I've taken these from China Meiville's 'The Scar' - my favourite of his books which are all full of great steampunk visuals.
These are two of the main characters and I'll include only short extracts from the book as the descriptions tend to weave into the action over many pages.
First is Bellis Coldwine:
"Bellis watched her, unmoving. Despite herself, she felt a trickle of contemptuous pity. She could imagine herself as Sister Meriope must see her. Angular, harsh and bone thin. Pale. Lips and hair stained the colour of purple bruises. Tall and unforgiving."
And next, Tanner Sack. He's had body alteration punishment - the tentacles grafted to his chest. Then he undergoes further voluntary surgery to become amphibian.
"When the sun came up, the chirurgeon uncoupled Tanner and the fish from his machinery (the cod dying instantly, it's body shrunken and wrinkled). He closed up the flaps on Tanner's neck, slimy with gelatinous gore. he smoothed them down, his fingers tingling with puissance as the gashes healed."
A Mother Disciplines Her Deceased Child
by Franz Niderberger
In a house in Obwalden there once lived an eight or nine year old child who was very disobedient and rebellious. The mother recognized her child's stubbornness but could not find it in her heart to discipline him. Thus this child lived for some time and did many bad things.
Charles Bukowski one of my hero's, lovely work Teemu!!
im going to do some from R.U.R a play written by Karel Capek that deals with humans making robots and then robots destroying the meat bags because they are superior, ultimatley they doom themselves because those tricky humans took the key to making robots with them to the grave , aaannnd the robots have a limited lifespan .
written in 1922 its a great story and is noted for the first use of the word ROBOT
This one's from a book called
' The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman'
The descriptions that led me here are from a broader part of the book,
but the general idea is that this guy is a connossieur of sex and all things
related and he's just entered his utopia of brothels, thus becoming insane
with desire.
It's interactive and with sound so don't forget to...
DamselinDistress: That is thoroughly disturbing...
scobot: The book sounds (and looks, thanks to your illustration) very good. I'll have to check it out.
littleblackcrow: Great illustration! The kid reminds me a lot of those three evil kids from Nightmare Before Christmas.
Teemu: Boo on no explanation, nice portrait though.
Aeronik: love the first illustration, nice work.
My entry is from Edgar Allan Poe's The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar:
"M. Valdemar, can you explain to us what are you feelings or wishes now?"
There was an instant return of the hectic circles on the cheeks; the tongue quivered, or rather rolled violently in the mouth (although the jaws and lips remained rigid as before;) and at length the same hideous voice which I have already described, broke forth: "For God's sake! - quick! - quick! - put me to sleep - or, quick! - waken me! - quick! - I say to you that I am dead!"
Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 254 Location: Australia
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:36 am Post subject:
Here is one of my all time favourite stories. Storm Boy by Colin Thiele. First published 1963 (the film was made in 1976) and this is from the last paragraph of the book......
" - two wings of white trailing with black edges - spread across the sky. For birds like Mr Percival do not really die "
after you watch the film of this story - every single pelican you see will now be called Mr Percival.
The esteemed subject of my Literary Illumination... Archie Comics, or The trials and Tribulations of a Ginger, Male, Teenage Whore in the Fifties. I found a nice Archie comics public service message from the eighties featuring Archie and his pals receiving a stern lecture on safe sex. On the blackboard is written the following passage (in caps)...
HEALTH EDUCATION
AIDS IS A SERIOUS WORLDWIDE PROBLEM
THAT AFFECTS PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, IN ALL
WALKS OF LIFE. UNTIL A CURE IS FOUND,
THERE IS ONLY ONE EFFECTIVE WEAPON
AGAINST THE PROBLEM.
... AND THAT WEAPON
IS... EDUCATION!!
In the interests of taste I chose to hop-scotch over the AIDS issue and focus on one of the less serious effects of unprotected comic book flirtation, namely the sexually transmitted infection known as Chlamydia.
Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 8:30 am Post subject:
This one is from "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon.
