Weird Fiction discussion

This topic has been created to discuss the David Case short story collection titled Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales.

This is brand new territory for me. I've never before heard of the author or of any of his works. Doing a little research, I find David Case lived eighty years, 1937-2018. Although classified as an American by birth, he appears to have lived most of his life in Europe. He spent most of that time in England, Spain, and Greece, which I personally find intriguing, because those are the only three European countries I myself have lived in for two or more years. I hope those countries feature in some of these stories.

It looks like he wrote mostly, but certainly not entirely, in the genre of horror, and did so very intermittently over the span of the last fifty years of his life. It does not look like he wrote or published voluminously enough to support himself by his writing, making me curious to know how he managed to make his living.

I like the fact he wrote werewolf stories since I'm fond of that sub-genre. I wonder if I haven't read "The Cell" at some point, now that I think harder on it.

Anyhow, I know nothing of Fengriffen or the other stories of this collection, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

I recommended Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales because I think the Gothic novella Fengriffen is excellent and I hope others do too. The short stories that come after I found so-so.

The Goodreads page of David Case says "...A regular contributor to the legendary Pan Book of Horror Stories series during the early 1970s, as well as a handful of westerns and pseudonymous porn novels..."

Decades ago, some science fiction and horror writers wrote, under assumed names, smut novels for men. Apparently there was money in it. Science fiction writer Robert Silverberg reminisces here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvbw3...

Old Jewish science fiction authors. Who could be less qualified to write smut? Sometimes they didn't use pseudonyms. I wish they always had. It would have saved me the experience of accidentally encountering one of them a few years back. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Was there still a market for this genre of writing after the 1970s? It's hard for me to believe anyone could have made their living by this, that there was enough money in it to possibly have done so, particularly after the 1970s.

My theory is that the smut novel for men industry flourished in a 15 to 20 year period, starting when restrictions on pornography were lifted and lasting to the emergence of audio-visual technologies such as the VCR in the late 1970s. Porn videos killed the smut novel industry.

Ok I read the Fengriffen novella and started the Anachrona. Fengriffen felt a bit too long and not gory/scary enough sometimes, even though it did have a not that bad of an ending. The tropes and descriptions were delightfully "classic", it was a proper gothic novella all right.

When Fengriffen's triceps bulged out and all, I really expected him to be the baby daddy after all. But no.

Thank you for sharing your ongoing thoughts on our month's book. You are the first among us to do so. I am reading four books right now simultaneously among which this is not one. (I keep character charts for each work; otherwise I'd never be able to keep things straight.) I think I'll have all four of these finished two weeks from today after which I'll read just this one by itself. That's probably more efficient. It's good to know Fengriffen has positive features to help me look forward to reading it.

Several days passed, and looking back at Fengriffen - there is certain amount of.. I don't know... less than savory aftertaste. Can't explain.

Anachrona.
Reminded me a lot of various episodes of the The Book of the New Sun It is a solid story involving (view spoiler)[ possible time travelling scientist and an ancient robot navigating the Enlightenment era looking to a quaint spring-based automaton for possible repairs to his hardware, told by traveling local scientists (hide spoiler)] Solid story, stylish. A short movie based on it should totally include lots of weird mechanical clockwork things from back in the day.
The Foreign Bride
Ugly story of an ugly evil woman who is completely ruthless, stops at nothing at all, is cunning and will destroy you if you are in her way. (view spoiler)[And so she kills the innocent young bride, her opposite - kind, soulful woman- because she wants to be this man's wife herself. Or rather, she sets her up to get killed, in disgusting gruesome ways. And she gets away with it. Complete triumph of evil. (hide spoiler)] Story is cool and all but I don't like to live in the world where evil evils with no evil consequences to itself. Sorta brings back the idea that you don't have to have done anything wrong or to be somehow bad to be hated and persecuted; you might have simply unwittingly got something that an evil psycho wanted for themselves or is envious of or otherwise has an evil issue with just out of the blackness of their evil soul.
Reading the last story now; it is engaging and quaintly old-fashioned in its trappings.

