tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post1999064664262423217..comments2023-11-10T04:17:00.492-05:00Comments on View From The Porch: To build a fire....Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285540310465422476noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-69142616028368251582009-12-03T19:26:00.962-05:002009-12-03T19:26:00.962-05:00"It's unlike you to put a baseball metaph..."<i>It's unlike you to put a baseball metaphor next to a card game metaphor ("dribbling grounder" v. "going yard").</i>"<br /><br />???<br /><br />I had never heard "going yard" as slang for anything but a homer.Tamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07285540310465422476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-34007134576627814672009-12-03T16:59:52.173-05:002009-12-03T16:59:52.173-05:00I liked Lovecraft, but agree that he's scarcel...I liked Lovecraft, but agree that he's scarcely the best example of his own style. The Lovecraftian works of Robert E. Howard are all better written than any original, though you'll have to search the used book stores for examples.Here's one of my favorites.<br /><br />http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0801211h.html<br /><br /> Also you ought to find an old copy of "Weird Tales 32 Unearthed Terrors" which is an incredible anthology of that old pulp rag. Favorites from it were "The Automatic Pistol" by Fritz Lieber, "A Square of Canvas" by Anthony Rudd, and "The Chain" by H. Warner Munn.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-47049157906247494352009-12-03T02:06:48.418-05:002009-12-03T02:06:48.418-05:00I almost always love your writing. Few have your ...I almost always love your writing. Few have your knack for turning a memorable phrase, or your talent for getting down to essentials when discussing a topic.<br /><br />With that in mind, I read something in this post that almost sounded like someone else wrote it for you. It's unlike you to put a baseball metaphor next to a card game metaphor ("dribbling grounder" v. "going yard"). It sort of works, but bangs around in the head in the same distracting way a piece of toilet paper hanging on your shoe takes your mind off where you're going. In the one case, you bump into a restroom patron washing his hands; in the other, you post in the comments before you even finish reading the post.<br /><br />gviglobal village idiotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-86128029311206202542009-12-02T18:40:34.898-05:002009-12-02T18:40:34.898-05:00Lovecraft's ideas were certainly unique for th...Lovecraft's ideas were certainly unique for the time, but his style is just too verbose. Clearly, what we need are <a href="http://neutrino-cannon.livejournal.com/313448.html" rel="nofollow">Lovecraft's stories as written by the master of concision</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-51503433290048126992009-12-02T13:23:35.421-05:002009-12-02T13:23:35.421-05:00I read a bunch of Lovecraft in HS but his antedelu...I read a bunch of Lovecraft in HS but his antedeluvian wordsmithing and thoroughly boggy east-coast centeredness left me out in the cold.<br />King - I read some of his early stuff before the books got as thick as a Bible, but with size came soporification.NotClauswitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14358707844087117280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-43295326888259364412009-12-02T00:37:06.015-05:002009-12-02T00:37:06.015-05:00I guess I'm a heretic. I enjoy Lovecraft. Is...I guess I'm a heretic. I enjoy Lovecraft. Is he scary? Not so much. I enjoy the mental concepts however.<br />King bores me to tears. I can manage to grind to the end of his short stories, but I have never been able to make it through one of his novels without extreme effort. Somewhere along the lines of one chapter requiring two to three months downtime before reading a phone directory or dictionary fails to generate more enthusiasm.Fenrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07693829962075093381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-14270899040587342602009-12-01T22:19:45.493-05:002009-12-01T22:19:45.493-05:00To Build A Fire: made into a movie by CBS sometime...To Build A Fire: made into a movie by CBS sometime in the early '70s. IMDB only lists 2003 and 2008 versions. Most "Made for TV" movies are drek but the CBS version gave me frostbite while sitting in my living room. I think it had 12 or fewer words of dialog (man addressing dog). As perfect an adaptation as one could hope for. And as Tam observes; terrifying.Stretchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-39458998986189457582009-12-01T21:57:34.304-05:002009-12-01T21:57:34.304-05:00I've never been able to get into Lovecraft. Th...I've never been able to get into Lovecraft. The writing syle makes a wonderful sleep aid. The last thing I read by King was Pet Semetary. Scare me. No. Creep me out...hell yes, but in such a way that I have little or no desire to read anything he written since.kahr40https://www.blogger.com/profile/09754171029424212677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-31502588667853673162009-12-01T21:10:46.358-05:002009-12-01T21:10:46.358-05:00The thing that made Stephen King great - and made ...The thing that made Stephen King great - and made his work so creepy - was his skill at characterizing both people and places. At his best, King created places that could have been just down the road from your own home town, peopled by folks you saw every day. <br /><br />Unfortunately, King hasn't "brought his A game" since about 1986. That was about the point at which King became such an Important Bestselling Novelist that he could have published his grocery list without any meaningful editing...and somebody would have bought it in hardcover just because it had King's name on the jacket.<br /><br />And, what's more, King became so arrogant that he would have expected you to buy his grocery list just because it had his name on it.