Chaosium’s “Cycle Books” are a fantastic series of themed anthologies (for the most part). But they do have one thing that I’m not thrilled with, usual series editor Robert M. Price. It’s not one thing I can necessarily point to. Sometimes his introductions give away major plot points and spoil the story’s surprise. That’s annoying. Especially as short stories often live and die on their dramatic or surprising endings. He also has a sort of Tom Snyder style pomposity. There’s something in his writing style that makes me think of a boorish cocktail guest, speaking too loudly, relentlessly name-dropping, and smoking especially rank cigarettes. And finally, I find myself in disagreement with him on his interpretations of Lovecraft and the Mythos on a semi-frequent basis. However, I must admit that his knowledge of the subject is deep and profound, with a wide reach. He frequently pulls stories and information from surprising sources.
With “The Yith Cycle” he has collected several stories either directly involving the Great Race of Yith, or dealing with related topics like mind transference or unusual time travel. The Great Race featured in the original H.P. Lovecraft story “The Shadow Out of Time,” which is among my very favorite. Their history is strange and convoluted, but the gist is that they’re aliens from somewhere very distant, who transferred their minds into creatures in Earth’s distant past. From there, they reached forward into the minds of various beings throughout Earth’s history (including the protagonist of “The Shadow Out of Time”) and into our far future. In that future, in a time after Humanity has passed into forgotten history, they will eventually project themselves into beatle-like things in that future. The Great Race is not especially evil or hostile. In fact, while they certainly couldn’t be said to have Humanity’s interests at heart, they are fairly civil, and for an alien species, somewhat relatable. Simple, right?
The anthology starts with the novel, “The Purple Sapphire,” which I have reviewed previously. I was not a fan. And in truth, I just don’t see why it was included. Connecting it to the concepts of the Yith seems like a stretch. You could have put in H. Rider Haggard’s “She” or any number of other “lost civilization” or “reincarnation” novels and it would have had just as much point, and perhaps less racism (perhaps?). From there things improve. There are several good stories and interesting reads. I especially liked ‘The Horror from Yith,’ a round-robin story by three authors. Each segment explores and expands upon a theme, using some recurring characters. One of the authors has a follow-up story included, ‘The Changeling,’ which is also quite good. ‘The Sands of Time’ is a cool old science fiction story, reminding one of Edgar Rice Burroughs and others of his ilk. And the next story, by Richard L. Tierney is quite interesting, building on Lovecraft, but also on ‘The Sands of Time,’ and using other genre references. It has a very 70s, anti-hero kinda thing going on.
One thing that started to bother me a lot were the typos. I know Chaosium isn’t a big publishing company, but I found the frequency of typos, especially in the second half of the book to be off-putting.
The book would have been stronger without the inclusion of “The Purple Sapphire,” but features enough good stories that anyone interested in The Great Race should certainly give it a read. If you want a bit more science fiction in your Lovecraftian, cosmic horror, this is the way to go.
I recently did something I’d been debating for a long time. I plunked down the $75. for the new edition of Chaosium’s classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, “Horror on the Orient Express.” I got one of their ‘damaged’ copies which saved quite a few precious pennies. And it’s in fine shape. Looked like it could have come right out of the delivery box at a store. A slight crinkling on the box near one corner is all that could be seen as ‘damage.’ And the box is a monster. It’s over-full, with a daunting amount of material to sift through.
Here’s the thing, though. I’m not really a pre-made adventure guy. Since I started running roleplaying games when I was a lad, I’ve almost always written my own stories, and improvised the rest. I’ve read published adventures from companies, but usually to get ideas. I’ve played in some, but the best ones didn’t seem pre-made, because the game master (storyguide, DM, whatever) made it his own (I have, sadly, not had a female GM to the best of my knowledge/memory). Once, long ago, I ran the haunted house scenario from the Call of Cthulhu basic book, but I guess I re-worked it enough that the one player familiar with the scenario didn’t recognize it for what it was until the climax. So, I’m worried about the idea of running not just a published adventure, but an entire campaign. The reports I’m seeing on this game is that it takes a year or more to go through the whole thing (real time). That’s huge.
The obvious thing to do, and what I likely would do, is to run a shorter published campaign or some adventures to get a handle on the process, and on how I would make them my own. But there, I’m still running into my old problems. I’ve been bad about connecting with the gaming community in my area ever since I moved here 8 years ago. And I haven’t managed to do a good job of convincing my friends to try it (other than a brief, dramatically failed attempt a couple years ago). Yet, the draw of the hobby keeps me going; keeps me hoping and spit-balling.
So, start small, huh? OK. This new version of the campaign has several side adventures that are scattered across time, going all the way back to ancient Rome. One of the first is set in Victorian London. That got me to thinking, maybe I could run that side adventure as a kind of preamble. That’s a start, I guess.
