Diary of a Hypnophobic Logophile Suffering From Egersis

Sleep and I have never been the best at getting along; many times it seems we simply cannot coexist in the same being. Recently I have been having more trouble with sleep than usual and, to make it worse, I’ve been hyper-aware of my poor sleeping habits. Between the hours of 1 and 4 am, there are not as many distractions and most of my friends are blissfully asleep. Darn them and their ability to sleep! Sorry, sometimes I get a little jealous. The point is, with no distractions and the early morning, otherworldly quiet, I have a lot of time to reflect.

Even when I was young, I was never one to “go gentle into that good night.” I had horrible nightmares and, as a result, developed a fear of sleep. My dad helped me with this problem by telling me about the Dreamlands and introducing me to S. Petersen’s Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands. The artwork is by Mark Ferrari and is absolutely beautiful. I remember my dad telling me that everyone I want to meet could be found along the paths of the Dreamlands; I could meet Edgar Allan Poe or H. P. Lovecraft or any resident creature I wished to find. I didn't know it at the time, but my dad was giving me my first lesson in lucid dreaming.

The Field Guide was the book I borrowed any time I couldn't sleep and whenever I had a bad dream. The book came with a flow chart asking yes or no questions and eventually there would be a page number for the creature. I would trace my finger along the paths, trying to find the creature I had met or the one I hoped to meet or the one I wanted to avoid such as the fellow on the right here.

Now that I’m older (and pretending I’m not afraid anymore) I no longer use creatures to get myself to sleep. The creatures of my youth have been exchanged for words and that is where The Insomniac’s Dictionary by Paul Hellweg comes onto the scene. It has all the words you didn’t know you wanted to know but are so glad once you find them. Long and short words, words with no vowels, groups of animals, manias, killing words, and, of course, words on sleep (as well as the inability to do so.) This is the book we would never let my mom read because she was just too good at Scrabble; my dad and I felt this book might be our salvation against my mother’s skills. That hope has long since been dashed; she is simply too good. Originally this was my dad’s book, but through excessive borrowing, it became mine. And as I prepare for my night of egersis (intense wakefulness) I will keep this tome close at hand and will surely pick it up in the wee hours of the morning.

And so, I bid you sweet dreams, my fellow bibliophiles.

Wanted: Good Bad Guys

The measure of any good guy in mystery, adventure or spy fiction is the caliber of his opponent. Ian Fleming's James Bond was bedeviled by Goldfinger, Doctor No, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Scaramanga, Emilo Largo and sundry agents of SMERSH. Without his oh-so-memorable villains, 007  would have been just another grey,  underpaid, faceless fellow going in and out of Thames House and getting his teeth kicked from time to time for Queen and Country. Sherlock Homes without the spectre of Professor Moriarty? Quiller or Harry Palmer without their neo-Nazi revivals and cold war boffin brokers? Nero Wolfe without the ruthless Mr X? The Saint without either The Tiger or Chief Inspector Claude Eustus Teal? Doc Savage without John Sunlight, or The Shadow without the mob bosses of Chicago and New York? Dennis Nayland Smith without the insidious Doctor Fu Manchu? Jack Ryan without the KGB and various Islamic dictators? Without proper bad guys to bring out the best in them, our literary heroes are just gumshoes, keyhole peepers and civil servants. Today, though, a good bad guy is hard to find.

Doctor Fu-Manchu, great criminal mastermind of London's East End, based upon a real Chinatown crime lord named Mr King, was not really popular beyond the 1950's, by which time he had transformed into a quasi-ally in the fight against Communism. Yes, the avatar of the "Yellow Peril" became the foe of the "Red Menace" -- I hate it when a bad guy goes good (except Superman #164, where Lex Luthor had a...moment). The deadly doctor became one of the first victims of political correctness, surviving only in the silly mustache named after him...which is odd because he was clean-shaven -- to a master of disguise, a mustache is a handicap.

Lex Luthor is such a good bad guy, I suppose he can be allowed a moment of weakness.

