Tartarus Press continues its excellent series of videos about bibliophilia in this interview with Mark Valentine about book collecting. In it, the longtime scholar, editor, and fiction author discusses his own appreciation for this literary past time, as well as several names that should ring familiar to any weird fiction fanatic. The video seemingly coincides with new efforts by the publisher to expand its influence in the online realm.
It's not just social media or Youtube either. Tartarus' line of ebooks continues to swell. Just recently, ebook forms of Valentine's own The Collected Connoisseurappeared, along with an electronic re-issue of Mark Samuels' well regarded collection, The White Hands.
-Grim Blogger
An Interview With Mark Valentine About Book Collecting
Last week, many were shocked to see the violent demise of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. There were plenty of notable events in his obituary, but buried in the depths of his many undertakings is his brief career as a fiction writer. Escape to Hell and Other Stories is Gaddafi's sole speculative fiction collection, originally penned in his native language, and then translated into English. Curiously, the book reportedly includes a wide variety of surrealist, horrific, and science fiction elements.
Earlier this year, I mused on the possibility of a despot like Kim Jong Il writing a collection of weird horror stories. Imagine my surprise to find out about this Gaddafi collection. It also begs the question of what's so terribly compelling about artwork created by such powerful and controversial figures? Obviously, it must be some exotic quality. Weird fiction authors such as Reggie Oliver have used the idea to great effect in stories like "The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler."
Perhaps it's a melding of real life horror with literature, and the rare ability to see such men (and women) exposed and unguarded in the way that only creative fiction can provide. Although Gaddafi's alternative career choices will probably always overshadow his literary merits, it may not be surprising if Escape to Hell garners wider attention in the coming years. The iron fisted are hastily condemned, while their motivations and mindsets remain enigmatic, however warped they may seem.
If it were possible to strip away the political context and examine figures like Gaddafi as artists, truly bizarre insights might emerge. Yet, divorcing such works from their lives is impossible, particularly at this stage. Nevertheless, the stories and other types of artwork they leave behind are sure to provoke thoughts and chills in equal measure for anyone who dares to pick up their work.
Cthulhu Mythos and heroic adventure tales writer, Robert E. Howard, pioneered the sub-genre of the weird western. Curiously, while many have followed up on Howard's epic barbarian and Cthulhuvian stories, his westerns have been neglected. That is, until now. Edward M. Erdelac has revived the spirit of Howard's wild and unusual western heroes with the Merkabah Rider series.
These tales place the Rider, a Jewish mystic and gunslinger, into an alternate American Southwest. Demons and other blasphemies reminiscent of the Cthulhu Mythos show up along the way. Not content to stand on Robert E. Howard alone, Erdelac introduces H.P. Lovecraft's familiar entity, Shub-Niggurath as a major plot device. Magic and inter-dimensional horrors surface along the way, balancing adventure and the supernatural with excellence.
Better yet, it's set to comprise an ongoing series. There have been two books released to date. The story begins in Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter, and continues in the latest installment, Merkabah Rider: The Mensch With No Name. Erdelac has wisely made his titles available in both paperback and Kindle format, making it easy for fans of Howard's work and the strange to access these new bizarre chronicles.
If you have a spare $65,000 sitting around, you can now purchase over two hundred rare letters written by Robert Aickman to his literary associates. The horde reveals some startling details about Aickman's career from around 1967 to 1981. For instance, at one point, Aickman toyed with the idea of having a story collection issued by August Derleth's famous Arkham House, but ultimately decided the publisher was unable to provide the compensation he sought. Here's a few gems from the official description:
It starts in 1967 with a gracious reply from RA to a fan letter from KM (American literary agent Kirby McCauley), whose combination of warm praise and critical acuity represented ‘the exact amalgam that every artist wants, needs, and, lacking, dies …’ (30 Sep 1967) Their friendship grew slowly and patiently over the next few years before there was any discussion of business between them. The early letters in particular document the discovery of each other’s taste in literature, film, politics, etc. and they are richly detailed. Aickman’s own skill as a critic emerges clearly.
