Roger Zelazny in Loddon

You won't find the village of Loddon in most guidebooks. This seems a shame, as it offers a delightful glimpse into English country life. A wooden butcher sign advertises cuts of meat at a grassy intersection. Homes sport unique architectural features and colorful gardens. The locals play lawn bowling every afternoon.

Boats tour the inland waterways, and their occupants disembark to walk the town, and see its treasures. Why not? Loddon won a prestigious Village of the Year award for its region. Mariners like the village so much they tie up their ships in the harbor, or moor along the riverbank, so they can visit the pubs in the evening.

As the daylight waned one evening during our stay, the church bells called to me. So I left our room in the pub, and walked along the cobbled streets. I wandered among the gravestones, while the bells signaled the coming of darkness.

Like the village, Science Fiction and Fantasy author Roger Zelazny won many prestigious awards for his stories. Although best known for his Amber series, October is a good time to read his book A Night in the Lonesome October. Each day of the month gets a chapter, and the novel contains whimsical illustrations by Gahan Wilson. Together, they tell the story of a group of strangers who have taken residence outside a quiet English village.

Who are these strangers, and what are they up to? There's a man named Jack, who keeps a number of spirits captive in his house. There's a woman named Jill, who takes to the air in the evening. There's a Count who speaks with an East European accent, and someone known as the Good Doctor, who conducts experiments involving lighting and a shrouded figure. Observing all this is the Great Detective, who smokes a pipe, and seems adept at disguise.

We view this village and its environs through Jack's dog Snuff. He regularly chats with Greymalk, Jill's cat. He's on sociable terms with other animals who have accompanied these strangers to the village, such as a rat, a bat, and a snake. He helps Jack prevent his trapped spirits from escaping, and protects the house from outside threat, such as a crossbow-wielding vicar. When he has a moment to himself, Snuff often walks between the houses in which the strangers reside, and draws lines of power between them in his mind. It seems as though a game is afoot, but what that game is exactly, well...you'll have to read the novel to discover.

Unlike Jack and the other newcomers to the village, I didn't dig up any graves that evening in Loddon. But I did take time to enjoy the music of the bell ringers, and do a little sketching before the light ebbed away. Some may sense spirits there. Some may associate danger with the graveyard. For myself, I enjoyed the restful spirit of a peaceful English village, and the sense of history and community that the churchyard represented.

Roger Zelazny may never have visited Loddon, but you can discover its quiet wonders. Once you visit there, you can always return in your mind. Like Snuff, you can draw the lines of power between the river harbor and the lawn bowlers' green, revisit the charity shops, or walk the cobbled streets. The bells can call to you again. Their siren-like song will call to you, and draw you toward the church yard: a place of serenity and power.

Dragon Dave

Baroness Emma Orczy on Our Love for Chocolate

Right now I'm reading the novel Petticoat Government by Baroness Emma Orczy. It illustrates how the French aristocracy traded favors to wield important government positions. One theme of the novel suggests that Orczy wished her English readers to understand the level of government corruption that led to the French Revolution.

A chief figure in the novel is Madame de Pompadour. Although of humble origins, she rose to prominence as a favored mistress of King Louis XV. She used her influence to go on such an elaborate spending spree that the parliament instituted a Ministry of Finance. As the court traded on favors back then, the young husband of the Prime Minister's daughter was appointed the French Finance Minister.

While he initially viewed himself as unqualified for such an exalted position, the young husband finds that wielding the most powerful government position in France agrees with him. He welcomes groups of petitioners to his bedchamber in the Palace of Versailles, and entertains their ideas and suggestions from his throne-like bed. Orczy sees the women as largely wielding the real power in French society back then. So while the husband listens to their plans and pleas, it is his wife, the Prime Minister's daughter, who actually decides how to spend, or check, the government's income.

On one occasion, the secretary to the Finance Minister tells a supplicant that he holds no qualifications for entry. But when the young man tells the secretary that he's engaged to his daughter's friend, he is granted immediate access to the exalted chamber.

