Pixel Scroll 7/29 To Scroll in Italbar

American exceptionalism, Madeleine L’Engle, sci-fi music, and another trailer about a movie you’re likely to skip, all in today’s Scroll.

(1) Did an American manhole cover beat Sputnik into space? While Superman was fictional, a super-manhole-cover may actually have flown “faster than a speeding bullet.”

The next month, in [an underground nuclear bomb] test codenamed Pascal B, the team wanted to experiment with reducing the air pressure in the explosives chamber to see how that affected the explosion and radiation spread. A four-inch-thick concrete and metal cap weighing at least half a ton was placed over a 400ft-deep borehole after the bomb was installed below. The lid was then welded shut to seal in the equipment.

Before the experiment, Dr Brownlee had calculated the force that would be exerted on the cap, and knew that it would pop off from the pressure of the detonation. As a result, the team installed a high-speed camera to see exactly what happened to the plug.

The camera was set up to record one frame every millisecond. When the nuke blew, the lid was caught in the first frame and then disappeared from view. Judging from the yield and the pressure, Dr Brownlee estimated that it left the ground at more than 60 kilometres per second, or more than five times the escape velocity of our planet. It may not have made it that far, though – in fact the boffin, who retired in 1992, believes it never made it into space, but the legend of Pascal B lives on.

“I have no idea what happened to the cap, but I always assumed that it was probably vaporized before it went into space. It is conceivable that it made it,” he told us.

(2) And after reading that story, I’m certain everyone can see why the Mutual UFO Network’s “Track UFOs” tool is indispensable. 😉

(3) SF Signal’s always-interesting Mind Meld feature asks “What Books Surprised You the Most and Exceeded Your Expectations?” of Renay from Lady Business, Marc Turner, Ilana C. Myer, Kenny Soward, Marion Deeds, Eric Christensen, and Delilah S. Dawson.

One of the books singled out as a pleasant surprise is a Hugo nominee. Ahh – but which one?

(4) Today’s birthday boy – Ray Harryhausen!

Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, Forrest J Ackerman and Diana Harryhausen.

Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, Forrest J Ackerman and Diana Harryhausen.

(5) Madeleine L’Engle deserves the accolades paid by the writer in the body of this post for Mental Floss. Not so much the editor’s headline “How ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Changed Sci-Fi Forever” – because it didn’t.

The book, published at the beginning of the second wave of feminism, also carried a groundbreaking message: Girls could do anything boys could do, and better. A year later, The Feminine Mystique, written by L’Engle’s former classmate Betty Friedan, would emerge as a platform for the frustrated American housewife, and Congress would pass the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal to pay a woman less than what a man would earn for the same job. To some extent, Mrs. Murry in A Wrinkle in Time is already living the future: She’s a brilliant scientist who works alongside her husband and in his absence, too; later in the series, she wins a Nobel Prize. (Math whiz Meg would grow up to follow similar pursuits.) And Meg, a girl, is able to succeed where the men and boys—Calvin, Charles Wallace, and her father—cannot.

With that character so like herself, L’Engle struck back against the 1950s ideal of the woman whose duty was to home and family (the same expectations that conflicted the author in her thirties). Instead of staying at home, Meg goes out into the universe, exploring uncharted territories and unheard-of planets.

At the time, science fiction for and by women was a rarity. There was no one like Meg Murry before Meg Murry, though she left a legacy to be picked up by contemporary young adult heroines like The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen and the Harry Potter series’ Hermione Granger. Beyond creating this new type of heroine, A Wrinkle in Time, along with Norton Juster’s 1961 book The Phantom Tollbooth, changed science fiction itself, opening “the American juvenile tradition to the literature of ‘What if?’ as a rewarding and honorable alternative to realism in storytelling,” writes Marcus. This shift, in turn, opened doors for writers like Lloyd Alexander and Ursula K. Le Guin. In these fantasy worlds, as in the real world, things can’t always be tied up neatly. Evil can never be truly conquered; indeed, a key to fighting it is knowing that. It’s a sophisticated lesson children thrill to, and one in which adults continue to find meaning.

