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Post by N0T 2 on Aug 29, 2015 0:00:01 GMT
Earlier this year I got hold of a collection of Algernon Blackwood's tales. Kenneth mentions him here and there in the Typhonian Trilogies. Obviously he was in the GD, so that's one point of interest, but the work itself is actually amazingly good.
I have to say I'm deeply impressed, I was not expecting such perfect mastery of the medium of English, and the subtle, creeping absolute wall of terror he conjures in such masterpieces as The Man Whom The Trees Loved leaves Lovecraft for dead. He is an extremely insightful, oblique and nuanced writer - halfway through the volume but so pleased with the story just mentioned that I wanted to share the Enthusiasmus with you all right now.
A sublime vintage - I wish I'd got round to him earlier.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Aug 29, 2015 1:21:34 GMT
Yes Blackwood was a master of his craft and his understanding of the occult is also spot on. He's right there with those like Arthur Machen and M. R. James in my opinion. I particularly like his John Silence stories with "A Psychical Invasion" being one that speaks a lot to me. Are the John Silence stories included in the collection you've been reading? And what is the name of the collection you have? because I've not heard of the story you named but would love to check it out. I just have his The Complete John Silence Stories and Best Ghost Stories and several odd stories of his scattered throughout some anthologies.
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Post by N0T 2 on Sept 2, 2015 9:00:30 GMT
And what is the name of the collection you have? It's entitled Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural. Spring Books, 1962.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Sept 2, 2015 10:53:44 GMT
Thanks NOT 2. I'm working on getting a copy as I type this. I was looking over the titles of the stories in that book and only two of them are in the two I have.
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Post by stephen on Sept 3, 2015 14:45:30 GMT
Blackwood was a very prolific writer and not all of his work is to be highly recommended; Crowley had a serious go at him in the reviews in The Equinox and not without some justification.
Having said that; his best work is superb. Of the John Silence stories, I have read "Secret Worship" - beautifully written - and "Ancient Sorceries" which is truly mesmerising. Lovecraft admired the latter, although his favourite Blackwood story was "The Willows" - intense and rather claustrophobic. Blackwood spent a significant time in his youth in the wilds of Canada and his descriptions of its brooding, primordial forests are memorably expressed in such tales as "The Wendigo".
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Post by N0T 2 on Sept 3, 2015 23:16:34 GMT
Blackwood was a very prolific writer and not all of his work is to be highly recommended; Crowley had a serious go at him in the reviews in The Equinox and not without some justification. Having said that; his best work is superb. Of the John Silence stories, I have read "Secret Worship" - beautifully written - and "Ancient Sorceries" which is truly mesmerising. Lovecraft admired the latter, although his favourite Blackwood story was "The Willows" - intense and rather claustrophobic. Blackwood spent a significant time in his youth in the wilds of Canada and his descriptions of its brooding, primordial forests are memorably expressed in such tales as "The Wendigo". Crowley, the worst fiction author of all time, criticised Blackwood's fiction?! Jealous or what!
All part of his GD dummy-spit I suspect. A case of the pothead calling the kettle Blackwood, no? I wonder what Blackwood would have thought of Crowley's fictions, he probably never heard of them let alone read them, nor descended so low as to create a vanity publication purely for vexatious and narcissistic/messianic purposes, naming it after his alma mater's most sacred ceremony to cause maximum distress. By that I mean both the works Crowley presented as fiction, and those he presented as fact, that were in fact fiction, which is quite a lot, if not most or even all of it. Particularly, say, the annunciation myth of his religion.
If Crowley trashed it, it's probably worth a look because it clearly made him feel threatened by its popularity and he was desperate to make himself artificially relevant, somehow, anyhow, even if it was negatively. For all Crowley's plusses he always managed to add a dozen more minusses, needlessly, to prop up his fragile and absurdly proportioned ego. Such a waste.
Crowley is perhaps the worst author I have ever read where fiction is concerned, (sorry, gloves off, he was a prick, a loser, and the worst magician on record - the diaries are pathetic! there, I've said it) as much as I have enjoyed his other stuff (for style), some of the "serious" material has value, but for the last decade and a half I've held serious reservations about his non-fiction works too (in terms of its sincerity and/or actual value to practical occultists who don't want to end up begging for alms like he did, with a parasitic self-destructive lifestyle, despite having inherited a fortune early on with which a Lord of Balanced Force - etc etc - would surely have been able to set him and his spiritual legacy up forever - fail whale). It's such great writing (compared to his fiction) but hey, the critique of Crowley's work and/or value is yet to really be attempted. The sycophantic ravings the Caliphate spews out are press releases for their pyramid scheme, not critique; Grant's trilogies are more objective, but are ultimately creatively geared rather than critical. Clearly the man had better things to do than write book reviews needlessly trashing other people's work!
The influence of Blackwood's Canadian jaunts seeps through some stories in this book too - "Running Wolf" being one. It reminds me of the way the Welsh countryside pours through Machen's work. You're right about the quality fluctuating, but it's only fluctuating between good and better, and I strongly suspect that some of the tales were more effective at the time they were written (eg. The Doll, which to a modern reader conjures up all the B-horror flicks with scary dolls, but to a reader of Blackwood's generation would likely have had more sinister and irrational resonances).
Maybe it's time to start an "Aleister Crowley" thread in the Sources and Influences section so he can get the treatment he deserves without the censorship and manipulation that occurs elsewhere...on second thought, he's totally over-represented already so perhaps let's talk about more pleasant, enriching, occult things... like Blackwood!
