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#hp lovecraft nails
autistic-af · 2 months
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Who are some horror authors you like? Or other movies aside from the one you mentioned in your recent post?
I personally like Edgar Allan Poe (I have several collections of his work, including an ancient version from I think 1912? It's very delicate). I also enjoy Bram Stoker, Stephen King (Pet Semetary and Fairytale, though the second one is more fantasy than horror).
I also like older stories. I got Black Beauty today, alongside an illustrated Treasure Island. I have some Austen and Bronte books as well. I have some Hugo and a Wilde collection. Oh, and I have Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit, as well as an audio version of The Silmarillion. Ah, and I also have Moby Dick.
I do enjoy horror movies too, though the jumpscares stress me out and I unfortunately dig my nails into the nearest person (my partner or friends or family) or stuffed animal (I'm twenty one and I sleep with like twelve of them on my bed. I have a problem lol)
Sorry if I'm rambling! I just like talking about my books lol.
Rambling about books is always welcome!
First, I own heaps of old novels. I haven't read any of them...I just like owning them. They make me happy to look at.
I own the complete collections of Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, HP Lovecraft, and Shakespeare, as well as Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen and a book of Irish Folklore.
Of course, I own a lot of science books, books about shipwrecks and also cemeteries.
As for horror (my beloved!), I recommend:
Stephen King - I personally adore his longer novels because his character building is amazing, but shorter works like Misery are just masterpieces.
Adam Neville - he's hit or miss, but he's the author of The Ritual, which was adapted into a movie on Netflix, and several other horror movies.
Joe Hill - I highly recommend NOS4A2 by him. It was adapted into a TV series, but the book is just so good. He also wrote Horns, which was adapted into a movie with Daniel Radcliffe.
Mark Danielewski - He's known for House of Leaves, which most horror fans will have heard about. It is not typical and is slow burning, and literally requires concentration to read, but left me with such a feeling of unease which does not happen for me. I read it years ago and I'm still affected.
Nick Cutter - wrote The Troop, which is not for the faint of heart or squeamish, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
John Ajvide Lindqvist - author of Let The Right One In , which I recommend. Not for the squeamish and huge trigger warnings for blood and paedophilia, but scary. I have also enjoyed all his novels for slow burn creepiness.
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prettypinkdork · 1 year
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The Whisperer in Darkness is the funniest HP Lovecraft story not for anything Lovecraft was consciously trying to do but for the fact that it’s about these two aliens in the woods that are fucking up secrecy so bad that the only thing saving them from getting caught is that the people they’re up against are even more incompetent than they are and you know they have to know this. Imagining them off page like ‘fuck, this is embarrassing, we told him not to worry about it like six times in that letter; how are we still nailing this?’
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marinsawakening · 9 months
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Reading Round-Up June 2023
Books Read
An Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James
Described as "a serialized murder mystery novel set in a fictional fandom, formatted like a shipper's conspiracy theory", which is very accurate. It can be read in full (for free) here. I have mixed feelings on this novel. On the one hand, it's really clever in a lot of ways, I love Gottie and Rob and their parallels, and it absolutely nails the fandom atmosphere. The first half of the book feels just like reading unhinged fandom discourse, which, if you're a nosy bitch like me, is fantastic. The second half, however, plays the (murder) mystery a lot straighter, and that's where it kind of lost me. I don't feel like the mystery is quite strong enough to work without the gimmick. I do think the novel uses its chosen framing device really well, but the ultimate mystery was such a let down for me it left a nasty aftertaste. I would still recommend this novel, though, because at the end of the day, it's a unique piece of writing with a lot of thought and effort put in. And besides, I am difficult to please when it comes to mystery novels, so others might enjoy this more than me. (PS for the best experience, make sure you know the story of the MsScribe drama.)
The Call of Cthulhu, The Curse of Yig, The Man of Stone, The Horror in the Museum, The Thing on the Doorstep, The Tree on the Hill, and The Shadow out of Time by HP Lovecraft
This month I finished Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos stories. I still hate this guy's writing and am relieved that I'm finally able to leave it behind. From this month, the ones worth reading if you're interested in Lovecraft's worldbuilding are The Thing on the Doorstep, The Shadow Out of Time, and The Call of Cthulhu. This man's writing is never not racist but I'm specifically warning for racism in The Call of Cthulhu, in particular in regards to mistreatment of voodoo, racism against Inuit people and repeated usage of the esk*mo slur, and repeated usage of the word 'mongrel' to refer to a diverse group of people of colour.
Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee (Did Not Finish)
I bought this book about three years ago for my birthday but never got around to reading it. Finally decided to pick it up because I was in the mood for something lighter, and unfortunately I did not enjoy it. I read up until about halfway through the book before deciding I did not care. The premise of this book is absolutely killer (giant mechanical dragon powered by magic paint does revolution against an imperialist nation), but unfortunately the writing/execution is just not every good. The worldbuilding's pretty interesting, as is the actual dragon, but the author does not seem to have a good grasp on how to distribute information, leading to either over- or under-explaining, which ended up being the death knell of this book for me. It's incredibly difficult to care about the plot when you barely explain the rules of the magic system your plot hinges on. This, combined with a small slew of other minor problems (the prose is mediocre, the pacing a little-less-than-mediocre, and I find a few of the narrative decisions this book makes to be annoying/baffling) made me frustrated while reading more often than not, and unlike what my Lovecraft adventures would have you believe, I am not a completionist and I do not make a habit of reading through books I don't like.
The Murderbot Diaries: All System Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Currently listening through Network Effect. Picked this series up in a bundle of audiobooks sold for charity basically on a whim because it was an insanely good deal (less than 20 euros for the whole series + a lot of other books). I'd vaguely heard of the series but went in pretty much blind. Delighted to announce that it's great and I'm enjoying it immensely. Murderbot is a fantastic protagonist/narrator, and tbh it's hard carrying the series, because while the rest the narrative (worldbuilding, other characters, prose, etc) isn't bad, I feel like thusfar the only other stand-out elements are ART's character and maybe the portrayal of the Company. But Murderbot is just such a compelling character it's impossible not to be charmed by these books. They're funny as hell too. Favourite book so far is Artificial Condition.
