The Tale of Turandot

There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?

This is possibly the oldest riddle ever and was written in Ancient Sumer around four thousand years ago. (Scroll down for the answer)

People, even during the most ancient times, like to test their logic and knowledge with riddles. We like making them for others to solve and we like solving them ourselves – thereby feeling clever and proud of our intellect.

In the fifth century BC, Sophocles gave us the Sphinx riddle in “Oedipus, the King”.

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

These are just two examples of riddles that have come to us from ancient times. The use of imagination and fantasy is essential to riddles so it comes as no surprise to find them in many stories.

Let’s move forward in time a little to look at another example.

In the mid twelfth century, a poet was born in what is now modern-day Azerbaijan. He wrote a number of poems including one in which an ancient Persian ruler goes off in search of seven beauties. The beauties are each related to the seven known planets of that time. One of them is, of course, connected to Mars and she is supposedly Khutulun, the real daughter of a Central Asian nomadic ruler and a relation of Ghengis Khan and Kublai Khan. She is one tough lady. She hunts and wrestles and is known to have won many, many horses by wrestling and beating down prospective suitors.

Khutulun daughter of Qaidu, medieval miniatures, 1410–1412

Fast forward to mid eighteenth century Venice where a playwright for the Commedia dell’Arte uses this Persian poem as the basis for one of his plays. This play is much admired by the German poet and playwright Schiller, who decides to write his own version. The hunting and wrestling bad-ass nomad princess of the central Asian plains, however, is a bit too much for European sensibilities, so our heroine gets transformed into a cold Chinese princess who, instead of beating the crap out of her suitors, sets them riddles. If they can solve the riddles, they will win her hand; if they can’t, they die. This story was then taken up and put to music by the famous composer Puccini.

This princess is such a nice person, one wonders why anyone would fall in love with her in the first place? Nevertheless, one nameless suitor eventually turns up who manages to solve the riddles, but this bitch of a princess still doesn’t want to marry him. So, good guy that he is, he gives her a chance. He tells her that if she can find out his name by dawn of the following day (sound familiar? Rumplestiltskin?), she can kill him and not marry him. In order to avoid the marriage, the princess orders all her subjects to stay up all night trying to find out his name or they will be beheaded in his stead. (What a lovely woman!) This is what the suitor sings while awaiting for the dawn.

None shall sleep,
None shall sleep!
Even you, oh Princess,
In your cold room,
Watch the stars,
That tremble with love
And with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me,
My name no one shall know,
No… no…
On your mouth, I will tell it,
When the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!
(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)
Vanish, o night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win!
I will win!
I will win!

You probably don’t recognise the English words unless you’re an opera buff but a lot of football fans will recognise this version of it as it suddenly became really famous in 1990 when super-famous opera singer Pavarotti ‘s version was used as a football World Cup theme.

As I mentioned before, if Turandot is such a terrible person, why would anyone want to marry her no matter how beautiful, rich or powerful she is, so some bright spark has come up with an answer for that conundrum too. In the 2021 Chinese film “The Curse of Turandot”, the princess wears three bracelets which were gifted to her when she was young. These bracelets are, of course, cursed so they turn this otherwise pleasant young lady into a homicidal hellcat. Although this film is in Chinese, the character of Prince Calaf, the one who sings Nessum Dorma in the opera, is played by American actor Dylan Sprouse. Needless to say, his voice was dubbed, but that’s very common in Chinese dramas where the voice you hear is often not the voice of the actor playing the role. This film wasn’t great so I wouldn’t recommend it even if you like other Chinese films but it does show how an idea that originated in the imagination of a 12th century poet, changed and altered to suit European sensibilities in the 19th century and used as a football theme in the nineties can be brought right into the 21st century and given a new spin. Imagination is a wonderful thing!

Riddle answers: A school and a person

Language in Fantasy and Science Fiction. One language is not enough – “not yap ya’Hol” (Klingon)

By their very nature, fantasy and science fiction, in all their forms, be that books, films, anime, music or games, rely on language to relate their story, to allow the characters to interact with each other and to communicate with us, the intended audience. As these genres rely so heavily on imagination, it goes without saying that great imagination is also put into the language used, and it should come as no surprise that the demands of these genres have produced some of the most imaginative uses of language ever and include totally invented “new” languages, some of which are more common and in more use than most would probably believe. 

Probably, the most well-known languages created specifically for fantasy works are the languages invented by Tolkien for his books, which included “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The Elven group consists of several forms, including Quenya and Sindarin. They continued to be worked on by Tolkien until his death in 1973 and are heavily influenced by Tolkien’s linguistic interests in Early Germanic and Old English. The form of the letters themselves mirrors the old Runic letters of the early Germanic invaders of Britain, which is also known as the “futhark” or “futhorc” after its first six letters.

