Apr 01
Talktotransformer is proving to be a potent tool for me. I usually have to run things through a few times, and tune and collate the results, but am mostly assured of a fecund list. By which I mean a list that makes the mind wander, cooking up possibilities (and story ideas) for people, places, and …
Mar 25
As I demonstrated last Wednesday, it’s pretty easy to come up with a name for a novel species of carnivorous mammal. Now let’s turn to the feline world, and the naming conventions of big cat hybrids. The “big four” Panthera species (lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars) are all capable of interbreeding with each other, as …
Mar 24
Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World by Todd McLeish University of Washington Press, 2013 [Challenge # 22 : A book taking place mostly or all on water.] My first choice for this category, Blackfish City, didn’t work out, so I subbed Narwhals one after noticing I had saved it to my Seattle Public Library …
Mar 18
Exotic mammalian carnivores are heavily featured in SFF literature. William Rice Burroughs had his eight-legged, lion-like banth in his Barsoom series, and more recently Tomi Adeyemi took up the trope with her lionaires and leopardaires in Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Prehistoric carnivores like the sabre-toothed tiger and short-faced …
Dec 16
One of the most bizarre Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen. Who would make this? Who would buy it?
Dec 02
An early 20th century representation of a Scandinavian frost giant, from the silent movie Conquest of the Pole by French film pioneer Georges Méliès. To me the creature looks more like a goofy Russian ventriloquist’s dummy. Which is no less horrible than a bloodthirsty spirit to my eye, but probably not what the director intended.
Nov 18
Isn’t this guy a shady character! He’s got a buckskin and pointed ears like the mythical satyr but no hooves. Peter Paul Rubens, 1638. On display at The Prado, Madrid.
Oct 28
Scarecrow and Tin Man from a 1902 stage production of The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know what makes it more creepy, the old-timey photo or the Scarecrow’s stiff-fingered, Leatherface-like appearance. In its time, though, it was a great success and the first version of Oz to be adapted into a script.
