Introduction

[joysilence]

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY keith418)

Name: Keith418

Where you live: USA

What you do with yourself: Write, read, collect books and toys.

Favourite horror or ghost story author, and why: I really like a number of authors - namely Machen, Sarban, Robert Aickman, and Thomas Ligotti. Sarban seems like the real successor to Machen in a number of ways and his work is both beautiful, intense, and very transgressive. I am reading the Tarturus Press edition of all of Aickman's stories and cannot recommend them highly enough. Aickman is really an artist - as opposed to a horror hack or "pop fiction" sort of writer. I think his work is about the best anyone is likely to find in terms of sheer literary quality. Ligotti is my favorite living author.

I am interested in Lovecraft, but find that I enjoy his letters, essays, and biographical information now more than his stories. I made a list of every novel and short story listed in his famous essay Supernatural Horror In Literature and hunted them all down and have read most of them. Of the Weird tales authors I think Clark Ashton Smith is the best and I admire everything he has ever written - stories, letters, poems, etc. I am also fond of David Park Barnitz's Book of Jade.

Favourite horror-film and director: I like the Brothers Quay a great deal and, beyond their work, I think my favorite film is The Golem directed by Paul Wegener.

How did you get into horror/the supernatural: I started getting into it as a kid and as I have gotten older I have looked into more and more obscure areas - Dutro Press stuff, the offerings from Tarturus Press, etc.

Ever had any strange,inexplicable and/or scary experiences of your own: Yes. I am involved in the occult community and have done some work with ceremonial magick.

Reading Dracula for class

[joysilence]

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY marlowe1)

Yeah I'm in a graduate program where I get to read Dracula. Aren't you jealous?

But I'm struck by the effective way Stoker works the tension in the opening chapters. Some of it's cliche (the doomed castle, the scared villagers, the wolves) and I'm not sure if it was cliche then as well as now or if he created these cliches, but at heart there is the tension of Harker trying to be polite to a man (well not a man) whose veneer of civility allows him to make the most ridiculous demands upon Harker (stay for just a bit longer, writing three letters to lie to Harker's relations in England, making him stay later even after Harker sees the three women) and how much Harker's need to be liked and be civil overcomes his natural fear reflex and need to flee this situation.

Of course I'm just starting the post-Harker parts with John in the mental hospital talking to his patients and that's an even better tension inducer. And the ship is going to be coming into harbor without a crew any moment now.

I remember when I first read this book that I was very impressed with the buildup - they have done it fairly well in the movies - but the book really gets to the heart of the fact that Dracula is originally just a strange noble with a thing for old tales (when Transylvanians were warriors and not slaves to a hypocritical peace - or so he says AFTER Harker knows that he's doomed - Dracula is still playing the part of the happy nobleman) - of course Dracula looks strange (long white hair, long white mustache, angular features - no movie ever gets that mustache) but not too strange.

Which might be why Dracula endures - because it's based on the fear of the familiar turning into the unfamiliar and dangerous - but the danger doesn't jump at you from the bushes. The danger is right there in your home. The danger invites you in and you don't recognize it as such until you're too embroiled in it.

Which is why 80% of murders (give or take) are committed by people that the victims know.

Pleasant dreams, kids.