![[September 23, 1963] Small Comforts (October 1963 <i>Fantastic</i>)](https://i0.wp.com/galacticjourney.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/630923cover.jpg?resize=541%2C372&ssl=1)
by Victoria Silverwolf
The Heart asks Pleasure – first –
And then – Excuse from Pain –
And then – those little Anodynes
That deaden suffering –
–Emily Dickinson
Our host has already provided a powerful and heartfelt essay on the horrific Birmingham church bombing that occurred this month. Along with shock and sorrow, we should share a conviction to oppose the racial inequality which leads to such evils.
Members of the Congress of Racial Equality march in Washington, D. C., on September 22
It is understandable that many people, myself included, will seek some form of distraction from these troubling times. For most Americans, that often means television.
The American Broadcasting Company, the youngest of the three big networks, premiered new series this month. Of most interest is The Outer Limits. Watch for reviews of this science fiction anthology show from one of our fellow Galactic Journeyers soon.
Those who prefer tales of suspense may wish to watch The Fugitive, starring David Janssen as a physician wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. He escapes from custody during a train wreck, and tries to track down the real killer while eluding the police.
Young viewers, and those who enjoy unrealistic sitcoms, are likely to tune in for The Patty Duke Show. The talented young actress, best known for her Oscar-winning role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, has a double role as a pair of identical cousins with opposite personalities. It's a ridiculous premise, but may appeal to folks in search of lighthearted amusement.
The American popular music charts were dominated by two very different hit songs. Earlier in the month, we had the silly but catchy little number "My Boyfriend's Back" by the Angels.
More recently, a remake of Tony's Bennet's 1951 hit Blue Velvet by crooner Bobby Vinton reached Number One. Vinton's version first appeared on the album Blue on Blue, containing only songs with the word blue in the title. When Blue Velvet became a smash hit, the album quickly reappeared with a new cover and a new title.
Of course, my favorite form of escapism is reading imaginative fiction. Let's see if the latest issue of Fantasticprovides the kind of thing I'm looking for.
The Screen Game, by J. G. Ballard
We return to Vermillion Sands, a desert resort for the wealthy and the artistic, which has supplied the background for several of the author's stories in the past. The narrator is a painter. He accepts a commission to produce a large number of backdrops to be used during the making of an avant garde movie. The filming is to take place at the mansion of a wealthy man whose mother died under mysterious circumstances. He discovers a woman inside a number of screens he has painted with signs of the zodiac. Her hobby is placing jewels on the bodies of venomous insects. Secrets are revealed, and tragedy follows.
This story is full of striking images. It proceeds with the inevitability of a Greek play. The author's characters are larger-than-life archetypes. Cover art and interior illustration by the great Emsh perfectly capture the tale's strange beauty and brooding sense of mystery. Not all readers will care for the decadent aesthetes who populate Vermillion Sands, but I found the story compelling. Five stars.
The Wolf Woman, by H. Bedford-Jones
This month's reprint, taken from the pages of the August 1939 issue of Blue Book, features the time-viewing machine we encountered in last month's Fantastic. Here it is used to spin a tale set in ancient India, at a time of war between Aryans and Dravidians. Dravidians force the ruler of the Aryans to swear that her people will not emerge from their stronghold. In return, the Dravidians will refrain from attacking them and supply them with food. The ruler slyly avoids swearing that she will not leave her castle. She embarks on a one-woman mission to slay the ruler of the Dravidians, with the help of superstition and a tame wolf.
Although the introduction by science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz claims that this story is part of werewolf literature, in fact it provides a completely rational explanation for the myth of lycanthropy. The heroine merely uses trickery to convince her enemies that she has the power to become a wolf. The author's version of the remote past is more romantic than realistic. By the end of the story, the characters act in ways only found in sentimental pulp fiction. Two stars.
King Solomon's Ring, by Roger Zelazny
This story takes the form of a letter written by the narrator to a woman with whom he shares a checkered past. The narrative is full of flashbacks and foreshadowing, making the complex plot difficult to follow. In brief, a man has a limited form of telepathy which allows him to communicate, at least partly, with aliens. He leaves a life of crime for a form of legal plunder, in which Earth corporations take advantage of the inhabitants of other worlds. An encounter with insect-like aliens leads to a strange transformation. Although it's not always clear exactly what's going on, the author's brisk, informal style holds the reader's attention. Three stars.
Let There Be Night, by Robert F. Young
A space traveler is marooned on a planet which is inhabited by aliens who are identical in every way to human beings, except for their language and culture. The planet has a large moon with natural features that closely resemble a scowling face. This is the god of the inhabitants. Their lives are spent trying to appease their angry deity. The spaceman sets himself up in the tradition of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, leading the people from simple farming to advanced technology. His only problem is that they refuse to purchase anything but necessities, due to their fear of the god. He decides to use the armaments he has aboard his spaceship to alter the face of the deity, with unexpected results.
As the synopsis above reveals, this story is full of implausible happenings. It is better read as a fable than as serious speculation. The author is obviously trying to say something about the way in which religion influences human behavior. What happens at the end may be too cynical for some readers. Two stars.
Mating Season, by Wilton G. Beggs
Fleeing an impending atomic war, human colonists journey to a distant planet. It turns out to be barely habitable. An alien disease devastates the population. By the time the story begins, there are only three survivors. A woman is dying from the disease, but her husband is immune to it. A teenage girl, born on the planet, is also immune. On a hunting expedition, the tensions among them reach a climax. This is an unrelievedly grim story. It has emotional power but is unpleasant to read. Two stars.
A Night with Hecate, by Edward W. Ludwig
The witch-goddess Hecate wakes from a long slumber to discover herself in the year 1997. The only reason she survives at all is because she has one remaining worshipper, an old man. Alone, he will not be enough to keep her alive, because construction equipment is about to destroy her altar. The mismatched pair spend the night seeking out another person to worship her. This is made nearly impossible by the fact that only those who believe in her can see her.
This blend of science fiction and fantasy takes place at a time when science and logic have nearly destroyed any sense of the magical. It reads like something Ray Bradbury might have written when he was in a particularly dark mood. Hecate is both alluring and terrifying, taking humans as either lovers or sacrifices. This ambiguity makes it hard to determine what the author really thinks about the war between rationality and fantasy. The narrative has a feverish, hypnotic quality. The macabre illustrations done by Lee Brown Coye in his unique style outshine the story itself. Three stars.
Fifty cents is a small price to pay for hours of release from the all-too-real terrors of the modern world. Take a Fantastic detour, and refresh your mind.
