The right light was the key. The creator dabbed a brush, then flipped the next creation off the dock. As the page touched the water it transformed, dropping another creature into the mix. “Perhaps more gray for the next one. Maybe more teeth?”
Love, Death & Robots
This was originaly published in the June 2022 edition of Watch The Skies.
I went back through the list of shows that I have recommended in the history of these articles and was stunned to see that I had not brought up Love, Death & Robots. I don’t know how this has escaped previously, but no longer.
Love, Death & Robots is an animated series, but this is very specifically aimed at adults. The creators original intent was to have something similar in nature to the animated film Heavy Metal (from 1981). Do not for a moment think this is a children’s cartoon. It is NOT. It is brutal, sexy and mind rattling in varying degrees throughout. Netflix loaded up the first season of LD&R back in March of 2019. There were 18 episodes for the series, each coming in with a viewing length under 20 minutes. The second season of 8 was released in May of 2021, and the most recent season of 9 episodes launched just last month (May of 2022).
The stories for these animations all come from some of the best writers in modern science fiction, fantasy and horror. Names like, Bacigalupi, Asher, Scalzi and Sterling. There’s even an episode showing a story written by Harlan Ellison. These stories carry weight and have real punch in such a short time frame. The set up to the closure, if there is any, come right at you. The first two seasons each won an Emmy. The story telling is only rivaled by the pictures that accompany the stories.
IF you dislike ‘cartoons’ for some reason, I challenge you to watch these and NOT become a fan of animation. The art, the shear beauty of so many of these works will make you question how they were created. Admittedly, they are not all hyper realistic, but even the goofiest stories are well animated. The colors, the smoothness, and the pure vibrancy of even the darkest pieces still amazes me. I have some that I re-watch for the story and many that I re-watch just to see them. Just to experience their beauty again. I don’t believe they needed more marketing, but the third season has actually done something neat to accompany all this art. There were some clues hidden in certain episodes of the third season. If you followed the clues, you’d find your way to some computer art from the show. The hunt, and the clues have continued on various social medial platforms since the third season was released.
I highly recommend this show. You should definitely be watching.
Check out the trailer for season three here:
As a writer one comes to understand that the words laid out may, or may not, find a home. Sometimes the moment of inspiration that hits amuses or delights you but fails to connect with anyone else. It happens. Keep writing, keep putting words together and hoping to not just turn them into salad.
Some time ago I saw a call for submissions to a ‘course catalog’ for a horror based university. As stated above, it amused me and I had sudden inspiration. My submission was rejected (without any real notice) and that’s just fine.
I was bumping around that aforementioned debris pile that is my notes on writing and found that submission. It’s never going to be publishable anywhere else – so I’ll drop it out for you here. Hopefully you’ll find them amusing too.
From the course catalog:
Established in 1613 by academic and occult pioneer, as well as failed vintner, Fenrick Oglebutt, through trans-chronological fallacies and a lust for knowledge, Nafallen University has become one of the foremost centers of learning on all matters from the mundane to the mythic.
Located in beautifully desiccated Crisp, Texas, Nafallen University is dedicated to bringing its students the best in education, career opportunities, and fulfilling student lives from any university in current existence.
Nafallen University offers a hands-on and practical approach to education, with in-person, virtual, and astral courses offered at all levels of degree tracks.
Within this tome, enterprising students who wish to expand their minds and power will find courses offered for the current semester. Course descriptions are provided by the professors themselves, ensuring an honest appraisal of the material.
Here are the courses I submitted. I think they would have been a fine addition.
School of Architecture
ARC 212 – MASONRY II
PREREQUISITE: Poe; Amontillado
Gain additional skills and practical knowledge of masonry wall systems. Active interpretations of heat applied flashing, mortar selection and weep vent installation. Gain knowledge of residential construction inspection timing, effects of climate on drying time and STC (sound transmission classification).
Purchase of additional materials may be required.
ARC 135 – ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND GRAPHICS
Explore the fundamental issues of spaces, perception of spaces, scale and habitation. Emphasis is placed on ordering principles, pattern recognition and figure ground relationships. Build on graphical representation with an emphasis on observational symbology, aesthetic color choices and drawing presentation.
STR 301 – ADVANCED STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS: ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN
Prerequisite: Euclidean Geometry, Plasticity
Combine classical thermodynamics with plasticity and high yield functions. Allow the numbers to flow and discover numerical dissipation and pliability factors. Blocking, buckling, transient and steady state response combined with temperature creep. Emphasis on temporal stability and consistency. Galerkin meshfree imposition of boundaries and domain limits explored. Calculate how much your structure may flex under varied circumstances.
