Thanks Glen and Brandon for a great year. Enjoyed the wrap-up episode.
First, I have to thank you for introducing me to Caitlin R. Keirnan. I'm still working my way through her Houses Under The Sea collection, in between other reading.
I also really enjoyed The Ebony Frame. It still flips me that this is the same author who wrote The Railway Children and other kids' books.
I recall reading Jack Vance's Dying Earth a while ago (like 30 years ago, in college). Like your discussion, about Turjan of Miir, I recall the setting as really interesting and saturated, but I don't really remember the actual stories.
Thanks so much for listening and for your comments throughout the year. We've gotten a lot of feedback about Jack Vance, and it seems that what people remember fondly and what was important were the later novels and not this early collection that we're going to work our way through as a series of short stories. So maybe I'll do those on Atoz some day.
I've also never read The Railway Children books but I'm considering picking them up now that I have a child to read them to. That might also make for a fun episode or two!
And Kiernan! Yes!!!!
I'm not familiar with the Railway Children but my wife (who's British) certainly is. Not sure what the comparison is. Railway Children sounds younger than say, the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, but not like Dr. Seuss little. Maybe Encyclopedia Jones or Judy Blume, that sort of thing.
@ktvician I had wondered what the connection with The Boxcar Children was, but there doesn't seem to be any except for maybe some light plagiarism.
Oh crap! I just realized he's Encyclopedia Brown, not Jones! In my defense, I probably read those books close to 45 years ago.
I just want to gladly agree with ktvician's thanks and enjoyment about this last year's review (though that's not proper English I guess). It's great to watch all those great works that were discussed pass by again and to listen to Glenn and Brandon drawing conclusions, for example leading to the insights into the 'knight errant' motif and how that changed through time.
The '2020 Elder Sign year' for me was the year in which I used all reading and discussion to enhance (or at least think about) my own writing. Unfortunately my writing came to a halt some weeks ago, when the children weren't allowed to go to school anymore because of COVID and I became a full-fledged home teacher (which on its own is not so bad; for some time in my life I wanted to become a elementary school teacher). But I expect to pick up writing in some more weeks.
I'm really looking forward to this year's reading for and listening to Elder Sign, and to the activity in this forum!
We're so glad to have you with us! And we're all very VERY eager for schools to get back to normal.
I also want to lend my thanks to Glenn and Brandon for another excellent year of weird fiction. The situation with Covid has meant that I haven't always been able to listen to Elder Sign as it was going out, but I was reading along and have finally caught up with all the episodes from 2020 now.
There were only two stories that I felt were complete duds this year. The first was (I hate to say it) A Psychical Invasion by Algernon Blackwood. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into it. Even the cat and dog being so important couldn't salvage it for me! Apparently supernatural investigators just aren't doing it for me, even though it seems like a genre I should love. The other was The Graveyard Heart by Roger Zelazny. I didn't find anything to like at all with that one - even the central plot point didn't hook me. To be honest, it's the closest I've come to giving up on an Elder Sign story. But, as always, the discussions in the episodes were really interesting and gave me a lot to think about (even if you didn't manage to change my mind on either of them).
The highlights were The Mask and Houses under the Sea, but I'd read them before and knew I liked them already. The very pleasant surprise of something I hadn't read before was The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. I've never read anything by Marquez before, even though he's obviously a very well known author outside the genre of weird/speculative fiction. I thought he did an absolutely masterful job of conjuring up the world of the story, and I'm definitely intrigued to read more by him. We have a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera on the bookshelf, so maybe I'll start with that.
As for themes, the one thing that came out for me in this episode in relation to Turjan of Miir and The Blue Flame of Vengeance (and has sort of come up on the forum in relation to Lovecraft) is what to do about stories that haven't necessarily aged well. For me personally, I think it's still very important to read and discuss old-fashioned stories that contain elements that seem problematic to a modern audience, not just dismiss them for being racist or sexist (or whatever else). It's then possible to examine them closely and ask fundamental questions about the stories and their authors. That's something I think you're doing a really good job of so far.
Ok, final thing: I managed to watch the film adaptation of From Beyond earlier this year. All I'll say is if you like Re-Animator, you absolutely have to watch From Beyond! It's an even less faithful adaptation, but well worth tracking down. It's on Netflix in the UK, but I don't know about availability in other countries.
