The GMG SF/Fantasy/Horror Club

[ggluek]

Random thoughts from a longtime SF reader. . .

On anyone's list of greatest SF books of all time, "The Stars My Destination" still has to be near the top. Part of its appeal is the sheer profligacy of its inventiveness.  Virtually any other SF writer would have meted out the ideas Alfred Bester came up with across eight or nine separate books.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress remains one of Heinlein's best, most readable, and entertaining books  -- and is less embarrassing in its sexism than most.

One drawback to speculative fiction is its potential for an author to get into something too big to fight his way out of.  Farmer's "Riverworld" books are one example; Heinlein's 1,000-year old Lazarus Long (In "Time Enough for Long" another); as was Heinlein's attempt in his last 5-6 novels to tie together all his future histories into one cosmologically consistent entity (many worlds). 

Sequels can spell doom to good ideas.  Each succeeding "Ringworld" book was worse than the last; same with Pohl's "Gateway" books.  "Dune Messiah" was as good a sequel as can exist, but with "Children of Dune," the series went off the deep end.    As simplistically as they were written, only the "Foundation" books continued to delight, sequel upon sequel.

I'm not a big fantasy fan, and am disheartened that the SF shelf has pretty much been overwhelmed by fantasy over the last 20-30 years.  I enjoyed reading Zelazny's "Amber" books because I like him and found them well written, but realized that the nature of the world was that he could string out the series to any arbitrarily large number of books he felt like – like an old movie matinee serial.

That said, Bradbury is more fantasy than SF – but it's of a different order and he tries for different things.

The best pure writer of the '70s-'80s was James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon).  Her stories are not universally great, but the best of them stand with the best ever, and absolutely haunt – which is what great art should strive to do.

William Gibson's books are never as good as you think they ought to be.

Larry Niven went way downhill over the last 30 years.

Arthur C. Clarke may have been the best pure scientist in the SF community, and had a lot of good ideas, but his writing gifts lacked.

Connie Willis' short fiction and humorous fiction are brilliant, but her long, more serious stuff betrays a disturbing trend of each succeeding book being longer than it needs to be by increasing percentages.  ("Lincoln's Dreams" – just right.  "Doomsday Book" – a masterpiece but probably 10% too long.  "To Say Nothing of the Dog" – 20% too long, but amusing still.  "Passage" – some very compelling sequences, but 35% too long.  "Blackout / All Clear" --  fully twice as long as it reasonably needs to be, and the characters perseverate so much that I realized I didn't even care to read the second volume when it came out.)  I loved "Bellwether" and her short stories, however.

Enough for now.

cheers --

george

[eyeresist]

Arthur C. Clarke may have been the best pure scientist in the SF community, and had a lot of good ideas, but his writing gifts lacked.

"Lacked"? Lacked what, exactly?

[ggluek]

I would say he served up very good ideas with characters that verged on cardboard and writing the rose above pedestrian, but not consistently.  Just a personal opinion.

[Bogey]

Just posted these on another site and thought some of you would enjoy them:












Photo shopped or real?

[TheGSMoeller]

Some great shots there, Bogey!

Of course this one caught my eye, anything related to Metropolis does, I see it's from 2010, is this one of your shots?

[Bogey]

Of course this one caught my eye, anything related to Metropolis does, I see it's from 2010, is this one of your shots?

ALL TAKEN FROM THE WEB AND MAINLY ONE SITE.

[Hollywood]

Thank you for sharing those great photos, Bogey. They bring back so many wonderful memories of the good old days of going to see two films plus cartoons at the local movie theater. 

[snyprrr]

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_Has_Risen_from_the_Grave


So, THIS is the one I hadn't seen,... or, was it Taste?,... but, either way, it was on the horror parade this week and I finally got to see it from the beginning. The first clue that this was going to be different was the Title Sequence itself, being a strange blue/red pulsing blood spatter, very groovy indeed .

Then, I was reading about how, the cinematographer was given some filters by director Francis (also a DP), and, I was utterly shocked. During certain shots, red or sickly yellow/orange filters around the sides of the frame lend a very queasy atmosphere to the shot (maybe other colors too). I've never seen anything quite like it, and, I couldn't believe that they took the chance of ruining the whole film by what really must be seen as some pretty oddly chosen filters. Personally, I'd LIKE to demerit the production, but, frankly, the effect is outrageously cool. The sickly yellow color gives those scenes a true sense of diseased malaise, perhaps commenting on that aspect of the vampire narrative.

