Monthly Archives: August 2015

Forgotten Book: Man of Many Minds by E. Everett Evans (1953)

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"Man of Many Minds" offers up Golden Age sf thrills, if you can bear with the info-dumps.

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 153rd in my series of Forgotten Books.

After last week’s fantasy novel, I was ready for some deep space fun adventure stuff. My eyes travelled over the bookshelves and came to rest on MAN OF MANY MINDS by E. Everett Evans. I knew the book by reputation but had never read it. Somehow it found its way into my hands for examination.

It passed the first test – it was short, just 192 pages in the paperback edition I had on hand. The next test was the first page preview. Again, it passed. The story featured a young man disgraced and drummed out the Inter Stellar Corps and he was happy. The final test was the cover, front and back. The front was a shapeless mess by Gray Morrow, an artist I like. The cover was likewise a mess, not really giving much insight into the story. Pass for two of three tests. I went ahead and dipped on in. The prose was readable and the action started on page 2.

This was a fun. Young George Spencer Hanlon is at the top of his class at the Cadet Academy of the Inter Stellar Corps and about to embark on a career of space service. He is summoned before the Commandant of Cadets, as all graduating seniors are, to discuss his future. Suddenly, he finds his life changing. George has a talent that he suppresses – he can “read” minds, not actual, tangible thoughts but feelings and similar processes. The Corps is aware of this ability, though he has not used it while in the Academy. He is offered a job in the Secret Service of the I-S based on his performance in the school, his natural abilities and his special talent. The I-S wants him, but their membership is closely guarded. To join the SS, he has to be dismissed from the I-S in disgrace and shunned by all his friends and family.

George agrees to do this, being the bright, patriotic kid that he is, and he is introduced to his commanding officer, who turns out to be his father. George is surprised until he remembers his father had been disgraced earlier.

George is given his marching orders and sent to the planet Simonides Four, where something is going on. No one is sure what is happening but something is not right. Hanlon books passage on a luxury liner and encounters a man named Panek who is intent on killing another passenger. Figuring that Panek might be part of the problem on Simonides, George convinces the man that he is disgusted with the Corps and is looking for big money. He stops Panek’s attempt on the man and fakes the death to get in good.

While on the ship, George is trying to expand his mental capacities and finds himself able to get into the mind of a small dog, then multiple dogs at the same time. On arriving on Simonides Four, he is aware that he is being followed and goes to look up Panek, supposedly seeking work.

He meets the Boss behind Panek and is given a test: kill the man who was following him. His ability to control a dog works well here, and he is able to orchestrate the death of the man and suddenly finds himself in the gang and assigned a task on a hidden planet. He’s to run a slave operation using living trees called Greenies as miners for rare ores.

Evans keeps the operations moving and the action is hot and fast. Young George expands the uses of his powers and finds himself in a vast conspiracy to take over the Galaxy. All he has to do is get home, stop everyone, stay alive, set the Greenies free and remain sane. A simple task.

This was a fun book, nothing special or notable but a quiet relaxing evening at home with what seemed like old friends. Evans was a friend of E. E. Doc Smith back in the day, and his influence can be seen here. This was a fun example of Golden Age science fiction.

Again, as with many books I read and talk about, your mileage may vary. There are some big info-dump chapters to get the reader up to speed, but they are not incredibly intrusive and you can still move on. The book probably could not be published today, but I had fun reliving my old youthful enthusiasm.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

A political creature: Does horror lean left or right?

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All art is political. Even Alien.

All art is political.

Whether or not the artist intends it to be taken that way is a moot point. Others will assign politics to the work, even if the creator doesn’t. Witness, for example, the fascinating documentary Room 237, in which Stanley Kubrick obsessives assign subtext and symbolism to The Shining the director likely never intended.

As a horror author, I wince when people characterize the genre as being inherently conservative (a notion also frequently applied to fantasy). Horror stories, some critics argue, are essentially about stopping forces from changing the status quo — putting the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. What’s more, the genre also has a long and unfortunate tradition of making the other a source of fear.

Author Paul Tremblay clearly struggles with the same unease about that categorization. His recent essay in Nightmare Magazine, “The H Word: The Politics of Horror,” presents an eloquent argument that horror, if well-executed, deserves a progressive interpretation rather than a conservative one.

