Two Nice Quotes

Posted on May 25, 2013 by fsdthreshold

“I love above all the sight of vegetation resting upon old ruins; this embrace of nature, coming swiftly to bury the work of man the moment his hand is no longer there to defend it, fills me with deep and ample joy.”

                                                                    — Gustave Flaubert

Doesn’t that remind you of a near-constant theme on this blog? See especially the old posts “The Essence of Pittsburgh” and “June.”

Also, I received a wonderful letter out of the blue that made my day. With names removed, it said:

“Hello!

I’m writing to thank you. Your book Dragonfly and Stephen King’s Langoliers are what got me into creative writing ten years ago. I am thrilled to inform you that I have been accepted to the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at [Name] University!

Thank you for helping me to get to where I am.

[Signature]”

We cannot imagine what impact our work is having, sometimes in far-off places, and on people we’ve never met. All glory to God! Once in a great while, we hear about instances, and those are precious gifts.

Writing is going well! I guess Stephen King and I better keep at it! Between us, we’ve got a few fans out there. Heh, heh.

 

29 Responses to Two Nice Quotes

  1. Jedibabe says:

    I love the quote and always feel reassured that if (when?) humanity manages to remove itself from the world nature will take over and go on quite nicely without us.

    It is wonderful that someone was kind enough to let you know what an impact you had on their life. To be reminded that you are having an impact for good in the world is a great blessing. Keep up the great work and we’ll keep reading and enjoying it.

    Reply
    • jhagman says:

      Did anyone see anything about that 2mi long asteroid that passed 4 million miles from us? It makes me think how unsafe life is on this planet. During my more Gaian-metaphysical musings I wonder if we were evolved to defend the Earth from these violent impacts. Dumb, I know, but what is our use to the planet if not this?

      Reply
      • fsdthreshold says:

        Jhagman, I’ve heard it said that destruction of our planet may quite likely come from an impact with a rock hurtling from deep space. Hmm. Certainly an apocalyptic comet (though not a meteor) is a major element of the book I’m working on now . . .

        Reply
  3. I am Mr. Brown Snowflake says:

    “Oh, the odd love potion or two or a conversation in a darkened room with your grandmother’s shade, but comes a doubter and ‘the stars are not right, the entrails are wrong, the planets are misaligned … we don’t do tests!”

    Reply
    • fsdthreshold says:

      How nostalgic, Mr. Brown! As a young teenager, I was head-over-heels in love with Valerian, played in the movie by actress Caitlin Clarke. Her time among us was far too short.

      Do you remember the movie we made in homage to that one? The torches flickering in the night . . . the real-world slimy slug that got into Bob’s hair . . .

      Reply
  4. I am Mr. Brown Snowflake says:

    Those old movies (sigh). What I would not give to see those again, to have those put onto DVD!

    To this day that is the DRAGONSLAYER beast is the best dragon on film, although I bet the WETA boys are about to blow us away!

    “Lookk at these ridges … when a dragon gets this old it know nothing but pain, constant, enduring pain …”

    Reply
    • fsdthreshold says:

      Habeamus lucem . . . et calorem! . . .

      “Yes, you’ve come a long way, and yes, your mission is urgent; and no, he won’t see you. He sees no one.”

      “Hear me, you who dwell in Cragonmoore! We will stay here until we are heard!”

      Ah, the old movies . . . perhaps I can indeed track them down. The process of putting them onto DVD can’t be that hard!

      Reply
    • fsdthreshold says:

      Wouldn’t that be AMAZING? If only we had access to a VCR . . . I do have Bigfoot and The Komodo Dragon on VHS video cassette.

      Reply
        • Hagiograph says:

          It is doubtful that I am in the latter vintage of films. The one that you may be thinking of is “The Taylor’s Vale Monster” which started out extremely strong with a clear vision of how the effects should be done then got diluted down to a worse production as more chapters were added on.

          As for getting the movies to dvd it is a piece of cake. There are numerous services that do it. I transfered some old random film spools onto dvd a few years back. I felt safest going with a local firm rather than shipping them off. I assume ye olde Uncanned City has such a service.

