Re: Less Familiar Weird Literature
Posted by:
jdworth (IP Logged)
Date: 14 February, 2012 10:37AM
Thank you for the kind words.
I think the feeling described above is why I do so enjoy writers such as Onions, de la Mare,
Aickman, some (at least) of Kirk, Campbell, and so on, including some of the tales of L. P. Hartley. "A Visitor from Down Under", for instance, always feels to me like a special sort of fever dream, where the dream is actually a rupture of those "fixed laws" Lovecraft talks about, allowing the presence of the truly "Outside". And, of course, one of the attractive aspects of this experience is that while not diminishing the feeling of menace and the terrible one whit, there is also that sense of the sublime and/or the numinous as well. A convincing portrait of the "slipping" of reality ever-so-little... just enough for the readeer to experience something of that mystical experience which blends both terror and ecstasy. Certainly, at his best, Lovecraft does this for me (and even in his lesser tales, he often approaches it surprisingly often, as a close reading of these tales may show); and his blurring of the lines between reality and dream (which he more than once posits as a different form of reality, even as early as "The Tomb") is, to me, a fascinating part of his work. Smith approaches this sort of thing with great skill as well in several tales, albeit from a different perspective, and often with a good deal of pathos as well.
Incidentally, I've been listening (again) to the readings of some of James' ghost stories by Derek Jacobi, which I think is a very good rendition. It took a bit of getting used to at first, but I think his presentation of these tales adds even more layers of subtlety and horror to them. I especially like "A View from a Hill", where his rendition of the more "comic" elements of the characters, dialogue, etc., work to increase the effect exceptionally well....