alt.books.ghost-fiction

rbadac  (May 14, 1998)

[Peeling the furshlugginer 'X-Files']

All right, ghost story aficionados!  Tighten up!  I wanna see MORE POSTS outta you guys!  The X-Files contingent is threatening to BURY us!!

Sgt. Badac

Yeah, I read that goddam script.  It was o.k.

Did rather smack of 'In The Mouth Of Madness', though...

Heh heh.

oOo

 
 

Robert Suggs  (May 15, 1998)

rbadac wrote:
>All right, ghost story aficionados! Tighten up!
>I wanna see MORE POSTS outta you guys!
>The X-Files contingent is threatening to BURY us!!

Yeah, I know, no offense to Doc Loc, who knows his stuff across genres and writers.  Everyone is welcome, as long as we stay on topic.  Ligotti is on topic enough for a note or two, if not a tidal wave of them.  X-Files, well, that might be stretching it.  As for us mere lovers of the classic, non-televised ghost stories which were NEVER issued with alternative music CDs, we'll see what we can do.

Did my post on Hic Jacet not make it?  Or was it too offputting and jokey?  I hate it when that happens!  I'll try to read something more people have access to.  Actually I'm embarrassed to admit I never read "The Body Snatcher" until last night.  Nice slithery little corpse story.  One thing about corpses--they're just as disgusting to modern readers as they were to Stevenson's.  By all accounts, Stevenson grossed himself out with this tale, which is almost akin to Le Fanu scaring himself to death with his final stories (according to legend).  Lots of mentions of dividing the body parts fairly, which anatomy student gets the head, etc.  This from the author of "A Child's Garden of Verses."  I don't want to know what the children dig up in that garden.  Bring me the head of Long John Silver.

I started to read "Thrawn Janet," and it began great guns.  Then another character, after a page or so, steps in and starts narrating in thick dialect.  I needed subtitles in my own book.  I got really sleepy, put the thing down and dreamed all night the fella was still telling the story in dialect and I was missing it, and Rbadac was on his way over to mock me.  I'm not making this up.

I'll try again tonight.  I'm NOT reading the X-Files script, because I've only seen one episode of that show, so I have time . . .

Rob

oOo

 
 

rbadac  (May 15, 1998)

Robert Suggs wrote:
> Did my post on Hic Jacet not make it? Or was it too offputting and
> jokey? I hate it when that happens!

We're just malajusted, Rob.  Crying for attention.  Look at me, look at me!

I read the post, now I just have to read the story again.

> Actually I'm embarrassed to admit I never read
> "The Body Snatcher" until last night.

The movie's good, too.  You'll have mail.

> I started to read "Thrawn Janet," and it began great guns. Then
> another character, after a page or so, steps in and starts narrating
> in thick dialect. I needed subtitles in my own book. I got really
> sleepy, put the thing down and dreamed all night the fella was still
> telling the story in dialect and I was missing it, and Rbadac was on
> his way over to mock me. I'm not making this up.

Nor could you.  I canna unnastan haow ye coul' fin' tha' tale har' ta reed, laddie.  Doan ye unnastan Aynglich, ye sod?

Yes, that dialect sucks.  HOWEVER, once you get an ear for it (and it takes some hard work!), what happens in the story is PRETTY CREEPY.  I canna believe I got through it mysel', but I ended up being glad I did.

> I'll try again tonight. I'm NOT reading the X-Files script, because
> I've only seen one episode of that show, so I have time . . .

Ahhhh, that... that....that show.  I TRIED to like it, I really did!  The idea is fine, but Scully and Mulder?  Talk about offputting.  I kept wanting them to DIE, knowing all the time they never would.

crabbydak

oOo

 
 

Dr. Locrian  (May 15, 1998)

rbadac wrote:
> All right, ghost story aficionados! Tighten up! I wanna see MORE POSTS outta
> you guys! The X-Files contingent is threatening to BURY us!!
>
> Sgt. Badac
>
> Yeah, I read that goddam script. It was o.k.

Now then, Sarge...  Temper temper.  I happen to be a ghost story fan as well, but I'm promoting this script as a favor to Tom and Brandon.  Don't worry -- it's almost over.  I would also like to mention that this X-Files script stands up very well on its own, and if it doesn't get produced, it's very likely Brandon and Tom will de-X-File it.

