The Old Girl Talks Fantasy

Games, Books, Films, TV series

[ultraclairedg]

The Tale of Turandot

There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?

This is possibly the oldest riddle ever and was written in Ancient Sumer around four thousand years ago. (Scroll down for the answer)

People, even during the most ancient times, like to test their logic and knowledge with riddles. We like making them for others to solve and we like solving them ourselves – thereby feeling clever and proud of our intellect.

In the fifth century BC, Sophocles gave us the Sphinx riddle in “Oedipus, the King”.

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

These are just two examples of riddles that have come to us from ancient times. The use of imagination and fantasy is essential to riddles so it comes as no surprise to find them in many stories.

Let’s move forward in time a little to look at another example.

In the mid twelfth century, a poet was born in what is now modern-day Azerbaijan. He wrote a number of poems including one in which an ancient Persian ruler goes off in search of seven beauties. The beauties are each related to the seven known planets of that time. One of them is, of course, connected to Mars and she is supposedly Khutulun, the real daughter of a Central Asian nomadic ruler and a relation of Ghengis Khan and Kublai Khan. She is one tough lady. She hunts and wrestles and is known to have won many, many horses by wrestling and beating down prospective suitors. (If you Google her name, a number of articles will pop up, should you be interested)

Fast forward to mid eighteenth century Venice where a playwright for the Commedia dell’Arte uses this Persian poem as the basis for one of his plays. This play is much admired by the German poet and playwright Schiller, who decides to write his own version. The hunting and wrestling bad-ass nomad princess of the central Asian plains, however, is a bit too much for European sensibilities, so our heroine gets transformed into a cold Chinese princess who, instead of beating the crap out of her suitors, sets them riddles. If they can solve the riddles, they will win her hand; if they can’t, they die. She’s such a nice person, one wonders why anyone would fall in love with her in the first place?

Nevertheless, one nameless suitor eventually turns up who manages to solve the riddles, but this bitch of a princess still doesn’t want to marry him. So, good guy that he is, he gives her a chance. He tells her that if she can find out his name by dawn of the following day (sound familiar? Rumplestiltskin?), she can kill him and not marry him. In order to avoid the marriage, the princess orders all her subjects to stay up all night trying to find out his name or they will be beheaded in his stead. (What a lovely woman!) This is what the suitor sings while awaiting for the dawn.

None shall sleep, None shall sleep! Even you, oh Princess, In your cold room, Watch the stars, That tremble with love And with hope. But my secret is hidden within me, My name no one shall know, No... no... On your mouth, I will tell it, When the light shines. And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine! (No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.) Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!

You probably don’t recognise the English words unless you’re an opera buff but a lot of football fans will recognise this version of it as it suddenly became really famous in 1990 when super-famous opera singer Pavarotti ‘s version was used as a football World Cup theme.

As I mentioned before, if Turandot is such a terrible person, one wonders why anyone would want to marry her no matter how beautiful, rich or powerful she is, so some bright spark has come up with an answer for that conundrum too. In the 2021 Chinese film “The Curse of Turandot”, the princess wears three bracelets which were given to her when she was young. These bracelets are, of course, cursed so they turn this otherwise pleasant young lady into a homicidal hellcat. Although this film is in Chinese, the character of Prince Calaf, the one who sings Nessum Dorma in the opera, is played by American actor Dylan Sprouse. Needless to say, his voice was dubbed, but that’s very common in Chinese dramas where the voice you hear is often not the voice of the actor playing the role. This film wasn’t great so I wouldn’t recommend it even if you like other Chinese films but it does show how an idea that originated in the imagination of a 12th century poet, changed and altered to suit European sensibilities in the 19th entury and used as a football theme in the nineties can be brought right into the 21st century and given a new spin. Imagination is a wonderful thing!

(Riddle answers: A school and a person)

[ultraclairedg]

Weaponised Magical Musical Instruments

Imagine you are a warrior, out on the battlefield, in full armour ready for the fight. You draw your great sword and prepare to let out a terrifying roar of defiance when unexpectedly you hear the sounds of a flute being played. A flute! You think, what the hell? Why are you hearing flute music on the battlefield? The music gets louder and louder and suddenly you are on the ground, writhing in pain, holding your head in your hands while your bowels evacuate involuntarily. All your comrades around you are in the same condition. Battle over!

Music is powerful. It has the ability to make you feel happy, sad, joyful, melancholic, amorous or terpsichorean. Musical instruments, whether magical or not, play a huge role in all forms of fantasy and science fiction but they are not often thought of as weapons in their own right. But, there are many examples. Below are just a few that I’ve come across from various sources.

Possibly the oldest, and one of the most fantastical examples of the use of a musical instrument as a weapon of mass destruction comes from the Bible. In the Old Testament book of Joshua, the Israelites use their rams’ horn “trumpets” to bring down the walls of Jericho, after which the only creatures left alive, including horses, donkeys, cattle and sheep, were the spy/prostitute Rahab and her family. As there is absolutely no archaeological evidence that this ever happened, we should certainly call it a work of fantasy and put it as our first example.

Another of the oldest and most famous examples of the use of a magical instrument is the flute used by the Pied Piper of Hamelin to entice the rats and then the children away from the town. While this is not a weapon in the traditional sense it is certainly a powerful instrument of control and is interesting in that the player seems to have the ability to decide who/what is affected by it. First only the rats follow the music until they drown themselves in the Weser River. Then the children are affected but not the adults. In one account the adults are said to be in church because it was a holy day but as most children know if you are a member of a religious family there is no way adults will let you stay at home by yourself on a holy day. This all supposedly happened in the year 1284 – a pretty exact date for something that is clearly fictional so it could be assumed that something quite awful did happen to the children of Hamelin around this time, plague possibly as it is carried by rats, and the Pied Piper represents death. What is interesting is that there is a street in Hamelin called Bungelosenstrasse or “Street with no drums”. It is believed to be the street where the children were last seen and dancing or playing music is still not allowed on this street even today.

Science fiction/fantasy books often feature music being used in some form, though not usually as a weapon. One of these is “The Crystal Singer” (1982) by Anne McCaffrey. In this book, the planet Ballybran is the only place where special crystals can be mined which are used in a variety of technologies and are therefore very valuable. To mine these crystals, the miners use the perfect pitch of their voices, so it is clear that some kind of sonic frequency comes into play. It wouldn’t be a far-fetched idea to use these perfect voices, amplified to a great degree, as weapons, much like a very high note breaking a glass.

