Deep Ones Advance Nomination Brainstorming Thread

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Deep Ones Advance Nomination Brainstorming Thread

1paradoxosalpha
Jul 18, 2018, 5:16 pm

As proposed by RandyStafford and AndreasJ, and in order to check our declining quantity of nominations in the quarterly voting threads, I'm opening this one as a persistent slop-zone where we can remark to ourselves and each other regarding possible candidates for our weekly reads.

2AndreasJ
Editado: Maio 18, 2021, 3:18 pm

On the low-hanging fruit front, a non-exhaustive list of Lovecraft stories we haven't done yet:

"At the Mountains of Madness" (too long?)
"The White Ship"
"Celephaïs"
"From Beyond"
"Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family"
"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (too long?)
"The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" (too long?)
"The Festival"
"The Moon-Bog"

And as we did "Nyarlathotep" way back when, I guess other prose poems are fair game: I think I'll nominate "Memory" next time round, and perhaps also one or two of CAS examples of the form.

ETA: It took about three years, but we've know done all these.

3paradoxosalpha
Jul 18, 2018, 10:49 pm

As I remarked once in a review, H. Russell Wakefield's "Professor Pownall's Oversight" is a chess ghost story, and not only a good one, but perhaps the best chess ghost story possible.

4paradoxosalpha
Jul 18, 2018, 10:52 pm

"Lull" (2002) by Kelly Link was a good one I read a couple years back, and it's often been collected.

5Zambaco
Jul 19, 2018, 6:28 am

I'd love to nominate "Three miles up" by Elizabeth Jane Howard but have hesitated to do so because as far as I know it's available only in very expensive Tartarus Press editions. It's a brilliant - and very scary - story with a real sickening punch at the end. EJH wrote only a few weird stories during her period with Robert Aickman, and then went back to mainstream fiction. A pity, because she had real talent. If anyone knows if it's available online or in a reasonably cheap paperback the please let me know and I'll nominate it.

6elenchus
Jul 19, 2018, 10:31 am

>5 Zambaco:

That's a compelling description!

7semdetenebre
Jul 19, 2018, 11:28 am


I'll be making use of this thread, but a few notes first.

I'd love for us to take on longer works, like AtMoM, but how best to do it? As the usual weekly story, or possibly spread out over a couple of weeks or even a season? What about a novel? The House on the Borderland comes immediately to mind.

Interlibrary Loan is always a possibility, or a cheap used copy found online, but if the story is obscure and not bound by copyright, it might help if the nominator would offer a scan of their copy.

Also, I wish we simply had more people participating. I value each member of our core croup, but the more participants, the better. There are 440 WT members as of today. I assume that there are a number of Lurkers at the Threshold there, along with too many group collectors, the purpose of which I just don't understand. I suggest looking for new members via our various social media apps, online contacts, friends, neighbors etc., etc. Even if someone only wants to nominate, it would help. Advertise upcoming nominations and weekly story discussions, maybe.

8elenchus
Editado: Jul 19, 2018, 11:43 am

>7 semdetenebre: if the story is obscure and not bound by copyright, it might help if the nominator would offer a scan of their copy.

Expanding on that point, I'm curious also about works still protected by copyright.

My understanding of copyright and fair use is that sharing for purposes of study (such as occurs in formal classes) is legal. Common sense suggests our group is an example of such an activity. However, we've all heard enough caveats and stipulations to doubt the applicability in specific instances. When I taught at university level, for example, I was often required to have copyright clearance of copies, despite the fair use clause. I'm also very mindful of our responsibility to not enable abuse by others, such as could occur were we to simply post a copy of the story online or in our thread. We would not violate copyright, but others easily could take the copy and sell it, etc.

So I'm curious what others here understand to be a valid approach to sharing scans of stories otherwise not easily obtainable.

(@KentonSem makes several other points worth following up, but I'll stick to just this one for this post.)

9paradoxosalpha
Jul 19, 2018, 12:14 pm

>8 elenchus:

I think our first toe in the water for this approach was the recent read of Cabell's The White Robe. We used a g-drive upload selectively shared with participants who contacted me by LT profile message, if memory serves.

Speaking of Cabell, I think there are some good potential nominations in The Silver Stallion, which is really a story cycle more than a novel.

10semdetenebre
Jul 19, 2018, 12:18 pm

>9 paradoxosalpha:

That method worked well.

11paradoxosalpha
Jul 19, 2018, 12:29 pm

>10 semdetenebre:

I'm not sure I'd want to be the perpetual admin of such a system. I'd rather that the contact person be either the story proposer and/or the uploader of the scan.

12paradoxosalpha
Editado: Jul 19, 2018, 12:41 pm

>7 semdetenebre: longer works

I like the fact that we've been doing short stories; it makes us distinctive as opposed to most "book groups," and it plays to what I consider to be the paradigmatic form for our chosen genre. I wouldn't want a longer selection to block off weeks that could still have the short story schedule in place.

I'm fine with the idea that there could be a read of a longer piece that leverages our current group dynamic, but I'd prefer that it be organized outside of the quarterly scheduling of weekly reads. Call it a "Deeper Ones" proposal in its own thread perhaps, specify a start date and a quorum, and see if enough people bite?

13elenchus
Jul 19, 2018, 1:05 pm

>9 paradoxosalpha:
>10 semdetenebre:
>11 paradoxosalpha:

I'd support the approach of a shared private drive. Ideally the admin part is straightforward enough that any member could take the reins for a particular story, with minimal fuss or intimidation from the technology.

We've already demonstrated it can work, not only with the Cabell story, but also with the historical archive of works read: simple and effective. I realise that example is not private (anyone can follow the link from the group page), so we need to be mindful about that aspect.

>12 paradoxosalpha:

Agree that our strength both as a group and as genre fans stems from the focus on shorter fiction. There could be opportunities to set up additional threads alongside the quarterly schedule, and I'd like us to collaborate on ways to harness the asynchronous contributions that work for our weekly reads. Any approach overreliant upon frequent & synchronous "conversation" to keep the thread going is, I suggest, unlikely to work and could detract from what we have established.

14semdetenebre
Editado: Jul 19, 2018, 1:50 pm

>11 paradoxosalpha:
>12 paradoxosalpha:
>13 elenchus:

I second a shared drive. Google Drive? We'd also need to consider how to share it and with whom.

I'm fine with no novels. I think we might be able to do a novella like AtMoM, however.

>5 Zambaco:

I'm intrigued! Perhaps it's a good candidate for a shared drive, if you'd be willing.

15elenchus
Editado: Jul 19, 2018, 2:13 pm

Proposed Guidelines for Deep Ones Shared Private Drive aka DEEP CUTS

1. Post scan of story on shared drive, file name following format AUTHOR LAST AUTHOR FIRST - Story Title (YYYY Quarter)
2. Ideally, use PDF format for scan
3. Consider deleting scan after end of quarter, to further prevent abuse by outsiders (but this would interfere with later readers contributing to the thread afterward?)
4. Add link to Group Page, leading to Group Wiki listing brief instructions on how to access shared drive (including password). (Need to create the Group Wiki page for this purpose.)
5. Consider changing password quarterly
6. Do not link directly to the shared drive from the story's dedicated thread; instead, use standard phrase directing members to the Group Page.

I am perhaps being overly cautious in terms of avoiding mis-use by non-members (#3, 5, 6) at expense of ready access for members: pushback is welcome.

16Crypto-Willobie
Jul 19, 2018, 3:42 pm

>9 paradoxosalpha:
"Speaking of Cabell, I think there are some good potential nominations in The Silver Stallion, which is really a story cycle more than a novel."

Agreed. Perhaps the best candidate would be 'In the Sylan's House' but I see possibilities for 'What Saraide Wanted' and 'The Candid Footprint'.

Other possible Cabell's would include 'Concerning Corinna' and 'The Wedding Jest'.

By the way, the magazine versions of all these stories (and more) are available for free reading on the Silver Stallion webstir, here: http://www.silverstallion.karkeeweb.com/contribution_periodicals/main/periodical...

