From: nenslo@yahooX.com
"Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:
> There's a Poul Anderson classic sf novel, god damn
it, I've read it
> twice, what's the title, anyway it posits that
for the last 100 million
> years, our whole solar system has been behind a
cosmic "cloud" of sorts
> which has been retarding fine electrochemical reactions
such as
> neuron-firing in brains all that time. And in this
novel the Earth is
> just coming out from under that "cloud."
Everybody gets smarter. The
> animals too. The elephants and chimpanzees are
smarter than people had
> been, and the people become so smart that most
can't handle it and go
> crazy one way or another. "BRAINWAVE"!
That's it. A terrible TV movie
> was made of it.
I like Colin Wilson's books The Philosopher's Stone
and (I think) The
Mind Parasites.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: nenslo@yahooX.com
"Rev. Ivan Stang" wrote:
> Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone is not to be confused
with Harry
> Potter's, since much of the novel's focus is on
what we'd call, ulp,
> "sex magick." To make a good story crude,
a sex researcher-writer guy
> is "possessed" by a super-fucker of the
previous century who had
> developed his own personal power, so to speak,
to the point that he
> could release his Faculty X, overcome the Dumbness
that most everybody
> slumbers in, and perform miracles of sex-energy.
Through modern day sex
> novel writers. The novel was also sold under the
title "The Glass
> Labyrinth," if I'm thinking of the same story.
This is a fine example of an intelligent well-read
man being mistaken
precisely BECAUSE he is so well-read. I administer
the chopstick of
correction with nothing but respect, not the usual dismay
and disgust
reserved for ignorant dumbasses. It is all too easy
to get Wilson's
disturbingly similar novels muddled together. The excellent,
racy,
scary novel which you so clearly describe above would
be The Hedonists
and I cannot add a single word to clarify its plot and
nature. It was
published in Britain as God of the Labyrinth, and is
not the same book
as The Glass Cage, an occult murder mystery with the
enlightening
cover blurb on the edition I own, "From the publisher
of The
Exorcist." And let me assure you I could not tell
you any of this if
I hadn't gone out into the hall and gotten my stack
of Wilson novels
and set them down next to my mousepad.
The Philosopher's Stone is essentially the same
concept as The Mind
Parasites, just a different treatment - alien infestation
of the human
brain keeps people dumb and keeps them from KNOWING
they are dumb.
> "The Mind Parasites" is a ton of fun
because it has an overt connection
> to the Lovecraft mythos, although from a completely
different stylistic
> approach. The Old Ones keep our Slack Sense smothered
and feed off our
> resulting general frustration and anxiety, is the
general idea.
> > Also Lovecraftian and concerned with Slack-smothering
godlike aliens is
> Colin Wilson's "The Space Vampires,"
which was made into the big budget
> badfilm "Life Force" by Tobe Hooper.
Sadly, the movie is Ed Wood with
> good lighting, though there are a few really cool
moments on account of
> excellent visuals, and an actress of truly unearthly
beauty who is
> stark nekkid the whole first half of the movie.
Though I never have brought myself to rent it please
let me advise you
that comparing ANYTHING to Ed Wood is just wrong.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Books about (or causing) externally imposed
stupidity
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
nenslo wrote:
> And let me assure you I could not tell you any
of this if
> I hadn't gone out into the hall and gotten my stack
of Wilson novels
> and set them down next to my mousepad.
Which is precisely what I didn't go to the trouble
to do, and now look
at me, a Dumbass Agin! But seriously -- there IS a
stack in my library
just like your stack and I COULD have, but I DIDN'T.
It's because I
feel like I shouldn't be spending so much time on this
trivia in the
first place, but I don't want your attempts to bring
some semblance of
serious bulldada research to go unencouraged.
I'm surprised now that *I* didn't confuse Wilson's book
with Harry
Potter.
> Though I never have brought myself to rent it please
let me advise you
> that comparing ANYTHING to Ed Wood is just wrong.
Sure, kill me... but you get the idea.
I watched that Tim Burton biopic "Ed Wood"
in a movie theater with my
former wife, when it came out. What I saw as an inspiring
comedy, she
saw as a depressing tragedy. The scene where Ed's first
wife breaks up
with him, loudly, at a party full of his weird-ass fucked
up friends...
well... luckily that didn't happen to me. But we did
have a fight on
the way home from the movie over whether Ed was a destestable
loser or
an admirable "I Did It My Way" kook who did
the best he could with what
he had.
Such an argument could never be resolved. But we stopped
arguing,
that's for sure.
It may be wrong, but I find myself comparing myself
to Ed Wood whether
I want to or not.
WHO THEN SHALL BE MY "KRISWELL"?
Or it it I who am Kriswell to J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' Ed Wood?
Or is it all a load of hooey, and the stars reel above
in the skies
never caring for our sad signifyings and selfish bleatings?
DON'T ANSWER THAT!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Books about (or causing) externally imposed
stupidity
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
nenslo wrote:
>"(or causing)"
Now I get it, d-hyuk.
Nen-Goated again.
Original file name: Books about externally imposedE - converted on Monday, 21 July 2003, 13:39
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