As he points out, he had worked as a film and theater critic, as well as editor of the first eight volumes of the annual Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. Aickman belongs in the same tradition of author-critic (before these roles bifurcated in modern times) that includes Johnson, Coleridge and T.S. Eliot, and he strikes one as very well-read indeed, especially in regard to continental writers. Among 20th century author-critics of supernatural fiction, Aickman was probably the most cultured and critically acute. What’s almost more impressive is the apparent ease with which KM followed suit.
These letters show no trace of condescension from RA. His judgments are always interesting and often surprising. Graham Greene is ‘the confused product of a hysterical and decadent epoch.’ (25 Oct 1971) The much-touted 1968 film ‘Belle du Jour’ was ‘quite simply, one of the worst films I have ever seen.’ (21 May 1968) He admired Bierce for his authentically American voice. He cites Thomas Mann as a major influence on his style, as well as E.T.A. Hoffman and many others (though curiously had not read Gustave Meyrink). He loathed the tendency towards sadistic violence in modern horror literature. And, while hating her politics, admired the artistry of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Of August Strindberg in particular, and of ground-breaking artists in general, he made the remark, ‘Often it seems to me that life needs the individual heretic but seldom the ensuing heresy.’ (6 May 1969)
Like many Brits his knowledge of American writers was somewhat parochial. KM keeps trying out Lovecraft Circle authors on him -- with little success generally. On the other hand, he scored a direct hit with Russell Kirk, whose collection, THE SURLY SULLEN BELL, was, in Aickman’s words, ‘quite simply, the best collection of new stories by a single writer that I have read for at least twenty years, and perhaps much more.’ (10 June 1969) Aickman and McCauley (and Kirk, too, for that matter) shared a political and cultural conservatism, with Aickman confessing more than once that he was not very fond of the present age. He was skeptical about democracy. ‘I think that television and the automobile and the flying machine are all worse dangers to man than the atomic bomb.’ (8 July 1967) (In many of his views, he reminds one of H.P. Lovecraft, who was probably his stylistic opposite when it came to writing weird tales.)
In the course of their getting to know and trust each other, it became apparent that the American representative of Herbert van Thal (RA’s English agent, whom he liked very much) was not up to his task, and in the early 1970s, Kirby began making some modest sales for RA in the US magazine market. Soon there were negotiations with August Derleth for an Arkham House collection. After this point much of the correspondence is taken up with details of literary agency, showing us another side of Aickman as a careful and prudent businessman. Aickman acknowledged Kirby’s salesmanship skills as graciously as he acknowledged his critical acumen. He finally turned down Derleth’s offer. ‘I can well believe that Derleth is in no position to pay more, but that of course does but further reduce the attractions of being linked with him commercially.’ (19 April 1971)
KM eventually landed better deals with Scribners. But the next ten years’ worth of letters are still loaded with nuggets of substantive literary interest and tidbits of gossip. Of L. P. Hartley, Aickman writes, ‘His literary talent is of a high order. It is just that he has a rather nasty mind.’ (27 Jan 1969) He tells how famous editor Max Perkins made Elizabeth Jane Howard (Aickman’s collaborator in his first collection, WE ARE FOR THE DARK) re-write the ending to her novel (THE BEAUTIFUL VISIT), ‘revising the enigmatic British conclusion (not completely successful, perhaps, as I acknowledge) into an entirely conventional, and entirely unconvincing, ‘happy ending’; with the ironical consequence that the book was reviewed merely as a conventional romance, which it is far from being, and hardly sold at all.’ (9 April 1973) Aickman’s critical observations cover dozens of writers, film directors and actors, composers, styles and movements.