The Nazis were always good bad guys for adventure and suspense novels. Nobody liked them and a writer could shine the worst light possible on them without being sued. Political correctness was not the enemy here, but time. After the war, Nazis popped up as malefactors more often than the Reds. As time went on, we had aging Nazis, reinvented Nazis, and sons of Nazis. Valentine Williams ended his nemesis Clubfoot's life while in service to the Nazis in North Africa; in Frederick Forseyth's The Odessa File, we have Germans hiding a Nazi past; and by the time we get to Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil, we have to clone the bad guys. Except for period pieces like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Captain America, if you want a novel with the best bad guys of all time, it's going to be set in a rest home or hospice.

Not so scary anymore

If only true...
they were such good villains.

The Soviets were excellent foes in their time. In fact, during the Cold War (of fond memory) the agents of the KGB, the NKVD, Stasi and SMERSH were so good as bad guys they existed almost in a genre of their own. What happened to them? "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Well, the Wall fell, so did the "evil empire," and there went the bad guys. Russian terrorists are still around, Russian mafia and the Russian Federal Security Service, but they're just small potatoes, just a patch to the KGB. For great thrillers you need great bad guys. True, shirtless Russian strongman Vlad Putin is trying to resurrect the bad old days, but, trust me, it just won't be the same.

I suppose that among the best of fiction's villains, we must include General Zaroff of Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, who had the vision to consider humans as big game animals long before the Predator came from the stars to hunt the governor of California, and Wisconsin's chief executive for that matter. Unfortunately, the bad general appears only in that story, and his opponent (Sanger Rainsford) is not so much a "good guy" as just the better hunter.

More in the running for best bad guy of all time must be Cthulhu, cosmic creation of  fantasist H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). Cthulhu was one of the Elder Gods who ruled the Earth before the coming of mankind and before they were banished to the Dark Dimensions. Cthulhu is said to reside in the underwater city of Ryleh, where he has a call-in talk show and dreams of a time when "the stars will be right" and he and the other Elder Gods will return to wreak havoc in the universe and devour humans like Pringles at a frat party. The main problem with Cthulhu is that he while he's the ultimate bad guy, he has no contentious hero to vex him -- all his opponents either die or go stark barking mad...very frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that Cthulhu has apparently given up his traditional methods to destroy the world for a more efficient path -- politics.

So what bad guys are left as foils for the modern aspiring novelist to use who wants to raise his hero above the common herd of action figures? North Koreans? Dear Leader is a lunatic, but we don't want to offend the people, and they are oriental. Iranian terrorists? Possible, maybe, just don't mention they're also Muslim. Mafia? No, that's just an urban myth, and I'm sure the good-fellows with Sicilian surnames aren't bad-fellows at all. Gang-bangers? Maybe, if you're writing about "mean streets" and not aiming for grand crime fiction. for they are all petty pathetic punks. Evil geniuses and mad scientists? No, unfortunately they all work for the government now or have tenured university positions; besides, the world is in such sorry shape, do we really need a Doctor Evil to destroy it?

Yep, times are tough for the dashing hero who wants to save the world and make it safe for truth, justice and the American way. Where have all the villains gone?

Kadath or Bust!

Some years ago, I presented an academic paper about the various ways in which the stories and short novels of fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) were interpreted in comic books and graphic novels, a project which resulted in the book H.P. Lovecraft in the Comics. The book received good reviews at the time, sold out quickly, and is now, unfortunately, out of print.

What I was searching for was the perfect graphic adaptation of a Lovecraft story, and to tell you the truth, I did not have high hopes. As a fellow bookaholic, you know exactly what I mean -- you read a novel, you see a film made from the novel, then go back to re-read the novel trying to wash the disappointment of the film from your mind. In other words, the book is always better, and I mean always. Well, nearly always. Ah, sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes, there are exceptions to that ironclad rule. We all have at least one film that in one way or another did not trash the book, a very personal choice. I had the same experience with comic books; after going through comic after comic purporting fidelity to Lovecraft, his plots and his philosophies, I finally came across a comic that was spot-on in every respect: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by Jason B. Thompson.

