Based on a short story by Robert Graves, “The Shout” tells the story of a man who (supposedly) has learned a mystical skill from Australian Aborigines, a shout that can kill. I am not familiar with the director (Jerzy Skolimowski) but it does have an excellent cast, headed by John Hurt, Alan Bates and Susannah…
“The Father Christmas Letters” is a collection of letters and accompanying pictures written by JRR Tolkien for his children. Of course it is traditional in many countries for children to write letters to Father Christmas, but Tolkien’s children were lucky enough to receive letters back. (What a great dad Tolkien must have been, with so…
There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is…
(First published 1963.) Vonnegut is not for everyone, and I suspect many would find him far too cynical to truly enjoy. His world view has always seemed to me to be without illusion, though sometimes lacking in joy or hope. That being said, his books are always interesting and thought-provoking. “Cat’s Cradle” starts with the…
“Exterminating Angel” was directed by the Spanish Surrealist Luis Bunuel, but is a Mexican production as he was living there at this time. It’s about a group of rich people who gather together for a dinner, only to discover that for reasons unknown they can’t leave. Surrealism, whether it is in art, literature, or film,…
I do like a ghost story, and I am also a fan of director Guillermo Del Toro, so I was interested to see “Crimson Peak”. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain, it’s a gothic horror in the old style used by Hammer horror films of the fifties, sixties and seventies. A young American…
Theodore Geisel used the pen name Dr Seuss to write his books, mainly children’s books. However Geisel was known also for his illustrations, cartoon work and animation. He was not a doctor, his pen name being purely fictitious, and his books have become famous over the last century, even being adapted (with mixed success) to…
First published in 1980, “Timescape” won the Nebula Award that year. It is a science fiction novel, dealing with ecological disaster in the year 1998. There seems to be no way to resolve what is happening, but technology that uses tachyons allow researchers to attempt communication with the past. In 1962, a scientist starts to…
Ostensibly a sequel to ‘The Moon of Gomrath’ and the ‘Weirdstone of Brisingamen’, though written fifty years later, “Boneland” is a problematic read. To anyone who has read the first two books, I would caution not to expect any kind of continuation or resolution here. I find I cannot really discuss this without straying into…
This is a children’s fantasy, published in 1963, which is a sequel to “The Weirdstone of Brisingamen”. It deals with the adventures of brother and sister Colin and Susan, who discover that beings regarded as fairy tales exist right along side human beings, and that magic really does exist. I first read this as a…
Eclectic Assemblage 