> Did rather smack of 'In The Mouth Of Madness', though...

Well... no... I don't see it.  I *did* like that movie, granted, but the shifting of reality is much more subtle in "Crampton" and not at all of the same nature...

Regards Nethescurialian,
Doctor Locrian
(Thomas Ligotti Online)
Home of the new X-Files
Script, "Crampton,"
by Thomas Ligotti and
Brandon Trenz

oOo

 
 

DABsinthe  (May 16, 1998)

actually, it the script "smacked" more of his "The Horror out of Innsmouth" (is that title right?  PLEASE tell me I don't have to dig into my old HPL books in the basement!) story ... you know, the lodge, the locals involved in things, the meeting...
 

-dave

oOo

 
 

Robert Suggs  (May 15, 1998)

[Abune "Thrawn Janet," Nae onnerstan it, ye ken?]

rbadac wrote:
>Nor could you. I canna unnastan haow ye coul' fin' tha' tale har' ta reed,
>laddie. Doan ye unnastan Aynglich, ye sod?

"The carline skirled till ye could hear her at the Hangin' Shaw."
"Folk was see his can'le doon by the Dule water after twal' at e'en;"
"'wi claps o' het und that rumm'led in the glens"
"They flew laigh an' heavy, an' squawked to ither as they gaed"

Dagnab, where's my decoder ring when I need it?
It was pretty creepy, gotta admit.  The parts I understood.

>Ahhhh, that... that....that show. I TRIED to like it, I really did! The idea
>is fine, but Scully and Mulder? Talk about offputting. I kept
>wanting them to DIE, knowing all the time they never would.

I would have to have watched it a couple more times to be justified in criticizing, but when I saw it I was thinking, "Miami Vice."  More about style than its supposed subject.  Coolness.  Hipness.  As for the point that it's better than anything else on, I could go down to the poke and marry the best looking pig by that reasoning.

Rob
doun by the Muckle Cairn
linkin' doun the braes frae Kilmackerlie
lowed up like a brunstane spunk
cthulhu phtagn

oOo

 
 

Robert Kunath  (May 16, 1998)

[Harry Lauder sings "Cthulhu phtagn"]

Now THAT'S dialect!  Aie Shub-Niggurath!  Ye ever hear tell of a *shoggoth*, boy? (I might add that HPL's dialect wasn't so bad, generally, but I do rather see it in a different light after this discussion).  Speaking of which, we have never spent much time discussing HPL here.  I did note the "worse than Lovecraft" comment some days ago, but Lovecraft is a taste that I have never outgrown, if one is indeed supposed to do that.  His best work, among which I count "The Call of Cthulhu," "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Colour out of Space," and "the Dunwich Horror," is great fun, even if Wilbur Whatley does talk the talk described below.

Robert

> Rob
> doun by the Muckle Cairn
> linkin' doun the braes frae Kilmackerlie
> lowed up like a brunstane spunk
> cthulhu phtagn

oOo

 
 

Robert Suggs  (May 17, 1998)

I also like Lovecraft's best stuff, including all the stories you mention above.  I've sometimes listed "The Rats in the Walls" as my favorite classic horror story.  It still gives me a chill.  Even in "All Hallows" there's a jokey, offputting cartoon about HPL: "Young Lovecraft at Summer Camp."

Rob

oOo

[Compiler Note:  The above referenced 'cartoon' was drawn by Mr. Suggs himself, in the Journal of the Ghost Story Society, ALL HALLOWS 17, February 1998.]

 
 

A. M. Kuchling  (May 16, 1998)

        Leonard Wolff's annotated version of _Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde_ also includes all of R.L. Stevenson's short stories that can be classified as weird fiction.  The annotations for "Thrawn Janet" were *very* helpful by explaining the more obscure dialect words.  Unfortunately the book seems to be out of print now, but perhaps it can be found at your library.

oOo

 
 

Robert Suggs  (May 18, 1998)
 

Canna gaet the buke!  Uta print!  Capn, I canna get the ship to gae any faster!

Rob

oOo

 
 

Christopher Roden  (May 18, 1998)

Rob referred to Leonard Wolf's THE ESSENTIAL DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE as being out of print.  We found a copy, only recently, in our local branch of Chapters.  With a copyright date as recent as 1995, I'd be surprised if there were not still copies knocking around the shelves of a few bookstores.

Christopher Roden

ooOoo