Doctor Dugald Eldritch

Thanks, yet again, for the birthday wishes. The oft-maligned 'Dougie' scenes from Twin Peaks S3 are going to be ones I treasure for years.

I was only thinking the other day that you hadn't posted much recently. Glad to see you're still kicking around.

Now I'm off to pass out in an alcoholic stupor.

Thank you for the friend request.

Thank you, as ever, for your courtesy and warmth. I'm not ashamed to say your knowledge of the weird far outstrips my own.

I hadn't seen that footage of Aickman before. Another delightful piece to that puzzle of a man.

Okay, looks like that's sorted. Thanks.

Hello, Hell-Ghost.

Thank you for the greeting. I hope you're well. I rarely check in here, so have only just seen the spam message. I can't, however, see a delete button! But I can report it, I suppose. Perhaps I should run it through Google Translate first, though -- it might be an important communication from Thailand.

Thank you for the wishes/gift. The secrets behind this island of mine bring me hope during these troubling times. There has to be more to this place than mouldering chip shops and ill-lit supermarkets, as much as these places fascinate me and pervade my stories. I love the ugliness of where I live and attempt to express this in my fiction. I think everything has been said when it comes to ruminations on the supernatural, so I can only aspire with my weird fiction to translate my individual life experience in to an Aickman/de la Mare-esque dream world with a sub level of Poe/Lovecraft dark romantic oblivion underlying it.

The rats episode of Beasts terrified me. I had a physical reaction to it and couldn't sleep afterwards. It is a crime that the colour version of Year of the Sex Olympics is lost, as it was so ahead of its time. The original Quatermass and the Pit serial is incomparably brilliant and for my reckoning far superior in pacing to the Hammer film, as enjoyable as it is.

It's taken from a scene in Georges Franju's Judex, an oneiric tribute to the serial films of the silent era which I actually prefer to the better known Eyes Without A Face.

Silent Hill 2 is an incredibly powerful tale. Its story contains the same feeling of haunting dark romantic beauty I find in Poe's Ligeia or Aickman's The Stains. Listening to that song brought back so many complex emotions I experienced through my avatar James Sutherland whilst wandering that fogged labyrinth of horrors.

I revisit the first three games often, particularly for their ambient soundtracks. The second game is the only one with a meaty story, but the feeling of oneric dread in each of them is most effective. The second instalment is a weird tale of the first rank and a solid argument for why video games can be art, not just shallow entertainment as most aspire to be.

Thanks for the encouragement. I am undertaking a 'best of Blackwood' reread to lift my spirits, starting with his Incredible Adventures tales.

...or read the interview that is, depending on whether you read it in issue #32 or watched in on YouTube...

Thank you, Hell-Ghost! I'm glad you got a chance to watch it, I've been a fan of Graham's since the 90s, so it was great to talk with him, and a pleasure to feature him in Dark Discoveries issue #32.

Smith's poetry is wonderful. The very best of his prose fiction (particularly the exceptional Zothique cycle) is equally as good, as it's essentially prose poetry anyway. I stand by my words to you a long while back that Smith isn't necessarily a master of the horror genre, but as a fantasy writer he is of the first rank.

I haven't been able to stop rereading him for months now. He has elevated my love of language considerably. Few prose writers are this much of a joy to read.

The voices of the dead, pleading banality - all.

Lovely to read this, Hell-Ghost. My apologies for the delay in replying. I'm not online very much of late. Pleasure to make your acquaintance here.

Hello, thank you for welcoming me. It reminds me of Pied Piper so I choose it.

Master Hell-Ghost:

Thank you ever so much for the birthday wishes, and for the thoughtful gift. I shall shamble to it often for a little toadish reading, and think of you. Mysteries were made to be known, even those of the Worms. I am in your debt.

Ever yours,

T.E.G.

Hell-Ghost, Thanks for the encouraging note! I'm back for the moment, vision not good and in a bad mood but I'm determined to go down with the ship if need be.Hopefully, TLO will survive this latest attack from meatheads.Best Always, Druidic

Thanks, friend, for the honor!Druidic

MorganScorpion has posted an audio reading of my sequel to "The Hound" here at TLO. It is quite superb, especially since in my story I have a woman narrator.

Hell-Ghost, I appreciate your response to what I felt were interesting and important observations by CAS (you can find the letter on the excellent Dark Eidolon website).Like Lovecraft, Ligotti and yourself I feel that too much contemporary horror fiction is diluted by attempts at “in-depth characterizations”or excessive attention to contemporary political issues that rarely have real relevance in such stories. I enjoy Laird Barron’s “Hunting Tales” and I love Blackwood’s best works as well as a handful of stories by de la Mare but really I fear writers like Ligotti and Mark Samuels are the rarest of the rare. Too much baggage which would be more at home in mainstream novels or thrillers just destroys any attempt at evoking a truly Cosmic viewpoint in horror fiction.I think you’ll find Home certainly isn’t guilty of that!Thanks again for such a thoughtful response.Best, Druidic