Another more recent book in which music played a very central role is “Ready Player Two” by Ernest Cline. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie “Ready Player One”, you’ll know that the main character, Wade Watts, plays a virtual reality game to win a massive prize. I don’t want to go into details here in case anyone doesn’t know it and would like to read the book or see the movie at some point. “Ready Player Two” picks up Wade’s story, and, like “Ready Player One” he has to use a variety of virtual tools in his virtual world to continue playing the game. Prince’s music (the artist formerly known as) plays a central role in the story and one of the tools that Wade has to pick up happens to be one of Prince’s famous guitars, which is used as a weapon in an arena battle. I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Prince so the fact that events concerning his life and work are so central to the plot meant that I wasn’t as engaged with this book as Prince fans would be.

Another genre where using musical instruments as weapons is a major feature is Chinese wuxia. Never heard of it? Well, if you’ve ever seen “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or “Hero”, you’ve seen wuxia. Wuxia (loosely translated as martial hero) is a genre of traditional Chinese film, series and manga where the central character is a martial arts expert who follows a code of ethics to right wrongs and deal justice. Wuxia includes the use of fantastical kung fu techniques such as flying and levitation and also the use of the flute and the guqin and guzheng (traditional Chinese zithers, although the guqin is most often used as it is smaller and easier to carry than the larger guzheng) to overcome enemies. One of the most popular Chinese drama series from 2016 was “Love O2O”. This series used an interesting mix of live action and anime as the characters played the very popular RPG game “A Chinese Ghost Story” – a real game that can also be played by players outside China is you are so inclined. At the end of the clip below, you can see the main character using his guqin as a weapon.

(youtube clip fan made connecting real game with Love020 series)

While “Love 020” shows a Chinese MMORPG, there are a number of other RPG games that allow the player to multi-skill up to Bard class, a character that uses magical music and instruments. If you want to find out which ones, just do a Google search. Here’s a link to one I haven’t played but as the Mabinogi is so close to my heart (See previous posts) I’m posting it here.

Think that all this is too fantastical to have any bearing on real life? Think again! The LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) has been described as a “sound cannon” and “sonic weapon”. It is used for crowd control in the US and is extremely dangerous for human health. Depending on the length of exposure and decibels used, LRADs can, at the least, cause tinnitus, at worst, vomiting and blood and/or mucus from the ears with lasting effects on hearing. LRADs were first used by a US police department in Pittsburgh in 2009 to control protests during the G20 summit held there that year. Since then, a number of US police departments have used LRADs for crowd control.

So, once again, what some people have dismissed as pure fantasy has become reality. Gotta love that about sci fi and fantasy.

Linguistic Phun

Terpsichorean – pertaining to dance. From the name of the Ancient Greek Muse of Dance, Terpsichore, who also invented the harp and education.

(I do not own the rights to the images shown in this post or the Youtube content.)

[ultraclairedg]

Rhiannon – The Mabinogi

Nearly everyone knows the song “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, right? If you don’t, you can check it out on Youtube. It’s a really good song off a really good album, but how many of you know anything about the mythical woman of this name that the song was actually based on? If you clicked here thinking that this blog would be about that song, then be patient because I will talk about it a little later but first let’s get a little background.

Rhiannon is one of the most famous characters from the Mabinogi. The Mabinogi, that medieval collection of Welsh Celtic myths and legends, has long been a source of inspiration for artists. In a previous blog, I wrote about the story of Blodeuwedd and how that story inspired the book “The Owl Service” and the old TV series that was based on it. (Link here if you haven’t already read that post. ) So, here’s the background for Rhiannon.

According to the tales, Rhiannon rode on a white horse and was always accompanied by three magical birds whose song could both wake the dead and lull the living to sleep, hence her connection to music. She came from the Otherworld (Annwn) to marry Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, whose heart she captures when she encourages him to follow her on her magical white horse. But, no matter how hard he rides he cannot catch her until he calls out to her to wait. Then she stops and admonishes him for not calling out sooner. As with other Mabinogi heroines, however, her story is far from a happy one. On her wedding day, an unknown guest arrives and requests a boon of the bridegroom. Thoughtlessly, Pwyll (probably so happy to be married to such a beautiful woman) grants it without thinking. The guest, who is really Gwawl, Rhiannon’s unwanted lover, wants her back and now he can have her as Pwyll is honour-bound to uphold his oath. Rhiannon, far more intelligent than her rather dumb husband, finds a way to avoid going back to Gwawl. (If you want to read about that or even more about the Mabinogion, I suggest this link to Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation.

After several happy years together, Pwyll needs an heir but Rhiannon seems to be barren. After refusing to take another wife, Rhiannon eventually gives birth to a son, but unfortunately this son is mysteriously stolen and Rhiannon gets blamed. Pwyll, once again despite objections from his courtiers, doesn’t kill her off but rather punishes her to stand outside his castle at the mounting post and carry visitors on her back from the entrance to the hall while telling them her story. Few take up her offer to be treated like a horse and after many years the son turns up and is re-united with his real parents. 

There is some speculation that the story of Rhiannon could be a case of euhemerism, that there actually was in ancient times a real queen or queens whose story has become exaggerated and mythologised through numerous re-tellings, or that perhaps her character was based on some earlier Celtic horse goddess such as Epona.

But, to go back to Rhiannon’s birds, these three birds had the power to “wake the dead or lull the living to sleep” with their beautiful singing. So, apart from the name Rhiannon and the singing, what has this got to do with the Fleetwood Mac song? Well, in 1974, Stevie Nicks accidentally came across the book “Triad” by Mary Leader. It’s a story about a girl who becomes possessed with the spirit of Rhiannon from the Mabinogi. Nicks was so enchanted (I use this word deliberately) by the story that she felt compelled to write the song, which, when Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, eventually became their signature song. Latest news is that Nicks is now working on bringing “Rhiannon” to the screen and is working on a mini-series which will also include more songs she has written and never previously released related to the stories of the Mabinogi.

But, leaving aside this very famous song, I recently came across another very pleasant song called “The Birds of Rhiannon” by a person who calls himself Damh the Bard. I think you can tell by his name that he has a great connection to folk music, and, according to his web page he classes himself as a pagan folk musician. He has many songs based on the Mabinogi myths and legends which you can check out from this link or from Youtube. Also on Youtube, there is this Channel 4 (1984) documentary about the making of a live production of the Mabinogi which also shows the story of Rhiannon and Pwyll. The quality of the video is not good but the production must have been wonderful to watch live. You can get a good idea of this from the video.

