Pulp Respectable

He has been called the king of the weird, the Copernicus of the horror story, the heir to Poe; Stephen King cites him as a major influence. He died penniless, his work almost entirely published in cheap pulps and seemingly destined to fade into oblivion.

But now, with a Library of America edition of his stories, H.P. Lovecraft has gone respectable and attained the recognition that eluded him during his lifetime. Lovecraft is not the first pulp author to gain entry into the canon of American literature as Hammett, at least, preceded him. However he is the first Weird Tales author* - a writer of fantasy/horror/science fiction (and Lovecraft worked in all three genres) - to make the list.

In the latest issue of The Weekly Standard Michael Dirda has an insightful little appreciation of Lovecraft, including some cvery high praise:

No full understanding of modern literature is possible without taking into account an exceedingly peculiar, self-educated, semi-recluse from Providence named Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

*I'm discounting TennesseeWilliams, even though his first appearance in print was in Weird Tales, because he's not chiefly remembered as a writer of pulp fiction.

The Last Round Up Concludes

The last of the books consumed in 2004. The reviews will be very short, so I can turn my attention to books consumed thus far in 2005. If you want to learn more about any of the books, click on the link to Amazon.com or leave a note in the comments.

78. Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell
Serviceable entertainment. Richard Sharpe battles a foe of high birth but treacherous nature, kills Frenchmen, gets the girl, and saves the day.
79. Crazy Horse - Larry McMurtry
A solid little biography form the Penguin Lives series. McMurtry does an excellent job, considering the sheer dearth of facts available on the Sioux leader.
80. Winston Churchill - John Keegan
Another entry from the Penguin Lives series. Longtime Churchillians will find little new here, but Keegan's book would serve as an admirable introduction for someone unfamiliar with the great man's life.
81. The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
This book marks my first encounter with Pratchett, who, if you're unfamiliar with him, is kind of a Douglas Adams-type writer that works in the fantasy genre instead of sci-fi. That said, my short-hand doesn't really do justice to a story in which my favorite character is the Luggage.
82. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - T.A. Shippey
This collection of essays about Tolkien, mainly delving into religious themes in the man's work, can be safely avoided by all but the most hard-core Tolkien geeks.
83. The Archer's Tale - Bernard Cornwell
The first in a trilogy of historical novels set during the Hundred Year's War, this book will seem rather familiar to readers of Mr. Cornwell's previous works. The protagonist, of humble origins but possessed of great military skill, battles nobly born but treacherous foes, kills lots of Frenchmen, and gets the girl.
84. Vagabond - Bernard Cornwell
See above; this is the second volume.
85. The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl
Kind of like Se7en for the literary set.
86. Heretic - Bernard Cornwell
See above; this is the third volume.
87. Wellington: The Years of the Sword - Elizabeth Longford
Bernard Cornwell acknowledged relying on this book for much of the research he did in writing the Sharpe series. I came away from this book informed but necessarily entertained. Frankly I'd expect a biography of the Duke of Wellington to be a more exciting read.
88. The Knight - Gene Wolf
I plan on reading the sequel (because I'm the type that needs to know what happens) but I can't recommend this one whole-heartedly.
89. The First World War- Hew Strachan
Strachan is working on a magisterial history of the Great War - this book is not part of it, but is in fact a companion to a BBC documentary. Readers are better of seeking out John Keegan's book of the same name.
90. Off to the Side: A Memoir- Jim Harrison
Prior to reading this memoir I had not read of any Harrison's fiction. I'm still not in any hurry to do so, but I would love to have dinner with the man, especially if he's as fine a raconteur in person as in print.
91. The Far Side of the Stars - David Drake
Solid space opera.

The Last Round Up

Here's the first of the two final installment of the short reviews of books consumed in 2004. And many of these reviews will be short short - looking at the list below I see a lot of mind candy.

