Say it’s midway through the final year of the first decade of the 21st Century. Say that, last week, two things happened: scientists in China announced successful quantum teleportation over a distance of ten miles, while other scientists, in Maryland, announced the creation of an artificial, self-replicating genome. In this particular version of the 21st Century, which happens to be the one you’re living in, neither of these stories attracted a very great deal of attention.
In quantum teleportation, no matter is transferred, but information may be conveyed across a distance, without resorting to a signal in any traditional sense. Still, it’s the word “teleportation”, used seriously, in a headline. My “no kidding” module was activated: “No kidding,” I said to myself, “teleportation.” A slight amazement.
The synthetic genome, arguably artificial life, was somehow less amazing. The sort of thing one feels might already have been achieved, somehow. Triggering the “Oh, yeah” module. “Artificial life? Oh, yeah.”
Though these scientists also inserted a line of James Joyce’s prose into their genome. That triggers a sense of the surreal, in me at least. They did it to incorporate a yardstick for the ongoing measurement of mutation. So James Joyce’s prose is now being very slowly pummelled into incoherence by cosmic rays.
Noting these two pieces of more or less simultaneous news, I also noted that my imagination, which grew up on countless popular imaginings of exactly this sort of thing, could produce nothing better in response than a tabloid headline: SYNTHETIC BACTERIA IN QUANTUM FREE-SPACE TELEPORTATION SHOCKER.
I first discovered this last year while on a long trawl through Wikipedia. My discovery of this ancient newsletter is possible vindication of my addiction to that bloody website. This newsletter is called Cheap Truth and it was edited by Vincent Omniaveritas (Bruce Sterling) in the early to mid 1980s.
The purpose of Cheap Truth was to act as the place for a group of writers who called themselves “the Movement” to write with a militant and highly critical tone about what they perceived to be the dire state of most science fiction and fantasy being published at the time. Continue Reading…
The Folio Society has released a gorgeous edition of William Golding’s classic novel with paintings by Sam Weber. Unfortunately, it is only available to members and the entry fee ain’t cheap.
Perhaps the most famous victim of the Holocaust, Anne Frank is best known by her diary, published as The Diary of a Young Girl and a few, iconic photographs. Recently, however, the Anne Frank Museum uploaded this amazing clip onto YouTube, the only known film footage of Miss Frank. Taken on July 22, 1941, the clip shows the young girl looking out the window of her apartment to get a better look at the wedding of a girl who lived in the next building over. I love clips like this, as all too often these people, well known as they may be, seem to have never actually existed beyond the confines of a photograph; my mind unable to conceive of them moving, speaking, and just, well, living.
“The only thing I can say in favour of my work is its sincerity.”
— H.P. Lovecraft from “Some Notes on a Nonentity”
Today marks the 119th anniversary of the birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, one of the twentieth century’s more contentiously influential authors; praised and maligned in equal measure for his writing prowess. I feel it is safe to say that we here at Ectomo have no such qualms; embracing Lovecraft’s propensity for long strings of thesaurus rustling adjectives with a fervor that borders on obsessive or, at times, unreadable.
Still, it is a tactic, this picking apart of Lovecraft’s verbal acumen, that I find misguided and shortsighted. H.P.L.’s work isn’t read today and cited by authors and scholars for his abilities as a wordsmith, he is cited for his creation; for his specific universe. He was one of the great mythologizers of the modern era, creating a pantheon of gods who represented the cold, infinite, and malevolent universe in which man finds himself. It’s a testament to his talent that so many still continue to be inspired by his creations and add their own stories. Today we salute the man who gave names and forms to the mysterious, unknowable nature of the void; the man if not for whom there would be no Cthursday. Happy birthday.
A fine preview of the newest offering from Quirk Classics, who previously released the wonderful Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Not content to rest on their laurels, they continue to spice up the torturous ramblings of Miss Austen, this time with the help of murderous tentacles. Judging from Miss Dashwood’s dress, it took them a few takes, so stick around and make sure the effort hasn’t been wasted.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