The epic quest of Randolph Carter for the lost city of his dreams was depicted in a mini-series of five comics, published by Jason's Mockman Press. The artwork, though in black and white, was dazzling in both its execution and its detail. It was quite possible to gaze upon a scene in a waterfront tavern or one set aboard a pirate galley and never quite penetrate all the levels of dimension or depiction; there was always some detail which existed at the periphery of  mind or memory. Anyone who had never read Lovecraft's great masterpiece would be motivated to do so; anyone coming from the novel to the comic would not be disappointed.

While some readers did complain about the "Mockman," the dream avatar of the Lovecraftian character dreaming in our workaday world, I found him to be an apt representation. The essence of Randolph Carter is the complexity and solidity of his dreamscape, and those attributes are vividly reinforced by the surreal and stylized figure of the "Mockman" running around the esoteric Dreamlands in his nightshirt. However we see ourselves in our own dreams, it is certainly not as we are, and Randolph Carter is no different.

I was fortunate to meet Jason Thompson at the conference, surprised actually, probably more surprised than he was when he suddenly heard his own creation being touted by some geeky stranger as being the perfect embodiment of a graphic Lovecraft interpretation. Before Jason introduced himself to me, I really had not connected human artists and writers to the comic books I had evaluated for my project; in fact I had purposely blocked any connection in my mind, even going as far to turn down a chance to discuss some adaptations with the artist who had produced them. I did not want to "contaminate" my analysis of the work by meeting or corresponding with any of the subjects. I wanted my evaluation to be as "pure" as possible, consisting solely of the original Lovecraft story and the comic as a solitary object; often, I went through the story line by line, paragraph by paragraph, comparing the printed words, the prose descriptions on a frame-by-frame basis.

Of course, with the book completed, the paper presented and my brain frazzled, I felt it was completely safe to meet Jason and listen to him tell how he produced such a masterpiece. I think it was then, as he told me about the process of reading, sketching, planning, drawing, inking and laying out the panels, that I began to understand and appreciate all the work, inspiration, planning and determination that goes into bringing the imagination of the printed word into the graphic realm. I almost felt as if I might have been a little too tough on the artists, a little too judgmental. Almost. No, if you (as artists) want to play with a writer's toys, especially an iconic writer like H.P. Lovecraft, you had better be up to the task. No mercy from this reviewer. Fortunately Jason was up to the task, in spades.

The reason this comes to my mind now is because of an odd series of events. Every once in awhile I find myself re-reading Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, which invariably leads me back to Jason's wonderful interpretation. This time, I had come across the novella in Damon Knight's 1973 anthology, The Golden Road. After reading the story, after reading the comics, I suddenly received a long note from Jason through my Facebook page, telling me of his latest project, asking for permission to use some quotes from my book on his "Kickstarter" page, through which he is trying to garner financial support. As if he needed permission! But I did appreciate his asking. It represented a level of respect and civility usually absent in today's world. I am very excited about Jason's latest Lovecraftian-related project, and if you are a fan of Lovecraft or the graphic arts I think you will be as well. If nothing else, please listen to Jason Thomson as explains his project, then make your own decision.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22092473/the-dream-quest-of-unknown-kadath-and-other-storie?ref=card

When Sherlock Holmes first met H.P. Lovecraft

This episode of Book Scribbles is a bit more on the personal side than some of the other entries thus far presented.  It starts a long time ago, more than thirty years now, when the small press world was much different it is now, long before computers became our overlords. Back then, all fanzines were printed and sent through the mails, each reflecting some hopeful publisher's/writer's vision, and with readerships ranging from the micro (a dozen or less) to the more-or-less macro (a hundred or more). Without computers, editors depended upon word of mouth as well as listings in publications like Scavengers Newsletter for not only submissions but readership.

One of the more unique of the fanzines was called The Holmesian Federation, a journal devoted to fans of both Sherlock Holmes and e (then) defunct science fiction TV series Star Trek.If I remember correctly, I think I heard of The Holmesian Federation  though Scavengers Newsletter or a letter from a one-time correspondent. I wrote a letter to the editor, Signe Landon, and asked a story might be considered if it mixed Sherlock Holmes, not with Star Trek, but with H.P. Lovecraft. The idea was okayed.

