25 most recent entries:
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (Jun 19 2009 20:42 GMT)
Kyberean Wrote: ------------------------------ > It is also not my duty to prove a negative. > Gavin's logic is along the lines of, "
Re: Little known (Jun 18 2009 18:28 GMT)
I have only read parts of Keats' poetry, and I am not sure from what time periods. "Pleasure thermometer" sounds very abstract to me, although amusing and an interesting conceptual thought. "
Re: Little known (Jun 18 2009 17:33 GMT)
I agree with Jim. Given that Keats is well-known for his sensuous imagination, I was quite surprised to see Knygatin's characterization of Keats's works as seeming more abstract and tenuous. Indeed, Keats's sensuality is in part what made his poetry controversial during the poet's lifetime (See, for instance, Byron's caustic remark that Keats was "frigging his imagination").
Re: Little known (Jun 18 2009 16:59 GMT)
I completely disagree with your characterization of Keats' poetry, it has for quite a long time been recognized for the power and explicitness of its sensual imagery. Note the "pleasure thermometer" in "Endymion"
Clark Ashton Smith art books for sale (Jun 18 2009 16:00 GMT)
I have [i]Grotesques and Fantastiques[/i] and [i]The Fantastic Art of Clark Ashton Smith[/i], both in excellent condition. I am offering them for sale [i]together[/i] at $ 125.00, which price includes basic domestic shipping costs. A perusal of abebooks.com will show that this is the lowest price you're likely to find.
Re: Pub dates for vols. 4 and 5 of the Nightshade series correct? (Jun 18 2009 14:11 GMT)
Hmmm... I had to send the e-mail twice before it got away, but I usually experience the same trouble with STJ's e-mail address, and he has the same ISP as you. I simply have to be stubborn and try and try again until it goes out. (I suggest you do the same when trying to reach me.) Anyway, you should have the list by now, so let me know if you didn't get it!
Re: Little known (Jun 18 2009 13:09 GMT)
Arthur Machen said in [i]Hieroglyphics[/i], his study of ecstasy in literature: [i]"... The most perfect form of literature is, no doubt, lyrical poetry, which is, ..., almost pure idea, art with scarcely an alloy of artifice, expressed in magic words, in the voice of music. ...
Re: Pub dates for vols. 4 and 5 of the Nightshade series correct? (Jun 18 2009 08:38 GMT)
BTW, Martin, please drop me an email. For some reason my ISP isn't delivering messages to yours. I'd like copies of the typos you've uncovered, please. Scott
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (Jun 18 2009 00:10 GMT)
Hmm, my (to me, at least) rather anodyne comments seem to have been mistaken for the dropping of a gauntlet, which is unfortunate. I'll go one more round, then, on principle. [quote]Actually, Joshi?s biography says quite the opposite. Indeed, according to Joshi, HPL?
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (Jun 17 2009 21:46 GMT)
[i]Kyberean Wrote: ------------------------------ > As for the Lovecraft/NS parallels, I think that, > as Joshi's biography shows, HPL's sympathy was > primarily with the fascists' economic program.
Re: Little known (Jun 17 2009 14:44 GMT)
Scott Connors Wrote: ------------------------------ > Speaking of Keats, I would recommend without > hesitation Tim Powers' novel The Stress of Her > Regard, in which Keats is a major character, along >
Re: Pub dates for vols. 4 and 5 of the Nightshade series correct? (Jun 17 2009 14:44 GMT)
You know me, Scott -- I'm a compulsive proofreader. Just bring 'em on! ;) (I'll have lots of spare time in front of me to read it, as I'm in serious danger of being laid off.)
Re: Little known (Jun 17 2009 13:15 GMT)
Perhaps an annotated edition of Keats would also help. One of my favorites is the Riverside Edition of Keats's selected poems and letters, edited by Douglas Bush. There is also a recent (and long overdue) Norton Critical Edition of Keats's works. [quote]His personal way using of classic mythology for symbolism, is perhaps the primary difficulty for me to get past.[/quote] I can certainly see the difficulties that this would pose.
