Friday, October 18, 2024

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (EDGAR ALLAN POE)

 The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death”.

It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. These were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose colour varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the colour of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood colour. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before.

But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colours and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre.

There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.

He had directed, in great part, the movable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fête; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in “Hernani”. There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these—the dreams—writhed in and about taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-coloured panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulged in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.

But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumour of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade licence of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince’s indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

“Who dares,”—he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him—“who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!”

It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.

It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince’s person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the green—through the green to the orange—through this again to the white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

Friday, October 11, 2024

HORROR AT NIGHT

 

Hello there, today, as a celebration of halloween, I would like to talk about three things that, according to Japanese folklore, happend during the night.

I just expect you to enjoy these stories, and i wish you a happy halloween.

ŌMAGATOKI

Also known as the hour of meeting evil spirits.

This is the twiligh hour between the sun setting and the point in which the sky is completely dark, the moment between night and day in which none of them is complete, when shadows swallow everything and your eyes begin to play tricks on your mind, and the border between the sekai, the human world, and the ikai, the other world is thinner and the evil spirts can move freely between the two world: that is the moment when yōkai, yūrei and all the dark things can come to human world.

The appearance of yōkai during this momento is said to be accompanied by a few signs: a sudden cold wind blowing, a strange smell in the air, a sudden onset of darkness or even a sudden chill that causes one’s hairs to stand on end.

We must not forget that humans and spirits usually have separate existences in different worlds, and when those worlds crash, things tend to become chaotic, particularly for humans.

In order to avoid meeting these evil spirts that appear during the night, people would head home, as soon as the un set, and stay inside until morning, but, woodcutters sleeping in mountain huts hear something cutting down the tres at night, and find no evidence of it in the morning, they also speak that phantom waterfalls can be heard where there are no waterfalls for miles around, also they speak of strange laughter and voices of inhuman things echoed throughout the forests.

Sometimes, children who wandered away from the village and got lost in the moutains could be spirited away by otherworldly things and taken to another world,  sometimes they return years later...

The first tales of encounters between humans and spirits come frome woodsmen, travelers and peoplewhose livelihoods forced them away from the safety of their homes and villages at night, these people would return to their homes in the morning tellin stories ofeerie experiences after twilight, and with time, these stories developed into the earliest superstitions.

HYAKKI YAGYŌ

Also known as hyakki yakō or the night parade of one hundred demons. This parade travels travels throughout Japan, appearing on inauspicious nights each month

The hyakki yagyō is the dreaded night parade of one hundred demons, an event when all the supernatural creatures leave their homes and parade through the streets of Japan in one massive spectacle of utter pandemónium, in some ways, it resembles a traditional Japanese festival filled with songs and chants, dancing, and merriment. The parade is said to be led by nurarihyon, nozuchi, and otoroshi.

Usually the interactions of the hyakki yagyō involve humans that are fool enough to be outside during the nights of the parade or just curious enough to peek out of their windows in hopes of catching a glimpse of the supernatural, these humans are either killed or spirited away by the monsters as a sort of punishment for looking upon that which must not be seen.

Acording to Shūgaishō (a medieval Japanese enciclopedia)the only way to keep safe from the night parade should it come by your home is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac on which the night parade is said to be held. Those who hear the pandemonium parade pass by their homes should chant this magic spell:

KA-TA-SHI-HA-YA, E-KA-SE-NI-KU-RI-NI, TA-ME-RU-SA-KE,

TE-E-HI, A-SHI-E-HI, WA-RE-SHI-KO-NI-KE-RI

HINODE

The Hinode is the sunrise, the break of dawn, and the end of the power of the evil spirits over the human world, the momento when the light of the sun banishes yokais, ghosts and demons back to the places from which they came and as a result, as the morning light fills the shadows, unknown things no longer lurk and strange shapes no longer hide among the trees.

The time of meeting evil spirits is over and the world is safe for humans…

Where can you find the information about Japanese ghost on the Internet?: you can check the web: https://yokai.com/

Saturday, October 5, 2024

RECOMENDATIONS FOR HALLOWEEN 2024

 Hello there, today, as we are finally in October, I would like to recomend you a couple of things for next halloween, enjoy the festivity.

THE FACE IN THE GLASS: THE GOTHIC TALES OF MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON (MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON)

This first recomendation brings us a collection of tales about gohst and supernatural.

The book will help you spending a good time, but I must say that when I read it (between the end of 2023 and the begining of 2024) my impression about it was that the stories were a bit irregular: there were a few ones that were quite good, but there were others not so good, in the sense that they did not give that sense of horror that you will find in other recopilation of stories of this tipe.