I remember enjoying L’Engle’s book – which I heard read aloud a chapter a day by a teacher in elementary school. A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1963, was received as a children’s book. Women who did groundbreaking work in the adult science fiction genre like Judith Merril and Andre Norton had already been writing for years by then. And when Ursula Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey first appeared in the late 1960s, their emergence was facilitated by the New Wave.

(8) There will be a live showing of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Hollywood Bowl in LA on August 18 with the musical soundtrack performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Recognized as one of the greatest works of science fiction cinema, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 is acclaimed for its technological realism, creative audacity and inspired use of music. Behold the film’s visual grandeur on the Bowl’s big screen while the soundtrack is performed live, including Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, music by György Ligeti, and the “Blue Danube” Waltz.

The Hollywood Bowl will give E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the same treatment on Saturday, September 5, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing John Williams’ entire Academy Award-winning score.

(9) H.P. in his post “On the Hugo Awards controversy” on Every Day Should Be Tuesday draws this conclusion  —

The big difference comes down to matters of style and subject preference. The Puppy nominees show a pretty heavy thumbprint of Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen, and Vox Day’s tastes. They run heavy to kaiju, superficial noir elements, and religious themes. They don’t align well with my own tastes, but then neither do the tastes of the recent Hugo electorate. If the Hugos are to be the sort of elite fan award that they purport to be, and once were, then they shouldn’t display such narrow tastes, whether of Puppies or anyone else. To that end, my hope is that all of this will draw more people into the process and lead to a more diverse electorate; my fear is of that electorate being dominated by factions. We will see (always end with a super strong closing line).

Yes! The solution is — fire the voters!

(10) “Do you believe in miracles?” This time it’s not Al Michaels asking the question but Jason Sanford.

All of which brings up an interesting coincidence — the 2016 DeepSouthCon has been cancelled. According to an announcement on their website, the people running the con “decided that it was no longer feasible to host the convention.”

I have no proof the selection of Wright as guest of honor and the cancelling of the convention six months later are in any way related. These facts may simply be two isolated events swirling in the chaos we delightfully call existence.

But this is still an interesting coincidence. Or miracle, depending on your worldview.

Some say that Outlanta picking the same May 13-15, 2016 weekend weighed heavily in the decision. If so, I agree it’s logical that a con with Wright as GoH would have trouble competing for Outlanta’s fan base….

cat calendar

(11) Samuel Delany, interviewed in The New Yorker, was even asked about the topic du jour —

In the contemporary science-fiction scene, Delany’s race and sexuality do not set him apart as starkly as they once did. I suggested to him that it was particularly disappointing to see the kind of division represented by the Sad Puppies movement within a culture where marginalized people have often found acceptance. Delany countered that the current Hugo debacle has nothing to do with science fiction at all. “It’s socio-economic,” he said. In 1967, as the only black writer among the Hugo nominees, he didn’t represent the same kind of threat. But Delany believes that, as women and people of color start to have “economic heft,” there is a fear that what is “normal” will cease to enjoy the same position of power. “There are a lot of black women writers, and some of them are gay, and they are writing about their own historical moment, and the result is that white male writers find themselves wondering if this is a reverse kind of racism. But when it gets to fifty per cent,” he said, then “we can talk about that.” It has nothing to do with science fiction, he reiterated. “It has to do with the rest of society where science fiction exists.”

The interview is behind a paywall, nevertheless the Google cache file revealed all.

(12) American Ultra comes to theaters August 21. With luck, you’ll have something better to do that evening.

[Thanks to David K.M. Klaus and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to Brian Z.]

195 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 7/29 To Scroll in Italbar

  1. Alan Parsons Project also did an I Robot album. The next one after that had to do with pyramids, but was probably not based on the Terry Pratchett book that came out 11 years later.

