December's Deliciously Delirifacient Dabblings Into Fictional Diversions

[j. d. worthington]

With all that being said, I may have to invest in this new version. While it has been some years since I last read The Exorcist, I used to revisit it quite often. It is certainly a good deal more than simply a "horror" novel, and yes, I would agree that it is a very well written piece of literature in itself....

On Legion... I don't think I would rate it quite as highly, but it, too, showed much of Blatty's skill as a writer....

[Mouse]

Finished Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants last night. Wondering what to read next. I should try to start A Dance With Dragons... but it's so huge it'll take me forever.

[HoopyFrood]

Was sitting around earlier and started reading the book collection of Evelyn Waugh letters I picked up a while back. Whether I'll carry on reading it is another thing entirely...(not 'cos it sucks or anything, just my reading habits of late).

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

With all that being said, I may have to invest in this new version. While it has been some years since I last read The Exorcist, I used to revisit it quite often. It is certainly a good deal more than simply a "horror" novel, and yes, I would agree that it is a very well written piece of literature in itself....

On Legion... I don't think I would rate it quite as highly, but it, too, showed much of Blatty's skill as a writer....

Has Joshi ever weighed in on Blatty? I'm curious about that.

[j. d. worthington]

Yes, he has. He has a chapter devoted to him in The Modern Weird Tale. Being of the thoroughgoing atheist camp, and used to sparring with Christian apologists from a long way back, he fairly well gives Blatty's arguments a dressing-down... and his comments on him otherwise are not overly complimentary.... On the first of these, I am in agreement with him, on the second... not so much.....

Finished off the collection The Sword of Zagan, which included some fragments and unfinished works by Smith, as well as a lovely memoir by Dr. Farmer; one of the best I've seen, along with E. Hoffmann Price's comments on CAS in his Book of the Dead.....

And, in order to participate in Extollager's thread on the subject, have reread E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman", which is even stranger (and better) than I remembered....

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Yes, he has. He has a chapter devoted to him in The Modern Weird Tale. Being of the thoroughgoing atheist camp, and used to sparring with Christian apologists from a long way back, he fairly well gives Blatty's arguments a dressing-down... and his comments on him otherwise are not overly complimentary.... On the first of these, I am in agreement with him, on the second... not so much.....

Ha! I'd expect nothing less from Joshi.

[Alurny]

I'm halfway through 20,000 leagues under the sea, by Jules Verne. I have really enjoyed the pacing of it so far, I appreciate the short chapters as I can dip in and dip out at ease.

I have got Dune sat next to be read, with monstrous regement to follow that.

[j. d. worthington]

At the moment I'm going through some of Clark Ashton Smith's early poetry, along with some of his early letters (largely to George Sterling). Though technically these are still "juvenile" poems (he was about 17 or 18 at the most at the time), already he had become quite assured in his technique and his use of imagery was light-years beyond what he had done just a very short time before. Even with these early pieces, there are lines which can pull a person up short with a catch in the breath... he definitely had the true poet's eye, and it is a great pity his verse isn't much better known than it is....

This, for example, is the earliest of the poems in this set I'm reading:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings...y/96/cloudland

[Mouse]

Just picked up The Possessions of Doctor Forrest by Richard T Kelly. It's written in the form of journal entries and notes, which I've not read something like before.

[thatollie]

I am definitely going to finish reading Genius Loci and other tales this time around.

[j. d. worthington]

Going through these early poems, I am amazed at how quickly Smith developed as a poet. This, for instance, was written by a lad of 17, who never, incidentally, attended high school:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings...69/imagination

[thatollie]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Going through these early poems, I am amazed at how quickly Smith developed as a poet. This, for instance, was written by a lad of 17, who never, incidentally, attended high school:

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings...69/imagination

His style was always incredible, and I think the quality of his language may have held his work back from being as popular as it should have been. Some people are scared off by the language he uses and don't stick around to see that he could also craft a really engaging tale.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by thatollie

His style was always incredible, and I think the quality of his language may have held his work back from being as popular as it should have been. Some people are scared off by the language he uses and don't stick around to see that he could also craft a really engaging tale.

Yes, he could. He didn't always -- after all, much of his fiction was written in order to support his increasingly ailing parents, meaning he wrote some things he didn't give a hoot about -- but when he had his teeth into something, he simply couldn't be beat. "The Double Shadow", "A Night in Malnéant", "The Last Hieroglyph", "Empire of the Necromancers", "The Dark Eidolon", and so many others of his fantasies rank as some of the greatest weird fantasy ever written. He could also do humorous, or satirical, or ironic fantasies with equal ease.

And yes, people are a bit taken aback both by his lapidary style and his precise (and at times quite recondite) vocabulary... but then, Smith had read at least one unabridged dictionary, the entire encyclopedia, and all the books in the local Carnegie library by a fairly young age; and he came into contact with George Sterling when he was still young, as well....

Speaking of which, as there was an interesting bit of influence there, I'll be reading at least several selections from my copy of The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror by George Sterling, and The Outer Gate: The Collected Poems of Nora May French as well. Considering the connections (Sterling was a protege of Ambrose Bierce, whose work I just recently read; Smith was a protege of Sterling and was praised by Bierce; Nora May French and Samuel Loveman were part of that circle of poets, too -- Loveman, as well as Sterling and Smith, had earned favorable comments from Bierce, and in fact was one of Bierce's last correspondents before the latter disappeared), I will probably also throw in my collection of stories by W. C. Morrow, who was also part of the California poets/writers group. Even though this is, in a sense, a subset of my work on HPL, all of these writers are quite fascinating and worthy of study on their own, as well as collectively. This should keep me out of the pool halls for a while, dontcha think....?

[David B]

Just finished reading The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan – thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading The Cold Commands.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by David B

Just finished reading The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan – thoroughly enjoyed it...

Have you read Morgan's novel Altered Carbon? It's something of an SF classic and similarly good like The Steel Remains. SF has been Morgan's main forte to date.