Christmas 1983: 'Jingle Bell Rock' by Hall and Oates

Christmas 1983: Hall and Oates, 'Jingle Bell Rock'

Thirty years ago, if you turned on MTV at Christmas time in December, 1983, you were certain to see this video of Hall and Oates performing the old Bobby Helms tune 'Jingle Bell Rock.'

Hall and Oates made a wise decision to give the video the cheesiest possible atmosphere (at one point early in the video, Hall struggles to keep from laughing on-camera)....and made it a Christmas classic all over again.......

Book Review: Tomorrow

Book Review: 'Tomorrow' by Philip Wylie

3 / 5 Stars

Philip Wylie (1902 –1971) wrote a number of apocalyptic sf novels, with ‘When Words Collide’ (1933) perhaps his best known work. ‘Tomorrow’ (1954) and ‘Triumph’ (1963) were nuclear war novels, very much the spiritual predecessors to Streiber and Kunetka’s 'Warday' (1984). Wylie's posthumous novel, ‘The End of the Dream’ (1972) was an eco-disaster novel.

Wylie had considerable experience as a reporter and writer on the atomic bomb and its implications for national defense and world peace. During the mid-1940s Wylie was an advisor on matters of nuclear weapons to senator Brien MacMahon, who chaired United States Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy. MacMahon introduced the bill for the Atomic Energy Act of 1945, which in turn created the Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947. Wylie also served on the Dade County, Florida civil defense council. 

illustration by Alexander Leydenfrost for 'If A-Bombs Blast US City', from the February, 1951 issue of Pageant magazine

Wylie’s attitudes toward nuclear war centered on the necessity of civil defense, and the need for the United States to maintain a massive retaliatory capacity in order to deter the Soviet Union from launching World War Three. 

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

‘Tomorrow’  was first published in hardback in 1954; this Popular Library paperback, 288 pp, was released in February 1956. 

A Readers Digest Condensed Books version, published in 1954, featured excellent illustrations by Ed Vebell; these can be viewed at the 'Today's Inspiration' blog.

illustration taken from 

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2013/09/ed-vebell-condensed.html

'Tomorrow' is essentially a polemic.....about Civil Defense.

The book takes place in the Midwest, in the twin cities of Green Prairie and River City. The narrative follows a cast of characters drawn from families living in the outlying middle-class neighborhoods of Green Prairie.

The Connors include Henry and Beth, sons Ted and Chuck, and daughter Nora. Next door live the Baileys, husband Beau, wife Netta, and daughter Lenore. 

front cover of 'Atomic War !' No.1, November 1952, Ace Comics (US)

The Connors are devoted to Green Prairie’s Civil Defense Corps, dutifully reporting to exercises and drills, even as their relatives scoff at such nonsense. While her parents are indifferent to CD, Lenore Bailey serves as a radiation monitor, doffing a yellow overcoat and wielding a Geiger counter for her share of the local drills.

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

Wylie spends the first three-fourths of the novel laying out the personalities and foibles of his cast, and this is a major weakness of ‘Tomorrow’, as most of its length is essentially occupied with suburban melodrama.

Later chapters give increasing hints of the apocalypse to come, and, if the reader sticks with ‘Tomorrow’ long enough, X-Day does arrive, and with it a nuclear attack on the twin cities. At this point the novel kicks into gear, and Wylie does a very good job of conveying the gruesome aftermath of a fission bomb detonation.

panel from 'Atomic War !' No. 1, November 1952, Ace Comics (US)

Needless to say, those characters who scoffed at CD get their just desserts, even as Wylie overlooks some aspects of a nuke detonation - such as the scope and effects of fallout - that would in large part nullify many CD efforts.
 

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

As a 'what if' novel, 'Tomorrow' exhausts too much of its content on tedious expositions in which author Wylie excoriates those of his fellow citizens who are too lazy and stupid to recognize that Civil Defense was a vital part of their duties as Americans. 

The nadir of this approach to storytelling comes near the book's midpoint, when Wylie has a newspaper editor deliver a 14-page screed that, among other things, touches on the evils of McCarthyism, the futility of negotiating with Commies, and idiocy of entertaining the 'it can't happen here' mindset of the petite bourgeoisie.

I won't disclose any spoilers, but I thought 'Tomorrow' hit a false note in its concluding chapter.....I was hoping to see some evidence of the sort of black (some would say sick) humor that marks the  'Fallout 3' franchise, but it simply doesn't make an appearance.

 illustration by Alexander Leydenfrost for 'If A-Bombs Blast US City', from the February, 1951 issue of Pageant magazine

In summary,  if you're willing to overlook the fact that much of 'Tomorrow' is overbearing, it succeeds to some extent as a work of sf about World War Three and nuclear devastation. 

Book Review: The Holmes - Dracula File

Book Review: 'The Holmes - Dracula File' by Fred Saberhagen

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ (249 pp) was published in 1978 by Ace Books, with cover art by Robert Adragna.

London, late May, 1897. The city is preparing for June 22, and the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

A middle-aged man awakens with amnesia. He discovers he is bound with steel cuffs to a mattress atop a wheeled cart. He is lying in a tenement room, somewhere close to the harbor. Still stupefied from the blow to the head that led to his abduction, he can only lie helplessly while he is wheeled into an adjoining laboratory. A team of gowned and masked researchers press a cage of insects onto his naked chest……..

At 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have a client. Sarah Tarlton, a young American woman, is distraught over the disappearance of her fiancé, the scientist John Scott, in Sumatra. Scott had embarked on an expedition into the unexplored depths of the jungle to study tropical diseases. After five months without contact, Tarlton fears that Scott has fallen victim to misfortune.

To Sarah Tarlton’s consternation, equipment from Scott’s Sumatran expedition recently has arrived at a warehouse in London, and been picked up by a man who eyewitnesses state bears a strong resemblance to John Scott; as well, the signature on the receipt is that of John Scott.

Is John Scott alive and well in London ? If so, why has he not contacted his fiancé ?

As Holmes and Watson embark on their investigation into the fate of John Scott, they will discover a conspiracy that threatens the fate of the entire city….. a conspiracy with a disturbing link to the supernatural..........

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ is quintessential proto-Steampunk, and the thematic and spiritual predecessor to novels such as Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula and K. W. Jeter’s Morlock Night. Saberhagen’s borrowing of prominent fictional personalities as main and supporting characters, and use of a plot that is referential to well-known Victorian-era fiction, were innovative back in 1978. Nowadays these approaches to crafting a narrative are a given for many Steampunk sf and fantasy novels.

Were it written in 2013, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ would have been 400 or more pages in length, burdened with over-written prose and the management of several simultaneous sub-plots. 

Because that’s what a lot of contemporary Steampunk fiction is like, as epitomized by Felix Palma’s The Map of Time, a mass market paperback that is not only 720 pages long……..but the first volume of a trilogy.

But as a novel written in ’78, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ benefits from having short chapters, the presence of just two plot threads, prose that avoids being overly descriptive, and an absence of too many internal monologues and overwrought explorations of the emotional angst and personal traumas of its lead characters. 

That said, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ isn’t perfect. Without disclosing spoilers, I’ll admit that Saberhagen’s rationale for the appearance of Dracula in the aftermath of the events of Stoker’s novel is more than a little contrived, and the major revelation that confronts Holmes in the novel’s closing pages also seems contrived. As well, Saberhagen chooses to depict the Count less as a monster, and more as a thoughtful aristocrat; this approach may seem a violation of the essence of the Stoker version of the character, and may be disappointing to some readers.

I also should emphasize that this is not a ‘Holmes Vs Dracula’ adventure, such as Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count (1978) from Loren Estleman, or the DC / Wildstorm comic series / graphic novel Victorian Undead: Sherlock Homes Vs Dracula (2011). Rather, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ is a mystery novel, in which Holmes and Dracula are the main characters.

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ remains one of the better proto-Steampunk novels and markedly superior to much of the Steampunk stuff being churned out nowadays. Used copies can be had for affordable prices (i.e., under $5.00).

Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy

'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' by Wayne Douglas Barlowe

 

'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' is a followup to the author's highly successful 'Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials' (1979). Published by Harper Prism in 1996, 'Fantasy' is 144 pages long, although 34 of these, consisting of sketches from Barlowe's forthcoming (back in 1996) book 'Barlowe's Inferno', are tacked onto the end as padding.

 

As with 'Extraterrestrials', this book adheres to a double-page format, with the fantasy character depicted on one page, while the facing page provides explanatory text, and an ancillary illustration or two.

There are 50 fantasy characters presented, some from older myths and legends (like, for example, the gryphon or griffin).

Other entries are derived from modern horror and fantasy novels.

 

 

Not all entries are necessarily monsters of one sort or another......

As with 'Extraterrestrials', there are going to be some omissions and inclusions among the 50 profiles that will strike some readers as awkward, but overall, 'Fantasy' provides a good overview of the genre. 

There are certainly some images that will lead you to seek out a particular novel or series with which you are unfamiliar, and for those characters with whom you may previously have been familiar, seeing them depicted in Barlowe's meticulous artwork is a nice surprise.

With used copies in good condition available for under $5, getting 'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' is a worthwhile investment.