Cosmic Horror and Weird Tales

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Neurosis: Jun 10, 2003; Fallen Rib

Hate Fibration posted:

I swear, every time I give Thomas Ligotti another chance I end up disappointed. I feel like he's a potentially brilliant writer whose work is completely marred by his utterly loathsome personal philosophy. I always come away feeling like I should find where the man lives and give him a swirly and a few rounds of ECT.

There are some stories which stand apart somewhat. The novella at the beginning of My Work Is Not Yet Done and The Manager are much more sardonic than most of his stories and are more enjoyable for it.

# ? Dec 27, 2018 12:52

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# ? May 3, 2024 12:56

grobbo: May 29, 2014

I think Ligotti is at his best when he's bridging the gap between cosmic horror and the absurdist comedy of Kafka & Beckett (like The Town Manager or Our Temporary Supervisor). He can actually be incredibly funny, when he gets up the nerve.

He's at his *worst* when the story amounts to 'morbid ramblings of a pessimist who stumbles onto a malevolent puppet/automaton, which is scary because it's a metaphor for the falsity of individuality and consciousness, woooh'.

# ? Dec 27, 2018 13:14

Skyscraper: Oct 1, 2004; Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

grobbo posted:

I think Ligotti is at his best when he's bridging the gap between cosmic horror and the absurdist comedy of Kafka & Beckett (like The Town Manager or Our Temporary Supervisor). He can actually be incredibly funny, when he gets up the nerve.

He's at his *worst* when the story amounts to 'morbid ramblings of a pessimist who stumbles onto a malevolent puppet/automaton, which is scary because it's a metaphor for the falsity of individuality and consciousness, woooh'.

I actually like both of those Ligotti story templates, so I thought Teatro Grottesco was his best work. I cracked Noctuary and Songs of a Dead Dreamer but at first glance they seemed like Lovecraft pastiches so I didn't bother. Are they worth my time?

# ? Dec 27, 2018 16:43

N-N-N-NINE BREAKER: Jul 12, 2014

Skyscraper posted:

I actually like both of those Ligotti story templates, so I thought Teatro Grottesco was his best work. I cracked Noctuary and Songs of a Dead Dreamer but at first glance they seemed like Lovecraft pastiches so I didn't bother. Are they worth my time?

If you like super short stories like I do, definitely read part 3 of noctuary

# ? Dec 28, 2018 00:16

Skyscraper: Oct 1, 2004; Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

N-N-N-NINE BREAKER posted:

If you like super short stories like I do, definitely read part 3 of noctuary

I will! Thanks!

# ? Dec 28, 2018 16:39

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Ornamented Death posted:

I'll toss out a recommendation for Matthew M. Bartlett. His Leeds, MA, stories are all very weird in interesting ways.

Reading this right now. Its really good. The way the radio works through the series of stories is particularly effective.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 05:33

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

the title is a reference to margaret murray's the witch cult in western europe, which is a very fun read despite being wrong in every possible way

# ? Feb 18, 2019 05:37

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

wrong how so?

# ? Feb 18, 2019 06:06

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

it's a scholarly book arguing for the underground survival of a pagan witch-cult long into the historical period, and in reality no such thing ever existed

# ? Feb 18, 2019 06:07

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Interesting. I heard from folks within the occult community in the UK decades ago that there were some English villages--deeply secretive of course--that had preserved "the old ways". Whether or not true it's fun to speculate. Will check her book out.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 06:11

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

please do not start believing that margaret murray was right about anything because if you do then it's on my conscience for alerting you to to the existence of the book

# ? Feb 18, 2019 06:24

TheGreatEvilKing: Mar 28, 2016

Anyone mentioned Moby Dick?

# ? Feb 18, 2019 06:26

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

chernobyl kinsman posted:

please do not start believing that margaret murray was right about anything because if you do then it's on my conscience for alerting you to to the existence of the book

I will refuse to believe she is right in the same way I will refuse to learn to read elvish deal?

# ? Feb 18, 2019 07:02

Neurosis: Jun 10, 2003; Fallen Rib

Bilirubin posted:

Reading this right now. Its really good. The way the radio works through the series of stories is particularly effective.

Seconded. Gateways to Abomination had this strange style with connected segments ranging between those which were fairly complete horror stories and tiny mood fiblets of a couple of pages in length and which were not connected in a linear and direct fashion with the rest of the book but which couldn't stand on their own; together, the different parts created a pleasantly discordant mood. It also had this bit in the first story which made me laugh:

quote:

When I was a boy in Leeds, I had a friend named Christopher Dempsey who lived out on Cemetery Hollow Road. He had a younger brother named Alex and a backyard that emptied out into an expanse of woods that hid most of our boyhood exploits, which for a time were no less innocent than catching and eating frogs.

