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Post by dem on Dec 2, 2008 18:19:59 GMT
'Carlos Cassaba' (Michel Parry) - Roots Of Evil: Beyond The Secret Life Of Plants (Corgi, 1976). Introduction by Carlos Cassaba
Clark Ashton Smith - The Seed From The Sepulchre
H. G. Wells - The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Rappaccini's Daughter
Hester Holland - Dorner Cordaianthus
Manly Wade Wellman - Come Into My Parlour
Mary Elizabeth Counselman - The Tree's Wife
David H. Keller - The Ivy War
John Collier - Green Thoughts
Fritz Leiber - Dr. Adams' Garden Of Evil
Frederic Brown - Daisies
Margaret St. Clair - The Gardener
Clifford Simak - Green Thumb It's official: Flowers and stuff hate us, and you'll never be able to look at a potted plant the same way again. Parry's collection is a lot more enjoyable than you might think, and this largely due to the sheer bloodthirstiness of the delinquent Triffids that pop up in just about every other story. Personal picks include the Clark Ashton Smith story, truly creepy and a moment of awesome horror when the main protagonist suddenly develops a headache. Green Thoughts almost certainly inspired Roger Corman's The little Shop Of Horrors and Rappaccini's Daughter is both horrific and terribly sad, as we learn the desperate lengths a mad botanist will go to in the name of scientific "progress".
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Post by ghostwriter2109 on Dec 3, 2008 22:10:36 GMT
Credit card was whipped out and utilised pretty damn quick after that posting.
Gotta love Amazon too.
Great post, Dem.
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Post by dem on Mar 2, 2013 8:12:11 GMT
Manly Wade Wellman - Come Into My Parlor: (Donald A. Wollheim [ed.], The Girl With The Hungry Eyes, Avon 1949). Carolina. Manly defies the advice of his wise old gardener, Henry, sets off into the local swamp to gather pitcher plants to study for his forthcoming article in a botanical journal. Caught in a rainstorm, he seeks shelter in what he takes to be a deserted house - but is it really a super-intelligent, man-eating plant in cunning disguise?
Clark Ashton Smith - The Seed From The Sepulchre: James Falmer, professional orchid hunter, explores a burial pit in the Venezuelan jungle where, according to the natives, vast quantities of gold and jewels have been interred. Unfortunately for Falmer and colleague Roderick Thorne, the natives were having him on. There's no treasure, just piles of bones and an appalling man-eating plant taken root in the bones of a human skeleton, eventuality forcing it's way through his skull. Poor bastard must have died in excruciating agony.
Before he can get the hell out of there, a pod bursts, and Falmer is caught full in the face by a cloud of grey dust. As the pair desperately paddle their canoe back toward civilization and medical assistance, the spores of the 'devil plant' take root in his cranium ...
Frederic Brown - Daisies: Dr. John Michaelson fatally invites his wife to test his latest invention, a device for reading the thought patterns of plants. Unfortunately for him, their favoured topic of conversation is the full extent of his relationship with sexy assistant, Miss Watson.
John Collier - Green Thoughts: Torquay. Mr. Mannering cultivates a rare orchid, bequeathed him by a friend who died mysteriously on the same expedition. Mannering is delighted with the specimen but has little time to enjoy it as, first cousin Jane's cat and then cousin Jane herself go missing. When the huge buds flower into exact replica's of their heads, the startled Mannering steps up too close to examine the phenomena and is himself assimilated into the terror plant. The trio's dilemma is made all the worse by the fact that they remain fully conscious and aware of their awful plight. Enter Mannering's wretched nephew. Wait until he discovers he's been cut out of "the old skinflint's" inheritance!
David H. Keller - The Ivy War: Sci-horror: Vampire plants wage war versus Pennsylvania, draining the blood of any creature unfortunate enough to get in their way! Every cloud, etc., and one community's terror is a blessing in disguise for Colonel Young, what with the Mayoral elections imminent.
Hester Holland - Dorner Cordainthus: A Surrey-based palaeobotanist patiently cultivates the maggot-like seed he's brought back from his travels in Gondwana Land. The thing rapidly grows into a many-tentacled, carnivorous monstrosity that crushes and devours every living thing that strays too close.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 2, 2013 18:58:40 GMT
Here's the cover of the 1976 Taplinger edition (designed by Rus Anderson), which uses Parry's name: I prefer the Corgi cover. |
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Post by dem on Mar 2, 2013 19:55:37 GMT
Me too, but thanks for sharing this and the Jim Souder Freak Show cover, neither of which i'd seen. Managed to fit this one in this morning, another cracking story from a very entertaining selection. Chetwynd-Hayes should have included this in Tales Of Terror From Outer Space (am sure it influenced his The Shadmock in The Monster Club (the novel, not the film: they're two very different stories).  Artist uncredited : "It was a big, tall lanky thing ... with a rough brown skin like a potato. It had two little pink mole hands. And it had an awful, awfully kind face." Out of sheer perversity and despite the gravest warnings, Tiglath Hobbs, acting chief of Extra-Systematic Plant Conservation, takes an axe to a rare Butandra tree (there are only fifty in the universe) and fashions a walking stick from the trunk. Henceforth, he's persecuted by the Gardener - as decribed above by eyewitness Marie the maid - until his only hope is to return to Cassid and visit arborcide on the entire sacred orchard. You can almost hear the Old Witch's reassuring cackle, "Don't worry, kiddies. I'm as mad at this creep Hobbs as you are! Don't peek at the ending. Just relax and enjoy it!" |
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Post by DemonSpawn on Mar 2, 2013 20:38:19 GMT
Must admit that thus-far, my exposure to killer plants has mainly revolved around "The Ruins", "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Day Of The Triffids". Shall be looking out for this one. Seems delightfully silly  |
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Post by dem on Mar 2, 2013 22:14:00 GMT
It's a brilliant read. We had a lively thread from the subject of carnivorous plants on Vault Mk I and it might be worth reviving now we've many new contributors. Somewhere among my back-up discs, there's a chronological listing of every man-eating plant story suggested to the board, probably runs to 150-200 and counting .... |
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Post by mcannon on Mar 2, 2013 22:44:50 GMT
Thanks, Dem - this is one of my favourites of the Parry anthologies.
