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Post by redbrain on May 21, 2008 13:23:35 GMT
Michel Parry (ed.) - The 2nd Mayflower Book of Black Magic Stories (Mayflower, 1974)  Les EdwardsThe Likeness of Julie - Richard Matheson Sanctuary - E F Benson The Violinist - Aleister Crowley The Return of the Sorcerer - Clark Ashton Smith Upon the Dull Earth - Philip K Dick The Witch-Finder - Frederick Cowles Kosem Kesmim the Magician - Edward Bulwer Lytton The Seal of Solomon the Great - Warden Allan Curtis The Necromancers - Marjorie Bowen Dig Me No Grave - Robert E Howard The Eye of the Beholder - Roland Caine The Spider - Hans Heinz Ewers The Children of Ubasti - Seabury Quinn I'm reading my way through this book. On the whole, the best stories don't strike me as black magic ones. The poorer stories (some by good writers) leave me wondering whether there's something rather childish about the whole idea of black magic. I intend to review the individual stories on this thread in due course.
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Post by sean on May 21, 2008 13:27:57 GMT
I recently encountered 'The Spider' for the first time and was very impressed indeed.
The PKD story 'Upon the Dull Earth' is the one that is almost always picked up by horror anthology editors, which is a pity as there are others just as good that lean towards the horrific.
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Post by redbrain on Jun 10, 2008 15:05:28 GMT
OK - I finished reading the book this afternoon. Here's the start of what I thought of the stories:
The Likeness of Julie - Richard Matheson. I first read this in Shock 2 in the 1960s. At the time, I was very impressed with it. And, re-reading it in 2008, I'm still impressed. An excellent story. But is it a black magic story? It certainly concerns someone with remarkable powers, but I wouldn't call it a black magic story.
Sanctuary - E F Benson. E F Benson wrote some truly excellent stories. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. In fact it's a mess, and the author's reputation would have been enhanced by its supression. Maybe all the mumbo jumbo would mean something to a catholic. I have the great good fortune not to be - or ever to have been - a catholic. This was the first story in the book to suggest to me that there was something infantile about the very idea of black magic. It wasn't the last.
The Violinist - Aleister Crowley. the only good thing about this is that it's very short. How the pompous self-important Aleister Crowley ever convinced anyone that his bilge was worth publishing is a mystery. However, this short piece may serve as a salutory indication of how fatuous Crowley was.
The Return of the Sorcerer - Clark Ashton Smith. Like E F Benson, Clark Ashton Smith wrote some truly excellent stories. Again, unfortunately, this is not one of them. This is a tedious and predictable pot boiler with little or nothing to recommend it.
Upon the Dull Earth - Philip K Dick. This is a good story. The characters are irritating - but it is a very good story. I don't think that it has anything to do with black magic - but, by this point in the book, I was convinced that was a very good thing.
More on the remainder of the stories in due course.
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Post by pulphack on Jun 10, 2008 17:29:08 GMT
the key thing about black magic books is contained in your comment on Crowley - fatuous! most of it is, both in fact and fiction, and perhaps the good mr parry was slyly pointing this out by bending the definitions to fill the comission! usually, people who really believe in black magic, and who i've had the misfortune to encounter, are quite delusional.
anyway, michel was only following the Wheatley dictum - black magic = salacious = sales, and when they've got the book home, well, they've already banged their money down!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 10, 2008 18:40:18 GMT
P K Dick - Bleak, horrific, humorous brilliant. Crowley was fatuous (what a great word that is) But you have to give him the benefit of writing from a previous generations angle. He used 'thou' in poetry a lot and didn't think it looked stupid...
