Cosmic Horror and Weird Tales

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The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Neurosis posted:

I'm reading some of Ligotti's short stories. This encouraged me to look up an interview with him. What a mistake that was. He seems insufferable and smugly superior. Sorry your life sucks so much, Thomas, but I like mine. I'll still keep reading the fiction, though. I haven't seen anything really Lovecraftian so far but the stories are good.

Finally someone who agrees.

It's kind of hard for me to reconcile the fact that someone who wrote a story as good as The Town Manager wrote a book as obnoxious as The Conspiracy Against The Human Race

# ¿ Jun 22, 2013 17:42

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:20

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Smapti posted:

Ha, yeah . . . he actually does have a stated preference for instrumental rock (not sure which kind) and played guitar for a while, and he currently lives in Florida; so this is eerily plausible. Frankly, the idea of Ligotti in a Tommy Bahama shirt listening to Jimmy Buffett is an eldrich horror much worse than anything he's ever written in his stories.

He apparently goes by YellowJester on his forums, so I assume he's a King Crimson fan.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2013 20:17

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

I find that Laird Barron is becoming a better writer as he goes along, so it's interesting to follow him just for that reason.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2014 18:11

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Neurosis posted:

Deadly Premonition's story and atmosphere are spectacular and in some ways creepier than and superior to Twin Peaks. The actual GAMEPLAY, on the other hand...

Agent York is a fascinating take on the character of Dale Cooper, but examining why he's so interesting would get into spoilers.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2015 14:44

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

God Of Paradise posted:

I'd go further by saying he is the greatest living horror writer.

Ligotti really needs someone to rescue his work from himself.

# ¿ May 4, 2015 14:00

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Evfedu posted:

How do I get Poroth Farm on my Kindle? UK goon.

Buy the Cthulhu Mythos Megapack. It's only 99 cents and it has Poroth and a bunch of other stories on it.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 02:54

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

The Shadow Out Of Time feels more like background for someone's RPG campaign than something trying to be scary.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 22:54

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

echopraxia posted:

Is there any really hard SF cosmic horror like Watts out there but without the kind of aspie snark that comes with his style? Like I love the indifferent sense of dread that pervades Blindsight and the Rifters series (and that they both make you think long and hard about how being a living thing, much less being self-aware is pretty terrifying and weird) but the Dawkins-like sneering tone he has is annoying and gets in the way a lot.

Are there any writers like Phillip K Dick, but uncontaminated by being a subhuman schizophrenic?

# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 03:23

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Effectronica posted:

That's a very strange comparison to make.

I used to like Borges, but him becoming blind really taints his life's work with his icky inability to see.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2015 09:13

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Effectronica posted:

Have you considered being less passive-aggressive, and instead just calling people motherfuckers if they use the colloquial definition of "aspie" or "sperg"?

Man, don't be such a Eosinophiliac about this.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 20:33

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

I'd probably rather hang out with Lovecraft than Houellebecq, because while ol' HPL was a racist nerd, at least he wasn't a racist pedo nerd.

Mind you, I'd rather hang out with neither of them.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 22:52

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Clipperton posted:

how many great authors would be fun to hang out with though

True, true.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 01:11

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

RCarr posted:

I took the advice of the thread and read "The King in Yellow."

I have to say that was probably the worst book I've read in my entire life. Holy poo poo was it boring. I continued through, patiently waiting for the awesome payoff which was sure to come, but then it ended.

Can someone explain to me how anyone could enjoy this book?

No, because I don't like you.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 19:57

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

ravenkult posted:

Tim Waggoner (doesn't write cosmic horror, but he does write horror) had a great status on Facebook the other day, questioning why we don't mind having a Poe award all that much, considering he was pro-slavery and married his 13-year old cousin. While it's largely pointless (plenty of terrible authors are admired today) it was hilarious watching nerds doing mental gymnastics to explain away pedophilia.

One lady's opinion was that racism is a big problem in the US, while ''children brides'' aren't, so why should we care about that kind of stuff?

The thing is, child brides and slaves don't show up much in Poe's stories.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 19:08

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

ravenkult posted:

I mean, he was racist, and Poe was a pedophile. Plenty of poems about his dear 13 year old cousin were written.

It's considered bad form to move the goal posts without at least acknowledging that a goal was scored.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 02:50

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Abarat had some trippy drawings to help you through. Imajica did not have that

# ¿ Feb 7, 2016 18:54

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Neurosis posted:

Read the James Stoddard rewrite if you read The Night Land though.

Yes, definitely this.

Also be prepared for the pacing to feel more like that of a ship's log than a condensed narrative.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 19:43

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

All those stories are just him trying to be Dunsany

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 06:30

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Helsing posted:

Practically every Lovecraft protagonist is a more or less subtle self-insert by Lovecraft himself. Typically they even have very similar biographies to him, in some cases they are literally acting out dreams Lovecraft had about himself.

The other, very much related, issue with Lovecraft is that, much like Thomas Ligotti, he just doesn't like people and doesn't find them very interesting. He can't get into their heads because he's completely stuck in his own head, which is why on the one hand he has such a distinctive voice (like LIgotti) but also why, on the other hand, he tends to just write the exact same character over and over again (like Ligotti), resulting in stuff that's often very conceptually interesting but which doesn't always pull you in the way a less misanthropic author might (again, I'd say this is very reminiscent of Ligotti).

