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Jan 13 11 2:03 PM
Guide to Resources on CHFB
Jan 13 11 3:28 PM
Jan 13 11 5:27 PM
A perfect Monster has no end...
Jan 13 11 8:32 PM
Jan 13 11 11:02 PM
Jan 13 11 11:33 PM
Dr Acula wrote:The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer are fantastic tales that involve horrific elements. Hesiod's Theogony & Works and Days are great ancient sources for other mythic stories in western culture, with plenty of stories you'll remember from elementary school. I also had a post about one of the earliest ghost stories on record from Phlegon's Book of Marvels, which was kind of a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" of the ancient world, and is worth tracking down.http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/32793/t/Philannion-Ancient-Greek-Ghost-Vampire.htmlAnd you can't got wrong with Beowulf - carnage and adventure awaits!
Jan 14 11 12:03 AM
Jan 14 11 6:00 AM
LesDaniels wrote: You mean you really haven't read a single one of these, not even the most famous? Not even a single short story by Poe?
Jan 14 11 6:55 AM
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Jan 15 11 1:11 AM
SiBurning wrote: I read my Poe "tales" book straight through once and was struck by how much fantasy it had, and how immature some if it is. There's one about a balloon trip to the moon--The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall. Maybe I'm exaggerating about how much is for kids or teenagers, but that's not the only story that seems to be for preteens. It kind of puts into perspective how some critics claim he's juvenile. I don't know what the critics actually mean, but it seems like there's at least a dozen stories meant for a 10-14 age crowd.
Jan 15 11 1:14 AM
reddog122 wrote: The novel by William Beckford named Vathek is a Gothic/Arabic hybrid published in the 18th century about a power hungry Caliph who attempts, with the help of his equally twisted mother, to gain supernatural powers. Truly twisted and it influenced Lovecraft.George du Maurier' Trilby is worth a read as it introduces Svengali to the world.And let us not forget the godfather of American Gothic, Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland, which flirts with the supernatural throughout, but in the end its mysteries are solved in Ann Radcliffe-like fashion.
Jan 15 11 4:31 AM
Jonatwork wrote:SiBurning wrote: I read my Poe "tales" book straight through once and was struck by how much fantasy it had, and how immature some if it is. There's one about a balloon trip to the moon--The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall. Maybe I'm exaggerating about how much is for kids or teenagers, but that's not the only story that seems to be for preteens. It kind of puts into perspective how some critics claim he's juvenile. I don't know what the critics actually mean, but it seems like there's at least a dozen stories meant for a 10-14 age crowd.SiBurning,When I read a lot of Poe stories at the same time I thought a great deal about categories, a subject that comes up a great deal in any discussion of books, eventually. I have not looked deeply into the subject of how Poe was considered while he was alive, but I suspect many thought of him as a writer, and the categorization of him as a 'master of suspense' or whatever resulted from those stories sticking out as being more unusual than the rest. I wasn't aware until a long time after I started reading that Poe wrote a lot of literary criticism (this gets mentioned more prominently these days--as a way of elevating him above 'mere' horror writing?), and even later I learned he wrote what we might call Americana.Regarding your points here, Poe seems to be more fairly grouped with, say, Washington Irving than with Stephen King if his writing output is taken as a whole. Joyce Carol Oates has written horror stories but I've never seen her called 'horror writer Joyce Carol Oates." And while I think I have a couple of editions of Poe around with more than just the horror/suspense material, he's "the horror guy" to so many because those are the only stories of his that seem to survive as readable, enjoyable fiction to modern audiences. (Not saying this is the truth, just the perception, and repackaging of his stories always seems aimed at the horror audience).So in reality, Poe was an American fiction writer, but in terms of classification, he was a horror writer who wrote other stuff.
Jan 15 11 7:02 AM
Jan 15 11 5:40 PM
Jonatwork wrote: SiBurning,Some of the Americana reminded me of Mark Twain without the edge that makes Twain enjoyable reading today. I've read a couple of the fantasy tales and they seem to take an awful long time to get to one image or idea--which is of course a hazard when reading early works in any genre. I have saved the 'good ones' until later, so here's hoping they hold up. I have never read "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" so I hope I'm not disappointed when I get to it.
Jan 15 11 7:04 PM
Jan 16 11 3:10 AM
G Vallejo wrote: To tie this in with the Lovecraft thread, you might want to try finding The Antarktos Cycle by Chaosium... it's an anthology of the "Antarctica" stories, both Mythos and non-Mythos.
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