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Religion is a potential birthplace for strange and fearful ideas, somewhere in our primal past, and its intersection with weird literature has always been noticed. No other writer today, however, plumbs the cryptic recesses linking supernatural fiction and spirituality like Matt Cardin. Longtime weird horror devotees, particularly fans of Thomas Ligotti, will recognize Cardin's name easily. For more than a decade, his stories, scholarship, and reviews have seared the pages of more than a dozen books and journals, as well as a debut short story collection, Divinations of the Deep. Now, Cardin has returned to the fiction scene with a new creation that is half stories and half scholarship, a thick volume from Mythos Books entitled Dark Awakenings.
For newcomers to Cardin's work, the six stories and single novella contained in Dark Awakenings are the main draw. As in Divinations of the Deep, distinctly Lovecraftian and Ligottian influences can be detected throughout all these tales, but heavily masked and reformed by Cardin's unique voice. His intense exploration of continent spanning theologies and their horrific philosophical implications continues, in a manner that often seems bleaker, but more wildly diverse than his first collection. Religion aside, Cardin also strikes out in a determined effort at probing liminal doorways between our flimsy, segregated realities. To him, the working world, academia, suburban life, and our very bodies and minds seem to neighbor some exceptionally dark places. Not every nightmarescape is explained to the same degree, but each is terrifying in its own right, however much Cardin chooses to bring each one into clarity.
"Teeth" opens the collection, and immediately tears open religious mysteries to reveal the blackness within. Knowing a little about Cardin's life almost makes it possible to see the student narrator as a proxy for himself, though it is highly unlikely he has ever befriended a supernaturally gifted scholar like Marco, who acts as the conduit for terror in this tale. The intricate mandala hidden in his notebook is but a doorway. The sanity killing vision housed within cannot be found in any particular holy book, but parts of it seem familiar. Cardin has effectively gone to town like a mad surgeon with his existential secret, gruesomely cutting and transplanting the most vivid hells of East and West. There is Christianity's gnashing of teeth, a whole lot of Buddhism's suffering, and fortunately, a springboard for an engaging story that is long on action and rich imagery.
Cardin, like Ligotti and H.P. Lovecraft, is a malevolent universe fearing author. While "Teeth" provides a razor sharp symbol of this attitude, it froths to the surface in other Dark Awakenings' pieces as well. "Desert Places" follows an embittered archeologist into an enduring love triangle with an ex-girlfriend and ex-friend. The bizarre healing ritual that reunites this unholy trinity unleashes not a new compact with life or friendship, but an unforeseen apocalypse within the narrator that is terrible to behold. If each story is a meditation of sorts--and there is more than a little evidence that they are--then consider this Cardin's exploration of barrenness. "Nightmares, Imported and Domestic" is another construct of strange relationships and emptiness. Cardin introduces a painter who frequently discusses his dreams with a girlfriend, dreams in which he lives as a suburban dullard. When a blood chilling accident befalls this simpleton, the artist finds the two are linked in ways he could never imagine. What begins as a curious bond between two opposites culminates in a tragedy that is as supernaturally deterministic as it is awful. This piece shatters the safety and comfort of fate in a universe that is a known quantity, replacing it with a completely hideous realm, even in its predictable qualities.
"The Stars Shine Without Me" and "Blackbrain Dwarf" strike similar veins, but in the most pervasive environment known to the chronically unwealthy: work. It should be no surprise that Matt Cardin's extensive time spent ruminating on Thomas Ligotti's fiction has left an impression on his own tales. These are fresh scripts for the corporate horror theater Ligotti famously built in My Work Is Not Yet Done and Teatro Grottesco, contributions that can stand on equal footing with Ligotti's.
"The Stars Shine Without Me" centers around a veteran employee at a company that specializes in an unknown service. The mission is equally ambiguous to Cardin's worker, who ends up doodling intricate designs at his desk day after day. This routine is shattered one day when he receives an invitation to meet with the elusive Mr. Brand, the demigod like master of the company. Unlike Ligotti's corporate horror, where the working world is a pit of inescapable despair symbolizing all life, Cardin's Viggo Brand is a stand in for a god that may offer some redemption, however fearful and mysterious. "Blackbrain Dwarf" is arguably Dark Awakenings' best short story. Matt Cardin takes the crazed, rampaging suburbanite into a darker place by introducing the shadow of a strange entity who revels in snapping our world's boundaries and lives. Cardin's alternating perspective pays high dividends in this tale, which balances sardonic horror and humor with a truly unearthly atmosphere.
