Horror Fiction and the Library of America

MichaelP · Jan 10, 2011

Saw an article on the "best-selling" editions of Library of America -- nice to see Philip K. Dick at #39 and H.P. Lovecraft at #31.

I thought it would make a good blog topic, and did some research -- what do you know, Newsweek got all flustered because Shirley Jackson has an edition. God forbid we let a "horror" author into the canon!

Mike

BriMaresh · Jan 11, 2011

Are you trying to tell me there's a canon outside of the horror realm? Lies, blasphemy, and ridiculousness. Fie! Fie on that notion, I tell you!

Horror is well represented in what we study to get our English degrees, where I went to school, and it strikes me as archaic and unproductive for anyone to even begin to suggest that horror isn't classic. The Island of Doctor Moreau, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Poe, Three Day Road (okay, maybe not that one, but it does have a wendigo...), heck, even The Tempest had spirits and smiting and fear-inducing horror elements, and that's Shakespeare! Hamlet had skulls on stage, ghosts, and insanity...

I love that the blog post jests about the complete work of Stephen King, though. You couldn't fit that much awesome in one collection (let alone manage to squeeze it all onto one book shelf). Under the Dome and It just about fills a whole shelf all on their lonesomes.

MichaelP · Jan 11, 2011

Luckily, I was able to take a course in Gothic literature while working on my Master's.

The complete works of Stephen King would need to be delivered in a moving van!

EFCollins · Jan 11, 2011

MichaelP said:
Luckily, I was able to take a course in Gothic literature while working on my Master's.

The complete works of Stephen King would need to be delivered in a moving van!

*looks at her bookshelves in her bedroom... then the ones in her dining room... then the ones in the living room*

Yup.

donatos · Jan 11, 2011

BriMaresh said:
Are you trying to tell me there's a canon outside of the horror realm? Lies, blasphemy, and ridiculousness. Fie! Fie on that notion, I tell you!

Horror is well represented in what we study to get our English degrees, where I went to school, and it strikes me as archaic and unproductive for anyone to even begin to suggest that horror isn't classic. The Island of Doctor Moreau, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Poe, Three Day Road (okay, maybe not that one, but it does have a wendigo...), heck, even The Tempest had spirits and smiting and fear-inducing horror elements, and that's Shakespeare! Hamlet had skulls on stage, ghosts, and insanity...

I love that the blog post jests about the complete work of Stephen King, though. You couldn't fit that much awesome in one collection (let alone manage to squeeze it all onto one book shelf). Under the Dome and It just about fills a whole shelf all on their lonesomes.

I was talking to a snobby friend of mine who was crapping all over sci fi and horror. He refused to admit Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a sci fi writer. His reasoning, "But he's good..." Then I defended Stephen King and I asked him to name me one other writer with fifteen to twenty classics to their name. And I said it must be "classic." He said I was exaggerating then I started to list King's opus both under the King name and the Bachman name and his eyes grew wide, unable to believe just how many great novels were written by one man.

BriMaresh · Jan 12, 2011

I'm an English major, on a college campus, and I got all sorts of flack for carrying around King novels by my peers. Fortunately, my prof is genre-friendly. Heck, one of them taught an entire course on Tolkien.

I don't understand the reasoning behind treating genre like it is the lower quality side of writing, and having to elevate clearly genre pieces to "literary" in order to make them respectable.

MichaelP · Jan 13, 2011

BriMaresh said:
I'm an English major, on a college campus, and I got all sorts of flack for carrying around King novels by my peers. Fortunately, my prof is genre-friendly. Heck, one of them taught an entire course on Tolkien.

I don't understand the reasoning behind treating genre like it is the lower quality side of writing, and having to elevate clearly genre pieces to "literary" in order to make them respectable.

I was just reading an essay by Joyce Carol Oates speculating on how Poe would be treated if he was writing today.

I wonder the same about Dickens (veering away from horror) -- he'd be too accessible to be considered literary.

BriMaresh · Jan 13, 2011

Shakespeare is bawdy as all heck. He's far from literary. We only think it's literary because we don't speak the language. He is brilliant, but it's like Dickens -- accessible to the era it was written in. Cheap entertainment, rehashing plots and pop culture that everyone knew.

Horror Fiction and the Library of America

MichaelP

BriMaresh

New kid, be gentle!

MichaelP

EFCollins

World Class Rambler

donatos

BriMaresh

New kid, be gentle!

MichaelP

BriMaresh

New kid, be gentle!