What are you reading right now?

[pixel_lion]

I just finished "Between Two Fires" by Christopher Buehlman. I have no idea what made me choose it, as it's not my usual type of book considering it's very...religiousy, but I was enthralled pretty much from the get-go. Lots of violence and gore and quite a bit of dark humour as well. It's an adventure. If anyone has read it and has any similar recommendations, I'm all ears. He has other books but I'm hesitant about trying them.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Finished Berkely's Three Dialogues. Was iffy on his philosophy going into it but I definitely understand his position a lot more now, and even agree with parts of it. Would definitely recommend to anyone who likes philosophy/metaphysics and is willing to keep a very open mind.

Currently reading the Silmarillion. I've come to really enjoy "fictional" pantheons/mythologies (don't know a better term for it. Mythological pantheons made up by one man and not based on any one particular culture), so it's been really fun to read.
And for the record, it's been on my list for a while; this has nothing to do with Amazon's abortion of a show, I swear.

 

[Professor G. Raff]

I picked up The King in Yellow and am about halfway through... and I gotta say, it is fucking losing me fast. I feel like I've been mislead about it's contents for years... I thought all the stories were supposed to be more linked together by the eponymous forbidden play but it is becoming less and less prominent with several stories not mentioning it at all, and other where it is mentioned but holds no relevance to the plot at all. So many of the stories are just boring shit happening and then some mildly supernatural thing happens that is not very interesting if even that... the last one I finished was just a guy finding a cat and finding it's owner dead.

I've read most of Lovecraft's work and he always managed to set a dark or dreamlike tone even in stories where not a lot actually happens and the ending usually pulls off something much more interesting than this... and this is supposed to be considered in the same genre? I really hope the back half has something that makes these slogs feel worthwhile, or at least stories that actually involve the interesting idea that is shoved to the side in the play... because this is on track to being one of my least favorite reads in years.

 

[Jewthulhu]

I picked up The King in Yellow and am about halfway through... and I gotta say, it is fucking losing me fast. I feel like I've been mislead about it's contents for years... I thought all the stories were supposed to be more linked together by the eponymous forbidden play but it is becoming less and less prominent with several stories not mentioning it at all, and other where it is mentioned but holds no relevance to the plot at all. So many of the stories are just boring shit happening and then some mildly supernatural thing happens that is not very interesting if even that... the last one I finished was just a guy finding a cat and finding it's owner dead.

I've read most of Lovecraft's work and he always managed to set a dark or dreamlike tone even in stories where not a lot actually happens and the ending usually pulls off something much more interesting than this... and this is supposed to be considered in the same genre? I really hope the back half has something that makes these slogs feel worthwhile, or at least stories that actually involve the interesting idea that is shoved to the side in the play... because this is on track to being one of my least favorite reads in years.

If you didn't like the first half, you probably wouldn't like the second to be honest. The book is frontloaded with the more traditional horror stories, with the first story (Repairer of Reputations) being the highlight. I'm personally a fan of the book, but if you come in expecting something similar to Lovecraft you're going to be disappointed. Chambers is definitely more of a romantic than Lovecraft was, and didn't actually do much horror outside of the King in Yellow, which was a fairly experimental piece for him.

If you want something similar to Lovecraft's work, I'd suggest Algernon Blackwood. I'd recommend starting with the Willows. It's an amazing story and definitely sets a dark/dreamlike tone. It was also Lovecraft's favorite story if that means anything to you.

 

[Adamska]

Blackwood's a good pick yeah. Bloch also usually is good for some frights as well too. Howard is fun if you want to see people punch the eldritch monstrosity for a change.

 

[Professor G. Raff]

The book is frontloaded with the more traditional horror stories, with the first story (Repairer of Reputations) being the highlight.

