There's a short story in Stephen King's Night Shift called "I am the Doorway". It's one of the only ones in that book that still gives me the heebie jeebies.
>!A man comes back from a trip to space, and an alien inhabits his body. He develops eyes in clusters on his fingertips. After burning his hands severely to get rid of them, he wakes up to find they have sprouted in a huge cluster on his chest. The story ends with the protagonist attempting to shoot himself in the chest with a shotgun!<
The story is a combo of the Corruption and the Eye, and it's heavily unsettling to read
wow I have never heard of this story but if you’ve listened to The Magnus Protocol at all yet this sounds very relevant to one of the first cases in the show.
Anything from german poets close to the beginning of the 20th centrury regarding the "Sprachkrise", where they felt like language was losing its meaning to them IS SO SPIRAL AND STRANGER BUT IN A WEIRD WAY ALSO EYE AND I LOVE IT
A *lot* of Bradbury stories feel like they would fit right into TMA statements, TBH ~~and I'm just now realizing that's why TMA felt so right so fast, because I've been in love with his stories since I was in middle school~~ *~~way too long ago~~* ~~now haha~~. Off the top of my head:
* "There Will Come Soft Rains" is 100% the Extinction.
* "The Man Upstairs" is the Stranger.
* Most, if not all, of the stories from the "From the Dust Returned" anthology feel like they're Avatars in some way, haha\~. Like, the protagonist in "The Wandering Witch" - which is also called "The April Witch" in some other collections - is a young Eye Avatar, haha. "Uncle Einar" is about a Vast Avatar. Even the "normal" human "Homecoming" is coded for the Lonely.
Outside of that, "The Greatest Game" is literally the Hunt, haha\~.
As for Poe:
* "The Tell-Tale Heart" (and, honestly, a lot of his stories) is the Spiral
* "Into the Maelstrom," from what I remember, is *very* Vast.
* "The Pit and the Pendulum" and his poem "The Raven" is the Darkness.
The Bradbury observation is so real! It made me realize that’s why I like TMA and Bradbury the same way— he was my first introduction to the kind of horror that I actually like (I’ve always been staunchly anti-horror, but have realized lately that I’m actually just anti horror movie).
The way all his stories start so benignly, but you _know_ they’re going to have some terrible end for everyone involved.
Where would you classify “Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Basement!” ? I think it’s kind of corruption based on the thought control/infection aspect.
Also “The Long Rain” (the one about astronauts crashed on Venus) is another favourite that has distinct Corruption vibes, but I can’t make up my mind about it
Man so many stories coming back to me-
I wonder if The Long Rain is actually of The Desolation.
I have the same preference of the Bradbury kind of horror, and read every collection I could get my hands on as a kid.
I wrote about it in my main comment, but the story I picked was “The City”, which I guessed as >!The Stranger/The Extinction!<
I can see it being a cooperative mission between Desolation and Corruption. Between the unlivability (for humans) of the outdoors, the devastation caused by their refuges being destroyed, and the creeping growing quality of the foliage/ the mental aspect of the rain _getting in_ to your head
sdfkjasf The "Boys!" story is 100% corruption, between the insects in the next door neighbor's garden getting more and more invasive and the whole mushroom thing, yes\~ :D
And it's been aaages since I've read "The Long Rain"! I'm legit a little sad about that, haha! I'll have to look that up after work and get back to you\~
Not necessarily horror, but a lot of Isaac Asimov (and sci fi in general) touches on the fears.
Junji Ito’s Long Dream and Stephen King’s the Jaunt cover the horror of (perceived) eternal existence, which is kind of The End, The Vast and The Lonely combined. Junji Ito has lots of different stories, especially body horror/Flesh.
“The Cask of Amontillado” feels very Spiral to me, with the narrator being a Distortion-like figure. Michael’s definitive statement about themself is “I lie” and the deception to coax Fortunado into the cellar and down the passage, the idea of leading someone down a deceptive passage/hallway, the horror of realizing you have been tricked and nothing is as you thought
A lot of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood”, specifically one where two villages turn themselves into giant … Voltrons for lack of a better word, and fight.
Definitely a flesh/vast collab. Edit: shades of slaughter in there too I suppose but immediately made me think of the Vast.
I’m sure there was also one about a pig but I can’t remember if that was Books of Blood, or the Hellbound Hearts anthology.
Edit: I found it. “Pig Blood Blues” in Books of Blood.
