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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 8, 2015 9:55:02 GMT -5
Have you guys ever read any of the really old Gothic novels? By really old, I mean the earliest examples of the genre, like THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO (1764), THE OLD ENGLISH BARON (1778), THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO (1794), or THE MONK (1796)?
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Post by Scott on Mar 8, 2015 10:11:42 GMT -5
Off the top of my head, stories by Sheridan Le Fanu is the oldest I can definitely remember, and they were mid - late 1800s.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 8, 2015 18:56:59 GMT -5
I'm not sure why I'm developing an interest in reading this old stuff. It's probably boring as hell. But, in a way, this is the root of "weird fiction" and a lot of the genres we love. Prior to this, did people write "weird fiction" in the sense of intending it to be understood by readers as fiction?
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Post by geneweigel on Mar 8, 2015 23:25:05 GMT -5
Read Lovecraft's SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE essay and follow up all his citations because he mentions weird sources directly.
Like for instance he mentions Browning's poem CHILDE ROLAND which is from a line mentioned in KING LEAR but is sourced from an old folk tale about traveling to the dark tower in another dimension.
I think the weird story is validated with HPL but it is just part of the fabric of reality so its bound to be everywhere starting with ancient sources. The various epics are weird tales in themselves in their closest to original form.
As for straight up gothic I've read too many non-weird takes out of desperation many moons ago over long Summers with a library full of them.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 10, 2015 16:35:55 GMT -5
Thanks Gene. I think I may have had that essay in the back of my mind when I posted this thread. I hadn't read it for a while. Rereading it now... I'm always amazed at how brilliant and well-read Lovecraft was.
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Post by GRWelsh on Aug 11, 2015 19:51:35 GMT -5
I finished reading WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1847) by Emily Brontë. Like I said a while ago, I've been interested in the old stuff lately: gothic fiction that is the ancestor of 'weird' fiction. I can't really recommend this particular book as a source for weird fantasy. It is a classic of literature because it is an impressive study of people in toxic relationships, but the supernatural or ghostly aspect is very minor by comparison.
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