Linguistic Phun: Euhemerism - A belief attributing the origins of the gods to the deification of heroes after their deaths. A theory postulated by the 4th century BC Greek writer Euhemerus, who believed that the Greek gods’ origins could be attributed to the deification of actual heroes.

[ultraclairedg]

The Three Body Problem

Liu Cixin

(English translation by Ken Liu)

How do you feel about first contact? There’s a lot of material out there – books, films, TV series – dealing with this subject, and we’ve been trying to find other intelligent life in the depths of the universe for many years now with scientific programmes like SETI. Some of us are excited by the prospect of not being alone in this vast universe, others are not so delighted.

Probably, the seminal work for the arrival of an alien species to our planet is H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, which kind of sets the standard. The aliens arrive from Mars, attempt to take over our Earth, destroying everything in their path and generally causing mayhem. That book did actually end well for the human race as our wonderful viruses(!!!) took care of the monsters for us.

But, let’s consider things seriously. Most scientists working in this field concede that any alien race capable of reaching Earth would have technology so far in advance of ours that the scenario that would play out would be much the same as the Spaniards invading the New World – pretty much total extinction for the native population. Not a very attractive prospect for us pitiful earthlings.

So, let’s say a scientist working in a remote area of China (Yes, I know, it’s China. It seems bad things tend to start there nowadays) happens to stumble upon a message from an alien race. This is a scientist who knows well how things are likely to turn out, so what do they do? If they answer their call, they know the alien race will be able to pinpoint Earth’s position in the galaxy and aim straight for us. Thing is though, this particular scientist is not a big fan of the human race right now. After all, we’re pretty much destroying our home planet with our incessant wars, over-population, global warming, species extinction, plastic saturation and so on and so forth, so …

Fast forward a few years. Another scientist working in the field of nano-technology is suddenly approached by the government to do some weird undercover work. At first this involves playing a computer game. Doesn’t seem too dangerous, right? And, not exactly what you’d expect your government to ask you do, but it seems that other prominent scientists who have played the game have suddenly committed suicide. The government wants to know why.

The game in question introduces this scientist to the world of Trisolaris, a planet in a triple sun system. This planet has big problems. The fact that it orbits three suns means its conditions are extremely chaotic, ranging from extreme heat to extreme cold and everything in between but the Trisolarans have a particularly interesting means of surviving these extremes. The Trisolarans are, of course, the alien race that has sent the signal to Earth. They want off their crazy planet as soon as possible. Will they get an answer to their signal? Well, there are no spoilers here – read the book!

The system of Trisolaris probably equates to that of our nearest neighbour – the Alpha Centauri system.  It was as early as the 17th century  that two Jesuit missionaries, Richaud and de Fontenay discovered independently that Alpha Centauri was, in fact, a binary star , which came to be called Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. To the naked eye, however, they look like one single star, the brightest in our night sky after Sirius and Canopus, Much later, not until the 20th century did Robert Innes discover  Proxima Centauri. Although Proxima Centauri is quite far, in astronomical terms, from A and B, they are still gravitationally intertwined, making them, in effect, a tri-star system. Interestingly, our nearest exo-planet neighbour also revolves around Prox. C. so could be a good candidate (if your imagination stretches that far) for Trisolaris.

As well as learning a lot about our nearest star system, another interesting aspect of this book was its examination of a period of Chinese history I didn’t know much about – the Cultural Revolution. I realise that China and everything Chinese isn’t flavour of the year right now, but this book isn’t a piece of Chinese propaganda even though its author has been criticised for his staunch support of the Chinese government. It is science fiction with some historical references that flesh it out and allow you to understand the characters more.

Apparently, Netflix wants to make it into a TV series with the same team as Game of Thrones (Weiss and Benioff) but  have been criticised for this because of the Uighur situation.  Netflix have countered by stating that although they condemn the treatment of the Uighur people, the project should be judged on its merit, and, as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, Liu Cixin is entitled to his own opinions of the government there, which are not connected to the contents of the book in any way. I tend to agree with this. If you can put aside personal feelings and read this book as a work of science fiction, it is well worth reading.

[ultraclairedg]

Year Zero

The year is 2007. You go to the bathroom during the interval of a gig you’re attending and, strangely, there is a flash drive taped under the toilet. Of course you pick it up, take it home and plug it in. There’s a net address on it that links you to an anti-establishment website, and, being a bit rebellious, you check out the site. There’s an interesting bit of music accompanying the info there – electro-industrial rock, moody, a bit unusual but strangely enticing. You’d like to find out more. The site tells you to call a number where you hear an orphic message about drugs in drinking water with some more strange background music and a message telling you your next step. That’s it you’re hooked.

This isn’t the beginning of a book or the opening scenes of a film. Similar events actually happened. It was all part of the Alternative Reality Game (ARG) that heralded the Nine Inch Nails concept album Year Zero. Want to find out more? Here’s a link. https://vimeo.com/5484260 

Or if you’d prefer a Wiki link to the campaign timeline. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_timeline_of_Year_Zero

If you aren’t familiar with Nine Inch Nails at all, here’s a little background. NIN is basically Trent Reznor, a multi-talented music producer, singer, song-writer, musician. He often collaborates with Brit Atticus Ross, another  multi-talented musician and producer, as he did for the album Year Zero. If you don’t know or recognise the name Nine Inch Nails, you’ll probably have heard Johnny Cash’s version of the NIN song Hurt and you may have seen the film The Social Network for which Reznor and Ross produced the soundtrack. More recently, NIN music featured in the Miley Cyrus episode of Black Mirror. So, as well as Year Zero, NIN music is well and truly in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

To get back to Year Zero, the concept of this album refers to the very near future, 2022, when society has basically fallen apart. It is a very political album in that it presents a dystopian future where, to quote Trent Reznor, “The world has reached the breaking point - politically, spiritually and ecologically. “ It also includes some almost “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Brave New World” ideas of a theocratic authoritarian militaristic society allowing for very few personal freedoms and drugs in drinking water to keep us all happy. Although the ARG and album came out in 2007, they are no less resonant today, particularly in the light of what is happening in the world right now.  The second track on this album is entitled “This is the beginning of the end “, which seems almost prophetic considering the global pandemic we’ve all been going through.  Another track is called “Capital G”. Here are some of its lyrics –

         I pushed the button and elected him to office and he pushed the button              and  he dropped the bomb ... And he signs his name with a capital G.

