Glen Hirshberg's Blog - Posts Tagged "val-lewton"
Influences
From Sci-Fi Signal June 2 interview with Kristin Centorcelli
GH: I never set out to write “horror” or any other genre. I just love telling stories. But I do think there’s something about ghost stories and horror—the atmosphere, the essentially eerie and beautiful imagery, the primal and universal fears that encode so much human behavior and interaction, the way those fears trigger and heighten other primal and universal emotions—that seems to bring out some of the best writing I have in me. All those things, predictably enough, are also what I love about reading dark fiction. Although, honestly, I love reading any good fiction. Actually, any good anything.
KC: You’ve undoubtedly influenced more than a few authors with your work, but who has influenced you in your work?
GH: I still feel as though I’m being influenced by something new and marvelous every single minute. But at the core? Robert Louis Stevenson for the charm of his voice and the generosity of his spirit (and the pirates, and those foggy, monstrous streets); Kipling, for the sheer virtuosity and range of his storytelling; Shirley Jackson, for the sustained sense of menace and devastating psychological acuity; Ramsey Campbell, for the variety and majesty of his spellcasting; Val Lewton movies for their skewed realities, alluring shadows, surprising sweetness; Mark Rothko paintings for that impossible, untraceable light; Richard Skelton’s music, and K. Leimer’s, for their restless stillness (if that makes any sense at all), their wells of winking melancholy. P.G. Wodehouse, for the sheer pleasure of his wordplay.
Read the full interview here--->.
GH: I never set out to write “horror” or any other genre. I just love telling stories. But I do think there’s something about ghost stories and horror—the atmosphere, the essentially eerie and beautiful imagery, the primal and universal fears that encode so much human behavior and interaction, the way those fears trigger and heighten other primal and universal emotions—that seems to bring out some of the best writing I have in me. All those things, predictably enough, are also what I love about reading dark fiction. Although, honestly, I love reading any good fiction. Actually, any good anything.
KC: You’ve undoubtedly influenced more than a few authors with your work, but who has influenced you in your work?
GH: I still feel as though I’m being influenced by something new and marvelous every single minute. But at the core? Robert Louis Stevenson for the charm of his voice and the generosity of his spirit (and the pirates, and those foggy, monstrous streets); Kipling, for the sheer virtuosity and range of his storytelling; Shirley Jackson, for the sustained sense of menace and devastating psychological acuity; Ramsey Campbell, for the variety and majesty of his spellcasting; Val Lewton movies for their skewed realities, alluring shadows, surprising sweetness; Mark Rothko paintings for that impossible, untraceable light; Richard Skelton’s music, and K. Leimer’s, for their restless stillness (if that makes any sense at all), their wells of winking melancholy. P.G. Wodehouse, for the sheer pleasure of his wordplay.
Read the full interview here--->.
Favorite Horror?
[From my August interview with Gingernuts of Horror.]
Q: What is your all-time favourite horror novel, and film?
A: Again. Impossible. But you asked about “favorite” as opposed to best or scariest, so that’s what I’ll try and answer. Film: Either the original John Carpenter “The Fog,” which made me fall all the way into lifelong love with ghost story telling, ghost story atmosphere, lighthouses in fog, static-riddled radio in the middle of the night; or else one of the Val Lewtons—I’m thinking “I Walked With a Zombie” or “Cat People”—for pretty much the same reasons.
Novel? The answer might be different if you said collection or book. But novel? Peter Straub’s If You Could See Me Now would be way up there, for all the reasons mentioned in the film notes above. Ramsey Campbell’s Incarnate, which just plain scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t admire The Haunting of Hill House more, think it’s a masterpiece, but it’s too cold to be my favorite. If I’m picking one? I think I’m going The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which has all the atmosphere, all the storytelling charm (and how), plus astonishing psychological insight—it’s so much more complicated and beautiful and sophisticated a book than people who haven’t read it think—heart, Aristotelean choices, footsteps on cobbled, echoing streets, lost letters, profound consequences, regrets…it’s got it all. - See more at: http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
Q: What is your all-time favourite horror novel, and film?
A: Again. Impossible. But you asked about “favorite” as opposed to best or scariest, so that’s what I’ll try and answer. Film: Either the original John Carpenter “The Fog,” which made me fall all the way into lifelong love with ghost story telling, ghost story atmosphere, lighthouses in fog, static-riddled radio in the middle of the night; or else one of the Val Lewtons—I’m thinking “I Walked With a Zombie” or “Cat People”—for pretty much the same reasons.
Novel? The answer might be different if you said collection or book. But novel? Peter Straub’s If You Could See Me Now would be way up there, for all the reasons mentioned in the film notes above. Ramsey Campbell’s Incarnate, which just plain scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t admire The Haunting of Hill House more, think it’s a masterpiece, but it’s too cold to be my favorite. If I’m picking one? I think I’m going The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which has all the atmosphere, all the storytelling charm (and how), plus astonishing psychological insight—it’s so much more complicated and beautiful and sophisticated a book than people who haven’t read it think—heart, Aristotelean choices, footsteps on cobbled, echoing streets, lost letters, profound consequences, regrets…it’s got it all. - See more at: http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
