nate fisher posted:This has to be one of the most ridiculous lines I have read in awhile, “Danzig filled the car, setting his mind at ease, the aural equivalent of a warm security blanket”. I tried it and it didn't grab me, and based on this I think it was probably a good pass for me. I think I probably wouldn't have liked the direction things went with the kids in the book too, from what I've heard about it. That said, I too find joy in blasting "Mother" when I hop in the car
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# ? Jul 25, 2020 04:05 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:44 |
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I'm 90% through Devil's Creek and I'm also not very impressed, but I'm going to finish it. I honestly think the premise is really good, probably because it's something I thought about doing myself 15 years ago. Cosmic horror in the southern Appalachians. Great idea. But yeah he just skipped all the character development. There's no tension at all. And the central elements that make it such an interesting premise are not really developed well. What I do think it does well is capture the nostalgic return by the protagonist to his stagnant childhood hometown. That felt very authentic to me and I'm disappointed that the rest of the book didn't capture that feeling.
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# ? Jul 25, 2020 04:19 |
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I'm very close to finishing it and I'm finding myself really enjoying it. Fun book!
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# ? Jul 25, 2020 05:02 |
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So Night Film sure gets transphobic in a hurry, huh? The main character is a consistently racist, misogynist piece of poo poo, so I can deal with a lot of the stuff in here, but when they visit an ultra-exclusive night club that can only be found through riddles and requires an invite from an elite patron, it's the tamest party in the world except for the fact that some of the women inside are trans. This is apparently the reason for the insane security and secrecy surrounding the place, and enough to make it a den of otherwise indescribable hedonism. Like, I know the main character is expected to overreact upon seeing a woman with an Adam's apple, but there is nothing else in the narrative to make this place worthy of being spoken of in fearful whispers. It's a lame nightclub with a vaguely weird/interesting layout, elevated to apparent bachannalia status by the mere existence of trans people. Am I overreacting or missing something here?
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# ? Jul 26, 2020 20:40 |
Big Mad Drongo posted:So Night Film sure gets transphobic in a hurry, huh? Uh, from what I remember it was run by Russian mobsters or something to do with drug trade.
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# ? Jul 28, 2020 08:35 |
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Brian Hodge, Dark Advent. I'm about a third of the way in and thinking of dropping it. The parallels between this and what I remember of The Stand (which also didn't much impress me) are obvious, and I think Hodge is even trying to imitate King's voice. Am I correct in assuming things are heading for a showdown between the good guys (Jason, Caleb, the Cassandra girl whose actual name I've already forgotten) and the bad guys? With the Courier capering somewhere in the background, maybe steering the two parties towards an eventual showdown? Because I'm not interested in reading a further couple hundred pages of Travis the alcoholic wife beater and his goons rape and pillage their way across post-apocalyptic America. For gently caress's sake, he's even got a pet gimp literally called Pit Bull, who wears a spiked collar. I suppose I should be grateful they don't call themselves Master and Blaster. Because if that's the case, I'm very disappointed in the author that also gave us Worlds of Hurt. Although, looking closer, it seems Advent precedes Hurt by 18 years, so I suppose he's developed quite a bit since then.
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# ? Jul 30, 2020 08:04 |
The shirt may be the best part...
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# ? Jul 30, 2020 17:20 |
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Mannequins are scary!
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# ? Jul 30, 2020 17:34 |
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the_enduser posted:Uh, from what I remember it was run by Russian mobsters or something to do with drug trade. My problem is, unless something changes later in the book, the only difference between that place and any other lovely nightclub is that it has trans people. It's described as this insane party that defies belief and that gets used to build up the Cordova mythology, but what's actually shown is vanilla as hell. They even call back to "I spoke to a lady there, or was it even a lady?" in a later chapter for no real reason. The book is mostly pulpy fun, but that part left a bad taste in my mouth.
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# ? Jul 31, 2020 02:10 |
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Huh. I never got the read that the scintillating and spooky stuff was that there was trans people but just that it was weird and creepy in and of itself. I totally agree that it was kind of random and out of nowhere ("Uh okay there are trans people, sure? And?"), but I always felt it was more just cause it was a weird secret club that was supposed to be the ookilly spookilly part. Also, while I like a lot about that book, like how the tone towards the end just grabs you, holy poo poo does it butcher some geography if you know the areas. "We're in a rush! Let's take the subway in a direction that requires like 5 transfers instead of using the car we have!" Lol.