On the whole, Dark Awakenings shows that Cardin has fully conquered the short form in fiendishly interesting ways. "The God of Foulness," a novella length story, tests whether or not his successes are sustainable in a longer narrative, and fortunately, the answer is yes. This tale centers around a reporter probing the secrets of a mysterious cult dedicated to decay. The Sick and Saved movement undergoes an incredible transition at Cardin's hands. Initially presented as a detestable villain, a long series of revelations shows that the secret society is far saner than many would guess, and their grotesque corpse god more merciful than most competing entities. "The God of Foulness" contains a purer weird element than any other Cardin piece, and warps both Eastern and Western creeds into completely new and horrific concepts. This is a rare sideshow that gets away from emphasizing only bodily desecration, as is the case in most media with zombies and ghouls, and instead illuminates diseased minds, corrupt ideas, and unholy logic.
As mentioned before, Dark Awakenings collects not just Cardin's newer fiction, but his recent scholarly essays as well. The three lengthy studies escape dry academia's tone, and instead present themselves as well thought observations that will appeal to many longtime horror fans. In "Icons of Supernatural Horror: A Brief History of the Angel and the Demon," readers experience a dizzying jaunt through centuries of spiritual history, but spend most of their time touring the more recent demonic renaissance in American culture and beyond. Cardin's focus on The Exorcist and other nightmarish media seeks an understanding from all angles, and his conclusions are as precise as they are thought provoking. "Loathsome Objects: George Romero's Living Dead Films as Contemplative Tools" is the scholarly contribution most likely to appeal to mainstream horror watchers. Here, the well known Living Dead film trilogy is autopsied for spiritual and philosophical shards. Cardin's vantage point is refreshing and unique, especially relative to the surplus of expired social commentary harvested from Romero's movies. Lastly, "Gods and Monsters, Worms and Fire: A Horrific Reading of Isaiah" is a careful look at Biblical scripture, where all appeals to be a sort of demonology. Although its strongest impact will be on Christians (or at least those versed in Christian texts), it is still surprisingly accessible and eerie to any with an interest in supernatural horror, whatever their religious leanings.
Dark Awakenings is a shadow delicacy, with an unconventional makeup that will satisfy the mind's literary and intellectual cravings. In fact, it offers to tickle the musical receiver as well, since ordering it direct from Mythos Books means that a CD of Cardin's instrumental music will arrive with the book. Divinations of the Deep was Matt Cardin's debut collection, but Dark Awakenings is the one that will fortify his literary stake in weird literature. Pick up this offering from a jack of many trades, but talented writer above all others, before one hell Cardin leaves unexplored--the out-of-print one--consumes his latest collection and any unlucky enough to miss a copy.
In another signal of H.P. Lovecraft's surge into mainstream culture, the latest Scooby-Doo incarnation recently aired a Lovecraftian episode. "The Shrieking Madness" appeared on Cartoon Network as part of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and centers around a villain named H.P. Hatecraft. Besides the hilariously named Hatecraft, we're shown a cartoon Harlan Ellison, Mythos names, Cthulhu symbolism galore, and scenery extracted right from Lovecraft's fiction.
The makers of this episode have certainly done their homework. Unlike the usual Lovecraftian adaptation that throws in a few garbled, multi-syllabic names and tentacled monsters, there are inside jokes that dig into HPL's legacy. Perhaps the funniest moment is when the cartoon Harlan Ellison berates Lovecraft as "a literary fraud," echoing the weird writer's vicious assessment at the hands of critics like Edmund Wilson.
Several clips from the episode are embedded below, and it can be watched in full as well. Altogether, this is a strong indicator of Lovecraft's rising visibility. It may also turn on a new generation of readers in another decade or so, when children seeing this today pick up a Lovecraft book as adolescents and experience that "A-ha!" moment, connecting a parody seen in childhood to a severe literary presence.
