Books for those who can read

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:17 pm

The Lurker At The Threshold by HP Lovecraft

Scared the piss out of me. Really.

bigpeach · Post by **bigpeach** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:17 pm

I just read 'Nothing's Sacred' by Lewis Black. Not quite on Carlin's level, but pretty damn good.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:29 am

Fat Cat wrote:The Lurker At The Threshold by HP Lovecraft

Scared the piss out of me. Really.

That would be an extraordinarily difficult read.

GDG!

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:55 am

Fat Cat wrote:The Lurker At The Threshold by HP Lovecraft

Scared the piss out of me. Really.

super-tripple-qualitah story.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:13 am

mrzero wrote:
Fat Cat wrote:The Lurker At The Threshold by HP Lovecraft

Scared the piss out of me. Really.
super-tripple-qualitah story.

It's okay, but HPL didn't write it.

GDG!

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:23 am

GoDogGo! wrote:
mrzero wrote:
Fat Cat wrote:The Lurker At The Threshold by HP Lovecraft

Scared the piss out of me. Really.
super-tripple-qualitah story.
It's okay, but HPL didn't write it.

GDG!

Is that Deraleth? If so then I'm thinking of "The Haunter in the Dark"

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:42 am

Derleth wrote "Lurker" from some notes HPL left. Ditto for some other stories. HPL wrote "The Haunter of the Dark," which is the one about the bell tower of the "Mother Church" of Federal Hill in Providence. In the story it's called "The Church of the Starry Wisdom."

GDG!

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:30 am

GoDogGo! wrote:Derleth wrote "Lurker" from some notes HPL left. Ditto for some other stories. HPL wrote "The Haunter of the Dark," which is the one about the bell tower of the "Mother Church" of Federal Hill in Providence. In the story it's called "The Church of the Starry Wisdom."

GDG!

*ding* *ding* *ding*

Pickman's model is still me favourite... I'm a sucker for the HPL ghoul.

Turdacious · Post by **Turdacious** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:49 am

cleaner464 wrote:I just knocked off "Middlemarch". Might be the best book I've read.

I'll have to put that on my list, that's one of those books I never got around to.

Just read "The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God", by GB Shaw. Read "The Devil's Disciple" the other day, and watched the movie w/ Patrick Stewart (couldn't find the one with Burt Lancaster)-- great flick btw. "Man and Superman" is next.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:00 am

mrzero wrote:
GoDogGo! wrote:Derleth wrote "Lurker" from some notes HPL left. Ditto for some other stories. HPL wrote "The Haunter of the Dark," which is the one about the bell tower of the "Mother Church" of Federal Hill in Providence. In the story it's called "The Church of the Starry Wisdom."

GDG!
*ding* *ding* *ding*

Pickman's model is still me favourite... I'm a sucker for the HPL ghoul.

Yeep, I noticed. Ahem, you may have seen my <i>other</i> avatar. Plus "In the Dreamlands."

GDG!

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:27 pm

GoDogGo! wrote: It's okay, but HPL didn't write it.

GDG!

His name is on the spine of the book.

Shafpocalypse Now · Post by **Shafpocalypse Now** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:26 pm

HP Lovecraft was one goofy motherfucker. There are some hilarious spoofs written in his style of writing. I just can't really get scared by them. Worthwhile reads, though, since Cthulu references abound in all sorts of places, and some of the stories are pretty cool.

I did like the anthology of short stories that came out called "Shadows over Baker Street" which combined Sherlock Holmes with the Lovecraft mythos.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:31 pm

Yes...Cthulu by gaslight is a cool genre blend.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:19 pm

Fat Cat wrote:
GoDogGo! wrote: It's okay, but HPL didn't write it.

GDG!
His name is on the spine of the book.

Unfortunately. August Derleth wrote it from HPLs notes after HPL got planted in Swan Point Cemetery. Lots of folks would like his name taken off of Derleth's books.

Shaf, HPL's writing evolved considerably over time. Early stuff like "The Hound" is very much wince-worthy. Later on, stories like "The Color Out of Space" and "At the Mountains of Madness" are nice bits of sci-fi and by then he had trimmed most of his prose excesses.

One of HPL's strong points and Derleth's weaknesses, is that HPL never fully explained what the hell was going on or the logic behind what the Old Ones wanted. It was pretty clear that what they wanted was inimical to human interests and would be Very Very Bad News, but that's about it.

