July Books Read

 

From 1975 comes the 124 page SF thriller The Ghosts of Epidoris by E. C. Tubb.  For the third time Cap's old arch enemy Kaifeng is back and as bad as ever.  Kaifeng is the Fu Manchu of Cap Kennedy's galaxy, or the Master from Dr. Who's universe, a man who is evil through and through.  He loves to punish people who fail him, though in this story he admits that he failed at something yet doesn't mention any self punishment.  Could he be a hypocrite?  Once again the ancient Zeltyana race is at the forefront of Kaifeng's evil plan to rule the galaxy, as the evil one is using old alien technology to hide his doings from the rest of a planet's population.  Did I mention yet that he is evil?  Are there really ghosts wandering at night on Epidoris?  Or, is there a scientific explanation to what is happening and what people are seeing?  As usual, Tubb has a good SF premise and reasonable enough sounding explanation.  There is plenty of action, and even a bit of high culture talk between Cap and Kaifeng's equally evil female assistant, who harbours a bit of a crush on Cap.  My main complaint has to do with Tubb's ridiculous brief ending.  Less than half a page from the major climax the book suddenly ends.  No doubt the author wanted to bring back Kaifeng in a future story and didn't want to deal with his possible escape.  My secondary complaint is that any time relics of the ancient race are found, the bad guys get to it first and then Cap has to blow it all up at the end.  Seriously?

** 1/2 stars.

 

 

Original publication with cover by the great Jack Gaughan.

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Next month I will return to Kenneth Bulmer's engrossing Dumarest Saga, but now it's time for more Delphi Classics reading.  Clark Ashton Smith was up next.  Smith has written some of the best horror and fantasy short stories I have ever read, so I always look forward to him when his turn comes around again.  This time its a collection of 14 stories published in 1948 under the title Genius Loci and Other Tales.  The first story is the title one, very much influenced by H P Lovecraft (Poe is another influence on this terrific writer).  A young artist visits a friend in the country and discovers a very dismal swamp.  He becomes fascinated by the atmosphere and strives to capture its likeness on canvas and in sketches.  Alas, the swamp has its own plans, not only for him but also his young fiancee.  Smith writes so much better than Lovecraft, even though many of his ideas are borrowed from him.

"The Ninth Skeleton" and "The Phantom of the Fire" are minor efforts but told well, though the skeleton story has some nice touches (no pun intended) and the fire story sounds like something supernatural that could actually happen to someone.

"The Eternal World" is almost a novelette, combining influences as disparate as H G Wells and Olaf Stapledon.  It is the story of a man who builds a kind of time machine and encounters two different kinds of intelligent life, a good kind and a bad kind.  It's the kind of story that Jack Williamson might have written back in the day.  Quite good reading for classic SF fans. 

"Vulthoom" is top notch Smith SF writing, as two men stuck on Mars encounter a much older and stranger being than the current Martians who trade with Earth.  In this novelette Vulthoom is a legendary god among the Martians, one who awakens every 1000 years, but as the two men discover, the godlike alien being is all too real.  As good as the story is, the ending is also one of the best.

"A Star Change" sees a depressed human approached by two aliens from Mlok while he is sitting on a mountain top.  They sense his depression and offer him a lift to their distant planet.  He refuses, but they later visit him in his San Francisco apartment.  He finally agrees.  On Mlok he has trouble adjusting to the new sensations.  Despite the friendliness of the aliens he spends much of his time shrieking in terror.  They perform some medical procedures on him and he is finally able to adjust.  Pangs of homesickness hit him, however, and he wishes to return to Earth.  He gets his chance when Mlok is invaded by a space born parasite, dooming the world and its people.  Meanwhile back on earth, his adjustments he received back on Mlok make him unfit for life on Earth.  Only Smith could come up with these bizarre but fascinating stories and their tragic endings.  Great stuff!

"The Primal City" is a great little horror story about two adventurers who trace down the location of a vast lost city in the mountains of northern India.  They and their guide trek for many days, at last coming to the ruins.  The city seems to have been made for giants, and was destroyed by some unknown force.  Soon, however, that force will make itself known once again. Only one man and one camel survive.

