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Post by Knygathin on Dec 18, 2017 9:12:47 GMT
I have recently been on a long reading spree of numerous A. E. Van Vogt books, set on experiencing his 'best'. He has some mind-boggling vast scale ideas, very worthwhile to me. Last book was The Silkie. It started off great (with a wonderful sci-fi variation on or parallel to Lovecraft's Deep Ones), but Van Vogt unfortunately quickly loses interest in descriptive details. Instead he uses about 95% of his books to propound far-future abstract theoretical ideas around the psychology of the human mind, related to his close association with Scientology; that seems to be his biggest interest. And without any descriptive details whatsoever in these rambling, non-visual passages, they make awful reading. He may come to some interesting evocative core idea, finally, after pages of pages of unbearable mumbo-jumbo non-structured harangues, using non-specific words, sentence after sentence impossible to make anything of and impossible to remember when starting on the next. In many of his action scenes in-between, he likewise completely ignores descriptive detail. That is a real pity, because Van Vogt can be truly great at presenting bizarre and colorful situations. But most of the time he forgets all about it, ... or doesn't realize its value, ... or is too lazy to do it ...?!
It was a relief to finally start on Incarnate. At last some flesh and colour and sense of bodily location! Great characters, great build-up, and fine beginning sentences, like here: "The sky outside the window told her it was evening, the sunset descending a smoldering ladder of clouds .... Above the clouds the August sky was a deep calm blue, calm as the sleep her whole body ached for." I love that kind of prose, which gives worldly scenes a deeper meaning or make of them a symbolic parallel to inner human experience. It is damned comforting! Lovecraft was a master of that. If I may express some criticism, it would be occasional undefined 'wordiness', like this sentence: "Worse than nightmare waited beyond the doorway." The general term "worse", the grading measurement here, really doesn't give any idea or sense of anything. So I find its use meaningless.
This is my first novel by Ramsey Campbell. And the first time I read a brick-sized horror novel since the 1980's, when I read Stephen King. Not counting The Night Land, which belongs to the old masters, and is an altogether different beast. (These days I prefer short story collections, because novels usually disappoint me when I find that authors assume a relaxed pedestrian pace in the middle of the book, which pressures me into a painful panic to finish the book as quickly as possible, so I can begin reading some other 'better' book instead. And so it goes on. That feeling never happens with short story collections, thankfully.) Is the brick-sized horror book format especially connected to the late 70s and 80s? And was it King who alone began popularizing it?
Anyway, I have a good feeling about Incarnate. But I will take it at an easy pace, like a long multi-episode TV-series you watch once every week. I will read a few pages every now and then, and in-between other books. Maybe it will take a year or so to finish, I will avoid having too high expectations, and will not press to complete it.
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albie
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 134
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Post by albie on Oct 11, 2018 10:06:27 GMT
(contains slight spoilers) Probably my favourite novel by Campbell. A monster-a-thon. By which I mean there were several distinct monsters in the story, but still all related. Love the character of Danny Swain. I even write under that nom de plume. I think he is the one and only hero to actually inflict some damage upon a Campbellian monster. Hurray! If we don't count the guy from AGAIN. Which I don't for obvious reasons. A nice showcase for the typical Campbell monster: a shape-shifting dream thing. A blob that takes on some psychological form. Like the mind itself, I imagine.
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ltd
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 15
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Post by ltd on May 3, 2020 9:53:06 GMT
Probably my favourite novel by Campbell. Re-read Incarnate a few months ago. It's still for my money Campbell's best novel. The idea of something malevolent lurking in the human collective sub-conscious and how it manifests is brilliantly done.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 2, 2020 19:16:27 GMT
I also remember liking INCARNATE a lot. Why is it not available as an ebook?
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Post by Knygathin on Nov 2, 2020 22:09:19 GMT
I have rarely laughed so much reading, as in the episode when the young man in the novel was at a job interview in the movie theatre. But when I got to know him better, and realized how disturbed he actually was, the laughter stuck in my throat.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 11, 2020 0:04:03 GMT
I've been working my way through various episodes of "Podcast to the Curious" as I've taken a shine to these two earnest young chappies... They're so engagingly sincere. This one has a cool interview with Ramsey Campbell, including his recollection of reading M. R. James for the first time at age 6!: www.mrjamespodcast.com/2016/03/episode-51-m-r-james-conference-2016/H.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 11, 2020 0:07:41 GMT
I have to admit I was both relieved and slightly chuffed that Stevie King was NOT mentioned among the name-check of "people in the field who've carried it all forward" towards the end of the interview.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 11, 2020 8:47:56 GMT
I have to admit I was both relieved and slightly chuffed that Stevie King was NOT mentioned among the name-check of "people in the field who've carried it all forward" towards the end of the interview. H. I wonder how fast the last remnants of the horror novel will fade from the big publishers when King finally quits writing. There is no successor in sight, and I can't image that the publishing conglomerates of today who choke everything would touch something like true horror with a stick. A novel like Carrie wouldn't have a chance of being published in this age.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Dec 12, 2020 15:11:19 GMT
I have to admit I was both relieved and slightly chuffed that Stevie King was NOT mentioned among the name-check of "people in the field who've carried it all forward" towards the end of the interview. H. If that was my omission, I was wrong.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Dec 12, 2020 15:12:43 GMT
I have to admit I was both relieved and slightly chuffed that Stevie King was NOT mentioned among the name-check of "people in the field who've carried it all forward" towards the end of the interview. H. I wonder how fast the last remnants of the horror novel will fade from the big publishers when King finally quits writing. There is no successor in sight, and I can't image that the publishing conglomerates of today who choke everything would touch something like true horror with a stick. A novel like Carrie wouldn't have a chance of being published in this age. I very much doubt horror fiction will die out. It never has, even if it occasionally sleeps in a shallow grave.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 12, 2020 15:45:41 GMT
I wonder how fast the last remnants of the horror novel will fade from the big publishers when King finally quits writing. There is no successor in sight, and I can't image that the publishing conglomerates of today who choke everything would touch something like true horror with a stick. A novel like Carrie wouldn't have a chance of being published in this age. I very much doubt horror fiction will die out. It never has, even if it occasionally sleeps in a shallow grave. Surely it will not die out. Only revert into the realm of the amateur writer.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Dec 16, 2020 11:41:55 GMT
I very much doubt horror fiction will die out. It never has, even if it occasionally sleeps in a shallow grave. Surely it will not die out. Only revert into the realm of the amateur writer. Not that either, I believe. Quite a few books are being published for the mass market, after all.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 17, 2021 20:39:03 GMT
I repeat, why is INCARNATE not available as an ebook?
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Post by ramseycampbell on Sept 18, 2021 12:06:00 GMT
I hope that may soon change. I'll keep you posted!
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 18, 2021 13:15:31 GMT
I hope that may soon change. I'll keep you posted! Cool!
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