M.R. James - Revision history

Graham: /* External links */

2018-11-29T22:23:49Z

‎External links

Ywhateley: Added wikilinks.

2018-11-29T16:42:56Z

Added wikilinks.

Ywhateley: Added wikilinks.

2018-11-29T16:25:09Z

Added wikilinks.

Ywhateley: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction */

2018-11-28T03:40:58Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction

Ywhateley: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction */

2018-11-28T03:39:56Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction

Ywhateley: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction */

2018-11-28T03:38:20Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Style Fiction

Graham: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction */

2018-11-28T02:27:59Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction

Graham: /* H.P. Lovecraft on M.R. James */ Fixup on the internal links.

2018-11-28T02:25:43Z

‎H.P. Lovecraft on M.R. James: Fixup on the internal links.

Graham: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction */ Tweaks to the quote

2018-11-28T02:04:02Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction: Tweaks to the quote

Graham: /* M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction */

2018-11-28T02:03:18Z

‎M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 *[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/publics/mrjames/MRJBIBL.htm A complete chronological bibliography of all of his writings] hosted by the [[University of Pennsylvania]] [[School of Arts and Sciences]]
 *[http://www.roberthood.net/obsesses/treat_them_gently.htm Ghosts - Treat Them Gently] - Online version of M.R James last essay on what he thought made an effective horror story.
-*{{imdb title|id=|title=Night of the Demon}}
+*[http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/ A Podcast to the Curious] - Literary podcast devoted to M.R James and the writers that inspired him.
 *[http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GS.html Ghosts & Scholars] - exhaustive online magazine devoted to James and related literature and writers
 *{{gutenberg author|id=Montague_Rhodes_James|name=M. R. James}}

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.  Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer....  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....  But there are exceptions to every rule. An ancient haunting can be made terrible and can be invested with actuality, but it will tax your best endeavours to forgo the links between past and present in a satisfying way. And in any case there must be ordinary level-headed modern persons - Horatios - on the scene, such as the detective needs his Watson or his Hastings to play the part of the lay observer.  Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better. The other essential is that our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror.
 <br><br>
-Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''[[Not at Night]]'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.
+Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''[[Not at Night (fiction anthology series)|Not at Night]]'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.
 <br><br>
 Of course, all writers of ghost stories do desire to make their readers' flesh creep; but these are shameless in their attempts. They are unbelievably crude and sudden, and they wallow in corruption. And if there is a theme that ought to be kept out of the ghost story, it is that of the charnel house. That and sex, wherein I do not say that these ''Not at Night'' books deal, but certainly other recent writers do, and in so doing spoil the whole business.

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.  Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer....  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....  But there are exceptions to every rule. An ancient haunting can be made terrible and can be invested with actuality, but it will tax your best endeavours to forgo the links between past and present in a satisfying way. And in any case there must be ordinary level-headed modern persons - Horatios - on the scene, such as the detective needs his Watson or his Hastings to play the part of the lay observer.  Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better. The other essential is that our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror.
 <br><br>
-Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''Not at Night'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.
+Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''[[Not at Night]]'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.
 <br><br>
 Of course, all writers of ghost stories do desire to make their readers' flesh creep; but these are shameless in their attempts. They are unbelievably crude and sudden, and they wallow in corruption. And if there is a theme that ought to be kept out of the ghost story, it is that of the charnel house. That and sex, wherein I do not say that these ''Not at Night'' books deal, but certainly other recent writers do, and in so doing spoil the whole business.

@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 ==M.R. James on [[Weird Tales]] Style Fiction==
 <blockquote>
-It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.  Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer....  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....  But there are exceptions to every rule. An ancient haunting can be made terrible and can be invested with actuality, but it will tax your best endeavours to forgo the links between past and present in a satisfying way. And in any case there must be ordinary level—headed modern persons -- Horatios -- on the scene, such as the detective needs his Watson or his Hastings to play the part of the lay observer.  Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better. The other essential is that our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror.
+It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.  Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer....  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....  But there are exceptions to every rule. An ancient haunting can be made terrible and can be invested with actuality, but it will tax your best endeavours to forgo the links between past and present in a satisfying way. And in any case there must be ordinary level-headed modern persons - Horatios - on the scene, such as the detective needs his Watson or his Hastings to play the part of the lay observer.  Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better. The other essential is that our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror.
 <br><br>
 Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''Not at Night'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.