-Grim Blogger
Scooby-Doo! and the Shrieking Madness with H.P. Hatecraft
Tucked away somewhere in Yemen, not far from the otherworldly sites of Irem and a city whose name is lost to history, comes this magnificent find. The numerous discoveries uncovered in the Middle East proves that H.P. Lovecraft was a better archeological speculator than anyone ever knew. Had he been in a different mindset, he might have concentrated more of his Mythos and Dunsany driven pieces in other parts of the ancient world: Roman Europa, China, or Australia. But none of these places would have had coughed up the archeological discoveries in recent decades that seem nearly Lovecraftian in nature. In the end, Lovecraft had a keen historical sense, and a futurist's ability to foresee what might come later.
All that's missing at this point (or is perhaps covered up by the Powers That Be) is news about finding a tattered book bound in human skin in these ruins. Or a translation of the alien looking scripts that adorn these walls, which might contain names like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, or Dagon.
Are you looking for a nightmarescape to haunt your desktop background as the autumn lurches toward its zenith? Then you might find these nightmarish images suitable. In one way or another, each piece in this post imparts the same this-cannot-really-be-happening! feeling that was strongly bound up in Rod Serling's doom obsessed television series, The Twilight Zone.The febrile nightmares of Hieronymus Bosch, like the painting above, are an excellent place to start in the search for apocalyptic nightmare fuel.
Each is a vision of hell. The Twilight Zone was a series that mastered the art of dystopia, showing the gruesome heights man's imagination can reach when envisioning our worst fates. Whether it's the fanciful Medieval hell promoted by Hieronymous Bosch, or a downfall inflicted by resurgent Old Ones, nuclear war, or economic collapse, man has always sought a peek at his own grave.
The Eastern spiritual traditions took this impulse to the extreme. Buddhism's Girimananda Sutta is a forced look at a decrepit state of affairs in the body, which might be extrapolated to all organic existence. The macabre practice continues today among some monks, and reportedly lends a wisdom blessed with calm and clarity to those who can get beyond the rotting flesh, the pain, and the horror. While anyone may wish to avoid deep meditations of this nature while staring at their computer monitor, a little reminder of our nightmares and our civilization's secret nightmare couldn't hurt, and these wallpapers are an easy way to get it.
There are obscure weird horror collections that will fetch a high price whenever they surface on the market. And then there are the collections that never surface at all. One such volume is Eddie M. Angerhuber's Nocturnal Products. Published as a paperback by Britain's Rainfall Books in 2002, it garnered some significant praise before vanishing into unwarranted obscurity. Nocturnal Products also exists as the prime English language preserve of Eddie Monika Angerhuber's fiction, a German grimscribe who has remained a highly underrated enigma since Rainfall published her work.
Angerhuber is a name that should jump start the memory nodes of longtime Thomas Ligotti readers. In fact, she set up a website lobbying for his dark prose in her native tongue, undoubtedly helping to usher German editions of his collections into existence. Her fascination with Ligotti's tales led her to produce her own fiction, culminating in Nocturnal Products, which features stories very much in the Ligottian style. Today, she rightly stands with authors like Mark Samuels, Matt Cardin, and Simon Strantzas as disciples of Thomas Ligotti, though unlike her male counterparts, her creative voice has been silent for several years now.
Unless Ms. Angerhuber opts to resume writing weird fiction (and adapting it to English), or an unlikely reprint of Nocturnal Products appears, we have only phantasmal traces of her fiction's content and character. An old review by Peggy Jo Shumate offers an extended breakdown of the stories inside this rare tome--and fine ones they are. Fortunately, her entire output will not be expunged from history if every scarce copy of Nocturnal Products meets a fiery demise. Two other tales, "The Blue Star" and "The Heart of Darkness," are preserved in online repositories that are still functional at the time of this posting. These brief samplings are fantastic and somewhat painful examples highlighting the philosophic depth and hauntingly dour obsessions she explores. Her German-English website about Thomas Ligotti remains online too, but in a virtually dormant state since 2007.
It is my sincere hope that Eddie Angerhuber will not be a vague footnote in the great encyclopedia of supernatural literature. Her stories have undeniable appeal, to Ligotti fans, and beyond. If she never writes another word, many horror readers may not realize what's missing from the field. But if the contents of Nocturnal Products stay perpetually unavailable, then a true literary massacre will have occurred for all but the luckiest weird fiction readers.