Christopher and Alex each seemed to be clothed in dirt. It smudged their faces at the corners of their mouths and settled into the cracked skin at their elbows and knees. Their toes were so encased in filth they were never once kicked out of King's Grocery for being shoeless; a glance at their filthy feet fooled most into thinking the boys had donned dense and dirty slippers.

Their mother, though not as obviously caked and clotted with filth as her boys, seemed to be filthy with secrets. She was thick-hipped and black-haired and wore huge glasses and colorful faded sashes tied at her waist. She favored dark denim pantsuits and she smoked up hand-rolled cigarettes one after the other. She was ugly and beautiful and fat and curved and she did not wear lipstick neatly like Mother wore lipstick. She spent hours behind the closed door of her room listening to monotonous and eerie orchestral music. She read strange books. She was quiet and sullen and cursed at her boys and humiliated and hated them. She took to me instantly, foisting her boys off upon me on many a hot afternoon and staring strangely after me as we fled into the woods.

I neither liked nor disliked Christopher and Alex. They were dim and easy to manipulate. Crimes I wished to commit they'd do at the mere suggestion. We committed acts of minor arson, and were cruel to frogs and otters and lizards, but not to cats. I once saw Christopher trying to strangle a tomcat and I jammed a thick branch into his ear until it spat blood and I handily convinced Alex to take the blame.

Before long, I became fixated on their mother. Her body was magnificent. Her rear end was huge and hypnotic and I wanted to see all of it. The only naked images of women I'd seen were from drawings by my neighbor (and friend) Guy, and the lonely woman who lived next door and changed with the blinds not drawn. Guy had a talent for drawing wide, angular asses, and hers was like one he'd never dared draw, nor even imagine. I wanted to nestle in it like a cat in the crook of a tree. I wanted to inhale its mysterious dank odors. I wanted to sup at it, to beat at it with my balled fists, to set it on fire and burn myself putting it out, to roll in the ashes in leaves of burnt flesh like it was catnip in satin sheets. But I was but ten, and she had a long line of miserable unworthy suitors to tend to her musty desires.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 09:04

Deptfordx: Dec 23, 2013

bagrada posted:

He being Brian Hodge, this was discussed a bit earlier in the thread. The Lost Citadel anthology is now available in pdf for people who backed the game book kickstarter.

If I understand all this right (I'm at work so I can't check into it properly), C.A. Suleiman kickstarted this anthology around 2015. It came out and got some praise here for the Hodge story and others, but it still wasn't available to non-kickstarters. In 2017 they then did another kickstarter for a game book with the anthology as an additional reward. I backed that one since it sounded cool and I wanted the anthology. Suleiman then got accused of sexual harassment in November and was taken off the project. Ari Marmell took over writing the game book and just finished, sending it to editing recently. Meanwhile the anthology was just today released to backers in PDF and has gone to print at Nisaba Press. So presumably it will be available through here at some point. They have one of the stories up on that site for preview but it is one of Marmell's not Hodge's. Not sure if there are any changes between the original kickstarter and the Nisaba version.

That preview story was pretty good to the point I am now interested in the RPG.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 13:40

bagrada: Aug 4, 2007; The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

Deptfordx posted:

That preview story was pretty good to the point I am now interested in the RPG.

I thought the RPG was done at the time of my last post, but they've been sending regular updates about all the various speed bumps (weather, deaths in the family, artists ghosting them or being coopted by bigger projects) they are having so it looks to be a ways off yet. If you only read the story linked at the store page in my previous post, you can read The Bone-Shaker's Daughter here. I don't know why they don't make the whole anthology available for sale.

This isn't an RPG thread, and I know penny-arcade isn't well thought of in general on these forums, but I actually think the PA artist's new personal campaign setting Brightgrave sounds cool with a lot of potential as an idea for a fantasy take on cosmic horror and the last bastions of civilization slowly slipping away. Basically the world merges with the abyss in a cataclysm and seven powerful mages are able to throw up lighthouses that project a shield that holds back the corruption in their area. Now the shields are weakening and very slowly pulling back so civilization is crowding in towards the towers as abyssal cults become more common and tieflings that are able to roam the abyssal territory start appearing. Whereas Lost Citadel is one massive former dwarf hold overcrowded with the last survivors of the world, as far as they know, while an endless tide of the dead surrounds it. Inspired by Annihilation and World War Z respectively I guess.

# ? Feb 18, 2019 18:08

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Neurosis posted:

Seconded. Gateways to Abomination had this strange style with connected segments ranging between those which were fairly complete horror stories and tiny mood fiblets of a couple of pages in length and which were not connected in a linear and direct fashion with the rest of the book but which couldn't stand on their own; together, the different parts created a pleasantly discordant mood. It also had this bit in the first story which made me laugh:

Just finished it. Really very well executed, a super fun read

# ? Feb 19, 2019 05:25

Xotl: May 28, 2001; Be seeing you.