On this same August 13, 1746, he succeeded in being present at the petit lever of M. le Controleur-General des Finances. Once within the secret precincts of the bedchamber he, like so many other petitioners and courtiers, was duly confronted by the stony stare of M. Achielle, and found himself face to face with an enormous bedstead of delicately painted satinwood and ormolu mounts, draped with heavy azure silk curtains which hung down from a gilded baldachin, the whole a masterpiece of the furniture-maker's art.
Baroness Emma Orczy, Petticoat Government, 1910.

Another theme of the novel is the French aristocracy's love of chocolate. People in important government positions have access to chocolate, which is then not sold in bars, or an ingredient for desserts, but seen as the rich man's drink. Favors are traded, and access granted, because of people close to the servants who bring and mix the hot cocoa. Earlier in the novel, the Finance Minister's secretary wins his position because his daughter brings hot chocolate to a highly-placed official each morning. Of course, the young Finance Minister finds that his new schedule of drinking a cup of hot chocolate each morning agrees with him. 

When the young supplicant, who is engaged to the friend of the secretary's daughter, enters the Finance Minister's bedchamber, these are his first impressions:

The scent of chocolate filled his nostrils, and he vaguely saw a good-looking man reclining under a coverlet of magnificent Venetian lace, and listening placidly to what was obviously a very amusing tale related to him from well-roughed lips. From the billowy satins and laces of the couch a delicate hand was waved toward him as he attempted to pay his respects to the most powerful man in France...

Earlier this month, I enjoyed discovering the rich history of chocolate in Britain, which was celebrated in Norwich Cathedral by converting a large brass mixing bowl from a chocolate factory into a baptismal font. Now, through British-Hungarian author Baroness Emma Orczy, I'm learning that chocolate played a role in bringing down the government of France in the 18th Century. Oh, for the love of chocolate!

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

IDW's San Diego Comic Art Gallery

San Diego comics publisher IDW wants you to know about them and what they do. So they've opened a free museum, called the San Diego Comic Art Gallery, where you can be informed and entertained. 

In addition to statues of their popular characters, they've also got vintage arcade games you can play. Decades ago, I'd line up my quarters on favorites like Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, and leave the arcade with a full heart but an empty wallet. At the San Diego Comic Art Gallery, I can pit my wits against ghosts and spaceships, devour all the fruit I want, and it won't cost me a penny!

On a recent visit, I enjoyed a focus on Sh*t My President Says, a book devoted to the twitter account of Donald Trump. It provides a glimpse into artist Shannon Wheeler's creative process. As you can see, he starts with a range of possible expressions, before progressing to the U.S. President's posture and background. Before long, he has a complete drawing, bringing The Donald's latest tweet to life.

"Join me at 4 PM over at the Lincoln Memorial with my family."
--dated 1/19/17

Here's a finished example of his work. The drawing accompanies a tweet, or quote, in which Mr. Trump invited his followers to join him at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., after he had been sworn in as President.

In addition to displays on their most popular franchises, there is always art on display, such as this sketch from a Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover. 

Perhaps the best reason to visit the museum is to give you a glimpse of an artist's mind. Take for example Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As this recreation of his home studio suggests, the creative mind is not necessarily an uncluttered one. If artists draw on their surroundings for inspiration, Kevin Eastman certainly has plenty of influences to draw upon.

So the next time your parent, spouse, or significant other tells you to clean your room, tell him or her that you're just being creative. Yes, you really need everything in your room to inspire you to greatness! 

Dragon Dave

Links To Follow for greatness!
San Diego Comic Art Gallery

Chuck Dixon: A Precursor to 9/11

Chuck Dixon's "Airboy" series for Eclipse Comics remained controversial through its fifty numbered issues, and in over a dozen specials. Like the 1940s series, it mixed contemporary action with a rich texture of fantasy, and remained popular until the end. Unlike the original, it never belittled people of other nations, races, or cultures. Instead, it showed us the way forward. While the original Airboy might have been manipulated into selling arms to bloodthirsty dictators, he chose to have his son raised by Hirota, a former Japanese fighter pilot, who acts as the boy's teacher, mentor, and friend. 