Shows Watched
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
Finished season one, on episode two of season two. Having an absolute blast watching this show; I really enjoy most of the characters and I'm interested to see where all that political intrigue goes. However, I do think that the school setting works against the show (it feels unnecessary most of the time and is boring compared to alternative options imo) and I feel like the transition between season one and two was pretty poor. It also has intermittent pacing issues. In addition, this is my first ever Gundam show and though I'd heard this was accessible to newcomers, and that's probably true bc I'm following along fine, I really do feel like I'm working with half the information most of the time. How exactly Gundams work is very underexplained in the show. I assume this is background knowledge long-term viewers are expected to have, but maybe it's a flaw in the worldbuilding, I can't say. At the end of the day though, most of the issues I have with this show are nitpicks and don't affect my enjoyment.

Games Played
The Great Artists
A game with minimal gameplay elements, in which you follow a group of phantom thieves and a detective right before and after a painting gets stolen. You can jump back and forth through time, allowing you to follow different people who are doing things simultaneously, which is the only interactive element. It's cute and interesting, plus I love the art, but I found the lack of interactive elements a little boring. You can get it here on itch.io.
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I hope we get to see your Halloween nails! Also, top 5 movies to watch on Halloween? I need recs.
💙
I'm not super into horror but I watch some favorites at Halloween.
But I really the Scream franchise. They can get gorey but they're more of a mystery/jump scare series than anything. I can't stomach Saw, it's just gore for the sake of gore and I fucking cannot.
Boris Karloff is a must, especially Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.
Re-Animator is HP Lovecraft and it's really good too. It has a similar feel to Frankenstein.
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is probably my favorite horror movie.
Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island is spooky and psychological, I highly recommend it.
It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Absolute classic and I will fight anyone who says that my pumpkin patch isn't the most sincere.
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Eyeless Jack x Reader
Trigger warning: Vulgar language, violence, descriptive blood.
Your eye twitched as you stared at Jenny from across the dorm room, her nose buried into that stupid book of demons her and her buddy's fan-girled about. You looked at it, it was some serious HP Lovecraft Necronomicon shit.
You've overheard them whisper, about some Jack, Chernobog, and a sacrifice. You assumed it was some game.
But your gut said otherwise. So, the night Jenny gathered up a bag of robes, and a bright sapphire mask. You followed, secretly. Of course, she never knew.
By the time you arrived, hiding behind a tree, your toes quietly smacking into a rock. Jenny had scooped out Jacks eyes. You could only watch as she spoke in a weird language, pouring a liquid into his now emptied sockets.
His screams pierced your ears, as the rest chanted louder. You watched as the pain caused Jack to faint and regain consciousness over and over again.
You gritted your teeth, grabbing the rock by your feet. It was only seconds from the time you grabbed the rock, and you found yourself beating it into one of their faces. You couldn't tell who. The rocks jagged edges turned their face into mush, bone and blood splattered.
You could barely hear the screams and pleads of Chernobog as the group tried to pull you off of your victim. But it was too late, as you were wrenched from the body, his head was in shambles and his breathing stopped.
You don't know why you did it, perhaps it was because your father once poured boiling water in your eyes because he caught you looking at the tv after dinner. Maybe it was because you had an odd hate for Jenny, and the way she tortured this boy for her stupid, fake god really got to you.
You didn't stop fighting until there was a hit on the back of your head, causing you to fall with your face in the dirt and leaves.
You watched with tunneling vision, as Jack started to change, how his skin greyed, his body seemed to get bigger. The crack and breaking of his bones made him scream.
You couldn't hear the rest as you passed out.
When you next came to, you were being carried, the swaying of the person you were against gently brought you too.
You didn't move immediately, looking at the greyed hands that held you, thick, black claw-like nails carefully held away from your body. Finally looking up, you gazed at the sharp grey jawline, and a face, covered by one of those masks. The inky black substance from before streaked under the eyes, it looked like it was crying.
"Jac..k?"
He stopped, and looked down at you, the ink from the mask dotted onto your skin, he didn't say a word.
"Are you.... Gods, no you're not... Will you be alright?" You ignored the throbbing at the back of your head. And the taught feeling of blood matted hair.
He only nodded, and continued walking.
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anatomicalmartyr · 2 years
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I know H P Lovecraft is kind of a meme at this point with his ridiculously over the top racism and unfortunately named cat, but to give credit where credit is due “The Outsider” hits hard if you’re neurodivergent
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Cthulhu Nails! :)
Tutorial here
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quesadellaarts · 5 years
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Finally got around to doing the Cthulhu mani I've been planning for ages. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I'll probably revisit the theme again anyway, since I love the mythos!! ~ @pinailcolors "Unicorn Sauce" ~ @helloManiology "Freedom Ring" and BMXL14 ~ @nicolediary Space plate (I'll add info later) ~ Homemade green stamping polish ~Seche Vite 🐙
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fanonical · 4 years
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hey do you think you could expand a bit on separating the art from the artist? clearly you’ve done it with jk rowling but what are your thoughts on it as a general idea?
Okay, but you’re not going to like the answer.
Here’s the truth: you can’t separate the art from the artist. Not entirely. HP Lovecraft was an incredibly talented, but much more incredibly racist man. It would nice to say you don’t agree with his views but you can enjoy his works without that leaking in but.... well, I’m afraid that would be misunderstanding his books entirely.
Consider, for a second, that Lovecraft’s works were horror stories about extradimensional creatures having mutant children with humans; they were about invasions from distant aliens; they were about the purity of quaint, white, American towns being tainted. Now consider how this may have all been influenced by the fact that he just simply despised anybody who wasn’t white. Consider how his opinions on “mixing the races” might feed into this; consider why being unable to maintain the “purity” of white Americans was the scariest thing of all to him.
This extends to Rowling too.
I would love to say we can just acknowledge that she is an awful, racist, antisemitic, transphobic person and then say “but at least her books are good,” because, well, they are, aren’t they? I would say so, for sure. But to suggest that one can separate her from them is.... ridiculous, and it’s an insult to fans, can know and do better.
Consider why an antisemitic woman wrote about a species of goblins who live among us, but who for the most part keep to themselves and are maybe a little discriminated against on an individual level, but also hold all the cards, all the money, run the banks.
