Robert Suggs (June 17, 1998)[Ghost Story Quiz]To my humiliation, I only think I have 1 and 5. And I could be wrong about 1 since it's been done more than once, I believe. Or maybe I've just been watching too much Twilight Zone. #2 is VERY familiar. I'll withhold answering until more have gotten to see and ponder. DADGUM you, Rbadac! DADGUM YOUR SOUL! Rob
> All right, how about a little fun?
>
> Here are five synopses. Can you identify title and author?
>
> Winners get absolutely nothing.
>
> 1. Mr. Snell can live cheaply in Braceley's Department Store, but he's not
> the first one made a dummy of because of love.
>
> 2. If you must have an extra dinner guest, it would be advisable not to
> invite a suicide by drowning.
>
> 3. Poor guy has two women in his life, his wife and Mary, but the fun is
> just starting when he begins to see them as TREES.
>
> 4. A better paperweight could surely be found than the extremity of a
> well-preserved beauty who may want it back.
>
> 5. What do you do when a miser dies to whom you owe money? Especially when
> he hated poor people?
>
> Some we've discussed, but not all. That would be TOO easy. Only one is a
> woman, though it would have been simple to have more, even all. Nothing
> deliberately obscure; all stories are fairly well-known. I'll post the
> answers next week. Maybe.
>
> rbadacoOo
rbadac (June 18, 1998)
[Ghost Story Quiz - Extra Clues!]Okay, okay, so you need a little more help, eh?
Here are a few extra clues I passed on this morning via e-mail which may benefit others:
1. Four of these writers are English. One is French. The English writers, of which one is the single woman in the group, are from the early or mid-20th Century. The Frenchman is fin-de-siecle, and is NOT De Maupassant or Prosper Merrimee.
2. One of the men wrote for Hollywood.
3. Another of the men wrote under a pseudonym.
4. The woman's story is not her most famous; however, two other stories of hers were made into films, as was at least one novel.
5. Two clues have portions of their titles in them. One other clue contains a rewording of the title.
6. One writer owns a Lhasa Apso. One only drinks distilled water. Three drive compact cars.
7. Clue # 6 is bullcrap. I bet at least three drank Scotch.
8. All writers are usually represented in those bugcrushingly large ghost story anthologies fron the 40s, 50s, and 60s, like GREAT TALES..., AND THE DARKNESS FALLS, etc.
Better?
rbadac, who is NOT affiliated with MENSA, and whose kid regularly beats up your honor student
oOo
William Allison (June 18, 1998)
Well I can only think of one so far- spoiler space follows...S
P
O
I
L
E
RS
P
A
C
E#2, "Three, Or Four, For Dinner" by L.P. Hartley.
Bill A.
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 19, 1998)
SPOILERS, or maybe NOT!V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
VGee, thanks for the clues. At least one of them is helpful in that it seems to describe none other than Daphne DuMaurier, whose "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now," as well as her novel "Rebecca," were made into movies. Thus I'm guessing "The Apple Tree" for #3. I think Bill A has it right about Hartley. Dash it, I read that one recently too! And I'm holding barely to my guess of Collier's "Evening Primrose" for #1 and Saki's "The Soul of Laploshka" for #5 (he's the pseudonym). The store in #1 is actually Bracey's, but you're just trying to throw us off, aren't you? Great clue here would have been that one of these stories was a Broadway musical--Sondheim wrote an adaptation of "Primrose." We're left with #4. Help, Mr. Wizard! And it sounds the most familiar of any of 'em! This is agonizing! Please, sir, may I have another????
Rob
oOo
rbadac (June 19, 1998)
[Ghost Story Quiz - Extra Answers!]Robert Suggs wrote:
...well, he wrote that he had three out of five, and Bill A. got a fourth. Thanks, guys! I was beginning to feel worried there for a minute!
Now that my faith in you has been restored and my quiz vindicated (yes, it WAS Bracey's, and I blame Bleiler for that, as well as for 'Mary' instead of the correct name 'May' in the other story- he must not have been able to read his index cards on those), just a note or two on # 4, then we can forget the whole blamed business:
It's the Frenchman, obviously, and his initials are T.G.
Think Egyptian.
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 19, 1998)
[Quiz . . . SOLVED!]Well, if you're going to give initials (I would never have gotten it any other way), the answer is obviously . . .
Theophile Gautier, The Mummy's Foot.
Not that I've read it. Or the Du Maurier. Whimper.
I propose that Friday be Quiz Day on the newsgroup, and that Rbadac be the Grand Quizmaster. Go ahead. Abuse us some more. We LIKE it!