    Looking forward to the Concept Album brackets.

  2. I don’t know how many of these I’d have read if it weren’t for Lin Carter. I doff my chapeau to him.

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    – No question.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    – It’s actually coherent, unlike the Poe

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    – *Amazingly* effective horror, still.

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    – oh yes.

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison
    – Kind of a mess, but some of the characters have stayed with me forever

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
    – I’m so glad this one showed up! another fave

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    – YOU LIVE TO MAKE ME SUFFER.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    – He defined a new set of nightmares for the 20th century.

  3. The only Poe concept album I’m familiar with is “Tales of Mystery and Imagination” by Alan Parson’s Project. Not that book, though; it’s various short stories like “The Raven” and “A Cask of Amontillado”.

  4. 50’s AND BEFORE

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany

    My fave Dunsany. And I did not know someone did a concept album for this novel! Thanks Kyra….

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft

    Not really horror, but this is my all-time favorite Lovecraft and I find Dracula’s writing to be just “too too.”

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison

    Don’t ask me why. Ouroboros casts a spell on me.

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber

  5. The classics never get old:

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

  6. @ Rob Thornton

    My fave Dunsany. And I did not know someone did a concept album for this novel! Thanks Kyra….

    It has Christopher Lee…

  7. 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    Abstain: I love Poe but, for my sins, haven’t read Dunsany.

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker — iconic, influential, and I still remember scenes with a chill.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka. Because his understanding of certain phenomenon was so clear, Kafkan is a specific adjective. And because this work in particular is both horrific and hauntingly beautiful.

    As to all those gaps? Yes, well, a bundle of books just got added to the reading list.

  8. My review posted Sunday was of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds concept album, which I thought held up pretty well.

    At the risk of vosposting, my review of The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata was my 109th review of a book by a woman this year, which means I can now say I have reviewed more books by women in 2015 than tor.com, Romantic Times (spec fic only), SFX, Strange Horizons, Interzone, io9, F&SF, Vector, Analog, Asimov’s, NYRSF, Science Fiction Studies, Foundation, CSZ, and LARB did in 2014.

    On track to exceed Locus’ numbers in this matter on or around the 7th of August.

    (reviewed on my site, I mean. I also did reviews for RT)

  9. 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    An all-time favorite.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    Abstain

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    Lovecraft has never floated my boat. 🙂

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Aargghh. Close.

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber

    Whimper, whimper.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    Abstain. Haven’t read Bulgakov.

  10. BEFORE THE 1960’S! 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    Phantastes, George MacDonald
    I found the George MacDonald I read heavy going. I can’t remember if I ever read Phantastes, but I re-read the Once and Future King several times.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft
    Don’t care for Lovecraft, though I can enjoy derivative works. A Night in the Lonesome October, anyone?

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Jurgen, James Branch Cabell
    Tie, I like them both and find them too different to compare

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison
    Abstain, though note I couldn’t finish The Worm Boroughs (auto correct left in because it amused me)

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber
    By a whisker

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
    I’ve tried to get into The Master and Margarita several times but never managed to get very far

  11. I think it’s interesting that as of now (and including this one), there is yet to be a single bracket round, fantasy or sci-fi, in which any listed work has gotten 0 votes.

    Since this is the last round before fantasy gets merged, that effectively means that none of the listed works *can* get 0 votes overall now, although it could still happen in an individual round later on.

  12. 1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    Has anyone seen or read any of Dunsany’s plays?

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    A vote for proof the Ladies do it better!

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

  13. Kyra, that reflects well upon you; it means you chose worthy works to bracket.

  14. 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    Phantastes, George MacDonald — never read the MacDonald.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe — Ah, Poe. Where would we be without you? Well, for starters, we wouldn’t have a good name for the parody-that-becomes-too-real.

