Last newsletter was Oddtober in July and now I’m celebrating Sci-Friday on a Saturday. My summer is truly wonky, but in the best way.
I want to remind you that I have a story in the new Anterior Skies Anthology put out by C. F. Page. My story is titled OKRA and it’s a story in the horror tradition of a struggling farmer in the dustbowl of Oklahoma (Okrahoma?). I describe it as “East of Eden” if written by H.P. Lovecraft. Go get it.
“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”
When I first read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when I was sixteen years old I was 1) blown away, 2) tickled immensely, and 3) ruined for years. The first two are common responses for those of us into sci-fi and humor, but the reason why I was messed up by it was because I wanted to be a writer and that made me want to be a writer like Douglas Adams.
So I wrote a seventy two page novel titled “Tripping Down the Path of Supernaturalism.” It involved a thought-vampire (who sucked memories), and thought-vampire hunter, and an actual vampire to go along with the two normal ladies and one talking frog. All records of this attempt at aping the humor of Adams has been destroyed.
But Adams is a masterful joker. His humor comes in many forms. The first obvious one is in descriptions. It is not to the level of worldclass humorist P. G. Wodehouse, but his off-handed portraits are a constant source of chuckles The Vogons as having about "as much sex appeal as a road accident" remains one of my choicest barbs.
But his absurdist storylines are almost as delightful as his digressions. That he somehow managed to tell a satisfying tale in which an Improbability Drive guides the action is pretty impressive. That two threatening missiles are transformed (by that same Improbability Drive) into a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale is bold, but then to be given the heart-breaking account of the sperm whale’s last thoughts, is wildly hilarious.
Of course, Zaphod Beeblebrox would dominate social media with his quips, to say nothing of an almost certainly successful presidential campaign: “If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.”
Perhaps it’s not for everyone, but returning to it after thirty years has been delightful and I can’t wait to reread the rest of it.
And now for some flash fiction…
At Justin Deming’s newsletter, Along the Hudson, he’s challenged writers to write a 50 word story inspired by the above image. Here what I wrote.
Stars Collide and Kingdom’s Totter by H. W. Taylor
I told her it was dangerous for us to be lovers. "It can't go on like this."
She shook her head. "We are made beautiful by love."
I opened my shirt to show her the polychromatic bruises.
She took me by the throat. “Glory be to God for dappled things.”
If you enjoyed, were deeply disturbed, want to read more of my microfiction what’s wrong with you? then remember that Oddly Concerning is free on Amazon.
I have a list of fun topics to talk about, but I think I mostly want to talk about Underrated Sci-fi Films. I’ve talked about the Avatar films, and I’ve done a deepdive on Amazon Prime’s original sci-fi shows, but I want to highlight some of my favorite but lesser known movies. So let’s make sure I continue my unbroken streak of Being Correct and tell me the Best Underrated Sci-Fi films. Just hit reply. I love hearing from you. Until next time, cheers!
I happen to like Super 8, have you seen it? good adventure scifi. Also, something a bit grittier is Pandorum, horror scifi, real good.