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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 24, 2012 22:35:27 GMT
Makes for an interesting debate - not necessarily the best Horror story but the one story that did really traumatise you as a young kid. For me it could have been The Copper Bowl by Eliot, The Emmisary or perhaps the Little Girl Eater by Dale. I'd need to have a long look at the old nightmares. I remember being terrified when I was read "The Red Lodge" from More Tales to Tremble By - must have been 7 or 8 maybe. And a teacher reading the class a story called "As Boys to Wanton Flies."
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 7:06:20 GMT
I read "The October Game" last night. I don't know in this case, but I think the story is too ambiguous and unclear, or too much about the frustrated, emotionally complex thoughts in the head of an adult, for kids to react with real horror.
I found it mostly sad, about an unhappy family situation.
The gleeful kids were well and lovingly conceived.
But if he had actually done the horrible act in the end, the boy running to look for the girl would have had his hands all messed up. Much too ambigous, and rather leaning towards happy end. The end comment is also expressed in the enacted spirit of the game. I think Bradbury was way too good-natured and family oriented to take such a story all the way.
Never really heard of the "dead witch" game before. Ingenious. I'm sure it must be taken from real life, and actually practiced in some homes.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 25, 2012 8:17:53 GMT
I read "The October Game" last night. I don't know in this case, but I think the story is too ambiguous and unclear, or too much about the frustrated, emotionally complex thoughts in the head of an adult, for kids to react with real horror. It is about a father who kills his own child. That is guaranteed to strike a chord with children. In fact, although I am no child psychologist, I am sure that it is the single most frightening thing a child could imagine.
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 9:00:52 GMT
It is about a father who kills his own child. That is guaranteed to strike a chord with children. In fact, although I am no child psychologist, I am sure that it is the single most frightening thing a child could imagine. Yes, I agree. But I'm not convinced he does it. I think it stays on a mental plane. Lots of forbidden thoughts pass through a person, never finding outlet. The story implies by the events that he maybe kills her, but the thought is actually never even formulated in his head. Another thought is formulated in his head though, that of running away with the girl to hurt his wife.
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 9:30:34 GMT
Bradbury's The Emissary would certainly keep all the little one's in shock for the whole long evening Yes, but "The October Game" would traumatize them for life. "Call of Cthulhu" is an entirely different ball-game. Now, if the kids had fully realized, completely comprehended the horror when gelatinous Cthulhu emerges from the crypt, emitting his odious poisonous vibrations through the air, and seen the warped dimensions of the architectural stones, they would have been institutionalized in mental hospitals, at the tender age of four or five, for the rest of their lives. And never again been let outside its walls. For they would have fits, thrashing about so badly, being a potential danger to people around them. ;D
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 9:57:51 GMT
It is about a father who kills his own child. That is guaranteed to strike a chord with children. In fact, although I am no child psychologist, I am sure that it is the single most frightening thing a child could imagine. Yes, I agree. But I'm not convinced he does it. I think it stays on a mental plane. Lots of forbidden thoughts pass through a person, never finding outlet. The story implies by the events that he maybe kills her, but the thought is actually never even formulated in his head. Another thought is formulated in his head though, that of running away with the girl to hurt his wife. I can imagine that this story strikes a personal note in some people, perhaps a stirring of emotional memory, and who therefore find it especially unpleasant.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Oct 25, 2012 12:54:57 GMT
Bradbury's The Emissary would certainly keep all the little one's in shock for the whole long evening Yes, but "The October Game" would traumatize them for life. "Call of Cthulhu" is an entirely different ball-game. Now, if the kids had fully realized, completely comprehended the horror when gelatinous Cthulhu emerges from the crypt, emitting his odious poisonous vibrations through the air, and seen the warped dimensions of the architectural stones, they would have been institutionalized in mental hospitals, at the tender age of four or five, for the rest of their lives. And never again been let outside its walls. For they would have fits, thrashing about so badly, being a potential danger to people around them. ;D Mind you, I read "The Colour out of Space" when I was seven...
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Post by Shrink Proof on Oct 25, 2012 13:15:27 GMT
This is one for the assembled Vaulters to help with...
