The SFFaudio Podcast #851 – Prize Ship by The Jameson Satellite by Neil R. Jones (53 minutes) read by Josh Horowitz and Mellonta Tauta by Edgar Allan Poe (36 minutes) read by Drakaunus. These are followed by a discussion of both. Participants in the discussion include Jesse and Will Emmons.

Talked about on today’s show:
The Jameson Satellite, Amazing Stories, July 1931, Mellonta Tauta by Edgar Allan Poe, Godey’s Lady’s Book, February 1849, also in Amazing Stories, Novemwbr 1933, tweeting is writing, pair it with something, an interesting pairing, thematically connected, a sommelier, tasting notes, one is much better than the other, we can agree, Neil R. Jones, as a story, good narrator, rough, short, intervening period, the sentence are pages long, makes it harder, one over the other, a “better story”, story is the wrong world, a meditation, congeries, a disorderly collection, a jumble, densely packed, a few through lines, human values have utterly changed, we’re told and then we’re shown, the wrong way to approach literature, what to put out there, edifying ideas, Edgar Allan Poe probably believed intuition was stronger than a posteri logic, just sort of there, social criticism, we don’t even care if people die, maybe Poe thought that, a very hard to understand man, 1840s is not our period, a different world, when talking about Poe, had he lived a few more years, the wrong side, we all implicitly know this, you could argue that he wouldn’t of, would have wanted to have been involved, one of the facts, stumbled through, plowed up, people’s takes on this story, his grandfather was a general in the American Army, somewhat inovoled in espionage, tried to become an officer, he went to West Point, cipher stories, stories not considered difficult, he’s gotta show his brain, this mess of a story is amusing and full of interesting things but as a story is terrible, easily captured by interesting details, hooks, you can love it even though it’s not a good story, a very solid story, what?! stupid, being on track, when he falls into the volcano and breaks himself, he calls out psychically to the aliens, your brain is different, suspense shit, artificially make it bad, works incredibly well, similar cosmic scope, 40 million years or whatever, Edgar Allan Poe with his 7 diary entries, given how old it is, 100 years older, super-old, 180 years old, do some math, 2025 – 1848 ?, 177 years old, buy it unbound, copies of that in a bound form, newspaper is pretty sketchy, a flyer, designed to be ephemeral, no waybackmachine for 1849, some weirdo hoarding, basement or loft, a promotional book put online by Land Rover, a 10 year old reading experience, all that stuff is not preserved by the waybackmachine, the audio and the javascript, just think about plays, surreptitiously recording a play, perfomred and lauded and respected, minor notes in a magazine in a newspaper, both of Poe’s parents were actors, you can still go to Ford’s theater, not the same actors, with regards to preservation, a theme of both of these stories, really fun, seems silly, with the radium, when he preserves his body, the story is made of elements, a bad chemistry metaphor, plans to preserve my body, references to the ancient egyptians, all those premature burials, a grave preserved for the lifetime of your loved ones, keep my ashes in their house, for religious people, bodily risen up by Jesus, preserve the bones, coffins and graveyards and memorials, the boomers are moving towards cremation, need land reform for graveyards, people take up a lot of space, morality about bodies, wars are good, the presumption, Solander’s Radio Tomb by Ellis Parker Butler, Pigs Is Pigs, eventually becomes the tribbles story, Martian flat cats, normal stories, An Experiment In Gyro Hats, Radio News, December 1923, a giant radio, speakers, a comedy story, revised slightly, a lich who gets his wish, the things in his will done after his death, a religious radio station, codicils in his will, give sermons, moving their graves out, the changing attitudes, if enough people don’t like jazz anymore, the radio station becomes unfashionable, a very similar idea, orbiting the earth, way past that, there is no character involved, the earth becoming tidally locked with the sun, all very fun, thinking about my own death, first dead man on the moon, sort of useless, an elaborate tomb, a nice bed, a cup of water beside the bed, free wifi, students can drink their starbucks on the steps of my tomb, where it could start, he’s no longer in his own body, he’s materially no longer himself, there’s no left and right anymore, he has no body, ears don’t seem to be thing anymore, or sleep maybe, or eat, autotrophic, a tiny bit of philosophy, sort of benevolent, what’s going on in the universe, great idea!, travel to all those planets out there!, contrast that with Mellonta Tauta, best friend/husband, wants to annoy, Poe is leaning into it, opposite philosophies, death vs. transcending death, a collection of observations about the 19th century and what is real, we are probably in a giant galaxy orbiting a black hole, it’s deep, one is shallowly deep, deep and easily dismissable, good in their way, Will