65. The Crusader - Michael Alexander Eisner
A moderately entertaining historical novel, set in Spain and the Middle East of the 13th century. One the one hand the story was entertaining and all the swashes buckled in the right places. On the other hand I came away with the feeling that the Crusades were more of a convenient setting and less of a topic the author was interested in exploring in detail through fiction. But maybe I've just been spoiled by Patrick O'Brian and Dorothy Dunnett.
66. Grimmer Than Hell - David Drake
A collection of stories by (military) science fiction writer David Drake. If you've never read any of Drake's work before, this collection will give you a taste and a good idea what he's about. For the longtime reader, it's nice to have these stories gathered between two covers.
67. The Victorians - A.N. Wilson
Reader be warned: this is not a cut and dry chronological history of the Victorian Age - it's more like a series of word portraits or mini-essays on subjects ranging from the Chartist movement to "Chinese" Gordon. If you already have a working knowledge of this era, The Victorians is a fine title with which to dig a little deeper. But I wouldn't recommend this book to someone seeking to gain a working knowledge (important dates, people etc) of this time period.
68. Firehouse - David Halberstam
On Sept 11, 2001, thirteen men of Engine 40, Ladder 35 responded to the alarms from the World Trade Center. Only one survived. Halberstam, who lives only three blocks from Engine 40, has written a thoroughly decent little book, one that takes a loving look at these thirteen men and the firehouse culture that called them in life and ultimately into death.
69. The Teeth of the Tiger- Tom Clancy
Clancy has long been a guilty indulgence of mine, but this latest work of his became more of a chore. There are two reasons Teeth of the Tiger left a flat taste in my mouth. First, while most of Clancy's novels take place in an alternate universe (where his hero Jack Ryan rises from lowly CIA analyst to President) the events of 9/11 have taken place in Ryan's world. Frankly, I find the attack on the Twin Towers to be a little too real to swallow their use in alternate timeline. If Clancy wanted to write a novel against the backdrop of the war on terror, he probably should've dropped the whole Jack Ryan &Co, storyline, like he did for Red Storm Rising. And second, the book moves waaaay to slow. For a book that long, not a whole lot happens.
70. Hornblower During the Crisis- C.S. Forester
C.S. Forester was working on this novel when he died; it remains unfinished, though notes included at the end let the reader know in which direction Forester intended to take the story. The 90 odd extant pages of prose are entertaining, if a little unpolished, but only the completist need bother with this novel, as it doesn't add much new material to the Hornblower saga.
71. Betting on Myself- Steven Crist
A jaunty little memoir in which the author recounts his journey, from Harvard student to horse player and avid handicapper to racing journalist for the New York Times to publisher of The Daily Racing Form. Crist is an excellent storyteller. The narrative races along and even those who are not horse players will find Crist's adventures of interest.
72. Across the Nightingale Floor- Lian Hearn
I've noticed that this book tends to be shelved in the fantasy section, although it doesn't have many fantastic elements (i.e. magic, monsters). Across the Nightinggale Floor is set in an imaginary land that strongly resembles pre-Shogunate Japan, complete with daimyos, samurai and ninjas, and is the first volume in the Tales of the Otori. The chief protagonist is Takeo, one of the Tribe (i.e. ninja) who is adopted by a noble house. The plot predictabel but the setting is a welcome change from the quasi-Medieval European setting of most fantasy.
73. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s- Piers Brendon
This book should be required-reading for any WWII buff - it provides an excellent and in-depth look at the events leading up to that conflict. Staring with the close of the 1920s, Brendon writes about the unraveling of the social, political and economic fabric of the Great Powers of that era (Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, U.S.S.R., Japan and the United States); an 'intermission' half way through The Dark Valley covers the Spanish Civil War.
74. Artifact of Evil- Gary Gygax
A fantasy novel written bythe man who also invented Dungeons & Dragons. A trip down memory lane for me (I read this sometime during junior high) and a trip for you to avoid altogether. You can practically hear the dice rolling as you turn the pages.
75. Grass For His Pillow- Lian Hearn
The second volume of the Tales of the Otori
76. Tolkien: A Celebration- Joseph Pearce (ed)
A collection of essays on J.R.R. Tolkien, most of which touch upon the subject of how Tolkien's devout Roman Catholicism informed and influenced his work. So, it's not exactly a book for the casual Tolkien fan. The content is bookended by pair of essays written by two men (Geroge Sayer, Walter hooper) who knew Tolkien well; they're easily the most interesting portions of the book.
77. Brilliance of the Moon- Lian Hearn
The third, and concluding volume of the Tales of the Otori.

The New Style (Part I)

Last night I watched the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica ("Six Degrees of separation"), bringing me entirely up to date on the new version of the show. (Many thanks to my homegirl Cass for taping these for me - your next SoCo n' Coke is one me.) Naturally I have an opinion on Ron Moore's vision of the Galactica saga. Short version? It's excellent, serving with Firefly as an example of huge story-telling possibilities of science fiction. Long version? Well, you'll get that in this and probably several other posts. I have much to say on this particular topic. Get ready for some serious geek action here.

First, let's deal with the dreaded 'R' word: remake. Loud and long were the shrieks of outrage when fans learned that Moore and company would not picking up where the original series left off, but would "reimagine" the Galactica mythos from the very beginning. Oh the horror, the sacrilege! To which I reply: get a grip. Take a deep, deep breath, get a grip, and stifle that flow of indignation.

