lord of illusions
famke janssen during' lord of illusions' los angeles premiere in hollywood, ...
collins’ crypt: book vs. movie - lord of illusions | birth. movies. death .
famke janssen and clive barker during' lord of illusions' los angeles premiere in ...
famke janssen during' lord of illusions' los angeles premiere in hollywood, california, united states .
scott bakula, famke jansse, and clive barker during' lord of illusions' los angeles ...
famke janssen and clive barker during' lord of illusions' los angeles premiere in hollywood, california, united states .
nix is the leader of a black magic cult and the main antagonist of the 1995 horror / fantasy film lord of illusions (clive barker' s lord of illusions) loosely based on the short story the last illusion (from books of blood vol. 6) by clive barker .
scott bakula, famke jansse, and clive barker during' lord of illusions' los angeles premiere in hollywood, california, united states .
tags ashley tesoro barbara patrick clive barker j. trevor edmond joseph latimore kevin j. o' connor lord of illusions michael angelo stuno scott bakula sheila tousey
the battle between lord varys (aka the spider) and lord petyr baelish (aka littlefinger) to out - machiavelli each other is delicious for fans of game of thrones .
no matter how “lord of illusions” does at the b. o. , don’t be surprised if bakula comes back as harry d’amour, in either a sequel or a tv spinoff .
one of the great disappointments with the box office failure of lord of illusions is that horror fans were denied any further adventures of harry d' amour, a terrific noir detective played with uncharacteristic cynicism by scott bakula in one of his best performances. bakula is a guy typically called upon to be sincere and decent; he' s still those things in lord of illusions, but adds a world - weariness that suits the character well .
but lord of illusions, barker’s third and most underrated movie, has yet to experience the same kind of critical reappraisal. like nightbreed, lord of illusions underwent heavy re - cutting on its way to movie screens (this time by mgm / united artists), going out to theaters in a version barker was unhappy with. but unlike nightbreed, it didn’t take nearly 25 years for audiences to see barker’s approved cut of lord of illusions. from its very first laserdisc release in 1995, barker’s director’s cut has been available, restoring 12 minutes of mostly character development and atmosphere — though with some additional sex and violence, of course .
lord of illusions received mixed to positive reviews, with a current approval rating of 61% at rotten tomatoes. allmovie was critical of the film, writing that it
starts off strong with an intriguing premise, but then goes quickly nowhere
.
original red band theatrical trailer for the 1995 film
lord of illusions .
starring scott bakula, kevin j. o' connor, famke janssen, and daniel von bargen. written & directed by clive barker .
fat bastard: evil wizard lord nix is a balding middle aged guy with quite a gut .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h. p. lovecraft and raymond chandler in “lord of illusions. ” pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item .
the page nix (lord of illusions) contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and / or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h. p. lovecraft and raymond chandler in
lord of illusions .
pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item .
sadly, with lord of illusions, clive barker stumbles into the same pitfalls he did when he made nightbreed just five years earlier. it' s dull, unengaging, and features a plot that is stretched out far past its breaking point .
the years have been good to lord of illusions, as its mixture of ’40s - type noir and hard - edged ’90s gore (and dodgy cgi) prevent it from becoming dated — it remains unstuck in time. unfortunately, barker hasn’t directed a movie since — sad, as he established in only three films a voice as one of the genre’s most distinct and visionary auteurs. and while “horror noir” may never catch on as a viable genre, lord of illusions will always provide a shining example of what it can be. it’s a kind of magic. and magic sets us free .
all the others are presented so entirely in terms of his words, prejudices and illusions that they never appear as independent rounded characters... .
while d’amour has had some interesting dealings since his creation, including facing pinhead in “ the scarlet gospels ” and even taking his place in the boom! studios “ hellraiser ” comic series. but it all started in “the last illusion”, which was the basis of the 1995 noir - horror film lord of illusions
written and directed by horror mastermind clive barker, “ lord of illusions ” is a true cult classic. bakula brings barker regular, paranormal investigator harry d’amour to life with the perfect amount of bravado and self - deprecating humor. complimenting bakula is famke janssen as his romantic interest during the horror - noir romp .