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# ? Jul 31, 2020 02:33 |
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I’m looking for (horror) fiction written from the perspective of an investigator, preferably an uninvolved outsider. I realised what a lot of the stories I’ve enjoyed have in common is a detached tone, and how they rely on the facts of the matter to paint the picture, rather than asking the reader to try from the beginning to empathise with a protagonist who acts as their stand-in. Telling the story from a third-person perspective is therefore almost a must. It goes without saying that the best of these stories are subtle, letting the reader put the pieces together themselves, to form a picture of something disturbing. That’s not to say that the supernatural can’t have any place in the story, or even that unrealistic elements can’t be present from the beginning; see for example the SCP linked below. What I’m looking for is that dawning realisation that things are not as they seem, or that while things look bad, it’s actually much worse than was first let on. There doesn’t need to be a plot as such; just paint me a disturbing picture. I wish I could remember more examples of what I mean, but here are some. I'll add to the list as I think of more. Mark Danielewski - House of Leaves China Miéville - A Second-Slice Manifesto (short story) John Langan - Technicolor (short story) The SCP about the Red Sea Object, here: http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-093 HF Arnold - The Night Wire Jeff VanderMeer - The Area X trilogy Patton Oswalt once featured on his blog a list of 31 stories for Halloween, but I can’t find the individual entries in that series. One of those stories fits the bill exactly: it was about a researcher performing some completely unethical but disturbingly imaginative experiments on human subjects, concerning ticklishness and the fear response (yes that sounds bizarre, but I’m sure I remember that correctly). The story is told as a series of study protocols or experimental session notes, or both. A detail that stuck with me is that he surgically modified his victims’ knees so they don’t lock, but hyperextend, making running almost but not completely impossible. Anyone remember that one? So there it is. Every recommendation and pointer you can throw my way will be very sincerely appreciated! VVV Yes I have, very good example, thanks. immolationsex fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Aug 1, 2020 |
# ? Aug 1, 2020 12:33 |
Have you tried the Area X series? I wish there was a book series like the Control game or more SCP type stuff.
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# ? Aug 1, 2020 20:22 |
immolationsex posted:I’m looking for (horror) fiction written from the perspective of an investigator, preferably an uninvolved outsider. I realised what a lot of the stories I’ve enjoyed have in common is a detached tone, and how they rely on the facts of the matter to paint the picture, rather than asking the reader to try from the beginning to empathise with a protagonist who acts as their stand-in. Telling the story from a third-person perspective is therefore almost a must. You'd probably dig Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg.
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# ? Aug 1, 2020 21:59 |
immolationsex posted:Patton Oswalt once featured on his blog a list of 31 stories for Halloween, but I can’t find the individual entries in that series. One of those stories fits the bill exactly: it was about a researcher performing some completely unethical but disturbingly imaginative experiments on human subjects, concerning ticklishness and the fear response (yes that sounds bizarre, but I’m sure I remember that correctly). The story is told as a series of study protocols or experimental session notes, or both. A detail that stuck with me is that he surgically modified his victims’ knees so they don’t lock, but hyperextend, making running almost but not completely impossible. Anyone remember that one? I'm thinking this one is Adam Corbin Fusco's “N0072-JK1: Study of Synaptic Response of the Organism to Spontaneous Stimulation of Vulnerability Zones. Photographic Analysis.” I remember it from one of the Pseudopod Flash from the Borderlands episodes: https://pseudopod.org/2015/09/18/pseudopod-436-flash-on-the-borderlands-xxvi-official-reports/. EDIT: Apparently the Borderlands 5 anthology that has this story is 3 bucks on the kindle store.
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# ? Aug 1, 2020 22:12 |
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So I read and loved Clive Barker's Cabal and wanted to share that it is a very anti-cop book, if that's something anyone is looking for in their horror.
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# ? Aug 3, 2020 23:38 |
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I look for it everywhere so yeah. And now I just learned that Night Breed was based on a Clive Barker book that got pretty good reviews. Dang I think I’ll get it.
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# ? Aug 4, 2020 02:43 |
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https://silentmotorist.media/2020/08/03/hymns-of-abomination-secret-songs-of-leeds-a-tribute-to-matthew-m-bartlett/ There's gonna be an anthology with Langan, Evenson, Ballingrud... all doing stuff in Matthew Bartlett's world. Pretty loving cool but it begs the question - is Bartlett dying soon? How did he get a tribute like this so soon?
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# ? Aug 5, 2020 00:12 |
escape artist posted:[url]https://silentmotorist.media/2020/08/03/hymns-of-abomination-secret-songs-of-leeds-a-tribute-to-matthew-m-bartlett/ It's not too unusual, there was a collection of stories all inspired by/based in Barron's Old Leech setting a few years back. Or at least, I hope he isn't dying or something.