Another well-known invented language is the one I mentioned in the title of this post – Klingon, which according the Guiness Book of World Records is the most widely spoken fictional language. There’s no denying that I’m a huge Star Trek fan, so for any Trekkie, the Klingon language is fascinating. The Klingons are a warrior race. The very culture is based on confrontation, and is very similar to the Japanese code of Bushido.  Their language reflects this attitude. It’s very harsh sounding, guttural and full of glottal stops but it is one of the few entirely invented languages that has been so fully developed it even has its own dictionary and many online courses where you can learn it. If you are interested in finding out more about how this fictional language was developed (even if you aren’t a Star Trek fan) here’s a link to a 2018 CNN Style interview with the linguist who invented it.

Another series of books which feature  fantastic languages is “The Witcher” series by Andre Sapkowski. Many people know and love the Witcher games and some of us are eagerly awaiting season 2 with Henry Cavill (Superman) playing Geralt of Rivia on the small screen. There are several languages featured in the books, most notably the Elder Speech (Hen Llinge) but also Dwarvish, Gnomish, Vran and Vodyan, but it is the Elder Speech which is the most interesting for me as a Welsh person, as Sapkowski, a Pole, based it mainly on the Celtic languages of Britain – Welsh and Irish. Many of the words seemed very familiar to me, something which made reading the books all the more involving and exciting.

This is just a small selection of fictional languages which appear in the fantasy world. And, if this post seems familiar to you at all, it is because it is mainly based on an older post of mine which you may have read on my Tumblr blog.

Linguistic phun: The word which means “to make up a language” is “glossopoeia”, from the Greek words γλωσσα meaning “language, tongue” and ποιω meaning  “to make”.

(All images are taken from Google Images.)

Weaponised Magical Musical Instruments

Imagine you are a warrior, out on the battlefield, in full armour ready for the fight. You draw your great sword and prepare to let out a terrifying roar of defiance when unexpectedly you hear the sounds of a flute being played. A flute! You think, what the hell? Why are you hearing flute music on the battlefield? The music gets louder and louder and suddenly you are on the ground, writhing in pain, holding your head in your hands while your bowels evacuate involuntarily. All your comrades around you are in the same condition. Battle over!

Music is powerful. It has the ability to make you feel happy, sad, joyful, melancholic, amorous or terpsichorean. Musical instruments, whether magical or not, play a huge role in all forms of fantasy and science fiction but they are not often thought of as weapons in their own right. But, there are many examples. Below are just a few that I’ve come across from various sources.

Possibly the oldest, and one of the most fantastical examples of the use of a musical instrument as a weapon of mass destruction comes from the Bible. In the Old Testament book of Joshua, the Israelites use their rams’ horn “trumpets” to bring down the walls of Jericho, after which the only creatures left alive, including horses, donkeys, cattle and sheep, were the spy/prostitute Rahab and her family. As there is absolutely no archaeological evidence that this ever happened, we should certainly call it a work of fantasy and put it as our first example.

Another of the oldest and most famous examples of the use of a magical instrument is the flute used by the Pied Piper of Hamelin to entice the rats and then the children away from the town. While this is not a weapon in the traditional sense it is certainly a powerful instrument of control and is interesting in that the player seems to have the ability to decide who/what is affected by it. First only the rats follow the music until they drown themselves in the Weser River. Then the children are affected but not the adults. In one account the adults are said to be in church because it was a holy day but as most children know if you are a member of a religious family there is no way adults will let you stay at home by yourself on a holy day. This all supposedly happened in the year 1284 – a pretty exact date for something that is clearly fictional so it could be assumed that something quite awful did happen to the children of Hamelin around this time, plague possibly as it is carried by rats, and the Pied Piper represents death. What is interesting is that there is a street in Hamelin called Bungelosenstrasse or “Street with no drums”. It is believed to be the street where the children were last seen and dancing or playing music is still not allowed on this street even today.

Science fiction/fantasy books often feature music being used in some form, though not usually as a weapon. One of these is “The Crystal Singer” (1982) by Anne McCaffrey. In this book, the planet Ballybran is the only place where special crystals can be mined which are used in a variety of technologies and are therefore very valuable. To mine these crystals, the miners use the perfect pitch of their voices, so it is clear that some kind of sonic frequency comes into play. It wouldn’t be a far-fetched idea to use these perfect voices, amplified to a great degree, as weapons, much like a very high note breaking a glass.