Wherever these letters end up, one hopes it will be in the hands of a seasoned scholar. They offer rare insights about Aickman's literary advancement, as well as interesting connections across the Atlantic between weird fiction representatives and agencies in the late 20th century. Those on a limited budget just discovering Aickman should check out Dark Entries and Sub Rosa, two handsome hardcover collections recently reissued by Tartarus Press. Older editions of Cold Hand in Mine and Painted Devils are still affordable too.
Affluent buyers can head over to the L.W. Currey listing and pick up the letters, if desired. While a golden library like this harbors priceless content, I wouldn't be surprised to see the collection broken up or lowered in price to turn a quicker sale.
A new publisher of literary horror is poised to stand with Chomu, Tartarus, Hippocampus, and others. Aklo Press is a start up that aims to combine the best in weird art and fiction into one product. Actually, this illustrated anthology or journal format is reminiscent of the heady days when great strangeness appeared in places like Dagon, Tekeli-li, and Crypt of Cthulhu.
The project is titled Aklonomicon and it should appear later this year. Its prospective lineup is impressive, including many weird horror writers who have been busy this past year: Simon Strantzas (Beneath the Surface), Livia Llewellyn (Engines of Desire), Laird Barron (Occultation), Joseph S. Pulver (Sin and Ashes), Richard Gavin (Charnel Wine), and many more. Likewise for visual artists, where Michael Zigerlig, Eric York, Andrea Bonazzi, and others are due to flood the production with their dark output.
This is an age where digital media has severely crippled the illustrated anthology and horror 'zine of old. Curiously, e-zines built on weird fiction are rarely successful. Probably because few are willing to be chained to a computer to enjoy otherworldly art and literature. Until such publications are Kindle worthy (and even then their success may be a tall order), we should all hope to see more Aklonomicons. These are atmospheric extravaganzas that work. Visit Aklo Press for further details.
A bolt of lightening is set to rattle the literary horror community and world politics simultaneously from an unlikely source: North Korea. It seems the reclusive "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, is due to release a weird fiction collection entitled, Midnight in Pyongyang and Other Trodden Stories. Details are sketchy, but a Workers' Party of Korea source tells me it will be a book of eight stories with one novella length piece. Here's the contents:
Starving Demons Beneath Juche Tower
Imaginary Murals in the Metro
King Tongmyong's Howling Resurrection
Binding the Tentacle: An Unpublished Fragment from the Great Leader's Personal Diary
A Shadow Engulfed Mount Paektu
Midnight in Pyongyang
The Sweeping Roar of Decay
The Final Re-Education of a Wayward Marionette
Unknown to many, Kim has been a lifelong collector of weird literature, particularly stories by H.P. Lovecraft. He reportedly came upon the genre in the late 1960s, when an envoy recently returned from Japan presented him with an Arkham House edition of Lovecraft's Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. Since then, he has rapidly expanded his library of macabre works by well known masters and contemporaries. The forthcoming stories were conceived over the last few decades and "revised to heavenly perfection."
Midnight in Pyongyang hopes to communicate the "legendary terrors and triumphs which test the Juche idea." Judging by the brief summaries provided, one also wonders if the inner fears and secrets of the evasive head of state will leak, coiling up from the pages like the enormous Ryugyong Hotel. For instance, "Imaginary Murals in the Metro," offers a look at what happens when emaciated, hellish paintings begin inexplicably appearing next to the well known Socialist realist art in Pyongyang's metro. "The Sweeping Roar of Decay" chronicles the fevered dreams of a soldier who lives in two DPRKs: one filled with unimagined affluence, marvelous technologies, and golden tributes to the Party towering into the sky. The other is a broken place consumed with tears, deserted buildings, shabby denizens, and moldering monuments to Juche accomplishments everyone seems to have forgotten.
