"To Be a Crack Racing Flier with a Future and the Grandest Girl in Nine Planets, To Be, Out of a Clear Sky, Accused and Convicted of Murder, To Face an Unjust Death with That Girl Was Enough To Make Anyone Crazy"

"The Demons of Darkside."

By Leigh Brackett (1915-78; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; the IMDb HERE; and TV Tropes HERE).

First appearance: Startling Stories, January 1941.

Illustrator uncredited.

Reprinted in Science Fiction Yearbook, No. 3 (1969) (today's text).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short story (11 pages).

Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).

(Note: Text very faded but legible.)

   "They were all going to die, here in the dark and the whispers."

ONCE again we have the age-old situation of an individual, usually a man, who's innocent of a crime but of necessity is on the run from the law (certainly Alfred Hitchcock liked the idea). Barry knows he's innocent, as is his lady love Alice, but proving it is just about impossible since the only person who could clear them is missing and presumed dead. To make matters worse, the solution to Barry's problem lies in a planet that seems to drive men insane. Theseus may have had the Minotaur to contend with, but, unlike Barry, he never had to struggle with "demons" that could leave him with a broken mind . . .

Low tech:

  The spaceships in our story don't seem to have any kind of radar, which is understandable since, at the time, radar was still a highly classified military program. (Wikipedia HERE.)

Typos: "McDougal"; "MacDougall"; "MacDaugal's"; "a burtal desire".

Main characters:

~ Barry Garth ("As for himself, he was no diamond-studded hero. He wanted to live"), Alice Webster ("Not all the population of this rotten sinkhole put together added up to Alice Webster"), Wilsey Stevens ("He had woven an unbreakable chain of evidence around them"), Sandy MacDougal ("Ye've the kind of guts I like, lad. Sorry I can’t help ye"), Brent ("I'm going for what you were, before you lost your nerve"), and Akal ("He heard Akal’s thought rhythms, heavy with greed and hate, but most of all, greed").

References:

- "The slow Venusian dusk cloaked the single shoddy street. The fever-mists crawled up out of the swamp, and some faraway scaly beast sent up a hissing scream. Blue mud reeked and squelched under Garth’s boots":

  Leigh Brackett opts for the "Venus as a swamp" version. What a difference eight decades make. See Wikipedia (HERE) and (HERE).

(Click on image to enlarge.)

- According to the ISFDb's "Leigh Brackett's Solar System" list (HERE), our author romped through the then-known Solar System, setting stories in or on Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and Jupiter, with Mars being her favorite venue.

- "Darkside" [on Mercury] "was one of the impenetrable mysteries of the System. No one knew what existed under the blanket of everlasting shadow and freakish magnetic currents—except that men who went there never came back!":

  Eighty-four years on, we know a lot more about Mercury than Brackett and contemporary scientists did (HERE), but for a while there the fictionalized Mercury offered a rich field to play in for SF authors (HERE):

  "Fictional depictions of Mercury, the innermost planet of the Solar System, have gone through three distinct phases. Before much was known about the planet, it received scant attention. Later, when it was incorrectly believed that it was tidally locked with the Sun creating a permanent dayside and nightside" [that's the situation in Brackett's tale], "stories mainly focused on the conditions of the two sides and the narrow region of permanent twilight between. Since that misconception was dispelled in the 1960s, the planet has again received less attention from fiction writers, and stories have largely concentrated on the harsh environmental conditions that come from the planet's proximity to the Sun."

- "I wasn’t cut out for a smuggler, nor a damned tramp salvage pirate!":

  "Space Pirates is a science fiction trope that just won't go away. The image of pirate freebooters on the high seas is just too romantic for words, science fiction writers can't resist. Alas, in a scientifically accurate world, they are more or less impossible, much like space fighters and for similar reasons. There ain't no stealth in space, so it is practically impossible for a fat space galleon to be surprised in mid trip by a sinister space corsair flying the Jolly Roger. Or a rude surprise for a space merchant ship whose trajectory passes too near the Somali Asteroids for that matter. It would be several orders of magnitude easier for the 'piracy' to take the form of grand theft from the merchant's warehouses on the ground." (Atomic Rockets HERE.)

Artwork by Kelly Freas.