"The Disinternment of Venus" takes place in a Franciscan monastery in 1550, and is one of those stories that could easily have been a local legend.  A masterpiece of Roman sculpture is dug out from a monastery garden by two monks.  Afterwards, discipline breaks down and rules are constantly being broken.  Anyone who sees the statue is affected.  One non-viewing monk sets out to destroy it with a hammer.  He is found next day locked in the arms of the statue,  His body cannot be freed and he is buried forever with the statue and the garden is abandoned.  A terrific short story!

"The Colossus of Ylourgne" is a novella detailing the doings of an evil dwarf wizard seeking revenge on all those who wronged him in a small area of France in the early 1200s.  This is by far the best story of conjuring a demon-like being that I have ever read.  The gripping tale is filled with violence, both as the beast is being formed from buried corpses, and after it goes on its countryside rampage.  First two monks fro ma nearby monastery attempt to deal with the conjurer, but are sent back dully punished.  What I love about Smith's writing in this genre is that religious beliefs hold no sway over evil magic; churches are destroyed, the monastery is destroyed and many monks die as they pray.  A one time student of the wizard decides to give it a go, and while he pays dearly for his attempt, his eventual success gives the novella's climax a ring of truth and lasting freedom.  An excellent story and, like many of Smith's tales, would make a great film.  Highly recommended for sword and sorcery fans.

"The Satyr" is a short horror story about two lovers accosted not only by the woman's husband, but by Pan.  The cuckolded husband is the least of the worries for the woman.  Ever since my dream about Pan several years ago (I actually met him and he is a very scary guy), I suspect that this story and others like it are true.  Once again a terrific ending, and not a happy one (unless you are Pan).

"The Garden of Adompha" is another dark tale of black sorcery, with quite a hideous theme.  With the King's permission his cruel wizard grafts human parts onto various trees and plants in the King's secret garden.  This is one garden door readers do not ever want to open.

"The Charnel God" is another one of those stories about strange gods and customs.  A young couple stop overnight in a strange town.  She is cataleptic and has an attack and is pronounced dead by a local doctor.  Anyone who dies in this city has their body given over to the god.  Her boyfriend tries his best to rescue her, and he is unwittingly aided by a trio of body thieves.  A very unusual tale.

"The Black Abbot of Puthom" is a tale that Fritz Leiber would have greatly enjoyed reading, as did I.  Two body guards and a eunuch are sent to fetch a girl for the harem.  Her beauty is renowned and is coveted by the king.  The trip home is fraught with danger and adventure, as the four people are kidnapped by an evil sorcerer and brought to his monastery.  He wants to have his way with the girl but the two loyal bodyguards stand in his way.  A great adventure with even a touch of humour at the end.

"The Weaver In the Vault" (such great titles on some of these tales) 

 

Cover of the first edition (1948) by Frank Wakefield.

 

From a 1974 edition, with cover by

Bruce Pennington.
 

Olaf Stapledon is a very strange SF writer, likely well into the spectrum for autism.  If he was an artist he probably would be drawing those incredible detailed maps and drawings produced by people with such gifts.  Darkness and Light (1942) presents his best and worst case scenario for humans on Earth.  In past novels he has taken on the entire universe, with Earth as a mere dust mote in the grand scheme of things.  Well, this time he devotes the entire book to this dust mote and the people who dwell upon it.  Like a good Tarot card reading, Stapledon is not making predictions.  He is providing a framework for some grand ideas to be played out.  In the first half of the book we get the bad stuff.  Try to imagine the world in the near future if more Trump-like leaders emerge in the world's most important countries.  He does, and it isn't pretty.  In the second half of the book he provides a vision for Utopia, a vision that very few people today would ever accept.  Joining together for a common cause?  Ya, right.  Growing until we rise above consumerism and then leading more spiritual (not religious!) lives?  I don't think so.  As grand and hopeful as the author is, his first scenario is much more likely to happen, and sooner than most of us would want.  Stapledon's books could spark endless discussion, and they lead off in so many directions that a person could spend his life tied to any one of his visionist novels.  Even his best case scenario is frought with problems that defy correcting.  Well worth reading, but don't wait around for any of the good stuff to happen soon.