True as hell. Pickman's Model is the only story I can remember where he feels like he's trying for an narrative voice that isn't "just Howard Phillips Lovecraft with a different name"

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 20:07

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

MockingQuantum posted:

I gotta find Wide, Carnivorous Sky and give it another try. I think I read one or two of the stories in it and didn't feel like it was that strong, but maybe I just picked the wrong ones to start with.

The best stories are towards the middle, The Shallows and Technicolor are both great.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2016 13:43

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

my bony fealty posted:

I haven't but he's now next on my list, the post above definitely solidified that

any other early weird/horror writers worth reading? Arthur Machen is one I haven't read yet either. I read a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe's more sci-fi stories last year and they varied from "pretty neat" to "oh god why am I reading this" (mostly "Eureka," ugh).

Eureka isn't a story.

That's kinda like reading An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, With Their Application to Simultaneous Linear Equations and Algebraic Equations because you liked Alice In Wonderland

# ¿ Oct 6, 2016 16:39

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Roark posted:

Name-dropping of made up places and incomprehensible entities is a thing Lovecraft does because he really wants to be Dunsany, and kind of a thing among the early big beats of the genre as a whole. You can't avoid it or escape it.

Fixed that for you

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 00:37

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

http://mockman.com/2012/05/01/the-doom-that-came-to-sarnath-page-1/

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 15:46

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Phi230 posted:

Is lovecraft inspired by Howard cause I can see some Conan in that story.

It's Dunsany. The answer is Dunsany

# ¿ Oct 20, 2016 00:24

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Darth Walrus posted:

There was also her blowup with Benjanun Sriduangkaew, in which she initially came across as the victim and then... uhh... less so (long story short, Sriduangkaew was revealed to be a highly vitriolic Internet personality called requireshate, an expose of her won an award for sci-fi journalism, and then it turned out that while she had been a bit of an rear end in a top hat, Kiernan and a cabal of other authors had either distorted or outright fabricated most of her worst offences because they were super mad about being called racist, and were trying to drive her out of the industry). Can't help but wonder if that's damaged her with some publishers.

Requires Hate was a horrendous person, and anyone opposed to her certainly can't be all bad

# ¿ Nov 4, 2016 19:12

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Darth Walrus posted:

Read the link. Requires Hate's schtick was going super-aggressive against anything she percieved as bigotry in sci-fI and fantasy, which meant that she could frequently come across as an rear end in a top hat but tended to make enemies who were even worse. The Kiernan incident was one of those.

Remember that the Mixon report, which ended up being the source on most of her bad behaviour online, was mainly sourced from one of her proto-Rabid Puppy stalkers, and that Mixon never bothered to mention this.

Suuuuuuuuuurrrreeeeeeeeeeeee

I'll go get raped by dogs as penance

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 14:14

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Darth Walrus posted:

Again, read the link. That turned out to be a fabrication by one of her stalkers. She's said some pretty questionable poo poo, and she's often been meaner than the situation really warrants, but she's also been subject to an intense defamation campaign that should be familiar if you've ever seen what happens to high-profile non-white women calling out racism (see also, NK Jemisin, who Requireshate has chewed out but who I believe later came to her defence as the defamation campaign picked up speed).

In which keeping track of usernames counts as e-stalking

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 15:39

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Skyscraper posted:

This is out of nowhere, but did Zack Parsons ever do any horror after Liminal States? That was a while ago, and I'd love to read another That Insidious Beast.

He did something on Halloween 2013 that I'm pretty sure counts as horror

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 14:55

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Skyscraper posted:

Is this it? Am I bad at searching things?

Oh, fantastic, thanks!

Today's hot take that probably won't be popular: I just read House on the Borderland and didn't like it. It's a solid horror intro, but about 1/3 of the way through the book the main character goes into a MYSTICAL JOURNEY into space, where he can do nothing as strange and boring astronomy happens in front of him for about half the book, then he wakes up and it's horror again, which is again actually pretty good.

I'll give you a hint: It's at the top of the forums right now

# ¿ Feb 8, 2017 16:56

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Ornamented Death posted:

I would think it's be a lot easier to listen to someone read The Night Land to you than it is to actually read The Night Land, so you should be ok.

Someone did a re-written version that cleans up the faux 17th century writing that I'd recommend.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 18:51

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

chernobyl kinsman posted:

the night land isn't even that good but i'd still rather shoot myself in the head and live than read a self-published 'rewrite'

okay

# ¿ Feb 11, 2017 23:13

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

General Battuta posted:

Welp

All opinions aside, Behemoth is factually in the category of "chapters of torture porn", whether the author is getting off on it is not mentioned in the text. Take that into advisement as you decide whether to read it. Starfish is a dope book, it's like The Deep but hard SF and actually about being underwater.

Eliminative materialists seem convinced weird torture rape fantasies are universal for reasons that are opaque to me. Metzinger and Bakker do that poo poo too

Anyway this is why panpsychism is the only viable position in the matter, peace out

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 18:05

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Jedit posted:

It's weird in a way that people think Pet Sematary is peak King, because he hates it and didn't even want to publish it. The only reason it ever came out is because he was contractually obliged to provide a book to NEL and he hadn't finished It in time.

Wasn't it too raw and unpleasant for him?

# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 13:28

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

chernobyl kinsman posted:

it matters not

This is a really weird and bad attitude to have

# ¿ Apr 2, 2018 00:00

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:20

The Vosgian Beast: Aug 13, 2011; Business is slow

Man Gahan Wilson's style does not lend itself to sculpture

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 03:25

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