OK, so here's what happened. A year ago I had open heart surgery. That sort of put a crimp in my reading plan among other things. I didn't actually have a heart attack, but during a routine check-up I told my doctor I had been having some pain on my right side under my rib cage. I had thought it was IBS which I had before (during grad school) and though it used to be on the left and had moved to the right it seemed like the same type of pain. Cramping that radiated outward from an area under my ribcage near my gall bladder. Well, long story short, the doctor thought it sounded like IBS too, but in the interest of completeness scheduled me for a stress test and a colonoscopy. The stress test showed I had a blockage. A subsequent heart catherization showed it was substantial, and that it couldn't be stinted, so a few days later I was in the Cleveland Clinic getting cut open and pried apart for triple bypass. That all went pretty well (at least I got out of the colonoscopy). Until I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck, but because of allergies to most of the pain meds available I basically had to suck it up and suffer. Vicodin. I could take Vicodin.

I had, naively, thought my recovery would be a chance to kick back and catch up on my reading and DVD watching. Hah! Between the pain, the mind scrambling after-effects of the anaesthetic, and the Vicodin nod I was on I couldn't concentrate on anything as complicated as a toothpaste commercial let alone read a novel or watch a whole movie. So that sucked. But anyway I'm back and all better and it hasn't really taken me a year to get my shit back together, but I was never exactly super-blogger to begin with so, here we go again.

Next from Apple!

On the heels of Steve Jobs launch of the iPad (insert feminine hygiene joke here) I have hot dish about the next big product from Apple. My internal sources guarantee me that the next big thing from Apple will be the iDon'tcare.

Take that huge successful corporation that everyone apparently loves.

Judging by the Cover...This Book is Like a Total Freakout, Man.

I'm almost done with The Blue Star and will have some thoughts on it later (well I have thoughts now, but I 'll save them for later). But I wanted to do a quick post about the cover of the book. One thing that first attracted me to collecting the BAF series was the striking cover art. Amazing artists like Gevasio Gallardo, Bob Pepper, Robert LoGrippo, Dean Ellis, Sheryl Slavitt, and many others produced a series of beautiful wraparound cover art that, I think, set a standard for fantasy art.

That said the cover for The Blue Star, while striking, is rather atypical of the series. The painting by Ron Walotsky is uncredited, as are the first 8 or so covers in the series. But his signature does appear on the cover, so there is no mystery about the artist. I think this may have been his only cover in the series, but I'll check on that and get back to you if I'm wrong.

What, I think, makes it atypical is the psychedelic quality. It has the hard-edged hallucinatory look of a black-light poster you might have found in a head shop or dorm room back in 1969. So it seems to be more of it's period than many other covers in the series. Not that realism ruled the day in the rest of the series, but the acid tinged quality of Walotsky's work (in this case) looks like it could have come from a poster for a Dead concert at the Fillmore. Right down to the font used for the title. That rounded, bottom heavy, lettering seemed to be the default psychedelic lettering style of the late sixties. I know most of the kids in my 6th grade class could do a pretty good rendering. It turned up in alot of art class projects. (We were so damned groovy).

In addition to that, having now read all but 30 pages of The Blue Star, I don't find it particularly representative of anything in the story itself. Is suspect someone told Walotsky the story had witches and a blue jewel in it and he took it from there. I don't recall any cat or cauldrons in the book, but they are depicted prominently the back cover. At least I think that's a cat. Ditto for the bird (Phoenix?) on the front cover. Not in the story. He does depict a blue star, so it seems unlikely that this was just some painting they had lying around in the art department. I know this sometimes happened. It happened to my friend Dave Smith. One of his Oron books had a cover that was totally unrelated to anything in the story. Turned out "Vinnie" in the art department had bought up a bunch of paintings from an artist, and they needed to be used somehow.

I hope to discuss the cover art for the BAF as I move along. I'm not sure I'll always have something to say, and I'm sure I don't know anything about art. But why let that stop me. I don't really know anything about writing either. I just like readin' books n' stuff.