Rob
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 19, 1998)
Ooops, it can't be Original Fiction Day AND Quiz Day. It's already Fish Stick Day in the school cafeteria, we can't overload it. I should have said Monday. Or Tuesday. Quiz Day.And we have to have Circus Day.
oOo
Reed Andrus (June 17, 1998)
[Test for Plot-Retention-Impaired]Robert Suggs wrote:
> Has Rbadac's test wounded your self-esteem?Yes. <sob>
> Are you pretending you're out of town on vacation until the
> whole thing blows over, so people won't think you haven't a clue?I'm not pretending. I am out of town on vacation ... well, beginning Thursday, anyway.
> Hey, buck up. Here's a test for The
> Rest of Us. If you're too plot-retention-impaired for HIS test, at
> least you can handle this slo-pitch lob from Rob. After all, I found
> it on the "Think and Do" page of My Weekly Bleeder, just above the
> "Peanuts and Jocko" strip. Identify these ghostly tales, then go
> ahead and feel GREAT about your literacy level. Please use a #2
> pencil and look on your own monitor. You have seven years. Start . . .
> NOW!I think I can get 5 right off the top, the others will be semi-educated guesses. However, since it's late, I'll defer to the other spiritually-challenged in the group. My self-esteem is just a ghost of itself.
... Reed
oOo
rbadac (June 17, 1998)
Robert Suggs wrote:
> Has Rbadac's test wounded your self-esteem? (etc.)Oh, don't pamper them, Rob! They have to grow up sometime!
Wish I'd thought of rhyming the clues, though...
> IF YOU SCORED . . .
> 0-1 Oops, I think you want alt. horror! Next door to the left!
> 2-5 No, DocLoc, I'm absolutely serious--those five are NOT by
> Ligotti!
> 6-8 Jessica, I TRIED to think of an Amazon ghost story--I really did.
> 9-10 Okay, we get the idea, Christopher and Barbara. You can stop
> doing "the wave" now.
>I'm still crying from that. Glad I wasn't drinking coffee or something; it would have been everywhere.
I bet Jessica could ACE my test. Actually it's well beneath her requirement
to do so- I dumbed it down for the REST of you.rbadac
oOo
Reed Andrus (June 18, 1998)
> I bet Jessica could ACE my test. Actually it's well beneath her requirement
> to do so- I dumbed it down for the REST of you.
>
> rbadacUh ... ya mind dumbing it down some more?
... Reed
oOo
violet (June 17, 1998)
Robert Suggs wrote:
> > 6-8 Jessica, I TRIED to think of an Amazon ghost story--I really did.
> > 9-10 Okay, we get the idea, Christopher and Barbara. You can stop
> > doing "the wave" now.Amazon ghost story: "Sigrid Storade" by Selma Lagerlof.
> I bet Jessica could ACE my test. Actually it's well beneath her requirement
> to do so- I dumbed it down for the REST of you.
> rbadacI am so bad at trivia tests I never even try. Charles Waugh amazes me by his ability to name the city, state, or country each story is set in. He has called me up to ask, "So, Jessica, I need a couple extra stories set in Virginia. Tell me a few" & I reply, uh, err, uh. I never remember details. And nowadays I discover I can reread stories that were favorites 20 years ago, and never even remember how they turn out. Brains don't last. -JAS
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 17, 1998)
>Amazon ghost story: "Sigrid Storade" by
>Selma Lagerlof.Uh . . . I was GOING to include that one. Sure I was. Didn't want to be too OBVIOUS or anything--you know, and insult the intelligence of the Lagerloftians among us. Wouldn't want to do that. Nope. No ma'am.
I MEANT to say Lost Race ghost stories. Yeah, that's the ticket. Can't think of a SINGLE Lost Race ghost story. Sure, Haggard wrote one, "Only a Dream," and a dandy of one, too. But it's not Lost Race, doesn't count, NO ma'am. Not a lost of Lost Race ghost stories.
>And nowadays I discover I can
>reread stories that were favorites 20
>years ago, and never even remember how
>they turn out. Brains don't last. -JASToo many old writers go quarreling through your brain?
