The Last First Leatherstocking

5 September 2023 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Novel Tags: American Frontier, Bumppo, Cooperstown, D.H. Lawrence, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, Glimmerglass, Hawkeye, Historical Fiction, Iroquois, Leatherstocking Tales, Mark Twain, Mingos, Mohawks, Otsego Lake, Place of the Rock, Romantic Fiction, Scalping, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Spy, Wilkie Collins Leave a comment

The Deerslayer

By James Fenimore Cooper

Published by SMK Books

Original Publication Date: 1841

Biography:

James Fenimore Cooper died in 1851 at the age of 61 in Cooperstown, New York, a small town founded by his father, William Cooper in 1785. The city is located on the southern edge of Otsego Lake which means ‘Place of the Rock’ in the Mohawk language and Glimmerglass in his novel ‘The Deerslayer‘.

Cooper, the eleventh of twelve children, after his first birthday spent his pre-teen years in Cooperstown. He was enrolled at Yale University when he was thirteen and expelled for dangerous mischief at 16 without obtaining a degree. He crewed a merchant ship at the age of seventeen and sailed across the Atlantic to London and down along the Spanish coast into the Mediterranean. In 1808 he joined the U.S. Navy and spent the next two years serving aboard inland lake gunboats and preforming recruiting duties. He resigned his commission in the navy in 1810 for the lack of excitement. (In life where timing is everything, the British naval blockade of American trade during the war of 1812 may have provided Cooper with some needed excitement.) In 1811 he married a wealthy heiress, Susan Augusta de Lancey and settled down to life of leisure for the next decade.

In 1820, after ten years of dabbling in various occupations, more as hobbies rather than employment, he decided to take up writing, producing his first novel, a poor imitation of Jane Austin novels, ‘Precaution’ in the same year. His second novel ‘The Spy‘ was more successful and gave him a measure of fame and wealth, enough to encourage him to continue his pursuit as a novelist and writer.

His first ‘Leatherstocking’ novel. ‘The Pioneers‘ appeared in 1823 followed by the second ‘Leatherstocking’ novel, ‘The Last of the Mohicans‘ in 1826. ‘The Last of the Mohicans‘ is considered his greatest triumph as an author from the time it was written to the present day and has been adapted to film many times over the last one hundred years.

As a testament to his success as a writer, after two centuries almost all his fictional novels are still in print.

The Deerslayer:

‘The Deerslayer‘, first published in 1841, was the fifth and final volume of the ‘Leatherstocking‘ historical romantic novels by Cooper. In ‘The Deerslayer‘ the author brings the protagonist of the ‘Leatherstocking‘ series, Natty Bumppo, back from the future as a prequel to the first four novels. Running in the background to the story is the French and Indian Wars, setting the stage and providing context for the action and dialogue occurring on and around Otsego Lake known as Glimmerglass in the novel.

Natty, referred to by his nicknames Deerslayer and Hawkeye, is a young 17th century moralistic American frontiersman living and traveling among the Iroquoian Mohawks, in what is now known as central upstate New York. Deerslayer has a strong innate sense of right and wrong from a civilized Christian perspective which he continually attempts to square and bridge with the less polished cultural tenets of his Indian brothers. To avoid moral conflicts with his adopted tribal brothers he focuses on the good in the red and, with a nod to cultural sensitivity, he internally closets any interpretive bad in the red as inconsequential. Deerslayer though, takes a less compromising position with his white brethren; admonishing them for traits and behaviors that diverge from his Christian grounding in what is right.

Cooper reinforces the inherent conflicts between good and bad by creating good Indians, Mohawks, and bad Indians, Mingos. The noble, liberated savage versus the evil, fearsome savage. In the end the white and red dissipate and all that is left is the perpetual struggle between good and evil.

Layered on top of Deerslayer’s sententious inclinations is a romance played out between Natty and the beautiful daughter of his traveling companion’s friend: Judith. Judith is slowly drawn to Deerslayer’s inherent goodness while Natty remains committed to his frontiersman bachelor ways. Another gap for the Deerslayer to bridge but in this instance, fails.

Literary Criticism:

‘The Deerslayer‘ received much critical praise from the time of publication onward into the 20th century. Author D.H. Lawrence found the book “one of most beautiful and perfect books…” Critic Carl Van Doren called novel “as a whole absorbing.” Wilkie Collins, author, said “Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction yet produced in America.” Critic Lounsbury proclaimed that ‘The Pathfinder‘ and ‘The Deerslayer‘ “were pure works of art.”

Not all criticism was positive. Mark Twain supposedly found it dreadful and wrote ten pages explaining his thesis in the aptly titled: ‘Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses‘. As is his want and style, Twain’s account of Cooper’s offenses was exceptionally funny though I’m less than sure if he was serious in his criticisms or if he just saw an opening to throw a few well-constructed barbs to help pay the bills and meet contractual obligations. An excerpt from the opening to ‘Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses‘:

“Cooper’s art has some defects. In one place in ‘Deerslayer‘, and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks a record.

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in the domain of romantic fiction–some say twenty-two. In ‘Deerslayer‘ Cooper violated eighteen of them….”

Cooper is dead. Long live Cooper.

Bibliography – Fiction:

Precaution. Novel. 1820
The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground. Novel. 1821
The Pioneers; or The Sources of the Susquehanna. Leatherstocking Novel. 1823
Tales for Fifteen; or Imagination and Heart. Short Stories. 1823
The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea. Novel. 1824
Lionel Lincoln; or The Leaguer of Boston. Novel. 1825
The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757. Leatherstocking Novel. 1826
The Prairie. Leatherstocking Novel. 1827
The Red Rover: A Tale. Novel. 1828
The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale. Novel. 1829
The Water-Witch; or The Skimmer of the Seas. Novel. 1830
The Bravo: A Tale. Novel. 1831
The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine. Novel. 1832
No Steamboats. Short Story. 1832
The Headsman: The Abbaye des Vignerons. Novel. 1833
The Monikins. Novel. 1835
An Execution at Sea. Short Story. 1836 (Disputed authorship)
Homeward Bound; or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea. Novel. 1838
Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound. Novel. 1838
The Pathfinder; or Torland Sea. Leatherstocking Novel. 1840
Mercedes of Castile; or The Voyage to Cathay. Novel. 1840
The Deerslayer; or The First Warpath. Leatherstocking Novel. 1841
The Two Admirals. Novel. 1842
The Wing-and-Wing; or Le Feu-Follet. Novel. 1842
Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief. Novelette. 1843
Wyandotté; or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale. Novel. 1843
Afloat and Ashore; or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale. Novel. 1844
Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore. Novel. 1844
Satanstoe; or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony. Novel. 1845
The Chainbearer; or The Littlepage Manuscripts. Novel. 1845
The Redskins; or Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts. Novel. 1846
The Crater; or Vulcan’s Peak: A Tale of the Pacific (Mark’s Reef). Novel. 1847
1848 Jack Tier; or The Florida Reefs a.k.a. Captain Spike; or The Islets of the Gulf. Novel. 1848
The Oak Openings; or The Bee-Hunter. Novel. 1848
The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers. Novel. 1849
The Ways of the Hour. Novel. 1850
Upside Down; or Philosophy in Petticoats. Play. 1850
The Lake Gun. Short Story. 1851