Another more recent book in which music played a very central role is “Ready Player Two” by Ernest Cline. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie “Ready Player One”, you’ll know that the main character, Wade Watts, plays a virtual reality game to win a massive prize. I don’t want to go into details here in case anyone doesn’t know it and would like to read the book or see the movie at some point. “Ready Player Two” picks up Wade’s story, and, like “Ready Player One” he has to use a variety of virtual tools in his virtual world to continue playing the game. Prince’s music (the artist formerly known as) plays a central role in the story and one of the tools that Wade has to pick up happens to be one of Prince’s famous guitars, which is used as a weapon in an arena battle. I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of Prince so the fact that events concerning his life and work are so central to the plot meant that I wasn’t as engaged with this book as Prince fans would be.

Another genre where using musical instruments as weapons is a major feature is Chinese wuxia. Never heard of it? Well, if you’ve ever seen “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or “Hero”, you’ve seen wuxia. Wuxia (loosely translated as martial hero) is a genre of traditional Chinese film, series and manga where the central character is a martial arts expert who follows a code of ethics to right wrongs and deal justice. Wuxia includes the use of fantastical kung fu techniques such as flying and levitation and also the use of the flute and the guqin and guzheng (traditional Chinese zithers, although the guqin is most often used as it is smaller and easier to carry than the larger guzheng) to overcome enemies. One of the most popular Chinese drama series from 2016 was “Love O2O”. This series used an interesting mix of live action and anime as the characters played the very popular RPG game “A Chinese Ghost Story” – a real game that can also be played by players outside China is you are so inclined. At the end of the clip below, you can see the main character using his guqin as a weapon.

(youtube clip fan made connecting real game with Love020 series)

While “Love 020” shows a Chinese MMORPG, there are a number of other RPG games that allow the player to multi-skill up to Bard class, a character that uses magical music and instruments. If you want to find out which ones, just do a Google search. Here’s a link to one I haven’t played but as the Mabinogi is so close to my heart (See previous posts) I’m posting it here.

Think that all this is too fantastical to have any bearing on real life? Think again! The LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) has been described as a “sound cannon” and “sonic weapon”. It is used for crowd control in the US and is extremely dangerous for human health. Depending on the length of exposure and decibels used, LRADs can, at the least, cause tinnitus, at worst, vomiting and blood and/or mucus from the ears with lasting effects on hearing. LRADs were first used by a US police department in Pittsburgh in 2009 to control protests during the G20 summit held there that year. Since then, a number of US police departments have used LRADs for crowd control.

So, once again, what some people have dismissed as pure fantasy has become reality. Gotta love that about sci fi and fantasy.

Linguistic Phun

Terpsichorean – pertaining to dance. From the name of the Ancient Greek Muse of Dance, Terpsichore, who also invented the harp and education.

(I do not own the rights to the images shown in this post or the Youtube content.)

Rhiannon – The Mabinogi

Nearly everyone knows the song “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac, right? If you don’t, you can check it out on Youtube. It’s a really good song off a really good album, but how many of you know anything about the mythical woman of this name that the song was actually based on? If you clicked here thinking that this blog would be about that song, then be patient because I will talk about it a little later but first let’s get a little background.

Rhiannon is one of the most famous characters from the Mabinogi. The Mabinogi, that medieval collection of Welsh Celtic myths and legends, has long been a source of inspiration for artists. In a previous blog, I wrote about the story of Blodeuwedd and how that story inspired the book “The Owl Service” and the old TV series that was based on it. (Link here if you haven’t already read that post. ) So, here’s the background for Rhiannon.

According to the tales, Rhiannon rode on a white horse and was always accompanied by three magical birds whose song could both wake the dead and lull the living to sleep, hence her connection to music. She came from the Otherworld (Annwn) to marry Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, whose heart she captures when she encourages him to follow her on her magical white horse. But, no matter how hard he rides he cannot catch her until he calls out to her to wait. Then she stops and admonishes him for not calling out sooner. As with other Mabinogi heroines, however, her story is far from a happy one. On her wedding day, an unknown guest arrives and requests a boon of the bridegroom. Thoughtlessly, Pwyll (probably so happy to be married to such a beautiful woman) grants it without thinking. The guest, who is really Gwawl, Rhiannon’s unwanted lover, wants her back and now he can have her as Pwyll is honour-bound to uphold his oath. Rhiannon, far more intelligent than her rather dumb husband, finds a way to avoid going back to Gwawl. (If you want to read about that or even more about the Mabinogion, I suggest this link to Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation.

After several happy years together, Pwyll needs an heir but Rhiannon seems to be barren. After refusing to take another wife, Rhiannon eventually gives birth to a son, but unfortunately this son is mysteriously stolen and Rhiannon gets blamed. Pwyll, once again despite objections from his courtiers, doesn’t kill her off but rather punishes her to stand outside his castle at the mounting post and carry visitors on her back from the entrance to the hall while telling them her story. Few take up her offer to be treated like a horse and after many years the son turns up and is re-united with his real parents. 

