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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 6, 2019 18:26:59 GMT
Is this good literature, like Charles Birkin? Is this one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't type questions?
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Post by helrunar on Dec 6, 2019 18:37:50 GMT
Never having read anything by Mr. Smith (I am not sure if his books ever circulated much here in the US), for me having learned about him through the medium of this forum, the most archetypal title has to be The Sucking Pit, followed inevitably by Crabs on the Rampage.
The title Crab's Moon inevitably suggests that, overworked and underpaid, Mr. Smith's lead Crab performer from his crustacean stable finally gave his employer a piece of his arse... er, I mean, mind.
cheers, H.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2019 19:05:07 GMT
Typical or not, I can recommend "Locusts" and "Accursed".
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 6, 2019 21:50:04 GMT
Is this good literature, like Charles Birkin? Is this one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't type questions? Nooo, it's all in good-natured innocent curiosity.
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Post by bluetomb on Dec 6, 2019 23:02:50 GMT
Is this good literature, like Charles Birkin? (Some say seemingly ashamed that they read Birkin only to be shocked, but that it's garbage literature. I don't agree. He is an excellent writer. A fine thinker.) If I were to read only one book by Guy N. Smith, what would you recommend? Something typical and representative. Which is his best crab monster book? How does The Festering compare? (I cast a horrified glance at it, and then shrugged. But I am willing to crawl back and be overwhelmed and have my mind blasted.) Good literature would be a stretch with Guy N Smith. He's more of a good old pulp hack, something like one of the video favourite Italian trash cinema makers as an English writer. But I think his work has its charms. He's worked long and hard enough, with imagination and a personal touch, to have made his own literary world, that of an old fashioned eccentric English reactionary who loves grisly horror and sleaze but also the countryside and the very act of storytelling, one that is certainly un PC, and to my mind (mileage may vary of course and this is just opinion rather than exactly criticism as such) can occasionally veer into the odious, but has flashes of sympathy and insight and is more often amusing and charming and offbeat. I think he writes well of the countryside and country living, he evidently knows it well and can conjure it simply and efficiently with just a vital dash of transporting power. When he's concentrating he can do atmosphere, suspense, action pretty nicely. So far I like best when he gets supernatural though, he can work up quite a potent queasy, unhinged fervour. All this being said, the quality of every part of his writing can vary wildly from book to book. So, say, characters might be overtly obnoxious or useless, the plotting might be flagrantly sketchy, ignorant of its potential, or weirdly skirt the good parts, and the good parts might be infuriatingly underwritten. Also the endings can tend to not be very good. And any of these problems might be mingled with moments of great satisfaction. One of the real experts around these parts would be best placed to recommend an ideal taster. I feel like Deathbell may be a good bet, though I think my favourite so far might just be Carnivore. Includes the line "what chance did they stand against this army of attacking pheasants?", if that piques your interest at all.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 6, 2019 23:21:38 GMT
Is this good literature, like Charles Birkin? (Some say seemingly ashamed that they read Birkin only to be shocked, but that it's garbage literature. I don't agree. He is an excellent writer. A fine thinker.) If I were to read only one book by Guy N. Smith, what would you recommend? Something typical and representative. Which is his best crab monster book? How does The Festering compare? (I cast a horrified glance at it, and then shrugged. But I am willing to crawl back and be overwhelmed and have my mind blasted.) Good literature would be a stretch with Guy N Smith. He's more of a good old pulp hack, something like one of the video favourite Italian trash cinema makers as an English writer. But I think his work has its charms. He's worked long and hard enough, with imagination and a personal touch, to have made his own literary world, that of an old fashioned eccentric English reactionary who loves grisly horror and sleaze but also the countryside and the very act of storytelling, one that is certainly un PC, and to my mind (mileage may vary of course and this is just opinion rather than exactly criticism as such) can occasionally veer into the odious, but has flashes of sympathy and insight and is more often amusing and charming and offbeat. I think he writes well of the countryside and country living, he evidently knows it well and can conjure it simply and efficiently with just a vital dash of transporting power. When he's concentrating he can do atmosphere, suspense, action pretty nicely. So far I like best when he gets supernatural though, he can work up quite a potent queasy, unhinged fervour. All this being said, the quality of every part of his writing can vary wildly from book to book. So, say, characters might be overtly obnoxious or useless, the plotting might be flagrantly sketchy, ignorant of its potential, or weirdly skirt the good parts, and the good parts might be infuriatingly underwritten. Also the endings can tend to not be very good. And any of these problems might be mingled with moments of great satisfaction. One of the real experts around these parts would be best placed to recommend an ideal taster. I feel like Deathbell may be a good bet, though I think my favourite so far might just be Carnivore. Includes the line "what chance did they stand against this army of attacking pheasants?", if that piques your interest at all. A wonderfully apt & memorable description of GNS's writing style, I stand (ok, sit) in awe!