That capital letter could easily be a capital T or a capital B, maybe? (Trump? Boris?)

Here are some more lyrics from the track “The Great Destroyer”. They could refer to some psychotic world leader, but they could also refer to each and every one of us destroying the environment with our mass consumerism.

I hope they cannot see The limitless potential Living inside of me To murder everything I hope they cannot see I am the great destroyer

NIN’s music is not something for everyone. I love it but fully realise that it’s not to everyone’s taste, or perhaps it’s overtly political ideology is not to your taste either. Pity! In these difficult times we need stuff like this to give us a wake-up call.

Linguistic Phun:

orphic - adjective

of or relating to Orpheus

resembling the music attributed to Orpheus; entrancing.

pertaining to a religious or philosophical school maintaining a form of the cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, ascribed to Orpheus as founder:Orphic mysteries.

 (often lowercase) mystic; oracular. (which is how it is used above)

[ultraclairedg]

Update – "Upload"

A short update on uploading one’s self.

Uploading/Downloading one’s consciousness into a machine seems to be flavour of the month at the moment. After Altered Carbon and Years and Years which I featured in my last post, I’d like to add a quick word about another TV series with a similar theme - Upload.

Upload is a very different kettle of fish from the other two. First of all, it’s a comedy. The story is about a young man, Nathan Brown, who loses his life in a seemingly impossible accident involving a self-drive car. His super-rich girlfriend uploads him to a computer-generated luxury after-life resort. It seems, though, that all is not exactly what it seems. Why did his car crash? Why is his bitch girlfriend so very, very controlling. What’s going on with his best friend who refuses to answer his calls? (Yes, interaction with the living is really possible.) Add to that the fact that Nathan and his “angel”, Nora, who is his living guide to the after-life, start to have a real connection, and you have a recipe for some mystery, romance and diversion.

Upload is an enjoyable, sci-fi mystery that is really good fun and the episodes are only about half an hour long so easy to watch without having to take them too seriously and get yourself distracted from other much more important activities that we have to do now during lockdown, such as clearing out your sock drawer. Added bonus – Nathan Brown is played by good-looking  Robbie Amell, who has done several other series including A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Flash and Tomorrow People, and is first cousin to another good-looker, The Arrow’s Stephen Amell.

Released on Amazon Prime in May of this year, it has already been renewed for a second series.

[ultraclairedg]

Altered Carbon and Years and Years

Do you want to live forever? Would you at least like to extend your lifespan for quite some time, perhaps enough time to be able to visit other planets outside our solar system? Maybe you’d just like to reach the age of Methuselah, who, according to the Bible achieved the grand old age of 969. What lengths would you go to, though, to achieve this? Would you allow your consciousness to be downloaded into some sort of small, neat storage device which could then be “implanted” into a new body when the old one has died?

This is the premise behind the Netflix series “Altered Carbon”; season 2 of which landed on the streaming service recently after a successful season 1 which was shown in 2018. In the first series, we meet the protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. We learn that he had been a soldier for the authorities who turned rebel, was captured when his group fell, had his stack (the small, neat storage device) removed, was imprisoned (only his stack that is because his original body no longer existed), then taken out of storage and re-sleeved (put back into a living body) to help solve the murder of an obscenely rich “Meth”  (person who is so rich they can afford to clone their bodies so that their sleeves are the same every time and,as a consequence,  are real Methuselahs who can theoretically live forever provided their stack isn’t destroyed).

Too many details about the series would give away too many spoilers, so if you’re confused by the convoluted explanation in the previous paragraph, just watch season 1 and all will become clear. I have to say, though, I loved season 1 and although season 2, in my humble opinion, wasn’t quite as good, I’m still really looking forward to season 3. Apart from the fact that I love almost anything sci-fi/fantasy, Altered Carbon appealed to me for a number of reasons.

One of the most interesting aspects for me from the series was the “re-sleeving” concept. A new sleeve can be any physical human body.  It can be male or female, young or old, so the goal isn’t necessarily eternal youth. In one episode in season 1, two men meet up and realise almost immediately that they had been soul mates, only one of them was previously a woman whose new sleeve is now male. They reignite their relationship despite the obvious difference because the personality and character of the re-sleeved person remained the same and that was what the other originally fell in love with. In season 2, a female character, who is helping Kovacs, allows her stack to be placed temporarily in Kovacs body. Her son still manages to recognise her even though she’s now in this male body. Her son is also in a body that was not his original one. This, obviously, leads to the question of what exactly makes up who we are. What makes each individual unique and special?

(Takeshi Kovacs - original, season1 and season 2)

So, where did this idea come from, that future technology by storing the essence of our being, could help us live long simply by exchanging our mortal coils? There are two, interconnected philosophical theories in existence right now. The first is Transhumanism. (Believe me, this is all true. You can check it out if you’re so inclined.) To quote Wikipedia, and I am assuming that, in this case, Wiki is close enough to the truth.

               Transhumanism is a philosophical movement that advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology. (Wikipedia)

If you are interested in finding out more about this philosophy, you can visit this website.

https://whatistranshumanism.org/

I first came across this very interesting concept in another excellent and very different TV series called “Years and Years”, a series jointly produced by the BBC and HBO and shown in May/June 2019. This series deals with many hypothetical issues which may affect us in the not so distant future. In it, one of the character wishes to become “transhuman”. Here’s a video clip of her explaining to her parents what she wants to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOcktbXSfxU

The idea that we can keep on evolving and continually getting better and better, especially by using technology to help us, forms the basis of the second theory I mentioned above and that is Extropianism.  Here’s the Wikipedia definition for that.

     Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of Extropy, is an "evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition". Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people live indefinitely. (Wikipedia)

So, you can see from the definitions that the two are closely related, with extropianism being a particular form of transhumanism, which promotes the continuation of human life, using technological developments, to a point whereby human life is almost amaranthine, without the need for religion or dogma.

These are very thought-provoking concepts which lead us back to my original questions – exactly how far would you go to extend your life-span?

Whatever you believe and however you feel about the future of the human race, I can highly recommend both Altered Carbon and Years and Years, with one being quite American in its outlook and the other particularly British and both very different from each other.

