General Weird discusion thread

[Lobolover]

Oh,okay,ill try them toom,thanks .

[Lobolover]

Well-have finished 252-mostly curious!Though,if only he wouldnt refer to a story about ghosts IN a ghost story so often.

Am curently going throgh "The purple Cloud",like I said-your opinion?

And-have you ever heard of Jan Weiss?

[j. d. worthington]

Jan Weiss -- rings a bell, but I can't place it.

As for The Purple Cloud... mixed. Some parts of it are very impressive indeed, while others I felt lagged. By the way, there's been at least one film adaptation of this book, and (as I recall after so many years) that film was really quite good:

The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)

It strays quite seriously from Shiel's novel, of course, but as a film qua film....

[Lobolover]

Jan Weiss-czech (oslovakian) writer in the 60's,active comunist,but also writer of fantastic stories and one of the few people advocating the necessity to dream in czech literary history since WWII.Even his "serious" works have dream elements in them-like the description of a cube rotating inside a circular human head ,as in a dream-its kinda hard to desrcibe
.One of his best short stories (he was a diferent sort of SF writer) is "The Apostle",centering around a group of people in a typhoid camp,being preached to by a man of strange new lives in diferent forms and shapes on diferent worlds-the man dies,suposedly of typhoid,saying he is mad,however, his adherents believed he went of to his new life.

Then,of course,is his masterpiece,"House of a thousand floors",about a mysterious gigantic city under one roof,with surreal characters, bizare places and dreamy visions-got my copy for free,but worth a read,beyond doubt.

Other of his good works include "The regiment of madmen"-about WWI Austria trying to imploy madmen in the army-but they run amok and turn an abandoned castle into a mad house of terror.

Or another story,where,in the future,people use artificial wings to fly for sport, however a man forces his beloved to take on the simple, cultureless life of a bird-which ends in him being slain by another .

He was an ardent anti kapitalist,but his works reveal a shining beacon of dream light anyone should read.

Anyway-working through the Bad Lands and geting to ABO next.

And anyway-any title you yourself read you would wanna have a coment from me on?

And finaly-any news on Lovecrafts Library from HP?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lobolover

Anyway-working through the Bad Lands and geting to ABO next.

And anyway-any title you yourself read you would wanna have a coment from me on?

And finaly-any news on Lovecrafts Library from HP?

Weiss does sound interesting. Are there currently any English translations available that you're aware of or would recommend?

I'm curious as to what you'll think of "The Bad Lands" and "ABO".

Well, not so much a single title (though, come to think of it, a couple do come to mind...) as a writer or two. In this case, Thomas Moore. Have you read either of those by Moore mentioned by HPL in his essay? If not, I'll warn you that "The Ring" is actually the title of two vastly different pieces by the Irish versifier....

And on Lovecraft's Library... I'm not quite sure what you mean? Are you referring to the volumes being put out under that series title? If so... no, I've heard nothing on that score. I've sent an email to Derrick about the latest releases, but have heard nothing back....

[Lobolover]

Well-not that I know of,but during the authors life,there WAS a translation of "The regiment......" .Ill look it up.

The Bad Lands-well,its quite nice and leaves things open at the end

ABO however is quite diferent and I enjoyed it thoroughly-though Mare's characters do strange things sometimes,it was quite enjoyable-but I find he tends to-leave of,before finishing properly-like with "All Hallows" and ABO.

Will begin "the thing in the hall" story and then Mrs. Amworth from Benson. Been thinking of trying out "The snout" by White-though its kinda long for comp reading at one go.

From the books of HP's you mentiond on the last page-you read any of them?

And also-finished my own two stories,should I translate them?

[j. d. worthington]

With the exception of Undine and some of "Q"'s stories, no; though I have a few on order at this point....

While I congratulate you on the stories, and would like to read them, there are a couple of points to bring up here: if you were planning on posting them, I'm doubtful about that being a good idea for you as a writer, given the way it can affect marketing your work otherwise. Secondly: whether you should translate them or not... depends on the length of the work and whether you'll want feedback right away....

And, to further broaden the discussion on the general topic here... As HPL's essay is one of the main sources for the various writers mentioned in this thread, how many have looked at the older writers/tales mentioned there (and this includes any of the verse pieces)?

[Lobolover]

Well,I DID read Bürgrs "Die wilde jäger",of the top of my head.

The stories-I always post them on an online site I know-helps get feedback and contact people about them.Both of them are 3 something pages.

And I looked up "Weiss"-well,can you read german?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lobolover

And I looked up "Weiss"-well,can you read german?

Sadly, no. As with so many Americans, I am quite lacking in my knowledge of other languages. I know a (very) small smattering of German, but nothing near enough to read a tale with....

So... what did you think of that piece? Or, for that matter, any of the other works mentioned?

[Lobolover]

Die Wilde Jäger-read it in original german-well,im not sure.

Of course,I read "Rime of the ancient Mariner" .If only Coleridge wouldnt have to mix god into the subject and give it a more "belieavable" ending.

Ps:You ever tried writing something?

And PPS:Ill probably translate them during the night and send them to you.

[j. d. worthington]

I have, but it's been quite some time since I last did much in the way of fiction. Most of my writing is of a critical nature these days.

I'm not quite sure what you mean with Coleridge, though, especially about the "believable" ending....

[Lobolover]

The angels apearing and all that jazz.

But dont you ever get any ideas,fiction-wise?

Which reminds me-Id like to ask you about Wells and Level-which storis of theese (especialy the former) are worth a read,in this dreary genre of ours?

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lobolover

The angels apearing and all that jazz.

But dont you ever get any ideas,fiction-wise?

Which reminds me-Id like to ask you about Wells and Level-which storis of theese (especialy the former) are worth a read,in this dreary genre of ours?

Ummm... you consider that to be a more "believable" ending? As for bringing God into it... one could hardly expect otherwise, given such a moral tale, and the period, not to mention the entire philosophical idea of the supernatural here....

I do, but not that often these days.

And... "dreary"?

[Lobolover]

Just a "knock up",to see if you'd bite it

I know that about Coleridge-I just wish he lived at a later time.

Oh-and one thing-while reading 252-did Torvieja present himself to you visualy as Aleister Crowley as well?

[j. d. worthington]

Hmmm. No, can't say as he did. Speaking of Crowley, though... have you ever read W. Somerset Maugham's The Magician?