Any Robert Aickman fans here?

>>9286630
>Neil Gaiman quote on the cover

Imagine a picture of a frog holding a firearm.

File: 1752111.jpg (5KB, 213x144px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 213x144px

>>9286653

>tfw Gaiman quote ruins some Gene Wolfe books I have

>>9286630
I almost felt that, with a few exceptions, I didn't understand the stories in Dark Entries but that didn't stop me from picking up Cold Hand In Mine recently. I haven't started it yet (may wait for autumn to roll around) but I'm intrigued to begin because I read that some of the stories are even stranger.

>>9286653
>>9286909
kneel-gay-man actually has good taste, though, it's just his own writing that's underwhelming

I have Cold Hand in Mine and Painted Devils and they contain some of the best and most legitimately unsettling stories I've ever read. I try to bring him up here now and then but his readership is still too small for the average reader to even be aware of him.

here's a neat little documentary on him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FyIYMEFjE

>>9287000
>I didn't understand the stories in Dark Entries but that didn't stop me from picking up Cold Hand In Mine recently.

The fact that I never entirely know what's going on in his stories is what makes me come back to them again and again. They're probably the best examples of the uncanny I've ever come across in literature
Enjoy Cold Hand, it has some of his best stories

What collection should I start with if I wanted to read him? Thinking of going either with Cold Hand In Mine or The Wine-Dark Sea.

>>9286630
damn those are some good looking covers

>>9287563
Thanks, will give it a watch

>>9288335
I'm pretty sure they were the first collections of his I read as well. I wish I had my copies on me so I could give you a more precise answer but I think I lent them to my sister. Anyway, they're both great collections and either would be a good place to start.

There used to be some old Yahoo groups that discussed his stories but I think they're long gone. His stuff can be very difficult to interpret, but I think that's the draw for a lot of people. You read the stories again and again, putting together these bizarre puzzles out of increasingly unsettling pieces. Maybe I'm just a pervert but his work seems to be highly sexual compared to most horror authors. I've noticed his stories dealing with shit like incest, pedophilia, and necrophilia, and also occasional commentary on gender roles.

There's a short film of one Aickman's short stories, which stars Mark Gatiss. Probably best appreciated if you've the story beforehand, but it's creepy nonetheless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZefDTNt2u4

>>9288579
Have you read his story 'The Same Dog'?

I think that story best encapsulates everything you said about him in that post

It's a story I'm still trying to unravel years after reading it

>>9288740
Yep. I haven't read all of his work, but if I had to recommend a story that really exhibits the "Aickmanesque" I think it'd be that one or The School Friend.

I think one of the best / most bizarre parts of The Same Dog is the short description of what happened to the protagonist's friend. Rather than getting a straightforward answer that you'd be expecting at that point ("She was attacked by a dog"), you get the vague "She was interfered with, and mauled about. Bitten all over, they say, poor little thing." The phrase "She was interfered with" is such an unlikely thing to say in regards to what you initially presume is a dog attack, and it takes on a really sinister tone when you go back and consider the possibly naked old man watching them leave.

Philip Challinor wrote quite a few analyses on Aickman stories but the book they were collected in is way out of print. A piece he wrote on The Same Dog was luckily archived, though.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070824161242/http://www.prairienet.org/~almahu/fate.htm

>>9289630
I enjoyed that article, it actually summed up a lot of my own thoughts about the story