Personally, I recomend you this book, just for that stories that are relatively good

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)

In this second point, we find a film base on a specific chapter of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, specifically the chapter centered in the diary of the ship mentioned in the title, which, acordind to the plot of the novel, tranasports Dracula from his castle in the Carpathians (in Romania) to Whitby (in the United Kingdom)

This film is quite effective, in the sense that all the characters are stuck in a small space with something that begins killing the animals they heve in the ship and then it begins killing all the people travelling with it, plus the atmostphere is quite dark, part of the plot takes place during the night, which makes the situation quite more unconfortable.

I am not sure if I have recomended it, but I want to recomend you that if you haven’t read the book, give Dracula (and the story Dracula’s guest) a chance, you will enjoy deading it,

THE WARLOCK’S HAIRY HEART & THE TALE OF THE THREE BROTHERES (FROM THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD BY J. K. ROWLING)

These recomendations come directly from Harry Potter’s universe, both tales come from the volume The tales of Beedle the Bard, and both of them are quite intresting.

The first one follows a wizard who decides that love is a burden so he locks his heart in a trunk with horrible consecuences.

The second one (the tale of the three brothers) is told on the last book (Harry Potter and the deathly hallows) of the Harry Potter series, and follows three brothers who are able to win death, who, in return, gives them a gigft to each one.

Both tales are quite dark, the first one, as I mentioned before is centered on the consecuences of the decission taken by the wizard and its consecuences (which are really bad), while the second tale, reflects, as the own book mentions, on the problems brought from trying to avoid death.

CORALINE (NEIL GAIMAN)

This last recomendation comes from the imagination of Birtish autor Neil Gaiman, and it follows a child name Coraline who feels lonely, after she moves, with her parents, to a house in which she finds a strange door that goes to a world very similar to the “normal” one and in which, everyone seem happy to have her around.

In the case of this short book, the story is really terrifying mainly because the author plays with a normal family and a weird world, quite similar to Coraline’s house and family and in which she can get whatever she wants, the problema is that nothing is what it seems.

This book has been adapted into a stopmotion film, with the same title, and it also has a parody on a Halloween special from The Simpsons (I think it was titled Coralisa)

 

Friday, September 27, 2024

THE FALL BOOKTAG

Hello there today I want to bring you this booktag I have found on Instagram (you can find the link to the original booktag here), and as I think it can be interesting I want to share my answers with you.

I hope you enjoy this content

A BOOK WITH AN ORANGE COVER.

In this point, I would like to mention the Spanish edition of Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban by J. K Rowling, in which they show Harry and Hermione with Buckbeak framed in orange.

Also, I would like to mention the books of the orange series of el barco de vapor (lit. The steam boat) which are a relative known (they are still published today) in Spain, these are children books that use a  color code (White, blue, orange and red) to show the “difficulty” of the books, this is: the extention of the texts and if they have (or not) drawings inside.

A FAVOURITE FANTASY BOOK/SERIE.

In this point I would like to poin to The Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling, a series composed by seven books that follows the noblesmen and spies Alec and Seregil during their adventures trying to protect the kingdom where they live.

In fact, I read these books a few years ago totally by chance, mainly because I found one of them and it cought my antention and I began t oread the serie, up to now I still think that was one of the best decisions I have made related to fantasy, I did laugh non stop, mainly thanks to Seregil’s personality and some situations he puts himself into, also this is really well balance with other situantions which are quite hard to read, not because of blood spilling o similars but because are a bit hard to digest

A COZY READ.

How could I not mention The neverendind story by Michael Ende or Papyrus (El infinito en un junco by its original title) by Irene Vallejo?

As many of you would know the neverending story follows Bastian Baltasar Bux through his journey in Fantastica where he will save the Childlike Empress and her kingdom by giving her a new name.

The second one is a non fiction book that speaks about Literature and all the problems faced to preserve it from destrution.

Personally I see both books as love songs dedicated to books and literature, even more, I strongly advice you to read Papyrus  with a notebook and a pen to take note of all the books mentioned throgh its pages by its author

A BOOK YOU'RE INTIMIDATED TO START.

I would lik to mention the book Queen Victoria: twenty – four days that changed her life by Lucy Worsley.

In the case of this boo I feel a bit intimidated because this is a non fiction book, as I said on a previous post, I am not an English native speaker, and I fear that the book might be very technicall, even when I have seen some of the documentary shows the autor has shot through the years and I do  love her program BBC Lady killers with Lucy Worsley

A BOOK ON YOUR FALL TBR.

Recently I have been recomended t oread the book One hundred years of solitude by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, centered in the Buendía Family.

At the moment of writing this, I have not begin to read it, but I already have an idea of what I shousd expect of the autor (I read a few years ago Chronicle of a death foretold), but, when i read the book I will tell you my opinion

A SPOOKY READ.

