The SFFaudio Podcast #532 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #532 – The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson; read by Mr Jim Moon. This is an unabridged reading of the story (26 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Mr Jim Moon, Julie Davis, Maissa Bessada, and Evan Lampe.

Talked about on today’s show:
room for one more, six people on this bus, Jim has a great talent for telling stories, Arabian fashion, Jim is an ideal narrator, his theories, his similes, really short, the story proper, three pages in, framing devices, common in ghost stories, Henry James, The Turn Of The Screw, The Jolly Corner, M.R. James, a lead-in, step through the frame, a little bit of history, a little bit of distance, a little bit of haze, into the realm of story, built on the bones of a very old story, made more interesting, how you see these things, a little spooky, that modern house, the Final Destination series, the More Is More podcast, the “Twenty Two” episode of The Twilight Zone, the upload,premonition, escaping fate, a friendly ghost, good fortune (hairs coming out of moles are lucky), Stacy Keach, a mustache works for men and women, sinister, a smile in context, FaceApp, a menace, curiosity, she doesn’t know she’s a ghost, The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, he tells the story, she had the same dream, the hearse, as a weird story, Julie’s idea, Dead Of Night (1945), Ghost Stories (magazine), Bernarr Macfadden, his bodybuilding religion, tension, stolen from other stories, stop stealing other people’s stories, The Flint Knife, reprints, Weird Tales, An Apparition by Guy de Maupassant, The Tortoise-Shell Comb, brush my hair, third person vs. first person story, a ghost story, retouched photos, somebody lying in bed, Hypnogoria, the borderline between ghosts and dream, sleep paralysis, a memory of that state, a zone of consciousness, auditory hallucinations, weird landscapes, a prelude to sleep, really disturbing, when Julie drops the book, Maissa hears voices, such a range, How Fear Left The Long Gallery, the most haunted house in England, super spooky, Caterpillars, The Monkey’s Paw, the starting point, Jesse loves the frame, Thomas Alva Edison, coming up with ideas, solving certain problems, manipulable, a similar waking state, in physiological state, adjusting wavelengths, grey dreaming, technicolor dreaming, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, no fog no mist, glorious glorious dancing sunlight, backwards, the weather in this story, the traditional 19th century method (weather wise), very meta in the frame, The Suitable Surroundings by Ambrose Bierce, weird tales vs. ghost stories (being tied to sleep), Cool Air by H.P. Lovecraft, darkness silence and solitude, a prosaic landlady, H.G. Wells’ The Red Room, a whole tradition, 1408 by Stephen King, insight into what is behind the curtain/veil, a tiny hole in a piece of cardboard, when the two holes line up, a conjunction of realms, Lord Dunsany’s The Wonderful Window, clairvoyance and mediums, we get to have it both ways, until the moment of death, what passing through is, pass away, composing an essay, a leftover from the spiritualist age, life slipped away, Accessory Before The Fact by Algernon Blackwood, he saw the future, we’re not seeing reality as it is, the way its conveniently operating, a schizophrenic, borderline cases, a glimpse of reality, destiny and fate, because of this tip-off, happenstance, a random blip, a glitch in reality, we love our euphemisms, what did the puritans say when say, with god now, gone to his rest, we really do live in metaphor, seeing at as a raw (rather than a metaphor), H.V. Morton, faith and trust, rest and sleep are everywhere, the Christian dead, psychic flashes, oblique, The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens, a phantom from the future, we develop genres of fiction, movies and comics, definite ideas, gamified, they’re in the Monster Manual now, elves vs. dwarves, Lord Dufferin, a man carrying a coffin, one of the first stories Evan ever read, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark edited by Alvin Schwartz, “Room For One More”, A Stop At Willoughby, philosophizing on twitter, euphemism and metaphor, Did Solomon Give Queen Of Sheeba An Airship?, the woman caught in adultery, scratching in the dirt, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, Emily Wilson, The Partially Examined Life podcast, why these stories are important, go and sin no more, does the same kind of job, crystallizing it, truth approached with a metaphor, open for you to think about, inviting to the reader (or hearer), what’s going on there?, and that is my story, The Pall Mall Magazine, December 1906, A. Wallace Mills, the missing illustrations, the power of the story, room for one inside, “honey”, he starts smoking, a great movie, Smee , The Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells, pure nightmare fuel, lets have a smoke, how it was in 1945, associated with thought, when Sherlock Holmes wants to think he smokes, The Prisoner (remake), symbology, Mapp and Lucia books, Wodehouse with a mean-streak, humour, the sense of the ridiculous, H. Russell Wakefield, The Horror Horn, “A Strange Story Of The Alps In Winter”, a troglodyte civilization, creep and creep and creep, as a gimlet burrows into a board, H.P. Lovecraft’s thesis in Supernatural Horror In Literature, the sensitive, we readers are those people, purely objective not subjective, haunted house, subjective experience is where we live, the radical claim that he’s making, The Varieties Of Religious Experience by William James, not a believer, Benson’s gloss, okay here we go, I love to be scared, luxurious of emotions, Steen Hansen, you’re so happy to be alive, ghostly experiences are real because we didn’t see any ghosts, a literary family, a biography of Queen Victoria, Abdul gets mentioned, editing the letters, R.H. Benson, A.C. Benson, The Sixth Sense, the novel has taken over, The Binscombe Tales by John A. Whitbourn, TV miniseries and movie franchises, always an audience there, a premonition, the metaphor is true, Maggie Benson, the veil cross, the other side poke through, Maissa has in dreams, stroking a whale means good luck, flying, Christmas, Egypt, a painting of a girl flying in the sky, dream-traveler, whales are my spirit animal, Another Place, very affective, great fun, Good Will To Most Men, one of the most creepy horrible stories you will ever read, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville,