Rob
oOo
violet (June 19, 1998)
Robert Suggs wrote:
>
> I MEANT to say Lost Race ghost stories. Yeah, that's the ticket. Can't
> think of a SINGLE Lost Race ghost story. Sure, Haggard wrote one,
> "Only a Dream," and a dandy of one, too. But it's not Lost Race,
> doesn't count, NO ma'am. Not a lost of Lost Race ghost stories.Lost race ghost story: THE GHOST KINGS by H. Rider Haggard -- a hidden race of tree-spirits in Africa. -jessica
oOo
William Allison (June 19, 1998)
You'd better quit while you're behind Rob... ;-)Bill A.
oOo
rbadac (June 19, 1998)
[Test for Lost Race-Impaired]Ouch! It looked like such a GOOD weasel, too...I'm tellin' ya, we got the heavies around here! Sometimes it doesn't pay to #%$@ with eagles, even if you DO know how to fly !!!
rbadac
oOo
Reed Andrus (June 23, 1998)
I seem to recall an old saying: something about it being nice to soar with eagles, but you'll never see a weasel get sucked into a jet engine.... Reed
oOo
Robert Suggs (June 18, 1998)
[Test--Further Dumbed Down]Gee, my test was meant to make you feel GOOD about yourselves. I would expect the astute brotherhood (and sisterhood) herein to ace this baby. I've decided to extend the clues. I refuse to use "scrambled letters" or rhebuses, folks. This is it, you're on your own.
1. That silly ape gave you a hand!
But watch your wishes, understand?
Before you monkey with your fate
you'd better paws to speculate!2. Here Come de Judge who owns the house,
A creature's stirring--just a mouse?
Or ghostly rat! Go call your Mom
if you can't handle tales of Bram.3. Hey, LeFanu! Her neck is damp--
That's why the lady is a vamp.
This chick has quite an underbite;
What say we stake her out tonight?4. "Do you know your sheet's askew?"
"No, whistle me a bar or two . . . "
Abiding bod in bed is bad
(Is this one coming to you, lad?).5. This author's world is narrowin':
He's hooked upon his heroine
and heading for his reckoning--
a "brush" with death is beckoning.6. Those footprints in my lodge! Who stomped?
I hope he'll go away--I'm swamped.
I wonder why they call it red?
Hey! In the window, what's--a head?7. The cruise gave him his money's worth:
he saw the miracle of berth.
Don't undertake a voyage that gloomy;
make a point to know your roomie.8. The mansion's dull, but don't be bored,
for company, just pull the cord.
This story's deep, you'd best prepare
to read yourself a wild night Mare.9. A pleasant isle with friendly breeze;
we're feeling closer to the trees!
So pitch the tent, we'll make our pillows
in black woods among the willows.10. With corpses rearranging
the chimes, they are a-changing.
The dead are now awake, man--
I've got a Bob headache, man!REVISED DUMBED-DOWN SCORING:
0-1 Look, we don't CARE whether Freddie could kick Jason's ass, OK?
2-5 Frankenstein? No? R. L. Stine? Are you VIEWMASTER proficient?
6-8 Trust me--the James Gang had NOTHING to do with a giant peach!
9-10 You are ready for induction into our secret fraternity, Hugh Lambda Di. We'll teach you the secret handshake--IF you can survive a night in Rbadac's spooky house, where it is said that Bosco's litter is NEVER changed.oOo
John Pelan (June 18, 1998)
Wonderful, I find that furthur dumbing down the test gives me a total of seven as opposed to six....SPOILERS AHEAD:
>
> 1. That silly ape gave you a hand!
> But watch your wishes, understand?
> Before you monkey with your fate
> you'd better paws to speculate!The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs
> 2. Here Come de Judge who owns the house,
> A creature's stirring--just a mouse?
> Or ghostly rat! Go call your Mom
> if you can't handle tales of Bram.The Judges' House - Bram Stoker
> 3. Hey, LeFanu! Her neck is damp--
> That's why the lady is a vamp.
> This chick has quite an underbite;
> What say we stake her out tonight?Carmilla - J.S. LeFanu
> 4. "Do you know your sheet's askew?"
> "No, whistle me a bar or two . . . "
> Abiding bod in bed is bad
> (Is this one coming to you, lad?)."Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad" - M.R. James
> 5. This author's world is narrowin':
> He's hooked upon his heroine
> and heading for his reckoning--
> a "brush" with death is beckoning.The Beckoning Fair One - Oliver Onions
> 6. Those footprints in my lodge! Who stomped?
> I hope he'll go away--I'm swamped.
> I wonder why they call it red?
> Hey! In the window, what's--a head?The Red Lodge - H.R. Wakefield
> 7. The cruise gave him his money's worth:
> he saw the miracle of berth.
> Don't undertake a voyage that gloomy;
> make a point to know your roomie.The Upper Berth - F. Marion Crawford
> 8. The mansion's dull, but don't be bored,
> for company, just pull the cord.
> This story's deep, you'd best prepare
> to read yourself a wild night Mare.
