|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 18, 2020 9:24:50 GMT
Due October ... Stephen Jones [ed.] The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror: Evil Lives on in the Land! (Skyhorse,2021) Blurb: Welcome to a landscape of ancient evil . . . with stories by masters of horror Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James, Ramsey Campbell, Storm Constantine, Christopher Fowler, Alison Littlewood, Kim Newman, Reggie Oliver, Michael Marshall Smith, Karl Edward Wagner, and more!
The darkness that endures beneath the earth . . . the disquiet that lingers in the woodland surrounding a forgotten path . . . those ancient traditions and practices that still cling to standing stone circles, earthworks, and abandoned buildings; elaborate rituals that invoke elder gods or nature deities; the restless spirits and legendary creatures that remain connected to a place or object, or exist in deep wells and lonely pools of water, waiting to ensnare the unwary traveler . . .
These concepts have been the archetypes of horror fiction for decades, but in recent years they have been given a name: Folk Horror.
This type of storytelling has existed for more than a century. Authors Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, and M. R. James all published fiction that had it roots in the notion of the supernatural being linked to objects or places "left behind." All four writers are represented in this volume with powerful, and hopefully unfamiliar, examples of their work, along with newer exponents of the craft such as Ramsey Campbell, Storm Constantine, Christopher Fowler, Alison Littlewood, Kim Newman, Reggie Oliver, and many others.
Illustrated with the atmospheric photography of Michael Marshall Smith, the stories in The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror tap into an aspect of folkloric tradition that has long been dormant, but never quite forgotten, while the depiction of these forces as being in some way "natural" in no way detracts from the sense of nameless dread and escalating horror that they inspire . . . |
|
|
|
Post by ropardoe on Feb 18, 2020 11:05:08 GMT
Pretty excited about this one. Of course, they're just copying from the Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror (only joking - honest!). Though, incidentally, I have enough appropriate stories still left in G&S to make a second volume. Maybe...
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Sept 11, 2021 8:27:36 GMT
It's almost upon us .... Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror: Evil Lives On In The Land (Skyhorse, Oct. 2021)  Smith & Jones
Arthur Machen - The White People
Alison Littlewood - Jenny Greenteeth
Mike Chinn - All I Ever see
M. R. James - Wailing Well
Michael Micheal Smith - The Offering
David A. Sutton - St. Ambew's Well
Karl Edward Wagner - Sticks
Maura McHugh - Graveyard Mouth
Stever Rasnic Tem - Gavin's Field
H. P. Lovecraft - The Hound
Simon Strantzas - The King of Stones
Jan Edwards - The Devil's Piss Pot
Christopher Fowler - The Mistake at the Monsoon Palace
Storm Constantine - Wyfa Medj
Dennis Etchison - The Dark Country
Algernon Blackwood - Ancient Lights
Reggie Oliver - Porson's Piece
Ramsey Campbell - The Fourth Call
Kim Newman - The Gypsies in the Wood
Acknowledgements
About the Editor |
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Sept 11, 2021 10:12:00 GMT
It's almost upon us .... Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror: Evil Lives On In The Land (Skyhorse, Oct. 2021) Smith & Jones Stephen Jones - Introduction: The Topography of Terror
Arthur Machen - The White People
Alison Littlewood - Jenny Greenteeth
Mike Chinn - All I Ever see
M. R. James - Wailing Well
Michael Micheal Smith - The Offering
David A. Sutton - St. Ambew's Well
Karl Edward Wagner - Sticks
Maura McHugh - Graveyard Mouth
Stever Rasnic Tem - Gavin's Field
H. P. Lovecraft - The Hound
Simon Strantzas - The King of Stones
Jan Edwards - The Devil's Piss Pot
Christopher Fowler - The Mistake at the Monsoon Palace
Storm Constantine - Wyfa Medj
Dennis Etchison - The Dark Country
Algernon Blackwood - Ancient Lights
Reggie Oliver - Porson's Piece
Ramsey Campbell - The Fourth Call
Kim Newman - The Gypsies in the Wood
Acknowledgements
About the EditorI fear I am not the target-audience, to be honest. It is always welcome to see something new from Ramsey Campell, Kim Newman, Reggie Oliver and David Sutton (I think), but a lot are a bit over-familiar. For me, I hasten to add. This is no reproach, writers like Machen or Blackwood are indispensable for this topic. The only truly baffling choice is the Lovecraft, if one story has nothing to do with Folk Horror it is The Hound. Why not The Festival? |
|
|
|
Post by humgoo on Sept 11, 2021 10:28:12 GMT
Not just for you, I'm sure. Head-scratching choice indeed, The Hound ... I love it, but how does it fit in with Folk Horror seems to be a mystery. |
|
|
|
Post by humgoo on Oct 22, 2021 6:49:00 GMT
Okay, Google allowed me to read Mr. Jones' introduction:
Mystery solved!