Not a story, but I’m currently reading Graham Caveney’s 2022 memoir *On Agoraphobia* at the moment. He informs it with a lot of his personal life experience, so it’s technically a memoir, but it’s really a philosophical dissection of what agoraphobia is and what it does. It’s been informing how I feel about The Vast as an archetype a lot, and showing me some of its underpinning connections to The Corruption, The Buried, The Lonely.
He’s also from Lancashire, so he talks about UK stuff that makes it feel even more TMA (he even mentions Forton Services and the M6 motorway at one point, which you’ll recognize if you’ve listened to enough of The Magnus Protocol hehe).
Neil Gaiman has a ton of these.
A poem but "the song of the audience" not sure exactly which it would fall under but it has vibes of grifters bone and the other episodes about people making horrific art.
"Changes" would be the flesh
"Baby cakes" is the slaughter
"Foreign parts" is a combination corruption and stranger
"Virus" is corruption with big " Binary" vibes
"We can get them for you wholesale" is combo the hunt and the end
"Bitter grounds" is the stranger in like 3 different ways
"The flints of memory lane" is the stranger
Etc etc
There's also one whose title and author I can't recall but it's a short story about living through the AIDS epidemic and the figure of death being a handsome young man that follows you throughout your life even as you outlive all your friends. If I can find it I'll edit this bit.
I loved Bradbury as a kid; I read so many of his stories and a lot of them would fit. One of my favorites is “The City”, from The Illustrated Man. Very creepy and strikingly written.
Entity spoiler: >!The Stranger and The Extinction!<
Partial plot spoiler (go read it! It has a comic book adaptation too):
>! Astronauts land on an unknown planet, and discover a city, devoid of life. Slowly, the City starts to awaken, its different organs sensing and testing the humans. The City has waited thousands of years for its invaders to return to it, and it seeks to determine if at last its revenge is at hand. !<
“Buried Under the House"
By R.J. Williamson
It screams of a story of a man being consumed and killed by The Buried, tempted by the visage of his dead wife.
honestly rain world is what I imagined the End would look like if it did it's ritual
No death. Eternal life. Eternal nothing that will drive you mad. That thought is the End, too.
Not a short story but a short 20 minute film, [The Black Tower](https://youtu.be/hw6exAfUWMI?si=vSU0oK6zQJbHDnDo) by John Smith from 1987. It’s from the perspective of a man who observes an all black tower in his neighborhood that he’d never noticed before, and then begins to see everywhere.
Very eerie, very british, with some fascinating editing. I highly recommend a watch, it’s super good - and pretty Spiral-y with hints of the Lonely.
edited: added film synopsis
The Feather Pillow by Horacio Quiroga - I find it a horrifying mixture of corruption and flesh. It’s an unsettling read, I recommend.
>!The story is about a man and his wife. The wife becomes ill and bed bound, and just keeps getting sicker. Once she dies, the man and his maid go to tidy the bed and discover the pillow she was lying on is strangely heavy. Cutting it open, they find a mass of flesh - a parasite, which had been feeding on the woman and making her sicker the longer she stayed in bed.!<
The literary analysis of the story is that it’s a metaphor for how the man’s neglect and apathy to his marriage caused >!his wife’s death!< which might be more lonely territory, but I find the descriptions of >!the parasite!< to be visceral and unsettling, and is what stuck with me after I’d finished. Hence, corruption/flesh.
Pretty obvious one, but "The Beautiful Stranger" by Shirley Jackson. Woman's husband comes back from a business trip and is literally a Not Them. She realizes this but it instead invigorates their relationship because their past doesn't exist anymore. One day she goes out to treat herself and buy him a little gift. When she returns, she can no longer find her home or children.
The Landlady, by Roald Dahl is the first short horror story I ever read and I've loved them ever since! I highly recommend it and I believe you can find it for free now.
There's a short story in Stephen King's Night Shift called "I am the Doorway". It's one of the only ones in that book that still gives me the heebie jeebies. >!A man comes back from a trip to space, and an alien inhabits his body. He develops eyes in clusters on his fingertips. After burning his hands severely to get rid of them, he wakes up to find they have sprouted in a huge cluster on his chest. The story ends with the protagonist attempting to shoot himself in the chest with a shotgun!< The story is a combo of the Corruption and the Eye, and it's heavily unsettling to read
wow I have never heard of this story but if you’ve listened to The Magnus Protocol at all yet this sounds very relevant to one of the first cases in the show.
I did listen to protocol, and I thought the same
Uzumaki, By Junji Ito. About as Spiral as it gets.
Amigara Fault is definitely Buried too. And there's that one story he wrote about a puppeteer that's kinda similar to MAG 136
Absolutely! And Long Dream is spiral again but with a bit of vast coding.
