Hi everyone! I would like to thank Jeff D for his excellent donation. It will keep tzg.com up and running for about 4 months! If you feel so inclined, please feel free to click on that donation link to help keep the lights on. Much appreciated!


Post Reply 
 
Thread Rating:
  • 0 Votes - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Willows
09-25-2014, 07:45 PM (This post was last modified: 09-26-2014 12:29 PM by Old Dwarf.)
Post: #1
The Willows
By Algernon Blackwood is a short story @ 50 pages an early 1900's
work that HP Lovecraft considered the greatest Supernatural Story.

It's slipping into that time of frost on the pumpkins & the goblins will
get you ,if you don't watch out. So of course I'm getting ready for Cthulhu Wars
to finally ship by reading some vintage Mythos stuff.

I had heard of Blackwood but never read any thing by him, he wrote a
lot of Ghost Stories" but also did some "Weird Fiction" that fitted
into the Mythos.

Blackwood was an outdoorsman & the Willows reflect his awe of Nature
as it takes place on a canoe trip of 2 men down the Danube River. A
lot of adjectives are used (but if you read Lovecraft you know he loved adjectives)
and of course the writing is from another age. To the modern reader it seems
to go on & on the point of just saying "enough please get on with it".

This slow build up from the mundane appreciation of Nature & the gradual
wrongness of things, is what impressed old HPL. It's understated & produces
that sense of "things from the Outside" without the gory details.

I enjoyed the read & the man knows how to set a scene but if your into
Steven King or todays British Horror writers (Blackwood was a Brit)
you may find the Willows a bit tame.

OD

Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain,—
Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
09-26-2014, 06:25 PM
Post: #2
RE: The Willows
hmm.. might be time to play arkham horror this weekend!
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
09-26-2014, 11:30 PM
Post: #3
RE: The Willows
I'm thinking of Mansions of Madness or Eldritch Horror .But I have a lot of Mythos
Reading lined up for October (along with Hard Cider, Apples & cheese & fake fire place)

The House on the Borderland-another Lovecraft favorite(1908)
The Sign of Glaaki (FFG finally got a new book out!)
The Last Revelation of Glaaki (Campbell returns to his Mythos roots)
Plus 3 books in the Agent Pendergest Series
& the finial Hallows book-The Witch with no Name

OD

Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain,—
Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
09-27-2014, 04:47 PM
Post: #4
RE: The Willows
Blackwood is fantastic. You can find a couple of cheap anthology collections on Amazon of his work.

A contemporary of Blackwood's (and another huge influence on Lovecraft) was Arthur Machen - again, you can find collections of his on Amazon.

Machen's, The Great God Pan, is not only a great story, but was a particular influence to both Lovecraft and Stephen King.

Writer, Gamer, Professional Geek

Odie Bracy - Fiction Blog

Full Color Gamer
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
09-27-2014, 09:15 PM
Post: #5
RE: The Willows
hmm.. if not arkham horror, then eldridtch sign. !
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
09-28-2014, 09:09 PM
Post: #6
RE: The Willows
I just ordered "The Wendigo" also by Blackwood is another classic Mythos
story which I don't recalling ever reading. I have several Gift Cards that
have like balances from $8 to $15 so I been ordering cheap books off Amazon
to use them up.

Often the shipping & tax are as much as the book but it's still a good deal
for me as I use the Cards to purchase Games & you just don't find FFP & FFG
or any other publishers games anywhere near those amounts anymore.

OD

Sighing like the night wind and sobbing like the rain,—
Wailing for the lost one that comes not again:
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
10-02-2014, 12:36 AM
Post: #7
RE: The Willows
Another great author and friend of HPL was Clark Ashton Smith. I have read many of his anthologies (as well as Lovecraft's). His imagination and story telling technique is astounding. Do yourself a favour and take a look.
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
10-02-2014, 01:08 PM
Post: #8
RE: The Willows
Reminds me of talisman board game, card called howl of the wendingo Watchmen02
Find all posts by this user
Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 


Forum Jump:


User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)