Now I have much love for the original Battlestar Galactica. I quivered with joy when I learned that the entire run of the original series was being made available. I bought said DVD (DVDs actually) as soon I could. But let's be clear what we're talking about here: a cheesy TV show. A delightfully cheesy TV show but still... we're not talking about a pillar of Western civilization here. I can no more work myself into a state of righteous fury over the remake of Battlestar Galactica than I could over a remake of CHiPs or The Dukes of Hazzard. The very notion is preposterous.

And consider this, oh ye doubters: the idea of remakes, of different artists putting different spins on the same material, is about as old as Western civilization. Ancient Greek playwrights indulged in remakes and thus we're left with Sophocles' and Euripides' Electra. Some scholars believe that Shakespeare's Hamlet was based on an earlier Hamlet play (known as the Ur-Hamlet) by Thomas Kyd. This, of course, would make Shakespeare's Hamlet a remake. Setting the Wayback Machine for a more recent decade, think upon the John Huston-directed Maltese Falcon. I doubt anyone would deny that this a classic film - yet it is a remake of a remake. Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, the film that made Clint Eastwood a star? A remake.*

I could go on, but why bother? To automatically condemn a film or TV show because it is a remake is to deny yourself some damn fine entertainment; such works should be judged on their own merits. John Huston's Falcon is the definitive version of that story, while Alec Baldwin is unable to get out from Steve McQueen's shadow in the later version of The Getaway.

Ron Moore's second great heresy was to change the gender of the character of Starbuck, from male to female. He transgendered the character of Boomer as well, but that does not seem to have angered some fans as much as the tampering with Starbuck. Oh well. I have yet to see a worthwhile argument against this change. Most such arguments I've come across boil down to variations of how dare they alter our beloved character and now Starbuck won't be such cool/dashing/heroic character anymore (and I suggest such folks rewatch the original Galactica again - Dirk Benedict's Starbuck was as much lounge lizard as he was ace pilot) and this is a change. I am automatically against change in general, so I am against this specifically. In the end it doesn't matter. The fanboy segment, wedded to the original version of BSG, isn't going to accept the entire new version of the show, let alone changes to the characters. They hate it, and will continue to hate it, because the new BSG is not the continuation of the original they were hoping for.

Finally, apparently there has been some criticism of the show's sexual content, to which I'll let Mr. Moore himself reply:

Second of all, I disagree that the sexuality is intended to be exploitative or that it's somehow not integral to the story. We're presenting adult human beings as adults, and their sexuality is a key part of their lives. Baltar's sexual weaknesses, Sharon & Tyrol's forbidden love affair, and Starbuck's promiscuity are part of who and what they are. I think the only reason this gets the kind of attention is does is that we're not used to seeing sex treated maturely in science fiction -- nine times out of ten, any sex is either something to snigger at or to make fun of. Somehow it's okay to fetishize sex by putting women in S&M leather "space" outfits or have Carrie Fisher run around in harem clothes (not that there's anything wrong with that), but to portray two mature adults simply having sex is somehow controversial in sci-fi circles.
I'd also point out, as I have many times before, the strange standards of American audiences, who can become red-faced with indignation over nudity, but find no problem with slasher films or chains-saw massacres. I mean, Galactica's premised on a massive genocide, and the pilot deals with violent, shocking deaths over and over again, but people get upset about the sex? Weird....

More ruminations on the new Battlestar Galatica to follow when I get around to organizing my thoughts...

*Coincidentally, both The Maltese Falcon and A Fistful of Dollars are film versions of novels by Dashiell Hammett, which perhaps compounds their sins as remakes in the eyes of some.

Far Gone and Out

So Hunter S. Thompson is dead. He put a gun in his mouth, or to the side of his head, and left his scattered brains for his son and wife to find and clean. A sad ending for a man who truly did walk tall on occasion. Tom Wolfe said he was a southern-gentleman, and Ralph Steadman (illustrator of Thompson's most famous work) considered him one of the "great originals of American literature." Many folks, myself included, sat up and took notice when they heard the news of his suicide.

Reaction to this news is, of course, mixed. At the NRO some pious geek ginned up a truly awful piece, complete with a wages-of-sin preachiness. The writer, some creature by the name of Austin Ruse, manages to misquote Thompson (how this is possible in the age of Google is beyond me) and blame him for leading pooor innocent children astray:

It is a blessing that his work is not now still terribly well-known for he was a net negative influence on an entire generation. His famous aphorism, "When the going gets tough, the weird turn pro" was the font of more ruined GPAs than any other single source back in the 1970s.