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Post by redbrain on Jun 10, 2008 19:44:26 GMT
the key thing about black magic books is contained in your comment on Crowley - fatuous! most of it is, both in fact and fiction, and perhaps the good mr parry was slyly pointing this out by bending the definitions to fill the comission! usually, people who really believe in black magic, and who i've had the misfortune to encounter, are quite delusional. anyway, michel was only following the Wheatley dictum - black magic = salacious = sales, and when they've got the book home, well, they've already banged their money down! Good point - and he shoved some good stories in, as well as the black magic ones. I shouldn't complain that they're not all black magic stories.  |
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Post by dem on Jun 11, 2008 10:13:48 GMT
Author's Note I desire to state that I, personally, have never assisted at, participated in, any ceremony connected with Magic — Black or White.
The literature of occultism is so immense that any conscientious writer can obtain from it abundant material for the background of a romance such as this.
In the present case I have spared no pains to secure accuracy of detail from existing accounts when describing magical rites formulas for protection against evil, and these have been verificated in conversation with certain persons, sought out for that purpous who are actual practitioners of the Art.
All the characters and situations in this book are entire imaginary but, in the inquiry necessary to the writing of it; I found ample evidence that Black Magic is still practised in London, and other cities, at the present day.
Should any of my readers incline to a serious study of subject, and thus come into contact with a man or woman of Power, I feel that it is only right to urge them, most strongly, to refrain from being drawn into the practice of the Secret Art in any way. My own observations have led me to an absolute conviction that to do so would bring them into dangers of a very real and concrete nature.— Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out, (Hutchison, 1934) Warning The stories in this book are fiction, but Magic, Black or White, is real and is best left to experienced Magicians. Under no circumstances should the Reader attempt to carry out the rituals or invocations described in these pages. The Editor and Publishers will not be held responsible for the consequences in cases where this warning has been ignored.— Michel Parry, The Mayflower Book Of Black Magic Stories (1974) I'm not sure which is my favourite come-on, but I've a feeling that Wheatley was taking the piss to begin with, which would make Michel's oh-so-heartfelt 'Warning' a parody of a parody. For what it's worth, they're all 'Black Magic' stories. It's just you might disagree with the editor's take on what constitutes 'Black Magic'. The Likeness Of Julie, The Witchfinder, the Seebs' pulp romp The Children of Ubast and The Spider, Ewers' remake of Erckmann-Chatrian's classic The Invisible Eye - concerning a spate of suicides by hanging for which the Police can find no apparent reason - are my picks. Aleister Crowley - The Violinist: Lily summons the boy demon Remenu with her manic playing. The love-making is joyless and degrading but it achieves her purpose as he bestows upon her the kiss of death. Wait ’til her tiresome boyfriend gets home. I get on with Crowley's fiction a lot better than I do with his serious hocus pocus mumbo jumbo which I can't make head or tail of, but this is probably the weakest of the Great Beast's stories Michel saw fit to include in the series. Frederick Cowles - The Witch Finder: Madingley, East Anglia. Master Hugh Murray, a contemporary of the infamous Matthew Hopkins, falls into the clutches of Alice Lane and her mother old Margaret Bell. But how can that be? The one he recently tortured and gibbeted, the other he tortured and burnt at the stake five years ago. Now he’s safely strapped to the rack the two get to work. Needless to say they show him as much mercy as he did them in this revolting six pager. Warden Allen Curtis - The Seal Of Solomen The Great: The swinish McGear, a government appointed hindrance to an archaeological team exploring Lower Chaldea, infuriates the team and alienates the locals with his boorish behaviour. Hoping to be rid of him for a few days Deming, Horton and the narrator take a fishing sloop and three Arab hands to explore the coastline but McGear insists on accompanying them, guzzles all the water and leaves them seething and dangerously dehydrated. The adventure isn’t an entire disappointment: Horton hauls in a leaden casket which freaks out the Arabs as it bears an inscription to the effect that it contains the spirit of the genie Sacar. McGear is insistent that it actually contains a bottle of impossibly old Cypriot wine and before anyone can stop him he’s broken the seal and downed the contents with explosive results … Can't wait for the Redder's reaction to Seabury Quinn ...... |
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Post by pulphack on Jun 11, 2008 10:20:45 GMT
that's a fair point craig, about crowley writing from a previous generation's point of view. that colours all fiction, i guess... but i still think crowley was a knob (a bit more blunt that fatuous, but heartfelt). he had some good ideas, but he was a complete and utter knob. i have to agree with my mate paul, who loves crowley because he thinks that he was funnier than will hay (though i do prefer 'oh mr porter' to 'moonchild').