can dig it, the climax, considering suicide, the benevolence, you could come with us, contemplating suicide, staying with the dead thing, staying with the dead earth, bury your loved one, jumps into the grave with the dead person, the alternate way, allow that person to be buried and visit a lot, dead and can’t respond, having been orbiting the earth not just his whole life, very cool, visiting the graveyard all the time, transitioning between life phases, accumulate mementos, throw away part of yourself, throwing away the possibility of being reminded of it, orients us, fixate on those sorts of things, different possibilities, the price of going out into the universe, leave behind this dead thing, a price you pay, he has that thrust upon him, really dramatic moments in the story, it’s fun and interesting and not self-aware, that era of science fiction, not true of Poe at all, gets in the way of himself, the audio version, sometimes excluded is the editorial introduction, hopefully the readers will, hopefully you guys get it, I don’t know, fun and funny, whenever presented with a fact through words, especially through words, it’s blue now, long story short that’s a false claim, you know Jesse’s nature, telling an untruth, in a story especially in print, the propaganda works, January 6th was an insurrection, if repeated enough, McDonald’s catchphrase, I’m lovin’ it, whoever I am, whatever it is, you become the I, more McDonalds, Hardees, Carl Jr.’s, same kind of situation, breakfast later than McDonalds, the getting up late lifestyle, many unhealthy things, physical constitution, Lord grant me chastity but not yet, reiterate, really good science fiction, really naive and fun, that deep time element, most science fiction stories of the period, associate with Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time, vegetable men, aliens, a professor who has his consciousness transported through time, vegetable bodies, a mindswap, from the ancient earth and outer space, have a family, not consensual, they’re not even they’re just explorers, Douglas Adams, how big space is, almost Star Trek, the natural result of keeping down the TNG path, smoothed out and smoothed out, Lt. Brocclis, pursuing the interests, helping each other, eventually what they are, they don’t EXTERMINATE!, talk to them, cutely naive and nice, cynical with takes he wants to give you, our balloon is crashing, whatever!, that’s fine, I wrote it for my own benefit anyway, he’s great, he needed to get these ideas out there, when not drunk, not a good drunk to be around, doesn’t have people he can talk to, experienced with demons, both parents dead age 2, won’t even adopt him, loves one, hates the other, intellectual problems, kinda have money, nobody understands you, too many hormones, be more calm, go by days, sections by days, thematically organized, April 1st, he knows what he’s doing, foredated, displayed until, looking at march magazines on the newsracks, dated ahead, the year is 2848, probably when it was published, early early January at the latest, 1000 years, puzzle stories, largely the inventor of detective stories, other than possibly in China, Judge Dee, an analogy at best, reading Roman novels, watching the latest Star Trek Section 31 movie, it is that different, they don’t map together, Lucian of Somosata, it’s not science fiction, weird laurel, is it science fiction, Hugo Gernsback would say so, self conscious, the materials available, extends to be still valuable, because of its comedy aspect, Now my dear friend, a long gossiping letter, a comedic engagement and science fiction, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the floating disc places with scientists, he’s taking apart science of his period, a really interesting argument, not really trying to tell us about technology, what science fiction is about, how knowledge of the universe changes us, the ruins of the island of Manhattan, fixing up the palace’s yard, a time capsule, the starting stone of a building, improper deductions, a way of attacking his period, Godey’s Lady’s Book had illustrations, they look like turkeys, April 8th, Eurkea!, a balloon from Kanada, late papers, Amerikan antiquities, a new fountain at Paradise, an island time out of mind, a rivulet, the whole length of the island is 9 miles, densely packed with houses, 20 stories high, the year 2050, wherewith to build up even the ghost of a theory, they were of a great portion of the Knickerbocker tribe of savages, pants, some allusion, a knight of the Golden Fleece, after a fashion of their own, acute in many respects, the poe phrase “monomania”, a kind of pagoda, wealth and fashion, an attack on modern New York, natural protuberance, in the light of beauty, miraculously preserved, a turkey cock and a dromedary, a savage attack on women’s fashion, the contents of the cornerstone, likely to have been a dealer in corn, they must have turned him into sausages, as a kind of science fiction, science fiction-like in many respects, it doesn’t work as a story, it works as an artifact, reproduced in the newspapers, undercooked, why are they on this balloon?, other balloons, above and below, having its gas changed, so