*** stars. 

 

Rabindranath Tagore's Fruit Gathering is a collection of 86 short poems from 1916, mostly dedicated to nature or god.  While reading these peaceful lines it's difficult to believe that the Great War was in full swing.  Many of the poems are worth quoting in their entirety, while others produce lines that are truly heaven-sent.  Often meditative, never frivolous, this is poetry with some weight holding it up.  A few brief examples: "I throw away all that is not one with my life nor as light as my laughter.  I run through time and, O my heart, in your chariot dances the poet who sings while he wanders."  "Cling to this living raft, my body, in the narrow stream of my earthly years.  I leave it when the crossing is over.  And then?"  How about this one?  "Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength."  One more:  "Let the mantle of tender darkness cover me in its folds, and cover my pain awhile from the pressure of the world."  This is good stuff, with nearly every poem offering up something of worth.  Recommended.  **** stars.   

 

Josephine Tey (1896-1952) was a Scottish author known best for her Inspector Grant murder mystery novels.  She has two of her books in the top 100 best mystery books of all time, including the #1 position! (The Daughter of Time).  The Man in the Queue is from 1929 and was her first in the Grant series, and her second novel ever.  She has a highly detailed style, always told from one perspective by the narrator.  The story is actually a police procedural, as we tag along with the inspector to try to solve a seemingly unsolvable murder.  Clues and witnesses are few and far between, and along the way the highly intelligent inspector makes several large errors, not entirely his fault.  This is one of those mystery stories where the evidence is so stacked against one man that we wonder all along if he did do it, and if not, then who?  Does the inspector solve the case?  Actually, no he doesn't.  But he has enough of a bad feeling about the arrested man to keep digging for evidence that might help him.  No luck there.  He strongly feels that the wrong man was arrested and will likely be hung for the crime.  To find out how it all turns out, read the book.  Tey has a witty style of writing also, and brings in some uncanny but perfect small details along the way.  There are even a few Holmes and Watson jokes.  Well worth reading for mystery fans.

*** stars. 

Brain Fruit by Stephen Oram was a gift from a friend following a recent visit to London, UK (thank you again, Caroline).  From 2025 it is a SF/Fantasy novelette published in hardcover format, something one does not see very often.  A limited edition, mine is 104 of 500.  The story concerns a bee, a bug and a piece of fruit trying to make peace with a village of androids, to the mutual benefit of everyone.  The closest thing to it that I have read before is T. H. White's The Book of Merlin, where readers get inside the lives of wild geese and later an ant colony.  I think that very often individual short stories and novelettes can get lost in 'collections' of same.  Publications like this one are not cheap and likely have very limited numbers of buyers.  But it is refreshing to see original short works receive what one might term royal treatment.  Worth reading, but good luck finding a copy.

*** 1/2 stars. 

 

After recently watching 30 episodes of Apple TV's Foundation series, it was finally time to reread the books (it's been decades).  The first novel, Foundation, is from 1951.  I read this series as a teen and remembered very little of it, except that music plays a major role somewhere.  Not in book 1.  There are two main flaws with this first novel.  The first is that it's not really a science fiction novel.  It's mostly a political story, with traders and phony priests mixed in.  The second problem is an almost complete lack of female characters.  The only woman with speaking lines is a shrewish wife after more riches and more power, and she is a very minor character.  The TV series at least made the story more science fiction than the novel, and they did add several important female characters, badly needed.  However, they totally destroyed Asimov's story.  They muddled it badly.  After watching 30 episodes I can honestly say that I don't know what the hell is going on, or who is who or why this happens.  It's a great series to look at, but it has very little skill at telling a story.  Asimov's book is very clear cut and makes perfect sense, at least.  I somewhat enjoyed the book, more than the series.  *** stars.  

 

I am reading the Kindle editions. 

 

I finished off the month with two more evolution essays by Stephen Jay Gould, finishing a 3-chapter section called Human Prehistory.  "A Lesson From the Old Masters" refers again to prehistoric cave painting, specifically a few depictions of a giant deer, and how the discovery of this art helped bolster evolutionary theory and tie up a loose end or two.  In "Our Unusual Unity" Gould takes on biases that insist that evolutionary progress is linear, something the author consistently argues against.  In a linear theory only one type of humanoid can exist at any one time, like today.  Gould argues that today's unity is not the norm, but the exception, showing how bias can affect a scientist's theory even when evidence strongly suggests otherwise.  Bush theory says that several types of early man once existed at the same time, and may have interacted in some ways. 