<br /><br />His grocery list might actually have been more readable than some of the dreck he turned out in the late eighties and nineties, either due to King's liberal politics taking over the narrative of some of his works (John Ringo has a similar problem, albeit from the other side of the political spectrum) or due to the lack of an editor or publisher capable of saying "NO!" to him. <i>The Tommyknockers</i> is a good example of the former; <i>Cell</i> - which was a great short story that was stretched well beyond its breaking point - is a perfect example of the latter.<br /><br />As for arrogance, well, as somebody else mentioned back up the thread, when he wrote himself into his <i>Dark Tower</i> series as a main character he lost me as a fan...<br /><br />I thoroughly enjoyed <i>Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Christine</i> and his <i>Night Shift</i> short-story collection. IMHO, the rest of his catalog needs to be remaindered.<br /><br />--Wes S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-73055664416403584572009-12-01T20:43:06.606-05:002009-12-01T20:43:06.606-05:00King's a talented writer, and I enjoy his stuf...King's a talented writer, and I enjoy his stuff, but after hearing the man talk in real life... He's just such an asshole it takes away a little bit of the enjoyment for me.Heath Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16176723284131320506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-82310214076625588452009-12-01T19:16:40.077-05:002009-12-01T19:16:40.077-05:00I was thinking of the same comparison as Elmo, tho...I was thinking of the same comparison as Elmo, though a for different reason. I look at Lovecraft in the same way that I view Tolkein or The Beatles; none of them were really the best at what they did, but they were all groundbreaking. <br /><br />It's a lot easier to take a good idea and distill it into something better than it is to have the great idea in the first place.Laughingdoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07788824586959334168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-61253682664562929312009-12-01T18:50:47.724-05:002009-12-01T18:50:47.724-05:00Lovecraft doesn't ring true because he never f...Lovecraft doesn't ring true because he never for a moment believed any of the crap he wrote. I liked Lovecraft because of the way he makes up names for stuff. It's like he was feeding his rottweiler Scrabble cubes and using the letters in the order they emerged to name his characters. <br /><br />King stuff sometimes rings true because when he has the rolled up $20 out of his nose and thinks about it a bit, he can sometimes scare the dogshit out of himself. Though I expect there was some of that WITH the $20 up his nose, too.oghttp://www.neanderpundit.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-34304420143960168122009-12-01T18:10:16.331-05:002009-12-01T18:10:16.331-05:00I've read several King novels and I agree that...I've read several King novels and I agree that the shorter the work the better it is. I think that King is a far better storyteller than a writer, I would put Howard in the same category, but Howard was a better writer. King can drag me along through a story without me noticing just how bad it is until I've finished it. I always end up disappointed afterward.<br />IMHO, there are many better writers out there, and I won't read any more King.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05993938643115716912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-86372738014867445352009-12-01T17:38:45.836-05:002009-12-01T17:38:45.836-05:00Lovecraft's a lot like Tolkien for me: great ...Lovecraft's a lot like Tolkien for me: great idea man, passable writer. I can see what they're doing and appreciate how clever it is, but it doesn't really click emotionally. Tolkien doesn't stir my sense of adventure, and Lovecraft isn't actually scary, but reading them is engaging in the same way that reading lit crit is. <br /><br />You can illustrate this to most Lovecraft fans really easily. Have 'em read some of HP's less proficient forerunners. Once they've slogged through short-story-collection-with-a-framing-device <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Impostors" rel="nofollow">The Three Impostors</a> (which is available free online), either they'll feel your pain or you should suspect they're really Mi-go brain slaves. <i>The Novel of the Black Seal</i> is an especially good example in that book: it has quite a few of HPL's workhorse elements of Cosmic Horror, but they just don't gel into anything readable.elmo iscariothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14710846725911318970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-33785712056971034582009-12-01T16:42:35.799-05:002009-12-01T16:42:35.799-05:00None of the aforementioned authors are anywhere ne...None of the aforementioned authors are anywhere near Algernon Blackwood.<br /><br />Fortunately.<br /><br />Lovecraft calls Blackwood a 'Modern Master,' which calls into questions Lovecraft's literary taste.Brian J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10919837228673866495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-4006043331368840102009-12-01T16:31:24.387-05:002009-12-01T16:31:24.387-05:00Lovecraft isn't scary, typically - and indeed,...Lovecraft isn't <i>scary</i>, typically - and indeed, I'm not sure he really tried to write <i>horror</i> rather than, as Howard would have put it, "weird tales".<br /><br />Chambers, Machen, Smith, Lovecraft, Howard; not horror, really.<br /><br />(The Color Out of Space, as Ruzhyo says, is pretty damned creepy in spots.<br /><br />King, at his best, utterly destroys Lovecraft in terms of <i>scariness</i>.<br /><br />But at the same time, Lovecraft is, I think, a far more thought-provoking and inspiring writer.<br /><br />Look at all the Lovecraft spin-offs and inspirations, in terms of specific content. <br /><br />Now try to think of <i>even one</i> King spin-off, in terms of content.<br /><br />I can't think of a single example, though I wouldn't be surprised if one or two lurked somewhere.