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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2015 12:09:04 GMT
It is pornography plain and simple! It revels in sadism. An opinion shared by Peter Penzoldt, author of The Supernatural In Fiction (Humanities Press, 1952, 1965). While not identifying Kecksies by name, he includes "Marjorie Bowen's disgusting stories in The Bishop Of Hell" among examples of "the worst type of horror story .... How such tales can be constantly republished in the face of the laws against pornographic literature is an unsolved mystery."
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 7, 2015 18:33:14 GMT
Another good one, gents. Good sense of time and place.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 7, 2015 18:57:32 GMT
An opinion shared by Peter Penzoldt Yes, but I get the feeling he does not think it is a good thing.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 7, 2015 20:33:03 GMT
An opinion shared by Peter Penzoldt Yes, but I get the feeling he does not think it is a good thing.
Pity him.
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 7, 2015 22:50:03 GMT
Great story today. Definitely my favourite so far. Very descriptive. Very atmospheric. Liked it very much.
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 8, 2015 7:04:59 GMT
So now it's a Diog-Dem-Riley production. Thanks to David A. Riley for providing this long-forgotten story from American humorist, newspaper editor, actor, and sometimes weird fiction author Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb (1876-1944), perhaps best remembered in horror circles for the remarkable Fishhead, a personal favourite of H. P.Lovecraft, and Faith, Hope, and Charity, as selected by Dashiell Hammett for Creeps By Night: Modern Tales Of Horror. The fourteen story Fishhead: The Darker Tales Of Irvin S. Cobb is scheduled for publication by the Rileys' prodigious Parallel Universe in the new year. Of the following chiller, David writes: "It's not supernatural horror but, like many of Cobb's darker tales, is about murder,with a kind of a ghoulish twist." See you under the ice.
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 8, 2015 7:34:03 GMT
I saw that one coming from the off but it was still an engrossing read.
My favourite so far is still The Old Piano, although Kecksies runs it close.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 8, 2015 7:54:09 GMT
I saw that one coming from the off but it was still an engrossing read. My favourite so far is still The Old Piano, although Kecksies runs it close. James has since kindly forwarded a copy of Rosa Praed's The House Of Ill Omen, so will upload that in a bonus Christmas supplement soon! Still a few stories shy of target, but will be introducing contemporary authors later this week regardless. Have an all-day business engagement with several park benches in NW London in a few hours, so don't expect miracles in the 'answering correspondence' department.
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Post by ripper on Dec 8, 2015 9:44:43 GMT
Kecksies was just as nasty as I remembered it to be. The part when they realise it is not who they thought it was in that bedroom with the screaming woman and the seemingly endless time it takes for action to be taken gets to me on each occasion that I read it.
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 9, 2015 7:37:36 GMT
Can't have a Vault Calendar without including our greatly-missed friend and enduring inspiration, Michel Parry in some capacity! Today's vintage classic by Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) is the opening story in the first Michel collection I ever got hold of, Christopher Lee's X Certificate, via the legendary Fantasy Centre on Holloway Road. In the great scheme of things it might not be regarded as up there with Our Lady Of Shadows, Smoke Ghost and The Hill And The Hole, but the enclosed light pulp gem remains special to this reader. A surprising number of Leiber's stories are, apparently, public domain in the US, though I can't say with any great confidence that this story, of a sham fiend versus a cute, furry little arachnid, is one of them.
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 9, 2015 7:57:19 GMT
Interesting and as well-written as you'd expect from Fritz. But I still felt cheated - too much back story missing. And can anyone say what tools he had that he didn't use?
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2015 10:06:15 GMT
It involves a visit to a psychiatrist. That is always interesting, and almost automatically makes for a good story.
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 9, 2015 13:00:46 GMT
Can anyone say what tools he had that he didn't use? Maybe they are suggesting that he could have destroyed "the spider" in the same way as he had so many other monsters - by turning it into a ridiculous comic-book character? There are a lot of holes in the story - but it seems that the 3 "beautiful people" must be monsters of some kind, and are taking revenge on the central character for what he has done to others of their kind.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2015 15:09:10 GMT
And can anyone say what tools he had that he didn't use? For instance, he very likely had a screwdriver. Not used in the story.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Dec 9, 2015 15:09:18 GMT
In light of this thread I read Kecksies last night hoping for some good old pornographic sadism and was disappointed to find nothing of sort. Instead, it's actually rather a good story with a climax that's deliciously outrageous. Still on my quest for 'some of the good stuff' I read 'Ann Mellor's Lover' from the same collection and found it just as entertaining. Should I go back to the beginning of THE BISHOP OF HELL? Is there some awful nastiness I'm missing? Am I just colossally hardened (ooer) to this kind of thing now?
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