 

See you in a month (or perhaps two) or so.  My reading time is slowly being reduced so I don't get through as many books as I once did.  We'll see how things go, but if you don't see an August summary, there will be one in September for sure.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

April Books Read

Not a lot of volumes were read this past month.  Two of them were quite long and one of them was very intense and required careful and somewhat slow reading.  I also enjoyed 4 nights of astronomy last month, which always cuts into evening reading time.

 

Fires of Scorpio by Kenneth Bulmer, #29 in the Dray Prescott series, is a direct continuation of volume 27, beginning where Dray has just come out of the mountain tunnels.  He becomes reunited with his friend, but is immediately dragged away again by the Star Lords to another location and assignment.   His main purpose now seems to be to interrupt the religion of the Silver Leem.  He arrives at a point where a female child is to be sacrificed to their god.  Of course he saves the girl, and the first part of the story is enlivened by the presence of the child accompanied by Dray.  She has a personality (she is just under 4 years of age) and adds humour to the proceedings.  The latter half of the story is more serious.  Dray is reunited with another warrior friend who is also a chosen one in aiding the Star Lords in whatever it is they are trying to accomplish.  They team up again and the adventures are nonstop until the end of the book.  Though they have managed to disrupt the religion, there is a lot more to do.  And on it goes....  Another solid entry in this remarkable series. 

 

 

From 1974 comes Eater of Worlds, the 126 page on-going adventures of Kennedy and his male cohorts.  This time they are assigned to a case where a prisoner who was being transferred escaped with help.  Many innocent people were killed, and so Cap is trying to find out why this prisoner, with only a year left in his sentence, escaped.  This is one of those rare truly SF stories.  The bad guys think they are about to dig up secret treasure from a lost civilization, and the escapee was the only one with the coordinates to the site.  The location is on a barren planet (we find out later why it is barren), in a sandy desert prone to fierce wind storms.  They discover that the "treasure" lies within a protective shell in the form of a skull (I wonder what that could mean?).  Once they get inside, a very dangerous type of alien life form is released, killing anyone it touches in its form as first a liquid, and then a vapour (after someone panics and shoots it with a blaster).  It begins to spread, and it's now up to Cap and his team to try and stop it.  This is actually a very good story, and would make an excellent SF film.   

 

Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry Malzberg is a 2024 publication and 259 pages long and contains about 35 short stories by Malzberg.  He also contributes a very brief essay at the beginning.  The stories move chronologically from 1970 to 2022.

 

Terminus East is from 1970, and is about the failed colony on the moon.  It is a violent story, and not that appealing.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

Making Titan is from 1970 and details the bizarre 6th attempt by humans to land on Titan, Saturn's largest moon.  Will this one fail like the others, or be the first successful mission?  Remember, this is Malzberg. *** stars.

 

Exploration is from 1971 and is a Malzberg special; no one else writes about how being in space makes you crazy so well as this author.  The captain of a Mars exploratory mission loses it. **** stars.

 

Conquest is a silly tale from 1972 about first contact, which turns out to be a test for the human candidate who will be sent out to greet the aliens.  *** stars.

 

Two Odysseys Into the Center is from 1972.  This one has some pulp fiction humour attached, which ups the rating.  *** stars.

 

Dreaming and Conversions: Two Rules By Which To Love is from 1973.  Another great story of insanity and its self justification.  Of course aliens are involved.  **** stars.

 

Conversations With Lothar is from 1973.  This story and a few others were to become the 1975 novel Conversations, reviewed above.  It works well as a very short story, but the novel is quite incredibly good.  *** stars.

 

Triptych is from 1973 and is as much a satire of pulp SF as it is an homage.  Several possible pulp novels are condensed into a few paragraphs each.  Entertaining to read, and I find myself wishing I could read some of those novels.  *** stars.

 

The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier is from 1974, and is way ahead of its time, as it describes addiction to virtual reality gaming.  Dated, obviously, but at the time well ahead of itself.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

Revelation in Seven Stages is from 1980.  Malzberg comes up with quite possibly the most bizarre and unusual use for ancient Eygptian mummies ever conceived.  Funny and weird.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

There The Lovelies Bleeding is from 1981, and tells of a blossoming romance in the far future, where such liaisons have been much frowned upon until now.  Progress against the repression is slow, but gaining momentum.  *** stars.

 

1984 is a one page story from 1985, on the expected theme.  Not too successful, in my opinion.  ** stars.