Consider why a racist woman would write about a species of slaves who loved being enslaved, who enjoyed working for no pay, and cleaning up after humans, with the only small caveat of that they didn’t want to be beaten. Imagine that only the most radical of their species wanted to be free, and he still spent the rest of his life working for no pay and helping out a little white boy and his friends wherever he could. Consider why the only person in the story who thought they should be free, that they should have rights, was treated as an overzealous joke, who was acting against the wishes of those slaves who really LOVE being enslaved. Consider that Rowling went on to say that she kind of considers that girl to be black, now.
Consider why JK Rowling, an open and proud transphobe, wrote Rita Skeeter as having a large square jaw, thick “manly” hands, and dressing incredibly gaudily with the most obvious fake nails and fake teeth and fake hair and fake everything. Consider why a woman who tweets about how trans women are “foxes pretending to be hens to get in the hen house” might write this Rita Skeeter character to then illegally transform her body in order to spy on children.
Harry Potter is full of Rowling’s bigotry, start to finish. Not even tangentially, like, “oh the goblins are bad, Rita Skeeter is bad, the house elves are bad, but most of it’s good!” because the deeper you dig and the longer you think the more you realise the entire story is based on her prejudices.
Harry Potter pretends to be an aracial story about found family, but if that were true, why are Harry’s distant ancestors important to who he is today even in the seventh book? Why does Harry have to live with his cousin and aunt and uncle? Because magic inherently prefers blood ties. Whilst Rowling was writing a story that seemed to say, “your heritage is not that important and doesn’t make you better than others” she was still writing a story about a boy who got all of his money through his bloodline, who was protected by living with his bloodline, no matter how evil, who was uniquely able to stop Voldemort because his bloodline passed down the invisibility cloak for generations and generations. Any step Harry takes he is compared to his perfect parents who were exactly like him — he looks just like his father, but he has his mother’s eyes, you know! — consider WHY a woman who is racist might’ve written a story like this. A story that on its surface, condemns a blood caste, but still in every step it takes, validates the idea that blood is thicker than water, and your geneological origin is what makes you special.
You can enjoy Harry Pottwr, of course you can. There are fantastic parts. I love a small group of teenagers deciding to become anarchist rebels and train to fight against fascism in secret. I love the murder mystery plots, I love how the series tells kids that it’s a good thing to be brave, and a good thing to fight injustice, and a good thing to challenge the government. But I cannot separate it from its author because it is such a product of its author. All of the structures of the world, the way things work in the universe, are drenched in Rowling’s beliefs, her bigotries. Of course they are: she made them.
Again. This doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy it. But I think we are past the day where we can pretend that disavowing a bigoted author is enough, and that that somehow separates the text from its bigotry. I think we are past the day where we can pretend that Harry Potter isn’t a deeply, inherently bigoted piece of media. Even the bits we love. I think we are beyond the day where we can truthfully pretend to separate it from her, because she is present through all of it. We MUST recognise its flaws. We MUST admit that she is in every part of it.
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jeeperso · 3 years
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D&D Quotes Without context
Miscellaneous Edition, for those quotable lines from between sessions
"All I wanna do, is fork a giant woman! A giant woman!" "Jonni, I'm pretty sure she is some type of undead, probably a vampire. Are you sure that is a good idea?" "If I don’t get turned into a blueberry it won’t be my worst date." "Okay, but if you have to defend yourself just don't burn the place down for once." "Oh, Nyx. Sweet summer child. I never make promises we both know I won’t even try to keep." "Jonni, if I wake up to my bed surrounded in flames again I'm short-sheeting your next bed every night for at least a month." "I know you're trying to score here, but Lady Dimitrescu's daughters are literally vampires AND bugs. I can overlook one, but as a Paladin, it is my sacred duty to burn this place to the ground and stir the ashes."
"We don't let Marshall make breakfast anymore." "Those waffles are well-fortified." "I'm going to be charitable and call it hardtack." "We can use these waffles as melee weapons." "Well if we need to deflect siege engines they'll be good to have." "This is still carbon based and digestible by human systems without any poisons." "I can't serve this. It'll cause ... death." "Marshal we've been over this. This Pizza has 10% less of a lethal amount of grease." "Plus they signed the waivers when they bought a ticket. It's fine." "And don't forget to push the Cakeon." "Cakeon being slices of cake wrapped in bacon." "The special sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, ranch, horseradish, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and anything unfortunate enough to fall into the mixing vat."
"You do have a copy of the legal code I requested in my letter? As landed gentry you should actually have legal avenues to... I'm sorry did you say Burning child?"
"First I'm going to nail a crossbow bolt through your heart. Then I'm going to mount your balls to walls on opposite sides of this chamber." "I need Three Barrels of Butter" "Are you serious? Those Claws could crush an elephant in full plate!" "You're Right!" *Turns to first person* "We might need more than three barrels of butter."
"So Ioun is the patron of poor college kids. that scans "
"its hardtack or a mug of molten cheese-fried... something in a woven mug of bacon. your choice."
"Welp, all this coke ain't gonna snort itself..."
"Right hand me that dress and the bail money. I'll get Jonni." OOC: Well I mean they allow men in the city. Its just no men live in the city. "I stand by my statement. I'm allowed to look pretty every now and then." OOC: And dragons are the most unprejudiced lovers of anyone after bards.
OOC: Well I mean come on, its Ravenloft: saying a place is of death and madness is like making the observation the day ends in y. "Going out. Getting laid." "Jonni, she’s a werewolf." "Going out, forking a werewolf." OOC: Well Lycanthropy isn't usually sexually transmitted. Its just that Mercedes is a biter. OOC: ...I don't have an appropriate response to that.
"You seriously think I’d turn on my friends for a pile of gold?!?" "sigh I’ll show you my tits. "Hot damn, let’s get these murders done!" "No, Jonni, stay good. Besides, there are plenty of other girls who will do that without asking you to murder us." "Hmmmm… this is the moral quandary of my life…" "I’ll give you five bucks." "Scales tipped!" "Phew, I thought I was going to have to cover her next trip to the topless bar." "No, no, I have the bail money right here."
Nyx: So what’s the inside of Jonni’s head like? Edmund (with thousand yard stare): Imagine every ladies only smut magazine you’ve ever heard of going on forever into infinity while everything is on fire. Food was good though.
"It’s cool. They stole it." "And you know this how?" "Magic." “90% of Ravenloft deaths are mysterious vanishings.” "Why does everything come out covered in glitter and … is that …" "Lube. I’ve got a few theories." "Please don’t share them."
