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Post by andydecker on Mar 31, 2020 9:37:29 GMT
H.P. Lovecraft - The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (Ballantine 1970, 5th printing 1976, 241 p.)
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
Where a simple, mystifying dream of a dazzingly opulent city became an obsession that led to a labyrinthine world of nightmare ...Content: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath Celephais The Silver Key Through the Gates of the Silver Key H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price The White Ship The Strange High House in the Mist I bought this at the end of the 70s. My command of the English language still was shaky at the time, Lovecraft still was a mystery thanks to the limited informations avaiable back then, and I couldn't get into it. After my interest in HPL grew, I tried it again, but the Dreamlands left me cold. Interest was kind of renewed after reading Moore's Providence which had an interesting take on the concept. This still is a nice edition, like all the Ballantine Adult Fantasy. I regret that I didn't bought more of the edition back then. They are so uniformly beautiful. As an editor Lin Carter knew his game. |
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Post by Knygathin on Apr 1, 2020 11:48:01 GMT
It is Dunsanian, and perhaps Lovecraft's most wonderful work, ... I think. I reread it a second time, a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much! This was the 1985 Corrected Fifth Printing, but I don't know how much it differs if any.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 1, 2020 12:08:50 GMT
It is Dunsanian, and perhaps Lovecraft's most wonderful work, ... I think. I reread it a second time, a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much! This was the 1985 Corrected Fifth Printing, but I don't know how much it differs if any. As far as I can say different cover and the introducing essay by Carter was already missing in the edition I posted here. |
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Post by Knygathin on Apr 1, 2020 13:04:19 GMT
It is Dunsanian, and perhaps Lovecraft's most wonderful work, ... I think. I reread it a second time, a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much! This was the 1985 Corrected Fifth Printing, but I don't know how much it differs if any. As far as I can say different cover and the introducing essay by Carter was already missing in the edition I posted here. I have the 1985 Arkham House edition, a completely different publication from Ballantine, and Lin Carter had no connection to it. Before 1985 I imagine every edition had the same text-version of the story, based on the 1943 Arkham House edition. As a comparison, the 1985 Arkham House text of At the Mountains of Madness is quite different, and clearer, from older versions. |
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Post by helrunar on Jun 12, 2020 22:41:45 GMT
Because I know how much some of you love Lin Carter's poetry, here's his "envoi" poem to the Ballantine edition:
In what remote hyperborean clime,
Under what alien-configured skies
Namelessly constellated, it doth rise
Is known to none. In the abyss of time
No eye hath seen the sable mountain rear
Her pinnacles. The place hath not been guessed
Where Kadath lifts her onyx-castled crest
Among the shantak-guarded deserts drear.
Only those dreamers roaming far afield
Beyond the lands we know, to them alone
Is far and fabulous Kadath revealed
And all her mysteries to them made known,
And That which lies deep in her inmost crypt--
The secret of the Pnakotic Manuscript.
H.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 12, 2020 23:26:37 GMT
Because I know how much some of you love Lin Carter's poetry, here's his "envoi" poem to the Ballantine edition: In what remote hyperborean clime, Under what alien-configured skies Namelessly constellated, it doth rise Is known to none. In the abyss of time No eye hath seen the sable mountain rear Her pinnacles. The place hath not been guessed Where Kadath lifts her onyx-castled crest Among the shantak-guarded deserts drear. Horrifying. I know virtually nothing about poetry, but I get the vague notion that Carter was ripping off not only Lovecraft but also William Blake's "The Tyger." |
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Post by helrunar on Jun 13, 2020 1:04:26 GMT
I'd say ripping off Swinburne and Tennyson. Blake tends to be more direct, even forceful.
H.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 13, 2020 6:18:48 GMT
Because I know how much some of you love Lin Carter's poetry, here's his "envoi" poem to the Ballantine edition: Not bad. I do have a soft spot for "Litany to Hastur" though. Here's the second verse: My dream-self roamed the cosmic gulfs profound, Past daemon-haunted Haddath where, in deeps Of foul putrescence buried underground, The loathsome shoggoth hideously sleeps... I saw - and screamed! And knew my doom of dooms, Learning at last where the Black Lotus blooms. So much to give one thought... |
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 13, 2020 11:37:20 GMT
Because I know how much some of you love Lin Carter's poetry, here's his "envoi" poem to the Ballantine edition: In what remote hyperborean clime, Under what alien-configured skies Namelessly constellated, it doth rise Is known to none. In the abyss of time No eye hath seen the sable mountain rear Her pinnacles. The place hath not been guessed Where Kadath lifts her onyx-castled crest Among the shantak-guarded deserts drear. Only those dreamers roaming far afield Beyond the lands we know, to them alone Is far and fabulous Kadath revealed And all her mysteries to them made known, And That which lies deep in her inmost crypt-- The secret of the Pnakotic Manuscript. H. Carter clearly had a strong strain of Vogon in his ancestry. This is certainly appalling but not in the sense he intended. I sometimes wonder how he would have managed in the modern world with spellcheck in operation. Some random generation of alternative vocabulary might well have been a benefit to him. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 13, 2020 12:13:39 GMT
In what remote hyperborean clime, Under what alien-configured skies Namelessly constellated, it doth rise Is known to none. In the abyss of time No eye hath seen the sable mountain rear Her pinnacles. The place hath not been guessed Where Kadath lifts her onyx-castled crest Among the shantak-guarded deserts drear. Only those dreamers roaming far afield Beyond the lands we know, to them alone Is far and fabulous Kadath revealed And all her mysteries to them made known, And That which lies deep in her inmost crypt-- The secret of the Pnakotic Manuscript. That is so cosmic. |
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Post by andydecker on Jun 13, 2020 13:03:04 GMT
In what remote hyperborean clime, The secret of the Pnakotic Manuscript. That is so cosmic. Only after the third bottle. |
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Post by helrunar on Jun 13, 2020 14:16:52 GMT
When I was reading the poem last night I had this very clear film playing in my mind of Lin Carter in one of his outrageous World Fantasy Con costumes--a long florid purple robe, perhaps, with huge Ren Faire sleeves and a flowing, voluminous train... a huge purple crushed velvet hat on his head, reciting this poem in slow, ponderous fruity tones, while on twinned angled sofas on either side, pouting ladies with long black hair in leather bondage gear reclined in sinuous trance-like admiration.
I suppose it was the era where "you just had to be there." But maybe you're glad that you weren't.
(I've seen a photo of Carter in some gear he wore to a mid Sixties fantasy con... not far off from the description above.)
cheers, Steve
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Post by helrunar on Jun 13, 2020 14:18:16 GMT
And thanks to all of you for your amusing comments. I actually laughed out loud after reading the verse James quoted. I needed to laugh today.
Love or what you will,
Helrunar
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 13, 2020 14:47:56 GMT
When I was reading the poem last night I had this very clear film playing in my mind of Lin Carter in one of his outrageous World Fantasy Con costumes--a long florid purple robe, perhaps, with huge Ren Faire sleeves and a flowing, voluminous train... a huge purple crushed velvet hat on his head, reciting this poem in slow, ponderous fruity tones, while on twinned angled sofas on either side, pouting ladies with long black hair in leather bondage gear reclined in sinuous trance-like admiration. I suppose it was the era where "you just had to be there." But maybe you're glad that you weren't. (I've seen a photo of Carter in some gear he wore to a mid Sixties fantasy con... not far off from the description above.) cheers, Steve I wish I'd been at the comic cons where Wendy Pini used to dress up as Red Sonja. |
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