Earlier this year C, who is 100% a literalist subeditor, managed to get through several HPL stories, including “The Haunter of the Dark” & “The Colour Out of Space”, as bedtime reading, without having a moment’s insomnia or a single nightmare.
“So, this ‘Goat with a Thousand Young’ business,” she says: “What’s scary about that ?”
I try to explain that it can’t really be a goat. It’s an attempt to describe something by one of its qualities, or–worse–to encode some quality it possesses which can’t be described any other way.
She says: “Bollocks. Goats can’t have a Thousand Young. & anyway, why’s that frightening ?” She’s Lovecraft-proof.
At 17, I couldn’t have the books in the house. If I owned them I’d read them. If I read them, I wouldn’t sleep for days. When did they stop doing that to me ?
Saturday 6 December 2008
Just Because
Author blogs are usually pretty awful affairs - rarely updated, and when they are, you get about a line. I've just discovered M. John Harrison's, and it seems at least slightly more interesting than most. This entry made me laugh:
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That's the crucial question, isn't it. "When did they stop doing that to me?" (I love how MJH always seems to press a button that provokes a new way of thinking) I remember when the very look and feel of the 1st Ed DMG, with the thief prizing the gemstone out of the idols eye, made me giddy with excitement. I found a copy on ebay earlier this year, and, well, I'm glad I got it, but...when did it stop doing that to me?
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