OOC: This is a plan that ends with Strahd having fewer brides, his castle is in flames, and he’s lost his cape.
OOC: Our team consists of a horny pyromancer, a gnome who can fillete you in five seconds, an HP lovecraft protagonist with actual magic backing them up, a literal slab of iron with a face, and a guy with a "I went to the eternal city of Ryleth and all I got was PTSD and this lousy T shirt". Gorbash smashing his shield into their face: "Have! You! Considered! Therapy!" OOC: Good news is you guys will no longer be the most conspicuous guys at the masquerade now. Jonni: Challenge accepted! "Nyx, the bounty on stealing his fake mustache is still on."
"Vanilla is the king of flavors. What does it say about society where vanilla is considered just 'regular'?" "That they have a lot of vanilla." Lash: "Don’t you want wishes?" Jonni: "Do I need wishes to get to see you naked?" Lash: "No?" Jonni: "Fuck ‘em." Vesh: "Oh dammit its my arranged fiance." Pit Fiend: "Milady." Vesh: "An extra wish to whoever punches this douchecanoe in the nards." Jonni: "I wish…for Bigby’s clenched fist of nard punching."
Soth: "Oh, gods, why am I on fire and why is Immigrant Song playing?" Jonni: "Take a guess." Hazlik: "Okay, so its a partridge, stuffed inside a chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey, and the whole thing is fried on a stick. Congratulations, that's the most horrible thing I have ever seen, and I once crossbred an elephant and an owl." "I give him the 'itis, and we run like we stole something." OOC: ...weirdly Curse of Strahd has stats for Strahd zombies but not Strahd Skeletons. Or Strahd's skeletal Steed. Strahd once went to a branding seminar hosted by Bane and it changed his life.
"Are we on a high enough floor that if I throw him through the window he'll be killed by the fall?" "Oh, but when I say stuff like that it’s all 'Jonni, murder is wrong.'" "When they say pick your battles they don't mean to pick all of them. That's too many battles Jonni. Put some back." OOC: He's technically already got a symbiote. OOC: They can get married. Gorbash: "I'm increasing the rent." Venom: "Can I keep the pool table?" Gorbash: "I'm not a monster." Giant Brain: "Jonni… I have summoned you here for… WHY AM I ALREADY ON FIRE! PUT ME OUT! PUT ME OUT!"
"Hello We're the party-crashers. This is Jonni, she's here to steal your women and burn your shit down. That's Nyx, she's going to repatriate certain items from the premise. Marshal over there, is here to studiously ignore our shenanigans. This is the New Guy. He seems pretty chill. I'm Gorbash... and I have been distracting you."
"Will you walk into my parlour?" said a spider to a fly. Jonni: "Hold up. Trying to sex a spider." Nyx: (throws her hands up) And then Jonni wakes up with a spider venom hangover webbed to a wall waiting to be eaten. Jonni: "Eh, I’ve had worse one night stands. I’m not a fucking blueberry." OOC 1: Hey, where does your weed elf grow [her] crops? OOC 2: She probably just grows them in the room she hasn’t paid rent on. OOC 3: Because I was also considering a circle of spores druid tortle. OOC 2: We could be partners! We could turn this into road to el dorado staring Cheech and Chong. OOC: Wait, I just realized five people are hanging out in a pirate bar, and none of us are rogues. We are gonna need someone to get thieves tools. OOC: We have a barbarian with a big stick.
"Are we Foxhound now? Blunderbuss Octopus." OOC1: You want to put the stoner in charge of food. OOC2: Eyup. OOC1: I see no way this can go wrong! OOC3: We need the four basic food groups. Beans, Bacon, Whisky, and Lard. “We pray to Almighty Darkseid! Give us a sign! Thumbs up, for the triumph of the human spirit! Thumbs down to begin the everlasting reign of darkness!” “Where did you find this guy?” “Me? I thought you hired him.” OOC: Yup, nature, arcana, history, investigation and religon at +6. MJ got baked and watched the Discovery Orb a lot. Tordek: "But we have a cleric, Jozan, over there." Strahd: *sigh* Snaps fingers, and suddenly one of Strahd's brides sucks Jozan out the window, cue screaming. "Oh look, you suddenly have an opening, how fortunate." Tordek: "We also have a druid...." Vadania: "SHUT UP, TORDEK!" Edmund: "I think the first order of business may be to discuss your Human Resources strategy..." Strahd: "I have a guy for that too."
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"When someone as smart as him talks with himself, it's not crazy...They call it monologing." "I thought it was soliloquy?" "No, soliloquy is when you're talk at someone else when your talking to yourself." "Most people would run from a demon, you run towards it to study it." Professor: "THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING! A FROGHEMOTH, AND RIGHT UP CLOSE, IT WILL BE AMAZING TO SEE THIS PERFECT KILLING MACHINE IN ACTION." OOC: Also note the Professor is Lawful Good, Archie is Chaotic Good, so collectively they balance out to Neutral good. OOC: That's good. "The incinerations will continue until morale improves!" “You never incinerate the women!” “Because I’m fucking them!” “I… was not expecting you to be so honest about that…”
"You got what you wanted....but you lost what you had...." "Yes, I'm familiar with how capitalism works."
OOC: Dragons are like, “That’s Krandor the shiney. He only fucks other dragons. Weirdo.”
Gorbash: "D'awww, so tiny... perfect size... FOR PUNTING!" *boots tiny mind-flayer into the horizon*
"Dracula hasn't been spotted in almost recently. Whats he gonna do, destroy all we know and love like he definitely can?" "... my god you people are too stupid to live." "What are you doing in my house?" Gorbash: "...well Edmund has been reading your books, I've been sorting through your armory, Nyx and Irost has been going through your other shinies, Marshal has been cleaving anything monstrous that gets too close, and Jonni has been lighting things on fire to stave off boredom." Gorbash: "Okay Marshal, Jonni. Rock, paper, scissors over who gets [to kill] the bishop."
Jonni: "Did you really think this would make up for what you did?" Nima: "I… killed everyone you grew up with." Jonni: "Yeah, and I’m still not forgiving you for what you did to Eddie." Nima: "I am missing some key context here…" Nima: "Also I committed identity theft on you by having my new undead army tell everyone you are running the show." Jonni: "Oh, no. You’ve fooled the boar tribe. Who still haven’t figured out shitting in a hole." Nima: "Yeah I noticed that. I ruined two pairs of shoes attacking their camps."