And, with a scenario set in the late 1800s that leads into the greater Orient Express campaign, it got me to thinking about connections. One of the challenges that face a lot of RPG groups when a scenario or campaign begins is ‘why are we all together?’ But the Call of Cthulhu RPG takes place, typically, in a time when social groups were common; gentlemen’s clubs and the like. That presents a solid way to join the characters together. Add in a few bits, and it’s not too hard to have them be members of a group that’s large enough to use for replacement characters (should the nearly inevitable event of character death/madness happen). A few more bits, and you could have a club with some ties or interests in the occult. In the case of “Horror on the Orient Express” it even gives a link across the years between the events of the 1800s and the primary campaign in the 1920s. And of course, Professor Smith, as another link between the eras, can be linked with the social club.
Now, the 1890s and 1920s were hardly times of enlightenment. Women (all women over 21) didn’t get the vote in England until 1928. But, while that was the reality, and I don’t like to completely shy away from real life evils, making some things a bit more pleasant for potential female players is also a concern. Since Call of Cthulhu typically favors more intellectual and artistic characters, and those people tend to be on the forefront of social progress, I got to thinking that making an element of the characters’ social club women’s suffrage would be interesting. I think adding some era-grounded politics will help set the stage. Especially since there are some red-herrings about communists and the like in the campaign. Because I always like to dream bigger than I should, it also might work to help set the stage for a future campaign. If “Horror on the Orient Express” turned out well, I’d love to follow it up with another London based campaign, “Tatters of the King.” Again, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I love to plant seeds in one story that might bloom in a future story. So, even if I have no idea how this trip on the Orient Express might go or how it might end, I figure I’d try to drop in a few bits to introduce themes from “Tatters of the King.”
I have no idea if I’ll eventually run this campaign or not. No idea if it will go the distance, or if it will be successful enough to demand a follow-up. For now, it’s just a lot of reading and dreaming.
The first thing you’ve got to know is that chances are, you’ll be reading a newer edition of this book, and it’s meant to be for the “Savage Worlds” rule system. The blurb on the back says it’s for “Cinematic Unisystem,” and that all the rules are contained within, but I’m assuming this is an oversight from when the new edition was printed. You will need “Savage Worlds” if you wish to use the book as is. That said, I don’t think it would take much effort at all to convert this over to any number of game systems, and dropping out any mechanics, it would work just fine as an alternate universe sourcebook for “Call of Cthulhu.”
That bit of bookkeeping out of the way, let me get on with it. “Eldritch Skies” is a slightly pulpy Science Fiction game that uses H. P. Lovecraft’s writings as a basis. It strips away a good deal of who and what came after Lovecraft, trying to stay only with what the man himself wrote (which still includes the creations of some others, like The King in Yellow and the Serpent People). Lovecraft often read like Gothic horror, but the content was often more in line with Science Fiction, so this works surprisingly well. The cosmic horror is still present, but it is not as gloomy. Humanity’s place in the universe is tenuous and unassured, but it isn’t destined for some immediate, ugly end. This might be a bit odd for many, more used to “Call of Cthulhu’s” darker, constant existential danger. An “Eldritch Skies” series need not end with everyone dead or insane. It could very well end up with folks in some pretty good places. But the universe will still be a dangerous place, filled with extremely alien threats, and like all life forms, Humanity’s time will pass.
In “Eldritch Skies,” the events of various Lovecraft stories, particularly ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth,’ ‘At the Mountains of Madness,’ and ‘The Shadow Out of Time,’ and some others have happened. The governments of the world became aware of aliens and the forces of the so called Mythos. They became aware of Deep Ones, the Great Race, the Elder Things, and more. And they began to explore the weird technologies, and weirder ‘magics.’ It didn’t take long for history to take a new path, culminating in the achievement of interstellar flight in 1996. The default time for this game is 2030. Humanity has been in space for some time. We’ve discovered some worlds, set up some colonies, made some enemies, and learned some new lessons. We share the dark with the malevolent and the apathetic. We scrounge resources and hunt down ancient artifacts to learn new sciences. It’s a big, dark, weird universe, and it doesn’t care. There is no light at the end of the tunnel; nobody waiting to rescue us or show us the way. Some of the life out there doesn’t even seem to know we exist, and that might be the best possible situation.
I love this setting. Lovecraft’s more Science Fiction side has often been my preferred, and those few authors who lean in that direction tend to make me happier. I like space based Science Fiction where the aliens are really alien. And I enjoy that while this game is dark, and there are dreadful dangers, it is not without joy or hope or excitement. It is much more how I actually see the universe, empty of the divine, but open for those willing to reach. And that’s a great place for roleplaying. It’s the stuff of drama and character.
Since first hearing about this book a few years back, my imagination has run wild. It’s a setting I very much want to visit. I’d love to play, but I’m much more likely to run something in it. There is so much potential, so much to explore. And that it’s rooted in one of my favorite author’s work, but taking it in such a different direction than is normally done...That’s exciting.
I cut my teeth on “Worlds of Wonder” from Chaosium, which used their Basic Roleplaying System. That’s the same core game mechanic (rules) as “Call of Cthulhu,” “Stormbringer,” and of course, “RuneQuest.” And I know that I used to flip through the "RuneQuest" books when I was first starting out, looking for little ideas and variations I could use in my own games. But I don’t think I ever really embraced the game or its world, Glorantha.
