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text-align: center;"><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5XhUliH96s_q0JZOEol18lr1XrSJ013hTfZQ3xWrJOWuJ2hM7SxOAzjIVZR8dvU0jjgJaUykAlebU-5wFd_e1Lx436ki_g7BeJzpX5bYXgEd246Rof-Cqbd3VXqP07gHFu-xg__cNSbTEIBHHnyIfw88ec6OLTzoMekGxRuEM-L4c_etRad5YW3zP5MA/s800/Hellraiser2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5XhUliH96s_q0JZOEol18lr1XrSJ013hTfZQ3xWrJOWuJ2hM7SxOAzjIVZR8dvU0jjgJaUykAlebU-5wFd_e1Lx436ki_g7BeJzpX5bYXgEd246Rof-Cqbd3VXqP07gHFu-xg__cNSbTEIBHHnyIfw88ec6OLTzoMekGxRuEM-L4c_etRad5YW3zP5MA/s320/Hellraiser2.jpg" width="227" /></span></a></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This post is the second installment of my re-read of the <i>Hellraiser</i> comics published by Epic. The first issue was undeniably a cracking start, even if it played fast and loose with the idea of a unified "<i>Hellraiser</i> Mythos," but can the second issue rival that tough act to follow? Let's dig in and find out.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">My thoughts on each of the stories contained in the issue are below. As always, the stories chosen for the issue offer a nice range of horror tales, albeit that they are united under the <i>Hellraiser</i> rubric. We've got the political and corporal terrors of the prison, the horrors of the hospital, virtual reality, and more!</span></div><p></p></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1334" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg29BfRS1u544Q0HPK4pBSA0xXdWW5rl_zWdnMy16MeeFERAnOMGd4IvhbI0G3llpxwJdcjThk6GYdPgxDM_FyAnufjJ46ceNS7dGBQZKNIkwQCCMSG4YGXi3_21yrSdVVfn_uZGRQBfOno__1QcugP6_wy4PLBY92_YXQeRMrhezmpDawLxtOcvxDLQYU/s320/vault.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"The Vault"</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Marc McLaurin, Jorge Zaffino, Phil Felix, Julie Michel</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The Vault" concerns a violent prison in an unnamed South American country where a revolution is currently sputtering to its end. A prisoner within the facility sold out his comrades to get possession of a Lament Configuration, which he inexplicably still has in prison. Opening the box removes him from incarceration, but that poses a problem for the facility's commandant, who sees the unexplained escape as a blotch on his record of keeping law and order. And he is a big believer in law and order; he believes in structure and imposing structure from top to bottom, bottom to top, and from the middle outward.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">To rectify what he sees as a lapse in order in the prison, the commandant tortures various prisoners into solving the left-behind puzzle box to figure out how the escapee fled his domain. The puzzle doesn't open until he beats a prisoner while holding it. The Cenobite who arrives is very disappointed in the commandant's lack of self-control. The story ends with the commandant being told that this fault can be corrected--from top to bottom, bottom to top, and from the middle outward.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is an interesting story. I think the way it focus on chaos (symbolized here by the failed revolution) versus order (here played by the carceral state) is a nice thematic contrast. The art style, with is deep, shadowy blacks and muted orange and yellow palette, also really works well with the subject matter.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="817" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRYEjMNEkWjW3LJyBFloBLLj9GGZo8k1_-9BplSNsE-WCZMemoYZX6Tofz6Q-txf0CMWP2rLaBs3G6Hb0sJKkHyl2_qN9OoYAKR5oo4pZVBmIZOPzqr2QGC8Qhb1mJeKBjdFi295SlKoH637bVqVmTnJPh7y0Uce0YvCKgM8tOPlzRNI1aEUODxaqCMA/s320/divers.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Divers Hands"</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">James Robert Smith and Mike Hoffman</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A patient named Vincent in the last leper colony in the continental United States has got his hands--or, rather, what's left of his hands--on a Lament Configuration. Vincent believes that successful manipulation of the puzzle box will grant him a cure for his ravaged body or perhaps give him a new body entirely.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Enter a new nurse named Mary at the treatment center. Vincent quickly seduces her; not romantically, of course, but he coaxes her into solving the puzzle for him since his hands are no longer up to the task. Although, it must be noted, that there is a sexual component to the attraction between them that rings true to <i>Hellraiser</i>'s mixture of desperation and desire. While having sex with her boyfriend, Mary imagines the leper atop her in his place.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Cenobites arrive when Mary solves the puzzle as Vincent's proxy. We now learn that this isn't the first time has had another solve the Lament Figuration on his behalf. Vincent's goal isn't to have the Cenobites cure his affliction per se; he believes that if he leads enough souls to Hell they will remake him as a Cenobite. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mary is taken by the Cenobites, but before she enters Hell she flings the Lament Configuration away. Believing that it must have reappeared somewhere else in the institute, Vincent begins scouring the hallways until he finds it. When he does, the Cenobites reappear, apparently re-summoned to their infernal work. The institute, it turns out, is also a puzzle created by LeMarchand, and traversing its corridors has "solved" it. With no proxy to offer them, Vincent is taken as their victim--but not before he sees Mary again, refashioned into a tangle of whole, healthy limbs.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The pastel colors and the unwaveringly bland expressions given to the characters in "Divers Hands" really sells the "clinical" horror of the piece. Everything, from the progress of Vincent's disease to the sterile Hell of the facility, underlines the cold, unfeeling betrayals that Vincent engages in and adds to the horror of the red-hot desires lurking under the surface. This is one of the all-time classics to emerge from the Epic run, in my opinion.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="429" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh73uRrXW3VyZ2mZyAx_Hf6CMNPVN9gpSzGNumIsO1hrqoINTkx7OF5-bP9dYDDn_XFvS1dqpd3P8BheR8eF_WggPWqxBBU124JIzvJK1p-SMtFuuwi214U2rRQtSJ7p2JLAHo27i5eNfx2EbTFKuYRTZBXrtmbT1aZfIqYsTOgj8MUoybdV5fxoCd7GLY/s320/writers.jpg" width="217" /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Writer's Lament"</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dwayne McDuffie, Kevin O'Neil, and Jim Novak</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">I'd later come to know Kevin O'Neil for his work on <i>The League of Extraordinary Gentleman</i>, of my favorite comics of all time, so you'd think this one would appeal to me. And yet...I really don't.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Writer's Lament" follows the travails of a freelance writer named Dave who is already in Hell. Used to writing scripts to fit a client's specifications, Dave is surprised one day to find that he's created something <i>actually artistic</i> for once, something that is undeniably his own. Because the use of metaphor in this story is blatantly obvious, the piece is symbolized by a baby because the project is "his baby."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dave rushes his baby to his editor and is shocked to learn that other people have brought their babies in for consideration as well. The editor likes what he sees, but begins to make changes--you have to think of the audience, the sponsors, the pressure groups, you see. He pulls out one of the baby's eyes, yanks an arm off, and rips off its genitals. (Yes, really.) When Dave balks that the editor is destroying his concept of what the baby should look like, he reassembles it--but then rips the "heart" out of the project.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dave is ushered out, the creative spark behind the baby now dead, but he's placated by the promise of work to come in the future. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">The underlying idea is interesting here, but the execution is so on-the-nose that it feels more like a creative's gripe session than a real examination of the commercialization of art. The casual gruesomeness of the baby's dismemberment has some shock and heft to it, but the artwork on this one just doesn't feel particularly inspired.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1391" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIrGypkhK2i3tMbim8nC3YPrMfsqtBr7ukPHGd7Dwu7H98qA4RwYQ5l27d1VJSlZPmh9pyZ-CAi1t65J-c7bc8gpKYqFtk5vQNd8LAKC3_krYCVj-pbQZEOOvOt1yuMUkrk2mi3GqbsjKyIc-VF04dX0T9m6YmeZWlRgmpV2KvphxJWVUah2Turz8YDfc/s320/surf.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"The Threshold"</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Scott Hampton, Mark Neece, and Phil Felix</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh hey, a virtual reality story! Look, it was the late 80s; "The Threshold" even pre-empts that god-awful <i>Lawnmower Man</i> movie.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A scientist named Leo Marks perfects the virtual reality experience, and then promptly disappears after granting the patent to an amoral tech company. The virtual reality technology is mostly used by people who want to fuck celebrities, but a scientist at the company named Tom is up to some darker stuff. You see, Tom has been experimenting on a man's whose mind was "blown out" in the technology's trial phase; now Tom subjects him to ever-increasing experiences of pain to discover what lies beyond the threshold of maximum agony.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since this is a Hellraiser story, you can guess what lies beyond pain, actually. A Cenobite arrives after Tom cranks the dial on his experiment--and the Cenobite is none other than Leo Marks! Marks then ushers Tom into the fold, where it seems he may be destined to become a Cenobite himself.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a fairly slight story, but it sticks to the themes and the virtual reality gag still has some novelty to it. Loved the scene of the guinea pig having to surf a lava flow in Hawaii.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gMqr5P1ho4EHY11b3IeAHAkUHHf519WJDUk_91lNnYviMFl8G32Y0JoDRGkd0zkqkOVgvgoNhcczll5VfKdi-k_3QnM4ZGHxR8m_IVoymI0NkgXLYKlh8G5aF7Ig-gQTKAB8YSeLfcVyIe0fLm4WCF3ZLN25AW9sGWbvohOuard3vbCvQ4KDiq3bvgU/s1421/deception.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="1421" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gMqr5P1ho4EHY11b3IeAHAkUHHf519WJDUk_91lNnYviMFl8G32Y0JoDRGkd0zkqkOVgvgoNhcczll5VfKdi-k_3QnM4ZGHxR8m_IVoymI0NkgXLYKlh8G5aF7Ig-gQTKAB8YSeLfcVyIe0fLm4WCF3ZLN25AW9sGWbvohOuard3vbCvQ4KDiq3bvgU/s320/deception.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>"The Pleasures of Deception"</span></b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Philip Nutman, Bill Koeb, Gaspar Saladino</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now this art style is so of the era it gives me an ache in my chest! Dark, murky paints; inexplicable squares drawn around focal points; scratchy textures hinting at human blight--this is the stuff I'm craving.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The Pleasures of Deception" is pure strain <i>Hellraiser</i>. When an artist named Davis tries to sell his latest macabre piece to a gallery, his work is rejected. His art has grown stale. What he needs is new inspiration, a new window into the complexities of desire and the flesh, so he gets his hand on a Lament Configuration. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Solving the puzzle summons Pinhead and the High Priestess. (I believe this is the first time the movie Cenobites show up in the comic as characters.) They guide him through a series of disturbing, blood soaked lessons in how the flesh can be reshaped, taming the chaos of life and turning it into static art. Of course, like many Faustian bargains, this one comes with an unforeseen price: the artist is now cursed with seeing more of the world that he can really handle.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a perfect piece to close the issue. Overall, this is another strong entry in the run. You get a sense that they're still figuring out what a <i>Hellraiser</i> comic entails, but it does feel more unified than the first issue.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/hellraiser-2.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/hellraiser-2.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2025-01-29T21:24:00-05:00'>9:24 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6492151513276914341&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/hellraiser' rel='tag'>hellraiser</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, January 15, 2025</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2PaHsBc2L_xLoNsBzMLyjOpmBDzRqC4J29IzX42tnjm2DnlDRP29DvL_FfrjCbYiyOlUXkI8V7XTbwX54shZ5tqoxhwNZiolpaKkENbXUtULK7eIGSXd0lk0aXhosKvknHGmijnv7w569fD-rMevLlLHKAmAAqaqrl2U8SJmOFCSf4TKlxFkGXm5ZZo/s320/PXL_20250116_014920257.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='3280535569146985884' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='3280535569146985884'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/hellraiser-1.html'>Hellraiser #1</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-3280535569146985884' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2PaHsBc2L_xLoNsBzMLyjOpmBDzRqC4J29IzX42tnjm2DnlDRP29DvL_FfrjCbYiyOlUXkI8V7XTbwX54shZ5tqoxhwNZiolpaKkENbXUtULK7eIGSXd0lk0aXhosKvknHGmijnv7w569fD-rMevLlLHKAmAAqaqrl2U8SJmOFCSf4TKlxFkGXm5ZZo/s900/PXL_20250116_014920257.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="632" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2PaHsBc2L_xLoNsBzMLyjOpmBDzRqC4J29IzX42tnjm2DnlDRP29DvL_FfrjCbYiyOlUXkI8V7XTbwX54shZ5tqoxhwNZiolpaKkENbXUtULK7eIGSXd0lk0aXhosKvknHGmijnv7w569fD-rMevLlLHKAmAAqaqrl2U8SJmOFCSf4TKlxFkGXm5ZZo/s320/PXL_20250116_014920257.jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">I've been obsessed with Clive Barker's <i>Hellraiser</i> since I saw the first film back in the 80s, after getting my grandmother to rent it from the local grocery store. Truth be told, the first time I watched it I had to take it in two parts; it freaked me out so much that I had to stop the tape and continue the next day! After finishing it, though, I couldn't get it out of my head and I was soon on the trail of tracking down a copy of <i>The Hellbound Heart</i>...and all of Barker's other fiction.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>To my amazement, one day (</span><span>circa 1989) </span><span>at the comic shop I saw a copy of </span><i>Clive Barker's Hellraiser #1</i><span> on the new release wall. This was an anthology comic published by Epic, Marvel's "serious" imprint. The comic was deluxe for the era: perfect bound, thick paper, and chock full of painted art. I was in love.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I've managed to get a full collection of the Epic <i>Hellraiser</i> comics over the years, and now it's time to re-read them and give a full reevaluation. Are they a worthy addition to the "<i>Hellraiser</i> Mythos"? Or were they a cash-in that will ring hollow now that my days of youthful enthusiasm are at an end? Here's what the first issue summoned forth:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS8Y4eX3Ig8BRpCA1QaGPqemD6kWwkdq4jc_NjMksuz1vnPAbS_vR9oG2buARZV7keG2uqcvR9fGu3QFg_YYADQSqHVmUdVui8v0-DOvhdJQRYezlKIgb8eZ3WecoyMGeiWHm3lnebkJF4FQDaBa4wWAi-ScMz4X3gCnu3p3rnymDau9nGBpSQiqsneA/s1411/canon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1411" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS8Y4eX3Ig8BRpCA1QaGPqemD6kWwkdq4jc_NjMksuz1vnPAbS_vR9oG2buARZV7keG2uqcvR9fGu3QFg_YYADQSqHVmUdVui8v0-DOvhdJQRYezlKIgb8eZ3WecoyMGeiWHm3lnebkJF4FQDaBa4wWAi-ScMz4X3gCnu3p3rnymDau9nGBpSQiqsneA/s320/canon.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Erik Saltzgaber, John Bolton, Bill Oakley</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"The Canons of Pain"</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Things kick off with an extremely strong start with "The Canons of Pain." I am a sucker for <i>Hellraiser</i> stories with a historical gloss, and "The Canons of Pain" takes place during the Crusades. Our virtuous knight brings a Lament Configuration back from the Holy Land, but that's not the only burden he carries--it's clear that in this story the puzzle box is a metaphor for his war-induced post-traumatic stress. I also love the gimmick in play--once the puzzle is solved and the Cenobite is summoned, the medieval characters try their damnedest to fit its existence into their Catholic framework of demons, hell, and the justice of God. Overall, it's a banger of an opening story and I adore that you can still see the canvas grain in the art, just beautiful texture.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexwqBCl1JfwiZW5Sr6eRWesDqF7unGyxKXJcbkOiF4OdJWgQHoKBcijyjbKys8oJJNHBVJCx_T7PhVm1AoneRuE4YSgLZacGX102mof7N8HGfLzwSpZ_TuR6-kFofUhK0H5tC4QNmcA02GFYpnXChAIPUohvf9Ypw_rolDmDkkVAMQ8bWYRMHgopdPZA/s733/Dead%20man.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="733" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjexwqBCl1JfwiZW5Sr6eRWesDqF7unGyxKXJcbkOiF4OdJWgQHoKBcijyjbKys8oJJNHBVJCx_T7PhVm1AoneRuE4YSgLZacGX102mof7N8HGfLzwSpZ_TuR6-kFofUhK0H5tC4QNmcA02GFYpnXChAIPUohvf9Ypw_rolDmDkkVAMQ8bWYRMHgopdPZA/s320/Dead%20man.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sholly Fisch, Dan Spiegle, Carrie Spiegle, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Dead Man's Hand"</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The Canons of Pain" isn't the only historical drag the first issue of Hellraiser has to offer: "Dead Man's Hand" gives us a slice of the Wild West. It's a classic premise--a stranger comes to town, looking to play some high-stakes poker, with a man's soul on the line. The stranger antes up a Lament Configuration, which everyone thinks is the big prize. It's not, of course. When his intended victim emerges as the winner of the card game, he gets the real prize--the stranger takes the box with him and rides out of town. It's a slight story, especially after the vicious tangle of the first tale, but it's a fun diversion nonetheless. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUww9avNNzVglH8MppL-hAlQzXVZ7PKh1dypWuAL9bzeEYRxlWd13JKuEx57ZQc_-jUoY9Hn_DAqCUB5miOuW8o9AZPgAxXTSzbge8RXlUbeH6rXi4CNTOKsozhSe18NQ2gHris537uj3jx6n97Ly49NeVElHmy4RLb_ZAs6LeZnBdb_VlVMtLYBQJi_w/s805/warm%20red.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUww9avNNzVglH8MppL-hAlQzXVZ7PKh1dypWuAL9bzeEYRxlWd13JKuEx57ZQc_-jUoY9Hn_DAqCUB5miOuW8o9AZPgAxXTSzbge8RXlUbeH6rXi4CNTOKsozhSe18NQ2gHris537uj3jx6n97Ly49NeVElHmy4RLb_ZAs6LeZnBdb_VlVMtLYBQJi_w/s320/warm%20red.jpg" width="279" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jan Strnad, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Wray, Michael Heisler</b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">"The Warm Red"</span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"The Warm Red" is a story that has really stuck with me over the years; it's easily my favorite of the tales in the first issue. A manipulative real estate mogul gets a tip that some ailing farmland is going to be virtually priceless once Disney moves in and makes a new theme park nearby, so she swoops in ahead of the other vultures to buy the place off the dimwitted yokel who owns it. She not above using sex to blind him to the swindle, and one of the things I love about this story is that they resisted the temptation to make her a typical "sexy comic woman" of pneumatic proportions and instead portray her as older, oddly angular, but still seductive and real.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, little does our swindler know that the dimwitted yokel has been cast from the Ed Gein mold--he's a sadist who was tortured at the hands of his pious mother, the perfect recipe for a beast to fall into the hands of a Cenobite. The Cenobite in this story is worth mentioning; his name is Face, due to the mask of skin stapled over the blood and muscle of his head, and this won't be his only appearance over the comic's run. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Our yokel turns the tables on the businesswoman, drugging her into unconsciousness so her can cut her up and give her over to Hell's dominion.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When she awakes, mostly nude and tied spread-eagled to a gore-soaked mattress, the pain is about to begin. But remember, she's a wheeler and dealer--she makes Face an offer that feels like a true bargain. As she explains to the Cenobite, yon yokel only feeds a trickle of souls to Leviathan--and just think how the yield could be increased if someone savvy were at the helm! And so, our yokel and our manipulative femme fatale trade places; at the story's close, he's the one strapped down, fearfully awaiting the cruel application of the knife.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcrm3sSd2eVA93T65ypL3TcexcYTPGxfJP7ivHWt4mS20rbqLMvFjkrrI6XNWhkOnwXmJSPdtQUgGfLKyAYl_31TdOqf-Jiwv1JGuYasWokEMjKOnmq7ivDhW1kEACQyb3rxU6mcbiu5aOx3yaSKQRcgxPvdNNH3yvloVzOfkGCnpsQ0Nc5mLWfvE5ls/s1451/dance.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1451" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLcrm3sSd2eVA93T65ypL3TcexcYTPGxfJP7ivHWt4mS20rbqLMvFjkrrI6XNWhkOnwXmJSPdtQUgGfLKyAYl_31TdOqf-Jiwv1JGuYasWokEMjKOnmq7ivDhW1kEACQyb3rxU6mcbiu5aOx3yaSKQRcgxPvdNNH3yvloVzOfkGCnpsQ0Nc5mLWfvE5ls/s320/dance.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ted McKeever, "Dance of the Fetus"</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Dance of the Fetus" is a mostly wordless story about a woman who has summoned a demon seemingly to give her the strength to commit suicide. Ted McKeever's idiosyncratic art style is a great fit for the themes of the piece; it's moody, glum, and frankly depressive. Once the demon slips inside the woman, he discovers a spanner in the works--the woman is pregnant. It is, apparently, against regulations for Hell to claim an innocent in the bargain, so the fetus is taken outside of the woman's body, where it floats up into the firmament to become a star. This is a great piece of comic work, but I have one caveat with it: it just doesn't feel like a <i>Hellraiser</i> story! And that's what makes it interesting within the context of the first issue--you can see how the team involved is feeling out the territory, finding the limits of what a comic called <i>Clive Barker's Hellraiser</i> can do without becoming alienated from itself.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/hellraiser-1.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/hellraiser-1.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2025-01-15T22:08:00-05:00'>10:08 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3280535569146985884&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/hellraiser' rel='tag'>hellraiser</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, January 1, 2025</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-FE_YsBrFS4XKcZZBrT-VFo6Vwk8dIeZDe91m_T659b8yz2aA6XXBDZg6ZKUA5gHHM2XVCGUU0oYREg8drW0YqSWzkF-AXmRQ2V2J8naJvemRS9To5_L9IDtQk5JFFbf3P5sKmoWU7Rb3NHzJOH9m-Alzz35Yz92lFAcddqop2XWY1T22pnlXxykCE0/w200-h200/whateddiegeindone-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='8217963420592920999' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='8217963420592920999'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/did-you-hear-what-eddie-gein-done.html'>Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-8217963420592920999' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-81-did-you-hear-what-eddie-gein-done-waitll-we-tell-you"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-FE_YsBrFS4XKcZZBrT-VFo6Vwk8dIeZDe91m_T659b8yz2aA6XXBDZg6ZKUA5gHHM2XVCGUU0oYREg8drW0YqSWzkF-AXmRQ2V2J8naJvemRS9To5_L9IDtQk5JFFbf3P5sKmoWU7Rb3NHzJOH9m-Alzz35Yz92lFAcddqop2XWY1T22pnlXxykCE0/s1400/whateddiegeindone-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-FE_YsBrFS4XKcZZBrT-VFo6Vwk8dIeZDe91m_T659b8yz2aA6XXBDZg6ZKUA5gHHM2XVCGUU0oYREg8drW0YqSWzkF-AXmRQ2V2J8naJvemRS9To5_L9IDtQk5JFFbf3P5sKmoWU7Rb3NHzJOH9m-Alzz35Yz92lFAcddqop2XWY1T22pnlXxykCE0/w200-h200/whateddiegeindone-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-81-did-you-hear-what-eddie-gein-done-waitll-we-tell-you">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 81: Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?