i know a handful of so - called barker fans who rave about his earlier works for contemplative hours, but have never laid eyes upon the balls - out spectacle that is “lord of illusions. ” for shame. certainly flawed, but his obsessive adoration of monsters and mysticism prevails, marking this as another must - see for the true aficionados .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h. p. lovecraft and raymond chandler in “lord of illusions. ” pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item. barker has toned down the full - bore gore of his earlier directorial efforts, which will be [ … ]
lord of illusions opens with an effectively creepy flashback set in the hellish commune of manson - esque sorcerer nix, then flashes forward to the travails of illusionist philip swann. when one of swann' s death - defying tricks goes fatally wrong, det. harry d' amour (scott bakula), a hardboiled dick who' s equally comfortable tracking down deadbeat dads and... read more
swann, the anti - hero of clive barker' s
lord of illusions ,
is a master magician in the style of david copperfield; audiences attending his performances on hollywood boulevard arrive in tuxedos, which is a dangerous trick in itself .
i tell them it' s illusion; they believe me ,
he sighs. actually, he uses real magic .
twenty years after it was first released, lord of illusions remains barker’s least - loved film. his first, hellraiser, has always (rightfully) been considered a classic of the horror genre and his follow - up, 1990’s nightbreed, finally overcame its own tortured past and had its reputation restored thanks to a long overdue director’s cut released by scream factory in 2014 .
released in 1995, lord of illusions opened against the family film the amazing panda adventure, the drama beyond rangoon, the now cult classic action film desperado, the comedy dr. jekyll and ms. hyde, and a limited release of the noir vampire thriller nadja. it also came a week after the release of mortal kombat, which spent three weeks at # 1 at the box office, becoming one of the highest grossing 25 films of the year .
although its popularity is unparalleled, intellectuals dismiss “the lord of the rings” as boyish fantasy. now one scholar defends j. r. r. tolkien’s “true myth” as a modern masterpiece. first of two parts .
lord of illusions just tells a good story instead of being a premise that plays itself out. it pushes in different directions, embracing multiple genres, spanning years and really going for broke in the final act. horror was stuck in such a rut in the ’90s that it' s hard to believe a bigger audience didn' t embrace a movie as unique and interesting as this one .
d' amour is a regular character of barker' s, appearing in a number of short stories and novels (as well as the hellraiser limited series comic book launched in 2011), but lord of illusions remains the only time he has been translated to film. it' s too bad someone didn' t snatch both the character and bakula for an anthology tv series in the ’90s, as both d' amour and the world barker creates are perfectly suited for serialized storytelling .
swann: i saw it with my own fucking eyes! see, that' s his best trick. no illusions. just the truth. (he looks at harry) are you ready for that ?
this project was massively informed by creativity, play and people. it became a exercise in how far could they push an idea, create illusions and subvert popular culture. as well as listening to power ballads .
shortly after quaid' s death, d' amour is approached by swann' s wife dorothea to investigate the killing. he takes the job, and quickly finds himself neck - deep in a battle of magic, illusions, good and evil .
clive barker may be most known for hellraiser, which is a stunningly wonderful film in its own right. but, for me, lord of illusions will always be my favorite of his films. it feels more complete and i simply enjoy it more. to those who haven’t seen the film in a long time, i urge you to revisit it. to those who have never seen it before, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy to give it a chance .
according to today’s daily mail, the lord of the rings must make way for the upcoming revival of lionel bart’s oliver! , a product of the latest television casting competition, i’d do anything, which begins broadcasting on saturday nights on bbc one this weekend (see news, 12 mar 2008) .
with the first film of director peter jackson' s bazillion - dollar
lord of the rings
trilogy arriving this december, no one in the western world, highbrow, lowbrow or anywhere in between, will be immune to the renewed onslaught of tolkieniana, from balrog action figures to arcana like karen wynn fonstad' s exhaustively detailed
atlas of middle - earth .
( contrary to what some critics have suggested, tolkien' s letters make clear that he was eager to do business with the lidless eye of hollywood, and had few illusions about the compromises that might be required. )
mock ‘n’ roll saw lord whitney team up with illustrator jack hudson to produce a body of work inspired by the most vibrant, iconic, and peculiar record covers of the 1980’s. together they created an entire back catalogue of 80s inspired lp cover designs for a series of fictitious musical artists, including bobby cool finger, hank doom and karma savannah .
i could go on: despite the quintessential englishness of his work and his own anti - americanism - - or perhaps because of it - - tolkien found his largest audience and warmest critical reception in the united states. as shippey demonstrates, tolkien' s presentation of evil, which often seems depressingly simplistic (sauron, the dark lord of mordor, does not appear directly in
the lord of the rings ,
but we get the impression that he is sadistic, sarcastic, headstrong and none too bright), is at other times quite sophisticated. in his handling of sauron' s chief creation, the one ring of power, for example, tolkien can be said to have anticipated the contemporary concept of addiction .
