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Post by dem bones on Nov 9, 2007 20:40:08 GMT
Ramsey Campbell - Scared Stiff :Tales of Sex and Death (Guild, 1989) J. K. Potter Introduction - Clive Barker
Dolls The Other Woman Lilith's The Seductress Stages Loveman's Comeback Merry May
Afterword I enjoyed much of his acclaimed 1973 collection, Demon's By Daylight, but, as with Robert Aickman's more bizarre creations, I still find it hard to comprehend what certain of Ramsey's stories are about no matter how many times I read them. Much of The Height Of The Scream seemed like horror-goes-prog. rock and sent me scurrying back to Seabury Quinn and his endless procession of mad scientists and vampires where at least you knew where you stood. Sometime around the mid-seventies, Ramsey evidently realised the error of his ways and embarked on what he describes as his EC period, i.e., stories so simple even I could get them without risking too much of a brainstrain. Conversion, Heading Home and Cold Print are terrific examples of Mr. Campbell going all playful on us. More good news: we also had Ramsey-Goes-Erotic at around the same period. I'm not sure if they'd appeal to Timothy Lea diehards, but many of the stories later to be collected as the single-author collection, Scared Stiff :Tales of Sex and Death), first appeared in - we might have guessed! - Michel Parry's Mayflower Black Magic and Devil's Kisses series' where they livened things up considerably. Campbell had earlier written Parry and, to a lesser extent, Richard Davis - the then editor of Gothique - into his story The Second Staircase: Parry's whiny photographer, a man named Carol, is haunted by a Swedish chambermaid who committed suicide, presumably due to the advances of the lecherous manager of the Hotel Docherty. Carol is unaware that the visitor to his room is actually a ghost, and flatters himself that the girl is fond of him because he is sympathetic, not like other men who only take pleasure in degrading women. No chance of a spoiler, as I've forgotten how it ends, but I know I got a kick out of the story first time around. "After editing three volumes of black magic volumes for Mayflower, [Michel Parry] complained to me that nobody was submitting tales on a sexual theme. So I wrote Dolls , which so took the Mayflower folk aback they showed it to their lawyers, who advised them to publish." - Ramsey Campbell Aren't you glad they did? Dolls: ( Mayflower Black Magic #4); Father Jenner's congregation moonlight as members of the local coven. Terrified of the Priest, they use wooden dolls versus their enemies, one of whom turns black and chokes to death before she can denounce them during Jenner's sermon. Anne suspects that her husband, the doll carver, is also the "Devil" who conducts their orgies but has yet to select her as his partner. When she gets her wish, things don't quite go as she'd hoped and it all turns very violent and messy. The Seductress: ( Mayflower Black Magic #6); When Betty spurns Alastair after he's show her his room (where he keeps a photo of her surrounded by Magickal paraphernalia), the youth hangs himself. His mother, Mrs. James - a far more adept Black Magician than her son - decides that Betty is to blame, and sets about a ghastly punishment. Betty is haunted by glimpses of a shadowy figure, and, though he's a great comfort to her to begin with, the new man in her life, James, seems to have more of the night about him than was initially apparent. The Other Woman: ( Devil's Kisses) Phil is haunted by a girl with odd eyes he drew from imagination for the cover of a pulp novel - the book in question is entitled "Throttle" and she's being strangled. He starts feeling a bit strange toward his wife. The imaginary book and sex comedy titles have a certain Up Pompei!to them - that is, unless Father Malarkey's Succubus and The Fall of the Roman Knickers really do exist after all. Lilith's: ( Mayflower Black Magic #5); An Inland Revenue employee becomes increasingly obsessed with a shop he sees from the bus on his daily journey home. Lilith's, it transpires, is a sex shop, and when he eventually plucks up the courage to browse, he fixates on the rubber doll in the shop window and the crippled girl running the shop. Shortly after he buys the inflatable, "Lilith's" burns to the ground and the girl perishes in the flames. The hero dumps his girlfriend and he and the doll make the happiest couple. For a while ... To be continued .... Thanks to the supernaturally generous Jerrylad!
