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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 4, 2008 13:27:01 GMT
I have had so much fun reading all of the posts for the individual Pan anthologies - most of which have been covered by demonik in his own inimitable style with comments by others. Having made the decision to re-read them all, but not in any order, my first random pick is volume 24 which I don't think I have re read since I first bought it and read it back in 1983.
The reason I have put this thread up is to ask whether there is an old thread from demonik and others for number 24 in the archive and if so how can I find it? I am sure it must have been discussed at some stage, as there are various comments about whether or not 'Love On The Farm' out-grosses 'Kowlongo Plaything' etc etc
I used to read the stories in a Pan collection at random, often picking the shortest ones first, but this time I'm going cover to cover. I dont' recall this one (24) being particularly brilliant first time round (although I was 19 by then and far less easy to scare!) and so far I have to say it's a bit of a low key start.
I have tried but couldn't get close to matching demonik's great skill of the short plot summary, so it's just my dull opinions I'm afraid............
The Moment of Death by Ken Alden has great subject matter (decapitation and premature burial), but the pay off is predictable and a bit of an anti climax
Obsession by Miranda Seymour keeps you guessing, has great characters and builds up a spooky 'other wordly' atmosphere, but again the climax is a bit lame, and there are loose ends untied or unexplained. Being honest, maybe I didn't get it (loved the product placement for Southern Comfort though!)
I'm still very NEW around here - so I hope nobody minds my starting a new thread for vol 24! It would be great to hear your thoughts, and I would love to read the old thread - if there was one. I'll add some more as I get a few more stories read..... currently on 'Gypsy Candle'..............
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 4, 2008 14:14:28 GMT
Well dem, he'll forgive me for saying, is somewhat inimitable.
I think I recall though, one thread where he denounced any attempts to rationalise the site. that is, any idea of doing a sort of encyclopedic, cataloged, running in order type, show. The ethos of the vault was more akin to the jumbled up secondhand bookshop where you might just find what you like under a pile of no hopers.
I'm not sure I've seen 24 reviewed ... job opportunity awaits a likely candidate.
All eyes turn to lukemorningstar
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 4, 2008 14:26:59 GMT
Hi there - well I'll certainly have a go, and will add bits as I go along. Real name is Colin by the way - a pleasure to make your acquaintance. In fact I'll probably get 24 finished tonight as the kids are back to school tomorrow so they might just go to bed a bit earlier than usual and I'll get some peace......
Dim the lights, pour a beer and read 'Love On The Farm' again - grrrreat!
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Post by Dr Terror on Sept 4, 2008 18:50:35 GMT
Hi Colin, previous discusion of 24 is on the old board.
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 4, 2008 23:04:21 GMT
Ah - brilliant thanks I have found the old board via your link (I'm completely PC illiterate) presumably it's for reading only now?
Anyhow - this evening I have mostly been reading Gypsy Candle by Alan Temperley the third story in the collection - it's about a homely and wholesome Victorian farming family who buy a candle holder from some Gypsys at a fair and get a free cande thrown in. Soon they are plagued by a ghostly dancing bear which appears in the wisp of smoke when the candle is extinguished. But of course merely being a ghost it's not going to be as hard as nails, vicious and dangerous. Is it........
The best so far but, yep, I wasn't blown away by volume 24 first time round but this is great fun! And it's only few more short tales before the dreaded 'Love On The Farm'.............
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Post by dem bones on Sept 5, 2008 5:34:30 GMT
Ah - brilliant thanks I have found the old board via your link (I'm completely PC illiterate) presumably it's for reading only now? 'fraid so. SuddenLaunch was a lovely host but the server kept playing up toward the end and posts were going astray all the time. Eventually we had little option but to bite the bullet and shift elsewhere. It's a hassle having to keep referring people back to it but there's so much good stuff buried on there it would be a sin to waste it. Thanks for tackling #24 for us, Colin. I'm afraid my collection runs out on #23, so I only know of Love On The Farm by its evil reputation. Well dem, he'll forgive me for saying, is somewhat inimitable. What, you mean like, "pissed all the time"?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 5, 2008 8:12:54 GMT
I was trying to be kind (under incriminating circumstances) We need to get you over for a festival in Germany, Dem - the advantage of German beer is that it is chemical free and produces light weight hangovers...
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Post by allthingshorror on Sept 5, 2008 8:18:09 GMT
I was trying to be kind (under incriminating circumstances) We need to get you over for a festival in Germany, Dem - the advantage of German beer is that it is chemical free and produces light weight hangovers... until some dozy idiot says that having a couple of peach schnapps will but a nice cap on the evening - and then you've found you've drunk near a bottle to yourself and you wake up in a pile of someone elses puke the next morning with a head that feels like it's been raped by a grizzly bear wearing a barbed wire cockpiece..... Yes Craig - I know those beerfests all too well.....
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 5, 2008 8:36:52 GMT
Damn, the plot has failed.
At the moment the craze is Jaegermeister. (Which for the uninitiated is a kind of shit coloured sweet drink that looks a little like Baileys and tastes like eating liquors). The German habit of presenting one of these, and following it with another eleven, warms the cockles of the heart. Unfortunately it also produces the effects so succinctly described.
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 5, 2008 10:18:42 GMT
Mmmmmmmm - Jaegermeister - delicious and excellent for the digestion! (Not sure if I could do 11 of them though....) My plod through Vol 24 continues with 'Woodrow Wilson's Necktie' by Patricia Highsmith Now this is a little more like it - unhinged loner, spends loads of time at the local 'Waxwork Horrors' (brings to mind the Peter Cushing story in 'The House That Dripped Blood') spends a sneaky night there, then decides to 'modify' some of the displays by bumping off the Waxworks staff! - needless to say he goes more and more nuts as the tale progresses......... Four stories in, and by now a bit of Norman Kaufman-esque nastiness would be positively welcomed. I remember now why I thought the standard of a lot of the PBOHS stories tamed so much in the 1980s - sod this so called 'implied' horror. Where's a good old henpecked or cuckolded husband exacting a graphic and grisly vengeance when you really need one?