as a short fiction writer, barker is known primarily for the horror series books of blood, his six - volume set of short stories, published in 1984 and 1985. barker' s style is characterized by cinematic descriptions of blood and gore, as well as unabashedly graphic sexual imagery. his stories are applauded by critics as imaginative and unique. barker has adapted several of his own short stories and novellas to the screen, in motion pictures he himself directed, including the films hellraiser, nightbreed, the thief of always, and lord of illusions. in addition, barker has served as executive producer on numerous films, such as candyman, gods and monsters, hellbound: hellraiser ii, and hellraiser iii: hell on earth .
rob howell won the best designer prize in this year’s urltoken theatregoers’ choice awards for the lord of the rings ’s spectacular, state - of - the - art set. the 45 - foot stage alone, equipped with three revolves and 17 lifts, cost £1 million. in addition to the expense, the design for the lord of the rings is the most high - tech and physically complex in the west end. special planning permission was required to refit the drury lane to accommodate the new high - tech set – according to the daily mail, the process of removing it and reinstating the victorian equipment that it replaced will now take a minimum of ten weeks .
even so, “lord” is more sophisticated and satisfying than anything the genre has offered since “wes craven’s new nightmare. ” and it is the first horror pic in recent memory that has a hero who’s more charismatic than the villain .
in either version — but particularly barker’s approved director’s cut — lord of illusions offers the best of horror and noir. despite taking place in present - day 1995, it looks and feels right out of the 1940s. the movie is moody and atmospheric, presenting a cynical world in which the characters have seen it all — that is, until they’re proven wrong when confronted by sights no one has ever seen. as is so often barker’s way, the violence is brutal and genuinely horrifying, whether it’s swann’s gruesome onstage fate or a montage in which cult members commit unspeakable acts after being called back into action by their leader .
in conjuring tolkien’s fantastical middle earth, the show also features stilt - walking, giant leaping and aerial choreography, as well as dance, illusions, magic and other special effects. ensemble members were required to undergo weeks of boot - camp style training before rehearsals began (see news, 8 feb 2007) .
in lord of illusions, i got to do all kinds of shit that i wanted to do. the bondage stuff in there, the girl and the ape, all kinds of shit. it' s very funny because frank mancuso was head of mgm / ua at that time, and he didn' t like the movie at all. there was one shot of a dead child on the floor, and he said,' this shot will never appear in an mgm / ua movie.' as it turns out, it did, because i took it out, and then when he wasn' t looking, i put it back in. i knew he' d never bother to see the film again .
if the reconstructive mythmaking of
the lord of the rings
is itself a kind of philology, the book is also deeply grounded in tolkien' s linguistic expertise. sometimes he became so absorbed in the creation of languages and lineages, in fact, that he put the story itself aside for months or years at a time, believing he could not continue until some quandary or inconsistency in his invented realm had been resolved .
but the crux of the matter, it seems to me, lies in tolkien' s wholehearted rejection of modernity and modernism. this is what so powerfully attracts some readers, and just as powerfully repels others. the division has existed since
the lord of the rings
was first published, and was deftly summarized by no less august a figure than w. h. auden, in his 1956 new york times review of
the return of the king ,
the final volume of tolkien' s published trilogy .
already up against a lot of options, lord of illusions failed during its theater run, earning just over $ 13 million domestically on its $ 11 million budget. during the mid - 90’s, original films were coming out pretty frequently. if we look at the 10 highest grossing films of that year, we’ll see that there are two films that were part of a franchise (batman forever and goldeneye) and one sequel (die hard: with a vengeance). apart from that, every film was something new, something fresh. it wasn’t like 2015, where the numbers were essentially flipped with only three original films. that was an era where originality was expected, not something to be surprised by .
it begins in the mojave desert in 1982, inside a house that has become the headquarters for a cult led by a man named nix. nix has the ability to use real magic and not just mere illusions. while preaching, he tells his followers that he has been named
[ in the following review of the books of blood, anderson observes that barker' s effective mingling of the realms of life and death in his short stories uplifts the horror genre. ]
tolkien himself often spoke of his work in
the hobbit
and
the lord of the rings ,
as well as the great legendary backdrop of
the silmarillion ,
as something found or discovered whose existence was independent of him. it' s wise to tread lightly in this sort of interpretation, but tolkien was a devout catholic who believed profoundly in revelation, and it seems clear that on this deeper and broader level he believed his legendarium to be something given, something revealed, which contained a kind of truth beyond measure .
