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Post by Michael Connolly on Jul 15, 2022 21:34:02 GMT
Thanks, Dr Strange! I looked up Dark Gods on an annoyingly ubiquitous online retail site, and the book seems to be available for around $22. I'm definitely a down-sitting rather than upstanding middle-aged (or, let's face it, getting on to elderly) white guy since I find the endless proliferation of re-enactments, videogames and documentaries endlessly rehashing the Civil War and WW II to be a crashing bore. But, de gustibus, etc. I wonder if T.E.D.'s dramatic change of life had to do with a marriage. I had a friend decades ago who loved reading and conversing about books. While I was living abroad, he met and married a veterinarian whose interests largely revolving around "birding." Subsequently whenever we met the care of domestic pets and various excursions in search of sightings of the yellow-bellied sapsucker became his chief topics of conversation, and there were numerous awkward silences. It was kind of sad because he became very boring to be around at that point. cheers, Hel Yellow-bellied sapsuckers? The interesting things you learn on the Vault!
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Post by Dr Strange on Jul 15, 2022 21:44:08 GMT
Klein seems to have struggled with "writer's block". It apparently took him more than 5 years to write The Ceremonies, and a second novel (Nighttown) that was announced in 1985 never appeared.
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Post by mrhappy on Jul 16, 2022 5:22:49 GMT
He only wrote five horror tales? As well as the novel The Ceremonies (1984), which is an extended version of "The Events at Poroth Farm", isfdb.org lists the following short stories - "The Events at Poroth Farm" (1972) - in The Year's Best Horror Stories No.3 ed. Richard Davis (1973) "Renaissance Man" (1974) - in Space 2 ed. Richard Davis (this seems to be SF rather than horror) "S.F." (1975) - in The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series III ed. Richard Davis (1975) "Magic Carpet" (1976) - in Spectre 4 ed. Richard Davis (1977) "Petey" (1979) - in the Dark Gods collection (1985) "Black Man With A Horn" (1980) - in the Dark Gods collection (1985) "Children of the Kingdom" (1980) - in the Dark Gods collection (1985) "Nadelman's God" (1985) - in the Dark Gods collection (1985) "Well-Connected" (1987) - in Weird Tales, Spring 1988 "Camera Shy" (1988) - in 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories ed. Stefan Dziemianowicz, Martin H. Greenberg & Robert Weinberg (1995) "They Don't Write 'em Like This Anymore" (1989) - in Pulp Magazine #1 (March 1989) "Ladder" (1990) - in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 4 ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (1991) "One Size Eats All" (1993) - in Best New Horror 5 ed.Stephen Jones & Ramsey Campbell (1994) "Curtains For Nat Crumley" (1996) - in The Ultimate Haunted House ed. Nancy A Collins & Gahan Wilson "Growing Things" (1999) - in The Mammoth Book of New Horror 11 ed. Stephen Jones (2000) "Imagining Things" (2007) - in 666: The Number of the BeastFor those looking to scratch their Klein itch beyond The Ceremonies and Dark Gods I recommend picking up the re-issue of Reassuring Tales that was released last year. It includes almost everything not included in Dark Gods. Mr Happy
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 21, 2022 9:57:30 GMT
He only wrote five horror tales? He is still alive. He could still write another one if he felt like it. Alas, I fear he doesn't.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 21, 2022 10:59:09 GMT
At the weekend I took Nadelman's God and Black Man with a Horn from the shelf and re-read them. Both are still wonderful written, timeless stories.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 25, 2022 12:33:52 GMT
I read "Black Man with a Horn" this morning in an anthology. Not what I was expecting, but I really liked it.
I'm staying with elderly family members this week in South Florida; Klein really captured the pervading malaise of this region, a malaise to which most residents appear to be oblivious, of course.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 26, 2022 8:12:12 GMT
I read "Black Man with a Horn" this morning in an anthology. Not what I was expecting, but I really liked it. I'm staying with elderly family members this week in South Florida; Klein really captured the pervading malaise of this region, a malaise to which most residents appear to be oblivious, of course. H. Considering this story is 40 year old, this says a lot.
According to a few reviews I read over the time it is supposed to be kind of a hommage to Belknap Long. Some of the digs on publishing are still worthy a smile. "If the Necronomicon actually existed, it would be out in Bantam paperback with a preface by Lin Carter."
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Post by helrunar on Jul 26, 2022 11:59:17 GMT
Yes--I loved that line about the Necronomicon! As I'm sure everyone in the Vault is aware, a version of it was indeed issued as a US trade paperback, but from Avon (one of the high circulation houses of the era). The author was one Peter Levenda who wrote, and more or less did occult performance art, under the name Simon. For fanciers of 1970s supernatural horror TV films produced in America, as well as the occultoid rumpus in a certain fringe circle in New York City of the era, this tape recording of "Simon" earnestly describing how to pronounce Sumerian God and Demon names in the "Necronomicon" (note: Sumerian has been a dead language for close to four thousand years) is, well, an unusual artifact: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJKD8CU0CBoI didn't know that David Warner appeared in a film version of Cool Air; will have to look for that. I did love him as the Devil in Time Bandits. cheers, Steve
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Post by andydecker on Jul 26, 2022 14:37:56 GMT
Yes--I loved that line about the Necronomicon! As I'm sure everyone in the Vault is aware, a version of it was indeed issued as a US trade paperback, but from Avon (one of the high circulation houses of the era). The author was one Peter Levenda who wrote, and more or less did occult performance art, under the name Simon. For fanciers of 1970s supernatural horror TV films produced in America, as well as the occultoid rumpus in a certain fringe circle in New York City of the era, this tape recording of "Simon" earnestly describing how to pronounce Sumerian God and Demon names in the "Necronomicon" (note: Sumerian has been a dead language for close to four thousand years) is, well, an unusual artifact: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJKD8CU0CBoI didn't know that David Warner appeared in a film version of Cool Air; will have to look for that. I did love him as the Devil in Time Bandits. cheers, Steve It is the second short film in the movie Necronomicon (also called H. P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon) 1993 anthology horror film. It is directed by Brian Yuzna, Christophe Gans and Shusuke Kaneko. Jeffrey Combs stars as Lovecraft in the wraparound story. It is a fun movie.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 26, 2022 17:07:19 GMT
I need to catch up with some of the oeuvre of Jeffrey Combs. He's a cult actor amongst many of the people who read the same books as me, but I have yet to see him in anything at all. I think he was in that weird 80s version of the Herbert West Reanimator storyettes... it might be a bit too Eighties for me, though. I think I mentioned that I have issues with Eighties art direction. The Eighties wasn't a terribly happy period for me and I didn't care for the styles that came in then.
Thanks for the info! I'm definitely interested in that omnibus film.
cheers, Steve
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Post by Dr Strange on Jul 26, 2022 18:32:52 GMT
I need to catch up with some of the oeuvre of Jeffrey Combs. He puts in a memorable performance in Peter Jackson's horror-comedy The Frighteners (1996), playing an unhinged FBI agent with a Hitler haircut.
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Post by humgoo on Aug 10, 2022 9:04:31 GMT
I added my vote for "Black Man with a Horn" I've voted for "Nadelman's God". I think I have a thing for this "did I really create it with my imagination, or has it existed all along" type of story. I also agree with what you said in another thread: "Petey" is the lone Klein novella that left me cold. The absence of an engaging protagonist may have had something to do with it. "Petey" is technically perfect (not that I can judge these things, but this seems to be the consensus among THOSE WHO KNOW BETTER), but I just found myself not going straight to it whenever I wanted to re-read the stories.
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