Re: Robert Aickman
 

At the same time, monsters are a thing of fantasy, the fantastic, and of myth. If you can't appreciate a good monster (like a dragon, or a werewolf, or vampire), then you must lack something of imagination, and be rather mundane - and, I would say, have your thinking hampered by real fears.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I don't think genre labels are terribly important outside of conversation shorthand and marketing gimmickery, and I don't think people who like fiction with monsters are more imaginative than those who don't. My experiences with Lovecraft fanboys have proven that well enough.

Aickman is somebody I would describe as my favourite horror writer if asked, but he himself drew different distinctions than I do when it comes to genre, likely feeling put off by the indulgences of most horror writers. I'm not really arsed. Depends what mood I'm in.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Okay, but I don't necessarily agree. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say, and not in whatever rules were applied in making it. And there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they are also known to say.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

There be bad and good, as the pirates say.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I can't find anything about a cat named Jezebel, but the archive turns up another interesting entry labelled Unfinished Stories:

Some of these might be interesting. Most of them are over 10 pages, and some of Aickman's complete stories have an intriguing fragmentary quality anyway. The first time I read "Just a Song at Twilight" I had to check the ground to make sure a page with the final paragraph or coda hadn't slipped out, the ending felt so oddly abrupt.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

From 06-10-2007 by Nemonymous
Re: Robert Aickman
Who agrees with me that 'Residents Only' is possibly Aickman's masterpiece?

It is one of his longest stories. Which is sort of relevant. When I started reading it, the glanced-at length seemed about average for Aickman - but as I continued reading it, and looking, from time to time, at the pages still to read, it seemed bodily to grow, as if the act of reading made it longer. A bit like the very British committee system embodied in its plot, the cemetery committee itself that is the centrepiece, reminding me of Jarndyce & Jarndyce or of a meal at Aickman's own Hospice. I mean this quite seriously ... and this seemed to be confirmed by the story's coda with these words: "Everyone perceived that the past should be allowed to merge into the future, with no official recognition given to an interregnum."

I found this old post by Nemonymous after having just finished "Residents Only," as I work my way through the new Aickman collection "Uncommon Games." Since this is my only exposure to Aickman (that I can recall), I would not feel right calling it his masterpiece but it is to me a shockingly great story (and has special resonance to me - see paragraph below). My main reason for this post is to note that I also felt the story growing in length as I read - every few pages I would flip to the end of the story page number to confirm that I was really making progress. Needless to say, I was quite delighted to find the referenced old post.

I had the great pleasure many years ago of coming across a large completely overgrown cemetery in the shadows of the skyscrapers of a major urban city center. By large cemetery, I mean acres and acres of dense overgrowth fully obscuring the cast-iron fencing, the headstones, statues, animal statues, obelisks and granite balls adorning scores of graves. The overgrowth made exploration of the cemetery a strenuous and time-consuming endeavor. It would often take me several re-explorations to relocate a point of interest earlier noted. Thousands of, as Aickman says, "coffin-rope vines."

Fortunately, over the years I was able to document the overgrown cemetery on 16mm and 35mm film, because later (and I say this only somewhat tongue-in-cheek) do-gooders came and as ultimately in "Residents Only," did the full restoration, although retaining the original grave adornments. It has been several years since I visited the area and the hope for decay springs eternal. I will post footage of the cemetery within a couple of months for anyone interested.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Fascinating! Thanks, cnpappas. :)

I have not thought about this for ages, and I now wonder if this was the start of an obsession with Zeno’s Paradox in #GestaltRealTimeReviewing.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I see that Centipede has announced the two-volume Robert Aickman Masters of the Weird Tale set. It appears to be an attractive set.

http://www.centipedepress.com/images...aickmanmwt.gif

"This collection will be the main 48 stories, with an introduction by S.T. Joshi, an essay on Robert Aickman by T.E.D. Klein, and 12 full page illustrations by Danish artist John Kenn Mortensen. It is signed by Joshi and Mortensen. This should be up for order next Sunday, July 22."

I couldn't copy the text of the TOC from the email that I received, and it is not yet listed on Centipede's own page, but FYI here are links to graphics showing Contents Vols. 1 and 2.

http://www.centipedepress.com/master...ncontents1.jpg

http://www.centipedepress.com/master...ncontents2.jpg

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I just read about this in the Centipede Press Newsletter. This set looks wonderful. It even has John Kenn Mortensen illustrations! Would love to get these but they are probably too expensive. (he said, looking for things to sell on eBay.)

Re: Robert Aickman
 

"This set looks wonderful. It even has John Kenn Mortensen illustrations!"

I'm also a fan, and loved Mortensen's illustrations for Steve Rasnic Tem's "Deadfall Hotel" (Centipede).