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft — I mean, yeah, Lovecraft was a genius of horror, but overall? Nah, Dracula lives to this day, in Transylvania.

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Jurgen, James Branch Cabell — PASS. Never really cared for Vance, although I read several (including this book), and never read much of Cabell.

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison — By Crom! The iron-thewed Cimmerian will always overcome his foes!

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt — PASS. Never read either of these.

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber — TIE. UGH. Don’t make me send you to your room again!

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov — Yeah, the Kafka is profoundly affecting, but Bulgakov’s entire book is magical. There’s the interweaved story of Pontius Pilate, the several demons, Margarita herself, and the various Soviet cultural reflections. If you haven’t read this, I highly recommend reading it, although there’s one translation which is better. I also highly recommend looking for the Soviet television adaptation with English subtitle; many well-known Soviet actors starred in this series, and it was very faithful to the book.

  15. Ginger, whose translation of The Master and Margarita do you recommend? (I admit to my shame that until Kyra listed it I’d never heard of Bulgakov, but your description makes me want to put it on my towering to-be-read list.)

  16. Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings, done way back in 1973/74 by Bo Hansson. So old it was released as an LP. CD copies of it go for some bucks.

    Then there’s the rock band H.P.LOVECRAFT, two LPs. August Derleth like them. With cuts like “Mountains of Madness, the inspiration was clear.

  17. Okay I’ve missed way too many of the fantasy brackets… And then finally I’m properly in time for one and you match up Stoker’s Dracula and Lovecraft’s Dream-Quest. Damnit, Kyra!

    (sneaky edit!) 1) Can I throw in a write-in for Gormenghast?

    2) think I’m gonna have to go with Poe on this one.

    3) Okay… I can do this. Stoker vs Lovecraft… No. No I can’t. It has to be a tie.

    and for 8) well, I think I’m gonna have to go with Kafka for this. The Metamorphosis was one of those books that I read at just the right time.

    (Credit to Susana S.P. for the idea of writing in Gormenghast – I don’t know how it slipped my mind)

  18. [headpalm]

    Gormenghast! Duh! I’d like to change any of my abstains to Gormenghast. (Or all of them, but that would be cheating.)

    And I nominate Bowie’s Diamond Dogs for greatest failed sfnal concept album ever.

  19. 1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    Phantastes, George MacDonald

    It’s going to lose, but hopefully it will die well and be content (psst, it’s available for free on Project Gutenberg).

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany

    Poe is a master of short fiction, which this is not (and it hurt his rep when he lost on Epic Rap Battles of History). Dunsany’s work has a fine lyricism (and a fine magic sword).

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Lovecraft

    Put me down for At The Mountains of Madness as well.
    Fingers crossed it doesn’t split the vote!
    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Haven’t read either one, so I’ll write in The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber

    I encountered it as Swords Against Death but it’s marvelous.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    Kafka is great, although I can’t get my brain to consider it as a “fantasy novel”. I bounced off MaM long ago (maybe I should try again). Anyway, I will write in She by H. Rider Haggard so that it gets at least one nod.

  20. Ah, the Diana Bergin translation of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” is considered to be the best.

  21. I gave serious consideration to Gormenghast when making this bracket. And I know everyone says those books are fantasy, but, um … are they?

  22. I admit to not reading that particular Lovecraft, but I’ll vote anyway:
    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker

    Stoker created a lasting mythos with one single book. Lovecraft also created a lasting mythos, but no single book stands out in the same way. I also generally find Lovecraft’s prose way too purple, while Stoker’s mosaic of letters and journal entries is an intriguing and (for the time) new way of telling a story.

    (And I abstain on the rest. I’ve read too little, and too long ago.)

  23. Damn! I forgot Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions came out in 1953. I would like to change my Category 6 vote to that except that Fletcher and de Camp are trailing as it is..

