What Are Your Favorite Weird Tales or Stories that Fit That Category?

[BAYLOR]

Which stories ?

 

[Extollager]

I relish Arthur Machen's "N." I read it again and again.

N

Here's Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time:

Here's Sherry, Sir:

This story is by Machen the London walker, Machen the essayist, and if you know only Machen the horror-writer, you should read it.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Red Witch , The Sea Witch and The Sapphire Goddess by Nictzin Dyalhis . Theses three wonderful stories can be found in the anthology Echos of Valor III edited by Karl Edward Wagner. Dyalhis is to a very well known because he wrote only few stories. This is one writer that I wish had written more then he did.

 

[Extollager]

Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner could be the greatest work of weird literature of them all, I suppose. Anyway it's good. His unfinished work Christabel is also very impressive, though different from the Rime. Lovecraft's "Colour Out of Space" may be the greatest weird tale of the pulp era.

 

[Randy M.]

I would tend to agree with Extollager, still "favorite" offers enough latitude to list others. I'm interpreting the term broadly, and doing so my favorites include,
Arthur Machen: "The Great God Pan"; "The White People"
M. John Harrison: "The Great God Pan"
Mark Samuels: "The Man Who Collected Machen"
Robert Aickman: "The Hospice"; "Ringing the Changes"; "The Inner Room"
Laird Barron: "Old Virginia"; "Procession of the Black Sloth"
Max Beerbohm: "Enoch Soames"
Thomas Ligotti: "The Frolic"; "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World"; "Les Fleurs"
Ambrose Bierce: "The Damned Thing"; "An Inhabitant of Carcossa"; "Oil of Dog"
Algernon Blackwood: "The Willows"; "The Wendigo"
James Blish: "How Beautiful with Banners"
Jorge Luis Borges: "The Library of Babel"
Lord Dunsany: "The Bureau d'Echange de Maux"
George Saunders: "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline"
James Tiptree, Jr.: "The Man Who Walked Home"
Marjorie Bowen: "The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes"
Jean Ray: "The Shadowy Street"
Poppy Z. Brite: "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood"
Robert W. Chambers: "The Repairer of Reputations"; "The Yellow Sign"
Karl Edward Wagner: "The River of Night's Dreaming"
Guy de Maupassant: "The Horla"
Caitlin Kiernan: "Le Peau Verte"
Kathe Koja: "Angels in Love"; "The Neglected Garden"

I'll probably think of more right after I hit "Post Reply" but this is probably enough, anyway.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

Last night I read again Machen's "N," for which I posted a link above. (The paintings are mentioned in the very enjoyable, leisurely "prologue" to the main story, btw.) "N" seems to have been written well after the end of World War I, but unless there's maybe one passing reference to automobile fumes, this London story ignores cars. It seems people get around on foot -- as Machen himself seems so often to have done; I don't remember ever seeing that he was a driver. I was reminded of this quotation, which I have cited elsewhere on Chrons: "The volume and depth and intensity of the world is something that only those on foot will ever experience." -- Werner Herzog

That could almost be used as an epigraph for the Machen story, though Herzog has in mind rather more heroic walks than Machen's London rambles.

I found myself wondering about how many of the major fantasists who lived in the era of automobiles either didn't drive much (Tolkien) or at all (Machen? C. S. Lewis? Lovecraft?).

 

[Randy M.]

That might account for so many writers in N.Y. City. At one time it was Mecca for aspiring writers and with its subway system and buses, I bet many of those writers didn't drive regularly if at all.

Randy M.

 

[Frost Giant]

I liked the Tales of Greenspot Charlie Engolls e books by Winston Hall. They are an amusing read and fall squarely into the Weird West category.

Amazon.com: Kindle Store

 

[anno]

The Horla works for me...

 

[Extollager]

The Horla works for me...

In management or on the floor?

 

[Randy M.]

In management or on the floor?

In the dairy, but not for much longer. We've recently noticed a drop in production.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

 

[Randy M.]

Occurs to me that possibly esoteric joke might need context, so ...

http://pdfs.mhpbooks.com/Guy.pdf

Enjoy.


Randy M.
(And then, if you're still feeling adventurous, try this variation on the theme,
"The Damned Thing")

 

[Ajid]

Odd Attachement By Iain M Banks always makes me giggle and cringe.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Sombrus Tower by Tanith Lee

 

[BAYLOR]

Bats Belfry August Derleth

 

[BAYLOR]

Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith.

 

[Cathbad]

Occurs to me that possibly esoteric joke might need context, so ...

http://pdfs.mhpbooks.com/Guy.pdf

Enjoy.


Randy M.
(And then, if you're still feeling adventurous, try this variation on the theme,
"The Damned Thing")

I just published "The Damned Thing" in a classic horror story book!

Horror! As Told By the Masters

 

[BAYLOR]

Pigeons From Hell Robert E. Howard One of his best horror stories.

 

[BAYLOR]

Down There by Ramsey Campbell Why an elevator ride the basement of a building might not be the best idea.