Deadfall Hotel

EDIT: There's a lot of John Kenn Mortensen illustrations on google. Very Goreyesque. I'd like to see what he does with Aickman.

John Kenn Mortensen - Google Search

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I have the hardback of Deadfall Hotel. My favorite of all his illustrations is in that one: the girl with the balloon :D

(Beware: no illustrations in the paperback version)

I also have a copy of his art book Sticky Monsters.

Yes, I would love to see what he does with Aickman's stories.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

"I see that Centipede has announced the two-volume Robert Aickman Masters of the Weird Tale set....This collection will be the main 48 stories, with an introduction by S.T. Joshi, an essay on Robert Aickman by T.E.D. Klein, and 12 full page illustrations by Danish artist John Kenn Mortensen. It is signed by Joshi and Mortensen. This should be up for order next Sunday, July 22."

I have heard that this work may cost $295 for preorder, so it is appears to be mainly for serious collectors, libraries and Aickman completists.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I'm mildly curious about the Klein essay, but Centipede books are way outside my price range, so I can't justify buying this, especially as I spent so much on all the Tartarus editions. I'm never spending that much money on stories I already own.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

The Klein essay is interesting since he met Aickman in the flesh, but the price is prohibitive for those of us who are on a budget. I'll stick to my Faber & Faber editions and my used Scribners.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

A little too plain and cartoonish for me, overall. The monsters are kitschy, the characters too "cute", in ways that Gorey's weren't.

On the other hand, I do like this one:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qrZ4G93fi4k/hqdefault.jpg

More work along these lines and I might start to feel sorry that I can't get these books.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

My apologies if this has already been posted:

Strange, Stranger, Strangest: The dark and elegant stories of Robert Aickman

https://thebaffler.com/latest/strang...gest-bradfield

Re: Robert Aickman
 

While I own all the Tartarus volumes, it's astounding to me that Aickman's complete works still haven't been made available to the general consumer. I mean, you'd think the COMPLETE Aickman would be a marketable selling point?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Situations such as this make me feel more comfortable with my controversial views on the copyright status of long dead authors. I adore Tartarus. They're easily my favourite publisher and obviously worth it for their *amazing* work. I'd buy their editions anyway, but by this point the complete Aickman should also be accessible for all in cheap paperback or ebook form. Until recently my friends had no way of reading 'Wood' or other essential Aickman tales not in the Faber books. Hell, until recently we didn't even have the Faber books, which caused Aickman to fall into obscurity for a long time.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

À propos of nothing, i think i’m slowly becoming convinced that my favourite Aickman tale is actually ( wait for it ) Pages From a Young Girl’s Journal. Wich tale of his or anyone else gives so apt a portrait of or comment upon the relationship between an author of strange tales and his readership?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I don't dislike Pages from a Young Girl's Journal, but it isn't a story I think is representative of Aickman's unique abilities as a writer and is probably my least favourite from the excellent Cold Hand in Mine collection.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

You're not saying, are you, that your own favourites from any given author are inevitably those that are most representative of their unique abilities?

I can think of many instances, across media and genres, where the least typical of efforts is the most memorable.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

No. Pages from a Young Girl's Journal is among the least typical of Aickman's stories because it is a typical post-Le Fanu gothic vampire story.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

...except when interpreted as a story about reading strange stories.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=...ickman.jpg&f=1

Are the new Faber and Faber editions (with the uniform illustrated picture covers) still riddled with typos? Or maybe that concerned only the ebooks? Nothing too serious, like missing words, I hope?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I'm reading The Wine-Dark Sea right now and just read this sentence:

'It is true what the papers say,' exclaimed my rather.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Rather annoying I think.

I only need "The Unsettled Dust", "No Stronger Than a Flower", and also "A Roman Question" and "Wood" to add to my Aickman books. Would really prefer to have them in digital Word, and print them out on paper myself. Trying to size down my voluminous and weighty book collection as much as possible.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

That's annoying, but not too bad as typos go. It's clear enough, or at least should be clear in context, that "rather" is supposed to be "father".

It's the less obvious typos that do the most damage, the ones that turn one word into another in such a way that the error isn't immediately apparent, and that context doesn't clear up, either. Though generally rare, they inevitably result in a line or a sentence that reads sort of correctly on the surface, but that makes no sense at all. Some readers might just skim over them, accept any confusion as some quirk of the writer's and move on, but those like me will stop dead and waste whole minutes trying to figure out what it is they just read, until it dawns on them that one of the words was printed wrong, like "bloom" for "gloom" or "round" for "sound" or whatever.