</a></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is a 2021 graphic novel that pairs historical true crime author Harold Schechter and Eric Powell, writer and illustrator of the monster punch-up comic The Goon. Jack and Kate revisit the horrifying true tale of the Butcher of Plainfield–this time, in comic book style.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What impact did this case have on pop culture, and why does it continue to fascinate us? How were the ‘90s a different country, and why did that country smell like grunge? Is the true crime genre Horrible Exploitation or Cool Exploitation? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/did-you-hear-what-eddie-gein-done.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2025/01/did-you-hear-what-eddie-gein-done.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2025-01-01T22:21:00-05:00'>10:21 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8217963420592920999&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, November 12, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEwCJM8B4lQqkjWTzzKhbbqnh3Kl36ygHtmX8BYQ3jUCIpT83A5FFdTokDRvjEDQlog-9qhVt_MZBfe-Jqg7rM9ZMRHYh9TL4-7lHHO_iMReRsBebyjoS7n-2REnytvSUes_2ywgaL6mkrI-fhQ7GsW9RxoGZznJSw2i1j_GJY980ZkUJYQLe45OhVjA/s320/9781914420887.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='3552472315163908694' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='3552472315163908694'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/11/capitalism-horror-story.html'>Capitalism: A Horror Story</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-3552472315163908694' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEwCJM8B4lQqkjWTzzKhbbqnh3Kl36ygHtmX8BYQ3jUCIpT83A5FFdTokDRvjEDQlog-9qhVt_MZBfe-Jqg7rM9ZMRHYh9TL4-7lHHO_iMReRsBebyjoS7n-2REnytvSUes_2ywgaL6mkrI-fhQ7GsW9RxoGZznJSw2i1j_GJY980ZkUJYQLe45OhVjA/s900/9781914420887.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="594" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVEwCJM8B4lQqkjWTzzKhbbqnh3Kl36ygHtmX8BYQ3jUCIpT83A5FFdTokDRvjEDQlog-9qhVt_MZBfe-Jqg7rM9ZMRHYh9TL4-7lHHO_iMReRsBebyjoS7n-2REnytvSUes_2ywgaL6mkrI-fhQ7GsW9RxoGZznJSw2i1j_GJY980ZkUJYQLe45OhVjA/s320/9781914420887.jpg" width="211" /></a></span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">To be fair and spell out one of my biases at the outset of this post on my thoughts about Jon Greenaway's <i>Capitalism: A Horror Story</i>, I've long been skeptical of the idea of "Gothic Marxism" for a reason this book does little to dispel: it seems like either an attempt to make Marxism "sexy" or to align someone's taste in entertainment to their avowed political ideology. Perhaps it tries its hand at both at the same time. The concept of Gothic Marxism often feels like a manifestation of the impulse to rebrand your politics as "cool" and to politically justify your fandom.</span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qV5x3D2D3e0Vq0j26pX2KCdyqVhUfXWGAe8SDPxRDsoea4jcDH-rc8UsiQl-JCGfqX8Uhsfz77kOu_VqLvWnYzdUgHtKbMdd9-FvGxfkkYiYwiKD93y1A0_Wp2g1UMeH1CRDMVV6DE8shyphenhyphenUM3zQnEC8ZLxmK5Hk6CPohPPytamP9wuJ-TKajlbUCBco/s4032/PXL_20240911_165547520.MP.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><p></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The book's vision of "the Gothic" mellows and becomes diffuse as it proceeds, eventually transforming into a catch-all category for the various horror films and texts it analyzes. However,</span> <i>Capitalism: A Horror Story</i> doesn't excel at illustrating how the Gothic, or horror more generally, is necessarily a Marxist mode. This is an especially vexing omission in light of several authors under discussion being notably <i>not</i> radically left-wing in their politics yet somehow still existing under the book's political purview. For example, Ann Radcliffe was a champion of the middle-class bourgeoisie; the polite moralizing of her "Gothic Romances" and her status as an upwardly mobile middle-class woman whose ascendance was deeply entwined with the rise of capitalism evidences that. As another example, despite his belief in home rule for Ireland, Bram Stoker was a monarchist and supporter of the British Empire--two facets difficult to reconcile to claims of Marxist potential within Gothic authorship. In general, the linkage between "Gothic" and "Marxism" does not feel natural or self-evident.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The book's desire for Gothic Marxism to possess a transcendental, utopian political value also strikes me as odd and feels like something that can only be conjured by avoiding the material conditions that made the Gothic, and horror more generally, a viable commodity in terms of cultural production. This seems like something a Marxist account would <i>want</i> to explore in detail, but those concerns are largely left dangling. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5qV5x3D2D3e0Vq0j26pX2KCdyqVhUfXWGAe8SDPxRDsoea4jcDH-rc8UsiQl-JCGfqX8Uhsfz77kOu_VqLvWnYzdUgHtKbMdd9-FvGxfkkYiYwiKD93y1A0_Wp2g1UMeH1CRDMVV6DE8shyphenhyphenUM3zQnEC8ZLxmK5Hk6CPohPPytamP9wuJ-TKajlbUCBco/s320/PXL_20240911_165547520.MP.jpg" width="240" /></span>My biggest complaint with the book is stubborn insistence that horror is essentially a "hopeful" genre. I have taken a screenshot of a relevant paragraph so that you can judge the book's rhetorical position for yourself. This desire for a hopeful utopian turn does, in fact, cause problems when the book tries to use the cited fictions as political examples. You <i>can</i> read the ending of <i>Dracula</i> as hopeful--but it is hopeful about the continuation of British patriarchal power. <i>Dracula</i> features a collective that defeats evil--but it is a collective of elite imperial agents reinscribing Western superiority over foreign otherness. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, the ending of <i>Frankenstein</i> is hard to read as anything but Romantically bleak; it is far more apocalyptic than utopian in both tone and intent. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, the chapter on witches best illustrates the major flaw in the book's utopian argument: it dearly wants figures of monstrosity to be positive, nearly messianic, figures of resistance to capitalism, but as such it is ill-equipped to deal with the actual monstrosity of the figures it valorizes. Take its analysis of <i>The VVitch</i> as an example. It reads the witches in the film as liberatory and the ultimate event of Thomasin joining the coven as a political act, which may be, but it does not--and perhaps cannot--grapple with the fact that the witches in the film are actually figurations of evil by almost any standard. A baby is stolen and is mashed up into a flying ointment by one of the witches; another child is seduced in the woods and returned only so that he might die a horrible death in front of his helpless family. The climax of the film also problematizes the anti- capitalistic reading of its context. What is it that Thomasin is offered by the Devil? Butter, a pretty dress--she is offered <i>commodities</i>. I somehow think Marx wouldn't approve.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">What this means is that many textual elements have to be ignored to get where the book intends to go. The same problem occurs in the offered reading of <i>Frankenstein</i>; the monster's body is a "site of politics," which again is certainly true, but that site of politics is fraught and contradictory because the monster puts its body to use by killing the innocent. I suspect this complication is uncommented on because that would countermand the hope of utopian change through the symbol and cypher of monstrosity. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><i>Capitalism: A Horror Story</i> ultimately leaves the reader empty-handed. The utopian project of the book wants us to believe that </span><span>there is revolutionary hope </span><span>in monstrosity, in horror, in darkness--but even if that is an unmined possibility, what are we to do with that epiphany? As with other books of this style, there is no roadmap forward provided. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is particularly galling because in one of its chapters two horror film franchises are criticized for being unable to move beyond the ideological confines of neoliberalism to imagine something better. And yet, this presentation of Gothic Marxism similarly suffers from an inability to realize its utopic dreams in anything approaching concrete terms. How does an embrace of the monstrous usher in a much-deferred revolution? What praxis flows from the disturbed burial ground of the Gothic? Where does the "radical imagination" touted on the book's move from dark dream to attainable action? By the end of the book, questions such as these remain unanswered. </span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/11/capitalism-horror-story.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/11/capitalism-horror-story.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-11-12T21:04:00-05:00'>9:04 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=3552472315163908694&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, October 15, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2MMn4flgTT2q1uT_uRbnZ6_jrQMe367MJd36JuolONTLrdsqVaDjrLl79prUiXmhFkIEBi2EX9MfOyY8bnubLpGYha-56UnLSLDb3XhmRpZ8tz6v0_s8303x1WMLM0yZhSvDT8yZXzviQIKfCcZ-PrdSEVShahjtwuWcrqjx2U0jPTjwBCjHtYVgiy0/w200-h200/hoodtown-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='5263593177332796036' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='5263593177332796036'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/10/hoodtown.html'>Hoodtown</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-5263593177332796036' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-80-hoodtown-heels-homicide-and-horny-times"><b></b></a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2MMn4flgTT2q1uT_uRbnZ6_jrQMe367MJd36JuolONTLrdsqVaDjrLl79prUiXmhFkIEBi2EX9MfOyY8bnubLpGYha-56UnLSLDb3XhmRpZ8tz6v0_s8303x1WMLM0yZhSvDT8yZXzviQIKfCcZ-PrdSEVShahjtwuWcrqjx2U0jPTjwBCjHtYVgiy0/s1400/hoodtown-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2MMn4flgTT2q1uT_uRbnZ6_jrQMe367MJd36JuolONTLrdsqVaDjrLl79prUiXmhFkIEBi2EX9MfOyY8bnubLpGYha-56UnLSLDb3XhmRpZ8tz6v0_s8303x1WMLM0yZhSvDT8yZXzviQIKfCcZ-PrdSEVShahjtwuWcrqjx2U0jPTjwBCjHtYVgiy0/w200-h200/hoodtown-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-80-hoodtown-heels-homicide-and-horny-times">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 80: Hoodtown</a></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Christa Faust’s 2004 novel Hoodtown takes the reader to an alternate universe Los Angeles, where crime drama is brewing in an underground culture populated by masked wrestlers. Skulls will be cracked and butts will be fingered when Jack and Kate get in the ring with this pile-driving mix of murder mystery, romance, and action.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Why is it important to be nice to your local exotico? Does everyone from New Jersey have a gym membership? Is an especially skanky carpet the ultimate heel? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/10/hoodtown.