“Altered Carbon” and its sequels “Broken Angels” and “Woken Furies” are originally a series of books written by the British author Richard K Morgan. I haven’t read the books yet but I fully intend to.

Linguistic Phun: If you thought  amaranthus was a flower and/or a purplish-red colour, and nothing to do with immortality, look below.

     Long ago poets conceived of a flower that did not fade and christened it amaranth. The appellation is rooted in the Greek words amarantos, meaning "immortal" or "unfading," and anthos, meaning "flower." The word amaranthine emerged as an adjective of the imaginary flower and subsequently of anything possessing its undying quality. Amaranth also names a real plant, an herb that some consider a weed and others grow for its colorful leaves and spikes of flowers.

(Source: Merriam-Webster.com)

[ultraclairedg]

Penanggalan –  A Malay vampiric witch entity

A while ago, I wrote about one of the strangest vampiric entities I’ve ever come across – the Jianshi or Chinese Hopping Vampire. As well as writing a little about the “facts” concerning this evil creature, I also posted a link to a weird film I’d found on Youtube related to the Jianshi. Being used to the normal blood-sucking fanged European version, I found the Jianshi very strange and interesting. Well, I think I’ve found an even weirder sanguine monster – the Penanggalan, from Southeast Asia, mainly Malasia. As you can see from the picture below, she is a monstrous, fang-toothed head trailing her entrails.

She is not technically undead as is a European vampire, so how does she manage to detach her head and leave behind her body? Well, she is a witch who practises black magic. She uses magic to soak her body in a vat of vinegar until her head can come unstuck. (So, one way to tell if there’s one around is by the overpowering smell of vinegar!) Then trailing her guts behind her she flies off in search of her favourite food – new born babies and newly-delivered mothers, whose blood she drinks with a long, invisible tongue. Before dawn, she will return to the place she left her body and again soak herself in the vat of vinegar to shrink her innards to a small enough size to fit them back into her body.  In order to protect against her, new mothers and their relatives surround the room with thorny plants. Weird right?

So how does one become a penanggalan? Well, there are several suggestions. The first is that the woman (often a midwife) has been cursed. Then, of course, there’s demonic possession somehow connected to the fact that she had promised not to eat meat for 40 days but broke the promise and is now doomed to drink blood. Finally, there’s plain old meanness - she wanted, for some reason, to do this to herself to take revenge for some injustice done to her.

If you were (or still are) a player of Dungeons and Dragons, you might have come across the Penanggalan before. She is, in fact, one of dead creatures from the rule book – Armour Class: 16; Hit Points: 104; Speed: (fly) 40ft (hover). She has two melee attacks – withering bite and acidic entrails – and a slumber charm which recharges after a rest. Defense against her is thorny plants and sun. If she is not back in her body by sunrise, she’ll rot. According to Wikipedia, there are also a few more references to penanggalans in popular Western culture such as an issue of Hellboy comic and an RPG platformer game called Indivisible.

Want to see her in action? Well, there are a few videos on Youtube.They aren’t very good quality but might be good for a laugh. Here are the links if you’re interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFVrOB4Xxf0    trailer - Demonic Beauty, Khmer film 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYeJ404n6mA   Full film, no English subs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=majaYCZHPMc   35 minutes or so, no subs, seems very silly

[ultraclairedg]

Threes – “Omne Trium Perfectum” (Everything Perfect Comes In Threes)

When I was growing up, I often heard people say “Three for a Welsh girl”. It could refer to three good things or three bad things, and I never questioned why this should be so or why, as I thought at that time, it only applied to Welsh girls. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered that things coming in threes was pretty much a standard everywhere. Just think about the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; the Three Wise Men; Maid, Mother, Crone (in Wiccan belief); ready, steady, go; blood, sweat and tears, the Three Muskateers (even though there were really four of them) as well as the fact that plays usually have three acts, books are often written in trilogies and a story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and there they all are! The “famous” linguistic three-part lists!

According to some linguistic theory, the reason why threes are so popular and useful is that our memories remember something better when things are presented as a trilogy rather than, say, a pair or a quartet. If something occurs once – well that’s just a lucky chance. If it occurs twice, you could put that down to coincidence. Three times? There’s got to be something special in that so it catches our attention and we remember it. More than three and we just stop paying attention. (Says a lot about our attention span!)

So how does this three thing apply to fantasy and sci-fi (apart from the fact that some of the greatest fantasy/sci-fi books are trilogies.)

Well, one of the most famous three-part lists is one I mentioned in an earlier post, and that is Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics. Just to remind you, they are:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These “Laws of Robotics” were, of course, completely invented by Asimov for his books but they have been referenced frequently since then in various mediums.

Other laws, which are based on hard science though, have been equally important for science fiction/fantasy in all forms including books, films and tv series.

In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler was a very important mathematician and astronomer (and astrologer, but the difference between an astronomer and an astrologer wasn’t seen as much of a difference at that time). Amongst other things he proposed 3 laws concerning planetary motion. Here they are:

All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the foci.

   2. A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time.

3. The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

(No, I don't understand this, either.)

These 3 Laws were actually the basis for Newton’s, more famous, Laws of Motion, but Kepler himself was inspired in his investigation of planetary motion because he was very spiritual and believed that the solar system must mirror religion in having some sort of Holy Trinity to keep it moving. Kepler, can also be considered the “father” of science fiction, as he wrote his book “Somnium” (the Dream) in around 1600 (though it wasn’t published until 1634, after his death). In his book, Kepler's character, Duracatos describes how his mother, who seems to have been the local witch, made magic spells using the herbs she collected. Duracatos finds his way to Denmark, where he meets Tycho Brahe who takes him on as a student. Well, if you're interested, you can find more by following the link below. One notable incident from the book, though is that Kepler uses his knowledge of astronomy to show how the inhabitants of the moon would have very different societies because on the dark side of the moon they would always be facing away from the Earth but the other side would always view the Earth and, therefore, be a more stable society because of this.

Ahh! I feel better already!

Here's a link to a Wordpress post called The Somnium Project if you want to find out more about the first science fiction story. This is a work in progress, so it is not complete.

https://somniumproject.wordpress.com/somnium/i-2/

Going on with our threes,  next there are Arthur C. Clarke’s three laws concerning magic and technology which have been very influential with regard to fantasy and science fiction.

