The SFFaudio Podcast #385 – READALONG: The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #385 – Jesse, Mr Jim Moon, and Maissa Bessada talk about The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Talked about on today’s show:
1894, 1895, 1970, in the shadow of Holmes, lurking like a post hypnotic suggestion, first reactions, unfolds like a novel but with a short story ending, it’s over?, the thinking of the time, animal magnetism, mesmerism, the society for psychical research, hypnotic sleep for minor surgery, hypnosis in lieu of pharmacological anesthetic, dental hypnosis, yo best believe it will work if you have not other options, The Power Of Dreams by Brian Inglis, maybe we missed a trick, helping people get inside their own heads, reading closely, it made sense, an interesting idea about the ending, Miss Penclosa died at half-past three, a bottle of vitriol, a lucky escape for the girlfriend (Agatha), the parasitism, a vampire story, a psychic vampire story, the “will”, consciousness transference, what was Miss Penclosa’s evil plan?, romantic possession vs. actual possession, the cost of sorcery, had the story continued…, where do you go?, astral projection, that half-hour killed her, the broken journal entry, the crutch, from Trinidad, she’s a witch (past 40), she’s old, a young and vigorous 34, a “hag” and “hag-ridden”, pseudo-scientific power, Wilson, alienism, psychology with a spiritual bent, set in London, Charles Sadler, the punch up, the skeptic, off-page action, breaking into a bank, sitting rooms, a 1950 TV adaptation, a 2015 short film, 1980sor90s feature film, two thumbs down, modern adaptations, not sexist, but rooted in the society of the day it was set, psychology is not a proper science, he turns every firefly into a star, early Doyle, The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, super-science fiction, super-horror, a different approach, the story formats, March 24th, a florid start, “everywhere the work of reproduction going forward”, very sex, if Eric S. Rabkin were here…, “stiff with sap”, May 8th, the striking hypnosis scene in The Horla, July 16th, Dr. Parent, English scientists, another skeptic, close to a mystery, physiology vs. psychology, the Work-Man Creator, a presentiment of something new, as if to fascinate – to interest but also to fix to attach, a visiting card, he is twisting his mustache, “that is quite enough”, 5,000 francs, Agatha’s breaking off of the engagement, crazy interesting, similar opening, a lot of shared DNA, more adventure and crime/mystery, a two-fisted man-of-action, May 5th and May 8th, from London to Normandy, going to see such demonstrations, an issue of the age, the history of hypnotism, hypnotized into crime, hypnosis against the will, now that’s a great idea for a story, post-hypnotic suggestion, “regular hypnosis”, lose weight, stop smoking, hypnotic susceptibility vs. hypnotic ability, understanding what hypnosis is, reading a really good story and buying it, this is preposterous!, the willing suspension of disbelief, “dude, we’re appreciating the story”, that word: will, one kind of will that is so powerful, even the state is forced to submit to a certain kind of will, their “will” does not exist beyond their grave, under the right circumstances…, professional wrestling, non-concomitant injuries, the act of reading as an act of self-hypnosis, a skillful author can put voices and images in your head, seeing the book play out in your mind, people with an imagination are better hypnotic subjects, the skill of the hypnotist, Steve Jobs and Jesse’s mom: the reality distortion field, a great book can become a part of you and you can act upon it, Hitler’s speeches, Trump’s hypnotic ability, self-exclusion, the mob-mentality, work-training talks, what planet is he from?, usually there are no pictures in Maissa’s head, a sudden image, “did you see me?”, he projected himself into Maissa’s mind, convincing someone to adopt a vision, religion: “there’s this book!”, L. Ron Hubbard, adopting Sam Gamgee, confabulation, a dream, why are your boots dirty?, making something you’ve read a memory, thinking about what a will is, stage hypnosis, clucking like chickens and barking like dogs, a Las Vegas hypnotist, going along with it, there’s something going on, thinning the line, thoughts become more permeable, a verification, there’s something really deep there, the two theories of what hypnosis is: participating actors (psychological) and the trance (physiological), the thesis: you can’t do anything against your moral nature, robbing banks, splashing acid, the Symbionese Liberation Army, Patty Hearst, Stockholm syndrome, the winnowing process needs to happen, a glass of water, it’s all right – we’re not evil mind-control wizards, given permission to be extroverted…, perception of circumstances, littering, broken windows, a shopkeeper robbed by a hypnotist, an instant trigger, a skill you learn, Jim Moon struggles with chopsticks, Stephen King: talent is a knife, The Manchurian Candidate, the Jason Bourne series, Call Of Duty: Black Ops, “programmed”, The Men Who Stare At Goats, post-hypnotic suggestion as programming, MKUltra, Lee Harvey Oswald, “I’m a patsy”, the motivation all leads back to him, not completely bunk!, The Thing On The Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft, a sub-genre of evil mesmerists, foreign mystics, a racist element?, Miss Penclosa is not of voodoo descent, the Horla comes from Brazil, interesting!