I'm not sure how many here read much of WH Pugmire--he was a regular contributor to many recent Lovecraftian collections--but he died a few days ago at the age of 67. Jerad Walters of Centipede Press has a touching note about him in his latest newsletter, and Pugmire's friend ST Joshi wrote a reminiscence today on his webpage:

http://stjoshi.org/news.html

Pugmire already had a Centipede Press retrospective in 2010; his second, An Ecstasy of Fear, is scheduled to appear later this year. He was a fascinating individual, an unusually lyrical writer of Lovecraftian poetry and short stories, and by all accounts a pretty cool dude.

# ? Apr 1, 2019 05:52

Ornamented Death: Jan 25, 2006; Pew pew!

As catty and backstabbing as the Lovecraftian sphere is, I never heard anyone say a single negative thing about Wilum. He was a pretty singular guy.

# ? Apr 1, 2019 13:04

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

Also, Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire is an amazing name for a Lovecraftian author.

# ? Apr 1, 2019 13:23

uber_stoat: Jan 21, 2001; Pillbug

being unfamiliar with this person, I'm now reading some bio info. seems like a fascinating character as well as a great author. came home from his Mormon mission trip, came out as gay, requested excommunication. peace out bitches.

RIP.

# ? Apr 2, 2019 02:57

nankeen: Mar 20, 2019; by Cyrano4747

i was born into a pagan witch-cult in england in 1995

# ? Apr 2, 2019 05:38

nankeen: Mar 20, 2019; by Cyrano4747

my earliest memory is of being sacrificed

# ? Apr 2, 2019 05:40

nankeen: Mar 20, 2019; by Cyrano4747

'twas a foul september. a cold rot in the soil had killed the early barleycorn; dead black fields sucked and bubbled like tar around our coven, the mud so hungry that nothing heavier than a raven could settle on its surface without being sucked to a terrible death. i was slain so that i could be reborn as mother of the grains, bride of the summertime

# ? Apr 2, 2019 05:43

nankeen: Mar 20, 2019; by Cyrano4747

but now the sun is a conquering emperor, and i am its queen!

:marc:

# ? Apr 2, 2019 05:44

Skyscraper: Oct 1, 2004; Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Darth Walrus posted:

Also, Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire is an amazing name for a Lovecraftian author.

That sounds more like a bunch of adorable animals in a trench coat.

# ? Apr 2, 2019 07:14

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

wilum hopfrog pugmire escaped into reality from one of thomas pynchon's earlier works

# ? Apr 2, 2019 21:38

nankeen: Mar 20, 2019; by Cyrano4747

Darth Walrus posted:

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire

# ? Apr 2, 2019 23:54

Relevant Tangent: Nov 18, 2016; Tangentially Relevant

A modern take on the Mythos. The rest of the stories are good as well but that was my personal favorite. It's nice to find a new author.

# ? Apr 4, 2019 16:58

Big Mackson: Sep 26, 2009

I have now read everything H.P lovecraft wrote and i gotta say... a little tinge of racism here or there. Also grotesque penguins.

Here is an mspaint

The cats name is Pig

# ? Apr 18, 2019 17:37

MockingQuantum: Jan 20, 2012

Big Mackson posted:

I have now read everything H.P lovecraft wrote and i gotta say... a little tinge of racism here or there. Also grotesque penguins.

Here is an mspaint

The cats name is Pig

My condolences. I did that a couple of years back and while it was an interesting journey, Lovecraft wrote a whole lot of stuff that just isn't very good. At least I kind of figured out which stories I felt confident suggesting to people when they ask for recommendations, and I know which ones are worth re-reading.

Well, with the help of story synopses, at least. I can't always keep straight the various permutations of The Lurking Colour on the Model's Doorstep at this point.

# ? Apr 18, 2019 18:05

Big Mackson: Sep 26, 2009

MockingQuantum posted:

My condolences. I did that a couple of years back and while it was an interesting journey, Lovecraft wrote a whole lot of stuff that just isn't very good. At least I kind of figured out which stories I felt confident suggesting to people when they ask for recommendations, and I know which ones are worth re-reading.

Well, with the help of story synopses, at least. I can't always keep straight the various permutations of The Lurking Colour on the Model's Doorstep at this point.

I treated it as a historical look at racism in the beginning of 1900's and that made it more tolerable so i was able to concentrate more on other types of horrors (besides mixing of the races).

# ? Apr 18, 2019 18:10

MockingQuantum: Jan 20, 2012

Big Mackson posted:

I treated it as a historical look at racism in the beginning of 1900's and that made it more tolerable so i was able to concentrate more on other types of horrors (besides mixing of the races).

