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Post by marksamuels on May 9, 2008 15:43:52 GMT
He got old. Mark S.
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on May 9, 2008 19:54:11 GMT
I'm afraid I got as far as mention of the love of my life, James Herbert and I couldn't read the rest before I intervened, so if I'm saying anything daft, it's because I've only read half the thread! The whole point of a James Herbert novel IS to be stunned by the complete overthetopness. They're tidy, well-rounded and completely formulaic. Edith Pargeter's Cadfael novels have been described as "cosy as a teapot", well, James Herberts novels are exactly that, the horror version. There's something very comfy in knowing what to expect and when. And despite that, they're STILL very entertaining. Nobody True was hilariously funny, the said scene with the Arabs and the walking female corpse was a fantastic mix of nastiness and dry humour. Many folk don't see the funny side, but virtually evrything Herbert writes has a sly dig at the fallibilities of basic human nature. But the main point is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with sex and violence in horror novels, as unnecessary and overdone as one could care to have it. There is a vast choice of reading material out there, and barring choosing something and finding you don't like it (in my case, Phil Rickman), there's no need for anyone to read anything that would put them off horror. Admittedly, most of the people on this board are fairly "intellectual", clever, bright, whatever you want to call it, and may prefer something a little more stimulating to the grey matter than graphic blood, guts etc, but there's plenty of folk like me out there too, who love the gratuitous bits purely for the sake of it. Both ends of the scale are valid, and every shade between. I will admit to never having read a Shaun Hutson, and I gave up after the first two pages of my first Anne Rice, so I've no idea of their respective contents, but my two favourite horror novels are poles apart. Nazareth Hill and Creed. And the one that comes out in front is Creed. After all, the action opens with a man hidden in a mausoleum secretly filming an oap masturbating on to a freshly filled grave, it doesn't get more entertaining than that, folks!!! Most of my personal reading material is reference/non fiction, I love to absorb information, that's just me, but when I read horror, I want to be horrified by the sheer horribleness of it
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Post by bushwick on May 21, 2008 16:56:29 GMT
Nothing's really put me off horror, but i get depressed by any sort of late-90s-on future-goth-vampire sort of vibe. Read City Infernal by Edward Lee expecting big things as had read a few passages of The Bighead, and it was pretty terrible I thought. A 'hardcore Buffy' kind of teen goth girl vibe. Quite gory, but the gore read as if it was CGI effects, if you follow me.
Have never read anything that I've found too gross and disturbing really. Saying that, have come across snuff-style writing posted on the internet a few years ago that was horrible and I would not care to read, but this is really violent pronography, designed for very sexually disturbed people. I wouldn't call it horror. Child abuse is very hard to read about. Has anyone heard of Peter Sotos, who used to be in Whitehouse? Very controversial author who deals with his own violent sexual obsessions, over and over again. Again, I wouldn't call it horror...although I could imahine a very persuasive argument to say it actually is. It's very effective, brutal writing, but after a while just becomes incredibly dull and numbing (which is possibly the point).
As for 'proper' horror, nothing has gone too far for me. The pulpy stuff like "The Witches" or "Eat Them Alive" is just funny. Charles Birkin is excellent, sad, funny and tragic but doesn't disturb me. Steven King used to annoy me when I read him as a kid, taking 150 pages before anything bloody horrific happened.
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coral
New Face In Hell
Posts: 3
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Post by coral on May 24, 2008 20:04:14 GMT
I tend to agree with the Stephen King thing! I have started most of them at some point or another but have only finished a couple, they're so boring to begin with that I lose interest. Another thing I noticed in some of them, and I don't know if anyone else would agree, is that they read in such a bizarrely random fashion that the only way to follow them comfortably is to imbibe a cocktail of drink and drugs before you start! Not something I'm prepared to do, boring old f*rt that I am!
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