can still recall the sound of that nest of hair sticking to the coffin when the body sits up... | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.146 |
THE INFLUENCE is one of my favourite novels (horror or otherwise) and the only book I own the original handwritten manuscript for (reading it alongside the finished novel is a fascinating experience). For me, it's right up there with THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and OUR LADY OF DARKNESS as one of the great horror novels of the 20th century. In fact, I'm suddenly feeling the urge to read it again... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I'm baffled as to why MIDNIGHT SUN and HUNGRY MOON have not appeared in the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Perhaps if GRIN OF THE DARK is a hit in its Virgin Publishers edition, it will signal a reprint launch of Ramsey's back catalogue. That'd be great. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
@ HUW HOW MUCH DID THE MANUSCRIPT COST? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.180.238 |
Griff, let's just say it would've left a pretty hefty dent in my bank account had it not been for the fact that at the time I'd just finished a big, one-off, high-paying translation job. I don't usually splash out on stuff like this, but I suddenly found myself with quite a lot of cash and gave in to the temptation!  I just noticed that there are some RC manuscripts up for sale on ABE now, including THE NAMELESS. Today would be a good day to win the lotto... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.151.135.41 |
For the benefit of younger readers, I should explain that a 'handwritten manuscript' is a whole book actually written with a pen on paper, drawing the letters with your hand, the way you sign a cheque. A cheque is a printed note that allows you to transfer funds by just writing on it with a pen. A pen is... oh, I give up. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.151.135.41 |
And yes, THE INFLUENCE is great. Rowan's journey home is a magnificent bit of writing. As well as displaying a unique feel for the supernatural, the book dramatises the conflict between different ideological models of 'the family'. It's part de la Mare, part Althusser. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.144.28.206 |
"Perhaps if GRIN OF THE DARK is a hit in its Virgin Publishers edition, it will signal a reprint launch of Ramsey's back catalogue. That'd be great." Absolutely, I would love to see a display of Campbells like the oldenenenen days. Probably unlikely though, I was in Waterstones recently and the Horror section has been reduced in a shelf more or less! Plus what was on it was the inevitable King re-prints and sub-Buffy stuff which seems to pass for Horror.Where's the brilliant new stuff? Here on the web of course. but it should be in the shops too. HORROR! - Lets shout it fucking loud, it whats we like..Jesus, feels like admitting you like kiddy fiddling. We are, and have been for sometime, an underground thang...But the books sold in the late 80's/90's...So where did the audience go? gcw | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Why is Secret Story in Waterstones? Why is it so cheap? I also concur with the right honourable member for Norfolk. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.189.60 |
I remember those Campbell displays too. They even had them in the Dover railway station! In the early nineties a typical bookshop in England would have a healthy horror shelf filled with Campbells, Herberts and whatnot. Whatever happened? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.176.244 |
Hubert, I remember those days well! In the eighties you could walk into any decent bookshop and see rows of books by Ramsey and other horror writers - even way over here in Taiwan! It would be nice to see horror paperbacks made more readily available again. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
I think the "genre" will have to be rebranded. The term horror has all the social acceptability of watersports or scheiseromping. | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.242.149.4 |
"Contains mild peril"?? nah. gcw | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.97.200.24 |
I do also miss the horror sections in bookstores (supermarkets and at the pharmacist), but those horror sections are now in our homes. The arrival of the internet has certainly created new possibilities that would have been impossible to imagine 20 years ago. In a sense the possibilities of finding exactly the books you'd want are better today than they ever were. And being able to occasionally discuss stories with your favourite authors and share your thoughts with others online is quite an amazing phenomena- (also impossible to have imagined 20 years ago.) We don't necessarily need a greater number of, for example, horror novels, we need more people who read. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.53.161 |
Why bother rebranding it when any new term will just get associated with the same rubbish as it has in the past? No, let's keep the term 'horror' and fight for its meaning. The real answer is for responsible publishers to exercise some discretion about what they produce...er, hold on, the phone's ringing; I think it's Santa Claus about to say that my wish list is frankly too unrealistic. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
I was recently asked if I approved of having certain books labelled "Horror" or whether I felt that doing so was pigeonholing authors into a ghetto of contrivances. My answer was that not only would I like to see Horror sections maintained in bookstores and libraries, I would like to see the image expanded. I wonder what the average reader who deems themselves "above" horror would think if they saw a large section bearing that title; a section that contained not only Ramsey, King, and the other usual suspects, but also Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_, Graham Greene's _Brighton Rock_, _Macbeth_, the tragic plays of Aeschylus, etc. I'd rather see the genre's breadth exposed and lauded rather than have its name replaced to something more "respectable." Best, Richard | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Hear-hear. Gavin, I like you more with every post you make. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Here's something I say all the time: the house of horror has many rooms. Instead of freting about what we call our fiction, we should be seeking to promote it. I'm constantly pointing out to people horrorreferences - they're in every mode of entertainment these days. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.20 |
