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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 13, 2017 17:32:04 GMT
[/quote That might be so, but I prefer fiction of any kind to be logical. It's the lack of logic in Robert Aickman's stories that makes me find him pointless. Things of beauty |
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Post by mcannon on Feb 13, 2017 20:30:23 GMT
I just don't get "The Travelling Grave". I can't understand the mechanism of the Travelling Grave itself. If you played with one of these as a kid, I think you will appreciate the story more. I had two, ... bought a second one when the first broke. I believe the hand and skull were glow-in-the-dark. It was GLORIOUS!  The owner lost control over this one! The Travelling Grave is an advanced mechanical contraption. It is not meant to be understood. It is a NIGHTMARE! Ooh, when I was a kid I desperately wanted one of those! A quick search reveals that they're still around: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Creepy-Coffin-Bank-Skeleton-Money-Coin-Grabber-Fun-Novelty-Toy-/311703966361?hash=item4893011299:g:tdEAAOSw7s5Xh27IThere are a few other sellers on eBay, and I assume there are other sources for them. Hmmmm - could I buy one as a Valentines Day gift for Mrs mcannon? Or say it's for the grandkids? Mark |
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 13, 2017 21:17:18 GMT
If you played with one of these as a kid, I think you will appreciate the story more. I had two, ... bought a second one when the first broke. I believe the hand and skull were glow-in-the-dark. It was GLORIOUS! The owner lost control over this one! The Travelling Grave is an advanced mechanical contraption. It is not meant to be understood. It is a NIGHTMARE! Ooh, when I was a kid I desperately wanted one of those! A quick search reveals that they're still around: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Creepy-Coffin-Bank-Skeleton-Money-Coin-Grabber-Fun-Novelty-Toy-/311703966361?hash=item4893011299:g:tdEAAOSw7s5Xh27IThere are a few other sellers on eBay, and I assume there are other sources for them. Hmmmm - could I buy one as a Valentines Day gift for Mrs mcannon? Or say it's for the grandkids? Mark  It's worth a try; I'm tempted to buy one myself! |
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 19, 2017 13:34:34 GMT
It's worth a try; I'm tempted to buy one myself! But not tempted enough to pay $25 or $35. I'll have to make do with these lovely morbid Coffin Crisp wrappers at Halloween. Of course I enjoy my favorite chocolate bar (too often) all year long, but they're even more fun in late October.  |
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Post by Knygathin on Feb 27, 2017 10:59:08 GMT
The Travelling Grave is an advanced mechanical contraption. It is not meant to be understood. It is a NIGHTMARE! I would like to change my wording of "advanced", to clever. "Advanced" sounds as if it contained complex electronics, which is not in keeping with the time of the story. I see it more as a devilish craftmanship of springs and complicated hinges, able to fold and unfold, and rotary blades for digging. But it can not be completely explained scientifically, there is also an element of magic, or nightmare, to it. That might be so, but I prefer fiction of any kind to be logical. It's the lack of logic in Robert Aickman's stories that makes me find him pointless. That would exclude a lot of horror literature, ... vampires, ghouls, zombies, Edgar Allan Poe, etc, ... since most of it is made up of fantasy and nightmares. I have not had time to read so much of Aickman yet, but the few stories I have read I enjoyed. Perhaps you find that "The Travelling Grave" and Robert Aickman's stories lack psychologically sound logic and symbolism? |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Feb 27, 2017 12:08:23 GMT
The Travelling Grave is an advanced mechanical contraption. It is not meant to be understood. It is a NIGHTMARE! I would like to change my wording of "advanced", to clever. "Advanced" sounds as if it contained complex electronics, which is not in keeping with the time of the story. I see it more as a devilish craftmanship of springs and complicated hinges, able to fold and unfold, and rotary blades for digging. But it can not be completely explained scientifically, there is also an element of magic, or nightmare, to it. That might be so, but I prefer fiction of any kind to be logical. It's the lack of logic in Robert Aickman's stories that makes me find him pointless. That would exclude a lot of horror literature, ... vampires, ghouls, zombies, Edgar Allan Poe, etc, ... since most of it is made up of fantasy and nightmares. I have not had time to read so much of Aickman yet, but the few stories I have read I enjoyed. Perhaps you find that "The Travelling Grave" and Robert Aickman's stories lack psychologically sound logic and symbolism? I have no belief in the supernatural at all. However, I can accept any supernatural premise for a story as long as it follows logically from the premise. I don't like "The Travelling Grave" mainly because its premise (the contraption in the title) is unconvincing. I have no time for stories where symbolism is the point. I don't like Robert Aickman's stories as they seem to lack any logic or point at all. |
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Post by Knygathin on Mar 5, 2017 19:39:29 GMT
The travelling grave is "unconvincing"?
