Through the Eyes of a Monster, tales from a different vantage point

October 23, 2014 8:29 AM

About 40 years ago, Edward D. Wood, Jr. published a number of short stories in "girly" mags (cover images likely NSFW), but those stories haven't been republished, until now. Blood Splatters Quickly collects 32 stories from Ed Wood, and you can read The Day The Mummy Returned on Boing Boing. If you like tales told by the monsters, io9 collected more of such stories, videos, and video games, and there's a related AskMe post, looking for stories where humans are the monsters, many of which can be read online, as linked below the break.

• "The Things", by Peter Watts, who has made a number of his novels, short stories, and other creations free to download, copy, and distribute via CC license (Peter is no stranger on MetaFilter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc...)
• "Publicity Campaign" (Google books preview), by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Word for World is Forest (Google preview of the full novel), by Ursula K. Le Guin
• "They're Made out of Meat," by Terry Bisson
• "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen," by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald
• And even more on TV Tropes: Humans Through Alien Eyes, Humans are Ugly, Humans are Cthulhu, Humans are the Real Monsters. Timesinks aplenty.

posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total)

This is fantastic news! Wood's novels are insanely trashy, but fun, and there are far too few of them still around. I'm sure this collection of his short fiction will be hugely entertaining as well.
posted by rabbitroom at 9:12 AM on October 23, 2014

Ed Wood Wiki page
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:27 AM on October 23, 2014

Someone should use "Captain Fellatio Hornblower" as their MeFi handle.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:46 AM on October 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

A book from a vampire's point of view? Sign me up!
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 12:26 PM on October 23, 2014

I think my first encounter with "humans are the monsters" was Nightbreed, which, for all its flaws, I still like quite a lot.

I may have read Lovecraft's "The Outsider" before then, but that's less "humans are monsters" than "monsters are people, too."
posted by Mister Moofoo at 8:15 PM on October 23, 2014

I Am Legend - the good one, the book, aka why all you have to say is "Matheson".
posted by lon_star at 11:27 PM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Frankenstein has some of this, the "monster" more considerate than his creator. Jump to chapter 10 to hear Victor's monster bemoan his lot in life.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:32 PM on October 24, 2014