literature

danbo wrote: I forgot about DUNE. Any Frank Herbert fans?

YUP!

Indeed - I thought that Rowling had some kind of personal vendetta against him when I read "OOTP".

The rumours have it that he used to direct horror and porn movies.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0190859/

"Prisoner" may well have more adult appeal than Rowling otherwise would have wanted... I'm imagining Hermione in a dungeon with a very large dog...

dude wrote: P.S ARE YOU REFFERING TO CLIVE BARKER OF "HELLRAISER" FAME? IF SO

Yes!!!

I've read most of his novels, but I've never seen ANY of the movies.... I've always preferred books to movies anyway. Movies never have the detail and development (sigh). I alway send up wondering why the cut certain parts or characters... 

  
< No bangers before a read, wouldn't want the combustibles to lose the roof, wot?

dude wrote:  may i suggest the warlock inspite of himself by christopher stasheff

VERY, very entertaining book!

No offense to Master Rideout, but I give it ***** 5 stars.

Jim Garten wrote: All pretty low brow, for which I apologise, but I have to say, the 'classics' tend to leave me pretty cold - I dont know why, I've just never been able to get into them, and I've tried them all - Dickens , Hardy , Cervantes , Bronte . Oh, God - I'm so shallow......... I'm bound to be chucked off the site now!!!!

Not at all Jim! Almost any reading is good reading -- those who read (books) at all for pleasure are an ever-shrinking tiny minority!

I didn't always enjoy Victorian novels, but had to read them to get my degree, and gradually acquired a taste for them. Did you enjoy (be honest, now) your first-ever cigarette? Coffee? Scotch? Probably not.

I also read fantasy, sci-fi, motorcycle mags, and mainstream fiction. My nose isn't always buried in a thick "high-brow" Victorian novel. (I alternate.) You may want to try Feilding's Tom Jones one day. Funny and ribald  -- a classic for those who don't like classics!

Re the mainstream stuff, I've read the first five or so of Patrick O'Brian's 20-book seafaring series (from whence came the excellent film "Master and Commander").

Really great stuff: good character development, lots of thrilling action, & your country's rich naval heritage! (Watch Nelson and the boys pound the pee out of ol' "Nappy's" navy!)

Keep reading!

join the club jim

have you played the discworld games on computer

in a similar vein to pratchett may i suggest the warlock inspite of himself by christopher stasheff

of course there are always the "confessions" books...about as low brow as you can get.....but very funny!!!

I HAVE NOT READ A GREAT MANY NOVELS(TAKES A LONG TIME FOR ME!!)

TOP TEN(IT COULD CHANGE NEXT WEEK)

1:ROBERT HEINLEN BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS

2:LARRY NIVEN

INCONSTANT MOON

RAMMER

BORDERED IN BLACK

RINGWORLD

IN FACT JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING!!

3 JOE HALDERMAN THE FOREVER WAR(LOTS OF PHYSICS FOR THOSE INTERESTED,THERE HAS BEEN TALK OF TURNING THIS INTO A MOVIE)

WILLIAM HOPE HODGESON

A FEW WORDS:WILLIAM HOPE HODGESON WAS ALATE 19TH EARLY 20TH CENTURY AUTHOR(BORN IN NOVEMBER 1877 HE WAS KILLED IN APRIL 1918 WHILE ATTACKING A GERMAN BUNKER JUST BEFORE THE END OF WWI) HE WROTE SOME OF THE STRANGEST STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL EVER IMO HP LOVECRAFT GREATLY ADMIRED HIM!

MANY OF HIS STORIES DEALT WITH THE SEA AND ITS MYSTERIES(HE WAS A SIALOR) AND EVEN THOUGH HE HATED HIS TIME AT SEA IT IS THERE THAT HE DREW INSPIRATION FOR SOME OF HIS STORIES,FOR EXAMPLE THE DERILECT IS ABOUT AN OLD ABANDONED SHIP THAT LITERALY TRIES TO EAT  THE MEN WHO EVENTUALY FIND HER!

THERE WERE NO ELDER GODS OR ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN HIS STOREIS BUT MANY STORIES DEALT WITH "OUTSIDE FORCES" OF A HORRIFIC NATURE SOME OF HIS WORK HAS EVEN BEEN DESCRIBED AS PROTO SF AS TO HIS USE OF EQUIPMENT TO EITHER ATTRACT OR REPEL THESE FORCES

HIS "CIRCLE DEFENCE" WHICH CONSISTED OF A NUMBER OF COULERED ELECTRIC CIRCLES(LIKE FLOUROS) WHICH USED IN COMBINATIONS COULD ATTRACT OR REPEL FORCES HAS APPEARED IN THE WORKS OF OTHER AUTHORS WHO WERE INFLUENCED BY HIM EG DENNIS WHEATLEY ETC THIS DEFENCE FIRST APPEARED IN THE STORY THE HOG ABOUT AN EXPERIMENT THAT GOES HORRIBLY WRONG AND ALMOST UNLEASHES THIS FORCE ON THE WORLD

THE HOG IS PART OF A GROUP AF STORIES ABOUT A SUPERNTURAL INVESTIGATOR CALLED "CARNECKI" SOME OF HIS INVESTIGATIONS TURN OUT TO BE HOAXES BUT THE REST!!!..........LETS JUST SAY YOU HAVE TO READ THEM FOR YOURSELF(AFTER READING THE WHISTLING ROOM YOU WILL NEVER LOOK AT LIPS THE SAME WAY AGAIN!!!)

THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND IS ABOUT A VERY STRANGE HOUSE AND WHAT HAPPENED TO ITS INHABITANTS,I DONT KNOW WHAT HODGESON WAS ON WHEN HE WROTE THIS BUT IT IS VERY HALLUCINATORY AND QUITE BRILLIANT IN ITS WAY!!

HIS LONGEST WORK IS THE NIGHTLAND SET MIILLIONS OF YEARS FROM NOW AS A GROUP OF HUMANS TRY TO SURVIVE IN A BUILDING CALLED "THE LAST REDOUBT" ONE MAN FINDS OUT THAT ANOTHER GROUP OF HUMANS EXISTS AND SETS OUT TO FIND THEM.HE SETS OUT INTO A TRULY NIGHTMARISH WORLD  FULL OF STRANGE CREATURES AND UNSEEN BUT FELT FORCES.

I USE THE WORDS "FORCES" ALOT BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT MANY OF HIS STORIES DEAL WITH ,SOMETHING UNSEEN,JUST BEYOND THE ABILITY OF HUMAN SENSES TO DETECT CLEARLY BUT SOMETHING GHASTLY AND NIGHTMARISH THAT MANIFESTS ITSELF WHEN THE RIGHT SET OF CONDITIONS IS ENCOUNTERED

BECAUSE HIS STORIES WERE WRITTEN SO LONG AGO THERE IS I VICTORIAN FEEL TO HIS PROSE IN FACT THE NIGHTLAND WAS WRITTEN IN A SEVETEENTH CENTURY STYLE AND HAD TO BE REEDITED IN MODERN ENGLISH FOR REPRINTING

AS I HAVE INDICATED HIS STORIES ARE GENERALLY NOT ABOUT "GHOSTS" AS SUCH(ALTHOUGH THEY DO APPEAR!) BUT THEY ARE MORE ABOUT SOMETHING LARGER, SOMETHING MONSTEROUS, AN ALL ENCOMPASSING ENTITY JUST OUT IN SPACE THAT NURTURES WHAT WE HUMANS WOULD CALL SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA AND MANIFESTS ITSELF THROUGH THESE PHENOMENA WITHOUT ACTUALLY UNLEASHING ITSELF FULLY(ALTHOUGH IT TREIS!)

IF YOU HAVE READ HIS STOREIS THEN I HOPE MY WORDS HAVE DONE HIM JUSTICE IF NOT...DO YOURSELF A FAVOR!!

BY THE WAY I HAVE LENT MANY OF MY HODGESON BOOKS AND THEY HAVE DISSAPEARED WITH LAME EXSCUSES LIKE "I LOST IT" (WHICH IS A PITY BECAUSE THE NIGHTLAND IS OUT OF PRINT I BELIEVE) MOST OF MY FREINDS WHO HAVE READ HODGESON LOVE HIS WORK AS DO I

IF YOU CAN FIND HIS STOREIS DONT HESITATE TO READ THEM THEY ARE AN............EXPERIENCE!!! AND I HOPE YOU LIKE THEM

5 WILLIAM HOPE HODGESON

CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER:THE NIGHTLAND:THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND:BOATS OF THE GLEN CARRIG:CAPTAIN GAULT

I THINK THAT WILL DO FOR NOW

by the way i beleive at least one of hodgesons stories became or was used as the basis for an episode of a tv sci fi horror sereis but i have no information to back this up can anyone help?

"the night land is a tale of the remote future billions of years after the death of the sun it ,is one of the most potent tales of the macabre ever written":H P LOVECRAFT

ivan_2068 wrote: . I don't think that his ego and artistic integrity would have allowed him to attach his name to works by junior, inferior writers. Thats why I mentioned Academy in the greek sense, parts of Socrates works were developed by his students, including Plato who wrote the Dialogs, Michelangello was helped when painting the Sixtine Chappel, Tizziano signed many paintings done 90% by his students, in those years the student's work was considered property and could be signed by the master, because they were considered helpers and trainees. I don't doubt of Shakeys integrity, but in those years morality had a different conception. But it's only supositions of people who need to write about something in order to eat , the point that Shakeaspeare is to English literature what Cervantes is to Spanish literature, and I love both. Iván

 Right on, Ivan the Not-So-Very-Terrible! There seems to be no real way to conclusively prove it one way or another anyway, as in the old "Was Shakespeare gay? Did he pen his sonnets for a man (young actor), a woman, or for an upper-class client's use?"

 Interesting topic for discussion, but needs a time machine to resolve.