Re: Little known (Jun 17 2009 10:30 GMT)
Speaking of Keats, I would recommend without hesitation Tim Powers' novel [i]The Stress of Her Regard[/i], in which Keats is a major character, along with Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. (And the title derives from a poem by CAS to boot!) Best, Scott
Re: Pub dates for vols. 4 and 5 of the Nightshade series correct? (Jun 17 2009 10:27 GMT)
Martinus Wrote: ------------------------------ > God bless you for this piece of news, Scott! (I > really needed that today...
Re: Little known (Jun 17 2009 08:07 GMT)
I do appreciate your thoughts on Keats, and suggestions. Well, not all of Keats' world is cut off from me. I like portions here and there. His sense of beauty seems very subtle and sensitive, so the mind needs to be all quiet and patient when reading him. His personal way using of classic mythology for symbolism, is perhaps the primary difficulty for me to get past.
Re: Little known (Jun 16 2009 22:23 GMT)
Well, I certainly would not suggest reading Spenser primarily for the stories! Anyway, sorry that my suggestion is not helpful. It's a shame that you have such difficulty with Keats, as he is one of the three or four greatest poets in English, in my estimation. CAS himself mentioned in a letter his opinion that Keats's work is perhaps the richest in memorable individual lines.
Re: Little known (Jun 16 2009 13:41 GMT)
When I was younger, in search of fantasy, I tried reading Spenser's [i]The Faerie Queene[/i], but rather quickly gave up. I settled for the fairy lore I found in Robert Kirk's [i]The Secret Commonwealth[/i], and in Thomas Keightley's [i]The Fairy Mythology[/i].
Re: Little known (Jun 16 2009 11:48 GMT)
Keats's sensually rich language and languorous, serpentine sentences can be difficult, certainly, and especially for one whose native language is not English. One key is to try to get at Keats by way of the work of Keats's "hero", Edmund Spenser. The latter's [i]Faerie Queene[/i] might prove a useful transition from Shakespeare to Keats.
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (Jun 16 2009 11:45 GMT)
You'll like Volta's obscure book on vampires, I think. Try to get the French edition, if you read that language. It is akin to Eisler's work, in that each offers an original and unconventional approach to what would seem to be a well-worn area, and each is larded with obscure references. My impression is that the Nazis identified the lycanthrope archetype with certain primal, pagan, irrational forces, which indeed is the opposite of Lovecraft, who, after all, dreamt of transforming himself into a sort of sentient cosmic gas! Such ethereality is very much at the antipodes of the lycanthrope archetype, I agree.
2 CAS MINT Hardcovers for Sale (May 26 2009 14:16 GMT)
I have 2 CAS Hardcovers that are in MINT/unread condition, that I am willing to part with for 1/2 cover price and shipping is free anywhere in the US. They have to be purchased together though. [b]Hardcover - Red World of Polaris(Nightshade Books) [/b] $27/2 = $13.50 http://www.
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (May 24 2009 17:41 GMT)
Kyberean Wrote: ------------------------------ > The House on the Borderland... I well remember my first > reading of the book years ago, while on a camping >
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (May 24 2009 15:39 GMT)
[i]The Night Land[/i] contains absolutely fascinating and extraordinary visions, but it is too long, diffuse, ineptly written, and marred by obnoxious romance to qualify as Hodgson's best and most quintessential work, in my opinion. [i]The House on the Borderland[/i], by contrast, is much better written, and its cosmic visions are much more powerful, to me. I well remember my first reading of the book years ago, while on a camping holiday on the Ile d'Yeu, and feeling as if in a daze for days after reading it. Rarely has a book made such a powerful impression on me. It left me, in Hemingway's words, "
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (May 24 2009 13:08 GMT)
Here is a discarded draft from Jack Vance's [i]Suldrun's Garden[/i], first part in his Lyonesse trilogy. Neither the text nor the nymph made it into the book: The following morning he came to a wide slow river, which he crossed, dry-shod, on magic feathers. In the shallows, among the reeds stood a nymph staring down at the ripples which left her parted knees. Absorbed in her thoughts she failed to see Shimrod, and he watched her for several minutes.
Re: Obscure Weirdness Hunt (May 24 2009 12:52 GMT)
Kyberean Wrote: ------------------------------ > The House on the Borderland. I was kind of hoping you would say [i]The Night Land[/i]. I think [i]The House on the Borderland[/i] may be his most well-written work, but it didn't leave me all that excited.
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