lord of illusions is a 1995 movie directed by clive barker, based on his own short story
the last illusion .
a blend of noir and horror, the story opens in the early 80s at a run - down cult compound in the mojave desert. nix, the leader who calls himself
the puritan ,
wields magical powers he promises to share with his enthralled followers. unfortunately for him, some of the group decide nix has gone too far by kidnapping a young girl. led by nix' s prize pupil philip swann, the rebels manage to overpower and subdue him. they leave him bound in an iron mask and buried deep under the sands of the mojave, with the loyal followers scattered to the winds .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
the massive and enduring popularity of
lord of the rings
- - it has been 40 years since critic philip toynbee hopefully predicted that the tolkien
craze
or
cult
would soon pass into
merciful oblivion
- - only raises the stakes. it would seem that tolkien' s work, which reinvented a moribund literary genre and created a new publishing market vaster than the empire of the dark lord sauron himself, supplied something that was missing amid the shifting subjectivities and formal innovations of 20th century fiction, something for which readers were ravenous. but what was it, and why was it important? or, to put the question in terms familiar to tolkien readers, what has it got in its pocketses ?
what makes lord of illusions so great is that there is a playfulness amidst its gruesome and haunting exterior. the actors know that magic isn’t real and yet it’s presented in such a serious manner that there has to be a little bit of levity thrown in, even if they don’t react to it like we would hope. for example, when d’amour rips swann’s “jaw” off in the coffin, revealing a fake body, there is something so shocking and over - the - top about it, that it put a smile on my face. or nix’s “third eye”, which is rather grotesquely “turtle - heading” in and out of his forehead, making for a visual that falls under the “it’s gross, so i’ll laugh” gag .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
scholars have often been vexed by the crude popular interpretations of machiavelli' s work but his supposed ethos has taken on a glorious life of its own in the form of a slew of splendidly devious characters .
i like making movies but i don' t like it as much as writing books. i' m a writer who is occasionally a filmmaker and the business of making movies is a healthy one for me because it keeps me from being so internalised that i can' t express myself in the outside world. that' s what happens to me at the end of writing a long novel. it' s also a way of getting my ideas to a larger public than the reading public, so i' m always going to find cinema interesting. but from beginning to end, the business of directing lord of illusions has taken a year and, if you start with the three drafts of the screenplay, it' s probably longer than that. that' s two - thirds of a large book and, in my heart of hearts, i believe that it' s what i put on the page that has the chance of some longevity. on the other hand, the business of making movies is very pleasurable and addictive and, for my personal mindset, very healthy .
an interesting and percipient interlacing of ideas was made by one reviewer. in february 1945 lord moran’s book the anatomy of courage (constable) had been published, one month before hw’s the sun in the sands. lord moran (sir charles mcmoran wilson, 1882–1977) had served in the royal army medical corps in the first world war and was awarded an mc in 1916. the anatomy of courage arose out of his experiences of that time combined with further study into the subject (the quotation under his title is: ‘the thing in the world i am most afraid of is fear. ’ montaigne). during the second world war he was personal physician to winston churchill. the book deals with fear and man’s attempts to overcome it – courage: particularly in relation to shell - shock, nervous breakdown – or as we now call it, post - war trauma .
[ in the following review, d' ammassa maintains that the five stories included in the second volume of the books of blood are of uniformly high quality. ]
so when lord of illusions came out, it was an original attempt that year for the horror noir genre. * while something like it would get endless tweets and articles about how we “need to support original horror” today, back then it was normal to get original titles, so word didn’t spread. while i mourn that the film didn’t find an audience in theaters, i’m also somewhat glad for that fact. to be completely honest, the theatrical cut of the film was bad. it was full of plot holes, there were jumps in the story that felt jarring, and it simply felt like an incomplete film. while it held the foundation for something great, it took the director’s cut, which was 13 minutes longer, to really flesh out and fulfill the original vision of barker, who also adapted and directed the film .
this part of henry williamson’s autobiography tells of his struggle to secure recognition as a writer between the time of his demobilisation after the last war and 1924... .