When I heard that the folks at Moon Design were working with Chaosium, including some of the original developers, to bring back the classic edition of the game, I figured I had to chip in, so I supported their Kickstarter campaign. My hardcover copy recently arrived and I’ve been picking through it for the last week.
The first thing I noticed is that this game is very much of its time. Now, I don’t mean that to be too harsh, but as I read through it, I was reminded of a lot of the things about early roleplaying games (rpgs) that were problematic or frustrating for me. Thankfully, the core mechanic of this game is fairly easy and intuitive. But explanations can get a bit obtuse, and frankly, the game is far, far more ‘crunchy’ than I enjoy. (Crunchy is a term applied to games with more complicated, often math heavy rules). There are still some pretty strong traces of strategy games and miniature combat rules floating through the book. That’s fine for folks who are into that kind of thing, and the gods know, "D&D" is still sick with it. But it’s not my thing, and I don’t feel like it’s as present in some of the other Basic Roleplaying System games ("Call of Cthulhu" being the one I’ve had the most experience with). I kept finding myself thinking; “well, I wouldn’t use that,” or “I’d cut that whole bit out.” Not that there’s anything wrong with modifying rules to fit your style, I just found myself doing more mental editing of these rules than I’ve done to any in a long time.
The second thing that struck me about "RuneQuest" that I really didn’t remember from reading it as a lad is that it’s a Bronze Age game, not a Medieval game. It’s a very, very High Fantasy Bronze Age game. Magic and gods are real, frequent, and important to everyday life. There are parts of it that feel almost like Tolkien’s “Silmarillion,” they’re so out there. And while there are obvious callbacks to Tolkien and European mythology, the setting has its own vibe going on. There are hints of Sumerian and Greek, bits of maybe Mesoamerican, and other stuff that’s just pure fantasy. In this High Fantasy/High Magic world, there are lots of different intelligent species, and things we’re not used to being intelligent that can talk and do other things. It’s certainly not my usual type of Fantasy setting, having more of Narnia than expected. But it could be interesting for a change of pace. It’s probably the closest to a "Dungeons & Dragons" game I’d likely run (well, maybe "Earthdawn"…). But at least it doesn’t have levels and alignments.
Overall, "RuneQuest 2nd Edition" is a nice little look back at the early days of gaming, and a much better alternative to "D&D." But it’s also a reminder of how far games have come, and I don’t know how likely I am to ever run it. Too much number crunching, too much paperwork, and maybe a bit too much regimentation. Still, I find the Glorantha setting intriguing. It’s very much not the kind of Fantasy I tend to like, and very much not the sort I’d be inclined to run a game in. But it has enough of that ‘old school gaming’ vibe, without the terrible base mechanics of "D&D" (or "Rolemaster," or some of the others of the era). I don’t know. Maybe, if I had a group of friends who wanted something more in the vein of 70s rpgs...Maybe I’d give it a go. I’d still probably strip some of the more unwieldy bits.
“When the stars are right…” Throughout the ever expanding Lovecraftian circle of weird fiction, there is an impending doom. People who set themselves against the powers of the Great Old Ones and various cosmic menaces are fighting a holding action, a war of delays. Eventually, the Universe will shift and Humanity as we know it will fall. In some versions, we will become so alien ourselves that we will simply meld into the inhuman world to come. In other versions, we will be swatted away like gnats. But that doom lurks inevitably in our future. With the Darrell Schweitzer edited anthology Cthulhu’s Reign, that future has come. Here are stories set during or after that ending of all our tomorrows.
After recently reading the really solid anthology Rehearsals For Oblivion, I was surprised and happy to find another anthology filled with solid stories. Not every one was a classic, but I don’t think there was a dog in the bunch. I’m not a fan of authors playing with tense, I’ll admit. So Mike Allen’s ‘Her Acres of Pastoral Playground’ didn’t thrill me. I’m a traditionalist. I like third person or first person, past tense; and first person only when done well. But that’s my own literary prejudice. Anyway, many of the stories were quite good, capturing very different moods and different versions of life under the crushing heel of apocalyptic revelations. Brian Stableford’s ‘The Holocaust of Ecstasy’ is probably the weirdest, most out there of the stories. Fred Chappell’s ‘Remnants’ leans further into the realm of outright science fiction than you often get with Mythos stories, which I enjoyed.
If you’re into Cosmic Horror or Apocalyptic Fiction, this book has plenty to enjoy. It’s a different take on themes Lovecraftian, a different angle to enjoy the Mythos from. And there are lots of interesting ideas in it for readers who also enjoy tabletop roleplaying in the sandbox of Lovecraft and his disciples, as I do.
What follows is not meant to be a scholarly exploration or dissertation. S.T. Joshi and others far, far more qualified and eloquent than myself covered any territory I might wish to navigate. Instead, it is simply my random thoughts about the Mythos (some call it the Cthulhu Mythos; Lovecraft called it Yogsothery; I’ll almost certainly use different names on different occasions). In part, this is to solidify or hash out some of my own interpretations that might appear within my fiction and in Lovecraftian roleplaying games I might run. And in part, as with all these blog posts, I hope (usually fruitlessly) to instigate some conversation on the topic. I called this “Part 1” because I assume I’ll want to revisit the subject at some point.
You will no doubt notice that my ideas of the Mythos are heavily colored by the Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game. Absolutely. And I also don’t worry too much about ‘canon.’ This is true. Like Lovecraft, I tend to pick and choose, lift what I like, drop what I don’t, and re-combine it into something more to my liking. Any writer, or artist, or musician does the same thing. They’re not always honest about that. I stand on the shoulders of giants (and dwarfs, and mortal men).
First up, some thoughts on hierarchy, gods, monsters, and the nature of the Universe. Lovecraft postulated a specific type of universe in his fiction. He broke with a good deal of horror tradition by putting forth a universe where there was no Divine. The God of the Bible is a myth, and nothing more. He takes that one step further and puts Humanity in a universe where we are completely alone, just a biological infection clinging to life on the surface of a rock ball, hurtling through a soulless void. For some, that idea would be bad enough (I actually find it exhilarating and liberating, but that’s another post). Lovecraft then populates the universe with beings so alien, so powerful, so mind blasthingly outside of our understanding that they seem to be gods; are worshiped by some as gods. But they are not gods. The gods of our mythology are at best made up, and at worst, masks pulled over the more terrifying reality.
There seem to be different strata of these things. Some are powerful on a multiverse level, others are galactic scourges, others dominate worlds, and yet others slink in the shadows, hunting for scraps. Cthulhu, the most famous of these things, is to my mind nothing more than a very ancient, very powerful, very strange being from another world. Likely part of or a last remnant of some ancient, ultra-alien civilization. Some say he is trapped, but I think it more likely that he simply sleeps, under the ocean (or in a pocket dimension) in a weird city, filled with alien architecture. And while he sleeps, psychic projections of his dreams have tainted Humanity, especially the more sensitive and artistically prone, leading to cults and myths and even some ‘revealed’ knowledge. But Cthulhu isn’t the chief of these aliens; he isn’t a god, he isn’t the ultimate evil. Whatever he has planned, no matter how unfathomable to humans it might be, it is still the plan of a thinking being. He/it may not conform to the physics we understand, but he conforms to some deeper, physical truth we haven’t grasped. Like all the ‘beings’ in the Mythos, he exists in the Universe and follows its rules. The rules only seem to be broken due to our lack of understanding. Once again, I cite Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” In the case of Cthulhu (and many of the other alien beings/species in the Mythos), there is some technology, some scientific understanding that is either beyond our current understanding, or more troubling, beyond our capability to understand (at least with our current physical brains).
Now, where I’ll probably get controversial is with my take on a few of the others. Hastur, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, and Azathoth, in particular. I think of these not as beings; not as consciousnesses, but as embodied concepts or forces. Azathoth is blind creation, the Big Bang. When an atomic bomb is set off, it momentarily communes with Azathoth. Azathoth lives in every star, in the heart of every atom. The ‘Blind Idiot God’ is simply manifest creation, spewing forth into the void. Hastur, on the other hand, is manifest entropy; the chaos of ultimate dissipation; the winding down and crumbling of all things. Shub-Niggurath is the manifestation of biology, of organic life. She is the drive behind certain types of matter coming together and forming into basic life forms, evolving into more complex forms, and spreading throughout the Universe. She is the drive for survival inside all life to its cellular core. And Yog-Sothoth is, in a sense, the binding agent. He is physics; he is reality; he is spacetime. These manifest concepts occasionally coalesce into things more rightly thought of as beings. They become avatars of their associated ‘god.’ The King in Yellow is a shadow, a reflection of Hastur. He is a concept, become flesh. A bringer of chaos and madness; a Typhoid Mary of Entropy. The Black Goat in the Woods is a similar residue of Shub-Niggurath. And when a so called wizard tries to gain Outside knowledge from Yog-Sothoth, he or she taps into an avatar of the concept, perhaps seeing weird glowing spheres or monstrous tentacle things. If, at the core of all reality, there is a burning mass of something, with things dancing around it playing insane music, then that thing is but a bleed-off of the idea of Azathoth; something of flesh and blood (even if it isn’t flesh and blood as we understand it).
Compared to those manifestations of concepts, beings like Cthulhu, Dagon, or Tsathoggua are almost (I stress almost) comprehensible. Though defying our common understandings of life, they still seem to be individual things, things that are the result of something similar to evolution some kind of environment somewhere else in the Multiverse. And on a much more relatable level are species not too dissimilar to our own. I don’t just mean Ghouls and Deep Ones, which seem entwined with us in some way; offshoots of a close branch on the evolutionary tree, or something produced by genetic tampering. But things like the Flying Polyps, the Elder Things, the Mi-Go, or the Great Race of Yith are not so unlike us as to be incomprehensible. They are alien, with alien thoughts and alien feelings. They may be technologically and culturally very different, possibly much more advanced, but they are just other creatures, such as ourselves, clinging to the faces of planets, trying to survive in a universe that carelessly grinds us all into dust. Their plans, schemes, civilizations, and kingmaking is no less pointless than our own. Perhaps we will never share enough common reference points to be able to satisfactorily communicate or cooperate with them, but we could potentially operate on roughly the same level with a bit of time and development. I suppose the same could be said for Cthulhu and others more on his level, but the scale of time and development would likely be in the billions of years, as opposed to hundreds or thousands.
Codifying the Mythos is tricky, and perhaps ultimately pointless. It is malleable and changes with each author who dabbles in it. I think that’s part of what makes it so wonderful and strange. The Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, by the nature of its game mechanics, needed to do just that; to solidify and classify the unimaginable. There are times where that makes some sense in the game, but I feel that once you go beyond species like the Mi-Go or the Deep Ones, you’ve really entered the realm of Clarke’s ultra-tech, where rules of what is and could be break down. How does that play out in a story? How does that work in a game? That is up to the author, I guess.
Robert W. Chambers wrote a lot, but very little of particular note. It is sad, looking at his work, that he spent most of his efforts creating dated and forgettable fluff, rightfully lost to the ages. But those few worthy nuggets are in his collection, “The King in Yellow.” H.P. Lovecraft was a fan of Chambers’s weird tales, and borrowed some elements that went on to become core to the overall Lovecraftian (often called Cthulhu) Mythos. The King in Yellow is a figure, possibly an avatar of a Great Old One, and the titular horror at the center of a corrupting play that drives readers, viewers, and actors mad. There are many reasons, but Hastur and The King in Yellow creeped into my mind and became among my favorite bits of the Lovecraft Circle (along with obvious, rock star Nyarlathotep; Shub-Niggurath; and Yog-Sothoth). I especially enjoy the idea that Hastur is manifest entropy. The King in Yellow becomes then an agent of madness, corrupted destiny, and dissipation.
As I usually note in such reviews, anthologies are, by their nature, a mixed bag. Editor Peter A. Worthy has assembled a pretty darned good collection of tales here. There are a few poems, which I’m totally unqualified to speak to those. I’m essentially tone-def toward poetry. But many of the short stories are very good. Haunting, creeping with strangeness, and touched with occasional bits of beauty. It’s what I want from a book about The King in Yellow.
Not to say there aren’t a few stories I didn’t love. But I think this is an excellent anthology. My only frustration with the volume is that it’s called “Act I” and the blurb on the back intimates that it is but the first volume in larger collection of stories about the King. Alas, I see no indication that there has been, nor will be an “Act II.” The publishing company, Dimensions Books doesn’t seem to exist anymore (I can’t find any sign of it online, anyway). If Mr. Worthy could assemble such a strong anthology on such a challenging subject, I’d love to see what else he might do. That aside, if you’re a fan of the ever expanding Lovecraft Circle, or if you just like a healthy dose of unsettling strangeness in your horror tales, check this one out.
This week is a bit of a blur. In the aftermath of filming, I went into a slightly more funky funk, combined with some unrelated stress, and just didn’t have my mind on the Dork Life. Still, there were bright points, to be sure.
Star Trek Into Darkness: Upon second viewing, I find this film both better and worse. On the one hand, I find a lot of things that I really enjoy. Little bits of dialog, sequences, or production design. But I’m also more bothered by how much better it not only could have been, but absolutely should have been. Kirk is made into a horrible, sniveling, weak-willed little child. Spock is a whiny a-hole. Uhura has become a shrewish nag. And the unnecessary villains are bordering on mentally enfeebled when it comes to plans and schemes. At almost every turn, the writers had chances to make a very interesting movie, that continued to take the new timeline Trek on its own course. Alas, at every turn, they made silly call-backs, rehashed old characters and plots, and on more than one occasion bent plot and story out of whack, just to do something stupid. If Harrison wasn’t Khan? Better film. If Khan and Kirk teamed up, then went on their separate paths? Better film. If it had been a dilemma to solve, not a villain to punch? Better film. If Carol Marcus wasn’t involved? Better film. If the Klingons weren’t involved? Better film. And didn’t they already do the Admiral Robocop storyline in Star Trek VI? I mean, why rip off both Star Trek II’s plot and Star Trek IV? Anyway, this ultimately aggravating film has a ton of potential, but drops almost every ball it tries to juggle. After such a good start to the re-launched series, this stumble feels catastrophic and probably terminal. My interest in the franchise dropped down to the levels Star Wars has been enjoying for the last fifteen years. And that ain’t good.
Alice Adams: Katharine Hepburn plays a somewhat spoiled daughter of a struggling middle class family, who, along with her mother, is a bit obsessed with being perceived as part of the more sophisticated upper class. What follows is an enjoyable light comedy of manors and misunderstandings. Nothing too heavy. One thing I find odd/interesting is the politics of race in the film. You see racism, and there is certainly a character that seems like a racist archetype when you first see her. But, it seems like the movie is lampooning racist assumptions and behaviors. Or is it? I’m removed enough from the time period that I’m not quite sure. Was it subversively forward thinking, or am I giving them too much credit? Overall, I really liked the movie, even though Fred MacMurray was the romantic lead. Though his boring stiffness may have been to the benefit of the picture.
Dirty Harry: One of the great pieces of 70s sleaze. One of the best anti-hero cop films. Dirty Harry is pretty much a rehash of Bullitt, but 100% more entertaining. Clint Eastwood grimaces and sneers his way through life, hating the world and every piece of scum in it. And when a giggling whack-job with a rifle starts picking people off, nothing is gonna stop Harry from getting his hands dirty, with punk blood. No pointless romance sub-plot. No great moral victory. No personal growth. Just hard, mean, ugly business. A great score, fantastic footage of San Francisco, and some memorable lines help cement Dirty Harry as a landmark in cynical cinema.
Because I’ve had a hard time focusing on reading lately, I paid a lot more attention to the music I had on during bus trips this week. I really got into St. Vincent’s new, self titled CD. After a few listens, I give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Very good.
The Astronaut Farmer: This is a great family movie, about a family working together to realize dreams. In a lot of ways, it felt like a film from the earlier 1980s. Another case of ‘they don’t make movies like this anymore.’ It’s heart warming, gentle, and seriously enjoyable. It’s got plenty of ‘that guy’ actors and lots of solid character performances. Heck, even the kid actors are good. This is the kind of thing I can imagine inspiring little kids to reach for the stars, and we could certainly use more of that. Matt’s Family Seal of Approval.
The Grapes of Wrath: The Great Depression shot by John Ford? Normally, that idea would not thrill me at all. But this adaptation of the classic novel of one of America’s darkest times is engrossing, entertaining, and ultimately uplifting. Though the end sugar coats the book’s message, I find its hope filled look off into the distance of time to be satisfying. The movie looks great, with some excellent faces and the desperate human misery of displaced peoples in stark black & white. The acting tends toward the theatrical, but as the film takes on an almost mythic cast, that’s not such a bad thing. Watching it made me want to dip back into HBO’s Carnivalle and follow it up with Sullivan’s Travels. I’ve got a week off coming up. We’ll see.
Thursday night I watched the first disk of The Waltons. Man, I hated that show when I was a wee lad, but I find it charming and fun now. It’s wholesome and perhaps a bit saccharine, but it’s also refreshing and pleasant. I know that over the course of its near decade run (plus several movies) the characters grow and experience snippets of history (from the Depression through WWII), and I find that interesting. I may be sitting down for a long haul, watching the entire show.
The Call of Cthulhu: I still find myself enjoying this darned faithful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic story. On a limited budget, they attempted to recreate the silent movie era, and for the most part, it works. Not even close to my favorite Lovecraft tale, it’s still nice to see some of the author’s essential content make it onto the screen, something so rare in previous purported adaptations. It makes me more and more hungry to see a faithful adaptation of The Shadow Out of Time or of course, At the Mountains of Madness. Heck, a well made Shadow Over Innsmouth would still make me smile.
Legendary Weapons of China: An excellent, probably way over-complicated martial arts adventure movie, Legendary Weapons of China is set in the latter days of the Boxer Rebellion (or just after). It involved conflicted philosophies of martial arts and its place in society…and lots of fighting. The tone is odd, with a good deal of goofing, but with some serious issues being discussed and fought over. Yet, unlike some, it manages not to strike any notes too jarring for this viewer. I enjoy hand to hand martial arts, but my preference is for weapon combat, and as the film’s name implies, this one features weapons. Lots and lots of weapons. Excellent.
Saturday night was the latest meeting of the graphic novel club, where this month we discussed Brian K. Vaughn’s Pride of Bagdad. The book left me cold upon reading it, but I did gain some appreciation for it, seeing it through some other readers’ eyes. The art is nice, but it felt the most like when we read Get Jiro a while back; a bunch of potentially interesting ideas that didn’t go anywhere.
I finally got back to and finished Philip Reeve’s Goblins. It’s a fun children’s fantasy novel in the spirit of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain cycle (see…or don’t…Disney’s boring adaptation of The Black Cauldron). The fact that it took so long from the time I started to the time I finished is not a statement about the book’s quality, but my own scatterbrained funk and lack of focus I’ve been suffering for some months.
On Sunday morning, I finished up Brian K. Vaughan’s Pride of Bagdad, the next selection of the graphic novel club. I liked the art a lot, but the actual story was a bit obvious and pretty bare bones. Not bad, but not something I’d ever need to read again. But then it was off to the races on what ended up being a pretty busy week (including my ranty letter to the makers of Star Wars).