Yours in non-mobile becoming, N0t 2
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Post by stephen on Sept 4, 2015 15:34:25 GMT
Hey Up NOT 2! My mention of Crowley's reviews of Blackwood appears to have provoked a somewhat vitriolic 'Aleister Crowley Rant'.
Sycophantic ravings about anyone leave me cold, but there is very much about Crowley's Work, and dare I venture to say some aspects of his character and life that I continue to find inspiring and valuable. As for his fiction, his novel Moonchild (fiction ?) is in a class of its own, both creatively entertaining and magically instructive, and some of his short stories are excellent.
The reason why I mentioned the reviews was because one of them was about the very long story "The Lost Valley" which I believe is included in the volume Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural that you cited. I persevered with the ordeal of reading this for very little reward at all, a few years ago, so when I came across Crowley's deliciously savage review of it again I was moved to agree heartily! For anyone who cares to check it out and has a copy of Gems from The Equinox it can be found on page 1012. Crowley also reviews Blackwood's The Education of Uncle Paul - a title with which I am not familiar and does not exactly inspire my interest - but hey, its thoroughly entertaining, knock-about stuff, (page 978 of Gems).
But back to Blackwood's own gems, check out the haunting "The Glamour of the Snow" and in the collection above, "The Pikestaffe Case" - a tale with definite affinities to a work by Spare involving the uses of strange and abstract geometries.
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Post by N0T 2 on Sept 5, 2015 6:58:38 GMT
Hey Up NOT 2! My mention of Crowley's reviews of Blackwood appears to have provoked a somewhat vitriolic 'Aleister Crowley Rant'. Sycophantic ravings about anyone leave me cold, but there is very much about Crowley's Work, and dare I venture to say some aspects of his character and life that I continue to find inspiring and valuable. As for his fiction, his novel Moonchild (fiction ?) is in a class of its own, both creatively entertaining and magically instructive, and some of his short stories are excellent. The reason why I mentioned the reviews was because one of them was about the very long story "The Lost Valley" which I believe is included in the volume Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural that you cited. I persevered with the ordeal of reading this for very little reward at all, a few years ago, so when I came across Crowley's deliciously savage review of it again I was moved to agree heartily! For anyone who cares to check it out and has a copy of Gems from The Equinox it can be found on page 1012. Crowley also reviews Blackwood's The Education of Uncle Paul - a title with which I am not familiar and does not exactly inspire my interest - but hey, its thoroughly entertaining, knock-about stuff, (page 978 of Gems). But back to Blackwood's own gems, check out the haunting "The Glamour of the Snow" and in the collection above, "The Pikestaffe Case" - a tale with definite affinities to a work by Spare involving the uses of strange and abstract geometries. Hi Stephen,
Yes, lol, sorry for the rave, it just sort of poured out, didn't it. I meant no disrespect to your views of Crowley's review, or of Blackwood. I too have enjoyed Crowley's savage wit at its nastiest (which is almost any time he described another human or their efforts as far as I can tell), but now I am so over Crowley as an "authority" on anything at all and have been for so long now that whenever anyone refers to his opinions, particularly his opinions of other writers, of people, and especially of magic, I tend to sigh wearily as it's usually just tarted up egoism, jealousy, or what not. Perhaps I'm unusually sensitive to this, and the review of that particular example of Blackwood's work may be more or less accurate as you suggest. I apologise for my perhaps unnecessarily vehement response, and thank you for your understanding. I too enjoyed Crowley's reviews at one time simply because he writes them well (infinitely better, as what they are, than his fiction - but it's always easier to attack the works of others, isn't it, Aleister, and I've not written a single tale myself. I do, however, understand the temptation to review...).
I remember when I first got into Lovecraft in the 80s that I was surprised at how his work was often heavily criticised, I was so impressed with what it was that it never occurred to me to apply any criteria of my own to the material, it was too strange to do anything but learn from. Can you imagine how brutally Crowley would have trashed Lovecraft's writing had he been aware of it? I could be wrong but I suspect he would have applied the full privileged toff Eton bully treatment to the gentle misanthrope from Providence who was attempting to transmit the Mystery in his own way with his means. I understood the criticisms Lovecraft was/is subject to by others, but felt that he wouldn't have cared less about them - - he wrote exactly what he wanted to write the way he wanted it to be written, as his elder gods/socratic demon/source of inspiration directed. Perhaps also the Blackwood stories that you and Crowley didn't like were written under the duress of having to earn a living rather than from inspiration alone so the quality suffered accordingly. Reviews are in this sense irrelevant. Review the Great Pyramid, or the Sigillum Dei Aemeth, review the night time, if you see what I mean. It can't be done because the intention, the true inner intention, is unknown and therefore can't be compared with the impression to see whether it did/does its job.
Thank you (also to Nalyd) for the suggestions of other Blackwood stories to follow up - I haven't even checked Grants' bibliographies to see what his specific references are yet, if any. But there's heaps of juicy stuff in this vein and I am gleeful that it remains to be mined - I had no idea he was so prolific, and will enjoy casting my mind upon his seas for a season or five, even if patches are dodgy as you suggest.
All the best, N0t 2.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Sept 9, 2015 20:39:08 GMT
NOT 2, thanks for pointing to this particular collection of Blackwood's stories. I received my copy today as well as a companion volume titled Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre also published by Spring Books, 1967 (they were being sold as a set on ebay) and they both look good at first glance. I recognize only a few of the titles as none of the usual, more popular titles are included so it's all new to me. Looking forward to working through reading them during the autumn season this year in addition to a mass of other books I've acquired in the past several months that I've yet to delve into.
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