tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post1134848438400090176..comments2024-03-25T10:22:04.995-07:00Comments on Ed Gorman's blog: Forgotten Books: The Scarf by Robert Bloch; Mystery Scene Winter IssueEd Gormanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06126267358266480356noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post-89493197949957545802010-02-03T10:09:46.447-08:002010-02-03T10:09:46.447-08:00Night of the Ripper is a fun historical mystery/ho...Night of the Ripper is a fun historical mystery/horror novel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post-42265439241309671582010-02-03T03:43:33.945-08:002010-02-03T03:43:33.945-08:00Keep on posting such stories. I love to read artic...Keep on posting such stories. I love to read articles like this. Just add more pics :)<br /><a href="http://www.tayx.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">CarverDown</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post-57026780319167253792010-02-02T19:01:21.203-08:002010-02-02T19:01:21.203-08:00I like Psycho House but I don't think it's...I like Psycho House but I don't think it's equal to Psycho or The Scarf. Sorry to say but I couldn't read a Lefty Feep story, not all the way through. <br /><br />A friend reminded me that when I said "the fate of most prolific writers" is to have their work forgotten, I should have said "just about ALL writers period will have their work forgotten." True enough.<br /><br />I didn't mean to diminish Bloch in any way. Over thirty years of publishing novels I've probably been compared to him--no exaggeration--fifty or sixty times. He was one of my primary influences. <br /><br />All I meant to say is that these two novels and a carefully chosen collection will stand the test of time. Very few writers of any kind write anything that will be remembered. <br /><br />Also I put his Woolrichesque novels just below the ones I named. He was a coherent version of Woolrich. Much as I love old Cornell's stuff sometimes the sloppiness of it makes me nuts.Ed Gormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06126267358266480356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36271824.post-79915042477561283052010-02-02T15:57:05.837-08:002010-02-02T15:57:05.837-08:00Depends on which humorous story you refer to, Ed, ...Depends on which humorous story you refer to, Ed, but I think I probably like even his Lefty Feep stories well enough...at leat two fat collections, the two 1970s Ballantine retrospectives, are pretty damned impressive. And these aren't his only good novels, even if no one probably needs to read PSYCHO HOUSE. <br /><br />Also, I'd suggest that this shift in his work was actually picking up Lovecraft's ball and running with it, even as Leiber did in a slightly different direction--Lovecraft's endless dread of alien ancestry and the control exerted by unseen and indescribable forces fits neatly into looking into the drives and compulsions that Bloch explored. That and his eventual lean, contemporary style that was the antithesis of most of early WEIRD TALES school helped him blaze trails for so many...rather neatly in parallel with Cornell Woolrich, who substituted shrillness at worst for Bloch's corniness at worst.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.com