ETA, oops! Corinna was never in a magazine, but its containing book The Certain Hour is available to read free on googlebooks.

-------------------------------------

Scanned stories lodged on googledocs seems to me a good solution for hard-to-find stories. I have for a while wanted to nominate 'The Centaur Plays Croquet' by Lyle Saxon but as far as I know it's never been reprinted from its original appearance in 1927's The American Caravan, a yearbook of American literature.

17AndreasJ
Jul 19, 2018, 4:25 pm

We’ve done the odd novella-length story, e.g., “The Shadow Out of Time”, with no apparent issue, so I’d like to think AtMoM would be fine. I wouldn’t want to get into actual novels however.

18paradoxosalpha
Jul 19, 2018, 4:30 pm

Yes, I think the occasional novella is fine. We could support those with early warnings about text length, so that people might start them earlier than they would shorter stories.

19AndreasJ
Jul 20, 2018, 12:53 am

Reading an old discussion, I came across a lament by KentonSem that there is, far as he knows, no other tale featuring the titular character of "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", which we discussed here.

Actually there is one, "The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles", online here. It's from late in CAS's weird career, and not as good as "The Tale", but then the latter is one my favorites within CAS's oeuvre.

20semdetenebre
Jul 20, 2018, 4:33 am

>15 elenchus:

That's good. No need to delete, I think, but changing the password regularly sounds reasonable. Maybe only give it out to those whose story nomination needs to be uploaded? I don't think you need a password in Google Docs to download.

>19 AndreasJ:

Nice catch! As told by an aging Zeiros (and CAS, for that matter).

21Zambaco
Jul 20, 2018, 7:15 am

We must be careful about sharing stories still in copyright, though. In the UK, although it's legally permissible to make a copy of a single article/chapter/story for personal research or study, making multiple or shared copies is not. Universities have to pay a hefty annual fee to the Copyright Licensing Agency in order to be able to share extracts from in-copyright works for course reading. I'm not sure exactly what the situation in the US is, but I do know that some US universities have been sued in the past by publishers for large-scale copying for multiple use. Admittedly the publishers are probably only after large-scale offenders but it could still be risky, especially for more recent works. And the out-of-copyright stuff seems mostly to be available online already via Project Gutenberg or similar setups. , although if that's not the case, there's no reason why we shouldn'r share scans.

22paradoxosalpha
Jul 20, 2018, 10:47 am

I'd rather err on the side of caution with respect to copyright.

Back in brainstorming mode, it looks like there's lots of good stuff in both Demon and Night-Gaunts by Joyce Carol Oates.

23elenchus
Jul 20, 2018, 11:01 am

I've been meaning to read more JCO but even flipping through collections in the library, it was difficult for me to know what to nominate without reading it first. So much stuff! I'd welcome a nudge from others here, for sure.

24housefulofpaper
Jul 22, 2018, 6:18 pm

>5 Zambaco:

"Five Miles Up" was/is included in a UK paperback collection of Elizabeth Jane Howard's short fiction entitled Mr Wrong.The book seems to still be in print (at any rate, it's listed as available from Amazon UK). On the downside (as far as this group's concerned, anyway) I believe only Five Miles Up and the title story have any weird or supernatural content. Those two stories are the only overlap with the Tartarus Press volume.

25housefulofpaper
Jul 22, 2018, 6:33 pm

The reasons I haven't made many nominations are:
- I would be hesitant about nominating I story I hadn't already read. I'd feel guilty if it turned out to be a stinker!
- I've tended to assume that everyone else has a better knowledge of the field than I do, anyway.
- I've fallen into buying the output of UK based small presses (and Dublin-based Swan River Press and the occasional volume from Zagava Books in Germany (they're an English-language publisher)). I'd nominate something by Mark Valentine or D.P Watt or Ron Weighell, but if no one else can access them in any way, there'd be no point. Also, I've got a massive "TBR pile", and see my first point!
- Re. further sources of nominations (especially recent material) does anyone else still get the Stephen Jones-edited Best New Horror annual collections? They used to be published by mainstream publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. Not any more, but the series is being cintinued by ps Publishing in the UK. Does anyone else get the Ghost and Scholars newsletter - which has started publishing short stories again? What about the Weird Fiction Review?

26elenchus
Jul 22, 2018, 10:12 pm

>25 housefulofpaper: - I would be hesitant about nominating I story I hadn't already read. I'd feel guilty if it turned out to be a stinker!

Fair enough, and I've made the same decision myself at various times. On the other hand, I've also gone ahead and nominated in the same situation, figuring the voting is one way to sort that out. Despite that, I think a couple stories I nominated & were included ended up as "duds" but ... well, they were stories a bit off the beaten path, so I figured that was good, in any case.

27semdetenebre
Editado: Jul 25, 2018, 3:27 pm

>25 housefulofpaper:
>26 elenchus:

Nominate anything that seems worth it, whether you've read it or not. I think the goal here is to explore the boundaries of weird fiction, especially going "beyond the fields we know", as Dunsany wrote. The only limitation I can see might be access, which we've been discussing. Even duds provide information as we continue to map the weird.

>22 paradoxosalpha:
>23 elenchus:

JCO for certain. She has several really good short story collections, and she's so very important to the weird and gothic genres, not to mention the fact that she has been a pretty staunch defender of HPL's place in 20th century fiction.

I think we should delve into Patrick McGrath. His recent Centipede collection just blew me away. JCO herself wrote the introduction, and if he can raise my eyebrows, that's saying something. A master of surprising, surreal, gothic fiction. But which story? Hmmm...

ETA

Probably "Blood Disease". https://bombmagazine.org/articles/blood-disease/

28elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:46 pm

I've read a few Reggie Oliver stories since the group introduced me to him, and most recently finished "Countess Otho", which updates the King in Yellow premise for the late 20th century and tops it with an unexpected ending.

Available in at least two collections, and I'd definitely be willing to pioneer the shared drive idea. I'll note this one undoubtedly remains within copyright, so mindful of the cautions of >21 Zambaco:, perhaps not a good candidate for the shared drive.

ETA Another story in the same collection (Mrs Midnight and Other Stories) namedrops a slew of interesting names, from Crowley to John Dee, to Machen and MR James, incorporating them into the plot. Unsurprisingly the story revolves around an occult manuscript and what people will do to get it -- and what happens when they succeed. The story is "The Mortlake Manuscripts".

ETA Nominated Fall 2018

29AndreasJ
Jul 23, 2018, 11:12 am

I'm disinclined to buy physical anthologies where I'm really only out for a single story. There's more than enough unread fiction on my shelves as-is.

Unfortunately, "Countess Otho" doesn't seem to be available in electronic format, at least as yet.

30Zambaco
Jul 23, 2018, 12:48 pm

Have just realised I have a copy of "Countess Otho" in Mrs. Midnight and Other Stories - I must re-read it! Incidentally, the Tartarus Press editions of Reggie Oliver's collections are available in e-book format very cheaply, so maybe it is worth nominating them. Sadly the Elizabeth Jane Howard books are only available in the expensive hardback version, probably because of that old bugbear, copyright, again.

It is a real problem trying to get hold of more recent stories without buying a load of books you don't really want. I frequently miss out on these stories for that very reason.

31AndreasJ
Ago 10, 2018, 8:02 am

Lovecraft's "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs"/ "Under the Pyramids" (ghostwritten for Houdini), mentioned in the "Shunned House" thread, is another we haven't done yet.

Checking that we'd indeed hadn't done it, I noted that Bloch's "The Fane of the Black Pharaoh" has the last word misspelt as "Pharoah" in the listing of previous discussions, which is inconvenient when searching. Could Kenton fix it?

32semdetenebre
Ago 10, 2018, 10:25 am

>31 AndreasJ:

Fixed "Pharaoh" and the story links are now up-to-date.

33AndreasJ
Editado: Ago 16, 2018, 12:43 am

34RandyStafford
Ago 15, 2018, 11:29 pm

I see in Dark Mind, Dark Heart there's a David H. Keller piece called "In Memoriam". Derleth describes it as "symbolic horror". I've always been interested to see what Keller as a horror writer is like. Seemingly only available in that collection though.

