@jerzydyd@mastodon.social - I felt the same - I couldn't put them down as a kid. It's definitely got some 70s era prejudice in how it was written, and in the strict cultural divisions based on race and religion that it portrays, but I never felt that it was overtly or deliberately racist - rather the author portraying a barbaric world ruled by gods who were very close at hand and fiercely protective of their people. I still get chills remembering the god Mara wailing in the ruins for the slaughtered Maragor.
arotrios
joined 1 year ago
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6407593
Link - From the nihilistic absurdity of Thomas Ligotti to the heavily science-fictional chills of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, the cosmic horror of today continues to tell tales of a vast, indifferent, and even carnivorous cosmos, through new lenses and fresh new perspectives.
Here are a few of the best cosmic horror books from exciting writers new and old—both those who were writing before Lovecraft appeared on the scene, and those who have come after.
What is cosmic horror? As a writer whose own work is often at least adjacent to the subgenre, it’s a question I’ve been asked in columns and podcasts and panel discussions more times than I can count. Sadly the answer, all too often, ends up sounding a lot like that old chestnut about pornography, that we “know it when we see it.”
American writer H.P. Lovecraft, in one of his copious personal correspondences, summed it up as follows: “Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large.” So, basically: Universe big; humans small.
While he is often considered the godfather of cosmic horror, Lovecraft was far from the first person to practice the subgenre, a fact that he (frequently) attested to during his own lifetime. In fact, his nonfiction opus Supernatural Horror in Literature is a catalog of other writers who, in Lovecraft’s estimation, were doing fine work in the field before he came along.
Nor did the tradition end when Lovecraft died. Plenty of other talents have carried cosmic horror into ever newer horizons, even as scientific reasoning—which forms much of the backbone of Lovecraft’s cosmicism—has advanced far beyond anything he was ever exposed to.
Social justice, too, has advanced enough to cause readers to recognize Lovecraft’s own racism and xenophobia.
From the nihilistic absurdity of Thomas Ligotti to the heavily science-fictional chills of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, the cosmic horror of today continues to tell tales of a vast, indifferent, and even carnivorous cosmos, through new lenses and fresh new perspectives.
At the Mountains of Madness
Sure, I just spent several paragraphs arguing that Lovecraft is far from the alpha and omega of cosmic horror. But this wouldn’t be much of a cosmic horror primer if we didn’t include at least one Lovecraft book.
When it comes to classics of cosmic horror, they don’t come a lot more classic, or a lot more cosmic, than this timeless tale of arctic exploration and new vistas of human experience. It's equal parts a love letter to scientific exploration, and a horrified warning of the dangers inherent therein.
The King in Yellow By Robert W. Chambers
One of the things that makes Lovecraft’s work stand out in a crowded literary field is that—decades before the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Stephen King’s fictional version of a haunted Maine—his tales all occupy a shared universe, linked together by the names of beings, books, places, and people. Lovecraft wasn’t the first to do this, however.
In fact, when Lovecraft was only five years old, Robert W. Chambers published The King in Yellow, a collection of tales linked together by the eponymous play and the similarly-named entity at its heart.
The stories not only found their way into Lovecraft’s own Mythos, but that of plenty of other writers and artists over the years, including the creators of the HBO series, True Detective.
The House on the Borderland By William Hope Hodgson
British author William Hope Hodgson wrote across a wide variety of genres, and many of his best stories deal with the sea. However, perhaps his best-known and most cosmic work is this 1908 novel.
It tells of two men on a fishing trip who find a journal in an old ruin which, in turn, tells the story of a recluse who lives alone with his sister and dog in the titular house, which has a sinister reputation and which seems to abut some sort of interdimensional nexus.
Malpertuis By Jean Ray
Often called the “Belgian Poe,” Jean Ray’s many, many, many stories and books (under an equally bewildering array of pseudonyms) were often pivotal in the European tradition of the fantastique in literature.
But his tales of gothic, supernatural, and cosmic horror have been vanishingly hard to come by in English for some time, until the recent series of books from translator Scott Nicolay and Wakefield Press, which have begun to release many of the author’s tales in translation for the first time.