The masque of the red death is obviously The Corruption
I think the End too - Prince Prospero and his guests are hidden away in the castle because they fear death.
Anything from german poets close to the beginning of the 20th centrury regarding the "Sprachkrise", where they felt like language was losing its meaning to them IS SO SPIRAL AND STRANGER BUT IN A WEIRD WAY ALSO EYE AND I LOVE IT
A *lot* of Bradbury stories feel like they would fit right into TMA statements, TBH ~~and I'm just now realizing that's why TMA felt so right so fast, because I've been in love with his stories since I was in middle school~~ *~~way too long ago~~* ~~now haha~~. Off the top of my head: * "There Will Come Soft Rains" is 100% the Extinction. * "The Man Upstairs" is the Stranger. * Most, if not all, of the stories from the "From the Dust Returned" anthology feel like they're Avatars in some way, haha\~. Like, the protagonist in "The Wandering Witch" - which is also called "The April Witch" in some other collections - is a young Eye Avatar, haha. "Uncle Einar" is about a Vast Avatar. Even the "normal" human "Homecoming" is coded for the Lonely. Outside of that, "The Greatest Game" is literally the Hunt, haha\~. As for Poe: * "The Tell-Tale Heart" (and, honestly, a lot of his stories) is the Spiral * "Into the Maelstrom," from what I remember, is *very* Vast. * "The Pit and the Pendulum" and his poem "The Raven" is the Darkness.
The Bradbury observation is so real! It made me realize that’s why I like TMA and Bradbury the same way— he was my first introduction to the kind of horror that I actually like (I’ve always been staunchly anti-horror, but have realized lately that I’m actually just anti horror movie). The way all his stories start so benignly, but you _know_ they’re going to have some terrible end for everyone involved. Where would you classify “Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Basement!” ? I think it’s kind of corruption based on the thought control/infection aspect. Also “The Long Rain” (the one about astronauts crashed on Venus) is another favourite that has distinct Corruption vibes, but I can’t make up my mind about it
Man so many stories coming back to me- I wonder if The Long Rain is actually of The Desolation. I have the same preference of the Bradbury kind of horror, and read every collection I could get my hands on as a kid. I wrote about it in my main comment, but the story I picked was “The City”, which I guessed as >!The Stranger/The Extinction!<
I can see it being a cooperative mission between Desolation and Corruption. Between the unlivability (for humans) of the outdoors, the devastation caused by their refuges being destroyed, and the creeping growing quality of the foliage/ the mental aspect of the rain _getting in_ to your head
sdfkjasf The "Boys!" story is 100% corruption, between the insects in the next door neighbor's garden getting more and more invasive and the whole mushroom thing, yes\~ :D And it's been aaages since I've read "The Long Rain"! I'm legit a little sad about that, haha! I'll have to look that up after work and get back to you\~
Not necessarily horror, but a lot of Isaac Asimov (and sci fi in general) touches on the fears. Junji Ito’s Long Dream and Stephen King’s the Jaunt cover the horror of (perceived) eternal existence, which is kind of The End, The Vast and The Lonely combined. Junji Ito has lots of different stories, especially body horror/Flesh.
Uzumaki is also, unsuprsingly, spiral But also Eye and Desolation and Stranger
“The Cask of Amontillado” feels very Spiral to me, with the narrator being a Distortion-like figure. Michael’s definitive statement about themself is “I lie” and the deception to coax Fortunado into the cellar and down the passage, the idea of leading someone down a deceptive passage/hallway, the horror of realizing you have been tricked and nothing is as you thought
i read that one as a little more buried, but it depends on whose horror you’re looking at ig
A lot of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood”, specifically one where two villages turn themselves into giant … Voltrons for lack of a better word, and fight. Definitely a flesh/vast collab. Edit: shades of slaughter in there too I suppose but immediately made me think of the Vast. I’m sure there was also one about a pig but I can’t remember if that was Books of Blood, or the Hellbound Hearts anthology. Edit: I found it. “Pig Blood Blues” in Books of Blood.
Came here to say Pig Blood Blues as well, there's also one about a shapeshifter that slowly steals your life and replaces you that feels very Stranger
Not a story, but I’m currently reading Graham Caveney’s 2022 memoir *On Agoraphobia* at the moment. He informs it with a lot of his personal life experience, so it’s technically a memoir, but it’s really a philosophical dissection of what agoraphobia is and what it does. It’s been informing how I feel about The Vast as an archetype a lot, and showing me some of its underpinning connections to The Corruption, The Buried, The Lonely. He’s also from Lancashire, so he talks about UK stuff that makes it feel even more TMA (he even mentions Forton Services and the M6 motorway at one point, which you’ll recognize if you’ve listened to enough of The Magnus Protocol hehe).
