postaweek | Karavansara

25 May 2013
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

Celebrating the Shadows, 2013

Fact is, reality always takes you by surprise… that’s why we need fantasy.
To be prepared.

(no, not the band that did Apache)

As I mentioned a while back, in this weekend – which marks the birthday of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price – the idea is to do something to stress and underscore the relevance and dignity of imaginative fction.
Being chiefly a writer, I’ll write.

I call it Imaginative Fiction (using the old catch-all tag coined by Lyon Sprague de Camp).
You can call it horror, fantasy, weird, science fiction, pulp adventure…
You can call it faery tale, myth, folklore…

It is not kid’s stuff.
Oh, granted, kids love it – because kids are curious, and normally don’t give a damn about being perceived as serious, mature or respectable.
They want ideas – they hunger for ideas.
And if you are looking for ideas, fantasy fiction, imaginative tales, are the best spot in which to dig…

With this I do not mean to diss “serious fiction” – as usual my problem is not with mainstream or serious fiction, is with the fools that use it as a token of tribal belonging.

I read <put the author’s name in here>, therefore I’m acceptable.

That’s how “serious books” get sold but never read.

Now, good imaginative fiction is not normally read to fit in.
In school you are mocked and overlooked.
They call you a geek.
Desirable members of the opposite sex won’t date you.
Teachers appreciate the fact that you’re a reader but might point out to your parents that “the kid has too much imagination.”
As if it were a problem – real, serious, dangerous troublemakers are those without imagination, because they normally can think of just one solution to any problem.

And even if you, being a geek, finally find a suitable community – comic book readers, fantasy fans, roleplayers – that’s supposed to be a phase you’ll leave behind when you”grow up” and start thinking about “important things”.
Important thins seem to involve being unhappy because you want them, and then being unhappy because once you get them they are not so hot after all.
Weird.

But for a fact, imaginative fiction makes us better.

In its deviations from reality, imaginative fiction questions concepts like those “important things”.
Truly, we read these stories, watch these movies, not to escape reality, but to look at it closer from a new, fresh perspective.
We need these narratives not to escape reality, but to fight the need to escape reality.

So, during this weekend I’ll celebrate watching an old movie with dinosaurs in it, and then I’ll read some weird book full of monsters.
Not because it’s cheap escapism – but because there’s a point in surrealism, there’s a strong moral drive in adventure stories, because contemplating the strange it’s easier to understand the mundane, later.

So let’s raise a glass to our three patron saints – men of culture and intellect, that never despided imaginative fiction, and contributed making it popular, and acceptable.
Go read a book.
Go watch some movie.
Dust off the old comics collection.
And teach the younger generations that’s where ideas come from.

Cheers!

22 May 2013
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

I remember Zanthodon

“…there are still lost lands in the remote corners of the earth where fantastic monsters roam, where chaste and beautiful women remain to be rescued from sneering villains, and where adventure and peril and heroism thrive amid exotic and bizarre scenery.”

I was just sweet sixteen…
Well, no, I was a tad younger, actually, when I found, on a shelf of my favourite bookstore, an old copy of Lin Carter’s Journey to the Underground World, published by DAW book.
A very small pocket-sized paperback, the pages crispy with age, and a cover with… well, with a pterodactyl carrying away a busty blonde.

Now, I do not know if it’s still like this out there, or if it was ever like this anywhere else back then, but when I was a kid of ten or thereabouts, the general practice was, they handed you a thick Jules Verne book, maybe for Christmas, or for your birthday – because you were a kid, and kids “just love” adventure stories.

OK, so let me tell you – there’s nothing worse, when you are a kid of ten/twelve in the seventies, to be handed a 1950s translation of Journey to the Center of the Earth.
It’s boring.

So I went through Verne’s Center of the Earth as a kid, being bored silly, when I found out there were actual real books with Tarzan in them.
Tarzan, the guy from the movies.
Only, I found out, much better than in the movies.

Having read a few Tarzans, I started looking for something I really thought should be a smash – At the Earth’s Core, from the same guy that did Tarzan, but… wow, with dinosaurs! And adventure! And babes!

But the novel was not translated in Italian, so I put it on my list for my project of starting and reading in English.

And then, I found Zanthodon.

Lin Carter’s Zanthodon books – the first in the series being the afore mentioned pterodactyl-with-blonde book – are a pastiche of Burrough’s Pellucidar series.
And they are fun.
They are, probably, the best stuff Carter wrote – I love the John Dark novels, I enjoyed his Lemurian tales, but Zanthodon is more tongue-in-cheek, more happy-go-lucky in its approach to the exotic adventure, more modern, and fun.
In an classic Burroughsian twist, Eric Carstairs journeys by drilling-mole to a huge cave beneath the Sahara, where the classic cast of babes and dinos awaits.
His sidekick is eccentric Professor Percival Penthesileia Potter.
You can guess the rest.
Carter follows the Burroughs standard plot closely – but provides us with a highly psaeudo-scientific rationale for the existance of his subterranean worls, which is actually slightly more plausible than the classic Hollow earth scenario.

Blimey, it was fun!

A few months later, I left Zanthodon for Pellucidar, having found a copy of teh Signet edition of the first book.
But Carter’s slightly parodic and yet not-ridiculous-at-all approach to his stories and characters remained with me a long time.

Right now, I’m going through my Pellucidar and Caprona books, and I’ll probably post some ideas here.
But before I start, I wanted to pay homage to Lin carter’s Underground World.
It was great fun.