“A laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer; and come what will, one comfort’s always left- that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated. … Here’s a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing, by Crom.”

melancholic mirth, Solomon Kane, retelling over and over, maybe you’ll catch a break, symmetry, looking for meaning, something’s wrong and we don’t know how to articulate it, a bad example, Joe Biden sniffing people, go hug that person, we don’t start with premises we start with feelings, confirmed in this grand way, an issue of context, room for one inside, having a good laugh at work, room for one inside, 11:30, the timeline, metaphyscial, what would Philip K. Dick say about this story?, the pink beam, the face in the sky, the precog, King is using the term, The Dark Tower, the Exegesis, the dead sea scrolls (soup), a profound human experience, pointing to something real but not clear, no room for anymore.

The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson - Illustration

The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson - Illustration

The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson - Illustration

The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson - Illustration

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #530 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #530 – The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs; read by Mr Jim Moon. This is an unabridged reading of the story (29 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Mr Jim Moon, Julie Davis, and Maissa Bessada

Talked about on today’s show:
Harper’s Monthly, September 1902, the illustration Maurice Gryffonhagen, 1900, rejected by The Strand, too morbid, maybe morbid, am elaborate explanation to make it a naturalistic story, out of character for W.W. Jacobs, comic tales about sailors and boating, messing about on the water, a spooky tale, the characterization of the family, perfect, warm, a fool (in a nice way), joking around, blame is neutralized, Mrs White is meta, something out of the Arabian Knights, antimacassar, a lace doily, hair oil, smoking jackets, fezs to prevent hair stink, to keep your clothes from becoming smoky, other smells, no six showers a day, that dark turn, small sketches, we feel it when the tragedy happens, Lakesnam Villa vs. Laburnum Villa, The Lady Of The Barge, a tree, ornamental, friendly, poisonous seeds, a golden chain tree vs. a snake, chances vs. changes, Otto Penzler’s Big Book Of Ghost Stories, 203 separate publications, 5th grade reading, ingrained in the culture, everybody knows that idea, be careful what you wish for, The Toll House, Herbert White, Mr. White, the company name: Maw and Meggins, the Sergeant Major Morris, a jerk, how dare you, wish for death in the end, take money for it too, he threw it in the fire, they always turn bad, conflated, The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Twilight Zone, “and so it came to me”, their humourous attitude vs. his seriousness, they’re us, a dreamer, just to look around, 21 years of it, totally clicking, the number three, three times seven, the three family members, three different men, all the wishes get used, no natural sequel, all its wishes used up, many adaptations, most of the adaptations are pretty terrible, The Simpsons adaptation, the dried turkey sandwich, squirming like a lakesnam, very visual, rule out all the logical terrible consequences, “alive and whole”, The CBC Nightfall audio drama, Chris Wiggins, a friend of Vandredei, cursed objects, Friday The Thirteenth: The Series, a doll that kills people at night, classic!, a teacup with strangling ivy, a pair of faith healer’s white gloves, super-creepy, disconnected from the movie series, there was a plan for a cursed hockey mask, late at night, a spell put on it by a very holy man, the moral of the story, fate ruled people’s lives, get to the wishes, nothing comes of nothing (King Lear), LucretiusOn The Nature Of Things, the clutches of a dread, he doesn’t want to be that kind of guy, “just a bit of what you might call magic, perhaps”, reading his actions, a great bit of gossip, the other reading, get him lubricated, his three listener leaned forward, his host fills it for him, in vino veritas, rubicund, they met in a bar, he doesn’t stay the night, does he have an arm?, how you could do sequels to this, his glass topped against his strong teeth, a bad dude, he’s careless, I don’t know, a first time reader of this story: “Give it to me.”, stories where wishes are granted, deals with the devil, how you word what you want, classic fairy tales, Grimms Bros, the magic (talking) fish, stuff you lot, one gloss, embroider, half finished, The Mouse, The Bird, And The Sausage (is probably about polyamory), Hansel And Gretel, an even older one, Charles Perrault, a woodcutter or