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# ? Aug 5, 2020 00:16 |
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MockingQuantum posted:It's not too unusual, there was a collection of stories all inspired by/based in Barron's Old Leech setting a few years back. Or at least, I hope he isn't dying or something. I love the idea and I really hope he's healthy.
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# ? Aug 5, 2020 01:37 |
escape artist posted:I love the idea and I really hope he's healthy. I've not seen any chatter indicating anything is wrong with him. These kind of anthologies have been around for a while, but only recently have publishers started calling them tributes. Personally I think that's dumb because of this exact scenario (calling them tributes, not doing them at all).
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# ? Aug 5, 2020 01:42 |
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Ornamented Death posted:You'd probably dig Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. a foolish pianist posted:I'm thinking this one is Adam Corbin Fusco's N0072-JK1: Study of Synaptic Response of the Organism to Spontaneous Stimulation of Vulnerability Zones. Photographic Analysis. I remember it from one of the Pseudopod Flash from the Borderlands episodes: https://pseudopod.org/2015/09/18/pseudopod-436-flash-on-the-borderlands-xxvi-official-reports/. Thank you to to all you knowledgeable and generous people, you've put me on to a lot of interesting stuff over the years.
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# ? Aug 5, 2020 16:16 |
spotted in tofino british columbia, it's a regular tourist gallery place but the name (and tentacles) made me unaccountably happy with lovecraft's name in the nerd news again though it could lead to some pretty loving uncomfortable conversations for the owner
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# ? Aug 6, 2020 03:48 |
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That has to be a little on purpose, right?
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# ? Aug 6, 2020 14:33 |
Rolo posted:That has to be a little on purpose, right? It’s absolutely on purpose, we checked with the owner
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# ? Aug 6, 2020 15:04 |
Clipperton posted:spotted in tofino british columbia, it's a regular tourist gallery place but the name (and tentacles) made me unaccountably happy disappointed its not a sex shop
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# ? Aug 6, 2020 19:48 |
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Bilirubin posted:disappointed its not a sex shop there's an infamous sex shop in my city called Lovecraft and it looks exactly like the sort of dive where you'd find a dude with a weird jaw, a strange odour and gills on his neck
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# ? Aug 7, 2020 02:11 |
how'd lovecraft get in the news i thought he's been dead for a while now
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# ? Aug 7, 2020 09:51 |
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First glimpse of the HBO adaptation of Lovecraft Country looks promising.
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# ? Aug 7, 2020 11:19 |
SniperWoreConverse posted:how'd lovecraft get in the news i thought he's been dead for a while now The Cthulhu mythos won a Retro Hugo.
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# ? Aug 7, 2020 11:31 |
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Not as good as the hunchback mythos that won a Victor Hugo, then?
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# ? Aug 7, 2020 11:38 |
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https://twitter.com/NBallingrud/status/1291834740182528000 He says later in the thread that four of the episodes are based on stories from NALM, the other four are original stories by the show's writing staff.
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 01:15 |
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Is The Strain series worth reading? Wondering if I should read them before watching the series.
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 03:50 |
Lester Shy posted:https://twitter.com/NBallingrud/status/1291834740182528000 Oh god that first story in NALM
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 06:43 |
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Picked up the Penguin Classics edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe today. Never read Ligotti before and the discussion in this thread made me feel like I was missing out.
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 17:56 |
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AHHHHHH AAAAHHHHquote:He says later in the thread that four of the episodes are based on stories from NALM, the other four are original stories by the show's writing staff. Ehhhh.
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 18:50 |
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anyone else reading the posthumous romero book “the living dead?” it’s a zombie novel, alright
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# ? Aug 8, 2020 20:15 |
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ketchup vs catsup posted:Is The Strain series worth reading? Wondering if I should read them before watching the series. Its okay-ish, it seemed like airport fiction, the show wasn't half bad, but suffered in the 2nd season. But to be fair, thats just my opinion.
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# ? Aug 9, 2020 02:41 |
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Lester Shy posted:https://twitter.com/NBallingrud/status/1291834740182528000 I started reading NALM today and it's very good.
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# ? Aug 9, 2020 04:47 |
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I started reading NALM today and it's very good. I’m excited to see how they do the first story with the waitress in live action.
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# ? Aug 9, 2020 04:49 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 05:44 |
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Rolo posted:I’m excited to see how they do the first story with the waitress in live action. Yeah part of that I'm sure could be really cool visually, but I hope they do the characters and setting justice. These feel kind of like Murakami stories set in the Southeast.
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# ? Aug 9, 2020 05:01 |