tolkien' s immense erudition is not, of course, the source of his success; without his storytelling gift, or his introduction of the hobbits as modern, modest, sturdily english heroes against his grand mythic landscape ,
the lord of the rings
would be little more than a curiosity. but it is no accident, nor is it tiresome pedantry, that he invented the elvish languages quenya and sindarin (loosely modeled on finnish and welsh, respectively) first, and then built around them the world they required .
d' amour goes to the magic castle, where he hears nix being described as a legend, and that nix was believed to have taught swann. after getting into the repository, a special room in the magic castle that supposedly contains every magic secret known to man, he discovers that swann' s
illusions
involved real magic .
no slouch in the performance department himself is the under appreciated kevin j. o’connor (“deep rising”, igor of “van helsing”), portraying nix’s recently estranged protégé philip swann. accompanied by a band of former sect members, he returns to save the girl and stop the ritual. they are successful (of course they are, it’s a prologue) in the campaign, but not before nix can pass some of his sorcery on to swann in an effort to seduce him back to the fold. this results in one of the best visual sequences of the enterprise, which is high praise considering “illusions” is wall - to - wall great (mostly, more on that in a minute) effects .
[ in the following review of the first three books of blood and the inhuman condition, winter asserts that barker is the most important horror fiction writer of the 1980s. ]
source: anderson, ken. review of the books of blood, by clive barker. west coast review of books, no. 5 (may 1989): 32 .
in january 1997, reporter susan jeffreys of the (london) sunday times informed a colleague that j. r. r. tolkien' s epic fantasy
the lord of the rings
had been voted the greatest book of the 20th century in a readers' poll conducted by britain' s channel 4 and the waterstone' s bookstore chain. her colleague responded :
oh hell! has it? oh my god. dear oh dear. dear oh dear oh dear .
[ in the following review, morrison provides a generally favorable assessment of barker' s first three books of blood. ]
source: burns, craig william. “it' s that time of the month: representations of the goddess in the work of clive barker. ” journal of popular culture 27, no. 3 (winter 1993): 35 - 40 .
[ in the following essay, hoppenstand offers an overview of the major thematic concerns of barker' s short fiction. ]
in all this tolkien was clearly inspired by 19th century finnish scholar elias lönnrot, who
reconstructed
the
kalevala ,
finland' s national epic, from fragments of traditional songs and poems. (tom bombadil, who was one of tolkien' s earliest creations and whose role in the
lord of the rings
universe is never explained, may be derived from the singing wizards of the
kalevala .
) as shippey wryly notes, latter - day philologists have grown suspicious of lönnrot and no longer believe that his work reliably reflects any ancient original. yet the finnish public does not seem to care; the publication date of the
kalevala
remains a national holiday, and a new generation of schoolchildren reads it every year .
' s photo out of the hundreds of initial submissions and declared ,
this is dorothea .
she remained the only choice, although the filmmakers auditioned dozens of actresses for the part .
[ in the following review, d' ammassa offers a brief description of some of the stories in the inhuman condition. ]
explores barker' s use and creation of myth in his fiction, and discusses the history of english fantasy and horror fiction .
as carpenter observes, this is the central doctrine of tolkien' s philosophy, and it has countless echoes in his work. for one thing, this is pretty much the cosmological back story found in
the silmarillion
( which he had already begun, even at this early stage): the two trees that illuminated the creation of the world are killed, but their light is captured in three jewels, or silmarils, which are set in the iron crown of morgoth, the great enemy (for whom sauron is merely a toady). the silmarils are lost in turn and their light splintered, so that only memories and fragments of it remain in middle - earth at the time of
the lord of the rings .
[ in the following review, morrison explores thematic and stylistic aspects of the short stories in the first three books of blood. ]
[ in the following review of books of blood, volumes 4–6, morgan describes barker as a highly talented yet inconsistent writer. ]
after its initial canadian run in 2006, the piece was substantially revised and the running time shortened by 40 minutes to just over three hours. the lord of the rings has a book and lyrics by shaun mckenna and matthew warchus, and music by bombay dreams ’ ar rahman and finnish folk group värttinä with christopher nightingale (see news, 21 oct 2003). it’s directed by warchus and choreographed by peter darling .