I share your preference and 'disapproval' (as far as reading pleasure was concerned) for the stories you mentioned. Marquez was the biggest discovery/surprise for me too. Furthermore I agree with your opinion to keep discussing and keep reading tales with racist/sexist or other unethical elements, because they say a lot about the time/milieu in which they were written or maybe about the intention of the writer. I happen to read two books (in one bundle) of Bram Stoker: The Lair of the White Worm and The Lady of the Shroud. There are certainly racist and sexist elements in them - the editor has even cleaned the text to make it less racist and put a disclaimer in the book about it. I can understand it, but I also think it's a pity, because out of historical/literary interest I prefer the original text. I hope there'll be a thematic episode about these (from our point of view) unethical elements in some weird fiction (particular the early 'gothic' ones).
That seems like a bizarre editorial choice to me, but I suppose at least they pointed out that they'd done it. I like Dracula, so I've always wondered about reading other Bram Stoker stories. The reviews I've seen of The Lair of the White Worm aren't exactly positive though (including by Lovecraft). I'd be interested to know what you thought of those two, even with the editorial "cleaning".
We want to do Dracula so bad! But it's like one million pages long.
Yes, I like Dracula too, but I got this book because I'm now collecting the Wordsworth series 'Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural' (and that book is one of them). According to the introduction 'The Lair of the White Worm' is the second most popular book of Bram Stoker, but doesn't has the quality of Dracula by far. I agree. Some blame it on Stoker's use of drugs at the time. There were pieces in the story I thought weren't contributing to the plot and atmosphere and the characters were far too 'wise' ('Oh, ok, I think it is like this, just because I got it in my head, and - lo! I was right!'). That's also why so many prejudices, racism and sexism had the chance to enter the story, I think.
I haven't finished the other book (The Lady of the Shroud) yet. That story begins with letters about a will (that's not a problem in itself, but it is quite long). Then there is a long midsection (where I am at this moment) - this I like very much: here there is Stoker from Dracula, very gothic and atmospheric. It consists of diary entries of the protagonist. It's also very imperialistic, though. The last section, according to the introduction, is an early piece of science fiction! So, altogether it's a strange thing - but (at this moment) I like it far better than the White Worm, though not as well as Dracula.
Thanks for the overview. Sounds interesting!
Sorry to come back to this: after reading this book completely, my judgement changed. I am so bold to machine-translate my Goodreads review and copy-paste it here:
Over 15 years ago I last read Dracula, and I always thought it was a very good book (at the time). In 2010 Wordsworth reissued two other works by Bram Stoker with an introduction by David Stuart Davies. What is striking about this double edition is, on the one hand, that the publisher has placed a disclaimer at the front of the book stating that 'views displayed in this book, particularly on racial issues, are regarded as unacceptable today', but that the reader should also be able to see it in time (i.e. around 1907). Yet the editor has modified words 'that we feel would give particular offence'. The second thing that stands out is that the publisher has chosen to publish the complete version of 'The Lady of the Shroud' rather than the abridged version more often preferred in Stoker's day: 'It is all here in its bizarre glory. A rare treat indeed.'
The first book, 'The Lair of the White Worm' is, according to the introduction, Bram Stoker's second best known/loved work, though it falls short of the popularity and quality of 'Dracula'. I found the work strange, disjointed and actually quite weak on all fronts (style, plot, suspense...). In doing so, the - and in this case undoubtedly Stoker's - racism is indeed evident in this book, but it is also not devoid of a good dose of misogyny. A plus are the descriptions of the beautiful landscape and the gothic atmosphere of decay and bygone times that these evoke.
The second book, "The Lady of the Shroud" begins with a long, tough chapter about an inheritance and the whole legal circus surrounding it. Boring, but okay, it fits in a gothic novel by itself. This is followed by four chapters that are sometimes drawn out, but are also full of beautiful gothic imagery and... [spoiler!] a vampire, who, however, turns out to be just a living woman in disguise at the end of this section. (And so ends the supernatural, gothic element of the story.) This is followed by a chapter with the - as it is called these days - 'boss fight'. After that, it could have ended nicely, but - oh, disaster! - no less than three more chapters follow in which Stoker totally surrenders to his wet dream about male, Western imperialism full of impressive waving of weapons, woman-unfriendly words from the mouth of the 'queen', British imperialism, misplaced exoticism, lust for money and power, external 'showing off' with flags and weapons, bowing subjects, elitism, the importance of 'good' descent (which actually played a role from the start), et cetera, et cetera. It was a real torture to read it (anno 2021). But such a book, even in 'its time', must have been considered conservative and nationalistic to many.
For those with a cultural science/history interest, this book is certainly valuable to read (and in that sense, I didn't mind having read it). For fans of Dracula: pass this book by with a big circle. 'A rare treat indeed'
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Wow! No need to apologise for providing such a comprehensive review! Given that I certainly have a strong historical interest, I might still need to read these.