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Post by Knygathin on Nov 11, 2019 17:34:50 GMT
Levitation - Bradbury-esque story about a carnival hypnotist's trick that turns out not to be. "Levitation" was the one story that Aickman evidently found most worthy and selected for The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. It is the only story by Brennan I have in my personal library to look forward to . The best thing about the Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories, is that you can only read one story each of a great number of different authors. I would never have time to dive deeper than that. |
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 11, 2019 18:08:59 GMT
"Levitation" was the one story that Aickman evidently found most worthy and selected for The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. I can see why it would have appealed to Aickman, as it's a bit more surreal than is typical for Brennan - but I'd personally rate quite a few of his other stories above it. Plus, it's not actually a ghost story. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 11, 2019 18:41:12 GMT
Plus, it's not actually a ghost story. With one or two exceptions, none of Aickman's own stories are either. I think. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Nov 12, 2019 0:13:07 GMT
"Levitation" was the one story that Aickman evidently found most worthy and selected for The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. I can see why it would have appealed to Aickman, as it's a bit more surreal than is typical for Brennan - but I'd personally rate quite a few of his other stories above it. Plus, it's not actually a ghost story. I like “Levitation," though I wouldn't rate it as highly as "The Horror at Chilton Castle," "The Willow Platform," or "Canavan's Back Yard." I agree that Brennan's prose is simple, unadorned, and not at all flat. The comparison to Wellman is apt, too. |
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 12, 2019 12:06:23 GMT
I like “Levitation," though I wouldn't rate it as highly as "The Horror at Chilton Castle," "The Willow Platform," or "Canavan's Back Yard." and The Willow Platform are definitely my picks from The Shapes of Midnight. Canavan's Back Yard is the Brennan story I am most familiar with - I think I may have read it first in one of the Hitchcock anthologies - and am looking forward to giving it another go in the next few days. |
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Post by cromagnonman on Nov 12, 2019 12:36:57 GMT
Not generally recognized is the fact that Brennan also wrote a clutch of excellent sword & sorcery stories about a character called Kerza, the exiled Celt. They've never been collected - as far as I know - but you can find "Oasis of Abomination" in the Berkley Night Visions series volume DEAD IMAGE along with some other uncommon Brennan fiction. The story has a denouement that made me laugh out loud. With delight, I hasten to add, and not in derision.
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Post by humgoo on Nov 12, 2019 17:47:51 GMT
Anyone familiar with the Lucius Leffing stories? I mean to seek them out some day, as Mike Ashley rates them highly:
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 13, 2019 10:09:43 GMT
Anyone familiar with the Lucius Leffing stories? I mean to seek them out some day, as Mike Ashley rates them highly:
Don't think I've ever come across any, but there's a list here - www.thrillingdetective.com/more_eyes/lucius%20leffing.htmlA good few of these mags are available online if you can be bothered searching them out. Here's a couple of interesting quotes on wikipedia: Stefan Dziemianowicz: "Leffing began life as a psychic detective, but after his third escapade, Brennan felt compelled to minimize the supernatural content of the stories to ensure their acceptance in the mystery/detective magazines. With the revival of the horror market in the 1980s, Leffing turned ghostbuster once again - a career move that mirrors Brennan's own resurrection in the horror mainstream following his years of exile in the small press". Frank Belknap Long: "Lucius Leffing is in all respects unique. He seldom engages in dramatic confrontations on a mundane human plane, and he does not shout at the reader, his clients, or anyone else. But in his scholarly reserve and quietness there is a sagacity of a high order, a brilliance that blazes and sears and shatters the horrific as if it were a vessel of glass with the deadly precision of a rapier thrust. He has a comforting way with clients who come to him for help, for he is wise enough to know that the most fatal error a victim of dark and mysterious forces can make is to doubt his own sanity at the start. He questions nothing that he has been told until every aspect of a strangeness has been explored in depth". |
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 13, 2019 19:10:18 GMT
Three more from Nine Horrors and a Dream -
Death in Peru - a white man in Peru is cursed after having his wicked way with a young native girl; neat twist at the end, as his friend's efforts to save him go horribly wrong.
On the Elevator - something murderous gets washed into a seaside hotel after a storm; this one I think might have benefited from being just a little bit more "adorned", as there is a suggestion at the start of the story that this has something to do with a particular shipwreck, but the connection is never made clear.
The Green Parrot - whimsical ghost story; I'm not a big fan of whimsy.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Nov 14, 2019 13:49:26 GMT
Is Brennan too schlocky for Joshi? Brennan doesn't sound at all "literary" from the descriptions, though the stories are clearly effective and pack a strong punch--not qualities prized in today's academia. If you've ever read any academic articles from the last 30 years, you'll know that "punch" is absolutely the last thing they aim for. Joshi is not an academic. He is an H P Lovecraft "fanboy." He's a great deal more than that. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 14, 2019 14:30:32 GMT
Joshi is not an academic. He is an H P Lovecraft "fanboy." He's a great deal more than that. He is more than a fanboy. If by academic you mean the type of critic who bends over backwards to find significance where none is intended, I'm glad he's not an academic. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 14, 2019 14:35:21 GMT
He's a great deal more than that. He is more than a fanboy. If by academic you mean the type of critic who bends over backwards to find significance where none is intended, I'm glad he's not an academic. By academic I mean somebody affiliated with a university. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 14, 2019 14:40:16 GMT
He is more than a fanboy. If by academic you mean the type of critic who bends over backwards to find significance where none is intended, I'm glad he's not an academic. By academic I mean somebody affiliated with a university. You don't have to be affiliated with a university to be an able critic of any subject you're interested in. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 14, 2019 14:42:59 GMT
By academic I mean somebody affiliated with a university. You don't have to be affiliated with a university to be an able critic of any subject you're interested in. Of course not. But I was pointing out that Joshi is not an academic, as somebody seemed to mistakenly believe. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 14, 2019 14:48:02 GMT
You don't have to be affiliated with a university to be an able critic of any subject you're interested in. Of course not. But I was pointing out that Joshi is not an academic, as somebody seemed to mistakenly believe. I see. I admit I wasn't sure of your point. Unfortunately there are people who give too much credence to academics just because they are academics. |
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