Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
up on a beach. For a day or two, the residents of the nearby community
a reticent about approaching it. Then, they start posing for pictures
next to it; then climbing on top of it.

Somebody cuts off a part of its body for a museum. Scavenging increases,
until finally all that's left is a skeleton.

Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.

A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
of this story?

--
Michael F. Stemper
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
<michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> up on a beach. For a day or two, the residents of the nearby community
> a reticent about approaching it. Then, they start posing for pictures
> next to it; then climbing on top of it.
>
> Somebody cuts off a part of its body for a museum. Scavenging increases,
> until finally all that's left is a skeleton.
>
> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>
> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> of this story?

The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard. Recently animated as part of Love, Death
and Robots tv series.

I couldn't discern any intentional point to it.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
IIS is still popular in the public sector, where the two
highest priorities in IT are unfitness for purpose
and high cost.
-- Tony Houghton

On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>> up on a beach.

>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>>
>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>> of this story?
>
> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.

Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
New Wave authors.

According to its ISFDB listing, I have it in one anthology and one
collection. The most recently I read either of them was in 2004,
but it seems much more recent than that.

> I couldn't discern any intentional point to it.

Okay, I thought that maybe I'd missed something.

--
Michael F. Stemper
Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding;
Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.

In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1@dont-email.me>,
Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
>> <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>>> up on a beach.
>
>>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>>>
>>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>>> of this story?
>>
>> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
>
>Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
>New Wave authors.
>
That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On 10/27/23 06:59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>> up on a beach. For a day or two, the residents of the nearby community
>> a reticent about approaching it. Then, they start posing for pictures
>> next to it; then climbing on top of it.
>>
>> Somebody cuts off a part of its body for a museum. Scavenging increases,
>> until finally all that's left is a skeleton.
>>
>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>>
>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>> of this story?
>
> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard. Recently animated as part of Love, Death
> and Robots tv series.
>
> I couldn't discern any intentional point to it.
>
> Cheers - Jaimie

I remember this from many years ago, maybe a class in college. It was
written in 1964 I think. Anyway, I didn't like it then, and I am pretty
sure I wouldn't like it now. Depressing, bleak, etc.

If you google "The Drowned Giant", there is some discussion on what the
themes are and what they mean. Have fun.

--
Dave Scruggs
Captain, Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
Sr. Software Engineer (Retired, mostly)

On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 12:58:31 PM UTC-4, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> > On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> > <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> >> up on a beach.
> >> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> >> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> >>
> >> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> >> of this story?
> >
> > The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> New Wave authors.
>
> According to its ISFDB listing, I have it in one anthology and one
> collection. The most recently I read either of them was in 2004,
> but it seems much more recent than that.
> > I couldn't discern any intentional point to it.
> Okay, I thought that maybe I'd missed something.

In a later book, I think perhaps "The Kindness of Women" Ballard's character talks
a lot about dissecting his first corpse in medical school. When I read
that it definitely brought "The Drowned Giant" to mind.

His dissection was being done for a better purpose, at lest initially, but as he
didn't go on in medical school that became questionable.

William Hyde

On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 3:18:01 PM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> >>> up on a beach.
> >
> >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> >>>
> >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> >>> of this story?
> >>
> >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> >
> >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> >New Wave authors.
> >
> That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.

That would be Barrington Bailey.

Of course, as there is no actual definition of the New Wave, other authors
could be mentioned, but I selected Bailey as he was a mainstay of
New Worlds Quarterly, which made Orbit look like Analog (he said, with
some exaggeration).

William Hyde

In article <b47f45c5-831c-4670-a3a8-74618ca49328n@googlegroups.com>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 3:18:01 PM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
>> In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
>> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
>> >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>> >>> up on a beach.
>> >
>> >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>> >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>> >>>
>> >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>> >>> of this story?
>> >>
>> >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
>> >
>> >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
>> >New Wave authors.
>> >
>> That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
>
>That would be Barrington Bailey.
>
>Of course, as there is no actual definition of the New Wave, other authors
>could be mentioned, but I selected Bailey as he was a mainstay of
>New Worlds Quarterly, which made Orbit look like Analog (he said, with
>some exaggeration).
>
>William Hyde
>

At one time _The Fall of Chronopolis_ was one of my favorite books.
Probably time for a re-read.

