Originally posted by Bosse de NageHe's not considered a horror writer, but for me, one of the creepiest books I ever read was "The Man Who Was Thursday", by G.K. Chesterton.
Throw Samuel Beckett into the same bin while you're at it.
Well--can you suggest a horror writer who does a better job than Lovecraft?
Originally posted by AmauroteHPL's poetry is generally regarded as execrable, but I think it depends how you read it. There's quite a good recording of "Fungi from Yuggoth" stashed in a quiet cove in Pirate Bay.
Great. I'm not a big fan of HPL's poetry, I must admit, but then I'm not as big a fan of poetry in general as you are - I did love "Nemesis" [? I'm not sure if that's the title, in one of his stories, I believe], but for me it's all about his prose.
I'm reading TED Klein's The Ceremonies at the minute, it's great so far, apparently Klein based it ...[text shortened]... y years, but I'm not sure Lovecraft would have approved.
"The White People" is seriously creepy--the narrator seems flatly deranged, and the suggestions of child sex are almost more than I can take. Reminds me Paul Bowles' Up Above the World--the section in which one of the chief protagonists experiences LSD unawares is chilling writing; it creeps up on the reader unawares. Must have been that much more effective on first publication, in pre LSD days.
My liking for Ligotti is based only on Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1989), which features some stunners devoid of rhetoric, and those of his stories set to music by Current '93. As to "analytical horror"--well, perhaps the intention is to subvert the reader, pure and simple, for delayed action effects. Unfortunately Ligotti just doesn't turn up in the second hand shops around here.
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Originally posted by Bosse de NageIt's very eerie, although there are some outright shocks like the corrupt child turning the entire house upside-down - it had the same effect on me as The Darkest Part of the Woods, which is overall the best Lovecraftian novel I've ever read (let's be honest, there aren't many in what is basically a short-story subgenre, but that one is first-rate).
"The White People" is seriously creepy--the narrator seems flatly deranged, and the suggestions of child sex are almost more than I can take. Reminds me Paul Bowles' Up Above the World--the section in which one of the chief protagonists experiences LSD unawares is chilling writing; it creeps up on the reader unawares. Must have been that much more effective on first publication, in pre LSD days.
If you like Machen, T E D Klein's The Ceremonies is an excellent follow-up, because it's directly inspired by "The White People" and references it throughout (including the title). It's a terrific occult novel which makes unpleasant reading at times - my only slight gripe is that I think Klein slightly wasted one or two of the characters towards the end, although the final image is suitably grotesque and one I'd on which I'd rather not dwell...
