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+--- Thread: The Willows (/Thread-The-Willows)
The Willows - Old Dwarf - 09-25-2014 07:45 PM
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
RE: The Willows - soundguy - 09-26-2014 06:25 PM
hmm.. might be time to play arkham horror this weekend!
RE: The Willows - Old Dwarf - 09-26-2014 11:30 PM
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
RE: The Willows - Odie - 09-27-2014 04:47 PM
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.
RE: The Willows - soundguy - 09-27-2014 09:15 PM
hmm.. if not arkham horror, then eldridtch sign. !
RE: The Willows - Old Dwarf - 09-28-2014 09:09 PM
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
RE: The Willows - samuraitrev - 10-02-2014 12:36 AM
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.
RE: The Willows - soundguy - 10-02-2014 01:08 PM
Reminds me of talisman board game, card called howl of the wendingo
