Recovered Photos

 

While going through my computer's photo library, I discovered four photos in a Recovered Photos file. They struck me as significant, so I thought I would share them with you.

I drew this first one on a trip to Florida. I had recently attended my first comics convention, and was looking to fill in some holes in my long-neglected collection. While taking time out for must-see attractions, such as Disneyworld and Gatorland, my wife and I also stopped by several comics stores. After this trip, I would reconnect with my friend Justin Ponsor. Through our dialogue, he gave me a greater appreciation for comics.

Sadly, Justin is no longer with us, coloring the comics we love. But at least he shared his love for them with me before he left. I no longer neglect my comics, and my collection is ever-growing. 

This second photo is of two ponies in a road in Dartmoor National Park. I took this during our trip to England in 2015. I did a good number of sketches that trip, including the view of Haytor from the room in our Bed & Breakfast. 

The hill, with its distinctive tor, was only a short walk away from the Moorland Hotel, where Agatha Christie stayed while writing her first published novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. As I sketched, I imagined her hiking up that scenic hill while pondering the scenes she would write the following day.

After checking out of our B&B, we took the short drive to Haytor, and watched all the tourists hiking up that hill. Oh, and taking photos of the ponies. There were oh so many ponies that day at Haytor, far more than the two along the road in this photo.

 

This drawing helped relieve a burden I carried. It helped me fix in my mind, for all time, a place that was hugely special to me. Even if it no longer existed for me (or at least, never could), only after I drew it, could the healing begin.

 

This was a church convention, from the denomination of my youth. I only attended the event because some people asked me to accompany them. The event reminded me why I left that denomination, and why I rarely attend church anymore. 

For whatever reason, my photo library decided to save these four. Together, they encapsulate the past I've left behind, and what I carry into the future. 

Perhaps I'll leave them on my computer awhile longer.

Dragon Dave

For the Love of Chocolate

I was watching the movie "Chocolat" recently, about a woman who reinvigorates a little French village by opening a Chocolate shop. In the "making of" featurette, I learned that the first chocolate bar was produced in the mid 1800s. Before that, chocolate was mainly used as a drink.

I normally associate chocolate with Switzerland. So it came as a surprise to learn that England produced the world's first chocolate bar. We always visit candy shops when we visit England, and you can find lots of varieties of candies and chocolates that are not available in the United States. But to hold the title of world's first chocolate bar producer, well, I think you'll agree that's something special.

Chocolate may not own the title of many Hollywood films, but it often plays an important role in literature. American author Joanne Fluke's first novel appeared in 1980, but twenty years later, her novel The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder proved so popular she's written a staggering twenty-five sequels. Children's author Roald Dahl may have written James and the Giant Peach first, but his followup Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became his best known novel, and produced his only sequel. 

Then there's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, whom Agatha Christie introduced to the world in her first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot indulged in fine chocolates on occasion (particularly at Christmas), and also enjoyed drinking cocoa. Chocolate figures prominently in a few Poirot stories, including "The Chocolate Box." So it seems fitting that, when Clive Exton adapted Agatha Christie's first Poirot novel, he had Captain Hastings bump into the distinguished gentleman when he is purchasing cocoa for his evening drink.

On last year's trip to England, we visited Norwich Cathedral. Over 900 years of history have brought many changes to the city's center of worship. One recent addition is a brass baptismal font. The large brass bowl was once a mixing bowl used in the making of chocolate, until the local factory closed down. It now fortifies worshipper's spiritual lives, and reminds locals of Rowntree Macintosh, a center for employment there until 1994. The chocolate producer, in its storied career, created confections such as Rolo and Kitkat that people all over the world still enjoy. 

So the next time someone tells you chocolate isn't good for you, remind them that chocolate has brought happiness, success, and spiritual fulfillment to the world. Just be careful about eating any chocolates that come through the post, or are delivered by people you don't trust. You never know: they could be poisoned!

Dragon Dave

To England, the North Pole, Africa and Beyond

I've been busy with travel, writing, and just plain coping with life in January. But here's a rundown of the highlights of what I read in December.

1. Thirteen At Dinner by Agatha Christie. (Original title: Lord Edgware Dies). Hercule Poirot's friend Arthur Hastings returns to England in the novel The Big Four, and he returns to his new home in Argentina at the end of this novel. He narrates Poirot's investigation into Lord Edgware's death. The prime suspect seems to be his estranged wife, but not only does she have an alibi, she also seems to have no motive. Any time you can hang out with Arthur Hastings is a fun time.

2. Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R Brooks. Freddy, a self-educated pig, is just one of many interesting characters who live together on a farm. As Freddy longs to travel, he sets up an agency, and he and the other animals conduct tours of nearby sites. Animals travel from nearby farms to enjoy these tours, and pay for them with food or work. Eventually he and his friends garner enough promises of work that they travel off to the North Pole. Along the way, they are rescued from an ice floe by a ship of whalers, who prove reluctant to let such an entertaining (and healthy) pig escape. So more animals on the farm must come to Freddy's rescue. They head off to the North Pole, have exciting adventures, and eventually catch up with Freddy. They also meet a very special person who has his own workshop at the North Pole. Can you guess who it is?

3. Captain's Glory by William Shatner. This novel was cowritten by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. William Shatner, of course, played Captain Kirk on the original series of Star Trek. The latter have cowritten other novels with Shatner, and produced and wrote stories for the series Star Trek: Enterprise. It's one of the most recent Star Trek novels I've read, and appears to be the last in a trilogy. After his death in the movie Star Trek Generations, Captain Kirk has somehow been returned to life. (You know, like Spock in the movie Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). He's married a woman of mixed ancestry, and has a young child who, due to accelerated growth, appears to be an adult. He captains a smaller ship, and his travels take him to Vulcan, where he is searching for Spock, whom everyone else seems to believe is dead. (Yes, again). Among his crew are an ancient-but-kicking Dr. McCoy, and engineer Scotty, who is little aged, due to having been trapped in a transporter for decades. There's a huge threat to the Federation, and Admiral Janeway, who served as captain of the Voyager in the series Star Trek Voyager, pulls together all her best people to investigate it. These include Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise (from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation), and his former First Officer Will Riker, who now captains another ship. 

It's kind of amazing how the writers combined so many characters from different TV series. There's obviously a huge number of novels that I have not read which relate a lot of the history of all these people, and how they came to their present positions. At times I had difficulty believing in all these people from different series interacting together. But it was nice to think that the writers, and fans, loved these characters so much, that they wanted them to continue living, long after they should have passed on.

4. Ocean Of Storms by Christopher Mari and Jeremy K Brown. This story begins with a bang. Or, to be accurate, a massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that blacks-out cities, and drops planes out of the sky. When scientists discover the EMP came from the moon, NASA kickstarts an Apollo-style mission. Yet, as in the movie The Martian, involvement with China proves essential to the program. So American and Chinese astronauts head off to the moon, where they discover a spaceship, and a mystery that will lead to a worldwide government coverup, and the subsequent investigation in Africa. 

Although the novel has the feel of a Science Fiction novel, it seemed better-suited to the Thriller genre. It was fast paced, and aspects of it were enjoyable. But I felt as if, had it been submitted to one of the established Science Fiction publishers, they would have rejected it for scientific and story reasons. Still, it was a free ebook-of-the-month from Amazon, and I felt like seeing what Amazon felt was noteworthy and worth reading. Having read so many older books recently, it was nice to read something that was published in the last few years.

5. A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer. Having watched the first two seasons of "Rumpole of the Bailey," I enjoyed returning to the character with this short collection. The stories mostly take place in and around the Temple area of London, where Rumpole works as a barrister representing the people who everyone believes guilty until proven innocent. But the story occasionally takes him farther afield, such as when his wife Hilda (or, as he refers to her, She Who Must Be Obeyed) takes him to a health spa to lose weight over the holidays, or spend Christmas with an old school friend. Rumpole's extraordinary character really makes these stories come to life. So, so much fun.

6. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. A young boy, whose father has remarried, lives with his sick mother in an English village so small it doesn't even have a McDonalds. (Note: There's more than a few of these in England). The teachers at school are tremendously kind to him, but some of the boys in his class bully him. While his mother's cancer treatments have always worked in the past, his mother never seems to get better. So his grandmother, who he doesn't know well and doesn't get along with, moves in. In his anger and isolation, he begins to notice a tree outside. His dreams of a tree-like creature meld into real-life, and bouts of mindless violence follow. But how much is real, and how much imagined? This novel won the prestigious Carnagie and Greenaway awards for the writing and illustration, and was recently made into a movie.