In Chuck Dixon's hands, the series discussed contemporary events many Americans might not have been aware of. For example, in one four issue story, published in 1988, Airboy travels to Afghanistan, and helps the locals in their fight against the Soviets. He befriends a younger boy-genius who, after graduating from a prestigious British university, returned to his country to organize Russian opposition. The young boy's efforts bear fruit, and he believes that Russia will eventually pull out of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, he fears his country will grow increasingly fundamentalist, and become a hotbed for terrorism.

"Do you realize that the leading anti-Soviet faction among the Mujahedeen plans to put to death all women who do not wear the veil?" the young revolutionary asks. "Is that the freedom I fought for?"

"With the Russians gone, we will have a slim chance at an honestly elected government. But a moderate one? I do not know. World opinion can place a lot of weight behind our cause. I hope to show the world that Afghanistan is not merely the place where Soviet ambition was humbled. It is also a country which needs to join the world community as an equal partner."

"I'll arrange a flight to the states for us," Airboy says, "but I've got a hunch you're gonna have a tough time convincing American politicians that human rights are more important than just having an anti-Communist government in charge."

Sadly, Airboy's cautious view of human nature triumphed over his younger contemporary's idealism. America and the world community forgot about Afghanistan, if indeed, many people here were ever aware of it. If Chuck Dixon had been President, things might have been different on September 11, 2001. They might be better today, all around the world. 

At least one thing is certain. If Chuck Dixon had served as President of the United States, more people would know about Airboy. As his stories talked about how we ought to live, and the role we ought to play in the world, that would be a good thing. Our airline industries might even be healthier, with Airboy's plane Birdie in the public consciousness. For, as the young Afghan revolutionary says, Birdie is "the darnedest plane in all the world!"

Dragon Dave

Andrew E Swenson and the Glories of Childhood

Lake Tahoe, California

In The Happy Hollisters by Andrew E. Svenson (writing under the pseudonym Jerry West), the Hollister family move to Shoreham, where Mr. Hollister runs a hardware and toy store. Embodying the entrepreneurial spirit, Mr. Hollister invents many of the items he sells. His bold and creative spirit rubs off on his children, as they help him run his store, make new friends, and solve any mystery they encounter.

Svenson started writing the Happy Hollister novels in the 1950s. My third grade teacher, an older woman, had read the books to her class for many years before I came along. Every day in class, I sat rapt at my wooden desk as she related the adventures of this large, loving family, and showed us the illustrations in the book. We no longer took naps at this age, but thankfully, the teacher still read to us. The memory of those story times shines brightly from that school year, and is one I will always cherish.

I cannot remember at what grade level my teachers stopped reading to me. Perhaps that class was the last year I enjoyed story time each day. I know I didn't get along with my fourth grade teacher. I remember her being hard and cold to me, and finding fault with everything I did. Perhaps she did not read great stories like the Hollister series to us, and resenting this loss, I acted badly in response.

I rescued some Happy Hollister books from my aunt's house after she died. They sat in my bookcase, waiting for me to read them, for too many years. How nice to discover that all 33 novels are still in print, and also available online. I enjoyed the family's first adventure, in which they moved to Shoreham, and discovered the villain who robbed their moving van, as an ebook on my kindle. Now it's time to delve into my bookcase, immerse myself in more of their adventures, savor the illustrations, and, oh yes, remember my third grade teacher. 

What a kind and loving woman she was.

Dragon Dave

For more on The Happy Hollisters, visit www.thehappyhollisters.com

The Guardians of Blythburgh

When tragedies strike, we wonder why. People ask: Why didn't God intervene? For Christians, there are no easy answers. Christian teaching suggests that each of us have a guardian angel, who looks after us in times of need. Yet where were God's guardian angels in 1577, when the legendary Black Shuck burst into Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, England, and killed a man and a boy?