"Binding the Tentacle," which purports to be an unseen page from Kim Il Sung's diary, takes readers back to the elder Kim's days as a guerrilla leader during World War II. His warrior band aims to destroy a mysterious book bringing unspeakable terror to Koreans occupied by forces under a Japanese general with the "Innsmouth Look." This is clearly a Lovecraftian horror tale. "Midnight in Pyongyang" is the book's longest tale, and begins when a nameless successor to the Kim dynasty awakens in a pitch black capital to sounds of war. Thinking the "imperialists" have attacked, the Juche Prince rushes outside with his staff, but finds an impenetrable haze blanketing Pyongyang and a curious Buddhist temple no one has ever seen before.
The book's exact purpose and where it will appear are unknowns at this point. Is it a product of Kim's obsessions, ready to pour onto a Korean society that may struggle with strange concepts they have never before encountered? It's hard to see Midnight in Pyongyang gaining a large Western distribution either. Despite fascination with the introverted DPRK regime, Kim Jong Il is reviled by Westerners, by far the largest weird fiction audience. Still, the collection should gain serious interest when it does appear, barring a change of heart by the ailing Kim or his successors, if only due to its bizarre origins.
-Grim Blogger
Kim Jong Il Set to Publish Weird Horror Collection
H.P. Lovecraft famously turned his sharpest critical implements to great works of horror in his treatise, Supernatural Horror in Literature. Overlooked by many is his mention of a work we're all compelled to read at one point or another in higher education: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Aside from selections by Edgar Allan Poe, this is the only exposure to weird fiction for the masses, and an introduction to the genre for those who let dark fancy take hold later in life.
Gilman's unforgettable tale recalls a room-bound woman's spiral toward madness at the hands of her obsession with figures inside the nauseating yellow wallpaper around her. The tale has passed muster as an American classic, and wears its literary credentials proudly after being examined over the years as a feminist, Gothic, and psychological horror piece.
How did Lovecraft react to this story, first published when he was little more than a year old? The plug he gives it in Supernatural Horror is brief, but illuminating:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in The Yellow Wall Paper, rises to a classic level in subtly delineating the madness which crawls over a woman dwelling in the hideously papered room where a madwoman was once confined.
He places her squarely in America's weird tradition, close to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and many more obscure figures. Clearly impressed by the story, one wonders if Lovecraft viewed Gilman's roadway into madness as a model for his own work. Like her notoriously unreliable narrator, plenty of Lovecraftian characters end up in such bizarre and twisted circumstances that the reader wonders if their minds weren't deluded to begin with.
Speculation has also surfaced that HPL's respect may have appeared in other ways. The Gilman family name that appears in both "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "Dreams in the Witch House" may have been inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, but evidence is scanty. In any case, Lovecraft clearly admired her ability to conjure strange imagery and depict a convincingly deranged mind, and viewed "The Yellow Wallpaper" as a prototype for the harrowing symbolism in later supernatural literature.
-Grim Blogger
HP Lovecraft on The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Tartarus Press appears to be exploring a new venue for promoting its books, one rarely seen with other weird horror publishers: Youtube. Short promos have appeared for the recent Robert Aickman reprint, Sub Rosa, as well as Angela Slatter's Sourdough and Other Stories, created by the author. Marketing by online videos has proven successful for many other products, but can it work for supernatural literature?
This is a tricky question that hides many others, much like one of those Russian nestling dolls. In the pro-Youtube column are facts about its ability to rank well in searches and the complete lack of content for many writers. The Sub Rosa video, in fact, is probably the most relevant Aickman item ever uploaded there. The site's ability to throw up "relevant" videos to viewers may also help lead a small, but significant percentage of mainstream horror fans to discover weird fiction for the first time.
On the other hand, Youtube can be particularly fickle. Giving a video the wrong tag or category may place it in a no man's land with few viewers, or worse, one with a high bounce rate (where viewers searching for the same term that has nothing to do with the video content end up clicking the back button once they realize their mistake). Youtube has cracked down in recent years on direct links due to spam-bots too. This makes it more difficult, but not impossible, to direct users to a website or online store where they can actually see more details about a book.
