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walkinmybat t1_itz5zpi wrote

Dan Simmons, Carrion Comfort: a louche pleasure but a pleasure

Bram Stoker's Dracula: still wonderful after all these years

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korthlm t1_iu2huri wrote

People don’t recommend Dracula often enough! It’s SO good! I wish there were more very good literary classic horrors. To add to that list of excellent classic horror that doesn’t get enough recognition, I’d say give {{Rebecca}} by Daphne DuMaurier a read, and perhaps {{She}} by H. Rider Haggard (not so much Halloween vibes, more like The Mummy kind of vibes.)

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walkinmybat t1_iu3p38n wrote

...yeah, I'm with you both barrels on Dracula... not so much the other two. I loved Haggard when I was 13... went back to him when I was 23 and thought it was awful. Testosterone-laden crap for jerking around kids who don't know any better. Sorry. I prefer to be jerked around in a more adult fashion lol... Rebecca I read when I was a goodeal more mature and afterwards wasn't sure whether it was really worth the time. Not the sensation I look for in a novel.

I was trying to find an example of Lovecraft that I could add and couldn't think of one - but he built strange new worlds, I'm sure you're aware. Wasn't The King in Yellow his? And Chthulu?

Well, and Poe. The Cask of Amontillado was perfect. For modern horror, probably Moby Dick, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Lord of the Flies, Hilberg's book Destruction of the European Jews and Gitta Sereny's Into That Darkness... those last two are not works of fiction, but what they discuss is far enough in the past that we have bigger worries now...

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JTcards76 t1_itzb9wd wrote

I’ve heard mention of Carrion Comfort several times but haven’t picked it up. I’ve heard people either love it or absolutely hate it. What did you like about it?

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walkinmybat t1_itzoivx wrote

...ah, it's really indescribable... sorry. Anything I could say about it would give you the wrong impression, I'm sure. Part of the fun is its decidedly 20th-century (that is, premodern) view of evil - as though if we just defeat the Nazis we'll have nothing further to worry about. Kind of like sinking into an easy chair cause you know we DID defeat the Nazis, so we're fine, right? ...right? lol ...hollow laughter...

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FredR23 t1_iu2b58x wrote

it's depressing, if you like that

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