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/10/hoodtown.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-10-15T20:50:00-04:00'>8:50 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=5263593177332796036&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, September 18, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3z_MWEm7crHaqiyl_fxEQRM-xcZzYuxsyX6r76JjEOvZIjsVusgIyql8RJD2ucx_-j8zCN_YFgIeaz5uxwT_797lKWYYt-cRKfLDtdL0Wggmsipkix-3J_ZviEjG90Hx4CoXztVtqEKyC0UMkYZS_kIVte8WUIfpAXelQSjnvS3K1bbmv0ZeRtvRhEs/w200-h200/shadowontheglass-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='660586379728007385' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='660586379728007385'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-shadow-on-glass.html'>The Shadow on the Glass</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-660586379728007385' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-79-the-shadow-on-the-glass-lovecraftiana-meets-victoriana-and-gets-cheeky"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3z_MWEm7crHaqiyl_fxEQRM-xcZzYuxsyX6r76JjEOvZIjsVusgIyql8RJD2ucx_-j8zCN_YFgIeaz5uxwT_797lKWYYt-cRKfLDtdL0Wggmsipkix-3J_ZviEjG90Hx4CoXztVtqEKyC0UMkYZS_kIVte8WUIfpAXelQSjnvS3K1bbmv0ZeRtvRhEs/s1400/shadowontheglass-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3z_MWEm7crHaqiyl_fxEQRM-xcZzYuxsyX6r76JjEOvZIjsVusgIyql8RJD2ucx_-j8zCN_YFgIeaz5uxwT_797lKWYYt-cRKfLDtdL0Wggmsipkix-3J_ZviEjG90Hx4CoXztVtqEKyC0UMkYZS_kIVte8WUIfpAXelQSjnvS3K1bbmv0ZeRtvRhEs/w200-h200/shadowontheglass-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-79-the-shadow-on-the-glass-lovecraftiana-meets-victoriana-and-gets-cheeky">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 79: The Shadow on the Glass</a></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Outside of your hosts’ beloved Warhammer 40k novels, can tie-in game fiction be good? Jack and Kate aim to find out by discussing The Shadow on the Glass, a 2024 novel that pairs podcast-favorite author Jonathan L. Howard with the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Where are all of London’s fanciest spiritualists and psychics disappearing to? Can an A-team still be an A-team if the “a” stands for accountants and academics? Is there a bit of rugose cone inside all of us, really? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-shadow-on-glass.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-shadow-on-glass.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-09-18T23:40:00-04:00'>11:40 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=660586379728007385&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, August 18, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7hDIqVAreXoqMEaEwB8qWlq3IvSQUT5OAxkIyuzQwU5IO4uF7R5OGkCGDvFVuBVtRiaacwtDCDKgPeB9LakqfYRRWwPQaIX_jwqaXp2sjZhwR-yGXywIje0TG0nML0-rdNaLfVifyPbpAFAFgT3AV5WlEV6WpsEeVQunzunIShnVVfI_58nFkNQ-izQ/w200-h200/suddendeath-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='233292784622715088' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='233292784622715088'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/08/sudden-death.html'>Sudden Death</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-233292784622715088' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-78-sudden-death-the-most-dangerous-game-is-tennis"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7hDIqVAreXoqMEaEwB8qWlq3IvSQUT5OAxkIyuzQwU5IO4uF7R5OGkCGDvFVuBVtRiaacwtDCDKgPeB9LakqfYRRWwPQaIX_jwqaXp2sjZhwR-yGXywIje0TG0nML0-rdNaLfVifyPbpAFAFgT3AV5WlEV6WpsEeVQunzunIShnVVfI_58nFkNQ-izQ/s1400/suddendeath-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7hDIqVAreXoqMEaEwB8qWlq3IvSQUT5OAxkIyuzQwU5IO4uF7R5OGkCGDvFVuBVtRiaacwtDCDKgPeB9LakqfYRRWwPQaIX_jwqaXp2sjZhwR-yGXywIje0TG0nML0-rdNaLfVifyPbpAFAFgT3AV5WlEV6WpsEeVQunzunIShnVVfI_58nFkNQ-izQ/w200-h200/suddendeath-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-78-sudden-death-the-most-dangerous-game-is-tennis">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 78: Sudden Death</a></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Sex. Sacrilege. Murder. Tennis. This podcast is all about three out of those four things. Sudden Death, a 1978 novel by Peter Brennan (creator of TV shows Judge Judy and A Current Affair), marks the first time Jack and Kate are venturing into the world of sports thriller fiction. Buckle up, because underneath those tennis whites there’s a seething underbelly of drama and corruption. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What could go wrong with a little nun-flavored sex work? Why does every character in this book have the most outrageous backstory ever? Will Jack and Kate learn anything about the sport central to this book? All these questions and more will be answered in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People. </span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/08/sudden-death.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/08/sudden-death.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-08-18T21:55:00-04:00'>9:55 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=233292784622715088&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, June 25, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBYer08rWcRzcgRpHEuotzu3QQPJTjAeGUHAdBCuoZDykc3514_Ze51D8YEMXz9STYuq7hDR9o_Y6dGq7AufRAA8j89YnGmJHF1FuAAdpOT-VQzNgZuqUjjb7HNvGU8KO61x46BeXGBDtYkA49_QiC9x3CmCHMM42VIhLmjLVh5mqcTL0dXZS5dpqVXE/w200-h200/oldhouseoffear-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='2948963858384859989' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='2948963858384859989'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/06/old-house-of-fear.html'>Old House of Fear</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-2948963858384859989' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-77-the-old-house-of-fear-gothic-thrills-for-the-conservative-mind"><b></b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBYer08rWcRzcgRpHEuotzu3QQPJTjAeGUHAdBCuoZDykc3514_Ze51D8YEMXz9STYuq7hDR9o_Y6dGq7AufRAA8j89YnGmJHF1FuAAdpOT-VQzNgZuqUjjb7HNvGU8KO61x46BeXGBDtYkA49_QiC9x3CmCHMM42VIhLmjLVh5mqcTL0dXZS5dpqVXE/s1400/oldhouseoffear-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBYer08rWcRzcgRpHEuotzu3QQPJTjAeGUHAdBCuoZDykc3514_Ze51D8YEMXz9STYuq7hDR9o_Y6dGq7AufRAA8j89YnGmJHF1FuAAdpOT-VQzNgZuqUjjb7HNvGU8KO61x46BeXGBDtYkA49_QiC9x3CmCHMM42VIhLmjLVh5mqcTL0dXZS5dpqVXE/w200-h200/oldhouseoffear-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-77-the-old-house-of-fear-gothic-thrills-for-the-conservative-mind">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 77: Old House of Fear</a></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Russell Kirk is best known for his influential work of post-war political philosophy, The Conservative Mind. But his best-selling work–by far–was a 1961 gothic thriller The Old House of Fear. Jack and Kate wander through the mysterious isolated islands of Scotland on a hunt for Commie rabble-rousers, damsels in distress, and shaky real estate investments.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Does getting shot during the Spanish civil war give you psychic powers? Are Teddy Boys really that dangerous? Do Maltese people talk like that? What even are women? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/06/old-house-of-fear.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/06/old-house-of-fear.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-06-25T21:49:00-04:00'>9:49 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2948963858384859989&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, May 19, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9V_99Fsxgssqp2c_mTERAbWDydwsBSQiFnsMxBtdRJWiVMlmjkaTxA3htuwlphCSZU1mcrnXKAZG-UF6abmhXj53zYp_r-eu4aTK-cf6kaU2wnM3DNpNipvv2DWUqay-YVY4_OzAl1E-uQnvMPZ5FjMWTOOInTzan96yhwNCUQFa6MehhUZTV9CmauJk/w200-h200/joyland-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='8305618005893185581' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='8305618005893185581'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/05/joyland.html'>Joyland</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-8305618005893185581' itemprop='description articleBody'> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9V_99Fsxgssqp2c_mTERAbWDydwsBSQiFnsMxBtdRJWiVMlmjkaTxA3htuwlphCSZU1mcrnXKAZG-UF6abmhXj53zYp_r-eu4aTK-cf6kaU2wnM3DNpNipvv2DWUqay-YVY4_OzAl1E-uQnvMPZ5FjMWTOOInTzan96yhwNCUQFa6MehhUZTV9CmauJk/s1400/joyland-bbfbp-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9V_99Fsxgssqp2c_mTERAbWDydwsBSQiFnsMxBtdRJWiVMlmjkaTxA3htuwlphCSZU1mcrnXKAZG-UF6abmhXj53zYp_r-eu4aTK-cf6kaU2wnM3DNpNipvv2DWUqay-YVY4_OzAl1E-uQnvMPZ5FjMWTOOInTzan96yhwNCUQFa6MehhUZTV9CmauJk/w200-h200/joyland-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-76-joyland-murder-manhood-and-milfery"><b>Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 76: Joyland</b></a><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;">Stephen King’s 2013 novel Joyland is the author’s second effort for publisher Hard Case Crime. Jack and Kate are ready to track the clues in this story of murder, romance, and amusement park professionals.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What happens when the King of Horror gets a chance to be the Crime Writer Guy? Can the main character of his book ever achieve full carny acceptance? Why doesn’t the magical child at the center of the mystery infuriate your hosts? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/05/joyland.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/05/joyland.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-05-19T22:02:00-04:00'>10:02 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8305618005893185581&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, April 17, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvXYX8F5jNSr8gjxMNSAyMd7sAHhIiahE-Ctw1fB8rGK4pj3z1XRo_Qa7JkbnFPV6O8ijnR3mXHV4lbCQTk0M1xhIxGZi6O56hDfushN6t7Wj-8hYm_QyWzE6msE0xFuGViKOmlOL-Q1J1qxtHRs9AaPe6Rp5v2JYx_muZUbMJ5ETRwTy68N9_N_Q8mI/s320/60784409.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='2522398121435867488' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='2522398121435867488'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-house-with-good-bones.html'>A House With Good Bones</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-2522398121435867488' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvXYX8F5jNSr8gjxMNSAyMd7sAHhIiahE-Ctw1fB8rGK4pj3z1XRo_Qa7JkbnFPV6O8ijnR3mXHV4lbCQTk0M1xhIxGZi6O56hDfushN6t7Wj-8hYm_QyWzE6msE0xFuGViKOmlOL-Q1J1qxtHRs9AaPe6Rp5v2JYx_muZUbMJ5ETRwTy68N9_N_Q8mI/s2560/60784409.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvXYX8F5jNSr8gjxMNSAyMd7sAHhIiahE-Ctw1fB8rGK4pj3z1XRo_Qa7JkbnFPV6O8ijnR3mXHV4lbCQTk0M1xhIxGZi6O56hDfushN6t7Wj-8hYm_QyWzE6msE0xFuGViKOmlOL-Q1J1qxtHRs9AaPe6Rp5v2JYx_muZUbMJ5ETRwTy68N9_N_Q8mI/s320/60784409.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>T. Kingfisher's </span><i>A House With Good Bones</i><span> is not a novel I would recommend widely among my cohort; it has a lot going against it: I found the main character's quirky banter to be repellent, the plot involves the hated "a character discovers they are the heir to magical power, which they suddenly and conveniently wield to make things right" convention, and the horror is so light in this novel that it fulfills the milquetoast dreams of those who demand "cozy horror." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Despite all that, there are some high spots. I was surprised that Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley figure into the backstory, for example. That lent the book some surprising and interesting texture. Also, I can fully admit that even though a novel isn't for me, there are readers out there who would love this. Your maiden aunt who finds Stephen King too scary, but still wants to read horror, might get a real kick out of </span><i>A House With Good Bones</i><span>.</span></span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-house-with-good-bones.