These carved angels adorn the ceiling of Holy Trinity in Blythburgh. Even after centuries of existence there, their features can still be distinguished. The gentle restoration of the sanctuary preserves their beauty, without obscuring the way they have weathered the ages. So why didn't they prevent the death of two innocents on the day of the Black Shuck's attack, you ask?

Isn't a better question this: Why didn't the ghostly Black Shuck kill the entire congregation, instead of a man and a boy?

Either way, after the spectral beast's attack on Holy Trinity, the congregation took additional steps to ensure the Black Shuck would never terrorize them again. The local craftsmen created a Jack o' the Clock to protect their church. They set this additional guardian up in the church tower, where it could gaze out upon the surrounding land. 

If the Jack o' the Clock saw the Black Shuck, or any other danger approach, it could ring the church bell to alert the locals.

Still, the memory of an attack pervades a place. So these days, when worshippers kneel in prayer at Holy Trinity in Blythburgh, they not only look to the angels on the ceiling for protection, but to the Jack o' the Clock, who inhabits an alcove above the altar. He still rings his bell to call the faithful to worship.

 

Let's hope he never has to ring the bell for any other reason. 

Dragon Dave

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Blythburgh

To most Americans, history goes back hundreds of years. What occurred before the founding of the United States? Who knows? And does it really matter?

Residents of England take a longer view. Histories extend not just hundreds of years into the past, but thousands. Take Blythburgh in the county of Suffolk for example. The local church, Holy Trinity, has stood for over a thousand years. It has survived the ravages of war, the weather, and changes of religious beliefs that have stripped many East Anglian churches of great portions of their history.

Once, it even survived an attack by a savage, ghostly animal.

The first documented sighting of the Black Shuck occurred in the twelfth century, perhaps around the time Holy Trinity was built. Four centuries later, in 1577, locals reported that the satanic dog broke through the front door during a worship service. Within sight of the entire congregation, the Black Shuck killed a man and a boy. So ferocious was its attack that the church steeple collapsed. 

Naturally, today's more scientific minds, who seek to discredit the supernatural, claim a storm hit the area, and lightning struck the steeple. Who are you going to believe? An entire congregation who witnessed the tragedy, or modern revisionists? 

Countless stories have been lost to time. Yet the exploits of Sherlock Holmes endure forever. Foremost of those is The Hound of the Baskervilles. Could some of its timeless allure be due to the legendary Black Shuck, a spectral creature that haunted the Norfolk and Suffolk counties of East Anglia, as well as Dartmoor and more distant reaches of the British Isles?

Two things we know for certain. Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, became an ardent spiritualist in his later years. And Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh, England, no longer has a steeple.

Dragon Dave

Arthur Conan Doyle in Princetown and Cromer

Visit Dartmoor National Park in England, and you'll see the desolate landscape Sherlock Holmes braved in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Travel to the town of Princetown, deep within this brooding landscape, and you'll see the prison from which the murderer Seldon escaped to terrorize the local inhabitants. Stop by the Dartmoor National Park High Moorland Visitor Centre, and you'll see the great detective himself, along with the terrible black hound that haunted the Baskerville family.

It was here that Arthur Conan Doyle stayed a century ago, when the visitor center was the Rowe Duchy Hotel. From there, he investigated the claims of his friend, journalist Fletcher Robinson, who told him of about the Black Shuck, a dark, spectral beast that prowled the lonely moors, looking for souls to devour.

Travel north, to the seaside town of Cromer in the county of Norfolk, and you'll see where Fletcher Robinson first told Arthur Conan Doyle about the Black Shuck. The two were visiting Cromer for a golfing holiday, when Robinson told Doyle about the legendary Black Shuck that had haunted the good people of Norfolk for centuries. 

