After having finished writing this article I just learned that author Anne Rice has passed away. I had chatted with her 3 times and she was very kind to me, a fan press writer. I liked her books more and more as I grew more mature, and I especially appreciated her honesty as a writer, because I think honesty helps make horror stories create a mood with more power. If you believe the human typical lives depicted, what happens to them because all the more dangerous. I can't say at 80 years of age that she died too soon, she had a good life, but humans are selfish, and people, ideas and things we love, we wish to live forever. My taste changed in life, but I grew to like her more, with every passing year. Rest in Piece, Anne Rice.
COVID-19
According to a number of articles I've read in historical times of
profound darkness people read dark fiction. They watch it as well. They
become entertained by the thing they are endangered by. This feeling of
entertainment while within an event or experience explains why certain
dark concepts work well in comics. The Crow features an undead vigilante
hero who slays those who committed crimes. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
had a steady following, and many who read it report it lets them act, in
fiction, in ways that wouldn't be allowed in real existence. As Covid
is a global plague, not yet fully fatal for the species, it is limiting
and damaging to our lives. Perhaps the fiction about plagues offers
solace in experiencing and feeling a comradery in the fight. And of
course, we don't know where the path will lead us, so perhaps seeing how
others survived the battle gives hope for our situation.
BOOKS TO READ:
The Last Man -- Mary Shelley
A Journal Of the Plague Year -- Daniel Defoe
The Scarlet Plague -- Jack London
Ammonite -- Nicola Griffith
Pale Horse/Pale Rider -- Katherine Anne Porter
Nordenholt's Million -- JJ Connington
I am not able to say which book is best, but most modern readers will find the first three to be somewhat archaic in style and grammar. Now, as a historian I actually enjoy that, but modern eyes and minds might be less thrilled. I love Mary Shelley, she was brilliant, and I'd go for The Last Man first, but all the others are quality reads.
FILMS TO VIEW:
The Andromeda Strain
28 Days Later
Pandemic
Patient Zero
Outbreak
Influenza 1918
Influenza 1918 is a historical documentary of the 1918 pandemic. Alfred Crosby was a fantastic scholar who looked at the issues that created the future path. Intellectual developments, disease, and trade all affect the world we live in, but rarely is it an event. I showed this film in a course I taught, and the students were slack jawed and gobsmacked as a result. It isn't fiction, it is scary as hell truth. The Andromeda Strain is brilliant, even aged, it is a high quality work. 28 Days Later is a dark and frightening future look of a pandemic. Pandemic was not really moving but I've heard people say they enjoyed it. Outbreak is an Andromeda Strain idea, but uses some stupid action scenes to make it more modern minded. I include Patient Zero, but it isn't in the same league as the others, however, for a limited budget and limited view of what it was showing, it has an intelligent idea as the foundation.
COMICS TO READ:
Y the Last Man
2020 Visions
Baltimore: The Plague Ships
Black Hole
Pandemica
The Strain
All of these books, except Pandemica which I've not read even as it was highly recommended to me, are worth reading. Y the Last Man was a solid combination of idea, writing and art that takes an idea woven since humans told stories, and tells it brilliantly. Baltimore The Plague Ships is dark and worthwhile. Black Hole comes highly recommended by my buddy Steve Olle. The Strain does a great job of adapting a work from one media for comics. But the best buy would be 2020 Visions by the mad genius Jamie Delano. It predicts a plague, depicts the genuine and presciently predicted divide between dominant versus defiant culture groups. It is dark, but is truly a vision of what we are going through and it is done with a morose sense of 'Hey death, screw you!', that is also humorous. There have been a couple versions of 2020 in Tpb form, and I think Jamie is going to release a deluxe version
A CAT'S CHRISTMAS
She waits eleven months for the season and perfect opportunity. Her
name is Katya, a cat princess, a being who hunts and stalks the moment,
to kill the decorated tree, and destroy the pretty wrapped boxes. She
loves that the humans in her life allow her this time, every year, they
speak to her, in their silly scolding voices, Don't Don't Don't they
say. But she knows, that in secret they DO want her to kill the tree, and
destroy the boxes. It is her gift to them to take the pretty tree and
tip it, take the decorations and spread them through the house. And
they say Don't but she knows, they mean DO.
I read for pleasure a lot less than I'd like. And that may be true of many who write for a living, or review or interview those in the literary world. I am someone who collects books, comics, and to some small extent DVDs of movies I love. But movies and comics require less investment of time, I am told. So why books? For that exact reason. The investment of time largely results in a deeper enjoyment, in my experience. Horror and Weird Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction are my typical read. For writers who wrote dark or horror books, Stephen King is a master, Arthur Machen was one of the first of the genre and an amazing writer, and Anne Rice? She is a genius, who writes in a soft seductive style that leads the reader to be taken in, without them knowing, as opposed to King, for instance, who is clear, but never subtle. Machen was subtle, but he didn't write in a recognized genre. But he was a stylish eloquent writer who transcended the boundaries of fiction, successfully. Rice wrote modern myths that resonate with me, but less for the characters, as for her love of word, and quality of being able to create a world that is dark, without it seeming so, until the exact moment when everything becomes clear.
Of these three writers, for my taste I far prefer Anne Rice over all, but I buy Machen when I find his works. I think that Stephen King is a writer who deserves greater accolades but won't receive them, but he will receive money which is a kind of accolade. The reason he won't get the proper respect for his writing is that he works in a ghetto reserved for authors who don't writing "proper" fiction. If he wrote adult contemporary works, action thrillers, or other proper genres such as Mystery, he'd be thought of as America's reigning prince of books.
About Getting Reviews from Me
First off, I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email at Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address. I no longer have a post box, although I regret that. It was a crushing defeat to no longer have a p.o. box, when I came to realize I was getting so little product it made no sense to pay for the privilege to not receive mail at both my home and at the post office. If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.
MY LINKS:
My Poetry Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
My Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
My Amazon Page Amazon.com/author/AlexNess
Lovecraft Styled Horror CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis and other Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
All works and art remain the property of the owners/creators and nothing more than fair use is asserted.
Final note: Please remember, there is no such thing as wild or tame. Every animal in the wild can be your pet, so long as you don't mind the bite marks, claw marks, the bleeding, the loss of limbs, poisoned wounds and instant death.
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