35Crypto-Willobie
Editado: Ago 16, 2018, 1:16 am

A googledoc scan has been created for 'The Centaur Plays Croquet' (mentioned in >16 Crypto-Willobie: above), should that make the nomination cut or win votes. It's hard to describe -- one might say it exists along the Machen-Cabell-Faulkner continuum. It is 'framed' by some letters and legal documents but the main events occur in a regular-story core.

36paradoxosalpha
Editado: Ago 28, 2018, 2:02 pm

I think we've talked about including an R. A. Lafferty story before, but not yet done it.

I'm considering "Splinters," which appeared in Charles Grant's Shadows anthology.

37elenchus
Ago 28, 2018, 4:14 pm

Ah, I'd be interested in Lafferty. The one work of his I've read was certainly weird and could be considered SciFi Weird. In the vein that PK Dick mined, anyway.

38semdetenebre
Ago 28, 2018, 4:22 pm

Centipede Press has been gradually releasing all of Lafferty's short stories. I sold the first two volumes, mainly because I didn't think I could afford to keep buying the entire run. They were snapped up instantly. Probably be kicking myself later on. Good choice, though, and I have the Shadows paperback.

39semdetenebre
Editado: Ago 31, 2018, 11:29 am

We're about to discuss "The Idol of the Flies" by Jane Rice. A Yes!Weekly magazine article has this to say:

{Rice's} other most famous story is "The Refugee", one of the most reprinted werewolf stories in the English language. Bestselling horror and suspense novelist Peter Straub included it in his massive 2009 Library of America anthology American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now, alongside stories by Shirley Jackson, John Cheever, Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov and Fred Chappell. “I knew nothing of Jane Rice until the critic Gary K. Wolfe suggested I read her,” Straub said when I asked him how her work ended up in his anthology. “Somehow, I came across a copy of that wonderful story. I loved it right away, and thought it was one of the best pulp stories I’d ever read–clear, straight storytelling, in good, tight, effective prose.”

And it's available online...

http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2011/03/refugee.html

40elenchus
Ago 31, 2018, 12:20 pm

This thread is already proving its mettle, I think. I saw that LOA reference too and would have let it slip by. Glad you posted it here, I'll see what I think about Rice after reading "Flies".

41semdetenebre
Set 7, 2018, 4:07 pm

This 2012 list/article by the VanderMeers is a really good one. I haven't read all of these authors.

http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/12/fourteen-notable-women-writers-of-the-weir...

42elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:47 pm

I'm going to nominate one of those right now!

ETA Nominated Fall 2018 (Margaret St Clair)

43RandyStafford
Set 9, 2018, 3:14 pm

"Mappa Mundi" by Mary Butts is described as modernist weird. However, before I nominate it, I'm trying to see if it's available anywhere besides Butt's The Complete Stories.

44paradoxosalpha
Set 9, 2018, 9:01 pm

>43 RandyStafford:

Man, that would be great if we could read some Mary Butts! "Mappa Mundi" isn't even listed at isfdb.org, although they do have her "With and Without Buttons" (1938).

45elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:57 pm

From another LT thread, David R. Bunch appears to have an idiosyncratic take on cyborg Weird. Jeff VanderMeer provides the introduction to a recent NYRB reprint, and suspect there may be a sample story included in The Weird.

ETA Bunch does have a contribution in both Dangerous Visions and Dangerous Visions 2 so perhaps those would be appropriate. I'll try to dig further but posting here as a reminder.

ETA Nominated Fall 2018

46elenchus
Editado: Set 18, 2018, 12:04 pm

As paradoxosalpha noted in another thread, James Machin makes the argument for reading more John Buchan.

47paradoxosalpha
Set 18, 2018, 12:15 pm

Yeah, we've only read "The Grove of Ashtaroth" so far, and that was a tip from my Other Reader IIRC. I think that all of Buchan's early story collections are probably available on Project Gutenberg or comparable online venues. Maybe we could try "The Watcher by the Threshold"?

I just harvested a nomination idea from the the Machin interview: Gilchrist's "The Crimson Weaver."

48frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:43 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

49paradoxosalpha
Set 18, 2018, 12:43 pm

With October impending, I was thinking of David Mitchell's Slade House. It's sold as a novel, but it's really sort of a necklace of linked short stories. What if I were to nominate a chapter?

50elenchus
Set 24, 2018, 10:03 am

After reading RandyStafford's review of Joel Jenkins's The Coming of Crow, posting here as a prompt to consider some Weird Western stories in an upcoming session.

>49 paradoxosalpha:
I've been meaning to read some Mitchell and that would be a welcome taster. (Even though we've missed the Autumn session.)

51paradoxosalpha
Set 24, 2018, 10:39 am

>50 elenchus:

If you're interested in Mitchell, I'd say go ahead and read Slade House for October anyway. It's a shortish novel, and it reads fast.

52semdetenebre
Set 24, 2018, 3:31 pm

>50 elenchus:

Delving into some weird westerns is a really good idea. On the subject:

https://www.baen.com/straight-outta-tombstone.html

Apparently a follow-up volume called Straight Outta Deadwood has just been announced. There is also the Lansdale-edited Razored Saddles. The ToCs in those might provide some ideas.

53RandyStafford
Set 24, 2018, 8:39 pm

I'll give some thought to weird western nominees. I have several collections of them including Frontier Cthulhu which I've read but never reviewed.

I don't usually get the weird fiction frisson from them. I think of them more like a version of sword-and-sorcery. In the case of the best of the weird western series, there's a definite Robert E. Howard feeling.

>52 semdetenebre: Growing up and attending school in Deadwood, I suppose I should be a loyal native son and pick up Straight Outta Deadwood

54RandyStafford
Set 24, 2018, 8:44 pm

A weird western tale straddling the horror and weird fiction line is Robert M. McCammon's "Black Boots", one of the most memorable stories from Razored Saddles. Unfortunately, like a lot of weird western work, it's not widely available. In this case, that's the only place ISFDB says it was printed.

55elenchus
Set 24, 2018, 10:14 pm

>51 paradoxosalpha:

Recalling my pleasurable foray last October with the Zelazny and Bradbury reads, I took the plunge and picked Slade House from the shelves at my local. Convenient that there were several copies available, no ILL required.

At this point, the opening story seems like a great nominee, but I'll keep reading and see if I pick another story-chapter instead.

56paradoxosalpha
Set 25, 2018, 12:34 am

>55 elenchus:

Mitchell made his name with long, braided novels like Cloud Atlas, but the vignette form that he uses in Slade House is really effective.

57semdetenebre
Set 25, 2018, 8:58 am

>53 RandyStafford:

Definitely need to nominate some of Two-Gun Bob's weird westerns. I should add that his non-weird westerns are really entertaining, too. I've long been a McCammon fan, but I don't remember "Black Boots". Might have to hit that one this week. I like your Deadwood connection!

58semdetenebre
Set 25, 2018, 10:23 am

Thanks to frahealee for pointing out this archive:

https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au

Could be useful for future nominations.

59frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:44 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

60elenchus
Editado: Out 1, 2018, 9:25 am

Saki's "The Music on the Hill"

"You don't really believe in Pan?" she asked incredulously.

"I've been a fool in most things," said Mortimer quietly, "but I'm not such a fool as not to believe in Pan when I'm down here. And if you're wise you won't disbelieve in him too boastfully while you're in his country."
Available online and I believe in various collections.

ETA Saki has another story that could be interpreted as thematically linked, "Gabriel-Ernest".

61agmlll
Out 1, 2018, 8:25 am

>45 elenchus: David R. Bunch's story "The Good War" is available online at Literary Hub.

https://lithub.com/the-good-war/

62elenchus
Out 1, 2018, 9:25 am

>61 agmlll:

Thanks for linking that, I'm curious to check it out!

63elenchus
Editado: Out 3, 2018, 1:52 pm

R. Murray Gilchrist has a number of Weird or supernatural stories. After reading "The Crimson Weaver", I'm encouraged to look for others.