The Journey of 1000 Miles Begins with the Turn of a Page

Began The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt this morning. This was the first title published in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series under the editorship of Lin Carter and carrying the distinctive Unicorn Head logo. The book was published with a date of May 1969, but actually hit newsstands in April. Of course Ballantine had already established a line of adult fantasy reprints beginning with the authorized paperback publication of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1965. This authorized edition was published in "response" to Ace Books unauthorized, yet legal, reprint that exploited a loophole in US copyright law which actually put Tolkien's trilogy in the public domain. Ballantine followed the growing success of its Tolkien titles in 1967 with reprints of The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison and it's several related titles (not exactly sequels), the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsey and works by Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place. These last two actually carried the designation "A Ballantine Adult Fantasy" on the cover, but lacked the Unicorn Head logo. Several of these titles were later reprinted with the Unicorn Head.

So, closely related as these titles are to the BAF, the series proper is considered to start with The Blue Star. In Imaginary Worlds Lin Carter lists the BAF titles starting with Pratt's book and it is the first to have an introduction by Carter. So that's where I'm starting and why.

But why read them in the order of publication? Isn't that sort of arbitrary? Well, consider the alternatives. I could read them in alphabetical order by author, but isn't the alphabet just as arbitrary, and then you run into what I call the William Morris problem. Delightful and entertaining as the books in the BAF are some do carry certain issues of archaic style and readability that can make them tough going. William Morris is an important part of the series and indeed according to Carter the founder of the Imaginary world fantasy tradition. A huge influence on Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other. But the pseudo-medieval style reminiscent of Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur is heavy going for the modern reader. Particularly this modern reader. I have not read all of the titles in the BAF. I'd guess I've read a quarter to a third mostly back in the 70's and 80's. I did read all of The Wood Beyond the World and the first half of The Well at the World's End. The story and imagery of these books remains surprisingly vivid in my mind, but I also remember struggling to read them and eventually bailing on The Well. If I tackled the series alphabetically and had to plow through four consecutive Morris titles I'm afraid my momentum would flag and I would risk a massive brain cramp in the bargain.

Obviously the Chronological approach is more logical, and has some apparent advantages, in offering an interesting historical perspective, but ultimately the Morris Problem rears it ugly head again. And, since several of the BAF titles are anthologies or omnibus volumes, the chronological approach would seem to entail a great deal of skipping around if you wanted to strictly adhere to it.

So, I opt to read the books in the order they were originally presented to the readers. Relying on Lin Carter to lay out the feast in a tasty and inviting manner, and with only one William Morris per year.

A quick glance at the list shows you that the series is heavily front loaded with James Branch Cabell. Three of the first twelve titles are by Cabell, and that may seem like an imbalance, but I have much affection for Cabell, and although his style is definitely ornamental and artificial it is much easier going than Morris, far earthier and full of sophistication, wit, and irony. So, I say bring of the JBC!

This may seem like over-thinking the whole enterprise, but I assure you all of this flashed through my mind in a second, and only in retrospect did bother parsing it all out. After all I have a whole year of this. I have to talk about something.

Reading Under the Sign of the Unicorn Head

I'm reading a book called The Whole Five Feet by Christopher Beha about his attempt to read the entire Harvard Classics 5 foot shelf of books in one year. This is the kind of pointless, arbitrary, yet orderly challenge that appeals to me. Unfortunately, although I have owned 3 or 4 sets of the Harvard Classics over the years I have sold or given them all away. But it got me thinking about what kind of literary challenge I could set myself for the coming year. Not too easy, but not impossible over the next 12 months. Something I have on hand already, classic perhaps, but maybe more fun than the HC 5 foot shelf. Then It hit me. I had the perfect challenge collecting dust on the shelf.