a fisherman, if you spare me I’ll grant you three wishes, I wish I had a sausage, you wasted a wish, Interstate 60 (2002), a half-leprechaun, negative wishes, the 1948 film adaptation, The Monkees’ Paw, Tales From The Crypt (1972), Wish You Were Here, Robin Hood, back from the dead, eternal pain, the HBO Tales From The Crypt adaptation, kinda fun, The Alfred Hitchcock Presents adaptation from the 10th season, Lee Majors as Herbert, races in Haiti, all just foreign, witch doctoress, frills and elements, the dynamics, the husband starts it off, the wife and the son encourage it playfully, “wish to be an emperor, father”, he never will!, ill-gotten gains, a little monster on the sideboard, something simian looking back from the fire, there’s no blame, the last bit out loud, such a great job reading it, thank goodness, ask for him whole, go away, other glosses, almost perfect for what it does, maw = ma, meggins = beggins, an insurance company, three sections, how adaptations could work, the 2013 adaptation, in name only, built into the story, reverse order, the sergeants story, got close, it rewards you but not in the way you wanted, he will never share, some interaction, the fakir, the paw as India’s revenge on England, the face he put on, enforce government will, as a revenge story, wishes for immortality, be happy that we’re mortal, voodoo, A Podcast For The Curious, M.R. James, industrialization, coincidence or not, when Julie was not a Christian, when a coincidence happens and it was meant for you to understand (you know it), I’m going to be talking to Julie, discover it for themselves, a solid believer in whatever it is, evaluate for yourself, they get it, we get it, it means nothing, the story means what it means because of the framing, a long time ago Jesse had another website (Aural Noir), merged together, hidden away, Jesse knows all the movies about grifters, James Coburn in Harry In Your Pocket (1973), Jesse’s D&D class was always thief barbarian or barbarian thief, this is a scam, a naturalistic way of explaining this story, having sold the paw, Nigerian prince scams, a crate full of Monkey’s Paws, a scam that works this way, bet on tonight’s horserace “Laburnam to win in the first race”, Bet on “Lakesnam to win”, for today’s results…, this was a scam that was actually employed, a known scam, framing it from inside your house, adaptable as a play (none of the scenes are set outside the house), a new silk hat, it means something, we’re not liable, inside the family circle, “what about the knocking on the door, Jesse?”, we never actually see the zombie here, what the author intended to tell us is contained in his text, the psychology going on, chess to while away the evening, living vicariously, I’m a mysterious stranger, reverse psychology, literally the way con-men work, [Jesse describes the opening scam in The Sting (1973)], a dark and stormy night outside, stories of this kind, a very self aware story, stories are valuable, a confection, massive power over us, this need not be a horror story, a different genre, a Star Trek: Discovery episode with Harry Mudd, an now forgotten genre: the club story, the Jorkens stories by Lord Dunsany, Arthur C. Clarke’s Tales Of The White Hart, Asimov’s The Black Widowers, the Binscombe Tales by John A. Whitbourn, “The Monkey’s Spa”, Japanese snow monkeys (cursed to be comfortable), If I Had Three Wishes, it never works out, a comfortable lesson, the father says he’s happy, the guilt is so evenly spread, the meta-chess move, a metaphor for the story, why she’s so desperate, Jordan Peele, comedy and horror turn on the same thing, hilarious or horrific, E.F. Benson, Ripping Yarns, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, “The Curse Of The Claw”, looking through old magazines, The Haunted Tomb by C.H. Shanan, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., that tomb was haunted, you’re the detective, a ghost story or a Scooby Doo story, stories of the uncanny (we find out some truth about reality we were not privy to prior), everybody knows about magic (it’s just rare), things seem to be magical (the Gothic tradition), Weiland by Charles Brockden Brown, The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, a knife raised over his girlfriend, Scooby Doo is Gothic!, Old man Willard!, the new Scooby Doo is opposite, they’re detectives, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles, a boundary hedge, salt tax, Lagaan (2001), exotic stuff, just a slip of a lad, a rubicund visage, a wondrous horrible story, a masterful story, a joy to read, could have been written yesterday, where the hell I am, damn near one take, 30 or 40 doilies, very easy for kids to read, answers to homework, 5th grade, 10 years old, Poe, what the heck is a tarn?, I found a tarn, he breath inaudible, good writing, a callback, mother and father, American Gothic.