The story, "The Adventure of the Ancient Gods", appeared in issue 4 of The Holmesian Federation. The little fanzine was not much different than hundreds of others being published at the time, and the only thing that really set it apart from other Star Trek 'zines (of which there were so many that it constituted almost a sub-genre of its own) was that it mixed the two literary universes -- Star Trek and Conan Doyle.

The editor like the story, but I never really was sure how it went over with the 'zines readership, but at least it stood out from the other stories in issue 4 simply because of the odd mix. To me, it seemed an obvious joining, mainly because both Lovecraft and Sherlock Holmes were higher interests to me than Star Trek -- after all, it had been a long time since it had appeared on television, and, really, I don't know that there was anyone around who thought, even in their wildest dreams, that Star Trek, in any form, would ever return to the small screen, though there were rumors of a theatrical film. So, it was published, there it was, and there the story died...or so I thought.

Several years after "The Adventure of the Ancient Gods" had first seen print, an editor who published one of my other stories happened to mention that Gary Lovisi, a writer living in Brooklyn, was something of a fan of mine and would I contact him about that odd little story which had appeared long ago in The Holmesian Federation #4. I did write him, we exchanged several letters, and the story was published as a chapbook under the title Sherlock Holmes in the Adventure of the Ancient Gods. One curiosity about this first edition was the misspelling of my surname on the cover by the artist who designed title and byline as calligraphy. Gary was very apologetic about the mistake, but I took it in stride, since anyone with a surname like mine is just asking for trouble. The mistake was corrected when Gary later published a second, then third, edition. Oddly, it made the first edition something of a collectors item among people who worry about such errors. Gary's company, Gryphon Books can be found at http://www.gryphonbooks.com/

Later on, writer and literary critic, Peter Cannon, wrote a book called Pulptime, which told a story about a meeting between Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft. It was hailed as the first story of its kind...until some other people pointed out the prior publication of "The Adventure of the Ancient Gods." It was a small joy to me, but in this world, you just have to be happy with whatever joys you can. When "The Adventure of the Ancient Gods" was recently included in a German-language anthology, the seminal nature of the story was mentioned in the advertising and introduction...as I wrote, small joys.

German anthology containing "Sherlock Holmes und die alten Götter"

The Story Behind "Sherlock Holmes, the Dreaming Detective"

"Sherlock Holmes, The Dreaming Detective" was the second Sherlock Holmes/HP Lovecraft book published by Gary Lovisi at Gryphon Books in Brooklyn, N.Y., though it was the first book specifically submitted to him. At the time, I did not think I would write another Holmes/Lovecraft story, but this tale came to mind, and I had to set it down.

The problem is that the story was not about Sherlock Holmes, but, rather, Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, Edison's great rival, who is sent by the American government into the Dreamlands in search of Sherlock Holmes. My original title was "The Dreaming Detective" but when Gary changed it for marketing purposes, I felt I owed something more to the reader. After all, if I bought a book expecting Sherlock Holmes, and Holmes appeared only at the very end, ala "The Hound of the Baskervilles," I would feel a bit cheated.

To solve that problem, to restore balance to the universe, to make me feel better, I wrote "The Adventure of the Laughing Moonbeast," a full-fledged Sherlock Holmes story set in the Dreamlands, then asked Gary to include it in the book. He was good enough to do so.

For this book, I exhaustively researched Tesla's life; New York, Washington and Berlin during WW2; and Lovecraft's Dreamland. As with most of my research, only about 5% of what I learned actually made it into the book. One thing I did include, however, was the real reason the Pentagon possesses its arcane shape.

If you want to track down "Sherlock Holmes, The Dreaming Detective," you can check out Gary Lovisi's website at http://www.gryphonbooks.com/

Gary sponsors a huge paperback collectors expo in October of every year, so if you're in the New York area, be sure to check it out.

Thanks for stopping by The Hopeless Bookaholic, and good reading.

Note: This post was originally published on The Hopeless Bookaholic, then transported here when that blog was discontinued.