The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini Discussion

[Ronald]

Although I read and reviewed the book, I intend to drop in occasionally in the discussion.

[Jay]

Am waiting for my copy, but I'm in.

[Canavan]

I re-read the book a few years ago so may make a stray comment here and there.

[Jay]

Book arrived. Progress will be slow-ish, as I am not taking this book out and about.

[Jay]

My version does not have 'A Warning to the Antiquary,' hope that' not a major loss.

[Ronald]

The theater is the setting for some stories, which is something different from many horror stories. Reggie Oliver, being an actor and playwright, is writing about what he knows.

[Canavan]

Randolph said:

The newer Tartarus edition does not have 'A Warning to the Antiquary.' Oliver removed it because he called it a somewhat spirit of the moment thing and many considered it distasteful. He said it was no loss so he obviously thought very little of it. It would be nice for someone with the story in their edition to at least say something about the plot.

I recall the story as one of the weaker in the collection, although it wasn’t terrible. Without going into specifics, (view spoiler)[the story rests on the premise that M. R. James, during his time as provost at Eton, sexually abused boys in his charge. As noted, Oliver claimed to have written the piece as a kind of jeu d’esprit, but the joke didn’t go over all that well with a number of James’ fans. In addition, I think some readers had difficulty separating whatever feelings they may have had about the story per se with their feelings about the book’s publisher, Christopher Barker, who at the time of the book’s original publication was something of a polarizing figure in the field of supernatural fiction. Specifically, the assumption amongst some was that the story grew out discussions Oliver had with Barker, who was keenly interested in speculating on James’ sexuality, at one point in time self-publishing a scholarly article entitled “Plagiarism and Pederasty: Skeletons in the Jamesian Closet”. (hide spoiler)]

[Canavan]

Ronald said:

The theater is the setting for some stories, which is something different from many horror stories. Reggie Oliver, being an actor and playwright, is writing about what he knows.

At one point in my life I spent a fair amount of time hanging around amateur theatre folks and given what little I was able to glean, I can say that for me Oliver’s stories that rely on his own theatrical background really ring true.

[Canavan]

I’ll make one one last comment here — a sort of follow-up to my previous one about those Oliver stories that make some use of his theatre background. My personal favorite from this collection is probably “Beside the Shrill Sea”. It’s also the very first Oliver story I read, appearing many years ago in an issue of David Longhorn’s Supernatural Tales. On the strength of that story I ended up pre-ordering a copy of this month’s book from the original publisher. I think the author does a good job of limning real flesh-and-blood characters rather than cardboard stereotypes. And I shivered a bit at the bleak last line which implies that there are fates worse than death. I seem to recall Oliver talking about stakes in his stories and noting that the underlying intent in many of his pieces is to place a protagonist’s soul (as opposed to mortal life) in peril.

[Jay]

Have read the first four stories, and am very happy so far.
Feng Shui and In Arcadia are structured very similarly, but are my favorites thus far. By the Shrill Sea didn't feel terribly original, but was pulled off with panache. Evil Eye was pretty good, but the illustration for it was spectacular, creepier by far than the story itself.
Love the atmosphere, it's heavy eeriness reminds me of Songs of a Dead Dreamer-era Thomas Ligotti, although the subject matter does not. Is that just me?

[Jay]

As I get further in, I notice that Oliver focuses a lot more on tone than on narrative, esp. narrative structure. Individually, that's fine, but it is frustrating as a modus operandi.
On the other hand, I love that many of the characters are sensible. "Hmm, everything started going to hell once we received that MacGuffin. Do you think we should burn it?" "Yes, let's." That is refreshing.

[Ronald]

One of Reggie Oliver's stories in this book is entitled "Tiger In The Snow".

Interestingly, there was a previous story entitled "Tiger In The Snow" by Daniel Wynn Barber which appears int Karl Edward Wagner's _Year's Best_ , this one in series XIII. Daniel Wynn Barber's story is excellent, and I wonder if Reggie Oliver was giving a tip of the hat to Daniel Wynn Barber. The plot of both stories, though, are different.

[Jay]

Just finished. I did have problems with it, as noted earlier, but on the whole, I was impressed. The title story was great, and a few others were very good, but none were stinkers. I did roll my eyes a few times during The Black Cathedral, though, as his grasp of the gaming industry was either a little lacking or poorly conveyed, and the game titles were terrible.