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Post by lukemorningstar on Sept 10, 2008 12:39:20 GMT
Well folks, my swim through the fairly lukewarm and insubstantial stew that is Pan 24 is at an end (in fact in ended on the weekend, and I have since moved on to the warm and heady punch that is Pan 2) However as this was my first Pan Thread I ought to wrap up with the remianing tales as follows;
The golden Teddy Bear - Philip Sidney Jennings - A 'descent into madness through mundane existence' tale that goes nowhere, is pretty tame and could have benefitted from more 'Case Of Insanity' (Pan 11) type of insanity, and been far more gruesome.
The Landlady - Roald Dahl - I know this was a 'Tale Of The Unexpected' but not one I have ever seen. Actually really spooked me this one - not gory or gruesome, just one to really play on the imagination, especially when you consider the occupants of the third floor.............
Twisted Ash - Tom Cunniffe - A very good closing story, and a lesson in the perils of 'chopping down the tree outside the cottage left to you by Aunt Sarah when it was a condition of Aunt Sarah's will that you don't chop down the tree' - this is much more old school pan, and would have fitted well into any of the first three volumes.
Which just leaves 'Love On The Farm' which is covered on a separate thread!
All in all this is nowhere near the greatest of the Pan anthologies, but like all of them it's worth a read, and of course these opinions are just mine. After all we all live with our own imaginations, and what might seem bland to one could be the cause of many a terror to another. Do read it if you get a chance, and if you have read it already, what are your views?
That's me then, signing off
Colin ;D
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Post by dem bones on Sept 10, 2008 18:03:49 GMT
Thoroughly enjoyed that blow-by-blow account, Colin. As you say, Herbert's later volumes sag some in comparison to the early classics, but he was always sharp enough to include a couple of grisly gems to keep the interest going. If and when I get hold of this, it will still be for Love On The Farm, but the Patricia Highsmith waxwork outing sounds very much my thing and I've enjoyed the few Ken Alden stories I've come into contact with (via Hugh Lamb anthologies).
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Post by dem bones on Sept 17, 2015 5:25:54 GMT
Seven years later .... Herbert Van Thal (ed.) – 24th Pan Book Of Horror Stories (1983) Photo: Peter Geissier Ken Alden – The Moment of Death Miranda Seymour – Obsession Alan Temperley – Gypsy Candle Patricia Highsmith – Woodrow Wilson’s Neck-tie Philip Sidney Jennings – The Golden Teddy Bear Roald Dahl – The Landlady Alan Temperley – Love on the Farm Tom Cunniff – Twisted AshKen Alden – The Moment of Death: On the eve of his execution by Guillotine, the murderer Lanover is approached in his cell by Professor Fegree with a proposition. If the condemned man will agree to participate in a little experiment, Fegree will arrange for his three soon-to-be orphans adoption by a good family. The most unnerving passages concern factual (?) cases of premature burial, otherwise it reads like an amped-up version of 'Dick Donovan's Some Experiments With A Head. A decent start! Philip Sidney Jennings – The Golden Teddy Bear: Sorrel, the new employee at Tomorrow's Antiques, is too industrious and super-efficient for our half-cracked narrator's liking. As title suggests, contains scenes of extreme teddy abuse, which is a definite no-no in my book. Don't you people realise they're alive? Roald Dahl - The Landlady: Young Billy Weaver has cause to regret his choice of West Country boarding house. The Landlady is insane and the clientèle just sit there like stuffed dummies. A lazy selection on HVT's part, having already included the story in 1973's The Bedside Book Of Horror.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 17, 2015 18:39:31 GMT
Patricia Highsmith - Woodrow Wilson's Neck-tie: Clive Wilkes, a delivery boy at Mr. Simmons' grocery store, makes good on his ambition to break in and spend the night at Madame Thibault's Waxworks Horrors, stealing a tie from the Wilson exhibit as a souvenir. Much to his disappointment, nobody notices anything amiss. After much deliberation, Clive hits upon a wizard wheeze guaranteed to make Joe Public sit up and take notice. Far and away the most entertaining story to date. #24 certainly isn't lacking in black comedies.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 18, 2015 19:01:08 GMT
Miranda Seymour – Obsession: Mr. Mallet, a collector of Chinese antiques, is skilfully baited into the sinister world of shady dealer Jack 'The Jackdaw' Leigh, who operates out of a decrepit basement near the canal, by means of the Chippendale Looking-Glass he's flogging at a ridiculously low price. The silver mirror is not quite as it should be. The Jackdaw casts no reflection in the glass, but at certain times of the day, it projects the image of a beautiful young woman, Rose Marie Liegh (his wife/ sister/ cousin ?), fifty years dead and buried in a-certain-North-London-cemetery. Mr. Mallet falls in love with her. Just as the Jackdaw intended, Mr. Mallet disobeys him, visits Rose Marie's grave and replaces the dealer's floral tribute with his own, before falling asleep atop on her bones. That night the mirror treats him to an action replay of the Jackdaw's monstrous sex crime of all those years ago. Mallet, unable to endure the horror of it all, takes a hammer to the glass, releasing .....
I take it all back: this, even above Patricia Highsmith's story, is #24's most engrossing story thus far, even if I'm not sure I quite got it. Might schedule a rematch for later.
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