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Post by andydecker on Feb 18, 2021 12:20:15 GMT
The Wagner study really looks interesting. Thumbs up. I considered buying the Haefele after reading Joshi's venomous review by chance on his blog. But 500 pages of 'who said what and what it really means' on the topic and 'who is right and who is not' was a bit too much.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 18, 2021 13:38:17 GMT
The documentary sounds quite interesting. I wasn't aware of anything about him described in the article. All quite sad.
Thanks, Steve
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 18, 2021 15:45:27 GMT
The documentary sounds quite interesting. I wasn't aware of anything about him described in the article. All quite sad. Thanks, Steve I had the extraordinary good fortune to bump into him once at Fantasy Centre. He wasn't doing a signing or anything, just visiting which he was wont to do on any of his habitual visits to London. There was only me and him and proprietor Erik in the shop at the time. He was an engaging and fascinating bloke and we spent a priceless hour talking Kane and REH and fantasy in general. Then he invited us both to the pub. Sad to say both my kidneys and my wallet quailed at the prospect of a drinking session in the company of the legendary KEW and so I politely demurred. A shame really as he passed away only a fortnight later. I must confess I was rather shocked by his appearance when I saw him as he was a particularly vibrant shade of jaundiced yellow, a grim indicator of the state of his own liver which had more or less given up the ghost by that stage. I didn't begrudge him his last London binge but considered it a terrible waste that his habits and inclinations had contrived to bring him to such a state. And then I thought of Ian Fleming's salutary reflection that if he couldn't live the way he wished to then he had no real wish to live at all.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 18, 2021 18:55:33 GMT
I had the extraordinary good fortune to bump into him once at Fantasy Centre. He wasn't doing a signing or anything, just visiting which he was wont to do on any of his habitual visits to London. There was only me and him and proprietor Erik in the shop at the time. He was an engaging and fascinating bloke and we spent a priceless hour talking Kane and REH and fantasy in general. Then he invited us both to the pub. Sad to say both my kidneys and my wallet quailed at the prospect of a drinking session in the company of the legendary KEW and so I politely demurred. A shame really as he passed away only a fortnight later. I must confess I was rather shocked by his appearance when I saw him as he was a particularly vibrant shade of jaundiced yellow, a grim indicator of the state of his own kidneys which had more or less given up the ghost by that stage. I didn't begrudge him his last London binge but considered it a terrible waste that his habits and inclinations had contrived to bring him to such a state. And then I thought of Ian Fleming's salutary reflection that if he couldn't live the way he wished to then he had no real wish to live at all. Wow. What a great experience. But I can understand you 100%. I guess I wouldn't have done differently. Back then I had similar bar meetings in the genre scene which seldom ended well for my health and my wallet. Have you ever read David Drake's remembrance of his friend? It depresses me every time I read it. When I quoted from it earlier today I did a few pages and wondered again how furious and disappointed Drake still must have been when writing it. The Ian Fleming quote is new to me, but seems he really understood people.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 18, 2021 19:20:21 GMT
That's a memorable meeting indeed, Richard. Thanks for sharing that. Shocking about just how far advanced the jaundice was right before the end (or whatever it was that killed him--at least I guess he didn't suffer dementia which is what happens to some). I looked for the David Drake memoir Andreas mentioned but haven't been able to locate it yet. I did see this page that has a variety of writing about this author. karledwardwagner.org/Karl.htmlThe film definitely has a human interest slant for me, particularly as someone who once attended a few genre conventions--not really that many, but enough to get an ethnographic glimpse at the kind of people who used to live at and for those events. There were the folks you just loved to run into, and the ones you did your best to avoid at all costs. That was my experience, at least... cheers, Steve
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 18, 2021 19:33:25 GMT
There were the folks you just loved to run into, and the ones you did your best to avoid at all costs. Which kind were you?
