Belloq was Right

Different people recall different portions of favorite films. I tend to remember snippets of dialogue. This actually evolved into something of a game with the Kidette, then a shorthand way of speaking, relating films to daily life. So, if someone tries to do the same old thing, but differently: "He's just changing the dog's name." Or if someone claims to be a good guy: "There are no good guys, there are no bad guys; there's just a bunch of guys." So, while some might take away from Raiders of the Lost Ark the image of the adroit swordsman being shot or an inattentive Nazi being sliced and diced by a flying wing's propeller, I tend to remember what Belloq, the evil French archaeologist, said about his pocket watch:

 "You know it's worthless. Ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless... like the Ark. Men will kill for it. Men like you and me."

Belloq was right, you know. Let anything acquire a patina of age and it becomes valuable. I often wonder what future archaeologists, whether evolved Cockroaches or visiting scientists from Altair IV, will make of the room where I do all my writing. A book shrine? An ancient library? A temple dedicated to the triune god Asimov-Bradbury-Clarke? And what if my remains are there, my skeleton sitting at a typewriter or laptop? The last Archivist? The Priest of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler? Divine Being? Maybe I'll end up in an alien museum. I do like museums.

However, we need not wait so long to see our things become valuable. Recently, I was book-searching on the internet, curious about some of the Lovecraftian publications from Necronomicon Press. The results were quite startling.

The three booklets pictured contain prose and poetry written by HP Lovecraft that had not been previously collected for publication. Mostly, they consist of amateur writings from HPL's Amateur Press Association days; poetry and essays from what we would now call "fanzines;" poems, essays and vignettes culled from his corpus of letters; and discarded drafts of later stories. When published, they each cost $4.95 in the late 70s, early 80s, so I spent about $15 for all three, plus a modicum of postage. I figured they had probably increased a bit in value over the years, driven by collector demand and the increasing worthlessness of the US dollar. However, I was not prepared to find a listing offering the three booklets for $224.95+$8.95 s&h. I also found six reproductions of Lovecraft's articles from The Californian offered for $350 and a two-volume set of HPL's letters to Robert Bloch for $225. The HPL Christmas Book sold for $1.50, but I found listings of it for $41.25+s&h. The History of the Necronomicon (1992 @  $1.50) is available for $84. Even Lovecraft Studies #7, Necronomicon Press' scholarly periodical which contained my article "The Old Man and the Sea," is available on Amazon for $35, quite a bit more than the original.

I don't plan on getting rid of those booklets anytime soon, but it did set me wondering about some of my own Small Press efforts, both the Sherlock Holmes stories published by Gryphon Publications and my own modest chapbooks that I published under the imprint of Running Dinosaur Press. Was it possible that either had gathered enough of a time-worn patina to become valuable or (dare I suggest?) respectable? Well, as it turned out, they had acquired much more value than I suspected.

The first book I looked at was Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Ancient Gods. The story was first published in the Trek fanzine "Holmesian Federation." I've already written about the genesis of the story, so won't go into it here, except to say that it does have some significance amongst Holmes/Lovecraft pastiches because it was the very first story to combine the two literary universes, beating the excellent Pulptime by a few years. When Gary Lovisi republished the story as a chapbook, the price was $5. I thought it a little steep at the time, but I knew that specialty publications were often priced in advance of trade-published books. In a recent listing, I found it priced at $45+$4.95 s&h. Of course, I have in the past seen it listed at $60 or so, and, once, for $112 on Amazon by a rare books dealer. 

The sort-of sequel to the book, Sherlock Holmes in The Dreaming Detective, also published by Gary Lovisi's Gryphon Books was listed recently for $25+$5 s&h. That is more in line with what I would expect for a specialty book now out of print (for the time being), but I have seen other listings in the past asking upwards of $100 for a "Fine to Very Fine" reading copy.

I have to admit that neither listing (Necronomicon Press nor Gryphon Books) really shocked me all that much. After all, the quality was very high, the books were unique and not available elsewhere, and both presses were (and are) highly regarded by scholars, fans and collectors. The shock came when I looked up some of my own Running Dinosaur Press publications.

I have to admit that Running Dinosaur Press was never more than a hobby for me, a creative outlet for myself and others. Despite being a paying market for stories, poems and illustrations, I never made a penny on any booklet. Press runs were meager. When I was invited to sit on a Small Press panel at the 1991 World Fantasy Convention, I represented more the Micro Press than Small Press. And I purposely kept prices at a minimum, just enough to cover production and postage. I truly thought that the chapbooks would never be of interest to anyone but those whose names appeared within.