infested with people, not fully supported by the story, travelers through the sky, no evidence that they’re powered, floating, travel by train at 300 miles per hour, Pundit and Pundita, people of the future, too undercooked to be a coherent story, two angels talking to each other, a dialogue, those are something but they’re not science fiction, worthy of being included in a science fiction magazine, a curiosity, allow that analysis, the canons of the short story, he’s a pioneer, we don’t know what to expect, The Complete Poe, a story or a fable, subtitles, an essay, The Philosophy Of Composition, how poetry should be made, The Raven, a space filler, the word magazine, the part of the shop where the gunpowder is, argosy essentially means magazine, its full of good stuff, these metaphors extend and change, a piece about hansom cabs, ruminating for a moment on hansom cabs, robotic looking a new technology, a two wheeled vehicle pulled by a horse, watching Sherlock Holmes tv adaptations, a new tech, patented in the UK, what’s it like to ride in an uber, here’s a Poe something, its not a short story, The Premature Burial, articles and anecdotes, a story at the end, The Cask Of Amontillado, a confession piece, Guy de Maupassant, and Hemingway, a form of art, doing a skit is not a play, sing, Shakespearean plays, bums in seats, in the direction of science fiction, precluding it from being science fiction, a way of judging and classifying, this piece is a good piece but not a good short story, is this a good novel?, no, just finished Dune, too long?, seductive, Frank Herbert, he could be wrong, complete and enough, a good novel as well as a good story also an evil story and scary, Paul’s doing what’s right here, not as a 13 year old boy, many 13 year old boys have read it, exposed to moral complexity, great bene gesserit characters, rich and smart, full of the ecosystem shit, wheels within wheels and plans within plans, surprising and scary and revealing, should we use people as objects to accomplish our goals, especially if we want to live, why are the Harkonnens bad and the Atredies good, at least worse, Leto vs. Paul, values people more than anything, muddled, lost perspective, the worm is coming, the scene that shows his character, reunited with Gurney Halleck, equipment vs. people, going in we’re on Paul’s side, that betrayal, they value people, tools to be used, squeeze and squeeze, betrayed by one he was good too, what is the lesson there?, a rich and difficult world, solid solid, Confucius would say, better to be like Leto and die, warrior prince, doomed by our position, what’s good about the book, complex and rich, the more Paul becomes fucked up the better the book becomes, a decent payoff, it’s unexpected and yet inevitable, different readings of it, Frank Herbert misunderstood Paul, snippets on social media, just reference the book, look at what objectively happens, talk about Gollum all day, ultimately what happens, too compelled by that heroin, or Smeagol, a certain intention, what Gandalf said, the author doesn’t matter unless they’re pointing to a particular piece of text, authors can be wrong, whom amongst us knows what’s in our own mind, explains some part of your psychology or interest, more than just intention, actual text, another mind can model it, part of our job, engaging with it and understanding, “Paul was good actually”, he becomes a knife fighter, I’m a friend of Jamus, all his names, the responsibility that comes with having killed Jamus, he’s there to survive, his mom is a user, being used, evil masterplan, Leto was used, have sex with this girl, she is pretty sexy and smart, to his true love, gotta marry the emperor’s daughter, negotiations about the dowry, the sister is so weird, in almost every respect, her position in the book is strange, that’s the trap, don’t fall in, the seduction, the movies of Dune, hurt Will’s reading of Dune, unnecessary, read the wikipedia entry, people like that Dune, what do we know about Neil R. Jones, Hugo Gernsback, so popular, millions of sequels to this story, The Professor Jameson Saga, does not call for a sequel, like TNG, a TNG feeling out of it, cryogenics, cryonics, inspired by this story, the afterlife of this story, what if we made it real, immortality, Herland, the western system of religion, what do you want it for, so I can explore other planets, just afraid of dying, completely dead, the most likely thing, never alive, Io’s got volcanoes, if they don’t have stageplays, their strange morality, Iain M. Banks, just get tired of it, get bored, get done, weird AI ships will store your body for you, a diorama of a historical scene, I’d like to be Lincoln being shot in Ford’s theater, just as long as my beard gets to be blue, highlights, in to being blonde, hair dyed red, pink haired Will, this explains so much, they already think Will’s gay, mortified hairdresser, fire engine red, a lot of work, grow it out, hair smells like smoke, wear a fez, that’s what is fez are for, there’s no brim, it’s not for protecting your eyes from the sun, an aesthetic form, a fashion, a technical device, just like a smoking jacket, you smell like smoke, those wives, a