>
> 9. A pleasant isle with friendly breeze;
> we're feeling closer to the trees!
> So pitch the tent, we'll make our pillows
> in black woods among the willows.The Willows - Algernon Blackwood
> 10. With corpses rearranging
> the chimes, they are a-changing.
> The dead are now awake, man--
> I've got a Bob headacheThat's the most I can come up with... Looks like summer school for me...
JP
oOo
rbadac (June 18, 1998)
Robert Suggs wrote:
> I've got a Bob headache, man!Oh, for God's sake...
> REVISED DUMBED-DOWN SCORING:
> 0-1 Look, we don't CARE whether Freddie could kick Jason's ass, OK?
> 2-5 Frankenstein? No? R. L. Stine? Are you VIEWMASTER proficient?
> 6-8 Trust me--the James Gang had NOTHING to do with a giant peach!
> 9-10 You are ready for induction into our secret fraternity,
> Hugh Lambda Di. We'll teach you the secret handshake--IF
> you can survive a night in Rbadac's spooky house, where it
> is said that Bosco's litter is NEVER changed.
Never. Never ever. MWAH-HAH-HAH !!! Have ANOTHER spoonful, R.L. Stine !!!
rbadac, who had all the answers to the FIRST version of Rob's test, but refused to dignify it then, and now wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole...
oOo
Bill Barnett (June 18, 1998)
[Ooh!!! Ooh!!! I know it!!!]John Pelan wrote:
> Wonderful, I find that furthur dumbing down the test gives me a total of
> seven as opposed to six....Actually you got eight, John, the other two being (drum roll please)...
"Out of the Deep", Walter de la Mare
"Ringing the Changes", Robert AickmanOne thing I don't understand--isn't there supposed to be a dollar amount associated with each clue? ;-)
Bill B.
oOo
rbadac (June 18, 1998)
Now, Bill, television is fine as entertainment, but you'll never make a living at it...rbadac to block for $ 200
oOo
[NOTE: Bill Barnett appeared on Jeopardy (yes, the television show) and actually won some money there.]
rbadac (June 26, 1998)
[This Week's Quiz !]Okay, okay, I'm NOT ready for Original Fiction Day !
So in my inimitable hateful way, I'll provide another quiz for you.
Now, this is similar to the last one, but since so many of you are Plot-Retention-Impaired (a common problem, probably dating from the Universal Frankenstein sequels), I'll ease it up a bit for you, and work in a popular angle- Great Anthologies. SOOOOO... here are six plots, six author/authoresses, and five anthologies in which the stories can be found. At least one story can be found in two of the anthos, and obviously at least two of the stories are in the same ONE book. Here are the plots:
1. Poltergeistic phenomena in a house built atop an ancient megalithic site
2. A 16th century beauty seduces from beyond the grave
3. A ghostly barge and carrion moths plague a newly-wed couple
4. A doctor is compelled to reveal the location of his murdered victim
5. A Renaissance sailor dying of thirst on his sinking ship dreams of a perfect ship of the Future- and sees it
6. A woman pines away and dies, but sends a message to her absent lover
Here are the composers:
Nigel Kneale
Vernon Lee
John Metcalfe
Marjorie Bowen
Oliver Onions
Flora McDonald MayorAnd here are the anthologies:
THE SUPERNATURAL READER, ed. by Groff and Lucy Conklin
THE SUPERNATURAL OMNIBUS, ed. by Montague Summers
A SECOND CENTURY OF CREEPY STORIES, ed. by Hugh Walpole
THE OMNIBUS OF CRIME, ed. by Dorothy Sayers
THE FIRESIDE BOOK OF GHOST STORIES, ed. by Edward Wagenknecht
How many can YOU match up without peeking? How many WITH peeking? How many of you should be in alt.horror?
rbadac
oOo
Dr. Nick (June 28, 1998)
I [think] that the poltergeist story is by Nigel Kneale, with a sort of quirky name that's kinda a play on words. I read it in a pretty cool collection of his weird tales called TOMATO CAIN AND OTHERS that I got second hand from a library for about $0.80.Cheers,
JohnoOo
rbadac (June 28, 1998)
[This Week's Kneale]Good Lord, Doc, that wasn't in a dust jacket, was it?