Clarke’s Three Laws

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

This third law in particular has been referenced many times in science fiction/fantasy works. One notable incidence being Season 26 of Doctor Who in part 2 of “Battlefield”, where the Doctor asks his companion if she knows Clarke’s third law, which she does, but the doctor then quotes the opposite of this law created by another great sci-fi writer, Larry Niven, which states “any advanced form of magic is indistinguishable from technology”.

Something to think about!

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please give it a like and share to any of your friends who might like it too. Thank you.

In these desperate times, I wish all my readers stay safe and well. Stay home, everyone!

[ultraclairedg]

Colour in Fantasy

I often add a little bit of what I call “Linguistic Phun” (fun – get it?) at the end of my blog posts, usually a little comment on the roots of certain words used in the post, and often originating from Ancient Greek. Today, I’m starting with some linguistic fun (not in any way related to Ancient Greek as far as I know)

. How many of these colours do you recognise?

 Fuligin

 Paryl

 Octarine

 Flicts

One? Two? None? No idea what I’m talking about ? Well, unless you are absolutely crazy about sci-fi/fantasy in all its forms as I am, the chances are you won’t recognise any of them. They are all, in fact, names for fictional colours which have been invented by their creators. To be more specific, Fuligin is a colour “darker than black” from the “The Shadow of the Torturer” (book series “The Book of the New Sun) by Gene Wolfe. Paryl is a colour far below sub-red and can only be seen by “chromaturgical drafters” in Brent Weeks’ “Lightbringer” books. Octarine may be the most famous of the four as it is the invention of Terry Prachett and is the greenish-yellowish purple which is the colour of magic. Finally, flicts, according to Neil Armstrong, is the colour of the moon.  It was actually invented by Brazilian author Ziraldo and is a kind of beigy colour that has no place on Earth. When Armstrong met Ziraldo during a tour of Brazil after the first moon landing in 1969, Ziraldo asked Armstrong if the moon was flicts. Armstrong answered that it was indeed “flicts”.

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a colour freak. I rarely call anything red just red. For me it’ll be crimson or scarlet or vermilion but never just red. Same thing with other colours. Blue will be azure, cyan or navy; purple can be violet, indigo, heliotrope; green is emerald, forest, verdigris, sage. It matters to get it right. Colour is important, especially in fantasy which depends so much on getting into our imaginations and creating a fantastic world for us to enter and become part of.

The colours above are imaginary and come from literature but colour is so important in films and TV series too.

Have you seen the movie “Little Joe”, with Ben Whishaw as Chris and Emily Beecham as Alice? It’s a pretty good sci-fi film about a group of geneticists/botanists who develop a plant that gives off a scent to make you happy – a kind of floral Xanax (benzodiazepine ). Of course it all goes very wrong, as things do in such films, and what ensues was quite enjoyable and well-acted. But it’s not the film per se that I want to talk about here but rather something that made a big impression on me when I watched this film and that was the use of colour in it and how important the contribution of colour was to the overall atmosphere of the film.

Right at the start of the movie, Ben’s character, Chris, comments on the trainers (sneakers) worn by Joe, Alice’s son. They are a bright crimson colour which look a little “in your face” for a moody teenager and at odds with Joe’s school uniform. In contrast to these very brightly coloured trainers are Chris and Alice’s lab coats, which are a very ecological pale pistachio green. Then you see that the genetically mutated flower is also the same crimson colour as Joe’s trainers and totally stands out from the pallor of the lab coats. Another experimental flower in the lab is a dull, blackish-blue and you just know, immediately, that this flower will fail. This is the use of evocative colour at its best.

So, next time you read a book or watch a film, pay a bit more attention to the use of colour. You may find it adds a little to your overall experience and, perhaps, improves your vocabulary a little too.

[ultraclairedg]

Fantasy in Rock Music: Michael Moorcock, Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult

Almost anyone of a certain age who is a fan of reading sci-fi/fantasy will have heard of the author Michael Moorcock. Born in the UK in in 1939, his most famous works are probably the Elric of Melniboné series which relate the life of the Eternal Champion, Elric,  servant for the forces of Chaos, possessor of the cursed black sword Stormbringer and inhabitant of the multiverse.

Elric, although a hero – the Eternal Champion, a man who cannot die and is re-incarnated again and again to struggle with the dichotomies of good and evil, chaos and order – is not your typical muscle-bound conqueror. He is an elongated, slim, white-haired albino who has to use drugs to maintain his health. He is, in fact, an emperor, but the last of his line. The books (7 in the main series but Elric also appears in others) tell of Elric’s reluctant battles for the God of Chaos, while at the same time trying desperately to keep a shred of humanity – difficult in itself as Elric is not entirely human but comes from a much more ancient and powerful race who traditionally have had very little regard for lowly, ordinary humans.

Apart from being a junkie albino brooding servant of Chaos, Elric also possesses one of the most famous swords in the sci-fi/fantasy world – Stormbringer, the Stealer of Souls. This black, growling, screaming, mumbling, singing sword not only takes your life but also your soul, which is then dispatched to the God Arioch, God of Chaos. It’s also got its own consciousness too, which often makes it quite difficult for Elric to control, as Stormbringer’s demands don’t always agree with Elric’s wishes.

Now, unless you’re a big fan of Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult, you’re probably wondering what on earth their connection is to Michael Morecock and his writing. In fact, Michael was a collaborator of theirs and wrote many of their songs. He is particularly connected to Hawkwind and received a gold record for being one of the writers of their album “Warrior on the Edge of Time”, which is a direct reference to the Eternal Champion. Moorcock also did some of the vocals on this album as well as being very involved with many of their other works and side projects.

Moorcock also collaborated with the Blue Oyster Cult, writing the lyrics for three tracks, two of which are directly connected to the Elric stories. The first is called “Black Blade”, which is, of course, a direct reference to Stormbringer, and the second, “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”, is linked to Elric’s emotions and psychological states. In 1987, Moorcock, who was an accomplished musician with his own band “The Deep Fix”, played onstage with Blue Oyster Cult in Atlanta, Georgia and the members of both Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult together with Moorcock contributed to many other songs and album tracks as side projects.

As a result of his deep connection to music, it is often suggested that Moorcock named his infamous sword Stormbringer as a tribute to the famous guitar Fender Stratocaster. Since then, there have been many connections between music, other rock bands and Moorcock and his books, including numerous mentions of the name “stormbringer”, such as the mediocre Deep Purple eponymous album. (Although a direct connection to the Elric stories was denied by the band members, stating that the name was based on mythology.)

