Harlan Ellison’s ‘Eidolons’

A few days ago, I sang the praises of several Harlan Ellison’s stories. To give you a taste of his writing, here are two paragraphs from his short story “Eidolons” (meaning phantoms).

The first paragraph has to do with despair and helping each other through it. I’m not including it to emphasize the despair, but to emphasize the comfort we are capable of giving others.

*Please note* the first passage includes language of a person having suicidal thoughts. Please consider skipping the passage if this is a trigger for you.

The second paragraph suggests we shouldn’t closely investigate the sense of wonder. Instead, we delight in it. I’m a huge fan of the sense of wonder, which I feel from nature, books, art, music, architecture, and so forth.

“Did you have one of those days today, like a nail in the foot? Did the pterodactyl corpse dropped by the ghost of your mother from the spectral Hindenburg forever circling the Earth come smashing through the lid of your glass coffin? Did the New York strip steak you attacked at dinner suddenly show a mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth, and did it snap off the end of your fork, the last solid-gold fork from the set Anastasia pressed into your hands as they took her away to be shot? Is the slab under your apartment building moaning that it cannot stand the weight on its back a moment longer, and is the building stretching and creaking? Did a good friend betray you today, or did that good friend merely keep silent and fail to come to your aid? Are you holding the razor at your throat this very instant? Take heart, comfort is at hand. This is the hour that stretches. Djam karet.[*] We are the cavalry. We’re here. Put away the pills. We’ll get you through this bloody night. Next time, it’ll be your turn to help us.”

* Djam karet = “elastic time” from Indonesian (from Wikipedia entry on the musical band Djam Karet)

“Hear the music. Listen with all your might, and you needn’t clap to keep Tinker Bell from going into a coma. The music will restore her rosy cheeks. Then seek out the source of the melody. Look long and look deep, and somewhere in the murmuring world you will find the storyteller, there under the cabbage leaves, singing to herself. Or is that a she? Perhaps it’s a he. But whichever, or whatever, the poor thing is crippled. Can you see that now? The twisting, the bending, the awkward shape, the milky eye, the humped back, do you now make it out? But if you try to join in, to work a duet with wonder, the song ceases. When you startle the cricket its symphony ceases. Art is not by committee, nor is it by wish-fulfillment. It is that which is produced in the hour that stretches, the timeless time wherein all songs are sung. In a place devoid of electrical outlets. And if you try to grasp either the singer or the song, all you will hold is sparkling dust as fine as the butter the moth leaves on glass. How the bee flies, how the lights go on, though the enigma enriches and the explanation chills…how the music is made…are not things we were given to know. And only the fools who cannot hear the song ask that the rules be posted. Hear the music. And enjoy. But do not cry. Not everyone was intended to reach A above high C.”

***

“Eidolons,” is in Harlan Ellison’s short-story collection Angry Candy, originally published in 1988 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Later published in 2016 by Dover Publications, Inc.

Harlan Ellison’s Stories

Hearing about the collection of Harlan Ellison’s short stories being published this spring—Greatest Hits—I thought over his stories that have stuck with me.

Harlan wrote a blend of science fiction/fantasy/horror. In many of his stories, he seemed to have stretched a serif in the first letter and plugged it into a wall socket, so that electricity buzzed through the words.

Let’s hop through a short selection of Ellison’s stories…

“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” with a nightmare of only five people left in the world, and they’re at the mercy of a powerful computer that changes the format of the landscape and the people themselves. A dark and unsettling story, but with a character sacrificing himself for another person to show there’s still a bit of light…

“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman’” that shrinks George Orwell’s 1984 into a flash-bang of a story about everyone’s schedule being regulated, with touches of humor, including a plane-load of jelly beans dropped on the populace…

“The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore” of a guy bouncing around time periods and situations and choices. Showing that all of us have the capacity to act with goodness or nastiness. This story introduced me to Shirley Jackson’s short story “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” and the staggering quote by Robert Smithson (a landscape artist): “Establish enigmas not explanations”…

“A Boy and His Dog” with the two main characters (the dog is telepathic!) trying to survive in an apocalyptic landscape, where nobody’s a saint. That very much includes the boy. This story was among the first in the genre of Character Journeys Through Wasteland. Which possibly/probably/likely inspired other entries: Mad Max, The Book of Eli, The Road, The Last of Us, etc. Recently, while watching Fallout, I was delighted to see the poster for a fictional movie: A Man and His Dog…

“Eidolons” in which the narrator meets Mr. Brown, who has a large collection of miniature metal soldiers with disturbingly realistic faces. It’s not a spoiler to say that Mr. Brown dies (it’s mentioned in the second paragraph). As he dies, Mr. Brown tells the narrator of a hidden scroll containing wisdom, and asks the narrator to share the wisdom with others. The scroll’s entries are where the story shines, as the language dazzles. I’ll share a couple entries later this week.