Derleth couldn't deal with that level of alien ambiguity and tried to codify and clarify everything into something consistent. In doing so he lost a lot of the creepicrawliness. Schmuck.

GDG!

Maza · Post by **Maza** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 12:31 am

Read Ubik by Philip K. Dick recently. Good mix of trash, humor, and thought provoking stuff. Highly recommended. Reading A Scanner Darkly now, after checking out that movie. The movie was pretty cool (especially Woody Harrelson), but the book is much funnier.

Schlegel · Post by **Schlegel** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:58 am

I read all of PKD sitting the stacks in college. Trippy.

The movies are each made from about 10% of a Dick book.

He was a crazy, crazy man. You should see his FBI file- it was recently made available. When other SF writers would visit him he'd call the FBI afterwards to report them as dangerous Communist spies that were trying to steal his ideas.

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:16 am

Tim Powers - Last Call, Drawing the Dark are two amazing books. The first is a story of the Fisher King playing poker in America, the second is about magical beer in the crusades.

Reading Strange Itinararies, a collection of his short fiction, right now.

Shafpocalypse Now · Post by **Shafpocalypse Now** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:37 am

YEAH MR. ZERO.

Tim Powers kicks ass. I like his earlier stuff better. Dinner at Deviant's Palace, Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides and Drawing of the Dark rule..

cleaner464 · Post by **cleaner464** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:47 pm

Turd Ferguson wrote:
cleaner464 wrote:I just knocked off "Middlemarch". Might be the best book I've read.
I'll have to put that on my list, that's one of those books I never got around to.

Just read "The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God", by GB Shaw. Read "The Devil's Disciple" the other day, and watched the movie w/ Patrick Stewart (couldn't find the one with Burt Lancaster)-- great flick btw. "Man and Superman" is next.

MM is well worth the effort Turd. Really amazing writing. The characters are so well drawn out and distinct.

I've started up the Decameron, and then I think I'll go on to Adam Bede afterward. If it's half as good as MM was, I'll be pleased.

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:25 pm

I finally got around to reading FIGHT CLUB, damn the movie was close.
I also read The 300 by Frank Miller at Border's this weekend, pretty good, but he had how they held their spears all wrong, but the story and art is excellent.

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:23 pm

I am working on Call To Cthulu by HP Lovecraft, as part of anthology. Next up is Mahabharata by Krsna das.

mrzero · Post by **mrzero** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:47 pm

Fatty,
Read "At the Mountains of Madness"

Fat Cat · Post by **Fat Cat** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:48 am

I shall.

DARTH · Post by **DARTH** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:55 pm

They used a overhand technique for the most part, kind of hard to use underhand while holding a sheild. Clash with sheild, unbalance and thrust downward, in hopes of pushing the enemie's top into the next one in rank, creating momentum.
The Spartans liked to crash into the enemy and drive them off balance and then run right over them, stomping, using the but spike of the spear, or squiers using swords and kinves to dispatch the fallen enemy.
Underhand spear use in western coultures is usually defensive ( i.e rooting into the ground ala Braveheart.) or when a sheild is not used.
In eastern warfare you see more offensive underhand spear use because they dont tend to use sheilds nearly as much as the Greeks or the Romans, when they do, they tend to be much smaller sheilds.
Hunter Armstrong ( The head of the IHS and the adviser to Pressfield on Gates of Fire) points out also that westerners, having longer limbed and taller builds favor the overhand, downward thrust vs. the smaller asian, who favour the underhand. Westerners tended to use them more as throwing weapons (Roman pilum) than easterners do ( With composite bows, why throw pears?)
Also when you read of how the Spartans set up at the pass, and the pile of enemy bodies they stood atop, while the enemy had to trudge uphill, through their comrades visera, a downward stab would work better.
Still a kick ass graphic novel.

GoDogGo! · Post by **GoDogGo!** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:50 pm

DARTH RANDELL wrote:They used a overhand technique for the most part, kind of hard to use underhand while holding a sheild.

Regarding multiculti spear techniques: check me if I'm wrong, isn't the Zulu technique to thrust with an assegai under the shield?

Methinks that's what Shaka developed, but it's been a while and I might misremember. Distress them with that spear thrust, move on, come back later and smash in their heads with the knobkerrie.

GDG!