It suddenly struck me, though, that you'd probably now have to be at least 50 to get the title's joke on the "Secret Life of Plants" concept that was briefly in vogue in the 1970s. The idea of plants feeling pain seems to have gone the way of spoon-bending and using pyramids to sharpen razor-blades. Man, I feel old....
MarkC
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 3, 2013 13:22:54 GMT
It suddenly struck me, though, that you'd probably now have to be at least 50 to get the title's joke on the "Secret Life of Plants" concept that was briefly in vogue in the 1970s. Alternatively, you'd have to be a big Stevie Wonder fan. |
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Post by dem on Mar 3, 2013 21:33:25 GMT
Thanks, Dem - this is one of my favourites of the Parry anthologies. It suddenly struck me, though, that you'd probably now have to be at least 50 to get the title's joke on the "Secret Life of Plants" concept that was briefly in vogue in the 1970s. The idea of plants feeling pain seems to have gone the way of spoon-bending and using pyramids to sharpen razor-blades. Man, I feel old.... MarkC I honestly couldn't pick a favourite from Michel's anthologies: they all have plenty going for them, and i'm a big fan of how he brought a sense of mischief to the proceedings with stuff like the Wheatley piss-take warning in The Black Magic Omnibus and his multiple pseudonyms ('Linda Lovecraft' was always my favourite: it's such a shame Corgi didn't go along with his publicity stunt for The Devil's Kisses anthologies). Terrific introductions, too. I'm guessing that Stevie Wonder also inspired Vic Ghidalia's Nightmare Garden anthology of the same year for the mysterious and quite possibly infamous Manor Books. "There Came A Day When The Plants Took Over ... Never before such creeping menace"! |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 4, 2013 12:43:10 GMT
I'm guessing that Stevie Wonder also inspired Vic Ghidalia's Nightmare Garden anthology of the same year for the mysterious and quite possibly infamous Manor Books. "There Came A Day When The Plants Took Over ... Never before such creeping menace"! I'd give the edge to Roots of Evil for contents, but Nightmare Garden on the cover. By the way, Stevie's "Superstition" can be heard in John Carpenter's The Thing. |
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Post by dem on Mar 4, 2013 20:35:01 GMT
H. G. Wells - The Flowering of the Strange Orchid: (Pall Mall Budget, Aug 2 1894). His housekeeper takes an instant dislike to the orchid - "it looks like a spider shamming dead" - but Mr. Winter-Wedderburn, believing he may have an entirely new species on his hands, and cultivates the flower with loving care. Shame about poor old Batten, who died horribly in a mangrove swamp before he could get home to proclaim his discovery.
Clifford Simak - Green Thumb: (Galaxy, July, 1954). A surprise package. It never crossed my mind until now, but Simak's cute fantasy reads like a precursor of E.T.. When Old Pete Skinner's land is disfigured by a gaping pit, and Banker Stevens' flowerbed is vandalised in a possibly related incident, Joe's suspicions turn to the five foot, mobile weed which has taken up residence in his shed. Joe believes Plant is an alien life-form and he is not wrong on this point. You're pretty sure where all this is headed - especially as there's a stray dog involved, but .... Joe learns to communicate telepathically with the gentle triffid-a-like and the pair become friends. Plant sorts out Joe's canine problem, chases nosey kids from his land, even proves an exceptional garage mechanic, though, understandably, carpentry distresses him. When a spaceship arrives to take Plant home, Joe is distraught, but he's a kinder man for the experience. Bet the hippies liked it.
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 4, 2013 21:04:14 GMT
Bit of crossover with Flora Curiosa, a POD anthology of out-of-copyright plantly tales edited by Chad Ament, another crypto Fortean who does a lot of this type of thing. Flora Curiosa, edited by Chad Ament (Coachwhip, 2008) Contents Rappaccini's Daughter (1844), Nathaniel Hawthorne The American's Tale (1880), Arthur Conan Doyle The Man-Eating Tree (1881), Phil Robinson The Balloon Tree (1883), Edward Page Mitchell The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (1894), H. G. Wells The Treasure in the Forest (1894), H. G. Wells The Purple Pileus (1896), H. G. Wells The Purple Terror (1898), Fred M. White A Vine on a House (1905), Ambrose Bierce Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant (1905), Howard R. Garis The Willows (1907), Algernon Blackwood The Voice in the Night (1907), William Hope Hodgson The Orchid Horror (1911), John Blunt The Man Whom the Trees Loved (1912), Algernon Blackwood The Pavilion (1915), E. Nesbit The Sumach (1919), Ulric Daubeny The Green Death (1920), H. C. McNeile Si Urag of the Tail (1923), Oscar Cook Green Thoughts: A Story (1931), John Collier The Walk to Lingham (1934), Lord Dunsany Read more: vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/202/latest-finds?scrollTo=23043&page=27#ixzz2MbfzsJzS |
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Post by helrunar on Apr 19, 2017 14:32:32 GMT
I love the names given to the various mad botanists in these things.
Fascinating to see a tale by Margaret St. Clair reviewed here, and favorably at that. She's if anything even more obscure than Thomas Burnett Swann.
cheers, H.
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