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a-libra-writes · 3 years
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about asoiaf sex scenes, incest, pedophilia, etc... i know it's fantasy and you have "freedom" to write whatever you please, but it is absolutely fucking fascinating to me (not even in a negative way) how grrm is pretty much exempt from that criticism amongst the general public and people are like "oh misogyny" and "white savior complex" when that shit goes on. i feel that grrm is rarely criticized for more problematic shit and idk why that is (not saying he should be)... ya feel?
Somewhat (?) Incoherent 6am thoughts:
I dont want to say "no one can write about these dark topics ever" in my opinion it's just the way theyre presented, if that makes sense? In asoiaf it's not presented as a Good Thing in the setting, but it's def a Normalized Thing That is Not Good. Like idk on the misogyny claim bc he writes fantastic female characters but the setting itself is not kind to them - and there's a deluge of women in the setting who know this and try to turn the game to their favor... and several women who self-internalize misogyny and hurt each other because of the system.
The sexual abuse is an extension of this setting putting women as second class. Which, yeah, is historically "accurate" and still true today. It doesnt mean I enjoy reading about it, nor does it mean GRRM endorses it. Male creators of any medium like to throw in sexual violence to show how dark and gritty their world is. It's everywhere. And ive seen this argument done many times:
"Well, it's based off [x historical year/setting that had violence against Y group], so ofc itll have it here!", which the response is "its a fictional setting, it only has those bc the creator decides it", to which the next response is "if theyre trying to be 'accurate'...."
And so on and so forth.
There's many situations where the author clearly believes the biases of the characters/setting in their books (HP Lovecraft), and there are situations where the author is just writing bad people. I've noticed people getting these conflated, especially if the author isn't nailing them over the head with "THING BAD!" (That's very prevalent in YA and it drives me insane).
Examples of that - Sansa isn't happy about these older men creeping on her + she's learning how to play stupid and be unassuming, Cersei constantly remarks on a lot of the shitty sexism and hypocrisy (and she indulges knowingly in misogyny), Catelyn has a lot of internalized monogyny, generally judgmental thoughts & she perfectly follows the role assigned to her gender and rank, the creepy pedo/rape is obvs being done by bad people, etc etc. Tho I do wish Daenerys' chapters had more of her thinking 'wow this is fucked up!!!' and less 'falling in love' with Drogo after all the shit he puts her through :/ but she's also a freaking teen and dealing w a fucked up childhood. Kid!Dany thought she was gonna marry her brother ffs, and it doesn't occur to her that's fucked up bc her whole family does it.
Theyre still way too young tho. Gross.
sorry if this isn't coherent. A lot of this is up to taste for some people, like i rlly cant stand to read sexual assault/rape so i skip over that in any book i read. And theres people who arent bothered by that at all in asoiaf and dont even recall it
If anyone starts ranting at me or getting pissed this is all subjective and we can be adults & have our own opinions here lmao.
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obsessed-fanatic · 3 years
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Studies are showing indications of a societal collapse looming.
Im seeing things get worse and worse.
Are we almost there? Cause im getting terrified. I don't want to die unnaturally of a riot, virus, disease, or something else knowing
I will never meet and have a wholesome reassuring time with the favorite people I've talked to and befriended on the internet let alone anyone else i've met in real life.
They made us who we are.
We're all a fan of something.
But i wouldn't want to abuse such a position.
We wouldn't want to attack our own.
It's just too terrible to think of.
I listen to Gorillaz, guns and roses, nirvana, TeddyLoid, DayManOurSavior, Post Malone, Twenty One Pilots, Halsey(Congrats on IICHLIWP), Juice WRLD, Hp lovecraft, Evil dead franchise, XXXtentacion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Sonic The Hedgehog( SATAM Sonic and scourge)SlipKnot(Duality is fucking cool btw)Watch a shit ton of youtube that markiplier, JackSepticeye andPewDiePie are in my head all the time, Dj Fortify, Dj EAR(or huepoww)
Biogodz1(Al the wolf), Pink stylist, Makemebad35, Scott Cawthon, DAGames, CG5, CrankGameplays, Yamimash, BryceGames, Rick And Morty, Anything Seth Macfarland and Matt Groening, AnimatedJames(still have the 2015 con vid on my flashdrive. You're still cared about), Bryan Adams(Thank you MindlessGonzo), Elton John(fantastic job with The Pink phantom with Gorillaz and 6lack and collab song with Dua Lipa), Dua lipa( I. love. Hallucinate.), Rob Gavagan, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Sean S. cunningham, Brian De Palma, HuniCast(Cause why the fuck not? Got up at 6pm in 2019 everyday for it i loved it! Like saturday morning again) Rio Franchise From Blue Sky, Surf's Up From Sony pictures animation (the ultimate fan image archetype movie), Robots from blue sky(another great fan archetype film)Mel Brooks( Put on the ritz and the Schwartz) SpindleHorse or Vivziepop(very big chunk of my teenhood. Got me dancing till i almost died), Hell EVEN The Rocky and Bullwinkle movie from 2000 cause it had an Absolutely amazing and frankly inspiring song from SuperTramp. Oh and Rocky with Sylvester cause why not? Me and my mom LOVE the Rocky franchise. Even Creed and creed 2 are amazing films. Dbz, Black butler, Steins Gate, Devilman or Lady(loved that one. So we can!)
Gunnm(Alita Battle Angel)
Sonic movie from 1999 (Shut up tails)
Doctor Mike ( Peewoop)
James Lee ( NOX)
Dazed and Confused( ultimate teen a put smoking weed)
Everybody wants Some!!! (Spiritual successor to dazed, same director as well)
The Big Bang Theory ( Me and my brother worship that show.)
Poltergeist 1982 ( music scares me too knackerman. No really.)
Everything Blumhouse studios
The Exorcist Franchise
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One part i loved in the show My Name is Earl is when earl gave that one manager dude on a ladder his wallet back. He and his brother randy got a job as a thank you. I loved that moment ever since cause it was a nice, let alone life-saving gesture.
I always anticipated the next update of lil miss rarity back in 2013-present day.
Yeah.
I also like Apples.
