I was watching Tom Snyder interview Harlan Ellison sometime in the nineties. Snyder asked Ellison if he thought extraterrestrials had ever visited the Earth. Harlan paused, and replied something to the effect of "Well, if they ever did come here, I think they'd have better things to do than look up Whitley Streiber's asshole".
It's a good example of Ellison's ruthless wit, but it also exemplifies the disrespect the literary community has for Strieber following his nonfiction book about alien abduction, Communion.
People forget, or they never really knew in the first place, that Whitley Strieber was one of the most important horror writers of the late seventies and early eighties. His first two books, The Wolfen and The Hunger, were adapted into high profile feature films. Strieber's next two novels, Black Magic and The Night Church, are upper tier horror titles of the period.
From there Whitley Strieber took a different tact. Books such as War Day, Nature's End, and Wolf of Shadows are speculative looks at the horrors of nuclear devastation.
Then came Communion, and everything changed for the man and his writing. I never read it, and I have always been a devout skeptic about such matters as aliens and the supernatural.
Is Communion an accurate account of an alien encounter? Who knows? From all I gather Strieber is an honorable person who at least believes it is the truth.
I liked a couple of the later books. Billy is an excruciating novel of child abduction and abuse. Unholy Fire deals with demonic possession. However, the early books represent the best horror fiction Strieber contributed to the genre.
I recently went back and reread The Wolfen, which was published in 1978. The world was hungry for a classy horror product to follow big successes like The Exorcist and Carrie. The Wolfen fit the bill. It was published in hardcover by William Morrow in 1978 and was adapted into the film three years later. Wolfen is a good movie, but it was eclipsed by The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. All three were released in the same year.
Strieber's novel is a minor classic in the field. It's as much a police procedural as it is a horror novel. Two detectives, a hardnose veteran man and a tough woman trying to maintain respect in a male-dominated regime, have begrudging respect for one another. Their lives explode when the murder case begins to turn into something extra-normal.
Strieber's werewolves aren't in human form. They are large but typical wolves. The difference is, they are abnormally intelligent and organized. They've lived beneath the notice of human society, feeding on derelicts and rejects, but now their existence is being threatened by the attention from the police.
The Wolfen is short on character and long on plot. The novel works best when Strieber portrays the contrast between civilized society and the feral existence of the wolves. There is a lot of action and suspense as the detectives become the hunted and the wolfen demonstrate their superior predatory skill.
I enjoyed The Wolfen when I read the novel in the mid-eighties. Today I find the prose a bit stiff. Strieber could write, and write well, but his chops grew quickly after this debut. The Hunger showed tremendous growth in style and structure.
Whitley Strieber might be forgotten, overlooked, or ridiculed by horror fiction mavens today, but it's impossible to disregard the importance of his work. Unlike today there wasn't a lot of high profile, intelligent horror fiction coming out in the late '70s and early '80s. His novels helped pave the way for the boom which was to come a few years later, and also for the glut we are currently in.
Written by Mark Sieber
It's a good example of Ellison's ruthless wit, but it also exemplifies the disrespect the literary community has for Strieber following his nonfiction book about alien abduction, Communion.
People forget, or they never really knew in the first place, that Whitley Strieber was one of the most important horror writers of the late seventies and early eighties. His first two books, The Wolfen and The Hunger, were adapted into high profile feature films. Strieber's next two novels, Black Magic and The Night Church, are upper tier horror titles of the period.
From there Whitley Strieber took a different tact. Books such as War Day, Nature's End, and Wolf of Shadows are speculative looks at the horrors of nuclear devastation.
Then came Communion, and everything changed for the man and his writing. I never read it, and I have always been a devout skeptic about such matters as aliens and the supernatural.
Is Communion an accurate account of an alien encounter? Who knows? From all I gather Strieber is an honorable person who at least believes it is the truth.
I liked a couple of the later books. Billy is an excruciating novel of child abduction and abuse. Unholy Fire deals with demonic possession. However, the early books represent the best horror fiction Strieber contributed to the genre.
I recently went back and reread The Wolfen, which was published in 1978. The world was hungry for a classy horror product to follow big successes like The Exorcist and Carrie. The Wolfen fit the bill. It was published in hardcover by William Morrow in 1978 and was adapted into the film three years later. Wolfen is a good movie, but it was eclipsed by The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. All three were released in the same year.
Strieber's novel is a minor classic in the field. It's as much a police procedural as it is a horror novel. Two detectives, a hardnose veteran man and a tough woman trying to maintain respect in a male-dominated regime, have begrudging respect for one another. Their lives explode when the murder case begins to turn into something extra-normal.
Strieber's werewolves aren't in human form. They are large but typical wolves. The difference is, they are abnormally intelligent and organized. They've lived beneath the notice of human society, feeding on derelicts and rejects, but now their existence is being threatened by the attention from the police.
The Wolfen is short on character and long on plot. The novel works best when Strieber portrays the contrast between civilized society and the feral existence of the wolves. There is a lot of action and suspense as the detectives become the hunted and the wolfen demonstrate their superior predatory skill.
I enjoyed The Wolfen when I read the novel in the mid-eighties. Today I find the prose a bit stiff. Strieber could write, and write well, but his chops grew quickly after this debut. The Hunger showed tremendous growth in style and structure.
Whitley Strieber might be forgotten, overlooked, or ridiculed by horror fiction mavens today, but it's impossible to disregard the importance of his work. Unlike today there wasn't a lot of high profile, intelligent horror fiction coming out in the late '70s and early '80s. His novels helped pave the way for the boom which was to come a few years later, and also for the glut we are currently in.
Written by Mark Sieber
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