Howard Pyle illustration of The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Howard Pyle illustration of The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Howard Pyle illustration of The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Howard Pyle illustration of The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #030 – The Interlopers by Saki

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #030

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Interlopers by Saki (aka H.H. Munro)

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

The Interlopers was first published in The Bystander, January 17, 1912.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #384 – AUDIOBOOK: The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #384 – The Parasite by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Delmar H. Dolbier.

This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (1 hours 54 minutes) comes to us courtesy of LibriVox.org. The Parasite was first published as a four part serial in Harper’s Weekly, November 10 – December 1, 1894.

The next SFFaudio Podcast will feature our discussion of it!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #029 – An Inhabitant Of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #029

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss An Inhabitant Of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

An Inhabitant Of Carcosa was first published in the San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser, December 25, 1886.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #383 – READALONG: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #383 – Jesse, Bryan Alexander, and Steen Hansen talk about The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.

Talked about on today’s show:
1969, before the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, contemporary critics, SF critics vs. mainstream critics, the defense of the ghetto against interlopers, Ray Bradbury, Doris Lessing, a deep feeling, spoiling the book, showing what was wrong with it, getting the facts wrong, interpretation, Luke Burrage reviewing, Robert J. Sawyer, bad writing, had they done nothing … nothing would have happened, the mutation, the Wildfire facility, Star Trek, scientists out for the good of humanity, self-destruct sequences, MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction, every nuclear sub movie, film-like, The Ipcress File by Len Deighton, airport fiction tropes, hyper competent high level government high tech mcguffins, brain-washing, novel -> film, written for film?, ER, picky fiddly science and bureaucratic operation, killed or useless, trusted scientists to save the world, ruthlessly hard science, Hollywood couldn’t make this movie now, restrained, chilly, the gender swap, Robert Wise, Shirley Jackson, The Haunting Of Hill House, Alfred Bester, a document dump, classified material, overloading the reader with verisimilitude, Eaters Of The Dead by Michael Crichton, The Thirteenth Warrior, Vikings, Russians and Byzantium, completely bullshit, Mr. Bullshit, regular SF vs. techno-thriller, a yummy INFODUMP, nobody had a definition for life, black cloth, a watch, a piece of granite, pure Science Fiction, Bryan’s mind destroyed at age 8, binary numbers, lasers vs. darts, Larry Niven, 24, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Steen welcomes our robot overlord, high-scale AI, Iain M. Banks, humans as pets, humans as cogs, I Have No Mouth And I must Scream, Prof. Eric S. Rabkin, Dante Alighieri, lost race, the descent into Hell, from red to blue, the harrowing of Hell, a cold war story where the Russians aren’t the bad guys, The Bedford Incident, James Follett’s The Light Of A Thousand Suns, set in the recent past, the shotgun approach, Margaret Atwood, picking and choosing at the buffet table, dedicated to A.C.D., M.D. -> Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle -> Dr. Michael Crichton, “not a new story”, the glowing review in Life magazine, a retelling of The Blob, the Technovelgy, auto-doc, the suppressed cancer drug, Jensen Pharmaceuticals, gut flora, nudity and ass-grabbing, rectal suppository, astro-Tang, coffee, all that cleaning, they’re too holy, the five levels is a gimmick, the leveling, it’s bullshit!, we all know we have to wash our hands, the Wikipedia entry for the Airport Genre

Airport novel(s) represent a literary genre that is not so much defined by its plot or cast of stock characters, as much as it is by the social function it serves. An airport novel is typically a fairly long but fast-paced novel of intrigue or adventure that is stereotypically found in the reading fare offered by airport newsstands for travelers to read in the rounds of sitting and waiting that constitute air travel.

