I read little around Christmas time.
Both my wife and I work 12 hours shifts; She works Nites, I work Days.
This year for the first time we are Empty Nesters as all kids are away
in college. Therefore, Christmas is a time for work, family homecoming,
and general hecticness.

However, no Fall can go by without Tolkien calling; especially, "Fellowship."
I've read it 3 or 4 times so nowadays I skip some stuff (Bombadil- can't stand him)
and skip straight to the best passages and all the poetry.

Come february, I am recovered from the Holidays and broke(again). In the D.C.
area February winters are weeks of frozen slush and mud and dreary skies that
are punctuated by the occasional Snowpocalpyse. My response is I always take a
week of annual leave and it is then CAS,HPL, and M.R. James and the rest exert
their irresistable lure upon me most strongly.

Merry Christmas to All,
Cathexis

Tantalus Wrote:
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> This has been discussed before in this very old
> thread. But it wanders off topic very quickly. The
> original poster, Ludde, is also a The Festival
> Christmas devotee.

I am the "reincarnated" Ludde. Although I love this tale, especially the narrator's beginning approach to the town, and the settings, I have read it so many times that I just can't read it anymore. I know it inside out. And have also begun noticing its flaws, which distracts from the reading-experience; the symbolism to Death is a little too over-obvious, with the "walking worms". I have grown more discriminating of artistic refinement, to be convinced into an illusion.

Like Martinus I also enjoy reading "Old Christmas". Lovecraft has the spirit, and is really under-appreciated as a poet. What he may lack in rythm, music, and style, he compensates in content. No other poet understands the nurturing and symbolic implications in Nature as well as Lovecraft.

I also enjoy looking at Richard Corben's illustrated Christmas stories for the old Warren comics. Corben "depicts the underbelly of the America of Norman Rockwell" *. The stories themselves may be crude, but the artwork is great (if one accepts the humorous comic book perspective);

"Anti-Cristmas" tells of the fanatical Bible Belt in the Midwest around Christmas. Here are a few pages;
(If you want to view them, you must copy the addresses and paste them into your address-field. The source does not allow them to be linked. Add http:// first.)
Page 1: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/boudreau-and-corben_anti-christmas_creepy-n68_jan1975_p35.jpg
Page 2: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/boudreau-and-corben_anti-christmas_creepy-n68_jan1975_p36.jpg
Page 3: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/boudreau-and-corben_anti-christmas_creepy-n68_jan1975_p37.jpg

"The Believer" is much like Disney's "The Night Before Christmas", but grown up and cruel.
Page 1: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/richard-corben_the-believer-01.jpg
Page 2: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/richard-corben_the-believer-02.jpg
Page 5: www.raggedclaws.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/richard-corben_the-believer-05.jpg

* Brad Balfour's words.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12 Jan 12 | 06:17AM by Knygatin.

Quote:

Knygatin
Like Martinus I also enjoy reading "Old Christmas". Lovecraft has the spirit, and is really under-appreciated as a poet. What he may lack in rythm, music, and style, he compensates in content. No other poet understands the nurturing and symbolic implications in Nature as well as Lovecraft.

I don't care for Old Christmas--but I definitely agree that Lovecraft is underappreciated as a poet. In the field of wierd poetry--he's one of the best. He might not be as technically accomplished as CAS (who is?), but he offers an entirely different experience, which one really can't get elsewhere. Yuggoth is a remarkable work--nobody but HPL could have pulled that off. There is also a good variety of form and meter in his work which deserves recognition. And who, other than CAS, so unmistakably stamps their 'personality' into their poetry? I suppose REH does pretty good on that front, too.... I only wish Lovecraft had written more weird poetry--but then there'd be the problem of him having less time to write fiction.... I'm thankful for what we have :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12 Jan 12 | 02:36PM by K_A_Opperman.

I wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (the true, astronimical New Year was actually 2 days ago, at Winter Solstice, when Sun's light returns. Not the arbitrary, politically conceived "new year", which is a lie and an illusion.) to All appreciators of the fantastic, weird, and the ghostly!

I am reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Enjoying it very much, ... have not read it before. Lots of Christmas holiday atmosphere, and colorful descriptive details pertaining to the season. My cooking will be all the better for it today!

For those of you who have only seen cute TV-adaptions, "A Christmas Carol" may come as a surprize. Charles Dickens is actually a giant literary genius in the conception of ghostly atmosphere. His apparitions remind me of those of J. S. Le Fanu, and hold the same high level of imaginary quality. Dickens may have a wider general appeal, since he uses his ghosts as instruments, for moral lessons, in his profound and sympathetic understanding of human nature. While Le Fanu may have a more delicious aesthetic appeal to an imaginarily sensitive audience, in the way he lingers over the morbid and hideous attributes of his ghosts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 24 Dec 15 | 04:29AM by Knygatin.

Knygatin Wrote:
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> Charles Dickens is actually a giant
> literary genius

I like the "actually."

Jojo Lapin X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Knygatin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Charles Dickens is actually a giant
> > literary genius
>
> I like the "actually."


He he he! Yes, it sounds inanely presumptuous, doesn't it?! Sorry about that slip! But, shamefully, I think this is just my first go at Dickens, can't remember having read him even in childhood.

However, don't miss the the following words, " ... in the conception of ghostly atmosphere." And having read further into the story now, I am no longer sure if I stand by that part. I think Dickens here uses ghosts as practical symbols and allegory. But as for genuine supernatural, spooky atmosphere, ... I don't know. I don't feel it so much, my spine is not tingling. I will have to read "The Signalman", and see.

Nevertheless, I enjoy the story immensely. Dickens is so very generous in his observations.