In this bit, the comic book partnership of Kavalier and Clay has just officially formed. They spend the day walking around trying to figure out who or what their hero will be. Sam Clay, the writer, goes into a rant.
"This is not the question," he said. "If he's like a cat or a spider or a f***ing wolverine, if he's huge, if he's tiny, if he can shoot flames or ice or death rays or Vat 69, if he turns into fire or water or stone or India rubber. He could be a Martian, he could be a ghost, he could be a god or a demon or wizard or monster. Okay? It doesn't matter, because right now, see, at this very moment, we have a bandwagon rolling, I'm telling you. Every little skinny guy like me in New York who believes there's life on Alpha Centauri and got the sh*t kicked out of him in school and can smell a dollar is out there right this minute trying to jump onto it, walking around with a pencil in his shirt pocket, saying 'He's like a falcon, no, he's like a tornado, no, he's like goddamned wiener dog.' Okay?"
"Okay"
They kept walking.
"How? Is not the question. What? Is not the question," Sammy said. "The question is why."
NB: I have never posted anything before on any forum and have genuinely no idea if I have posted this image correctly. But it's a nice piece of writing so I guess you can just enjoy that, if worse comes to worse....
The esteemed subject of my Literary Illumination... Archie Comics, or The trials and Tribulations of a Ginger, Male, Teenage Whore in the Fifties. I found a nice Archie comics public service message from the eighties featuring Archie and his pals receiving a stern lecture on safe sex. On the blackboard is written the following passage (in caps)...
HEALTH EDUCATION
AIDS IS A SERIOUS WORLDWIDE PROBLEM
THAT AFFECTS PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, IN ALL
WALKS OF LIFE. UNTIL A CURE IS FOUND,
THERE IS ONLY ONE EFFECTIVE WEAPON
AGAINST THE PROBLEM.
... AND THAT WEAPON
IS... EDUCATION!!
In the interests of taste I chose to hop-scotch over the AIDS issue and focus on one of the less serious effects of unprotected comic book flirtation, namely the sexually transmitted infection known as Chlamydia.
Jed: I didn't notice the interactive nature of your image, but once I did I have to say it's at least a close #2.
DamselinDistress wrote:
This one's from a book called
' The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman'
The descriptions that led me here are from a broader part of the book,
but the general idea is that this guy is a connossieur of sex and all things
related and he's just entered his utopia of brothels, thus becoming insane
with desire.
It's interactive and with sound so don't forget to...
Jed: Now this is just lovely. The only reason I didn't vote you #1 is because of the originality of some of the other entries, but this is an AWESOME drawing.
Seth wrote:
This one is from "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon.
In this bit, the comic book partnership of Kavalier and Clay has just officially formed. They spend the day walking around trying to figure out who or what their hero will be. Sam Clay, the writer, goes into a rant.
"This is not the question," he said. "If he's like a cat or a spider or a f***ing wolverine, if he's huge, if he's tiny, if he can shoot flames or ice or death rays or Vat 69, if he turns into fire or water or stone or India rubber. He could be a Martian, he could be a ghost, he could be a god or a demon or wizard or monster. Okay? It doesn't matter, because right now, see, at this very moment, we have a bandwagon rolling, I'm telling you. Every little skinny guy like me in New York who believes there's life on Alpha Centauri and got the sh*t kicked out of him in school and can smell a dollar is out there right this minute trying to jump onto it, walking around with a pencil in his shirt pocket, saying 'He's like a falcon, no, he's like a tornado, no, he's like goddamned wiener dog.' Okay?"
"Okay"
They kept walking.
"How? Is not the question. What? Is not the question," Sammy said. "The question is why."
NB: I have never posted anything before on any forum and have genuinely no idea if I have posted this image correctly. But it's a nice piece of writing so I guess you can just enjoy that, if worse comes to worse....
Hey, don't forget me Aeronik. You didn't mention my standing as over all grand loser. My beer should have one of those nipple pacifiers on top. _________________ http://www.doctorwhom.com
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