“illusions” slips into standard potboiler mode from that point, as d’amour refuses to return to the big apple, obsessed with uncovering the many secrets he knows have been hidden from him by dorothea. plot wise, there are no real surprises that anyone of standard intelligence wouldn’t have previously deduced leading into the latter half, but we all know when it comes to barker’s screen work that the fun is in the “we have such sights to show you” aspect of the endeavor. his direction, growing more assured with each picture, falls just short of replicating the film noir vibe he was trying to achieve. regardless, this remains one of his most technically impressive works to date .
source: keis, cosette. review of clive barker' s books of blood, volume three, by clive barker. voice of youth advocates 9, no. 6 (february 1987): 282 .
chaos isn' t a pit. chaos is a ladder ,
he suggests .
many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again. the fall breaks them. and some, given a chance to climb, they refuse. they cling to the realm, or the gods, or love. illusions. only the ladder is real. the climb is all there is .
optical illusions are great for music videos and online slideshows because it' s easier to fool the mind with a two - dimensional computer or tv screen. in the real world, information such as light, shadow, and relative size allow us to have a fairly good perception of sizes and where things are. there are certain rules: for example, as an object gets farther away, its image gets smaller in our eyes. it' s harder to fool the well - informed eye .
the inhuman condition is aptly named. these five “tales of terror” from the first volume of barker' s second books of blood trilogy, tell of humans transformed into something more than human. it is their obsessions—sexual, religious, or intellectual—that drive barker' s protagonists to transformation, fulfillment, and doom. although some of the characters are ...
furthermore, members of the u. s. intelligentsia, confined to their northeast corridor reservation or scattered across the continent in a handful of college towns, fully expect to have their tastes ignored, if not openly derided, by the public at large. to some intellectual types (to me, for example) it seems gratifying, even touching, that so many millions of american readers will happily devour a work as abstruse and complicated as
the lord of the rings .
whatever one may make of it, it' s a more challenging read than
gone with the wind
( runner - up in the amazon survey), not to mention
harry potter and the sorcerer' s stone
( fifth place) .
the lord of the rings
is conventionally called fantasy, yet tolkien in some ways considered it to be true, or at least to be
true myth .
it is a work by a devout christian that never mentions god and has only one reference to religious practice (and that is entirely nonsectarian). in terms of conscious intention, at least, it is a profoundly conservative work, an elegy for lost tales, lost eras and lost hierarchies tinged (it must be said) by xenophobia, troubling racial attitudes and a confused sexuality. yet it became a central text of the 1960s counterculture and a source of inspiration to the radical environmental movement .
new book of illustrated “scary stories to tell in the light” launching on kickstarter june 11th. * fully funded * as of 6 / 20 / 18
independently owned and operated since 2010, millions of people from around the world have made daily dead their destination for coverage of the horror entertainment industry .
source: review of the books of blood, by clive barker. science fiction chronicle 10, no. 113 (february 1989): 38 .
[ in the following review of the compilation the books of blood, the critic asserts that barker is a major innovator in modern horror fiction. ]
of course it is overly reductive to see these sad but ordinary events as the sole source of what tolkien' s friend c. s. lewis called the
profound melancholy
that suffuses
the lord of the rings .
tolkien' s later experiences at the gruesome and pointless world war i battle of the somme, for example, where two of his closest friends died, certainly cast a long shadow across the rest of his life. still, long before the carnage in the fields of picardy - - where 20, 000 allied soldiers died in the first day - - tolkien felt a connection to an idyllic past that was now lost, as well as a sense that whatever beauty and wonder remained in the present was likely to pass away. (as a schoolboy in birmingham he already had a reputation as an eccentric; he once gave a debating - society speech opposing the norman conquest. )
when king frederick ii of prussia writes that machiavelli is one of the most dangerous thinkers in the history of political thought, he is probably not far from the truth. but the question to consider is dangerous for whom? for absolute sovereigns and more widely for all adversaries of democratic and popular regimes .
just when you thought a horror story had to consist of a deranged psycho who slashes up teenagers for no apparent reason, along comes clive barker. this collection of short stories [ the books of blood ] proves many times over that there are plenty of new plots in the horror genre. barker' s imagination has produced a series of surreal, gruesome tales that ...
magicians are wizards: philip swann passed off his real magic as stage illusions. he explains to the man investigating his
suicide
that
illusionists get vegas contracts. wizards get burned at the stake
. (in modern - day america ?) but consider that his teacher nix was a straw nihilist and an omnicidal maniac. in the original story, swann pretended to be a fake simply as a take that to the infernal powers he bargained with .
