Halloween Countdown, Day 17
Oct. 17th, 2008 06:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eldritchhobbitHappy spawning day to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vulpine137. May you enjoy a great one today and many, many more!
Note: FYI to H.P. Lovecraft fans: Barnes & Noble has just released a new omnibus edition of Lovecraft's fiction.
LINKS OF THE DAY: The links for today are Edward Gorey-iffic.
* "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" by Edward Gorey is a macabre classic that's always worth revisiting.
* The Edward Gorey House celebrates the life and works of Edward Gorey.
* Gorey Details is a shop for all of your Edward Gorey needs.
LITERATURE OF THE DAY: Today's reading is a spooky poem by Edward Gorey (1925-2000). If this doesn't send chills up your spine, I'll refund your money! :)
"The Insect God" by Edward Gorey
O what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she's still alive?
Why haven't they found her? It's rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five.
The dear little thing was last seen playing
Along by herself at the edge of the park;
There was no one with her to keep her from straying
Away in the shadows and oncoming dark.
Before she could do so, a silent and glittering
Black motor drew up where she sat nibbling grass;
From within came a nearly inaudible twittering,
A tiny green face peered out through the glass.
She was ready to flee, when the figure beckoned;
An arm with two elbows held out a tin
Full of cinnamon balls; she paused; a second
Reached out as she took one, and lifted her in.
The nurse was discovered collapsed in some shrubbery,
But her reappearance was not much use;
Her eyes were askew, he extremities rubbery,
Her clothing was stained with a brownish juice.
She was questioned in hopes of her answers revealing
What had happened; she merely repeatedly said
'I hear them walking about on the ceiling'.
She had gone irretrievably out of her head.
O feelings of horror, resentment, and pity
For things, which so seldom turn out for the best;
The car, unobserved, sped away from the city
As the last of the light died out in the west.
The Frastleys grew sick with apprehension,
Which a heavy tea only served to increase;
Though they felt it was scarcely genteel to mention
The loss of their child, they called in the police.
Through unvisited hamlets the car went creeping,
With its head lamps unlit and its curtains drawn;
Those natives who happened not to be sleeping
Heard it pass, and lay awake until dawn.
The police with their torches and notebooks descended
On the haunts of the underworld, looking for clues;
In spite of their praiseworthy efforts, they ended
With nothing at all in the way of news.
The car, after hours and hours of travel,
Arrived at a gate in an endless wall;
It rolled up a drive and stopped on the gravel
At the foot of a vast and crumbling hall.
As the night wore away, hope started to languish
And soon was replaced by all manner of fears;
The family twisted their fingers in anguish,
Or got them all damp from the flow of their tears.
They removed the child to the ball-room, whose hangings
And mirrors were streaked with a luminous slime;
They leapt through the air with buzzings and twangings
To work themselves up to a ritual crime.
They stunned her, and stripped off her garments, and lastly
They stuffed her inside a kind of a pod;
And then it was that Millicent Frastley
Was sacrificed to The Insect God.
vulpine137. May you enjoy a great one today and many, many more!Note: FYI to H.P. Lovecraft fans: Barnes & Noble has just released a new omnibus edition of Lovecraft's fiction.
LINKS OF THE DAY: The links for today are Edward Gorey-iffic.
* "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" by Edward Gorey is a macabre classic that's always worth revisiting.
* The Edward Gorey House celebrates the life and works of Edward Gorey.
* Gorey Details is a shop for all of your Edward Gorey needs.
LITERATURE OF THE DAY: Today's reading is a spooky poem by Edward Gorey (1925-2000). If this doesn't send chills up your spine, I'll refund your money! :)
"The Insect God" by Edward Gorey
O what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she's still alive?
Why haven't they found her? It's rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five.
The dear little thing was last seen playing
Along by herself at the edge of the park;
There was no one with her to keep her from straying
Away in the shadows and oncoming dark.
