Friday, February 21, 2020

Drat

This time last week I was DAYS ahead in blog posts.  Ideas pouring out of my pores.   Now, nuffin'.

Reading a book.  1906.  House on the Borderland.  It's got some influential trippy colour out of space stuff going on that was a direct influence of H.P. Lovecraft and even Terry Pratchet.  Sun rise/set and moon rise/set super fast.  Space and time projection.  Like a 1960s film student project.

It's a bit racist.  Like Tolkien, the author depicts Irish people as swine headed bipedal monsters (JRR called them Orcs).  I don't get my britches in a bind reading old stuff with different social sensibilities like some sort of Social Justice Warrior, waiting to be offended at the hint of prejudice.  And Huck Finn doesn't give me the vapors, retiring me to my fainting couch. But, meh.  I don't like it either.  It doesn't hurt my enjoyment of the story, but it doesn't help it.  I don't see it out.  Unless it is part of the mood of the work.  Have offensive stuff because of the times or because the character is offensive, heck I like that. 

It's just ok.  It's an important piece because of its later influence on other writers, just like The King in Yellow is.  But I've seen this movie a buncha times because I live in 2020.  The special effects were great for the time, but now they are old hat.  And that was what the story mainly relied upon.  1906 CGI. 
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Pigpen51 said...

I have been a huge reader ever since I learned to read, at about the age of 8 or 9, I would think. My parents had a huge book case, with everything from the dictionary, to the KJV of the Bible, to a complete set of encyclopedias. And Faulkner, FS Fitzgerald, A. Miller, Ernie Pyle, etc.
My parents didn't censor me when it came to what I read. I read war books, books on governments and how they function, which, by the way, while America has perhaps the greatest form of government, it is not the only one that can work.
One of the books that I read,and has stuck with me, for my entire life, is a book written by a man named Walter Pollack, called Medical Block Buchenwald. It is about the Nazi's during WWII, and the medical experiments done on prisoners at the prison camp located at Buchenwald. I read it at perhaps the age of 10-12. It is very vivid, in it's description of what happened there, and it gave me a strong sense of concern and even love for the Jewish people. So strong in fact, that I have written to their foreign ministry several times,and they have answered me, being very grateful for my concerns.
I write to you just to recommend this book, if you have an interest in the subject. I know it is available through Amazon. And when you said you had a hard time finding things to write about, my mind went to this book. This doesn't mean that it would fit your blog, but it is a pretty good, although strong, book for the topic discussed.
In any case, thanks for your blog, it is interesting and always thought provoking.

pigpen51

February 22, 2020 at 12:09 PM

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