[ in the following review, d' ammassa asserts that the title story of in the flesh is the best of those included in this volume. ]
, a film that i myself struggled to enjoy upon my first viewing. however, after repeated visits, it now ranks as one of my favorite horror films of the 90’s and definitely one of my favorite horror films in general .
answering this question properly would require a book rather than an article, of course. if t. a. shippey' s
j. r. r. tolkien: author of the century
is not quite that book, it is nonetheless a delightful exploration of the relationship between tolkien' s fiction and his scholarly work and of the mythical, linguistic and philosophical history underlying both. it is also a crusade in a supremely tolkienian spirit, on behalf of the dying academic discipline of philology, or the anatomy and history of languages .
his narrative tone ranges from the tragic and elegiac to the heroic and even comic (in a pipe - smoking, tweedy sort of way), but it is never ironic or cynical, a failure of taste and discrimination that some find embarrassing. also, although he was trying to write a plausible reconstruction of ancient myth, not a modern novel, those forms frequently share a frankness about human sexuality and bodily functions that his work never has. (consider the ancient irish warrior - goddess queen medb, who fertilized the fields with her menstrual flow .) if there is one word that characterizes
the lord of the rings ,
with its high - flown poesy, its fatal heroism, its intensively worked - out systems of history and language and its edwardian prudery, the word is boyish .
i suppose not every reader of shippey' s book will be as interested as i was in tolkien' s borrowings from
beowulf
( who, in tolkien' s reading, is a sort of were - bear, akin to the character beorn in
the hobbit
). or where in old norse poetry he found the name gandalf and decided it might belong to a wizard. or the suggestive connections between the words
hobbit
and
rabbit
( here shippey is making tolkien' s ghost very angry), which is itself a relatively recent coinage of unknown origin. or what use tolkien makes of the mysterious middle english word wodwos, which appears in
sir gawain and the green knight
and has never been adequately translated. (ok, i' ll tell you: he thought it meant
wild men of the woods ,
and it' s the source of the woses, who appear briefly in book five of
lord of the rings
to aid the rohirrim on their ride to gondor. )
he sacrifices his own minions as a gift to the world of the dead .
knife nut: butterfield' s weapon of choice is a sharp switchblade knife .
nix is being consumed by the fires of hot magma before being completely exploded .
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[ in the following excerpt, badley applies contemporary cultural theory, including feminist theory, to an analysis of representations of women in barker' s fiction. ]
: there are two worlds of magic. one is the glittering domain of the illusionist. the other is a secret place, where magic is a terrifying reality. here, men have the power of demons. and death itself is an illusion .
he is ambitious, wanting to gain the noble status he lacks. his main expertise is in finance, an echo of the medici family who, over the course of a couple of generations, turned financial might into political control in northern italy .
sixteen of the 17 stories in this book [ the books of blood ] were originally published as the first 3 volumes in barker' s books of blood series. they are undeniably among the most powerful and impressive short stories published in the horror genre in recent years. among the best are “rawhead rex”, recently made into a full length movie, but almost all of the others are of first class ...
the craftsmen responsible for the grisly special effects perform far beyond the call of duty .
harry drives. swann takes a throatful of brandy. then he stares at harry .
fantastic noir: blends the traditional elements of a noir detective story with supernatural horror .
hollywood exorcism: harry' s involvement in one of these is alluded to in flashback, and the experience continues to haunt him in the early part of the story .
it was obviously a book which hw himself found of great importance. he has marked several passages in his own copy of the book, and later quoted from it in
the fictional boss of the soprano crime family in northern new jersey is a man happy to lie, throttle and shoot his way to the continued occupancy of his throne .
he had little compunction about torturing catholics for evidence of plot and conspiracy. but in the moral milieu of the time this was typical for a man in his position .
loosely based on barker’s 1985 short story “the last illusion, ””lord” features bakula as harry d’amour, a new york - based p. i. who has reappeared in several subsequent stories and novels by barker. like the original tale, pic introduces d’amour as a hard - boiled but humane shamus who periodically encounters the supernatural in his work. imagine ross macdonald’s lew archer doing a guest spot on “the x - files, ” and you’ll get the picture .
power floats: nix uses his powers to levitate and walk through the air several times, including standing on top of a near - bottomless chasm holding one of his victims .
plans are now underway for german production, to open in november 2009, and a scaled - down touring version that will open next year in new zealand before travelling to australia and the far east. producer kevin wallace said in a statement: “the show’s creative team has proven just how enchanting, exhilarating and powerfully entertaining the lord of the rings can be live on stage. we will continue to bring this incredible theatrical event to audiences in london until 19 july, and we look forward to presenting the show to new audiences abroad from 2009. ”
clive barker provides four more novelets of the supernatural in this latest collection. the title story [ of in the flesh ] is easily the best, the tale of a young man who deliberately commits a crime in order to visit the prison grave of his grandfather, and who finds himself visiting a city of the dead. nearly as good is “the forbidden”. a young woman is doing some research in a poor community when ...