'The Pond' is also a goody from that one.
rbadac
oOo
Ron Lewis (June 28, 1998)
The name wouldn't be Quartermass would it?Ron Lewis
oOo
Reed Andrus (June 28, 1998)
Kneale wrote the Quatermass series as teleplays rather than story form, didn't he? If I'm wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. I fondly remember "The Pond" as well.... Reed
oOo
rbadac (June 29, 1998)
Quite true. I found a Penguin paperback once of 'Quatermass and the Pit', which was apparently the script for that portion of the English TV series, and of course there are the films...But Q does not figure in the quiz story.
rbadac
oOo
rbadac (July 27, 1998)
[Yet Another Damn Quiz - Famous Last Lines]These quizzes of mine are obviously too hard for you yokels; I keep pitchin' 'em and you keep missin' 'em. Ya got holes in your gloves. They're flyin' over yore head and yore hair ain't even mussed.
Well, we can fix that. Plot retention-impaired be damned, that's no excuse for cutting class. Here's a quiz even YOU can at least place in.
No matter what else you may forget about a good ghost story, you're not likely to forget what I like to call the 'stinger,' the moment of peak horror that the entire rest of the story has been propping you up to face, the Moment of Supernatural Truth. Sometimes it's the point when the spook first appears, sometimes when it leaves, and in a few classic cases it's the point when the hapless protagonist/victim finally realizes there WAS a spook in the first place.
The nature of the short story in general (and the ghost story in particular) demands that the ultimate climax be swiftly followed by the ending. It's a wrap. Woop, dere it is. Otherwise, you get a whole lot of deadly anticlimax, and the effect is spoiled.
And speaking of spoilers, this will be a quiz of them, so be forewarned. Of course, if you DON'T know what stories these last lines are from, you won't know what's being spoiled, will you?
Here they are, more or less in order of difficulty, so your grading system this time will be much like the Strong Man Hammer at the sideshow. Any of these ring a bell?
1. 'You won't know till long, long afterward.'
2. It was dead anyhow.
3. Romance at short notice was her specialty.
4. The mortuary lay that way.
5. Such are the facts imparted to the medium Bayrolles by the spirit Hoseib Alar Robardin.
6. She shook and shuddered in the damp, trying to get out her clothes and her nostrils- that indescribable smell.
7. I lit the lamp which he had fumbled with, and there on the floor he lay, no more than a rind of skin in loose folds over projecting bones.
8. 'None of us chaps goes to Manor after sundown,' he repeated.
9. She pushed it open and came into the last corridor of the Hotel Saint Pierre.
10. But how it came there remained a mystery, for no snow was reported from any district on the day he died.
And for extra credit...
11. Landlord's field wasn't a penny the worse for the visit, but they do say that since then the turnips that have been grown in it have tasted of rum.
Scoring:
0-2 Need help picking up the hammer?
3-5 Okay, you talk the talk. But do you walk the walk?
6-8 Not bad, tough guy. I'm scared.
9 or better <clang!> Have a cigar !rbadac
oOo
rbadac (July 3, 1999)
[Ghost Story Quiz !]I know everybody hates these things, but I don't care. This is what you get when you bore me with continual off-topic posts.
Ghost Story Quiz # 47
Part One: 'Baby, What'd I Say?' Auctorial Quotes
Ghost story authors are actually a pretty loquacious bunch; few people know this, because not too many people like to talk to them, but it's true. Theirs is a lonely lot-- the women usually have bad marriages, the men have no marriages at all (more on THAT in another article). Pay them the slightest attention and they'll stick to you like hot grits on Al Green. Ask them about their work and you are likely to get reams of insightful comment. These reams have been occasionally condensed by stern and intrepid editors into what we now know as 'introductions.'
Here are some quotes by a few masters of the ghost story. Can you identify the authors?
'For the ghost story, a slight haze of distance is desirable.' (5 pts.)
'Unless I believed there *are* inexplicable phenomena in the world, marshalled under the generic term "psychic," I should never have bothered to write a single ghost story.' (10 pts.)
'Ghosts, to make themselves manifest, require two conditions abhorrent to the modern mind: silence and continuity.' (15 pts.)
'The old-fashioned emphasis on evil, the malice of the dead, the unholy power of fiend and phantom, the miasma, shuddering into palpable shakes of secret crime, is what arouses that thrill of emotion that is the tribute to the most satisfactory kind of ghost story.' (20 pts.)
' "O-NYE-uns !!" It's pronounced "o-NYE-uns !!" ' (1 pt.)
Okay, that last one isn't verifiable. That's why it's only worth one point. But it's a safe bet it got said, probably more than once.
Part Two: 'You're From WHERE--?' Birthplaces
They're not all English, you know, even some of the English ones. Can you correctly match each author with his or her place of birth?
F. Marion Crawford Akyob, Burma
Saki (H.H. Munro) Konigsberg, Prussia
Vernon Lee Montserrat (in the West Indies)
M.P. Shiel Kamundongo, Angola
Manly Wade Wellman Chateau St. Leonard, France
E.T.A. Hoffmann Bagni di Lucca, Italy(score 5 pts. for each correct match.)