I put together a complete set of The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series many years ago, but since then I haven't really spent much time reading them. The fun at the time was in tracking them down, and piling them up, and except for the occasional upgrade in condition I haven't really done much with them since I put that final elusive volume on the shelf. (What was the final volume anyway? I think it was Double Phoenix by Edmund Cooper and Roger Lancelyn Green but I'm not sure anymore. This was by no means considered the scarcest title in the series, but I had a hard time tracking it down. Of course this was all pre-internet.)


So that's it. Decided in haste and on the spur of the moment in 2010 I am going to read the entire BAF. That's 65 books, 63 titles, (The Night land by William Hope Hodgson and The Well at the World's End by William Morris were each split into two volumes), which I will be reading over the next 12 months. It seems daunting enough, but that is the least number I could read without being accused of cheating. There is some dispute among collectors about whether or not several titles should be counted, and perhaps I'll go into that in a future post. I have a whole year.

So for future reference and for those unfamiliar with the series here is the list as I will read it in the order they were published:

The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series

1969

1. THE BLUE STAR, Fletcher Pratt. May.
2. THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER, Lord Dunsany. June.
3. THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD, William Morris. July.
4. THE SILVER STALLION, James Branch Cabell. August.
5. LILITH, George Macdonald. September.
6. DRAGONS, ELVES, AND HEROES, Lin Carter, ed. October.
7. THE YOUNG MAGICIANS, Lin Carter, ed. October.
8. FIGURES OF EARTH, James Branch Cabell. November.
9. THE SORCERER'S SHIP, Hannes Bok. December.

1970

10. LAND OF UNREASON, Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp. January.
11. THE HIGH PLACE, James Branch Cabell. February.
12. LUD-IN-THE-MIST, Hope Mirrlees. March.
13. AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, Lord Dunsany. March.
14. PHANTASTES, George Macdonald. April.
15. THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH, H.P. Lovecraft. May.
16. ZOTHIQUE, Clark Ashton Smith. June.
17. THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT, George Meredith. July.
18. THE ISLAND OF THE MIGHTY, Evangeline Walton. July.
19. DERYNI RISING, Katherine Kurtz. August.
20. THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END, Vol. 1, William Morris. August.
21. THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END, Vol. 2, William Morris. September.
22. GOLDEN CITIES, FAR, Lin Carter, ed. October.
23. BEYOND THE GOLDEN STAIR, Hannes Bok. November.

1971

24. THE BROKEN SWORD, Poul Anderson. January.
25. THE BOATS OF THE `GLEN CARRIG', William Hope Hodgson. February.
26. THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH, H.P. Lovecraft. February.
27. SOMETHING ABOUT EVE, James Branch Cabell. March.
28. RED MOON AND BLACK MOUNTAIN, Joy Chant. March.
29. HYPERBOREA, Clark Ashton Smith. April.
30. DON RODRIGUEZ: CHRONICLES OF SHADOW VALLEY, Lord Dunsany. May.
31. VATHEK, William Beckford. June.
32. THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY, G.K. Chesterton. July.
33. THE CHILDREN OF LLYR, Evangeline Walton. August.
34. THE CREAM OF THE JEST, James Branch Cabell. September.
35. NEW WORLDS FOR OLD, Lin Carter, ed. September.
36. THE SPAWN OF CTHULHU, Lin Carter, ed. October.
37. DOUBLE PHOENIX, Edmund Cooper & Roger Lancelyn Green. November.
38. THE WATER OF THE WONDEROUS ISLES, William Morris. November.
39. KHALED, F. Marion Crawford. December.