Hear hear! I recently berated someone who said THE ORPHANAGE wasn't horror because it was 'too good'. All my life I have attempted to crusade for horror in all its forms, from some of the best bits of Dickens to the worst bits of SAW. The first time I saw Schaffer's AMADEUS I thought 'how can you not say this is horror?'. I stand proud about my 'horror writer' status in my introduction to COFFIN NAILS. By the way, I'm delighted to see that my local Waterstones stocks lots of Ramsey, as well as Lieber, Bloch, and - wait for it - Black Book of Horror! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
The first time I saw Schaffer's AMADEUS I thought 'how can you not say this is horror?' That's exactly what I thought, sir. I even managed to convince the wife - who loved the film, but hadn't even considered that it might be a horror film. Horror saved my life. I love horror. I am horror.  | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.20 |
I was thinking about this only yesterday - how when I discovered all these books & films as a lad it was like my eyes being opened to the fact that there were other people out there who related to the world in the same way I did. After that I never viewed 'normal' people in the same way again. Which saved me, I think. It was very comforting to know from the age of eight that you didn't have to fit in. I definitely think this 'integrity in horror' we talk about is this common factor, and it is present in lots of places In the words of Tom Savini: "I love horror, and even when I'm old and I can't get it up any more I'm still going to love horror" | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Did you live in The Valleys, JPL? (I know everyone thinks that's all Wales is, but there is a difference between areas.) | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
What? You guys love horror? I would never have guessed.  | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.93.30.31 |
Well some of the larger publishing houses tend to market their 'Horror' as 'Dark Thrillers' for example. It does often feel like the term is still considered taboo. The same way that short story collections are known in the industry not to sell well. I may be mistaken here, but was Ramsey Campbell's novel SECRET STORIES not changed to SECRET STORY in Mass Market release because the publishers were worried that people might think that the novel was a short story collection? Forgive me if this is incorrect. Finally there was also this arguement that horror would be unpopular after 9/11- some arguing that there already was enough horror in the real world etc. I completly disagree with that and find horror more necessary than ever. It is a noble thing to try to put into words that which the rest of us find hard to articulate, quantify and ultimatly understand. In any case, as not being a writer myself but a reader and a fan, I must say that I think you guys are awesome and brave in continuing to do what you do and I support it fully. That was my hollywood minute... :-) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
If it wasn't for horror fiction - and films - I would've slit my wrists with a fishing knife at the age of 14. That's why I owe a debt to horror; why I'll always love it. Like John, when I discovered the horror genre, I realised I was not alone. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.93.30.31 |
We're very happy to have you around Zed and producing great fiction! A friend of mine just sent me a horror story of his a couple of days ago and it completly blew me away. Shows the richness and possibilities of the horror story still being produced out there. I can't wait until it comes out. In any case, most of my friends in my closer circle don't read too much and they're always complaining about the poor movies being released and I'm telling them that they should read more if they want the good stories they're not seeing at the movies. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.244.67 |
The horror market will always reflect the essence of horror...mystery and fear. Publishers fear it and they just don't know how to sell it. Nor do they take into account the subtlety of it. Or maybe that is the flaw...so subtle is horror that it...it...it... What's that thing over there? I better go look. I think it's a black coat button on the floor...NO IT'S AN EYE PEERING UP THROUGH THE FLOORBOARDS!!!!!!!!! Is that a chip, beckoning me from between those curtains? I was eating chips earlier, maybe I dropped one between those curtains and it's asking me to come over... NO, IT'S A FINGER OF A FIEND!!!!!!!! Yeah, we scare the crap out of 'em. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
"If it wasn't for horror fiction - and films - I would've slit my wrists with a fishing knife at the age of 14. That's why I owe a debt to horror; why I'll always love it. Like John, when I discovered the horror genre, I realised I was not alone." I've looked at the photos of you in the album, you look happy, good looking and popular. That photo of you with your mates around the fire. Although in more modern photos you do look a bit podgey now though.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Ha! Podgy! Thanks, mate...now, where's that fishing knife?  Like most of us, I had a troubled youth, mate, but generally these days I'm a happy little soul. Album? What album? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
 Why the original board's photo section! I look like the lovechild of Angus Skrimm and Billy Bob Thornton. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Oh, aye - forgot about them. I look like the lovechild of Angus Skrimm and Billy Bob Thornton Blimey, yu must look hard-as-nails. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
I also have a number one buzz cut! | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
..I have a gently receding greying mop as my enormous brain slowly but surely overwhelms me and my follicles. Dat's why I fink too much. gcw | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.83 |
Currently, I have a big bushy beard. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.92.54.45 |
Gary Mc wrote: >Hear-hear. >Gavin, I like you more with every post you make. Thanks, mate! | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
"..I have a gently receding greying mop as my enormous brain slowly but surely overwhelms me and my follicles. Dat's why I fink too much." Painting pictures with words there, mush!  |