<br /><br />King scares people by making the real world scary; Lovecraft creates new worlds. He's much more of a fantasy (in the "fantastic") sense author.)Sigivaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16152366541957466049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-35723112038523130172009-12-01T15:32:07.869-05:002009-12-01T15:32:07.869-05:00I have been a fan of Lovecraft since I discovered ...I have been a fan of Lovecraft since I discovered him a few years back, yet the only one of his stories that felt creepy to me was 'The Color Out of Space.' I think Lovecraft's over-wordiness is part of his charm.<br /><br />@aczarnowski, I am still looking for Mr. King's Ruger .44 Automatic, but have not encountered it at any gun shows or on Ruger's website. Stephen King, wheteher you like his work or not, rarely bothers to achieve any realism or knowledge regarding guns.Ruzhyonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-87569484463693233202009-12-01T15:15:52.382-05:002009-12-01T15:15:52.382-05:00Horror is an incredibly subjective genre. Lovecra...Horror is an incredibly subjective genre. Lovecraft, for example, does absolutely nothing for me; by the time he gets to where he's going, I've long since fallen asleep. King, however, I've read pretty much all of his work- though I will cheerily admit some is deeply flawed. (<i>Cell</i>, I'm talking about YOU.) Peter Straub likewise does nothing for me, nor does Dean Koontz.<br /><br />I really enjoyed everything I could get my hands on from Joe Hill well before I learned he was King's oldest son. He's an improvement on his old man if you ask me.LabRathttp://www.atomicnerds.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-64328178272839470332009-12-01T14:36:12.617-05:002009-12-01T14:36:12.617-05:00The only book that scared me was Peter Straub'...The only book that scared me was Peter Straub's "Koko".<br /><br />I don't know why, but it gave me nightmares.Rustmeisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16706110699686013722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-47929603041919668672009-12-01T13:59:05.389-05:002009-12-01T13:59:05.389-05:00Poe is way better than both Lovecraft and King...Poe is way better than both Lovecraft and King...Mikaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04894602732468692375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-19051280384266814872009-12-01T13:42:08.136-05:002009-12-01T13:42:08.136-05:00King's publisher isn't going to circular f...King's publisher isn't going to circular file the lesser manuscripts because the books <i>sell</i>. I'm not being cynical, I'm just pointing out that we are fortunate to live in a civilization where one can make a living whether the product is 10% art or 90%. There is room enough in this world for everything from the King James Bible to a fast, entertaining read like a Stephen King novel.<br /><br />Now from the other end, I appreciate honest critique more than cheerleading. There is far too much of that going on with Lovecraft, so I have no desire to read a single word he wrote. I took the advice of many people when selecting newer sci-fi novels, and almost all of those were awful.<br /><br />King's assessment in "Everything's Eventual" was correct: short story writing is a lost art; between picture books that replaced fiction serials, and the strong financial incentive to go with the publishers' one-size-fits-all book-pushing scheme, too many authors are attempting novels when they shouldn't.TJPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-91643371954676433122009-12-01T13:09:38.735-05:002009-12-01T13:09:38.735-05:00"(Incidentally the title of this post is both...<i>"(Incidentally the title of this post is both a clever reference to what the comments section is sure to look like, and an homage to a really scary story that has nothing to do with anything at all even remotely supernatural or gory.)"</i><br /><br />Heh. It was that. And London wrote it both ways (he dies. he lives), I guess as a result of focus grouping? ;)Matt Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500429239798601210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-70220231174699082382009-12-01T12:02:28.223-05:002009-12-01T12:02:28.223-05:00I'd read so many Lovecraft ripoffs over the ye...<em>I'd read so many Lovecraft ripoffs over the years that the real thing was hardly terra incognita when I got there...</em><br /><br />I give thanks that my father's library included both a complete Edgar Allan Poe and a complete Sherlock Holmes, and that I first read LOTR in the mid 60s. It's much easier appreciating the importance of the originals when you've read them <em>first</em>.Old Grouchhttp://oldgrouch.mee.nunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-1307811461259330002009-12-01T11:33:31.872-05:002009-12-01T11:33:31.872-05:00De gustibus non est disputandum, I always say.
Ki...<i>De gustibus non est disputandum,</i> I always say.<br /><br />King even wrote a Lovecraft pastiche of his own in the <i>Night Shift</i> collection, it's called "Jerusalem's Lot."Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11402651457453813639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-8008884500714648452009-12-01T11:18:21.428-05:002009-12-01T11:18:21.428-05:00Re, Lovecraft: I have read all his stuff and love ...Re, Lovecraft: I have read all his stuff and love it. To me his stories seem quite innovative - I haven't read anything earlier than Lovecraft from which it appears he borrowed heavily. Subsequent horror/macabre writers have picked up on Lovecraft themes, but nobody seems to have done anything better. Rather, it seems to me that the writers he influenced are all lame, pale knock-offs.<br /><br />It's as if the Wright brothers built the Flyer, but there never was a Bleirot, no Lindbergh, no P-38, no MIG-15. I'd be saying, "I think those Wright guys were really on to something. Too bad nobody ever took the idea and moved it forward."alathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07774862634576632497noreply@blogger.com