1972

40. THE WORLD'S DESIRE, H. Rider Haggard & Andrew Lang. January.
41. XICCARPH, Clark Ashton Smith. February.
42. THE LOST CONTINENT, C.J. Cutcliffe-Hyne. February.
43. DISCOVERIES IN FANTASY, Lin Carter, ed. March.
44. DOMNEI, James Branch Cabell. March.
45. KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOURS, Ernest Bramah. April.
46. DERYNI CHECKMATE, Katherine Kurtz. May.
47. BEYOND THE FIELDS WE KNOW, Lord Dunsany. May.
48. THE THREE IMPOSTERS, Arthur Machen. June.
49. THE NIGHT LAND, Vol. 1, William Hope Hodgson. July.
50. THE NIGHT LAND, Vol. 2, William Hope Hodgson. July.
51. THE SONG OF RHIANNON, Evangeline Walton. August.
52. GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF ADULT FANTASY #1, Lin Carter, ed. September.
53. EVENOR, George Macdonald. November.

1973

54. ORLANDO FURIOSO: The Ring of Angelica, Volume 1, Translation by Richard Hodgens. January.
55. THE CHARWOMAN'S SHADOW, Lord Dunsany. February.
56. GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF ADULT FANTASY #2, Lin Carter, ed. March.
57. THE SUNDERING FLOOD, William Morris. May.

58. IMAGINARY WORLDS, Lin Carter. June.
59. POSEIDONIS, Clark Ashton Smith. July.
60. EXCALIBUR, Sanders Anne Laubenthal. August.
61. HIGH DERYNI, Katherine Kurtz. September.
62. HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, Poul Anderson. October.
63. THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST, H. Rider Haggard. December.

1974

64. KAI LUNG UNROLLS HIS MAT, Ernest Bramah. February.
65. OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY, Lord Dunsany. April.

I'm actually reading IMAGINARY WORLDS by Lin Carter (#58) right now because it serves as an overview of the series as well as a history of imaginary world fantasy. Of course Lin Carter was the editor of the BAF series and wrote introductions to every volume. So more on him in the future as well.

Found Poetry of the Hard-boiled Variety

I like what David Rachels is doing over at Pulp Poem of the Week

He is taking snippets from hard-boiled pulp and noir fiction and reformatting them so they read like poetry. He is only doing one a week so right now there aren't that many, but I think it will be worth checking back.

I especially like the one from 77 Rue Pardis by Gil Brewer about the snapshot of the girl in a bikini which ends:

She had

large breasts. She had been

unable to control them.

Marshmallow Peeps at the Forefront of Space Exploration

Probably inspired by my cutting edge microwave research in smores technology using Marshmallow Peeps, the Adler Planetarium has taken the next logical step and launched Peeps into space .

Be sure to check out the exciting training montage.

Apparently their research involves some attempt at measuring the brightness of space using the luminosity and reflectivity of various colored peeps. I'm sure this is top notch stuff, but not likely to fire the imagination and enthusiasm of children for more peeps related space research. I would suggest further study into the effects of vacuum on elastic materials composed primarily of air pockets. Oh, the humanity!

We applaud these brave and delicious marshmallow confections as they continue to push the boundaries of science.

Nerds of the World Arise!
Pulitzer Prize winner and certified otaku geek Junot Diaz had this recommendation for the manga thriller Monster by Naoki Urasawa over on Time Magazine's Famous Authors' Guilty Pleasures
summer reading feature.

I ran out to the Borders last night and picked up the first volume and read it. I get the pleasure but don't feel the guilt. Can't quite justify buying the next 17 installments for the library so I guess I'll just have to chip away at it over the rest of the summer.

OK, Sarah. Here goes nuthin'

My jealous co-worker (I can listen to music at my desk and she can't) is giving me grief for not posting on my blog since 2006 (when she was probably still in high school). So here you go. A blog post about nothing. I'm listening to Coldplay, Viva La Vida, right now. Awesome for me. Sucks for you.

Prague Top Ten

Before I post any of our more idiosyncratic shots of Prague I figure I should hit the Highlights that everyone who goes to Prague Simply Must See!

(Below) St Vitus Cathederal from the Bridge across the Stag Moat.