i'd like to think that wheatley was taking the piss, but i kind of doubt it. from what little (admittedly) there is of biographical material, it doesn't seem the way his sense of humour ran.
michel certainly was, though... come on, we know you read this, own up! i, for one, don't care. it's all good clean fun.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 11, 2008 11:39:09 GMT
Well, I am not in a big hurry to defend Crowley. I read a lot of his stuff about ten years ago and was struck by the fact that he had enormous and varied talents but that he was also a knob.
His parents were extreme Christians hence the reactions later.
I always was struck by the futility of the magicians path. he spent virtually a lifetime learning things so that he could sit in the darkness of the great pyramid and spontaneously fill it with a weird inner light. My instant thought was - candle, lamp, little torch?
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Post by redbrain on Jun 12, 2008 12:36:51 GMT
Continuing my exploration of the stories...
The Witch-Finder - Frederick Cowles. A vengeful ghost (not black magic) story, but not a very good one. Leaving aside the problem of how the fuck could anyone know that had happened, the torture sequence, on which the story rests, just doesn't work. The author doesn't convince me that he has any idea of how the tortures would feel - but neither does he leave me space to exert my imagination. Besides that, the sequence of tortures just doesn't make sense. They don't seem to procede (as one might expect) from least painful to most agonising. Furthermore, if torture is designed to elicit information, why is one that prevents the person from speaking inserted near the start?
Kosem Kesmim the Magician - Edward Bulwer Lytton. This does seem to be a magic story, though I'm not sure about the colour of the magic. It's interesting to see a story mentioned in Mike Ashley's Who's Who that isn't often reprinted. That said, I didn't have to read far to discover why it isn't often reprinted. I note that it exhibits some of the weaknesses of Hodgson's Night Land - notably that it's written in a pseudo-archaic form of English and that it inclines to soppiness. If trimmed of its soppiness and verbosity (perhaps to a quarter of its length) and written in the normal English of 1832, this might have been quite a good story. As it stands, it's a mess. It often found me mocking it as I read. When I came to this, for instance:
Then Lyciah saw that I was moved, and she soothed me into rest with the coo of her sweet songs.
My thoughts ran on the coo of a number of girl punk or rock singers. After a few moments, I settled to visualising (or whatever the audio equivalent of visualising is) Robyn's sweet song Jack U Off.
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Post by redbrain on Jun 17, 2008 10:05:45 GMT
Moving on...
The Seal of Solomon the Great - Warden Allan Curtis. This one is very short, and would be a lot better were not so much of it taken up with persuading us to dislike McGear. I think I can say that it's the only story I've ever read in which a climactic event quite like this one takes place. No black magic in it (as far as I can see) -- but that's no bad thing... But having said that...
The Necromancers - Marjorie Bowen. This is about black magic. And has a brilliant take on the subject. An excellent story. I don't want to say any more for fear of throwing in a spoiler. Well -- just one thing -- read it!
