tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-347433292024-03-05T17:50:47.320-05:00The Last Man On EarthSynopses of novels, short stories, and films relating to the genre.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-84222207377616337152011-01-24T00:10:00.002-05:002011-01-25T12:04:14.536-05:00Flight To Forever, Poul Anderson, 1950<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyetExAq8KZ3XSAR8zSPzyAf0iYDLpQRX_2u1j7Y4AKHD7jb62MOR6fF5r_WGyE4a0HyvR0J0JY32Bt2MwyK9Dp48yjq-oOJ9E2Sus1VdpNd5_zsGcRhMbVA8M7LKo9mozKJP3Hw/s1600/super_science.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 237px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyetExAq8KZ3XSAR8zSPzyAf0iYDLpQRX_2u1j7Y4AKHD7jb62MOR6fF5r_WGyE4a0HyvR0J0JY32Bt2MwyK9Dp48yjq-oOJ9E2Sus1VdpNd5_zsGcRhMbVA8M7LKo9mozKJP3Hw/s320/super_science.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565615553309229842" /></a> Anderson’s classic story of one-way time travel. You can go forward but not all the way backwards, and the stalwart 1950s protagonist, Martin Saunders, keeps skipping himself forward, along the surface of an infinite lake, hoping to find some civilization that has perfected backwards time travel so that he can return home to his girlfriend: the conveniently named Eve. He companion is killed in 2500 A.D., and he acquires a new one who searching the future for a sufficiently violent time that will have use for his martial skills. Martin stops in 50,000 A.D. and helps the Galactic Empress regain her throne, and is sent on alone into the future for his trouble. The human race eventually falls, and he is the last human man on Earth. Other races rise, but they are unable to help him. Eventually, weakly godlike entities upgrade his time machine to get him “home,” by having him dive ever deeper into the future. He sees the moon shatter and fall from the sky, the sun wither and die, and finally the heat-death of the entire universe, only for it to be reborn. Saunders keeps traveling, taking the longest way around. The universe is perfectly cyclical. He travels forward until he reaches the point at which he left, settling for the fretful girl who is certainly no beautiful Galactic Empress.<br /><br />Saunders becomes The Last and First Man, cushioned on each end by millions of years. The exactly perfect cyclical universe is a bleak concept, a black pit of despair that for Neitzsche was the nightmare of being doomed to repeat every mistake you’ve ever made over and over again for eternity. But Anderson goes further than The Eternal Return, stripping uncertainty and free will from his minutely machined universe loop. It would take only the smallest of quantum hiccups in the deep past for conditions to change enough for Saunders to never have been born, or not a physicist, or or or. Anderson’s cold reality is stuck on repeat, growing more boring with every repetition of the same trillion trillion triliion sub-atomic events in perfect timing and order.<div><br /><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?58284">ISFDB bibliography</a></div>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-83569783243403910912011-01-19T22:12:00.003-05:002011-01-19T22:29:08.741-05:00Nietzsche and der letzte MenschThere has always beena contradiction in Nietzsche as he propounds both the notion of The Last Man (<i>d</i><span><i>er letzte Mensch</i></span>) and the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence in <i>Also Sprach Zarathustra</i>. How can he discuss the <i>last</i> of anything in a framework where every action, every combination of matter, must reoccur for all eternity? It is a temporary "last"? Doesn't the end of something become hollow when that end is endless? Is this the abyss?<div><br /></div><div>But then, he did call the horror of the Eternal Return <i>das schwerste Gewicht</i>: "the heaviest weight imaginable." Maybe the true Last Man lifts that weight.</div><div><br /></div><div><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88rEyeDO56Ifjp20g-sDsesvBdR5872mODpXkvTtvTHIBjm8z0alwavmiG89FiInydd0glZ7RcfatxwVuj_dZtPPnfUNtciFqNAhZE83GUv9F46-LBgAKgypjRiha4wD-UG3Tcg/s200/Ouroboros.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564104565395881826" /> </div><div>Is the Ouroboros eating itself eternally, or is it continuously vomiting itself into being?</div>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-6327951643429401492011-01-09T15:58:00.004-05:002011-01-09T16:59:47.310-05:00The Twilight Zone, "The Mind and The Matter," 1961Archibald Beechcroft hates the crowded modern world, finally working up to expressing the desire to wipe out all of humanity except for himself. Given a book, "The Mind and The Matter," Beechcroft learns the secret of "ultimate concentration." He then decides to apply his concentration to dealing with the existence of everyone else. He begins by concentrating away his irritating lady-lady. "Today, the landlady... tomorrow...the world!"