Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I've created a thread on the topic, Joel, as I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

So you mean it wasn't you on the cover of Glyphotech?

Joking apart I'm looking forward to reading some of your stories Mark.

Hmm you think highly of him then. Thank you for the recommendations. I do remember seeing several paperback collections of his stories on Amazon published by Faber and Faber so they might be worth me having a glance at.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Jerry Springer: "And next up we have 'Julian' from UK, England, which is in Europe. Julian, is there anything you'd like to share with us today?"

JK: "I see dead people."

JS: "That's not what it says on my card."

JK: "28 days 6 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. That is when the world will end."

JS: "Hey, what's with the rabbit suit? Security! SECURITY!"

JK: "No, it's OK, I suddenly remembered what it is I have to share with you, Jerry. I....I...there are....certain Robert Aickman stories that I loathe and despise."

[Shocked intakes of breath from audience. JK takes off rabbit head.]

JS: "Did you just say what I think you said?"

[Angry catcalls and hisses from audience. Someone throws a cushion at JK.]

JS: "You DID just say what I think you said!"

JK: "The stories about pseudo-intellectuals going on holiday to remote Greek islands and then gliding about from room to room having pretentious conversations with unattainable and enigmatic lesbian women."

Angry Man In Audience: "You leave our pseudo-intellectual lezzers alone, you filistine!"

JK: "I think Aickman is trying to be clever in some of his stories. He takes classical, mythological and operatic themes and tries to fuse them with the weird tale. It's too ambitious and it fails to deliver. Elsewhere he plants his stories firmly in the here and now - placing thoroughly plausible characters into contemporary locations such as foggy Northamptonshire villages, surburban Birmingham, etc - and then uses both personal nightmare and Pinteresque innuendo to create a sinister, surreal alternate world out of the one we all know and experience on a daily basis. Sure, there are nods stroke homages to other genre authors - 'The Inner Room' is M.R. James' 'The Haunted Dolls House' for grown-ups, 'The Unsettled Dust' owes a significant debt to L P Hartley, 'Into The Wood' features a very Machenesque denouement - but Aickman subverts and juxtaposes his influences with such dextrous ease that it is impossible to accuse him of plagiarism. He injects such a powerful sense of his own unique identity into his work that even if he borrows a basic central premise (for example, a haunted dolls house), that it qualifies as anything but derivative. For these reasons, I wish that he had limited his forays into experimentalism to tales inspired by experience, whether that be real life (waterways, politics etc) or dream-inspired. His seemingly premeditated attempts to experiment even further - theming his collections (one collection strikes me as containing each of the seven deadly sins), or referencing operas and classical myths (for example, Sweeney Todd) - suffer from being stretched in too many directions."

[Long awkward pause. Solitary cough from someone in the audience.]

JS: Put the rabbit head back on again, 'Julian'. Next up we have Brad. Brad had an affair with his sister's father's twice-removed cousin who just happens to be--"

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I'm now going crazy trying to find my one collection by Aickman. I've had to cram a bunch of books into a huge seven foot cabinet that my aunt got me, in which I have three rows of books on each deep shelf. Makes finding books a bloody chore. I think it would be much easier if I merely went to Amazon and ordered a couple of his collections, and then placed them on my newly organized horror bookcase. Your descriptions of his tales make his work sound deliciously captivating, Julian.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Ok, I couldn't resist. Assuming that the collection in question is "Tales of Love and Death", (i.e. the one with seven stories in it), and bearing in mind I don't have a copy at hand to check with, I'm going to go for:

"Growing Boys" - Gluttony
"Marriage" - Lust
"Le Mirroir" - Vanity
"Compulsory Games" - Envy
"Raising the Wind" - Sloth
"Residents Only" - Anger
"Wood" - Greed

I can't remember too much about "Residents Only", so I had to do that one by process of elimination...

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Out of the three Faber & Faber collections is there anyone you'd particularly recommend to start off with?

The Wine-dark Sea
The Unsettled Dusk
Cold Hand in Mine

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

It's been some years since I last read Aickman (4-5 years exactly :(), but
I would definitely go for Cold Hand in Mine. Then, judged from what I remember, I would go for The Unsettled Dust and then The Wine-Dark Sea.

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

The Wine-Dark Sea and The Unsettled Dust are each half of a 'selected stories' edited by Peter Straub. While their existence is as good thing in itself, it's regrettable that these are becoming known as Aickman collections when they lack the internal coherence of the original collections, each of which had its own distinct feel (though some are definitely better than others). Cold Hand in Mine is an original collection and a very, very good one. Others I particularly love are Sub Rosa and Intrusions.

Can I suggest we continue all Aickman-related discussion on the 'Aickman and Ligotti' thread? :)

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

Well done that man!

A couple of years ago it occured to me that RA may indeed have deliberately set out to compose the stories from this collection so that each one had a deadly sin as its theme. I'll have to refer to the pencil notes I made at the time but your choices appear to concur with many of my own (though some tales could qualify for more than one sin).

JK

Re: Ex Occidente Press
 

I empathise, Wilum. I have two extremely destructive twin boys who delight in tearing books apart or scribbling over the pages, so I have to keep most of my books secure in a study with a lock, as well as having locks on bookcases round the house, and one on the bedroom door. This means I can't keep anything alphabetically.

Having said that, there are a small number of writers whose works I keep in a book case right next to my bed, so that I can dip into them before sleep. They include: Robert Aickman (all of his works); Walter de la Mare (ditto; in fact, I have four different editions of 'On The Edge'); A.J. Alan; E.F. Benson (all of his collections); Thomas Ligotti (two collections: 'Grimscribe' and 'Noctuary'); Reggie Oliver (all of his books); Phyllis Paul (several novels); an anthology illustrated by Gorey; several Equation Chillers; a small number of reference books; two copies of Stoker's 'Dracula' (the 1904 Constable edition in art nouveau boards and the recent Folio Society edition); and several non horror titles by Peter Ackroyd, Evelyn Waugh and William Golding.

If I won the Euro Millions lottery- modest £50m would be welcome - I would employ a team of skilled carpenters to travel around the world fitting custom-made, wall-to-wall bookcases for every member of the TLO, along with a butler cum librarian for each of you, so that you could all summon books on request, safe in the knowledge that everything was archived carefully.

It's the least we readers of discernment deserve!