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Post by dem on Jun 17, 2008 10:38:47 GMT
Continuing my exploration of the stories... The Witch-Finder - Frederick Cowles. A vengeful ghost (not black magic) story, but not a very good one. Leaving aside the problem of how the fuck could anyone know that had happened, the torture sequence, on which the story rests, just doesn't work. The author doesn't convince me that he has any idea of how the tortures would feel - but neither does he leave me space to exert my imagination. Besides that, the sequence of tortures just doesn't make sense. They don't seem to procede (as one might expect) from least painful to most agonising. Furthermore, if torture is designed to elicit information, why is one that prevents the person from speaking inserted near the start? By rights, I should re-read the Cowles story before commenting as doubtless i've got it wrong for a change and am opening myself up for all sorts, but could it be that the torturer isn't in the least interested in obtaining information? It seems to me that Cowles is emphasising that his (typically) black-hearted Inquisitor is only concerned with inflicting as much pain as possible because that's how he gets his thrills. The 'Black Magic' element is there for me. It's the means by which the women made sure they'd return from the grave and have their revenge. Cowles is a sensationalist writer, much of his work would qualify as Jamesian pulp if such a genre existed beyond his writing, so I think you're expecting maybe a little too much from him, Redders. It's not intended as "literature". |
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Post by redbrain on Jun 17, 2008 15:27:48 GMT
Continuing my exploration of the stories... The Witch-Finder - Frederick Cowles. A vengeful ghost (not black magic) story, but not a very good one. Leaving aside the problem of how the fuck could anyone know that had happened, the torture sequence, on which the story rests, just doesn't work. The author doesn't convince me that he has any idea of how the tortures would feel - but neither does he leave me space to exert my imagination. Besides that, the sequence of tortures just doesn't make sense. They don't seem to procede (as one might expect) from least painful to most agonising. Furthermore, if torture is designed to elicit information, why is one that prevents the person from speaking inserted near the start? By rights, I should re-read the Cowles story before commenting as doubtless i've got it wrong for a change and am opening myself up for all sorts, but could it be that the torturer isn't in the least interested in obtaining information? It seems to me that Cowles is emphasising that his (typically) black-hearted Inquisitor is only concerned with inflicting as much pain as possible because that's how he gets his thrills. The 'Black Magic' element is there for me. It's the means by which the women made sure they'd return from the grave and have their revenge. Cowles is a sensationalist writer, much of his work would qualify as Jamesian pulp if such a genre existed beyond his writing, so I think you're expecting maybe a little too much from him, Redders. It's not intended as "literature". Maybe, Janitor. But if the inquitor is in it for the thrills, isn't that all the more reason to start with the milder tortures and work progressively to the most extreme? And even the most thrill-bent inquisitor (surely) would need at least to pretend to be in search of information. |
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Post by redbrain on Jun 24, 2008 16:35:18 GMT
Approaching the end of the book, now. Dig Me No Grave - Robert E Howard. Like Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E Howard wrote some very good stories -- but this is not one of them. Indeed, like CAS, REH is probably not at his best when setting stories in the 20th century USA. The dialogue is peculiarly unconvincing. On being awoken during the night to be told that some geezer has died, the narrator responds with "Indeed? I had not known that he was ill." I was surprised by this sentence: "He had ignored the white side of the occult and delved into the darker, grimmer phases of it -- into devil-worship, and voodoo and Shintoism." I believe that voodoo is not the evil cult that it has been portrayed -- but Shintoism, surely that's a perfectly respectable religion?... Anyway, the story is an unconvincing mess with the air of something cooked up for no reason other to pay for a week's groceries. Mr Howard had a right to eat, but did this need to be reprinted? Curiously, I find that I own the story in more than one book. Why?  ? The Eye of the Beholder - Roland Caine. At just two pages, this is a neat little tale. Worthy of such a writer as Frederic Brown -- and that's some praise. |
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Post by dem on Jun 25, 2008 17:32:51 GMT
The Eye of the Beholder - Roland Caine. At just two pages, this is a neat little tale. Worthy of such a writer as Frederic Brown -- and that's some praise. .... and his Red Christmas in the fifth book is a wonderful, outrageous horror story. Four year old Nugent Mason is so looking forward to Christmas Eve for, as he repeatedly explains to his exasperated parents, that's when Satan Claws will bring him his presents. Mum Alice and dad Frank wonder where the little tyke gets his wild ideas from .... |
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