Latest is the novel-length Malpertuis—which has previously been available in English, and was even adapted into a 1971 film featuring Orson Welles—a rare gem of gothic cosmicism begging to be rediscovered by a contemporary audience.
Volk By David Nickle
That’s enough dusty old cosmic horror, though.
I said up above that plenty of contemporary authors have brought this tradition into the modern day, and this 2017 novel from David Nickle is an excellent example.
Subtitled “A Novel of Radiant Abomination” and set during World War II, this sequel to Nickle’s Eutopia has been called “a critical and sharp demolition of Lovecraft’s own romanticization of eugenics” as well as “spooky as hell” by author Cory Doctorow.
Cthulhu's Daughters By Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula R. Stiles
Originally released as She Walks in Shadows, under which title it won a World Fantasy Award, this anthology of all-new fiction by women authors tackles Lovecraft’s complicated legacy and carries Lovecraftian cosmic horror into the modern day.
It features tales by some of the leading voices in contemporary weird and cosmic horror including Molly Tanzer, Wendy N. Wagner, Selena Chambers, Nadia Bulkin, Gemma Files, Premee Mohamed, Angela Slatter, and many others!
The Fisherman By John Langan
This modern-day epic of cosmic horror won a Bram Stoker award. The book is an absolute jaw-dropper, mashing together a wide array of literary elements and styles into a novel that feels at once timeless, classic, and modern.
The cosmic vistas are as unforgettable as anything that has delved into the borderlands (not to put too fine a point on it) of human experience since Hodgson’s House on the Borderland.
(Full disclosure, Word Horde—who published this volume—also published several of my collections, but I don’t get any kind of kickbacks or anything for recommending this. I just love John Langan’s work.)
The Secret of Ventriloquism By Jon Padgett
Up above, I mentioned Thomas Ligotti, some of whose best-known works of cosmic nihilism have recently been released under the Penguin Classics imprint. For something in the Ligottian vein from a newer but equally exciting voice, check out Jon Padgett’s debut collection.
Padgett was not only in charge of the Thomas Ligotti fan site for many years, making him something of an expert in this brand of intoxicating cosmic horror, but he’s also a lapsed ventriloquist, so you just know he’s got some creepy stuff up his sleeve.
Annihalation by Jeff VanderMeer
Fans of the cosmic horror film genre might be familiar with the critically acclaimed film adaptation starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, but the book is even better. Winner of the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel, Annihilation tells the story of Area X, which has been cut off from the rest of civilization. Every expedition into Area X has ended with wildly different ends. The first group to return spoke of an Edenic landscape, but many of the groups who followed died along the way.
The group readers see in Annihilation, which is the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, is the 12th expedition. The group is made up of four women tasked with mapping and observing Area X. They know to be on their guard, but nothing could have prepared them for the discoveries they make (and the surprises that follow them into Area X).
The Immaculate Void by Brian Hodge
Even the gods have reason to fear in Brian Hodge's The Immaculate Void. Told in dueling points of view and timelines, the story follows Daphne and her brother Tanner. Due to Daphne's childhood trauma, she's a pro at running away and disappearing. Tanner has plenty of practice at catching her, but this time, something's different. This time, it's not just about what (or who) is missing, it's about what terrifying presence has decided to make its presence felt at last.
Perhaps the real horror story involved with The Immaculate Void, however, is in trying to find a copy to read. On his blog, Hodge says that difficulties with his publisher have led to the book's scarcity. You probably can't just go into a bookstore and find a copy. Currently, the best means of procuring the work are by trying the audiobook (link above) or by contacting the author directly.
Chills By Mary SanGiovanni
Look, sometimes cosmic horror can get a little … esoteric. Every now and then you just want a nice, quiet story about a bunch of ritual murders in a small Connecticut town caught in the grips of a snowstorm, as cultists attempt to call up unspeakable things beyond human understanding. It’s okay. We’ve all been there.
Fortunately, Mary SanGiovanni, whose work F. Paul Wilson has called “a feast of both visceral and existential horror,” has us all covered with this police procedural meets occult crime tale.