It is a murder tool, that gives its owner the perverted, fully consummate satisfaction of wiping his subject clean off the earth; not just killing, but also taking care of and eliminating the nuisance of future burial proceedings. I think it is a brilliant wish fulfillment fantasy.
To me the travelling grave is just as convincing a premise as a vampire is, or a zombie, or Cthulhu, or an electric apparatus that makes us see Pan.
L. P. Hartley was no hack either. A very fine writer, and he knew precisely what he was doing.
"The Travelling Grave" may be the single story that has given me the most delightful surprise and frank ecstatic pleasure, since I first discovered Lovecraft several decades ago. A grotesquely unique premise. Maybe it has something to do with my having played with a "Coffin Bank" as a kid? I leave that for the psychologists to analyze.
The crab-like movements of the travelling grave, suggests how, no matter what tricks or evasions we try, we can't escape Death.
I think most horror and fantasy contain a degree of symbolism, consciously or unconscious put there by the author. The purely creative fantasy is more rare.
It is interesting how differently from each other, individuals read stories, and how much of ourselves and our memories we bring into the readings, painting the full pictures along with the author.
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Post by monker on Apr 25, 2017 5:02:04 GMT
The travelling grave is "unconvincing"?
It is a murder tool, that gives its owner the perverted, fully consummate satisfaction of wiping his subject clean off the earth; not just killing, but also taking care of and eliminating the nuisance of future burial proceedings. I think it is a brilliant wish fulfillment fantasy.
To me the travelling grave is just as convincing a premise as a vampire is, or a zombie, or Cthulhu, or an electric apparatus that makes us see Pan.
L. P. Hartley was no hack either. A very fine writer, and he knew precisely what he was doing.
"The Travelling Grave" may be the single story that has given me the most delightful surprise and frank ecstatic pleasure, since I first discovered Lovecraft several decades ago. A grotesquely unique premise. Maybe it has something to do with my having played with a "Coffin Bank" as a kid? I leave that for the psychologists to analyze.
The crab-like movements of the travelling grave, suggests how, no matter what tricks or evasions we try, we can't escape Death.
I think most horror and fantasy contain a degree of symbolism, consciously or unconscious put there by the author. The purely creative fantasy is more rare.
It is interesting how differently from each other, individuals read stories, and how much of ourselves and our memories we bring into the readings, painting the full pictures along with the author.I agree with you about how memory informs taste but I'm kind of with Michael Connolly on his point about logic. It's about internal logic rather than how we'd view things outside of fictional reality. One problem for me is that I much prefer my horror to be supernatural and science and the supernatural are like water and oil. It's certainly not that science is fair game for contradiction in supernatural fiction, on the contrary, it's that it shouldn't be afforded the chance to contradict it. So while I can enjoy a story like 'The Travelling Grave', I can't embrace it because it throws out my sense of disbelief. Perhaps if I grew up in the age of automatons and had a basic understanding of how they functioned, I'd feel differently. On the point about Robert Aickman; I've only read a few short stories of his but I'd like to know how Michael Connolly thinks his stories defy logic. He's not simply getting ambiguity mixed up with a lack of logic, is he? As far as I'm aware, Aickman is supposed to be about creating a mood rather than about clever plotting. It doesn't necessarily mean he contradicts internal logic. |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 26, 2017 12:06:12 GMT
The travelling grave is "unconvincing"?