  24. I would also like to change one of my abstains to Gormenghast.

    Are they Fantasy? Pretty much. The castle itself is fantastic, the rituals are beyond anything done in our reality. No magic as such, but it’s not like there are wizards in One Hundred Years of Solitude.

  25. Oh, Gord, can we expect another frothing missive from Wright accusing the SJWs of killing, slaying, murdering, foully assassinating the con at which he was GoH? This will do nothing good for his martyr complex.

    It was me. I licked the hotel so no one else would want it.

  26. Can only hit a couple of these:
    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    I’ve only ever read White, but this book made enough of an impression on me that I still remember the bit about the courtiers not believing that Lancelot and Guinevere could have bodily functions let alone be having an affair.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe
    Pass. I haven’t ready any Dunsany and I haven’t read the Poe.

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    I have to pass. I haven’t ready Dracula or Kadath and I find Lovercraft to have about a 75% hit rate with me.

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    Pass

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    Conan. The few stories I’ve read I’ve loved, although to be honest, the adaptations and later works about him are in part influencing me. Kurt’s comics are partially responsible for this, because I’m pretty sure they’re what got me to read the originals while I was waiting for the next issue.

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Pass, have not read either.

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Pass, ditto.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    Pass, although reluctantly. I loved The Metamorphosis and generally all the Kafka I’ve read, but I haven’t read Bulgakov and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book.

  27. I gave serious consideration to Gormenghast when making this bracket. And I know everyone says those books are fantasy, but, um … are they?

    Probably not, for stricter definitions requiring magic, but I’m not a huge fan of those (genrewank is fun, but also a little headachy for me, in the end I just call it all sff and hope nobody asks what the initials stand for). But not only does it feel like fantasy, I think the castle itself pushes it past the merely Ruritanian.

  28. (Obviously, whether or not I personally consider Gormenghast fantasy, if enough other people do I will make no protest. Although you might wish to note that if people say Gormenghast, I will have to assume they are referring to the second book of the trilogy for the purposes of the bracket unless they specify otherwise.)

  29. Regarding A Wrinkle in Time — I think it is significant that it is a YA book, and that it gave little geek girls a role model. Prior to reading that book, I thought my options were “girly girl” or “tomboy.” I TRIED being a tomboy. But I was no good at sports. A Wrinkle in Time was my absolute most favorite book for years. 

    @Hypnotosov

    The Puppy nominees show a pretty heavy thumbprint of Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen, and Vox Day’s tastes.

    Then again the non-puppy nominees have had a very clear thumbprint of the several thousand members of WorldCon, so it’s a wash really,

    Oh, you noticed that, did you? The post overall struck me as a case of mild puppy apologetics, possibly because he’s a Correia fan. 

    1. The Once and Future King, T. H. White

    2. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe

    3. Dracula, Bram Stoker

    8. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

  30. @Kyra: It’s definitely not your average fantasy. I’d say it certainly draws on fantastical elements – All the bizarre rituals and traditions, the setting itself, the grotesquerie of its residents – enough that it gets shelved in fantasy in many bookstores, without necessarily drawing on the overt trappings of the genre – mystical creatures, magic, etc, maybe the occasional god or two…

    Also, I think it depends on whether you intend to make the final ruling yourself (in which case I’ll bow to your judgement, at least for the purpose of the brackets) or if you would let it in based on consensus opinion of the group… (you know, assuming it gets enough love as a write-in to sneak into the bracket somehow)

    Edit: ah yes. Okay, I’ve had a think. I do just mean the second book (the first book is great and the third book is… the third book, but Gormenghast the novel is definitely the best of the three.)

  31. Titus Groan and Gormenghast = fantasy.
    (Seriously – if not fantasy, then what on earth are they?)
    Titus Alone, however = SF.

  32. > “I think the castle itself pushes it past the merely Ruritanian.”