References and Readings:

Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences & Is Shakespeare Dead? By Mark Twain. Benediction Classics. 2011
James Fenimore Cooper: Cooperstown’s Literary Ghost. By Victor A. Walsh. Literary Traveler. 2012
American Indians and White Frontier Settlers Alike Lifted Scalps for Payback and Profit. By Ron Soodalter. HistoryNet. 2017
Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
James Fenimore Cooper. By George G. Dekker. Britannica. No date
James Fenimore Cooper. Uncredited. American Literature. No date
Iroquoian Peoples. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Otsego Lake (New York). Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Studies in Classic American Literature. By D.H. Lawerence. American Literature. No date
The Coopers of Cooperstown: On View. Uncredited. Fenimore Art Museum. No date

The First Superhero

26 August 2023 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Poetry, Uncategorized Tags: Aga of Kish, Ancient Writings, Anu Ziggurat, Austen Henry Layard, Bhagavad Gita, Buddha, Byron Katie, Chrisitianity, Enkidu, Erech, Genesis, Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh Babylonian Version, Gilgamesh Standard Version, Jesus, Job, King Ashurbanipal, Meditation, Nimrod, Nineveh, Noah, Orpheus, Poetry, Rainer Marie Rilke, Siduri, Socrates, Spirituality, Stephen Mitchell, Tao, Translations, Uruk, White Temple, Zen Leave a comment

Gilgamesh: A New English Version

Translator: Stephen Mitchell

Published by Free Press

Biography:

Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn in 1943 (80ish), educated at ‘Ivy League’ schools in the US and France, and, quoting his words, “de-educated through intensive Zen practice“. That may be just a spoonful of humor, it is though a spoonful of humility, and a large serving of Zen-Socratic wisdom. A wisdom that becomes one that reflects upon his life and realizes his education has granted him neither knowledge nor wisdom. He does not say what the Ivy League has instilled in him, but the derivation of any real value from those hallowed halls, as seen from the Zen rear-view mirror, appears minimal.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he ruminates that “If I’m a scholar, I’m an amateur“. A humble observation in the truest form of the personal quest for fulfillment and enlightenment. In the same interview, elaborating on Chuang-tzu in Mitchell’s ‘The Second Book of the Tao‘, he says: “I have no pretensions to scholarship. I just love to play with the Taoist masters. For them, nothing is sacred. The best tribute is contradiction.” Again, humility before all, all before self.

In a separate interview with Scott London also discussing ‘The Second Book of the Tao‘ Mitchell relates the teachings of Chuang-tzu as a philosophy of the unassuming and the simple life. “There was nothing to live up to,” he says. “There was only a passion for the genuine, a fascination with words, and a constant awareness that the ancient Masters are alive and well in the mind that doesn’t know a thing.” Mitchell personifies and lives that philosophy.

Mitchell has translated and authored many books including the bestselling Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, The Gospel According to Jesus, and his latest book, The First Christmas released in 2021. He is also the coauthor of three of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books: Loving What Is, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself and numerous children’s books.

The Discovery of the Story of Gilgamesh:

The Epic of Gilgamesh was, in the beginning, a series of Sumerian poems/stories likely passed down through the ages as oral histories before being written down in Akkadian 700-1000 years after the reign of the mythical/historical King of Uruk: Gilgamesh.

Mitchell may have been introduced to the literary stature of Gilgamesh while translating the Austrian mystic poet, Rainer Marie Rilke. Rilke wrote at the end of 1916. “I … consider it to be among the greatest things (the poem Gilgamesh) that can happen to a person. I have immersed myself in [it], and in these truly gigantic fragments I have experienced measures and forms that belong with the supreme works that the conjuring Word has ever produced.”

The poem, written in Assaryian cuneiform script, on clay tablets, was discovered by Austen Henry Layard while excavating mounds, beginning in 1844, around what is now known as the city of Mosul. The mounds turned out to be the remains of the ancient Assyrian capital palaces of Nineveh including the library of King Ashurbanipal or Ashur Banipal (668-627 BC) depending on the source. Over 25,000 clay tablets from the library, twelve of which contained the poem, were shipped back to the British Museum. It took until 1872 before the poem was discovered among this immense trove of tablets and in 1872 George Smith translated and published the poem. These twelve tablets contain the fullest version of the poem found to date.

The first surviving version of the combined epic is known as the Old Babylonian version and dates from the 18^th century BC. The longer and more complete copy of the poem, from King Ashurbanipal’s library is from the 10^th to the 13^th centuries BC and is known as the Standard version. Currently seventy-three fragments, possibly more, of the Standard version have been discovered containing some two thousand lines of the original, which is surmised to be three thousand lines long.

Mitchell mainly adapts the Standard version into a contemporary English language poem with gap filler supplied by the Old Babylonian version. Where there is no original material to complete known gaps, Mitchell has contributed original work to provide clarity and to maintain continuity.

The Man of Gilgamesh:

Gilgamesh is accepted as being the 5th king of Uruk, possibly reigning roughly in the 26th century BC (2800-2500 BC) for 126 years. Some believe the long reign of 126 years may actually be a number in base six which would equate to 54 years in base ten. Very little is known of his reign with the exception that he built the walls Uruk, is listed in the Sumerian King list, and is mentioned as a contemporary of Aga, son of King Enmebaragesi of Kish.

Aga, who ruled over Sumer for 625 years, is the antagonist in the Sumerian poem ‘Gilgamesh and Aga‘, recording the King of Kish’s siege of Uruk after Gilgamesh refused to submit to him. From the poem Aga commands Gilgamesh and the citizens of Uruk to work forever as slaves on Kish’s irrigation projects.

