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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 11, 2022 19:56:26 GMT
I can’t see it has ever been anthologised other than in a handful of complete volumes of his stories. I am pretty sure this is wrong. I remember reading it as a child in an anthology, possibly of English short stories, owned by my father. I recall nothing of the story itself, however, except that I found it weird.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 12, 2022 14:00:10 GMT
I can’t see it has ever been anthologised other than in a handful of complete volumes of his stories. I am pretty sure this is wrong. I remember reading it as a child in an anthology, possibly of English short stories, owned by my father. I recall nothing of the story itself, however, except that I found it weird. I can’t see any anthology here: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1505929 but you may be right. I am still waiting for someone to tell me I am wrong about THE WHARF. Until I am, I shall continue to believe it to be one the the greatest of horror stories.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 12, 2022 14:07:04 GMT
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 12, 2022 14:07:42 GMT
Yes, I know, but I believe that is incorrect.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 12, 2022 14:15:46 GMT
I think that is a collection not an anthology. PS But thanks for the link to enable others to read it!
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 12, 2022 14:17:06 GMT
Yes, I know, but I believe that is incorrect. yes, indeed, you deleted ‘but you may be right.’
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 22, 2022 13:16:12 GMT
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 24, 2022 7:27:13 GMT
"Quincunx" - What a beautifully written little story, or episode. Not terribly horrifying, but engaging. That poor old lady! This one is clearly interconnected with " A:B:O". It doesn't have to be, it could be free standing. But I believe they belong together. Am I saying the obvious? I think you may be right! My view of THE QUINCUNX (1906) that is easily told, easily read, cosily creepy, and tells of a narrator invited by a friend called Walter to a house which had been inherited from an aunt recently, the death of whom perhaps created her ghost trying to prevent him from locating the riches that she owned. Turning her own portrait from facing the wall, as Walter left it before he went to bed, to facing the room again during the night! The narrator invited to sit up and thwart the ghost. It is in fact Walter as a trans version of the aunt doing it, while Walter is arguably sleepwalking, the narrator observed. Till the narrator tracks down the quincunx design on paper inside the portrait as a ‘map’ to the ‘treasure’ or, as the narrator sensed, to a secret (a word as a mutant of ‘quim’ plus a near even ruder word that may be part of the aunt’s sexual ‘secret’ with Walter’s father), yes, a secret, not a ‘treasure’, that, in the end, by usage of the fire in the candleflame that the sleepwalker or ‘ghost’ carried, the narrator chivalrously protected!
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 25, 2022 22:02:44 GMT
"Quincunx" - What a beautifully written little story, or episode. Not terribly horrifying, but engaging. That poor old lady! This one is clearly interconnected with " A:B:O". It doesn't have to be, it could be free standing. But I believe they belong together. Am I saying the obvious? I think you may be right! ... the narrator tracks down the quincunx design on paper inside the portrait as a ‘map’ to the ‘treasure’ or, as the narrator sensed, to a secret (a word as a mutant of ‘quim’ plus a near even ruder word that may be part of the aunt’s sexual ‘secret’ with Walter’s father), yes, a secret, not a ‘treasure’, that, in the end, by usage of the fire in the candleflame that the sleepwalker or ‘ghost’ carried, the narrator chivalrously protected! I am not being chivalrous here, so ***SPOILER*** the ‘secret’ resulted in the aborted of the previous tale. Again, am I saying the obvious? By now I have read quite a few short stories by Walter de la Mare and L. P. Hartley, and still my favorite story by each author is the first I read! De la Mare's very early effort "A:B:O", and Hartley's "The Travelling Grave". My second favorite by de la Mare is definitely "The Tree". (Few writers can be as horrifying as de la Mare, at his most horrifying.) "The Connoisseur" is great too. But by Hartley I am not sure; I thought "The Killing Bottle" was really good, but the second half, after the brother became the prime murder suspect, was a linear disappointment - I had hoped for some glorious irony wrap-up related to the killing bottle. Hartley is a great writer, but generally also much more subtle and delicate than in "The Travelling Grave".
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 26, 2022 7:26:15 GMT
I think you may be right! ... the narrator tracks down the quincunx design on paper inside the portrait as a ‘map’ to the ‘treasure’ or, as the narrator sensed, to a secret (a word as a mutant of ‘quim’ plus a near even ruder word that may be part of the aunt’s sexual ‘secret’ with Walter’s father), yes, a secret, not a ‘treasure’, that, in the end, by usage of the fire in the candleflame that the sleepwalker or ‘ghost’ carried, the narrator chivalrously protected! I am not being chivalrous here, so ***SPOILER*** the ‘secret’ resulted in the aborted of the previous tale. Again, am I saying the obvious? I think you are right about ABO and The Quincunx. And it was not obvious to me. A brilliant observation. But I also think my theory of the quimcunx (now seen as the sexual entry point and the place whence a baby later emerges) seems somehow to fit with your theory.
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 26, 2022 15:05:29 GMT
... I also think my theory of the quimcunx (now seen as the sexual entry point and the place whence a baby later emerges) seems somehow to fit with your theory. I will have to re-read "The Quincunx". I remember it vaguely, but have forgotten the details in the years that have passed since.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 26, 2022 15:16:01 GMT
... I also think my theory of the quimcunx (now seen as the sexual entry point and the place whence a baby later emerges) seems somehow to fit with your theory. I will have to re-read "The Quincunx". I remember it vaguely, but have forgotten the details in the years that have passed since. The clue for me, I recall, was that in THE Q, there is an early. easily missable hint that the Aunt was in love with Walter’s father… PS QUIM and C**T are very old words, I think. (The first time I encountered the word ‘quincunx’ was when reading the five novels of the Lawrence Durrell Avignon Quincunx.)
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 26, 2022 17:45:40 GMT
I will have to re-read "The Quincunx". I remember it vaguely, but have forgotten the details in the years that have passed since. The clue for me, I recall, was that in THE Q, there is an early. easily missable hint that the Aunt was in love with Walter’s father… PS QUIM and C**T are very old words, I think. (The first time I encountered the word ‘quincunx’ was when reading the five novels of the Lawrence Durrell Avignon Quincunx.) There is also Charles Palliser's very strange novel THE QUINCUNX, although if it is related I cannot say.
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 27, 2022 8:07:14 GMT
Quincunx is also a term in astrology, a position relationship between zodiacal signs and celestial bodies, an angle aspect of 150 degrees that is considered difficult, hard, or challenging.
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 27, 2022 9:19:48 GMT
Quincunx is also a term in astrology, a position relationship between zodiacal signs and celestial bodies, an angle aspect of 150 degrees that is considered difficult, hard, or challenging. Thanks. Over the years I have been very interested in the synchronicity aspects (not its dependence on cause and effect) of astrology. Planetary transits, progressions, grand trines etc. Incidentally, I have just this minute finished reviewing ( here) WDLM’s BAD COMPANY ghost story. I don’t fully understand it. Do you?
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