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Rat Status and Reading Review~
10 years ago
Hey there,
One of my rats went into surgery today, she had a mammary tumor. Thankfully the awesome vet was able to remove it and she's safe at home (albeit a bit balder and in some pain), but that awful mass is gone and she's on the road to a happy, healthy life. Hooray!
Just my pet in your thoughts, I appreciate it. :3
Anyway, onto the main reason of this post~
As Steven King said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
I take that advice to heart, so I'm going to give review of the stuff I read, merely in order to chronicle my own experiences, but also so that other people might go "Hey, that sounds like a good idea!" and pick it up themselves.
"The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood
Oh. My God.
Okay, I will admit, I have a massive horror boner for anything Blackwood wrote (I've read "The Wendigo" at least five times now). If you don't know who he is, let me put it to you this way: Lovecraft (yes, the H.P. Lovecraft) called him "the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere". So this guy knows how to set someone's spine tingling!
As hard of a piece as it was to digest, I enjoyed The Willows. Algernon sticks with his classic "DAMN NATURE U SCARY" trope, emphasizing just how unexplored and unknown some lands are. And when humanity intrudes upon these sacred glades, dark things may happen. As usual, he focuses a lot on the scenery, painting a vivid masterpiece of the Danube and the countryside. At the same time, he doesn't neglect the characters, as we get to learn and love both the Narrator and the Swede. Later on, he uses his panache for description in order to evoke primal fears, fears of something unknown, unknowable, and potentially disastrous.
Unlike "The Wendigo", which my biggest complaint would be the language (primary Defago's anguished cries) made it seem a bit campy and detracted from the terror of the situation (SPOILER ALERT: If you were being dragged into the sky by a cannibalistic nature spirit, I doubt you'd complain about how hot your feet area), there exists no such speech here. The hurried whispers of the Swede during the climax of the story really nails home the tone, contrasting with his earlier joviality. In addition, the narrator tries to come off as reasonable and logical, despite everything he knows falling apart at the seams.
As above, my biggest complaint was that it was a bit tiresome to read. One can only stomach so much description of a forest, river and trees before one gets the urge to get up and do something else. None the less, Algernon manages to hook the reader into this idyllic, willow-strewn false paradise quite well. It took me a few sittings (at least three) to read through entirely.
Recommendation
Yes. You can find the story on Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org), along with a lot of his other fiction, completely for free.
Do you like horror? Do you want to read more classical horror stuff? Then pick up this short story and try to sleep at night. Don't mind the willow tree rattling its branches against your window, not like it's trying to get in or anything...
Currently Reading: "The Return of Nagash" Josh Reynolds
Reading List
"The Tale of Sheherazade", Richard Francis Burton
"The Fall of the House of Usher" Edgar Allen Poe
"Don Quixote" Miguel de Cervantes
One of my rats went into surgery today, she had a mammary tumor. Thankfully the awesome vet was able to remove it and she's safe at home (albeit a bit balder and in some pain), but that awful mass is gone and she's on the road to a happy, healthy life. Hooray!
Just my pet in your thoughts, I appreciate it. :3
Anyway, onto the main reason of this post~
As Steven King said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
I take that advice to heart, so I'm going to give review of the stuff I read, merely in order to chronicle my own experiences, but also so that other people might go "Hey, that sounds like a good idea!" and pick it up themselves.
"The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood
Oh. My God.
Okay, I will admit, I have a massive horror boner for anything Blackwood wrote (I've read "The Wendigo" at least five times now). If you don't know who he is, let me put it to you this way: Lovecraft (yes, the H.P. Lovecraft) called him "the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere". So this guy knows how to set someone's spine tingling!
As hard of a piece as it was to digest, I enjoyed The Willows. Algernon sticks with his classic "DAMN NATURE U SCARY" trope, emphasizing just how unexplored and unknown some lands are. And when humanity intrudes upon these sacred glades, dark things may happen. As usual, he focuses a lot on the scenery, painting a vivid masterpiece of the Danube and the countryside. At the same time, he doesn't neglect the characters, as we get to learn and love both the Narrator and the Swede. Later on, he uses his panache for description in order to evoke primal fears, fears of something unknown, unknowable, and potentially disastrous.
Unlike "The Wendigo", which my biggest complaint would be the language (primary Defago's anguished cries) made it seem a bit campy and detracted from the terror of the situation (SPOILER ALERT: If you were being dragged into the sky by a cannibalistic nature spirit, I doubt you'd complain about how hot your feet area), there exists no such speech here. The hurried whispers of the Swede during the climax of the story really nails home the tone, contrasting with his earlier joviality. In addition, the narrator tries to come off as reasonable and logical, despite everything he knows falling apart at the seams.
As above, my biggest complaint was that it was a bit tiresome to read. One can only stomach so much description of a forest, river and trees before one gets the urge to get up and do something else. None the less, Algernon manages to hook the reader into this idyllic, willow-strewn false paradise quite well. It took me a few sittings (at least three) to read through entirely.
Recommendation
Yes. You can find the story on Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org), along with a lot of his other fiction, completely for free.
Do you like horror? Do you want to read more classical horror stuff? Then pick up this short story and try to sleep at night. Don't mind the willow tree rattling its branches against your window, not like it's trying to get in or anything...
Currently Reading: "The Return of Nagash" Josh Reynolds
Reading List
"The Tale of Sheherazade", Richard Francis Burton
"The Fall of the House of Usher" Edgar Allen Poe
"Don Quixote" Miguel de Cervantes