Though the list of pros and cons is long, Youtube and similar video websites have a chance to prove their worth to promoters of weird fiction. Right now, room for experimentation is enormous, and only more strange artists and publishers testing the black seas of digital media will learn whether or not they can be harnessed to their advantage.
In the small and cozy field of weird fiction, luxurious books housing the supernatural abound. Until recently, expecting to pay $50 or more a pop for old classics, as well as debut works by new writers, was the norm. If strange literature ever becomes a wider niche, it will be due in part to strides made by two publishers: Wordsworth and Chomu Press. The exemplary work by the latter in bringing contemporary authors to the masses has already been noted here.
Wordsworth, however, has quietly re-released two rare collections for a steal. The Dead of Night collects Oliver Onions' spectral fiction in a lengthy paperback that will make the odd Onions' completist rattle with joy. Onions remains one of the more obscure names in weird horror, but mercifully one who can now be sampled by the uninitiated with zero risk to their bank accounts. His tenuous whirlwinds that breach the line between psychological and supernatural horror have earned him a cult following. Wordsmith's other notable release, The Drug and Other Stories, collects fiction written by a household name. Aleister Crowley is notorious for his occult practices, but his fiction has gained far less attention. The Drug and Other Stories, like the Onions volume, herds Crowley's fictional oeuvre in one convenient tome.
I can't ever recall seeing 600+ page collections from some of weird fiction's more shadowy corners available for the same cost as a cup of coffee. Don't miss these curiosities. Though Wordsworth's print runs are generous, chances are high that these short stories will not be seen in bargain paperbacks like this for another generation (and that's only if e-book readers haven't conquered the world by then). Affordability can rehabilitate writers who have become nearly as ghostly as their stories, and Wordsmith deserves thanks from the horror community for delivering a much needed pep shot to two weirdscribes, among others, whose fiction has teetered on the brink of total obscurity for too long.
-Grim Blogger
Wordsworth Brings New Affordability to Weird Fiction with Crowley and Onions
Sarob Press, which originally closed down in 2007, has returned to the supernatural literary scene. The publisher was known for nearly a decade for producing some limited, but highly coveted books of contemporary ghost stories in small print runs. Today, older Sarob books regularly fetch prices on the second hand market ranging from $50 to hundreds.
Despite being closed for several years, their reputation appears to have stayed in intact. Their first new release, Seven Ghosts and One Other by C.E. Ward, has already sold out. This is Ward's second collection filled with Jamesian ghost tales. If this book's popularity is any indication, then Sarob Press should have little trouble getting back on its feet.
A promotional video for Tenebrous Tales, one of Ex Occidente Press' latest titles, has surfaced on Youtube. The short is based on the story "The Tableaux," which appears in the collection. Its author, Christopher Barker, also shows up here. He's the man propelled toward the strange mannequins (I cannot comment on how accurate the video is, not yet having read the tale it's based on). Barker is notable for several essays on weird fiction, and for his previous work publishing the short lived Weirdly Supernatural journal, as well as Reggie Oliver's first two story collections. This is his first collection.
A post over at the Urban Gestalt blog highlights the critical role of cities in today's loosely defined "New Weird" genre. The article is particularly interesting since it's written by an aspiring New Weird novelist, Brian Wood-Koiwa, who inevitably must pay close attention to the importance of urban places for meshing them into his narrative. The central role the urban holds in New Weird tales has been noted before, but it can't be reiterated enough, at least for pinning down the New Weird's elusive essence.
By all accounts, cities are common stages for odd happenings in works placed into the New Weird niche. China Mieville's fiction is regularly cited as literature which incorporates the urban with New Weird elements. But cities or city-like scenes also flash through the stories of Michael Cisco, Thomas Ligotti, and Clive Barker--all of whom have fallen under the New Weird label at one time or another. If it's possible at all to reach a consensus on what the New Weird means, then critics and fans should definitely focus on the city as a starting point.
