Classic Horror Lovers discussion

Larry wrote: "Mohammed wrote: "Nice to see new horror fans going after older horror. You dont have read only gory hollywood like stories of today."

Conn, I tend to dislike modern horror, especially the slasher ..."

I definitely agree that the blood n' guts horror, while entertaining sometimes, isn't really horrifying in the sense that you have a hard time turning off the light at night.

I'm glad to see everyone here and I look forward to some great discussions!

1 Michael
2 Poe, M.R.James Matheson (classic?) Jackson
3 I like the atmosphere, a dark room, a fire and a spooky tale.
4 Danielle I am glad you started this site but it does overlap HA

for some reason my posts are not coming up.
sorry Danielle I'll use you as a guinea pig.
1 Michael
2 Poe, M.R. James, Shirley Jackson, Matheson
3 I love the atmosphere, an old dark house, fireplace,
and a spooky tale.

1. Danielle
2. Lovecraft is my absolute favorite
3. I like how classic horror creates an atmosphere and lets your mind do the rest.
4. I'm pretty boring, so not really.

Welcome to all the newbies. Michael, I started this group because I think there needs to be a place dedicated to the classic stuff. The HA group is more general, but seems to lean slightly towards modern horror. It's a great group, and I certainly don't want to replace that group.

Amani, it seems to be popular to bash Twilight. I'm of the mind that if you don't like something, oh well. Why focus so much time and energy on something you hate? Just my opinion.

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Welcome to all the newbies. Michael, I started this group because I think there needs to be a place dedicated to the classic stuff. The HA group is more general, but seems to lean slightly towards ..."

I've seen the first two movies (man they're not good) but have never read the books. I see folks on here marking hated it for Twilight without having read the books. I'm withholding the right to rate any of those books unless i read them. I'll joke about the films but mostly its good natured ribbing on my part.

I don't understand people who rate things they haven't read, same as the people on Rotten Tomatoes who rate movies they haven't seen. It's unfair to the fans these films & books have, and if you don't like it, just ignore it. I personally don't care much for romance, so I know I won't be reading it, but I know some people who have and they count Twilight as a guilty pleasure. Which is totally fine. To each their own. I'm sure many people wouldn't care much for the sometimes dry language I read regularly.

Martha wrote: "I don't understand people who rate things they haven't read, same as the people on Rotten Tomatoes who rate movies they haven't seen. It's unfair to the fans these films & books have, and if you do..."

Which is exactly why I agree with you on not rating what I haven't taken in with my own two eyes reading or movies.

Hi, my name is Louisa.
I'm just starting out on the classic horror genre, although I've read The Woman in White before and it's one of my favourite novels. I've just started The Woman in Black, which I know was only written recently but I think Susan Hill achieves the style of something written in 19th century. Any recommendations would be appreciated, I'd love to try MLR James, but my library is useless and I have a thing about starting a new author, I have to start with the first novel.

Welcome, Louisa. MR James is on Kindle. You can download the software to read Kindle ebooks for your PC, if you don't mind reading on your computer. Check out the thread for free books online. There are also books available on Project Gutenberg.

www.gutenberg.org

That's the great thing about classic horror. A lot of it is in the public domain and it's free!

Michael wrote: "1 Michael
2 Poe, M.R.James Matheson (classic?) Jackson
3 I like the atmosphere, a dark room, a fire and a spooky tale.
4 Danielle I am glad you started this site but it does overlap HA"

Welcome Michael, we are counting Matheson as classic horror writer because classic in most genres or non genres is often a writer whose works is older than 50 years.

Matheson most famous novel is 56 years old and his first story is 60 years old. Some might say its a writing style, i call a classic in this field someone whose works have been remembered highly,being influential in 50+ years.

Welcome to all the new people!

Hi,

1) I'm Katy or Kate (I've always been called both)

2) I'm particularly fond of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood (who I really think deserves more credit as a nature writer), Ray Bradbury, Lovecraft, Poe, and some Hawethorne stories.

3) I really think it goes back to my early love of fairy tales. Not the bowdlerized or disneyfied versions, but the ones based in folklore with all of their violence and darkness. I still love them and read them. One thing that I appreciate about classic horror stories is the subtlety found in many of the texts, as well as the obscuring of the visible horror. Don't get me wrong, I like some gore now and then, but not "seeing" it is scarier for me.

4) hmmmm...I really love short stories. While I have no problem knocking back a 800+ page novel, I've always loved the shorter forms like novellas and short stories. Also, I read a fair amount of children's and young adult lit.

Welcome, K8!

Hi, Kate! Good choices on writers, hopefully you can find even more here. I also enjoy the dark nature of fairy tales, I think many of them definitely have horror elements.
I definitely agree that horror packs a great punch as a short story or novella. We try to read a short story weekly here, feel free to join in or nominate a favorite story if you like!

Welcome Kate. I agree with you on all three points!

Welcome K8-Algernon Blackwood wrote nature-you have me intrigued! Any examples?

The Willows! Wendigo! great stories.

What Mark said - it's nature as part of the horror, but it really is good nature writing. Also, The Man Whom The Trees Loved is good, too.

Hi Jason, thanks for the invite. Now I'm in Horror Aficionados, Literary Horror, and now Classic Horror. Uh, any other category of horror? Midget Horror? It's all the same crowd. It's like we hop from one horror bar to another.

Hey Aloha! We all just love our horror, in all its shapes and forms. But this is where it comes from. :)

Welcome, Aloha. You are too funny!

