tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post8775267617905258604..comments2024-03-29T00:32:33.920-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Pulp Fantasy Library: Smoke GhostJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-73934123979707686182022-04-05T00:01:34.221-04:002022-04-05T00:01:34.221-04:00Leiber had a bit of a thing for the ephemeral bits...Leiber had a bit of a thing for the ephemeral bits of modern life coming together as a greater whole--this may have been one of the first adumbrations of his later "Megalopolisomancy" that would crop up later.<br /><br />The Smoke Ghost is certainly urban, but in my opinion the real innovation is that it is collective. Most ghost-story ghosts are about the residua of individual personalities, or sometimes abstract principles, demons, or tulpas. But this one is about a gestalt entity aggregating out of communal anxieties and frustrations. If there's a good example of one before this, I don't think I've come across it.Rigelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17871675202419307863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-37721393929097904642022-03-22T06:49:27.483-04:002022-03-22T06:49:27.483-04:00Leiber wrote many great stories, "The Man Who...Leiber wrote many great stories, "The Man Who Never Grew Young", "The Ship Sails At Midnight" and "Mariana" are my favourite (non-Fafhrd and Gray Mouser)ones.Jerry Corneliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16761787071129069839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-75155480370486873422022-03-21T07:45:59.594-04:002022-03-21T07:45:59.594-04:00"It's a rotten world, Miss Millick,"..."It's a rotten world, Miss Millick," said Mr. Wran, talking at the window. "Fit for another morbid growth of superstition."<br /><br />Prototypical form of what became the urban horror subgenre in later years? Some of that just jams old superstitions into a modern setting, but others are more creative about re-imagining the old bogeys for a newer world.Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.com