    I guess I don’t find the castle necessarily fantastical when considering that, say, the fortress of Carcasonne is surrounded by two miles of walls, and that Peake went to school nearish to a structure that had close to 400 rooms … but it’s not a hill I’m invested in enough to have a nap on, much less die on, so if it gets the votes, then the votes it gets.

  33. @Johan P

    I also generally find Lovecraft’s prose way too purple,

    Makes me wonder what you think of Clark Ashton Smith, one of Lovecraft’s contemporaries and one of the major collaborators on the ‘mythos’ over the years. And possibly even more purple in his prose than Lovecraft.

  34. 1. The Once and Future King, T. H. White

    If the alternative had been The Princess and the Goblins, it would have been a harder contest, but Wart would still win.

    3. Dracula, Bram Stoker

    It’s a hoot, full of gothic silliness, but oh what a fertile field that one book has sown.

    8. Titus Groan (or Gormenghast)

    Titus Groan has Swelter (“Are you lishening, my pretty vermin, are you lishening?” ) and the duel in the Hall of Spiders, and Steerpike’s climb.

  35. Deep in the mists of time lurks the period … BEFORE THE 1960’S!

    50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    The once and future wInner!

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    I like other Poe stories more…

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Cabell I just couldn’t get into

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber
    BOTH!

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    Who doesn’t love roaches?

  36. RedWombat said

    It was me. I licked the hotel so no one else would want it.

    I’m not touching anything within a block of that hotel. And if you don’t stay on your side of the internet, I’m telling Mom.

  37. At the end of the first quarter …

    Dunsany and Poe are exactly tied.
    Howard and Eddison are exactly tied.

    Mirrlees has a razor-thin lead over de Camp and Pratt.

    Leiber has a solid but not insurmountable lead over Moore. Kafka has an only slightly more solid lead over Bulgakov.

    White is ahead of MacDonald, and Stoker is ahead of Lovecraft.

    Peake is picking up steam.

  38. 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    Foundational Arthuriana.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    There is no one like Dunsany, and his unique voice has to be represented.

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    With Frankenstein, the modern myths.

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    Jurgen, James Branch Cabell
    Because Cabell is witty and cynical and unfairly nearly forgotten.

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison
    I see a theme here in how most of my choices in this bracket delight in playing with language. I mean, who decides to write an Elizabethan novel in the 1920s?

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
    Haven’t read either in many years, but I have fond memories of Lud.

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber
    Augh, a particularly difficult pairing but the nod goes to Leiber for subverting the hero/sidekick dynamic.

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
    Abstain, not having read MandM.

    All praise to Lin Carter: a mediocre writer but a superb editor and literary excavator.

    ETA Gormenghast and Titus Groan, how did I forget them? And where can I slot them in?? *wibbles*

  39. 50’s AND BEFORE

    1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    Phantastes, George MacDonald

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Jurgen, James Branch Cabell

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
    – No opinion as I haven’t read them.

  40. 1. PELLINORE AND PERCIVALE
    The Once and Future King, T. H. White
    Phantastes, George MacDonald
    I believe C.S. Lewis’ enthusiasm for MacDonald was genuine but it’s one I never shared.

    2. AND THEY SHALL BE MADE INTO CONCEPT ALBUMS
    The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe
    “Pym” is incomplete, and the Dunsany’s funny, arch, and weird.

    3. TALES THAT WILL CHILL YOUR VERY BONES
    Dracula, Bram Stoker
    The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft
    Longer lengths were not Lovecraft’s best thing, and Dracula is darned good – it’s a late Victorian technothriller, among other things, and has some of the best cliffhangers.

    4. MONSTROUS CLEVER FELLOWS
    The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Jurgen, James Branch Cabell
    I can see why folks like Cabell, but Vance scratches that itch for me.

    5. CIMMERIA AND ZIMIAMVIA
    The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard
    The Worm Ouroboros, E. R. Eddison
    I probably need to re-read Eddison; it’s been decades. I have re-read Howard this decade, and enjoyed it despite all.