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Post by andydecker on Feb 18, 2021 19:39:23 GMT
I don't know if the Drake text is avaiable online, Steve. It was included in Exorcisms and Ecstasies and Walk on the Wild Side, vol 2 of the the story collection.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 18, 2021 19:55:14 GMT
This is a fun quote from the final interview with Karl Wagner:
Never underestimate the value of a medical education. Good for background, good for realism, good for the discipline. I have written several stories (and am struggling through a novel based on my background in medicine. I have to fall about reading splatterpunk stories in which the killer rips off a human face with one jerk. I have flayed human faces. I have dissected human corpses. I have participated in autopsies. To do a good job flaying a human face, you need good scalpels and a few hours—that’s if the subject is dead. You might use a chainsaw, but the AMA doesn’t approve.
He references Melmoth the Wanderer as an inspiration for Kane... now that's intriguing.
H.
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 19, 2021 5:54:54 GMT
But 500 pages of 'who said what and what it really means' on the topic and 'who is right and who is not' was a bit too much. [/div][/quote] I think that's the reason why it was passed on to me!
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 20, 2021 14:44:48 GMT
A friend was recently culling some books from her collection and passed on some to me, including these: upload imagesChapbook study of KEW edited by West Australian, Ben Szumskyj, published by Gothic Press in 2007 The Terrible Gift: A Foreward, John F. Meyer In the Shadow of a Dark Muse: An Introduction, Ben Szumskyj "Being Utterly Lost": The Essential Modern Horror of Karl Edward Wagner, John Howard Harvesting Horror, Karl Edward Wagner Gunslinger from Prussia: The Adrian Becker Stories of Karl Edward Wagner, James Reasoner Karl Edward Wagner and the Haunted Hills (and Kudzu), Darrell Schweitzer Three by Thirteen: The Karl Edward Wagner Lists, N.G. Christakos Postmodern Pulp: Karl Edward Wagner's "Sign of the Salamander" Hadn't heard of this one before - a sympathetic treatment of Derleth: upload imagesIt even includes a scathing review by Joshi up front: upload imagesAnd the first in a Supernatural Library series selected by Colin Wilson - I'm assuming this was the only one as I can't find others in the series: upload imagesExtremely generous of your friend to pass on the SPHINX James. Anything by Lindsay - excepting A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS - is extremely hard to source these days in any edition and never cheaply. Cracking acquisition.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 20, 2021 16:50:23 GMT
Anything by Lindsay - excepting A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS - is extremely hard to source these days in any edition and never cheaply. All of it appears to be available in the popular ebook format, but perhaps that does not count.
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 20, 2021 17:13:37 GMT
Anything by Lindsay - excepting A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS - is extremely hard to source these days in any edition and never cheaply. All of it appears to be available in the popular ebook format, but perhaps that does not count. Oh it counts all right Jojo, it counts. Only in much the same way as hummus counts as a meal. But its not to my taste and not something I'd ever think to look for when shopping. Appreciate the heads up.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 20, 2021 17:49:27 GMT
All of it appears to be available in the popular ebook format, but perhaps that does not count. Oh it counts all right Jojo, it counts. Only in much the same way as hummus counts as a meal. But its not to my taste and not something I'd ever think to look for when shopping. Appreciate the heads up. 1. Hummus is good! 2. You are unlikely to see any ebooks when out shopping. For they live in the digital domain, not in this physical world.
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Post by cromagnonman on Feb 20, 2021 19:35:52 GMT
Oh it counts all right Jojo, it counts. Only in much the same way as hummus counts as a meal. But its not to my taste and not something I'd ever think to look for when shopping. Appreciate the heads up. 1. Hummus is good! 2. You are unlikely to see any ebooks when out shopping. For they live in the digital domain, not in this physical world. Shopping on line. Which the way things are going will be the only form of shopping there is before much longer. Regrettably.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 20, 2021 19:43:40 GMT
1. Hummus is good! 2. You are unlikely to see any ebooks when out shopping. For they live in the digital domain, not in this physical world. Shopping on line. Which the way things are going will be the only form of shopping there is before much longer. Regrettably. We shall still have hummus, though.
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