The Monkey's Paw - Illustration from The Lady Of The Barge

Easton Press' illustration for The Monkey's Paw

LISTENING LIBRARY - The Monkey's Paw And Other Classic Tales Of Terror

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #175 – Mrs Manstey’s View by Edith Wharton

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #175

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss Mrs Manstey’s View by Edith Wharton

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

Mrs Manstey’s View was first published in Scribner’s, July 1891.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #519 – NEW RELEASES/RECENT ARRIVALS

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #519 – Jesse and Paul Weimer talk about new paperbooks, audiobooks, audio drama, and comics.

Talked about on today’s show:
it stacks up, yo!, a book for review?, 10-15 books a week!, Mr Slow, a good result, Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee, Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty To Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski will be narrated by Peter Jurasik, no Centauri accent, a yummy sausage, why do book titles end :A Novel, making yourself more fancy, a literary pretension, The Luminous Dead: A Novel?, Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan, a rhyme or reason to their thinking, serious literature, why do we need to know that?, the middle initial, affectation, pen names, standard hat, maybe it works?, superpower, Luke Burrage’s Science Fiction Book Review Podcast review of Thin Air, mean Martian tunnels, two books in one box, a duology that came together, Markswoman and Mahimata by Rati Mehrotra, secondary world fantasy, audio of the first book, 11 hours, The Luminous Dead: A Novel by Caitlin Starling, it sounds good, caving on a foreign planet, spelunking, The Descent (2005), caves of New York, Minnesota, South Dakota, maps and caves, two cool maps, Dungeons & Dragons maps, The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft, Annihilation, The Martian, Adenrele Ojo, The Ten Thousand Doors Of January by Alix E. Harrow, portal fantasy, H.G. Wells’ The Door In The Wall, time travel stories as portal fantasies, Dilation by Max Hochrad, very high level, what exactly is going on, a much bigger world than we get to see, world-building to serve the story, an elf on a log, the trailer for Dilation, Do You Want To Know More?, B7 Media, Spiteful Puppet did Robin Of Sherwood audio drama, Big Finish, new Doctor Who, so many Doctors, more visually going on with sound, BBC iPlayer Radio App or BBC Sounds, The Prisoner is really good, sitting with the ideas, Patrick McGoohan, it becomes existential, exploration, the purpose and meaning of things, Mabinogi, ancient Welsh mythology, spending time 1000 years ago, the only thing comparable in North America is the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, The Lurking Fear audio drama is coming this summer, C.H.U.D.s, more audio drama, so much great audio drama is being made, our job, there’s too much, an intended 1984 dystopia, what exactly is going on, Dragonshadow: A Heartstone Novel by Elle K. White, The Coming Storm by Mark Alpert, feeling like a techno-thriller, political dystopic, climate change, Travelers, Tom Clancy books, turn that flag upside down, House Of Cards, Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin, the TV adaptation, the Michael Praed movie of Nightflyers (1987), Children Of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children Of time, how Paul manages to read paperbooks, no time for papercomics, UK authors, is there more money in audio than in paper?, only in audio releases, Audible.ca vs. Audible.com, The Pandora Room by Christopher Golden, Pandora’s box, The Phantom Empire 1935 serial, a western science fiction, Flash Gordon 1936 serial, yellowfacing, and Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu, Machete, Hobo With A Shotgun, he’s from Mongo, Last Tango In Cyberspace: A Novel by Steven Kotler, something William Gibson wrote about a protagonist named “Case” (or Cacye), coolhunters, leaning tight, The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde, magical jewels and people who resonate with them, a fun read, We Are Mayhem by Michael Moreci, Black Star Renegades, everybody likes Star Wars right?, robots and space battles, a 5 page glossary, a galactic rebellion, its exactly Star Wars, doing it your own way, since watching The Orville, Star Trek: Discovery‘s bad writing and not caring about