Both the books and the music have had great impact on their respective genres and it’s always worth going back to them for another read/listen. The music is available on Youtube and there are various free online sites where you can read parts of the books to get “tasters” before buying.

Enjoy!

[ultraclairedg]

ISAAC ASIMOV  (January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992)

January 2nd marked the centenary of Isaac Asimov’s birth in Petrovichi, in the former USSR. 

If you are reading this blog, which is a blog about fantasy and science fiction, then you are probably already a fan of Asimov, or at the very least you are aware of his writing. You’ve probably seen the films “Bicentennial Man” with the late Robin Williams and “I, Robot” starring Will Smith, but did you know that Isaac was such a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction and wrote on such a variety of subjects, including poetry, letters and post-cards as well as novels and short stories that he is the only author whose works are included in 9 of the 10 categories of writing of the Dewey Decimal System, the system by which libraries categorise the written word. This is the system that allows you to find the book you’re looking for when you head to your local library. (If anyone actually does that any longer?) This, in itself, is a rather amazing fact for any writer.

If you are into science fiction, then you also probably know that Asimov also came up with the three laws of robotics in his works, which state:

1.     A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2.     A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3.     A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws

Although we are given a foreshadowing of these laws in previous works, it was in the short story “Runaround” (1942) that they were first introduced.

The idea of a robot or mechanical humanoid form was not Asimov’s, of course. The word “robot” comes from the Czech language and was introduced to us by Josef Capek in his play “R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)”, (1920) but Asimov took Capek’s idea and ran with it. It was Asimov who invented the word “robotics”, defined in the OED as “The technology or science of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots and similar automatic devices.”

That wasn’t the only word Asimov introduced into the English language, however. He also gave us two more important scientific words – “psychohistory” (the theory that the history of large populations is statistically predictable, based on psychological theories of human and social behavior) and “positronic” (originally a technological device that provides a robot with a consciousness recognizable to humans.) This word became important in science because a sub-atomic particle was later named a “positron” and the word “positronic” then took the meaning of an adjective to describe anything related to positrons.

Another fact that many Asimov fans might not know (I certainly didn’t until I was researching for this blog) was that he also wrote smutty limericks. He wrote lewd lines by the dozens and ended up publishing 5 volumes. Here’s an example of one of these dirty limericks.

There was a sweet girl of Decatur Who went to sea on a freighter. She was screwed by the master -An utter disaster- But the crew all made up for it later.

With regard to his personal life, Asimov was an atheist and became president of the American Humanist Association, an organization which promotes (among other things and very simplistically) the idea that people don’t need a god to be good. Although he was tolerant of other people’s religious beliefs, he hated anything superstitious or pseudoscientific being passed off as “real science”. He also once wrote this quotation,

“If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul”.

In this matter, I could not agree with him more!

I also discovered a number of audio versions of Asimov’s works on Youtube which I definitely intend to check out. I suggest you do too, my readers.

Thank you for reading.

(I do not own the right to any pictures in this blog)

[ultraclairedg]

Story of the Yianxi Palace

“The Old Girl talks Fantasy” is usually, as the name implies, a blog about anything related to fantasy and science fiction. That is to say, whether it be books, films, animated series, music or whatever, it doesn’t have much to do with life as we know it. The post below, however, deviates from this format in that it deals with a tv series based on historical events that took place in China during the 18th century. I have included it however because, although the historical background is based in fact, we cannot know for sure if many (if any) of the details in the series ever happened. They are the imaginings of the series writers. As a total fan of anything oriental, though, especially China and Chinese culture, and with this series being so totally addictive, I felt I had to include it. So, here goes.

During the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1711-1799), the man born Hongli, fourth person to reign over China proper, had a variety of wives, consorts and concubines. The series “Story of the Yianxi Palace”, a Chinese period drama which ran in July/August 2018, focuses on the heroine Wei Yingluo and her rise from servant girl in the palace to become the emperor’s favourite consort and later empress.

As it is not documented when Lady Wei entered the palace, this allows for much scope within the series for exploration of the palace intrigues, particularly within the royal harem. The machinations of the consorts and concubines to out-manoeuvre each other to attain the emperor’s favour are totally fascinating, and, as they had precious little to do apart from wait for the emperor to take them to his bed-chamber, it is understandable that  such conniving actually did take place. Each episode is utterly addictive and as full episodes are available on Youtube, it is easy to spend hours binge-watching them. The English sub-titles are also amusing in that a lot of modern American slang is used, which seems very funny coming from characters dressed in 18th century traditional costumes.

Another very interesting aspect of this series is the fact that, even though it became extremely popular both in China and worldwide, it was removed by order of the Chinese government after 70 episodes (along with a similar series, “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace”) because it was deemed “incompatible with the core values of socialism” and was considered to have “a negative influence on society.” That hasn’t stopped its popularity, though and it has been watched by millions both inside and outside China.

I also have to mention the absolutely gorgeous costumes and headpieces. They are all made as authentically as possible by the limited number of expert craftsmen who still remember how to make these wonderful items. Of particular note are the “tian-sui” or jeweled hair pieces which were made from precious metals and costly jewels, and the “ronghua” or velvet silk flower headdresses.  If you compare the two pictures below, one of its era of Wei Ying Luo in formal court dress and the other her character in the series, you can see what attention to detail has been made.

All of the episodes for the series are available on youtube with English subtitles. I dare you not to binge-watch.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND ALL THINGS GOOD TO EVERYONE

  Linguistic Phun (BTW, some people have asked why I write “fun” as “phun” – well, that’s just a bit of linguistic fun on my part, isn’t it?)

Chinese words which have come into English – cash, ketchup, gung-ho, kowtow, soy – to name but a few.

 (I do not own the copyright to these images)

[ultraclairedg]

Semiosis A Novel by Sue Burke

Imagine a world where a plant could actually be more intelligent than you are; a world where the flora and fauna are so different from what you know that life is a constant struggle, literally a matter of life and death. Imagine an alien world where humans are not the top of the food chain and not even the first aliens to live on this inhospitable planet. This is the premise behind Sue Burke’s wonderful book “Semiosis”.

A group of humans land on an alien planet. They believe they are the only intelligent life-form on the planet. The old “bamboo” has other ideas. They discover that they are not the first off-worlders to arrive but cannot find any living members of this other alien race. What has happened to them?

