Science Fiction is … Not in the Spaces We Know

Here at the CoastConFan Blog, I did a post called Ancient Tanis, Forgotten Occasionally But Not Lost – From Rosemary’s Baby to Indiana Jones, on Sept 29, 2014.   I’m surprised that  it’s still a popular post, but then again, it covers a lot of ground and a couple of genres.  In fact, I just went back and posted a map on that original post showing the Nile delta for clarification as to the location and importance of ancient/medieval Tanis.  Part of the turf I covered was Biblical, about the Ark of the Covenant and there was a prop bible with and a nice pseudo original woodcut print showing the Ark zapping the baddies (a little foreshadowing). Additionally, I talk about Tannis Root, from the film Rosemary’s Baby.  Along with that, the Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark writers added some fiction and some fantasy into the mix:  the destruction of Tanis and the location of the Well of Souls for example, but it’s really all about the Ark which is the central MacGuffin, and everything else is extrapolation and chase.  But oh, what a chase!

Like it or not, religion(s) and the Bible/Torah writings are bound up with our culture and also with science fiction and fantasy as exploratory material for writers.  From Paradise Lost to His Dark Materials, writers have speculated about our place in the worlds(s) and our place everywhere else and if you follow Lovecraft, the places lurking in between. 

But let me cut to the chase.   I have turned up a fairly obscure clutch of associated articles, incorporating six different writers and their ideas about the Bible in the context of Science Fiction and comics.  It’s called, Not in the Spaces We Know: An Exploration of Science Fiction and the Bible.  It’s an excerpt from the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (Vol 16, Article 9  DOI: 10.5508/jhs2016.v16.a9).  Now that being said, you might find this particular SF discourse somewhat different from your initial expectation of a SF/religious exploration.  But, it’s a free download, so what can you lose?  After all, part of the title of this exploration of SF in a religious context is a H. P. Lovecraft quote, “Not in the spaces we know, but between them” is from the Dunwich Horror.  That pretty much sets the pace. 

 Here’s what's in this provocative 93 page read:

Not in the Spaces We Know: An Exploration of Science Fiction and the Bible

Introduction by Frauke Uhlenbruch

Seers, Fictions and Other Worlds by Francis Landy

Faster than a Speeding Bullet, More Powerful than a Locomotive, Able to Rule by Sense of Smell! Superhuman Kingship in Prophetic Books by Ian Wilson

Science Fiction, the Bible, and the Narrative Mode by Harold Vedeler

Hacked Aquedah – Gensis 22 in Dialogue with Contemporary Political Science Fiction by Frauke Uhlenbruch

Of Gods and Monsters:  Supernatural Beings in the Uncanny Valley by Ryan Higgins

What has Coruscant to Do with Jerusalem? by James McGrath

For example, one section in this exploration muses about canon, how it’s created and how it is modified/amended/destroyed.  Given how canon has become a fan hot topic recently, it might make interesting for some fans out there.  Another talks of the uncanny valley – you can’t get more topical than that in recent techno talk or SF. Anyone who has read Dune knows about Frank Herbert’s stories about humans becoming gods or godlike and how they handle the situation.  I don’t think many of these articles will be heavy sledding for most of you, although I’ll admit that some of it wasn’t my cup of tea (hold the Tannis Root).  The real takeaway from these six musings is that they point to even more articles and books, allowing the reader to immerse even deeper in SF lore.  If you can’t find a dozen great ideas for stories reading this stuff, you need to give it up.

Anyway, since the Tanis/Ark post still seems popular, I thought this article would be of interest to SF readers and rather than stick it amongst the many footnotes and links in that previous article, I thought it would be better for a stand-alone post.  Can you believe it, I made it through this post without a single footnote. 