science, Star Wars has a lot of baggage, killed off on a whim, Mark Hamill, answering honestly, wipe the slate clean, I shouldn’t walk out of the Star Wars experience and say “Really?”, going down the midichlorian walk, like Dune but awful, Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, just change the VIN, what a concept!, they don’t need Klingons, The Orville is great science fiction, I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist, epic fantasy, The Rage Of Dragons by Evan Winter, epic fantasy, a peculiar audiobook, Jesse’s mom does not know him, A Peculiar Curiosity by Melanie Cossey, speaking of being read to…, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Rainn Wilson, for adults?, jumping to the island of conclusions, Paul would not say no, For The Killing Of Kings by Howard Andrew Jones, The Three Musketeers meets the Chronicles of Amber, Paul does pre-orders, deep explorations are not always needed, looking for fun, fantasy fun, an oversized hardcover from AfterShock Comics Out Of The Blue by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns, the war between, The Punisher, Nick Fury, TKO Presents, Sara by Garth Ennis and Steve Epting, Marvel Comics, Conan The Barbarian, Savage Sword Of Conan, Age Of Conan: Belit, Belit’s adventures as a young princess, why always starting as princesses?, go a-reaving, The Savage Sword Of Conan: The Original Marvel Years 1000 pages, Roy Thomas, new stuff from old stuff, Fleet Of Knives by Gareth L. Powell, Embers Of War, its better than it sounds, Ack-Ack Macaque, lots-o-fun, space opera, Powers Of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula by Bram Stoker and Valdimar Ásmundsson, R.C. Bray, a little bit of sexiness, a strange sidebar, The Record Keeper by Agnes Gomillion, Titan Books, he or she is doing everything, maybe its a house name, the technospace where you get house names to narrate, face-swap -> audio-swap, the Christopher Lee narrating a book from 2029, creepy cool, Chatting Science Fiction: Selected Interviews From The Hour Of The Wolf, WBAI, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Samuel R. Delany, Cory Doctorow, Ray Bradbury, Nalo Hopkinson, Peter S. Beagle, China Mieville, Orson Scott Card, Lucius Shepard, Nancy Kress, Ken Liu, Charlie Jane Anders, Genevieve Valentine, Susanna Clarke, Connie Willis, a curiosity, Larry Niven books turning to audiobooks, A Gift From Earth, World Of Ptavvs, Bronson Pinchot, The Moon Maze Game a new Dream Park novel, Grover Gardner, a new cover, our show on Dream Park, Inconstant Moon, a classic, Steve Barnes, The Seascape Tattoo, The Magic Goes Away episode, All The Myriad Ways, The Secret Of Black Ship Island, Jerry Pournelle, The Burning City pissed Paul the beep off, blunt and pointed, senility setting in, Building Harlequin’s Moon, Brenda Cooper, does it spark delight?, terraforming, everyone starts regressing, Brenda Cooper does good writing with Larry Niven, set in the Ringworld universe, The Integral Trees, The Smoke Ring, physics problems, an adventure to explore what ideas Larry Niven has spun up, you definitely need to do this one and here’s why:, Bowl Of Heaven, The Very Best Of the Best: 35 Years Of The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois, Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Stephen Baxter, Pat Cadigan, 3 2 1, Exhalation: Stories By Ted Chiang, a new collection of Ted Chiang, Random House Audio, some copy that lives up to the hype, Ted Chiang: A Novel, Tony C. Smith’s StarShip Sofa podcast, an amazing story, Anxiety Is The Dizziness Of Freedom, standard Ted Chiang awesomeness, every three or four years he writes a story, the anti-Ken Liu, finally justified, REAL science fiction, GENUINE, “proto-technology of nano-realms”, Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson, Paul’s in a mood, INTERSTELLAR VOYAGES ARE IMPOSSIBLE, a hard truth, Aurora, the Chinese are going to the Moon, a really, really good writer, Jesse is so slow, In The Land Of Time: And Other Fantasy Tales by Lord Dunsany, edited by S.T. Joshi, Steven Crossley, pub tales, Dunsany is beautiful to hear, Clark Ashton Smith, funny and bittersweet tragic fun, LibriVox, one of these books, Who? by Algis Budrys, The Man In The Iron Mask, never made the A-team, the low end of the b-team, his biggest home run, 6 hours long, this ridiculous Cold War, propaganda, there was no “missile gap”, irrelevant and completely relevant again, Rogue Moon, an evil game show?, adapted into the film Moon (2009), hmmmmm.

