When threatened with violence by the Marquesse, he said "I do not know what the Queensberry rules are, but the Oscar Wilde rule is to shoot on sight."

My Wilde-crush continues unabated. And I cannot resist linking to Questionable Content's take on Wilde: [link]

Do any fellow horror fans recall a short story which is an account by a wife of disturbing psychic contact with her husband's deceased consciousness as his brain decomposes after untimely death? I recall vaguely that it was written by some author with a reputation as an occultist, but not his name or that of the story.

Sorry Matt. I remember this vaguely too (but are you sure the Psychic link was with his wife), but can't remember the specifics better than you can.

In completely unrelated news: Catherine and Heathcliff audition for Twilight. (As you've probably guessed McSweenys) [link]

No, the link may have been with a third party who was relaying information. I recall the proposal that the only hope for people to avoid torment after death was via dynamite used in such a way that the brain was completely destroyed.

A long time ago I had the mistaken impression that it might be LeFanu, but it doesn't match anything I've found in his bibliography and I think he's too early for the dynamite solution.

OK then we are remembering the same one. And I still don't know who wrote it. It did not have the LeFanu style either. Not exactly terse, but not lush either.

I am reading Twilight. Just finished New Moon. The Bella/Edward relationship is even more disturbing than I'd imagined.

HAHAHAHAHA! Wait till you get to the last book. My bf still thinks I'm making it up.

I wish I were.

I started reading the first one when I was recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction, then picked up the second mostly so that I could figure out the whole Team Edward and Team Jacob thing that a few of my fellow grad students are always arguing about. My sister said these books were "so romantic." (Well, she says the fourth one is weird, but the first three are romantic.) I think I'm even more disturbed than I was when she insisted Wuthering Heights was romantic.

That last one seriously grossed me out. And you know the kind of stuff I read generally. But I'm not ashamed to say that I quit without finishing.

My niece just turned twelve and she's reading the last one now. She's completely into the whole thing. She asked if I liked the stories, and I said, "Well ... it was quite an idea, wasn't it?"

That was about as far as I could go without breaking her heart.