I have a confession to make: Grim Reviews is here to provide observations, curiosities, and timely commentary, but it doesn't always do the best job of hitting on breaking news when it's...well, "breaking." I had toyed with the idea of a Twitter account for exactly this purpose, and may still do so in the future, but for now, I'd like to direct your attention to this excellent Weird Fiction News feed by a Polish aficionado of weird literature. This twitter stream is a veritable candy shop for horror readers. There, relevant tweets on weird fiction's newest releases and authorial activities soar through cyberspace magnificently. In this digital age, there's no excuse for the press releases of publishers and writers moving at a disjointed crawl, and Weird Fiction News may be just the prescription for helping modernize the weird genre in real time coverage.
I want to highlight this post from Cian Gill's Age of Empire blog about Australian weird fiction. Besides being a review of Australian Ghost Stories edited by James Doig, it forms an excellent commentary on this isolated continent's weird fiction tradition. What comes across in the analysis and quotations selected by Gill is a conflicted legacy. Australian writers of ghostly and Gothic stories, prior to the late 20th century, appear to be stricken with a shadow of inferiority hanging over their work. This is a curious contrast with the way things have developed in the United States and even Canada. Australia, like both of these other nations, is home to a wonderful array of otherworldly terrain, native traditions, and historical occurrences that should make it a natural mental playground for the weird.
Yet, oddly, Australia's weird literary flowering seems stunted until late last century. It's easy to wonder whether this has something to do with the nation's colonial legacy and a confused, sometimes violent legacy with its aboriginal population. But, then, if this is the case, what about the U.S. and Canada? All of these nations were originally British imperial extensions, though America broke away much sooner than either Canada or Australia. Further, both North American nations share Australia's difficult history with other ethnic groups--native or otherwise--that happened to settle sooner or later than the dominant population.
Other observations by Gill bring up the interesting question of a society's perceived age. Australian horror writers quoted in his article express uncertainty over the worth of their own spiritual and cultural traditions, which appears correlated with a feeling of immaturity. Once again, this is more serious and quite different than both the U.S. and Canada. The former country saw Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce rise to prominence within less than a century of its establishment. Lovecraft's work came along not long after, and expresses some of its psychic strength in Lovecraft's devotion to, what is to him, a rich and archaic American colonial experience. Canadian weird fiction took longer to flower, but its unique national features were attractive enough by the early 20th century to be used by foreigners like Algernon Blackwood in "The Wendigo." Meanwhile, British writers have produced the majority of earlier weird fiction, especially that a ghostly kind, by drawing on the country's Medieval cities and ancient myths left by Romans and Celtic tribes.
The question of national perceived age among literary circles may be an imperfect one for explaining why there was such a delayed outgrowth of strange fiction in places like Australia, but it's definitely one that must be considered. It's also worth noting that modern Australia has overcome an initial hesitancy to draw on its natural resources as an expression of unusual and haunting horrors. The Australian Horror Writers' Association publishes an annual journal called "Studies in Australian Weird Fiction." Additionally, the Australian Ghost Stories volume recognizes the existence and importance of weird horror in Australia's past and present.
A couple weeks ago, Ellen Datlow (editor of the well known The Best Horror of the Year series) released a lengthy list of 2009's best horror stories, mostly through an extended set of honorable mentions. The judgments of Ms. Datlow and her peers may not be the end all and be all of the genre, but they're pretty useful at providing a good snapshot of contemporary horror. Fortunately, 2009's list confirms what others have already suspected: weird fiction continues to hold a solid position in horror overall, and may even be trending upward.
Glancing over the names of authors, stories, and anthologies, one finds just how significantly represented the weird really is. Indeed, a case could be made that weird horror comprises at least one third or more of the entire honorable mentions list. Amid the weird itself, overtly Lovecraftian fiction also has a strong presence--a surprising glimpse at the allure of contemporary Cthulhu Mythos fiction. In the eyes of speculative literature's primary catalogers, at least, weird fiction remains a major contestant in horror, capable of matching and even outshining more popular dark variants.