I have a FUCKING FLASHDRIVE containing SO many offline mp4s of old youtube vids i can watch if internet cuts out just in case, but NEVER TO REPOST. I cannot say that enough. (<Yes the reposting part)
I probably even have some files that are probably golden nuggets of the internet cause some of these files are not even on youtube or their website origin anymore.
Now i downloaded these files cause they were my childhood and teenhood. What made me and maybe even some of you.
Mostly to playback for entertainment on a computer or PS3 for a number of long periods of my life.
One internet gem i listen to sometimes is Addictia's(or Princess Addictia) remix of Love is in Bloom from Daniel ingrams song from MLP FIM.
I haven't seen Addictia for a long time. Hope he's okay. Though i think one video reupload of that song is on youtube but i'm not the one who reposted it. Different Channel.
I even have ONE video of Unus Annus left but OBVIOUSLY im not gonna repost that one. Or anything for that matter.
I've had this flashdrive since 2013.
Like a fandom's treasure chest. Or a small gold bar made of plastic nostalgia.
I have even have original movie trailers and fanarts.
And again no reposting has never been done. Even after all this time. Its very much wrong.
All for free offline view. No reposting.
Lets just say i even have a video that On Youtube the sound is off cause of copyrighted content. It has musical samples in it.
Even a folder that has a fandom in it that is made fun of but not scrutinized. Lets just say they would gobble it up or remind someone of a taco bell drive thru experience with their friends.(they're beloved in a way)
So yeah. All this stuff thats bad and hectic happening( honestly im crushed when i learned about recently with norm macdonald and chadwick boseman) im sort've like that one dude in the picture that is sadly walking away from terrible things on the news while walking towards pop culture stuff like disney my little pony marvel DC Dark Horse Comics(holy shit The Mask) IDW publishing Image comics Even Stephen King. Honestly how would i like all this out of selfish intent? Thats just confusing. And lets not forget the fan creations of all this content. In 2015 i listened to so much Toby Fox. Two words.
Such Determination. ❤💚💜💙💛💗
Let alone Bill and Ted. Excellent... And Breathtaking. ( Saw The Matrix 4 trailer. Deathly Excited)
Here it is.
V
V
V
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And of course ive learned from the Mare do well episode from MLP Gen 4. Also Griffin the brush off. Wouldnt want to hang out with someone disrespectful like that. Though she improved later in season 4 or 5 i think.
First ones i watched on TheHub were look before you sleep and bridle gossip. Very important episodes.
I also first saw Awoken by H8_seed on here, Tumblr. 2012.
Amazing song.
You all are great.
I just hope we don't tear ourselves apart.
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optimisticaudience · 4 years
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Been trying to put my thoughts into words.
I failed, but here’s the closest thing I got. 
So, there’s an insidious thing in fandom. I’m not talking about the overt racism, transphobia, or sexism, because those are really not my place to discuss per se. However, I do see something that enables that stuff. 
After JKR decided to publicly mask off for maybe the third or fourth time, we always get posts like this. 
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Confusing? Okay so I’m cis. I’m (mostly) white, but I can tell you about Rita Skeeter. 
She has a “strong jaw,” “mannish hands,” and “fake nails.” Then you have the plot about Rita’s schemes to transform into something else so she can give people bad press. I don’t know if she knowingly wanted a metaphor or not. I don’t care per se. It could just be her unconscious bias. There’s also the house assignment which kids get at a young age and they never change it. 
But folks are confused. 
Then there is the colossal amount of stuff people have brought up about how the goblins are jewish stereotypes or the absolute racism of her History of Magic in North America. 
But you understand, it’s a surprise. 
Fandom is a space I like to talk to people about stuff we like...but i’m so damn tired of people who don’t want to critically think about what they read. “Why do you have to always be like this?” Folks say. “It’s not that deep.” 
“Why are you here if you want to complain?”
I like Harry Potter. I genuinely do. I can like it as a series, but dislike individual books. I can like it as a series, but there are fundamental problems with the books because that’s how art is. All of the artists will have internal biases against stuff. Especially auteurs who no one will say no to. 
If I say that on rereading the books I can see JKR’s transphobia, body shaming, sexism, and racism, and then someone complains that i’m being a downer, I’ll be fine.  
Thing is, there are plenty of folks who don’t speak out because they don’t want to rock the boat, especially ones from marginalized groups. I’m lucky in many ways, but if we actually want to be a safe place for people, we can’t be surprised. We have to be able to let fandom be a place where we can critically engage with something we like. 
And also, I really resent the “death of the author” argument in the above picture for this exact reason. I can see the through line from the books to her modern statements. We cannot just ignore stuff like that because it would bring us down. I love some of HP Lovecraft’s stories, but there is NO WAY IN HELL i will ignore who wrote them. In the case of HPL, he’s dead and can’t make any money on it. JKR does. She’s the first billionaire author for a reason. Remember that too. 
I left any and all discussions/groups of Dresden Files fans because I brought up that his Chicago is suspiciously white and there are some bad depictions of women in the series. People did not want to talk about these things. Maybe we can just have a forum for critical discussion separate from the general one, but I cannot and will not engage with a fandom that does not want to actually discuss flaws and problems as well as the good. 
And also fundamentally, when someone says a part of the story bothers them, LISTEN. 
When someone from a marginalized group says a part of a story bothers them SHUT UP AND LISTEN. 
If your fandom can’t do that then it isn’t a fandom, it’s a religion. 
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fictionz · 4 years
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New Fiction 2020 - July
“Sadie When She Died” by Ed McBain (1972)
I didn’t mean for July to turn out the way it did. This first short story has all the elements--murder, mistaken identity, revenge, cops, procedure. It’s crime fiction the way that most of what I experienced this month is crime fiction. But this particular story gets to the heart of something. What is love? How is love expressed, and when is it too much or the wrong way to love? I get swooped up in the romanticism as much as anyone, but I can’t help but agree with Sheena Melwani’s dad.
The Crazy Kill by Chester Himes (1959)
Love gets even more twisted in this one. Love for a spouse, for god, for a community. The elements that drive us to commit the unspeakable. The focus on Harlem as a living place with real people strikes me as a huge shift for the time.
The Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell (1986)
Back to the English countryside for this one, albeit with a more modern eye on events that unfold across a century. Tracing a line from family member to family member, looking for the missed signs and secret connections. I come from a large extended family as well and as I wander further away from them, I wonder what am I losing, what have I gained?