Before she could do so, a silent and glittering
Black motor drew up where she sat nibbling grass;
From within came a nearly inaudible twittering,
A tiny green face peered out through the glass.
She was ready to flee, when the figure beckoned;
An arm with two elbows held out a tin
Full of cinnamon balls; she paused; a second
Reached out as she took one, and lifted her in.
The nurse was discovered collapsed in some shrubbery,
But her reappearance was not much use;
Her eyes were askew, he extremities rubbery,
Her clothing was stained with a brownish juice.
She was questioned in hopes of her answers revealing
What had happened; she merely repeatedly said
'I hear them walking about on the ceiling'.
She had gone irretrievably out of her head.
O feelings of horror, resentment, and pity
For things, which so seldom turn out for the best;
The car, unobserved, sped away from the city
As the last of the light died out in the west.
The Frastleys grew sick with apprehension,
Which a heavy tea only served to increase;
Though they felt it was scarcely genteel to mention
The loss of their child, they called in the police.
Through unvisited hamlets the car went creeping,
With its head lamps unlit and its curtains drawn;
Those natives who happened not to be sleeping
Heard it pass, and lay awake until dawn.
The police with their torches and notebooks descended
On the haunts of the underworld, looking for clues;
In spite of their praiseworthy efforts, they ended
With nothing at all in the way of news.
The car, after hours and hours of travel,
Arrived at a gate in an endless wall;
It rolled up a drive and stopped on the gravel
At the foot of a vast and crumbling hall.
As the night wore away, hope started to languish
And soon was replaced by all manner of fears;
The family twisted their fingers in anguish,
Or got them all damp from the flow of their tears.
They removed the child to the ball-room, whose hangings
And mirrors were streaked with a luminous slime;
They leapt through the air with buzzings and twangings
To work themselves up to a ritual crime.
They stunned her, and stripped off her garments, and lastly
They stuffed her inside a kind of a pod;
And then it was that Millicent Frastley
Was sacrificed to The Insect God.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 11:17 am (UTC)Had to edit. I just read The Gashlycrumb Tinies. I never saw that before. Awesome! lol
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Date: 2008-10-18 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 12:35 pm (UTC)OMG GORGEOUS!
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Date: 2008-10-18 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 02:40 pm (UTC)Also: one of my favorite poems.
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Date: 2008-10-18 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-17 05:13 pm (UTC)-Tom G
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Date: 2008-10-18 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 02:53 pm (UTC)LOL!
I just saw a documentary on Peter Lorre, and I kept thinking the whole time of your icon. :)
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Date: 2008-10-18 04:05 pm (UTC)I considered buying The Lost One, but it was kind of pricey for a book I would only read once.
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Date: 2008-10-18 04:40 pm (UTC)I didn't know about The Lost One - sounds intriguing!
Have you ever used Bookins? I get about half my books that way now. I just got a hardback biography of Fanny Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley's half-sister who committed suicide while Mary was off with Byron and Shelley (coming up with Frankenstein). Interesting stuff.
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Date: 2008-10-18 04:54 pm (UTC)No, I usually use abebooks*, then amazon or alibris by order of preference. Bookins looks pretty good. I'm not a netflix member. Maybe I will join at the lowest rate.
*I just had one $64 dollar book from the UK not show up, the seller doesn't even reply to ABE Mail. Looks like I'll be getting an chargeback...
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Date: 2008-10-19 01:56 pm (UTC)I've been using Bookins for over a year, and I've managed to find homes for a number of my books, plus get quite a few that I wanted. It's a really great service, and very budget-friendly.
The Abebooks situation sounds frustrating - ack! I hope they resolve it for you soon.
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Date: 2008-10-18 05:15 pm (UTC)I might use Bookins to get rid of some of my books, I have run out of room. Then there is my late brother's collection, I would need to build an addition to house that.
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Date: 2008-10-19 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-19 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-19 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-18 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-19 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-19 05:52 pm (UTC)