According to researchers, Arthur Conan Doyle transformed Dartmoor's Fox Tor Mire into Grimpen Mire for The Hound of the Baskervilles. He transformed stories of a notorious Dartmoor lord of the manor, Richard Cabell of Brock Hall, into Hugo Baskerville. He even combined several large houses, so say Dartmoor historians, into Baskerville Hall. 

Historians in seaside Cromer disagree, at least with the latter. They point to Cromer Hall, a local manor house, as the inspiration for Baskerville Hall. They claim that descriptions in The Hound of the Baskervilles portray Cromer Hall, not some backward Dartmoor manor house. 

Did an evil lord of Cromer Hall once live to hunt and terrorize the peasantry? Was this wicked aristocrat killed by the ghostly Black Shuck, whose fearsome howls could be heard across the land at night? And does the Black Shuck still roam Cromer and Dartmoor?

If you visit either place, and the wind sweeps over the land, then you'll know.

Dragon Dave

H Rider Haggard on Outdated Terms

Norwich Cathedral
the center of the Church of England
in H. Rider Haggard's home county

H Rider Haggard throws out a lot of unfamiliar terms in his novel Marie. After awhile, I decided to write a few down, and look them up. I thought I'd share some of what I learned with you.

Boers:  Late in the novel, a Zulu king alleges that these Boers were once British, but they refused to recognize King George as their sovereign. He thinks Allan a traitor to his people for rescuing the wandering Boers when they run into trouble. Allan explains to him that he did so for the love of a woman. This is an explanation the king can understand. As the events in the novel take place in the mid 1830s, I'm guessing the Zulu king could be referring to King George IV, who died in 1830. While I don't know why the Boers refused to recognize him as their King, a dislike for certain political leaders can often drive ordinary people to extraordinary action.

Hottentot: this is an outdated term for the Khoikhoi people, one of the indigenous peoples of Africa. Allan's servant Hans is a Hottentot, whom his father has converted to Christianity. Hans, for the most part a faithful and loyal, looks after Allan's guns. He always makes sure they are clean, and keeps the powder dry.

Kaffir: Apparently this is an ethnic slur used to refer to refer to Black people by the Whites who colonized Africa. Likewise, Hottentot seems to be regarded as an offensive word these days. Allan never seems to mean any harm by using either term, but times change, and words can grow hateful with time.

Zulu: Like the Hottentots (Khoikhoi), this is another ethnic group of people indigenous to Africa. Unlike the Hottentots and Kaffir, this term does not appear to have any negative associations attached to it.

Kloof: a steep-sided, wooded ravine or valley. Marie's cousin attempts to murder Allan in one at night, after Allan has saved him from starvation, and nursed him back to health.

Verdomde: This seems to be an expletive. It is used, more than once, to refer to Marie's less-than-honorable suitor.

Laager: a camp formed by circled wagons. When Allan searches for the Boer encampment, believing all (including Marie) have died, his guide takes him to the place where she saw a circle of wagons months ago. This allows him to find the Boers, and save them from starvation.

Kraal: a grouping of African huts, enclosed by a fence. As the Boers' numbers have dwindled through bad judgment, fever, and starvation, Allan has to trade supplies he brought with them for animals to pull their wagons. These natives live in kraals. 

Velt: the open country of South Africa. The Boers are searching for a peaceful valley where they can settle, and form their own community. 

Vrouw: A Dutch mistress. One great lady of the camp carries the title of Vrouw. After Allan rescues the wandering Boers from starvation, she becomes the groups leader. She always stands up for Allan, repeatedly urges him to kill the villainous nephew (or let him die), and just as often tries to get Allan and Marie to marry without her father's consent.

Allemachte!: The Boers use this expression often. Usually, it is uttered after Allan has impressed them in some way, such as after Allan saves their lives again and again. My computer translates the word from Dutch as "All Able."

"All able" certainly describes Allan Quartermain. H. Rider Haggard wrote novels about him for four decades. The character has featured in comics, TV, movies, and novels by other writers. He's clearly a hero from another age. Yet his bravery, and the fair treatment he usually accords others, seem to have made him eternal.

Dragon Dave