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-house-with-good-bones.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-04-17T21:36:00-04:00'>9:36 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=2522398121435867488&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, March 24, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzsRessHVjykYLgysbsyYlbKURCexwrr6bpDmN9gVK8JRWVvdVNkdB7FOKuZoqkdlomdqONxsp785IH26171GzpRs4_-itZdJb2P7Kw23jNJqlrRocVDTN04S4yMz00Rkta-79QG98eIG-uIsdT5MuCsUAq1YP8kKYCnVIu6t9an7tKbh5Zax0ecM8VA/w200-h200/livegirls-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='1262298803827453510' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='1262298803827453510'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/03/live-girls.html'>Live Girls</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-1262298803827453510' itemprop='description articleBody'> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzsRessHVjykYLgysbsyYlbKURCexwrr6bpDmN9gVK8JRWVvdVNkdB7FOKuZoqkdlomdqONxsp785IH26171GzpRs4_-itZdJb2P7Kw23jNJqlrRocVDTN04S4yMz00Rkta-79QG98eIG-uIsdT5MuCsUAq1YP8kKYCnVIu6t9an7tKbh5Zax0ecM8VA/s1400/livegirls-bbfbp-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwzsRessHVjykYLgysbsyYlbKURCexwrr6bpDmN9gVK8JRWVvdVNkdB7FOKuZoqkdlomdqONxsp785IH26171GzpRs4_-itZdJb2P7Kw23jNJqlrRocVDTN04S4yMz00Rkta-79QG98eIG-uIsdT5MuCsUAq1YP8kKYCnVIu6t9an7tKbh5Zax0ecM8VA/w200-h200/livegirls-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-75-live-girls-vampire-hookers-vs-ping-pong-balls">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 75: Live Girls</a></b><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: large;">Ray Garton’s 1986 horror novel Live Girls may have the perfect bad book pitch: vampire hookers in seedy vintage Times Square. Jack and Kate travel back to a golden age of sleaze and encounter smokeshow bloodsucking strippers, donut-inspired dirty talk, and dancefloor remixes of “The Old Rugged Cross.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What perverted compulsion makes a vampire turn the worst dudes in the world immortal? Why are nightclubs never, ever as cool as the ones in bad books? What do table tennis and the Anarchist’s Cookbook have in common? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People!</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/03/live-girls.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/03/live-girls.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-03-24T22:41:00-04:00'>10:41 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1262298803827453510&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, February 21, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jcS2Jk1yA9FjzS6wNXBILd2jz6DLeB-Rga6pqL6ZBuflmirfszISwoJpCZxkT_NrWmUIUnClpmSWlglmiJ8uY-C1SiJUF5U_e7u-h4NozwhER1U-I46l-Wi7nTjSi1c2HuXwf7rmU5EB6nRpz3hUUHB3oN26Qnzsri5MnzcHlvADna2XOMQuX8KXTKA/w200-h200/nightmarehouse-airport77-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='4254033471172173248' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='4254033471172173248'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/02/nightmare-house-and-airport-77.html'>Nightmare House and Airport '77</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-4254033471172173248' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jcS2Jk1yA9FjzS6wNXBILd2jz6DLeB-Rga6pqL6ZBuflmirfszISwoJpCZxkT_NrWmUIUnClpmSWlglmiJ8uY-C1SiJUF5U_e7u-h4NozwhER1U-I46l-Wi7nTjSi1c2HuXwf7rmU5EB6nRpz3hUUHB3oN26Qnzsri5MnzcHlvADna2XOMQuX8KXTKA/s1400/nightmarehouse-airport77-bbfbp-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jcS2Jk1yA9FjzS6wNXBILd2jz6DLeB-Rga6pqL6ZBuflmirfszISwoJpCZxkT_NrWmUIUnClpmSWlglmiJ8uY-C1SiJUF5U_e7u-h4NozwhER1U-I46l-Wi7nTjSi1c2HuXwf7rmU5EB6nRpz3hUUHB3oN26Qnzsri5MnzcHlvADna2XOMQuX8KXTKA/w200-h200/nightmarehouse-airport77-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-74-nightmare-house-and-airport-77"><b>Episode 74: Nightmare House and Airport '77</b></a></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Once again, Jack and Kate trade reviews of books from their archives. This time around, Jack explores the terrifying mystery and romance of Rae Foley’s Nightmare House (1968) and Kate plunges straight into disaster with Airport 77 (1977).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Why is dealing marijuana a worse crime than murder? Does a nightmare dude make a nightmare house into a nightmare home? Whose dick will be compared to a tiny airline bottle of booze? Is Airport 77 the disco era counterpart to Moby Dick? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People. </span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/02/nightmare-house-and-airport-77.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/02/nightmare-house-and-airport-77.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-02-21T22:10:00-05:00'>10:10 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4254033471172173248&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, January 21, 2024</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLS-2fW9OyXS3L9ScfRg-ZXn5uAwRD4EwjB7JErYVqI6W_Rdotfrf35sdDZcLpH3aKFooofrXycf-hDCB2lyOXW-rooQ5KjOfd4HUazf96i09EjWTiU8EbAfrlp0TlKq5T7fwmoR8K4lv1SJdCIB3w_qyEOrUNLK0SDDjGdhnNU4xUSS1QBGok83Z/s320/58724694.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='6628439897175200277' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='6628439897175200277'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/01/not-good-for-maidens.html'>Not Good For Maidens</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-6628439897175200277' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLS-2fW9OyXS3L9ScfRg-ZXn5uAwRD4EwjB7JErYVqI6W_Rdotfrf35sdDZcLpH3aKFooofrXycf-hDCB2lyOXW-rooQ5KjOfd4HUazf96i09EjWTiU8EbAfrlp0TlKq5T7fwmoR8K4lv1SJdCIB3w_qyEOrUNLK0SDDjGdhnNU4xUSS1QBGok83Z/s2475/58724694.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2475" data-original-width="1650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLS-2fW9OyXS3L9ScfRg-ZXn5uAwRD4EwjB7JErYVqI6W_Rdotfrf35sdDZcLpH3aKFooofrXycf-hDCB2lyOXW-rooQ5KjOfd4HUazf96i09EjWTiU8EbAfrlp0TlKq5T7fwmoR8K4lv1SJdCIB3w_qyEOrUNLK0SDDjGdhnNU4xUSS1QBGok83Z/s320/58724694.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Tori Bovalino's <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> is a riff on Christina Rossetti's <i>Goblin Market</i>. In <i>Not Good For Maidens</i>, a young woman from a bloodline of witches is faced with the daunting task of venturing into the goblin market in search of her beloved aunt who may have fallen prey to the goblins' enticements. Running parallel to that story is the tale of a <i>different</i> aunt's tragic involvement with the goblin market in the past. Overall, <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> is a decent read, particularly for younger readers, but I do think it could have gone much harder, especially given the rich context of Rossetti's poem. </span>The problem with <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> is that living up to the promise and power of Rossetti's poem is not a task many modern authors are really equipped to tackle. The best thing this novel can do is lead young readers to Rossetti's poetry.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As a riff on a classic Victorian poem, <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> is not the book I think it should be, which may well be an unfair criticism, but I think comparison between the novel and Rossetti's poem is inevitable given the context. To my mind, Christina Rossetti's <i>Goblin Market </i>is a poem of seductive horrors. In contrast, Bovalino's novel is planted too firmly in the young adult "urban fantasy" mode, and any seduction is in short supply within its pages. Though there is horrific content in it, <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> soft-pedals where it should attempt to disturb and challenge the reader. The form of the novel also detracts from its themes; the prose needs to be more seductive, artful, and brimming with monstrous excess, and the words need to carry more sexual threat. Without that, <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> feels pale and fainting in comparison to the strenuous ardor of Rossetti's poem.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Case in point, the protagonist is notably asexual, so the potential to do something interesting by juxtaposing the goblin market's enticements against her lack of desire certainly exists--but that element isn't explored in any depth. Similarly, the protagonist's strange, semi-sensual fixation on her aunt doesn't reach the fevered pitch of the powerful and unnameable force of sisterly love in Rossetti's work.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I also question the author's word choice at various points. Too often, the protagonist is "scampering" away in terror. Scampering? That's like saying someone frolicked in dread.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I know that a considered focus on world-building is often a great curse upon all nations, but the world-building in <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> would benefit from narrative clarification or revision because I'm not sure it makes sense. The goblin market seems to be a known quantity (even the British government is aware of it and when people re-emerge from the market with strange injuries and bearing stranger curses, people know to take its victims to a group of witches in York that can help them), but the American protagonist has somehow never heard of it? Despite the fact that <b>her family members are the witches who help people recover from goblin wounds in York</b>?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The way the goblin market and its denizens are portrayed feels unreal, as opposed to fantastical or even dream-like, which works against the book's themes, its characterization, and its coherency. If the goblin market were real and known, there would be YouTubers and TikTokers making crass videos about it. But in the fictive world the novel presents, knowledge of market's existence is vague and often feels like it comes into focus only at the narrative's convenience, making the stakes of <i>Not Good For Maidens</i> feel flimsy and inconsequential as a result.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/01/not-good-for-maidens.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/01/not-good-for-maidens.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2024-01-21T21:33:00-05:00'>9:33 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=6628439897175200277&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, December 19, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwAMX5RExjXykz2EhpLR6Gos4tWPy4i60Nh-TtF8TIgnL17w7WA3gXgc5pJmfHyxq0vtjTGrGz4gIcGnmVfWyZBHJQoBWS0ElYki87c2JaPi9vstobD8bdBi6BQAxiysLCDTUfeJprhxxLKpAesptd7yIC3lqITqpJkdKsyaNRYFecsvSHPMIxAlTScXQ/s320/mtree.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='8804998094013313581' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='8804998094013313581'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-bitter-perfume-of-solstice-night.html'>The Bitter Perfume of a Solstice Night</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-8804998094013313581' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwAMX5RExjXykz2EhpLR6Gos4tWPy4i60Nh-TtF8TIgnL17w7WA3gXgc5pJmfHyxq0vtjTGrGz4gIcGnmVfWyZBHJQoBWS0ElYki87c2JaPi9vstobD8bdBi6BQAxiysLCDTUfeJprhxxLKpAesptd7yIC3lqITqpJkdKsyaNRYFecsvSHPMIxAlTScXQ/s5000/mtree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3333" data-original-width="5000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwAMX5RExjXykz2EhpLR6Gos4tWPy4i60Nh-TtF8TIgnL17w7WA3gXgc5pJmfHyxq0vtjTGrGz4gIcGnmVfWyZBHJQoBWS0ElYki87c2JaPi9vstobD8bdBi6BQAxiysLCDTUfeJprhxxLKpAesptd7yIC3lqITqpJkdKsyaNRYFecsvSHPMIxAlTScXQ/s320/mtree.