These were some of the weird ones, and they are admittedly in the minority. For most of the other ghost story writers, a good rule of thumb is that the ones not born in London were born in Kent, and the ones not born in Kent were born in London.
Part Three: It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It -- Style
Last night I saw a ghost. It haunted me until I found its bones in the wall and buried them. The End
Walter Sparks might get away with something like this, but you can rest assured *he'll* never make an Oxford anthology. That's okay, he's got his lucrative photography career to fall back on. We on the other hand have a right to expect better.
An author's style is practically everything in this business. There are only so many plot elements to work with, as the critics keep reminding us -- they still haven't figured out that it's not about plot -- and the writer who knows how to move the emotions and satisfy (yet circumvent) the intellect is the one who will achieve success.
Try these:
'She often used to think of the strangeness of very early life; one came, it seemed, from a dark cloud, there was a glow of light, but for a moment, and afterwards the night. It was as if one gazed at a velvet curtain, heavy, mysterious, impenetrable blackness, and then, for the twinkling of an eye, one spied through a pin-hole a storied town that flamed, with fire around its walls and pinnacles. And then again the folding darkness, so that the sight became illusion, almost in the seeing. So to her was that earliest, doubtful vision of the grey stone, of the red colour spilled upon it, with the incongruous episode of the nursemaid, who wept at night.'
(5 pts. for author, 10 more for the work)
'He was conscious, rather, of something cold and clinging that made him think of sifting snowflakes climbing slowly with entangling touch and thickness round his feet. The snow, coming without noise, each flake so light and tiny none can mark the spot whereon it settles, yet the mass of it able to smother whole villages, wove through the very texture of his mind -- cold, bewildering, deadening effort with its clinging network of ten million feathery touches.'
(10 pts. for author, 5 more for the work)
'They were being drawn towards each other across the room, moving slowly, like figures in some monstrous and appalling dance, their heads thrown back over their shoulders, their faces turned from the horrible approach. Their arms raised slowly, heavy with intolerable reluctance; they stretched them out towards each other, aching, as if they held up an overpowering weight. Their feet dragged and were drawn.'
(15 pts. for author, 5 more for the work)
Tough? Hah ! Okay, okay, here's an extra credit question to up your average, you sniveling cur.
'There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under his feet, logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures, and startled him for a moment by their likeness to something familiar and far away; but that was all fun and exciting. It led him on, and he penetrated to where the light was less, and trees crouched nearer and nearer, and holes made ugly mouths at him on either side.
Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily, rapidly, gathering in behind and before; and the light seemed to be draining away like flood-water.
Then the faces began.'
Who wrote the above passage?
a) Ramsey Campbell
b) Walter De La Mare
c) Edith Wharton
d) Kenneth Grahame
e) Algernon Blackwood
f) Violet Hunt(20 pts. of 'extra credit')
Part Four: Miscellany
Was Walter De La Mare a Neoplatonist? (2 pts.)
What color were the spine labels of your Knopf Machens originally? (5 pts.)
Who is 'Ex-Private X' ? (7 pts.)
Who wrote 'The Shot-Tower Ghost' ? (10 pts.)
Who is Rhoda Broughton's uncle? (10 pts.)
What was Fiona Macleod's real name? (15 pts.)
What is Robert Aickman's birthday? (20 pts.)
Part Five: Scoring
Pts.
1-20 Still looking for a copy of 'The Monkey's Paw'
21-40 Still looking for a copy of 'The Turn Of The Screw'
41-60 Saves old Hallowe'en costumes
61-80 Owns a copy of GREAT TALES OF TERROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL
81-100 Gets e-mail from rbadac
101-120 Doing your masters' thesis on supernatural fiction
121-140 New releases from Ash-Tree do not excite you
141-160 Paghat calls you for research information
161-180 Jack Adrian/Hugh Lamb Grudge Match 2000 !
181-200 Richard Dalby is coming over for dinnerAnswers? Humph. E-mail me.
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (July 5, 1999)
rbadac wrote:
>'For the ghost story, a slight haze of distance is desirable.' (5 pts.)Um, M. R. James?
>'Unless I believed there *are* inexplicable phenomena in the world,
>marshalled under the generic term "psychic," I should never have bothered to
>write a single ghost story.' (10 pts.)Wakefield????
>'Ghosts, to make themselves manifest, require two conditions abhorrent to the
>modern mind: silence and continuity.' (15 pts.)Wharton hears a boo?
