Відео

Tanith Lee has so many incredible books. I would love to hear your take on Cyrion

Cugel is evil. Anti-hero does not cover this guy. He’s absolutely terrible. But I think he’s a good protagonist, because he’s just as bad as everyone else. He’s matching wits with all the other complete bastards. this is not any endorsement of his character, all these people are deplorable

That theme of madness relating to the woods reminds me of the book The Great God Pan. And it also reminds me of the movie The VVitch. The tension between 'civilization' represented here by Europe and Pyle verses the 'wilderness' or the 'savage' represented by the woods and the trampish character but also by America in general is an interesting theme.... especially how it contrasts against the other theme of the use of language to manipulate people vs intuition and knowing innately what is Right. Especially since we usually think of language as being a part of 'civilization' and intuition as a part of nature. Here it sounds like language is being used as a symbol of the forked tongue of the devil. That fits my (very vague) understanding of Quaker belief and the virtue of silence and all that. It sounds interesting, although probably not a 'fun' read!

The Horror Babble reading of The Willows is the most exquisite narration I’ve ever heard, and it brought me back to my childhood when just listening to a story was a great pleasure.

Once one becomes immersed in a Vance book - his dialog, conversations have an entertaining life about them - often from characters one wouldn't expect to be so cultured.

I have to say that what Lovecraft says about "the Willows" is nonsense. Just like it is nonsense that his own best story is the "The colour out of space". Though not outright terrible, it is not even close to high second tier Lovecraft stories like "Dexter Ward"", "The Rats in the Walls", "Haunter" or "Whisperer", to say nothing of unsurpassable masterpieces like "Mountains of madness", "Innsmouth" or "Chtulu". Even some ghostwritten Lovecraft tales like "Out of the Aeons" and "The Mound" rate equal to very high second tier, and beat just about everything from anyone else. The only weird tale I know of to approach the level of Lovecraft in my view is Hogdson's "The Nightland", and it is a good thing it is older and such a huge epic, as otherwise I would think it was inspired by Lovecraft. A lack of precision and originality in the situations is what hurts many of the other stories. In "Mountains" Lovecraft even gives measurements of his creatures... In Nightland the dimensions of the redoubt are given. Hardly any of these stories go into such details. Would a real narrator ignore this?

Cugel is not a hero, by any means. And he wouldn't be Cugel without those (many) deep flaws of character! But he is a major character. And the Dying Earth is a unique character as well as a setting. Jack Vance was a talented writer with an (also) unique vision. I was hooked upon reading my first Vance story at a young age, and have sought out everything I could find of his over the past five (plus) decades. Say what you will, pulp writers didn't lack for word count! I'm sure I'll never find every Vance story by my expiration date. I appreciate every opinion on Jack, even when I disagree. It means that the Maestro's Works still live!

Thanks for the recommendation, so I'll give The Willows a listen.

If you can get Blackwoods collection 'Ancient Sorceries' you WONT be disappointed. Not a bad book in that one

Algernon Blackwood wasn't an English writer, he was Welsh

It's 50 years since I first read this story, recommended by my English teacher at school, and it's a deeply haunting tale. I love that people are still talking about it and appreciating its subtle horror. Thank you for uploading and sharing your thoughts.

Came here via @LiminalSpaces03 , loved this video and subbed -- well done!

This video was a train wreck... I'll wait for the revision

You needed a small script for this video, you ramble all over the place during the first part.

Always shooting himself in the foot.

love the willows - you should do ‘adrift on the haunted seas’ short story collection by william hope hodgson. basically the sea faring version of early weird fiction. i love that book. 🎉

Will definitely check this out thanks :) btw have you read any Walter de la Mare? Recently read a collection of "spooky" shorts by him, apparently Lovecraft held him in high regard also. Be interested to hear your take!

Yes! Just finished recording some more King in Yellow videos and I pop on to youtube and find this! More Weird fiction content for spooky season and more Literally Books content!

*right* at the end, whispers: 'that's why we're so f*cked up.'🤣Love Hearn, love Kwaidan. Maybe I'll try to do my own response to you and Chris both at some point. Like you said, our horror themed stuff doesn't have to be limited to Halloween season.😊

Cugel is one of my all time favorite characters.

Good video. I just generally love Vance's writing but it has been a long time since I read The Dying Earth and I had forgotten about the food wand! I loved that wand... This makes me want to re-read, though I am determined to make Lyonesse my next Vance.

This was really interesting! I grew up with a book of Japanese fairy tales, some of which sound very much like they might be translations from Hearn. It was illustrated with amazing wood cut reproductions and has the scariest ghost, goblins ect of any mythology I had encountered. It was a great book and I wish I still had it. Thank you to @LiminalSpaces03 for directing me here.

Glad you're feeling better man. These bodies sure are fun sometimes! Great video. I love that film so much, one of my favorite films of all time. I need to get the story collection.

Incredible video! I loved it so much I'm going to respond to it on my channel this weekend!

0:01 J'ai uN aCceNt aNgLo-SaXon 🤭😂 English translation I have an Anglo-Saxon accent 🤭😂

Dungeonsynth is the optimal choice of music for these books. I stumbled upon it looking for "Music for Reading Vermis". Now this genre is eternaly connected to Vermis.