- "Yttrium":

  This same element turned up in "The Sheriff of Thorium Gulch" (HERE).

- "You call us crystals. We're carbon, as you are, but static. We came into being with this planet and we'll go out of being with it. We neither die nor change. But we can’t build up vibration of the proper frequency to enter your conscious minds." (See Atomic Rockets HERE.)

- "the vibrations of your subconscious minds, which seem to be a storehouse for impulses not permitted in your conscious minds":

  "Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, and theologians. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered conscious-ness." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

Resources:

- A much less serious treatment of space piracy is Jame McConnell's "Grandma Perkins and the Space Pirates" (HERE).

- Another Leigh Brackett story that we've examined in more detail is "Last Call from Sector 9G" (HERE).

The bottom line:

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

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"Some Day Soon That Paper May Well Affect the Course of History. In That Thought There Is Drama, Is There Not?"

"Midnight Visit."

By Robert Arthur (1909-69; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the Three Investigators Headquarters HERE).

First appearance: Collier's, June 17, 1939.

Reprinted in EQMM, March 1948 (today's text).

Other reprints (FictionMags data):

 Lilliput, October 1939.

  Pearson’s Magazine, October 1939.

 The Mysterious Traveler Magazine #5, 1952.

 The Saint Detective Magazine, December 1954.

 The Saint Detective Magazine (Australia), March 1955.

 The Saint Detective Magazine (U.K.), May 1955.

Short short short short story (1 page in Collier's; 3 pages in EQMM).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 114).

   ". . . halfway across the room, a small automatic in his hand, stood a man."

"I stand on sudden haste," says an impatient Romeo. "Wisely and slow," advises Friar Lawrence. "They stumble that run fast." In today's story one character could certainly 

have benefitted from the good Friar's counsel . . .

Principal characters:

~ Ausable ("You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionage and danger"), Fowler ("jumped at the sudden rapping on the door"), Henri ("M'sieu, the gognac you ordered"), and Max ("I will wait on the balcony").

Resources:

- Nearly nine years ago we briefly covered the Collier's edition of "Midnight Visit" (HERE), and some of you might remember it; if so, consider today's posting an expansion of it.

- It was also about then that we dealt with Robert Arthur's "Too Dumb to Be Fooled" (HERE).

The bottom line:

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

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"Ma's Dead, Isn't She? You're Not Very Subtle Breaking the News . . ."

"The Copper Tea Strainer."

By John Q. Copeland (?-?).

First appearance: Liberty, October 2, 1937.

Adapted for the Suspense radio program, April 21, 1949 (YouTube HERE; run time 26 minutes 51 seconds).

Short short short short story (1 page).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "He looked at the narrowed, calculating eyes, at the tight lines about the mouth revealed by the unretouched proof. Was there suggestion of selfish cruelty there, or was he doing some wishful thinking?"

MOST killers aspiring to a perfect murder have the perennial problem of diverting suspicion away from themselves, and that usually means framing somebody else for it. (The Columbo TV series used that as a standard plot device.) In today's story, a clever police detective must break an alibi, and in so doing he has to utilize yet another of Columbo's stratagems, stealthily laying a trap for the murderer . . .

Main characters:

~ Detective Rolph ("Who said anything about a tea strainer?"), Irwin ("the commercial photographer for whom Jeanie Dune posed"), Jeanie Dune ("I didn't kill my mother!"), 

and Ted Wark ("There isn't anything he'd do wrong. Nothing. He's square").

References:

- "in some babe like Garbo" (Wikipedia HERE) "or Dietrich" (Wikipedia HERE).

Resources:

- In the Suspense radio program (about which HERE) version, the story is told from a different point of view, being narrated by Betty Grable (1916-73; Wikipedia HERE).

- Virtually nothing is known about our author. Find a Grave has a sparse entry for a John Q. Copeland (1911-80) (HERE).

  FictionMags lists only two contributions:

   "The Copper Tea Strainer," (vignette) Liberty, October 2, 1937 (above)

   "When It’s Twilight on the Trail," (article) Dude, February 1965.

The bottom line:

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

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"Two Different Worlds, We Live in Two Different Worlds"

"The Other Now."

By Murray Leinster (Will F. Jenkins, 1896-1975; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: Galaxy, March 1951.