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)
A story about taboos in more ways than one. Repression as a catalyst for deviant behavior feels like a subject I can’t comment on with confidence, but we’ve all seen it enough in fiction. Considering the date on this one, this has to be one of the earlier mainstream depictions of two men who are drawn together by the unstoppable force of unfulfilled longing. Something is missing and they want desperately to find it. It has some Hannibal vibes, which I will get to shortly.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012)
To be accepted for all of one’s disgusting mediocrity, to be bound to the one we deserve. I’m not sure what Flynn intends with Nick, the shitty husband character. He sucks. To hear his thoughts in the novel, I’d think he shouldn’t be with anyone. But I’ll admit some projection on my part when I read about this guy. The “villain” of the story is feels more natural, following one’s nature to the inevitable conclusion.
Prehistoric Isle in 1930 dev. SNK (1989)
I needed a break. This game was just fun and short and goofy as fuck. The player is a biplane flying across an exotic landscape and shooting all manner of dinosaurs and cave men and mutants. Games of this vintage aren’t known for interesting endings but holy shit, this was a good finale.
CARRION dev. Phobia Game Studio (2020)
If you ever wanted the perspective of the thing in The Thing, you could read “The Things,” or play this game. They absolutely nailed the fluidity of being an imagined tentacled biosmass with a case of vagina dentata and bottomless appetite. The Metroidvania aspects works really well in the context of being a lost and hungry predatory alien, although there were times when I wish I had a map. But the blind exploration makes this out to be more Another World than Castlevania. It’s a cool contrast to be a kind of laser-focused being without the kinds of ulterior motives as all the other murderers in this month’s stories.
Night of the Hunter dir. Charles Laughton (1955)
This movie is wild for the first two thirds or so. It starts off like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, then starts dipping into some dark German expressionism and stageplay drama, along with a creepy whistleman lurking around some kids. Then they pull a Hays Code and ruin the ending. Still an interesting movie given the time in which it was released.
In the Mouth of Madness dir. John Carpenter (1994)
This is, by far, the most Lovecraft movie I’ve ever seen. It hits all the notes and and even has the kind of dour finale you usually get in HP’s work. Throw in some Lynchian quaintness and it comes around to some slow but satisfying burn.
Sorcerer dir. William Friedkin (1977)
My dad would be into this. That’s the first thing that came to mind. It’s the kind of gritty macho adventure story we used to watch together in the eighties and nineties. Predator, Indiana Jones, etc. The tension is off the charts. And you don’t see the core events of the movie coming, with even the title remaining a mystery until far into the runtime. Friedkin apparently followed up The Exorcist with this one and didn’t land it at the box office, although it’s now considered an important work.
Paperhouse dir. Bernard Rose (1988)
Hey check that out, more German expressionism. I originally thought it looked distinctly Tim Burtonesque but found out that it goes much further back. There are odd angles, sets that look distinctly like warped stageplay displays. It’s a fitting movie for the time--dark fantasy aimed at children. The director went on to helm Candyman, another connection to notable horror in this very bloody month.
Strangers on a Train dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1951)
The movie’s not as good as the novel, leaving out the tension that builds between the main characters and completely altering the ending. But then the ending in the novel isn’t as dramatic as Hitchcock’s signature stellar finale, but has a lot more to say. I suppose the medium dictates the message.
Gone Girl dir. David Fincher (2014)
The other book-to-movie combo that I checked out this month, and another of many duos who are bound together in their disdain and obsession. Affleck didn’t match Nick’s literary strain from the novel, though he certainly makes for a mediocre husband type. On the other hand, Pike did great work in the role of Amy. She harnesses all the qualities and voice of the character.
What We Do in the Shadows - Seasons 1-2 (2019-2020)
My favorite television show this year? I can’t believe it’s this good. Everyone is fantastic and hilarious, and I have a crush on Natasia Demetriou’s character that is solely a nostalgic throwback to my affection for weird goth girls in high school. Guillermo, holy shit he’s great! He and Nandor form another interesting pair. Jackie Daytona shows us the way.
Hannibal - Seasons 1-3 (2013-2015)
I participate in a Slack channel about Mads Mikkelsen. That’s it, just Mads. I joined because he has the excellent “Mister Doctor” dialogue in Doctor Strange and people seemed to be really into him. I didn’t quite get it until watching Hannibal. The three season dance between the two main characters is some of the most intricate courtship I’ve ever watched. But it’s also Hannibal, so you know, there’s murder and blood and dismembered bodies displayed in all sorts of creative ways. It’s a wonder this lasted as long as it did on network television. Now I want season 4 gotdangit.
The Last of Us Part II dev. Naughty Dog (2020)
This one’s under the cut because I have extensive and spoiler-filled scattered thoughts on this video game.
I played and completed this in a marathon two-day session. Do not play this way. You will long for the end, and perhaps this isn’t a game meant to be experienced all at once. It’s crushing.
My first and strongest reaction was, “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME.” I played three days in Seattle as Ellie. It is DONE. But then Abby reenters the picture, and they reset the clock to the beginning of the excursion in Seattle from her perspective. I must concur that video games are too long. The pacing is off, the Abby section drops in and completely kills the momentum. This should have been DLC or a separate release. I mean, Christ, the player has to experience the same three days again. Most of Abby's three days was a real slog with just a few highlights in the action and fights she experiences. It all seems designed to consider all sides at a time when that isn’t working out so well.
Naughty Dog abuses the cut to black. It has weight and meaning in TLOU because it is seldom used, but in this game they go nuts with it and just confuse the player about when the game is actually over.
Santa Barbara was fucking amazing. I mean in the sense that it is so excruciatingly designed and rendered that it made me sick. Why was it so fucking good? Why? The events that took place there were secondary to just walking along in that suburb as Abby. I wondered if Ellie might find some California wine as she made her way through the Spanish style villas. I’m tempted to go back and replay those scenes just to dwell in that space.
They repeat the climactic fight between Abby and Ellie, perhaps to show when each has moved on, but it feels redundant and frustrating to go through it again. It’s too much, man.
I wonder about this game without the combat encounters. A walkthrough mode. Just walk through desolate, beautiful spaces.
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bjnurse · 4 years
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Tag Game 💕
Thank you for the tags @marvel-and-dc-geek, @myargentavislove11 & @passionelawyer! 💕
Rules: tag 10 people you want to get to know better!