There's definitely a lot of extremely objectionable poo poo in Lovecraft's writing that, as stated before in this thread, was super racist even by the standards of his time. But I was also kind of surprised by how much there was that wasn't really problematic at all and I'd love to see those recommended more.

On the subject, I just read Winter Tide and it's better than I expected-- it's basically a Lovecraft pastiche, but written from the perspective of a former resident of Innsmouth years after it gets raided by the government. Kind of in the same boat as Ballad of Black Tom in regards to reframing a pretty explicitly xenophobic Lovecraft story. It's basically the follow-up to the short story Litany of the Earth if anybody's familiar with it.

# ? Apr 18, 2019 18:19

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

MockingQuantum posted:

On the subject, I just read Winter Tide and it's better than I expected-- it's basically a Lovecraft pastiche, but written from the perspective of a former resident of Innsmouth years after it gets raided by the government. Kind of in the same boat as Ballad of Black Tom in regards to reframing a pretty explicitly xenophobic Lovecraft story. It's basically the follow-up to the short story Litany of the Earth if anybody's familiar with it.

I'd actually say it's more of a dilution - Litany of the Earth is really good standalone (although not exactly a horror), but the following books feel like they were written just to milk the story for more cash. Nowhere near as tight, nowhere near as coherent thematically and nowhere near as chilling.
Deep Roots is slightly better, but reading Winter Tide after Litany was a huge disappointment for me.

# ? Apr 18, 2019 19:33

MockingQuantum: Jan 20, 2012

anilEhilated posted:

I'd actually say it's more of a dilution - Litany of the Earth is really good standalone (although not exactly a horror), but the following books feel like they were written just to milk the story for more cash. Nowhere near as tight, nowhere near as coherent thematically and nowhere near as chilling.
Deep Roots is slightly better, but reading Winter Tide after Litany was a huge disappointment for me.

Glad you spoke up, I read Litany at least a year ago, so I only sort of remembered it (and actually didn't immediately realize Winter Tide was related, until the narrator mentions what happened in it). And I guess saying "it's good for a Lovecraft pastiche" is sort of damning with faint praise to begin with.

So I'll amend my recommendation to: go read Litany of Earth. It's good.

I actually did start Deep Roots but wasn't very impressed with the beginning, it feels like it took the reasonably well-handled racism themes of the first book and started banging a very big racist gong at the start of the second (I know it's probably not inaccurate of the kind of casual racism that existed in the 40s, but talking about skull shapes and phrenology feels pretty blatant). What did you like better about Deep Roots? I'm pretty undecided about continuing, though I think I'm only a couple chapters in.

# ? Apr 18, 2019 21:08

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

It switches from racism to cultural misunderstanding pretty quickly. It also focuses much more on how paranoid the society (supposedly) was back then. It also comes back to Litany's claim that even in the Lovecraftian world, the biggest monsters are humans, but from a different perspective - it delves more into what makes and does not make someone "monstrous".
All in all, it's a less straightforward than Winter Tide and I think it's better for it.

It also tries - not necessarily successfully, mind you - to tackle some colonialist issues with the whole debate on whether an alien race should "uplift" humans to their level. The Lovecraft story it's based on, Whisperer in the Dark, is actually surprisingly good for this; the whole adding ambiguity to Lovecraft is part of what I really liked about Litany and feel Winter Tide was really missing.

I still think both of them would work much better as standalone short stories, but I guess turning it into a series with recurring characters makes it sell better.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 09:25 on Apr 19, 2019

# ? Apr 19, 2019 09:18

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Sweet my buddy just lent me his copy of the new WXXY/Leeds slim volume If It Bleeds by Matthew Bartlett. He got it from a publisher's fundraising program, and its a signed limited edition copy. Should take a couple of hours to inhale this.

# ? Apr 20, 2019 17:34

Ornamented Death: Jan 25, 2006; Pew pew!

Bilirubin posted:

Sweet my buddy just lent me his copy of the new WXXY/Leeds slim volume If It Bleeds by Matthew Bartlett. He got it from a publisher's fundraising program, and its a signed limited edition copy. Should take a couple of hours to inhale this.

You can get the ebook here.

# ? Apr 21, 2019 01:23

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Ornamented Death posted:

You can get the ebook here.

Nice, might need a copy for myself

e. just finished it, very much in the vein of Gateways to Abomination, so if you liked that you'll like this.

ee. also WXXT not WXXY fat fingered that a post or two ago

Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Apr 21, 2019

# ? Apr 21, 2019 02:31

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# ? May 3, 2024 12:56

Ex-Priest Tobin: May 25, 2014; by Reene

Gateways to Abomination was enjoyable but does Creeping Waves have more of a narrative thread? Bartlett's imagery is pretty cool but I feel like a longer work in the same style as Gateways may struggle to keep my interest.

# ? Apr 21, 2019 12:42

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