<br /><br />Encountering a crowded subway platform, he wishes all the people away. The turnstile admits him with a wag of his finger, the train arrives, automated now to make up for the disappeared conductor. The doors to his office even open when he shakes his newspaper at them. The crowded office is silent. He quickly grows bored at work (why is he at work?) and begins talking to himself in reflections. He grows so bored he even triggers an earthquake, and then a storm.<br /><br />Still talking to himself, he hits upon a solution: remake the population of the world, but in his image. Dyspeptic, anti-social, and constantly muttering, they are all him now, the women too. Played by the same actor and a few unconvincing masks. Beechcroft resigns himself to returning everything to as is was, bored by loniliness and horrified by literal self-loathing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmJMCcFV357gJ7UPFhzE46G-xZF1QpKY4Elzta0PIhAC-R9YFuoiwPEgVXj9BUobYgSqzxj2sVfEHRUjvsaIw7sMqY6vwTT_gvazI41mamj4uoWh85pza-aBFjkbkeUfNAc6YoQ/s1600/tz7.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 244px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmJMCcFV357gJ7UPFhzE46G-xZF1QpKY4Elzta0PIhAC-R9YFuoiwPEgVXj9BUobYgSqzxj2sVfEHRUjvsaIw7sMqY6vwTT_gvazI41mamj4uoWh85pza-aBFjkbkeUfNAc6YoQ/s400/tz7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560308502417699474" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mind_and_the_Matter">Wikipedia page</a><br /><br />In many ways an expanded <a href="http://thelastmanonearth.blogspot.com/2008/06/5271009-alfred-bester-1954.html">"5,271,009"</a> or a more concise and personal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Lathe Of Heaven</span></a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_%28novel%29"><span style="font-style: italic;">Eye In The Sky</span></a>. While many people takes away the message of "be careful what you wish for," Serling is, to me, making a more subtle point about the permanent intertwining of utopia and dystopia. They are so intertwined that they are the same thing. There are no perfect societies. Attempting to manufacture them is folly. But, then, I'm not too much on the explicit message that Serling puts in the coda. This is not the best of all possible worlds. Not by a long shot.<br /><br />The episode could also be read as a rather frightening parable about solipsism. Is Beechcroft actually willing everyone out of existence? Is he a god? Or is he only willing away his perceptions of everyone, and thereby exhibiting an amazing ability to warp his own perceptions, a frighteningly compete control of his flow of subjective reality. Does only Beechcroft have the power? Does everyone have it? (The young man who gives Beechcroft the book relates an incident where he displayed powers to bend someone's will to his own.) Or only readers of the book? And what are the doomsday implications of a book that can turn anyone into a wide-awake George Orr? And assuming that Beechcroft's abilities are effecting objective reality and he is not unique, don't we have to wrap our minds around dueling solipsistic narratives struggling to reshape reality?Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-50285991353270505702011-01-09T12:53:00.003-05:002011-01-09T15:42:08.459-05:00The Twilight Zone, "Where Is Everyboby?" 1959A lone man dressed in an Air Force jumpsuit wanders into a deserted town. Music blares in the nearby cafe. He fixes himself something to eat, shouting out his actions to no one. A bell tolls in the empty town square. Every shop he checks is empty. He spys a woman in a car and tells her he is an amnesiac. When he draws near, she is a mannequin. He continues to talk to her. When a phone rings, he races toward it, and finds no one on the line. Dialing, he reaches an automated operator. He calls for help on a police radio. Panic finally begins to set in and he runs through the streets, yelling the titular question. He begs to wake up and marvels at the detail of his dream. Dejectedly, he spins a paperback rack in the drugstore. All the titles are <span style="font-style: italic;">The Last Man On Earth</span>. When night falls, the town lights up. He is drawn to the movie theater. The movie poster features a figure dressed like him. He speculates that his military uniform means that there has been "a bomb." When the movies begins, he climbs to the projection room. Finding no one, has runs into the lobby and into a mirror. Now in a complete panic, he runs back out in the street. Everything begins to take on paranoid significance. Clinging to a lamppost, he desperately presses the "walk" button to change the stoplight.<br /><br />The scene changes to a room of men listening to him beg for help. He is in an isolation chamber, part of an experiment to test how a man will stand up to the loneliness of a lunar trip. He has been in the box for 20 days.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6_GFH4b9gYG0yR7faW3Okq3i6LWbiZdlDwaO7X-O9Dn4IhPh2DsqjBCgwLNqUI6z8mZZRKonRoZm167GvupR2drQ_ozvy2JtjDrg9ZHkZgNY9W4Ah9ssKUR2y-q1RdM9UvTPpg/s1600/tz_1_1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6_GFH4b9gYG0yR7faW3Okq3i6LWbiZdlDwaO7X-O9Dn4IhPh2DsqjBCgwLNqUI6z8mZZRKonRoZm167GvupR2drQ_ozvy2JtjDrg9ZHkZgNY9W4Ah9ssKUR2y-q1RdM9UvTPpg/s400/tz_1_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560289013891904818" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Is_Everybody">Wikipedia page</a><br /><br />"Where Is Everybody?" was the first episode of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Twilight Zone</span> that aired. The character's mind does make an effective nightmare to torture him with. The panic of amnesia. The cruel taunt of the mannequin. The dozens of books titled as his growing fear that he may be the last man on Earth. But it also gives him breadcrumbs to find his way out. The Air Force jumpsuit. He is hungry yet stumbles upon a stocked cafe and soda shop. He even has money in his pockets, so that he won't feel like he's stealing the food. And even though it is ultimately a twist ending, keeping Rod Serling from having to deal with the roundabout of dealing with a character that really is the last man on Earth, the isolation feels real, as does the creation of a claustropobic feeling in open air filming.<br /><br />I do wonder how much of the imagary was influenced by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World,_the_Flesh_and_the_Devil_%281959_film%29"><span style="font-style: italic;">The World, The Flesh, and The Devil</span></a>, which was released in theaters only 5 months earlier.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-86582443037723660622011-01-05T16:06:00.002-05:002011-01-05T16:17:08.675-05:00The Underdweller, William F. Nolan, 1957Lewis Stillman loots the convenience stores of Los Angeles at night, creeping past and hiding from small gangs of inhuman enemies: “They came closer, crowding the walk, their small dark bodies crowding the walk, six of them, chattering, leaping, cruel mouths open, eyes glittering under the moon.” Stillman ruminates on lost love and the precariousness of his existence. He is lonely and searches for survivors of his like kind. Three years of searching Los Angeles has convinced him that he is the last man alive in the city. Stillman sleeps in the storm drains, tormented by dreams of women or of being caught. The storm drains are how he survived the unprovoked attack by aliens that killed every other man and woman six years earlier. For three years he worked with his enemies and for three years he has run from them. Stillman fashions human figures for company and argues with them as he goes insane. Venturing forth to find books to read, he comes upon a bookstore they have destroyed, ripping the pages out of thousands of volumes. Stillman has been lured into a trap and they attack him in force. He kills as many as he can with a machine gun, but is overwhelmed in a tide of feral children.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(25, 25, 25); line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><u><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?187701">ISFDB bibliography</a></u></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>"The Underdweller" is a variant title. It has also appeared under the title "Small World" and "The Small World Of Lewis Stillman."</div>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-30546777270941231182011-01-05T09:49:00.003-05:002011-01-05T09:57:51.975-05:00Curtis and The Last Man On EarthThe rather innocuous daily newspaper comic strip <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_(comic_strip)">Curtis</a></i> is using a wish-granting mouse to explore the old saw that peace on Earth is only capable on a depopulated planet. The wish that the character Andrew make leaves him the last person on Earth. Andrew goes on to drive fancy cars and sleep in "grand bedrooms."<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20101227&name=Curtis">The beginning of the storyline.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Andrew wanders an empty Manhattan.