The wonderful castle exteriors of the first two films is gone here (different studio), but there is a palpable sense of claustrophobia in the wooded and rocky surroundings of the Count's lair here. It seems as though the first two films make a pair, and the next two films also make a pair. I will have to endeavor to check out Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), which is then, a direct sequel to this film. I actually like the custom of playing a tiny bit of the previous film in the next installment.

I was also impressed to see two famous death scenes for the first time: the first, unsuccessful, staking of Dracula in his coffin, and, of course, the spectacular final impalement on a large crucifix in a ravine after having fallen in a fight. This is the shot with blood dripping from the four points of the Count's eyes that I've seen is passing but never knew which film it was (I know I thought it was Taste). The bloody bits in this film reach just slightly beyond, such as the copious amounts of blood coming from the Count in the unsuccessful staking attempt, or the very strange opening scene where the priest's blood from a head wound trickles perfectly down through the ice (from the previous movie, nice touch) onto the frozen Count's lips (shades of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman).

The lighting effects and mis-en-scene in this one are really 'out there' (wonderfully vintage, '68!), and, frankly, the whole production reeks of what I imagine is an unintended surrealism that is almost hallucinatory in the best Italian style. The absolute audaciousness of the funky colored filters so just barely works as to raise this film to levels of cult status beyond that of just a 'Hammer' film. I'm just thinking that there was more partying going on in the world, and this is how it translated into the Hammer ethos in 1968 (yes, I'm very obsessed with the years,... it certainly couldn't have been made in 1966).

The thing that really impressed me about this 'lost' (for me) classic was how un-Hammer it felt, especially from the tone of the first two films. SOMETHING was going on here that changed up the rhythm and tone from before; there is a gigantic decaying subtext hiding in plain sight that can't properly be named because it appears to be slightly beyond the sum of the parts. The vampiric sex parts are here presented a frenzied atmosphere of sickly sweet decay.

[TheGSMoeller]

Limited Paper: Mondo Releases the Next Wave of UNIVERSAL MONSTER Posters from Their Gallery Show

If you're not familiar with Mondo Posters and are a film buff, you need to check them out. They just released new Universal Monster posters, here are some of them (I'm seriously wanting the Bride of Frankenstein poster)

 

[snyprrr]

Limited Paper: Mondo Releases the Next Wave of UNIVERSAL MONSTER Posters from Their Gallery Show

If you're not familiar with Mondo Posters and are a film buff, you need to check them out. They just released new Universal Monster posters, here are some of them (I'm seriously wanting the Bride of Frankenstein poster)

 

Those are authentic? The style doesn't seem... huh?... still, very impressive.

[Szykneij]

The time approaches ...

[AnthonyAthletic]

Not Quite   



I can't wait, just showing Seasons 1 & 2 again nightly in the UK!!

[Beorn]

Have you seen all these?

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/21744/50-genuinely-creepy-horror-movies

I haven't. 

[Beorn]

A new season of GAME OF THRONES begins Sunday, fantasy fans. 

[TheGSMoeller]

Have you seen all these?

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/21744/50-genuinely-creepy-horror-movies

I haven't. 

Great list, I'd say I'm at about 65% with these films. Some that really stand out for me are Uzumaki (2000), Audition (1999), Nosferatu (1922), M (1931) and would prefer the original Swedish version of Let Me In (2010) titled Let The Right One In (2008)

Thanks for the link, Dave.    <---horror emoticon

[Beorn]

Great list, I'd say I'm at about 65% with these films. Some that really stand out for me are Uzumaki (2000), Audition (1999), Nosferatu (1922), M (1931) and would prefer the original Swedish version of Let Me In (2010) titled Let The Right One In (2008)

Thanks for the link, Dave.    <---horror emoticon

You're welcome. I think it's one of the finest horror movie lists I've seen. Creepy is so much better than shocking or gory.

[Bogey]

You're welcome. I think it's one of the finest horror movie lists I've seen. Creepy is so much better than shocking or gory.

Good to see you back here, Dave.  I have been reading a lot of Kaminsky, including the first two Inspector Rostnikov novels.  Back to Toby right now as they have come out on Kindle.

[Beorn]

Good to see you back here, Dave.  I have been reading a lot of Kaminsky, including the first two Inspector Rostnikov novels.  Back to Toby right now as they have come out on Kindle.

Yes, hello! I can assume then that you are enjoying his writing. That's great.

[TheGSMoeller]

You're welcome. I think it's one of the finest horror movie lists I've seen. Creepy is so much better than shocking or gory.

Without question.

[Beorn]

Oh, if you're on Facebook--and even if you're not--you can check out my Page Horrific. I post links and share news, interviews, etc.-- and deals on genre fiction.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Page-Horrific/439882046082250