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Post by Von on Nov 5, 2015 11:59:00 GMT -5
I am told that, back in the day, you either liked The Lord of the Rings or Gormenghast - that this was the Star Wars or Star Trek choice of the day. I am also told that there is a narrow field of texts from some other canon in which Gormenghast 'won'. China Mieville's novels are among them. John Howe's Cathedrale is also. But we aren't here for the comp. lit. - we're here for the influences. To me, a dungeon is in a word Gormenghastly. Nowhere is the physical hardship of the crawl more apparent than in Steerpike's initial flight across the rooftops, pacing out the freezing hectares in the throes of insomnia. Nowhere is the sensory quality of the undergound evoked to greater loamy, clammy oppressiveness than in Titus' scramble through the tunnel to and from the woods. No fantasy society is as barking mad as the grinding, ritualistic, no-hope dynasty of the Groans and their doomed hangers-on. No castle strikes the same brooding grey and dank and ancient chord as Gormenghast - and no cover has that same sense of "ooh, I wonder what's up there?" as this one ( and I'm not the only one who thinks so).  |
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 5, 2015 13:39:07 GMT -5
Hmm! I've never read this and have never seen a copy of it.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Nov 6, 2015 8:15:15 GMT -5
Don't read the third book! The TV series is quite good (it also didn't read the third book), although its visuals are quite different from the way most people picture Gormenghast when reading the books. www.imdb.com/title/tt0197154/ |
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 6, 2015 9:14:45 GMT -5
Don't read the third book! The TV series is quite good (it also didn't read the third book), although its visuals are quite different from the way most people picture Gormenghast when reading the books. www.imdb.com/title/tt0197154/Why don't read the third book? |
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Post by Necromancer on Nov 6, 2015 10:55:24 GMT -5
I remember seeing the Gormenghast books at the library when I was growing up, but for some reason I never came around to read them. In my upper teens I read that Robert Smith of The Cure recommended them which was quite a selling point for me back then, but I still didn't manage to come around reading them. One fine day I will...
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Post by makofan on Nov 6, 2015 16:41:56 GMT -5
I found Titus Groan hard going, Gormenghast quite engrossing, and enjoyed Titus Alone, despite Vile's protestations
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 6, 2015 17:31:47 GMT -5
I reserved all three at the library, so when they come in I will give them a go and tell you how I found them.  |
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Post by Vile Traveller on Nov 6, 2015 20:39:42 GMT -5
I didn't enjoy Titus Alone because it's all about some minor supporting character (Titus) and missing the main protagonist (Gormenghast).  On a side note regarding the TV adaption, while I love the BBC version of the castle I still see a more Gothic edifice in my mind's eye when I read the books. However, for me at least, Mr Flay now wears Christopher Lee's face in either medium. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Nov 13, 2015 14:25:00 GMT -5
I took the whole trilogy out of the library last night and once I get a chance to read at least 100 pages I'll let you know how it is going.
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Post by Von on Nov 14, 2015 0:29:04 GMT -5
Don't read the third book! The TV series is quite good (it also didn't read the third book), although its visuals are quite different from the way most people picture Gormenghast when reading the books. www.imdb.com/title/tt0197154/Why don't read the third book? Peake was dying of encephalitis when he wrote it. The result is a crippled fever dream of a story in which Titus blunders around a world vaguely akin to Peake's contemporary one, practically frothing at the mouth. I love it but it's disconnected from the other two and from any sense of completeness or sense. The first book is slow. I lent the trilogy to a good friend and he gave up midway through Titus Groan because it was "things happening while the alleged protagonist isn't even two years old". Vile is right in that the real protagonist of the books is Gormenghast itself and that the first one is introducing you to the grand and stupid futility of the place. I find that effective but even I admit that the action is concentrated in the middle book and that you could stop at the end of it if you felt like doing so with no harm done. As for the BBC adaptation, it's reminiscent of some of the more colourful properties owned by the National Trust. It's more Georgian than Victorian Gothic: more eighteenth century than nineteenth. I think that throws off a lot of people who are perhaps not familiar with the works of Ann Radcliffe, William Beckford, Matthew Lewis et al and are expecting something more fin de siecle, more Dracula. To me the great fault of the BBC adaptation is that it makes Gormenghast feel small somehow. |
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Post by robkuntz on Feb 17, 2016 11:57:12 GMT -5
I read and enjoyed them, though they were slow going. I agree with Von that they strike a deep chord of the exploded dungeon crawl, especially due to the environ's vastness which Peake summoned in spades.
How did the read go PD?
The evocative expanse of the underworld is best portrayed in CA Smith's. "The Seven Geases"; and it is quite comparable to Gormenghast in many respects, though the former is a short story.
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Post by Admin Pete on Feb 22, 2016 12:37:50 GMT -5
I read and enjoyed them, though they were slow going. I agree with Von that they strike a deep chord of the exploded dungeon crawl, especially due to the environ's vastness which Peake summoned in spades. How did the read go PD? The evocative expanse of the underworld is best portrayed in CA Smith's. "The Seven Geases"; and it is quite comparable to Gormenghast in many respects, though the former is a short story. I had some real life things going on - one reason my posting here has been light and infrequent and I did not get started on them beyond the first few pages. So I ended up having to turn it back into the library since they have one copy and someone requested it and I could not renew it. I have it reserved and as soon as I can check it out, I will give it another go.  |
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Post by Admin Pete on Mar 29, 2016 9:17:55 GMT -5
I read and enjoyed them, though they were slow going. I agree with Von that they strike a deep chord of the exploded dungeon crawl, especially due to the environ's vastness which Peake summoned in spades. How did the read go PD? The evocative expanse of the underworld is best portrayed in CA Smith's. "The Seven Geases"; and it is quite comparable to Gormenghast in many respects, though the former is a short story. I had some real life things going on - one reason my posting here has been light and infrequent and I did not get started on them beyond the first few pages. So I ended up having to turn it back into the library since they have one copy and someone requested it and I could not renew it. I have it reserved and as soon as I can check it out, I will give it another go. I have gotten about 250 pages in, it is very slow going and it is just not grabbing me. This is a very strange story and I find myself backing up and re-reading passages. |
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Post by robkuntz on Mar 29, 2016 10:15:42 GMT -5
As I noted about the "slow going". If it is any consolation it took me a while to finish and most of my appreciation for it came after much thinking about it. It's not a rapid pot-boiler but a large, slowly steaming kettle.
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Post by Admin Pete on Mar 29, 2016 10:59:55 GMT -5
As I noted about the "slow going". If it is any consolation it took me a while to finish and most of my appreciation for it came after much thinking about it. It's not a rapid pot-boiler but a large, slowly steaming kettle.The bold part is a good way to put it. As with food, so with writers, for some they are delicious at the first taste and for others they are an acquired taste. |
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