Reading-wise, December seems to have been a good month. I've had months in which I read more novels, and ones (such as last month) in which I've read less. Of course, this list doesn't refer to reference books, comics and graphic novels, and books-in-process. Nonetheless, the list is a substantive and varied, and a month of reading I can look back on fondly.

What books did you read in December? Any stories that stuck in your mind? Any reading experiences that you'd like to share with others?

Dragon Dave

Wilkie Collins: The Ordeal of the Woman in White

Does reading a novel ever become an ordeal? Do you sometimes find yourself plugging through a book just to get through it? That proved my experience with The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins. This novel is the fifth written by Charles Dickens' friend and contemporary author, and considered the best written by Collins. It is said to be one of the first Mystery novels ever written, or at least a precursor to the later Mystery literary genre. The novel impressed fans and authors, including a young Agatha Christie. Yet I found the pace glacial, and the story largely uninteresting. How could this be?

Perhaps a little comparison is in order. Earlier this year, I read The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. It was my first experience with Dickens (at least as an adult, and as best as I can remember). Dickens peppered his story with lots of characters, who each had interesting stories to tell. Many of the characters were quirky and amusing, and perhaps a little far fetched. I suppose the story was rather satirical. Yet the one thing that sticks in my mind was how much sheer story there was. Like The Woman in White, The Pickwick Papers was serialized in a magazine/newspaper. There was mini-adventure after misadventure. It was a lot of fun, and told me a lot about England during that era.

By contrast, Collins' novel was more focused, and the story simpler. When one character left the stage, the next person involved continued the linear narrative. There were complications, and a few interesting characters, but only one plot thread. So if you got bored with that story, there was nothing else to look forward to but more of the same. 

Most of Collins' characters left me flat. There were only three well developed characters, in my opinion. The rest seemed more like charicatures. Now that's fine in a humorous novel, but not so good in a serious narrative. The whole point about The Woman in White was that it was breaking new ground for its time. It was a Sensation novel, a fusion of the Romance and Gothic literary genres. It clearly spoke to contemporary readers and authors, even if many reviewers hated it. Even today, it is ranked as one of the most important English language novels ever written. Yet I slogged through it, and feel robbed of the enjoyment that others have derived from the reading experience.

Don't you hate it when you miss the party?

Dragon Dave

May Reading Roundup Part 2

6. Transit by Ben Aaronovitch. What if you could travel to another planet simply by boarding a train. This is the future that the seventh Doctor Who and his companion Bernice Summerfield confront in this New Adventures novel. The only problem is that, by creating wormholes through normal space, the designers have given entry points for beings from another dimension. The action takes place all over the solar system, from Earth to Mars to Pluto, and all places in between. The Doctor will not allow these beings to take control of our worlds and our lives. But can he prevent it? The action, and the reasoning behind it, may be a little difficult to follow at times, following as it does the English literary style of the New Weird. But the story is fun, told at an epic scale, and features a young black woman who is a descendant of the classic Doctor Who character, Brigadier Leftbridge Stewart.

7. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I also read this classic novel on my Kindle. We meet a mole who decides that, instead of keeping his home underground tidy, he would rather go boating every day with his friend the water rat. He and Rat get along famously, and make a new friend in Toad. But whereas Mole and Rat make rational, thoughtful decisions, the Toad always wants to be the center of attention. He follows the latest fads, but never takes the time to master any skills. Thus, when he discovers he likes driving automobiles, he drives them too fast, and crashes them. Rat and Mole try to intervene, and prevent him from ruining his reputation, and losing his wealth through his extravagance, but Toad escapes from them, and gets into even more trouble. It's a fun novel, which has been adapted many times for TV. It amazes me how powerfully this simple story has affected generations of readers and viewers. Sadly, my version didn't come with any illustrations, such as in the edition pictured above. Maybe I'll have to watch a TV version, and see how others adapted it for the small screen.

8. Artemis Invaded by Jane Lindskold. This is the second of a two-part series about a planet that has been lost by galactic civilization. After society climbs back from its crash, one young man from a powerful family discovers Artemis, a world created by prior generations as a pleasure planet. Technology does not work there, and his shuttle crashes before he can land safely. But he makes friends with a young lady, a hunter, who has a psychic connection with a puma. In this second novel, other members of the man's family land on Artemis. They seek to control the natives and exploit the technology of a former age. As some of this technology involves powerful weapons, this is of concern to all. But the biggest dilemma is faced by Adara, the young huntress. During the events of book one, she came into psychic communication with the planet's consciousness. Artemis offers her stronger powers, and a means to defend her world against the grasping avarice of the man's family. But to accept Artemis' gift means opening herself up even more to Artemis. Will there be anything of Adara left is she accepts these offered powers? Or will she become simply a human extension of the planetary consciousness? 