A Walk in the Dark had a horror/dark fantasy theme. I asked for poems about what scared people and received several hundred submissions, out of which I chose 49. It included such notables as Janet Fox, Steve Rasnic Tem, Duane Rimel, t. Winter-Damon, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Scott Green, and a contribution from Randall Jarrell (posthumously) via his publisher. The cover was light blue, as were all RDP covers, and the price was just $2.35, which included mailing. So I was more than a little surprised when I found a listing offering it for $26.25+$4 s&h.

In Alternate Lives, I gave authors the difficult task of exploring alternate histories, timelines and universes via poems and fiction of 100-200 words. There are a few anthologies that explore the theme, my favorite being Worlds of Maybe, but, let's face it, it's a daunting task to create a new history or timeline, put some characters in it and tell a story in anything shorter than a novel. And, yet, about thirty people accepted the challenge and did a very good job. The price on this booklet was only $1.25 (again, including postage), but I found a listing that offered a copy for $30+$5 s&h.

The last publication I want to look at is HP Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, his famous sonnet sequence, permission for which I obtained from Arkham House. I wanted to publish this for a hew reasons. I believe there is a story told in the course of the sonnets, and argued that in an issue of Robert Price's Crypt of Cthulhu, and continued that argument in this booklet.  Though a few Lovecraftian scholars agree, most do not, so over the years it has become a bit of a tempest in a Lovecraftian teacup. The second reason is that I wanted to illustrate the sonnets, in which I was joined by my good friend Nick Petrosino, who is an accomplished artist and designed much of the armor used in the film Army of Darkness. The third reason...well, what HPL fan does not want to become part of the author's mythos? Anyway, again I charged the minimum I could to cover expenses (yes, Nick was paid, I insisted) and postage, only $2.50. I found several listings in my search, but they were all around $50+s&h. I have to admit this surprised the least, as I know first hand how popular anything connected with HPL is.

So, yes, Belloq was indeed correct. Let enough time pass and almost anything, even me, can become respectable and valued. Who knows? Maybe I will end up in that alien museum after all. As a bonus, let me leave you with one of Nick's illustrations, the one he did for "Antarktos," one of the sonnets.

Deep in my dream the great bird whispered queerly

Of the black cone amid the polar waste;

Pushing above the ice-sheet lone and drearly,

By storm-crazed aeons battered and defaced.

Hither no living earth-shapes take their courses,

And only pale auroras and faint suns

Glow on that pitted rock, whose primal sources

Are guessed at dimly by the Elder Ones.

If men should glimpse it, they would merely wonder

What tricky mound of Nature’s build they spied;

But the bird told of vaster parts, that under

The mile-deep ice-shroud crouch and brood and bide.

God help the dreamer whose mad visions shew

Those dead eyes set in crystal gulfs below!

--H.P. Lovecraft 

A Dog's Tale

 Anyone who has read the books in the Paws & Claws series knows what a soft spot I have for dogs. I have read dozens of books about dogs and books with canine characters in supporting rolls. That includes novels such as White Fang (1906), Greyfriars Bobby (1912) and The Incredible Journey (1961). That also covers quite a few novels that were, to be honest, dogs, and innumerable collections and anthologies with stories that ranged from absolutely the best to you gotta be kidding. This affection even extends to commercials. I sit/stay for the dog-tested/dog-approved commercials from Subaru.

Wildside Press is one of my favorite publishers because of the work they've done to keep in print the work of Golden Age SF & Mystery writers, many of whom have been unfairly forgotten these days. In addition to their "Megapack" collections, they also publish individual shorter works, generally novellas and novelettes, but also some superlative short stories. A case in point is "The Keepers of the House" by Lester del Rey.

Available where e-books are sold

Lester del Rey (1915-1993) is the pseudonym of Leonard Knapp. A major author during the Golden Age of Science Fiction, he is known for such classics as Nerves and Helen O'Loy. He became an influential editor and publisher when he and his wife Judy Lynn del Rey, founded Del Rey Books in 1977, now an imprint of Random House.

In "The Keepers of the House," we meet King, a dog who has been wandering a long time in a world that seems devoid of people. It also seems devoid of land animals since King spends most of his time along rivers catching fish. We begin to understand King is no ordinary dog as he recalls scenes and instances from decades past. If you know dogs at all, you know that one of the cruelest truths of dog ownership is that dogs do not live nearly long enough. The legendary Levi, my pal Skipper and the incomparable Mr Yoda all crossed the Bridge after 19 years, an extraordinary length of time in the canine world, but all too short for me.