My suggestion for round the fire is for a Ramsay Campbell tale I read some considerable time back, but the name of it totally eludes my ageing brain cells. One that stuck in my mind as a successful story of this type should. It's about a guy who wakes in the dark - it gradually becomes obvious that he's in a coffin and has been buried alive. He fumbles around and locates his mobile phone in his suit and calls the emergency services (the police, if memory serves). The connection's distorted due to the earth above him and he's increasingly worried that phone battery and oxygen are both running out. He frantically tries to convince the officer on the line that he's not a practical joker and PLEASE come and dig me out.
He makes several calls to the increasingly sceptical and irritated policeman before the battery fails totally.
And you requested a twist in the end of the story, non?
When all seems lost he's suddenly relieved to hear digging getting nearer and nearer and believes that, after all, he'll be rescued.
Until he realises the digging's coming from below the coffin...
Can anyone name the tale please? If nothing else, it'll stop me going slowly spare trying to recall it..
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Post by ramseycampbell on Oct 25, 2012 13:24:02 GMT
This is one for the assembled Vaulters to help with... My suggestion for round the fire is for a Ramsay Campbell tale I read some considerable time back, but the name of it totally eludes my ageing brain cells. One that stuck in my mind as a successful story of this type should. It's about a guy who wakes in the dark - it gradually becomes obvious that he's in a coffin and has been buried alive. He fumbles around and locates his mobile phone in his suit and calls the emergency services (the police, if memory serves). The connection's distorted due to the earth above him and he's increasingly worried that phone battery and oxygen are both running out. He frantically tries to convince the officer on the line that he's not a practical joker and PLEASE come and dig me out. He makes several calls to the increasingly sceptical and irritated policeman before the battery fails totally. And you requested a twist in the end of the story, non? When all seems lost he's suddenly relieved to hear digging getting nearer and nearer and believes that, after all, he'll be rescued. Until he realises the digging's coming from below the coffin... Can anyone name the tale please? If nothing else, it'll stop me going slowly spare trying to recall it.. It's "Digging Deep", and I'm just behind you...
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 13:59:29 GMT
Mind you, I read "The Colour out of Space" when I was seven... At age 7?! At seven!!? My GOD!! Jesus Christ All Mighty in Heaven!!! That may have been the sparking factor then. Thank goodness you found an outlet. He he . . . What was I doing when I was seven? Well, I was already fascinated by monsters and the spooky, but had no way near access to such mature stuff. But you must then have learned to read on your own long before school years.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Oct 25, 2012 14:28:19 GMT
I was hideously precocious, I'm afraid - reading before I was two. Hang on, I'll patch in a bit of bio...
"...sitting on the sofa in the front room of that small house in suburban Liverpool while my mother read aloud to me from a Rupert Bear annual. These weren’t comics in the usual sense, because the images didn’t include speech balloons or captions; instead a paragraph of narrative was printed at the foot of the page, while each drawing was accompanied by a simpler version in verse for the less literate. My mother’s small forefinger – I suspect it must have been tanned with nicotine – underlined each word she read. For some years I remembered the moment at which I grasped how the symbols she was indicating related to her speech. Either immediately or at the next session I began to read the book aloud to her. I believe I wasn’t yet two years old."
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 25, 2012 14:59:14 GMT
Pretty early start by any standards. I must admit I've never read 'Digging Deep', an ommission I'll have to rectify, but as a sucker for twisted punchlines that's an absolute beauty.
Rupert the Bear was on my agenda too. Loved these little picture stories - the vocabulary was of a mighty high level by today's standards.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 25, 2012 15:09:10 GMT
I can imagine that this story strikes a personal note in some people, perhaps a stirring of emotional memory, and who therefore find it especially unpleasant. So you are saying it could be I feel this way about the story because my parents were trying to kill me all the time, in various inventive, but ultimately unsuccessful, ways? Interesting! I had never made the connection.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Oct 25, 2012 15:46:50 GMT
Thanks for the name. (Actually I was hoping you'd tell me but didn't want to ask directly as it feels a bit embarrassing to say "Hi, I really rated one of your stories; so much so, in fact, that I can't remember the name of it...") and I'm just behind you... Warning - Objects in your rear view mirror are closer than they appear...
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Post by Knygathin on Oct 25, 2012 17:17:42 GMT
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