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Post by sean on Nov 17, 2007 18:18:40 GMT
Here's some more covers from when I was gathering them all up from here and there... Warner edition: Scream Press edition: Proof for Tor edition (I think): One thing that is worth mentioning about Scared Stiff is the tremendous images by J.K.Potter scattered throughout it.
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Dec 31, 2007 21:50:55 GMT
I seem to be in a minority in thinking these stories a pleasure to read, but not especially erotic. Or is it perhaps that I don't use enough of my own imagination in interpreting them? The exception being "Stages", which is by far the best story in the book, definitely erotic, and indeed my favourite short story overall to date.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 1, 2008 1:50:25 GMT
Carol,
Can I be the first to say that your making an exceptionally good start here by mentioning erotic and then going on to give a comprehensive and erudite analysis accompanied by a equally comprehensive catalogue of covers.
Craig
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on Jan 1, 2008 20:49:17 GMT
Thank you! I do rather go on a bit, don't I? But then, I'm liking this place a lot, it's very inclusive with all sorts of super folk I'm meeting bit by bit. And of course there is so much of interest for me to learn about. I love rooting through all the threads and finding my virtual feet. See, why should I use one word when forty thousand will do
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jan 2, 2008 10:38:51 GMT
To be honest,
I don't post much in the way of information or covers as I lose the ability to upload things in the time it takes to learn.
But I throughly enjoy basking in the sunshine of old pulp covers and am as obsessed by the fine details.
Craig
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Post by dem bones on Jan 3, 2008 9:31:30 GMT
I dug out some old copies of Fear recently and their reviewer was of the same opinion as you, Coral: good stories, not especially erotic. When they were first published I'm sure they were considered unusually near the knuckle (something Michel seems to have actively encouraged at that stage in his career) but purely on the grounds that they touch on sexual perversions. I must admit, I don't find any of RC's writings particularly "erotic" but sometimes the going gets decidedly kinky, and I love the Scared Stiff stories. I'll have to give Stages another go.
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Post by thecoffinflies on Nov 26, 2008 23:52:16 GMT
Indeed. When Ramsey describes sex, he usually feels like he's going out of his way to be UN-erotic, to make sure no-one gets any dirty thoughts from his words. Maybe it's that whole Catholic thing...
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albie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 134
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Post by albie on Mar 13, 2009 13:25:01 GMT
>>I enjoyed much of his acclaimed 1973 collection, Demon's By Daylight, but, as with Robert Aickman's more bizarre creations, I still find it hard to comprehend what certain of Ramsey's stories are about no matter how many times I read them. Much of The Height Of The Scream seemed like horror-goes-prog. rock and sent me scurrying back to Seabury Quinn and his endless procession of mad scientists and vampires where at least you knew where you stood.
Hahah. That's part of what makes Ramsey so great. They are about things that cannot be known or explained, well, unless you have a god like grip on psychology and suggestion. Derren Brown might like these stories, I think.
They are dreams written out as fact. They make you feel like you are dreaming.
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albie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 134
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Post by albie on Mar 13, 2009 13:28:21 GMT
>>Sometime around the mid-seventies, Ramsey evidently realised the error of his ways and embarked on what he describes as his EC period The errors of his ways! I would say he trod more familiar ground so he could lay a few Ramsey bombs on home territory. That and paying the bills.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 13, 2009 21:11:00 GMT
The errors of his ways! I would say he trod more familiar ground so he could lay a few Ramsey bombs on home territory. That and paying the bills. Toward the close of the eighties, i'd just started buying horror anthologies. I'd open them up and "oh no! not him again!" Reading all these reviews saying he was the "contemporary master of the supernatural story" doesn't help when all you can do is finish another RC story and wonder "what the bloody hell is he going on about?" It was only after i'd delighted to Dolls, The Other Woman, Lilith's and the like that i could begin to appreciate the Demons By Daylight and Height Of The Scream collections, so it turned out that this was the best, perhaps the only way for me to approach his work. Where does Scared Stiff stand in the scheme of things with the fully paid up card carrying RC fan? One of his must haves (i guess they all are) or some way below Demons By Daylight, Dark Feasts, etc?
