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Post by andydecker on Feb 17, 2022 10:54:23 GMT
Guy N. Smith - The Busker (Bulldog Books, 1998, 143 pages) According to some lists this this is finally the last horror novel Smith published before 2006. Bulldog Books was a "Division of Black Hill Books", which was Smith' own imprint. The reasonable page-count is misleading, the print is very small, the format nearly a contemporary tradepaperback.
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Post by bluetomb on Feb 17, 2022 12:48:59 GMT
I'm not sure I would call GNS a veteran of "dark fantasy" unless I'm unaware of some chunk of his output, but if it's his own imprint... Anyway this sounds like wonderful stuff. Mostly because of films I tend to associate fusions of modern scientific/environmental concerns with old myths and supernatural horror with a certain oblique approach (take films like Wolfen or The Last Winter, or not), but I really appreciate that GNS will go full on with the corn people/druid ghosts/evil wizards etc. will use your science to destroy the world kind of thing.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 17, 2022 19:09:45 GMT
I'm not sure I would call GNS a veteran of "dark fantasy" unless I'm unaware of some chunk of his output, but if it's his own imprint... Anyway this sounds like wonderful stuff. Mostly because of films I tend to associate fusions of modern scientific/environmental concerns with old myths and supernatural horror with a certain oblique approach (take films like Wolfen or The Last Winter, or not), but I really appreciate that GNS will go full on with the corn people/druid ghosts/evil wizards etc. will use your science to destroy the world kind of thing. At the time "Dark Fantasy" was the new buzzword as nobody wanted to say horror any longer. One of the last efforts to change and save the imploding market. Insofar this label was a sign of its time and is IMHO meaningless. In the foreword to the Illustrated Bibliography Smith says that Black Hill Books was successful from the start. I can't remember where I ordered this copy or when, maybe at this bookseller in Cornwall, Barnicoat or how his name was. It was no trouble to get this. So maybe Black Hill Books had a good distribution.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 18, 2022 21:47:53 GMT
I'm not sure I would call GNS a veteran of "dark fantasy" unless I'm unaware of some chunk of his output, but if it's his own imprint... Anyway this sounds like wonderful stuff. Mostly because of films I tend to associate fusions of modern scientific/environmental concerns with old myths and supernatural horror with a certain oblique approach (take films like Wolfen or The Last Winter, or not), but I really appreciate that GNS will go full on with the corn people/druid ghosts/evil wizards etc. will use your science to destroy the world kind of thing. At the time "Dark Fantasy" was the new buzzword as nobody wanted to say horror any longer. One of the last efforts to change and save the imploding market. Insofar this label was a sign of its time and is IMHO meaningless. In the foreword to the Illustrated Bibliography Smith says that Black Hill Books was successful from the start. I can't remember where I ordered this copy or when, maybe at this bookseller in Cornwall, Barnicoat or how his name was. It was no trouble to get this. So maybe Black Hill Books had a good distribution. I think that "veteran of dark fantasy" tagline was GNS taking the piss. Wasn't 'Dark Fantasy' an umbrella term for authors' keen to put as much distance as possible between their work and Night of the Crabs, Slugs, Slime, the Hamlyn 'Nasties' & Co? Chris Morgan, whose 1989 anthology Dark Fantasies was something of a standard bearer, certainly positioned the new genre (name) at "the opposite end of the spectrum" to the novels Smith and friends were churning out.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 18, 2022 21:59:53 GMT
At the time "Dark Fantasy" was the new buzzword as nobody wanted to say horror any longer. One of the last efforts to change and save the imploding market. Insofar this label was a sign of its time and is IMHO meaningless. In the foreword to the Illustrated Bibliography Smith says that Black Hill Books was successful from the start. I can't remember where I ordered this copy or when, maybe at this bookseller in Cornwall, Barnicoat or how his name was. It was no trouble to get this. So maybe Black Hill Books had a good distribution. I think that "veteran of dark fantasy" tagline was GNS taking the piss. Wasn't 'Dark Fantasy' an umbrella term for authors' keen to put as much distance as possible between their work and Night of the Crabs, Slugs, Slime, the Hamlyn 'Nasties' & Co? Chris Morgan, whose 1989 anthology Dark Fantasies was something of a standard bearer, certainly positioned the new genre (name) at "the opposite end of the spectrum" to the novels Smith and friends were churning out. I am experiencing quiet horror.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Feb 21, 2022 13:49:15 GMT
At the time "Dark Fantasy" was the new buzzword as nobody wanted to say horror any longer. One of the last efforts to change and save the imploding market. Insofar this label was a sign of its time and is IMHO meaningless. In the foreword to the Illustrated Bibliography Smith says that Black Hill Books was successful from the start. I can't remember where I ordered this copy or when, maybe at this bookseller in Cornwall, Barnicoat or how his name was. It was no trouble to get this. So maybe Black Hill Books had a good distribution. I think that "veteran of dark fantasy" tagline was GNS taking the piss. Wasn't 'Dark Fantasy' an umbrella term for authors' keen to put as much distance as possible between their work and Night of the Crabs, Slugs, Slime, the Hamlyn 'Nasties' & Co? Chris Morgan, whose 1989 anthology Dark Fantasies was something of a standard bearer, certainly positioned the new genre (name) at "the opposite end of the spectrum" to the novels Smith and friends were churning out. As I recall, it was Charlie Grant who invented the term as applied to horror fiction, to distinguish his favoured kind from the more graphic. He was certainly using it in print in 1980.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 21, 2022 13:54:00 GMT
As I recall, it was Charlie Grant who invented the term as applied to horror fiction, to distinguish his favoured kind from the more graphic. He was certainly using it in print in 1980. I thought Grant called it "quiet horror." I now see Wikipedia credits him for both these terms.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 21, 2022 16:47:33 GMT
As I recall, it was Charlie Grant who invented the term as applied to horror fiction, to distinguish his favoured kind from the more graphic. He was certainly using it in print in 1980. I thought Grant called it "quiet horror." I now see Wikipedia credits him for both these terms. I knew CLG came up with "Quiet horror" ("Shadowpunk" © Karl E. Wagner), had no idea he was also responsible for Dark Fantasy. Neither stopped him from enthusing over the occasional Guy N. Smith masterpiece!