Yeah, I thought that story was going to be the starting point and it would increase from there. It is the only one that had that Lovecraftian feel with the narrator driven to lunatic compulsion by the King in Yellow and the deformed repairer of reputations and his business that seems more than it sounds. Heck, even the outside world and it's 'lethal chamber' felt out of the ordinary.

I just wonder why it is so widely stated to be 'Lovecraft before Lovecraft', I've been hearing that all my life and the stark falseness of that claim confuses me.

 

[Calandrino]

Yeah, I thought that story was going to be the starting point and it would increase from there. It is the only one that had that Lovecraftian feel with the narrator driven to lunatic compulsion by the King in Yellow and the deformed repairer of reputations and his business that seems more than it sounds. Heck, even the outside world and it's 'lethal chamber' felt out of the ordinary.

I just wonder why it is so widely stated to be 'Lovecraft before Lovecraft', I've been hearing that all my life and the stark falseness of that claim confuses me.

"Repairer of Reputations" at least is a classic. The Yellow King seems to have been retroactively absorbed into the Cthulhu mythos as some kind of monster, which really treads on the ambiguity of the original story imo.

I think I've seen "The Willows" pop in anthologies more than any other horror story ever, except maybe some of Poe's.

-anyway-

I just finished The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. Thinking about it, I'm not sure why The Phantom of the Opera is such a famous story and character. The original novel seems pretty forgotten, and even the editor of my annotated edition is a tad snarky about some of the lazy writing and improbable plotting. Out of all the movie adaptations, the century-old Lon Chaney version is the only one that's fondly-remembered. Then there is the rock opera Phantom of the Paradise, featuring Suspiria's Jessica Harper, which is pretty good but a very loose adaptation, and the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical, which was very successful but honestly it looks gay.

Between those three there's no actual opera music at all. The silent film is the most acclaimed thing to ever come out of the story, ironic.

 

[AnOminous]

"Repairer of Reputations" at least is a classic. The Yellow King seems to have been retroactively absorbed into the Cthulhu mythos as some kind of monster, which really treads on the ambiguity of the original story imo.

Dunsany was more Lovecraft-before-Lovecraft, as was Arthur Machen (particularly of "The Great God Pan" period), although it only comes through in parts of what he wrote. Lovecraft was very well read in weird fiction, though, and took bits and pieces from everywhere.

 

[Calandrino]

Dunsany was more Lovecraft-before-Lovecraft, as was Arthur Machen (particularly of "The Great God Pan" period), although it only comes through in parts of what he wrote. Lovecraft was very well read in weird fiction, though, and took bits and pieces from everywhere.

Anybody looking for Lovecraft-type recs can't do better than the stuff he mentions in his own Supernatural in Fiction essay, or whatever it's called... I have an anthology collecting all the stories he namechecks in it, but it's all public domain of course. I think he considered Dunsany and Poe his biggest direct influences. I don't know if any Dunsany creations have Call of Cthulhu stat sheets but it wouldn't really surprise me.

iirc HPL made some choice comments on Robert Chambers, something like: "sucks how he wrote bullshit for money and only did like three good stories." Well, he put it a little better, but that was the gist.

 

[AnOminous]

Anybody looking for Lovecraft-type recs can't do better than the stuff he mentions in his own Supernatural in Fiction essay, or whatever it's called... I have an anthology collecting all the stories he namechecks in it, but it's all public domain of course. I think he considered Dunsany and Poe his biggest direct influences. I don't know if any Dunsany creations have Call of Cthulhu stat sheets but it wouldn't really surprise me.

iirc HPL made some choice comments on Robert Chambers, something like: "sucks how he wrote bullshit for money and only did like three good stories." Well, he put it a little better, but that was the gist.

Supernatural Horror in Literature, one of the best things written on the subject from the time.