His supernatural stories recently collected in The Basilisk (2003) by Ash-Tree Press and various online sources. Different content than Gilchrist's The Basilisk and Other Tales of Dread?

64elenchus
Editado: Out 5, 2018, 10:21 am

Various supernatural tales by Arthur Conan Doyle were gathered in a Dover edition, unclear if this is exhaustive or merely a selection.

ETA It appears we've read just one Doyle story thus far, "The Ring of Thoth" in October 2015.

65elenchus
Out 8, 2018, 4:45 pm

>61 agmlll:
>62 elenchus:

Bunch has a distinct voice, that's certain, and I hear the Philip K Dick in that voice. That story, at least, wouldn't be suitable for a Weird nomination, but I'll be looking out for the collected Moderan stories.

66agmlll
Out 8, 2018, 9:59 pm

There is haunted house story "Minuke" by Nigel Kneale you might want to check out. Among other things, Kneale wrote the screenplay for THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT in 1953 that bears a resemblance to the beginning of the VENOM movie that just came out.

67paradoxosalpha
Out 8, 2018, 10:55 pm

We've read one Nigel Kneale story before: "The Pond." (For some reason I don't see it on our list of past reads.) We could certainly do another.

68agmlll
Editado: Out 9, 2018, 12:43 am

Another good haunted house story I don't see on your list is W.W. Jacob's "The Toll-House."

The Monkey's Paw and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre

69agmlll
Out 9, 2018, 1:59 am

I don't know if is considered weird fiction, but John Dickson Carr's "Persons or Things Unknown" is a good story.

70semdetenebre
Out 9, 2018, 8:56 am

>67 paradoxosalpha:

Corrected - it's under Winter 2018. Thumbs-up on another Kneale. And Jacobs.

71elenchus
Editado: Out 9, 2018, 11:44 am

This thread is already once again proving itself, thanks for the suggestions, agmlll.

72semdetenebre
Out 9, 2018, 11:34 am

If the upcoming "At the Mountains of Madness" discussion is successful, I think that we might give "The Turn of the Screw" a go. The novellas are almost exactly the same length. We've had success with Henry James several times before. A recent re-watching of Jack Clayton's masterful THE INNOCENTS (1961) put me in mind of its source.

73elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:58 pm

I've read good things about Carmen Maria Machado's story collection, Her Body and Other Parties. One story from that collection -- "The Husband Stitch" -- is available online here. As per LitHub,
Machado’s work bends and transcends genre, incorporating elements of horror as well as fairy tale, realism, romance, erotica, and (famously) television.


ETA Nominated Winter 2018

74elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:58 pm

Raymond Chandler apparently published a supernatural story in Unknown, "The Bronze Door" (November 1939). Would seem a long way from his noir stories, but I do like his writing and plotting, and wonder what he would bring in the way of the macabre.

Online here: https://www.unz.com/print/Unknown-1939nov-00090/
A film short adaptation is here: https://vimeo.com/18888625>here.

ETA Nominated Winter 2018

75elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:59 pm

An intriguing review of a Michel de Ghelderode collection of stories: anyone here read his stuff? His biography certainly could raise some hackles, though I think we DEEP ONES regularly address such concerns with HPL's biography, so not unprecedented.

No idea if anything available online, nor how accessible the various editions of his stories would be.

Nominated Winter 2018 (@KentonSem)

76paradoxosalpha
Out 17, 2018, 4:16 pm

It looks like little other than the new collection has been translated into English.

77semdetenebre
Editado: Out 18, 2018, 9:41 am

78elenchus
Out 18, 2018, 10:42 am

>77 semdetenebre:

And a nice review at Weird Fiction Review here:
http://weirdfictionreview.com/2017/06/review-spells-michel-de-ghelderode/

I think "A Twilight" would be a good nominee, though I've not yet read it.

79elenchus
Editado: Mar 1, 2019, 1:14 pm

In another group, an LTer outlined what he refers to as "dark sylvan" stories (my term not his), and named a few authors we've read here (Charles Williams, John Buchan, Benson, Machen).

One author he included I've not thought of as an author of supernatural stories, but there is at least one such story and while it has a very positive rather than menacing tone (perhaps like a Dunsany but less whimsical, or even a John Crowley), I liked it well enough. E.M. Forster's, "The Curate's Friend", online here:

http://www.online-literature.com/forster/celestial-omnibus/5/

And included in at least two of his short story collections: The Celestial Omnibus and The Collected Short Stories.

A review here, which compares this story specifically to another of Guy Davenport:
https://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/In_Dissent/cooper9.htm

Another example, more contemporary: Richard Gavin.
Gavin's "Neithernor" free online at The Dark.
Other stories at http://www.richardgavin.net/

ETA
Forster's "The Curates Friend" nominated Winter 2018-2019
Gavin's "Neithernor" nominated Spring 2019

80elenchus
Editado: Dez 17, 2018, 10:59 pm

Robert Shearman -- apparently best known for writing a certain Dalek episode for Doctor Who -- writes short stories which are usually odd and surreal and sometimes Weird.

"The Gift" being a story of a girl and her connection (or not?) to a string of clown deaths. Available online at The Dark magazine.
http://thedarkmagazine.com/the-gift/

ETA Nominated Winter 2018

81RandyStafford
Nov 1, 2018, 7:54 pm

Shearman is an excellent recommendation. I've only read a bit of his work and liked it.

82WeeTurtle
Nov 2, 2018, 1:01 am

I've never seen that publication before. I might read that just to get a feel for them. :)

83elenchus
Nov 2, 2018, 11:09 am

I was impressed with both Shearman stories available at The Dark.

84RandyStafford
Nov 4, 2018, 6:12 pm

As a follow up to HPL's "At the Mountains of Madness", I think Joe R. Lansdale's "At the Mad Mountains" would be interesting.

85AndreasJ
Nov 5, 2018, 10:37 am

Inspired by the discussing on the AtMoM thread, the Lovecraft-Sterling collaboration "In the Walls of Eryx" came to my mind. Its perspective on the exploitation of Venus by human colonization is somewhat surprising coming from Lovecraft.

86Crypto-Willobie
Nov 9, 2018, 2:32 pm

Well, this one is clearly too long for our readings, AND I haven't read it myself, BUT this review invokes the names of Machen, Blackwood and Lovecraft, so I thought I'd just bring it to anyone's attention here. Good blog too.

https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2018/11/ffb-maynards-house-herman-raucher.ht...

87elenchus
Nov 9, 2018, 8:32 pm

It sounds intriguing and I wonder what else I might find on that blog.

Interestingly, no LT reviews either.

88Crypto-Willobie
Nov 9, 2018, 8:41 pm

Mostly about mystery and suspense but it occasionally wanders into weird and horror...

89semdetenebre
Nov 26, 2018, 3:48 pm

Thinking I might nominate "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". It features Nyarlathotep, after all, along with Zoogs, Night Gaunts, cats from Ulthar and elsewhere, Pickman & ghouls, and more. I'm really enjoying re-reading it. There's a lot of meat for DEEP ONES.

90paradoxosalpha
Nov 26, 2018, 4:12 pm

It's a long one, but I don't know how much longer it is than "At the Mountains of Madness."

91semdetenebre
Nov 26, 2018, 10:36 pm

>90 paradoxosalpha:

Found a page with Grandpa's word counts. AtMoM clocks in at 40,881. TDQoUK is a bit longer at 42,589. I'd guess it amounts to approx. 20 pages?

92elenchus
Nov 27, 2018, 9:41 am

I'd say worth nominating and we see how it comes out. My impression is that the AtMoM read was successful, despite the added length, and demonstrated that DEEP ONES can include a novella or novelette along with shorter fiction in each session. But I may have read the room incorrectly, that's why we vote!

93elenchus
Dez 15, 2018, 1:42 pm

I've been intrigued by recent RandyStafford reviews of William Meikle. There appear to be many short stories from which to choose but I've not looked into how available any are --especially, free online versions.

94RandyStafford
Dez 15, 2018, 4:10 pm

>93 elenchus: The problem you return to with modern authors like William Meikle and David Hambling is that most of what they publish is in e-book form and little of it can be checked out from a library though both authors, from time to time, have their work discounted or free -- though you still have to have an e-book reader.