>'The old-fashioned emphasis on evil, the malice of the dead, the unholy power
>of fiend and phantom, the miasma, shuddering into palpable shakes of secret
>crime, is what arouses that thrill of emotion that is the tribute to the most
>satisfactory kind of ghost story.' (20 pts.)Me. I said this one. I didn't want to bring it up, but you've forced my hand.
>' "O-NYE-uns !!" It's pronounced "o-NYE-uns !!" ' (1 pt.)
As a joke, I'm reckoning it's only a fair one.
>Part Two: 'You're From WHERE--?' Birthplaces
>Your category has grown tiresome. Pass.
Without geography, I would have ruled the world in Trivial Pursuit.>
>Part Three: It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It--Style
>
>Try these:
>
>'She often used to think of the strangeness of very early life; one came, it
>seemed, from a dark cloud, there was a glow of light, but for a moment, and
>afterwards the night. It was as if one gazed at a velvet curtain, heavy,
>mysterious, impenetrable blackness, and then, for the twinkling of an eye,
>one spied through a pin-hole a storied town that flamed, with fire around its
>walls and pinnacles. And then again the folding darkness, so that the sight
>became illusion, almost in the seeing. So to her was that earliest, doubtful
>vision of the grey stone, of the red colour spilled upon it, with the
>incongruous episode of the nursemaid, who wept at night.'
>It seemed, or I would think, that perhaps, maybe as I try to figure this one out, that it could be that, this is an author who, in seeking to blaze paths of liteary glory, begins with the proposition that, just perhaps, it could be that, if one's typewriter is missing the period key, one could attain a more breathless style.
>(5 pts. for author, 10 more for the work) How many points just for reading it?
>
>'He was conscious, rather, of something cold and clinging that made him think
>of sifting snowflakes climbing slowly with entangling touch and thickness
>round his feet. The snow, coming without noise, each flake so light and tiny
>none can mark the spot whereon it settles, yet the mass of it able to smother
>whole villages, wove through the very texture of his mind-- cold,
>bewildering, deadening effort with its clinging network of ten million
>feathery touches.'I dunno, Conrad Aiken, Savannah boy? Joan Aiken's pop?
>
>'There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under his
>feet, logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures, and
>startled him for a moment by their likeness to something familiar and far
>away; but that was all fun and exciting. It led him on, and he penetrated to
>where the light was less, and trees crouched nearer and nearer, and holes
>made ugly mouths at him on either side.The White People? Artie Machen? Or was it Lester Maddox? Heck, it was a little girl in that story, wasn't it?
Oh, never mind, it's multiple choice.
> a) Ramsey Campbell
> b) Walter De La Mare
> c) Edith Wharton
> d) Kenneth Grahame
> e) Algernon Blackwood
> f) Violet HuntI'M GOIN' WITH DE LA MARE AND I'LL SPIN THE BIG WHEEL, VANNA!!!
>Part Four: Miscellany
>
> Was Walter De La Mare a Neoplatonist? (2 pts.)
> What color were the spine labels of your Knopf Machens originally? (5 pts.)
>
> Who is 'Ex-Private X' ? (7 pts.)Pshhaw. They probably know THAT in alt.horror.cthulhu
>
> Who wrote 'The Shot-Tower Ghost' ? (10 pts.)Geez, don't you have any IN-BETWEEN QUESTIONS? You know, there ARE IQs between 40 and 140. She just died a couple of years ago, you know. In Alabama I think.
>
> Who is Rhoda Broughton's uncle? (10 pts.)I'm appalled.
> What was Fiona Macleod's real name? (15 pts.)
Isn't that the chick with the website who used to do horror reviews for Amazon.com?
> What is Robert Aickman's birthday? (20 pts.)
It was in January. Or perhaps it was August. He was never quite certain. From birth, his parents had exercised a peculiar reticence when the subject was discussed. There was a door in the upstairs of that house, a large and brown and bolted door, and though no one ever instructed him not to enter it, he realized when he was very small that not only was the door not to be entered; its presence was never to be acknowledged. And yet the fact had to confirmed, at least in the dark and labrynthine passages of his mind: During his long, quiet days of play, he saw, on three separate occasions, a strange woman enter the room wearing a pointed, multi-colored hat and blowing a serpentine, twirly and quite phallic instrument of percussive squawk -- or perhaps pagan religion? One of these occasions seemed to have been during the empty, depthless snows of January. Another instance seemed almost certainly to have come to pass during the oppressive heat of August. It was impossible to be persuaded on either count. In time, the boy would not be truly certain whether he was still a small child, or perhaps a doddering old fool who spent entirely too much time worrying over inland waterways. In the end, one couldn't know, could one? Or perhaps one could. On that point there is, finally, uncertainty.