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Post by bluetomb on Dec 6, 2019 23:38:31 GMT
Why thank you! I think about Smith a lot, his work is one of my happy more relaxing reading projects and I find it quite fascinating. He is even something of a national treasure I feel.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 7, 2019 20:53:56 GMT
Very good description of Smith. His knowledge and love for the country is evident in his stories.
I often take one of his old novels and re-read it. There are no writers like him today.
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 9, 2019 15:50:36 GMT
... One of the real experts around these parts would be best placed to recommend an ideal taster. I feel like Deathbell may be a good bet, though I think my favourite so far might just be Carnivore. Includes the line "what chance did they stand against this army of attacking pheasants?", if that piques your interest at all. I assume you have something particular in mind with that quote, relating to the surrounding story text. Not much to go by, but I do sense humor, of a subtly un-PC misanthropic kind, perhaps. Yea, it piques my interest. You description of his writing sounds appealing; I also find that heart and passion in stories can richly compensate sometimes for inattentive technique. When you say "supernatural", do you by that mean physical horrors (giant bugs, snipped off heads, horrible bubbling deceases, etc)? Or also an accomplished handling of the spiritual, like ghostly, demonic, magical, and sorcerous?
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Post by Knygathin on Dec 10, 2019 17:05:55 GMT
I stretched the meaning of supernatural, to include what is normally termed "science fiction" and "horror". With supernatural is usually meant spiritual forces, of course. But I tend to see anything that is out of the ordinary as being supernatural, including giant crabs. Sorry about the confusion.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 10, 2019 17:16:49 GMT
Is this one of those damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't type questions? Yes and no.
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Post by bluetomb on Dec 12, 2019 13:31:11 GMT
... One of the real experts around these parts would be best placed to recommend an ideal taster. I feel like Deathbell may be a good bet, though I think my favourite so far might just be Carnivore. Includes the line "what chance did they stand against this army of attacking pheasants?", if that piques your interest at all. I assume you have something particular in mind with that quote, relating to the surrounding story text. Not much to go by, but I do sense humor, of a subtly un-PC misanthropic kind, perhaps. Yea, it piques my interest. You description of his writing sounds appealing; I also find that heart and passion in stories can richly compensate sometimes for inattentive technique. When you say "supernatural", do you by that mean physical horrors (giant bugs, snipped off heads, horrible bubbling deceases, etc)? Or also an accomplished handling of the spiritual, like ghostly, demonic, magical, and sorcerous? Un-PC and misanthropic would be a good summation of most of the little discernible humour in GNS. He's not much for jokes and a lot of the humour people find in him comes more from observing his tropes at bay or his fondness for italics of doom and similar histrionics, but it's probably fair to say that he isn't unaware of the absurdly comic potential in the matters he gets into, and does have a bit of a smile about him sometimes. Some of the descriptions of, and fates that befall, characters that he personally doesn't care for mostly. Although in the case of the pheasants the character in danger is broadly a goodie. Physical horror is rarely too far away, but he does get into possession, ghosts, curses, and other forces from beyond the veil. They just tend to be the kind of forces that do gruesome things. When he really gets on a hot streak though, like the final block of Accursed, the physical and supernatural wind together in quite a far out fashion.
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 23, 2020 11:23:22 GMT
Probably first pick a crab book.
Night of the Crabs, Killer Crabs, or Crabs on the Rampage. Well seasoned among fans. Which of the three gives the most goodly wholesome entertainment and rompy shocks?
The Slime Beast may be another option. Seems to be one of his classics. And the concept (judging from the title and cover) is down my 50s and 70s horror alley.
Or perhaps, ... *looking at about a few hundred other titles* ... hmm, yeeah ... hmm, yeeah ... .
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Post by Knygathin on Jan 24, 2020 10:39:29 GMT
Thanks for your appreciation Swampirella. I think you can understand a bit of my dilemma (with To Be Read Piles and other stuff ever towering up to precarious heights), and get some of my understated humor without being offended by it.
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