 

J. S. Brahms is from 1985 and features Sigmund Freud undertaking a cognitive test.  A pretty funny story no doubt related to Malzberg's novel.  Music afficianados will appreciate the humour more.  *** stars. 

 

The Queen of Saigon is from 1987, a story about the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a Saigon prostitute.  Fine storytelling of a still touchy topic.  *** stars.

 

Ambition is from 1987.  A SF story in which a communications officer is responsible for the planet of Jubilation's inhabitants rebelling against the Earth invaders.  Offbeat and very short.  *** stars.

 

No Hearts, No Flowers is from 1989.  This is a funny mob-related story, where a casual social reporter thinks he has erred in mentioning a recent mob massacre one day before it happened.  He is summoned to pay a visit to "Bruno" and realizes his time is up.  But Bruno gives him more than he bargained for.  A fun read. *** stars.

 

Safety Zone is from 1990, a somewhat bizarre tale of a barfly and a man she meets one night.  A bit puzzling, but still some fine writing.  *** stars.  

 

One Ten Three is from 1991, and is one of the funniest stories I have ever read.  A race horse talks to a betting man and tells him he will win the next race.  The man bets $80.  Did the horse win?  In a way.  A truly wonderful story, and laugh out loud at times.  **** stars.

 

Dumbarton Oaks is from 1992, a story in which the devil is given tasks by the big boss.  A bit weird.  ** stars.

 

Gotterdammerung is from 1992, and is the story of a wizard who is visited by interested parties in finding the magic ring that was lost in the river.  The wizard is outsmarted, though the ring still remains lost. *** stars. 

 

Is This The Presidential Palace? is from 1992, a typical Malzberg story about an alien with an agenda meeting a human.  Quite amusing.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

It Comes From Nothing is from 1994 and is a spin on the end of King Lear.  Not a very nice spin, either.  In fact, kind of a cruel spin.  * star.

 

Sinfonia Expansiva is from 94, and is a somewhat sex-obsessed story that doesn't really work very well. ** stars.

 

Of Dust and Fire and The Night is from 1994, and is the author's take on the star of Bethlehem and three wise men.  It never hurts to throw the legend of the phoenix bird in, either.  A bit silly, but fun. ** 1/2 stars. 

 

Close-up Photos Reveal JFK Skull On Moon is from 1994.  A bizarre story where JFK ends up on the lunar surface, Elvis is now in France after having plastic surgery to alter his face and singing in small clubs.  He is being pursued by a 102 year old female fan who just birth to twins, who turn out to be JFK and Elvis reborn.  Marilyn Monroe reveals her unsuccessful pursuit of Elvis.  *** stars.

 

Getting There is from 2002 and is another powerful Vietnam anti-war story.  **** stars.

 

The Third Part is a view of Revelations as seen from the perspective of a southern redneck.  Most odd. *** stars.

 

Crossing the Border is from 2003 and deals with a man who has a sex change.  *** stars.

 

These The Inheritors is from 2006, and tells of the revenge of the insect world on humans, with a Jewish slant. ** stars.

 

The Passion of Azazel is from 2008.  A man who recently attended therapy and made a revealing discovery about himself make a golem in the form of a goat.  Inspired by a quote from Leviticus. ***1/2 stars.

 

Why We Talk To Ourselves is from 2011, and is a meditation on the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers in NYC. ** stars.

 

Richard Nixon Saved From Drowning is from 2014, as we hear words and thoughts from the not so great former president.  ** stars.

 

The Terminal Villa is from 2014, and was inspired by a quote from Dick Cheney, who had dramas while recovering from heart surgery.  Meant as a tribute to J G Ballard.  ** stars.

 

The Phantom Gentleman is from 2022, and has some musing of Malzberg on his upcoming "final Journey."  ** 1/2 stars.

 

January 2018 is from 2018, and isn't much of a story to end this pretty decent collection.  ** stars. 

 

Cover by Jeff Jordan.

