Snippitts of Illusions

I am a machine. Bone and sinew are my hydralics. Muscle, my gears. My heart and lungs a great engine that keeps it all going. Food and drink my fuel. My brain is the computer that coordinates it all. It sycronizes it to perfect harmony. It does it all in a blink of an eye. When I am running low on energy I eat and I sleep. I am in perfect harmony. Until I think.

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 11:41 PM 0 comments

There are giants. Mountains of steel. Hard in body and in spirit standing up to the great machines that wage war upon them. They do not flinch at the detritus hurled at them by ignorant hands. They stand, dignified, and take it. Fists clenched at their sides, stern and steely eyed, these are the giants.

I laugh at them. I always have, I always will.

They stand and take abuse that thier hulking form cries out for. Why? They could easily crush the aggressor. They tower over thier shriveled diminutive forms as if they were nothing more than flecks of feces. The giants are a wall, they are strong but not invunerable. When their reserve breaks they come crashing down like great towers of stone. They are no more. They cannot rebuild themselves.

I'm not a giant. Just a man. I am ultimately weak and feeble. I walk upright... sometimes. Other times I crawl on my belly like the beasts. But I can always stand back up. My will can be shattered. It will remain that way for a time, then it will grow back together, using the mud and gunk that I wallowed in while I was broken. Does it make me stronger? It allows me to stand again. While I walk renewed, others will take notice, including the giants. Someone will hate me for it, perhaps myself, and crush me again. I will go on like this till I die.

Those of us who are men are always in a hurry. The giants just stand there, but we men are always rushing. To where? To be crushed again perhaps. Or maybe we're looking to find a weakness around the enemies defenses. Trying to find a way through. Some do. I haven't, but some do. These lucky few, they are no longer in the battle. They are not immune they just don't allow themselves to break apart. While I'm bleeding in the battlefield, these invincible enigma's are taking the bullets of the enemy with stride and a smile. Sometimes they are pulled back in. When this happens they shatter. It takes longer for them to rebuild, and the never walk without a limp afterward. It's hardest to see those who've left the field be pulled back in, for most of us it's as good as being shattered ourselves.

Giants are the wall, but they fall. It's up to us to win the battle.

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 3:15 AM 0 comments

H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth. J. Ramsey Cambell, Brian Lumely, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Ann Rice, Edgar Allan Poe, Dean Koontz.... horror writers. I like horror. I look for horror that is some what unsettling, I oft times have a hard time finding it. The above authors all have something in common. Edgar Allan Poe was the first. His writings were mostly psycological horrors. He considered himself a poet.

Like Poe, H. P. Lovecraft considered himself a poet. His horror writing was of an entirely different nature than Poe's. Lovecraft's horror stories are about things better left alone. Deep dark ancient secrets. Of creatures so hideous that the human mind can't comprehend them. August Derleth and J. Ramsey Cambell took Lovecraft's ideas and ran with them after his untimely death to cancer.

Brian Lumley and Ann Rice write about vampires. Lumley's vampires are alien creatures. They ravage humanity because they are superior breed of creatures than we are. Rice's vampires aren't, they're cursed beings who's parents are no other than Isis and Osiris. Lumley's vampires are terrible, evil, and completely against humanity. Rices are incredibly romaticized, some are evil, but not all, and not all are out to destroy humanity.

King, Koontz, Straub, and Barker. They all have distinctive styles. They all have run a gambit of different topics of horror stories. King and Koontz have had a definite influence from Lovecraft in some of their works, from Poe in others. They all touch on the supernatural, it means different things to each one. In Barker's stories hell is a very real place, and so are demons. While with the others, it depends on the book.

I started reading horror in highschool. I was a reading machine. I read fantasy and Sci-Fi, and I was burning out. So I picked up a couple of Stephen King novels from my sister in-law. I liked them. I read more King, tried some Koontz, read a little Straub. A sampling of Rice. Then I went to college... didn't read for pleasure much after that. A few years ago I started again, reading for pleasure that is. I picked up Barker at that time. I really like Barker. I've read many of his short stories and some of his books, and they were all, well really cool for lack of a better phrase at this early hour. I also started reading Lovecraft.

I was originally introduced to Lovecraft in highschool by a friend of mine.... Hey Vassago... He had a roleplaying game that involved the 'world' Lovecraft invented. It freaked me out back then. But it stuck in my head and eventually my interest in what the man wrote piqued. I started reading some of what he wrote... I was hooked. Now I'm flipping back and forth between genres. I don't read fantasy much anymore, though once and a while one will grab me. Sci-fi is still a big favorite of mine. I love horror. I also like historical novels, literary novels. the occasional western, and just plain general fiction. Throw in a sampling of biographies, poetry, science texts, and philosophical essays, and a play or two in for flavor... and you've pretty much created my reading tastes. I do get on kicks. I'll read alot of sci-fi novels with in a six month period, then read a variety of the other styles for the next six months, just for a change.
I have fairly eclectic reading tastes.....

It's a good thing I work at a bookstore.

Till next time, read a good book....

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 3:48 AM 0 comments