Dilation - B7 Media

Recent Arrivals

More Recent Arrivals

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #455 – READALONG: The Moon Moth by Jack Vance

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #455 -Jesse, Paul Weimer, Marissa Vu, and Bryan Alexander talk about The Moon Moth by Jack Vance

Talked about on today’s game:
1961, dude!, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, the Seeing Ear Theatre adaptation, a setting and a culture and an experience, not very science fictiony, no weird transhumanism, deep interesting cultures and settings, more in the fantasy, a science fiction setting but it feels like fantasy, anthropological science fiction, Rite Of Passage by Alexi Panshin, Dune by Frank Herbert, goblins, the fantasy element of the masks, are you bold enough to wear a sea-dragon conquerer mask?, the adaptation follows the plot fairly faithfully, other POVs, a little more linearly, the ambassador’s folly, a masterful adaptation, like nothing we’ve ever seen before, it feels relaxing, gorgeous description, the plot is very stressful, how does this work?, the Larry Niven of economics and culture, high praise, Haxo Angmark, a Vance specialty (names), stealing his “money belt”, Cory Doctorow’s wuffie, so fascinating, I want to walk these streets, my father is a magistrate, a very libertarian society, Texas, L. Neil Smith, no expansionism, the night men, like a role-playing game, cannibalize whatever’s on the shore, indigenous people, captured by the night men!, social status, far weirder than any kind of Marxian communism, when he’s embarrassed about the fish with a face in the water, he’s acculturating to the culture, “religious convictions”, sticky and annoying like a thistle, the philology of our language and hacked it, Edwer Thissle, David D. Levine’s Tk’Tk’Tk’, what Jesse senses what walking the streets of Japan would be like, a dystopia, no government, it all comes down to violence, a very humble mask, how Saudi society works, a married couple would never show their faces to each other, a mock mask?, the afterword, clothes and nudity, the slaves are for having sex with, Jesse has questions, “I’ve been working on it for seventeen years”, a public ledger (like blockchain), a robot, electronic devices, an electric instrument, practically speaking, a bat-belt full of tiny musical instruments?, ornate and complex, the aliens are humans right?, orcs?, a weird human culture, the four outsiders, essentially humans (with pale faces), the consular representative, an anthropologist, Thomas Piketty, how do you have trade with these folks?, a trade port, fun to imagine, maybe you have people who hold value (for trade), expatriates, I will return you to the islands if you don’t obey me, food is incredibly plentiful, kind of like Venice, imaging Venice the whole time, the Dunsanian stories by H.P. Lovecraft, or Idle Days On The Yann by Lord Dunsany, the fantastic orient?, what Korea would be like from an Italian point of view, some happy fools have opened up a bookstore, people don’t want books, nail salon, skin salon, hair salon, tooth whitening, did you see a man come in here and did he take something?, why Steen was mad at somebody, he’s not acting like a Canadian, everyone in the states is so rude, so apologetic, if you don’t acknowledge how terrible you’ve been, an immoral slouch, Iranians have a way of talking around a subject (and will become annoyed when Jesse doesn’t understand), what would it have taken?, a kind of meritocracy, how reputation works in the States, infamous, Chelsea Manning, going from being a reviled traitor to having cachet, a celebrity in need of a couch, their visit to me makes me higher in the society, I gave Al Pacino a place to sleep for the night because his car broke down, how selfies work, some percentage of people want their picture taken with celebrities, our strakh in our culture is attention, Instagram people without their Instagram filters, Sirene is 1000 years in our future, free stuff, stereotypes about New Zealanders, people love Kiwis, an alien as a woman (than as a foreigner), cultural baggage, James Clavell’s Shōgun miniseries adaptation, feudal Japan, swaggering samurais, you’re disgusting and hairy, easing us into it, learning Japanese, the cultural barrier, Jesse’s strahk level plummets, the murder mystery aspect, brilliant!, the weak