Mother London is from 1988, a mostly disappointing novel by Moorcock that is 496 pages long.  It purports to give glimpses of London from the 1940s through 1988, mostly through the eyes of three people who survived by were greatly affected by the Blitz.  We get a pretty strong sense of what it was like to live under the threat of German bombs during WW II, especially the dreaded V2 rockets.  David, Joseph, and Mary meet in an institution some 15 years after the war.  Mary has been in a coma since she was 15, awakening at 30.  The three become very good friends, often interacting during the story.  The problem with the book is the storytelling itself, as well as Moorcock's complete inability to depict a troubled mind.  Both Mary and Joseph seem to have some type of psychic ability, and the novel is filled with italicized inner dialogues, sometimes of others near them and sometimes of their own thoughts.  I eventually learned to just skip over these sections, as they offered up nothing for the reader.  It's a silly attempt to be avante garde, or modern, and these passages often show just how clueless the author is about inner voices.

 

The storytelling is often divided into chapters that take place in a certain year, anywhere between 1941 and 1988.  The problem is that the chronology is completely messed up, with a 1970s chapter followed by a 1940s one, and then one from the 60s.  It destroys any kind of continuity the story badly needs to build up a sound picture of the main characters and their friends and acquaintences.  At one point we attend the funeral of a friend of David's before we even know who the person is.  Although I could go back and reread the novel and try to do it chronologically, the story itself and the characters are simply not interesting enough.  Much of the book is quite dull, and it was a struggle to get through it all.

 

With a title like Mother London, we get a rather superficial glance at the great city, possibly the greatest city of the world.  I had high expectations, but alas they were not fulfilled.  I found the parts dealing with the bombing and its aftermath the most interesting part of the book, but much of the rest held little to no interest for me.  I think much of that has to do with the way Moorcock (and his editor) chose to tell the story.  It's confusing enough trying to keep track of three main characters, but to have the time jumps interfere and confuse readers further, I found a lot of this book to be a waste of time.

 

Cover by Greg Ragland.

 

 

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker from 1937 gives the reader everything.  Literally.  The full history of not just the Universe is here, but of everything else, including god (to humans) the creator.  Stapledon simply calls him Star Maker.  Stapledon creates not a novel in any sense, but a blow by blow description (highlights only) of life in the galaxy, in all of its myriad forms.  He imagines any kind of life that is even remotely plausible, bringing it into our minds as a done deal.  He explains the many pitfalls that doomed civilization after civilization on world after world, and how gradually the galaxy somehow (he explains how, don't worry) banded minds together and began a vast collective.  The author leads us by the hand as he gradually increases the scale of discovery until we have galaxy minds contacting other galaxy minds, and as the galaxies' lives come to their inevitable end, finally reach a state of total understanding.  

 

Stapledon goes on to then to describe the creator, the Star Maker, from his (he uses the masculine but by now we know what he means) own creation from pure matter, on to his juvenile creations, to his later masterpieces as he reaches his prime.  His final definition of the Star Maker did not please a lot of people, C. S. Lewis for one.  To this reader it is a totally brilliant concept, so far beyond and removed from the simplistic version of god held by most religious doctrines as to make it seem more than a possible answer.  Of course the author is limited to what was known about astrophysics in 1937 (stellar evolution is all wrong here, for one thing), but I think he can be forgiven this.  Considering this is fiction, his facts are pretty secure.

 

Stapledon influenced virtually every serious SF and fantasy writer, from E. R. Eddison, Jack Williamson, James Blish, Frank Herbert, Iain M. Banks, and on and on.  From this volume comes every story ever told, every story that will ever be told, and stories by the trillions that will never get told, due to a shortage of time remaining for our universe to exist.  The book, like his earlier Last and First Men, is all-encompassing.  Like it or not, Stapledon has given us a comprehensive and plausible history of everything that ever was or ever will be.  Rich reading.  A masterpiece.

 

Cover by Bip Pares.  I read the Kindle edition by Delphi Classics. 

 

Gitanjali is a set of 103 verses by Rabindraneth Tagore.  Written in Bengali in 1910, Tagore did his own translation into English in 1912.  He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 largely due to these amazing verses.  Ideally a person would read one of these a day for 103 days, and meditate on them.  Many are similar, though, and can be read carefully over a few days, as I did.  They can and should picked up at whim and opened to any verse.  Most of them deal with a human being trying to see and communicate with his god.  The verses made a nice follow up to Star Maker, placing human endeavour fairly high on the scale of evolution.  It's always nice to know that a few humans have made a significant spiritual journey during the short time allotted to us.

Prior to this came the short poem "My Golden Bengali," written in 1906 shortly after Bengal had been divided into two different religious states.