Also, with Meikle, most of the work is pulpish in its action emphasis though not all of it. (Not that I mind pulp.) I think a lot of it sort of bears the same relationship to the weird that the occult detective (which Meikle has written a lot of) or sword-and-sorcery stories do.

95elenchus
Dez 15, 2018, 8:12 pm

Good points, I definitely consider that limitation and prefer to find selections that are available in more than one format. Yet every now and again I'll make an exception, and your reviews have me thinking Meikle might be one such author. I'd want to rely upon you or someone else to suggest the specific story, though.

96WeeTurtle
Dez 17, 2018, 3:00 am

Is it okay to be casual about this stuff? I keep intending to join in the reading but get overwhelmed rather fast. I put a couple "yes" votes in the nomination thread of things I want to read, but didn't tick anything "no" because I don't think it's fair when I doubt I could read the lot anyway.

97AndreasJ
Dez 17, 2018, 3:21 am

>96 WeeTurtle:

I confess I've wondered why some voters evidently vote in only a selection of the votes (and not necessarily just the first ones), I guess yours is a reasonable enough reason.

I can almost guarantee that there won't be any piscine men roughing you up if you only participate in some reads. Looking back, I've probably only read something like 2/3 or 3/4 of the stories myself, and in some cases I've read them long after the scheduled week.

98elenchus
Dez 17, 2018, 9:52 am

>96 WeeTurtle:
>97 AndreasJ:

I'd agree casual is welcome and even encouraged -- and like AndreasJ, I've often wondered how / why some voters only made selections for some nominees. But it's only wondered, never an urge to admonish: I'm OCD in this way, I get an itch if I find out I left off a vote!

99frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:44 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

100WeeTurtle
Dez 18, 2018, 4:40 am

>99 frahealee:

Yeah, it's sort of the same for me. I clicked "yes" on the ones I've decided to read, and left the others alone since I had no plans to read them, whether I liked them or not, so my 'no' vote really wouldn't mean anything to me but would affect other readers.

101elenchus
Editado: Jan 2, 2019, 2:32 pm

I think I mentioned this once but was reminded in a recent "Best of 2018" list of Dale Nelson's Lady Stanhope's Manuscript and Other Stories.

Anyone read any Dale Nelson stories? Not widely available at all, but his stories are given high praise so I'm curious.

102housefulofpaper
Editado: Jan 2, 2019, 4:21 pm

>101 elenchus:

I'll check my Tartarus Press books and copies of Ghosts and Scholars.

- nope, didn't find anything. He might be included in the themes anthologies that Ghosts and Scholars Rosemary Pardoe has edited for Sarob Press. And/or the later volumes of Tartarus Press' anthology series - all in the TBR pile, unfortunately.

103semdetenebre
Jan 3, 2019, 9:05 am

After some intriguing points were made about Molly Tanzer's "Mysterium Tremendum", I'm placing the following story here as a possible Spring 2019 nomination.

https://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2012-2/issue-20-december-2012/herbert-...

104elenchus
Editado: Mar 7, 2019, 4:10 pm

Came across reference to Chris Priestley's trilogy of horror tales, evidently linked by a framing story but capable of standing alone.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror
Tales of Terror from the Black Ship
Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth

ETA Judging from the online samples at his author site, they are addressed to children and quite well written. Priestley likes to reference or pastiche famous stories and authors, including MR James. I shall look into getting the first to read to my children, but for now won't nominate a story.

105Zambaco
Jan 7, 2019, 12:26 pm

Has the group ever read and discussed Oliver Onions' 'The beckoning fair one'? If not, I'll nominate it in the next planning thread. An excellent ghost story and easily available online.

107semdetenebre
Editado: Jan 8, 2019, 1:46 pm

>105 Zambaco:, >106 paradoxosalpha:

And luckily DEEP ONES discussions never close! ;-)

108Zambaco
Jan 8, 2019, 12:45 pm

A great discussion there, with participants really picking up on the madness/haunting ambiguity that was what impressed me about the story. Can't really add much more to the discussion. But for anyone who hasn't already read it, I would recommend it highly. Available online via project Gutenberg (look for the volume Widdershins, in which it first appeared).

109RandyStafford
Jan 16, 2019, 5:07 pm

A couple from Dan Simmons: "Lovedeath" (a poet's visions in the trenches of WWI with several bits of WWI poetry worked in) and "The River Styx Runs Upstream", Simmons first publication.

110semdetenebre
Fev 14, 2019, 2:28 pm

Well, we've pretty successfully covered 3 of HPL's four short novels. How about The Case of Charles Dexter Ward? After our recent visit to the Dream Lands, this one would bring us back down to Providence in all it's gothic, witchy glory. With a bit of Yog-Sothery, too.

111AndreasJ
Fev 15, 2019, 12:38 am

I was intending to nominate TCoCDW next time, with a note that it's HPL's longest work of fiction, roughly a quarter longer than At the Mountains of Madness or The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

112elenchus
Fev 26, 2019, 8:11 pm

The compilation The Lucifer Society might have a few stories suitable for nomination: familiar names but unfamiliar stories.

113semdetenebre
Editado: Fev 28, 2019, 12:10 pm

>112 elenchus:

I don't have a copy, but I've known that cover for decades, thanks to Captain Company ads in the back of early 70's issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.



ToC w/ story descriptions:

http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/5188/haining-detours-macabre-lucifer-soc...

114semdetenebre
Editado: Fev 28, 2019, 12:47 pm

I was recently blown away by Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez. Dark fiction, indeed. It had me digging out copies of Cortazar and Borges in hope of getting another taste of that particular Argentinian vibe. Ms. Enriquez has referred to HPL and weird fiction in at least one interview I've read, but she's on another level altogether. One of the stories from her collection is available online:

https://granta.com/intoxicated-years/

115WeeTurtle
Mar 2, 2019, 7:31 am

I put in a couple votes for the stories I felt I would read, but given that I didn't get to all of the ones I intended too the last couple months, I still don't really feel right voting "no" on anything. Access matters a good part.

116paradoxosalpha
Mar 2, 2019, 6:36 pm

Nominations tend to keep trickling in until sometime during the final week of voting.

117Crypto-Willobie
Mar 12, 2019, 1:13 pm

Latest issue of the free online horror mag 'HelloHorror':
http://hellohorror.com/TableofContents26.htm

118frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:45 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

119elenchus
Mar 13, 2019, 11:25 am

>118 frahealee:

It appears we've read several Bierce stories, and each should have the standard thread.

An Inhabitant of Carcosa
The Damned Thing
The Suitable Surroundings
Staley Fleming's Hallucination
Beyond the Wall
Haïta the Shepherd

But always open to another nomination!

120frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:45 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

121elenchus
Editado: Jun 15, 2019, 5:59 pm

Potential candidates by Edith Wharton, including "Kerfol," "Mr. Jones," "Pomegranate Seed," and "Miss Mary Pask" -- each available in The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and potentially online.

NOMINATED "Kerfol" Summer 2019

122semdetenebre
Abr 17, 2019, 11:19 am

Related to our current reading of "The Night Wire" by H.F. Arnold, it seems that Stephen Graham Jones wrote a related tale called "Xebico", which can be found online here:

http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/10/xebico/

123elenchus
Maio 17, 2019, 4:27 pm

French proto-Weird author(s) Rosny and two novellas: unclear on the availability of English translations, but appear to be great examples of Cosmic Weird.

From Scott Nicolay's blog post (as pointed out by RandyStafford):
No one can say for sure where The Weird begins in literature, in any tongue, but for all its obvious elements of what would later become science fiction, “Les Xipéhuz” is definitely a powerful and important early example of cosmic horror and The Weird. Before Kubin. Before Machen. Before Dunsany, Blackwood, Chambers, James, or Shiel. Well before Lovecraft and Hodgson. Nor is this the only tale in Rosny’s oeuvre to include a healthy dose of cosmic horror. Equally notable is his 1910 novella “La Mort de la Terre” (“The Death of the Earth”), with which “Les Xipéhuz” is often paired in translation. Both stories depict humanity struggling against an inorganic race for dominion of the Earth.