It takes advantage of the snowbound isolation, paranoia, and claustrophobia that was used to such beautiful effect in John Carpenter’s The Thing.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
Here's what The New Yorker's review had to say about The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch: "I like to be freaked out and mystified simultaneously. The Gone World, a gory time-travel thriller, does both in surprising ways....Inception meets True Detective, but it also contains elements of Solaris, Interstellar, Twin Peaks, Minority Report, and even Stargate. To all this, it adds some innovative time-travel shenanigans."
While those are some amazing comparisons for any book, bestselling author Blake Crouch's praise of The Gone World is even more impressive. “I promise you have never read a story like this.”
The novel follows Shannon Moss, who is part of a clandestine division of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. When a Navy SEAL's family goes missing in western Pennsylvania, Moss is assigned to investigate the crime. Things only get weirder when she discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut whose ship is assumed to be lost in Deep Time. The novel plays with both epic scale and intimate, human moments in a way that can be unusual (and powerful) for cosmic horror.
Uzumaki By Junji Ito
Lots of incredible cosmic horror has been finding its way into sequential art in the last few decades, and no list of contemporary cosmic horror would be complete without the work of Japanese manga creator Junji Ito.
Possibly his magnum opus—and in many ways his most cosmic tale to date—is this bizarre and haunting tale of a small town that becomes slowly obsessed with the shape of the spiral, a shape that seems to bend not only the minds of the townspeople, but the fabric of reality itself.
23
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/403415
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that Lime has died. Viewing his death as suspicious, Martins elects to stay in Vienna and investigate the matter.
The atmospheric use of black-and-white expressionist cinematography by Robert Krasker, with harsh lighting and largely subtle "Dutch angle" camera technique, is a major feature of The Third Man. Combined with the iconic theme music by zither player Anton Karas, seedy locations and acclaimed performances from the cast, the style evokes the atmosphere of an exhausted, cynical post-war Vienna at the start of the Cold War.
Greene wrote the novella of the same name as preparation for the screenplay. Karas's title composition "The Third Man Theme" topped the international music charts in 1950, bringing the previously unknown performer international fame; the theme would also inspire Nino Rota's principal melody in La Dolce Vita (1960).[citation needed] The Third Man is considered one of the greatest films of all time, celebrated for its acting, musical score and atmospheric cinematography.[5]
In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British film of all time. In 2011, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out ranked it the second best British film ever.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/423678
CW: They killed Fritz! Nazi mutants watching lots of Nazi propaganda. Elves with PTSD. Nuclear Armageddon. Pajama wearing assassins. Fairies of the night wearing near nothing. Evil Nazi wizard who skipped arm day.
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film written, directed and produced by Ralph Bakshi and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The film follows a battle between two wizards of opposing powers, one representing the forces of magic and the other representing the forces of technology.
The film is notable for being the first fantasy film by Bakshi, a filmmaker who was previously known only for "urban films" such as Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic and Coonskin. The film grossed US$9 million theatrically with a $2 million budget.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/478961
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/429137
Shadow libraries, sometimes called pirate libraries, consist of texts aggregated outside the legal framework of copyright.
Today's pirate libraries have their roots in the work of Russian academics to digitize texts in the 1990s. Scholars in that part of the world had long had a thriving practice of passing literature and scientific information underground, in opposition to government censorship—part of the samizdat culture, in which banned documents were copied and passed hand to hand through illicit channels. Those first digital collections were passed freely around, but when their creators started running into problems with copyright, their collections “retreated from the public view," writes Balázs Bodó, a piracy researcher based at the University of Amsterdam. "The text collections were far too valuable to simply delete," he writes, and instead migrated to "closed, membership-only FTP servers."
More recently, though, those collections have moved online, where they are available to anyone who knows where to look.
The purpose of this site, then, is to have all these libraries at our fingertips when in need of a certain text or book.
As Aaron Swartz put it:
"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves."
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
Read the full text of the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/429137
Shadow libraries, sometimes called pirate libraries, consist of texts aggregated outside the legal framework of copyright.
