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Weird Realism Nick Freeman, Loughborough University Abstract This Essay Examines the Relationship Between Weird Fiction and Forms of Realist Practice
Weird Realism Nick Freeman, Loughborough University Abstract This essay examines the relationship between weird fiction and forms of realist practice. It argues that realism's concerns with exteriority and detail make it peculiarly suitable for (and receptive to) 'weirding', a claim explored in readings of fiction by Robert Aickman (1914-81) and M. John Harrison (b.1945). Keywords: Gothic, Weird, Realism, Formalism, Lovecraft, Harrison, Aickman 1 | Page From the Gothic to the Weird It is noted that I, John Radford, always of sound mind and matter-of-fact disposition, being entirely in my senses, here set down what I saw, heard and knew. As to any inferences from what occurred I say nothing; my theory might be regarded as more improbable than the facts themselves. From the facts anyone can draw conclusion as well as I.1 So begins Edward Lucas White's 'The Pig-Skin Belt' (1907). Such an opening insists immediately that its narrator is honest, reliable and given to observing and reporting rather than speculative interpretation. It insists too upon the fundamental division between on one hand, the laws of rationality and the conventions of everyday life, and on the other, the disruptive and unknown forces which violate these codes to produce horror and derangement. Such an opening strategy is a familiar device in Gothic fiction. A better- known tale, E. Nesbit's 'Man-Size in Marble' (1893), offers a variation on established themes: 'Although every word of this story is as true as despair,' the narrator says, 'I do not expect people to believe it. Nowadays a "rational explanation" is required before belief is possible.' Again, the honest (if traumatised) observer is confronted with an inexplicable event whose sheer strangeness defies his comprehension, but he goes further than White's speaker by noting how reasoned analysis has displaced older forms of belief. -
PDF EPUB} Voices from the Dark by Gary William Crawford ISBN 13: 9781888993752
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Voices From The Dark by Gary William Crawford ISBN 13: 9781888993752. Poems of Madness and the stars, from this world to others millions of miles away. A sense of profound loss mingled with horror. A Place beyond death that is almost insane in its realism. Visions of cities and planets of pure evil. The loneliness of the outcast and the artist of dreams - Poems that haunt you long after you've closed the book. "I've often admired Crawford's unique style, his obsession with dreams vs. reality, sanity vs. insanity. ("I pick at the scab/of my madness/until it bleeds again.") In this collection, you will know phantom worlds, cities and waking nightmares by the scholar of phantoms himself. To borrow from his unsettling lines, these poems will become the hands that reach up from under the bed to grasp your mind as you sleep." - Marge Simon, 2008 Bram Stoker winner Vectors: A Week in the Death of A Planet. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. In addition to his poetry, Gary William Crawford is the author of two collections of short stories, Gothic Fevers and Mysteries of Von Domarus. He has been the editor of the scholarly journal Gothic, the poetry magazine Night Songs, and now the online scholarly journal Le Fanu Studies. He is also a scholar of Gothic literature. In addition to essays and reviews in various books and journals, he is the author of Ramsey Campbell, J. Sheridan Le Fanu: A Bio-Bibliography, and Robert Aickman: An Introduction. -
The Philosophy of Horror Or Paradoxes of The
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR or PARADOXES OF THE HEART NOËL CARROLL ROUTLEDGE • New York & London Published in 1990 by Routledge An imprint of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. 29 West 35 Street New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Copyright © 1990 by Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Carroll, Noël (Noël E.) The philosophy of horror. Includes index. 1. Horror in literature. 2. Horror tales—History and criticism. 3. Horror films—History and criticism. I. Title. PN56.H6C37 1989 809’.916 89–10469 ISBN 0-415-90145-6 ISBN 0-415-90216-9 (pbk.) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Carroll, Noël The philosophy of horror. 1. Arts. Special subjects. Horror I. Title 704.9’4 ISBN 0-203-36189-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-37447-9 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-90145-6 (Print Edition) 0-415-90216-9 (pb) Dedicated to Sally Banes Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 The Nature of Horror 12 The Definition of Horror 12 Fantastic Biologies and the Structures of Horrific Imagery 42 Summary and Conclusion 52 2 Metaphysics and Horror, or Relating to Fictions 59 Fearing Fictions60 Character-Identification? 88 3 Plotting Horror 97 Some Characteristic Horror Plots 97 Horror and Suspense 128 The Fantastic 144 4 Why Horror? 158 The Paradox of Horror 159 Horror and Ideology 195 Horror Today 206 Notes 215 Index 251 Acknowledgments Undoubtedly, my parents, Hughie and Evelyn Carroll, inadvertently gave birth to this treatise by telling me not to waste my time and money on horror books, magazines, comics, TV shows, and movies.