----- 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