|
Post by ropardoe on Mar 18, 2016 12:38:01 GMT
Rosemary, I finished reading Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter #29 last night. I didn't notice any errors. I don't have the Newsletter with me, so I might be making an error myself. I'm going by my memory of your editorial listing the contents of The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows Volume Three. It looks like "Another Episode of Cathedral History" is actually a sequel or prequel to "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" not "An Episode of Cathedral History". As the latter is my favourite of the original stories, I'm disappointed that there won't be a sequel or prequel to it and a couple of the other originals. Here's a suggestion. Why not change the name of the Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter to Ghosts & Scholars? It'll save ink. At least my factual error this time is nothing like as bad as the time, several issues ago, when I mixed up the anniversary of M.R. James's death with that of his birth. What's more, I think I did it twice! Whoops! Yes, "Another Episode of Cathedral History" is indeed a sequel to "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral". Chico Kidd did a sequel to "An Episode of Cathedral History" in the G&S Newsletter a few years ago, but I would like to see more. I'm hoping people might consider prequels and sequels to that tale, plus the others which haven't been covered in the three Books of Shadows - "Martin's Close" and "The Ash-Tree" (hi, Dan!) - for future issues of the magazine. As for the title, I agree that 'Newsletter' is a total misnomer nowadays (not that there isn't plenty of news in the magazine, just lots of other stuff as well). We're now on issue 29 of the G&S Newsletter. The original G&S got to issue 33. Assuming the Newsletter also reaches 33, I have ever intention at that point - presumably two years hence - of going back to the simple G&S title and resuming from issue 34.
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 18, 2016 12:50:57 GMT
An obvious title for a sequel or prequel to "The Ash-Tree" is "The Castringham Sickness". I'd read that.
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 18, 2016 14:09:44 GMT
I have just thought of other memorable three-word phrases from M.R. James's stories that suggest the title for a sequel or prequel.
A follow-up to "A Warning to the Curious" could be "A Lungless Laugh". I'd read that.
However, a follow-up to "Casting the Runes" could be "Not Without Saliva". I wouldn't read that.
I hope that I haven't started something horrible.
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 18, 2016 14:20:55 GMT
You have started something I do not understand. But I am notoriously dim.
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Mar 18, 2016 16:14:27 GMT
I have just thought of other memorable three-word phrases from M.R. James's stories that suggest the title for a sequel or prequel. A follow-up to "A Warning to the Curious" could be "A Lungless Laugh". I'd read that. However, a follow-up to "Casting the Runes" could be "Not Without Saliva". I wouldn't read that. I hope that I haven't started something horrible. I think I'll pass when it comes to the "Not Without Saliva" sequel too. Ew! If Dan comes up with what he planned, you won't be far wrong with "The Castringham Sickness". I was going to offer "An Indistinct Personage" as an obvious three-word sequel to "Oh, Whistle", but I see that MRJ inconsiderately inserted a "rather" into that phrase.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 18, 2016 20:45:59 GMT
Rosemary, I finished reading Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter #29 last night. I didn't notice any errors. My, you're a fast worker, Mr. C. So far I've only read the editorial and news items, Dug Out, David Longhorn's ace spectre vs. squaddie sequel to A Warning To The Curious, and - pleasant surprise - the overview of Paul Finch's Terror Tales ... series with particular emphasis on East Anglia (after churning out endless dross on here, it was good to be reminded of what a real review looks like). The intention was to read #29 through as presented, but cutting direct to a Mark Valentine story following the excesses of Frank Belknap Long ... there's just no telling what damage that might do to a man's fragile hold on "sanity" ....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2016 21:48:48 GMT
I have just thought of other memorable three-word phrases from M.R. James's stories that suggest the title for a sequel or prequel. A follow-up to "A Warning to the Curious" could be "A Lungless Laugh". I'd read that. However, a follow-up to "Casting the Runes" could be "Not Without Saliva". I wouldn't read that. I hope that I haven't started something horrible. I have considered a sequel to 'A View from a Hill' called 'Do You Want to Look Through a Dead Man's Eyes?' Considerably more than three words, though...