124RandyStafford
Maio 18, 2019, 1:56 pm

>123 elenchus: I have not read "Les Xipehuz", but I have read Rosny's "Tornadres" which is kind of a precursor to Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space". You can find it in Brian Stableford's Scientific Romance.

125elenchus
Editado: Jun 15, 2019, 5:58 pm

Kit Reed's 1962 story, "The New You", available from LOA in both the collection The Future is Female! and online as a Story of the Week.

A doppelgaenger tale, in the style of Serling's Twlight Zone or perhaps Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

LOA editors wrote about her novel, seemingly related in theme if not strictly the same material:
Fifteen years ago Kit Reed published her twenty-second novel, the darkly satirical Thinner than Thou, which imagined a near future when a new religion has formed around weight loss and body consciousness. The advance notices, most of them filled with praise, prepared readers for a disturbing read. “Unsettling, sometimes appalling: satire edging remorselessly toward reality,” concluded the notice in Kirkus Reviews. The starred review in Booklist agreed that “Reed’s visionary tale is brilliant, though at times painful to read.”


http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2019/05/the-new-you.html

NOMINATED Summer 2019

127AndreasJ
Editado: Jun 22, 2019, 3:11 pm

Looking up Mariana Enriquez, the author of next week's story, I noticed that another of her short stories, "Spiderweb", is available at The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/spiderweb

128semdetenebre
Out 2, 2019, 9:40 am

129paradoxosalpha
Editado: Out 4, 2019, 12:32 pm

"The King in the Golden Mask" by Marcel Schwob appears to be a significant jauniste forerunner!
https://www.sfsite.com/05b/rm128.htm

130elenchus
Out 4, 2019, 1:23 pm

Wow.

Schwob seems to be quite a find, and with many of his stories evidently under 4 pages, well worth giving a try --assuming we can find one.

131paradoxosalpha
Out 4, 2019, 2:19 pm

I just wishlisted the Wakefield Press paperback of The King in the Golden Mask and Other Stories. It's an affordable paperback available on Amazon.

132semdetenebre
Out 9, 2019, 10:28 pm

Referred to in "No. 252 Rue M. le Prince" by Ralph Adams Cram:

"The Haunted and the Haunters: Or the House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

https://www.bartleby.com/166/6.html

133elenchus
Editado: Dez 10, 2019, 2:40 pm

Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human a timely counter to the current rage for Marvel / DC-style superheroes, reminding us that there's a seriously Weird side to such characters. No costumes, no cities held ransom, no diabolical laughter or plans to take over the world. It helps that the writing is beautiful and efficient.

The novel is divided into three sections, the middle of which was first published in Galaxy Magazine as a novella: "Baby Is Three".

The novella is widely anthologised, and available online free at the Internet Archive here.

NOMINATED Winter 2019-2020

134semdetenebre
Dez 4, 2019, 9:55 am

We recently read Stephen King's Lovecraftian pastiche, "Jerusalem's Lot", so it only makes sense that we also consider his homage to Machen's "The Great God Pan" in the short story "N".

135AndreasJ
Dez 5, 2019, 12:34 am

So, re-reading your post, that's a King story homaging one Machen story, while sharing its title with another?

136semdetenebre
Dez 5, 2019, 9:14 am

>135 AndreasJ:

That's correct. Same title, but King has said that his "N" is an homage to "The Great God Pan", which he calls one of the greatest horror stories ever written.

137housefulofpaper
Dez 9, 2019, 12:33 pm

>136 semdetenebre:
Just to keep thing's confusing, judging from its Wikipedia synopsis, King's short story "Crouch End" seems to be referencing Machen's "N" (a London district is a gateway to other realities) whilst also being a Mythos story.

138semdetenebre
Editado: Dez 10, 2019, 9:44 am

>137 housefulofpaper:

Forgot about "Crouch End"! Another one for this thread!

139elenchus
Dez 16, 2019, 10:09 am

Note for myself to look into Sean O'Brien's short stories about a sinister library?

The Silence Room

140elenchus
Fev 4, 2020, 12:21 pm

Yvor Winters best known as poet and critic, but he wrote a short story which may feature the supernatural: "The Brink of Darkness".

Here a review which helpfully characterises the story, perhaps most useful for exploring Winters' poetry:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1968/02/29/the-black-ox/

141frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:45 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

142AndreasJ
Fev 15, 2020, 3:58 am

I'm not sure if I understand the question, but I did read "The Tree on the Hill" years ago. It's been collected a bunch of times; I own it in The Horror in the Museum. Unlike some of Lovecraft's collaborations, it's legally available online.

143frahealee
Editado: Jun 21, 2022, 3:45 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

144elenchus
Editado: Jun 7, 2020, 11:37 am

After April 2020 reading of Stefan Grabiński's "The White Wyrak", look for other of his short stories.

One collection (The Motion Demon) features railways and trains. Sample story available online here:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wandering-train-stefan-grabinski/

Also has novels but not suitable for DEEP ONES schedule.

ETA NOMINATED Summer 2020

145semdetenebre
Abr 29, 2020, 5:02 pm

>144 elenchus:

In last weekend's Centipede Press update, a Grabinski Master of the Weird Tale volume was mentioned as upcoming for 2020 (very approx.).

146elenchus
Abr 30, 2020, 10:56 am

I wondered if that was still on, but hadn't taken time to visit Centipede specifically. I'm going to read a few more Grabiński stories before plunking for something like that, but it could be my first CP purchase.

147elenchus
Editado: Jun 7, 2020, 11:13 am

Look into Robertson Davies High Spirits, his collection of "comic, mock M.R. James Christmas ghost stories" (as per description of another LTer), as well as similar stories he wrote not included in that book. These may indeed be comedy and not relevant to a DEEP ONES reading.

ETA These are droll ghost stories, well done but not particularly Weird. One story refers to Crowley's recipe for raising the dead (respectfully).

148SolerSystem
Maio 5, 2020, 6:29 am

>146 elenchus: Re. the CP Grabiński volume- some artwork by Piotr Jabłoński is available on Behance, and it's fantastic: https://www.behance.net/gallery/35017445/Stefan-Grabinski-Masters-of-the-Weird-T...

149semdetenebre
Maio 5, 2020, 7:42 am

>148 SolerSystem:

Jabłoński is great. I really like the work he's been doing for Centipede Press. I especially like the cover for Ramsey Campbell's The Parasite.



150elenchus
Maio 5, 2020, 2:38 pm

>148 SolerSystem:
>149 semdetenebre:

I like Jabłoński's style, as well. There's an aspect that reminds me of the corpulent realism ("New Objectivity") of George Grosz, Otto Dix, Max Beckman. Always been partial to that joining of style and message.

151elenchus
Editado: Jun 7, 2020, 10:46 am

L.P. Hartley, The Travelling Grave and Other Stories allegedly contains some classics.

(DEEP ONES list seems to indicate we haven't read any Hartley yet.)

ETA Online texts available but with NSFW ads and images
https://archive.bookfrom.net/l-p-hartley/52530-the_travelling_grave_and_other_st...

152semdetenebre
Maio 28, 2020, 7:24 pm

For next time, "The Beautiful Gelreesh" by Jeffrey Ford.

>151 elenchus:

I've got to update the list and will do so in the near future.

153elenchus
Maio 29, 2020, 2:15 pm

>152 semdetenebre:

I saw it wasn't quite current but only missing the current session, in which there's no Hartley as I recall. So not a big issue, and another reminder that the list is a great resource. Thanks again for creating and maintaining it.

154semdetenebre
Jun 11, 2020, 1:10 pm

>152 semdetenebre:, >153 elenchus:

List has been updated.

155elenchus
Editado: Jun 12, 2020, 10:43 am

Look into Paul Tremblay's Growing Things and Other Stories, apparently self-described as "ambiguous horror". Other short story collections, Bandersnatch and Compositions for the Young and Old.