In the course of the story, King returns to where it all began for him, the source of his dreams for the past thirty years. It is the campus of a university within a dead and silent city. One of the problems in any apocalyptic science fiction story is relaying information to the reader in a way that is not confusing or boring. That is hard enough when you have an omniscient narrator and/or human characters. The problem here is compounded because, even though there is third-person narration, everything has to be filtered though the limitations and sensibilities of a dog's intellect and experience. However, del Rey does an excellent job, giving us just enough background while never letting us forget that King is just a dog, albeit an extraordinary example of his species.

"The Keepers of the House" was first published in the January 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe Science Fiction magazine. Two years later, it was reprinted in the July 1958 (#73) issue of the British periodical New Worlds Science Fiction. The term "keepers of the house" was probably puzzling to readers at the time, and is apparently just as puzzling to modern readers as well. Few have encountered it except the context of the 1964 novel of the same name by Shirley Ann Grau, a multi-generational saga with themes of racism and hypocrisy in the Deep South. Unfortunately, the true meaning of the phrase is lost in the themes and controversies of the story.

Actually, the term is taken from Ecclesiastes 12:3 in the Bible:

"In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened..."

Del Rey's interpretation of the verse is more in keeping with its darker original meaning, though, of course, it is filtered through the tropes of science fiction. In the story, the "keepers of the house," essentially the humans who were given stewardship of the world, have failed in their appointed task. They have failed in the eyes of God, failed in their responsibilities to each other and themselves, and have utterly failed King. 

I don't know when I last felt so affected by a story. I doubt it would have affected me so deeply had the protagonist been a human. Though humans often portray themselves as victims of others, there is always the underlying truth that we are actually victims of our own choices, right and wrong, and our fates are ultimately in our own clumsy hands. King's fate -- and this is true of all pets -- is in our hands, and in that we failed him, doomed him to wander, just as the government doomed thousands of war dogs abandoned in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Dogs may be Man's best friend, but, more often than not, it is a one-sided loyalty, and we are mostly undeserving of that loyalty. That, perhaps, is the best lesson to take away from "The Keepers of the House."

Whatever Happened to Space Cruiser C-57D?

Forbidden Planet (1956) is one of those films that stays with you. It must, because I recall seeing it when it first played at the Bay Theatre in National City. Back in those days, people arrived at the theater whenever they arrived. If they arrived late for the start of a film, they stayed until the film restarted, leaving when they could say, "Ah, this is where I came in." My parents were not great film goers and not at all science fiction fans, so I'm really surprised they went to this film at all. I don't recall the other film, cartoon, newsreel or serial that was also shown that day, but I do recall when they left ("Ah, this is where we came in") because, as I was being carried out (I was much smaller in those days), I saw, over my dad's shoulder, the steps leading to the spaceship bending under the weight of the "monster from the id." I really wanted to stay, but, given that I had already seen the monster, I also really wanted to leave. Looking back, I think I was actually more frightened of the invisible menace, the sight of those metal steps bending when I could see nothing upon them, than I was of the roaring, fiery creature that manifested itself from the savage and primal "id" of Doctor Morbius, augmented by the technomagical devices of the lost Krell Civilization. It is a great film and still holds up now, nearly seventy years later. Unfortunately, MGM chose not to cash in on the success of its surprise hit. So, we have been left to wonder all these years, whatever happened to Space Cruiser C-57D and its intrepid crew after escaping the destruction of Altair IV?

I suppose it was inevitable in this age of fan fiction and instant publication that someone would accept the challenge and give the world the rest of the story. This happened in 2016 when Tony Rubolotta published Forbidden Outpost, a novel "for the fans of Forbidden Planet."

Available from Amazon

The rubber-stamped "AMAZING!" on the cover is taken from the promotional poster and lobby card of the film, but it's a fairly apt description of Rubolotta's story. Although there are a few awkward plot elements and an intrusion from a notable frontier stereotype, the author does a very good job of carrying the story forward, expanding upon the characters from the film and fleshing out the world of the United Planets, which was only mentioned in passing in the original film. And, of course, we find out more about the mysterious Krell...a lot more.

I thought one of the most clever aspects of the story was how Rubolotto depicted the human settlement on the planet where a hidden outpost of the Krell survived unsuspected. Instead of reaching into our future, which would have been the book's present, he instead went Retro, drawing upon Mid-Century tropes, types and architecture. Really, it's a great idea. The 1950s is just ancient and alien to the characters in the book as it is to most people now. I don't want to give away anything of the story, but if you like the film, you'll probably like the book.