</div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOg1uG1sHWiQoFLq7XUc2aisUd3p5IoMVx4RU7M5Iba4qjCnmKmx98xCq59RndpCd9rrL6BGNqAUZAfi5EyjViGKhlxh7X2jxGfX8pTxX7FPnawbBOi6VqjQZmu72iWNu03pzxJw/s400/Curtis.gif" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 123px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558715778376492594" /></div>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-78992733374853192422011-01-03T18:34:00.006-05:002011-01-09T12:53:19.336-05:00The Twilight Zone, "Two," 1961Another heavy-handed Cold War parable from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Twilight Zone</span>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29">Wikipedia already contains a fine synopsis.</a> While it is never specified that the characters are the only remaining humans, the shadow of The Shaggy-God falls over the whole affair.<br /><br />Even though billed in the voiceover as taking place "perhaps a hundred years from now, or sooner, or perhaps it's already happened two million years," Charles Bronson speaking English and Elizabeth Montgomery speaking Russian doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. At least we are spared them being explictily identified as Adam and Eve.<div><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfITj3VZrfcen5gz_RFWmkFXjWlKcaSgpLzHevXuYg1PA9957b2z3cWbdEnQBv8bMJiAbAFAdKWHEmUfyRJcr5P4DdqqxTitl6dDb955BM7kDGVDXA-vE9tTZq_CQkBp5cc8ePPg/s400/two.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 309px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558756690159715090" border="0" /><br />Season 3, episode 66, written and directed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Pittman" title="Montgomery Pittman">Montgomery Pittman</a>.<br /><br />While the similarities are suspicious, I imagine <a href="http://thelastmanonearth.blogspot.com/2011/01/two-john-christopher-1952.html">John Christopher's "Two" (1952)</a> was probably not directly taken by Pittman for his plot. The durability of The Shaggy-God story is such that it seems to spontaneously erupt in science fiction cautionary tales. It was used in at least two other <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight Zone</span> episodes, after all: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probe_7">"Probe 7, Over And Out"</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_from_the_Sun">"Third From The Sun."</a> (Although to be fair, "Third" is really more of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts">"ancient astronauts"</a> riff.)</div>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-81184102012292439462011-01-03T18:08:00.005-05:002011-01-03T19:22:17.612-05:00"Two," John Christopher, 1952Protagonist has traveled the world looking for signs of life in major cities, only to find them empty. Everyone else is dead of radiation poisoning and he was spared because of a special serum. All warm-blooded mammals are dead in Europe. He sails for The Middle East, "the land of the two great rivers." He walks until he encounters a land rich with all types of plants and animals. In his loneliness, he wakes up to find thw woman he has wished for sleeping beside him. The final line: "'I am Adam,' he told her, 'and you are Eve."<br /><br />One page Cold War/Shaggy-God mash-up. Cribs from Shelley's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Last Man</span> and Sheil's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Purple Cloud</span>. Lands on the page with an audible thud.<br /><br />Not listed in <a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?378">the ISFDB entry on Christopher</a>. The story might have its only publication in <span style="font-style: italic;">Esquire</span>, May, 1952.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">See also</span> <a href="http://thelastmanonearth.blogspot.com/2011/01/twilight-zone-two-1961.html">"Two"</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-43686729843719652352010-09-10T08:17:00.002-05:002010-09-10T08:20:32.225-05:00Yo Dawg!<a href="http://comixed.com/2010/02/26/just-like-my-dream/"><img style="width: 378px; height: 1242px;" src="http://cheezcomixed.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/129109789691103897.jpg" title="4 koma comic strips Just Like My Dream" alt="4 koma comic strips" /></a><br />see more <a href="http://comixed.com/">Comixed</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-13455967943422075312010-07-06T10:25:00.001-05:002010-07-06T10:37:06.216-05:00Forever, Damon Knight, 1981In 1887, the secret of immortality is discovered and administered to the Gerd Essenwien, the 12-year-old son of the discoverer. It becomes apparent that it also stops aging as well, trapping him in a boy’s body. Shortly after this event, a serum is discovered to stop all bacteriological disease, a universal vaccine. Both are adopted widely and having children falls out of fashion. People still die of accidents and heart disease and cancer, so the population of the Earth begins to dwindle. When humanity panics over the looming end of the human race, they find that the youngest women are still over two hundred years old and infertile.