ADDENDUM: Thanks to tips from German language readers, it seems Eddie M. Angerhuber is not entirely silent in fiction after all. A new book, Die Darbenden Schatten, is reportedly on the way. Unfortunately, Nocturnal Products remains the only collection translated into English at this time.
-Grim Blogger
The Lamentable Obscurity of Eddie Angerhuber's Nocturnal Products
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has released what is perhaps the most vivid trailer yet for their upcoming movie, "The Whisperer in Darkness." Vermont's rolling hills, haunted country folk, and the insectoid Mi-Go can be seen in all their nightmarish glory in this latest preview. Although a specific release date hasn't been announced, this trailer proves the project is making real progress. This is the look of Lovecraftian cinema when it melds professional techniques with true believers' passions.
-Grim Blogger
HPLHS Releases New Trailer for Lovecraft's "Whisperer"
In my ongoing efforts to provide a better blog with more content, a number of changes are being implemented. First, you'll see that Grim Reviews has opened to guest articles about weird horror for the first time. Click the Article Submissions tab at the top for the guidelines.
Secondly, longtime readers will immediately notice some design alterations. I have dumped the old Classic Blogger template in favor of a simple design that's hopefully easier on the eyes. I've preserved most of the navigation layout so that readers will still be able to find their way around without much trouble. Right now, I'm working on an Index page so that this blog's highest rated reviews and articles can be easily looked up. This doubles as a listing of the myriad authors and artists covered here.
After some hesitation, I have decided to accept donations via Paypal. Click the Donate button at the top if you're feeling generous. This is not the end of improvements here, and with more capital, I plan to build an even better platform for promoting weird literature.
So, have a look around and enjoy the new format. I'll be happy to receive feedback via comments or e-mail, if you're so inclined. I look forward to posting more of the same great material in a sleeker presentation!
Now that the dust has settled from Portland's latest H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, quite a few impressions of the event are up for our reading pleasure. Here's a brief round up that collects the better convention chronicles in the Lovecraftian blogosphere. As previously mentioned, this year may have marked the final appearance of a Lovecraft film fest in the northwest for some time, but certainly not the last Lovecraft convention.
Lovecraft Film Fest and Cthulhu Con Wrap up: This summary by the Obscure Clearly blog's Ahimsa gives their take on many of the bigger films screened there. The post also includes some photos that communicate the festival's celebratory air. Speakers, merchandise, and costumed revelers everywhere!
The End of an Era?: Sarah L. Covert's very appropriate question strikes a sad, but uplifting note to her extended commentary on 2010's Lovecraftiana at the Hollywood Theater. Her post archives further images forever embedded into the digital ether, a visual history that will probably stand even as the Hollywood Theater and its occupants are as vanished as Lovecraft himself one day.
Student Producers Take Lovecraft on the Road: A post from the Vancouver Film School links several of its trainees to the Cthulhuvian ground zero south of Canada. The article is one major example of the international renown the HPL Film Festival has gotten this year.
Great Yuggoth Whut a Wonderful Week-End!: This heartfelt post by Wilum Pugmire just about says it all. The festival will also be remembered as a place for artists and writers to network and meet their readers, a trend that will hopefully carry on at future weird gatherings.
A slightly controversial article from the Washington Examiner connects Edgar Allan Poe's political fable embedded in "The Masque of the Red Death" to the politics of today and yesteryear. Though the economic woes plaguing America and the world today are difficult to relate to a virulent pestilence, writer Neil Hrab may have a point in identifying a chilly, disconnected sense in Washington. And nothing spells out decadent indifference toward the public better than Poe's depiction of Prince Prospero.
Ultimately, any weird fiction reader knows that Prospero and his aristocratic cohorts meet their fate in the mysterious and highly contagious party crasher who arrives with an unmistakable vengeance from outside. Only time will tell whether or not the recessionary cancer creeps into the lives of Obama's administrators, patrons, economic wizards, and both political parties. Unlike today, where justice escapes most high ranking offenders in power, Prospero's downfall might be viewed as a populist political fantasy come true. The ruling caste's fortress fails to protect them, and they are forced to share the doom visited on the grave sunken society outside the castle walls.
