It shouldn't be a surprise when March arrives as cold as January, and then it snows. But it sure is disappointing! We will not even get close to 0 C. for several more days, and it's whiter than white out there, which is a challenge to my newly restored eyes. Still, with all of the medical appts. we have had this winter, we haven't had to miss any due to weather. At least I am now done, except for picking up my new reading glasses this week. Last week Deb had her echo cardiogram, and this week, in addition to her bi-monthly infusion for RA, she goes for a heart stress test. At that time she will also have a consultation with her heart doctor. So two more appts. this week, and a stopover to see if my glasses are ready.
It's time to begin writing my next astronomy article for our club newsletter, even though it's been cloudy so far for the entire session. New moon is Wednesday. Very disappointing, as usual. I am excited to try out my right eye at the telescope!
I am getting lots of reading done. I completed 12 novels related to my work with the Avon/Equinox Rediscovery Series, and finished reading the catalogue to the Bruegel exhibit. I read The Drowning World by Ballard, my second novel by him. A very haunting book, it was one of the best of the month. Next came my first novel by Barry Malzberg. Called Revelations, if this is typical work by this author, then I think he is going to have to be an acquired taste. My edition came autographed. The book is confusing but readable, is more connected to media than to SF. He was quite prolific, so I will be reading more of him, for better or worse. Since there are two books in the series by Robert Silverberg, I read two of his for every one of the other writers. I am currently reading his shorter fiction from the 1950s on the first Silverberg page. He was so prolific at this time that he used other names so readers wouldn't get tired of seeing his name. Some of the monthly SF magazines he wrote for had as much as 70% Silverberg content in a single issue! It is pretty amazing how well he wrote, despite his speed.
Next came Spinrad's Deus Ex, a short and strange little work that involves the first female pope (she is pretty amazing!) and a lot of time spent in cyber space. A weed-smoking Rastafarian tech wizard is the hero of the story. Piers Anthony came next, with Rings of Ice. It's the end of the world, a flood, and Noah's Ark this time consists of several people in a Winnebago. This is certainly one of the better end of the world tales, with a nod to John Christopher and others who tackle the theme (Ballard's Drowning World, for eg.). Speaking of John Christopher, I read Book Two of his Prince in Waiting series, a kids series that ties in an end of the world scenario (his favourite kind) with medieval knights. It is really quite good. One more book to go in that series.
Captive Universe by Harry Harrison might be the best of the month, though it sits among a pretty high standard field of entries. This one concerns two villages of Aztecs living alongside a river, and confined to a valley for their entire lives. Some of them are blond, so we suspect that things are not as they seem. One of the males tries to climb out of the valley, and things are set in motion that will rock their civilization forever. Excellent SF writing, with a nod to Heinlein. Demon's World by Kenneth Bulmer, another of several British writers in the Equinox series, writes a great pulp SF story, a tense Land of the Giants kind of thing. Then came E.C. Tubb with his Mars epic entitled Alien Dust, a dated but worthwhile read spanning the first 35 years of the first Martian colony. It pulls no punches, and could easily be updated to a great TV series.
The Legion of Time and After World's End, two short novels by Jack Williamson, came next. I am still among his silly but fun pulp SF from the 1930s, reflecting the influence of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers (the comic strips, not the Republic serials). This is an era of pulp writing that is almost forgotten today by SF readers. Of course it owes a lot to Edgar Rice Burroughs, too. The 2nd story shows the beginnings of his ideas for The Humanoids, one of his masterpieces from the late 1940s. Williamson wrote well into the 2000s, a career almost unmatched in SF writing.
Rex Gordon, alias S.B. Hough, wrote SF as Gordon and mysteries as Hough. I just read Dear Daughter Dead. His mysteries are completely off beat, and likely not to everyone's tastes. I love his SF, and I love his mysteries. Sadly, I am coming to the end of his works. The final book I read in February was by Hal Clement, a novelette about aliens stopping by on Earth on their way to their honeymoon on a much nicer planet. They need to stop as the alien male requires some blood. However, it must be extracted without causing any harm to the humans. Good stuff! It is called Assumption Unjustified. More details about these and other SF books can be found on my Avon/Equinox blog, link at left. Along with the book reviews and discussions are the fun and colourful covers to everything I have read!
And now, on to another art selection from the DIA. Many religious and mythological paintings gave excuses for artists to create some beautiful landscape art. This early Italian drawing shows the mythological topic front and center, but also contains a truly wonderful background landscape. Hope you enjoy!
Callisto's Transformation Into a Bear After Giving Birth to Arcas.
Domenico Campagnola, ca. 1558. Detroit Institute of Arts.
36 cm x 48 cm.
Jupiter is up to his old tricks again, and his wife doesn't like it one bit. Sorry, Callisto. Doesn't matter that he tricked you and appeared to you as Diana. According to Juno, that old excuse isn't good enough!
Detail of the left side, upper. Very Bruegelian, no? And virtually the same date as many of Bruegel's drawings.
Detail of the right side, upper.
Mapman Mike
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