I have created the poll for determining which book we will read in July. I thought I might try an experiment this month only (for now) and am just posting about the poll here to this and one other topic rather than sending out an announcement to all the members. I got the idea from another group I am a member of. The thinking is that if you're reading this here, you truly care, and are likeliest to participate in the read: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/9...

Having so much grading now - my reading slowed down to a trickle. Still have ways to go on The Dead End. I've been loving the pace and the cool old-fashioned, retro vibe BUT certain unease have been creeping in: is it consistent with the time period?
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The whole approach to the natives as primitives, etc - when did the scientific community move away from it? I checked and RNA/DNA have been known to science since about last quarter of the XIX century (which surprised me a great deal, I thought it was a far later development). But the main character also takes a transatlantic flight (presumably; he only mentions a 5-hr flight from Buenos Aires to Tierra Del Fuego and how he preferred modern conveniences). Now the first transatlantic flight was in 1939; but he flew from Britain and no mention of the war occurs in the text anywhere, no rations or anything - and rations only ended in 1954. So, say the events happened in the 60's - would a social anthropologist still be speaking of prehistoric primitive Indians in Tierra Del Fuego at the time? (hide spoiler)]

OK, this turns out to be a Zina ranting thread - will anybody else post something? Anyhow, I finished the book. And I feel like going about and smacking various characters and yelling at them. Especially the last one.
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I'd so yell at that schmuck! "What's wrong with you, dude?" - would yell I. What's with all this wallowing in whatever you are wallowing in and cancelling your marriage to the one person who will probably accept you as you are? So lets' see: you probably have been altered so that your children will be some fore-ancestor half apes. Right. That sucks. So - use condoms! Adopt! Use donor sperm for actual conception! Or maybe your wife will be curious and you two will actually produce that crazy ancestor and go on talk shows with it.

The way he is acting there is as if he himself was going to turn into a wereancestor and bite his Susan along the way.

I mean, I understand what a traumatic experience that must have been for him but still, cancelling his marriage without explanation is an unnecessary overreaction.
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It's the best piece in that book anyway, just the main character needed to stop flipping out the way he had.

Looking back on the whole thing, I tend to appreciate Anachrona more and more. Something about that low-key story makes it stand out.

I've just begun my reading of the book with the first story. I like the writing. It's easy to understand, we don't have the introduction of too many characters to track, and the premise is pretty cool. Fengriffen has called in a doctor of psychology (who he is not calling a psychiatrist for some reason) to treat his wife's aversion to Fengriffen. Looking forward to discovering what's wrong with the Mrs. and why she doesn't care for her husband.

I finished the titular leadoff story and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are no bells or whistles in terms of plot. It's very straightforward Gothic Horror, and could almost have been written in the nineteenth century when it was set, except for the real life horror depicted that was the catalyst for all the subsequent events. That had an edge to it, making the writing contemporary after all, and was hard to read.

I enjoyed the characters, especially the psychologist protagonist, and the suspense leading up to an easily foreseeable conclusion. There was also the classic man of science unable to accept the supernatural causes tension, which probably frustrated some readers, but is a very standard trope of Gothic Horror.

I give the story a sold four stars for being a fun read even if predictable. The only distinguishing differences that set this story apart from other works of its type was the aforementioned edgy violence, but also David Case's frequent odd word choices. Most were uses of obsolete words, but a couple were not actual words at all, but were made up, though they sounded fitting. The style was often reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith's, except less classical. Also, Case does not sustain an antiquated tone quite as consistently as Smith. Nevertheless, I appreciate authors being ambitious and their wanting to expand my vocabulary.

Finished "Anachrona," which I translate as "Timeless." I entirely agree with Zina; there is something special about this story, very Steampunkish before that subgenre was invented. Five stars for sure. Maybe the title is simply a play on the word "anachronism," since the antagonist is out of or ahead of his time.