Robert II
oOo
John Pelan (July 5, 1999)
rbadac wrote:Here, I'll help Rob with the geographical part of the test...
> They're not all English, you know, even some of the English ones. Can you correctly match each author with his or her place of birth?
>F. Marion Crawford Bagni di Lucca, Italy
Manly Wade Wellman Kamundongo, Angola
M. P. Shiel Montserrat (in the West Indies)
Saki (H.H. Munro) Akyob, Burma
E.T.A. Hoffmann Konigsberg, Prussia
Vernon Lee Chateau St. Leonard, FranceJohn
--
"It's a jungle out there, try not to look like food"oOo
rbadac (July 5, 1999)
There, Rob. See? That wasn't so hard.I'm still grading your paper.
rbadac
oOo
rbadac (July 8, 1999)
[C Minus: 'You'll shoot yer eye out, kid.']Robert Suggs wrote:
> Um, M. R. James?
> Wakefield????
> Wharton hears a boo?
> Me. I said this one. I didn't want to bring it up, but you've forced
> my hand.
> As a joke, I'm reckoning it's only a fair one.Four outta five ain't bad ! 31 pts.
> Your category has grown tiresome. Pass.
> Without geography, I would have ruled the world in Trivial Pursuit.Yeah, yeah, no points for you this round. Here's a copy of the home version of our game. Now go home. If you can find it.
> It seemed, or I would think, that perhaps, maybe as I try to figure
> this one out, that it could be that, this is an author who, in seeking
> to blaze paths of liteary glory, begins with the proposition that,
> just perhaps, it could be that, if one's typewriter is missing the
> period key, one could attain a more breathless style.
> How many points just for reading it?5 pts. for the hilarious 'breathless' pastiche, 2 pts. for reading the original.
> I dunno, Conrad Aiken, Savannah boy? Joan Aiken's pop?
5 pts. for knowing Conrad Aiken and your valiant attempt to guess this was from 'Silent Snow, Secret Snow,' which unfortunately it isn't. Though you're warm. Or is it cold?
No points for skipping the following passage.
> I'M GOIN' WITH DE LA MARE AND I'LL SPIN THE BIG WHEEL, VANNA!!!
--aahhhhnnnnnnkkk-- Nope, I'm sorry. Vanna's miffed at you for that joke you made about her big head. And G.E. Smith wants to kick your ass. Next contestant.
> Pshhaw. They probably know THAT in alt.horror.cthulhu
Hey, just trying to give the newbies a chance. 7 pts, smart guy.
> Geez, don't you have any IN-BETWEEN QUESTIONS? You know, there ARE IQs
> between 40 and 140. She just died a couple of years ago, you know. In
> Alabama I think.Yup. 10 points, and 2 more for knowing she's dead.
> I'm appalled.
Ha ha ha ha ! 10 pts. I thought THAT was an 'in-between' question !
> Isn't that the chick with the website who used to do horror reviews
> for Amazon.com?Oooohhh, you're treading on thin ice, buddy. No, it was the chick who sang 'Criminal.'
> It was in January. Or perhaps it was August. He was never quite
> certain. From birth, his parents had exercised a peculiar reticence
> when the subject was discussed. There was a door in the upstairs of
> that house, a large and brown and bolted door, and though no one ever
> instructed him not to enter it, he realized when he was very small
> that not only was the door not to be entered; its presence was never
> to be acknowledged. And yet the fact had to confirmed, at least in the
> dark and labrynthine passages of his mind: During his long, quiet days
> of play, he saw, on three separate occasions, a strange woman enter
> the room wearing a pointed, multi-colored hat and blowing a
> serpentine, twirly and quite phallic instrument of percussive squawk
> --or perhaps pagan religion? One of these occasions seemed to have
> been during the empty, depthless snows of January. Another instance
> seemed almost certainly to have come to pass during the oppressive
> heat of August. It was impossible to be persuaded on either count. In
> time, the boy would not be truly certain whether he was still a small
> child, or perhaps a doddering old fool who spent entirely too much
> time worrying over inland waterways. In the end, one couldn't know,
> could one? Or perhaps one could. On that point there is, finally,
> uncertainty.5 pts. for adding yet more entries to the 'one could not be sure' category. Maybe the John Clute ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY can help on this. I haven't looked.
Hmmmm, lessee... 77 points.
Four more and you'd get e-mail from me. Oh, the irony.
rbadac
ooOoo