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an interview with terry gilliam, director of
the man who killed don quixote .
of the amoral protagonist of patricia highsmith' s novels and anthony minghella' s film the talented mr ripley, philosopher john gray says tom ripley is a
true machiavellian
.
it' s unwise to read
the lord of the rings
as allegory in any strict sense, but this commonplace personal odyssey, one shared by millions in the modern age, is strikingly echoed in its plot. frodo, the child - size hero, must leave his beloved shire and travel into sauron' s domain of mordor, with its slag heaps, its permanent pall of smoke, its slave - driven industries. when he returns after much danger and difficulty, he discovers that the malicious wizard saruman - - as shippey points out, a techno - utopian who began with good intentions - - has industrialized the shire itself, cutting down its trees, replacing its hobbit - holes with brick slums and factories and poisoning its rivers .
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the story itself feels rich and thought out. cabals of magicians and illusionists, secretly aware of the reality of magic yet using it as a means of fooling audiences. a cult that is bred out of fear of death rather coming to terms with it and seeking its embrace. a private detective whose past haunts him yet also fills him with the knowledge he needs to prepare and steel himself against all incoming threats. a terrifying villain who appears only in the beginning and end of the film, yet still his presence is felt like a cloying cloth throughout the middle. barker richly adapts his short story into something greater, something more passionate, creating a character in harry d’amour that has become one of my favorites in the horror genre .
the four tales of horror in clive barker' s in the flesh are not made for fireside reading. these are disturbing tales that emerge from a profound sense of despair and desolation .
yet the dear - oh - dear attitude lingers on in the land, a little concealed maybe, a little under the surface. what' s more, it' s there for a good reason. hugely ambitious in scope yet seemingly antique in sensibility ,
the lord of the rings
occupies an anomalous and uncomfortable position in 20th century literature. considered on its own terms, tolkien' s epic - - he never intended it as a trilogy, although it was first published and absorbed into public consciousness in three volumes - - poses a stern challenge to the very concept of modernity, and perhaps especially to modern literature and its defenders. (tolkien on his critics :
some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and i have no cause to complain, since i have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer .
)
evil is bigger: nix is a tall and bulky man and of course is pure evil .
source: meeks, fleming. review of clive barker' s books of blood, volume one, by clive barker. los angeles times book review (10 august 1986): 6 .
during a 1983 visit with britain' s leading writer of horror fiction, ramsey campbell, i was presented with a mountainous manuscript of short stories by an unpublished liverpool playright named clive barker. “you' re about to read the most important new horror writer of this decade, ” campbell told me. after reading 50 of the thousand - plus pages, i was ...
in the music video, pink paint defies gravity and drips on drummer dan konopka' s upright face from left to right. viewing a pile of junk from a different angle reveals a work of art that looks like bassist tim nordwind. and frontman damian kulash poses with eerily life - like paintings of the rest of the band that are split between the wall and the floor.
lord of illusions is a 1995 american horror film written and directed by clive barker , based on his earlier short story , the last illusion ( from books of blood vol . 6 ) . the film presents barker 's signature character harry d'amour onscreen for the first time . it stars scott bakula as d'amour , alongside kevin j. o'connor , famke janssen and daniel von bargen . barker asserts that the director 's cut of this film is his definitive version , as the theatrical release does not represent his true vision . 
lord of illusions is a 1995 american horror film written and directed by clive barker, based on his earlier short story, the last illusion (from books of blood vol. 6). the film presents barker's signature character harry d'amour onscreen for the first time. it stars scott bakula as d'amour, alongside kevin j. o'connor, famke janssen and daniel von bargen. barker asserts that the director's cut of this film is his definitive version, as the theatrical release does not represent his true vision.
lord of illusions is a 1995 american horror film written and directed by clive barker, based on his earlier short story, the last illusion (from books of blood vol. 6). the film presents barker's signature character harry d'amour onscreen for the first time. it stars scott bakula as d'amour, alongside kevin j. o'connor, famke janssen and daniel von bargen. barker asserts that the director's cut of this film is his definitive version, as the theatrical release does not represent his true vision.