Some of the strange animals on the planet seem intelligent enough to train, almost like dogs, and others seem to have even more intelligence allowing them to organise themselves in order to hunt more efficiently, which makes them very dangerous. Some of the planet’s flora are tasty and beneficial when grown in one area but poisonous and deadly when grown in another.

The planet’s gravity is more that Earth’s, so when a new generation is born, they look quite different from their tall, thin parents. Never having known Earth, this new generation also has very different ideas and opinions from their elders. Naturally, the generation gap becomes a generation chasm, one that leads to unexpected consequences.

There are several reasons why this book is so good and well worth reading as it touches some very thought-provoking issues, not the least the idea that an intelligent plant can in some ways be more “human” than the humans themselves.

The issue of communication is, of course, central to the story. How does one communicate with a plant? How does a plant that has no vocal equipment communicate with the humans? And what about these missing aliens? Will they be found, and if/when found how will communication with them take place?

 Linguistic Phun:

“semiosis” – from the Greek “σημειω” /seemeeo/ meaning “to mark”, is any activity that uses signs to communicate and produce meaning.

[ultraclairedg]

Language in Fantasy and Science Fiction. One language is not enough – “not yap ya’Hol” (Klingon)

By their very nature, fantasy and science fiction, in all their forms, be that books, films, anime, music or games, rely on language to relate their story, to allow the characters to interact with each other and to communicate with us, the intended audience. As these genres rely so heavily on imagination, it goes without saying that great imagination is also put into the language used, and it should come as no surprise that the demands of these genres have produced some of the most imaginative uses of language ever and include totally invented “new” languages, some of which are more common and in more use than most would probably believe. 

Probably, the most famous languages created specifically for fantasy works are the languages invented by Tolkien for his books, which included “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The Elven group consists of several forms, including Quenya and Sindarin. They continued to be worked on by Tolkien until his death in 1973 and are heavily influenced by Tolkien’s linguistic interests in Early Germanic and Old English. The form of the letters themselves mirrors the old Runic letters of the early Germanic invaders of Britain, which is also known as the “futhark” or “futhorc” after its first six letters.

There’s no denying that I’m a huge Star Trek fan, so for any Trekkie, the Klingon language is fascinating. The Klingons are a warrior race. The very culture is based on confrontation, and is very similar to the Japanese code of Bushido.  Their language reflects this attitude. It’s very harsh sounding, guttural and full of glottal stops but it is one of the few entirely invented languages that has been so fully developed it even has its own dictionary and many online courses where you can learn it.

Another series of books which feature  fantastic languages is “The Witcher” series by Andre Sapkowski. Many people know and love the Witcher games and soon we’ll be able to see Henry Cavill (Superman) playing Geralt of Rivia on the small screen, as the series has been adapted for television and is due to hit our screens this December. There are several languages featured in the books, most notably the Elder Speech (Hen Llinge) but also Dwarvish, Gnomish, Vran, Vodyan, but it is the Elder Speech which is the most interesting for me as a Welsh woman, as Sapkowski, a Pole, based it mainly on the Celtic languages of Britain – Welsh and Irish. Many of the words seemed very familiar to me, something which made reading the books all the more involving and exciting.

Hope you enjoyed this post on fantastic languages. See you soon. xoxo

 (All photographs in the blog post have been taken from Google images. I do not own the rights.)

Linguistic phun: The word which means “to make up a language” is “glossopoeia”, from the Greek words γλωσσα meaning “language, tongue” and ποιω meaning  “to make”.

[ultraclairedg]

The Old Girl Talks Fantasy turned 6 today!

[ultraclairedg]

Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Lovecraft is sometimes called the father of horror, though not the horror of the “Freddie Kruger” slasher kind, but rather the horror that comes from fear of the unknown, what might be just beyond our senses, lurking in the dark. He remains extremely influential even though the vast majority of his work was published posthumously and he died in poverty, but he was the ultimate wordsmith, believing that American English was low level and slang and not worthy of being used, meaning that his works contain many interesting, archaic words. His first work was poetry, which is what his mother thought he should be writing, and his prose is clearly influenced by poetry, having a kind of rhythm and metre. He was greatly influenced himself by Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic writings, which also use a number of archaisms.

Lovecraft, as well as both his father and his mother, seemed to have suffered from chronic forms of what we would call mental disorders. Both his father (who died when Lovecraft was quite young) and his mother died in that same mental health institution. One recurring aspect of his writing is the idea that the sins of one’s fathers are paid for by the sons down through the generations. Although it is not known or mentioned by any of his biographers, he may have felt either consciously or subconsciously that his mother’s and father’s psychological problems contributed to his own mental malaise.

His life and works are fraught with his ideas of racial superiority and inferiority, which probably cause a lot of upset to 21st century sensibilities. He very much disliked the immigration of non-white, non-Europeans to the USA and often used racial insults to describe those who were not WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). This fact may influence some to ignore his work but I believe we should not judge those of a less enlightened age by our modern standards.

Lovecraft himself adopted the stance of atheism early in life. In 1932, he wrote in a letter to Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian:

All I say is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic will, a spirit world, or an eternal survival of personality exist. They are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hairsplitter to pretend that I don't regard them as arrant and negligible moonshine. In theory, I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of radical evidence I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist.

(direct quotation taken from Wikipedia)

He had a particularly nihilistic view on life, feeling that human beings had little or no control over their lives and were at the mercy of the powers of the universe. The gods in his works are alien, which is perhaps reflective of the belief that there is no god as we, humans, believe, but rather the “Elder Gods” who are from a completely different and much older civilisation/universe that sees our own as puny, inferior and sees humans as only good for being slaves or sacrifices.

Whatever your views on Lovecraft’s beliefs, as a wordsmith he is second to none. Here are a few of my favourite words from some of his stories.

Machicolations – a projecting parapet with an opening for projecting missiles/oil/etc on an enemy below (See photo)

Preceptor – a teacher, an instructor

Batrachian – frog like (from the Greek word βατραχος /vat-tra-hos/ meaning frog)

Chthonic – adjective describing gods and other creatures dwelling under the earth (from the Greek word χθόνιος,  /kʰtʰ-ón-ios/ meaning in, under, or beneath the earth

Camalote – a type of water lily (see photo)

Lucubration – laborious, studious work often producing a pretentious or sedulous literary result

If you’d like to sample some of his works, many of them are online and a quick Google search will give you access to them.