I'm a huge scaredy-cat, and I like Charles Grant - mainly because his
work reminds me of an even more allusive and elliptical writer,
Charles Williams (whose body of work is often eclipsed by his more
famous fellow Inklings Tolkien and C S Lewis). Unfortunately,
Williams's stuff isn't necessarily easy to find.
You might try Grady Hendrix - he's a newer author. HORRORSTOR was
certainly a classic "trapped in a haunted house" horror, but was also
clever in format and amusing, so I wasn't scared.
On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 7:24 PM Todd Mason <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I was not commenting on you, Joni, your class or even your assignments generally...I was commenting on a trend that had seemed to arise in queries here over the last week or so where RA students would note they were not allowed to read anything but adult-audience novels for their assignments...I wasn't aware that either student was yours (or if the earlier one is yours at all), and that they might not've realized that they were allowed to read collections of short fiction for adult audiences, since both made the point they couldn't.
>
> I'm very glad you're including good work in what is often dismissed or glossed over as mere "genre" fiction (no fiction escapes genre), and that your students can have their horizons broadened thus.
>
> Also, I can agree that in my rather too quick pass-through in answer, I could've chosen a less confrontational term than "frankly stupid" for describing a policy against collections and only novels...I'm glad no such policy actually exists, and there's a further vast array of options for the students of at least your course to take up.
>
> Todd Mason
>
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 8:14 PM Joni Richards Bodart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> For the record, Todd, ss collections are perfectly fine for my RA class. I have informed my students that they are and always have been acceptable. I appreciate your taking the time and energy to provide such a lengthy and thoughtful response to my student, as you and others have done consistently, but wish you had been more tactful in posting your opinion of me and of my class and its assignments.
>>
>>
>> JONI
>>
>> Joni Richards Bodart
>> Associate Professor
>> School of Information
>> San Jose State University
>> 1 Washington Square
>> San Jose CA 95192-0029
>> 408-924-2728
>> 408-924-2476 fax
>> [log in to unmask]
>> http://slisweb.sjsu.edu
>>
>> Kids are living stories every day that we wouldn't let them read. --Josh Westbrook
>>
>> Retirement is for sissies. –Arnold Schwarzenegger
>>
>> Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. -–Kahlil Gibran
>>
>> Life is short, so break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 3:58 PM Todd Mason <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> My quartet of recommendations for "horror newbies" usually runs to the following four, if one is trying to stick only with novels:
>>> CONJURE WIFE by Fritz Leiber (which just won the Retro Hugo for the best fantastic-fiction novel published in 1943)
>>> KINDRED by Octavia Butler
>>> THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
>>> and PSYCHO by Robert Bloch (even though this is technically more a suspense novel than horror, though Bloch was a major innovator in both modes)
>>> And you definitely haven't read the novels in these cases even if you have seen the movies. PSYCHO the novel, for example, doesn't end with Norman's secret being uncovered, and a weak attempt at psychologists's rundown as in the Hitchcock film version.
>>> And all these novels are relatively short, don't revel in gore, are (to say the least) deftly written, and are brilliant.
>>>
>>> And a set of excellent resources to help you choose a book, with brief descriptions (one or so page essays by various writers, editors, critics and others) about the books (which include many novels among also collections and anthologies), giving a good sense of what's in store for the reader:
>>> HORROR: THE 100 BEST BOOKS edited by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?102979
>>> HORROR: ANOTHER 100 BEST BOOKS edited by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?72629
>>>
>>> And, for that matter, Kim Newman's novels, such as ANNO DRACULA, are also excellent choices...though AD, for example, is full of literary in-jokes that add to the fun for those who are widely read in horror fiction.
>>>
>>> Charles Grant's sort of "quiet" or relatively subtle horror fiction wasn't his alone...I can sympathize with Dennis that Grant's preferred mode for writing some of his horror fiction was to be so allusive that one was not sure what might actually be happening in a given Grant story, and not so much in a haunting way as in a Well, hmm...what was happening, again? way. And his short fiction was often better than his novels (I'm not at all sure why the RA courses are demanding the students stick to novels...even if many patrons prefer novels to shorter fiction. Getting exposure for RA students SHOULD be encouraging you all to explore in the fields in question so that you can get a sense of what they are all about...and ignoring short fiction in ANY field of fiction, even given time constraints, is frankly stupid. For example, as you can't read short fiction for your course/s it means you might never come across the COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF EDITH WHARTON, THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MURIEL SPARK, the collected horror fiction of M. R. James or E. F. Benson, the relevant work of Robert Aickman, Ambrose Bierce and even Edgar Allan Poe.
>>>
>>> BUT...Grant's best work was rather powerful, and as an editor, he was even better...his SHADOWS series of anthologies showcased some of the best horror writers in the '80s and '90s working in the allusive mode, and while such masters of that form as M. R. James were long dead, and as Robert Aickman only lived for a brief overlap with the SHADOWS advocacy for his preferred approach, the likes of Lisa Tuttle, Avram Davidson, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Michael Bishop, John Crowley, Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem, Melissa Mia Hall and such wide-ranging others as Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee, Robert Bloch, Marta Randall, Dennis Etchison, Joe R. Lansdale and Stephen King. So, if you look through the SHADOWS contents lists you have a guide to often brilliant writers of horror fiction, who are willing to Go "Quiet": http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?4713
>>>
>>> Also amusing, is when some of the same writers more famous as "quiet" are willing to play on the "extreme" or splatterpunk side of the field: as with BOOK OF THE DEAD and its sequel anthologies http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?5251
>>>
>>> Todd Mason
>>> https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2019/09/fridays-forgotten-books-and-more-links_13.html
>>> https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/12/ffb-years-best-horror-stories-annual.html
>>> https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2013/10/horrors-old-and-almost-new.html
>>>
>>> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 11:10 AM d-lien University of Minnesota <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> You might look for the genre "quiet horror," as named by the late
>>>> Charles L. Grant (whose works I never found all that scary, nor, alas,
>>>> all that memorable).
>>>>
>>>> Dennis Lien // [log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 9:41 AM Sammy Gradwohl <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > Hi everyone,
>>>> >
>>>> > I'm an MLIS student at San Jose State University taking a readers advisory course, and we're supposed to explore as many different genres as we can. I'm a total scaredy-cat and not looking forward to reading horror titles but realize I do need to read a few to broaden my knowledge base. Any suggestions of good reads for someone who doesn't like horror - "tame" horror, if there is such a thing? Our class requires that they be adult books (no YA or children's titles), and they must be novel-length. Thanks!
>>>>
>>>
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