                                                                 CoastConFan

Links

Download Not in the Spaces We Know: An Exploration of Science Fiction and the Bible.  It’s an excerpt from the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures http://www.jhsonline.org/Articles/article_221.pdf

Read H. P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/fiction/dh.aspx

and Call of Cthulhu  http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx

For the light hearted, Cthulhu for Young Readers comic book by Dr Faustus http://drfaustusau.deviantart.com/gallery/34469914/The-Call-of-Cthulhu-for-beginning-readers

Ancient Tanis, Forgotten Occasionally, but Not Lost http://coastconfan.blogspot.com/2014/09/ancient-tanis-forgotten-occasionally.html

Classics Illustrated Comics, Remembering Science Fiction’s Printed Past

In the 20^th century, science fiction became mainstreamed primarily through SF pulps periodicals in the beginning, outside of regular novel releases.  Monthly publications presented stories and art to readers often with outrageous covers and lurid images accompanying the story.  Comic books became another vector for SF most especially through Classics Illustrated in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Long before our modern “graphic novels” Classics Illustrated produced a series of 169 well-known titles from the mundane to the fantastic with a publication history that ran from 1941 to 1971 for the original series.  They were originally named Classic Comics Presents for the first five releases and then as Classic Comics Illustrated for the next two, after which they were dubbed Classics Illustrated.  When the earlier seven titles were reprinted, they were put under the Classics Illustrated banner thereafter.  They were printed in several countries over the years and in a number of different languages. Classics Illustrated was a stepping stone from the old-style pulps of the 20s and 30s and into a newer form at allowed slimmed down version of text stories with illustrations. 

I remember Classics Illustrated fondly, most especially as I bought them at flea markets when I was looking for more traditional text SF books in the 1960s.  In the days before computers, used book shops, flea markets, and garage sales were prime places to hunt books.  Few of the old Classics Illustrated comics I turned up were in mint condition and some clearly had been read hard and put away wet.  Many early printings in excellent condition can command high prices in the collector’s market.

Science fiction and horror/weird fiction were well represented in the repertoire of the Classics Illustrated series with several classic SF stories.  Interestingly, a good portion of them were stories that were Victorian in origin and more importantly (for the publisher) many were out of copyright. 

Some of the writers represented by Comics Illustrated were Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelly, and Mark Twain.  Alas, there was no Robert E. Howard and no H. P. Lovecraft, although (surprise surprise) Talbot Mundy’s, King of the Khyber Rifles #107 and Arthur Conan Doyle’s, A Study in Scarlet  #110, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #33, and The White Company #102 are in the lineup.  Additionally, The Man Who Laughs #71 by Victor Hugo appears, which was made into an outstanding silent movie* and the basis of the character of The Joker, makes an appearance in the lineup. 

You’ll easily recognize these classic gems of SF, horror and weird fiction, many of which were made into film, some several times over the years:

  Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde #13

  Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court #24

  Frankenstein #26

  Mysterious Island #34

  Poe’s Mysteries #40

  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea #47

  Around the World in 80 Days #69

  The Gold Bug/The Tell Tale Heart/The Cask of Amontillado #84

  King Solomon’s Mines #97

  War of the Worlds  #124

  The Time Machine #133

  First Men in the Moon #144

  Invisible Man #153

  Food of the Gods #160

  Robur the Conqueror #164

In this day and age of reduced reading habits and reduced comprehension, comic books/graphic novels can be a way to hook kids into reading.  This isn’t to say comics and graphic novels are just for kids – by no means.  A love of reading is one of the most important tools you can have in life.  I had previously said before it was my father reading Tintin books (and others) to me, when I was still years away from attending school, and that got me hooked on the idea of reading even before I could read myself.  Parents, read to your kids if you love them and no age is too early to demonstrate reading to them even if they are too young to read them selves.

                                              CoastConFan

Footnote

*The Man Who Laughs (1928) a silent firm starring ConradVeidt, is based on the Victor Hugo story from 1869.