<br /><br />Gerd Essenwein is eventually the last man on Earth, keeping in touch via shortwave with the last woman on Earth, a Japanese woman with the apparent age of 16. She travels by bicycle to Europe so they can meet (it takes her eleven years.) When he shows her that he cannot perform sexually, she returns to Japan and disappears from shortwave contact a few years later. Aliens arrive and ask Gerd to come with them when they find he is the last man on Earth. Gerd refuses and they leave.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?62692">ISFDB bibliography</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-90791773986150210642010-01-15T15:22:00.003-05:002011-01-05T16:26:06.055-05:00Last Man, Jon Inouye, 1976Overpopulation is solved by the systematic extermination of women and heterosexual men. Three hundred years later, a male homosexual culture has colonized the entire solar system, even, somehow, the sun. Reproduction is achieved through cloning and splitting a single “parent” consciousness through several bodies. In eliminating binary gender and heterosexuality, the culture also retires the term “man” and “mankind,” substituting “personkind” exclusively.<br /><br />The last “man” on Earth, a heterosexual specimen of the old race, is kept alive through longevity drugs and stored in a museum . Inexplicably, he wakes and escapes, screaming homosexual epithets and crushing the skulls of “the weak.” He flees to the mountains, convinced that heterosexual men and women must have survived in isolation. When he finds them, they have reverted to a primitive lifestyle and immediately attack him. Dejected, he returns to the “personkinders,” his fate uncertain.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?97706">ISFDB bibliography</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-88818754968606918302010-01-13T11:06:00.011-05:002010-01-15T15:21:44.019-05:00The Last Man, Seabury Quinn, 1950The story begins with Roger Mycroft, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, visiting Monsieur Toussaint, a voodoo spiritualist who purports to speak with the dead. Initially skeptical, Mycroft is convinced by Toussaint's serious demeanor and agrees to return the next evening.<br /><br />Back at home, Mycroft embarks on a long flashback to the his time during the war when he and the soldiers in his squad were guests of a rich landowner, Don Jose Rosales y Montalvo and his beautiful daughter, Juanita. Over the next few days, Juanita is courted by every one of the soldiers and refuses them all in turn. On the soldiers' last night in Cuba, Juanita promises to marry the last surviving man, as so to spare the feelings of his fellows . The soldiers form a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine">tontine</a> and Last Man's Club* and meet once a year to reminisce (and, presumably, to see who's died in the interim.) After many years, Mycroft is the last man alive and can marry Juanita.<br /><br />Mycroft returns to Toussaint to have him raise the spirits of his fellow soldiers. He discovers that she too has died in the intervening decades and appears to him. She lures Mycroft out of the protective hexagram that Toussaint has drawn on the floor. Mycroft falls dead and joins his demon bride.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Weird Tales</span>, May 1950, v. 42, n. 4<br /><br />*While the tontine and the Last Man's Club are often conflated ideas, the military veteran Last Man's Club is a pact made to meet once a year often with the agreement that the last surviving member drink a toast at the last meeting to his deceased comrades, and thus differs from a tontine in that there is no prize or payout.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-10098141983131244842009-05-28T05:00:00.003-05:002009-05-28T05:03:15.966-05:00The Long Loud Silence (revised), Wilson Tucker, Lancer, 1969<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdB_qGSaJHD0LjpgGY5L_YZhEs867t_FbG-XVeUt9Rit-PSzXpoIA3qX_kE5uz15FgD1j3duV_PfwBpHyatfNoDnYAxJDtXA-h5mTJTXN9_ae5c9jT68XVM1HW8rHYf8m_vm1dmQ/s1600-h/The+Long+Loud+Silence+%28revised%29+%281969%29+.