smoking robe, febreze chemicals, an exfoliating scrub, brand loyal, the proximate cause, face feel smooth, sunk cost, pushing us in a direction that’s not good, full body deodorant, don’t do that, you can wash em, you can wash your feet, use soap, hair is the least popular place to use it, don’t use it in your eyes, the mouth, separate mouth products, this stuff called water, actively looking for an unscented shaving cream, can barely walk, one day shaving cream with no scent, blood ox below 98, an electric razor, goatee, patchy and weird, partner/girlfriend/fiance, another thing to worry about, think about brushing, no teeth so no brushing, food chewing device, future pairings, very profitable, two 50 minute stories, solid in their own way, more interesting than fun, Mr. Spaceship and Mercenary, what to do is the question in life, Ben-Hur, The Garden Of Fear, winged men, Connor Kaye recorded it, many other authors, no audiobook that’s public domain, commercial releases, why LibriVox hasn’t got on that, The Hate Disease by Murray Leinster, he’s steady, Gregg Margarite, 2 hours, a possibility, the description, sold already, the Interstellar Medical Service, greeted by a rocket attack, a pandemic of demonic possession, 2010, medical stories, they’re related to science, danger, Alan E. Nourse, [Scott Miller’s] Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, The 54th Of July, social breakdown and what causes that, pretty prolific, he was a doctor, what’s wrong with your penis books, science fiction with a medical twist, Star Surgeon, promoted into existence, Dal Tigmar had always wanted to be a doctor, a silver star of a star surgeon, being racisted at, a medical starship, curing diseases, on the question of length, pairing it with something else, who pairs with Murray Leinster, very pairable, a neutral quality, the opposite direction, not one of the big three, Seabury Quinn, good at making himself popular, a Jules De Grandin collection, who else is in Weird Tales?, David H. Keller, let’s see what’s available, need to read more, The Rat Racket, late for him, Amazing Stories, April 1956, Amazing, November 1931, making it happen, not at 100% yet, a couple weeks ago, rough, still not a good time with Jesse, reschedule, typical to miss those, Jason Thompson, The Magic City, Project Pope, Lilith by George MacDonald, the day before our savior was born, not great, recording’s not great, a difficult story, barely a story, an accident of history, 7 famous stories, they know Poe is public domain, Scott Miller, Spotify deleted 2 Poe stories he put up, how fucked up it is, automated bullshit, a person in the world, friends who are musicians hate Spotify, paid subscriptions, discounted rate, ads, questions about their algorithm, what’s curated by humans, paid to make playlists, YouTube is polarizing, very full of good stuff, heavily censored, manipulative, super-evil, Paul doesn’t like Louis Rossmann, philosopher repairman, fixes macbooks, right to repair, a great video on Linus Techtips, a local computer company called NCIX, computers built there, a giant empire, he’s the number 1 in the world for personal computer construction, personal computer information, lives locally, a scandal recently, product called Honey [browser extension], defrauding or deleting people’s affiliate links in favour of their own, a little kickback from Amazon, using it to monitor you, finding out the bank you were promoting is stealing people’s money, data scraped and stolen, should have said something, Jesse’s hero, psychopathic, personality disorder, everything’s about them, narcissism, you broke this so you owe us, fixing a broken macbook, how do you end up as head of a giant corporation, probably have something wrong with you, our system rewards anti-social behavior, very interesting, seeing it on the edges, attacking adblockers, he gets his money from ads, attacked from his audience, find a way to not be the bad guy, always the victim, that moral victory of just lay out the facts and look at the two arguments, I got a lot of employees, on the side of, the mea culpa isn’t forefront, when the NFL has the superbowl, superbowl ads for fake bitcoin companies, a 3 hour mea culpa, they paid him money to run that sponsored video, so many employees I need to pay, yep, that’s how it works, be like Louis Rossmann yes, COVID stuff, on the wrong side, check to see people being vaccinated, New York, Texas, works for a billionaire, a very cool guy, his own mental problems, ethically he’s very solid, a bad practice, Paul Atredies dangerous, be more influenced by people I actually know, if I have a hero it might be the pope, this particular Pope, Pope Francis, surviving in Argentina, these are different things, he seems good, never worked for the guy, Scott works for him, seems solid, thinking of converting, jubilee year, people of good will, forgive all your debts, forgive him in your bank account, the big magic doom, Will hates himself so he follows a truly evil Israeli literature professor, baby Jesus in the keffiyeh, love without power is totally useless, power without love is very evil, Jesse’s student is here, go to him, end this.

Posted by Jesse Willis