Ask him if it really tastes like pork

[threemonkeys]

A message to all you horror writers. This type of activity is perhaps taking your dedication to the craft just a tiny bit too seriously.

Comments

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

And remember: try SUM-SUMO SAUCE, for meat and savouries!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid the allusion escapes me.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, you haven't read "Two Bottles of Relish" by Lord Dunsany? I feel all erudite and smugly literary or something. It's a short story where the police were watching a guy, convinced that he had murdered his wife, but unable to obtain enough hard evidence to arrest him. Then someone noticed that in the last fortnight he'd gotten through two bottles of Sum-Sumo "for meat and savouries" and large quantities of potatoes and other veggies, but, well, something was missing from his grocery list.

It's pretty mild by today's standards, but still memorable.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Ah - I understand and can see how highly appropriate it was if only I'd caught the reference. Dunsany is somebody I have always meant to read but never got around to - but then I have a lot of authors in that category.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

His short stories were best: while there is much of merit in the novels, they tend to ramble.

If you feel like wetting your feet, you could do worse than "Idle Days on the Yann" (http://lib.luksian.com/textsfnf/engl/066/) which is something of a travelogue and one of my favourites, when I'm in the mood for Dunsany. On re-reading it, I was surprised to notice one of the things that must have inspired Lovecraft, incidentally. Who'd have thunk it?

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Thanks I'll give that a look. I'm pretty sure I have read a story or two of Dunsany's in a history of the genre type collections but never enough to get a proper impression.