Lockdown "light" Reading

 I usually only post about wargames, miniatures and painting. 

But over lockdown I have concentrated on reading (and listening) to a specific type of fiction. This is odd as I usually read non-fiction. I re-visited Lovecraft, after initially reading his collected works between the ages of 16-18. I found out about other stories he 'ghost wrote' to varying degrees. 

This book was filled with stories clearly influenced by old HP to a great extent. There were some wonderful stories - including the Horror in the Museum, the Curse of Yig, Out of Aeons (very much seemed like a precursor or heavily influence by the Call) and Two Black Bottles (for the atmosphere it sets alone.) Other tales such as The Horror in the Burying Ground, Medusa's Coil and Man of Stone had some horrible and chilling concepts within. 

This return to a much loved author set me on the path of his Supernatural Horror in Literature essay - which I had not read in 25 or more years. It pathed the way to the next lockdown read - Arthur Machen. The reading is much harder - due to the time in which he wrote - but the concepts are again thrilling, chilling and disturbing. This is just what the doctor ordered when reading weird fiction. The Great God Pan begins with a truly awful experiment than has dire and long reaching consequences. 

Then finally, a correspondent and friend of HP - Clark Ashton Smith. This is my second attempt at reading his tales. My first efforts were not effective - I felt stories (I'm thinking of you 'Geas') had wonderful beginning concepts then trailed away to rather pointless and aimless paths. Years later, I ordered the above Penguin and what a different a discerning choice of stories makes. These were wonderful mind and vocabulary expanding tales. The Vault of Yoh Vombis was a macabre extravaganza housed in a sci-fi setting and at the root of many modern films. That tales alone was worth the price. Clark's imagination seemingly knew no bounds or limits of wonder. 

I have also been listening to the tales of M R James while painting and Algernon Blackwood - whose tales I am resolved to buy as a physical text. 

I must make a final note - last eve I listened to Clark Ashton Smith's 'The Seeds from the Sepulchre." This is a truly frightening tale of horror with blasphemous and sinister developments. 

A masterpiece of weird fiction!