Illustration by Bard (?-?).

Reprints (many) page (ISFDb HERE).

Among the reprints:

  Galaxy Reader of Science Fiction, 1952.

  Twists in Time, 1960.

  One Hundred Years of Science Fiction, 1968.

  One Hundred Years of Science Fiction, 1972.

  As Time Goes By, 2015.

  Black Infinity Magazine #4, Spring 2019.

Short story (12 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "They were separated only by the difference between what was and what might have been."

STRONG FEELINGS often move writers, especially poets and tunesmiths, to summon up extravagant notions; for examples: "I love you more than words can wield the matter/Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty" (Goneril) and "Ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low/Ain't no river wide enough/If you need me call me, no matter where you are/No matter how far" (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). Nevertheless, it isn't every day you come across a story that literally—and we mean literally—knows no bounds, employing another extravagant notion, the perdurably popular concept of neverending love . . .

Principal characters:

~ Jimmy Patterson ("If Jimmy Patterson had told anybody but Haynes, calm men in white jackets would have taken him away for psychiatric treatment"), Haynes ("was his friend and reluctantly a lawyer"), and Jane ("It could have been me instead, or neither of us").

References:

- The title of today's post comes from a song by Al Frisch and Sid Wayne, published in 1956 (Wikipedia HERE).

- "a belief in a fourth dimension" (Wikipedia HERE).

- "Nobody except fatalists" (Wikipedia HERE).

- The technical term for communication with the dead is known as necromancy (Wikipedia HERE), and the place where that communication might occur could be considered a haunted house (Wikipedia HERE).

- "a saying about two people becoming one flesh":

  From the Bible: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (KJV HERE).

Resources:

- Evidently a lot of people have been thinking about parallel universes for a long time (Wikipedia HERE).

- Murray Leinster seems to have been a pioneer in SFnal multiverse fiction, so for him "The Other Now" wouldn't be breaking new ground:

  "One of the first science-fiction examples of a parallel universe is Murray Leinster's short story 'Sidewise in Time,' published in 1934. Although Leinster's story was not the first example of parallel universes, it is credited with popularizing the concept." (Wikipedia HERE).

  The significance of "Sidewise in Time" gets a thorough discussion (Wikipedia: WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE); the story itself is (HERE).

- For a sampling of the fictional permutations of the multiverse, go to TV Tropes (HERE and HERE and a lot of other places there).

- Other multiverse yarns that we've perused include Ray Wood's "Schrödinger’s Gun" (HERE), Sam Merwin's "Third Alternative" (HERE), J. W. Armstrong's "Reversal of Misfortune" (HERE), Dwight V. Swain's "So Many Worlds Away . . ." (HERE), and John Russell Fearn's "The Copper Bullet" (HERE).

- Our latest contact with Murray Leinster was his crime fictional "Transfusion" (HERE).

The bottom line:

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

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"In the McGee Books, All of the Nomenclature Is Always Correct"

THIS one is for hardcore John D. MacDonald fans (and boating enthusiasts):

"Travis McGee, Boatman."

By Martin Luray (?-?).

First appearance: Rudder, August 1975.

Article (3 pages).

Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).

   "He has a fine eye for good lines—appreciative of beautiful vessels as well as the lovely soul-damaged women that recuperate from time to time aboard The Busted Flush as it voyages to the Keys or the Bahamas."

TARZAN might have had jungle vines (and the occasional elephant), The Lone Ranger might have had faithful Silver, and The Caped Cruiser might have had the Batmobile, but only Travis McGee had The Busted Flush . . .

Reference:

- About McGee's boat Wikipedia tells us:

  "Travis McGee lives on a 52-foot houseboat dubbed The Busted Flush. The boat is named after the circumstances in which he won the boat in what McGee describes as a 'poker siege' of 30 hours of intensive effort in Palm Beach—the run of luck started with a bluff of four hearts (2-3-7-10) and a club (2), which created a 'busted flush,' as described in Chapter 3 of The Deep Blue Good-by. The books are all narrated by McGee, writing in the first-person past-tense. The boat is generally docked at slip F-18 at Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A self-described 'beach bum' who 'takes his retirement in installments,' McGee prefers to take on new cases only when the spare cash (besides a reserve fund) in a hidden safe in the Flush runs low."

Resources:

- There's ample information about Travis McGee (HERE).

- Martin Luray evidently preferred nonfiction, since the only FictionMags entry for him involves a true World War II event, "The Daring Daylight Raid on Germany's Mile-High Fortress."

- John D. MacDonald was primarily a novelist, but we have encountered some of his shorter crime fiction over the years (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).

- However, MacDonald's shorter crime related work that we haven't encountered yet includes:

  "Bright Orange Shroud," (novella) Cosmopolitan, April 1965

  "Darker Than Amber," (novella) Cosmopolitan, April 1966

  "The Dreadful Lemon Sky," (novella) 1974

  "Terminal Cases," (nonfiction vignette) New York [Magazine], October 3, 1977.

The bottom line:

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

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Miscellaneous Monday—Number Forty-one

A Day Late and a Dollar Short Edition

"Time Travelling with Jack the Ripper on Page and Screen."

By Lucyna Krawczyk-Żywko, University of Warsaw.

First appearance: Anglica, An International Journal of English Studies, 2017.

Essay (15 pages).

Online at Academia.edu (HERE).

   "Jack the Ripper endures attempts at overwriting and remains a legendary killer . . ."

THERE have been many serial killers who've left their bloody stains on the fabric of history but none of them have achieved the enduring notoriety of Jack the Ripper. That popularity could be explained by the fact that the Ripper case has never been officially solved, and it seems to be a universal human trait that where there's a mystery there will always be interest. Given today's literary culture, it's no real surprise that Jolly Jack would reemerge from time to time not just in crime and horror fiction but also in fantasy and science fiction . . .

Note: Be aware that today's article contains SPOILERS throughout. You have been warned.

Typo: "to infinitely wonder through time".

Abstract:

  The article discusses time-travelling Jack the Ripper narratives, the majority being short stories and episodes of TV series. Despite their different temporal foci – late-Victorian past, present, distant future – the texts revolve around four ways of depicting the mysterious murderer: as a timeless force, a killer who uses time travel to escape, a killer whose deeds are to be prevented, and, last but not least, a tool in the hands of future generations. They also indicate that creators and consumers of popular culture are not interested in discovering the Ripper’s identity as much as want to follow him through centuries.

Excerpt:

  Out of the time travelling trend of Ripperana, present in genres as varied as adventure, crime, comedy, drama, fantasy, horror, mystery, thriller, romance, and science fiction, emerge a few dominant ways of depicting Jack the Ripper: 1) a timeless force, with no beginning and usually no end, existing alongside humanity; 2) a fleeing killer, who manages to escape his Victorian pursuers into the future; 3) a killer to be beaten, with time travel used as the means of preventing him from committing the murders; and 4) a useful tool in the hands of future generations. What is interesting in these works is that not only hardly ever is he caught and punished for his deeds, but also that his gory legacy seems to be protected and preserved. Their creators and, by extension, the audiences are not really interested in catching the Ripper, but in chasing him.

Referenced works in the article (all having SPOILERS in the links):

1. A Timeless Force

- "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (HERE).

- Thriller episode "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (HERE).

- Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode “The Ripper” (HERE).

- Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold" (HERE).

- Outer Limits episode "Ripper" (HERE).

- The Sixth Sense episode “With Affection, Jack the Ripper” (HERE).

2. A Fleeing Killer

- Fantasy Island episode “With Affection, Jack the Ripper/Gigolo” (HERE).

- Time After Time (HERE).

- Jaclyn the Ripper (HERE).

3. A Killer to Be Beaten

- The Map of Time (HERE).

- Timecop episode "A Rip in Time" (HERE).

- Doctor Who comic "Ripper's Curse" (HERE).

4. A Useful Tool

- Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor" (HERE).

- "A Toy for Juliette" (HERE).

- “The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World” (HERE).

5. The Chase Through Time.

Resources:

- Wikipedia has informational articles about Jack the Ripper, one of which is (HERE).

- Our latest encounter with Jolly Jack was Punch's contemporary jab at what they regarded as the authorities' mishandling of the Whitechapel murders (HERE).

- Today's author hasn't overlooked "Wolf in the Fold," Robert Bloch's science fictional updating for the Star Trek TV series (HERE).

The bottom line:

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

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