Advanced Readings in D&D: Lin Carter (tor.com)
The Hollow Earth Catalog (vovatia.wordpress.com)
Earths inside the Earth–a Short Note on Inner Civilizations. And a Map. (longstreet.typepad.com)

20 May 2013
by Davide Mana 9 Comments

Keep working

Getting old I’m getting lazy*.
So I need all the help I can to keep on track with my work.

So, right now I’m working on a game-related project, putting together a thing tentatively called The Claws of the Purple Cat.

Writing a game scenario is quite fun, but it is not like writing a story.
It’s more like putting together a construction kit for a story.

I’m writing in blocks – chunks of information that the game keeper will be able (hopefully) to assemble in the way and inthe order that fits his game.

It’s quite interesting, but as I said – I’m lazy.
So, to keep on the straight and narrow, I’m using you – my readers.

There’s a word countere here on the right – courtesy of Writertopia.
It shows my progress.
This way, I can’t let go and waste time napping or watching old Penguins of Madagascar reruns without publicly losing face.
Nice and smooth.
I’m blackmailing myself into working with a serious schedule.

And now, back to work.

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*Not that when I was younger I was any different, but my health was better, and I had more energy.

15 May 2013
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

Phishers of Men 2 – The Return

The problem with GoogleTranslate of course is, it can’t handle complex texts.
But let’s proceed with order.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I was contacted by some phishers whose hook letter was so good in terms of content and form, and so riddled with grammar and spelling errors, I offered them my translator services.
Well, they got back at me.
Offering me a translation job.
The cheeky bastards!

And so I was contacted by a noted and well respected American author – whose work I translated in the past – offering me the urgent translation of a 12.000 word document.

And to tell you the truth, the first mail seemed legit.
OK, it came through a gmail.com account and sounded like a template job, but that’s ok – for all I knew, it was a preliminary thing sent to me and a dozen other colleagues…
So I replied, quoting a figure for the translation, proposing a standard contract, and asking for details.
I was sold.
After all, translating stuff is my job – currently, my main paying job: it is what puts bread on my table and keeps the light on (and the web connection going!)
So, ok, I mailed back my proposal.

And I got a reply! Continue reading →

11 May 2013
by Davide Mana 7 Comments

On my TV – Sanctuary

I was rather unconvinced, when I first saw the earlier episodes of Sanctuary, the Canadian TV series starring Amanda Tapping.
I think it was the rather clunky (?) CGI sets.
And yet, today – as the fourth series is being aired here in Italy – I’m a fan.
I actually like it a lot better than, say, Eureka (which bores me to death) or Battlestar Galactica.

After all, a series featuring a science team investigating cryptozoology to protect the cryptids, featuring a sasquatch as a character, involving much (computer-generated) globetrotting, an ancient race of Twilight-free vampires, a hollow earth setting, references to ancient mysteries and whatnot…?
With Jack the Ripper as one of the good guys?
And a descendant of Thor Heyerdahl as a member of the cast?
Together with that woman from Stargate SG-1?

C’mon – it’s obvious that my interest for the series should border on the fetish.
Add the slightly steampunkish feel of some episodes and of part of the premises, and I’m sold. Continue reading →

10 May 2013
by Davide Mana 3 Comments

Journeys on the Silk Road

The latest addition to my ever-growing library of books about the Silk Road is Journeys on the Silk Road *, by Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters.
The book was published in 2012 and was a gift from my brother.

The book focuses on Aurel Stein‘s second Silk Road expedition, between 1906 and 1908.
Following his passion for the history of Central Asia and a series of often unlikely leads, Stein reached the Mogao Caves – also known as the Caves of Thousand Buddhas – in the Taklamakan region, and there he started playing a bargaining game with the local monk, the Daoist Wang.
At the end of a long battle of wits, the monk agreed to part with a few thousand ancient texts, which had been waiting in a cave for eight centuries.
The collection – which Stein acquired somewhat wholesale for 130 sterling pounds – included texts in a number of languages, and on a variety of subjects, from sacred texts to personal letters.
A veritable cross-cut of a multicultural community whose existence had never been suspected by western scholars.
The bundle included the oldest printed book known – a woodblock print copy of the Diamond Sutra, one of the central texts in the Buddhist canon.
Morgan & Walter’s text does therefore shift its attention from the old explorer to the text, outlining its importance for the development of Buddhist culture in Asia, but also its impact on Western culture.

All in all, a book that touches on so many interests of mine, it was impossible for me not to like it a lot – I started and finished it in one day, also thanks a very long train journey.

The volume is highly enjoyable and gives a sympathetic, humane portrait of Stein, a giant of archaeology who’s been somewhat forgotten by the public, and whose activities in Cantral Asia are often portrayed as piracy and plunder, not excavation and research.
The book keeps a balanced view of Stein’s work, while presenting the reader with a character that is, as they say, larger than life.

Filled with anecdotes, quotes from Stein’s diaries, books and letters and a good number of funny bits.
Stein’s companions on the road and his competitors in the race for the Mogao Caves are a gallery of unique characters.

Great reading.
And the book is also supported by a nice and informative website.

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* The title “Journeys on the Silk Road”, and variations thereof, must be the most widely used when Central Asian travel and Silk Road exploration are concerned.
Which is not bad – dial it in the Amazon search window, and you’ll find a treasure trove of great reads, and excellent music.