Regional description in weird fiction is tailored to the heightening of atmosphere or dramatic tension, rather than the realistic grounding of a time and place as in New England Regionalism. Some of the best examples of the centralization of regional atmosphere have to be Arthur Machen's The Hill of Dreams and "The Novel of the Black Seal," Ralph Adams Cram's "The Dead Valley," John Metcalfe's "The Bad Lands," and HPL's At the Mountains of Madness. What authors and stories that are lesser known display an outstanding development of regional description as the dominant element? I offer Clark Ashton Smith's "A Tale of Sir John Mandeville" as an example.

jkh

I'm not sure how one would define "regionalism".

I get that you are not looking for regionalism that merely provides "realistic grounding". So I probably should not mention HPL's Providence stories or his New York stories.

But HPL's THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, involves a fictional town; and THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE is set in the fictional city of Arkham; and both have characteristics that are meant to contribute to the horror. Is that "regionalism"?

HPL's Antarctica is a fantastic place; as is Willam Hope Hodgson's Sargasso Sea. Does the (fantastic) Sargasso Sea count as a "region"?

I would say not because those on ships are (intendedly) passing through the Sargasso Sea. We have regionalism when a story evokes an atmosphere of dread drawn from landscape, dialect or architecture. The more extensive the emphasis on the peculiar qualities of these, the more definitely the story is an example of regionalism. Hodgson's The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' is fascinating in the way it transitions from seafaring tale to a sterling example of weird Regionalism. His epic, The Night Land contrasts the Last Redoubt with the terrors of an unknown, threatening landscape. The length of the descriptive passages, or their recurrence, is a key factor. Mary Wilkins Freeman is a New England Regionalist who also wrote some supernatural fiction, but she is not a weird fiction regionalist to the extent that Lovecraft is with "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". He should have done more of this kind of thing, I think, based upon his very detailed travelogues. Anyhow, I am trying to distinguish between mere effective setting and weird set-piece descriptions that are central to the mood of an entire story, or even, as in "The Bad Lands", or Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows", the catalyst for the action. Does this make sense to you? I think Smith was the more innovative in that he used purely stylistic effects to create the sense of dread usually achieved with regionalism.

jkh

Kipling Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would say not because those on ships are
> (intendedly) passing through the Sargasso Sea. We
> have regionalism when a story evokes an atmosphere
> of dread drawn from landscape, dialect or
> architecture. The more extensive the emphasis on
> the peculiar qualities of these, the more
> definitely the story is an example of regionalism.
> Hodgson's The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' is
> fascinating in the way it transitions from
> seafaring tale to a sterling example of weird
> Regionalism. His epic, The Night Land contrasts
> the Last Redoubt with the terrors of an unknown,
> threatening landscape. The length of the
> descriptive passages, or their recurrence, is a
> key factor. Mary Wilkins Freeman is a New England
> Regionalist who also wrote some supernatural
> fiction, but she is not a weird fiction
> regionalist to the extent that Lovecraft is with
> "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Shadow Over
> Innsmouth". He should have done more of this kind
> of thing, I think, based upon his very detailed
> travelogues. Anyhow, I am trying to distinguish
> between mere effective setting and weird set-piece
> descriptions that are central to the mood of an
> entire story, or even, as in "The Bad Lands", or
> Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows", the catalyst
> for the action. Does this make sense to you? I
> think Smith was the more innovative in that he
> used purely stylistic effects to create the sense
> of dread usually achieved with regionalism.

What do you think of the Karl Edward Wagner story "Sticks"? Would that fit in?

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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It would seem to, but is the backwoods region Wagner describes really all that unique? The cause and effect suggestion isn't brought to bear as it is in Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser", , or those stories Platypus cited. Maybe Wagner's haunted wood is not sufficiently outre to meet my criteria, but in one of his tales of Kane, I forget which one, he did so.

jkh

Kipling Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It would seem to, but is the backwoods region
> Wagner describes really all that unique? The cause
> and effect suggestion isn't brought to bear as it
> is in Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser", , or
> those stories Platypus cited. Maybe Wagner's
> haunted wood is not sufficiently outre to meet my
> criteria, but in one of his tales of Kane, I
> forget which one, he did so.


There are two other writers who seem to sometimes do regionally flavored stories: Manly Wade Wellman's "John the Balladeer" stories, and R. A. Lafferty has at least one. I think it's called "All the Pieces of a River Shore".

[www.scribd.com]

Lafferty is pretty much hard to classify. He writes in related genres, probably uncanny is the best description. He is a sort of primitive emotionalist who can evoke quite a response.

E.g., "Ride a Tin Can" can get to you.

--Sawfish

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 21 Aug 22 | 01:29PM by Sawfish.

Kipling Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would say not because those on ships are
> (intendedly) passing through the Sargasso Sea. We
> have regionalism when a story evokes an atmosphere
> of dread drawn from landscape, dialect or
> architecture. The more extensive the emphasis on
> the peculiar qualities of these, the more
> definitely the story is an example of regionalism.
> Hodgson's The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' is
> fascinating in the way it transitions from
> seafaring tale to a sterling example of weird
> Regionalism.

Yes, the early land episode of THE BOATS of THE GLEN CARRIG did occur to me when I first read your question, though I hesitated to mention it. I don't know if you will also agree that THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND contains regionalism or not. But when I think back on the story, I can almost picture in my head the topographical features ... the eerie wood, the pit, and even the House itself, though I can't actually recall any clear description of it.

Platypus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kipling Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> We
> > have regionalism when a story evokes an
> atmosphere
> > of dread drawn from landscape, dialect or
> > architecture. The more extensive the emphasis
> on
> > the peculiar qualities of these, the more
> > definitely the story is an example of
> regionalism.
> > Hodgson's The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' is
> > fascinating in the way it transitions from
> > seafaring tale to a sterling example of weird
> > Regionalism.
>
> Yes, the early land episode of THE BOATS of THE
> GLEN CARRIG did occur to me when I first read your
> question, though I hesitated to mention it. I
> don't know if you will also agree that THE HOUSE
> ON THE BORDERLAND contains regionalism or not.
> But when I think back on the story, I can almost
> picture in my head the topographical features ...
> the eerie wood, the pit, and even the House
> itself, though I can't actually recall any clear
> description of it.

Oh, most assuredly, Platypus. It is regionalism on steroids. The uninhabited region is 40 miles from the nearest railway, but the river and the village of Kraighten are not even found on maps, as are the localities where the events in Wagner's story occur. Not that long ago I read thru chapter 12, "The Subterranean Pit" and haven't resumed since. One thing I found confusing was the manuscript's references to Kali, "the Hindu goddess of death," to Set, "the Destroyer of Souls," and the vision of other mythological gods and creatures "utterly strange, beyond the power of the human mind to conceive" (38-39 in facsimile printings of 1rst ed). How then can he visualize them? How does this relate to Hodgson's introduction and other parts of the manuscript? What do you make of all that Mumbo-Jumbo? He seems to be going beyond mystification for its own sake, and arriving at a truly cosmic viewpoint, decades before Smith and HPL.

jkh

Platypus Wrote:
I can almost picture in my head the topographical features the eerie wood, the pit, and even the House
itself, though I can't actually recall any clear description of it.

Well,the structure of the ancient house is initially described as being "curious and fantastic to the last degree. little curved towers and pinnacles, with outlines suggestive of leaping flames, predominate; while the body of the building is in the form of a circle" (24-25).

jkh