The SFFaudio Podcast #892 – READALONG: Ring Around The Sun by Clifford D. Simak

Jesse and Scott talk about Ring Around The Sun by Clifford D. Simak

Talked about on today’s show:
Galaxy 1952, 1953, one of his earliest novels, Cosmic Engineers, Empire, not really Simakian, very Campbelly, Campbell rejected it, City, guess the right answer, what does the D standfor, the D stands for Philip K. Dick, this book is superDick, kinda wild, a kitchen sink, so much happening, under the discipline of a competent writer, a great writer but competence is not the word for him, not natural, tons of wild ideas, under control, why does the little girl show up in the first scene?, cookin breakfast, infodump, why are you not married, this book is largely about childhood, child-like, we’ve been following an android the whole goddamn book, growin a beard, getting hungry, the big conflict is he’s fighting with himself, split into three, given his essence, what kinda book is this?, fairyland, as one might, familiar with fairyland, the topped stripes, a very strange book, David Pringle, a critic, The 100 Best Novels 1949-1984, an English Language Selection, 2 simaks, Way Station and City, 1949-1984, this is a good book, a Tall Tale, too complicated for its own good, prose style, a new plot twist in almost every chapter, a very ornate book, the McCarthyite era, economic speculation, technological panaceas, telepathic androids, robots who are also hungry, a very good Simak novel, after reading Shakespeare’s Planet, Way station, good book, sparkier, All Flesh Is Grass, Stephen King, parallel structure, not just because it has androids, a forever car, at the end of his career, a ton of Simak, keep going, recurring things, revist these things, houses, something was in the house, a bit of mental separation to avoid conflation, coming from everything you witnesses prior, every person has in common, they had some sort of childhood, even if you’re six and im sixty, graduation, your first job, your first love, start with the basics, always a possibility, Simak is not a boy, gotta get that top, almost Bradburyesque, the system that we live in, the economy, Star Trek economics, the forces, people protecting what they have, extraction, it doesn’t seem possible, not as good as The Visitors, almost all the parts, false notes, so many sparks, as maturity sets upon you, that theme I touched on earlier, very mysterious, setup pretty early, rumours of a forever car, it’s cheap, when things are happening in the economy, participate or not participate, cultural discipline like the Amish, they have to review it, they have to make the case, a benefit vs. a disruption, assailed by iphones and androids and robots and waymos, you can’t control what your government decides to subsidize or ban, all you can do is see what’s happening, the solution, the pretentionists, super-interesting, grilling him, what his particular cosplay is about, a sign of what’s going on, the conflict, there is technicality conflict, partly fighting with himself, why is this disruption happening, Simak would like some alternatives, razor, lightbulb, everything is free, how close they are, comin out of WWII, this cold war thing, spread outside of the cities, a big country, no target, constant extreme disappointment and hopeful, the mob is in the background, he doesn’t let that get him down, not a black pill book, locking us into ways of behavior, he’s searching for it, can’t we just all agree, a nice walk, changing of the seasons, an agrarian populist, doesn’t want cities making all the rules, we need farmers, making sure that way of life is protected, rustic rather than agrarian, people who love the countryside, people’s views on policies, one colour another colour, different motivations, the people have needs, one needs a truck and the other needs a subway pass, the uniparty (whatever flavour) doesn’t give you the cheap reliable bus or truck, supersmart, what if we take the idea of automation and use it as an application of disruption for the benefit of people, teetering on the edge of being evil, Crawford is a representative, a think tank, a billionaire class or higher, deep down they’re all the same guy, essentially just Simak, we’ve got to do something, the doing something is writing this book, for serialization in Galaxy, Simak was a newspaperguy, the Minneapolis Star, keeps you in a world, an academic, who the president is, tax policy, you have to understand it and get it out there everyday, being a political advisor, the politicans don’t do any research, so many things going on in this book, what’s the motivation behind this, even the Cold War might be wrapping up, set in the 80s (or 77), worries about the economy going bad, the word carbohydrates, we don’t just need foodbanks, soylent green, a FOOD episode, Gravy Planet aka The Space Merchants, on a parallel earth, manufacturing carbohydrates, wood goes in cellulose comes out, the scene on one of the covers, exploring the factory, bringing in raw materials, who is paying for all those robots, selling at a subsidy, inputs are free, drill down, what his economic solution, nobody gets paid anything, all profits, everybody gets everything, communism, altruism, Crawford is a sympathetic evil guy, I wanna let you live, make me understand it, you can’t threaten the way things are, the alternate people who seem leaderless, Robert A. Heinlein, By His Bootstraps, time doesn’t exist, this book has a lot going on, a coup happening, a breakoff civilization, agrarian populist, there’s no voting, there’s only opting in or dropping out, this is not an evil book, Beggars In Spain, Slan, mutants, quasi science fiction, his first sale is published in 1952, 1953, Clifford Dick Simak, Dick’s not influenced by this, this is a parallel extraction, Dick cites Null-A and Van Vogt, Realms Of Fantasy, renfaire shit, Society For Creative Anachronism, the 70s, mutant = X-men, rebellion, The Golden Man, the danger room, his subversion of mutants, what if they’re superattractive to women but don’t know how to read, women with three breasts, so mutated they look like slugs, so mutated we don’t recognize them as mutants, what John W. Campbell was asking for: more mutants, mutant stories, in essence, you’re supposed to think I’m a SLAN, we the people who can see the future, man walking on the Moon, telepathy, an autist when it comes to tops, he can think about childhood real good, I can read a different science fiction next week, the podcast mutant, observation/joke/question, people on twitter, how much to spend on editorial revisions/covers, they’re in the bubble, you’re the weirdo, as a percentage of the population, people who read 10 books a year, they absolutely exist, 1 guy Tony C. Smith, discovered science fiction as an adult, got excited about reading like a kid, knew how to read, just didn’t do it, book addicts, get books cheaper, give books cheaper, can’t afford them, and thus SFFaudio was born, a family of readers, both sets of grandparents, reading something non-fiction, an immediate upbringing, ancestrally, school teacher, shop teacher, great uncle, voracious reader, great grandparents, their book collection if they had one, you inherit things you don’t even realize, they have different things, are you ashamed of your books, gi joes, transformers, music, a personal culture for each family, used to be anyway, figuring out what this book dealing with, it’s so big, society and the personal, the weirdest aspect, that’d be loving himself?, the most broken part of the book, too spinning in on itself, wow, an interesting thoughtful guy, recurring, hopefulness, knowledge in the stars, Time Is The Simplest Thing, disrupting the economy, read this week, chapter 33, so he was an android, an artificial man, the cunning of man’s mind, the mutants did!, even he himself would never know, artificial women too, and a host of other gadgets, wreck the race from which they sprang, China is disrupting our economy!, good jobs, the mystery of the story, how he composed the book, it mostly fits together, the mystery is less important than rumniating on the topics themselves, sparky full of ideas, flying witches on broomsticks, steal ideas, bring them home through Mexico, Walmart style disruption stores, wow, rejected by the girl’s family, fairyland of youth, memory, super-hilarious, the past is the most interesting place, a hilarious and interesting genre, the Merryland books, 1672ish, Erotupoia, Bettyland, a genre of fiction, a visitor reports back on a place he went to, a geographical version of a woman’s body, hills over there, rivers down here, having fun, making fun of the genre, with childhood, that Bradburyesque sense, certain scenes, endless summer, how come we can’t live in a good world, feel that, meanwhile, boardroom tables, privacy policy, extract more from you, televisions are so cheap, they’re using the tv to influence, Netflix button, put ads in your operating system, Enshittification by Cory Doctorow, the whole point is to extract from you, a car you can hand down to your grandkids, forever clothes, forever razor, Stressed Out by 21 pilots, momma sang us to sleep, build a rocketship, you need to make money, getting out from under, whoever’s doing this, Vickers says, and his parents need to be thawed out, so it turns out…, horrible capitalist system, all my contents are correlated, he was the guy behind all of this, go talk to the robot, the plan is to make things better for people, doing these things to the economy, the importance of knowing what your doing, mindfulness sounds really bad, pitchfork and torch, we’re gonna do this to accelerate the badness that’s happening, the evil people in our world, saying to themselves, if they think of you at all, we have a mandate to make profits for our shareholders, Cora’s tweet: every time I see this guy I want to punch him in the face, Albania’s ai minister, power good government with good solid nuclear power, the disruption happening seems familiar to us, the forever car, how people think about Teslas, tended to be publicly enthusiastic, the promise of them, the batteries won’t, in the frame, bends the frame, throwing the car away, the cars have televisions in them, all the smart cars, Windows 10 isn’t supported anymore, your Ford Focus isn’t supported anymore, Ford Mustang from 1964, a throwback pickup truck, can fix it yourself, anyone can fix it themselves, emissions are why, you can’t achieve good emissions without electronics, waiting at the light the engine is turned off, save theoretical emissions, the biggest expulsion, it’s all gamed, theater, try not to play any games you can’t win, the casino, not gonna win, not gonna go, Bryan Alexander travels a lot for work, an endless nightmare of airport problems, sleeping in the airport, much rather not, it’s incredible that we’re here, what air travel is going to look like in the future, bar lounge area, seats too small, crammed in, extracting you, the Chinese with their flying cars, not allowed to disrupt our world, the pretentionists, Samuel Peyp diarists, pretending to be cats and dogs and birds, my area of study is Aztecs, online video games, Balder’s Gate III, escapism, building games, Minecraft, the biggest genre, survival, farming, sandbox games, everything’s easy, 2 seconds to mine, crafting, rock and stick and 2 seconds later you got a handaxe, 10 minutes later log cabin, building your own log cabin, pretty satisfactory, digital log cabin, didn’t have to get sweaty, I live in my game, the people at the renfair, jousting, friendly and together, conventions, leavin the world, a bubble for 4 days, similar interests, I was somewhere else, Robert Silverberg is still alive, every science fiction convention, during COVID, theoretically left science fiction for a while, he feeds on the same interests, people that read a bunch of books, grinding horror, driving across the United States, the next 2 Dortmunder books, if you’re painting a warehouse, a lot of ceilings, intense labour, a kind of pretention, you’re out of your head, drudge work, great experience of another world, arms and eyes, appreciating some thoughts goin on, a really amazing thing, a kind of dissociation, something going on in this book, MK Ultra, The Manchurian Candidate sort of stuff, CIA, human robotoids, wipe people’s memories, implanted memories, very Philip K. Dick, for political control, assassinations, interrogations, send messages, the Jason Bourne series, MK Ultra fiction, extensive in the United States and farmed out to Canada, we have to invest, at least 20 years, the Chinese are doing it, maybe the Russians are doing it, POWd by the North Koreans or the Chinese, act strangely, obviously brainwashed them, we need to be able to brainwash, how can he be an android, fully functional, a scene where Data has a beard, can he control the growth, you can imagine a model of Data that has that ability, everything about him is a man except we’re told he is not a man, people are programmable, you learn these languages, something that humans have that dogs don’t have, responding to their environment, programmed to learn human things, Simak is reading the paper and reading between the line, Philip K. Dick was not a connected guy, he worked at a music shop, this is not public at the time, from the Nazis originally, news stories, the Korean War, they must be brainwashed because they’re rejecting the United States in favour of North Korea and China, on the wrong team, other possibilities than mind control, the most powerful street is Madison Avenue, both are scary, K Street, think tanks, the justifications, the oligarchs to do what they want, Crawford is not as bad a guy as we thought, come on friend, he said softly, Simak doesn’t want war, a lot of horror, he doesn’t know the way, hopin to make the place better, less of a Catholic book than his other ones, not a Catholic guy, some of the thoughts, more of a spirtual level to it, how Arthur C. Clarke’s The Star, a jesuit, a relationship to the stars, pathos and suffering and understanding, more scattered, touch on it a few times, page 178, end of chapter 39, how he came to be, his purpose and his end, a tool of immortality, the orderly progression, the next step, law unto the entire universe, the strength of human face, divinity, terrible need of faith, question and doubt, no need of faith, faith replaced with knowing, questing, a lot of great stuff in this book, so sparky, continually impressed by him, so philosophical, idea books, not stuff happening books, thoughtful and exploratory, an OCR, the fire wheel dog formula, the formula of the mutants, an earlier forward step, fire, cook things, pull things, dogs?, bows, plumb line, technologies, ssomethin super interesting, an extinct [breed] of dog, canis vertigus, the turning dog, manor house, run on the wheel to turn the spit, a small dog with curled legs, literally three technologies all together, replaced by motors, technology leads to technologies, a border collie, different labs, different from goldens, programmed differently, retrieve birds from swamps, love your children, take you on walks and be happy to see you, herding, keeping their sheep in their proper place, moving them from place to place, talking about technology in that way it is science fiction, you can’t have science fiction without connection to technology, it isn’t engineering fiction, mine the asteroids, that isn’t about how to make the rocket go, atomic pile!, what will it do to the people?, if there is a main thrust in this book, products that will no longer have to be manufactured or repaired, intentionally destroying society, a tv with spyware built into it, well you’ve got food that free, who is being evil?, the oligarchs, want progress to stop to maintain the status quo, conserve their profits, pretend I was somewhere else, more interesting or better or not like this, zombie apocalypse games, Project Zomboid, ambulance driver or cop or teacher or athlete, survive for as long as you want, an endless game, no victory conditions, Sid Meier’s Civilization, if they’re trying to hurt you, doing it and don’t care, changing it to help me win this game, taking stuff from you and putting it in my pocket, Crawford is from the old guard, America 1950, the other world mutants, help the population, he makes a film, talk to the pretentionists, evacuate the earth to these other worlds, on to the stars if necessary, a temporary solution to this particular crisis, we in our present, people out of work, carbohydrates are the solution, going off to be pioneers, let’s do enclosures, fill it full of sheep, goodbye people, crimes that can get you exported as your punishment, free land in an empty continent, more profits for Hudson’s Bay Company shareholders, love or indifference or hate, probably not going to be neutral, “mutants”, not telling what’s going on, we spread this out, $500 per room, trade that in, they’re not trynna make a profit, the help is accelerationist, for a not religious guy, lying is evil, deception is not necessarily evil, you shouldn’t lie to people, the oligarchs are hurting society somehow, the mob, trynna hunt people down and kill them, offscreen in the book, “populist”, kind of a slur in the United States, people getting what they want, close to fascism, we bind you up together, a whole bunch of farmers, get our voices heard together, the popular voice vs. the bound stick for violence, on team Simak, a bit of violence, story is about conflict, Hamlet the play, the first detective story, when does the ghost appear, the soldiers see Hamlet go talk to the ghost, the ghost of his father, the rest of the play is him trying to testing his hypothesis, does my mom know?, to know or not to know, should I just go along?, a philosophical investigation, everybody dies, Ophelia dies, he kills Polonius, the ultimate answer is maybe you, do I want to turn over this rock of knowledge, feel something, catharsis, detective fiction comes out of Poe, when it hits with Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, a little bit of science fiction and a lot of mystery, this essential question in us, not being satisfied, a conspiracy book vs. a mystery book, turns out it is a third of me, what a book!, so good, glad to have read it, YouTube video, different things there, what Simak next?, May 2nd, The Handle by Richard Stark, gonna love it, Way Station, All Flesh Is Grass, 1965, how many did he write in the 70s?, lots in the 70s, A Choice Of Gods, Enchanted Pilgrimage, The Fellowship Of The Talisman, The Werewolf Principle, The Fisherman, a rusty rocket, a scene in the book, so rich, he’s the man, overcountry travel, he’s the flyover country science fictionist, New York guys, Bradbury in Los Angles, Missouri, Colorado, California, Orson Scott Card in Utah, when you get to the west, Wyoming, east of, Ohio, Kansas, is Kansas the west, right in the middle, Shaun D. Standfast, passed away, notebook lm, 9 interviews, living in Minnesota, geographic and philosophic backwater, east coast, New York, distinct effects, professional isolation, the science fiction swim, tied closely to his desk, a lot of publication with John W. Campbell, rely on letters, a Clifford Simak letters set, Isaac Asimov and Jack Williamson, Minneapolis, Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, tell me more, the distilled info, people that like audio, an audiobook, make it feel like a real conversation, shaving and smoking, pops out an mp3, my android ran out of cigarettes and is grateful to have some more, how much Dick have you read, not as coherent at novel length, some of the images, his best novel, very disputed, Galactic Pot-Healer, very funny, it ends like a flat tire, great scenes, not exactly a Simak novel, what makes it so great, if he’s Tolkien it is his Lord Of The Rings, rougher and sillier, the basis as a place to escape, wasting time on the internet, gets a call from god, raise a sunken cathedral, other pilgrims, yarrow stalks, The Man In The High Castle, how great Dick can be, what did we settle on, All Flesh Is Grass.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #537 – Pursuit by Ron Smith

Reading, Short And Deep

Reading, Short And Deep #537

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss Pursuit by Ron Smith

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story |PDF|.

Pursuit was first published in Science Fiction Stories, November 1957

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The SFFaudio Podcast #891 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Lost Continent by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

The SFFaudio Podcast #891 – The Lost Continent by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne (9 hours 11 minutes) read by Alan Winterrowd and Mark Nelson for LibriVox, followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion are Jesse, Alex (Pulpcovers), and David J. West

Talked about on today’s show:
1900, the book public domain, one of the narrators abandoned it, it’s up on LibriVox, the last 5 chapters are by a different guy, Mark Nelson is a good narrator, an off day, suddenly became a different guy, the first narrator, in Virgin Planet, quay, not kway, it’s key, grandma was an english teacher, a big Q up there, interesting, people love this book, a great D&D campaign book, an amazing campaign setting, it wasn’t awful, describe this book to someone, not nearly as fun as it sounds, Goddess Of Atvatabar, way more fun, invade the inner earth, do colonialism, listings, here’s the art, more priests, castles in the air, imagination, you can just conjure, vr world, look there’s some cookies on a plate, fades away, all sorts of interesting stuff, the magic is more science, The Hunt For Red October catterpillar drive, atlantean technology, the victorian sensibilites, how many things he brought into it, it was serialized over six months, some revisions for the book publication, you can’t really smooth it out, another meeting with that priest, walking around the hallways, Lin Carter’s forward, something with a little more punch, the dinosaurs and the tech, the pulpy aspect, about that introduction, the Ballantine cover, the checkerboard at the base, a masonic book?, a really short foreward, other atlantean books, de Camp would have really enjoyed it, Clark Ashton Smith, not allowed to be, not involved, an excommunicable offense, recruited, not a joiner, part of a structure, in their recruitment, you have to believe in god, in the normal way, other gods as well, trying to expand?, aprons and such, is there any evidence in the book, at the base, if you go to London, the City Of London, checkerboard things, a youtuber who walks around London, hiding in plain sight, on the Metropolitan police, the tartan of the guy who brought it in, based on his career, that important in the UK, amazing skill, a long boat trip, a lot of power, buddy buddy, a conspiracy hidden in plain sight, the construction of atlanis, a giant pyramid, apparently not, Dean Ellis, got his remit by reading the book or being told what to paint, would have noticed, some amount of ancient lost knowledge, a Masonically influenced story, he destroys the evil at the end of the book, what’s in the ark, the secrets, the evil empress, immortality?, etc., this knowledge is lost, all the other cults, Rosicrucian, thoughts have wings, do you ever think you were an ancient god, maybe I was, Atlantis, cool man, the framing device, the occasional cave tiger fight, the very long and drawn out, some swineherd’s daughter raised above her station, sword and sandal lady, more like Zenobia in Hour Of The Dragon, pure of heart, the girls in this book, mess up the pronunciation, the twin sister, she feels like a chekov’s gun that never goes up, the chessboard pattern, the characters are very maneuvered, lots of pawns, an image from When Worlds Collide, the space ark, an ark in this book, the cover of one of the sons of Krypton, the story of Superman is basically that of Moses, put in the basket and sent down the river and becomes good, helps people, he’s a superguy, a big honking novel from the 1930s, Balmer and Wylie, as you would expect, coming from the bible, the earth is gonna get hit by a rogue planet, to save the people, a machine gun setup, trying to get on the ark, 2012 (2009), really good, great disaster movie bandwagon, the destruction of the world, earthquakes and lava, just barely manages to get through, this is a comedy, supposed to be laughing, took the remit, Star Trek, like every other show, Paradise, high ratings, the president’s been assassinated, underground bunker in Colorado, regular drama, Fallout, Silo, a spaceship, a generation ship, they’re in a bunker, an old Doctor Who episode, colonizing old Earth, a repeated theme and idea, a mechanistic book, priests being moved around, is this supposed to be that, we are above the fray, in a brotherhood, C.J. Cutliffe Hyne was aware of Masons, the first episode on Battlestar Galactica, is he a mason? 33, could be, numerology, the meanings of numbers, 42, 69, six seven, 69 Barrow Street by Lawrence Block, good for jokes, our hero, kinda stiff, sometimes he has a beard, they wrote him as this great hero uninterested in women, what is the point of writing this character, have you not learned to woo yet, if Conan was suddenly thrust into this book, you need to fulfill this role, Black Colossus, much more concise too, not the worst, Ben-Hur, a slow pace, 5 hour book maximum, to warrant all of the text, forbidden magic, the island sinks, the priests sink it, the negative culmination, she’s the key to unlocking why Atlantis sinks, what went wrong exactly?, upset with the priests, he’s a priest guy, they worship the sun?, Zeus?, not a random name, that stuff is not worked out, the high gods, references to a pantheon, 9 years in the jungle, stuff happens, why does the girl have a twin sister?, torn between the two, 2 identical women, a box to check, did nothing with it, more degeneracy, not a lot of showing it, the queen is psychotic and evil, the whole country became this degenerate, struck down for their arrogance, pushing in this degenerate direction, very casual slavery, enslaving all these Europeans, some kind of hubris, the sailors, an entourage, parading on her elephant, kill em all or whatever, out to see, such a hardscrabble life, take all his stuff, stab anybody, a viewpoint, these people are contemptible, way before the ark stuff, justifying the drastic action that happens, it didn’t feel new, our hero is very formal, when Hamlet comes back from school, investigate this and figure it out, I’m not gonna marry you just yet, mechanically placed, the game being played drags it out, and yet … cave tiger!, brontosauruses were recently discovered, a mixed audience, Pearson’s, interested in science, wireless telegraphy, astrophotography, ballooning, hero indian guys in Indian, a mixed general magazine, serialized novels in the 1890s, Sherlock Holmes novels, that thing holds up, tighter, basically forgotten, John Buchaneque thrillers, lots of interesting setups and no amazing gelling, a traditional gothic, kicks Sherlock Holmes out of the story, it can hold together, Agatha Christie was popular for a reason, Deucalion, son of Prometheus, he calls it out in the prologue, the introduction, the same trick used in William Hope Hodgson’s The House On The Borderlands, awesome setup, our two guys, lifting rocks to get his workout, Canary Islands, not a normal place to be, Canary Islands is connected with the Atlantis myth, boom we’re in the Yucatan, pyramids out there, colonies of Atlantis, weird hairy neanderthals, can I get some of that, every continent on the planet has pyramids, the one pyramid in Antarctica is probably just a mountain, Peru, St. Louis, a very stable structure, a very recognizable structure, really old, a tower is gonna disappear, many such great wonders, wandering around the pyramid, stabbing behind the curtain, a monkey in a cape, you never know, oh yeah it is a victorian novel, he’s not one of the famous names, cold sleep with our girl, her hair gets long, is she gonna come out of this okay?, a sleeping beauty, awesomely connected to anything, if it had been a surprise, 9 years go by, complaints, having read too many novels, enthusiastic, a good introduction, his own fiction writing, weird thread, some teacher of creative writing, I want to be a novelist, they can’t anybody, I don’t read novels, that never happened kind of events, that’s being ableist, I’m a novelist because I want to run a television show, comics being made to be Netflixes, not a good comics, a visual connection, a Robert E. Howard or a Westlake, Cowboys And Aliens, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, a storyboard, the audience is for the execs, Men In Black, more like the comics, how many sequels?, soft reboot, the images that stick, old Galaxy covers, a robot body, a showcase of tropes, fun things to see, playoff against the comedy, there’s something wrong with books today, a New York Times utube short, the edits, mass market paperbacks have died, very sad news, the substance of the piece, here’s Stephen King, sold the paperback for Carrie, $400k, that changed her mood, it was largely novels, the cheap paperback, that media, that medium, the physical size of that format, Tolkien wrote a book, 6 books, 3 volumes, 1 novel, James M. Cain paperback, the Ballantine ones, thinner than the thick of your thumb, that format is connected to the thickness of the paper, portability, games is the premiere medium, tiktok, mindless short form brain rot, movies position of primacy, short stories, little tiny markets for it, Clark Ashton Smith, A Vintage From Atlantis, maybe the book would be better if it had a map, random encounters, might be pterodactyls, rocs, corrupt empire, before the continent sinks, overthrow the empress, fail and try to escape, he didn’t set anything interesting there, this early in the game, bringing in the dinosaurs, the megafauna, touching on the witchqueen, older movies, not unvaluable, a good book not a great book, The Seed Bearers by Steve Valentine Timlett, murdering people left and right, occult matters, not that occult, how it touched on how the society as a whole, the ark is loaded with stuff, fan fiction, he’s British, very likely, more extreme on the violence and the sex, the cover descriptor, Atlantis, leg clinging a lady, exploded and split in half, new books in, grabbing this, tells you what’s going on, trilogy, the other two, take place much later, with Picts, Bran Mak Morn, the Taliesin series, weird elvish wizards, Stephen R. Lawhead, Minoan bull dancing, the pictish beast, the tin islands, water horse, hippopotamus, the unknown animal in all the carvings, pictish beast and regular horse together, very boneless, fossils, game name, PictishBeastTheories, the Loch Ness monster, longer neck, Kentucky cryptid, crypto-zoology, no online much, every animal, the mammoths, aggressive hunters, big herbivores, just put cave in front of it, do you find them in caves, a standin for dire, this island is kind of a death world, huge knowledge base, giant pyramids, superrich, rich farmland?, stable civilization, constantly being eaten by fish and flying birds, Deathworld by Harry Harrison, Jason dinAlt, erratic psionic abilities, everything is deadly, neurotoxic venom, planetary romance, drop the hero on the planet, cross the landscape and survive, not get eaten by the empress and what have you, Soylent Green (1973), Make Room, Make Room, a funny writer, find you something good, People Of The Black Coast, better to pair it with something, fun, light, thin, giant crabs, aviatrix, her personal aircraft, Miracle Science And Fantasy Stories, the brothers Dold, illustrations, the blind one, the author and editor of it died, Douglas, in Russia during the revolution, 1917 revolution, scroll threw the illustrations, very Dungeons & Dragons, anubis sort of god, in the temple, crocodile faced worshipers, page 59, the dead-alive face of Orne, they were turning him into a mummy, a guy with an ax choppin, holding a gun looking in, giant crocodile god, very much out a module, hidden group, the scans in the scans group, the PDFs are up, overhead map, page 29, The Valley Of Sin, grand canyon, mummy chamber, sealed door, sluice gates, this is the adventure you were waiting for, make you a mummy against your will, more weird menace, more shudder pulp, they’re all fun, but they’re pretty uneven, amazingly good, pretty good, the cat girl, the sins of the cat girl, not even a cat girl, the other animal she’s pretending to be, the concepts drag you in, an evil cult under the basement of this house, a followup tweet, novelists whop don’t read novels, write the screenplay you want to write, they only ever talk about novels, his short stories are much more coherent, they’re not meditative on a particular idea, more fun, the length is the reason stories suck, going to long, too many pieces to keep track up, make a girl go to sleep for nine years, suddenly we’re really rockin, Howard has an agenda, he has opinions about things, I’m angry about that subject, hated everything else done in that same vein, David and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Gor book, the concept of Gor, bring samurais, bring mongols, make them all fight, I submit I’m just a woman, by book 3, liked the cover, suckers for covers, a sucker for interiors, the part they always show in the auction, beautiful Dold art, reading Weird Tales without having the art hurts your interest, The Uncharted Isle, a monkey man story, if only for the art, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, they’re not famous if they’re new, Fantastic Novels, great interior art, makes you want to read it, it has this, giant snake throne?, warrior with a spear and a shield, volcanoes, got the drama built right into it, if only it were that good, needed a Kull, are the gods real?, what is the purpose of a city, Kull introspecting a lot, it needed more, a placeholder for other things, the Malazan books, H. Rider Haggard and She, weird superqueen, degeneracy and evil, sort of abstract, she had the whole society backing that up, baboon buddy, even the servants, personalities, I am destined to be your lover, the Victorian aesthetic, feast your eyes, Brides For The Beast by Wayne Rogers, a mystery terror novel (28 pages) and it has a monkey, “A lust-mad scientist whispered secrets concerning her lover’s birth—to Minna Talbot while a mad thing, whose origin was unknown, brought terror to that mountain wilderness…”, a grisly experiment with a great ape, each chapter has a name, foul clutches, hate feeds, it’s gonna be rough, a guaranteed good story, an unguaranteed and probably not so good, see if it is worthy, the promise of the editorial introduction, he’s your brother, experiments with a great ape, maybe they mind swapped, we don’t have, historically they didn’t sell super well, more commonly known, how many Railroad Fiction magazine, G-8 and his squadron, all the love magazines, a Ranch Romance, we are narrowed by the Munsey Magazines, how a big a shadow, The Shadow and The Spider, a lot of fun, series, one and dones, maybe your a monkeyman and have to burn yourself, how much you love Brides For The Beast, eat breakfast, Wayne Rogers, author of Substitute Corpses.

The Lost Continent by C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #534 – Too Bad You Died by Joseph Slotkin

Reading, Short And Deep

Reading, Short And Deep #534

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss Too Bad You Died by Joseph Slotkin

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story |PDF|.

Too Bad You Died was first published in Fantastic Story, March 1953

Posted by Scott D. Danielson Become a Patron!

The SFFaudio Podcast #887 – READALONG: The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

Jesse and Scott talk about The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

Talked about on today’s show:
the art for one of the covers, the Del Rey paperback, a 2001 style slab hovering, fleeing, or are they running to it?, genuinely surprised, isfdb.org show all covers page, the big black slab, chances are?, the story by Clarke, this is War Of The Worlds but done by Simak, conflict not so much into it, the war part that’s missing, let’s shoot at it, twice, immediately vapourized, interesting vapourization, not oblivious to human nature, wants to minimize, the conflict exists but is repeatedly dodged, when the president wakes up, still asleep?, not quite Reagan, set in the future slightly, a space station and the shuttles are up, the Soviets have their own space station, Skylab?, repurposed Apollo, everything still works the same, functioning tech, a pretty good book, the regular humans, hated the politician stuff, why we spent so much time in there, a flawed concept, what’s so good about Simak, the personal, boyfriend likes fishing, the opening scene, getting a haircut, a “bigot”, shoots himself, look at thing I’m gonna shoot it, stopped, kinda what the barber said, your way of attacking me, gone out of fashion, racist, nazi, people say words and don’t know what they mean or where they come from, being shaped, a harsher word for something, talking like Jesse, people being programmed, making the Jesse argument, it is a weird word, it sounds harsh, it is unclear what it means, you can almost hear the French accent, what it means what it does, bi as in bicycle, the German of god, two beliefs, good for my people, bad for your people, could be religious, a synonym for being small minded, this is gonna be the theme of the book, the aliens come down, the little speech that he gives, they won’t let us fish on our land, in the context, it colours what the end is, is this War Of The Worlds, Visitor of the Worlds, visiting the Motel 6 of the universe, this image of 2001,would have been aware, even on the original serialization, the wheel in space, like sheep trying to get to the center, communal, some technology, they give birth, they hold your hand, they take you inside them, the ending and the suggestion is excelllent, the government stuff, not boring exactly, on the nose and naive, newspaper guy as a long time, wishful, very accurate, but accurate for what?, if you spend any time with people, what they’re about, the artifice is gone, just deflection, experts on these things, easy to do soundbites, hard to do 3 hour podcasts, if they read the book or not, not naive about newspapering, super-accurate, loving touches, writes the editorials, covers all the stories, the paper gets printed and he does it all again, I dont want to be a center of the news, a tree researches, a ufo kook, very reasonable, what stories like that do to people, revel in it, more painful for most (than pleasurable), the way the book works best, Ray Bradbury feeling, the third one with the shadows, very suggestive, making your mind spark up, what’s going on in that house?, a 1 star review, if you don’t resolve it I’m not interested in your book, ambiguous and then ignored, glossed over, really really great, it could be anything, found a house, made a copy of a human, it being open, much better than if it is closed, what would that mean, the dealing with the indians, the problem with the whiteman, it breaks you economy, about a redaction, they submit their last story to the government, a panic scene, drowned, get his free car, not super reflected in the book, something is free, people like free, all of Jesse’s ancestors were effected by such things, free land in Saskatchewan, I like free, economy in europe, laws against everything, go there and occupy it for a certain amount of time, at that time, lived there for a generation or so, moved west, Alberta, British Columbia, job opportunities, world wars, what they think of what will be Canada, the stories your hearing, the exact same thing, it wasn’t to vote for Democrats, your loyal to Canada, you came in under this flag, everything is so weird, get a free flying car, do they need to eat more cellulose later?, the free cars are the the gunpowder that gets you into the system, that’s what all that political stuff is about, wreck the economy, introduce it all slowly, if it turns out it wasn’t some rando, we’ll be able to communicate, as an idea, a couple of Philip K. Dick technologies, Minneapolis, a honey of a line, cold shivers up your spine, would have scared the pants off him, methodically crossed out the paragraph, too scary, not enough concrete evidence, did you see it yourself, you can’t imply that, what was the result, it topples because too many get on, that mad rush for free, free iphones!, the power of the newspaper, very soft, there will come soft rains, it’s suggestive, a mix of War Of The Worlds and Rendezvous With Rama, a show with Eric on Clarke’s first short story, 1937, Travel By Wire, a bunch of scientists playing jokes on each other, no families, very sterile, when Clarke fakes that stuff, a disaster movie as a book, Simak likes girls, he likes dogs, he likes children, it wasn’t what he wanted to write about, the sterileness is very minimal, Science Fiction Review from 1981, Sue Beckman, Summer 1981, “biologic black boxes”, little bit of Canada, the beasties are nice, used cars, a forestry student on a fishing vacation, the big momma, this writing has personality, divine their ultimate intentions, the surprise endings, a poor reason to plod, an audiobook, it can flow, consider this, disrupt commerce, invulnerable to attack, naw, a newspaperwoman, “cute”, Roadside Picnic, pussyfoot around, on target, “pest-control”, bearing gifts, contemplating a new kind of world, a new way to live in it, the classless society, post-scarcity, page 133, this may have been true, benefactors, a sub-theme, white man invades indian land, imperialism, dubious, not well developed, an interpretation, might just have well been working for the Daily Planet, spent his life in the newspaper business, cartoon characters, a bunch of deceitful knuckleheads, 1979, an entertaining short story, Simak can do much better than this, a shorter story, a novella or novellete, very proficently done, an old man’s novel, 75 in August 1979, gossip, the bureaucrats in Washington, the Washington pieces, tedious and unconvincing, come up with no ideas, they don’t add anything to the book, dithering, loose ends dangle, dissected, that’s true, rewards, generally a positive review, They Walked Like Men, disrupt the economic order of The United States, Simakian fantasy of beneficent aliens, dreamy vengeance on industrial capitalism, though hurried, a never never world, a miraculous restoration of the status quo, typical of Simak, we’ve had lengthy discussions about Star Trek universe economics, cable companies, satellite tvs, laws protecting the cable companies, what has happened since then?, impede and slow down, cut ties with cable really early, except lately, Malad, cut cable, Logan, never watched the tv, couldn’t have internet alone, keep their business model afloat, it wasn’t just internet, what internet could do, long distance phone calls, North Vancouver, Coquitlam, pay to make a phone call to my grandma, ridiculous, they would make the argument, these cable lines need to be pay for, Jesse, phone calls to everybody all over the planet, Skype Out, landlines, not everybody was, a revolution, long distance phone calls are still a thing, they don’t even try anymore, making something expensive inexpensive or free (essentially), more efficient, member when television would offer you bundles of channels, get the access, I want to watch Babylon 5, broadcast tv, involved with the subsidization of giant telecoms, only interested in getting closer to the thing without as much hassle, they don’t break down, lower the barriers to trade, making things flow, getting the things to the people that want them, physical barriers, drive a truck over there, accessibility with cost, there’s no GDP when Christopher Columbus comes over, they don’t have a moentary system to facilitate trade anonymously, the grease in the wheels, this is our resource, we’re the monopoly on trade on this, this is also the story, when these aliens come they don’t trade, supposed to be the analogy of what the indians saw, this is for export, why do you want the gold so bad, gives me status there to have this thing, we completely understand it, we’re soaking in it, baby’s first bank account, shopping cart, look at all this free stuff, a story on the internet that’s persistive and evil, stories about animals trading leaves for food, cat goes in with a leaf in it’s mouth and trades it for a fish, animals don’t understand trade, they do understand trade, make arrowheads out of coins, oh hey, living animals here, let’s look at it, examins this guy telepathically, they like cars and houses, european invaders, Simak doesn’t say this is good or bad, what if?, there isn’t any judgment by Simak on all this dithering, what killed the alien?, why did it die?, one point in the book, it was given, not ruinous to the book, supposed to be engimatic, when you read Clarke stuff, what the hell are these things, if you read the script, interact with the black things, things change for humans or prehumans, there is no narrator, my god it’s full of stars, when we’re with the regular people following along very closely, that’s not so important?, the classic of science fiction, it doesn’t kick you in the guts or in the pants, not so important, we put an awful lot of stock in this leadership and politics, the people are handling things just fine, competent people, bank holiday, shut down trade, chill out for a minute, when they get together in their evil cabals, their regular meetings, turn the economy off, to stop the spread, invited to the meetings, not my mom and pop, devastating effects, what meet call the economy, when you lose your restaurant that just makes more room for banks, a nice analogy, different technology, it’s dead on, it’s not North America, it’s the Earth, the War of the World, the conquest of Mexico, wars involved, Evan Lampe and Will Emmons, there’s no wars invovled, it’s really odd, some Europeans were granted every piece of land that drained into Hudson’s Fur, do you have an furs?, I have these pots and pans, the forts were to protect them from having the good stolen, you have trade, 54 40 or fight, we are stockholders, roll it all out, one big Canada, this colony in Red River, fill this right up, asleep for 60 years, what happened to the indians, instant things that start changing when you can get free stuff, the Hudson’s Bay Company, why this book is good, the consequences are unpredictable, “visitors”, again Clarke, Childhood’s End, no cancer anymore, a good economy, but you can’t look at it, we need your children, the fundamental earth shattering change, the gentle invaders, sumthin huge, destroy the status quo, better or worse, leading to optimism, rare, modern science fiction, Children Of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, humanity is way out there, still fightin each other, the same systems we have created throughout history, they all fail, not do those things, communist!?, a society based on insects, they’re different, very cool, depending on the insect, her plan was to take some monkeys on a terraformed planet, assist the evolution of these beings, the monkeys died, the spiders got it, knock on the door and there’s a spider there, clearly very different, really really tremendous, 21st century science fiction that isn’t terrible, Shroud, a trilogy, and a fourth book, Children Of Ruin, sometimes rarely sequels can be good, but The Two Towers was good, one big book, the first part of the serialization, Biolog, talk about the author. J.K. Kline, 1 pg biography of Simak, 75 years ago, married for 50 years, 32 year books to his credit, Cliff[ord D. Simak] was raised in a country atmosphere, rode a horse to his high school, graduated second in his class, the horse graduated first, Minneapolis, retired reporter, an avid reader of the available science fiction, 1927, 1931, the editor’s peculiar habits of delay, World Of The Red Sun, Astounding Stories, Analog, you don’t mention the competition, on another network, Hellhounds Of The Cosmos, modern era title, Rule 18, City, Huddling Place, and Clerical Error, Horrible Example, The Big Front Yard, the surest sign, not a writer for money, you can feel it, I tackled westerns at a time I had a writer’s block for science fiction, disgusted with myself for writing them, he loves it, talking with Cirsova on twitter, these are his Oz book, a dog that’s a robot, off to see the wizard, it’s where he lives, it’s where he’s captured, Heinlein did that too, John Carter of Mars and Oz stuff, got in them early, staying young, doesn’t feel mature exactly, he’s tired, the guy off fishing, even the editor are the young Simak, a guy sitting in a room making decisions, another time he wrote for money, Destiny Doll/Reality Doll, trim this down, give us back the money we paid this for it, to underline, horrified, authors can, Smith Of Wootton Major is Tolkien’s greatest work!, not actually sinful, doing a disservice to his readers, not being true to the thing, a fine-line, written under a pseudonym, a magazine of only one author, a deceptive practice, sometimes the reason, picking it up for the first time, who to read, when one picked up, looking at those names, maybe one of those would be good, the game of reading, I read him before you did, I knew Harlan Ellison before you were born, follow that person’s career, a lot of people who amount to nothing, that possibility of finding a new great…, some doofus on twitter, there aren’t even 1000 great books of Fantasy, how many books they read this year, six really short story is more productive than reading 1 of the same length, the reason we number these podcast, for the file directory, you don’t want to miss one maybe, when podcasting first started, podcasting now mostly refers to videos, some of them are both, read some of the names of the episodes, having all the numbers is misunderstanding what the game is, even ranking, is this best Simak novel?, where’m I gonna place it, juggling them up and down the charts, definitely a good book, boring parts with people who don’t or shouldn’t matter, thrilled to do it, nice little site that someone put together: https://www.simak-bibliography.com, at this point, more to look forward to, plenty, before Project Pope, good ideas, Highway Of Eternity, Where The Evil Dwells, Michael Whelan cover, a girl who knew too much, an Oz book, a Destiny Doll kind of a book, he’s got those modes, road trip ones, non-road trip ones, The Fisherman, comin up, Shakespeare’s Planet, Madeleine L’Engle, unicorns and time travel, a report card, sounds right, Fellowship Of The Talisman, full fantasy mode, Enchanted Pilgrimage, a nice cover, we got to do these before we go the way of Shaun Standfast, a good life well lead, got to read all the Simaks, the one you were saving, wait wait I have one more!, the tragedy, next for us: Ring Around The Sun, thank you sir, on twitter, a post about Star Trek, a retweet by Jesse, something to the effect of, a review of Deep Space 9, Red Letter Media, 2 guys talking about an old tv show was more popular, they probably exist, the same people, how those economics work, a lot of fakery going on, what expensive fakery, the juggling act has been going on for a long time, Star Trek Discovery, Strange New Worlds, more tolerant of it, a Star Trek babies show, Starfleet Academy, whoever that is, stuck at home, stuck in their family nest, exciting and enjoyable, people who are a little older, mostly fake, Bruce Springsteen and Obama had a podcast, it’s fake, it’s real, there’s no demand for it, all sorts of different kinds of fake, they’re just wrong, in this book, we find money scarce, two incomes, more expenses, money is fake, for us it is scarce, in the “elites”, for example, influences, funny sad and scary, financed by billionaires, make people do things by using problems, a plumbing problem, things are like this, things are not like that, “bounties”, this set of words and certain number of hits, $5k or $7k, this private groups, through cut-outs, get people to say things for money, artificially inflated, having your numbers be high, a streamer, lots of voices with no actual human support, true for things other than politics, is it a genocide or not a genocide, fake things all over the place, the aliens know what they’re doing, a little digression there at the end.

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors by Clifford D. Simak

The Visitors [to Christina's World]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #886 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Ablest Man In The World by Edward Page Mitchell and The Man That Used Up by Edgar Allan Poe

The SFFaudio Podcast #886 – The Ablest Man In The World by Edward Page Mitchell (38) and The Man That Used Up by Edgar Allan Poe (24 minutes) – both read by Tommy Patrick Ryan, followed by a discussion. Participants in the discussion include Jesse and Tommy Patrick Ryan

Talked about on today’s show:
2 stories, The New York Sun, 1879, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, 1839, a 40 year difference, will have listened if they’re going to, cyborg, not a novel, not a book, people say that, what’s so fun about reading and hearing people’s reviews of The Man That Was Used Up they are in the story, lots of fun, in the Poe, a bit of a broken record, they’re programmed, speeding up more and more, firebrand, clever of Poe, scan through those words again, The Tempest, very boring infodumps, did it with voices, with names, read books, the use of the n word, negro, you don’t understand, if that’s your tripwire you’re not in twice, the other n word, not in there, if you edited that out that’s really bad, it is there!, you’re a bad person, bosom said I scalping is a rough process, Pompey, Del Ormes, “Now, you nigger, my teeth!”, it being in the literature, comfortable, necessary, to be faitful, it’s okay for Huck Finn to do it, the one time, part of what’s happening, Elijah Wood, where the Duke and the Dauphin, if they’re this then I’m a that word, totally said the word, epithets, down to the bottom of the text, D-N the vagabonds said he, who wrote that?, the character, “D—n the vagabonds!”, The Rats In The Walls, Wayne June, didn’t know it was in the story, so important to keep it in, words like that, don’t want to say it, so much hate in it, integral to the story, demonstrating, other and reduce the humanity of black people, natural to call them that, Twain is anti-racist, Poe is not, H.P. Lovecraft, Poe would have fought on the Southern side, lived in the North, not for the right for men to own slaves, Poe is a super-weird guy, the puzzle piece that was missing, a question on twitter, it was the answer, The Cask Of Amontillado, exemplifies, a less stripped down Tell-Tale Heart, almost no context, names and dates, the old man is his father, the old man, the narrator is crazy, based on metadata, not quick to disagree, a curious little scene, are you of the brotherhood?, give me a sign, removes a trowel from his pocket, a gesticulation, I am a Mason, a secret society thing, active in this period, more than a little, this story is really angry, mysteries encoded in, hiding things in the stories, makes it rich, took him in as a ward, Poe’s adopted dad was a Mason, abusive to his adopted mom, traveled to Europe together, the wealthiest man, left Poe nothing, trynna reconcile, cheating, left the bastard children money, the one chosen child, we don’t have access to John Allan’s mind, a revenge story, a personal revenge story, joined the army, went to West Point, about a military man, how would we prove that Poe would have joined the south, more than just slavery, boil it down to slavery, think about H.P. Lovecraft, wanted to join WWI, applied and accepted and his mom got it scotched, makes no sense, athletic and imposing, a good walker, it wasn’t about athleticism, it was about being a man, what if this story if not about being a man, they are very similar men, 1000% percent, caught up, lose track, in common with both of them, Pompey, the black valet, Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, second richest man, Crassus, private army guys, triumvirate with Caesar, the colour of the man who’s used up hair, black, it has no colour, black is all the colours, his whiskers, also black, oh that’s Poe, a black mustache, black hair, in the black and white photographs, Brutus, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, the evil that men do, et tu Brute, the one word to describe Brutus, his dash word, Dante’s Inferno, a traitor, the argument that they’re trying to keep the Republic, in both stories, his scientist creator, engineer-watchmaker, extracts a promise, how do we get this story?, he kills him, and then we get the story, one way of keeping the secret, a betrayal, literally murders robot men, talking about it, in the context, something to pair, cyborg or whatever, the original cyborg story, of the two which one is the cyborg story?, partially cybernetic, partially person, seems to still retained his original consciousness, brain dead, a mechanical brain in him, a human with a computer brain, still a computer, just not called that, where’s the cy-part?, where’s the borg part, a guy with a toupe is a cyborg, a hearing aid, cochlear implant, not human anymore, t-800, Robert Patrick t-1000 is not a cyborg at all, breaks the rules for time-travel, like the Bionic Man, Cyberpunk 2077, Neuromancer, Robocop, mechanical elements built into the body, mechanical components, what is ultimately the story?, a really good sense of humour, they’re supposed to be funny, wry smile funny, wears glasses, what really is going on?, unpopular channels, talking about books, no that’s wrong, the man THAT not WHO, he’s not a man anymore, he was used up, argument, doesn’t have any humanity left, where is his consciousness coming from, he/it seems to be self-aware, really just a robot, robot brain in a human body, W.C. Morrow, The Surgeon’s Experiment, finds a monster in the house, a man who’s had his head removed, a feeding tube in the neck, glandular excretions, a super-muscleman, no eyes, no ears, weird facts about the 20th century, Mike The Headless Chicken, ran off but didn’t die, a sensation, a roadshow, still roost, some success, chopped a lot of chicken heads off, what makes a man a man, asking that, man in the title, theoretically about cyborgs, really bad eyesight, a satire, the reputation of a man, what that man is actually like, he’s an assemblage, it starts with his name, the last sentence, kind of a joke story, going in, an artificial element, if you didn’t know, you might not have known, wires, pulleys, a heap, pushes away with his foot, explicitly mentioned, that heap is talking, our readers in 1839, twist endings for a joke, not a ha ha joke, this is a truth, an aspect of a joke, Brevet Brigadier General John A.B.C. Smith, 1 start general, he’s not, a brevet captain is not a captain, because of respect, interject, adhd perking up, Hamlet, as brevity is the soul of with I shall be brief, he’s aware the words are related, that’s not brevity, that’s the joke, Polonius is a doofus, proceeds to talk uninterrupted, his advice, he’s stupid, a pompous fool, not the greatest investigator, where or how, coulda been a major, the yellow hair who George Armstrong Custer, they promote, they call him a general to puff him up, John Smith, what his actual name, who is the doctor, John Doe, middle initials, A. B. C., E.A. Poe or Edgar A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, the fashion of the time, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, T.P. Ryan, Tommy P. Ryan, every part of his name is fake, if this story was set in the 20th century, this would be a Kardashian, a lot of work done, personality is fake, the music is fake, wearing make up, about being a man, a man is a man is a man, the shape of his legs, a really good set of shoulders, a shoulder connoisseur, I know what good shoulders look like, Tacitus, the received pronunciation, Warhammer 40,000 related, while the Kickapoos are real the bugaboos are not, the thing every body is afraid to say, a fake man, fake received opinions, supercuts, safe and effective, newsreaders paid to read ads, he’s this he’s that, the newspapers, a puffed up man, a puddle on the floor, the remains of all the things that was taking from him, scalped, leg shot off, the elephant that’s standing on him, he was used up, ship of Theseus as a man, bugbear, boogeyman, boggart, use over time, just before 1900, 1950, copies of Poe, almost created this word, popularized it, when we look at it, all the thing that Poe is laying down, reviews of Poe, contemporary reviews, a lot of reviewers were getting what he was laying down, resented it, [Our Opinions Are Correct], ‘Poe is third rate’ is this jealousy or stupidity?, super-ignorant, his nova, his explosion, The Pit And The Pendulum, Hop-Frog, as a kid, conventions or rules, pedestrian with the language, well written, once, twice, remember, spectacular, fascinating, he has a thing for orangutans, his poetry, The Raven, Annabelle Lee, Eric [S. Rabkin], more to say, hidden stuff in everything, wait 20 years, read it again, read it again, extracting things, one of his humour pieces, not your everday fare, they’re kinda bitter, doing his best, what happened to this man?, served his country, used up every little bit of him, puffery, in use to describe, grade inflation, mediocre and shitty, our country has never been better, bullshit, this is that phenomenon, with stocks, not self, you do it to your peers so they do it to you, what the fuck?, toss that off at the end, hatin on Lovecraft, a throwaway, trying to make Jesse angry for no reason?, you don’t need to read anything past ten years ago, read contemporary people to do puffery, scratch my back, you can’t say it then everybody would know, log rolling, something that people do, we told them they would, this immoral, super-common, a fake election, it’s not what you know it’s who you know, so angry at his fake dad, rejected by the masons, parents were actors, a lot of shit is fake, get a job, enlisteds, buy your way out, I’m going to be an officer, I can outrace you, I can outswim you, gunnery shit, the calculation shit, mixing the gunpowder, this is also not me, I’m better than this, I’m going to make myself the first wage earning writer in the United States, without the nepotism, what is a man?, puffed up generals, took an injury, a pathetic asshole who doesn’t know shit, not what’s going on in the other story, we need to talk about the Mitchell, a tendency, umbrage, your telling me the earth is hollow, okay maybe, Poe is not a good writer?, jealousy, articulate, a lot of the greats, take the time to see what’s in there, more people probably dislike Shakespeare, as an English major as an actor, puns and wordplay, the Hamnet movie, being at odds, the push and pull, the complete works of Shakespeare, being forced to read Shakespeare in high school, travel to other places, other languages, to speak Spanish, they feel stupid, read my novel and my friend’s novel, their stuff sucks, willing to entertain Hollow Earth theories, second rate, third rate!?, one of the best, how does he stack up, these are not the same story, The Ablest Man In The World, really fun, Arnold Schwarzenegger accent: *take the brain out of der! throw it in the Atlantic*, hints of it, the Swiss guy was on point, the valet, Auguste was a French man, another Caesar, an outline of the story, the same hotel room, my master needs help, doctor professor, anybody who wears glasses, the connection, carrying a nice handbag, so hard to see, read more, the artificial title, these stories run along similar lines, very famous, a baron, not a baron, fake name, administers some bourbon, whiskey from Kentucky, medicine, not a doctor, a reaction that’s positive in some way, screw my head off, a “deceptive wig”, so good?, some other kind of deception, pressure on his brain, messes up the lubrication of the gears, why was he sick in the first place, examine a little more closely, better than plot happens, the inventor caretaker, stop touching his head, a payment of two gold coins, on a parapet, kicks the ladders down, wants to force the interview, kick the ladder down after you, so nobody else can climb up, good writing, making a metaphor, the backstory, some sort of autist, abandoned by his parents, doesn’t speak, can sniff a little, can taste a little, calls out Charles Babbage, 19th century mechanical computer, IBM Hollerith machines, the most caparable man in all the Russias, Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother, he is going to become a Napoleon, the domination of two continents, removing his brain, Kentucky bourbon, to his wife: thrown the man overboard, Mycroft Holmes, saved two continents, look how goddamn smart Edward Page Mitchell is, smart things, having fun, there is something about being smart, being smart as a man is, this stupid part of being a man, continuously making the same mistake, taking alcohol when he shouldn’t, dating girls, the baron, not drink the bourbon again, the maid said oh go on so he did, a girl’s whim, not very fucking smart, inventing a mechanical brained man, getting away with it, a comedy piece, we can take it seriously, having a crutch is making your a cyborg, men become Napoleon, the descriptor, the infodump section, on the precipice, Napoleon wasn’t ten times higher than every other man, look at what he did, a Star Trek episode for this, Spock’s Brain, Spock was always robotic and inhuman, because of a kind of discipline, he’s vegan, operates only on logic, unlike Data, an improved man, more ordered, he’s a stoic, along those lines, riding through the emotions, slightly different, Spock’s mom is her name, full Vulcan and really emotionless, overcompensates, the Worf story too, half-space-elf, even more cut-off from his emotions, more Klingon than the klingons, hey this is fun to be a klingon, all the Star Trek memes are fun, Professor Rapperschwill, Professor Dumbkopf, we respect these guys, a fun and funny story, I’m not an expert on anything unless it were poker, an American overseas, called for it, nothing to drink over hear, my wife wants to hang out with the barons and the dukes, the titles are important, very simple guy, if you don’t do this, he bluffs him, the winner of this contest to save the world, the ablest man in the world’s brain, a big joke, a smart quick and wise man, Poe is the guy who constantly has this battle with alcohol, rumors, really really smart, unappreciative of that, make your feelings change, take drugs, works fast, cheap, available on every corner, The Angel Of The Odd, The Black Cat, alcohol in Poe’s life, a factor in his death, what’s he doing in this, the smartest man in the world, can speak many languages, he tricked the British, he flustered the French, easily tricked by a pretty girl, a supercompetent man, what makes you able, disabled real fast, the lifting of the wrist, what makes you able, what’s hidden in this story, the monster who’s the professor, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, in the tradition, conceived in Switzerland, a ghost contest, Dr. Poliodori, Lord Byron, innovative, sardonic sense of humour, not a light and fluffy story, neither of them, doesn’t dwell on child abuse, and murder, what is your reaction to finding out that most people are super stupid, investigate for uourself, regular smart american, Connecticut Yankee, studied engineering, a blacksmith, knows how to make stuff, telegraphs and printing presses, invest my money, printing is going to be huge!, all the right answers, the point of the second story, pretty hard reach, really not seeing what is being laid down over and over again, what really matters, as smart as this guy can be, even the robot, literally has somebody has access to this very treasure, calculator brain, certain ways of looking at it, alcohol and women, the dumbest shit, as a man, men are different from women, men think of themselves as disposable in a way men don’t think women are, property, in that time, often though of as ways to cement marriages, the patriarchy, the way of the world at the time of these stories, treating women as inferior, not the focus of either of these stories, about being a man, one is like what is a man, a man is Napoleon, a war hero, not getting your body parts shot off, immense pressure to go off and join the war, roving gangs of girls pinning chicken feathers on them, the meatgrinder, cute and fun and a way to meet boys, volunteers instead of conscripted guys, girls have power over men that’s hard to quantify, your not a man, a sense of yourself as a man, war hero, he was used by the government, they rewarded him with all these honors, all fake, lost all his body parts, kind of an asshole racist who needs help to have himself assembled every morning, there’s a big gap between them, model of a man, current congressperson, eyepatch, fell into the trap, now I’m a war hero, this is fake, everybody says about, brought into themselves, now regurgitate, Michael Jackson, and afterwards, they were all saying the exact same things, the narrative created around it, take stuff in and regurgitating is not being a man, investigating, hero protagonists are just regular men, the reality is not what they thought it was, saving us from a Napoleon, saving us from a certain kind of body modification stuff, reading that much into it, not the title characters, the investigators in both cases, in the Poe, to tell us what’s going on, doesn’t take a lot agency in the story, why is he doing that?, whenever you start investigating things on your own, Poe is a third rate writer so I don’t have to read Poe, Desultory Notes On Cats, these incredible stories, the contrast, both the source of the narrative, doesn’t really effect the narrative, takes an active role of agency, blackmailing the guy, hinting he knows more than he does or saw, get the guy’s brain out, even silly to say more than it’s fun, ridiculous premise, ridiculous conclusion, worldbuilding, the Poe is a little more cagey, learn it at the end, the repetitive nature, a true desperado, something is going on, how beautiful his bust, we learn early that there’s something, he is in fact, he has a computer brain, the Mitchell, more realisticly a cyborg, more science fiction, what would it mean, did he kill that boy long ago?, wasn’t much of a boy, fits into a really good tradition in science fiction, Flowers For Algernon, a dumb guy gets uplifted, becomes lonely, heavy lies the head that wears the crown, Understand by Ted Chiang, oxygen deprivation, see patterns, Limitless (2011), Stranger things, Fallout, Pluribus is the way to go bro, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, makes me think, A Picture Of Dorian Gray, what do you do with a monster like that?, the prequel sequel series is even better, Ted Lasso, something of a sports fan, what’s cool, their invasion is quite different, meaning, its smart, is it for or against it?, it’s complex, tried it, want to believe it is healthy, affected, rna sequence, transmission from outer space, telepathic, peace on earth, they don’t kill anymore, indeed, how do they eat, if the apple falls from the tree by wind, when you get focused on ideology, missing pictures, lots of places where there’s no evil, no an evil thing ever happens on Mars, also no good things happen on Mars, Satan’s world, we live in a fallen world, we suffer through it, more modern in aspect, holy books, veganism is a way to make the world a better place, cheaters, breatharianism, water once in a while, our bodies need food, eating living things, watch it dialogue free, have things happening, a confirmation of what you’re inferring, shows that are designed to do that, opposite in this, working on an art project, the only thing, write in my journal, the correct way to be, probably making a mistake, aesthetic judgements, through argument, which is the better story here?, of these two, excellent stories, in terms of being entertaining, clever wordplay, an actual plot and a message, the condition, flip them both ways, partially articulated it, wordplay, we have this, reveals that the technology exists, a clump on the floor, this guy and this technology, a change in the world, even more power in the world, why does he do that?, threatened by him, can’t take either one seriously enough to make an argument that strong, cartoons, some level of empathy, Wile E. Coyote, our guy is worried, hyper-intelligence, it’s not even him it’s the professor, if this guy were this smart and doing all these things with a regular human brain would he have tried to kill him, in a certain sense, his body, the baron is dead, the child that was the guy, our narrator is okay with it, I didn’t kill this guy, threw him overboard, a scream, maybe it was the seagull, our narrator, make all these political changes, poisoned or stabbed him today, feel justified, the reason it is not murder, so cartoonish, so light, done funnily, done for serious, horrible and scary things in it, a light touch upon his arm, Ms Ward, bless me, to save the girl from a marriage to a robot, how white you are, it has effected him, saving your peace of mind, how have you done that, too droll, the reaction, why these stories exist as they do, laughter is the consolation for the pain of reality, bad marks in school, people who seem to not have a sense of humour, in order for humor to happen, that’s not fair, humorous, a humorous person, a good laugh out of funny and terrible situations, gallows humour, reacting in a way that’s a coping mechanism, being a man, to be aware, he’s amazing, a little rundown, The Crystal Man, an invisible man story, decades before Wells, a time travel story, The Man Without A Body, transports himself across town, fairly funny stories, The Tachypomp, faster than light, infinite speed, building up on argument, infinite speed, super innovative, legit science fiction stuff, that H.G. Wells does later, after Poe, aware of Poe, published anonymously in his own newspaper, not magazines or books, you’ll never see it again, these are all by him, supergenius stories, thinking all about science, if this goes on, it doesn’t feel like one because it is so funny, The Senator’s Daughter, California, Boston, New York, vacuum tube transport all over North America, Chinese in love with a white girl, Chinese Vegetarian Party, he’s in love with this girl the father is racist, Boston, all in the course of an evening, marriage laws, still racist, a cryogenic chamber, wait until her father dies, fluffily written, before electricity is a bill thing, why is his reaction to be droll?, a coping mechanism, the world is kinda stupid, stick in these monkey bodies, don’t meet your heroes, makeup and fake boobs, that’s James Cameron, a television show called Intelligence, references it, secret agent with a computer in his brain, Bionic Man but shitty, if there’s a reference there, embracing the government or progress, smile wryly, heavy, they’re not identical, 37 minutes, 24 minutes, 1 hour of listening, one from Weird Tales, March 1923, Ooze, Francis Stevens, a blob story, The Stuff (1985), media savvy, bowels of Holly, Alex (pulpcovers), Die Hard (1988), The Terminator and Predator, summer of 1991, a Christmas movie, that’s the joke, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), what is a Christmas movie?, set in Christmas, visited by an angel (instead of 3 ghosts), Back To The Future II, Scrooged with Bill Murray, is Groundhog Day a Groundhog Day movie?, The Fellowship leaves Rivendale on December 25th, the other camp, days are shorter, nesting feeling, not go outside, any movie is a Christmas movie [at Christmas], themed to the season, can you put pineapple on pizza, actually it is quite good, everywhere that isn’t pizza, on the ham, that’s fine, by itself, with other fruits, mango, the greatest of all fruits, the pizza is improved, pepperoni, jalapeno, this is important, aesthetics are about making arguments, the mouthfeel of, into your body, literal taste, coffee is a thing that is bad until you like it, smells bad, it is bitter, now it tastes good, you came to appreciate it, the drug that’s in it, nobody really likes the taste of alcohol, when babies are born they like ice cream right away, no acquired taste, levels of sophistication, grok what Poe is laying down, reject Poe, never be able to reach that level, comparing my stuff to him, don’t look over there, that’ll make me look bad, take my word bro, can’t be generous enough, that would be pathetic, not intellectually capable, you grow into, as you get older sweets become less and less interesting, tiger ice cream (orange and licorice), way too sweet, eat this eat this, very undercooked, grown into this man’s body, all over him, a handler he maybe sorta doesn’t know about, a Rashomon sort of thing, a confection of brilliance, awed at the floor show, really early ideas, electricity is mentioned, the part of him that’s not the cerebral part, what triggered the sickness, dashed this off, what a dasher, a sparkling little story of brilliance, Sunfire is her last story, the 5th time, stack em, prereading, ooh wow cool, mountain of stuff, Red Dwarf, the reboot, seeing DVDs of their own show, lived in a world where they were famous, really solid after the 2nd season, pretty entertained by it, hang out in nature, play music, one of the next ones, editing this up in 6 months, no LibriVox version, a lot that don’t, a little more work for them, ultimately you’ll be more longer distributed, more widely distributed, weird restrictions, more exposure, lead to something, how much time I’m putting into it, strict with regard to sources, if not on Gutenberg, it hasn’t been processed, making PDFs, some audiobooks, 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut, a very solid novel, Goblin Feet by J.R.R. Tolkien, Seuss is noice, Scrambled Eggs Super, a nature place, Eric S. Rabkin, how that word should be pronounced, realistic to know, full disclosure, not a paid project, more or less in one take, you a thousand times over any kind of robot, you can make the robots better, they have no consciousness of what your doing, funny and fun, shouldn’t he have the same accent as the hero character?, able to do everything, super-competent, so few opportunities, a lot of the best narrators, slight modifications, straight narrators and performers, if a shitty performer, if you can’t do a voice, go too far with him, Bronson Pinchot, it’s all in the guy’s head, a cast off line from chapter 18, making it harder to access, a performance is good, an audiobook is transformation from the text on the page into a person’s brain, George Guidall, Scott Brick, Tom Parker, Grover Gardner, audiobook narrators have pseudonyms, recording for other companies, we have robots we don’t need them, fun to talk to you about these things, invested, share, the McCaffrey and Philip K. Dick, Prize Ship, pairing really helps too, the length of the stories, how am I spending my time, references and things, a little bit too twee, “excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental”, everything is a reference, a huge problem with nostalgia, unpopular as an idea, funko pops, memberberries, valuable as an idea, set in a period, Ready Player One, the book was better, trying to make me like it, being manipulated, designed to manipulate, heavy on reference, how Star Trek is connected to The Tempest, oh it is The Tempest, seems evil, playing MacBeth, his daughter!, space Hitler, space Stalin, Patrick Stewart loves Shakespeare, getting rid of Trotsky, modernized, it was good, Ian McKellen on stage doing Richard III, is Stalin a Christian?, the dagger scene, kludgy push, agree to disagree, Marc Singer, The Beastmaster (1982), The Taming Of The Shrew, very grainy video, Commedia dell’arte, Kate meets Petruchio scene, wringing, the stage directions, exit, from within, the words of the characters, a fuckton of work, willing to do the work, as a last bit, the period Shakespeare the best, reveals its timeless nature, really well and really poorly, if that’s your fifth time watching the play, Romeo and Juliet set in Mexico as an introduction, hard for kids to relate to, a fair actor herself, a huge project, Shakespearean chops, wring every last bit of juice from it, the more I study Shakespeare, appreciate what he does, he was an actor, so meta, the man for all seasons, a genius, insane, you are a liar and fool if you think that is a thing, having trouble, parents want to watch Yes, Minister, on point and sharp, great dialogue, Scooby Doo and his friend eat dog treats, the kiss me Kate scene, 1976, not not a big deal, equal representation for women, good writing, super innovative, she’s got spark, almost everything we read about Francis Stevens is lies, that’s not her name, she had many names, forget about the representation, has this person got something for us?, hell yeah!, The Elf Trap, not science fiction, not fantasy, a valance of both, either way it is supergenius, she has a Lovecraft story before Lovecraft wrote it, it seems to be anti-racist, Dark Fantasy isn’t really a thing, pushed it a lot, subconsciously, it keeps coming up, talking for 3 hours, The Outfit by Richard Stark, Claimed by Francis Stevens, Lynne Foster Is Dead by Seabury Quinn, Sartor Resartus, Stragella by Hugh B. Cave, Val Lewton, Clark Ashton Smith, A. Merritt, The Trap by Henry S. Whitehead, With The Night Mail, 30 some items, dud, a piece of crap, in comparison, Sheckley is amazing, a rip-off of a Robert Sheckley story, Seventh Victim, spark and explode and think and laugh, we can be done, not the right show, today we’re not reading short and deep, favourite teacher, consider a good friend and care about deeply, time to wrap it up.

Posted by Jesse Willis