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Post by dem bones on Mar 24, 2009 22:31:53 GMT
From what I remember of it, The Face That Must Die is, as the front cover of the MacDonald 'complete' edition (1991) proclaims, "A Horrifying Novel Of Murderous Paranoia", but it's nothing like as disturbing as Campbell's autobiographical introduction, At The Back Of My Mind: A Guided Tour Is that the one where he talks about his childhood? He had a very strange childhood ... It is. An incredibly powerful piece of writing and I should imagine, however cathartic he found it, there were sleepless nights before he decided to make it public. Very much more of a fun experience, but maybe my favourite full-length study of a branch of popular fiction is E. S. Turner's Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et. al (Michael Joseph, 1948: Penguin, 1976), a short, enthusiastic history of working man's fiction starting from the cheap plagiarised editions of The Monk & Co., through the Penny Dreadfuls and the rise of the comics. Turner paints a picture of boys, their fathers and grandfathers all enjoying a shared fondness for the adventures of daring rascals like Varney The Vampyre and the gruesome antics of Sweeney Todd on the one hand, granite jawed crime-busters from the Sexton Blake mould on the other. This, he explains, was the 'literature' the master of the house would borrow from the servants to get his racy thrills. The Dreadfuls in particular were looked upon by society in very much the same way as the E.C. comics and video nasties of the following century, and their publishers were often in hot water with the law. Turner is an author of genius, and if you've not already had the pleasure and find a copy going begging, i urge you to pick it up.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 30, 2009 15:13:48 GMT
as is his detached outlook his Cthulhu Mythos output in Cold Print. I forgot about the "Cold Print" introduction. A very honest look at his early work. Just received my copy of Duffy's and Rodwell's "The Five Quarters", which has a massive section at the back on the origins of the stories, with early synopses in full. I'm still reading the stories, but it looks like the notes are going to be a big part of the fun.
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Post by vaughan on Jul 30, 2009 14:00:59 GMT
If they're from the author - I'll definitely read them.
If they're from someone else.... I'm not all that interested. Those I have read are gushing publicity numbers without anything interesting to say. (I just read the intro to Barker's "Book of Blood" by Ramsey Campbell, and it's quite poor..... gushing.... how good.... blah blah blah. Basically a longer version of cover quotes: "Better than bread!"
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