Ellen Datlow's selections also give a little well deserved recognition to the weird's brightest stars. I was personally glad to see multiple stories chosen from the following: Reggie Oliver, Gary McMahon, John Langan, Richard Gavin, Simon Strantzas, Joel Lane, and R.B. Russell. There are plenty of other excellent weird writers who had a single story or two chosen: Michael Cisco, Laird Barron, and W.H. Pugmire, among others. These authors are certainly at the forefront of crafting the finest new oddities, and their appearances in the Best Horror of the Year serve the dual purpose of entrenching them in the sub-genre, while expanding each author's own niche in wider horror.
The Omnia Exeunt In Mysterium blog has come out with a fascinating post on the life and writings of L.T.C. Rolt. "Who?" is likely the exclamation sputtering from the mouths of many, both in and out of the weird literary circle. As the linked blog tells us, Rolt was an engineer, transportation enthusiast, and weird fiction writer who produced a well received collection of tales in the traditional ghostly model called Sleep No More. He's also another curious link in the history of weird writers who have latched supernatural phenomena to industrial conveyances, much like Robert Aickman and Stefan Grabinski.
Rolt is worth re-exploring now, in part, because we're fast approaching his centennial. February 9, 2010, marks the birth of this elusive figure. According to blogger Kai Roberts, it will become a bit easier to read Rolt's contributions to the weird, thanks to a planned re-issue of his ghostly collection by History Press. This is scheduled for an unknown release later this year.
Rolt's jittery world of possessed industry deserves a wider readership, and perhaps things will be set in motion to that end with this anniversary of his birth. Those who can't wait for the reprint of Sleep No More can try seeking a copy of the out-of-print edition of this book by Ash-Tree press.
This week, Resonance 104.4 FM begins a series of atmospheric readings by various authors entitled "Weird Tales for Winter." The broadcasts will stream at midnight (time zone unclear) each day. The most notable name on the list is that of Thomas Ligotti. An audio rendition of his story "The Bells Will Sound Forever"by Mordant Music will play on January 30th. This particular tale is a selection from his collection In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land.
This rare audio performance of a Ligotti story will be of definite interest to weird fiction readers. Though the other stories and authors lined up for the series are less well known, its theme suggests other weird yarns are worth hearing. More details are reportedly forthcoming from Resonance 104.4's website.
The possible (re)discovery of fabled Shangri-La in these remote Himalayan caverns does not fail to delight. Amid the skulls and riches is a renewed sense of mystery. Weird fiction has a rich history of references to the occult practices and suspected geographic horrors of Nepal and Tibet, and it certainly relies on an ethereal air of mystery. This discovery should yield piles of new material for the infinite mills of the bizarre.
A treasure trove of Tibetan art and manuscripts uncovered in "sky high" Himalayan caves could be linked to the storybook paradise of Shangri-La, says the team that made the discovery.
Few have been able to explore the mysterious caves, since Upper Mustang is a restricted area of Nepal that was long closed to outsiders. Today only a thousand foreigners a year are allowed into the region.
In 2007 a team co-led by U.S. researcher and Himalaya expert Broughton Coburn and veteran mountaineer Pete Athans scaled the crumbling cliffs on a mission to explore the human-made caves.
Inside the caves, the team found ancient Tibetan Buddhist shrines decorated with exquisitely painted murals, including a 55-panel depiction of Buddha's life. (See a picture of one of the Buddhist murals.)
A second expedition in 2008 discovered several 600-year-old human skeletons and recovered reams of precious manuscripts, some with small paintings known as illuminations.
The sacred hoard seems to match descriptions of treasures to be found in Buddhist "hidden valleys," which served as the basis for Shangri-La in British writer James Hilton's popular 1930s novel Lost Horizon.
Looters have raided the caves over the centuries, cutting valuable artwork from the ancient texts. In addition, religious pilgrims have damaged the cave walls to collect souvenirs.