Writing is work. Writing has its own momentum, and its own weight. Sometimes that weight doesn’t get carried along when other things get too heavy.
As part of what seems to be the cycle here, I’ve been away doing all the things and my writing has languished. There are a series of things I have planned to write, and all the notes are laying about on my desk, scattered like fallen leaves. I’m hoping to rake them up and turn them into a pile of something, but even my rudimentary knowledge of plants understand that means mulch…
So, back to work. Hoping for more posts, but depending on that ever elusive ‘free time’ that never seems to be actually free, nor arriving in great quantities.
Is this that stupid ‘supply chain’ thing everyone goes on and on about?
Was there danger? Of course there was danger. There was always danger, but the sins of my past made it worth the risk. I climbed. I reached. I was dizzy with the pheromones of death floating around me. I had tunnel vision. I could see the light. I moved toward the light. I reached for the light. The light so bright. The light so beautiful. Sinking forever into the dazzling light.
The scorching, raging pain of burning myself reaching for that beauty. I fell. I am scarred.
I will reach again.
My children we must persist. Our road is long, our way winding and difficult. No matter the cost, we will pay.
The Circle may stand against us. The Weavers seek to undo our works. We will break his chains despite our opposition. The world will shake and sunder. We are the coming of the truth.
We shall not bend. We shall not yield. The cursed ground shall not hold us. Death will not stop us. We are bound to free him. We are bound to save him. His chains become our weight, and we shall bear it.
Carry the light of the secret moon with you. The Crimson Crescent shall win out. The Chained God shall be free, and with him, so shall we all.
I’ve been getting a number of rejections on my written work lately – and that’s to be expected as part of the publishing industry. Any number of those things I mark on a list and work out where else they can be submitted.
Sometimes there just isn’t a good fit. The thing I created is tailor made for one specific time or place and just won’t become something else. An open call for creators to make course catalog entries was one such instance.
Imagine a university opening to become another or alternate version of the infamous Miskatonic University located someplace other than Arkham. What would the course selection look like for a place like that? This was the assignment. Here are the entries I submitted for “Advanced Cthulhu Studies” at this university:
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
ARC 135: ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND GRAPHICS
Explore the fundamental issues of spaces, perception of spaces, scale and habitation. Emphasis is placed on ordering principles, pattern recognition and figure ground relationships. Build on graphical representation with an emphasis on observational symbology, aesthetic color choices and drawing presentation.
ARC 212: MASONRY II
PREREQUISITE: Poe; Amontillado
Gain additional skills and practical knowledge of masonry wall systems. Active interpretations of heat applied flashing, mortar selection and weep vent installation. Gain knowledge of residential construction inspection timing, effects of climate on drying time and STC (sound transmission classification).
Purchase of additional materials (casks) may be required.
STR 301: ADVANCED STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS: ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN
Prerequisite: Euclidean Geometry, Plasticity
Combine classical thermodynamics with plasticity and high yield functions. Allow the numbers to flow and discover numerical dissipation and pliability factors. Blocking, buckling, transient and steady state response combined with thermal creep. Emphasis on temporal stability and consistency. Galerkin meshfree imposition of boundaries and domain limits explored. Calculate how much your structure may flex under varied circumstances.
What sort of courses would you create? Who would you expect to see in class?
We have seen what the traction league has come to. We watched the battle for survival and the losses suffered by those who chose to simply fortify the mountain in place. We have combined the great engines and the mountain. We shall be safe in our fortress. We shall rule the sky.
We must haunt him.
Wake him. How can we haunt him if he will not awaken to see us? Touch him.
We cannot. There is a barrier.
Shake him. Move the barrier. Quickly, our time is short.
We cannot. The barrier defies us. He sleeps the sleep of the exhausted. He will not acknowledge us.
Perhaps he is shaken already. Perhaps his struggles outweigh us. We must move on.
We move on.
Poetry is something I’ve always struggled with. It feels like being a good story teller would relate to good poetry with word choice and the way a statement flows when spoken, but that’s just not the case. I can get a rhythm, I can work with a particular rhyme structure… but it just never seems to come together.
Haiku seems to be the answer for me.
I read a little about the history of this poetic form in the book Japanese Death Poems. It’s a fascinating bit of history if you’re into something with a little bit of a dark tint. The form was massively celebrated during Japan’s history and has changed in form and format over time.
Still not something I’m going to ever be great at, but a form I can work with. Friends of mine got married this past weekend. One of the things happening at their reception was a haiku contest. While I know these poems won’t have the meaning to people reading here that they did to the couple, I felt it was worth posting them. Get outside your comfort zone now and then. Try something different. Write a poem…
You told a story
of the man in the past – it
was always a skirt
We visit the bar
then elevator roulette
who really won?