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdB_qGSaJHD0LjpgGY5L_YZhEs867t_FbG-XVeUt9Rit-PSzXpoIA3qX_kE5uz15FgD1j3duV_PfwBpHyatfNoDnYAxJDtXA-h5mTJTXN9_ae5c9jT68XVM1HW8rHYf8m_vm1dmQ/s400/The+Long+Loud+Silence+%28revised%29+%281969%29+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340813016102348818" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-45701325484542689432009-03-29T16:36:00.001-05:002009-03-29T16:37:42.733-05:00Empty World, John Christopher, Dutton, 1986<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrOydD75fZglwEfdDoN4yMX3dYxS2fm0R8ooZEnTCT45CZ4BXy9OU8bEJrSPSdKDRaMxSreUgCoSKFDpC4Jx94SYTqUnREe1EQ9uuZbZ-f0FjPBDdWtMHa0hSoI8EDkOhNFoch5A/s1600-h/Empty+World+%28Dutton+1986%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 328px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrOydD75fZglwEfdDoN4yMX3dYxS2fm0R8ooZEnTCT45CZ4BXy9OU8bEJrSPSdKDRaMxSreUgCoSKFDpC4Jx94SYTqUnREe1EQ9uuZbZ-f0FjPBDdWtMHa0hSoI8EDkOhNFoch5A/s400/Empty+World+%28Dutton+1986%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318727059041649458" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-59317039511191948222009-03-29T16:35:00.001-05:002009-03-29T16:36:36.443-05:00The Disappearence, Philip Wylie, Cardinal, 1952<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimITASWHFawI-SQ4Lpi6P753bimP96_WNTmhB-Rqo58yw8xjppvB81tdg6wk6iaBQ4CIt2CCEuUITC3F8z1frvAvw51UoEUUQlHEGBKFb9VL2QoYBuGDaAp-bsycYseHBq6AE5rA/s1600-h/Disappearence+%28Cardinal+1952%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimITASWHFawI-SQ4Lpi6P753bimP96_WNTmhB-Rqo58yw8xjppvB81tdg6wk6iaBQ4CIt2CCEuUITC3F8z1frvAvw51UoEUUQlHEGBKFb9VL2QoYBuGDaAp-bsycYseHBq6AE5rA/s400/Disappearence+%28Cardinal+1952%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318726791108030530" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-89936328277071662772009-03-29T08:59:00.003-05:002009-03-29T09:02:34.814-05:00The Lan Man On Earth, anthology, Fawcett Crest, 1984<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYgoIHGZ7nrDxkqL-RnE1sLq-AFI72cWRRWQJI7do4BVTeMYwZGY6waNXRymOvnNkCUPHTS-runGk1LZDwcvDSlO25YrK1VbAI3nDS1gWBvmdgXfeSvpQgY3tM8nQ-LyyI7JEuA/s1600-h/LMOEasimov.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 243px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYgoIHGZ7nrDxkqL-RnE1sLq-AFI72cWRRWQJI7do4BVTeMYwZGY6waNXRymOvnNkCUPHTS-runGk1LZDwcvDSlO25YrK1VbAI3nDS1gWBvmdgXfeSvpQgY3tM8nQ-LyyI7JEuA/s400/LMOEasimov.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318609439701928610" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-90619327476332904862009-03-28T10:36:00.002-05:002009-03-28T10:37:24.577-05:00Earth Abides, Fawcett Crest, 1983<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PLdEEipWUJOtqzJ7wz7KPQ7zfCICC6xMHHitjTImR39T8oFbZQDcgrj_66YvCnqCGFr0YIqmHKrWF9ai0yhtUypR_-a-q92gwS0zrFJbPscsoOupvUIhrhTea1kvCAMkO64bWw/s1600-h/Earth+Abides+Fawcett+1983+%28cover%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 305px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PLdEEipWUJOtqzJ7wz7KPQ7zfCICC6xMHHitjTImR39T8oFbZQDcgrj_66YvCnqCGFr0YIqmHKrWF9ai0yhtUypR_-a-q92gwS0zrFJbPscsoOupvUIhrhTea1kvCAMkO64bWw/s400/Earth+Abides+Fawcett+1983+%28cover%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318263076325459570" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-66851545207722757012009-03-25T11:43:00.001-05:002009-03-25T11:43:54.653-05:00Review of Stewart and ShielThe SF Site does a tandem review of M. P. Shiel's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Purple Cloud</span> and George R. Stewart's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Earth Abides</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ea92.htm">Link</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-54128979389155369402009-03-19T09:56:00.002-05:002009-03-19T09:57:49.163-05:00The Long, Loud Silence, Wilson Tucker, 1952<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1RjSJCn7p3A2EExUf7ccdeWrJJt9i71vEYPjr8EGVfEqd5xFsFlUitSz5Jt0yr4kDZvnRdXg8iXYFeWWlwyJ4llAwKNiBLRR19yxPEc-nARDUMRvJFsGUkRiazoNrlsWMyWCTA/s1600-h/Long+Loud+Silence+%28Dell,+1952%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1RjSJCn7p3A2EExUf7ccdeWrJJt9i71vEYPjr8EGVfEqd5xFsFlUitSz5Jt0yr4kDZvnRdXg8iXYFeWWlwyJ4llAwKNiBLRR19yxPEc-nARDUMRvJFsGUkRiazoNrlsWMyWCTA/s400/Long+Loud+Silence+%28Dell,+1952%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314913069038781570" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-55792010940259700502009-03-19T09:24:00.007-05:002009-03-19T09:41:01.258-05:00World Without Men, Eric Charles Maine, 1958<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qek_jm6vmVeZpuBLnmiIbRWilA9cmXCIgt_kk637eTc-G1WeATSgGvppdhNUAIkSrxIYu9I-QY9cD9pLzDNe_92rPsQh5ozK7XdxJoRUF7ONzlEQhoXn4_KNWwRZrCK6-sxXCw/s1600-h/World+Without+Men+%28D-274,+1958%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qek_jm6vmVeZpuBLnmiIbRWilA9cmXCIgt_kk637eTc-G1WeATSgGvppdhNUAIkSrxIYu9I-QY9cD9pLzDNe_92rPsQh5ozK7XdxJoRUF7ONzlEQhoXn4_KNWwRZrCK6-sxXCw/s400/World+Without+Men+%28D-274,+1958%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314904943673744370" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It's five thousand years in the future and the Earth is populated with only women. "There was one all-important project that supplied humanity's only motive for continued existence--the struggle to re-create the male sex." This is the novel that launched as thousand women's studies theses.