Unfortunately, with a writer like Aickman, readers might be more inclined to blame these nonsensical lines on the writer, since he has something of a reputation for obscurity already. It would be a shame if lax copyediting ended up turning people off his work when this new editions should be drawing more people to it.

And what's the story with that cover, anyway? I don't mean the quality of the art, which is okay despite the 50-shades-of-grape-juice color scheme. I mean the actual image itself. Is that out of one of Aickman's stories? I don't remember any of them invoking feeble "creepy" children clichés.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Just finished Compulsory Games by Robert Aickman and found it to be a mixed bag.


It seems more like a broad spectrum of his stories, rather than a "best of" or a "typical selection."


I thought that Just a Song at Twilight was abysmal, ergo my use of "broad spectrum."

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Did you find "Wood" essential reading in line with his more famous best stories?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

One thing I like about Aickman is that he doesn't use chapters. I hate chapters; they make me distracted and stressed and counting pages till the next stop (unless I am completely immersed, which is rare). I would even prefer to go one step further, and have fine literature books printed without page numbers.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I don't know if I would consider Wood one of his best stories, but oddly enough, I would consider it essential. I think it is an interesting and a very good story, in spite of veering from what I would consider Aickmanesque.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

It is indeed a mixed bag. They couldn't print any of the stories from the Faber and Faber volumes so that leaves out a number of his essential tales. I wasn't too impressed by the humor in "A Disciple of Plato" but there are enough strong stories that justify buying it.

Some typos in that collection as well, though.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I convinced my library to order in a copy of The Unsettled Dust.
So, ... I started reading "The Unsettled Dust", its first few pages - and it is very mundane! I can't waste my time continuing reading something like this. I see what he is doing here; building up a convincing, believable setting for later supernatural events to take place in. But that doesn't matter, for this prattle is wasting my time right now. To my senses this is not Art; it is simply façade. And I don't care if these first pages have a planned purpose for later on - right here and now they are eating my time! So this story is out! of my list of desired complementing stories. Clearly not Aickman at his best.

Now, "No Stronger Than a Flower" is a completely different matter! It also builds up a setting, but from the start these sentences are also charged with deeper meaning and provocative implications. Much better! Aickman is actually a master at this, a talent he shared similarly with Lovecraft, who also managed to fertilize superficial setting descriptions immediately with deeper meaning and implications beyond the mundane.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I would probably agree it isn't one of his best (Wood, however, is), but I enjoy The Unsettled Dust. The ghost itself isn't exactly up there with the best of M. R. James' apparitions, but the descriptions of the sad, still lives of the two women are lovely. A story more of quiet melancholy than of terror. Pleasant to me.

No Stronger Than a Flower is amazing and as beautifully camp as E. F. Benson's better grotesqueries.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

I just obtain'd ye two volume Centipede Press Masters of the Weird Tale edition edited by S. T. Joshi and containing "An Afternoon with Aickman" by T.E.D. Klein. I first began to read Aickman many years ago at ye insistence of one of his obsess'd admirers, J. Vernon Shea.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

Is Walter de la Mare mentioned in the intro?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

A while ago I talked about it being gutsy that Aickman put himself and EJ Howard in the Fontana anthologies but eventually I remember that Ronald Chetwynd Hayes, Mary Danby, Rosemary Timperley and maybe others also did this afterwards in their Fontana, Pan (and Armada?) anthologies.

Perhaps this was a standard practice in british anthologies before Aickman did it?

Re: Robert Aickman
 

It is preposterously egocentric, but Aickman's stories genuinely compare well with the finest in the genre, and his method of structuring the anthologies to make a particular artistic statement is commendable. While he probably was biased toward Elizabeth Jane Howard, I do believe he'd have rated the story extremely highly if he weren't madly in love/obsessed with the author. Three Miles Up and The Trains deserve their place in an anthology purporting to contain 'great ghost stories' more than a few of the forgettable ones included in the range's volumes.

The situation reminds me of Mick Garris creating the Masters of Horror show and including himself among Argento and Carpenter, which is obviously absurd, though after seeing and enjoying Critters 2, Psycho 4 (it's weirdly good!) and the delirious trashterpiece Sleepwalkers I no longer view Garris as just the guy who made boring Stephen King miniseries I fell asleep watching.

Didn't expect to end up mentioning Critters 2 in an Aickman thread.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

But was it his idea to include his own work, seeing that all those other Fontana and Pan authors did the same? Maybe it was what the publisher wanted or a pre-established trend?

"Trashterpiece" is new to me. Love it.

Re: Robert Aickman
 

He states in the introduction to the fifth Fontana book it was his idea as he thought it prudent for the editor to exemplify his own take on the ghost story and that he viewed himself as following a tradition laid down by others in that regard. Perhaps he was thinking of Cynthia Asquith.