A building in Oxford, the historic university
Gerald will later attend.

9. Gerald Eversley's Friendship by James Welldon. This is an ebook which I read in the PDF format on my computer. It's a nineteenth century English novel written by a Church of England priest. The title character attends St Anselm's on a scholarship, as his father, the vicar of a small country village, could not have afforded to send him. There he makes a friend in the rich son of an English lord. While Gerald is introverted, and makes few friends, he slowly gains the respect of his peers through his scholastic efforts, as well as his sterling character. He eventually gains a scholarship to Oxford University. But while it seems like his life is a smooth rise to the top of society, it is anything but. His growing knowledge of the world around him makes it difficult for him to believe in the tenets of Christianity, which separates him from his parents. And another setback, the illness of someone he loves, looms in his future. Ultimately, the friend he made the first day at St. Anselm's school that will save him from committing a terrible folly. But then, that is the power of friendship.

Dinosaurs live not only on isolated Central American plateaus,
but also in Natural History Museum in Oxford, England.

10. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. A family member once told me that, while he would never read any story I wrote, he would watch a film version of any book I wrote. The numerous film versions of The Lost World demonstrate how var a film (or for that matter, a TV adaptation) can veer from the original novel. I've seen several versions, and none of them bear much resemblance to Doyle's classic novel, at least in my memory. Actually, this novel reminds me of the trilogy of novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, beginning with The Land That Time Forgot. It's the story of Professor Challenger, who leads an expedition to a Central American plateau. There dinosaurs live, along with a few primitive humans, and a race of intelligent, aggressive apes. But no creatures are more aggressive than the pterodactyls, those dragons of the prehistoric age. It was interesting to read the Sherlock Holmes stories, so grounded in nuts and bolts of normal Victorian life, and then read this flight of fantasy by the same author. But then, while Burroughs' novels are more fantasy than science, Doyle writes a quintessential science fiction novel. To honor him, Michael Crichton gave his sequel to Jurassic Park the same title as Doyle's classic novel. A few years ago, I read Dinosaur Summer, which author Greg Bear fashioned as a more direct sequel to Doyle's. Only instead of Doctor Challenger, his heroes are real life people like special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and the men who made the original movie "King Kong."

11. The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie. A young man travels from Africa to England. Although he attended the best schools in England, he travels under an assumed name. He does so because he left England to escape large debts. He also wishes to keep a low profile. He undertakes this journey for two reasons. He must deliver the memoirs of a deceased politician to the publishers, while evading the agents of government factions who wish to see the manuscript destroyed. He also seeks to return a collection of letters to a lady, a member of the aristocracy, who would see her world erupt in scandal should they reach other members of society. But on his first day in England, he is attacked in his hotel room. That night, the letters are stolen. The following day, he delivers the memoirs to an agent of the publisher, only to later learn that the man to whom he delivered the manuscript was an imposter. His efforts to reclaim the manuscript and the letters will lead him to Miss Virginia Revel, the woman implicated in the letters, and take him to a grand English manor house known as Chimneys. I found this novel impossible to put down. I read the final half of it one evening. The recent TV version featured Miss Marple, and told an entertaining story. But this novel, which Agatha Christie wrote two years before she created her classic heroine, seemed far richer.

Well, there you have it, the list of books I read May. It does not attempt to address all the individual issues of comics I read, aside from those collected in book form. It was a good month for reading, and I can say that, for all their differences, I enjoyed them all a lot. That being said, I hope for a full return to health next month, and less reading. While I enjoy having virtual adventures on the printed page, I prefer to have some real life adventures as well. Still, if I had to be sick, I couldn't have wished for better books to keep me company.

Dragon Dave

Weekend Round-up: On Honor & Fear

This week, I made two visits to the dentist. I'd been worried about them, and hence put them off. But they turned out to not be as bad as I'd anticipated, which was a nice discovery.

I read three books, which I wrote about on Jane Lindskold's blog. This is what I wrote:

The First Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. Didn’t made much of an impact 20+ years ago. Found it a far richer read this time. The ending made me wonder if Saberhagen originally planned a larger novel, but the publishers opted to split it into two or three.