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Post by carolinec on Mar 13, 2009 23:25:11 GMT
Where does Scared Stiff stand in the scheme of things with the fully paid up card carrying RC fan? One of his must haves (i guess they all are) or some way below Demons By Daylight, Dark Feasts, etc? I guess I'm a fully paid up card carrying RC fan .. but I've never actually read Scared Stiff, although I know three of the stories from it from other collections. Those three - Loveman's Comeback, The Other Woman and The Seductress - don't rate in my top ten RC shorts I'm afraid. Personally, I prefer Dark Companions to Demons By Daylight anyway, so I think I'm a bit of an oddball when it comes to preferred RC shorts. I wouldn't be able to say which collection I think is best - I just like some stories and I'm not so keen on others. Interesting the comments that some of you have made here and elsewhere about not understanding some of his stories, and/or not liking them. Even as a staunch fan, there are definitely some stories I "get" and some which I definitely don't (tell me, can anybody understand what "Voice of the Beach" is actually about, for example?). RC is a mixed bag. He can write in so many styles, so many different ways - I think that's part of his appeal to me. There's no other writer can match that kind of writing skill as far as I'm concerned. ;D
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Post by andydecker on Mar 14, 2009 18:30:33 GMT
"what the bloody hell is he going on about?" This sums up RC nicely for me. When I became interested in horror I bought some of his novels and collections. But I couldn´t understand a lot of his stories. I thought it was my poor grasp of the language that I didn´t got the master. He always was sold as a literary writer who was better than the dirty boys playing in the gutter. Later I thought it was a case of overhyping, a typical writer´s writer. Today I still don´t know if he isa bore or if I just don´t get it
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Post by dem bones on Mar 14, 2009 19:58:55 GMT
Later I thought it was a case of overhyping, a typical writer´s writer. A bit off topic, but I never really got on that great with Clive Barker's stuff. It's hardly his fault, but I'd been so browbeaten into expecting to be impressed like never before with The Books Of Blood that they couldn't possibly live up to the hype. Nothing could. To top it all, I caught him on TV in the early 'nineties, "a round table discussion with Barker hosting Ramsey Campbell, John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Lisa Tuttle and Peter Atkins" on BBC's The Late Show. There's Clive, big fat cigar in mouth, presiding over some kind of lavish banquet, spouting off about horror, life, the universe, everything with these people I'd previously admired for their work, and all I could think was "you snobbish, self-important, pretentious, totally up yourselves wankers!" Only Campbell emerged with any credit, wisely neglecting to join in unless he had to and concentrating for the most part on doing justice to the food and drink. The ultimate horror was when Mr. Barker led them in an impromptu round robin story. Close to twenty years later, I still can't bring myself to open The Damnation Game. I so hope they repeat it one day.
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Post by carolinec on Mar 14, 2009 20:36:56 GMT
To top it all, I caught him on TV in the early 'nineties, "a round table discussion with Barker hosting Ramsey Campbell, John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Lisa Tuttle and Peter Atkins" on BBC's The Late Show. There's Clive, big fat cigar in mouth, presiding over some kind of lavish banquet, spouting off about horror, life, the universe, everything with these people i'd previously admired for their work, and all i could think was "you snobbish, self-important, pretentious, totally up yourselves wankers!" Only Campbell emerged with any credit, wisely neglecting to join in unless he had to and concentrating for the most part on doing justice to the food and drink. The ultimate horror was when Mr. Barker led them in an impromptu round robin story. Close to twenty years later, i still can't bring myself to open The Damnation Game. I so hope they repeat it one day. Dem, you're brilliant! D'you know, when I was doing my bits of research getting ready to interview Ramsey for Pantechnicon a while back, I recalled having seen that - but I had no idea where or when. It doesn't show up (or I couldn't find it) on IMDB. You've just solved a great mystery for my by mentioning that one! Thanks! ;D
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