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">I'll probably never be able to top Melania's grim Slavic hell Christmas-scapes, but I <i>did</i> finish a Christmas tale set in Krevborna, which you can read <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/14eOuSJ-d9BkoHMc9UPTDAeoHHTcTzmzv/view"><b>here</b></a>. Things you can expect from this story: weary travelers, a horrible monster, disturbing allusions to Christmas tradition, satanic magic, and a red-haired barbarian warrioress who totally rails three mercenaries.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As they say in darkest Krevborna,"Merry Khristmas to all, and to all a good night."</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-bitter-perfume-of-solstice-night.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-bitter-perfume-of-solstice-night.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-12-19T22:14:00-05:00'>10:14 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=8804998094013313581&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/krevborna' rel='tag'>krevborna</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20fiction' rel='tag'>my fiction</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Wednesday, October 18, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdoZG3uff702htym5fobjQxGtJor4luR9152LoNLt2RHZXYEFPlk1YmyChdtWMufA150FRsbl8rjMBP-ujWkeUFji0kwASpwYImoyBz7pEBmisf-XV9pHVfhTkowNNOVCdkGhkjAWn2bOc-819uu5YcgxXWAI1ZPSiH1BsawW0GW_QiKBWNL3y8LH7oZc/w200-h200/vampiraelvira-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='4583316516105442523' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='4583316516105442523'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/vampira-and-elvira.html'>Vampira and Elvira</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-4583316516105442523' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-71-vampira-and-elvira-the-real-women-behind-the-halloween-queens"></a></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdoZG3uff702htym5fobjQxGtJor4luR9152LoNLt2RHZXYEFPlk1YmyChdtWMufA150FRsbl8rjMBP-ujWkeUFji0kwASpwYImoyBz7pEBmisf-XV9pHVfhTkowNNOVCdkGhkjAWn2bOc-819uu5YcgxXWAI1ZPSiH1BsawW0GW_QiKBWNL3y8LH7oZc/s1400/vampiraelvira-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdoZG3uff702htym5fobjQxGtJor4luR9152LoNLt2RHZXYEFPlk1YmyChdtWMufA150FRsbl8rjMBP-ujWkeUFji0kwASpwYImoyBz7pEBmisf-XV9pHVfhTkowNNOVCdkGhkjAWn2bOc-819uu5YcgxXWAI1ZPSiH1BsawW0GW_QiKBWNL3y8LH7oZc/w200-h200/vampiraelvira-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-71-vampira-and-elvira-the-real-women-behind-the-halloween-queens">Episode 71: Vampira and Elvira</a></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In a special, super-extended, spooky season episode, your hosts read a double feature of horror hostess biographies! Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi by Sandra Niemi and Yours Cruelly, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson recount the drama-filled careers of two of the most iconic, goth-adjacent TV figures of all time. Jack and Kate take a candid look at the trials and triumphs of two real-life Halloween queens.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Does the appeal of late-night metaphysical diner talk span generations? How young is too young to launch your showgirl career? Why do the Red Hot Chili Peppers ruin everything? Is a decades-long goth girl beef even more odious than the Red Hot Chili Peppers? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast!</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/vampira-and-elvira.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/vampira-and-elvira.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-10-18T20:38:00-04:00'>8:38 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4583316516105442523&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Thursday, October 12, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwnYzFUIar5bX_INsSu2ptDceF2b8s_gcEYUV5CDhInSktTWFgSPFmbUJOJ_hhKeRwVYnFHxjpsorIggrauQROZJ7pU850yWk2m3hMKnxTEKEAawLB4xA-LjPHFp5kNUVvva7_DMWCDVPnV9DLCSpICAhotlkw2MTPjhnL_ugnMsS3ZuLHUiKvk_Ny6M/s320/priestsdead-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='4972139889436339827' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='4972139889436339827'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-priests-of-abomination-and-still.html'>The Priests of Abomination and Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-4972139889436339827' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwnYzFUIar5bX_INsSu2ptDceF2b8s_gcEYUV5CDhInSktTWFgSPFmbUJOJ_hhKeRwVYnFHxjpsorIggrauQROZJ7pU850yWk2m3hMKnxTEKEAawLB4xA-LjPHFp5kNUVvva7_DMWCDVPnV9DLCSpICAhotlkw2MTPjhnL_ugnMsS3ZuLHUiKvk_Ny6M/s1400/priestsdead-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwnYzFUIar5bX_INsSu2ptDceF2b8s_gcEYUV5CDhInSktTWFgSPFmbUJOJ_hhKeRwVYnFHxjpsorIggrauQROZJ7pU850yWk2m3hMKnxTEKEAawLB4xA-LjPHFp5kNUVvva7_DMWCDVPnV9DLCSpICAhotlkw2MTPjhnL_ugnMsS3ZuLHUiKvk_Ny6M/s320/priestsdead-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-70-priests-of-the-abomination-and-still-dead-book-of-the-dead-2"><b>Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 70: The Priests of Abomination and Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2</b></a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In this episode, your hosts dig deep into their collection of vintage paperbacks and share their thoughts on dusty, lurid tales from decades past. Kate reads The Priests of the Abomination, a cult-flavored 1970 crime conspiracy thriller from Ivor Drummond, and Jack selects three gruesome stories from the zombie horror anthology Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Do rich people have a secret sixth sense that detects perverts? What is it with British pulp authors and their insistence on stopping the action for relaxing, fish-related interludes? Will Jack share the grossest story we’ve encountered yet? The Nineties - a different country or a whole ‘nother planet entirely? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People. </span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-priests-of-abomination-and-still.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-priests-of-abomination-and-still.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-10-12T06:03:00-04:00'>6:03 AM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=4972139889436339827&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, August 29, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWGguGHhIcGK563Q2pWhdUTh-PhmoBkrOBnrHGbNYaWkjUBlCj64Nus29ndln5krMbfO7ViCb-b5567GxHqBy0BUR4Gj_k7Ij8k7bva6OnHt-MJEAU-Yqav4yrTrjBJwiZ-xzgpEX15AYnXslBDRQ2oWARB-iQh8rGqQM9Ul7H4YNYd7dGNkvN4KwOBc/w200-h200/deadrun-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='1922372550093194440' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='1922372550093194440'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-dead-run.html'>The Dead Run</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-1922372550093194440' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-69-the-dead-run-an-exploitation-movie-in-book-form"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWGguGHhIcGK563Q2pWhdUTh-PhmoBkrOBnrHGbNYaWkjUBlCj64Nus29ndln5krMbfO7ViCb-b5567GxHqBy0BUR4Gj_k7Ij8k7bva6OnHt-MJEAU-Yqav4yrTrjBJwiZ-xzgpEX15AYnXslBDRQ2oWARB-iQh8rGqQM9Ul7H4YNYd7dGNkvN4KwOBc/s1400/deadrun-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWGguGHhIcGK563Q2pWhdUTh-PhmoBkrOBnrHGbNYaWkjUBlCj64Nus29ndln5krMbfO7ViCb-b5567GxHqBy0BUR4Gj_k7Ij8k7bva6OnHt-MJEAU-Yqav4yrTrjBJwiZ-xzgpEX15AYnXslBDRQ2oWARB-iQh8rGqQM9Ul7H4YNYd7dGNkvN4KwOBc/w200-h200/deadrun-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-69-the-dead-run-an-exploitation-movie-in-book-form">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 69: The Dead Run</a></span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Adam Mansbach brings on the two-fisted action in his 2013 novel The Dead Run, with the results capturing the exhilarating vibe of a vintage exploitation movie. When a series of crimes challenges the police on both sides of the US-Mexican border, the authorities learn that a shocking conspiracy may be afoot.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What’s the most outrageous self-defense weapon? How wise is it to attempt the pronunciation of an Aztec deity’s name? Do prairie dogs even have kitchens? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People! </span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-dead-run.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-dead-run.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-08-29T22:33:00-04:00'>10:33 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=1922372550093194440&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, August 6, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14LHvQUvrq46CBzKOro4Twr0V6XONkgWlNSNAGTVCs5rkyay7okguuHH1j9AIxxrQ50OYS5czhGQvXo-W_hZFu669YrCbYrguOlvnr-Y90pGh9D88C7AVOQ0PrviqSeQnAHRgKeTqZ8Q5285nNoOFk9RCYdmLakyKI7LcsGf9LoUZFwZYZq4VpTPFskw/w200-h200/edogawaranpo-bbfbp-cover.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='228339624408840874' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='228339624408840874'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/edogawa-ranpo.html'>Edogawa Ranpo</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-228339624408840874' itemprop='description articleBody'> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14LHvQUvrq46CBzKOro4Twr0V6XONkgWlNSNAGTVCs5rkyay7okguuHH1j9AIxxrQ50OYS5czhGQvXo-W_hZFu669YrCbYrguOlvnr-Y90pGh9D88C7AVOQ0PrviqSeQnAHRgKeTqZ8Q5285nNoOFk9RCYdmLakyKI7LcsGf9LoUZFwZYZq4VpTPFskw/s1400/edogawaranpo-bbfbp-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14LHvQUvrq46CBzKOro4Twr0V6XONkgWlNSNAGTVCs5rkyay7okguuHH1j9AIxxrQ50OYS5czhGQvXo-W_hZFu669YrCbYrguOlvnr-Y90pGh9D88C7AVOQ0PrviqSeQnAHRgKeTqZ8Q5285nNoOFk9RCYdmLakyKI7LcsGf9LoUZFwZYZq4VpTPFskw/w200-h200/edogawaranpo-bbfbp-cover.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://badbooksbadpeople.com/episodes/episode-68-edogawa-ranpo-grandaddy-of-ero-guro">Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 68: Edogawa Ranpo</a></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Edogawa Ranpo pioneered the Japanese-language mystery story, taking inspiration from his pseudo-namesake Edgar Allan Poe and ultimately developing his own unique–and deeply disturbing–authorial voice. Jack and Kate take a look at three short stories from the collection Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination and encounter a world of erotic, grotesque nonsense.</span></p><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">How do Ranpo’s original tales compare to the many film and manga adaptations of his work? Who’s got it worse: a pervert living inside of a chair, or the people who sit in the pervert’s chair? Have our hosts finally gotten to the darkest parts of the Summer of Bummer? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast!</span></div></div> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/edogawa-ranpo.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/edogawa-ranpo.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-08-06T21:39:00-04:00'>9:39 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=228339624408840874&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/bad%20books%20for%20bad%20people' rel='tag'>bad books for bad people</a>, <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, July 23, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2cxjFcwS3NZiPK2GgNdjkll0ISfZo6x5evoQ6DZEF7KP7otL-dSIl_IHJnH879EvYq6qTnnD_eKubR8CUfF7kzck_HuAA6aCJbPyjFulUPWu2wrZTbwfbAG8SxbiWGmay6AU1FuBbIJzFPEw0xsGbG8rmGtydd2J9qdWyFl3g2sZlw9elt5nwRBn/s320/PXL_20230520_193333871.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='576644586111928754' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='576644586111928754'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/wizardry-and-wild-romance.html'>Wizardry and Wild Romance</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-576644586111928754' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2cxjFcwS3NZiPK2GgNdjkll0ISfZo6x5evoQ6DZEF7KP7otL-dSIl_IHJnH879EvYq6qTnnD_eKubR8CUfF7kzck_HuAA6aCJbPyjFulUPWu2wrZTbwfbAG8SxbiWGmay6AU1FuBbIJzFPEw0xsGbG8rmGtydd2J9qdWyFl3g2sZlw9elt5nwRBn/s3684/PXL_20230520_193333871.