The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie. Proof that SF/Fantasy authors like Saberhagen don’t have a monopoly on mythological contexts.

Problem at Polensa Bay by Agatha Christie. Stories featuring Poirot, Pyne, and Quin. Most of these Christie originally wrote (and published) for one character. Then later she rewrote the stories in a different form, and republished them. Only this time, instead of characters swapping swords of power, she swapped detectives. Interesting way to recycle, and keep the pounds rolling in.

Additionally, I read an Ultimate Spider-Man graphic novel, and lots of comics. I really enjoy the comics, most of which are different titles, authors, and artists. I think, because they're so visual, and because the stories cover such a wide spectrum of genres, that it helps my creativity. In any case, it's been a good week for the writing, and I think the two are related.

My wife and I finished off the week watching "The Last Stand." It's one of the first movies Arnold Schwarzenegger made after he stepped down as California's governor. It's one of my favorites. He plays a small town sheriff, who decides to block a Mexican drug lord fleeing FBI custody from escaping over the US/Mexico border. At the end, when the sheriff catches him, the drug lord tries to buy him off. The sheriff tells him "My honor is not for sale." It's a good way to leave the week, I think, musing on what one's honor means, and what we do to protect what we stand for.

Oh, and also remembering that sometimes, the things you put off, and worry about, aren't really half as bad as you had feared.

Dragon Dave

Two Earlier Entries on "The Last Stand"

The Ultimate Test of Character

Three Last Thoughts on "The Last Stand"

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Sedate, Cultured Society

A Roman room for entertaining visitors,
courtesy of the Museum of London, England

In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium, one of the things that surprised me was how ordinary her protagonist Olivia seems. Becoming a vampire has granted her a long life, and she has to be careful when she visits others' homes, or attends parties, that she kindly rebuffs all attempts to offer her food or drink. So she excuses her non-indulgence with protestations as to her "delicate constitution." As a vampire, she seems to exist on blood, but this is a minor point for most of the novel. Drosos makes mention of her biting him when they make love, but as an army officer, he's stationed outside Constantinople for most of the story. She's carted boxes of her "native earth" from her villa in Rome, and she somehow draws strength from this. But really, little attention is paid to her vampirism throughout the five hundred pages of the story. More than anything, she hungers for the affection and love of Drosos, and when she realizes that the tide of public opinion is turning against her, and that she should flee Constantinope, she stays behind in the hopes of being reunited with Drosos. Aside from her affection, she regards the blood she has taken from him as a bond between them, one that she would gladly repay by sharing the rest of her life with him.

In introducing General Belisarius, and focusing on his struggle to hold Rome against the Ostrogoth invaders, I had anticipated battle scenes on the order of JRR Tolkien or Robert E Howard. Given the politics and undercurrents sweeping through Byzantine politics, I expected to find the streets of Constantinople awash in blood, as happened several times in HBO's "Rome" TV series. Yet with a few exceptions, any fighting, deaths, or tortures occurred off-the-page, and were merely remarked on later in the narrative, or by one of the characters. What Yarbro instead focuses on is the customs and protocols the characters must observe, and how people of various strata in society interact with each other. So when something terrible happens, for the most part we don't witness it. Instead of the gritty and graphic struggle-for-life I remember from False Dawn, A Flame in Byzantium gives us a sense of how these people lived out their everyday lives. We see what they eat and drink, the comforts that surround them, and those they interact with. Along the way, we witness how the actions and choices affect others, or eventually rebound against them. But aside from a few scenes, the story unfolds in a cultured and sedate manner, more like the PBS adaptation of "I Claudius" than HBO's "Rome." 

But then, we all like wise, cultured, and loving protagonists. Even if they are vampires.

Dragon Dave

Inspired By Agatha Christie's Mysterious Affair At Styles

A couple days ago, my wife and I took her car into the dealership to get serviced. The showroom has comfortable upholstered chairs, great ambient lighting, and the staff occasionally bake up cookies for waiting customers. So while taking the occasional bite from a hot chocolate chip cookie, I took out my writing pad.

I haven't decided whether or not to start a blog devoted just to Agatha Christie. But as we're planning on visiting her hometown of Torquay during this year's visit to England, I've read three of her novels, as well as a book about her life. This drawing is based on my recollection of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, her first novel based on Belgian super sleuth Hercule Poirot. 