There is some speculation that the story of Rhiannon could be a case of euhemerism, that there actually was in ancient times a real queen or queens whose story has become exaggerated and mythologised through numerous re-tellings, or that perhaps her character was based on some earlier Celtic horse goddess such as Epona.

But, to go back to Rhiannon’s birds, these three birds had the power to “wake the dead or lull the living to sleep” with their beautiful singing. So, apart from the name Rhiannon and the singing, what has this got to do with the Fleetwood Mac song? Well, in 1974, Stevie Nicks accidentally came across the book “Triad” by Mary Leader. It’s a story about a girl who becomes possessed with the spirit of Rhiannon from the Mabinogi. Nicks was so enchanted (I use this word deliberately) by the story that she felt compelled to write the song, which, when Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, eventually became their signature song. Latest news is that Nicks is now working on bringing “Rhiannon” to the screen and is working on a mini-series which will also include more songs she has written and never previously released related to the stories of the Mabinogi.

But, leaving aside this very famous song, I recently came across another very pleasant song called “The Birds of Rhiannon” by a person who calls himself Damh the Bard. I think you can tell by his name that he has a great connection to folk music, and, according to his web page he classes himself as a pagan folk musician. He has many songs based on the Mabinogi myths and legends which you can check out from this link or from Youtube. Also on Youtube, there is this Channel 4 (1984) documentary about the making of a live production of the Mabinogi which also shows the story of Rhiannon and Pwyll. The quality of the video is not good but the production must have been wonderful to watch live. You can get a good idea of this from the video.

Linguistic Phun: Euhemerism – A belief attributing the origins of the gods to the deification of heroes after their deaths. A theory postulated by the 4th century BC Greek writer Euhemerus, who believed that the Greek gods’ origins could be attributed to the deification of actual heroes.

The Three Body Problem

Liu Cixin

(English translation by Ken Liu)

How do you feel about first contact? There’s a lot of material out there – books, films, TV series – dealing with this subject, and we’ve been trying to find other intelligent life in the depths of the universe for many years now with scientific programmes like SETI. Some of us are excited by the prospect of not being alone in this vast universe, others are not so delighted.

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Probably, the seminal work for the arrival of an alien species to our planet is H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, which kind of sets the standard. The aliens arrive from Mars, attempt to take over our Earth, destroying everything in their path and generally causing mayhem. That book did actually end well for the human race as our wonderful viruses(!!!) took care of the monsters for us.

But, let’s consider things seriously. Most scientists working in this field concede that any alien race capable of reaching Earth would have technology so far in advance of ours that the scenario that would play out would be much the same as the Spaniards invading the New World – pretty much total extinction for the native population. Not a very attractive prospect for us pitiful earthlings.

So, let’s say a scientist working in a remote area of China (Yes, I know, it’s China. It seems bad things tend to start there nowadays) happens to stumble upon a message from an alien race. This is a scientist who knows well how things are likely to turn out, so what do they do? If they answer their call, they know the alien race will be able to pinpoint Earth’s position in the galaxy and aim straight for us. Thing is though, this particular scientist is not a big fan of the human race right now. After all, we’re pretty much destroying our home planet with our incessant wars, over-population, global warming, species extinction, plastic saturation and so on and so forth, so …

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Fast forward a few years. Another scientist working in the field of nano-technology is suddenly approached by the government to do some weird undercover work. At first this involves playing a computer game. Doesn’t seem too dangerous, right? And, not exactly what you’d expect your government to ask you do, but it seems that other prominent scientists who have played the game have suddenly committed suicide. The government wants to know why.

The game in question introduces this scientist to the world of Trisolaris, a planet in a triple sun system. This planet has big problems. The fact that it orbits three suns means its conditions are extremely chaotic, ranging from extreme heat to extreme cold and everything in between but the Trisolarans have a particularly interesting means of surviving these extremes. The Trisolarans are, of course, the alien race that has sent the signal to Earth. They want off their crazy planet as soon as possible. Will they get an answer to their signal? Well, there are no spoilers here – read the book!

The system of Trisolaris probably equates to that of our nearest neighbour – the Alpha Centauri system.  It was as early as the 17th century  that two Jesuit missionaries, Richaud and de Fontenay discovered independently that Alpha Centauri was, in fact, a binary star , which came to be called Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. To the naked eye, however, they look like one single star, the brightest in our night sky after Sirius and Canopus, Much later, not until the 20th century did Robert Innes discover  Proxima Centauri. Although Proxima Centauri is quite far, in astronomical terms, from A and B, they are still gravitationally intertwined, making them, in effect, a tri-star system. Interestingly, our nearest exo-planet neighbour also revolves around Prox. C. so could be a good candidate (if your imagination stretches that far) for Trisolaris.

Apparently, Netflix wants to make the book into a TV series with the same team as Game of Thrones (Weiss and Benioff) but  have been criticised for this because of the Uighur situation.  Netflix have countered by stating that although they condemn the treatment of the Uighur people, the project should be judged on its merit, and, as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, Liu Cixin is entitled to his own opinions of the government there, which are not connected to the contents of the book in any way. I tend to agree with this. If you can put aside personal feelings and read this book as a work of science fiction, it is interesting and well worth reading.

Year Zero

The year is 2007. You go to the bathroom during the interval of a gig you’re attending and, strangely, there is a flash drive taped under the toilet. Of course you pick it up, take it home and plug it in. There’s a net address on it that links you to an anti-establishment website, and, being a bit rebellious, you check out the site. There’s an interesting bit of music accompanying the info there – electro-industrial rock, moody, a bit unusual but strangely enticing. You’d like to find out more. The site tells you to call a number where you hear an orphic message about drugs in drinking water with some more strange background music and a message telling you your next step. That’s it you’re hooked.

This isn’t the beginning of a book or the opening scenes of a film. Similar events actually happened. It was all part of the Alternative Reality Game (ARG) that heralded the Nine Inch Nails concept album Year Zero. Want to find out more? Here’s a link. https://vimeo.com/5484260 

Or if you’d prefer a Wiki link to the campaign timeline. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_timeline_of_Year_Zero

If you aren’t familiar with Nine Inch Nails at all, here’s a little background. NIN is basically Trent Reznor, a multi-talented music producer, singer, song-writer, musician. He often collaborates with Brit Atticus Ross, another  multi-talented musician and producer, as he did for the album Year Zero. If you don’t know or recognise the name Nine Inch Nails, you’ll probably have heard Johnny Cash’s version of the NIN song Hurt and you may have seen the film The Social Network for which Reznor and Ross produced the soundtrack. More recently, NIN music featured in the Miley Cyrus episode of Black Mirror. So, as well as Year Zero, NIN music is well and truly in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

To get back to Year Zero, the concept of this album refers to the very near future, 2022, when society has basically fallen apart. It is a very political album in that it presents a dystopian future where, to quote Trent Reznor, “The world has reached the breaking point – politically, spiritually and ecologically. “ It also includes some almost “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Brave New World” ideas of a theocratic authoritarian militaristic society allowing for very few personal freedoms and drugs in drinking water to keep us all happy. Although the ARG and album came out in 2007, they are no less resonant today, particularly in the light of what is happening in the world right now.  The second track on this album is entitled “This is the beginning of the end “, which seems almost prophetic considering the global pandemic we’ve all been going through.  Another track is called “Capital G”. Here are some of its lyrics –

         I pushed the button and elected him to office and he pushed the button and  he dropped the bomb … And he signs his name with a capital G.

That capital letter could easily be a capital T or a capital B, maybe? (Trump? Boris?)

Here are some more lyrics from the track “The Great Destroyer”. They could refer to some psychotic world leader, but they could also refer to each and every one of us destroying the environment with our mass consumerism.

I hope they cannot see 
The limitless potential 
Living inside of me 
To murder everything 
I hope they cannot see 
I am the great destroyer

NIN’s music is not something for everyone. I love it but fully realise that it’s not to everyone’s taste, or perhaps it’s overtly political ideology is not to your taste either. Pity! In these difficult times we need stuff like this to give us a wake-up call.

Linguistic Phun:

Orphic – adjective

Of or relative to Orpheus

Resembling the music attributed to Orpheus; entrancing

Pertaining to a religious or philosophical school maintaining a form of the cult of Dionysis or Bacchus, ascribed to Orpheus as founder: Orphic mysteries.

(often lowercase) mystic; oracular  (which is how the word is used above)

Update – “Upload”

A short update on uploading one’s self.

Uploading/Downloading one’s consciousness into a machine seems to be flavour of the month at the moment. After Altered Carbon and Years and Years which I featured in my last post, I’d like to add a quick word about another TV series with a similar theme – Upload.

Upload is a very different kettle of fish from the other two. First of all, it’s a comedy. The story is about a young man, Nathan Brown, who loses his life in a seemingly impossible accident involving a self-drive car. His super-rich girlfriend uploads him to a computer-generated luxury after-life resort. It seems, though, that all is not exactly what it seems. Why did his car crash? Why is his bitch girlfriend so very, very controlling. What’s going on with his best friend who refuses to answer his calls? (Yes, interaction with the living is really possible.) Add to that the fact that Nathan and his “angel”, Nora, who is his living guide to the after-life, start to have a real connection, and you have a recipe for some mystery, romance and diversion.

Upload is an enjoyable, sci-fi mystery that is really good fun and the episodes are only about half an hour long so easy to watch without having to take them too seriously and get yourself distracted from other much more important activities that we have to do now during lockdown, such as clearing out your sock drawer. Added bonus – Nathan Brown is played by good-looking  Robbie Amell, who has done several other series including A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Flash and Tomorrow People, and is first cousin to another good-looker, The Arrow’s Stephen Amell.

Released on Amazon Prime in May of this year, it has already been renewed for a second series.

Altered Carbon and Years and Years

Do you want to live forever? Would you at least like to extend your lifespan for quite some time, perhaps enough time to be able to visit other planets outside our solar system? Maybe you’d just like to reach the age of Methuselah, who, according to the Bible achieved the grand old age of 969. What lengths would you go to, though, to achieve this? Would you allow your consciousness to be downloaded into some sort of small, neat storage device which could then be “implanted” into a new body when the old one has died?

This is the premise behind the Netflix series “Altered Carbon”; season 2 of which landed on the streaming service recently after a successful season 1 which was shown in 2018. In the first series, we meet the protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. We learn that he had been a soldier for the authorities who turned rebel, was captured when his group fell, had his stack (the small, neat storage device) removed, was imprisoned (only his stack that is because his original body no longer existed), then taken out of storage and re-sleeved (put back into a living body) to help solve the murder of an obscenely rich “Meth”  (person who is so rich they can afford to clone their bodies so that their sleeves are the same every time and,as a consequence,  are real Methuselahs who can theoretically live forever provided their stack isn’t destroyed).

A “stack”.

Too many details about the series would give away too many spoilers, so if you’re confused by the convoluted explanation in the previous paragraph, just watch season 1 and all will become clear. I have to say, though, I loved season 1 and although season 2, in my humble opinion, wasn’t quite as good, I’m still really looking forward to season 3. Apart from the fact that I love almost anything sci-fi/fantasy, Altered Carbon appealed to me for a number of reasons.

One of the most interesting aspects for me from the series was the “re-sleeving” concept. A new sleeve can be any physical human body.  It can be male or female, young or old, so the goal isn’t necessarily eternal youth. In one episode in season 1, two men meet up and realise almost immediately that they had been soul mates, only one of them was previously a woman whose new sleeve is now male. They reignite their relationship despite the obvious difference because the personality and character of the re-sleeved person remained the same and that was what the other originally fell in love with. In season 2, a female character, who is helping Kovacs, allows her stack to be placed temporarily in Kovacs body. Her son still manages to recognise her even though she’s now in this male body. Her son is also in a body that was not his original one. This, obviously, leads to the question of what exactly makes up who we are. What makes each individual unique and special?

(Takeshi Kovacs – original, season1 and season 2)

So, where did this idea come from, that future technology, by storing the essence of our being, could help us live long simply by exchanging our mortal coils? There are two, interconnected philosophical theories in existence right now. The first is Transhumanism. (Believe me, this is all true. You can check it out if you’re so inclined.) To quote Wikipedia, and I am assuming that, in this case, Wiki is close enough to the truth.

               Transhumanism is a philosophical movement that advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology. (Wikipedia)

If you are interested in finding out more about this philosophy, you can visit this website.

https://whatistranshumanism.org/

I first came across this very interesting concept in another excellent and very different TV series called “Years and Years”, a series jointly produced by the BBC and HBO and shown in May/June 2019. This series deals with many differing hypothetical issues which may affect us in the not so distant future. In it, one of the character wishes to become “transhuman”. Here’s a video clip of her explaining to her parents what she wants to do.

The idea that we can keep on evolving and continually getting better and better, especially by using technology to help us, forms the basis of the second theory I mentioned above and that is Extropianism.  Here’s the Wikipedia definition for that.

     Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of Extropy, is an “evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition”. Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people live indefinitely. (Wikipedia)

So, you can see from the definitions that the two are closely related, with extropianism being a particular form of transhumanism, which promotes the continuation of human life, using technological developments, to a point whereby human life is almost amaranthine, without the need for religion or dogma.

These are very thought-provoking concepts which lead us back to my original questions – exactly how far would you go to extend your life-span?

Whatever you believe and however you feel about the future of the human race, I can highly recommend both Altered Carbon and Years and Years, with one being quite American in its outlook and the other particularly British and both very different from each other.

“Altered Carbon” and its sequels “Broken Angels” and “Woken Furies” are originally a series of books written by the British author Richard K Morgan. I haven’t read the books yet but I fully intend to.

Linguistic Phun: If you thought  amaranthus was a flower and/or a purplish-red colour, and nothing to do with immortality, look below.

     Long ago poets conceived of a flower that did not fade and christened it amaranth. The appellation is rooted in the Greek words amarantos, meaning “immortal” or “unfading,” and anthos, meaning “flower.” The word amaranthine emerged as an adjective of the imaginary flower and subsequently of anything possessing its undying quality. Amaranth also names a real plant, an herb that some consider a weed and others grow for its colorful leaves and spikes of flowers.

(Source: Merriam-Webster.com)

More Fantasy in Music – King Crimson “In the Court of the Crimson King”

You could say all music is based on fantasy in some way – a fantasy love or a fantasy life, but there is one genre of music that epitomizes fantasy and that is 60/70s progressive rock or prog rock as it is more commonly known.

During the 1950s and 60s, almost all recorded music was limited in length to about three and a half minutes due to the size of the “single” vinyl record. The further development and greater use of the Long Playing 12 inch record played at 33⅓ rpm rather than the 45rpm, allowed musical artists the freedom to express themselves fully, and this allowed the genre of prog rock, music influenced by jazz, classical and symphonic music, to develop, where tracks could last 8, 10, 12 minutes or more.

“In the Court of the Crimson King” was the debut album of the band King Crimson. Released in October 1969, it is, arguably, the epitome of prog rock and fantasy. The lyrics for the title track were written by Peter Sinfield, poet and lyricist, together with the other band members. He said himself that the lyrics were “…a pastiche of images from Dylan, the Bible, and some of my favourite sci-fi and fantasy novels.”  Here is the first verse from the title track.    

The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king

With is references to “prison moons”, “purple pipers” and “ancient tongues”, it could easily be a paragraph from a fantasy novel. It draws us in to the idea that by listening to the music, we are, in fact, embarking on a fantasy journey.

My favourite track from this album isn’t the title track, though. It’s “Epitaph”, the third track on side one. Written at the height of the Vietnam war, it echoed what many believed at that time, that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” had been long forgotten, even so soon after World War II, and that the world was on the edge of impending doom. These lines, although written so long ago are equally relevant today, especially considering the person who is the current president of the USA and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see,
Is in the hands of fools

The first track of side one is also very well-known. “21st Century Schizoid Man” begins the anti-Vietnam theme with lines like “Innocents raped with napalm fire”, which is probably a reference to the famous photograph from that war shown below. The title itself is a fantasy view of humanity in the 21st century – a society where the line “Nothing he’s got, he really needs” could refer to the greed of politicians and businessmen or the rabid consumer society that now exists.

Another of my favourite tracks is “Moonchild”. This is a wistful song probably about the moon itself longing to see the daylight. For me, though, it’s more like the moonchild is the last person left on the Earth in a post-apocalyptic era after nuclear war or a particularly aggressive virus has destroyed humanity. (This post previously appeared on another blog platform without the virus references, of course.) The song describes the moonchild talking to herself, playing hide and seek with shadows and waiting, in vain, for the company of the sunchild.

I can’t talk about this album without mentioning the iconic album artwork, the cover of which you can see above and the inlay below. On the outside is the 21st Century Schizoid Man and on the inside is the Crimson King, painted by Barry Godber, a computer programmer, whose only work this was, as he died in 1970. Many prog rock album covers, such as this one are wonderfully fantastic and if you like the art on the cover of this album, you should also check out the artwork of Roger Dean on the album covers of another prog rock band, Yes. Roger Dean’s artwork is believed by some to have given much inspiration to James Cameron in the making of the film “Avatar” and the floating islands shown in that film.

Most of these interpretations of the songs are mine and mine alone. If they agree with yours, great! If they don’t or if they are different from any other interpretations you’ve seen, that’s great too. This is the wonder and majesty of music. It transports us to different times and worlds and frees our imaginations to see whatever we wish. If you’re young enough not to have experienced prog rock first time round, or even if you’re old enough to remember it and this has reminded you of it, why not go to Youtube and check out some of the songs by bands like King Crimson, Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, to mention just of few of my favourites.

Remember, everyone, like and share if you enjoyed this post and STAY HOME, STAY SAFE!!

Fantasy in Rock Music: Michael Moorcock, Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult

Almost anyone of a certain age who is a fan of reading sci-fi/fantasy will have heard of the author Michael Moorcock. Born in the UK in in 1939, his most famous works are probably the Elric of Melniboné series which relate the life of the Eternal Champion, Elric,  servant for the forces of Chaos, possessor of the cursed black sword Stormbringer and inhabitant of the multiverse.

Elric, although a hero – the Eternal Champion, a man who cannot die and is re-incarnated again and again to struggle with the dichotomies of good and evil, chaos and order – is not your typical muscle-bound conqueror. He is an elongated, slim, white-haired albino who has to use drugs to maintain his health. He is, in fact, an emperor, but the last of his line. The books (7 in the main series but Elric also appears in others) tell of Elric’s reluctant battles for the God of Chaos, while at the same time trying desperately to keep a shred of humanity – difficult in itself as Elric is not entirely human but comes from a much more ancient and powerful race who traditionally have had very little regard for lowly, ordinary humans.