    6. KIDNAPPED BY THE FAIR FOLK
    Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
    Land of Unreason, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
    I might have put the Incomplete Enchanter stories above Lud-in-the-Mist; I’d have to think about it.

    7. SWORD! AND! SORCERY!
    Jirel of Joiry, C. L. Moore
    Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber
    Hey, Kyra, you know that thing where people say they hate you for your pairings? I hate you for your pairings. 🙂

    8. NIGHTMARES OF PRAGUE AND KIEV
    The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
    I respect Bulgakov, but it just didn’t resonate with me the way Kafka does.

  41. Another SF concept album: Jefferson Starship’s “Blows Against The Empire,” which was loosely based on Methuselah’s Children by Heinlein, was actually nominated for a Hugo in 1971 but came in second behind No Award. Also, this album debuted the new name (which eventually replaced their old monicker “Jefferson Airplane.”)

  42. Re: Poe albums – There’s also “Closed On Account of Rabies”. Less of a concept album and more of a “let’s get creepy voices to read Poe” album.
    I especially liked Christopher Walken’s reading of “The Raven”.

  43. If y’all won’t fall in line with my bloc vote for Titus Groan, I’ll make an anti-protest protest vote for Titus Alone against Gormenghast, even if I have to buy a supporting membership for Muzzlehatch to do it.

    ETA: on second thought, I could just vote for Gormenghast.

  44. Kyra,

    Since I left selection 6 blank, can I make it the Gormenghast write in?

    The one odd thing I always thought about the Titus books is how book 1 and 2 seem to have been named back to front. After all it isn’t until the very end of Titus Groan that the title character is born.

  45. @Robert Whitaker Sirignano, “Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings, done way back in 1973/74”: Even earlier, “The Road Goes Ever On” song cycle, settings by Donald Swann, recorded in 1967. (My sister gave me a copy of the LP for Christmas that year or maybe in ’68.)

  46. > “Since I left selection 6 blank, can I make it the Gormenghast write in?”

    Sure.

  47. 2. The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany
    I’ve actually been saving this to read later but I’ll go with Dunsany based on The Charwoman’s Shadow, Time and the Gods, and the fact that Poe is doing well enough in mystery and horror he can stand to go down in the first round in fantasy.

    3. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft
    Dracula, when I got around to reading it, felt dated to me in a way Lovecraft’s oeuvre doesn’t. Maybe that’s largely the inevitable effect of vast legions working the same ground since Stoker (plus some 19th century sexual politics).

    4. The Dying Earth, Jack Vance
    Mazirian the Magician!

    5. The Sword of Conan, Robert E. Howard
    Not without regret but, thinking of recent news, I would hesitate to guess whether more of the humans on earth have head of Conan than global warming or vice versa. Goldry Bluszco, not so much.

    6. The Broken Sword
    I’m fond of de Camp/Pratt but joining the previous write in vote for Poul Anderson feels more compelling.

    7. Two Sought Adventure, Fritz Leiber
    I couldn’t possibly vote against Fafrd and the Gray Mouser or at least nothing in this section of the bracket could make me. Maybe in some alternate universe where Leiber didn’t get to me before any of the other authors but not in this one.

    8. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
    I’ve only seen a theatrical adaptation, not read the book, but The Master and Margarita struck me as kind of a hot mess.

  48. The one odd thing I always thought about the Titus books is how book 1 and 2 seem to have been named back to front. After all it isn’t until the very end of Titus Groan that the title character is born.

    Peake intended to write a series following Titus from birth to death, only two of which would have been set in the Castle of Gormenghast. If he has lived longer, we might be calling the whole series “The Titus Saga.”

    (Titus is born in the first pages of the first book – and “Earled” as a toddler in the last. He’s around for the whole shooting match, he just doesn’t get to remember any of it later…)

  49. Titus is born in the first pages of the first book

    Oops. Looks like my memory is a bit off.

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