Afterward, my wife and I dug out our DVD and watched the dramatization of Agatha Christie's story. The viewing gave me some ideas on how to finish off my sketch. Depending on what I decide to do with my Agatha Christie posts, I suppose I'll post the finished version (somewhere) for you to see.

Sometimes a sketch doesn't live up to my preconceptions. I hope I like this one when it's done.

Dragon Dave

Torquay, Fawlty Towers & Agatha Christie

The first time I heard of Torquay, I was watching Fawlty Towers. Basil & Sybil Fawlty were trying something new in their boutique hotel. "Gourmet Night" was to set Torquay alight, giving cultured residents and visitors another opportunity to mix, mingle, and sample epicurean delights. Instead, like all Basil's plans, the first and only event collapsed in catastrophic fashion.

Still, as I watched "Gourmet Night," and the other eleven episodes of Fawlty Towers, I wondered what Torquay was like. While never making serious plans, I thought: "If I ever travel to England, that's a city I could visit."

Well, why not?

As I've since learned, no part of the famous sitcom was actually filmed in Torquay. According to recent reports, the hotel it was based on, Gleneagleas, has closed and may not reopen. But as my wife and I make this year's plans to visit England, Torquay is on our itinerary. This time, it has nothing to do with Fawlty Towers, and everything to do with Agatha Christie.

I can't say I fell in love with Agatha Christie's stories, although I did read her novel Ten Little Indians in my teens. But the TV series based on her works, particularly that of Hercule Poirot, have become favorite viewing in our household. The TV series led me to her stories, and I've recently enjoyed the first two Poirot novels. Both kept me awake hours after I laid down in bed at night, and made me want to read more of her page-turning prose. 

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay. Although she left it numerous times, the seaside English town always drew her back. Eventually, she bought a home there, Greenway, which she visited each summer. While she existed in other places, Torquay was the place she felt she really came alive. We look forward to our visit to Torquay this year, and seeing the surroundings that formed and inspired her. 

I've dallied with the idea of making a second blog, one devoted solely to Agatha Christie, and linking it with Dragon Cache. There I could post my plans, my thoughts, my reflections on Agatha Christie as we prepare for this year's journey. Of course, I could also share that portion of our England journey on that site. It's an idea; I haven't made up my mind yet. If I do so, I'll post the link on the upper right hand corner of this blog, right below Pocket Dalek, so you can easily find it.

Still, I can't help but marvel. Decades after Fawlty Towers made me wonder about Torquay, I'm finally traveling there, and doing so because of Agatha Christie's Poirot. The TV series has lasted for far longer than two seasons and a mere twelve episodes, and I've come to love even more than Fawlty Towers. Doesn't that seem just a little amazing? 

Dragon Dave

Mummies, Yetis, and Zombies, Oh My!

Part of the reason I fell in love with “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” was because the films crossed Agatha Christie with Indiana Jones.  Like many of her generation, the treasures waiting to be unearthed in Egypt fascinated Christie.  She traveled there, helped out at various excavations, and eventually met her future archeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan.  Not only did she set stories and novels there, many of them featuring her famous detective Hercules Poirot, but she also wrote a novel set in Egypt 2000 B.C.  Now take her obsession with all things Egyptian, add the supernatural powers the ancient Egyptians believed their tombs had, combine this with two characters, the gunfighter Rick O’Connell, and the archeologist Evelyn Carnahan (who together combine the two essential aspects of Indiana Jones), and you’ve got the fast-paced action and historical depth of the first two Mummy movies.

In the third movie, “The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor,” Rick and Evelyn travel to China, where their son Alex has unearthed the famed Terracotta warriors, as well as the tomb of the Dragon Emperor, who united all China under his despotic rule in the second century B.C.  Although Rick and Evelyn try to prevent this, the Dragon Emperor returns to life, and calls on his Terracotta warriors to rise up and help him rule China once more.  Through the aid of their friend Yi Zuan from Shangri La, who calls up the bodies of those who died building the Great Wall, Rick, Evelyn, and Alex O’Connell lead the zombies against the Terracotta warriors.  After a mighty battle, their zombies defeat his Terracotta warriors, and they vanquish the Dragon Emperor.

What fascinated me most about the third mummy movie was not the Dragon Emperor, who is a different kind of mummy from Imhotep in the first two films.  Nor was it the Terracotta warriors, as I’ve used lots of terracotta pots in my garden over the years, and hence wouldn’t select them for any army I commanded.  It wasn’t even the zombies, even though zombies are always dangerous, and some of the most famous people in history, from Jane Austin to President Lincoln, have had to battle them.  No, it was the Yetis that helped the O’Connells in the Himilayas that most intrigued me.  I’ve always loved stories about Yetis, as well as their friends, the Abominable Snowmen.  So a few years ago, after I watched the third Mummy move, I decided to climb Everest, and see if I could find a Yeti.

Traveling there was expensive and arduous.  Funding my expedition, and climbing the famous mountain, proved even more so.  Along the way, I stopped off at a Yeti museum, to study their history and culture, and make sure I was prepared to initiate contact.  

Eventually, I found a small family of them in a cave. After I made my intentions clear, they welcomed me inside.  We shared many days together, regaling each other with stories of our past, our culture, and our hobbies.  Then it was time to leave, as the yaks had run out of food, and stopped producing milk and butter my Sherpa porters needed to keep healthy.  I felt a sense of satisfaction as I descended the famous mountain.  For I had met the Yetis, and discovered that underneath all their hair, they were not so different from me after all.

Still, I wish I’d met the family of Yetis that helped the O’Connells defeat the Dragon Emperor’s human soldiers in the third movie.  Those Yetis were true athletes, capable of fantastic feats of physical prowess.  One even kicked a Chinese soldier over the gate of the mountain temple complex, and then with clenched fists, raised both hands over his head to celebrate his field goal.  Those Yetis probably get good TV reception up on Mount Everest.  I wonder if they’re rooting for the 49ers or the Ravens in the Superbowl, and if they ordered enough chicken wings for today's game?

Dragon Dave

Leaping Onto The Unseen Path

A year ago I emailed Jane Lindskold two questions about her novel Thirteen Orphans.  Along with her answers, she mentioned she was also an Agatha Christie fan, and referred me to one of her blog entries on the famous mystery author.  She told me the month and year she had posted it, so I was able to find the article in her archives.  I enjoyed it so much that I read all the others for that particular month.  But then life yanked me back to my normal duties, and I forgot my desire to explore her blog further.

Recently, I’ve been working to make my blog more interesting and easier to navigate.  I added a Blogroll (called Blogs I’m Following), and added her blog to the list.  Jane Lindskold seems to write two types of entries: 1) What’s happening in her life, and 2) A discussion with her friend Alan.  I’ve particularly enjoyed their recent comparison of the educational systems in the United States and England.  They’ve illuminated aspects mentioned in TV series like “Inspector Morse” and “Yes, Prime Minister” that I’ve always wondered about, but never got around to actually investigating.

In her email, Jane Lindskold also mentioned her desire to organize her posts by specific topics.  Of course, a published author faces more deadlines and duties than an unpublished one, and such organizing would impinge on the time she had available for blogging.

Since I began blogging, I’ve wrestled with how to focus on writing one particular type of blog post.  But I seem utterly incapable of specializing.  My initial idea to write about the Science Fiction and Fantasy literature I loved evolved into a series on Star Trek, and then into nongenre TV shows and my trip to England.  Pretty soon I was writing about spirituality, the struggles I faced in writing my novel, James Herriot, and even the ordeal of installing my microwave.

Blogging on so many topics means that readers who visit my blog for one type of post have a hard time following what interests them most.  So for a long time, I’ve wanted to develop a series of pages that readers could use to pursue posts on the subjects that most interested them.  But I didn’t know how to set them up.  I read books on blogging, the instructions from Blogger, and anything I could find on the Internet.  Nowhere did I find the subject explained in terms I could understand.  The Blogger Layout section of my blog claimed that “Pages” had been enabled, but I couldn't see them.

I’ve always belonged to the camp of “Look before you leap.”  Unfortunately, sometimes I spend so much time looking that I don’t get around to leaping.  It’s easier to focus on the tasks I can see than to leap onto the unseen path.  But one day I decided to leap in and investigate the Pages section.  If it did something weird to my blog, I’d just repair the damage as best I could.

I started with the Authors Page, and used it to link to the entries I had written on Gregory Benford’s novel Jupiter Project.  When I pressed the Publish button, an area that differentiated between Home (where my posts show up) and the Authors Page showed up on the side of my blog.  This area was another element I could position anywhere I wished, just like the Blogroll, the About Me area, and the archives.  This useful tool had waited for me, but because I couldn’t perceive how it would look and interact with the rest of my blog, I had feared to use it.  Now that I can see how Pages works, I started organizing last year’s posts onto Pages such as TV shows, Movies, and Travel.  (If you want to read the post I wrote on Thirteen Orphans, you can find it on the Authors Page, under Jane Lindskold).

