Geez Louise, we already did that one. From Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine.
And the “finger and thumb” line is Roald Dahl’s “Man from the South.”
Oh dear. I’m terribly sorry…I did see that, but somehow it didn’t register. The grey cells must be going kaput in my old age–which, of course, is a reason, not an excuse. Many apologies.
Is it in Dandelion Wine, as well? As I recollect, it’s from a story called “The Whole Town’s Sleeping”…
Yip! “Time Enough At Last,” if my memory doesn’t fail.
Poe. Fall of the House of Usher ?
I would think “The Masque of the Red Death”…
Swan’s Song Robert McCammon (sp?)?
I’m on a roll today…sorry. Sorry. Mea maxima culpa.
Here’s another to take your mind off my regrettable absentmindedness:
Of course! :smack:
Ray Bradbury’s “The October Game”
Also by the same author is a short story called “The Scythe” which is hands-down the creepiest story I have ever read! I just remember being totally disturbed by the ending line but I can’t seem to recall what it is.
Here’s my contribution. Not so much creepy, but definitely a shocker:
“Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.”
Finally one I can get! “An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce.
The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson
"The original debt was what hurt you, he thought again; it was the interest that broke your back. The last two lines read:
It’s very hungry
And its VERY angry
“Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb!”
Some of my favourites have already been taken.
Darkhold’s Pin quote is from a short horror story…reeeeally familiar…can’t…quite…naah.
Here’s one for all you Victorian horror freaks:
“‘They found’, said the Bishop of Kilmore, 'below it a rounded hollow place in the earth, wherein there were two or three bodies of these creatures that had plainly been smothered by the smoke; and, what is to me more curious, at the side of this den, against the wall, was crouching the anatomy or skeleton of a human being, with the skin dried upon the bones, having some remains of black hair, which was pronounced by those that examined it to be undoubtedly the body of a woman, and clearly dead for a period of fifty years.”
They wrote long sentences in those days.
Pin from Blue World by Robert McCammon. The other qoute is The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes sigh I was hoping other dopers knew about this great new fantasy series.
Here’s an easy one:
“At the Mountains of Madness” H.P. Lovecraft.
how about …
“Neither do we!”.
I can’t remember the author of this one so I’d be obliged if someone can provide it.
No, sorry. I think I misunderstood the rules of the thread. That was my own original work: On Poor Children.
No, despite being a grim book book it ends on a happier note than that.
Theodore Sturgeon’s short story “It!” (AFAIK the first story to use the idea of a globby swamp monster coalescing around the body/bones of a human being.)
By the way, the lines:
“I can Still See!”
Do not appear in the film X-The Man with the X-Ray Eyes as we now have it. There are rumors that it appeared in the original print (Stephen King is one of the people who reports hearing this, in Danse Macabre, IIRC). See here:
My contribution is:
“Of course I know what Love is.
A Boy loves his Dog.”
It’s familiar, but…
“Now Jeffty is Five”, by Harlan Ellison?
Regards,
Shodan