Edgar Allan Poe, like H.P. Lovecraft, has joined the ranks of weird writers who find their works and wisdom re-applied to another heated political season in the United States. Compared to Lovecraft, Poe's words hold possibly more relevance and much less poison for today's cultural attitudes. Look for the his re-emergence in the coming election cycles as an observer not just of broken psychology and terror, but real political merit.
The observant Matt Cardin brought this otherworldly puppet show to my attention. This eerie mix of theater, literature, and puppetry draws on both spooky props and distressed actors to explore famous moments from classic weird horror. Selections from Poe, Mary Shelley, and other real and fictional horrors are recounted by these intriguing performers. The show runs all the way until Halloween at a theater in Orlando, Florida. Check The Ledger link above for further information.
A strange insect that feasts on rotting bone marrow has returned to Europe for the first time in decades. The elusive "Bone Skipper" was thought to be extinct. It's macabre nature, strange form, and glow in the dark head make it a perfectly reasonable candidate for weird zoology. That might be said about most insects, which have always exuded a foreign aura with their anti-anthropomorphic forms and habits, but doubly so for creatures like this, which are likely to turn the hardiest of stomachs. Personally, I'm just thankful little demons don't go after humans.
This list almost reads like a Who's Who for rising personalities in the Lovecraftian art world. The show runs from October 16 until November 8. A free reception, complete with the artists themselves, will be held on the opening day at 7:00 PM. Californian lovers of the weird won't want to miss this comfortable opportunity to indulge in visual Lovecraftiana, and it's a perfect season to do so.
The always entertaining and informative Wilum Pugmire has uploaded a video of his latest talk with weird fiction scholar S.T. Joshi. Here, Joshi talks about his current projects in the weird realm, his mystery novel, and Lovecraftian writing today, among other things, including tentative plans to do a fiction work about H.P. Lovecraft. Pugmire's easy to digest video interviews also show how the weird can be explored with newer technology, a trend one hopes to see more of in the future.
With the tremendous avalanche of new works by Reggie Oliver this year, and more coming, many readers who are now part of his widening fan base may wonder more about the man. Luckily, Oliver's biography is relatively forthcoming through venues like his Wikipedia article and certain introductions to his story collections. His attendance at horror and other genre conventions, readings, and general activity in the small weird community means that his photo is also easily available. This is a contrast with the field's other excellent minds like Thomas Ligotti and T.E.D. Kline, who have chosen to maintain very private lives over the years.
The images here are several of the best Oliver portraits taken to date. In both the top photo and these two directly above (both by Peter Coleborn), we see a middle aged gentleman who exudes a talented, erudite, and elegant aura. Is it the strange stories he's written that possess him with this, or is it Oliver's essence displayed in these pictures that is transferred into his tales? Perhaps both.
Knowing about his literary career, it would be almost impossible to see Reggie Oliver's countenance as anything less than a real world symbol of the philosophy and fear laced supernatural dramas that have made his name notable in weird fiction. Personally, I could care less what a purveyor of supernatural literature looks like--as long as their words are powerful. But Oliver's aesthetic takes on a delightful meta-fictional reality, breaching his books' covers and enchanting his stand up horror readings. It's my opinion that this accomplished weirdmonger looks the part; a fitting likeness to the actors, stagehands, and scholars who populate his fictitious worlds. Although an author's physique is very unimportant in the long run, having a writer whose personal style matches that of this worlds is an amusing bonus feature.
Another intriguing player has recently entered the arena of small press horror publishing. Double Feature Press is hoping to resurrect the two tale horror package which haunted the screens of America's theaters in a bygone age, but this time in print rather than film. Or as the publisher states in its self-portrait:
Welcome to Double Feature Press. We are a small press formed by Sarah L. Covert in October of 2010. Sarah grew up on drive-in movies. That is where her love for Science Fiction, Strange Tales, and Horror was born. Double Feature Press has an interesting concept, based around the old double feature drive-in flicks. Each book has two authors. Each author contributes either short stories, poems, or novellas to make up their half of the book. The books will all be in the genres Sarah loved as a child and loves even more now. They will be limited edition runs. Our first book is due out in 2011.