Editors of the Modern Library will no doubt be astounded to learn that Thompson's work is not only no longer "well-known" but that it is destined to be "forgotten."

On the other hand Salon marked the occasion with a bit so hagiographic as to be creepy, especially the part where his suicide - or at least it's cost to his loved ones left behind - is glossed over:

I think it is improper and disrespectful to whine about this suicide. Thompson was in the game for a very, very long time, and I think it is a safe bet that he was never comfortable.

As for me, well, I never had a need to make him a hero or a villain, a sinner or a saint. The fact that he had a gift for prose is indisputable. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels are superlative; even a collection of his correspondence makes for beter reading than much of the bilge presently littering the best seller lists. Equally indisputable is the fact that his best work was far, far behind him. It may have been the constant and excessive substance abuse. It may have been mental illness. It may have been the price of simply being Hunter S. Thompson, Public Spectacle at Large. Whatever the cause, the work suffered - the columns for ESPN were simply painful to read. Better to remember his high white notes. As Lileks observed:

A great writer in his prime, but the DVD of his career would have the last two decades on the disc reserved for outtakes and bloopers. It was all bile and spittle at the end, and it was hard to read the work without smelling the dank sweat of someone consumed by confusion, anger, sudden drunken certainties and the horrible fear that when he sat down to write, he could only muster a pale parody of someone else’s satirical version of his infamous middle period. I feel sorry for him, but I’ve felt sorry for him for years. File under Capote, Truman – meaning, whatever you thought of the latter-day persona, don’t forget that there was a reason he had a reputation. Read "Hell's Angels." That was a man who could hit the keys right.

Sound advice. Read Hell's Angels. Read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Forget the pathetic caricature he became - instead take another look at pro - a very weird pro - at the top of his game.

The dunes are flatter here, and on windy days sand blows across the highway, piling up in thick drifts as deadly as any oil slick... instant loss of control, a crashing, cartwheeling slide and maybe one of those two-inch notices in the paper the next day: "An unidentified motorcyclist was killed last night when he failed to negotiate a turn on Highway 1."

Indeed... but no sand this time, so the lever goes up into fourth, and now there's no sound except wind. Screw it all the way over, reach through the handlebars to raise the headlight beam, the needle leans down on a hundred, and wind-burned eyeballs strain to see down the centerline, trying to provide a margin for the reflexes.

But with the throttle screwed on, there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It has to be done right... and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhileration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are the wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it... howling through a turn to the right, then to the left, and down the long hill to Pacifica... letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge... The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.

But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions.

-from Hell's Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson

Wakefield Day

Some folks have groundhogs. I have Tim Wakefield.

When he shows up in Florida, I know spring is coming. Happy Wakefield Day!

Movie Cheddar

Johnny Huh? provides grist for my mill:

1. What was the last great movie you saw?
Only Angels Have Wings.
2. What made it great?
Because it's a Howard Hawks movie and when Hawks is on his game he's just about the best. See also: Rio Bravo and To Have and Have Not.
3. What was the last terrible movie you saw?
Hide and Seek - DeNiro's latest. It was appalling.
4. What movie are you most looking forward to in the next year?
That's really hard to say as I've been so spoiled movie-wise, what with The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Master and Commander, that anythng else seems anti-climatic. That said, there some films I'm looking forward to seeing this year: Gunner Palace, Kingdom of Heaven (because I like Ridley Scott's work), Serenity, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Now that I think of it, I'm looking forward to Serenity the most, because Firefly was such a brilliant show.
5. What classic would you like to see remade and who would you choose to star in it?
I'd love to see a well-done remake of Zulu. The story of the battle of Rourke's Drift screams for a Black Hawk Down style treatment. I'm not sure about casting though - maybe Jude Law in the Lt. Bromhead role originally played by Michael Caine?
6. What remake of a classic blasphemes the original?
That's easy - the 1994 remake of The Getaway. What on earth made Alec Baldwin think he could fill the shoes of Steve McQueen? After all, Steve McQueen was only the coolest actor ever, and Alec Baldwin is... Alec Baldwin.
7. Who's the classiest star in Hollywood?
Off the cuff I'd say Paul Newman.
8. Who's the trashiest star?
Oh lord that's tough - soooo many to choose from. Tara Reid?
9. Who's got the biggest ego?
I assume they've all got big egos.

5ives

Another brilliant list from Merlin:

Five terrible fake albums by a girly-voiced singer/songwriter
1.Stop Touching My Cat
2.These Braids Have Cried
3.Vegan Glances
4.Birkenstock Exchange
5.Am I Not Your Flower?

Get Your Gates Here

So I've been hearing about some kinda kerfuffle about some Gates. Much to my astonishment I found out that these Gates being referred to were located in Central Park. As in Central Park in New York City.

See, I thought all this fuss was about the Somerville Gates. As in Somerville, MA.

This is Wrong

The Bunny has designed a test, to measure the Steve Perry-ness inherent in many folks.

Unfortunately, the test fails to account for those, like myself, who have no inner-Steve Perry.

Another Belated Milestone

The Telegraph reminds me that Monday was also the 30th annniversary of the death of P.G. Wodehouse, as well as Valetines' Day:

The following exchange, between Bertie Wooster and Gussie Fink-Nottle, in The Code of the Woosters, seems a suitable way to mark the occasion: "'But what is the love life of newts, if you boil it right down? Didn't you tell me once that they just waggled their tails at one another in the mating season?' 'Quite correct.' I shrugged my shoulders. 'Well, all right, if they like it. But it's not my idea of molten passion.'"

New Age Beowulf

From yesterday's Guardian:

He is the original action hero, a fearless Norse warrior who slew a murderous troll and helped inspire Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. And he is coming to a multiplex near you.

The race to turn Beowulf, the hero of the first great written English poem, into a box-office star to rival the likes of Aragorn, Achilles and Alexander the Great, has begun. Two films starring the fictional 6th-century sword-slinger are in production.

Well okay. I read Beowulf in high school and enjoyed it enough to grab a copy, during a recent raid of a second-hand bookstore, of Seamus Heaney's translation of this ancient epic. Sounds like a film, or films, I'd be interested in seeing.

Beowulf & Grendel, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, is a $12m co-production from Britain, Canada and Iceland, starring the Scots actor Gerard Butler. Filmed in Iceland, it is described by its producers as a "spiritual film".

Butler's Beowulf is a complex man who grows to understand and even sympathise with the troll Grendel.

I am a simple man, with simple needs. I do not want to watch a movie about spiritual Vikings. I do not wish my Norse heroes to understand and sympathise with the trolls; I wish them to slay the trolls. Preferably in spectacular fashion.

Andrew Rai Berzins, the Canadian screenwriter for Beowulf & Grendel, cites the implausibility of parts of the story, which was written in Anglo-Saxon by an unknown author sometime between 700 and 1000.

Implausible? A heroic saga featuring trolls and dragons... implausible? Really?

Maybe they picked the wrong source material to work with.

Celebrate Dash

Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. The novel reads just as well today as it did then - The Maltese Falcon hasn't aged, or become dated, in any way. Nor will it ever. Long after - 75 years from now - when the majority of today's literary flavors du jour have faded into obscurority, Hammet will still be read.

Naturally, this 75th anniversary did not go unnoticed: the San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, and the The Washington Post (transcript of an online chat with Hammett's granddaughter) all have commentary on the event. This month's January Magazine has an extensive tribute to The Maltese Falcon, including a survey of current mystery/crime fiction authors discussing Hammett's influence on the genre and themselves personally.

Breaking From Cover

I am alive and well. I've just been busy, and when I haven't been busy I haven't felt like staring at a monitor screen. I do have a number of posts in various states of readiness, all currently in draft form. Some will eventually see the light of day and you will all be treated to my thoughts on subject matters ranging from the new Battlestar Galactica to long overdue short reviews of the remainder of the books I consumed in 2004.

Baseball. Soon.

You scored as Johnny Damon. You are Johnny Damon!! You are very down-to-earth and like to joke around a lot. This is apparent through your appearance. You are known for looking unkempt, perhaps even caveman-like, but everyone loves you for it. Oh yea... Johnny is my homeboy! Johnny Damon 86% Curt Schilling 67% Manny Ramirez 63% Mark Bellhorn 60% Theo Epstein 53% Jason Varitek 33% Kevin Millar 27% David Ortiz 20% Which Red Sox Player Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Chains of Miscellany

More often than not, a random sequence of events leads up to the moment when I crack open a particular book for the first time. This speculative post by CW left the names of Marlowe and Walsingham dormant somewhere in the back of my head, until months later I clicked onto this book review by Michael Dirda. I noted both the title reviewed (The World of Christopher of Marlowe by David Riggs)and an additional title mentioned in the review, as books I wanted to eventually get my hands on. Shortly thereafter a viewing of this movie prompted a trip to the library where I found the second title mentioned in the review - The Reckoning: the Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl.

The Reckoning is my current non-fiction read. I've put aside Body of Lies for the moment; Brown's book is very informative but very detailed - a times so detailed as to be tiresome. So for now I've taken a break from the world of WWII espionage and slipped back in time to what Nicholl refers to as the Elizabethan secret world.