 

[shameful existence]

Got the first book and loved it. Now it's a race against Netflix to finish the whole trilogy before the series is out.
The most fascinating aspect to me was that this was written by a Chinese author. Aside from his deep knowledge of physics, he must have - based on some subtle ideas and jokes - a very good grasp on European philosophy and history. Kind of reminded me that I know very little about those of China. Some of the dilemmas brought up in the story will be getting more attention in the upcoming years. The characters are a bit weaker, it's more of a study of different sections of society and their response to the idea that an alien civilization wants to conquer our planet.

I picked the books because of this youtube playlist (contains a lot of spoilers).

 

[Jewthulhu]

I'll give another recommendation to Dunsany. Re-read Gods of Pegana recently (it's a very light read, I got through it in an hour or so. Audiobook if anyone's interested) and still enjoyed it. He also had a big influence on Tolkien; I recall reading that Tolkien considered Dunsany his main influence writing the Silmarillion.

I don't know if any Dunsany creations have Call of Cthulhu stat sheets but it wouldn't really surprise me.

Azathoth is basically a recolor of MANA YOOD-SUSHAI. And the "Dream Quest" was Lovecraft's attempt to write a Dunsany-like story.

 

[AnOminous]

I'll give another recommendation to Dunsany. Re-read Gods of Pegana recently (it's a very light read, I got through it in an hour or so. Audiobook if anyone's interested) and still enjoyed it. He also had a big influence on Tolkien; I recall reading that Tolkien considered Dunsany his main influence writing the Silmarillion.

Azathoth is basically a recolor of MANA YOOD-SUSHAI. And the "Dream Quest" was Lovecraft's attempt to write a Dunsany-like story.

It's also a fairly cozy, pleasant read as Lovecraft works go.

 

[Hugbox Kommissar]

Read some fairy stories while the farms were down: The White People by Arthur Machen, The Twisted Ones by Ursula Vernon, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope. White People is obviously the classic but would recommend the other two as well.

 

[AnOminous]

Read some fairy stories while the farms were down: The White People by Arthur Machen, The Twisted Ones by Ursula Vernon, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope. White People is obviously the classic but would recommend the other two as well.

My favorite Machen is Hill of Dreams, but it isn't really weird fiction so much as his Welsh take on the Decadents. It is something like if Huysmans and Joyce had a lovechild, with stream of consciousness and even a circular structure that ends where it begins. This isn't the only indirect connection between Lovecraft and the Decadents, as Lovecraft's god Poe also was a favorite of (and translated by) Baudelaire.

 

[Beak Thing]

I just finished "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo"

The overall history of Congo fascinates me, it's a story of incredible potential ruined through inhumanity.

 

[AnOminous]

I just finished "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo"

The overall history of Congo fascinates me, it's a story of incredible potential ruined through inhumanity.

Anyone who complains about English imperialism or U.S. imperialism should check out what Leopold II did to Congo. Fuck miserable fat Belgian bastards. You can tell because most of the former English colonies are still on good terms with their former conquerors.

Everyone still hates Belgians. Fucking freaks.

 

[Beak Thing]

Anyone who complains about English imperialism or U.S. imperialism should check out what Leopold II did to Congo. Fuck miserable fat Belgian bastards. You can tell because most of the former English colonies are still on good terms with their former conquerors.

Everyone still hates Belgians. Fucking freaks.

This photo always fills me with anger and sadness...what the fuck did this guy do? Not harvest enough of that stupid ass bouncy ball rubber so you cut off the hands of and feet of his goddamn child? At least that rubber went into military machinery that slaughtered you European assholes by the millions.

I would kill myself rather than ever act like this towards another human being. It is so sickening.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Self-explanatory.

Personally, this book needs to be read, re-read and re-read again all for the sake of time. This just never gets old.

 

[Wampak]

I recently finished TekWar. It was a riot. Like every bad sci-fi tope Futurama was lampooning but played straight.

Currently, since it's now October and time for horror stuff, I'm starting Black Ambrosia by Elizabeth Engstrom. Her story When Darkness Loves Us is no joke one of the best novellas I've ever read, so I have high hopes for this one.