Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/

These are generally what they say they are.
--
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James Nicoll wrote:

>Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
>https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
>
>These are generally what they say they are.

"The Haunting" ran in TV when I was kid and was the scariest movie I
ever saw.

Brian

James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
> https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
>
> These are generally what they say they are.

It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
<https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg> in order to
contrast and compare a couple of its elements with
_The Haunting of Hill House_.

The agreement to not to wander around alone:

The doctor shook his head. "We probably ought to agree, now,
not to wander around the house alone," he said.

"We suggest that starting right now all hands stay in the Control
Central. There's enough room in that area. Let nobody go anywhere
in the ship alone. If it's necessary to go to other parts of the
ship, at least two men should go together."

The bedroom scene:

We left the light on, she told herself, so why is it dark?
Theodora, she tried to whisper, and her mouth could not move;
Theodora, she tried to ask, why is it dark? and the voice went on,
babbling, low and steady, a little liquid gloating sound. She
thought she might be able to distinguish words if she lay perfectly
still, if she lay perfectly still, and listened, and listened and
heard the voice going on and on, never ceasing, and she hung
desperately to Theodora's hand and felt an answering weight on her
own hand.
Then the little gurgling laugh came again, and the rising mad
sound of it drowned out the voice, and then suddenly absolute
silence. Eleanor took a breath, wondering if she could speak now,
and then she heard a little soft cry which broke her heart, a little
infinitely sad cry, a little sweet moan of wild sadness. It is a
child, she thought with disbelief, a child is crying somewhere, and
then, upon that thought, came the wild shrieking voice she had never
heard before and yet knew she had heard always in her nightmares.
"Go away!" it screamed. "Go away, go away, don't hurt me," and,
after, sobbing, "Please don't hurt me. Please let me go home," and
then the little sad crying again.
I can't stand it, Eleanor thought concretely. This is monstrous,
this is cruel, they have been hurting a child and I won't let anyone
hurt a child, and the babbling went on, low and steady, on and on
and on, the voice rising a little and falling a little, going on and
on.
Now, Eleanor thought, perceiving that she was lying sideways on
the bed in the black darkness, holding with both hands to Theodora's
hand, holding so tight she could feel the fine bones of Theodora's
fingers, now, I will not endure this. They think to scare me. Well,
they have. I am scared, but more than that, I am a person, I am
human, I am a walking reasoning humorous human being and I will take
a lot from this lunatic filthy house but I will not go along with
hurting a child, no, I will not; I will by God get my mouth to open
right now and I will yell I will I will yell "STOP IT," she shouted,
and the lights were on the way they had left them and Theodora was
sitting up in bed, startled and dishevelled.
"What?" Theodora was saying. "What, Nell? What?"
"God God," Eleanor said, flinging herself out of bed and across
the room to stand shuddering in a corner, "God God-whose hand was I
holding?"

It was then that something emerged from the wall near his bed!
Almost any other man would have been gripped with shock and it
was only Dealcour's intellectual sangfroid that rescued him
temporarily from a similar reaction This in spite of the fact that
his heart almost stopped beating. It seemed as if the thin metal
of the wall had become transparent, or non-existant, in the place
where the Thing came through.
Dealcour made a lightning swift move and pressed the call
button of the permanently operating ship's intercom. "Sir!" he cried
out sharply. "This is Dealcour. Something is coming through the wall
here. Hurry!" Fear clutched at his voice and seemed to shut it off.
"Hang on!" came Everson's instant answer.
Transfixed, Dealcour could only stare at the Thing. It had
detached itself completely from the wall now, a scintillating
transparent shadow without apparent substance. What could it be?
Dealcour had never seen anything like it before in his life. Panic
finally gripped him. He wanted to yell, to bellow aloud in his
horror, even to breathe-but his lips remained silent.
The incredible apparition was already on top of him.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

On Tuesday, 25 October 2022 at 03:00:21 UTC+1, Don wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
> > Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
> > https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
> >
> > These are generally what they say they are.
> It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
> <https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg>

Is "it" wearing a fez hat?

Robert Carnegie wrote:
> Don wrote:
>> James Nicoll wrote:
>> > Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
>> > https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
>> >
>> > These are generally what they say they are.
>> It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
>> <https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg>
>
> Is "it" wearing a fez hat?

Good question. <shrug> Who knows?
The story starts out on the planet Eppan. Its indigenous humanoids
are technologically at the crossbow stage. Gladiators fight at an arena.
But there's nothing to openly suggest fez hats.

