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Post by andydecker on Feb 3, 2017 20:22:51 GMT
Apparently August Derleth didn't like C. Hall Thompson's having written two Cthulhu Mythos stories and put pressure on him to stop. He had no legal right to do so but this may have something to do with Thompson writing only four horror stories in total, all of them for Weird Tales. Do you have a source for this? From my little reading on the subject, a vociferous element among the Lovecraft obsessives seems to regard Derleth as some kind of multi-purpose bogey figure. I wouldn't describe myself as a Lovecraft obsessive , but I can understand the problem. There is no doubt of his preservation of HPL. If there would be a Lovecraft recognition without his efforts is debatable. I have no doubt though that he guarded his little playground jealously and saw himself as THE gatekeeper. In this regard he seems to have a lot in common with DeCamp. But he put a lot of work and doubtless money into this.
On the other hand, it is hard to forgive Derleth that he gave the atheistic and nihilistic Lovecraft cosmos a 180 spin and interpreted it as a simplistic good vs evil tale with a christian background. He changed the out of their depths Lovecraftion heroes into little Van Helsings. Can't imagine a bigger difference. Arguably this dumbing down paved the way for a lot of pastiches and the survival of all things Lovecraft. The original concept is difficult, if you ignore the props like the tentacle monsters or the cursed books. Still I don't know if this is the right way to manage a literary legacy by basically rewriting it because you don't like the expressed views.
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Post by bobby on Feb 4, 2017 15:53:29 GMT
Apparently August Derleth didn't like C. Hall Thompson's having written two Cthulhu Mythos stories and put pressure on him to stop. He had no legal right to do so but this may have something to do with Thompson writing only four horror stories in total, all of them for Weird Tales. Do you have a source for this? From my little reading on the subject, a vociferous element among the Lovecraft obsessives seems to regard Derleth as some kind of multi-purpose bogey figure. Robert M. Price mentions this in his anthology Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos, which includes "Spawn of the Green Abyss". Also, though it doesn't specifically refer to C. Hall Thompson, I remember Ramsey Campbell saying (I think in Cold Print) that "Derleth was a jealous guardian of the Mythos during his lifetime".
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Post by andydecker on Feb 11, 2017 21:17:03 GMT
The Will of Claude Ashur - C Hall Thompson
I could dig it up in my collection, never read this before. It was included in Acolytes of Cthulhu.
All begins in a padded cell. The narrator Richard Ashur tells his tale. In Inneswich in New Jersey in the Priory Edmund Ashur, the pastor, gets a second son and Richard a brother named Claude; the wife dies giving birth. There is an infamous room at the priory where pastor Driesen lived in 1793 with his wife, a witch. Claude Ashur gets to be a secretive, evil man, terrorizing his familiy. Claude visits Miscatonic university, kills his father with a painting und learns Voodoo in the Indies. He returns to the priory with his wife Gratia Thane. His brother wants to save the wife from his evil clutches. Claude wants to swap bodies, as he is ill. Richard puts him into the looney bin, but he underestimated the will of Claude Ashur.
To think that Derleth saw in the writer a competitor seems to be a bit of a stretch. The story is nicely written but a bit too long, lots of atmosphere but a bit empty of content. The Lovecraft connection is weak, there is the Miscatonic University and that's it. The story is basically a new version of HPLs The Thing on the Doorstep, right down to the final twist. Not very original. But it reads good.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 21, 2020 17:57:25 GMT
Andrew Brosnatch Frank Belknap Long - Men Who Walk Upon The Air : ( Weird Tales, May 1925). Walking gibbets - Skeletons - and the Old Age of Francois Villon. A comely young woman prevails on the poet to cut down her husband from the gibbet or his bare feet will surely freeze. Villon agrees to do so in return for a kiss. The rotting corpse takes exception, climbs down from its cage to intervene, makes away with his wife as her would-be lover gallantly cowers in fear of his life.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 14, 2021 11:56:36 GMT
John Giunta Allison V. Harding - The Damp Man: ( Weird Tales, July 1947). A relentless pursuit instituted by a beyond-normal monster with a loathsome scheme hinted at only in nightmares. Linda Mallory, a Manhattan office worker and local swimming champion, is stalked by a soggy bloated monstrosity in rumpled dark suit, sloshing after her town to town, venue to venue. Freak at yet another poolside appearance from her unwanted admirer, Linda confides in George Pelgrim, a reporter on the Gazette, who steps in as her minder. We learn that the porcine pest is multi-millionaire, Lothar Remsdorf, jnr., son of a late, brilliant scientist. Remsdorf believes that he and Linda are of a new, unique species (he most certainly is), that she is his fiancee, and the journalist chump an unwelcome meddler in their minor domestic squabble. When Pelgrim swings a punch at Remsdorf, his fist is simply absorbed in damp flesh, repulsive to the touch. When a friend who borrows Linda's costume is murdered, Pelgrim realised there's nothing for it but for he and Linda to quit town, keep moving, and pray they can somehow shake off the uncanny, unrelenting menace. This had been on my 'to read' list for bloody ages, have no idea why it took me so long to get around to it, but am glad to have done so - I even prefer it over The Underbody. Not sure I'd be brave enough to attempt the two sequels .....
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 14, 2021 13:10:51 GMT
I even prefer it over The Underbody. No! That is madness.
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Post by Middoth on Aug 14, 2021 13:31:08 GMT
Not sure I'd be brave enough to attempt the two sequels .....
I believe you can.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 14, 2021 16:40:52 GMT
Ed Whitham F. J. Stamper - Ti Michel: ( Weird Tales, June 1926). Tragic Tale of the Dark Days of the Black Republic, Before the Americans Came to Haiti. "That rum is for the gendarmes. It is not for my friend, the American." The Port Liberté liquor merchant has a thing about only serving the loathed military police from the left hand barrel in his cellar. Everyone else takes their drink from the right. As he lies dying, Ti Michel confesses to the murder of would-be rapist Corporal Bousset. You already guessed where he concealed the brain-leaking body. Katherine MacLean & Mary Kornbluth - Chicken Soup: ( Weird Tales, Winter 1973). "Try it — you'll like it!" Not quite sure I quite got this one. Am guessing there's no specific recipe, you just throw in what's to hand, stir as you boil, sing, pray, and somehow you end up with 'Jewish Penicillin' every time? Anyway; Herbie's insistence on adding thorn apple on top of hemp seeds apparently spoils the thing, or, at least, it briefly transports he and grandma to a mountain where a nude witchcraft ritual involving giant goats is in progress. Back in the kitchen, Gran tells him he ought to start looking for a nice Jewish girl, and feeds the soup to the neighbour's mangy dog.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 14, 2021 17:58:44 GMT
Not sure I'd be brave enough to attempt the two sequels .....
I believe you can.
Sadly, " The Damp Man Returns" is a letdown.
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Post by Middoth on Aug 14, 2021 18:13:29 GMT
Maybe "The Damp Man Again" repairs the state of things?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Aug 14, 2021 18:19:38 GMT
Maybe "The Damp Man Again" repairs the state of things? Hope springs eternal. Or should that be "dampens eternal?"
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