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Post by Knygathin on May 14, 2021 14:34:17 GMT
I got this paperback with an incredible cover of a monstrous future by Chris Foss. A nightmare machine, and in the gathering distance the toxic pollution appears as a greenish-yellow mist above the ground. And those boxes halfway up, movable on "barnacle necks". What are they for?? Their detailed construction looks so utterly convincing, and must surely be based on real factory apparatus. Anyone here on Vault of Evil with a degree in engineering physics, who can give me an idea of what possible purposes the differently shaped and sized apertures on those boxes could be used for? Or someone else with an intuitive hunch?
Van Vogt was good at conjuring an eerie far future, through scientific hints, and a few simple words about how its purpose and methods seem to quiver just beyond the reach of our present reasoning. He also evoked automaton machines that dig up material from the ground, immediately processing it into fuel and raw materials, can repair themselves, and reproduce; as far as I am concerned, that is the weirdest and spookiest conception of the future any writer has come up with (but John W. Campbell was perhaps the first doing it).
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 14, 2021 15:47:07 GMT
Maybe they are vents. For cooling. But probably it's just Chris Foss being Chris Foss. Doesn't the book give you a clue? Or is the cover random?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 14, 2021 15:56:22 GMT
I wonder what the worst random cover for a book is. One that has nothing to do with the contents. Is there a thread on this?
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Post by Knygathin on May 14, 2021 18:06:36 GMT
Maybe they are vents. For cooling. But probably it's just Chris Foss being Chris Foss. Doesn't the book give you a clue? Or is the cover random? I am over halfway through, almost done. So far there is some kind of boiler, but smaller than on the cover, where people are forced in through a hatch. There is a suggestion of that at the bottom of the machine in Foss' painting. I am hoping for something really big to appear at the very last in the story.
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Post by Knygathin on May 14, 2021 18:58:01 GMT
Maybe they are vents. ... But why so differently shaped and sized? That's the weird part.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 14, 2021 19:15:31 GMT
Maybe they are vents. ... But why so differently shaped and sized? That's the weird part. It is Art! It is not meant to make sense.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 14, 2021 19:38:44 GMT
Maybe they are vents. ... But why so differently shaped and sized? That's the weird part. Don't worry about it. He is probably just trying to make it look exotic.
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Post by andydecker on May 14, 2021 19:39:52 GMT
I wonder what the worst random cover for a book is. One that has nothing to do with the contents. Is there a thread on this? 90% of current book publishing? Take your pick. Just look at the crap they put on crime novels.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 14, 2021 19:47:41 GMT
I wonder what the worst random cover for a book is. One that has nothing to do with the contents. Is there a thread on this? 90% of current book publishing? Take your pick. Just look at the crap they put on crime novels. Oh yes, and I forgot about those ebooks. I liked the one for The Turn of the Screw, which had a spanner. But I suppose there is some link to the title in that one. Ha.
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Post by Knygathin on May 14, 2021 20:33:05 GMT
But why so differently shaped and sized? That's the weird part. It is Art! It is not meant to make sense. Only bad art, like Modernism. Bad art makes no sense. Good art does make sense. I think Chris Foss may be a little bit of both. But I'll be damned if he doesn't have some grand scientific logic behind those particular details.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 14, 2021 20:53:57 GMT
I've never read any van Vogt. You will have to recommend some.
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Post by Knygathin on May 15, 2021 4:57:15 GMT
I'd love to recommend some. First the short story "The Monster" (aka "Resurrection") from 1948. Then the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (based on other short stories). After that the field is more open.
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Post by Knygathin on May 15, 2021 8:03:53 GMT
It is Art! It is not meant to make sense. Only bad art, like Modernism. Bad art makes no sense. Good art does make sense. I think Chris Foss may be a little bit of both. But I'll be damned if he doesn't have some grand scientific logic behind those particular details. Ultimately you are right. All art is illusion, meaningless and flat, meant to look like something that it is most definitely not. An empty lie. But we love to be deceived, don't we?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 15, 2021 15:51:17 GMT
I'd love to recommend some. First the short story "The Monster" (aka "Resurrection") from 1948. Then the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (based on other short stories). After that the field is more open. That sounds interesting. But I don't want Space Opera. Big space battles is a no no. He seems to have done stories featuring ubermensch, they might be worth looking at.
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Post by jamesdoig on May 15, 2021 21:28:37 GMT
That sounds interesting. But I don't want Space Opera. Big space battles is a no no. He seems to have done stories featuring ubermensch, they might be worth looking at. Slan is definitely worth a read.
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