There are wells to be finished.
There are wells in the land to be finished.
There are shallow wells in the land to be completed.
There are deep wells and hoisting ropes to be completed

Gilgamesh is made King of Uruk for his defiance and resistance to Aga’s demands. King Gilgamesh captures Aga on the 10^th day of the siege but sets him free to return to Kish.

The Land of Gilgamesh:

Uruk was a Sumerian city-state established in the southern reaches of Mesopotamia and was located on the east bank of the Euphrates River. The river today, through the process of river channel migration, is much further to the west. The city and its surrounding area were home to about 40,000-125,000 people, who during the time of Gilgamesh controlled the entire Sumer area.

The Sumerian area and Uruk lay claim to the beginnings of civilization, urbanization, laws, and writing. Cuneiform, wedge shaped writing on clay tablets and the earliest known system of writing, dates to the fourth millennium BC with the oldest examples being inventories of goods stored and transported in and out of the Sumer area.

The oldest known surviving law code, the Code of Ur-Nammu, in the world comes down through the ages from the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu or his son Shulgi of Ur during the last half of 21^st century through the beginning of 20^th century BC. The Code of Urukagina is older but is known only through references in other ancient writings. The better-known Babylonian Code of Hammurabi is younger and dates from the eighteenth-century BC.

The greatest architectural monument of Uruk was the White Temple built upon the Anu Ziggurat during the fourth millennium. The temple was thirteen meters high and 22.3 x 17.5 meters in depth and width. It stood upon a ziggurat with dimensions of 50 x 46 x 10 meters in depth, width, and height, respectively. On the flat plains surrounding Uruk it was visible in the distance for kilometers.

German archaeological excavations in 2003, conducted in and around the old riverbed of the Euphrates, have reportedly revealed garden enclosures, specific buildings, and structures described in The Epic of Gilgamesh, including Gilgamesh’s tomb. According to The Death of Gilgamesh, he was buried at the bottom of the Euphrates when the waters parted after he died. There is debate whether these excavations and discoveries exist or are a hoax. These discoveries have not been confirmed and no updates from the original can be found but one of the original authors of the 2003 study is Jorg Fassbinder, a geophysical archeologist associated with the University of Munich.

Uruk is also recognized as the city of Erech, founded by Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah, as mentioned in Genesis 10:10:

⁸And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

⁹He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

¹⁰And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

¹¹Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah

The Legend of Gilgamesh:

Gilgamesh in Sumerian possibly means ‘The Old Man Is a Young Man’ or ‘The Ancestor Was a Hero’. An immortal Hero, a synthesis that brings us to the story and plot of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh is the epic hero of the times. Dashing, brave, adventurous; a seeker of immortality and wisdom but not much in the way of kingly benevolence. The gods knowing Gilgamesh lacked wisdom sent him his twin and his opposite: Enkidu. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s brother and constant companion. Thus begins the quest of Gilgamesh to find himself. It is far more than that, though, as Mitchell explains:

“Part of the fascination of Gilgamesh (the story and person) is that, like any great work of literature, it has much to tell us about ourselves. In giving voice to grief and the fear of death, perhaps more powerfully than any book written after it, in portraying love and vulnerability and the quest for wisdom, it has become a personal testimony for millions of readers in dozens of languages.“

Gilgamesh, as with some of his readers of today, is slow to learn the lessons of life, slow to acquire wisdom even when it is given to him/us for free. From the old Babylonian Version in Book X, Siduri, a wise matron brewer of beer offers Gilgamesh an opiate of advice for his pain brought on through the death of his brother Enkidu.

“Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never find the eternal life that you seek. When the gods created mankind, they also created death, and they held back eternal life for themselves alone. Humans are born, they live, then they die, this is the order that the gods have decreed. But until the end comes, enjoy your life, spend it in happiness, not despair. Savour your food, make each of your days a delight, bathe and anoint yourself, wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean, let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand, and give your wife pleasure in your embrace. That is the best way for a man to live.”

Gilgamesh declines the advice to live for the day and continues with his quest for immortality.

Bibliography:

Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn. 1976

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. 1982

The Sonnets of Orpheus. 1985

The Book of Job. 1987

Tao Te Ching: 1988

The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry 1989

The Creation. 1990

The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose. 1991

Parables and Portraits. 1991

The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Unbelievers. 1991

A Book of Psalms: Selected & Adapted from the Hebrew. 1993

Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology. 1993

Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke. 1995

Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals. 1996

Genesis: A New Translation of Classic Biblical Stories. 1996

The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis. 1996

The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. 1996

Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda. 1997

The Essence of Wisdom: Words from the Masters to Illuminate the Spiritual Path. 1998

Meetings with the Archangel: A Comedy of the Spirit. 1998

The Frog Prince: A Fairy Tale for Consenting Adults. 1999

Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation. 2000

The Nightingale. 2002

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life. With Byron Katie. 2002

Jesus: What He Really Said and Did. 2002

Can Love Last?: The Fate of Romance Over Time, 2002

The Wishing Bone. 2003

Gilgamesh: A New English Version. 2004

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition). 2004

A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are. With Byron Katie. 2007

Iron Hans: A Grimms’ Fairly Tale. 2007

Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings: Three Tales from The Arabian Nights. 2007

The Tinderbox. 2007

The Ugly Duckling. 2008

The Second Book of the Tao. 2009

The Iliad. 2011

The Odyssey. 2013

A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around. With Byron Katie. 2017

Beowulf. 2017

Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness: A Story About Letting Go. 2019

The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings. 2021

References and Readings:

A Stillness Within Stephen Mitchell. By Susan Salter Reynolds. Los Angeles Times. 2009
Gilgamesh Tomb Believed Found. Uncredited. BBC 2003
Touching the Essence of Things: A Conversation with Stephen Mitchell. By Scott London. 2009
The Epic of Gilgamesh. By Pulkit Agrawal. Harvard Wiki. 2015
The Epic of Gilgamesh: Text, Translation, & Tablets. Uncredited. Dust Off the Bible. 2018
Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy. Uncredited. Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2019
Stephen Mitchell’s Version of the Tao Te Ching: A Spiritual Interpretation. By Penghua Fan and Senlin Yu. Oxford Academic. 2020
The Epic Adventures of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. Uncredited. BBC. 2021
Truth and Fiction: The Epic Story of Gilgamesh in Ancient Mesopotamia. By Joshua J. Mark. Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas. 2022
Gilgamesh. By Joshua J. Mark. World History Encyclopedia. 2022
“All I Know Is That I Know Nothing”: What Did Socrates Mean? By Viktoriya Sus. The Collector. 2023
Socrates (469—399 B.C.E.). By James M. Ambury. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. No date.
The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Zen Buddhism: By Wiliam M. Bodiford. Britannica. No date
I Ching. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Gilgamesh. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Gilgamesh: Mesopotamian Mythology. Uncredited. Britannica. No date
Gilgamesh and Aga. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Austen Henry Layard. Uncredited. Wikipedia. No date
Rainer Maria Rilke. Uncredited. Poetry Foundation. No date

