Shades of Clark Ashton Smith

I had the high (only?) bid on this thing at a recent fundraising auction to help folks recover from early autumn flooding in Miami, Arizona, my favorite small town that I've discovered since we moved here in 2021. 

Now the thing sits on my bookshelf. 

It reminds me a little bit of the eerie sculptures of Clark Ashton Smith, which I wrote about in 2017.

Also, I've read enough paranormal short stories and seen enough episodes of "Night Gallery" — not to mention those episodes of "The Brady Bunch" with Hawaii, the tiki idol and Vincent Price — to realize that I'm now cohabitating with a cursed object, and I should probably tread very lightly.

Sci-fi book cover: "Roller Coaster World"

• Title: Roller Coaster World
• Secondary cover text: "Their world was dying of madness"
• Author: Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005)
• Cover illustrator: Frank Kelly Freas (1922-2005), who was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists," according to Wikipedia
• Publisher: Ace Books 
• Publication date: July 1972
• Pages: 173
• Format: Paperback
• Price: 75 cents
• Teaser blurb on first page: Once upon a time there were people who had asked for an electrode to be inserted into their brains to stimulate the pleasure centre. Then they had starved to death experiencing the ultimate pleasure. The law had outlawed that pretty game. Did the Exisensis call on forbidden lore to give their brand of pleasure? Would being number one in the Exsensi business bring him pleasure? He was concerned over the pleasure it would bring; it was a drug he craved and he meant to taste it somehow.
• First paragraph: He thought he could get in a couple hours of sleep before they removed the last of the city. Sleep wasn't too important; but it was as well not to neglect it. He stood for a moment by his bed making up his mind which Dream to programme, unable to choose between the offerings on the catalogues of Dream-a-Scheme and Snooze-a-matic, finally deciding on one of the old faithfuls from Dial-a-Dream.
• Last paragraph: "I feel weary," he said. He looked at Shari as she crouched over him, empty of tears, as they flew above a new planet that had no need of artificial stimulants. "I feel so tired," he said. "Isn't it wonderful?"
• Sexism/objectification-of-women rating: Moderate to high.  
• Excerpt #1: Marsen looked surprised. "I didn't think anyone looked at tv anymore." "Very few do. It's a dying medium." "Why bother with it?" asked Flora, craning her head to look up against the reflected light where the transportation crews hung in their antigrav control units. "Excess is so much more fun." "News are current affairs are regarded as ephemeral. When R returns to power," commented Wormleigh, his face composed, "there will be many changes."
• Excerpt #2: This man Wormleigh both fascinated and repelled Marsden. "I understood R subscribed to the views of Hobbes," he said, probing. "As Leviathan says, one must subsume the rights of individuals into  the right of the sovereign — if I have that right." Wormleigh faced him. "R is developing a philosophy of government. We await from day to day fresh resolutions. All pre-atomic and pre-googologic systems are in decay."
• Excerpt #3: The landslide victory of Leyden's party had been shaped by means that Marsden did not inquire into with any strictness. Corruption as a means of acquiring power had long ago been invalidated; but there were other means. He was an assemblyman, a member of government, and his duty lay plainly before him.
• Excerpt #4: They didn't bother to call in on his screen. They simply opened up his personal keyed-lock with a sonic-pick and bashed the door down. They jumped into his apartment, spraddle-legged, tough, leather-clad, wearing crash helmets and visors. Between them they were armed with a motley collection of weapons — sporting rifles, target shooters, one man had an aralest. The only thing the weapons had in common was — they all pointed at Douglas Marsden's chest.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.25 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt: In 2012, Toby wrote: "Surprisingly enjoyable for Kenneth Bulmer's books. A bored, burnt-out athlete/socialite's quest for meaning in a decaying society full of unproductive hedonists."
• Rating on Amazon: 3.9 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2022, M Carley wrote: "I don't read a lot of sci-fi, so maybe this is normal, but I wish there had been more focus on the unique aspects of the world and the way the cities moved from place to place. Up until the end of the book, it just seemed like the book was about Doug and his job/love issues. It had potential, I just wanted more sci-fi I guess."

1907 Thanksgiving postcard

Happy Thanksgiving. There's a lot to unpack in this 1907 postcard published by The Rose Company. Let's start with the illustration on the front. At the top, there's a golden crown. Underneath the crown is a turkey. And the turkey is standing on a shield that has the design of the United States of America's flag, over the top of which is printed these words:

Europe has its turkey

Asia has the same

But the turkey

of America

Is King ~

of all the game

With the crown and the turkey and the pro-America message this card hits in some disconcerting ways in 2025, but that's all my personal projection based upon our current moment with kings and "turkeys" and America First.¹

If I had to speculate, I'd say this is a fairly harmless Thanksgiving postcard that's being a bit playful in touting American exceptionalism during an era when the United States' global power was rising. If anyone has any insights or alternate interpretations of this card, I'd love to read them in the comments.

There are cursive messages on both the front and back of this postcard, which was sent from Newton, New Jersey, to Lowell, Massachusetts, in late November 1907. The message on the front states:

Did you know Mr Hiles [?] has the Typhoid Fever?

Someone having typhoid fever in 1907 would have been a serious medical issue. Though mortality rates were on the decline at that point, thousands of Americans were still dying of the disease. Within just a few years, though, sanitation measures including water filtration, chlorination and pasteurization tamed typhoid's spread, and the military was using a proven vaccine to protect troops in high-risk areas.

The note on the back is a rather perfunctory:

Dear friend:

Rec'd your postal and hope you think of me again real soon. Thanking you for same.

Previous Thanksgiving posts

• Public service announcement that's still relevant
• Bettina's Thanksgiving in the country (and more meal suggestions)
• Nostalgic school bulletin-board material for Thanksgiving
• Three colorful vintage Thanksgiving postcards featuring turkeys
• Stock photo of pilgrims and a dead turkey from a 1940 magazine
• 1971 Thanksgiving gift edition of Ideals magazine
• If you still need a Thanksgiving dessert, make some strawberry pie
• I'd blame the tryptophan, but cat pileups like this happen every day
• 1950 Thanksgiving ads
• (Missing) snapshot & memories: Thanksgiving
• Happy Thanksgiving: Enjoy vintage anthropomorphic vegetables
• Thanksgiving postcard from 1914, plus a little guffaw

Footnote

1. I had a whole rant forming in my head, but I'll be good since today is a holiday. My head is spinning, anyways. I'm not sure if we're barreling toward a repeat of 1789, a repeat of 1933 or some new mixture that future historians simply refer to as "shades of 2026."