"The Strand" Mag/an Aickman aside
julie long
I got a copy of the aforementioned and it is great -- anyone familiar with
the collection? It's pretty recent (1991, I think). It has the well- and
un-known authors, with interesting bio blurbs. And cool dust jacket art as
well.
This is the best damn forum since ancient Rome! (Blubbering into my eggnog).
Merry Christmas to all! I will be in the least ghostly place on earth, San
Diego.
One thing, though - I really don't care for Aickman that much, I wonder why.
I guess I just think he's boring. I enjoy him most in his humorous moments.
Like some people have said in earlier postings, I think there is often less
going on in Aickman than meets the eye - though the recent posting in this
forum of a classical analysis of "Visiting Star" was masterfully done. Since
mood and tone and all that other stuff are important to me I'm not sure why I
don't care much for his work, it certainly isn't as if he can't write. The
fact is -- I've read most of "Painted Devils" and can truthfully say that the
only story that sticks in my mind is the very first story - the name of which
escapes me! About the artist, and the artist's wife, and that little critter,
like a dog, like a spider. And "Ringing the Changes" - what was up with that?
Do I feel this way because I'm a girl?
Julie
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Richard Theiling
I must agree with you. I've never really enjoyed Aickman because when I
get to the end of his stories I usually say
" What was that all about ? " Now I don't need to have every thing
spelled out for me and an author can leave things hanging to a certain
extent to achieve an eerie effect . But I think some authors just like
their works to be obscure for the sake of obscurity and maybe Aickman is
one of those. Or maybe this is Impressionism in literary form in which
case I guess I'm not a fan of Impressionism .
BTW, is the Strand magazine still being published ? I might like to
subscribe to it.
I also want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and say that I enjoy
reading this newsgroup very much. Y'all are the greatest.
Rick
julie long
RickTh...@webtv.net (Richard Theiling) wrote:
> Julie,
> BTW, is the Strand magazine still being published ? I might like to
> subscribe to it.
Hi Rick --
"The Strand" was a literary magazine in England from 1891 to 1950 and was the
place where Sherlock Holmes made his debut. This book was printed by Oxford
University Press and came out in 1991. Featured authors are AC Doyle, of
course, HG Wells, WW Jacobs, E Nesbit, Edgar Wallace, and it just goes on and
on... it's a great anthology and according to the jacket there is also a
collection of Detective stories from the Strand.
Well, re: Aickman -- not having read EVERYTHING the man ever wrote I guess
that I'll just have to say that to date I haven't seen what his fans are
seeing...
Richard Theiling
Yes, I misunderstood what you were reading. I have read the book you're
talking about STRANGE TALES FROM
THE STRAND MAGAZINE and it is well done !
I knew that The Strand Magazine was long out of business but I think
that it has been revived. The last time I was in BooksAMillion, I think
I saw something in the magazine section. I'm going over there this week
so I'll check on it and let you know.
We're the only ones posting right now.
Everyone else is out of town for the holidays ?
Rick
rba...@hotmail.com
RickTh...@webtv.net (Richard Theiling) wrote:
> We're the only ones posting right now.
> Everyone else is out of town for the holidays ?
>
> Rick
Rick and Juuuuuulie, sitting inna tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G !!!
rbadac, who can be SOOO immature sometimes
Steve Wise
[snip]
> Well, re: Aickman -- not having read EVERYTHING the man ever wrote I guess
> that I'll just have to say that to date I haven't seen what his fans are
> seeing...
Julie,
I probably haven't read even half of Aickman's stories, and his omnibus
is beyond my budget, but of the ones I have read these are my favorites:
Growing Boys
Larger Than Oneself
My Poor Friend
The Hospice
The Houses of the Russians
Niemandswasser
Ravissante
Ringing the Changes
The View
The Wine-Dark Sea
If you have read all of these stories and all of them left you
wondering what the fuss is about, it proves what I was saying last
Christmas, that taste varies a great deal from one reader to another
so that it is not accurate to think of stories as inherently "good"
or "bad", only as appealing or not appealing to particular readers.
That's why I think it would be helpful to develop several alternative
lists of recommended stories, one list for each type of reader.
If it is true that Aickman does not agree with you, a list of
your favorite stories could be a valuable resource for other
readers who have felt the same way about Robert Aickman.
-Steve Wise
death...@hotmail.com
Yeah, it's a weird thing, a certain "je ne sais quois" about Aickman's
stories. Seems to work for some and not for others - which can be said
for just about everything under the sun.
I agree with most of Steve's picks, and I'd add "The Cicerones",
"Wood","The Next Glade", and "Just A Song At Twilight" as ones that
really worked for me - very odd & mysterious, wholly memorable and more
than a little creepy, but not resorting to tired shock cliches and
melodrama for effect.
Admittedly, I remain completely in the dark as to what Aickman's
personal politics may have been, and I'd probably prefer it to remain
that way. Certainly he never seemed to use his fiction for veiled
proselytizing (at least not that I was aware) - which is more than can
be said for some of the bestselling hacks working nowadays. As a matter
of fact, didn't one of his mini-biographical blurbs (maybe on Tales of
L & D?) state that he was at one time the president of the Worldwide
Fund for Nature?
I'm also wondering if the manner that one first discovered Aickman has
anything to do with the strength of his appeal. I think the first time
I read hi may have been "The Hospice" in Masterpieces of Terror & the
Supernatural or "The Stains" in New Terrors, and either way the
carefully crafted storytelling, the quiet escalation of unease &
eerieness, and the enigmatical almost abrupt natures of the endings
really impressed me given the rather more conventional aims and
approaches of the short stories they were printed with.
But hey, diff'rent strokes and all that.
John
In article <cWha4.255$Sf6.1...@ralph.vnet.net>,
je...@ionet.net
I suspect that for a lot of of us, the fact that we
_didn't_ get the Aickman things is the reason we came back to them so
often. I know I actually had to do research to get even the start of
a handle on "Mark Ingestre: The Customer's Tale". Once we see a bit
of what Aickman is trying to do, we are either hooked (as I am) or
not. The easier stories for a beginner would be: "Ringing the
Changes"; "The Hospice"; "Your Tiny Hand Is Freezing" and "The House
Of The Russians".
James