 

Other Links of Interest

List of Classics Illustrated Comic Books  http://www.tkinter.smig.net/classicsillustrated/list.htm

For those of you interested in those earlier SF periodicals check out this Pulps Primer:  http://io9.com/5680191/where-did-science-fiction-come-from-a-primer-on-the-pulps   and one on the origin of SF pulps:  http://www.pulpdom.com/history.html

For those interested in pulps covers of all types, check out this blog on just this subject:  http://pulpcovers.com/

Even more pulps and fanzines http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/exhibits/scifi/

An archive of pulps, many of which are downloadable   https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive

More pulps downloads  http://www.pulpmags.org/archives_hub.html

Project Gutenberg has the full text versions, in several formats, of these same stories for download for free:  https://www.gutenberg.org/ 

No, sorry this is just a spoof cover CI never made one

 

Wishing You A Happy New Year 2013 - 2014

This is New Year’s Eve if you follow the Gregorian calendar or even the Julian calendar.  Nonetheless, New Years is a way of sloughing off the old and welcoming the new with a sense of renewal and expectation.  Below are some obverted New Years that are not based on the Gregorian/Julian calendar.  I’d like to wish each and every person out there a Happy New Year, even if this is not the date you observe New Year.  I’m sure I have missed more than a few different calendars, but to everybody Happy New Year.

Since this is a SF & F blog, I thought some New Years greetings from about 100 years ago showing new inventions with some science fantasy elements.  This is appropriate since the first Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration began in 1904 and the first ball drop was in 1907.  These are real greetings cards showing the optimism from the beginning of the 20^th century, in the days before the end of the Modernist Era.  I’d like to think we are wiser for the years and expect brighter days ahead.  My interest in history and cultures also compels me to add some other new years, which you will see below.

                                                                          CoastConFan

 Other New Years 

Chinese New Year
 

Jewish New Year   
 

Islamic New Year  
 

Hindu  New Year (s)

For the more esoteric minded person interested in New Years:

Aztec New Year  

Sideral Year  

Persian New Year  

NeoPagan New Year

Ancient Babylonian & Assyrian New Year 

Punjabi/Sikh Vaisakhi 

Coptic Orthodox Church  New Year,

Five Ancient New Years Celebrations  

Other Ancient Calendars 

Ancient Egyptian New Year  

 

KEN GRIMES Has Left The Convention

On 18 July 2012 fandom lost another true fan. Dr. Kennard Allen Grimes, better known as Ken Grimes.  Ken was a well-known feature of CoastCons and in fact was an attendee of the first CoastCon, way back in 1978.  He attended while Ken was working on a degree in microbiology at USM in Hattiesburg.   Later he made it a point to travel down from Tennessee, where he made his home to attend CoastCons.

For years, he was CoastCon’s official photographer and keeper of the archive, taking photos and keeping a record of CoastCon’s activities.  Every year he traveled from Tennessee with the archive to exhibit to exhibit its arcane contents to wondering fans. He was honored as CoastCon 35’s Fan Guest of Honor this past year, for his years of support and work.

Less known about the fan Ken Grimes was the fact that he held a Ph.D. in microbiology, so he was not only a fan of SF, but was part of the cutting edge of scientific discovery.  He also played the banjo, loved bluegrass music and SF, scale models, and was a big attendee of conventions, such as CoastCon, Dragon Con and several World Cons over the years.

Ken was always there with his camera and archive and became a permanent fixture of CoastCon.  He died suddenly and his memorial service was held at Mount Olive Cemetery Funeral Home.  We will miss your quiet fannishness, Ken, our ranks are a little thinner with your passing.  I wish I had chatted with you’re a little longer, but I didn’t know this was your last attendance.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tennessean/obituary.aspx?n=kennard-allen-grimes&pid=158640827&fhid=4485#fbLoggedOut

I would like to put out a request to the present sitting committee of CoastCon, Inc. to name the archive in honor of Ken Grimes.  I think it’s a fitting reminder of the perennial fan and supporter of CoastCon.

                                                                                                      CoastConFan

http://www.coastcon.org/index.php/guests-a-groups

Mobicon 14 is this Month

Mobicon is a science fiction, fantasy, anime, horror and gaming convention held each year in Mobile, Alabama. This year it is held 20-22 May, 2011 at the Ashbury Hotel, 600 W I65 Service Road South.

I have attended off and on for a number of years now and enjoy its laid back atmosphere and southern fan feeling. Above is the official Mobicon 14 commercial and below is a video I did a couple of years ago using Mobicon stills. Additionally I have added a Marian Call video, which uses some Mobicon stills along with other photos taken at southern conventions. Come on down and support this southern convention in laid back Mobile.

                                                                            CoastConFan