tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post4989445519117325494..comments2024-03-27T01:28:28.346-07:00Comments on False Machine: Wondrous Bullshit - A Review of "Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange".pjamesstuarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-32787027050836483982017-06-02T06:19:10.451-07:002017-06-02T06:19:10.451-07:00Apologies for the necro comment, but re Robert Irw...Apologies for the necro comment, but re Robert Irwin, I highly recommend you read his novel 'The Arabian Nightmare' if you haven't already, because it's brilliant.<br /><br />"THERE are those who at the breakfast table, or even the dinner table, are ready to recount their dreams in great detail; there are others, far rarer, who are willing to listen avidly, waiting perhaps for a revelation, a key, a lesson that could be learned no other way, or only for a frisson of the uncanny. The second group will particularly enjoy Robert Irwin's novel 'The Arabian Nightmare', though all are welcome to this witty and convoluted phantasmagoria.<br /><br />On June 18, 1486 (an oddly exact date, considering what follows), a certain Balian of Norwich, pilgrim to the desert shrine of St. Catherine, enters Cairo [...] one of those cities whose streets, seeming to lead outward, only circle back again. Balian intends to pass through Cairo, but stumbles instead into an interlocking nest of dreams from which he cannot exit. It may be that he is suffering from the Arabian Nightmare, which is going around (so he is led to believe): this horrid dream disorder condemns the sufferer to experience hours of hideous torment each night, hours that consume dream-years, dream-lifetimes of pain, but which he awakes from not aware that he has dreamed at all.<br /><br />An Englishman who befriends the feckless Balian, Michael Vane, insists that he can be treated for his dream disturbances only by the greatest practitioner of dream medicine, the Father of Cats, who lives in Cairo under the protection of the Sultan (who has sleep problems of his own) [...] doing experimental brain surgery on his beloved cats.<br /> <br />From the Father of Cats, Balian hears of the nature of the Alam al-Mithal, which we might call Dreamland, though this Arabian version has none of the languor and sweetness of that word. It is a quite dreadful place, many-leveled and peopled with malevolent creatures; it is, moreover, bent on invading waking life. Indeed, it may have already begun, and Balian may be its victim.<br /><br />On the other hand, the sufferings of Balian may be inflicted on him not by the Nightmare but by the voice telling us his tale, which seems to be the voice of the marketplace storyteller, Dirty Yoll, he with the ape on his back. Yoll is antidream; dreams only make people want to sleep, he says, whereas stories make them want to wake up. Certainly Balian wants to wake up; but he is stuck in that sort of dream (there really is a Greek word for it) from which the dreamer dreams that he awakes, only to find (or lose) himself in a further dream.<br /><br />In the Alam al-Mithal, says the Father of Cats, 'there were more signs than meanings, more causes than events,' just as there are in this book. There are the Laughing Dervishes, who foretell the coming of the Fifth Messiah and the end of the world (four other Messiahs and four other ends of the world have already come and gone, but the world was too dull to notice them). There is Fatima the Deathly and her imaginary sister, Zuleyka (or is it the other way around?). There are the Leper Knights of the Order of St. Lazarus, sworn enemies of Islam and the Father of Cats (or are they?); the man in the dirty turban; and the two dwarfs, Barfi and Ladoo, who cannot always tell which of them is which. They are all, of course, connected with one another; they all appear several times and under conflicting aspects. The revolving events they cause or suffer seem to be continually on the point of making some large and ghastly sense, only to slip again into a convincingly dreamlike oblivion - a restless incoherence, shadowed by ungraspable meaning." (John Crowley in the NYTimes - other reviews here: http://www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/reviews.php?id=00000004).inirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17323031535644346639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-7328500657665908322017-01-30T04:22:42.930-08:002017-01-30T04:22:42.930-08:00I did not find them overwhelmingly repetitive, the...I did not find them overwhelmingly repetitive, they come in runs with two or three being of the same rough type and then a new set happens. pjamesstuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288777018721199748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-44266306554060855272017-01-30T02:25:10.388-08:002017-01-30T02:25:10.388-08:00Thanks for the review - goes right in my next Amaz...Thanks for the review - goes right in my next Amazon order!<br /><br />I wonder how different it is from the 1001 Nights, ultimately - I have read about a third of it a decade ago (in an authentic translation), and it was roughly in the same ballpark; a lot of frankly disreputable stories about greed, sex and murder with tremendous entertainment value. At least it appeared much more salacious than its literary reputation (at least in the West - it was apparently not thought of too highly in the Islamic world), and especially the sanitised versions you get to know from childs' literature.<br /><br />How repetitive are the stories? The 1001 Nights grew a little samey after the second of seven volumes. Does it also apply to this one?<br /><br />In any case, this absolutely looks like one of those works which are eclipsed by the fame and status of another similar collection (also see: Grimm's German Legends, the less known, meaner cousin to Grimm's Fairy Tales), but are very much worth having. It was great to read your review; sold!Melanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07165894144553629675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-41700038440421612342017-01-29T19:31:46.117-08:002017-01-29T19:31:46.117-08:00sounds like a good read!
frijoles, your henchman ...sounds like a good read!<br /><br />frijoles, your henchman idea sounds fun. I was thinking it could also be fun to have a one-off session where the party is arranged to meet some knowledgeable or experienced NPC, and when he starts telling about this dungeon/treasure trove he visited, break out sone pregens and have the party play out the NPCs' tale.Kent Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16565608928989831822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-954276887742172312017-01-27T04:17:10.510-08:002017-01-27T04:17:10.510-08:00The bit about nesting has got my mind racing for a...The bit about nesting has got my mind racing for a way to work it into play. <br /><br />I think something like, the players send a party of henchmen to accomplish a side-goal, which balloons into a larger adventure that levels them up to the point where they are acquiring adventure-ready henches of their own.<br /><br />And then: Lo! A side goal! Let's send our henchmen to accomplish this so as not to detract from the main mission, think the henchmen. Rinse and repeat, five levels deep?<br /><br />The resulting demographic explosion of player-controlled characters in this depopulated postapocalyptic D&D/Gamma World mashup should leave me with relatively few NPCs to create and run. <br /><br />Should be positive for player involvement!<br /><br />Thanks for the inspiration! <br />frijoles juniorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01423720423119688947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-91397837130356282352017-01-26T07:18:32.850-08:002017-01-26T07:18:32.850-08:00How timely -- I'm currently obsessed with John...How timely -- I'm currently obsessed with Johnstone Metzger's OSR entry "The Nightmares Underneath" and its mythic Islamic Persian setting, The Kingdom of Dreams. This sounds like an essential companion to running the game. Ordering on Amazon now... looks like the hardcover is actually a better buy than paperback here in Canada, just as well. Thanks Patrick!Picadorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244353406711565712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4522018539311056682.post-2285450302255356122017-01-25T20:29:21.370-08:002017-01-25T20:29:21.370-08:00+1+1Zak Sabbathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08812410680077034917noreply@blogger.com