<br /><br />It's odd to think that a world without men would lead to silver lipstick, overstarched and functionless dickies, purple and teal hair, and green eyeballs. And strapless bras that seem to offer no support and can only be best described as "Boob Cups," but do come in such fetching colors as blue and silver.<br /><br />The tag line: "They had forgotten what men looked like" could really use a few exclamation points.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-76076729611779028972009-03-13T08:55:00.003-05:002009-03-13T09:10:48.609-05:00Nietzsche and The Last ManA few sources have used the term "Last Man" in ways unrelated to the genre fiction concept. One is Friedrich Nietzsche and his concept of the "Last Man" as the final dissolution of the human will to strive toward being the <span style="font-style: italic;">Übermensch</span>. Nietzsche's Last Man is content, believes he has created the best of all possible worlds through conformity--the death of imagination, creativity, and individuality. Mostly irredeemably in Nietzsche's eyes, The Last Man is cautious, never taking even the smallest chances and especially not those that could lead to greatness.<br /><br /><blockquote>"Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer give birth to a star. Alas, the time of the most despicable man is coming, he that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man.<br /><br />'What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?' thus asks the last man, and blinks.<br /><br />The earth has become small, and on it hops the last man, who makes everything small. His race is as ineradicable as the flea; the last man lives longest.<br /><br />'We have invented happiness,'say the last men, and they blink. They have left the regions where it was hard to live, for one needs warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs against him, for one needs warmth...<br /><br />One still works, for work is a form of entertainment. But one is careful lest the entertainment be too harrowing. One no longer becomes poor or rich: both require too much exertion. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both require too much exertion.<br /><br />No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.<br /><br />'Formerly, all the world was mad,' say the most refined, and they blink...<br /><br />One has one's little pleasure for the day and one's little pleasure for the night: but one has a regard for health.<br /><br />'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink."</blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Thus spoke Zarathustra</span>, Walter Kaufmann transl.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-65262264626262376332008-10-17T11:59:00.002-05:002008-12-30T16:07:49.651-05:00Last Man On Earth, Brendon Day, 2002A heavily workshopped short story set in the 1950s that echoes elements of <span style="font-style: italic;">Confessions of a Crap Artist</span> by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson’s “The Gernsback Continuum” revolving around Sidney Davison (“Davis” throughout) an elevator operator who escapes his life through science fiction. Davis has written a radio script called “The Last Man On Earth” that he has loaned to a boorish tenant named Thomson in hopes to get it produced. The script contains no dialogue and relates the tale of the last man alive in a disaffected narrative as he wandered through a deserted city.<br /><br />The action of the story centers around Davis, Thomson, and Thomson’s date, Liddy on a trip in the elevator. Liddy flirts with Davis openly and convinces him to take all three of them up on the roof. Thomson stops off at his apartment and returns with a mysterious doctor’s bag that might or might not contain Davis’ script. Liddy takes something out of the bag that might be a Flash-Gordonesque ray-gun or a bong. Liddy describes what she thinks the plot of Davis’ “The Last Man On Earth”: World destroyed, boy is left alive, he meets last girl and it’s someone who rejected him in high school, they fall in love. The end. The story drifts off with Davis imagining baroque airships and rocket travel.Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-22632142686213726902008-10-17T10:11:00.002-05:002008-10-17T10:13:17.774-05:00The Purple Cloud covers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMpszJDG9-irItE1WEeVtkn0L4QhY6PNH8ugpA9g_LIV7uNgwcUjv78Y_VkbNNxrIaYZBy18y1eAM81GdQ9lpkiA1TDcWJQYu0xxmrZVcs9JfHk-fBtegLZM-clxOyv3OMYN2_w/s1600-h/Purple+Cloud+1930+%28full+cover%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMpszJDG9-irItE1WEeVtkn0L4QhY6PNH8ugpA9g_LIV7uNgwcUjv78Y_VkbNNxrIaYZBy18y1eAM81GdQ9lpkiA1TDcWJQYu0xxmrZVcs9JfHk-fBtegLZM-clxOyv3OMYN2_w/s400/Purple+Cloud+1930+%28full+cover%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258140900536761890" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgis7v_MEAGrqmGUk-fUUIMfyjbRhwjtWbcBv20l5OBM5njDBuh3-ARJf72LGL26pG5ujIUxnkeqT4B2ghl-hksu84cp9QEypaJyfFJEoBrdSzyaEhIvSEFiB5iJ3g71CZTQNPnWw/s1600-h/Shiel_Purple+Cloud_+Forum002.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgis7v_MEAGrqmGUk-fUUIMfyjbRhwjtWbcBv20l5OBM5njDBuh3-ARJf72LGL26pG5ujIUxnkeqT4B2ghl-hksu84cp9QEypaJyfFJEoBrdSzyaEhIvSEFiB5iJ3g71CZTQNPnWw/s400/Shiel_Purple+Cloud_+Forum002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258140909109313970" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7QqnVjT6F_ZgNnRH1pS8ibpEtnJJ40qUr_aqCfmvfuKtPOJ6-OvwJdcL8T_WC2gmds9HcasYVESw9fUjbwWUK2E5BYgnGquFM13llPockF2DAP-zdeA9Mr08I9DOJEH692orRg/s1600-h/Purple+Cloud+Paperback+Library+1963+%28cover%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7QqnVjT6F_ZgNnRH1pS8ibpEtnJJ40qUr_aqCfmvfuKtPOJ6-OvwJdcL8T_WC2gmds9HcasYVESw9fUjbwWUK2E5BYgnGquFM13llPockF2DAP-zdeA9Mr08I9DOJEH692orRg/s400/Purple+Cloud+Paperback+Library+1963+%28cover%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258140910547453826" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCdF4ZKCAInqqTjLZ3PAKoz5VrQM4Eqfa8vrwiEy6BfRPE3ESEaGFD7r1_FMf5F47Wq0aSM1Nv10iRuIsayMzr9e6ERPh-BjRg9dkFY_hTDtOgHfmZ2x6QwgwiJ1H8EbjdKxdYA/s1600-h/Purple+Cloud+Warner+1973+%28cover%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCdF4ZKCAInqqTjLZ3PAKoz5VrQM4Eqfa8vrwiEy6BfRPE3ESEaGFD7r1_FMf5F47Wq0aSM1Nv10iRuIsayMzr9e6ERPh-BjRg9dkFY_hTDtOgHfmZ2x6QwgwiJ1H8EbjdKxdYA/s400/Purple+Cloud+Warner+1973+%28cover%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258140919282596386" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-60989490893359229102008-10-15T09:58:00.003-05:002008-10-15T10:03:19.455-05:00Z For Zachariah covers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxz8RTxX6u1VNAZZMna_61gTNQ4VOTluW6pRb8gm5qzKe6vjvrQamv5TuZWtt_uGLnSPXhqsD1xHUxRgLXfMk4IoFHOXlblF9VoMaJuQ8Dyu5AEqAoiIGPz55XagbPOMzraPZS8Q/s1600-h/Z+For+Zachariah+Dell+%281977%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxz8RTxX6u1VNAZZMna_61gTNQ4VOTluW6pRb8gm5qzKe6vjvrQamv5TuZWtt_uGLnSPXhqsD1xHUxRgLXfMk4IoFHOXlblF9VoMaJuQ8Dyu5AEqAoiIGPz55XagbPOMzraPZS8Q/s400/Z+For+Zachariah+Dell+%281977%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257395278565204658" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G4GQyY4EMts4DxiptzdjcEDXH8W0AokfWpUyPoPH3Wg-zb8Ei_-dPR8TCa_H_uuhN5qDjVky9WXihBGHuIOinMTMC5RRXNrGLnfFq6IgepJjKxDNPo0VWRty401H2SUE4w3jfQ/s1600-h/Z+For+Zachariah,+Aladdin+%281987%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G4GQyY4EMts4DxiptzdjcEDXH8W0AokfWpUyPoPH3Wg-zb8Ei_-dPR8TCa_H_uuhN5qDjVky9WXihBGHuIOinMTMC5RRXNrGLnfFq6IgepJjKxDNPo0VWRty401H2SUE4w3jfQ/s400/Z+For+Zachariah,+Aladdin+%281987%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257395280488386018" border="0" /></a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34743329.post-16446238186060774172008-06-26T15:56:00.002-05:002008-07-11T08:27:06.858-05:00The Custodian, William Tenn, 1955After scientists discover that the sun will go nova in a hundred years, humanity divides into two warring sect, The Affirmers and The Custodians. Affirmers eschew everything but the strictly utilitarian in a effort to transport the entire population to the safety of extra-solar colonies. Custodians seek the aesthetic and wish to die with the Earth than live without art. The Affirmers triumph politically and they begin a mass evacuation of Earth, evenually forcing Custodians to leave with them.<br /><br />The story begins with the Custodian granted the privilege to die with the Earth. Only a few years remain before the nova. He is left with a functioning spaceship and is tasked with making sure no Custodian hold-outs remain by monitoring the planet for human life signs. He spends his days flying around the world and viewing all the art and natural beauty left behind. Eventually he discovers a group of Custodians who had hidden themselves to avoid evacuation. The adults are dead due to a malfunction in the machines that kept them hidden. He adopts the surviving infant and the responsibility of fatherhood teaches him that life is more precious than art or artifacts. He loads the spaceship with as much art as he can, and they leave for the colony orbiting Alpha Centauri.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45595">ISFDB Publication History</a>Jason Flahardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17066617458034177345noreply@blogger.com0