The White Queen: Considering it’s from Starz, this show is shockingly classy. Sure, it’s full of nudity and violence, but it’s far less crass and exploitative than Magic City or (shudder) Spartacus. It tells some of the story of the War of the Roses, with a focus on the women involved in the story. Though women, particularly when seen through the lens of Victorian and consequently early 20th century histories, have often gotten either a bum rap or completely ignored, the idea that women and men do not share a common history is idiotic (why I’m against the idea of ‘women’s history,’ as opposed to ‘women in history;’ to separate one from the other is to miss the point of it all), and the idea that major historic events didn’t involve women is illogical and counter to common sense. I like that this series shows the active involvement in the changing politics these women take, while not trying to somehow take away from what the men were doing. You often see in more female-centered history-based tales, not the building up of women, but the tearing down of men (making them stupid, sex-mad monsters, in much the way male-centered histories of the past tried to cast women as either docile or dangerously predatory [akin to the virgin/whore problem]), so this was a welcome and refreshing aspect of the series, with men and women being shown as all the shades of gray one would expect in reality. Early episodes were a touch wonky, in part because they brought in a bit of the supernatural, which I found off-putting. I’m assuming that’s from the novels(?). It wasn’t needed, and distracts from the more interesting, real story. And I think adding the magic to the female characters lessened their power as humans, by giving in to that old idea that women can only succeed through magic, manipulation, or subterfuge. Overall, it’s not as well done as some history based shows, and some of the cast is a challenge to get behind (Max Irons, I’m looking at you!…and I wish I wasn’t). Still, it’s mostly good and worth checking out, and series lead Rebecca Ferguson is darned good. If this is the direction Starz is headed, who knows. Maybe one day they could rival HBO in quality programming. I’m not holding my breath, but maybe.
The Last Days on Mars: This film has everything it needs…except a good idea. The production design, the cast, the music, the setting. It’s all great. The film looks fantastic. But once the central idea is revealed, it turns stupid and never looks back. Now I can add this to the lengthening list of should-have-been-better Mars exploration films, like Mission to Mars and Red Planet. All of them have good things going for them, yet all of them are failures, because of bad scripts or poorly conceived ideas. And this film fits right along side. I can not stress how annoyed I was upon realizing just how lame the central struggle would be. There was a grimace, followed by a lot of head shaking, and at least one ‘oh, no.’ Please, film makers. Please. Don’t do this again. It works in a movie like Ghost of Mars, because nobody is going to Ghost of Mars for a serious science fiction film. It doesn’t work here. Maybe one day we’ll get an adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars that will live up to its potential. Until then, I guess we’ll just get a bunch of this crap.
Donnie Darko: This is a movie that really blew me away the first time I watched it. It broke my brain in all the best ways, stayed with me for years. But I have to admit, I don’t feel the same awe and wonder I once did. Watching it again, I still find a lot of things to like in the film, and there are some excellent bits. But I see more of the ‘first film’ syndrome than I noticed before. Still a must for fans of the surreal and challenging. But perhaps not the modern classic I’d have once named it.
Von Richthofen and Brown: This Roger Corman WWI movie is surprisingly good, with lots of excellent flying footage. The acting is uneven and there are some technical issues. But for one of his more serious efforts, it’s a winner. The star really is the flying, though. And a lot of that is gorgeous.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson makes a very peculiar sort of film, and he does it very, very well. This time around he taps into the Golden Age Hollywood madcap comedy films, with plenty of World War II and Cold War allusions. It’s wistful and nostalgic for bygone eras, but not cloying. It’s also delightfully crass, and typically surreal. The by now trademark Anderson artificiality is on display, enhancing the old Hollywood vibe in the sets and backdrops. The cast is awesome, and it’s so nice to see Ralph Fiennes doing comedy again, and playing someone so dashing (if sleazy). I love that this movie revels in the wonder and visual craziness of the very medium. It’s not naturalistic. It’s not realistic. But it gets to some truths, even while reveling in its fantasy world.
Saturday was a crazy danged day. I assisted Satnam on the set of the film he directed from a script I wrote. It’s been a danged long time in the works. I first conceived the idea as something I thought I might be able to do myself, building the ‘set’ in a closet in my old Brewer, ME apartment, about ten or twelve years ago. Only one cast member, and no camera movement. I thought I could handle that. But cameras were too expensive and I had no skill or knowledge of how to do it. Still, I liked the idea. Some time after I moved to Virginia, I met someone who expressed interest in filming it, someone with skills and resources. But it never materialized. Lots of talk, but no action, and nothing happened. But after assisting Satnam on a previous film, he said he was looking for another project, and I mentioned my idea. He liked it enough to want to read my script. Well…I don’t know what happened to it. I’m sure if I go searching through my old disks, I’ll find it. But, I didn’t want to. So, I sat down and re-wrote it. And that was it. A few re-writes, a search for an actor, our fumbling attempts at set construction, finding other professionals to help us out with sound and make-up. And then filming. To say I was a ball of nerves is an understatement. It’s kind of amazing to see words you wrote being spoken by an actor on a set. I would not be heart broken if I had to do this for a living.
Now that the movie is in the can, the editing and post production and all that starts up, and I don’t have anything to do with that. So, it’s on to my next project, prepping for next weekend’s Call of Cthulhu game. Most of the heavy lifting was done for the first session, so now it’s going to be a lot of details, extra bits, and such. And then of course, to get myself psyched up and ready to go. Though it may not be, I could see this being the final session of this game/story. It might go on to a third or fourth night, depending on how their investigations go, and how deadly things get. So I'm trying to think ahead for what folks might want to do next. I think this group would be best suited for something light, fast paced, action and mystery packed, with plenty of room to roam. I'm still thinking.
Cue long, exaggerated sigh, followed by a nostalgic musing while I stare off into the distance. Yes. It is done. Or, to use a phrase I think should never be used in another film in the history of ever, “It has begun.” After all the talk, all the wishful thinking, all the day dreaming, and yes, all the many false starts, the first night of actual roleplaying has been accomplished. The first full session I’ve run in more than six years (other than that one on one thing with Brad a couple years ago when I was first trying to get serious about this). I think that’s the longest continuous gap in gaming I’ve had since I started with the hobby as a young lad (pretty sure Reagan was still in office). It feels good to slay that dragon. Starting a game is always difficult. Starting a game with people new to the hobby is a challenge (a very worthy one). But starting a game after six years was very, very hard to do. I’m using mental muscles that have atrophied, digging into parts of my brain that haven’t seen the light of day for far too long. But, it all worked out pretty well. All the stress and apprehension melted away fairly quickly, and I began to feel the old rhythms.
Call of Cthulhu always has always felt a bit like coming home. It uses the Basic Roleplaying system, the game mechanic I got started on. And it didn’t take me long to fall for it’s 1920s/1930s setting. After all, Indiana Jones was my hero. Over the years, it’s meant a lot of different things to me. I’ve played in several very different games, and I’ve run a bunch myself. It’s always challenging, but usually rewarding. This time around, I’m trying something a little more ambitious than normal. In the past, I’ve almost always done one of three things. Early on, my games were always set in very cinematic versions of exotic countries. Then I graduated to The Thing style of relatable, but hopelessly remote locations, with characters from different walks of life thrust together through circumstance (survivors of a plane crash, for example). Later, in an attempt to get things more grounded and relatable, my games were set in and around Bangor, Maine, my home town and a place I had a good deal of practical knowledge of. Not this time. This time the game is set in Arkham, the city is wide open, and I’m juggling more than one story. In the past, I’ve tended to take just one idea, one creature, one item, and build a story around it. When that story was over, perhaps I’d do a follow-up, likely connected to the first in some way. This time, I wanted to do something new. So, I’ve got a whole bunch of storylines, some fully developed, some only briefly sketched out, all waiting to be uncovered by the group. And I’m going to let them explore those stories in whatever way they see fit. Sure, I’ll be dropping hints and hooks, but already they’ve gone off in unexpected directions, and it’s great. Of course, not ever story will pan out. Not every clue will lead to something important. And these story threads aren’t all linked. They’re not all about the same thing, and they’re not all building to something, like I’d normally do. Though they may be laced together by the characters (that’s already started to happen), I’m letting the chips fall where they may.
Going way back, I always knew that Call of Cthulhu shouldn’t be Dungeons & Dragons. I don’t just mean the system and all its nonsense. I mean, it shouldn’t be about walking around fighting monsters all the time. It shouldn’t be opening doors and finding random creatures and artifacts. It shouldn’t be a video game. I think that might be part of why I always focused stories on only one core idea or creature. If the story was about Ghouls, then dang it, Ghouls would be what you got. Maybe, just maybe, they’d have something extra special and nasty working with them, but 99% of what the game would be about Ghouls and Ghouls only. This time around I wanted to do things differently, so I conceived two major and unrelated stories, and multiple lesser stories. I still don’t want this to degrade into some 20s themed dungeon crawl, with rooms full of Deep Ones or legions of Nightgaunts flapping around. But it’s going to be more monster/thing heavy than I’d normally do. In fact, in the very first session, a monster was spotted (briefly), an artifact was found, and a bunch of other crazy stuff happened. Normally, I’d take a lot longer to reveal that much. And of course, like in all Call of Cthulhu games I run, I need to make sure that the possibility of the complete ending of the world is always an option. I feel like any given session of the game should be able to result in an apocalypse of some form, be it a plague, open war with the Deep Ones, causing Yog-Sothoth to open the Gates, a visit from Ghroth, whatever.
So, now that I’ve got my head around the game, now that the first session has happened, I feel more focused, and more like I know what I’m doing again. Now, I need to target each player and his/her character with some particular excitement and horror, as well as provide opportunities for each to be a valued member of a team.
I don’t imagine this game will go on for more than 3 or 4 sessions, especially as I’m trying to keep things moving quickly, and will probably be throwing a lot more, and more deadly things at the characters than normal. So, I’m still thinking about what other games might be good for the group. I would certainly like to do something more long form, something open ended, where character development can get more play, where stories can take their time to build, and where actions have far reaching consequences. One especially nice thing about games like Call of Cthulhu is that, assuming characters reach a good ending point still sane and alive, there’s always the option of picking things up again later, even if there are new players in the group. If folks enjoy this roleplaying thing and want to do more, we’ll talk about options again then. I hope I can keep this ball rolling. It’s tough, with everyone having kids and jobs and social lives. But I think we can do it.