Greek Sci-Fi

2 May 2023 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Novel Tags: Amber, Blue Aliens, Chaos, Fantasy, Hamlet, Homer, Hugo Award, Jacobean Literature, Mutants, Myths, Nebula Award, Philip Jose Farmer, Science Fiction, Shakespeare, Shakespearean Histories, Shakespearean Romances, Shakespearean Sonnets, Song of Roland, Sonnet 53, World of Tiers Leave a comment

This Immortal

By Roger Zelazny

Published by iBooks

Original Book Publication Date: 1966

Roger Zelazny was a giant of science fiction and fantasy from the mid-1960s till his death in 1995 at the age of 58. For 42 years, beginning slow, learning to crawl in 1953, sprinting from the mid-60s onward, his prodigious writing produced 46 novels and novellas, more than 140 short stories, and plethora of poems, chapbooks, anthologies, and collections which earned him six Hugos and three Nebula Awards.

Zelazny’s prolific output flowed from an inventive mind wrapped around the mythology and literary fiction of the distant past. Homer to Shakespeare, Greek gods to Norse myths — Zelazny’s fictional future was filled with characters reprising roles from civilization’s long-gone coterie of rogues and heroes, some real, most not.

His greatest commercial achievement, the ten novels of Amber weave through the book’s fictional universe’s two true worlds: Amber, an Arthurian legend with Shakespearean Histories and Chaos, Greek myth at the edge of the abyss with all else in between being nothing but shadow of no real substance. Zelazny credits Farmer’s World of Tiers and French legend including the Song of Roland for inspiration in writing Amber with allusion to much that is Shakespeare: Hamlet, As You Like It, Julius Ceasar, and many of the other Histories and Romances. With an M.A. in Jacobean literature and a love of poetry it takes little imagination to suspect the shadows of Amber may also have a connection to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 53:

What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you but one, can every shadow lend. …

This Immortal or …And Call Me Conrad is a story of Greek myth meeting nuclear Armageddon of Earth. With the remaining population of a couple million living in the few places left on Earth that aren’t toxic, the galactic future appears to belong to the Vegans. The Vegans, from the star system of Vega, who may incidentally have been herbivores, were blue skinned aliens preferring humans as a source of cheap labor and prostitution and not much else. A Vegan author has come to Earth to write a book on the remaining locations of civilizational wonder left on the planet. He has requested that Conrad serve as his tour guide.

Conrad or Konstatin Nomikos, a young man, a rather ugly young man of innumerable years bearing a mysterious past would rather not. Would rather not serve as a tour guide. Would rather not serve as protector of a blue alien that Conrad’s former freedom party wishes to kill. But he does because he is curious, and it may be important.

With promises to protect and to serve Conrad, the blue alien, a few old acquaintances from his old freedom party and a hired assassin set off to survey the Earth’s past glories.

The story plays out as a film noir in words. A detective novel solving mysteries that may or may not be crimes. A cynical protagonist questioning motivations of all. A page-turner of mutant battles, robot wrestling, life squabbles, and glib dialogue. A piece-by-piece narrative of what Conrad wants and who he is. All brought to you through the lens of ancient Greek gods, myth, and literature.

Major Awards:

1966 Hugo Novel Award for: …And Call Me Conrad (published in book form as This Immortal)
1966 Nebula Novelette Award: The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
1966 Nebula Novella Award: He Who Shapes
1968 Hugo Novel Award: Lord of Light
1976 Hugo and Nebula Novella Award: Home Is the Hangman
1984 Hugo Novelette Award: Unicorn Variation
1986 Hugo Novella Award: 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai
1987 Hugo Novelette Award: Permafrost

Bibliography:

Novels and Novellas:

1965…And Call Me Conrad
1966 This Immortal (book form of the serialized …And Call Me Conrad)
1966 The Dream Master
1967 Lord of Light
1969 Creatures of Light and Darkness
1969 Isle of the Dead (Francis Sandow)
1969 Damnation Alley
1970 Nine Princes in Amber (Chronicles of Amber)
1971 Jack of Shadows
1972 The Guns of Avalon (Chronicles of Amber)
1973 Today We Choose Faces
1973 To Die in Italbar (Francis Sandow)
1975 Sign of the Unicorn (Chronicles of Amber)
1976 Deus Irae (co-authored with Philip K. Dick)
1976 Home is the Hangman
1976 Doorways in the Sand
1976 Bridge of Ashes
1976 The Hand of Oberon (Chronicles of Amber)
1978 The Courts of Chaos (Chronicles of Amber)
1979 Roadmarks
1980 Changeling (Wizard World)
1981 Madwand (Wizard World)
1981 The Changing Land
1982 Coils (co-authored with Fred Saberhagen)
1982 Dilvish, the Damned
1982 Eye of Cat
1985 Trumps of Doom (Chronicles of Amber)
1986 Blood of Amber (Chronicles of Amber)
1987 Sign of Chaos (Chronicles of Amber)
1987 A Dark Traveling
1989 Knight of Shadows (Chronicles of Amber)
1989 Wizard World (omnibus)
1990 The Mask of Loki (co-authored with Thomas T. Thomas)
1990 The Black Throne (co-authored with Fred Saberhagen)
1991 Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming (The Millennial Contest co-authored with Robert Sheckley)
1991 Prince of Chaos (Chronicles of Amber)
1992 Flare (1992) (co-authored with Thomas T. Thomas)
1992 Here There Be Dragons (written 1968/69)
1992 Way Up High (written 1968/69)
1993 If at Faust You Don’t Succeed (The Millennial Contest co-authored with Robert Sheckley)
1993 A Night in the Lonesome October
1994 Wilderness (1994) (co-authored with Gerald Hausman)
1995 A Farce to Be Reckoned With (The Millennial Contest co-authored with Robert Sheckley)
1998 Psychoshop (co-authored with Alfred Bester)
1997 Donnerjack (posthumous collaboration with Jane Lindskold)
1999 Lord Demon (posthumous collaboration with Jane Lindskold)
2009 The Dead Man’s Brother (written in 1971)