While horror protagonists’ objectives are almost always to bring a return of the status quo, Tremblay points out that horror’s quest to make us uncomfortable necessitates that characters and readers confront truths that will permanently change them. This shift in outlook dispels the very conservative fallacy that things were different in the “good old days.”

“Not only are (the good old days) gone and never coming back, they never existed in the first place,” Tremblay writes. “That’s the horror of existence. Change happens whether you want it to or not.”

By way of example, he points to Alien, the haunted-house-in-space installment of that film franchise. The movie ends with Ripley floating alone in a vast and uncaring cosmos, lucky to have escaped with her life. By contrast, in Aliens, more of an action flick than its predecessor, Ripley settles into hibernation with her surrogate family of Newt and Hicks, telling the girl they’re safe to dream again.

I maintain that perspective-altering aspect of horror is what appealed to the creators of the ’70s and ’80s who unleashed an innovative and bloody wave of fiction and film that commented on the Vietnam War, racism, urban isolation, AIDS and the military-industrial complex from a left-of-center perspective.

In his documentary Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film, Mick Garris points out that George Romero, David Cronenberg, Clive Barker and Stephen King all aim to turn an oppressive status quo on its head. “It’s the people who repress them who are the ones you have to look out for,” Garris argues.

Indeed, the conservative politics of division and discrimination can be an effective tool for creating and sustaining the isolation needed to make a horror story work. Consider the racism in Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms and the fear of the gay title character in Lee Thomas’ The German. Only after the protagonists in both books are able to overcome their fear of the other are they able to effectively fight off a larger evil.

Is this to say horror always has a progressive bent? Certainly not. Slasher films and some other horror subgenres are conservative as the “700 Club.” In these works, teens who explore sexuality are punished in gruesome ways and only characters’ faith in a Christian higher power can rout supernatural evil.

To my mind, horror is neither inherently progressive or conservative. The genre’s themes and variations, the intent of its creators and the perspectives of its observers are simply too broad for that to be the case.

But Tremblay is fundamentally correct: the progressive notion is frequently what makes a horror story stick with us. The best such work terrifies us because it alters our outlook on the way the universe works and shows us change — whether or not we’re ready to face it — is inevitable.

Forgotten Films: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010)

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Adele promises a pterodactyl and Ramses II. How can you go wrong?

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 129th in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

This is my recommendation of the week. If you like the sort of films I review here, you should go out and find this film right now. Don’t even bother to read this review. Just go see the film. You will thank me later. I’ve watched this one twice in the last two months and purchased the DVD. That should give you some idea of my love of this movie.

Those who have already seen this film know what I am talking about. Such a fun film. Our title character (and she is a character) is a journalist working in France in 1912. Her exploits are read by ardent admirers. She is smart, sassy, daring and unafraid of the consequences of her actions.

I don’t want to really summarize the film. That might detract from your enjoyment. Let me just mention a few of the things you will encounter – a pterodactyl, an Egyptian tomb, animated mummies, a beautiful young girl in a hatpin induced coma, betrayal, explosions, Ramses II, attempted prison breaks, drunks, stupid big game hunters, over-worked and underfed policemen, a firing squad, a guillotine beheading, the Louvre, the President of France, people wrapped alive in mummy trappings and canoeing inside a sarcophagus. And there are some apes at the end, but only briefly.

I know I had most of you at pterodactyl or mummies.

The DVD case compares the film to “Amelie meets Indiana Jones.” That is not an unfair comparison but still not very adequate. Director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita) takes several graphic novels of Jacques Tardi about Adele and makes a fine adaptation. Actress Louise Bourgoin does a fine job as Adele. I would watch other films with her in the lead.

The downside of Adele is that it is foreign and all the dialogue is French, so you have to read the film. That’s never a problem with me, as too many years of loud rock and roll has deprived me of some hearing and I frequently have subtitles on when watching films and TV, particularly if there is a British production involved. Some accents do not translate well with my ears, unless accompanied by screaming guitars.

Seriously, go watch this film. The ending certainly sets up the premise for a sequel but, to date, none has arrived.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.