Clive Barker

[DaveC]

Any Clive Barker fans here?

I have only read Abarat but in the past couple of weeks I have bought a good few of his books in charity shops:

Books of Blood 1-3
Books of Blood 4-6
The Damnnation Man
Weaveworld
The Hellbound Heart
Cabal
The Great and Secret Show
Imajica
Coldheart Canyon

My best friend is a mega fan, he's read them all and runs one of the big Hellraiser websites and he's made fan films, he's been trying to get my to read the books for ages now...

 

[Tonyblack]

I've said no, but that's because I've never read anything by him - not because I don't like his writing.

 

[DaveC]

I've said no, but that's because I've never read anything by him - not because I don't like his writing.

That's cool, he's also famous for directing his books on film, Hellraiser (and the first 2 sequels), Nightbreed (based on Cabal), Candyman and reccently Midnight meat Train.

He's also well known as a painter.

 

[Penfold]

I've read them all (ages ago) except for Coldheart Canyon. BTW, The Damnation Man should read The Damnation Game (sorry to be pedantic).

That's cool, he's also famous for directing his books on film, Hellraiser (and the first 2 sequels), Nightbreed (based on Cabal), Candyman and reccently Midnight meat Train.

Did you ever see the film Rawhead Rex which was based on a story from one of the Books of Blood volumes? I assume that he had no involvement since it was rather awful. (Enjoyed the other films tho)

He's also well known as a painter.

He also used to attend autopsies for a hobby.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

I'm the 'Meh' so far

I've read Weaveworld and mostly enjoyed that for the interpretation of the hag, the mother and the maiden structure which was highly novel in that he came at it from an extreme horror angle where (Magrat and Agnes might enjoy this and perhaps Terry might have developed it more sanely) the Maid (Immaculata - great name! :twisted: ) eventually took on all 3 roles and was definitely Granny in the total and relentless evil with the brakes off style.

What I didn't like at all was the inherent and non-stop malice and rabid insanity, although it was very well-written, but I guess that possibly may have struck too close to home with some of my own sub-conscious hang-ups around that time and I never read another of his books and haven't seen any of his book to movies efforts. I can see how he's also a capable director as his writing is really vivid and I certainly prefer him to Stephen King in the horror genre for instance, because his build-up can start off really mildly and then wham you're slap-bang in a massively paranoid nightmare. There's an underlying reality to his writing that means I can't take the violence - I can deal with a high degree of horror where I know it's fantasy and can't happen IRL, but he gets too close to the bone for my taste and so that's why I only read the one book just before the posters of Pinhead advertising Hellraiser came out (I have a mild phobia about pins on the face/eyes particularly), so that was also a huge turn-off...

 

[deldaisy]

I am not into the Horror genre... especially if its too real.

Much prefer having my wits scared out of me with a psychological (?) thriller.

 

[Tonyblack]

Didn't know Candyman was by him. Good movie! Great to see Tony Todd without his Klingon make-up.

 

[chris.ph]

ive read weaveworld, i always thought it was where terry got the idea for the carpet people, but i dont know which came first

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Clive was there first - almost sure of it, but Terry's carpet is nothing like Weaveworld of course - well not so weird anyway, even before Immaculata gets there

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Nope - I was wrong. Terry was there 1st - Barker's novella's called the Hellbound Heart

 

[DaveC]

The Damnation Man should read The Damnation Game (sorry to be pedantic).

Just realised that, was typing from memory! Good to see so many diverse opinions! I am looking forward to getting stuck in to them when I have finished with Mr Pratchett...may take a while.

 

[Danny B]

I'm a huge fan of Barker, but then again, I'm a huge fan of the transatlantic fantasy/horror mash-up movement that germinated in the eighties. As well as Barker himself, Neil Gaiman and Christopher Fowler come from the same era and deal with similar subject matter, although with slightly differing approaches in each case. You can also look at more recently successful authors such as China Miéville and Mark Chadbourn as being cut from very similar cloth.

My favourite book of Clive Barker's is a split decision between The Hellbound Heart, for its beautiful prose, emotional truth in the face of complete degeneration and ability to be genuinely shocking with its outbursts of grue (something his imitators focus on, at the cost of good writing and emotional resonance), and The Thief of Always, which avoided the usual excesses because of the fact it was written for younger readers, so he has to extract every possible ounce of terror from the setting and the discomfort of the protagonist. I'll tell you a different one on different days, so it's only fair to mention them both.

 

[BaldFriede]

I have not read anything by Barker yet, but I generally am not a fan of today's horror novels. Too much gore and too little substance. Take for example Stephen King, of whom I read two novels, "Needful things" and "Pet Sematary". He starts out quite nicely but ruins it all in the last 50-100 pages. Why do the citizens in "Needful Things" have to kill each other? I could think of a lot more interesting things that would make each other's lives pure horror.
I prefer authors like Gustav Meyrink, Alfred Kubin or Jean Ray. There is death in their books too, and it is sometimes every bit as cruel as in modern horror, but they don't describe it all in detail; they leave more to the imagination, and that's where the real horror lies. There is also a grim humour in authors like Kubin or Meyrink; just take this sentence from Kubin's "The Other Side" (I'll leave out the German original and give the English translation immediately:
"Thus Dr..Lampenbogen ended as a roast, and as a bad one: On one side he was still raw, on the other he was completely charcoaled; only in the middle was he nicely crisp".

 

[Penfold]

Have you read any H P Lovecraft's books? They are substance over gore and horror, and being mostly short stories (collated from 'Wierd Tales' magazine, I think - correct me if I'm wrong please) so they are quick and easy to read. I think the summary "supernatural horror for atheists" might be the best way of describing his books.

 

[BaldFriede]

Not all of Lovecraft's work is equally good, but "At the Mountains of Madness" is brilliant, especially since nothing much is really happening in it; it is all just about the atmosphere. But this atmosphere is absolutely dark.

 

[DaveC]

So I'm resurrecting this page to say that a few weeks ago I finally finished The Books of Blood Vol 1-3, the first of that batch of Clive Barker books that I bought 3 years ago (but started in September last year...), see first post in thread.

Its an anthology of short horror stories that features:

Volume One

1.1 The Book of Blood
1.2 The Midnight Meat Train
1.3 The Yattering and Jack
1.4 Pig Blood Blues
1.5 Sex, Death and Starshine
1.6 In the Hills, the Cities

Volume Two

2.1 Dread
2.2 Hell's Event
2.3 Jacqueline Ess: Her Will And Testament
2.4 The Skins of the Fathers
2.5 New Murders in the Rue Morgue

Volume Three

3.1 Son of Celluloid
3.2 Rawhead Rex
3.3 Confessions of a (Pornographer's) Shroud
3.4 Scape-Goats
3.5 Human Remains

It was for the most part a great and unsettling read, my favourites being In the Hills, the Cities, Son of Celluloid and Hell's Event.

On finishing it was nice to hear a film is being made of Jacqueline Ess starring Lena Headey (300, Dredd)

I now have to wait until we've properly moved house again to read the rest as all of my books are boxed up in my uncle's garage where we are currently staying so when I want to read a book now, I have to buy one...

Feel free to add to the survey!

 

[Ghost]

and there's another three volumes in that series

also a film but take my advice give it a miss it's not so good

 

[DaveC]

Yep, I have that and can't wait to get on it but alas, trapped in a GARAGE!!!

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Put the pedal to the metal and just drive through the doors.

 

[DaveC]

I have keys and retreived a few odd things here or there but I should have made a map when we stored things away! :think: