Literary Horror discussion

Really enjoying this so far. Evenson wastes no time setting up his usual dark solipsistic obsessions; it begins:

I shall begin this written record by reporting the substance of our last conversation --- which was not only the last conversation I had with Horak but the last I had with anyone or ever expect to have.

I ordered the book yesterday. Might not be starting for a bit but I'm looking forward to it!

I loved the way Evenson evoked the multiple personalities/persons. And how my interpretation of the narrator's nature slowly destabilizes, until the climatic encounter with the open ending.

Kirstin wrote: "I ordered the book yesterday. Might not be starting for a bit but I'm looking forward to it!"

It's a quick read, so you'll have no problem catching up. Stylistically, its reminiscent of mid-period Bradbury. The decidedly prosaic language serves a story fraught with larger issues, in this case, issues around human identity and purpose. I hesitate to say much more this early in the discussion, but its open-ended nature should provide good fodder for speculation going-forward.

David wrote: "Stylistically, its reminiscent of mid-period Bradbury."

In what ways? I can read Evenson's prose all day. But I re-read October Country recently, and could barely get through many of the stories. They felt so mannered and old-fashioned to me.

Bill wrote: "David wrote: "Stylistically, its reminiscent of mid-period Bradbury."

In what ways? I can read Evenson's prose all day. But I re-read October Country recently, and could barely get through many of..."

Ah, when I think of mid-period Bradbury, I think of works like The Martian Chronicles, which, while decidedly 'mannered,' have a rhythmic similarity to this story. For example: “The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. And from the rockets ran men with hammers in their hands to beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness, their mouths fringed with nails so they resembled steel-toothed carnivores, spitting them into their swift hands as they hammered up frame cottages and scuttled over roofs with shingles to blot out the eerie stars, and fit green shades to pull against the night.” Bradbury's language is simple, yet evocative, much like Evenson's prose here.

Sorry, I would consider that Bradbury quote more "florid" than "simple".

I'm curious to hear concrete examples of their "rhythmic similarity"; perhaps sentences of similar length, broken up in similar ways, with stresses in similar places?

It's hard for me to imagine Evenson writing about "roofs with shingles to blot out the eerie stars", for instance.

Down the rabbit hole.....

I loved this book! I'm reading it again, knowing what I now know or, not knowing what I will never know. :)

If someone had told me this was a classic work of science fiction from the 60's, I would've believed them.

I have a thousand questions. I'm very happy to be "an individual thought process enmeshed solitarily within a body" that can ponder this book.

So many things came to mind while reading, Frankenstein, 2001- a space odyssey, Do Androids Dream..., Wool, The Merchant of Venice(if you prick us do we not bleed?)

So questions

(view spoiler)[ What was it all for? What happened that led to Horek preserving himself(or being preserved)? Was he the only one? Is he 'special' among humans? Why is he not hurt by the outside?

Was Wollem a sort of Dr. Frankenstein saving bits of consciousness and building bodies to house them? Is the new material they look for dead people? Frozen people? Are they aliens and that's why they can't go outside? Am I thinking about this waaaay to much? (hide spoiler)]

Sorry for typing as I think. Thanks for making me aware of this book! :)

I'm avoiding spoilers for now as I haven't read it yet but I do plan to start (and likely finish) this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to it!

Finished the book this morning. I enjoyed it but perhaps not quite as much as others here, and not as much as I've liked other, more horrorcentric work, by Evenson.

I'm wondering if my relative lack of enthusiasm is due to my mood and a hangover from recently read more Gothic fare (I loved the Penguin Ray Russell collection Haunted Castles and have been craving more work like 'Sagittarius' and 'Comet Wine'). Maybe I should give this a few days and reread it. I did feel that interesting existential questions were raised in the book and 'Frankenstein' was, of course, a work that loomed in the background as I read it.