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Mar 19, 2016 10:04:52 GMT
I have considered a sequel to 'A View from a Hill' called 'Do You Want to Look Through a Dead Man's Eyes?' Considerably more than three words, though... I snaffled one of the best three-word phrases for my own purposes: "The Angry Dead" from "The Malice of Inanimate Objects". If we're not restricted to three-word phrases there must be hundreds of good ones: MRJ did have a way with words - something which apparently came easy to him (I'm very envious, needless to say).
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Mar 19, 2016 10:11:20 GMT
The copies are mailed out over a period or a week or so (my post boy can only manage to take one bagful to the post office at a time!), so there will be some people who have had theirs for several days more than others. Mark Valentine's stories have long since demolished my "fragile hold on sanity" - well, something has, anyway. He's absolutely one of my favourite writers ("Sea Citadels" is in my top ten favourite stories of all time).
|
|
|
Post by Michael Connolly on Mar 19, 2016 11:58:36 GMT
I have considered a sequel to 'A View from a Hill' called 'Do You Want to Look Through a Dead Man's Eyes?' Considerably more than three words, though... I snaffled one of the best three-word phrases for my own purposes: "The Angry Dead" from "The Malice of Inanimate Objects". If we're not restricted to three-word phrases there must be hundreds of good ones: MRJ did have a way with words - something which apparently came easy to him (I'm very envious, needless to say). It seems that I have started something. If we don't restrict ourselves to three-word phrases or descriptions I'm sure there is much else in MRJ's works to provide titles and ideas for new stories. I have always remembered "not without saliva" in particular as it is a funny aside. As for that other memorable phrase, "a lungless laugh", Ernest Thesiger certainly has one in The Man in the White Suit. Watch (and listen to) it and you'll see what I mean. It's often on BBC2.
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Mar 19, 2016 16:33:11 GMT
It seems that I have started something. If we don't restrict ourselves to three-word phrases or descriptions I'm sure there is much else in MRJ's works to provide titles and ideas for new stories. I have always remembered "not without saliva" in particular as it is a funny aside. As for that other memorable phrase, "a lungless laugh", Ernest Thesiger certainly has one in The Man in the White Suit. Watch (and listen to) it and you'll see what I mean. It's often on BBC2. At least this is more sensible and intelligent than the very silly (and admittedly hugely entertaining) conversation I got into at a science fiction convention many years ago. It was banana themed, and we ended up created banana versions of the titles of most of MRJ's stories: "Canon Alberic's Banana", "A Neighbour's Banana", "After Dark in the Banana Fields", "The Banana of Abbot Thomas", etc. So many of them seemed to be double entendres! (And no, whilst I can't speak for the rest of the people there, I certainly wasn't drinking!)
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 19, 2016 16:53:04 GMT
Now this game I can play! Here goes . . . wait for it . . . "The Banana-Tree"!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 19, 2016 17:29:16 GMT
Now this game I can play! Here goes . . . wait for it . . . "The Banana-Tree"! By jingo, you've got it, M. Lapin! Poor MRJ. Don't know how or why, but our thread for Martin Amis's The Green Man kind of degenerated once his name was dragged into it....
|
|
|
Post by David A. Riley on Mar 19, 2016 19:04:29 GMT
Poor MRJ. Don't know how or why, but our thread for Martin Amis's The Green Man kind of degenerated once his name was dragged into it.... NNNooo! Not Martin, but his infinitely more talented father, Kingsley! A Freudian slip of the worst kind, dem.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 19, 2016 19:20:31 GMT
NNNooo! Not Martin, but his infinitely more talented father, Kingsley! A Freudian slip of the worst kind, dem. Sobriety, thy name is Satan! Mark Valentine's story doesn't disappoint, unlike my first attempt at a spoiler-laden synopsis. "Old Church. Something happens."
|
|