Name? I like going buy Azlina [azz-lee-nuh]
Birth year? 1984
Sign? Libra sun, Aries moon and Scorpio Rising
Height? 5’6” / 168 cm if I did that right?
Put your playlist on shuffle and list the first four songs: I’ll so it this way cuz I’m lazy. 💕
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Grab the nearest book, turn to page 23, what’s the 17th line? “explained the music of Erich Zann.” HP Lovecraft collection of tales. It doesn’t go to 17 lines since it’s the end of a story.
Ever had a song or a poem written about you? My exbf wrote a poem for me.
When was the last time you played air guitar? I’m an air drummer. I’m constantly drumming on the steering wheel at red lights.
Celebrity Crush(es)? I don’t really have one? I just don’t get attached to celebrities like I do with JJBA characters. lol I blame this on being demi.
What’s a sound you hate/love? Hate- alarm clock. That is like nails on a chalk board. Like- the sound of rain or my cat purring.
Do you believe in ghosts? This could be a looooong conversation but yes, yes I do.
Do you believe in aliens? I do, yeah. Aliens are my biggest irrational fear. This could be another long convo.
Do you drive? YUP! And I have car payments! I feel like an adult! 💕
Last book you read? Wizard and Glass It’s the 4th part of Steven King’s Dark Tower series. Well, currently reading. Last book I finished was the part 3.
Do you like the smell of gasoline? Yes. It’s a nostalgic smell from when my dad would take me to elementary school each day.
Last movie you saw? Wall-e I love it so much!!! Watched it right after The Martian.
Do you have any obsessions rn? JJBA and writing fics. This is pretty much all I do with my spare time. And I’m loving it. 💕
Do you tend to hold grudges? No. I don’t stay angry wrong. I alao forgive way too quickly. I’ll remember that something someone did made me mad/upset, but that doesn’t affect the way I interact with them.
Are you in a relationship? Nope. Not looking for one either right now. I’m enjoying being single.
I’ll pass this forward but no pressure 💕 @cocojumbohno, @risottostitties, @hecateluna, @e-lectroma, @procrastinating-witch, @klinedtodecline, @erenya-jaeger, @noirdiamond, @peachfyzzy, @the-writing-dump-bin, and anyone else that wants to do this. 💕
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#10yrsago Robert E Howard collection, HEROES IN THE WIND: revisit your heroic past
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I was literally raised on Conan stories. My dad was a Conan fan, and when I was a kid, he would spin out half-remembered Conan tales for me on long car trips, changing Conan into a gender-diverse trio called Harry, Larry and Mary, who would vanquish evil rulers and then create a dictatorship of the proletariat in their wake (Dad was, and is, a Trotskyist, after all).
When I was old enough to start reading on my own, I fell in love with heroic fantasy and with RPGs, and I went out and devoured the whole Conan canon on my own, buying stacks of used paperbacks from Bakka in Toronto, reading and re-reading them indiscriminately -- the Robert E Howard originals, the L Sprague De Camp books, all of it. The first book I ever attempted to write, at the age of 12, was a blood-soaked homage to Conan, in which the phrase "mighty thews" appeared in practically every paragraph. (As I recall, I also talked my mom into reading some of the Conan stories aloud for bedtime and when I was sick, which speaks volumes about her patience!).
But I haven't read any Conan in, oh, decades. Nevertheless, when legendary science fiction and fantasy scholar John Clute told me that he'd just finished editing Heroes in the Wind: From Kull to Conan a new collection of hand-picked Robert E Howard stories, spanning Howard's astonishingly prolific career as a pulp adventure writer of everything from westerns and boxing stories to the legendary Conan tales, I found that I was overcome with an urge to revisit the heroic tales of my boyhood.
I did, and I am every bit as delighted by them as I was when I was 10 years old.
Somehow, I never knew much about Howard. I had a dim recollection that he had killed himself, but that was about it. So it was with incredulity and a little bit of awe that I read Clute's superb introduction to the collection, and acquainted myself with the biographical facts of Howard's life. He was a driven, small-town Texas boy, a boy who loved his wasting, tubercular mother and applied himself to literary hackdom like no other in order to support her. Howard wrote and sold more than 160 pulp adventure stories between 1928 (when he was 22) and 1935 (when he was 29). He typed these stories in a fury all night long, screaming the words aloud as he pounded them into the keyboard (to the horror and bemusement of his neighbors). He had few friends and only one short romance. When his mother died, he stopped writing. Not long after, he blew his brains out.
Clute's analysis of Howard's work and life (drawing on Howard's extensive correspondence with HP Lovecraft) is a fascinating read, and it sets up the stories wonderfully. The stories themselves sample some of Howard's most iconic creations -- Kull the Conqueror and Solomon Kane -- and span many genres, including a wonderfully brutal short western novel, Vultures of Wahpeton.
The final third is given over to Conan stories: "The Tower of the Elephant," a tense dungeon-crawl; "Queen of the Black Coast," a smouldering, sexy pirate epic; "A Witch Shall Be Born," a blood-soaked revenge-play; and the novel-length "Red Nails," a story of decadent fallen tribes waging war on one another in a dead walled city.
Howard's writing is muscular, unapologetically dramatic, and, for all that, innocent and genuine, without a hint of self-reflexive hesitation or doubt. Just look at this:
In an instant he was the center of a hurricane of stabbing spears and lashing clubs. But he moved in a blinding blur of steel. Spears bent on his armor and swished empty air, and his sword sang its death-song. The fighting-madness of his race was upon him, and with a red mist of unreasoning fury wavering before his blazing eyes, he cleft skulls, smashed breasts, severed limbs, ripped out entrails, and littered the deck like a shambles with a ghastly harvest of brains and blood.
Invulnerable in his armor, his back against the mast, he heaped mangled corpses at his feet until his enemies gave back panting in rage and fear. Then as they lifted their spears to cast them, and he tensed himself to leap and die in the midst of them, a shrill cry froze the lifted arms.
Imagine a haunted Texas lad in his crappy apartment in the middle of the night, screaming those words at the wall as his fingers tortured the keys! What romance! What adventure!
Robert E. Howard, Heroes in the Wind: From Kull to Conan
https://boingboing.net/2009/10/08/robert-e-howard-coll.html
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