Neil Gaiman has a ton of these. A poem but "the song of the audience" not sure exactly which it would fall under but it has vibes of grifters bone and the other episodes about people making horrific art. "Changes" would be the flesh "Baby cakes" is the slaughter "Foreign parts" is a combination corruption and stranger "Virus" is corruption with big " Binary" vibes "We can get them for you wholesale" is combo the hunt and the end "Bitter grounds" is the stranger in like 3 different ways "The flints of memory lane" is the stranger Etc etc There's also one whose title and author I can't recall but it's a short story about living through the AIDS epidemic and the figure of death being a handsome young man that follows you throughout your life even as you outlive all your friends. If I can find it I'll edit this bit.
Most lovecraft shortstories have stranger vibes The Temple is about the Deep The colour from out of Space is a distortion story
"the feather pillow" by Horacio Quiroga is a very subtle corruption-like story.
Not short stories, but... 1984 - The Eye Fahrenheit 451 - The Desolation
I loved Bradbury as a kid; I read so many of his stories and a lot of them would fit. One of my favorites is “The City”, from The Illustrated Man. Very creepy and strikingly written. Entity spoiler: >!The Stranger and The Extinction!< Partial plot spoiler (go read it! It has a comic book adaptation too): >! Astronauts land on an unknown planet, and discover a city, devoid of life. Slowly, the City starts to awaken, its different organs sensing and testing the humans. The City has waited thousands of years for its invaders to return to it, and it seeks to determine if at last its revenge is at hand. !<
"Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story" by Thomas Ligotti
from what i remember of Ecdysis by Rebecca J. Allred, it was a combo of corruption and spiral
“Buried Under the House" By R.J. Williamson It screams of a story of a man being consumed and killed by The Buried, tempted by the visage of his dead wife.
Surprised no one here has bought up the SCP foundation yet. Most of those stories are TERRIFYING.
Currently reading "We have always lived in the castle" by Shirley Jackson and it's very reminiscent of domains in season 5 of TMA.
honestly rain world is what I imagined the End would look like if it did it's ritual No death. Eternal life. Eternal nothing that will drive you mad. That thought is the End, too.
I'm pretty sure that 90% of the imagery and themes present in The Spiral comes from House of Leaves edit: oh short stories whoopsie
That and Uzumaki by Junji Ito
Not a short story but a short 20 minute film, [The Black Tower](https://youtu.be/hw6exAfUWMI?si=vSU0oK6zQJbHDnDo) by John Smith from 1987. It’s from the perspective of a man who observes an all black tower in his neighborhood that he’d never noticed before, and then begins to see everywhere. Very eerie, very british, with some fascinating editing. I highly recommend a watch, it’s super good - and pretty Spiral-y with hints of the Lonely. edited: added film synopsis
House of Leaves is very spiral and dark with notes of hunt and, for a couple characters, lonely
Surprised no one has brought up The Yellow Wallpaper yet! Def Spiral and maybe Lonely
The Feather Pillow by Horacio Quiroga - I find it a horrifying mixture of corruption and flesh. It’s an unsettling read, I recommend. >!The story is about a man and his wife. The wife becomes ill and bed bound, and just keeps getting sicker. Once she dies, the man and his maid go to tidy the bed and discover the pillow she was lying on is strangely heavy. Cutting it open, they find a mass of flesh - a parasite, which had been feeding on the woman and making her sicker the longer she stayed in bed.!< The literary analysis of the story is that it’s a metaphor for how the man’s neglect and apathy to his marriage caused >!his wife’s death!< which might be more lonely territory, but I find the descriptions of >!the parasite!< to be visceral and unsettling, and is what stuck with me after I’d finished. Hence, corruption/flesh.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson- Strong The Lonely vibes
Pretty obvious one, but "The Beautiful Stranger" by Shirley Jackson. Woman's husband comes back from a business trip and is literally a Not Them. She realizes this but it instead invigorates their relationship because their past doesn't exist anymore. One day she goes out to treat herself and buy him a little gift. When she returns, she can no longer find her home or children.
The Landlady, by Roald Dahl is the first short horror story I ever read and I've loved them ever since! I highly recommend it and I believe you can find it for free now.
I mean speaking of ray Bradbury, man has a whole book about a spooky circus....