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| Ramsey Campbell - Greatest Living Writer of Horror in the English Language |
Ramsey Campbell has been referred to as one of the greatest horror writers in the genre today. S.T. Joshi has been quoted as saying that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
Campbell has written 30 novels and is featured in over 15 collections. His highly awaited supernatural novel, Creatures of the Pool, will be available September of 2009 (PS Publishing).
Join us today for an interview with Ramsey Campbell.
You have been called the greatest living writer of the horror tale in the English language and one of the masters of late 20th century horror fiction. Looking back on your life and in particular your early days of writing, would you have believed this back then?
Well, that’s very kind of someone to say these things! I don’t believe it now, never mind believing it back then. I used to believe I was better than I think I am now – I suppose the shift comes with age. At the start I thought I was adding to Lovecraft’s achievement in my own small way, but now I think that I was more likely to detract from it by filling in too many gaps in his deliberately incomplete and suggestive mythos. Still, his work remains, and nobody can change that.
What and who influenced your earliest writing? (in terms of work and earliest experiences).
Well, it depends on how far back we want to go. When I began seriously writing stories – seriously enough to finish them and to fill an exercise book with them – I was eleven years old. This book was Ghostly Tales, though Ghastly would have been more appropriate, and it was influenced by any number of tales I’d read in the field (which I’d already been doing for several years). There was even an attempt, lord help us, at a Dennis Wheatleyish tale of a battle between good and occult evil. Soon I at least learned more discernment. Three years later I chanced on Cry Horror, the first Lovecraft collection in British paperback, and for more than a year that was all I wanted to ape. A couple of years after that I would start to address my own fears and observations rather than ones I’d borrowed from Lovecraft, and from then on the themes – abnormal psychology, flawed relationships, the family as a breeding ground for fear – became increasingly personal.
You have been quoted as saying that "horror is a branch of literature," and I could not agree with you more. Why do you believe that there is such stigma attached to horror writing itself and the genre?
Like science fiction (and very possibly other fields too) it suffers from comments by the ignorant who mistake themselves for informed. It’s too often identified with its worst examples or with those aspects of the field that are most readily perceived. I’m bothered whenever I or anyone else is described as “transcending the genre.” I feel I’m simply trying to live up to the best it can offer, which is considerable.
What is it about fear that is so alluring? People consider it a negative human emotion, yet they are drawn to horror in both the written form and in movies. And also in painting and music and the theatre and poetry. Is it just the emotion that draws the audience?
I should have thought it’s the aesthetic experience too – certainly in the finest work – and the thematic content as well. Certainly that’s true for me as an audience. That said, I appreciate being disturbed or frightened by art – I wish more works achieved it for me. These days several of the films of David Lynch take me as close to the edge as I can (sometimes only just) bear.
You have also stated that horror fiction has no boundaries. Could you elaborate on that?
I think I said I haven’t found them yet myself. I do think it’s an enormously wide field, especially as it has developed in the last few decades – it can contain anything from cosmic horror and numinous terror all the way to social comment and satire, to psychological horror and black or even nightmare comedy. It certainly lets me talk about anything I want to address.
What and who inspires your writing today?
Life. Reality, which – lord knows – I often don’t need to overstate. Indeed, I sometimes find that elements I’ve heightened or exaggerated in order to make a point are overtaken by reality at speed.
What scares you the most?
That rather ties into the previous question… Gullibility. The human eagerness to find scapegoats. The willingness to embrace belief systems that purport to give you all the answers so long as you give up the right to question. The vulnerability of children. The increasing unwillingness of people to intervene when they see or suspect wrongdoing. That’s just a selection, believe me.
Who are your favorite contemporary writers in the horror genre?
There are many! Again, a selection. Here are some you shouldn’t miss. In America Dennis Etchison, Pete Atkins, Joe R. Lansdale, Joe Hill, Glen Hirshberg, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein… In Britain Mark Samuels, Terry Lamsley (now decamped to Amsterdam), Tim Lebbon, Reggie Oliver, Jeremy Dyson, Peter Ackroyd… Read Steve Jones’ annual Mammoth Book of Best New Horror and you won’t go far wrong if at all.
What advice would you offer to aspiring horror writers?
Be true to your experience. Hone your craft by writing short fiction before you set out on the long haul of a novel. Don’t be afraid to learn by imitation - composers and painters often do. Tell as much of the truth as you can. Be sure your characters act like real people – don’t borrow their traits from the conventions of the genre. Don’t just read horror fiction, but do read the classics of the field. David Hartwell’s The Dark Descent is a fine capacious introduction.
Would you introduce us to any upcoming work?
Just out is the splendid Centipede Press edition of The Influence with J. K. Potter’s original illustrations, including some I’ve never seen before. In September PS will publish my new supernatural novel, Creatures of the Pool, alongside a collection, Just Behind You. Right now I’m close to completing the first draft of a novel, The Seven Days of Cain. More to come…
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