Apart from being a junkie albino brooding servant of Chaos, Elric also possesses one of the most famous swords in the sci-fi/fantasy world – Stormbringer, the Stealer of Souls. This black, growling, screaming, mumbling, singing sword not only takes your life but also your soul, which is then dispatched to the God Arioch, God of Chaos. It’s also got its own consciousness too, which often makes it quite difficult for Elric to control, as Stormbringer’s demands don’t always agree with Elric’s wishes.

Now, unless you’re a big fan of Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult, you’re probably wondering what on earth their connection is to Michael Morecock and his writing. In fact, Michael was a collaborator of theirs and wrote many of their songs. He is particularly connected to Hawkwind and received a gold record for being one of the writers of their album “Warrior on the Edge of Time”, which is a direct reference to the Eternal Champion. Moorcock also did some of the vocals on this album as well as being very involved with many of their other works and side projects.

Moorcock also collaborated with the Blue Oyster Cult, writing the lyrics for three tracks, two of which are directly connected to the Elric stories. The first is called “Black Blade”, which is, of course, a direct reference to Stormbringer, and the second, “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”, is linked to Elric’s emotions and psychological states. In 1987, Moorcock, who was an accomplished musician with his own band “The Deep Fix”, played onstage with Blue Oyster Cult in Atlanta, Georgia and the members of both Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult together with Moorcock contributed to many other songs and album tracks as side projects.

As a result of his deep connection to music, it is often suggested that Moorcock named his infamous sword Stormbringer as a tribute to the famous guitar Fender Stratocaster. Since then, there have been many connections between music, other rock bands and Moorcock and his books, including numerous mentions of the name “stormbringer”, such as the mediocre Deep Purple eponymous album. (Although a direct connection to the Elric stories was denied by the band members, stating that the name was based on mythology.)

Both the books and the music have had great impact on their respective genres and it’s always worth going back to them for another read/listen. The music is available on Youtube and there are various free online sites where you can read parts of the books to get “tasters” before buying.

Enjoy!

Watch “Neil Oliver: Hatred is everywhere!” on YouTube

Penanggalan – A Malay vampiric witch entity

A while ago, I wrote about one of the strangest vampiric entities I’ve ever come across – the Jianshi or Chinese Hopping Vampire. As well as writing a little about the “facts” concerning this evil creature, I also posted a link to a weird film I’d found on Youtube related to the Jianshi. Being used to the normal blood-sucking fanged European version, I found the Jianshi very strange and interesting. Well, I think I’ve found an even weirder sanguine monster – the Penanggalan, from Southeast Asia, mainly Malasia. As you can see from the picture below, she is a monstrous, fang-toothed head trailing her entrails.

She is not technically undead as is a European vampire, so how does she manage to detach her head and leave behind her body? Well, she is a witch who practises black magic. She uses magic to soak her body in a vat of vinegar until her head can come unstuck. (So, one way to tell if there’s one around is by the overpowering stench of vinegar!) Then trailing her guts behind her she flies off in search of her favourite food – new born babies and newly-delivered mothers, whose blood she drinks with a long, invisible tongue. Before dawn, she will return to the place she left her body and again soak herself in the vat of vinegar to shrink her innards to a small enough size to fit them back into her body.  In order to protect against her, new mothers and their relatives surround the room with thorny plants. Weird right?

So how does one become a penanggalan? Well, there are several suggestions. The first is that the woman (often a midwife) has been cursed. Then, of course, there’s demonic possession somehow connected to the fact that she had promised not to eat meat for 40 days but broke the promise and is now doomed to drink blood. Finally, there’s plain old meanness – she wanted, for some reason, to do this to herself to take revenge for some injustice done to her.

If you were (or still are) a player of Dungeons and Dragons, you might have come across the Penanggalan before. She is, in fact, one of dead creatures from the rule book – Armour Class: 16; Hit Points: 104; Speed: (fly) 40ft (hover). She has two melee attacks – withering bite and acidic entrails – and a slumber charm which recharges after a rest. Defense against her is thorny plants and sun. If she is not back in her body by sunrise, she’ll rot. According to Wikipedia, there are also a few more references to penanggalans in popular Western culture such as an issue of Hellboy comic and an RPG platformer game called Indivisible.

Want to see her in action? Well, there are a few videos on Youtube.They aren’t very good quality but might be good for a laugh. Here are the links if you’re interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFVrOB4Xxf0    trailer – Demonic Beauty, Khmer film 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYeJ404n6mA   Full film, no English subs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYeJ404n6mA   Full film, no English subs