          Then you can upload them to YouTube and we can all enjoy the fu no matter where on the planet we are.

          Sitting here listening to “Echoes” by Pink Floyd. It is a song I seldom listen to in the dark. Easily one of the creepiest middle parts in all of music.

          Reply
          • fsdthreshold says:

            Hagio, are you saying that you don’t remember the Bigfoot and Komodo Dragon movies? I think the “official” title of the Bigfoot one was In Search of Bigfoot. It was the one that featured the pretty cool sequence of the creature walking, half-obscured by trees, in a way that paid homage to the Patterson-Gimlin film. You played the hermit who lives in the little metal pre-fab building in the wilderness. Mr. Brown Snowflake was the Bigfoot researcher who comes to seek you out for your firsthand experience with the mysterious hominid. And surely you remember The Komodo Dragon, in which a gigantic Komodo Dragon goes rogue in the rural Midwest and, in one of moviedom’s iconic scenes, devours my dad, leaving nothing but a torn shirt, some fruit pulp, and coffee grounds. You actually played two characters in that film — not that audiences would ever, ever, ever notice. You played the first victim . . . and then, completely disguised in a different-colored T-shirt, you played the Komodo Dragon exterminator (whom I assume my character found in the yellow pages). You bring to the task . . . well, a handgun . . . and your years of experience, of course, tracking Komodo Dragons through the creek bottoms and corn fields of Illinois. Yep, we have to bring these creations to wider audiences!

  6. fsdthreshold says:

    You know, in my youngest, silliest years of teaching at Niigata University, I actually forced my ESL first-year students to watch that Bigfoot movie of ours and write summaries in English. Many of them called the creature “Big Food” and thought it was a story about “a man called Hermit.” That was before I started teaching them about “monsters that scared the dickens out of me when I was a kid” . . .

    Reply
  7. fsdthreshold says:

    The Komodo Dragon might also be titled Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Bizarre Haircut Drives Actual Car.

    Reply
  8. Hagiograph says:

    Are you gaslamping me or have I grown to my dotage? I have no recollection of those films…at…all.

    I remember in the Taylorsvale Monster we relied on the distant shot of bigfoot to keep the image well done and in homage to the 64 film.

    But I don’t remember these others!!!

    Reply
  10. I am Mr. Brown Snowflake says:

    Well, Haggio, I buried you in a cairn in the Bigfoot film. We used food coloring as blood for your wounds and made sure several were scratches where you had run through locust trees. I that film I “drive” an old car through the field behind the barn and, if I recall, kill Bigfoot witha 35-cent green smoke bomb. (gad!).
    Fred, I remember you mailed me a typed list of the comments your class had made about “bigfood” and “hermid-man.” Hilarious!

    Reply
  11. fsdthreshold says:

    I think it’s a case of which films we had possession of. Since the two I described were mine, I had many chances to watch them. I have almost no recollection of The Taylor’s Vale Monster except the title and that the main character drove a golf cart around. I would LOVE to see that one again! It would be the chance to see images from our childhood that I’ve completely forgotten!

    Do you remember the later film Garvey’s Way, starring Mr. Brown Snowflake as the eponymous Harlan Garvey? Hagio plays a sweater-vested “mutant”(?) in the cornfield.

    And, Hagio, remember your role as Governor Darkstormer, who wore both a gorilla mask AND an old dress with a lace collar?

    Reply
  12. I am Mr. Brown Snowflake says:

    I was Harlan Garvey? Who will need to refresh me on this one, as I don’t seem to recall the role. And I KNOW I have never seen The Taylor’s Vale Monster, but I sure would love to! Didn’t you also film one in which our classmate and your neighbor R.H. was a fighter pilot?

    Reply
  13. Hagiograph says:

    For those of you keeping score the later chapter (winter) chapter of the Taylorsville Monster feature a young man who was later a member of Taylorville’s finest and apparently a semi pro bowler. I tried to reconnect with him about 11 years ago but nothing came of it.

    I am heartened that I am not the ONLY one here to fail to remember a film I was in.