***

This list forms a mere small sampling of Ellison’s output of stories. If the descriptions tickle your curiosity fancy, I hope you seek out his contributions to the fantastical.

I probably won’t buy the new book, Greatest Hits, since I own a copy of The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective and several of his smaller story collections. These provide me with the Ellison drug when I need a fix.

Book review: ‘Posed In Death’

Posed In Death: Nick and Laurel Mystery (Thriller 1)
by Judi Lynn

Since this book is in the mystery genre, let’s start with an investigation… What does Posed in Death mean? A serial killer has been active for a while, nicknamed the Midlife Murderer. He/she has killed women in their forties with long hair. He/she has posed them in their beds, also applying bright red lipstick to them.

Now let’s investigate the book’s subtitle… A Laurel & Nick Mystery: Laurel is in her mid-fifties and is a retired nurse. Nick is in his early fifties and is a freelance reporter. Both of their spouses died a few years before the action in the book begins.

Speaking of the beginning… Laurel drives to her friend Maxine’s house to pick her up and drive them to the botanic gardens where they volunteer. However, Maxine doesn’t answer to Laurel’s knocks on the door. The door is unlocked, and Laurel enters the house. Tragically finding Maxine dead–and posed in bed.

Laurel calls the police. When the detective sees Maxine, he says the arrangement doesn’t exactly follow the Midlife Murderer’s pattern.

Did the serial killer try something different after killing Maxine? Or did a copycat do the grisly deed? If so, what was the motive?

Laurel decides to start her own investigation. Along the way, she meets Nick, who is researching the city for a book. He interviewed Maxine, and then he also interviews Laurel. They find common ground in wanting to find out what happened to Maxine, so they work together to dig into the case.

We learn that the investigation takes work and patience. Since you don’t know where clues will be found, you seek several possible angles. You knock on doors and interview people. Other friends of Maxine. Husbands of the women who were killed. As Nick says, “Everyone thinks investigating a murder is a glamorous job, but it’s not. It’s repetitive, tiring, and disheartening at times.”

Laurel holds her own in the investigation. She’s not a sidekick for Nick, who has a reporter’s prowess for questioning people. Laurel is an equal to Nick.

Also, this book isn’t all murder, all the time. Laurel sleuths her feelings for Nick, about opening a new, romantic chapter in her life with him. (Insert bashful-faced emoji due to me feeling slight guilty by including a bookish pun.)

If you’d like to follow Judi Lynn’s writerly journey, her blog is here.

Ripples in ‘Tom Lake’

I was listening to the audio version
of Ann Pachett’s
Tom Lake, 
narrated by Meryl Streep,
who did a lovely job
with the story

but when Ms. Streep
said “fuck,”
ripples from 
the word
sent a 
mild shock to my brain

but that’s foolish of me

because Ms. Streep
could curse a blue streak
out of frustration
or 
just for the fun of it 
when
no microphones and cameras
are staring at her

after all,
she’s human,
just like everyone else.

Phony Foam Phone

Get that phony foam phone
away from me,
since I gotta call
Frank in Philadelphia,
on a real phone.
We’re supposed to go
fishing on Phil’s farm.
Where’s my cell phone?
I put it here a minute ago.
You didn’t sell it, did you?
Frankly, I don’t know what the heck
you’re doing with that goofy
phony foam phone anyway.

Celebrating nature with ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’

Happy Earth Day! If you don’t want to hug a tree today, maybe just whisper “thanks” to one.

This post is inspired by the post “Earth Day Inspired Books” over at The Reader’s Room.

I recently listened to the audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The audiobook was narrated by the author, who has a patient and calm voice. 

I loved the book for its thoughtfulness and encouragement of honoring nature. The book lives up to its subtitle of blending science and the wisdom of people who have been living in balance with the land. 