Short Stories:

1953 Conditional Benefit
1954 And the Darkness is Harsh
1954 Mr. Fuller’s Revolt
1955 Youth Eternal
1958 The Outward Sign
1962 Horseman!
1962 Passion Play
1962 The Teachers Rode a Wheel of Fire
1962 Moonless in Byzantium
1963 On the Road to Splenoba
1963 Final Dining
1963 The Borgia Hand
1963 A Thing of Terrible Beauty
1963 Circle has Her Problems
1963 The Malatesta Collection
1963 The Stainless Steel Leech
1963 Monologue for Two
1963 Threshold of the Prophet
1963 A Museum Piece
1963 Mine is the Kingdom
1963 King Solomon’s Ring
1963 The Misfit
1963 A Rose for Ecclesiastes
1963 The Great Slow Kings
1964 Lucifer
1964 The Salvation of Faust
1964 The New Pleasure
1964 The Monster and the Maiden
1965 But Not the Herald
1965 He Who Shapes (shorter version of The Dream Master)
1965 The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
1965 Passage to Dilfar (Dilvish)
1965 Of Time and Yan
1965 The Furies
1965 The Drawing
1965 Thelinde’s Song (Dilvish)
1965 Devil Car (Sam Murdock)
1966 Synopsis of Part One…And Call Me Conrad (became This Immortal)
1966 Comes Now the Power
1966 Love is an Imaginary Number
1966 Divine Madness (republished by Lightspeed Magazine 2018)
1966 For a Breath I Tarry
1966 The Bells of Shoredan (Dilvish)
1966 Late, Late Show
1966 This Moment of the Storm
1966 The House of the Hanged Man
1967 The Knight for Merytha (Dilvish)
1967 Dawn (Lord of Light)
1967 The Man Who Loved the Faioli
1967 In the House of the Dead (excerpt from Creatures of Light and Darkness)
1967 Angel, Dark Angel
1967 Damnation Alley
1967 The Last Inn on the Road (with Dannie Plachta)
1967 A Hand Across the Galaxy
1967 Death of the Executioner (Lord of Light)
1968 Dismal Light (Francis Sandow)
1968 Heritage
1968 Stowaway
1968 Corrida
1968 He That Moves
1968 Song of the Blue Baboon
1968 Creatures of Light
1969 The Eve of RUMOKO (Nemo)
1969 The Steel General
1969 Creatures of Darkness
1969 Come to Me Not in Winter’s White (with Harlan Ellison)
1969 The Year of the Good Seed (with Dannie Plachta)
1970 The Man at the Corner of Now and Forever
1970 My Lady of the Diodes
1970 Alas! Alas! This Woeful Fate
1971 Sun’s Trophy Stirring
1971 Add Infinite Item
1973 ‘Kjwalll’kje’k’koothaïlll’kje’k (Nemo)
1974 The Engine at Heartspring’s Center
1975 Home is the Hangman (Nemo)
1975 The Game of Blood and Dust
1976 The Force That Through the Circuit Drives the Current
1977 No Award
1977 Is There a Demon Lover in the House?
1978 Shadowjack (Jack of Shadows)
1978 Stand Pat, Ruby Stone
1979 Halfjack
1979 Go Starless in the Night
1979 A Very Good Year …
1979 Garden of Blood (Dilvish)
1979 The White Beast (Dilvish)
1980 The Places of Aache (Dilvish)
1980 Exeunt Omnes
1980 Fire and/or Ice
1980 The George Business
1981 The Changing Land (Dilvish)
1981 Tower of Ice (Dilvish)
1981 Last of the Wild Ones (Sam Murdock)
1981 Recital
1981 Walpurgisnacht
1981 Unicorn Variation
1981 And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee
1981 The Naked Matador
1981 The Horses of Lir
1981 Madwand (excerpt)
1982 A City Divided (Dilvish)
1982 Devil and the Dancer (Dilvish)
1982 Eye of Cat (excerpt)
1983 Shadowjack (character Outline)
1983 Mana from Heaven (Magic Goes Away)
1984 Itself Surprised (Berserker with Fred Saberhagen)
1984 LOKI 7281
1985 Dayblood
1985 A Mars rózsája
1985 Dreadsong
1985 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (Cthulhu Mythos)
1985 Prolog to Trumps of Doom (Amber)
1986 The Bands of Titan
1986 Permafrost
1986 Night Kings
1987 The Sleeper (Wild Cards-Croyd Crenson)
1987 Quest’s End
1987 Ashes to Ashes (Wild Cards-Croyd Crenson)
1988 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin I-VIII (Wild Cards)
1988 Deadboy Donner and the Filstone Cup
1988 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin (Wild Cards-Croyd Crenson)
1989 Kalifriki of the Thread
1990 The Deadliest Game
1992 Flare (excerpt with Thomas T. Thomas)
1992 Way Up High
1992 Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love (Kalifriki)
1993 The Long Sleep (Wild Card-Croyd Crenson)
1993 Prince of the Powers of This World
1994 The Salesman’s Tale (Amber)
1994 Tunnel Vision
1994 Godson
1994 The Shroudling and The Guisel (Amber)
1995 Blue Horse, Dancing Mountains (Amber)
1995 Coming to a Cord (Amber)
1995 Epithalamium
1995 The Long Crawl of Hugh Glass
1995 The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker
1995 Lady of Steel
1995 Postlude (Forever After)
1995 Prelude the First (Forever After)
1995 Prelude the Second (Forever After)
1995 Prelude the Fourth (Forever After)
1995 Prelude the Third (Forever After)
1996 Hall of Mirrors (Amber)
2000 Lord Demon (excerpt with Jane Lindskold)
2005 A Secret of Amber (Amber. Co-authored with Ed Greenwood between 1977 and 1992)
2009 Sandow’s Shadow (Francis Sandow outline)
2009 Shadowland (Jack of Shadows outline)
2009 The Sleeper (Wild Cards-Croyd Crenson outline)
2009 Hand of the Master
2009 Studies in Saviory
2009 The Great Selchie of San Francisco Bay
2009 The Juan’s Thousandth
2009 There Shall Be No Moon!
2009 Through a Glass, Greenly
2009 Time of Night in the 7th Room
2009 Bridge of Ashes (outline)
2009 Doorways in the Sand (summary)
2009 Guns of Avalon: Deleted Sex Scene
2009 The Hounds of Sorrow
2009 The Insider
2009 The Window Washer
2009 Alien Speedway (outline)
2009 Changeling (film outline)
2009 Coils (outline)
2009 Donnerjack, of Virtù: A Fable for the Machine Age (outline)
2009 Dysonized Biologicals (outline)
2009 Godson: A Play in Three Acts
2009 Head Count
2009 The Ahriman Factor (outline)
2019 Seven Tales of Amber (Amber)

Poetry:

1974 Poems
1980 When Pussywillows Last in the Catyard Bloomed
1981 To Spin Is Miracle Cat
1996 Hymn to the Sun: An Imitation
2011 Collected Stories (poetry and unpublished works)

Snippets and Chapbooks:

1974 Poems
1979 The Bells of Shoredan
1980 For a Breath I Tarry
1980 The Last Defender of Camelot
1981 A Rhapsody in Amber
1986 The Bands of Titan / A Freas Sampler / A Dream of Passion
1991 The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
1992 Here There Be Dragons
1992 Way Up High
1996 Home is the Hangman
1994 And the Darkness is Harsh
2003 The Last Defender of Camelot

Collections:

1967 Four for Tomorrow
1969 Three for Tomorrow
1971 The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
1976 My Name Is Legion (Nemo)
1978 The Illustrated Roger Zelazny
1980 When Pussywillows Last in the Catyard Bloomed
1980 The Last Defender of Camelot (Pocket Books and SFBC)
1981 The Last Defender of Camelot (Underwood-Miller)
1981 Today We Choose Faces / Bridge of Ashes (omnibus)
1981 A Rhapsody in Amber
1981 To Spin is Miracle Cat
1981 Alternities #6
1982 Dilvish, the Damned
1983 Unicorn Variations
1989 Frost & Fire (1989)
1991 Gone to Earth
1992 The Graveyard Heart/Elegy for Angels and Dogs
1992 Gone to Earth / Author’s Choice Monthly #27 (Pulphouse)
1996 Hymn to the Sun: An Imitation
2001 Isle of the Dead / Eye of the Cat (omnibus)
2002 The Last Defender of Camelot (ibooks)
2003 Manna from Heaven
2003 To Die in Italbar / A Dark Traveling (omnibus)
2005 The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
2009 The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
- Volume 1: Threshold
- Volume 2: Power & Light
- Volume 3: This Mortal Mountain
- Volume 4: Last Exit to Babylon
- Volume 5: Nine Black Doves
- Volume 6: The Road to Amber
2018 The Magic – October 1961-October 1967
2022 The Scarlet Lady
2022 Kalifrike

Anthologies:

1953 Thurban 1 #3
1955 Senior Scandals
1964 The Graveyard Heart (Party Set)
1968 Nebula Award Stories Three
1968 Nozdrovia #1
1989 He Who Shapes / The Infinity Box (with Kate Wilhelm)
1990 Elegy for Angels and Dogs / The Graveyard Heart (Party Set with Walter Jon Williams)
1990 Home is the Hangman / We, in Some Strange Power’s Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line (with Samuel R. Delany)
1995 Forever After
1995 Warriors of Blood and Dream (with Martin H. Greenberg)
1995 Wheel of Fortune
1996 The Williamson Effect
2017 Shadows and Reflections: Stories from the Worlds of Roger Zelazny
2022 The Night Kings and the Heirs

Non-Fiction:

1988 Roger Zelazny’s Visual Guide to Castle Amber (with Neil Randall)

Interviews:

1972 Roger Zelazny: An Interview by Paul Walker
1979 A Radio Interview with Roger Zelazny with Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson
1994 An Interview with Roger Zelazny with Warren Lapine
1996 The Talebones Interview: Roger Zelazny by Ken Rand
2016 A Few Words from Roger Zelazny Parts 1-8 by Theodore Krulik

Biography and Tributes:

2004 Ohio Reading Road Trip
2020 Radio Wolinsky: From the Probabilities Archive: Roger Zelazny
2021 Roger Zelazny Modern Masters of Science Fiction by F. Brett Cox
2021 George R.R. Martin: On the Road with Roger Z
2022 David Barr Kirtley: The Legacy of Roger Zelazny Part 1
2023 David Barr Kirtley: The Legacy of Roger Zelazny Part 2
2023 Wired: Immer, Zlaz Reveals the Private Life of a Sci-Fi Genius

Obituary:

June 1995 George R.R. Martin
21 June 1995 Independent
17 June 1995 The New York Times
15 June 1995 The Santa Fe New Mexican
16 June 1995 The Washington Post

(The 1988 picture of Roger Zelazny comes from his Wikipedia page.)

Words Without Letters

6 February 2023 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Graphic Novel Tags: Communism, Engravings, Graphic Novel, Great Depression, Socialism, Woodcuts Leave a comment

Six Novels in Woodcuts

By Lynd Ward

Published by Library of America

Lynd Ward was born in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century, a son of a Methodist minister who became the first chairman of the ACLU, Harry Ward. Lynd inherited his father’s socialist-communist beliefs which he liberally infused into his books, usually without any pretense of subtlety.

After graduating with a fine arts degree from Columbia Teachers College he with his wife immediately left for Germany where he studied etching and wood engraving at the National Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking. While in Germany he stumbled across a novel by a Flemish artist, Franz Masereel which was done entirely in woodcuts without words, showing him the path to his future.

Lynd and his wife returned to the States in 1927 and a few years later America’s and Ward’s first wordless woodcut novel appeared in 1929: ‘Gods’ Man’. ‘Gods’ Man’, a Faustian tale in 139 engraved woodblocks made Ward’s name synonymous with graphic novels and woodcuts.

Ward went on to create five more woodcut novels plus two more that he never finished. The second novel, ‘Madman’s Drum’ revolved around a slave trader and the evil he brought into his family. ‘Wild Pilgrimage’ brings a blue-collar worker face to face with the responsibilities of life. ‘Prelude to a Million Years’ is the second shortest novel at 30 engravings that Ward produced which attempted to find beauty in a world of ugly. The shortest novel, ‘Song Without Words’ consisting of twenty-one woodcuts, came next, drawing a picture of a woman’s fear of bringing a newborn into a less than perfect world. His final book was his epic ‘Vertigo’ in 230 engravings telling the story of three intertwined individuals coming to grips with the economic realities of the Great Depression.

