TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Thomas Ligotti Online welcomes THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK - View Profile: Julian Karswell@@AMEPARAM@@View Profile: Julian Karswell</title>@@AMEPARAM@@Julian Karswell as our newest member!

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Danke.

[Doffs his undertaker's hat and bows low before breaking out into a fit of coughs.]

Wo ist das Opium Höhle?

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Welcome, Chris. Perhaps you could take this opportunity to tell us something about your upcoming collection?

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Hi, Chris.
Is that Peter Brough and Archie Andrews on your avatar?
On 2nd thoughts, looks too good-looking for Peter Brough.
des

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Erm....not much to say about the new collection, Simon (but thanks for asking). I'm not that comfortable with self-promotion, I'd far rather be championning somebody else's cause. However.......in general terms I've aimed for range and variety, and in despising both gratuitous excess and slight pretentious fare in equal measure, I've tried to avoid both of these vanities. I distrust the 'atmosphere is everything' brigade as much as the 'mad butchers'. As for the style clones who write in the "X-ian tradition", well, that's just a waste of everyone's time. Personally I like stories with psychological trauma, vivid imagery and tangible horror so that's what I try to aim for.

Shoot me now - I'm talking myself up!

Des, the picture features Michael Redgrave from the vintage portmanteau horror film 'Dead Of Night'. Redgrave stars in the film's stand-out story as a ventriloquist driven insane by a sentient dummy. The closing scenes where he kicks the dummy to death and then wakes up in the hospital speaking like it are chilling (indeed, the latter may have inspired Hitchcock's closing scene in 'Psycho').

Reggie Oliver - who knows a thing or two about Redgrave (his wife is a friend of the family, or rather with Vanessa in particular) - told me that he (Michael Redgrave) was a very strange man. I think his performance in 'Dead Of Night' is a thing of genius, proving just what a superb actor he was.

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Sad about Michael Redgrave's grand-daughter (Natasha Richardson).

Re Reggie Oliver, just received his latest collection MADDER MYSTERIES.
It would be interesting to hear your take on this book in comparison with the 3 earlier books (that I also own and have read).

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Des:

I think it's a fantastically well-produced book in terms of 'build' and production quality. On the strength of seeing how well the book was made I immediately ordered a copy of the Jean Ray book and will also buy the Claude Seignolle title.

RO's book reminds me of Victorian miscellanies. There's something for everybody, and all of it quirky. Of the new fiction original to the book I've only read 'The Baskerville Midgets' so far and found it to be typically disquieting and menacing. I don't think anyone else can write about the hidden world of repertory theatre with anywhere approaching the same power as RO. No one else has the experience.

'The Game Of Bear' reads like a long-lost tale by M.R. James. Again, I don't think anyone else could or has ever attained the same high degree of Jamesian authenticity which RO has achieved with this story.

I still think RO's first two collections were his strongest and meatiest in terms of supernatural horror. (Well, I would, wouldn't I?) However, he has written some very impressive stories since then, and hopefully the forthcoming Millipede (or is it Centipede?) Press collection will put all this in perspective.

I'm not a fan of Ashtree Press books - I don't like the uniform house style and I don't like the small font or the type of paper they use - which is why I'd have to rate 'Madder Mysteries' over 'Masques Of Satan'. In fact I'd have loved 'The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini' to look as impressive as 'Madder Mysteries' but alas the production was beset with problems and external interference. Dan Ghetu has done a superb job.

Obviously RO has (and is) constantly being lobbied by everybody for new material - some for his name and some because they even like his work - and perhaps that's led to the appearance of these two not wholly supernatural collections. In hindsight he might have preferred to publish all of the weird tales in one book - and then the essays, divertissements and novella 'Shades From The Prison House' in another volume - but it's very tricky planning ahead in such a fashion.

My only fear with RO is that he will suffer from burn-out. Everyone wants a piece of him - whether it be advice, praise or contribution - and the collective drain upon him could be less than fair. Unfortunately because he's now so highly regarded the trophy-hunters eager to secure his support put their own prospects before his and I fear he's too polite and courteous to object.

JK

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Wasn't Karswell the name of the Crowley-like protagonist of M R James' "Casting the Runes"?

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

It was indeed, though I prefer the Karswell from the film than the James story. In particular I like the scene at his house where he's dressed as a clown. Very menacing.

Personally I think Crowley was more specifically referenced in H.R. Wakefield's "He Cometh And He Passeth By....." And I think Reggie Oliver makes a decent case for his being more likely based on Oscar Browning.

Incidentally, Tom Hanks refers to a book on witchcraft by a Julian Karswell in "The 'Burbs".

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

Dead of Night gets five barks on my register. Please see my older thread regarding the film:

Dead of Night (1945) - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK

Re: TLO Welcomes Julian Karswell
 

And Franz Kafka's "The Trial" gets mine. A superb novel.

Have you seen the TV play which starred Daniel Day Lewis as young Josef K? Terrific stuff, much better than the other version.

Thanks for the link to the "Dead Of Night" thread. I'm off to check it out.