@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 ==M.R. James on [[Weird Tales]] Style Fiction==
 <blockquote>
-It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.
+It cannot be said too often that the more remote in time the ghost is the harder it is to make him effective, always supposing him to be the ghost of a dead person. Elementals and such-like do not come under this rule.  Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer....  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....  But there are exceptions to every rule. An ancient haunting can be made terrible and can be invested with actuality, but it will tax your best endeavours to forgo the links between past and present in a satisfying way. And in any case there must be ordinary level—headed modern persons -- Horatios -- on the scene, such as the detective needs his Watson or his Hastings to play the part of the lay observer.  Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better. The other essential is that our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror.
 <br><br>
-Roughly speaking, the ghost should be a contemporary of the seer. ...  And be it observed that the setting in [certain] classic examples is contemporary and even ordinary....
+Must there be horror? you ask. I think so. There are but two really good ghost stories I know in the language wherein the elements of beauty and pity dominate terror....  On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''Not at Night'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle's Fat Boy.
 <br><br>
 Of course, all writers of ghost stories do desire to make their readers' flesh creep; but these are shameless in their attempts. They are unbelievably crude and sudden, and they wallow in corruption. And if there is a theme that ought to be kept out of the ghost story, it is that of the charnel house. That and sex, wherein I do not say that these ''Not at Night'' books deal, but certainly other recent writers do, and in so doing spoil the whole business.

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 </blockquote>
-==M.R. James on Weird Tales Fiction==
+==M.R. James on [[Weird Tales]] Style Fiction==
 <blockquote>
 On the whole, then, I say you must have horror and also malevolence. Not less necessary, however, is reticence. There is a series of books I have read, I think American in origin, called ''Not at Night'' (and with other like titles), which sin glaringly against this law. They have no other aim than that of Mr Wardle’s Fat Boy.

@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 In "[[The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (fiction)]]" a British antiquary unriddles a cipher on some Renaissance painted windows, and thereby discovers a centuried hoard of gold in a niche half way down a well in the courtyard of a German abbey. But the crafty depositor had set a guardian over that treasure, and something in the black well twines its arms around the searcher’s neck in such a manner that the quest is abandoned, and a clergyman sent for. Each night after that the discoverer feels a stealthy presence and detects a horrible odour of mould outside the door of his hotel room, till finally the clergyman makes a daylight replacement of the stone at the mouth of the treasure-vault in the well — out of which something had come in the dark to avenge the disturbing of old Abbot Thomas's gold. As he completes his work the cleric observes a curious toad-like carving on the ancient well-head, with the Latin motto "Depositum custodi — keep that which is committed to thee."
 <br><br>
-Other notable James tales are "[[The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (fiction)", in which a grotesque carving comes curiously to life to avenge the secret and subtle murder of an old Dean by his ambitious successor; "'[[Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (fiction)]]'", which tells of the horror summoned by a strange metal whistle found in a mediaeval church ruin; and "[[An Episode of Cathedral History (fiction)]]", where the dismantling of a pulpit uncovers an archaic tomb whose lurking daemon spreads panic and pestilence.
+Other notable James tales are "[[The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (fiction)|The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral]]", in which a grotesque carving comes curiously to life to avenge the secret and subtle murder of an old Dean by his ambitious successor; "'[[Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (fiction)|Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad]]'", which tells of the horror summoned by a strange metal whistle found in a mediaeval church ruin; and "[[An Episode of Cathedral History (fiction)|An Episode of Cathedral History]]", where the dismantling of a pulpit uncovers an archaic tomb whose lurking daemon spreads panic and pestilence.
 <br><br>
 Dr. James, for all his light touch, evokes fright and hideousness in their most shocking forms; and will certainly stand as one of the few really creative masters in his darksome province.
 <br><br>
-  - H.P. Lovecraft, "[[Supernatural Horror In Literature (essay)]]"
+  - H.P. Lovecraft, "[[Supernatural Horror In Literature (essay)|Supernatural Horror In Literature]]"
 </blockquote>

@@ Line 72: / Line 72: @@
 Of course, all writers of ghost stories do desire to make their readers' flesh creep; but these are shameless in their attempts. They are unbelievably crude and sudden, and they wallow in corruption. And if there is a theme that ought to be kept out of the ghost story, it is that of the charnel house. That and sex, wherein I do not say that these Not at Night books deal, but certainly other recent writers do, and in so doing spoil the whole business.
 <br><br>
-- M.R. James, "Ghosts - Treat them gently"
+- M.R. James, "Ghosts - Treat Them Gently"
 </blockquote>