Classics

I've read some Blackwood, Doyle, possibly even some scary Wharton, but I read these things when I was a wee, wee tad and don't remember much. In much the same way, I read Poe when I was a small tyke and remember not too much of those stories, either. Same goes for other authors whose names I have long forgotten, yet whose aged stories entertained the little feller I once was.

Those authors and others (H.P. Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany, for instance -- and W.W. Jacobs), certainly seem to have left fingerprints on my brain, and those fingerprints are atmospheric ones.

How much have I read of such founders? I dunno. Well, except in the case of H.P. Lovecraft and Poe. It's very close to likely I've read everything they ever wrote.

blacbird said:

Looking at current horror writers (outside of, say King and Koontz and Saul and Barker, the biggies, perhaps) I find myself wondering how many have paid any attention to the true precursors in the field. I've been reading a lot of ghost and similar stories from 100 years ago or so, lately. Some of those people are astonishing at setting tone, mood, atmosphere, and it really makes the stories work.

Edith Wharton, a great writer by any standard, wrote some delicious ghost stories, notably "Afterward", regarded by many as the finest ghost story in the English language. M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, W. H. Hodgson, E. F. Benson, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Conan Doyle (the non-Holmes stories), numerous others. Those of you writing "horror", how much have you read of these founders?

caw

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I've read all of them, and more. I love King and Koontz, but I don't think it's possible to write top notch horror fiction without having read the great horror writers of the past. And from a standpoint of pure pleasure, they're wonderful reading.

I don't know how much of what I write could be termed proper horror, but it's certainly very dark, and I do like to read the dark stuff. I've read King pretty extensively (he was a favorite when I was very young, and that carried over into my adult life, but there might be some sentimentality involved ). As far as the other big ones, I haven't read them much, or, in the case of Koontz, at all.

My background is definitely a lot deeper when it comes to Wharton, Poe, Conan Doyle and others. I've always found ideas to be much more frightening than graphic depictions of gore, so these authors are pretty ideal for me, or at least, they were when I was little. It's funny, but as a child, I actually had a lot more patience with things like The Turn of the Screw. Now, I find it unbearably slow. I still like Poe quite a bit, even though he's sometimes so melodramatic that it's funny. I like Shirley Jackson. "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has great atmosphere, even though it doesn't really qualify as a ghost story.

I like things to be whimsical, which is not mutually exclusive when it comes to being horrifying. For a while, my favorite story was Poe's "The Black Cat." I was floored by the image of the police tearing down the wall to find the cat perched atop the corpse's head, yowling. It's such a bizarre scene, and really very simple, even while it's grim and terribly perverse.

It seems like a lot of writers and filmmakers have lately been confusing horror with gore. I'm not particularly bothered by gore. I'm pretty young. I definitely grew up in the over-the-top, desensitized, shock-value era. I've said it before: blood, bone, tendon--these things are not scary. We all have them. Ideally, they should stay under our skin, but sometimes, they don't. Ideas are scary. Ideas can keep me awake at night. I like the older stuff because it showcases horrifying ideas, rather than depending upon mutilation to do all the work, which I'm beginning to feel is just plain lazy.

To summarize: Yay, Edith Wharton! Boo, Turistas!

blacbird said:

Looking at current horror writers (outside of, say King and Koontz and Saul and Barker, the biggies, perhaps) I find myself wondering how many have paid any attention to the true precursors in the field. I've been reading a lot of ghost and similar stories from 100 years ago or so, lately. Some of those people are astonishing at setting tone, mood, atmosphere, and it really makes the stories work.

Edith Wharton, a great writer by any standard, wrote some delicious ghost stories, notably "Afterward", regarded by many as the finest ghost story in the English language. M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, W. H. Hodgson, E. F. Benson, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Conan Doyle (the non-Holmes stories), numerous others. Those of you writing "horror", how much have you read of these founders?

caw

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Read all of them, dammit. Dammit, because I really envy anyone who has yet to discover gems from those authors. I'd advise the Asquith and Fontana ghost anthologies, though it's quite easy to find classically good stuff. There are loads you can read online, I think the company is called Gaslight. Outside of the classics of the writers mentioned, I really like 'Mansize in Marble' (Edith Nesbit), 'Ringing the Changes' (Robert Aitken), and of course, 'The Monkey's Paw', by WW Jacobs. But MR James. So utterly the man. Just the title of 'Oh, Whistle and I'll come to You' makes me come over all unnecessary...James has the common touch whilst still being an erudite and intelligent writer. Love him.

I meant Robert Aickman for 'Ringing the Changes', not Aitken. Apologies. Totally agree about the gore, Weatherfield. Gore=bore. I want to feel my scalp creep, not be put off my dinner, thank you. Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' is a brilliant example of concise, horrifying storytelling.

I've read Sheridan le Fanu and Guy De Maupassant, they've done some nice creepers.