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Apr 21, 2022 9:28:20 GMT
Arthur Machen - The White People: (A. E. Waite [ed.], Horlick's Magazine & Home Journal, Jan. 1904). "Most of us are indifferent, mixed-up creatures. We muddle through the world without realising the meaning of and the inner sense of things, and consequently, our wickedness and our goodness are alike second-rate, unimportant." After debating all evening the nature of sin, Ambrose loans Cosgrave a 'book of secrets' compiled by a sixteen-year-old country girl he briefly knew. At the age of eight, the girl's nurse initiated her into the hidden realm of magical brooks, fairy folk (or ghosts; the white people of the title), stones with leering faces, secret woods where " ... the trees looked like gibbet-posts because they had two black arms that stretched out across the way," and a hollow pit of dead folk presided over by a saturnine black. Over forty very odd pages the girl matter-of-factly records all she believes it safe to write down about her adventures — the strange ceremonies and games, everyday witchcraft, the working of black magic with a clay effigy. Her account also incorporates folklore and fairy tales (personal favourite is that of Lady Avelin and the nuisance suitors she destroyed by abusing a clay effigy until exposed by cross-dressing Sir Simon). The monologue ends abruptly, whereupon Ambrose reveals how the girl came by her death. Alison Littlewood - Jenny Greenteeth: Alice, evacuated from London after her mother was killed in the blitz, is reluctantly taken in by a Lancashire farming family who do their best to make her unwelcome. The children, Olive and Betty are particularly horrible, tormenting her with tales of the woman who lives in a stagnant pool in the woods. Jenny Greenteeth has long, straggly hair and bony arms with claws at the end. She'll drag you under given the chance, so she can suck the flesh from your bones. If you throw something in for her, however, "'appen she'll give summat back to you. Summat you lost. Summat you want." The sisters insist she sacrifice a little gold cross from her mum. Might even be worth it if Jenny grants her two main wishes in return.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Apr 21, 2022 11:58:28 GMT
Arthur Machen - The White People: (A. E. Waite [ed.], Horlick's Magazine & Home Journal, Jan. 1904). I never knew that this (my favourite Machen story) first appeared in Horlicks Magazine (or that there was such a thing), or that Waite worked for Horlicks (he was the London manager for the company from 1900 to 1909). As well as publishing weird fiction by Machen and others, Waite regularly added his own poetry and short pieces on the occult to the magazine, which I have seen described online as "a covert occult periodical". |
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Apr 21, 2022 16:33:36 GMT
Fascinating to know about Horlick's.
When I finally read it some years back (I somehow had missed it in my earlier life), my impression was that "The White People" was the best piece of fiction ever written about Witchcraft. The feat of very convincingly evoking the voice of a troubled young girl in the narration alone shows Machen's extraordinary skill as a writer.
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Apr 21, 2022 17:03:58 GMT
I just read about this one on social media:
FORESTS DAMNED & FURROWS CURSED. [edited by William Simmons]
Some horrors are so dreadful they need to be hidden in legends.
Coming soon.
Folklore beckons us to the shadow haunted past of our ancestors. Will you heed its call?
A literary sabbath celebrating the origins and evolution of folk horror, this comprehensive anthology features 5 classic and rare novellas that explore the major motifs of this living, lurking genre.
This seems to be the only information about this book that has been made available, so it may be a vanity press outing--I have no idea. Besides the introduction and notes, the short blurb mentions "discussion prompts" so perhaps the editor has a hope of this being assigned for university courses on folk horror. I think those have started up in recent years.
H.
|
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Apr 21, 2022 17:57:41 GMT
I never knew that this (my favourite Machen story) first appeared in Horlicks Magazine (or that there was such a thing), or that Waite worked for Horlicks (he was the London manager for the company from 1900 to 1909). As well as publishing weird fiction by Machen and others, Waite regularly added his own poetry and short pieces on the occult to the magazine, which I have seen described online as "a covert occult periodical". Fascinating to know about Horlick's. When I finally read it some years back (I somehow had missed it in my earlier life), my impression was that "The White People" was the best piece of fiction ever written about Witchcraft. The feat of very convincingly evoking the voice of a troubled young girl in the narration alone shows Machen's extraordinary skill as a writer. H. My one regret concerning The White People is that I'd read (too much) about the novella before I eventually had a chance to read it (in the Faber edition of Basil Davenport's Tales to be Told in the Dark. I envy those who chance upon it with no inkling of what to expect (Actually, I'd not be at all surprised if some readers zone out before they even get to the green book). Alison Littlewood's Jenny Greenteeth bodes well for the contemporary material! |
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Apr 21, 2022 19:00:47 GMT
I envy those who chance upon it with no inkling of what to expect (Actually, I'd not be at all surprised if some readers zone out before they even get to the green book). You are so right. I read so much about Machen beforehand that I always asked myself why I didn't understand what is so great about the stories. |
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Apr 28, 2022 11:49:06 GMT
Further exploits of the Faerie folk. Two excellent stories.
Algernon Blackwood - Ancient Lights: (The Eye-Witness, 11 July 1912). Mr. Lumley is insistent that a copse be torn down as it ruins his view of the South Downs. Thomas, a South London surveyor's clerk, is despatched to get the job underway. The Faerie folk are in no mood to concede territory - "it's not his wood, it's ours." Poor Thomas would do well to take note of the warning notice, 'Trespassers will be persecuted.'
Maura McHugh - Graveyard Mouth: A girl scouts' camping trip. The teenagers ask the group leader, Augusta, to tell them a scary tale. She obliges with the true story of Nora, strangled, mouth stuffed with grave dirt to prevent her identifying those who murdered her husband (the killers didn't much care for her singing voice either). Mention her name aloud, and "you will become part of her phantom troop for eternity, singing laments and wishing you had lived a better life." What with them being stuck out here in the wild all night, it's a good thing for Molly, Lauren, Jess and our narrator that there's no truth in such a ridiculous yarn.
|
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Apr 28, 2022 21:14:49 GMT
"Graveyard mouth" sounds cool. But will anyone survive the unrelenting horror of The Devil's Piss-pot H. |
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Apr 28, 2022 21:15:30 GMT
Hilarious--I typed three question marks in a row and ProBoards turned it into a horrified little ghoulie-face.
H.
|
|