Nice review! Your discussion around the main character reminds me of Alex in A Clockwork Orange, especially in the film version which leans a lot more heavily on the idea that Alex is fooling everyone all along, even when he's at his 'low point.' I never understood the idea that protagonists have to be good people to make a book worthwhile; I think a lot more can be said with a flawed character!

I recently was in Archer City to see the town the movie was filmed in. I will have to read the book now. Nancy

Precisely so!

wait you did 7hrs of lafferty? epic 😂

i used to see her books around everywhere never thought to read one but i have to change that 🎉

The fact that Vance could write about a complete a-hole like Cugel and still make it entertaining shows just how much of a master Vance was at his craft.

You think you'll circle back around and do a review of Plastiboo's new book "Godhusk" when it releases?

Always interesting to hear other folks view point on The Dying Earth. I did not enjoy Cudgel as a character, what I enjoy is kharma catching up with him and the fact that all his clever plots only hurt him in the end.

Cugel is no different than anyone else in the Dying Earth. Vance could have chosen any number of characters, and you would have got the same kind of deplorable acts. It's just the nature of the world at the end of times. That's always been my take on the series.

i enjoyed hearing your reflections on Cugel. he is such a terrible person, but I think writing about total assholes has been a great tradition since the earliest days of literature, and Vance is just following that tradition. I recently watched the film version fo night and the City, based on Gerald Kersh's novel of the same name, and reflected on how Harry Fabian in the book is such an utter scumbag with no redeeming features, and yet he's still fun to read about because you want to see what he'll think up next, what wild fantasies he'll spout, or what hot water he'll get into. Cugel is much more charming than harry Fabian, like you said, and maybe it is easy to forget that he's not really redeemable. I would argue though taht most of Vance's characters do talk in that elevated style -- it's one of his trademarks at least in series like this one (not so much in his contemporary mysteries/thrillers of course). What I think happens when we read about Cugel is interesting because we like it both when he is able to figure his way out of a tricky situation, but we also like it when he falls and gets screwed over or hurt, because we know he deserves it. he's a fun character to read about for that reason -- basically anything goes, short of changing the nature of the character himself. Not everyone is into that -- some people demand likeable protagonists, as though these were real people that we would want to be friends with. i never felt that way about books, personally, though. I don't mind spending time with an utter POS so long as the writer can engage me. It's not like I'd enjoy being around them in real life -- but that's what literature is for, in part: For us to be able to vicariously enjoy the kind of crap we wouldn't want to deal with in person.

I'm the guy that suggested A Voyage to Arcturus. So cool that you read it! Hopefully you do a video about it as well. I haven't read any Jack Vance yet. I plan to. I have The Dying Earth omnibus. And a few other of his books. I bet Vance read A Voyage to Arcturus, I know Gene Wolfe did and it influenced The Solar Cycle. Tolkien was a big fan of Voyage as well. Maskull does do some nasty stuff and is misogynistic in the novel but he is also sympathetic to characters with no gender and kind at times. I don't think there's any character quite like Maskull. Basically he becomes a new person whenever he goes to a new setting in the book. Cugal sounds like he's basically a rapscallion that we're tricked into liking and then begin to hate with time. Sounds more like a real person than Maskull. Great video! Love your content dude!

Just finished this book -- it was one of my longest reads -- and I agree with most of what you said. The characterization was absolutely brilliant -- definitely the work's strongest aspect! Kojiro especially will go down as one of my all-time favorite villains, but the rest of the cast was very strong too (in Matahachi's story I found my own reflected -- in a way, at least -- which was quite touching). Ironically, my main gripe with the work is that there are perhaps too many characters doing too many things simultaneously, which was a bit hard to keep up with; but I did enjoy seeing how they grew and changed overtime, even if a few of them felt somewhat superfluous. And I definitely agree with what you said about the prose being conversational. It could have perhaps trimmed down some of the excessive worldbuilding though, but overall it was unpretentious and straight-to-the-point. That's good for a long novel -- it just gets on with the narrative without being to elaborate. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to read them.

Cugel is complete satire about how people really are when stripped of pretense.

when they start editing out the or blocking out the female stuff nudity and all it ruins it for me, heck if you are going to put in all of the fighting and blood and gore without editing that out, then quit editing out the other stuff as well!

My brother in Christ, PLEASE ENUNCIATE YOUR WORDS! You mumble and slur your words and it gets pretty hard to decifer when you speak quickly, which is all the time.

great video as always! I've still got my eye open for Dying Earth! I want to find it in the wild!

The one Vance book I've read (so not an expert) was very allegorical, so perhaps that was his thing. Maybe he'd view some awful thing in the world and build an entire world (I love his world building) around it and make an anti-hero main character to inhabit it!

I think Vance enjoyed writing about terrible people, but he surely knew that they were terrible, and believed, or at least hoped, that his readers would know it too.

Centaurs are his thing it seems. I only read his later creation the wonderland gambit series. And honestly if you ignore all the mild inspirations and give it time it is really great. It seems like similar idea as the Wells but as a simulations. It is strange not many people know about it, given the popularity of films like matrix. Recent 1899 series could have been one of the simulation "rounds" Just ignore the last chapter of last book which was clear nod to Dick's Plamer Eldrich stigmata.

I have heard this name before. I feel like I have or had a book by this author but have never read it for some reason.