 

Mapman Mike

 

Satyajit Ray does Tagore

For a time in the early 80s, Rabindranath Tagore was one of my favourite authors.  I read what was in print, and probably borrowed from the university library, too.  Then he went out of my life, until the Criterion Channel recently came on line.  I cannot begin to tell readers of this blog how wonderful it is to have this streaming service.  It's something I've waited for all my life, and dreamt about.  And I actually have time now to watch the films.  Our film festival this weekend featured three works by Ray.  Two of them were based on stories by Tagore, while the third was a biography/tribute to the man.

Three Daughters, which runs for just over 2 1/2 hours, features three separate films based on  short stories by Tagore.  Charulata is based on a novel, called The Broken Nest.  The English  film title was The Lonely Wife.  I first encountered Ray's films many years ago at DFT (Detroit Film Theatre), specifically the Apu Trilogy, which remain three of my favourite films of all time.  I have seen those twice.  The first film we watched this weekend has three stories:  The Postmaster, The Lost Jewels, and The Conclusion, which I would have called Crazy Girl.  

The Postmaster is almost too brilliant for words.  The print was not very good, but the subtitles were new.  A man from the city takes a job as postmaster in a Bengali jungle village.  Needless to say, he is very uncomfortable in his surroundings and doesn't remain very long.  Helping him get by (and saving his life) is a little orphan girl.  Ratan is a priceless jewel, but in India she is just another waif, doomed to a life of servitude and loneliness.  He teaches her to read and write a bit, then asks the newest postmaster, who is replacing him, to continue her lessons.  One can only hope.

 Three Daughters, a film by Satyavit Ray.  

The second short film of the trilogy is a standard ghost story, and is the least effective of the trio.  A woman, left alone all day by her husband in a giant house, goes mad, becoming obsessed with her jewellery.

Crazy Girl (my title) is the final short film, and focuses on a young teenage girl who loves to play outside, climb trees, play on a swing, and keep a pet chipmunk.  When a young man returns to the village from school in the city and chooses to marry her, she is not very responsive to him.  She wishes to remain the way she is, rather than grow up and submit to marriage.  All three films focus on the plight of Indian women, and how they have so little say in their life choices.  I would expect that this last film would have been scandalous at the time (1961), as the young man chooses not to beat the girl into submission, as requested by his mother and their neighbours.  Instead, he goes away and gives her time to grow up.  Which she does, after much soul searching.  She manages one final tree climb before agreeing to be his life companion.  This film and the first one are so amazing to watch as to be almost indescribable.  We are totally immersed in Bengali village life, and see things, and come to understand things, that no tourist or outsider could ever hope to experience.

The next feature film we watched was Charulata.  From 1964 and running just under two hours, we are again immersed in Bengali life, this time in the impressive home of a rich business man.  He runs a political newspaper, and has little, if any, time to spare for his beautiful and very intelligent, sensitive wife.  The house is dripping with bric-a-brac, and to the husband, his wife is a lovely accent to the home, like the beautiful furnishings.  When a young cousin of the businessman comes to stay, the woman's life begins to change.  Like her, he reads romantic literature and poetry, and he manages to coax her into writing, too.  She gradually falls in love with him.  An excellent portrayal of being female in Bengal in the late 19th century.

This film also had 4 Criterion extras, amounting to another hour of watching.  Great stuff, not accessible anywhere else.

 The final film of our weekend festival was called Rabindranth Tagore, Ray's tribute to this great Indian intellectual and writer.  Born in 1861, he died in 1941.  The film gives not only a good summary of Tagore's life and accomplishments, but gives an honest look at what the British were doing in Bengal and elsewhere.  It was brutal.  And despite promises of giving allowing more Indian representation after WW1, no such freedoms were forthcoming.  World events would eventually drown out the voice of one of the world's sanest, most humanistic men who ever lived.

We are off to Cincinnati on Wednesday, and will return Friday.  I will blog about the city visit and the film festival when we return, and will give a quick summary of my August reading.  I also need to write the September observing article for our astronomy club newsletter.

In other news, I have shut down the music studio for this year.  I still have a few students, but none of them are truly committed to full time study.  Should a promising student come along, I might reconsider opening again, but for now it is retirement, full and complete.  Amen.

Mapman Mike