part, subtle or detailed, an excel sheet, a locked planet or locked houseboat mystery, Robert van Gulik, the whole murder mystery detective genre, you participate in the solving of the mystery, almost there, Judge Dee, like Sherlock Holmes but set in Ming China, a rich and decadent society, Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series, there is a structural class system, you guys are building one, number one in plutocrats!, Upstairs Downstairs, Downton Abbey, their highest hope, falling from class position, how one gets raised out of the strakh level you’re born in to, how people change classes, sociology and anthropology, the business department, Jesse is insulting someone, everybody can be a manager, this story raises so many questions about our own societies, it is not a mirror to us, StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith, obsessed with the baroque, in the way that Tolkien is obsessed, the ornate social structures, The Potters Of Frisk, Planet Of Adventure, a tapestry of different cultures, unlock the puzzle of the culture, powned!, one delicious five volume package, what are Vance’s literary roots, science fiction friends, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert, diverse life experience, California, sui generis, the Demon Princes novels, phone booth, his roots are not in the Clarkeian-Sturgeonian tradition, The Dying Earth, one book leads to another book, Paul got lucky, getting the urge, the BBC In Our Time on Moby Dick, the whiteness of the whale, the pasteboard masks, Philip K. Dick, Halloween, thing are quite different, we wear a mask that blinds us to the world, we wear a mask that blinds us to us, Herman Melville, hijab, it plays to the base, what would it be like to be in a world, this is a very weird world, what form of popular entertainment is being satirized, opera, music, scary talented, an operatic world, musical accompaniment, 24/7 opera, the first audio drama Marissa enjoyed, in the audiobook, an animal!, Marissa got into it, Bryan is nodding, a metaphor for getting used to a new society, a metaphor for learning a foreign language, that sense of fear, a classic mystery novel, almost a western, John D. MacDonald, plotting was the hard thing, gathering the tools up to bluff your way through, what is the author thinking, what are they trying to do, isn’t wonderful to think about beautiful dead women, I think the mystery is the plot, what would it be like where nobody has any identity except what they say is their identity, nicely shoehorned, wow! look at this world, its the one with the masks, Marissa used to be so shy, if you’re in anyway alien or introverted this is playing with the fear of that, fear of bureaucracy, at the mercy of the killer, a judo flip, Vance always has a sardonic sense of humour, The Dying Earth, civilizations rising and falling, magic, Chun the unavoidable, one of the greatest villains, a sub-genre, Hothouse by Brian Aldiss, Clark Ashton Smith, Last Castle, The Dragon Masters, I want more, so much is in it and it has a plot too?, more Vance on the schedule, the orbits that writers move in, the focus on language, Prof. Eric S. Rabkin, transformed language, Isaac Asimov, a total twin of science fiction, we do this job, we engage in the reality, fantasy as escape, working it out, this is the anthropology section of the lirbary, the soft sciences, Larry Niven did too much of it, there’s nothing more to say at the moment, if its not bio – what else you got?, genetics and epigenetics, philosophical science fiction, Mack Reynolds, a post-scarcity society, a great problem to have, nobody is starving to death, cheap food, a rich society, wearing the right suit, look at Bill Maher in his french cuffs, its a $5,000 suit, they look like clowns out of their context, the hair and makeup departments, that’s what all the slaves are doing on Sirene, hair and nails, tuning the instruments,

The Moon Moth - illustration by Dick Francis

The Moon Moth - illustration by Dick Francis

The Moon Moth - illustration by Dick Francis

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #100 – The Ghosts by Lord Dunsany

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #100

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Ghosts by Lord Dunsany

The Ghosts was first published in 1908

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson