"How the Devil Could They Get Out Again Leaving the Door Locked and Bolted on the Inside?"

"Miss Marple Tells a Story."

By Agatha Christie (1890-1976; Wikipedia HERE).

First appearance: "Specially commissioned by the BBC as a radio play and read by Christie herself on May 11, 1934" (FictionMags).

First print appearance: The Regatta Mystery (1939; Wikipedia HERE).

Reprinted in EQMM, November 1969 (today's text).

Reprinted in Murder Most Foul (1984).

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 73).

   ". . . just by applying a little common sense, I believe I really did solve a problem that had baffled cleverer heads than mine."

FILL in the blank: "Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a ___ who wasn't there." Miss Marple proves that, in the case of the apparently impossible murder of Mrs. Rhodes allegedly 

by her husband, the usual answer is essentially irrelevant . . .

Main characters:

~ Gwen ("you remember Gwen, my little maid with red hair?"), Mr. Petherick ("A very shrewd man and a really clever solicitor"), Mr. Rhodes ("His manner was most peculiar"), Mrs. Rhodes ("lying in bed stabbed through the heart"), Sir Malcolm Olde, K.C. ("he had indicated a certain line of defense"), Mary Hill ("Her story has never varied"), Mrs. Granby ("an Anglo-Indian widow"), and Miss Carruthers ("rather a horsey spinster who dropped her g's").

References and resources:

- The poem that begins "Yesterday, upon the stair" is "Antigonish" (1899) by William Hughes Mearns: "It is also known as 'The Little Man Who Wasn't There' and was adapted as a hit song under the latter title." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Mr. Alma-Tadema":

  "A painter of mostly classical subjects, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. One of the most popular Victorian painters, Alma-Tadema was admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and accurate depictions of Classical antiquity, but his work fell out of fashion after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been appreciated for its importance within Victorian painting." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Mr. Frederic Leighton":

  "Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, PRA (1830 – 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British Victorian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter in an academic style. His paintings were enormously popular and expensive, during his lifetime, but fell out of critical favour for many decades in the early 20th century." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "wore pince-nez":

  "Pince-nez are central to the murder mystery in the Sherlock Holmes story 'The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.' Another murder mystery, Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, features a victim found dead in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez. Numerous fictional characters have been depicted as wearing pince-nez. These include Hercule Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, who wears pince-nez that are attached to a cord around his neck . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

   In "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez":

  "A lone piece of evidence was found in Willoughby Smith's hand: a pair of golden pince-nez glasses. Holmes examines these and from them alone deduces the following details of the murderer:

  "It is a woman;

  "She is of some good breeding;

  "She dresses like a lady;

  "She is a person of refinement and is well dressed;

  "She has a thick nose;

  "Her eyes are close together;

  "She has a puckered forehead, a peering look, and likely rounded shoulders;

  "She has been to an optician at least twice over the last few months."

  — Wikipedia (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE) and Wikisource (HERE).

- Is Miss Marple channeling Father Brown (HERE)?

- Here are three previous ONTOS encounters with Mrs. Christie's works, by no means the only ones: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (HERE), "The Plymouth Express Affair" (HERE), and "The Case of the Distressed Lady" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A Perfect Alibi, and Could He Help It if the Bride and Groom Never Arrived?"

YOU might be going through back numbers of science fiction magazines and sometimes come across a story bylined "S. M. Tenneshaw." As far as we know, no such person ever drew breath. The Tenneshaw moniker was a Ziff-Davis publishing house pseudonym shared by authors who would or had already made a name for themselves in the SFF genre (SFE): Randall Garrett (1927-87), Edmond Hamilton (1904-77), John W. Jakes (1932-2023), Stephen Marlowe (Milton Lesser, 1928-2008), Frank M. Robinson (1926-2014), Robert Silverberg (born 1935), and Charles Beaumont (1929-67). If you're really into any of these authors' styles, you might be able to discern which of those gentlemen wrote the two crime fiction/SF mashups that follow:

"Let Space Be Your Coffin."

By S. M. Tenneshaw.

Illustration by W. E. Terry (1921-92; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Imagination, November 1954.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short story (12 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

(Parental note: Strong language.)

   "Bert hated Miles, and secretly plotted to kill him. It all seemed simple, yet murder can be complicated—especially in the void!..."

"O beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on." Bert should brush up on his Shakespeare; it would save him from double doubling his toil and trouble . . .

Main characters:

~ Bert Tanner ("You could have killed him tonight and made it look like an accident—but you had to make a scene"), Miles Berendt ("Makes it sort of a sentimental journey"), Carol Grant ("I'm glad everything turned out all right with Bert"), and Jeff Morrow ("All you have to do is bring along a good book, Mr. Tanner").

Comment: The eternal triangle. You can find it in Gone with the Wind, Titanic, Doctor Zhivago, Columbo, Shakespeare—in fact, it's hard not to find it in crime fiction, on TV and in the movies, and permeating world literature. But how about murdering your business partner out of pure jealousy with high technology? We're guessing that plot hinge isn't quite as common. TV Tropes designates it and its many permutations as "Murder the Hypotenuse" (HERE) and "Love Makes You Evil" (HERE).

References and resources:

- Wikipedia presents an exhaustive rundown of the eternal triangle (HERE).

- "you looked like you were all set to land a haymaker!":

  "A punch in which the arm is whipped sideways from the shoulder joint with minimal elbow bend. The name is derived from the motion, which mimics the action of manually cutting hay by swinging a scythe. The haymaker is considered an imperfect/impure punch, as the angle of approach is unsupported by the remainder of the forearm. Since a haymaker's power is derived completely from weight transfer and momentum instead of muscle contraction, a long windup is required to generate sufficient force." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "get to Deimos":

  It's only four miles across but conveniently located for spacers outside of Mars's gravity well: "Deimos is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Phobos. Deimos has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. Deimos is 23,460 km (14,580 mi) from Mars, much farther than Mars's other moon, Phobos. It is named after Deimos, the Ancient Greek god and personification of dread and terror." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "the Lenning sanitorium on Venus":

  Not likely now but a lot of people thought so in 1954: "Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is a terrestrial planet and is the closest in mass and size to its orbital neighbour Earth. Venus is notable for having the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, composed mostly of carbon dioxide with a thick, global sulfuric acid cloud cover. At the surface it has a mean temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) and a pressure of 92 times that of Earth's at sea level." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "the firing mixture would go out of balance as the catalysts cut in prematurely":

  "Hydrazine (N2H4) Used in deep space missions because it is storable and hypergolic, and can be used as a monopropellant with a catalyst. Aerozine-50

 (50/50 hydrazine and UDMH) Used in deep space missions because it is storable

 and hypergolic, and can be used as a monopropellant with a catalyst." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

Image: renderosity.

- "The auto-pilot had taken the risk out of space flight":

  "An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allowing the operator to focus on broader aspects of operations (for example, monitoring the trajectory, weather and on-board systems). When present, an autopilot is often used in conjunction with an autothrottle, a system for controlling the power delivered by the engines." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Rocket thrust to escape velocity":

  "For example, at the Earth's surface, the surface gravity is about 9.8 m/s2 (9.8 N/kg, 32 ft/s2), and the escape speed for a small object is about 11.186 km/s (40,270 km/h; 25,020 mph; 36,700 ft/s). This is approximately 33 times the speed of sound (Mach 33) and several times the muzzle velocity of a rifle bullet (up to 1.7 km/s or 3,802.8 mph)." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- A couple of ONTOS postings which involve the eternal triangle: Freeman Wills Croft's "Unbreakable Alibi" (HERE) and Leonard Raphael's "The Man Who Saw Through Time" (HERE).

- As we've noted before, the most sophisticated murder method that we've ever heard about was used (HERE).

========================================================================

  "You thought I was here for revenge? I am, baby. Don't get any wrong ideas. But I've also got a job to do."

"Trouble on Sun-Side." 

By S. M. Tenneshaw.

Illustration by W. E. Terry (1921-92; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Imagination, October 1956.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short story (11 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

   "Jansen came to Mercury to find one man, and that seemed an easy enough task; the hitch was that as a hunter he was also being hunted!"

ONE man controlling the entire food supply? What could possibly go wrong?

Principal characters:

~ Frank Jansen ("Did you turn Ted over to Bareen?"), the barracks orderly ("Don't go out to the bogs unless you have to"), the big man ("I never saw you before in my life"), Wendy Hilliard ("We don't want you on Mercury, Jansen"), Andrew Dinnison ("Jansen felt sorry for him, then ruthlessly beat down the feeling"), an armed man ("You say you're his bodyguard"), and Bareen (". . . was going to kill him . . .").

Future stuff:

The folks at Technovelgy have tracked down when these particular SFFnal notions first appeared:

  - insulsuit (HERE).

  - sub-space tunnel (HERE). Also see Wikipedia (HERE).

  - chlorella farming (HERE).

  - blasting rifles, hand-blaster (HERE). Also see Wikipedia (HERE and HERE).

  - vidiphone (HERE).

Those that came to be real are listed in Wikipedia (HERE).

References and resources:

- "exposure this close to Mercury's sun-side would be impossible for more than a few moments":

  It's surprising to learn that while Mercury is closer to the Sun than Venus, Earth's "twin" is hotter. Mercury takes 88 days to go around the Sun but rotates around its axis once every 59 days, meaning that one side doesn't always face the Sun like astronomers thought for centuries:

  "Combined with its high orbital eccentricity, the planet's surface has widely varying sunlight intensity and temperature, with the equatorial regions ranging from −170 °C (−270 °F) at night to 420 °C (790 °F) during sunlight. Due to the very small axial tilt, the planet's poles are permanently shadowed. This strongly suggests that water ice could be present in the craters. Above the planet's surface is an extremely tenuous exosphere and a faint magnetic field that is strong enough to deflect solar winds. Mercury has no natural satellite." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

Click on image to enlarge.

- The plot hinge of revenge for the death of a brother isn't exactly new:

  "Taxi! is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney and Loretta Young. The film includes a famous, and often misquoted, line with Cagney speaking to his brother's killer through a locked closet door: 'Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat, or I'll give it to you through the door!' This line has often been misquoted as 'You dirty rat, you killed my brother'." (Wikipedia WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE.)

- "Girl Friday or something":

  Derived from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe: "The term Man Friday became an idiom to describe an especially faithful servant or one's best servant or right-hand man. The female equivalent is Girl Friday." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "What we grow in the sun-side bogs is chlorella, millions of tons of chlorella, which is converted into synth-steak and other pseudo-meats on Earth":

  "Chlorella is a genus of about thirteen species of single-celled green algae of the division Chlorophyta. . . . Chlorella has been considered as a source of food and energy because its photosynthetic efficiency can reach 8%, which exceeds that of other highly efficient crops such as sugar cane." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Jansen had been prospecting in the asteroids":

  "Currently, the quality of the ore and the consequent cost and mass of equipment required to extract it are unknown and can only be speculated on. Some economic analyses indicate that the cost of returning asteroidal materials to Earth far outweighs their market value, and that asteroid mining will not attract private investment at current commodity prices and space transportation costs. Other studies suggest large profit by using solar power. Potential markets for materials can be identified and profit generated if extraction cost is brought down. For example, the delivery of multiple tonnes of water to low Earth orbit for rocket fuel preparation for space tourism could generate a significant profit if space tourism itself proves profitable." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "they were whisked seventy million miles":

  "Since Mercury orbits the Sun, and it follows a very elliptical path on its journey around the Sun, our two planets can vary their distance significantly. When Mercury is at its closest point to Earth, astronomers call this opposition (from the point of view of Mercury). This would happen when Mercury was at its farthest from the Sun, and Earth is at its closest. When this happens, Mercury and Earth would be separated by only 77 million km (48 million miles). Their maximum distance occurs when Earth is at its furthest point from the Sun, and Mercury is at its maximum on the other side of the Sun. The three objects then line up perfectly. At this point, Mercury and Earth can be 222 million km (138 million miles) apart." (Universe Today HERE.)

- Universe Today also has an article about colonizing Mercury (HERE).

- Isaac Asimov (writing as Paul French) set one of his Luck Starr juveniles on Mercury; see Wikipedia (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

The bottom line:

  "A clement twilight zone on a synchronously rotating Mercury, a swamp-and-jungle Venus, and a canal-infested Mars, while all classic science-fiction devices, are all, in fact, based upon earlier misapprehensions by planetary scientists."

  — Carl Sagan

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What Is Nowadays Termed 'Science Fiction' Is 'Historical Fiction' — Of the Future"

WAR not only encourages humankind to invent newer and more efficient ways to murder one another in ever increasing numbers but also has a strong effect on culture (for the survivors, anyway). Bundled in that umbrella term of "culture" is "literature," which not only reflects history but also reacts to it, potentially becoming a guide to what might happen in the future (including warfare). The Second World War was no different from most conflicts, extermin-ating millions while producing technologies that are still having effects, good and bad, on today's culture (e.g., the microwave oven and the atomic bomb). Literature's reaction was an enlargement of a subgenre which had served a niche reading market before the war but flourished just after it ended: science fiction (SF or sometimes Stf). Readers finally came to realize that those ridiculous fictional weapons of mass destruction which they'd read about in the '20s and '30s could, in reality, suddenly land right in their laps. Savvy magazine editors took the hint, and science fiction burgeoned. One of the beneficiaries of this publishing explosion was Robert Heinlein, by no means a hack writer, who encourages would-be SF authors to . . .

"Bet on the Future and Win."

(a.k.a. "The Historic Novel of the Future").

By Robert A. Heinlein (1907-88; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE; IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Bookshop News, February 1950.

Reprinted in Writer's Digest, March 1950 (today's text).

Also in The Nonfiction of Robert Heinlein: Volume I (2011).

Article (1 page).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "In fact, 'science fiction' is a poor term—non-descriptive. The older term of speculative fiction is closer to the truth . . ."

HEINLEIN tells us that whether or not it's called science fiction, nevertheless in every kind of literature "human problems remain basically the same—war and love and death and birth. The background scene is changed; the people are not."

Referenced in the article:

- Forever Amber (Wikipedia WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE and HERE), a wildly popular novel and movie from the late '40s.

- Destination Moon (Wikipedia WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE and IMDb HERE).

- The Man Who Sold the Moon (Wikipedia HERE and ISFDb HERE).

Resource:

- Robert Heinlein's science fiction could often provoke controversy. Was his novel Starship Troopers controverted by Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (HERE)?

======================================================================

HERE'S Mack Reynolds, who's probably serious when he says . . .

"My Best Friends Are Martians."

By Mack Reynolds (1917-83; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE; e-fanzines HERE.)

First appearance: Writer's Digest, March 1950.

Article (10 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "If you don't like the stuff, if you don't read it yourself, if you aren't familiar with it—forget about it. You'll never crack science fiction."

Some random comments from the article:

- At the time Planet Stories was producing "space operas," which Reynolds defines as "wild west stories laid on Mars instead of in Nevada."

- "L. Ron Hubbard, who also writes under the pseudonym Rene Lafayette, has recently sold his Doc Methuselah series, which runs in Astounding, to the picture market for a five-figure sum."

- "The fans want the notion story, the gimmick story, the snap ending, preferably with some scientific principle worked into the snap."

- Furthermore, the fans have an influence on what sees print: "If your science is a bit weak, if your story isn't up to snuff, if your gimmick doesn't snap, you get a first-class working over. . . Writers and illustrators in the field are made and unmade by the fans' vitriolic comments."

- "But, I didn't particularly like detective stories. Oh, I read them occasionally; usually novel lengths rather than shorts. I actually had to drive myself to read the pulp detective mags to be up on the market requirements. In the evenings, after working all day writing whodunits, I'd relax by reading science fiction."

- "But what are the advantages of writing science fiction, that I should think so highly of it? There is one tremendous one: the comparative freedom from taboos."

- "The larger the circulation of the publication, the more numerous the taboos."

- ". . . editors are looking for new talent; but in a field expanding as rapidly as science fiction, the need is more desperate."

- "Fred [Brown] is a master of the narrative hook, the clever twist, the gimmick."

- "Readers who buy science fiction magazines want plenty of pseudo-science."

- "There are three shopworn themes: dictators, the menace to earth, and mutants." (And this is 1950!)

- "The stories should have enough adventure to keep things going, but the adventure shouldn't run away with the science."

Other references:

- Max Ehrlich's The Big Eye (Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE).

- Fredric Brown's What Mad Universe (Wikipedia HERE and WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

- Jack Williamson's The Humanoids (ISFDb HERE and Wikipedia WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

- The Best Science Fiction Stories of 1949 (ISFDb HERE and Wikipedia HERE).

- A Treasury of Science Fiction (ISFDb HERE and Wikipedia HERE).

- Jack Woodford (Wikipedia HERE).

- Mr. Adam (Wikipedia WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

- James Hilton's Lost Horizon (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE and HERE).

- Crosley (Wikipedia HERE).

Resources:

- Go to Wikipedia for more about science fiction (HERE) and its history (HERE).

- Due to his prolificity, Mack Reynolds has appeared on ONTOS several times (often with a coauthor): (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

The bottom line:

   "The dropping of the atom bomb in 1945 made science fiction respectable. Once the horror at Hiroshima took place, anyone could see that science fiction writers were not merely dreamers and crackpots after all, and that many of the motifs of that class of literature were now permanently part of the newspaper headlines."

   — Isaac Asimov

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: Vincent Cornier's DUEL OF SHADOWS: THE EXTRAORDINARY CASES OF BARNABAS HILD-RETH

Able to add 7 links to the 11 stories in the collection (HERE).

"Douser's Heart Played Hopscotch, Marking Lines on His Stomach and Jumping Up and Down on It, Hard"

"Half-Pint Homicide."

(a.k.a. "Enter—The Douser").

By Ray Bradbury (1920-2012; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Detective Tales, November 1944.

Reprinted in:

   Detective Tales (Canada), May 1945

   A Memory of Murder (1984) (Wikipedia HERE)

  The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition: Volume 2: 1943-1944 (2014), as "Enter—The Douser."

Short short short story (5 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE; today's text) and pulpmagazines.org (HERE; go to text page 67).

   "The Douser had a very simple way of taking care of some very complicated people . . . . As witness his effective remedy for the fat, 

lush and powerful Mr. Schabold . . . ."

THERE'S a thin line between bravery and foolhardiness, and Douser wobbles all over it with aplomb. Doing that once too often with a vicious mobster, though, can get you killed: "Oh, 

I'd love to pull this trigger. And keep pulling it, over and over."

Principal characters:

~ Douser Mulligan ("Tag, you're it!"); Schabold ("I pride myself on my clever record"); and Sergeant Palmborg ("A body's cooling in there, just brought in from the railyards").

Notable phraseology:

  "The sea came in and went out, lifting its salty skirts."

  "Douser's fingers crawled like wary spiders, chest, stomach, legs, arms, then flying 

to his face."

  "You're an oyster with its shell off, soft and white underneath!"

  "Under the plankings the sea walked on salt feet between the piles."

And does this prefigure Columbo?

  "I'm no sleuth. I just know how to bother people. Nuisance value."

Typo: "I'l kill you".

References and resources:

- The Douser's last name is evocative, which may explain why Bradbury used it:

  "A mulligan is a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder. Its best-known use is in golf, whereby it refers to a player being allowed, only informally, to replay a stroke, although that is against the formal rules of golf. The term has also been applied to other sports, games, and fields generally. The origin of the term is unclear." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  Mulligan's first name can also be spelled "dowser," which takes us to what many regard as a pseudoscience:

  "Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia), gravesites, malign 'earth vibrations' and many other objects and materials without the use of a scientific apparatus. It is also known as divining (especially in water divining), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum or treasure) or water finding, or water witching (in the United States)." (Wikipedia HERE.)

  It's unlikely the author wanted the reader to make that association. It's more likely he intended us to think about the sinister connotations of "douse," i.e., "quench" or "smother."

- "It was a frame. . . . With gilt edges, too":

  The "frame" is used quite a lot in crime fiction, both written and televised:

  "Framing someone means providing fake evidence in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime. 'Frame' here means making someone innocent look guilty by 'putting the person in a picture frame of suspicion.' Of course, it results in a need for the Hero to Clear My Name. If the hero has to clear someone else who has been wrongfully accused of a crime, it's Clear Their Name." (TV Tropes HERE.)

- "Take your fingers away from your nose":

  "Thumbing one's nose, also known as cocking a snook, is a sign of derision, contempt, or defiance, made by putting the thumb on the nose, holding the palm open and perpendicular to the face, and wiggling the remaining fingers." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "Got your draft cards?":

  It's 1944 and a lot of people are eligible for military service:

  "The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was passed by Congress on 16 September 1940, establishing the first peacetime conscription in United States history. It required all men between the ages of 18 and 64 to register with the Selective Service. To register, men typically completed a D.S.S. Form 1 Military Draft Registration Card from the Director of Selective Service. Over 49 million draft cards were completed, including The Old Man's Draft." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "barrage balloon":

  Bradbury uses it as a metaphor for all it's worth: "A barrage balloon is a type of airborne barrage, a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe risk of collision to hostile aircraft, making the attacker's approach difficult and hazardous." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "I came to the Coast to blackmarket gas":

  "Black markets flourish during wartime. States engaged in total war or other large-scale, extended wars often impose restrictions on use of critical resources that are needed for the war effort, such as food, gasoline, rubber, metal, etc., typically through rationing. A black market then develops to supply rationed goods at exorbitant prices. The rationing and price controls enforced in many countries during World War II encouraged widespread black market activity." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "until my alibi is water-tight":

  "Often, when someone is suspected of a crime, they can prove they were somewhere else at the time, or otherwise physically incapable of committing the crime. This is called an 'alibi.' It's a common plot element in the mystery and crime genres, but sometimes pops up elsewhere. Note, however that the term 'alibi' is sometimes misused. . ." (TV Tropes HERE.)

- "1929":

  "The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, Crash of '29, or Black Tuesday . . . It was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its aftereffects . . . The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchange's crash of September, signaled the beginning of the Great Depression." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "Venice Amusement Pier":

  "Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by Los Angeles. Venice is known for its canals, a beach, and Ocean Front Walk, a 2.5-mile (4 km) pedestrian promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, and vendors." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- Bradbury produced only two Douser Mulligan stories:

  (1) "Half-Pint Homicide," (ss) Detective Tales, November 1944 (above)

  (2) "Four-Way Funeral," (ss) Detective Tales, December 1944.

- Our author grabbed our attention most recently with "The Crowd" (HERE).

The bottom line:

  "Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented."

   - Mark Twain in Eruption

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A Novel Without Any Death in It Is Still to Me a Novel Without Any Life in It"

"The Corpse in 20th Century Detective Fiction."

By George L. Scheper and Peter V. Cenci.

Article (6 pages).

Online at Academia.edu (HERE).

   "A bibliographic overview of how the corpse is used as a literary trope and plot device in British and American detective fiction of the 20th century."

WHEN it comes to detective fiction, there are requirements almost amounting to what can be termed "rules" to this game. Our authors skim through the rather large corpus of the genre to establish what those "rules" are with respect to the absolutely indispensable victim. Brief excerpts follow:

  "First, there must be a corpse -- that is the tautological sine qua non of the murder mystery."

  "The second consideration of the mystery writer must be to decide who will play the role of the corpse. In real-life crime and realistic crime fiction the murderee may be either an innocent or what criminologists call a 'crime provocative' victim. In traditional English mysteries and their American counterparts, however, it is usually the latter, in fact someone who is such an eminently murderable person as to constitute the Most Likely Victim."

  "The third consideration is the manner of dispatching the victim."

  "Hence the fourth consideration, disposal of the inconvenient corpse."

  "Finally, if the corpse is not disposed of, then what matters is its disposition, and here the differences between the English and American traditions are evident . . ."

  "At the end, there is the matter of what the corpse reveals to investigation."

Concerning that fourth consideration:

  "The disposition of the corpse is at the heart of the Chandler/Auden debate." This is a reference to Raymond Chandler, who "praised Dashiell Hammett because he 'took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley . . . . Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse'." To which W. H. Auden responded: "Mr. Raymond Chandler has written that he intends to take the body out of the vicarage garden and give the murder back to those who are good at it. If he wishes to write detective stories. . . he could not be more mistaken."

  As far as we know, that debate has never terminated.

Typo: "max1m1zmg".

Resources:

- "Dorothy L. Sayers, despite her work to legitimise crime fiction, wrote that there 'certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will some time come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.' Of course, many readers have 'learnt all the tricks,' or most of them. This does not, however, detract from the genre’s overall appeal. We have not grown bored with, or become tired of, the formula that revolves around good and evil, and justice and punishment. Quite the opposite. Our knowledge of, as well as our faith in, the genre’s 'tricks' gives a level of confidence to readers who are looking for endings that punish murderers and other wrongdoers, allowing for more satisfactory conclusions . . ." 

   - "A Taste for Murder: The Curious Case of Crime Fiction" (2014) by Rachel Franks (HERE).

Rachel Franks's Taxonomy of Crime Fiction. (Click on image to enlarge.)

- Some mysteries generate a LOT of corpses:

  "As a lifelong reader of classic whodunits, I’m always a little disappointed when the first murder that occurs is the only murder in the story. I always crave that mid-point killing, the one that completely changes the dynamics of the narrative. The truth is, I want multiple murders. My favorite Christie is And Then There Were None, which comes right out and tells you that there will be no one left standing at the end.

  "Of course, I’m probably not the only one amused by the fact that the great detectives of fiction often don’t catch the murderer until half the suspects are dead. Hercule Poirot in Christie’s Death on the Nile gets all the credit for eventually uncovering the diabolical killer, but doesn’t get any points knocked off his score for all the deaths that occur while he’s interviewing suspects. (By the way there are five deaths in Death on the Nile—not too shabby.)"

   - "The Unique Pleasures of a Mystery Novel with a High Death Count" (2022) by Peter Swanson at CrimeReads (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You See. Arms, Heads, Legs, Torsos All Over the Place. It's an Epidemic"

AND now for something completely different . . . from our last story, that is, as we offer an SFF tale with a much lighter tone:

"Operation Peep."

(a.k.a. "Pawley's Peepholes").

By John Wyndham (1903-69; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDb HERE; SFE HERE).

First appearance: Suspense, Summer 1951.

Reprints pages:

  As "Operation Peep" (ISFDb HERE).

  As "Pawley's Peepholes" (ISFDb HERE).

Short story (13 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE). 

Note: The hardcover edition of The Seeds of Time containing "Pawley's Peepholes" is on The Luminist Archives (HERE; go 

to text page 112.)

   "With parts of people poking right through the walls at most embarrassing moments, life became intolerable. Only an 'invention' could restore precious peace and privacy . . ."

THE main problem with most technologies is that they can be used for good or ill. The sandlot baseball bat and the carpenter's reliable claw hammer, for instance, make excellent murder weapons. We've always maintained, however, that the ideal weapon doesn't maim or kill but instead controls the victim, rendering him unable to resist. It's a lot less messy and saves time and money. Which takes us to today's story: An "inventor" who doesn't know he's an inventor contrives a solution (but not an invention) to a situation that is driving everybody bonkers. It's essentially the same problem that made pest control companies into corporate giants, but it is a lot less messy, saving not just time and money but, most importantly, everyone's sanity . . .

Main characters:

~ Jerry, the narrator ("It struck me all of a heap—so simple"); Sally ("We've got two ways of using inventions"); Patrolman Walsh ("found a head sitting up on the sidewalk"); Mrs. Rourke and Miss Farrell ("But there was nothing to be seen on the ceiling"); Jimmy Lindlin ("his hobby is collecting queer facts"); the traffic cop ("You could see his nostrils kind of spread, the way a horse's do"); Anna ("Naturally, I screamed at once"); and Jerry's boss ("First bust-up in twenty years").

References and resources:

- "a new kind of pink elephant":

  "'Seeing pink elephants' is a euphemism for hallucinations caused by delirium tremens or alcoholic hallucinosis, especially the former. The term dates back to at least the early 20th century, emerging from earlier idioms about seeing snakes and other creatures. An alcoholic character in Jack London's 1913 novel John Barleycorn makes reference to the hallucination of 'blue mice and pink elephants' while describing the two different types of men that consume alcohol excessively. Another notable instance of the appearance of pink elephants in popular culture is the 'Pink Elephants on Parade' section of the 1941 Walt Disney animated film Dumbo." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "You couldn't expect a person to be kind of broadcast and then come together again any old place":

  Just don't tell TV producers that: "In the original [Star Trek] series, beaming to and from the transporter chamber was a necessity." (Wikipedia HERE; see under "Technological and scientific restrictions.")

- "I'd think Oak Ridge":

  Thanks to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everybody in 1951 knew about Oak Ridge:

  "Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project—the massive American, British, and Canadian operation that developed the atomic bomb. In 1942, the United States federal government chose the area as a site for developing materials for the Manhattan Project. Major General Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, liked the area for several reasons. Its relatively low population made acquisition affordable, yet the area was accessible by highway and rail, and utilities such as water and electricity were readily available with the recent completion of Norris Dam. The project location was established within a 17-mile-long (27 km) valley. This feature was linear and partitioned by several ridges, providing natural protection against the spread of disasters at the four major industrial plants—so the plants would not blow up 'like firecrackers on a string'." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- "the imminence of Judgment Day":

  "Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resulting in the approval of some and the penalizing of most. The concept is found in all the canonical gospels, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew. The Christian tradition is also followed by Islam, where it is mentioned in many chapters of the Quran, according to some interpretations." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "batteries of Klieg lights":

  "A Klieg light is an intense carbon arc lamp especially used in filmmaking. It is named after inventor John Kliegl and his brother Anton Kliegl. Klieg lights usually have a Fresnel lens with a spherical reflector or an ellipsoidal reflector with a lens train containing two plano-convex lenses or a single step lens. The carbon-arc source was so bright that it allowed film directors to shoot daytime scenes at night. The ultraviolet rays produced by the light also led to some actors developing an eye inflammation referred to as 'Klieg eye'." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "out sight, out of mind":

  "When something is not nearby, it is forgotten about." (Wiktionary HERE.)

- "Peep shows" had an innocuous beginning several centuries ago, steadily losing their innocence over time:

  "A raree show, peep show or peep box is an exhibition of pictures or objects (or a combination of both), viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. In 17th and 18th century Europe, it was a popular form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen. Peep shows, also known as peep box or raree show ('rarity show') can be traced back to the early modern period (15th century in Europe) and are known in various cultures." (Wikipedia HERE.)

   Technology improved: "The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892." (Wikipedia HERE; also see Rivera Inventions HERE.)

  Another version: "The Mutoscope is an early motion picture device, invented by W. K. L. Dickson and Herman Casler and granted U.S. patent 549309A to Herman Casler on November 5, 1895. Like Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, it did not project on a screen and provided viewing to only one person at a time." (Wikipedia HERE; also see HERE.)

- The FBI is tasked with keeping track of homicides in the U.S.; see Statista (HERE) for the 2022 data. We're often told that even Al Capone used a baseball bat on at least one occasion (Wikipedia HERE), but did he? (Gangland Wire HERE.)

- Would civilization collapse completely if personal privacy simply vanished? Fredric Brown envisioned it (and he did so, please note, several years after today's author got there first) in his story Martians, Go Home (1955) (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE; online at Archive.org HERE, borrow only; free read at The Luminist Archives HERE.) (Filmed in 1990: WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE).

The bottom line:

  "Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible."

  — Ray Bradbury

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~