Rudyard Kipling’s fiction was published as a railway magazine, the origin of pulp fiction, The Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille, the opening to The Strain, having the reins of political power at your fingertips, in the 2008 miniseries remake, back stories/love stories, a muddy anti-science mess, pre-Apollo -> Watergate -> conspiracy theories, the technical glitch (paper between the bell and the striker), germ warfare?!, the remake of The Manchurian Cantidate, the films and adaptations reflect the times, the 2008 version is super-militarized, X-18, F-4 phantoms, Dracula, the long gothic tradition of found documents, Plan 9 From Outer Space, a cold war document, The Parallax View, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Crichton like Spielberg loves power, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, medical people as superheroes, uber-expert scientists, power fantasy fiction, scepticism of power, image Michael Crichton at a Science Fiction convention, the immune reaction, You are not of the body!, techno-thrillers, why Ian Fleming’s James Bond books became so popular, JFK, Ronald Reagan was a big fan of Tom Clancy, The Hunt For Red October, Reagan based foreign policy of Red Storm Rising, Jack Ryan was a wonk Navy -> CIA agent -> CIA Director -> President, Firefox, political fiction written for a jet-set audience, conservative Heinleinian, Andromeda Strain cosplay?, Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, SF writers save the world from alien invasion, science matters vs. science fiction, the first biology crisis, outflanking the ghetto, the 2006 Worldcon, Greg Benford, Greg Bear, David Brin, thinking up scenarios, if I was a terrorist how would I destroy the the United States, Wildfire, Cold War contingency planning, the Rand Corporation, the odd-man out element, his name was Hall but should have been Corridor, does this make sense?, the odd man is gay?, The Odd Couple, gay coding?, gay men are most likely to turn off nukes?, The Great Train Robbery, timing pacing planning tricking, that roller-coaster spark, opening observation, we are always observing, fun fiction for Henry Kissinger and the jet set, bureaucrats of a class, this function material is reflective, Science Fiction writers are poor, Robert Silverberg, Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake, Isaac Asimov, a biology book, Paul Di Filippo, bio-punk, Ribo-funk, The Bay (2012), The Hot Zone, the wet science, cloning, the neglected science, Coma, Protector by Larry Niven, how electron-microscopes work, crystallography, “it mutated”?!?!?, that was odd, it’s communicating with itself, block-chain virus, deep hurting, The Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski, medicine without silicon, the Patriarchy, The Highest Frontier, Blood Music by Greg Bear, a Halo novel, The Wind From A Burning Woman, a “wild” writing style, bio is hard to do, Pontypool, prions, the worst part of The Walking Dead, we’re all infected, a symbol for regular death, Titan by John Varley, a 100ft tall Marilyn Monroe monster, The Satan Bug by Alistair Maclean (1962), where does the techno-thriller begin, a precursor to techno-thriller, The Stolen Bacillus by H.G. Wells, a really obvious anarchist, Wells defused the whole genre for sixty years, The Food Of The Gods, a convincing linguistic maneuver, fawning of technology bureaucracy power and the function of government, a stack of Jane’s Fighting Ships, the Sputnik shock, British invasion novels, Tom Clancy as a zombie brand, special helicopter trip, massive government expenditure for the competent man, an empty jetliner, vicarious thrill, power fantasy, “he’s the most important person right now”, this is our bailiwick!, nice and short, Dean Koontz, Phantoms, A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Ghost Fleet by August Cole and P.W. Singer, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child books, no CRISPR, China is no Soviet Union, futurism, education moves so slowly, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, an X-Box with Paranoid Linux, Reamde by Neal Stephenson, a Kurt Vonnegut vibe, a Welsh Muslim terrorist, like pornography you know a techno-thriller when you see it.

The dedication for The Andromeda Strain

title page for The Andromeda Strain

Algis Budrys review of The Andromeda Strain

Life Magazine review of The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain - illustration by Dusty Abell

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton - Random House Audio read by Chris Noth

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #028 – The Storyteller by Saki

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #028

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Storyteller by Saki (aka H.H. Munro)

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

The Storyteller was first published in Beasts And Super-Beasts, 1914.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson