Stingray

As I was writing about evil undersea cities and civilisations in AEG and the Urth Cycle, one part of my mind facetiously wandered and wondered whether Gene Wolfe had ever watched the Gerry Anderson puppet show "Stingray" in the 1960s. As I thought whimsically about it, the parallels scattered through his books became stronger and stranger. Was Seawrack inspired by Marina? Was the idea of the US Navy attacking the Storm God inspired by the sight of Troy Tempest and the WASPs attacking Titan and his aquaphibian minions? No, of course not, it's a silly idea. It's not as if Wolfe ever refers to puppetry in his stories. Hang on there, wait a minute... What about that dream Severian has of the toy theatre and the marionette versions of himself and Baldander? Goodness! If I'm right, anything can happen in the next half hour... Nigel (in a playful mood)

Weird but true: Gerry Anderson and Ray Harryhausen were both speakers at the 1987 WorldCon in Brighton, England, which Gene and Rosemary Wolfe also attended. Did Wolfe hear Gerry Anderson talk about his work? Then again, for anyone interested in creating submarine squid deities, Harryhausen's amusing account of animating the six-limbed giant octopus in "It came from beneath the sea" might well have been inspirational. (The octopus only had six limbs because Harryhausen was on a tight budget and an even tighter timetable. Animating extra limbs takes time, and time is money!) Nigel (who is trying to write a serious analysis of AEG - coming soon - but keeps getting distracted by whimsical notions)

In The Book of the Short Sun, Horn remembers the following from his childhood: "I once had a toy, a little wooden man in a blue coat who was moved by strings. When I played with him, I made him walk and bow, and spoke for him. I practiced until I thought myself very clever. One day I saw my mother holding the two sticks that held his strings, and my little wooden man saluting my youngest sister much more cleverly than I could have made him do it, and laughing with his head thrown back, then mourning with his face in his hands. I never spoke of it to my mother, but I was angry and ashamed." On Blue's Waters, pg. 158 Soon he after he was assaulted by the triple-jawed leatherskin---an obvious reference to Pinnochio's Dog-fish. J.

Thanks for that, James. I'd forgotten about that marionette reference in OBW. There's the story "The Toy Theater" in TIoDDaOSaOS too. That's all about marionettes. I started this thread as a sort of joke on myself, but now I'm really beginning to wonder! Nigel

And "Strange Birds" from the chapbook of the same name. Have we ever discussed those two stories here? I thought they were pretty good, but I'm not sure how many people actually ordered the chapbook. Well at least Mr. Gevers read it: http://slaughterhousestudios.blogspot.com/2006/05/strange-birds-indeed.html Minor spoiler - - - - - - - - - "Strange Birds" actually features the return of Stromboli [sic?] from "The Toy Theater". I guess Wolfe does have a thing for puppets and puppeteers. -Matt

I dug those shows, but need to see them again because I can barely remember them. Never got around to renting them when I lived across from Le Video, who had all that stuff. I haven't read AEG or much Lovecraft, but did anyone see that "Call of Cthulu" silent film that was made recently? It was very good up until the monster showed up, then the whole film went POP. How can a movie get everything pretty good, then fail on the most important part? Seriously disapointing.

I haven't seen it, but one could argue the novella suffers the same flaw. Well, most of Lovecraft does. The reveal is much less scary than the build-up, most of the time. There are of course exceptions. "The Color Out of Space" and "The Dreams In the Witch-House" are two exceptions that leap to my mind. Adam

The Rats in the Walls as well.

I hear you. that's what I felt when I read it so long ago. but nonetheless, a movie has an opportunity to deliver something here. Less would have been more even. but a crude, poorly lit stop motion puppet that looks about 2 feet tall... nah.

I picked up the HPL Necronomicon compendium recently. Figured I'd start with these recommendations as I've heard them mentioned as standouts before.

Well, the slight charm of "Call of Cthulu" lay in pretending that it was made during the silent era, miniscule budget, duff special effects, semaphore acting, and all. IMHO, it worked quite well as such. 2008/11/4 Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>

Aw, you're just saying that because my name's Thornton. Adam

you're making me homesick...I live a block away from Le video and they do rule.. ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Tue, 11/4/08, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

I dug those shows, but need to see them again because I can barely remember them. Never got around to renting them when I lived across from Le Video, who had all that stuff. I haven't read AEG or much Lovecraft, but did anyone see that "Call of Cthulu" silent film that was made recently? It was very good up until the monster showed up, then the whole film went POP. How can a movie get everything pretty good, then fail on the most important part? Seriously disapointing.

I miss living there so much. The Le Video owner was my landlord. But when they closed their other biz, Stamp Francisco, right below us, an Aerobics Studio opened up. They promised it would be quite yoga classes, but every day, all day you could hear techno music pounding through the walls. Gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch, etc. and you'd be on the toilet and hear the spinning instructor yelling "3 - 4 you can do it. 5-6 don't stop now. A little harder now" Argh. we fought them for 4 months then finally bailed on that scene. That lovely apartment sat empty for at least a year before someone was willing to live with that noise. Finally, the studio closed and it's a quiet stationary shop now. I LOVED living there, but I spent too much money on all the tempting restaurants. and there used to be at least 3 used book shops in a 2 block radius. dangerous

And of course At the Mountains of Madness. I haven't got around to reading John Long Mountains of Madness: A Scientist's Odyssey in Antarctica, where he traverses the same lat/long in the Transantarctic Mountains ;)

tell me about it..Ebisu, Naan and Curry...Gordos...La Avenida.. Arizmendi...2 beanries...Black Oak books recently closed as did PJ's (awful cajun...) can"t wait to finish this tour next Saturday at the Warfield and be home for a while,...I haven't even been to the re-opened Academy of Sciences.. ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Tue, 11/4/08, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

I miss living there so much. The Le Video owner was my landlord. But when they closed their other biz, Stamp Francisco, right below us, an Aerobics Studio opened up. They promised it would be quite yoga classes, but every day, all day you could hear techno music pounding through the walls. Gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch gung ch, etc. and you'd be on the toilet and hear the spinning instructor yelling "3 - 4 you can do it. 5-6 don't stop now. A little harder now" Argh. we fought them for 4 months then finally bailed on that scene. That lovely apartment sat empty for at least a year before someone was willing to live with that noise. Finally, the studio closed and it's a quiet stationary shop now. I LOVED living there, but I spent too much money on all the tempting restaurants. and there used to be at least 3 used book shops in a 2 block radius. dangerous

oh man. now i'm hungry,, and I just ate. PJ's; can't say I'll miss it, but now Black Oak Books as well. cripes. People don't like old books anymore or something? I forgot Warfield is open again. Seems like only yesterday several of my gullible friends bought 5 nights worth of overpriced tix for Phil Lesh "Last Warfield ever shows". What was that, like 3 months ago? serves em right for following Lesh around :P I'm looking forward to the Academy too. All reports are that its still jam packed. I'm gonna give it a few months.

I sure agree about that. but anything in der Golem or Nosferatu is scarier.

If we're talking old horror movies, has anyone seen Vampyr? Technically an early talkie, but there's not much in the way of dialogue. Highly recommended, and rather disturbing at times. It was a Criterion release this year, so you can watch a wonderful restored version. -Matt

I saw it in the weirdest possible way: performing a live improvised soundtrack to it. It seemed really good, but I'm not sure I can trust my opinion under the circumstances.

always meant to. in the queue.