Re: Cosmic horror by less known authors
Posted by:
Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 13 March, 2021 10:50AM
Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Knygatin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Good Lord, I haven't read a single page of
> Dracula
> > in probably a month! The spectacularly
> enjoyable
> > beginning of the book lasted a few chapters,
> but
> > then came to a grinding halt. I have been
> > struggling almost halfway through, but it is
> slow
> > and resisting my progress. I have just drifted
> > away from it, and forget to read. But I still
> hope
> > I will be able to complete it. People complain
> > over Hodgson's Night Land, but this is slower.
>
> Minicthulhu Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I know that feeling. This is probably the worst
> > thing that might happen to a book. ...
>
>
> I was finally able to complete Dracula a while
> back. It is very well written, ... especially the
> moments of supernatural horror are masterful. But
> it is too long, it drags, and could easily have
> been shortened by at least a third. The narrative
> documents every step the characters take, even the
> mundane in between. I have a very short attention
> span for bridging passages, and in my opinion
> every moment in a book, even the quieter ones,
> should be charged with deeper meaning and
> atmosphere.
This is a good opinions to share in that it causes readers of ED to review their own criteria for evaluating a narrative.
Thinking on it, I mostly agree with your observation, with a caveat: sometimes these otherwise mundane bridging sections tend to establish,or support, verisimilitude and/or credibility, making the central action, or characters, more believable.
Now, that said, there's only alimited place for this in a novel like Dracula.
>
> Although several fine vampire and Dracula films
> have been made, none of them have quite captured
> the quality of Stoker's impressive imagination of
> horror in Dracula.
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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