Posted by fústar in 
Update 09/04/09: By an odd, but happy, coincidence today is the 100th anniversary of F. Marion Crawford's death. Uncanny stuff.
Update 06/04/09: Oops. Sorry folks. It seems I mistakenly said that discussion of "The Upper Berth" would be kicking off on the 6th of April @ 9 p.m. – i.e. tonight. What I meant to say was that it would be starting on the 13th of April @ 9 p.m. – i.e. next Monday. Balls. Apologies. Corrected the error now. Hope to see y'all back here next Monday (ye've a whole 6 days to read the thing). Seriously – Brian Cowen's genitalia have my head in a spin…
Apologies, horror fans, for slacking off unforgivably in my role as ringmaster/chair of Dreadful Thoughts 10. The picturegate/Cowengate affair sprang up unexpectedly (like a nekkid reanimated corpse) and seized my attention & imagination. I promise to refocus my gaze and have my game face back on for meeting 11.
Speaking of which, your next assignment is "The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford. Crawford (though relatively obscure now) was "one of the most popular and commercially successful authors of his day"1 – and "The Upper Berth" remains his most often-anthologised tale.
Read it, ponder on it, enjoy it, and come back to talk about it. Discussion kicks off next Monday (the sixth) at 9 p.m. and runs for 7 days. Pop in and out when you can.
While I'm at it, I'd also like to remind readers that they should feel very free to nominate stories that they'd like to see covered. 'Tis a "club" after all and suggestions are most welcome (particularly as it relieves me of the job of having to choose).
In the spirit of restating things I might mention a few general points regarding the stories I (pretty randomly) select (and why they're selected).
The intention is not necessarily to hold up any of the stories chosen as lofty pinnacles of the horror form. In other words, I'm not making selections based primarily on their "excellence" (however you want to interpret that). Rather, I'm (pretty randomly) picking tales that seem (to me) interesting, unusual, weird, fun and so on – even when said tales have pretty clear narrative/structural deficiencies. Picking and poking at the bones, themes, preoccupations and images of "genre" stories is (for me at least) where the enjoyment really lies. The extent to which they're "good", "bad", or "mediocre" (in any conventional literary sense) doesn't particularly interest me (though it may, of course, be of interest to others).
Hope that's relatively clear. Just didn't want the club to seem (in any way) like my platform for promoting (and defending) my favourite things. I'm currently, for example, gobbling up the delicious no-frills/cheapo "Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural" series from Wordsworth Editions.2 Quite a few of the authors Wordsworth have reprinted were practically unknown to me, and many of the tales they produced were/are decidedly half-baked and crude (churned out quickly perhaps, often primarily to earn a few bob). In lots of cases though, said tales do, at the very least, have a certain something about them. Something worth having a squint at and a chat about.
But enough of all that. Off you go and download the below straight into your brain matrix (or, if you're totally old school, print it out and read it with your eyes).
Story: "The Upper Berth" (html), (html).3
Discussion Opens: Monday, 6th April 13th April @ 9 p.m. (and runs for seven full days).
[Twitter Hashtag: #dtsc]
- David Stuart Davies, in his introduction to The Witch of Prague & Other Stories (Wordsworth Editions, 2008) ISBN: 9781840220902 . [back]
- Crawford's The Witch of Prague available at a recession-busting €3.30 (approx). [back]
- The "Horror Masters" pdf excludes the introduction altogether. Avoid. [back]
So can we do ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ then?
Hee.
We can of course, if a) you can find a free version online, and, b) you can transform it from a novel into a short story! All within your powers I’m sure.
Have you done Oliver Onions yet? (Sorry, I’m too lazy to go trawling through your archives!) The Beckoning Fair One is a bit long, but it’s a great story by my recollection. Plus we can always have a laugh at his name (something that really annoyed him, apparently; he claimed it was pronounced Oh-ny-ons.)
Haven’t done Mr. Onions (snigger) yet. Think Beckoning Fair One is getting toward novella (Turn of the Screw) length isn’t it? Would happily do it, but would people read it?
Hmmm. Comments seem to be randomly disappearing. Weird.
“Have you done Oliver Onions yet?”
Might there be a shorter Onions (snigger) tale we could look at. I know The Beckoning Fair One is generally considered his finest, but I seem to recall some of his other, shorter efforts being pretty good too.
There was a collection of Onions’ (chuckle) called Widdershins, which contained some good stuff, and which may be online. I recall an odd story called ‘Benlian’, about a mad sculptor, I think, that was quite interesting. Will have a gander.
Am I in the right place? Or are you putting up a seperate post?
Hello. I can’t seem to keep my husband’s shoes outside the door. Despite tying them to the hall radiator by the laces. And there’s a mysterious and terrible smell of feet…
Sumthin’s not right here.
Gah! Sorry. I fucked up.
I meant to say that the discussion was opening on Monday 13th of April – i.e. NEXT Monday, and running for a week. Previous experience has taught me that it’s best to give people plenty of time to read the tales. Balls. Sorry again.
Anyway, come back next Monday at 9.00 and we’ll be ready to roll!
Sinead, I will, of course, be putting up a separate post for discussion – as per usual practice. Sorry again. I know you were ready, willing and able this evening!
By the way, I’m very keen to tackle a few more women authors (we’ve only had Edith Wharton so far). Was thinking of Elizabeth Gaskell, Edith Nesbit, Gertrude Atherton, Marjorie Bowen, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Riddell (aka J. H. Riddell), May Sinclair, Amelia Edwards etc, etc. Really wanted to look at Nesbit’s jaw-droppingly miserable “From the Dead” but can’t find an e-text for it.
Suggestions welcome.
Is there a list anywhere of stories that have been covered before so we don’t just keep suggesting the same things?
I’m trying to find an online version of Nesbit’s “The Shadow” – I think it’s one of her best.
Aishwarya, If you click below you’ll find the archive:
http://www.fustar.info/category/dreadful-thoughts/
But here it is anyway:
1) Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad (M. R. James)
2) The Willows (Algernon Blackwood)
3) Sredni Vashtar/The Tell-Tale Heart (Double Bill)
4) Kerfol (Edith Wharton)
5) The Monkey’s Paw (W. W. Jacobs)
6) Green Tea (Le Fanu)
7) The Man Who Went too Far (E. F. Benson)
8) The Vampyre (Polidori)
9) Gabriel Ernest (Saki)
10) The Inmost Light (Arthur Machen)
Love “The Shadow” too. If you can find it, we’ll do it.