It was funny because just about everyone on the group who was with us in Prague had the same Dorling Kindersley guidebook about the city. And in there was a Top Ten list of things to see. Some people were apparently quite obsessive about checking off the Top Ten and Andreas our guide would often kid people about whether some site was in the Top Ten or not.








Charles Bridge looking toward the Old Town









Charles Bridge Looking back toward Hradcany and the Little Quarter






Well as much as Rhonda and I were interested in some obscure byways of Prague we were not immune to wanting to see the touristy highspots. Besides it would be pretty difficult to navigate around Prague and not walk across the Charles Bridge, and you would literally have to never look up to avoid seeing Hradcany and St Vitus Cathederal.

St. Vitus and Prague Castle seen from Vysherad (an older Castle) upriver along the Vlatava

Prague Castle from the Old Town near the Charles Bridge.







Jan Hus Monument on the Old Town Square

Church of Our Lady before Tyn which overlooks the Old Town Square.

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall

The Old Jewish Cemetery

in the Jewish Quarter.

Interior of St Nicholas (above)






Detail from the the ceiling in St Nicholas





(Below) View of the Dome of St Nicholas from Petrin Hill
















(Below) the Narodni Divaldo (The National Theatre) .

















So There you have the Top Ten (according to the Eyewitness Travel Guide). If you counted you may notice that we are minus two sites (Wallenstein Palace and Garden & St Agnes Convent). Wallenstein was close for the season, though we did circle it while walking in the Mala Strana (Little Quarter) and St. Agnes we missed because oddly it is in the Jewish Quarter, and so we were mostly focused on hitting Synygogues, Kafka & Golem sites and the Jewish Cemetary. I guess I didn't realize till too late that St Agnes was in the Josefov.

For those scoring at home the "Top Ten" sites we did see were Old Town Square, the National Theatre, Church of St Nicholas, Charles Bridge, Old Town Hall, Old Jewish Cemetary, St Vitus Cathederal, and Prague Castle. While these are all wonderful and worthy attractions I can't say they would constitute my personal Prague Top Ten, however our more personal favorites will have to wait for another day. For now I think I have maxed out the number of Pics I can upload for free.

The Magical Mystery Tour of Prague

As anyone who has read the travel brochures knows Prague is a Magical city. A fairy tale metropolis blending ancient, medieval, baroque, and modern all preserved in a way possible only in a place that surrendered to the Nazis without a fight. (Just kidding. It's obviously a lot more complicated, but this is a blog not a dissertation. If brevity is the soul of wit, then perhaps glibness is the essence of blogging)




My wife and I traveled to Prague at the beginning of November, and it was everything they say and much more that you have to find out on your own. I was a little worried that a 9 day stay in one city might get redundant, but the longer we were there the more we realized how much we hadn't seen and wanted to see.

I took lots of pictures, and unlike my other trips some of these came out pretty good. This blog is supposed to concentrate on the literary so I will in the future point out some of Prague's more literary and writerly past and present, but in a city with a multiplicity of picturesque castles, palaces, churches, cathedrals, etc. I think my best pictures turned out to be of a wall covered in graffiti.

The John Lennon wall in the Mala Strana (The Little Quarter) started out as a tribute and a protest. Shortly after Lennon was shot, and the Communists still ruled Czechoslovakia, people began writing Beatle lyrics and painting pictures of John Lennon onto a wall behind the French Embassy, and the government kept painting over it, but the people persisted and eventually the French Ambassador asked the Czech Government to leave the graffiti alone because he liked looking at it.

















So for over 25 years, and long after the overthrow of communism, people from all over the world continue to leave tributes to John Lennon who to the Czechs was an icon of the freedom that western democracy represented. (Nevermind that the FBI was spying on him and tried to deport him. We're talking symbolism here not reality).


The wall is about a block long and it's impossible to photograph the whole thing. These pictures are just a sampling, and from what I have seen of earlier pictures the wall is constantly changing, so if and when we go back I'm sure it will be very different. Next time I intend to bring a Sharpie.
There are places I remember, indeed.