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Post by Dr Strange on Feb 21, 2022 19:36:45 GMT
I thought Grant called it "quiet horror." I now see Wikipedia credits him for both these terms. I knew CLG came up with "Quiet horror" ("Shadowpunk" © Karl E. Wagner), had no idea he was also responsible for Dark Fantasy. Neither stopped him from enthusing over the occasional Guy N. Smith masterpiece! I recently came across the term "soft horror", which made me feel quite unwell. I think it is mainly used to describe horror-themed computer games and films that avoid using "jumpscares".
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Post by andydecker on Feb 21, 2022 20:26:04 GMT
I thought Grant called it "quiet horror." I now see Wikipedia credits him for both these terms. I knew CLG came up with "Quiet horror" ("Shadowpunk" © Karl E. Wagner), had no idea he was also responsible for Dark Fantasy. Neither stopped him from enthusing over the occasional Guy N. Smith masterpiece! I always was under the impression that the term Dark Fantasy had its origin in the comic sector. The next step after "Sophisticated Suspense" for the mature titles. But maybe they just embraced it.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 21, 2022 21:16:59 GMT
In the world of small press occult publishing (which I know must be endlessly fascinating to many of you) there is this phenomenon people started calling "dark fluff," also spelled "darque fluff" or "darque magique (majick, majik, etc ad nauseum). This all kicked in around eight to ten years ago I think.
These types of publications have been characterized by one delightfully weary reader as heavily marketed with portentous, ponderous "Thee Darque Magique" folderol, and is produced in super sekret snakeskin editions limited to two exemplars, bound in ritually sacrificed black goatskin rubbed on Asmodeus' taint during the planetary hour of Saturn on the dark of the moon.
Some of the people who churn out these books have a fondness for verbose, tortuously prolonged gibberish that makes the most fevered ramblings of Lovecraft look like a primary school "reading rainbow" text.
The eyerolling this kind of thing induces has had a bad effect on my spectacles prescription and I've had to cut back on reading a lot of the reviews.
H.
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Post by David A. Riley on Feb 22, 2022 10:54:53 GMT
In the world of small press occult publishing (which I know must be endlessly fascinating to many of you) there is this phenomenon people started calling "dark fluff," also spelled "darque fluff" or "darque magique (majick, majik, etc ad nauseum). This all kicked in around eight to ten years ago I think. These types of publications have been characterized by one delightfully weary reader as heavily marketed with portentous, ponderous "Thee Darque Magique" folderol, and is produced in super sekret snakeskin editions limited to two exemplars, bound in ritually sacrificed black goatskin rubbed on Asmodeus' taint during the planetary hour of Saturn on the dark of the moon.Some of the people who churn out these books have a fondness for verbose, tortuously prolonged gibberish that makes the most fevered ramblings of Lovecraft look like a primary school "reading rainbow" text. The eyerolling this kind of thing induces has had a bad effect on my spectacles prescription and I've had to cut back on reading a lot of the reviews. H. I haven't come across any of these recently, though it always amused me that anyone would want to pay serious money for collections of stories by writers who never got s professional sale in their lives in deluxe editions of leather-bound, gilt-edged books, writer who at the very best never merited anything better than a paperback and ebook, if even that. Me I would treasure my paperback collections of many writers far more than any of these "deluxe" volumes of ill-written pap. I presume that is what you are talking about.
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Post by ramseycampbell on Feb 22, 2022 13:59:19 GMT
I thought Grant called it "quiet horror." I now see Wikipedia credits him for both these terms. I knew CLG came up with "Quiet horror" ("Shadowpunk" © Karl E. Wagner), had no idea he was also responsible for Dark Fantasy. Neither stopped him from enthusing over the occasional Guy N. Smith masterpiece! No indeed, Charlie enthused over Guy N's novels. I'm not sure if he invented the dark fantasy term, but he does use it in the introduction to his first Shadows volume.
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