It is a murder tool, that gives its owner the perverted, fully consummate satisfaction of wiping his subject clean off the earth; not just killing, but also taking care of and eliminating the nuisance of future burial proceedings. I think it is a brilliant wish fulfillment fantasy.
To me the travelling grave is just as convincing a premise as a vampire is, or a zombie, or Cthulhu, or an electric apparatus that makes us see Pan.
L. P. Hartley was no hack either. A very fine writer, and he knew precisely what he was doing.
"The Travelling Grave" may be the single story that has given me the most delightful surprise and frank ecstatic pleasure, since I first discovered Lovecraft several decades ago. A grotesquely unique premise. Maybe it has something to do with my having played with a "Coffin Bank" as a kid? I leave that for the psychologists to analyze.
The crab-like movements of the travelling grave, suggests how, no matter what tricks or evasions we try, we can't escape Death.
I think most horror and fantasy contain a degree of symbolism, consciously or unconscious put there by the author. The purely creative fantasy is more rare.
It is interesting how differently from each other, individuals read stories, and how much of ourselves and our memories we bring into the readings, painting the full pictures along with the author.I agree with you about how memory informs taste but I'm kind of with Michael Connolly on his point about logic. It's about internal logic rather than how we'd view things outside of fictional reality. One problem for me is that I much prefer my horror to be supernatural and science and the supernatural are like water and oil. It's certainly not that science is fair game for contradiction in supernatural fiction, on the contrary, it's that it shouldn't be afforded the chance to contradict it. So while I can enjoy a story like 'The Travelling Grave', I can't embrace it because it throws out my sense of disbelief. Perhaps if I grew up in the age of automatons and had a basic understanding of how they functioned, I'd feel differently. On the point about Robert Aickman; I've only read a few short stories of his but I'd like to know how Michael Connolly thinks his stories defy logic. He's not simply getting ambiguity mixed up with a lack of logic, is he? As far as I'm aware, Aickman is supposed to be about creating a mood rather than about clever plotting. It doesn't necessarily mean he contradicts internal logic. Another reason that I didn't like "The Travelling Grave" is that I found it very tedious to read. I gave up after the first attempt. On the second attempt (years later!) I could barely finish it. As for Robert Aickman, I fail to see the point of any of his stories. After I watched the short film version of "The Cicerones" (2002, starring Mark Gatiss), which I didn't understand, I read the original story. I couldn't understand it either. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 26, 2017 12:33:43 GMT
After I watched the short film version of "The Cicerones" (2002, starring Mark Gatiss), which I didn't understand, I read the original story. I couldn't understand it either. But it is a good feeling, no? |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Apr 26, 2017 12:40:45 GMT
After I watched the short film version of "The Cicerones" (2002, starring Mark Gatiss), which I didn't understand, I read the original story. I couldn't understand it either. But it is a good feeling, no? No. |
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 19, 2021 4:07:50 GMT
For the 19th October,I found L P Hartley's Someone In The Lift in a charming little anthology called Ghosts Of Christmas Past. I like the few Hartley's I've read, and being a confirmed Bah Humbug type, really enjoyed this season of goodwill upsetter. Mwa-ha!
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Post by dem on Oct 19, 2021 16:02:37 GMT
For the 19th October,I found L P Hartley's Someone In The Lift in a charming little anthology called Ghosts Of Christmas Past. I like the few Hartley's I've read, and being a confirmed Bah Humbug type, really enjoyed this season of goodwill upsetter. Mwa-ha! I think you'd like his The Waits, featuring an alternate version of a Christmas carol beloved by Type O Negative. |
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It's worth a try; I'm tempted to buy one myself! 