Except for ‘Gods’ Man’ which was printed on Black Thursday, the day that brought the world the Great Depression, all the other novels were created during the 1930’s providing a backdrop for Ward’s often dark, fatalistic novels.

Lynd Ward’s novels usually take more than one ‘reading’ to formulate the story he is drawing for you. With multiple readings you may reach the meaning he intended but I had more fun creating my own story from his black and white visions.

(The woodcut in the upper right is a self-portrait of Ward as a young man. The skeleton in the top hat is from his first novel, ‘Gods’ Man’.)

Class and Money

5 February 2023 By laurn larson in Novel Tags: Barsetshire Novel, Class, Money, Victorian Novel Leave a comment

By Anthony Trollope

Published by Norilana Books

Anthony Trollop was a successful English Victorian novelist with a bibliography that stretches to almost ninety novels and short stories plus numerous articles, letters, and a couple of plays. Before he obtained fame as a writer, he was unsuccessful in about everything else including politics, prostrating himself for a seat in the House of Commons in which he came in fourth in a field of, well, four.

His first major success as a writer came with his fourth novel in 1855, ‘The Warden’, the first book in the Barsetshire series, a collection of novels that made him famous and what he is most remembered for 125 years later. The series, which are loosely connected and can be read in any order, consist of six novels set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire. The county was a fictional composite recollection of his travels into the English countryside observing the bucolic, but poor life of the peasants juxtaposed with the landed gentry and nobility of 19th century England. The Chronicles of Barsetshire as the series came to be known deals almost exclusively with the Church of England clergy and landed gentry with peasantry narratives sporadically thrown in for local color. The gentry were a class below the British peerage but due to ownership of land were occasionally above them in wealth if not status.

Doctor Thorne is the third novel in the Barsetshire series and is considered the best of the six. The novel revolves around the lives of Squire John Gresham’s of Greshamsbury family and their physician, Doctor Thorne, and his niece Mary. Gresham is slowly selling off his estate to pay debts, leaving little for his oldest son Frank to inherit in the years to come or for the family to live on in months to come. The only solution is for Frank to marry money. Frank loves Mary but Mary has no title or money. The story progresses as expected but the read is a romp anyway.

A fictional Map of Barsetshire – After Trollop – drawn by Spencer Van Bokkelen Nichols in 1925, painted by George Frederick Muendel.

God and Greene

14 December 2022 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Novel Tags: Action, Article 130, Authoritarism, Calles Law, Catholicism, Communism, Cristero War, Immoratlity, Mexico, Poverty, President Calles, Red Shirts, Religion, Religious Persecution, Sin, Socialism, Tabasco Governor Canabal, Vice, Whiskey Priest Leave a comment

The Power and the Glory

Original Title: The Labyrinthine Ways

By Graham Greene

Published by The Viking Press

Graham Greene traveled to the back water, impoverished central Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas in 1937 to research religious, anti-Catholic persecution by the country’s political rulers, army, and police. Repellent politics and dysentery almost sent him packing for his native England, but a tawdry, although meritorious, liable suit being litigated in the British courts between the then precocious child star, Shirley Temple, and Greene over his ill-advised movie review of the star, promised him plenty of scorn, justified mockery, and a room at a London gaol if he went back home. He chose to keep digging for local color and background in Mexico over the less inflammatory subject of religious bigotry.

Since the days of Mexican independence in 1810, anti-clericalism, anti-Catholicism has lurked around every bell tower and dusty church courtyard in the country. Challenges to the Church’s authority became constant as time progressed. Politicians with few opportunities to fleece the ubiquitous poor were envious of its land holdings and material wealth. And predictably the Church could be counted on to be its own worst enemy.

In 1913, Victoriano Huerta seized the presidency in a bloody coup that deepened the ongoing revolution and rebellion led by Emilio Zapata. Huerta’s ruthless tactics in suppressing Zapata’s rebellion were not popular and he had few friends within or outside of Mexico, but the Catholic Church supported him. In 1914 Huerta through the loss of support fled the country and died in an U.S. Army jail in 1916.

After the revolution, a new Mexican constitution was approved in 1917 that included the anti-Catholic Article 130 which codified that the church, and the state were to remain separate. It obligated state registration of all churches and religious groupings along with restrictions on all priests and ministers. The restrictions prohibited priests and ministers from holding public office, campaigning on the behalf of political parties or candidates, and they could not criticize government officials.

A few years later in 1924 a new president of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles, sanctioned through executive decree strict and absolute enforcement of Article 130 which became known as Calles’ Law in 1926 or the “Law for Reforming the Penal Code”. Calles’ Law provided specific penalties for priests who violated Article 130. A priest wearing clerical dress outside of a church was to be fined five hundred pesos, a huge sum that a priest was unlikely to have the means to pay. Criticizing a government official was penalized with a 5-year prison term. Most states chose not to see the priests’ transgressions, and the citizens chose not to speak of priestly trespasses of Calles’ Law. The state of Tabasco though chose law, and lucre, over morality, enforcing the decree with a lustful zeal, adding further insult by requiring priests to marry.

Calles’ Law initiated almost immediately the Cristero War, hostilities starting in 1926 and ending in 1929 with an U.S. brokered peace between the Mexican government and the Catholic Church, although the government continued to prosecute the war well into the 1930s, murdering an additional 5-6000 Cristero soldiers and leaders after the official end of hostilities. The law and the war reduced the number of practicing priests by over 90 percent with only 335 priests, forty believed to have been killed, remaining to administer to fifteen million people, with more than 70 percent being Catholic. It is believed that 5 percent of the population fled to the United States, during and immediately following the war.

Sinners abound in “The Power and the Glory”. The protagonist and anti-hero, an unnamed whiskey priest sinner looking for redemption. An antagonist and foil, a policeman sinner seeking social justice where the ends justify the means. A contagonist, a half-Indian peasant sinner seeking acceptance and awards. Numerous sidekicks who are all sinners, venial sinners but still sinners, all seeking a life that is less hard, less exhausting.

A temptress and confidant who is not a sinner, but the protagonist’s conscience and salvation. A temptress and confidant guiding the whiskey priest, forgiving him his follies, moving him slowly to accept his fate, his calling, to be a man of God for God.

Graham Green was a nominal Catholic, an agnostic Catholic was his term, when he set out to write this book, but his interactions with the simple and God loving peasants of Tabasco brought him to an understanding with Christianity. An understanding towards a belief and faith in someone more powerful and glorified than oneself.

