rbadac (May 1, 1998)Text for today: 100 GHASTLY LITTLE GHOST STORIES, ed. by Dziemianowicz, Weinberg, and maybe Greenberg, if his name is not merely on this thing as some sort of contractual obligation.Yeah, it's the Barnes and Noble book. Don't pretend you don't have it, I see the corner peeking out from under your bed. I had to deal with my own shame, but the fact is, Stefan D.s name carries a lot of weight with me, and anything he's involved in is worth a look.
Page 406.
Now, the plot is nothing new, not to us anyway; the whole thing is quite predictable from the word go, what refreshes me about this story is Pain's style, the light summations of character, the voluptuousness of the situations described, and all that crap.
Check it out. It's short and sweet (just like I like 'em!).
There's a bookstore here in town that has a beat-up but readable copy of THE COLLECTED TALES OF BARRY PAIN, VOL. 1 (as I understand it, there was never a 'Volume 2' printed, so this is pretty much it) for ten bucks. I've got one already. Anybody need me to nab this for them?
Cheers, all!
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (May 2, 1998)
Thanks for sharing, but I'm compelled to point out you could have claimed to have read the story in the ubiquitous Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories, and you would have been surrounded by the choir's grateful chorus of amens and affirmations. However, I admit to owning not only the Ghastly, but the Creepy Little Creature Stories and the Tiny Tales of Terror. However I draw the line at the Astounding Little Alien Stories, the Wicked Little Witches, the Vapid Little Vampires, Venereal Little Ventriloquist Dummies and Voracious Little Vegetations. These book are good for those fifteen second intervals during which I yawn and stretch between the real deal, the novellas like Durrell's "The Entrance," Ray's "The Shadowy Street," or Martin's "Sandkings." Stick to those B&Ns and you'll miss "The Beckoning Fair One"--it was too long for 100 Ovulating Little Onions.I remember Pain's story as being about a painter and a model, and the word "voluptuous" appearing 9 or 10 times. It read a little like Chambers off drugs. Weren't those the artist and model from "The Yellow Sign?"
Rob
oOo
rbadac (May 3, 1998)
[A rose is a rose is a rose]Robert Suggs wrote:
> Thanks for sharing, but I'm compelled to point out you could have
> claimed to have read the story in the ubiquitous Oxford Book of
> English Ghost Stories, and you would have been surrounded by the
> choir's grateful chorus of amens and affirmations.Damn.
> Stick to those B&Ns and you'll miss "The
> Beckoning Fair One"--it was too long for 100 Ovulating Little Onions.Now, THERE'S a pretty mental picture!
> I remember Pain's story as being about a painter and a model, and the
> word "voluptuous" appearing 9 or 10 times. It read a little like
> Chambers off drugs. Weren't those the artist and model from "The
> Yellow Sign?"Hmmm, remarkable similarity, I must admit. What drugs was Chambers on?
Maybe B & N should take the Mammoth road and try some novella reprints, a la the Short Horror Novels that Ashley edited. Four Freaky Frightmares? Five Famous Forgotten Fear Folios? Six Slightly Scary Stories Several Sentences Shy of Sheer Superfluousness?
Or not!
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (May 3, 1998)
rbadac wrote:
>Hmmm, remarkable similarity, I must admit. What drugs was Chambers on?Not exactly sure, but something to deal with his chief symptom.
Yellow sinus, of course.
If that story had been song lyrics in the sixties, people would still be playing it backwards on their turntables to figure out what it was about. Number nine, number nine, number nine, num. . .>Maybe B & N should take the Mammoth road and try some novella reprints, a la
>the Short Horror Novels that Ashley edited. Four Freaky Frightmares? Five
>Famous Forgotten Fear Folios? Six Slightly Scary Stories Several Sentences Shy
>of Sheer Superfluousness?I'd be all for it, but it might just be too decaffeinated an idea for Marty Greenberg.
I like those books. Clunkers here and there, but at least the pain is over quickly and after you've finished the book and read One Hundred Stories, you don't recall any of them anyway . . .Signed on at Friend.Net again, Bad Act? (or yellow-signed on?)
RoboOo
Robert Kunath (May 4, 1998)
[A rose is a rose is a rose/Fredric Brown]I don't have any of those popcorn B&N anthologies, but I would like to say that there can sometimes be some merit in the 3-page shilling shocker story. I think particularly of the science fiction/macabre author Fredric Brown who had some beautiful little 2-3 page ironic stories. Anybody remember the story about the young man summoning the devil to help him pass his geometry exam? I will only reveal the ending under duress...
Robert
oOo
rbadac (May 5, 1998)
[Frederick Brown]Yes! I was first introduced to Fred Brown's piquant shaggy dog stories through THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL in the 60s, which is still a great anthology, and which also introduced me to Henry Slesar and Charles Beaumont.
If I remember correctly, Brown's entry in that volume was 'Nasty', the simplified name of a demon who presents the old randy protagonist with a marvelous pair of swimming trunks that restore his, ahem- vitality- but with a catch, of course...
I liked 'Burnt Toast' from that book, too, but can't remember the author. The Devil confronts yet another hapless client with a spinning round table laden with cocktails, one of which is poison, and pays the poor schmuck incrementing amounts of money with each drink he takes. Needless to say, that one doesn't end happily either.
rbadac
oOo
Robert Suggs (May 6, 1998)
The story I'd thought of by Brown, which doesn't seem to be ANY of the above, features yet another appearance by Old Scratch. Fredric seems to have kept him pretty busy doing deals with his protagonists. It seems like this one, called "Armageddon," had the boy shooting a magician, in reality you-guessed-it, with a water pistol and bringing about the end of the world. Am I remembering this fairly accurately? I dread getting old and contracting Alzheimer's, and having all THESE stories garbled together in my memory. Imagine what THAT'S going to be like . . .
RoboOo
John Pelan (May 6, 1998)
[Armageddon]Rob:
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
If I recall correctly in Fred Brown's tale the stage magician is possessed in mid-performance by Old Scratch and begins to bring about Armageddon. Our hero, little Timmy (or Jimmy, or whatever) fires a few bursts from his water pistol at His Satanic Majesty sending him back to the infernal regions. Seems our boy had filled the ol' super-soaker from the baptismal fount when the family stopped by the church earlier in the day. Old FB was never one to end a story on a positive note if it could be avoided, so our hero winds up getting a sound spanking for his trouble... (Perhaps the first step to martyrdom?
JP
oOo
Robert Kunath (May 6, 1998)
Rob,You ARE remembering a fine Brown story--but the ending is reversed!--the boy *saves* the world with his squirt gun. The story begins wonderfully in Tibet, with an ancient prayer wheel breaking loose, watched by a Buddhist monk who figures it was so old and small that it couldn't have been that important. When the prayer wheel stops turning, Old Scratch has a free hand, and he happens to be in the persona of a magician doing a magic show. With the volunteers on stage for a little conjuring, suddenly the darkness deepens, a sound of leathery wings is heard above the audience, the magician laughs, and everyone KNOWS he is the devil, and a burst of flame appears on stage. The little boy volunteer reflexively pulls out his squirt gun and squirts the fire, at which point the Devil groans in agony, but has sufficient power to assure that no one will remember what happened. The last scene--you've guessed it: The little boy being soundly paddled for having had the temerity to fill his new squirt gun from the font of holy water at the church.
Robert
ooOoo