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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 24, 2010 12:42:49 GMT
Actually I think all horror is themed around odd interpersonal relationships, though having unexpectedly been exposed to a trailer for some ghastly soap yesterday while setting up the dvd player for Sapphire and Steel, it looks like allegedly normal relationships are the most horrific. Thank you again demonik for the suggestions - I've read the Christopher Fowler one (he's a favourite author of mine) but the others were new. I'd have to add in Stephen King's The Mangler; Lafcadio Hearn's extremely short Furisode; and Sir Andrew Caldecott's Quintet, which includes a trouser-stealing poltergeist. The Laundry Imp's a great little story isn't it? I can see I'm going to have to get stuck into the Caldecott collection I've got as no-one seems to have a bad thing to say about it. And if it has trouser stealing as well....
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Post by dem bones on Jul 24, 2010 13:19:59 GMT
I'd have to add in Stephen King's The Mangler; Lafcadio Hearn's extremely short Furisode; and Sir Andrew Caldecott's Quintet, which includes a trouser-stealing poltergeist. Have set aside Quintet for a proposed Horror: The Benny Hill Years selection where it will sit nicely with such gems of ribald mirth as M. P. Dare's double-entendre fest, The Haunted Drawers. Is Furisode included in the Wordsworth Lafcadio Hearn collection? Pamela Vincent's Lost Soul is in Mary Danby's Frighteners: New Stories of Horror (Fontana, 1974) Robin Smyth's Perfect Lady is in David Sutton's The Satyr’s Head & Other Tales Of Terror (Corgi, 1975) The Laymon story can be found in Ed Gorman & Martin Greenberg's Stalkers (Dark Harvest, 1989) or his own collection Fiends Headline, 1997) I've not got far with the Caldecott Not Exactly Ghosts/ Fires Burn Blue Wordsworth but have had great fun dipping into it. i reckon you'll prefer his style over Algernon Blackwood's, Lord P. monker, i'm still working on some suggestions but obviously "the outcome is a bit more subtle than your average bloodsucking vampire or practitioner of the Black Arts story" puts me at a disadvantage because that's just about the only rubbish i ever read.
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Post by lemming13 on Jul 30, 2010 14:51:04 GMT
Thanks for the info, Demonik; yes, Furisode is in the Wordsworth collection, though I orginally came across it in an illustrated book of Oriental ghost stories when I was a schoolkid. If anyone could tell me what the title of the collection was, I'd be eternally grateful. It also included some Korean tales and a very disturbing Chinese thing about a monk and a haunted temple.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jul 30, 2010 15:08:02 GMT
The Homosexual Ghost & Other Stories - 14 Erotic Tales From The Far East Jonathan Quayne
God knows why I thought of this as it probably wasn't intended for children
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Jul 30, 2010 16:04:07 GMT
Thanks for the info, Demonik; yes, Furisode is in the Wordsworth collection, though I orginally came across it in an illustrated book of Oriental ghost stories when I was a schoolkid. If anyone could tell me what the title of the collection was, I'd be eternally grateful. It also included some Korean tales and a very disturbing Chinese thing about a monk and a haunted temple. Lemming, you wouldn't know if the Chinese one about the monk in the haunted temple is what the film 'A Chinese Ghost Story' is based on?
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 5, 2010 20:49:49 GMT
Thanks for the shot, Craig, but I don't think that was it - our local library has always been a bit bizarre in its classification (Sandman novels always get put into the Children's section, no matter how often I tell them not to) but I don't think even they would have let that creep into the kids' section. HP, I do believe it was the origin of A Chinese Ghost Story, and may have inspired some of A Touch Of Zen.
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Post by H_P_Saucecraft on Aug 5, 2010 21:43:42 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Aug 6, 2010 10:16:55 GMT
don't have a copy of Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio but have been very impressed by what little i've read of Psu Sung-Ling in such anthologies as Oriental Tales Of Terror and Monster Book Of Monsters. If these are typical of his work then the stories are very short, no flab, utterly effective. The Inn At Ts’ia-Tien is often reprinted as The Corpse At The Inn and i've read an account of a 'factual' vampire occurrence in Scotland circa the early 1900's which is the most brazen rip off this side of Augustus The Vampire Of Croglin Grange Hare's plagiarism of Varney .... I've a hunch The Magistrate Of Hu-Nan and The Painted Skin are one and the same story though not had time to check (busy rotten week. normal service will be resumed, etc.) For those who don't mind reading from a screen, you'll find the bulk (all?) of the stories online at Horrormasters.
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Post by lemming13 on Aug 9, 2010 17:42:01 GMT
That's it! Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio was definitely the title. The ones on Amazon aren't illustrated, but I can live with that - the stories definitely match what I remember. Thanks eternally for that; copy ordered!
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Chuck_G
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 32
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Post by Chuck_G on Aug 20, 2010 13:15:43 GMT
I bet no-one's done an anthology of horror on the theme of laundry. Not counting 'Oh Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad', there are several stories I've read which revolve around laundries, laundromats and textiles gone bad. Personally I always feel a certain horror when laundry day approaches, but that's just my idleness raising its head. i love that idea! someone could use a late night launderette as the setting for a Tales From The Crypt-style selection. anyway, three relevant stories i could think of are: Christopher Fowler - The Laundry Imp Pamela Vincent - Lost Soul Richard Laymon - The Hunt Here's another: The Rag Thing by David Grinnell
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Post by pbsplatter on Dec 31, 2022 18:54:13 GMT
On the subject of laundry anthologies
T. E. D. Klein - Children Of The Kingdom: (Dark Forces, ed. Kirby McCauley 1980). Ancient subterranean South American mutants pop into NYC through a laundry room. When the 1977 blackout hits, things take a turn for the Humanoids-from-the-Deep.
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Bean-Nighe: (8th Pan Book of Horror Stories). Tells the Scottish legend of the washer-woman ghost the bean-nighe, which portends death in the family of anyone who sees it. Shame that our heroine's brother has consumption. . .
Dulcie Gray - Jump To It: (16th Pan Book of Horror Stories). Paul Rowley has allowed 'friend' Gerald to take advantage of him all his life, not least in cheating him out of fame and fortune for his numerous inventions. But Paul's newest development--a sort of system for clothes-ironing--is really designed to pay back the bastard Gerald.
Dennis Etchison - Sitting in the Corner, Whimpering Quietly: (Whispers Dec. 1972, The Dark Country 1982, 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares). A loner in a late-night laundromat overhears the woman next to him rambling about the crime she's just committed. He sorely wishes he hadn't.
Kate Farrell - Helping Mummy: (The Screaming Book of Horror, ed. Johnny Mains 2012; And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After, 2015). If we can only pick one, let's go with the best written, and most horrible. 3 year old Martha Saltman is more than happy to help mum out with changing baby Adam. Sure, she's little--but modern innovations in washing and drying mean anyone can help keep a kid clean!
Keith Turner - Little Jimmy: (New Tales of Unease, ed. John Burke 1976). Jimmy's envy of his new baby sibling, all blanketed and basketed, is unfortunate given his duty of helping his mother with the laundry. . .
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Post by dem bones on Dec 31, 2022 21:24:38 GMT
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