I just wish I had leapt onto the Pages feature sooner, even if I couldn’t see where I was leaping.  I wonder what discoveries await me, in other areas of my life, once I decide to leap onto them as well.

Dragon Dave

Hercule Poirot’s Compassion

In the Agatha Christie story, “The Third-Floor Flat,” Patricia returns home to find that her key is no longer in her purse.  While her friends Jimmy and Donovan joke about her misfortune, her friend Mildred asks, “How are we going to get in?”  Eventually, Donovan suggests a solution.  The men journey down to the basement, open two cabinet-sized doors, and climb onto the small lift by which the building’s residents have coal delivered to their flats.  The two haul themselves up using the rope-and-pulley system, but when they crawl through the hatch in the apartment, the light switch doesn’t seem to work.  They stumble around in the darkness until they find another.  The light brings two discoveries: 1) They inadvertently miscounted, and are in a third-floor flat, not Patricia’s fourth-floor residence; and 2) The former tenant, an Ernestine Grant, has been murdered.

In the doorway of the dead woman’s flat, the men tell Patricia and Mildred of their discovery.  They recognize that they must call the police.  At this point, a man dressed in a “resplendent dressing-gown and embroidered slippers” agrees with their decision.  This “little man with a very fierce mustache and an egg-shaped head” tells them he is a tenant on the fifth floor.  Although he has taken his flat in the name of Mr. O’Connor, it is clear from his speech and appearance that he is no Irishman.  He hands Patricia his card and places himself at their service until the police arrive.

“M. Hercule Poirot.  Oh!”  She caught her breath.  “The M. Hercule Poirot?  The great detective?  And will you really help?”  

Maybe the coal lift isn't the best way
 to visit your friends in Whitehaven Mansions.

After visiting the dead woman’s flat, Poirot, Jimmy, and Donovan return to Patricia’s, where she cooks them omelets for a late supper.  The police arrive, and an investigation is carried out.  The assessment: the villain is a John Fraser.  Poirot asks to be allowed to study the third-floor flat once more.  After he does so, Poirot declares that no John Fraser exists.  Instead, the murderer is Donovan, who married Ernestine Grant eight years ago, but is now courting Patricia.  

Poirot relates the latter to Jimmy while Donovan awaits them in Patricia’s flat.  We never learn why Donovan’s relationship with his wife soured; we only know that Ernestine Grant moved into the third-floor flat to prevent her husband from marrying Patricia.  Poirot then asks Jimmy of his feelings for Patricia.  Jimmy admits that he cares for her, but never thought he had a chance with Donovan around.  Poirot encourages him to stand by Patricia in the days ahead.  She will be named as “The Other Woman” in the newspapers, and she has just lost the man whom she cared most about.  

This original short story is very different from the dramatized version depicted on the TV show “Agatha Christie’s Poirot.”  Poirot cannot rely on the assistance of his friend Captain Arthur Hastings in solving the murder.  Ms. Lemon does not manage the in-home office for him (in fact Ms. Lemon works as the secretary to Agatha Christie’s other private detective, Parker Pyne, in several of his early stories).  The inspector who calls to officially conduct an investigation is not TV’s Chief Inspector Japp (another man with a “very fierce mustache”), but instead the featureless Inspector Rice.  Yet one aspect of the story remains unchanged: Poirot urges Jimmy to support Patricia in her time of trial.  Like Parker Pyne, who advertises in the newspaper with “Are you happy?  If not, consult me,” Poirot is concerned with meeting the emotional needs of those around him.  

“Mon ami, that is your part,” said Poirot gently.  “To make her turn to you and forget.  I do not think you will find it very difficult.”

We like to think that time heals all wounds, but loss is forever.  A parent or spouse or close friend can never be replaced.  With time, we find ways to cope with our pain, but still, the hole in our heart remains.  By identifying those whose hurt seems the greatest, and who may best respond to our ministrations, we can help the wounded refocus their attention on the outside world.  In doing so, we serve not just this one person, but all of humanity.

“The Third-Floor Flat” can be found in Agatha Christie Masterpieces in Miniature: The Detectives.  The collected stories concern four of her greatest crime-solvers: Parker Pyne, Harley Quin, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Jane Marple.  

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