Most reviews of Fritz Leiber’s A Spectre is Haunting Texas focus on the weird convolutions of the novel’s plot, but to my mind, the fact that the author regularly corresponded with H.P. Lovecraft, and in fact, was encouraged by Lovecraft to pursue a literary career in the writing of weird tales.
H.P. not only nurtured Leiber’s writing aspirations, but, according to Leiber “Lovecraft was the chiefest (sic) influence on my literary development after Shakespeare.” Continue reading
The evil nihilist blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) makes a killing off the pandemic.
Best line of the movie: “Blogging isn’t writing. It’s graffiti with punctuation.” Point taken, but I’ll trudge on anyway.
That line was the high point of the movie, in my opinion, unless you enjoy seeing your a few of favorite actress vomit and die (Winslet, Paltrow) and die. As some one who hates faux science in movies, it was faithful, as far as I can tell, to epidemiology and how vaccines are developed. Perhaps because it was so faithful to science, it had the tone and entertainment value of a Discovery Channel documentary. I guess there’s just no pleasing me.
I believe there was a strong anti-meat message to the film, hence the pun on the word ‘meating’ in the title. (As people can be infected others coughing and even by touch, ‘meetings,’ public events and person contact are discouraged.) Okay, it’s a terrible pun, but the ‘meat-eating is death’ message was pretty strong to me. Continue reading
When the Zombie Apocalypse comes, the U.S. will be armed to the teeth. The rest of the world’s human population will have to rely on their wits. But we’ll have the firepower.
The Brits will have to rely cricket bats and frisbied Sade vinyl albums. The Germans on their ingenuity and inventiveness and respect for order. But here in the states, we’ll have our rugged, go-it-alone individualism – and our .38 and .357 revolvers, .380 and 9mm semiautomatics, our 12 gauge shotguns and .357 revolvers. Not mention our muskets and practically every other personal firearm every manufactured and then some. (See Time Magazines article “Most Wanted Guns.)
The FBI estimates there are more than 200 million personally owned firearms in the U.S. That’s not counting those owned by the military, law enforcement agencies and those in held in museums. If you count those, then there’s probably one personal firearm for every man, woman and child in the country.
That’s a bullet in the brain several times over for every U.S. zombie even during the more advanced stages of the plague. So why does it go so badly so quickly. To be fair, it goes badly elsewhere too, but why here?
That’s the question I kept asking myself while watching Rammbock: Berlin Undead. (I was also wondering why Germans seem to make terrible zombie movies.)
Latest reincarnation of the cover for Awakening of an Alien God, which I hope to make available before the end of 2011.
As a nearly shameless post, ere’s an excerpt from a rough draft of the third of my triology, Awakening of an Alien God, where Uncle Robert, one of the main characters, waxes on about the issue in more erudite terms than I ever could. He calls it “epistemological solipsism,” but as I inferred, my fictional characters are often wiser, more educated than I am.
When Bryan shook his head, Uncle Robert said, “Shit, I miss Wikipedia at a time like this. But I’ll try to explain. Methodological solipsism is the line of logic Decartes struggled with. It’s also the skepticism that the Wachowski brothers toyed with in the Matrix.
“Are we getting off track?” Laura said. Continue reading
A beautiful redhead goth zombie girl; a theme that vascillates between nihilism and existentialism; between a Machiavellian, and a clueless military. Oh, did I not mention high-camp acting? Chessy zombie special effects? What’s not to like about this movie? It’s the haiku of zombie movies .
But the disturbing (I still have to cringe and turn my head aside) images of a young woman mutilating herself, aside, what I find most absorbing about this movie is the philosophical tone.
Most zombie movies have a nihilistic mood, or at least soon adopt one. By nihilistic, I mean that to survive, the protagonists must choose reject most commonly religious and moral principles — respect for the dead, sense of altruism — or they end up as zombies themselves. This is made easier by the de-humization of the zombies, which, to give the survivors credit, is not a hard leap to make.
First there is that sense of meaninglessness as Julie, not yet a zombie, is killed in a stupid teenage motorcycle accident. Continue reading
Okay, this is scarier now, with the current economic crunch, than it was in 1988 during the ‘downturn’ now. Turns out we’re the zombies, and the elite, well, they’re from another planet. If you’ve never seen this, I recommend it. If you have seen it, watch again.
And writing again. Hoping to finish the third novel of the Gnostic Angel Trilogy before I die. (Yes, it is a morbid novel.) Here’s an excerpt:
Her old bedroom was smaller than Marguerite remembered it, the door from the hallway so narrow that she had problems wedging her wings through it. Entering the adjoining bathroom was a even tighter squeeze. She had to duck her head and slither through the door sideways and still her wings caught. Finally she tore off a piece of the molding and punched out the adjoining two-by-fours. The rest of the doorframe sagged and ceiling joists creaked alarmingly, but the remains of the wall held.
Inside the bathroom, her Zoloft prescription was in the medicine cabinet, just where she left it so many months ago after merging with the archangel Azazel.
The fact that she could remember such details Continue reading
“I don’t like nostalgia unless it’s mine.” — Lou Reed
I tried to find a nostalgia quote that was linked to old age, but I stumbled across this one by Lou and was happy to have (sort of) a reason to use it.
Why nostalgia for a zombie novel that is more than 50 years old? Why did I take time off reading D.H.’s The Rainbow, to read an apocalyptic horror novel? Good questions all, for which I have good answers — I think.
First, a book such has The Rainbow Continue reading
I’m making a quick post from ApolloCon in Houston. There were lots of good panels here, but my favorite was “Undiscovered Gems.” On the panel were A.T. Campbell, Scott Cupp, Bradley Denton and Chris Nakashima-Brown, writers and fans all. (There was a fourth panelist, but she wasn’t on the program and I couldn’t see her placard — my apologies.)
The title of the panel could have well as been “Forgotten and Undiscovered Gems” for many of the books were well received decades ago but seem to have been forgotten by younger (under 30-35) readers. There was also some discussion as to the sad state of the NY publishing industry which has become, like Hollywood, afraid to take a chance on experimental fiction. That explains why we get so much crap Vampire Romance novels. The publishing industry has become conservative and hide-bound.
Anywhere, here’s a partial list. Feel free to comment or email me if you have additions:
Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant
Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle
The Goat Without Horns by Thomas Burnett Swann
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
The Queen’s Gambit: A Novel by Walter Tevis
Blind Voices by Tom Reamy
Wizard of the Pigeonsby Megan Lindholm
Cosmic Banditos by A. C. Weisbecker
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (and practically anything written else by him)
KW Jeter was a protégé of PK Dicks; many of his books, but particularly Dr. Adder, Morlock Night, were both recommended by the panel.
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd
Sex and the High Command by John Boyd
anything Michael Bishop wrote
Nortstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
Lifekeeper by Mike McQuay.
Memories by Mike McQuay
Someone made a comment on an older post (Argh! Scope this out) about the surgeon-cam version of my shoulder surgery. The good news is the shoulder is healed and there was no discernible scar. See, here’s the shoulder…..
…..well, there was a tiny one, but it looks like a blemish above Tara’s left eyebrow. Damn, if I can figure out a zombie tie-in to this. Let’s see, vanity? No, zombies are anything but vain. Something about the zombie-like impulse to get tats today. No, that’s an ungainly metaphoric stretch. If I’d been thinking ahead, I guess I should have had a zombie version of Tara (Buddhist goddess of enlightenment) done instead of a 1950′s pinup version.
Robert B.
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