----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 3:54
PM
Subject: Re: Night land Images.
Monstruwacan = watcher of monsters, in WHH's awful
attempt at archaic english. Which is actually rather effective
here.
"Monster" also = Omen, Sign
Aha! Thanks!
Mansonyagger = anglicisation of menschen
jaeger which is cod-German for manhunter, a sort of autonomous fighting /
hunting / ethnic cleansing machine which appears in the works of Cordwainer
Smith. Characteristically for him, they are not leet killing
machines but rather lost and lonely entities who have been rendered irrelevant
by the posthuman technologies of his own future history and who are looking
for a space of meaning and purpose to exist in. We have ripped
these off complete, and use them as signifiers of the tendency of human
society to evolve onto a prosthetic straight-jacket enforced by
mind-channeling propaganda / technology, one of multiple paths towards
Abhumanity, it turns out (and why rip off Cordwainer Smith for the Night
Land??? Why not?? But actually, apart from the fact that I love
his work so, stories like "The Game of Rat and Dragon" fit into the early bits
of the Night Land future history perfectly - pneumavores (soul-eaters) in the
ultimate Night between the stars)).
Gottit.
I must read more Classic
SF.
Ta.
(Right now - having read the manuscript
- reading 'Beautiful Creatures', novel about Mary Ann Anning. So far:
Marvellous!)
I'm definitely in favour of sexually
appealing women on the cover. When Dave was doing Interzone "get more
tits on the cover" was my constant advice. But don't shoehorn t&a in
- we have tried to address sex realistically, and not pornographically, and
while the whole story is basically about a cosmic or transcendental mating
between two ultimate opposites, sex in the Redoubt is not entertainment
but very much about marriage and reproduction under an ideal of Eternal and
predestined Love. That ideal is no more likely to be followed perfectly
than ideals are in any human society, but it's there, and should inform
behaviour, posture, clothing, ornament and the domestic environment.
(more or less "artistic" nudity would pass, but stripperific/bass
bra'd/combat high heels are somewhat counterindicated, however you may love
them!!!)
Rest Assured:
Brass Bras and Combat High Heels are
something I rail against. The lasses on the covers of Heavy Metal Magazine are
a constant source of shock and outrage. Have these people never seen a
woman?!? etc...
Amongst the many, many things to scream
about in the Ray Winstone 'Beowulf', the one that probably annoyed me even
more than Mr Winstone was that Grendel's (Very toothsome?!?) Mother sported
... stillettos...
A whole world of Wriong and
Cramped Imagination in so little film time.
You may note the outfit for my two
heroines for the strip I'm working on at the moment.
<Enclosed>
NB: These are in NO WAY supposed to be
owt to do with the Night Land universe. This is a diferent 'World' entirely,
just enclosed for fun.
Your discussion of the cover leaves me without, for
the moment, an obviously right image to suggest. As you say, the problem
is the book is so rich that there are many images to chose from. But
most of these are within the Redoubt, which leaves the Land
unrepresented. Yet in many ways the book is not about the
Land - or more precisely, except for the expedition into the Watcher's
umwelt the Land is represented by its many projections and intrusions
into the Redoubt, from the warped Heroes led by Scyrr to the captive
pneumavores to the Watcher-perception loci generating image-castings like
Face. So the book may be encompassed rather well by a picture of the
Game. Maybe.
It also occurs to me that this has a
theme of 'The many faces of Woman'. Such an image might be very kitch but is
an angle to have at the back of our minds.
((Unless you want to do half a dozen different
illos? And see which one demands to be used on the cover, putting the
others inside the book? It would be costly (for me, money, for you,
time) but I'm not short at the moment.
To be honest, it would be nice to have
an image for each of the three 'sections'. That'd free up' images for the
cover. As you say, that makes it more time/money expensive but it'd probably
work as a 'Prestige book' format. For an idea of what a truly awesome and
uttterly fantastic Illustrated Book can be like, I'd recommend the
gobsmackingly gorgeous Metropolis, illo'd by the tasty Mike Kaluta... but,
that's just something to consider as an 'Ideal'. No way are we going be able
to afford time/money for that many illo's.
And I'd really love to see your take on little Meyr
fleeing through the airways, past the turning vanes and the barnacled villages
of the Wind-Masters, or the markets of the Lost Cities, or Scyrr on his
throne, or the Eye, or Lyreia being born toward the Watcher in her palanquin,
or the Mansonyagger conferring with Mira, or what has struck you
most.))
As tyou say, they're all potentially
awesome, making the Choice painful.
Then again, hearing your prefferences is
very handy.
Clarifies it nicely.
I will now remind you of the thuddingly obvious - the
"Eater" pix were very good, very much represented what I think of as the
"palimsest-natured decoration, annotation, symnbolism and
embellishment" of the Redoubt, and the motifs and themes you
used there are a good start for elements in pictures for ANIMA and/or possible
rdecorative borders. It's always a good idea to copy good
stuff.
That's very reassuring. Plaibly
that's just one strata of the arcology. The folk in this have quite a few
different outfits and styles - and the Land Armour is certainly summatt worth
developing, with it's constant description of 'Insect-Like' and 'Buckles and
straps'. There seems to be something of a Valvepunk Conquistador vibe going on
there or am I reading this wrong?.
As to lettering. Ok... That's
predominantly Cod-Celtic, but with a little bit o' Cod-Mayan thrown in,
but varieties will be bound to arise. That's a start.
so, cc:ing Mr Davidson on this one . . .
Okey.
Excellent. Thanks.
Best:
Smuzz
best to you all
Andy
i