Still, the researchers were able to collect and document manuscripts from about 30 volumes, which were then moved for safekeeping to Mustang's central monastery.
Preserved by the mountain region's cool, arid climate, the ancient manuscripts contain a mix of writings from Buddhism and Bön, an earlier, native Tibetan faith, Coburn said.
This combination suggests that Bön beliefs survived for at least a century or two in this region after the Tibetan conversion to Buddhism, which began in the eighth century, Coburn said.
The team suspects the kings of Mustang abandoned the Bön sacred texts in the caves as a respectful alternative to destroying them.
Mark Turin, of the Digital Himalaya Project at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., also thinks this was a possibility.
But it's also possible the finds tie in with the Tibetan tradition of deliberately hiding religious texts, said Turin, who wasn't involved in the National Geographic Society-funded expedition. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
"There's a real sense of discovery in Tibetan tradition," he said. "People discover hidden texts, or they discover hidden cultural knowledge that is lost or secreted away."
The new discoveries now show that Mustang was "for many, many hundreds of years absolutely central—a vibrant, dynamic, culturally rich, and religiously diverse settlement."
The unusual treasures have led Coburn and his team to suggest that the Mustang caves could be linked to "hidden valleys" thought to represent the Buddhist spiritual paradise known as Shambhala.
"Shambhala is also believed by many scholars to have a geographical parallel that may exist in several or many Himalayan valleys," Coburn said.
"These hidden valleys were created at times of strife and when Buddhist practice and principals were threatened," Coburn said. "The valleys contained so-called hidden treasure texts."
Elaine Brook, author of Search for Shambhala, said the hidden valleys of Mustang indeed "have some of the characteristics of the mythical land of Shambhala."
For his 1933 novel, Hilton used the concept of Shambhala as the basis for his "lost" valley of Shangri-La, an isolated mountain community that was a storehouse of cultural wisdom.
But Brook, like the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, thinks that "nowadays, no one knows where Shambhala is." Shangri-La or not, the Mustang caves are in dire need of preservation, according to Coburn, Athans, and their colleagues.
Besides looters, Coburn said, the 6,000-year-old caves face threats from souvenir collectors, erosion, earthquakes, and infrequent but torrential rains.
The liberal politics and culture blog Isebrand.com offers a perspective on weird fiction's foundation and influence on contemporary media that differs from the one usually echoed by commentators within the genre. In fact, the author prefers lurching away from the supernatural characterizing much of weird fiction. It may come as no surprise, then, that he focuses upon Machen's war stories like "The Bowmen" and vanguard artists of the new weird such as China Mieville as favorable representatives of the weird. The post also does a fine job of narrowing the definition of weird literature for unfamiliar readers--clearly distinguishing it from the fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Though one wonders how the author would feel about the place Lord Dunsany often occupies, blurring the realm of fantasy and the weird?
Two authors with more than a small tie to weird fiction are scheduled to read from their literary offerings at New York City's KGB Fantastic Fiction. The event will be held at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. The writers in question are Michael Cisco and John Langan, both of whom have acquired scrutiny as rising stars of supernatural literature in recent years, from the informal blogosphere to the professional pen of S.T. Joshi.
Cisco has often been favorably compared with Thomas Ligotti. His novels and short stories definitely add to the dark, surreal tapestry detailed by Ligotti and their mutual predecessor H.P. Lovecraft. Langan's work, on the other hand, seems to draw more from the ghostly and strange stories pioneered by M.R. James and Robert Aickman, best exhibited in his recent collection Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters. Like any notables in the weird realm, both men stamp their writing with an originality that somehow modernizes their subject matter while curling the familiar atmosphere of the bizarre into new mysterious forms.
New Yorkers and others in the area should definitely make time for this reading, if at all possible. I'm not sure if KGB Fantastic Fiction intentionally lined up two admirable gentleman from the weird niche, but by fluke or design, it's an incredible (and possibly historic) opportunity to breathe in the outre in a manner rarely seen outside themed conventions these days.