Their debut book suggests that a decidedly weird horror course has been set for the press. The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom by Robin Spriggs and Night Begets by Joseph S. Pulver are set to be the first nightmarish duo paired together. Anyone familiar with Spriggs and Pulver will instantly recognize the dark, weirdly supernatural, and sometimes Lovecraftian flavor coursing through both these writers' works. Hopefully, this development will also serve as an atmospheric omen for further releases by Double Feature.
The prolific Reggie Oliver, whose weird literary career seems to be accelerating in equal parts quantity and popularity, has a new title on deck from Chômu Press. Preliminary details about The Dracula Papers, Book I: The Scholar's Tale hint at an array of exciting developments showing yet more innovation by Oliver and the publishers he works with. This new novel's storyline is, in fact, a continuation of the exotic adventure unveiled in his most recent (and rapidly sold out) novella, The Wounds of Exile, a Passport Levant book by Ex Occidente Press. Here's the outline:
Bram Stoker’s immortal DRACULA told us about Count Dracula as an undead vampire. But how did this come to be? Who was Dracula in real life? There has always been speculation, but THE DRACULA PAPERS now offers the ultimate answer. It takes us back to the year 1576, to the wild land of Transylvania and to the early life of Prince Vladimir who came to be the horror known as Dracula. The result is a story as remarkable and extraordinary as the Bram Stoker classic. Battles, intrigues, sorcery, sexual passion, hauntings, a mechanical tortoise and a burning rhinoceros all have their part to play in a thrilling narrative that nevertheless plunges deep into the mystery of Evil.
With The Dracula Papers Reggie Oliver presents a grand tour of the sixteenth century, and of every variety of occult lore surrounding the vampire myth, that is rollicking, wise, macabre, but always unexpected. The Scholar’s Tale is the first volume of a scholarly and picaresque Gothick Extravaganza.
Anyone who has followed Oliver's rise to weird fiction notoriety since the early 2000s knows his books often appear in limited editions which, due to his growing reputation, command exceptionally high prices shortly after going out-of-print. The Dracula Papers looks set to be Reggie Oliver's first paperback release, an interesting change that may give Oliver's work an accessibility and affordability previously unseen with his previous books.
This new book is additional evidence that Oliver is now focusing on the long form novel, perhaps in place of the short stories that previously won him rave reviews and a cult following in weird horror. Ex Occidente still plans to publish another novel, Virtue in Danger, as well as a Passport Levant novella entitled Immortal Wheat. Both books should appear in late 2010 or the first quarter of 2011. Whether or not these lengthy tales will be received as well as his short fiction collections remains to be seen, but there's certainly no expectation of degenerating quality with his proven craftsmanship. Moreover, the fact that The Dracula Papers is Book I implies more novels are in Oliver's future, a noteworthy development constrained or nurtured only by his ambition and objectives as a writer.
The Dracula Papers is scheduled for a release in early 2011. Chômu's other forthcoming titles by Justin Isis, Brendan Connell, and Daniel Mills are well worth examining as well for any with an interest in the strange, uncanny, and macabre.
Tartarus Press has answered the pleas of many weird aficionados with their recent plans to reprint Robert Aickman's fiction. The UK publisher was previously responsible for a two volume set of Aickman's complete fiction, but was unable to offer reprints since these hefty volumes went out of print, due to changes in copyright. Now, it appears the rights to publishing Aickman are back in Tartarus' court, and with them the ability to offer sturdy hardback volumes.
As with many Tartarus collections, the print run isn't enormous, but it should be enough to satisfy aching collectors and appeal to newcomers interested in Aickman's work. These reprints may also be more accessible to international buyers than the Faber & Faber paperbacks were.
Unlike The Collected Strange Stories of Robert Aickman, these new books appear to be reissues of his original short story collections. First up is Sub Rosa in sewn hard cover and The Inner Room in trade paperback. Both are scheduled to debut in the next couple months.
The horribly ubiquitous legacy of human sacrifice continues to haunt our heads in certain grisly cases. With this dead Indian girl, actual sacrificial involvement sounds fairly dubious. However, even the slim chance that some dark spiritual force impelled her ritual murder is enough to torment the imagination. No matter how much time elapses, and how uncommon malevolent sorcery seems, we continue to see dark cults and their devotees everywhere...