Hello All
1. Jorge
2. Poe, Lovecraft
3. It's the stuff I grew up on , since as far back as I can remember I always liked scary stories. Growing up my favorite show was "Creature Feature" (they used to give a horror movie every week) and also Nightstalker : Kolchak. If there was occult, Monsters, anything futuristic I was on it.
4. I'm a Trekker, work in the IT field so a bit of a nerd also. : )

Welcome aboard, Jorge! It sounds like you are in the right group here.

Ahhhhhhh so nice to find people with similiar tastes. There is always the small thought in the back of ones mind. Am I a weirdo liking all this stuff? Then you find that yes , you are but you are not alone. : )

If you're weird, than you're not alone. :)

David.

I don't like modern horror, sadistic horror, psychological horror. Le Fanu, James, Blackwood, Dickens, Ainsworth, Poe (ok, sme psychological...), Stoker to an extent, Chetwynd-somebody, Benson, Machen, all the old stuff like Maturin, Lewis, Radcliffe... I like candlelit terror, with a storm going outside and preferably some lightening, and glancing up occasionally when the floorboards creak. I'm deliciously terrified of dark staircases.

I got addicted to horror when my mum read and acted me a fairytale, something about 'in an old dark house there's an old dark stair, and up the old dark stair there's an old dark room and in the old dark room there's an old dark box, and in the old dark box there's a GHOST!!!!!!!!!'

Also one about a little old lady with nothing in the pantry except a fingerbone, and a voice crying 'Give me back my bone!'

I wish I had a mum like yours when I was a kid, David! Welcome to the group!

Welcome, David. My mother got me into fairy tales, so I blame her for my dreamy nature and addiction to fantasy and the supernatural. :)

Hi to all,
I'm Hazel. I've loved reading this blog so far; it's given me some great authors to be checking into. I'm relatively new to reading aged horror. My reading tastes have always been rather open to suggestion, but I tend to enjoy mostly classic novels, especially those with a fantastical element and Japanese literature. So please bear with me if my list borders on the science fiction edge.

I enjoyed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stokers Dracula, as well as the fantastical works of Rudyard Kipling (who apparantly inspired some of the work of HP Lovecraft. Edgar Allan Poe of course. I'm wondering if I can say HG Wells for The Invisible Man and The Island of Dr Moreau (which had definite horror elements), Matheson, Lovecraft...and just because I love'em Tanizake, for The Tattooer (his one work of horror), Kobo Abe (on the border as he wrote mid century), Ryuunosuke Akutagawa (he wrote Hell Screen which is just amazing; horror in the style of a folk tale)

Like I say I'm new to the genre of old horror, but not old fiction. I hope I've added something of interest here.
Happy reading ;)

Welcome, Hazel!

Welcome, Hazel, feel free to drop by anytime and add your thoughts!

1. JenC
2. I'm still trying to figure that out.
3. I'm not really sure how to explain it. There is just something about OLD horror that grabs you. I really am just starting to get into the old books, but I've seen a ton of the old movies. The horror books now a days just aren't scary neither are the movies.
4. I read anything and everything. I will give any book a try

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Oops. I forgot Edgar Allen Poe. What's wrong with me. I'd be tempted to throw in Manly Wade Wellman, although he's more dark fantasy and he wrote around the mid-20th century. Oh, what the heck."

I have a hardback copy of Edgar Allen Poe's
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe but sadly I haven't picked it up yet. I want to get another copy so my hardback stays in perfect condition.

Hi Jen! Glad you joined! Poe is awesome, although I still have a lot more to read by him.

I've read a couple of this things and loved it so I picked up the book, but I just can't make myself read it. It's the leather hardback with the gold lettering so it's all pretty. It's the collectors edition...I just can't ruin that.

They have a lot of Poe online as ebooks for fairly cheap. Check that out, Jen.

I will have to check that out!!!!

Thank you for the good advise about looking for Poe for my KOBO. I found the complete works for free....I'm going to through a party!!! YAY Happy dance around the room!!!

(Doing happy dance along with Jen)

Now the madness will start. If you are like me, you will be loading your ereader up with free classic horror. :)

I've already got Dracula, Frankenstein, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (if you count it), The Five Jars, A Thin Ghost and Others and Ghost Stories of an Antiquary YAY

That's a great start. I definitely count The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I'd recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray. It might not be free, but it's like .99 cents or so. I thought it was very good.

I think I have that one as well....The KOBO came with 100 free books and I'm pretty sure that was one of them

How cool!

I can't wait to find the time to read all of these books this year!!! YAY

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is very good. Enjoy! And welcome!

Martha I think I might start that one after I finish Dracula!!

1. Werner
2. Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, M. R. James, Russell Kirk, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and many others whose works I've only sampled so far.
3. I think of myself as a fan of supernatural and macabre fiction more than of "horror," per se, but they overlap a lot. Fiction of the unknown, that stretches the boundaries of the prosaic, attracts me; and I like the ambiance and strong moral (and often spiritual) orientation of works in the classic tradition in these fields. (Then, too, I'm not at all into modern splatterpunk and in-your-face smuttiness!)
4. Lady Danielle invited me to join this group when she started it; but at the time, I felt I was in so many groups that another one would spread me too thin, so I reluctantly declined. Since then, though, my circumstances have changed a bit; so I joined up earlier this week, and I'm glad to become a part of the group, even though belatedly!

Welcome Werner, we're glad to have you! If you have time, stop in our discussions! We're always glad to have another point of view around. I definitely agree with you about the in-your-face smuttiness too, yuck.

Hey you joined, Werner! Awesome!! Welcome to the group.