At this poin I want to highlight the book The five: The untold lives of the women killed by Jack The Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold, a non fiction book centered in the lives of the five women oficially killed by Jack the Ripper, the book is quite good and gives a thought on why these women were living on the streets of the Victorian London and how mistreated they have been when they were killed and through the years, maybe this book isn´t a spooky book in a sense of telling us a traditional horror story, but, as I have said above, it gives goosebumps just thinking about the horrible death faced by these women and the treatment they have received, I just want to mention that in recent years I have seen youtube channels and podcast in Ivoox usingg this book as part of the biblography.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

JAPANESE GHOST STORIES (HIROKO YODA)

 

Many of the ghost stories of Japan came to the fore during the Edo period with its famous woodblocks of ukiyo – e, the floating world.

This collection of Japanese ghost stories brings together fantastic tales of vengeful spirits, mountain – dwelling phantoms, man – eating oni, haunted trees, and child-rearing ghosts, with stories such as Yuki-Onna, Hoichi the Earless, The Ghost of O-Kiku from The Bancho Sarayashiki, the sorry tale of O-Iwa from the Yotsuya Kaidan, The Peony Lantern and The Ghost Who Bought Candy. Japan has a long and ancient custom of sharing stories of the supernatural, brought to fashionable prominence in the Kaidan literature of the Edo period, now presented here for the modern reader.

THE AUTHOR: HIROKO YODA

Hiroko Yoda is a Japanese entrepreneur, translator, writer, folklorist, and president of the localization company AltJapan Co., Ltd.  She was also a Tokyo city editor for the CNN travel website CNNGo. She is a translator of video games and the author of numerous books about Japanese history and culture. She is particularly known for her pioneering work contextualizing yokai  culture for English-speaking audiences

Informtion from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroko_Yoda

THE BOOK

Hello there, I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but, here we are again, the intention is to try and publish more often tan I have been doing lately.

Going to the topic, today, I wanted to talk about the book Japanese Ghost Stories by Japanese entrepreneur, translator, writer and folklorist Hiroko Yoda, which, as you have read above, is a recopilation of ghost stories from Japanese folklore.

In the case of the different tales I think they are really effective, mainly because, Japanese have a special hability with horror since the are able to create a ghost from a simple daily objet, people who are in their mid thirties might remember the film ringu (and its late occidental versión the ring) that was able to create a really unconfortable situation with just a video tape.

Another good thing about this book is the selection of tales, that mix tales with daily objets and vengeful spirits that come back from death to haunt, and maybe kill the ones who hurt them in life (this is the case of Oiwa and Okiku).

I would recomend you this book, if you like horror stories, and if you are intrested in Japanese folklore

Saturday, February 18, 2023

FIRST READING INITIATIVE

Hello there, I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I don’t have much time, and not much to talk about, but today i’d like to talk about the first readin initiative of the year: the Asian March.

This initiative pretends to approach readers to Asian writters, by reading books written by Asian writters or settled in Asian countries.

Keeping all this in mind I would like to recomend some books related to this initiative.

My first recomendation would be The carriage of women by Anita Nair, a book settled in India, that tells us the stories of a group of women during a travel by train across the country.

The second recomendation would be East Wind, West Wind by Pearl S. Buck, settled in China, the novel let the reader see the contrast between Chinese cultura and Occidental cultura at the begining of the Twentieth Century.

My last recomendatin would be the book A geek in Japan by Héctor García, in its pages the author speaks about his experience living and working in Japan and the contrast between Japanese culture and Spanish culture

In this small article I just wanted to talk about this initiative and to make some recomendations related to it.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

FIRST READINGS OF 2023

 Hello there, first of all I want to wish you a very happy new year, and second, I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I have been quite busy for the last months, but, finally I had some time to write a new post.

In this post I am going to talk about my two first readings of the year, I am currently rading both, so I am just going to give my first impressions of both readings.

The first one is The ink black heart  by Robert Galbraith (we all know it is J. K. Rowling’s pen name) the latest Cormoran Strike’s novel, in this book, Cormoran and Robin, his partner at the agency, will have to investigate the murder of Eddie Ledwell, who was the co – creator of an online show, while her partner gets seriously injured.

The second one is the firts volumen of death note, the manga that follows the fighting between Light Yagami/Kira and prívate investigator L.

In both cases, I am enioying their readings, in the case of The ink black heart I have read the previous books and I love tem (I speak beyond the controversial affirmations of the autor, actually, like many other people I have my oppininon about all that, but this is not the time or the place to talk about it), personally I think that all the books are adictive from the begining and it is hard to stop reading them, while in the case of death note, it is also a certain Reading, mainly because I have already watch the anime show and the live action movies around it, so I know for sure that I will like reading this.

Once again happy new year, and I will try to publish more often during this year

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (EDGAR ALLAN POE)

 The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the...