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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Feb 10, 2022 18:30:55 GMT
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 10, 2022 22:53:48 GMT
Thanks, this looks fascinating. So many books, so little time...
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 11, 2022 0:21:42 GMT
Thanks, this looks fascinating. So many books, so little time... I certainly agree with you, on both counts. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Feb 12, 2022 19:40:55 GMT
I certainly agree with you, on both counts. I ordered it. Will report back with an assessment, though the way things are going, this is to be expected by about 2167 CE. |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 2, 2022 19:04:16 GMT
Bought, read and thoroughly enjoyed.
It contains a story titled "Modern Buildings in Wessex" which essentially redefines the ghost story. If you've grown up on a diet of "traditional" ghost stories, it'll have the same effect on you as the first time you listened to "I'm Waiting For The Man" did if you grew up on a diet of "traditional" (blues-based) rock & roll.
A very worthwhile volume - investigate soonest.
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Post by Swampirella on Mar 2, 2022 19:52:06 GMT
Sounds great, I'm looking forward to getting myself a copy "soon" (ie within 12 months)
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Post by helrunar on Mar 2, 2022 20:58:32 GMT
Interesting. I wonder though how much of it I would "get" since the story you mention is described as "M. R. James meets Ian Nairn" and I'd have to look up Ian Nairn to know just who he is. I imagine there are a lot of UK references I'd be checking via online sources. Of course the luxury of the present age is that I actually can look this kind of thing up fairly rapidly and smoothly and then move along.
That to one side, I have enjoyed viewing the old BBC presentation Ghostwatch a couple of times even though I've obviously never lived in the London neighborhood depicted. I gather what Mr. Newman writes is this type of story.
H.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 2, 2022 21:36:08 GMT
I can see where the "M. R. James meets Ian Nairn" idea comes from but that's really only applicable to the story I mentioned. The collection itself places ghostly happenings in the kind of dread-full places we all know - drab high-rise hotels on the ring road, concrete motorway underpasses, that sort of thing. Liminal zones, if you want to get technical (or hauntological) about it.
And yes, it's always tricky trying to "get" stuff from another country/culture. I'm sure I've read any amount of writing set in North America where, because I come from the eastern side of the Atlantic, I missed the subtleties. Even though there may be massive overlaps in some countries' shared heritage, there are still often gaps large enough to deliver a fridge through. Hell, the first time I visited the USA was in 1988 and I remember that the best guidebook I found for the trip was titled "Coping With America"...
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Post by helrunar on Mar 2, 2022 22:46:01 GMT
When you figure out how to cope with America, please let me know? I've never been very good at it. Not exactly "citizen of the world," more like "doesn't really belong anyplace when you get right down to it."
I heard some wit remark once that American and UK English are 90 percent identical. But that the remaining 10 percent all involves words, phrases and expressions that are in constant daily use.
My latest bewilderment comes with the use of the word "chav" in current UK slang. I've looked up the actual meaning but it seems to have become what another sociolinguist once called a "blank cheque word."
H.
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Post by Swampirella on Mar 2, 2022 22:48:21 GMT
I encountered it a few years ago & had to look it up although I got the gist. But since then haven't heard it much or maybe just not watching enough British programs or movies recently.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 3, 2022 7:46:33 GMT
Chav is less commonly used than it was. I certainly hear it less often. Mind you, since its heyday I've relocated from England to Scotland (another linguistic minefield for you) and here we don't have chavs. We have neds...
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Post by helrunar on Mar 3, 2022 17:01:45 GMT
Polly Toynbee, we are informed here, called it "the vile word at the heart of a fractured Britain." I learn something new (or old, in this case) every day. www.ozy.com/around-the-world/the-most-divisive-word-in-britain/72537/I saw a very confusing use of it on social media last week. Some individual's complaint about a spate of recent haunted house/hovel films--every other word in the diatribe was "chav." I think it's just gone into the domain of "pants" circa 2000 where anything somebody didn't like was called "pants." I never knew why. I don't think it meant trousers but I was unable to get beyond that. Does "ned" refer to loutish youthful individuals who aspire to appear in a Catherine Tate sketch (LOL)? No need to respond... cheers, Hel |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Mar 3, 2022 17:25:56 GMT
Does "ned" refer to loutish youthful individuals who aspire to appear in a Catherine Tate sketch (LOL)? No need to respond... cheers, Hel Ned is simply the Scottish version of chav; they refer to the same thing. No-one is quiet sure of the exact derivation of either word but acronym fans assert that Chav means "Council Housed And Violent" whereas a Ned is a "Non-Educated Delinquent". The nearest American equivalent of which I am aware is Trailer Trash. But I'm probably way off mark... |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 3, 2022 17:33:34 GMT
Wikipedia has a photo of one:  |
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