Today's pirate libraries have their roots in the work of Russian academics to digitize texts in the 1990s. Scholars in that part of the world had long had a thriving practice of passing literature and scientific information underground, in opposition to government censorship—part of the samizdat culture, in which banned documents were copied and passed hand to hand through illicit channels. Those first digital collections were passed freely around, but when their creators started running into problems with copyright, their collections “retreated from the public view," writes Balázs Bodó, a piracy researcher based at the University of Amsterdam. "The text collections were far too valuable to simply delete," he writes, and instead migrated to "closed, membership-only FTP servers."
More recently, though, those collections have moved online, where they are available to anyone who knows where to look.
The purpose of this site, then, is to have all these libraries at our fingertips when in need of a certain text or book.
As Aaron Swartz put it:
"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves."
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
Read the full text of the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/476755
Don't panic, and bring a towel.
For seasoned galactic travelers, if you're looking for the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which includes:
- Hitchhiker's Guide
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Life, the Universe, and Everything
- So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
- Young Zaphod Plays It Safe
- Mostly Harmless
... this wormhole should get you there.
Also, upon conferring with both Space and Ice Pirates, I've been persuaded to also provide their contribution here in honor of the late, great Douglas Adams.
Now could you guys please untie my cats and get them off the plank?
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/473973
The Way that can be articulately described is not the Unchanging Way. The name that can be said out loud is not the Unchanging Name. With your mouth unopened, and things left undefined, you stand at the beginning of the universe. Make definitions, and you are the measure of all creation.
The Tao Te Ching (UK: /ˌtaʊ tiː ˈtʃɪŋ/,[1] US: /ˌdaʊ dɛ ˈdʒɪŋ/; simplified Chinese: 道德经; traditional Chinese: 道德經; pinyin: Dàodé Jīng [tâʊ tɤ̌ tɕíŋ] i) is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion dates back to the late 4th century BC, but modern scholarship dates other parts of the text as having been written—or at least compiled—later than the earliest portions of the Zhuangzi.
The Tao Te Ching, along with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism. It also strongly influenced other schools of Chinese philosophy and religion, including Legalism, Confucianism, and Chinese Buddhism, which was largely interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts when it was originally introduced to China. Many artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and gardeners, have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence has spread widely within the globe's artistic and academic spheres. It is one of the most translated texts in world literature.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/473436
Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe...
This series remains some of the best fantasy I've ever read, and it's often very hard to find, as it's been out of print for a while now in most places.
Content Warning: David Eddings has a checkered past regarding the abuse of his adopted son, which he served a year in jail for in 1970. There are likewise dark themes in these novels that some readers may find disturbing. That being said, I believe the work stands on its own as a masterpiece of world-crafting. Please note I present it on those grounds, not as any endorsement of Eddings himself.
190
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/317329
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis. It stars John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood, characters developed from the recurring musical sketch "The Blues Brothers" on NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. The script is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed, and the screenplay was written by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by rhythm and blues (R&B), soul, and blues singers James Brown, Cab Calloway (in his final feature film role), Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, and John Lee Hooker. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Kathleen Freeman and John Candy.
That's one of the reasons I posted the source material as available (free) downloads as well - Day has come under criticism before by Tolkien scholars. I personally found most of his mistakes and liberties in this work to be minor, but I'm not a Tolkien scholar. Nonetheless, the work has a unique artistic touch that regardless of its accuracy, brings the novels to life in a way that surpasses later catalogues, and it was responsible for getting young readers of my generation interested in reading them.
I've always dug it because it was one of the first explorations of a successful invasion from another species, and it was an excellent scifi deconstruction of colonialism, one that was groundbreaking for the time it was written (right before WWII).
If you need it in other formats, this link has a great selection of free alternatives - you can filter by your preferred file format. There's a azw3 version here that should work with Kindle.
Another great one - here's a link to get a free .pdf copy if you're looking to add to your library:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/ae962cb11c50e00ecdc2b50d2d813b54
I agree, Still Life is the stronger novel. I usually choose Cowgirls as the work of his to to introduce new readers to, as it's more accessible and lighthearted, but Still Life is where Robbins really shows his chops.
Here's a link to a free copy (.pdf download) from Anna's if you're looking for one: https://annas-archive.org/md5/85333852ce8e0b37dc4918f59cfb5bb1
view more: next ›
Sorry - these are all table top games.