This story was completely unpredictable and had a lot going on under its surface. I loved the characters of the three arrogant wise men heading west for the (birth?) of a Christ figure. But they miss that they encountered him on the way.

The story was set in Vienna, which wasn't accidental. Vienna was the capital of Protestantism in the seventeenth century. Still, Protestant heretics were burned at the stake just as the antagonist's teacher was. Aryan heretics and Jews (especially in Spain) were too. I also think science is the new religion, of which the "man" with the gray eyes was the herald. That's because of all the emphasis on science's founders from the Age of Enlightenment.

I like how the unnamed antagonist got his strength from the sun/son, how he always looked up as Jesus did after John the Baptist dunked him. There's lots of fun to be had with thinking about this story.

I’m intrigued that people here like the story “Anachrona” because its not memorable to me. As I said earlier, I held the short stories in this book to be so-so.

I’m going to reread the story and reevaluate it.

I agree with Zina. (view spoiler)[Tragedies, which is what bad-guys-win stories are, just aren't much fun. At least (hide spoiler)] the third story, "The Foreign Bride," is also the shortest. It's well told. Case finds the right words, is crystal clear, and just lets the narrative proceed to (view spoiler)[ its inevitable miserable (hide spoiler)] conclusion. Three and a half stars.

The next story, the fourth and last, is the longest in the book. It is as long as these first three stories combined. So what we really have are two novellas, of which the shorter one is "Fengriffen," and two short stories.

I reread "Anachrona" and now have a higher opinion of it. Maybe I was in a negative mood when I first read it, or something.

I agree that "Anachrona" is a play on the word anachronism. One of the definitions of anachronism is: an act of attributing a custom, event, or object to a period to which it does not belong.

Anachrona created a robot, perhaps android, and this entity is traveling to observe an automaton, in the hopes that it might get insight into solving its own maintenance issues.

That there are religious parallels in the story is an interesting point. Some other parallels: Anachrona, like Jesus, was executed. Anachrona's robot creation stated: "Three times I made to walk away, to deny him thrice, as did that other disciple so long before..."

Goodreads friend Nancy Oakes, who is a member of the Goodreads group Literary Horror, made I think an interesting point in her review: "Another thing I noticed in this book is that with the exception of "The Foreign Bride," science of some sort plays a role..."

4 stars

Interesting comments about Anachrona's religious associations. My brain somehow filed away his thrice having betrayed his creator and then forgot to revisit the file :)

Dan's interpretation is stunningly elegant. But the robot is not a Jesus figure. He is Peter. Peter is the guy that thrice betrayed his Lord. Jesus-like is Anachrona. A cyborg Jesus. The maker of cyborgs. Who only made one, did not give him an ability to replicate itself or repair himself for that matter, and so his Church is that one guy only. My ability to extend religious analogies breaks at this point. Send help.

Three wise men travelling West but the birth they saw was of no Jesus but a -fake prophet? The Anti-Christ? That seems too far of a stretch somehow.

Another thought occurred to me on why Fengriffen did not help his bride avoid the curse. (view spoiler)[ In the afterword, Kim Newman wrote that in the movies made on this, they had to hint at Fengriffen being gay or impotent to explain why he did not take the 5 minutes to alleviate the curse prerequisite condition.
I am thinking - he might not have fully believed it so did not do things that were improper in lieu of extreme danger. And then it was too late. (hide spoiler)]

Wow! Given that Fengriffen didn't believe, not even secretly or to himself, in the supernatural, which included curses, I would never expect it to occur to him his wife might need protection. Bringing in a good psychologist, no matter the expense, is all I would think one could ask of him.

Zina wrote: "Another thought occurred to me on why Fengriffen did not help his bride avoid the curse. In the afterword, Kim Newman wrote that in the movies made on this, they had to hint at Fengriffen being ga..."
And the more I think about it, the more obvious it is! I wonder why Kim Newman didn't think of it.

I finally finished the last story. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...