It turns out publishers uses two different tints on Bruck's cover. The
cover art shown at the above link appears in my _Atlan and Arkon_ ePub.
While the one shown at isfdb below more-or-less matches my Moewig pulp:

<https://isfdb.org/wiki/images/0/03/PRRRHDNDSC1979.jpg>

"The Horror" fits the form of _And Then There Were None_ (Christie). One
crew member at a time succumbs to the Thing, until there are none. As
Hercule Poirot figuratively points out, readers must use "the little
grey cells" to solve the mystery. Hint: the working title of this
particular novella is "Der falsche Mann" or "The Wrong Man."

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

On Wednesday, 26 October 2022 at 14:44:25 UTC+1, Don wrote:
> Robert Carnegie wrote:
> > Don wrote:
> >> James Nicoll wrote:
> >> > Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
> >> > https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
> >> >
> >> > These are generally what they say they are.
> >> It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
> >> <https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg>
> >
> > Is "it" wearing a fez hat?
> Good question. <shrug> Who knows?

Mainly, to me it looks like an evil wizard in Marvel Comics
and Conan the Barbarian franchises, called Kulan Gath...
mainly in what I'll call "resurrected mummy mode" and
when he favoured that style of hat. Big. Ten gallon fez.
<http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/klgath.htm>

A recent revised detail not covered - apparently, the
prehistoric evil wizard originally known as Kulan Gath was
murdered by his slave who then stole his name and identity
and who is the Kulan Gath in comics up until that. We had
only ever seen Kulan Gath 2. As far as I remember, this didn't
particularly matter except that I think Kulan Gath 2 quickly
found that magic is hard to do, it just looked easy when
Kulan Gath 1 did it. Also, slavery is bad, so good riddance KG1.
<https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Kulan_Gath_(Impostor)_(Earth-616)>

Robert Carnegie wrote:
> Don wrote:
>> Robert Carnegie wrote:
>> > Don wrote:
>> >> James Nicoll wrote:
>> >> > Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
>> >> > https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
>> >> >
>> >> > These are generally what they say they are.
>> >> It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
>> >> <https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg>
>> >
>> > Is "it" wearing a fez hat?
>> Good question. <shrug> Who knows?
>
> Mainly, to me it looks like an evil wizard in Marvel Comics
> and Conan the Barbarian franchises, called Kulan Gath...
> mainly in what I'll call "resurrected mummy mode" and
> when he favoured that style of hat. Big. Ten gallon fez.
> <http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/klgath.htm>
>
> A recent revised detail not covered - apparently, the
> prehistoric evil wizard originally known as Kulan Gath was
> murdered by his slave who then stole his name and identity
> and who is the Kulan Gath in comics up until that. We had
> only ever seen Kulan Gath 2. As far as I remember, this didn't
> particularly matter except that I think Kulan Gath 2 quickly
> found that magic is hard to do, it just looked easy when
> Kulan Gath 1 did it. Also, slavery is bad, so good riddance KG1.
> <https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Kulan_Gath_(Impostor)_(Earth-616)>

It's unknown to me if cover artist Bruck intended to depict a fez.
Intended or not, a fez's superfluous to the "The Horror"'s story-line.

PR 108 introduces a conspiracy between Aras, Antis, and Springers to use
the drug Liquitiv to enslave the population of the Arkon and Solar
Imperiums. Everyone who experiments with Liquitiv becomes addicted
after only four doses.
The drug contains active agents derived from plants and users
experience regenerative and rejuvenation effects. Eventually Liquitiv
makes users decrepit and they ultimately collapse. Before then, they
enslave themselves to their suppliers to support their addiction.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

On Sunday, 30 October 2022 at 01:10:11 UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On Wednesday, 26 October 2022 at 14:44:25 UTC+1, Don wrote:
> > Robert Carnegie wrote:
> > > Don wrote:
> > >> James Nicoll wrote:
> > >> > Five Haunting Tales About Love and Death
> > >> > https://www.tor.com/2022/10/20/five-haunting-tales-about-love-and-death/
> > >> >
> > >> > These are generally what they say they are.
> > >> It helps to keep Bruck's cover for PR 74 "The Horror" in mind
> > >> <https://www.perrypedia.de/mediawiki/images/e/ec/PR0074.jpg>
> > >
> > > Is "it" wearing a fez hat?
> > Good question. <shrug> Who knows?
> Mainly, to me it looks like an evil wizard in Marvel Comics
> and Conan the Barbarian franchises, called Kulan Gath...
> mainly in what I'll call "resurrected mummy mode" and
> when he favoured that style of hat. Big. Ten gallon fez.
> <http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/klgath.htm>

(See also, and again: "Nice hat!")
<https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050223>