New author website promised "soon" but for now:
https://thelittlesleep.wordpress.com/

156AndreasJ
Jul 20, 2020, 1:44 pm

I chanced upon a mention of Conan Doyle's The Horror of the Heights, which I read years ago and might make a good Deep Ones read.

157elenchus
Editado: Mar 3, 2021, 10:50 am

Reminder of this post in Small Press thread.

ETA Nominated Cholmondley "Let Loose" for Spring 2021

158NicholasMarsh
Jul 26, 2020, 11:01 am

Este utilizador foi removido como sendo spam.

159MaxHolt
Jul 26, 2020, 11:07 am

Este utilizador foi removido como sendo spam.

160housefulofpaper
Ago 5, 2020, 5:32 pm

We haven't done The Signal-man by Charles Dickens.

161AndreasJ
Ago 15, 2020, 4:12 pm

Joseph Pulver having died earlier this year *, I thought maybe we should read one of his stories again next season. One I find available online is "Stone Cold Fever":

https://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2014-2/issue-31-june-2014/stone-cold-f...

* Of COPD or epilepsy, depending on which website I trust. They do strike me as diseases that should be hard to confuse.

162AndreasJ
Set 4, 2020, 2:53 am

Another Schweitzer story free online that I thought better to save to a future season since I just nominated another for autumn.

The Dead Kid

163elenchus
Editado: Mar 3, 2021, 10:45 am

Look into Stephen Crane's "The Black Dog", which is described by LOA:

... the difference in this case is that “The Black Dog” is a parody of ghost stories, and more specifically (in the view of some readers) a spoof of Ambrose Bierce’s tales of horror.

Parody may or may not be suitable.

PDF link: https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Crane_Black_Dog.pdf

LOA introduction included some background but the permalink not available until the next "Story of the Week" takes over the front page.

ETA Nominated Spring 2021

164paradoxosalpha
Out 27, 2020, 12:03 pm

Sounds good to me. I wonder if the "Black Dog" card in the old Call of Cthulhu Card Game was an explicit shout out to this story.

165elenchus
Out 27, 2020, 1:48 pm

I haven't read the story yet but if it was the inspiration for that Call of Cthulhu card, I feel better about nominating.

166elenchus
Editado: Jun 9, 2021, 2:24 pm

Look into T. Kingfisher, based on LT reviews of a novel of hers inspired by Blackwood's The Willows.

Does Kingfisher / Vernon have a cosmic horror short story?

ETA Nominated for Summer 2021

167WeeTurtle
Editado: Dez 11, 2020, 1:12 am

I'd be interested in reading parody, since it can still be a good story, or a good horror story. I've bumped into a couple stories that ended or went in an amusing direction that was more like a punch line than horror. Still fun though.

When I think of "black dog" I tend to learn towards "The Hound" as far as Lovecraft, since I don't know or recall other black dogs in his works, unless you want to imagine little Brown Jenkin as a manner of terrier I guess.

Do ghost stories count as weird?
Just crossed my mind but I was surprised to encounter "The House Party at Smoky Island" by Lucy Maud Montgomery for those who are Anne of Green Gables people. She wrote a horror story. Who knew?

Here's the old magazine in pdf.
https://www.lmmontgomery.ca/islandora/object/lmmi%3A10731#page/1/mode/1up

168paradoxosalpha
Dez 11, 2020, 10:05 am

We've definitely treated ghost stories among the Deep Ones, and HPL certainly included them in his "Supernatural Horror in Literature" canon. So, regardless of how subjectively "weird" anyone might find them, they are part of the "Tradition" for this group.

169semdetenebre
Mar 25, 2021, 10:49 am

In a recent Facebook post about author Maurice Renard's novel Doctor Lerne, Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog noted "Just finished reading this, the debut novel of the future author of THE HANDS OF ORLAC and several other books remarkably prophetic of future fantasy classics. This one, published in 1908, is a seminal work of body horror inspired by H.G. Wells’ THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU but which ventures far beyond it, even to the point of transposing human consciousness with plant life and machine. This book is the ancestor of films like FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, BRAINSTORM, even THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE. The prose in this uncredited translation is poetic, surreal and magnificent, and the final chapter will leave you looking at your world and even yourself with new suspicions."

I see that Renard also published several volumes of short stories, so just putting this here as a reminder to search for a possible future DEEP ONES nomination.

170paradoxosalpha
Mar 25, 2021, 1:17 pm

I had a recent chat with my Other Reader regarding body swap stories, among which I supposed "The Thing on the Doorstep" and "The Shadow Out of Time" to be seminal. It turns out that horror instances are probably outnumbered by moralizing comedies of the Freaky Friday type, extending all the way back to Vice Versa (1882). I'd certainly be interested in other early examples in the weird horror vein.

171elenchus
Mar 25, 2021, 2:35 pm

>169 semdetenebre:
>170 paradoxosalpha:

Yes, I'd certainly be interested in weird horror slant examples of body swap. I would not have guessed that comedies would be more common, but now that it's been stated it somehow doesn't seem surprising.

172elenchus
Editado: Jun 9, 2021, 2:25 pm

After enjoying Tanith Lee's "Yellow And Red" for Spring 2021, look into other of her Weird short stories.

ETA AndreasJ nominated "The Gorgon" for Summer 2021

173AndreasJ
Editado: Mar 25, 2021, 4:12 pm

>172 elenchus:

This should be a good start:
https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/Tanith_Lee.html

(Note that "sf" here's supposed to mean "speculative fiction", not "science fiction" specifically.)

174paradoxosalpha
Editado: Mar 25, 2021, 4:16 pm

"The Gorgon" looks like a great pick, published in Shadows #5, WFA winner.
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/the-gorgon/

175elenchus
Editado: Mar 25, 2021, 9:33 pm

>173 AndreasJ:
>174 paradoxosalpha:

Very promising, both!
And for whatever reason, I don't recall seeing that freesfonline.net resource, looks good for more than Lee.

176elenchus
Abr 14, 2021, 8:08 pm

Saving here a potential nomination from cd96 (from "The Snow Pavilion" thread)

Russell Kirk's There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding

177elenchus
Abr 14, 2021, 8:11 pm

Reminder to look in Edgar Lucas White's omnibus The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction.

178elenchus
Editado: Mar 17, 2022, 3:37 pm

Another reminder to look for a Marjorie Bowen story, following the read of "Kecksies".

NOTES
"The Bishop of Hell" melodramatic and supernatural, but not Weird

179elenchus
Maio 7, 2021, 11:14 am

Anna Kavan's "The Gannets"

From a Guardian article on books about birds:

3. I Am Lazarus by Anna Kavan (1945)
While only one story in Kavan’s second collection is explicitly about birds, they feature in several others. There are cormorants “like small scarecrows” and “a cloud in the shape of a swan”. In The Picture, the scarlet legs and beaks of gulls are unsettling, while the narrator of A Certain Experience is threatened by a “great bird which always hovers above”. I would pick this collection for The Gannets alone, which distils the randomness and cruelty of Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery into two pages of nightmarish horror.

180housefulofpaper
Maio 8, 2021, 8:14 pm

>179 elenchus:
I remember from my teenaged reading diet of nothing but science fiction, that Brian Aldiss takes particular pains to recommend Anna Kavan's novel Ice more than once. The plot summary makes it sound inarguably weird (but too long for a Deep Ones nomination, of course).

181housefulofpaper
Maio 8, 2021, 8:18 pm

Jean Ray's weird short fiction is being freshly translated and published by Wakefield Press.

182elenchus
Maio 18, 2021, 12:21 pm

Look into L. T. C. Rolt, perhaps especially the collection Sleep No More, as suggested by this review.

First review whether featured in prior session, the canal story sounds familiar.

183paradoxosalpha
Maio 24, 2021, 12:52 pm

>182 elenchus:

I finished my pass at Ford's Big Dark Hole and posted my review. I think "The Winter Wraith" might be a good candidate for the Deep Ones. It was also collected in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten after its original periodical issuance.