Dr. Kimmerer herself is that blend: she’s a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology (at SUNY), Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 

In the book, Dr. Kimmerer describes how we can work with nature and learn about nature and act with gratitude. 

Sweetgrass is celebrated, yes, but she also celebrates maple trees (thank you for the sap that’s made into syrup!), strawberries, asters, goldenrod, the Three Sisters (beans, squash, corn), black ash trees, and more.

Personal history is woven through the book, too. I was taken with the part of Dr. Kimmerer moving with her two daughters to upstate New York, to a property with a pond. She tries various ways to clear algae from the pond to make it appealing to her daughters for swimming. The passage is moving about how she wanted to shape an enjoyable and nourishing place for her kids.

That emotionally resonated with me. To want our children to live in a nourishing environment.

I’ll end with two quotes from the book:

“I wonder if much that ails our society stems from the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be cut off from that love of, and from, the land. It is medicine for broken land and empty hearts.”

“People often ask me what one thing I would recommend to restore relationship between land and people. My answer is almost always, ‘Plant a garden.’ It’s good for the health of the earth and it’s good for the health of people.”

Source: Goodreads.

‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’

“Come on, you raver, you seer of visions
Come on, you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine.”

***

Song written by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright, and it was included on Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album (1975)

What artwork would AI create for ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’?

Recently, I saw the documentary Squaring the Circle on Netflix (trailer on YouTube), which tells the story of the graphic design firm Hipgnosis and their creations of album cover art. From the late ‘60s to the early ‘80s, Hipgnosis made artwork for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, and others.

The co-founders of the firm were Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. I enjoyed the documentary, and how these guys approached the art-making process.

(Disclosure: I’m a print graphic designer in my day job, so I geek out on this kind of stuff.)

Something struck me about the art for The Dark Side of the Moon. Previously, I didn’t think about how the artwork isn’t a literal depiction of the title. I just accepted the prism as the art for that album.

However… take a moment and consider the artwork. Can you imagine if the designers showed a moon? How different the album art would look. Along with the countless posters and T-shirts that are decorated with the art.

All in all, the cover art for The Wall is a literal interpretation… but I like how The Dark Side of the Moon goes on a different path. Although, a psychedelic image of the moon would look cool 🙂

If you’d like to read about the thinking behind the prism idea — and more about Hipgnosis — check out this Rolling Stone article. The prism came about as the designers used the light show in Pink Floyd concerts as a springboard for ideas.

After my recent Dada experiment, I wondered how an AI image generator would approach the hypothetical project of creating album cover art for The Dark Side of the Moon. The limitation: I have to type the title into the input field for the image generator, since AI doesn’t have the opportunity to listen to the album.

However… I don’t have an Alexa, but if I did, could “she” play the album, then text me ideas for artwork?

I typed the album’s title into Microsoft Copilot (formerly known as Bing), and here’s the result:

The four images are basically identical, showing a stylized fantasy environment with glowing mushrooms and a moon covered in symbols.

I also typed “Pink Floyd light show,” since that’s what the Hipgnosis designers depicted for the album cover. Copilot’s result:

Again, the four images show the same approach. Rainbow lights and inflatable pigs, which I’ve heard was popular in Pink Floyd’s shows.

Also, an inflatable pig floated above the Battersea Power Station on the band’s Animals cover: the photo was taken before the balloon broke loose and sailed off. (Battersea Nub News has an article about it.)

Let’s Get Snooty About Wine

I suppose the wine glasses
are like sleeping bats,
hanging upside down
on the rack

and I suppose the red wine
in our glasses could resemble blood

and I suppose we could
pretend we’re vampires

but I hate the idea of drinking blood,
even if I didn’t pierce
a tender neck to get it

so I’d rather listen
to him wax poetic
about how
this vineyard’s terroir is spectacular,
this merlot’s weather was ideal,
the grapes were picked at night,
and the guano in the soil
adds a certain je ne sais quoi.

Five random words go sci-fi

Another writer took the five random words from my Dada-AI experiment to create a story! This time, they blast off into space! Teagan has a talent for adding eclectic ingredients to stories, and her new story “Path of Lilies” certainly fits that description. Head over to her blog for Part I…

Vintage Vignettes: Path of Lilies part-1