Some of the "Orbit" stuff got above slit-your-wrists-now grim. "Mother to
the World" was nice, Lafferty of course, and the one about the space whale.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 5:45:55 PM UTC-4, William Hyde wrote:
> On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 3:18:01 PM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> > In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> > Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> > >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> > >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> > >>> up on a beach.
> > >
> > >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> > >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> > >>>
> > >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> > >>> of this story?
> > >>
> > >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> > >
> > >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> > >New Wave authors.
> > >
> > That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
> That would be Barrington Bailey.

The fact that Barrington J. Bayley's last name is misspelled so often
suggests that Adrian Czajkowski's publishers may have been right to
alter the spelling of his name.

> Of course, as there is no actual definition of the New Wave, other authors
> could be mentioned, but I selected Bailey as he was a mainstay of
> New Worlds Quarterly, which made Orbit look like Analog (he said, with
> some exaggeration).

He was -- arguably -- to the British New Wave what van Vogt had been to
the original Golden Age: odd and unlike other first tier authors, but still
a significant part of the phenomenon.

On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 6:18:01 AM UTC+11, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> >>> up on a beach.
> >
> >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> >>>
> >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> >>> of this story?
> >>
> >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> >
> >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> >New Wave authors.
> >
> That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.

does Zelazny count?

On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 2:54:55 PM UTC+11, Hamish Laws wrote:
> On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 6:18:01 AM UTC+11, James Nicoll wrote:
> > In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> > Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> > >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> > >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> > >>> up on a beach.
> > >
> > >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> > >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> > >>>
> > >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> > >>> of this story?
> > >>
> > >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> > >
> > >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> > >New Wave authors.
> > >
> > That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
> does Zelazny count?

Or Moorcock?

-Moriarty

On 2023-10-28, Moriarty <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 2:54:55 PM UTC+11, Hamish Laws wrote:
>> On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 6:18:01 AM UTC+11, James Nicoll wrote:
>> > In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
>> > Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> > >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
>> > >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>> > >>> up on a beach.
>> > >
>> > >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>> > >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>> > >>>
>> > >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>> > >>> of this story?
>> > >>
>> > >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
>> > >
>> > >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
>> > >New Wave authors.
>> > >
>> > That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
>> does Zelazny count?
>
> Or Moorcock?

Moorcock is definitely a NW author, though he has non-NW books. Pretty
much everything of his I consider NW is depressing, though I'm not
sure there's not a definitional problem there. I would say almost all
of his books that showed experimentation and/or deeper intellectual thought
were depressing and NW. The majority of his early Eternal Champions were
standard fantasy and non-NW, but then later Eternal Champions like
Cornelius were strongly NW.

I tried to collect Moorcock's Eternal Champions in the early 1970's, but
gave up, very thankfully, by the mid 70s! He kept on revising and reissuing
all of his books multiple times in the next 3 decades, but I realized that
apart from Elric, I really didn't want to re-read any of his books.
--
Chris

On Fri, 27 Oct 2023 11:58:25 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"
<michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
>> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
>> <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
>>> up on a beach.
>
>>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
>>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>>>
>>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
>>> of this story?
>>
>> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
>
>Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
>New Wave authors.
>
>According to its ISFDB listing, I have it in one anthology and one
>collection. The most recently I read either of them was in 2004,
>but it seems much more recent than that.
>
>> I couldn't discern any intentional point to it.
>
>Okay, I thought that maybe I'd missed something.

I don't think I've ever read it.

I suspect that I haven't missed anything.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 11:40:10 PM UTC-4, Ahasuerus wrote:
> On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 5:45:55 PM UTC-4, William Hyde wrote:
> > On Friday, October 27, 2023 at 3:18:01 PM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> > > In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> > > Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> > > >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> > > >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> > > >>> up on a beach.
> > > >
> > > >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> > > >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> > > >>> of this story?
> > > >>
> > > >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> > > >
> > > >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> > > >New Wave authors.
> > > >
> > > That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
> > That would be Barrington Bailey.
> The fact that Barrington J. Bayley's last name is misspelled so often
> suggests

Arrgh!

My excuse must be that I confused him with Hilary Bailey.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

that Adrian Czajkowski's publishers may have been right to
> alter the spelling of his name.

I've seen Clarke misspelled.

> > Of course, as there is no actual definition of the New Wave, other authors
> > could be mentioned, but I selected Bailey as he was a mainstay of
> > New Worlds Quarterly, which made Orbit look like Analog (he said, with
> > some exaggeration).
> He was -- arguably -- to the British New Wave what van Vogt had been to
> the original Golden Age: odd and unlike other first tier authors, but still
> a significant part of the phenomenon.

That is an apt description.

William Hyde

On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 8:50:56 AM UTC-4, Chris Buckley wrote:
> On 2023-10-28, Moriarty <blu...@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 2:54:55 PM UTC+11, Hamish Laws wrote:
> >> On Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 6:18:01 AM UTC+11, James Nicoll wrote:
> >> > In article <uhgq7h$2c6be$1...@dont-email.me>,
> >> > Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > >On 27/10/2023 08.59, Jaimie Vandenbergh wrote:
> >> > >> On 27 Oct 2023 at 14:34:41 BST, ""Michael F. Stemper""
> >> > >> <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > >>
> >> > >>> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> >> > >>> up on a beach.
> >> > >
> >> > >>> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> >> > >>> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
> >> > >>>
> >> > >>> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> >> > >>> of this story?
> >> > >>
> >> > >> The Drowned Giant, J G Ballard.
> >> > >
> >> > >Yeah, that's it. Thank you. I knew it was one of those depressing
> >> > >New Wave authors.
> >> > >
> >> > That implies the existance of non-depressing NW authors.
> >> does Zelazny count?
> >
> > Or Moorcock?
> Moorcock is definitely a NW author, though he has non-NW books. Pretty
> much everything of his I consider NW is depressing, though I'm not
> sure there's not a definitional problem there. I would say almost all
> of his books that showed experimentation and/or deeper intellectual thought
> were depressing and NW.

I thought that his later works, in the 80s and after, had strong NW elements but
I didn't think of them as depressing (OTOH I didn't find "Behold the Man" to be
depressing either, and others probably differ there). But I've only read one
or two of them.

The majority of his early Eternal Champions were
> standard fantasy and non-NW,

He did mention that much of this was Faustian, and certainly the Elric books
are not particularly cheerful.

but then later Eternal Champions like
> Cornelius were strongly NW.

When a book has a title like "The Condition of Muzak", you know it's NW. And you
know that the author has some background in Literature and a sense of humour.
>
> I tried to collect Moorcock's Eternal Champions in the early 1970's, but
> gave up, very thankfully, by the mid 70s!

I went through a similar process. I got the impression that Tanelorn was somehow
the climax of the series, but when Elric finally got there, it was clearly not the
end. As this was, by my count at the time, the twenty-seventh EC book, I gave
up.

Decades later I picked up the Von Beck books, which I quite enjoyed.

William Hyde

On Friday, 27 October 2023 at 14:34:47 UTC+1, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> Yesterday, I referred to a short story in which a giant's corpse washes
> up on a beach. For a day or two, the residents of the nearby community
> a reticent about approaching it. Then, they start posing for pictures
> next to it; then climbing on top of it.
>
> Somebody cuts off a part of its body for a museum. Scavenging increases,
> until finally all that's left is a skeleton.
>
> Can anybody identify this? Given its depressing nature, I'd guess that
> it was by some New Wave author, but even that is less than sure.
>
> A second thing, if somebody else has read it -- what was the point
> of this story?

Familiarity breeds contempt - even with
something extraordinary and terrifying?

I may be misremembering a remark that
my brain attributes to Clive James reviewing
British television roughly between 1960-70.
That it used to be a big deal as entertainment
whenever a dead whale washed up on a beach -
mostly not at that time, but earlier.