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3684" data-original-width="2824" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha2cxjFcwS3NZiPK2GgNdjkll0ISfZo6x5evoQ6DZEF7KP7otL-dSIl_IHJnH879EvYq6qTnnD_eKubR8CUfF7kzck_HuAA6aCJbPyjFulUPWu2wrZTbwfbAG8SxbiWGmay6AU1FuBbIJzFPEw0xsGbG8rmGtydd2J9qdWyFl3g2sZlw9elt5nwRBn/s320/PXL_20230520_193333871.jpg" width="245" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Wizardry and Wild Romance</i> is Michael Moorcock's book-length examination of "epic fantasy." Overall, I think this is a book that struggles to justify itself. <i>Wizardry and Wild Romance</i> is light on analysis of the genre or the works within it, instead functioning as a delineation of the books and authors Moorcock thinks are worthwhile and which are not. With the absence of any deeper consideration of the genre on a textual level, we're left with what is essentially a reading list that recommends itself on the merit of having been written by Michael Moorcock. That will be enough for some, but it's a premise I found a little unconvincing.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">That said, if you were to use this book as a guide to fantasy literature, you would come away with a pretty solid reading list--for beginners, at least. Since this book isn't intended on being a deep dive, it mostly stays within the realm of authors that long-time fantasy fans will already be familiar with. You will have heard of Ursula K. Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, and Mervyn Peake. Given his predilections, it does not come as a surprise at all that Moorcock is a big proponent of M. John Harrison.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As I was reading, I did find myself wishing that Moorcock ranged into stranger territories and unearthed a few more obscure gems, but I suspect part of the goal was to highlight what is readily available. Moorcock praises the contributions of women to the fantasy genre, but his subject remains focused on a kind of Great Men of Fantasy, for the most part.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The book also contains Moorcock's infamous "Epic Pooh," his polemic against J. R. R. Tolkien. (C. S. Lewis gets a few shots as well.) Moorcock's ire is palpable, but it feels too personal to reflect any true deficiencies in Tolkien's writing. One of the issues I have with <i>Wizardry and Wild Romance</i> is that it relies on extensive quotes from the texts in question to "prove" the merit or lack thereof in the books under discussion; the problem is that it isn't always clear what we're supposed to take away from the quotes used. When taken out of their native context, writerly rigor and sloppy execution aren't always apparent. To be frank, this chapter feels like a wonderful example of Harold Bloom's theory of "the anxiety of influence"; the most startling thing about it is that Moorcock laid it so bare before the reading public.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are plenty of reasons to dislike Tolkien or Lewis, many of them quite reasonable, in fact, but I don't think the critique that they are "too Christian and too middle-class" is as damning in my mind as it is in Moorcock's. Interestingly, Moorcock actually seems to prefigure a certain kind of science fiction and fantasy commentator all too common in the current moment: the earnest left-wing critic who is angry that the social politics of a piece do not fit their progressive model of what is just and good. This sort of critic operates under the impression that their particular nexus of class and taste, almost always expressed as a hybrid of working-class consciousness and claims of residing among the rarefied intelligentsia, has access to unassailable social and political truths. It's a claim that never holds water. Personally, I think it's worthwhile to try to understand other points of view without interjecting too much of the idiosyncratic self into the effort--especially when it comes to the kinds of dreams and fantasies that take shape in genre fiction. You would think that Moorcock, with his emphasis on fantasy as a window into the psychology of the individual, would take just such a broader view.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Interesting tangents do emerge here and there throughout <i>Wizardry and Wild Romance</i>. Moorcock mostly approves of Robert E. Howard's <i>Conan</i> stories, but he doesn't care much for Conan comics and he loathes the Conan movies. Fair enough. Moorcock was also onto the tension between the "grimdark" and "squeecore" tendencies in fantasy long before the current Twitter fracases over them, though he terms these competing poles "brute vs. cute," which I like much better than the accepted modern terminology. Moorcock also comes close to stating outright that John Norman's <i>Gor</i> books should be banned; we read one for an episode of Bad Books for Bad People, and it was awful indeed, but I disagree with Moorcock's assertion that those novels are "dangerous." They're just dopey and cannot harm you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps the most interesting bit is Moorcock's implication that authors whose influences are too near the surface, too detectible and traceable, aren't disciplined or talented enough--or at least not in love enough with language--are letting the side down. This is a striking facet of the work as a whole, especially since Moorcock quickly glosses over his own debt to Poul Anderson's <i>The Broken Sword</i>!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Though I found much to disagree with in <i>Wizardry and Wild Romance</i>, I don't regret reading it in the least. It's the kind of book that makes you rethink your assumptions, always a healthy thing.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/wizardry-and-wild-romance.html' itemprop='url'/> <a class='timestamp-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/wizardry-and-wild-romance.html' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='published' itemprop='datePublished' title='2023-07-23T22:09:00-04:00'>10:09 PM</abbr></a> </span> <span class='post-comment-link'> </span> <span class='post-icons'> <span class='item-control blog-admin pid-1248343450'> <a href='https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&from=pencil' title='Edit Post'> <img alt='' class='icon-action' height='18' src='https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif' width='18'/> </a> </span> </span> <div class='post-share-buttons goog-inline-block'> <a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&target=email' target='_blank' title='Email This'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Email This</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&target=blog' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=270,width=475"); return false;' target='_blank' title='BlogThis!'><span class='share-button-link-text'>BlogThis!</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&target=twitter' target='_blank' title='Share to X'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to X</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&target=facebook' onclick='window.open(this.href, "_blank", "height=430,width=640"); return false;' target='_blank' title='Share to Facebook'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Facebook</span></a><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-pinterest' href='https://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=5454587140887591817&postID=576644586111928754&target=pinterest' target='_blank' title='Share to Pinterest'><span class='share-button-link-text'>Share to Pinterest</span></a> </div> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> Labels: <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/search/label/forbidden%20tomes' rel='tag'>forbidden tomes</a> </span> </div> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'> <span class='post-location'> </span> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> <div class="date-outer"> <h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, July 9, 2023</span></h2> <div class="date-posts"> <div class='post-outer'> <div class='post hentry uncustomized-post-template' itemprop='blogPost' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/BlogPosting'> <meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9dczWUA0QLJZ1P8ELtpmhpgYrEcI_CPg-JWaO-aQhvRF09xYFt--YOfRFYaZOki63GH9nnhJlr9HRMs0ftu3oT-PjURigteuqOYGYCQmn8Zr23Rhtwm1k0GPaqXz0no-dncTFCgF5eAJLk8L4yA6M8p3snFmOAcohrLKlulNhmxXkHSc-oyImXW_/s320/the-citadel-of-forgotten-myths-9781982199807_hr.jpg' itemprop='image_url'/> <meta content='5454587140887591817' itemprop='blogId'/> <meta content='9184242891429321998' itemprop='postId'/> <a name='9184242891429321998'></a> <h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-citadel-of-forgotten-myths.html'>The Citadel of Forgotten Myths</a> </h3> <div class='post-header'> <div class='post-header-line-1'></div> </div> <div class='post-body entry-content' id='post-body-9184242891429321998' itemprop='description articleBody'> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9dczWUA0QLJZ1P8ELtpmhpgYrEcI_CPg-JWaO-aQhvRF09xYFt--YOfRFYaZOki63GH9nnhJlr9HRMs0ftu3oT-PjURigteuqOYGYCQmn8Zr23Rhtwm1k0GPaqXz0no-dncTFCgF5eAJLk8L4yA6M8p3snFmOAcohrLKlulNhmxXkHSc-oyImXW_/s2097/the-citadel-of-forgotten-myths-9781982199807_hr.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2097" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9dczWUA0QLJZ1P8ELtpmhpgYrEcI_CPg-JWaO-aQhvRF09xYFt--YOfRFYaZOki63GH9nnhJlr9HRMs0ftu3oT-PjURigteuqOYGYCQmn8Zr23Rhtwm1k0GPaqXz0no-dncTFCgF5eAJLk8L4yA6M8p3snFmOAcohrLKlulNhmxXkHSc-oyImXW_/s320/the-citadel-of-forgotten-myths-9781982199807_hr.jpg" width="214" /></span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Below are my thoughts on the latest installment of Michael Moorcock's <i>Elric</i> saga. Fair warning: I found it very disappointing. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Citadel of Forgotten Myths</i> finds Elric and his companion Moonglum traveling to what is essentially another world in pursuit of the origins of the Melniboneans. As a bare premise, it's not bad. Unfortunately, it doesn't really pay off: we learn very little that is either concrete or interesting. There are wild implications about the Melniboneans being descended from dragons, but those ideas never really gel into anything. It's as if Moorcock is still undecided on that point himself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Like some of the previous novels in the saga, </span><i>The Citadel of Forgotten Myths</i><span> is a fix-up </span><span>constructed from short stories joined together by edits and additional matter to make them work as a novel</span><span>; it revises two previous published stories, linking them together, before capping things off with a longer, unpublished section at the close. The first two segments are generally in-line with Moorcock's usual brand of sword & sorcery, at least as I remember it. </span><span>However, in this case the construction feels hasty and somewhat clumsy. I didn't learn that the earlier <i>Elric</i> novels were fix-ups until long after I read them, but I suspect I would have guessed that <i>The Citadel of Forgotten Myths</i> was stitched together into a lopsided whole even if I hadn't been previously aware.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>The first two sections of the book are where it is at its best; they mostly fit into Elric's swashbuckling adventures of old, save that they are marred by constant references to his saga's continuity. </span><span>There are two things that struck me annoyingly repetitious in the novel: allusions to Cymoril's death and references to "dream quests" and "dream couches." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The second half of the book has a very different flavor than the shorter stories that comprise its more promising beginning. There's a narrative arc in the back half, and the occasional action scene, but that section of the novel is especially ponderous and filled with philosophizing about proper governance, feudalism, and the like. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It also suffers from a lack of congruence. It doesn't feel like the previous two chapters at all. It's weirder, but not in a good way; it has the feel of an early draft where strange ideas are being tried out on the page, whether they're keepers or not. For example, when we plunge into the perspective of the crazed chaos goddess who has chosen Elric for her foe, we get a kaleidoscopic view that may do a fine job exemplifying chaos as a concept--but it does a poor job in portraying a character with an actual motivation. It wanders too much and for too long without justifying the indulgence. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>As a character, Elric has always been prone to fantastical philosophizing, indeed he is the poster boy for a certain style of brooding sword & sorcery antihero, but I don't remember the previous books featuring so much pointless musing that goes nowhere. It feels like Moorcock was trying to use the story to say something about government and just rule, but it's too all over the place and doesn't come to a point. </span>I'm not sure if it was an intentional allusion to the state of modern politics, but the "Make Melnibone great again" stuff in <i>The Citadel of Forgotten Myths</i> especially drew me out of the story. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The last section of the novel also has continuity errors that someone should have noticed. The most egregious example: Elric calls to his magic sword, which flies to his hand! And then, despite now having said sword in his hand, on the next page Elric calls to his magic sword, which flies to his hand! The editor was either asleep at the wheel, the author never re-read his work, or some combination of the two has conspired to wrap things up in a laughable snafu right at the climax.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I'm afraid this just isn't a good book on any of the levels that matter.</span></p> <div style='clear: both;'></div> </div> <div class='post-footer'> <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> <span class='post-author vcard'> Posted by <span class='fn' itemprop='author' itemscope='itemscope' itemtype='http://schema.org/Person'> <meta content='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' itemprop='url'/> <a class='g-profile' href='https://www.blogger.com/profile/05226738666709754348' rel='author' title='author profile'> <span itemprop='name'>Jack Guignol</span> </a> </span> </span> <span class='post-timestamp'> at <meta content='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-citadel-of-forgotten-myths.html' itemprop='url'/> <a 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class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/'> 2024 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(95)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2024/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/'> 2023 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(101)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2023/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/'> 2022 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(85)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(12)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(4)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2022/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/'> 2021 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(89)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(4)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2021/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/'> 2020 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(86)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(2)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2020/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/'> 2019 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(95)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2019/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/'> 2018 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(111)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(16)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(13)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2018/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/'> 2017 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(183)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(17)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(12)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(14)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(17)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(19)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(16)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(19)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(17)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(17)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2017/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(15)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/'> 2016 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(142)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(17)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(16)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(18)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(13)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(12)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(10)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/'> 2015 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(72)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/12/'> December </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/11/'> November </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(9)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(13)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/09/'> September </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(8)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/08/'> August </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(11)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(7)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(6)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/04/'> April </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(2)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/02/'> February </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(2)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2015/01/'> January </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2014/'> 2014 </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2014/10/'> October </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2014/05/'> May </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(1)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2014/03/'> March </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(1)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' 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class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2012/07/'> July </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(3)</span> </li> </ul> <ul class='hierarchy'> <li class='archivedate collapsed'> <a class='toggle' href='javascript:void(0)'> <span class='zippy'> ►  </span> </a> <a class='post-count-link' href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2012/06/'> June </a> <span class='post-count' dir='ltr'>(5)</span> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class='clear'></div> </div> </div><div class='widget PageList' data-version='1' id='PageList1'> <h2>Blog Index</h2> <div class='widget-content'> <ul> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/krevborna.html'>Krevborna Setting Posts</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/krevborna-actual-play-reports.html'>Krevborna Actual Play Reports</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/planet-motherfucker.html'>PLANET MOTHERFUCKER</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/bad-books-for-bad-people-podcast.html'>Bad Books for Bad People Podcast</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/savage-worlds.html'>Savage Worlds</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/call-of-cthulhu.html'>Call of Cthulhu</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/blades-in-dark.html'>Blades in the Dark</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/ravenloft-posts.html'>Psychosexual Ravenloft</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/yz-engine.html'>YZ Engine</a> 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Actual Play Reports</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/musings.html'>Musings</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/setting-sketches.html'>Setting Sketches</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/game-reviews.html'>Game Reviews</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/total-skull.html'>Best of the Month Posts</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/unholy-misc.html'>Inspirations and Oddities</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/portraits-of-ruin.html'>Art</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/books.html'>Books</a> </li> <li> <a href='http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/p/the-sandman-saga.html'>Comic Book Posts</a> </li> <li> <a 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Continent of Banalities</a></li> <li><a href='https://alchemistnocturne.blogspot.com/'>alch3mist nocturn3</a></li> <li><a href='http://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/'>Alone in the Labyrinth</a></li> <li><a href='http://arch-brick.blogspot.com/'>Archbrick</a></li> <li><a href='https://www.bastionland.com/'>Bastionland</a></li> <li><a href='https://bearded-devil.com/'>Bearded Devil</a></li> <li><a href='http://bernietheflumph.blogspot.com/'>Bernie the Flumph</a></li> <li><a href='http://unfrozencavemandicechucker.blogspot.com/'>Cave of the Dice Chucker</a></li> <li><a href='https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/'>DIY & Dragons</a></li> <li><a href='http://dreamsandfevers.blogspot.com/'>Dreams and Fevers</a></li> <li><a href='http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/'>Dreams in the Lich House</a></li> <li><a href='https://eldritchfields.blogspot.com/'>Eldritch Fields</a></li> <li><a href='https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/'>Engine of Oracles</a></li> <li><a href='https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/'>Fictive Fantasies</a></li> <li><a href='http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/'>From the Sorcerer's Skull</a></li> <li><a href='https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/'>Goblin Punch</a></li> <li><a href='http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/'>Goodberry Monthly</a></li> <li><a href='http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/'>Gothridge Manor</a></li> <li><a href='https://hereticwerks.blogspot.com/'>Hereticwerks</a></li> <li><a href='http://killitwithfirerpg.blogspot.com/'>Kill It With Fire!</a></li> <li><a href='https://lotbieth.blogspot.com/'>Legacy of the Bieth</a></li> <li><a href='http://livresdelours.blogspot.com/'>Les Livres de L'ours</a></li> <li><a href='http://themetalearth.blogspot.com/'>Metal Earth</a></li> <li><a href='http://quagkeep.blogspot.com/'>Quag Keep</a></li> <li><a href='http://ravencrowking.blogspot.com/'>Raven Crowking's Nest</a></li> <li><a href='http://rocketpropelledgame.blogspot.com/'>Rocket-Propelled Game</a></li> <li><a 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