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Post by carolinec on Feb 3, 2009 11:47:59 GMT
The Right Hon. Lord Probert is one of our top trouble makers these days, Mark. Worse even than Caroline! Eh? Wot? Is somebody taking my name in vain? Worse still, is somebody trying to outdo me for trouble making? I don't want to get into that "old vs. new" argument again, but just to say that to me the distinction is more "good vs. bad". There's good old horror, and bad old horror; and good new horror and bad new horror. It's just a matter of taste - or lack of it, if you see what I mean. Am I making any sense whatsoever today? Oh and David, all the best to your wife. I know how she feels with the arthritis - it's a real bugger.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 3, 2009 12:46:45 GMT
Its just down to good writing surely. Slightly off topic but I'm doing an article on E C Tubb's Dumarest series and he's the classic example of a writer who is not literary but who is a master craftsman with words and action. He's just really readable. He once, I believe slagged of Delaney for being unreadable,
I can read James Joyce's Dubliners and feel elevated by the writing. I can read James Herbert and be thoroughly entertained.
I am with John, David and Dem all the way. The absolute last thing a genre like horror needs is a kind of arty farty pretension to be something more than it is. I am not including here some pieces of admirable horror fiction with big words and surreal concepts which I would akin to speculative fiction. I like that stuff too but basically horror has to be horrific. eerie, lonely, desperate, terrible, and sometimes it is great when its not horrific but just corny.
And the stuff I was always attracted to can be admirably viewed by looking at the numerous covers on the vault. No one in the seventies was pretending to be clever with horror. they were just trying to be entertaining.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Feb 3, 2009 13:08:11 GMT
I had no idea I could be such a troublemaker simply by swanning in, making a sweeping generalisation and then swannng out again! However I stand by what I said as it was merely a period from my history (1997 I think) when I went on holiday and took several anthologies of horror stories with me (including Best New Horror 8 & an Ellen Datlow edited anthology of cat horror stories that I couldn't wait to read and which I found hugely disappointing in its lack of monstrous murderous moggies) and I found them all so utterly unenjoyable that I figured that was it for me and horror. I have of course recovered from the foolish idea that I could ever leave this genre we love alone, but I don't think I'll be buying Poe
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Post by carolinec on Feb 3, 2009 13:19:22 GMT
.. its lack of monstrous murderous moggies I haven't seen such a good aliteration (spelling? correct word? can't be bothered to consult a dictionary to check!) since I read Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Feb 3, 2009 13:44:48 GMT
Awwww - thanks Caroline!
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Post by allthingshorror on Feb 3, 2009 14:02:02 GMT
Well - if any one wants to publish this idea I'm working on - I'll be more than happy. As unpretentious as they come... 3 thousand crocodiles escape a small farm in Somerset, where they have been bred to be turnned onto handbags for ladies who shop in a high end boutique in London...... Im going to start off with the man feeding the baby crocodiles feeding them, and slipping and falling into the pit... He nearly gets away, but then gets attacked by wave upon wave of the little critters - thereby giving them their first taste of meat with nothing left but a few scraps of clothes - the farm owner, a cigar chomping lotharia called Rex Arrarrarra tries to cover it up, until the recently deceaseds sister sniffs around the farm, trying to find out what happened to the brother who was a secret animals rights enthusiast she breaks into the farm, and finds row upon row of handbags. She gets caught, and has a struggle with the dastardly Mr Arrarrarra, and they both roll into the pit and get eaten - but not before she unlocks the main gate! After they are lunch, the crocodiles escape - still 3 years old and all the size of a small dog. AND VERY HUNGRY. Our hero will be a one-armed postman, who used to be in the Vietnam war, but moved to England after he found love on the internet... The crocodiles first munch their way through a handicapped school who are on a day trip learning about butterflies, and the crocs, with a serious taste for blood, descend on populalr tourist town Effingham on the Stour. I want a dead disabled girl - being chomped up by a croc on the cover... Surefire winner? Oh and the title is Crocs Away!
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Post by carolinec on Feb 3, 2009 17:40:15 GMT
I want a dead disabled girl - being chomped up by a croc on the cover... Johnny, you disappoint me! I thought it would be a NAKED dead disabled girl ...
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Post by marksamuels on Feb 3, 2009 20:10:33 GMT
It's funny, but since Dem turned me on to Charles Birkin I've come to realise that a dose of grue written with style and panache is just as pleasurable a read for me as, say, the work of Robert Aickman. Now if only I could get hold of more Charles Birkin! Corrupted I've been, I tell you. We're having a fine time in Mexico. I hear it's snowing in England and the country's shut down Mark S.
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Post by carolinec on Feb 3, 2009 20:53:57 GMT
I hear it's snowing in England and the country's shut down Yep, that just about sums up what it's like over here, Mark!
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Post by dem bones on Feb 3, 2009 21:22:31 GMT
I had no idea I could be such a troublemaker simply by swanning in, making a sweeping generalisation and then swannng out again! Works for me I want a dead disabled girl - being chomped up by a croc on the cover... Johnny, you disappoint me! I thought it would be a NAKED dead disabled girl ... Yeah, probably best to give her big tits too just to be on the safe side. Now if only I could get hold of more Charles Birkin! We're working on it! Only time will tell ...... Wordsworth Editions suggestion: Devils Spawn! Mark, when you get back i've set aside some spicy vintage Whitechapel versus Ripper tour ghouls clippings for your delectation! Sadly, I don't have the alleged 'Martin Fido rents basement to prostitutes' scandal, but there's some good stuff none the less!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Feb 3, 2009 22:25:00 GMT
Well as anyone who will listen will know I'm a huge fan of Charles Birkin and consider him a major influence. Oh, and I've found Twists of the Tale - an anthology of cat horror. Maybe a re-read is in order. Or I might just go back to my Midnight House Birkins
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 4, 2009 8:42:00 GMT
After all this talk about Charles Birkin I thought I would take a dip into his fiction to find out if I cared for his stuff - it's so long since I last read any I honestly can't remember much about it!
Mary Danby's 65 Great tales of the Supernatural providfed me with a sinister little ghost story - the title I think was Little Boy Blue - which concerns a boy who was killed in quick sand. Very well written, concise and chilling, with some memorably bleak lines, especially at the climax.
For some reason I had gained the impression that Birkin didn't really go in for tales of the supernatural, unless this was an exception. If it was, it was certainly effective.
David
PS Thanks for all the kind words for my wife.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 4, 2009 9:11:29 GMT
You're right, David. Little Boy Blue is typical of Birkin's bleak stories - of which there are several - but it's quite rare for him to introduce the supernatural into his work. Mostly he settled for sadistic contes cruels, not dissimilar to what Maurice Level was capable of in his nastier moods. By the way, the legion fans of Alex White's The Clinic would be well advised to check out Birkin's Marjorie's On Starlight in Hugh Lamb's A Wave Of Fear if they want more of the same!
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