Master of the Short

16 October 2022 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Short Stories Tags: 19th Century Writer, Franco-Prussian War, French Author, Naturalist School, Short Stories, Social Comentary Leave a comment

The Tales of Guy de Maupassant

By Guy de Maupassant

Translations by Lafcadio Hearn and others

Published by The Easton Press

Guy de Maupassant was a man of stories, a writer with few equals, and he shared his talent with the world: voluminously and consummately.

His passion was the short story, writing 300 beautifully succinct stories of love and hate, mirth and war, drama and satire, a fertile mind cataloguing an earthly no-frills style of life, a life of intensity and expanse with little or no satisfaction. He wrote an astounding 295 of his short stories in the last 11 years of his abbreviated life of 43 years. His pen brought him wealth and fame, but life brought him a wordless ending of pain and madness.

The female form was likely his only happiness, stating, “The essence of life is the smile of round female bottoms, under the shadow of cosmic boredom.” adding, ” Love always has its price, come whence it may.” Death haunted him, commenting, “The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.” followed with an epitaph, which he wrote: “I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing.” A very heavy price to pay for talents that came from God.

The Stoic

9 October 2022 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Novel Tags: Comedy, cynicism, Early 20th Century, English Prep School, English Society, Humor, Irony, Sarcasm Leave a comment

Decline and Fall

By Evelyn Waugh

Published by Everyman’s Library

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was selected by Time magazine, in 2016, as 97th most read female writer on college campuses. Number 1 is a non-fiction manual on writing, well, non-fiction. So much for layers and layers of fact checkers and editors not to mention the gross ineptitude of today’s journalists. Waugh’s fifth novel ‘Scoop‘, a farcical and possibly autobiographical look at newsrooms and their paid occupants, should be required reading for our exalted modern journalists if for no other reason than to familiarize themselves with one of the 20th century’s best writers–and humor. The less than flattering reviews by journalists of the book ‘Scoop’ suggests that as a profession, journalists are incapable of recognizing or appreciating sarcasm and irony, much in a similar vein of reasoning that has reporters fact checking the Babylon Bee or the Onion.

Leaving the critique of Time magazine’s prowess to others, Evelyn Waugh authored 13 novels or 10 novels and 1 trilogy from 1928 through 1961 plus numerous short stories, letters, travel logs, essays, articles, reviews, diaries and an autobiography. By the numbers a productive life of writing, which after publication of the novel ‘Brideshead Revisited‘ also made him a wealthy man.

Waugh’s ‘Decline and Fall’ is also a partially autobiographical farce chasing early 20th century English society down the rabbit hole with relish and ridicule. For some reason Waugh had to tell his readers that the book was meant to be funny, and it is, very. Maybe journalists are not the only ones having difficulty with recognizing humor.

Paul Pennyfeather, ‘Decline and Fall’s’ luckless, not really a hero, protagonist, plays it straight for a large cast of stooges, miscreants, and demented characters bent on bringing him down to their level, whether deliberately is not necessarily pertinent to this story. Philbrick, a butler, living more biographies in his head than a school library. Mr. Grimes, a peg-legged opportunist taking the profession of teaching to lengths not attainable by those who went before him. Pendergast, synonymous with a bad toupee, finds his doubts about scripture inimical with his chosen profession as man of the cloth. Pennyfeather joins them all, without censure, in their world much below where he would rather be.

Boo in the Night

2 October 2022 By laurn larson in Books Fiction, Short Stories Tags: Demons, Ghost Stories, Hauntings, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Phantoms, Scary, Short Stories, Supernatural Leave a comment

Ghosts: A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old and New

Edited By Marvin Kaye

Published by Borders Classics

A ghostly collection of 53 short stories of the supernatural by authors known and unknown, many memorable, a few best forgotten, the frightening mingled with the ridiculous, overall, a compilation worthy of nighttime reading and bedtime frights.

This selection of stories mainly spans from the 1850s through the 1980s, with the big gun authors of Dickens, Wilde, Irving, Asimov, and Collins providing the most entertaining accounts of ghosts and their distressed victims. Dickens supplies the best punch line ending – ever in the ‘The Tale of Bagman’s Uncle”. Wilde’s ‘The Canterville Ghost” keeps it on the light side with a ghost slowly losing his mojo. Washington Irving’s contribution is from one of his lesser known, but delicious tales: ‘The Tale of the German Student’, a cautionary story for the good Samaritan. ‘Legal Rites’ is a tongue in check, but altogether a very original story by the sci-fi master Isaac Asimov featuring a ghost deciding that an imaginative lawyer trumps a milquetoast haunting.

There is more in this book of short stories, much more with plenty of authors that you have known since your younger years and a few that will turn out to be new friends in the future. The tales are all fun and short enough to read to go to sleep by. Sweet dreams.

Lawyer Stories Three

6 August 2022 By laurn larson in Books Fiction Tags: corruption, death row, dysfunctional families, lawyers, Mystery, Thriller Leave a comment

Sparring Partners

By John Grisham

Published by Doubleday

A trilogy of quick read novellas, although the form is closer to that of short stories; few characters with limited development and abrupt, into the concrete wall endings, detailing new tales of old friends and old tales of corrupt and feeble lawyers all wrapped around a common theme of dysfunctional families.

Digressing a bit, estimates for the number of books ever written, from Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis, 3500-4000 years ago to the present day exceed 100,000,000 to maybe 150,000,000 with a couple million new titles added every year. I insert this tidbit of data into the discussion because I seldom read anything current in fiction for the simple reason that the catalogue of available books is unimaginably vast, hopelessly unreadable quantities with literature quality spanning parsecs of space and ink. Books of fiction that remain in print for 25-30 years and longer commonly have survived because a large audience has voted favorably on the work. Waiting for others to pass judgement relieves me of the painful task choosing good reads.

Returning to Grisham’s Sparring Partners, as I was hopping around Texas spending uneventful nights alone in uninteresting hotels, I went looking for a quick read from a known author in a shop selling mainly current best sellers. From the cover of this book the publishers state that Grisham has an unbroken string of 47 best sellers, a decent record for believing that the Sparring Partners would provide a fair bit of entertainment, possible reading enjoyment. The jury is still out but reverting to reading old books seems prudent.

elsToday

Category Archives: Books Fiction

The Last First Leatherstocking

The First Superhero

Greek Sci-Fi

Words Without Letters

Class and Money

God and Greene

The Stoic

Boo in the Night

Lawyer Stories Three

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