184elenchus
Maio 24, 2021, 10:15 pm

>183 paradoxosalpha:

I also finished Big Dark Hole, and fingered that story + "Hibbler's Minions" as potential nominees. Overall I found it a good if not powerful collection of stories, and at the end decided I like his Weird worldview more than I'm drawn to any one story. (Finding the thread of Weird among the different stories was rewarding in a way no story was in itself.)

It'll be awhile before my review is up, since I insist upon writing them in the order I finished the book, and remain woefully behind in my writing. It does mean I can read yours (and others) without fear of spoiler-ing, though.

185paradoxosalpha
Maio 24, 2021, 10:17 pm

"Hibbler's Minions" was pretty good. My favorites in the collection were "Inn of the Dreaming Dog" and "Five-Pointed Spell," but I don't think those would be as suitable for the Deep Ones.

186elenchus
Jul 6, 2021, 3:48 pm

Following up on a thread in another group, highlighting "sylvan dread" stories. Stories listed from a new anthology, Wildwood: Tales of Terror & Transformation from the Forest.

Arthur Machen "The White People"
John Buchan "The Groves of Ashtaroth"
E.M. Forster "The Story of a Panic" & "The Curate's Friend"
Saki "Music on the Hill"
E.F. Benson "The Man Who Went Too Far"
T.E.D. Klein "The Events at Poroth Farm"
R.H. Benson "The Watcher"
Bessie Kyffin-Taylor "The Wind in the Woods"
H.B. Marriott Watson "The Brazen Cross"
Ralph Adams Cram "The Dead Valley"
Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Hollow of the Three Hills"
H. F. W. Tatham "The House in the Wood"
Algernon Blackwood "The Touch of Pan"
Frederick Marryat "The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains"
M.R. James "A View from a Hill"
Theo Douglas "The Next Heir"

187paradoxosalpha
Ago 6, 2021, 12:28 pm

"Where the Summer Ends" by Karl Edward Wagner in Dark Forces.

188AndreasJ
Ago 6, 2021, 1:51 pm

>187 paradoxosalpha:

I think I’ve got access to that one actually. Another Wagner sounds nice.

189AndreasJ
Editado: Dez 30, 2023, 5:57 am

Perhaps remarkably, there's still a number of Lovecraft stories we haven't done yet, including:

The Horror at Red Hook
The Other Gods
The Doom that Came to Sarnath
The Quest of Iranon
Herbert West - Reanimator
The Tree
The Statement of Randolph Carter

I'm not going to nominate any of them now - after a slow start we're up to seventeen nominations now, and it's good for variety to have a season now and then without a HPL entry - but I'm noting them here as an aid to memory for future planning threads.

Edit: We’ve done all these now.

190elenchus
Set 16, 2021, 9:47 am

>189 AndreasJ:

Good idea, I've read three of those (Red Hook, Sarnath, Herbert West) and am uncertain about the other three. It will be good to revisit even those I've read, given the context and additional reading I've done with this group.

191RandyStafford
Out 4, 2021, 12:02 am

There was an article in the recent issue of Fortean Times about the supernatural elements in the writing of Isaac Bashevis Singer. His story "The Enemy" was specifically mentioned and found in Dark Forces.

192paradoxosalpha
Editado: Out 4, 2021, 10:26 am

Man, I sure haven't read Fortean Times in an age!

193RandyStafford
Dez 22, 2021, 10:30 pm

More Edith Whatron and Stefan Grabinski titles.

194paradoxosalpha
Editado: Dez 22, 2021, 10:42 pm

I just got a copy of a funny 1998 anthology called Don't Open This Book! that looks like it has some choice pieces in it, under the classification of "weird fantasy, taboo science, and souls in torment." I suspect none of these were written for this GuildAmerica Books volume, so they should have some wider availability.

TOC on ISFDB

195semdetenebre
Dez 23, 2021, 2:31 pm

>194 paradoxosalpha:

I have a copy! Great anthology. You could usually count on Marvin Kaye for a winner.

196elenchus
Mar 1, 2022, 11:46 am

Look into Joan Aiken's collection The People In The Castle for potential nominees.

197housefulofpaper
Abr 19, 2022, 6:41 pm

Ambrose Bierce, "The Death of Halpin Frayser". Have we skipped over this one because no one really knows for certain what happens in it? (We can lean on M.Grant Kellermeyer's essay on his Oldstyle Tales Press website now!)

Algernon Blackwood, "A Victim of Higher Space". Lacking a dedictated John Silence collection, I didn't have this story until today (in Dangerous Dimensions).

Colin Wilson, "The Return of the Lloigor". Hailed as the best non-Lovecraft Mythos tale by YouTuber "The Outlaw Bookseller" (Stephen E. Andrews), who appreciates the tale's South Wales setting (and echoes of Arthur Machen), and also says the double L in "lloigor" should be pronounced as in e.g. "Llanelli" (the town's Wikipedia entry includes the phonetic spelling and an audio clip). Collected in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1969, and the 1990? edition reprinted by Del Rey)

198housefulofpaper
Abr 19, 2022, 6:50 pm

>5 Zambaco:

It turns out "Three Miles Up" has been much anthologised:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?94248

199housefulofpaper
Abr 26, 2022, 6:30 pm

"The Tower of Moab" by L. A. Lewis. A good reading on YouTube.

200papijoe
Set 9, 2022, 6:49 am

>197 housefulofpaper: Any interest in re-nominating Return of the Lloigor for the current planning thread?

Happy to do the needful, but just looking for consensus.

201papijoe
Set 9, 2022, 6:49 am

>199 housefulofpaper: How about this one for nomination as well?

202housefulofpaper
Set 11, 2022, 3:26 pm

>201 papijoe:

Thanks for the prompt. I've added both stories to the nominations.

203elenchus
Editado: Out 8, 2022, 10:40 pm

Eleanor Scott's Randalls Round reportedly a Jamesian collection of supernatural tales.

DEEP ONES read "The Twelve Apostles" in the Autumn 2020 cycle, but not any others.

204housefulofpaper
Nov 26, 2022, 7:15 pm

The was a Lovecraftian (as opposed to the more usual Jamesian) story in the latest Ghosts & Scholars, "Notes Towards A History of Frastonare" by Steve Duffy. I enjoyed it, but I have no idea if the story is or will be available anywhere else. A situation which would make nomination sort of pointless...

205semdetenebre
Dez 29, 2022, 10:19 am


Received this excellent collection for Xmas. Contains plenty of future story nominations, to be sure. I'm familiar with only 5 of the 23 stories, although I've read others by most of the authors. Sheridan Le Fanu kicks things of quite nicely with "Laura Silver Bell".

>203 elenchus: "Randalls Round" is one of the tales selected for this volume.

206paradoxosalpha
Dez 29, 2022, 7:33 pm

James Wade wrote a post-Innsmouth story called "The Deep Ones" in 1969, and I think it's been reprinted widely enough that we could consider it.

207RandyStafford
Ago 22, 2023, 10:35 pm

"In the Pines", Karl Edward Wagner -- from a list of favorite weird fiction by Mark Samuels.

208RandyStafford
Ago 22, 2023, 10:36 pm

"Men Without Bones", Gerald Kersh -- from a list of favorite weird fiction by Mark Samuels.

209RandyStafford
Ago 22, 2023, 10:37 pm

"The Electric King", Lord Dunsany and one of his Jorkens stories -- from a list of favorite weird fiction by Mark Samuels.

210RandyStafford
Editado: Ago 22, 2023, 10:39 pm

"The Crawling Horror", Thorp McClusky -- from a list of favorite weird fiction by Mark Samuels.

211RandyStafford
Editado: Set 5, 2023, 9:35 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

212RandyStafford
Editado: Set 7, 2023, 8:39 pm

Esta mensagem foi removida pelo seu autor.

213AndreasJ
Set 19, 2023, 7:50 am

>204 housefulofpaper:

There's a Youtube audio version of the thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_x6_g4INb4

Doesn't seem available in text anywhere else but in the original fanzine, though.

214AndreasJ
Dez 29, 2023, 9:22 am

Another Enríquez ghost story that's free online in English:

https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-little-angels-exhumation/