    Speaking of rampant filmmaking, Mrs H and i just got back from seeing James Cameron (director of Titanic, Avatar, Terminator movies, etc) at Scripps Oceanography where he spoke and was awarded the Nierenberg Prize for science in the public interest due to all his work on deep sea vehicles and film work and his cooperation with oceanographic institutes to work on engineering the equipment, especially for his recent descent to the Mariana trench in a sub he helped design.

    Reply
    • fsdthreshold says:

      I remember the young Taylorvillite you’re talking about, Hagio! I remember a really cool effect we achieved on film at HIS house! He suspended a paper target from a clothesline. To the back of it, he taped a firecracker and lit the fuse. We started the camera rolling, and an actor in the foreground aimed a toy pistol at the target. As the hidden firecracker went off, the actor jerked the gun, simulating its kick. A large, jagged hole was blown in the target. It looked, on film, like the gun had fired a shot through the target.

      Reply
  14. fsdthreshold says:

    As far as I know, it was my Cousin Phil and I who did the WWII fighter-pilot movies (aircraft carriers being blown up amid thrown handfuls of flour) . . . though it’s possible R.H. was in one/some.

    So, in Garvey’s Way, Mr. Brown played a lone guy in a post apocalyptic North America (his home province is called “Illiana”) whose goal seems to be locating other survivors of good character and banding them together into a peace-keeping force. His chief recruit is Gilly (played by Mr. Brown’s younger brother) — who lives in an abandoned bus draped with a Confederate flag. Garvey seeks out Gilly because, in the parlance of post apocalyptic North America, Gilly “bills a gan’ hook o’ this country” (meaning he knows the territory) and he has a much-prized “folder” (a map). Together they look for remnants of civilization and come upon cultivated land, inspiring this classic exchange:
    Garvey: Corn, Gilly! It’s corn!
    Gilly: It seems to be planted in rows, also!
    At about this time, our heroes come upon human corpses that have expired because of “red fever,” a plague that leaves its victims not only dead, but covered in rouge. But the illness is apparently not a concern for our intrepid pair. They are, however, attacked by a band of mutants/squatters (corn farmers?) in piecemeal clothing — one mutant played by Hagio. Gilly and Garvey outwit and slaughter them all during some harrowing chase and fight scenes in the depths of cornfields. Having demonstrated their prowess and merit, our heroes are joined by other “good men” and found the Iowisota Order Patrol. Life finds a way . . .

    Reply
    • Hagiograph says:

      I honestly don’t remember being involved in any of your sound movies. I remember when you got the sound camera but I thought it was around ’79 when I left for Chucktown.

      I am so going to have to see these films.

      Reply
      • fsdthreshold says:

        The sound 8mm era didn’t last long at all. The three “serious” movies I made with it were Poe’s The Black Cat (with Scott G., for English class), a film about poetry for Mrs. Carlton’s 8th grade language arts class, and the movie in which Scott G., G.J. M. & I impersonated our teachers at the junior high (it was shown at teachers’ meetings to great amusement).

        Garvey’s Way was done on videotape with a huge, bulky video camera. I seem to remember, Hagio, that you were in that one simply because you were in town and came over on the day we were filming it. I said, “Will you be in this?” and you said, “Sure!”

        Reply
  15. fsdthreshold says:

    One of the best effects we achieved was in “the D&D film.” Remember the shot of the field of weeds, which I think was through a colored filter? On cue, our extras dressed as orcs sprang up from hiding among the weeds and charged at the camera. One moment, it was an innocuous field, and an instant later, these indistinct, frightening figures were THERE . . . it worked well. (The Dragonslayer-homage line of torches in the darkness was also a nice moment.)

    Reply
  16. I am Mr. Brown Snowflake says:

    OK Fred, you will have to private message me the T’villian who did the fireworks … I have no clue who you are talking about.
    I think I might remember Garvey’s Way a bit better now … was there a fight scene in the old barn in that one?
    And is it the D&D film where myself (and I think, you) for some reason battle it out in the pond? Gad! Oh the silliness of youth!
    ANYWAY … for me the prize of all prizes, the treasure without measure, would be to dig up the videotape(s) of a Flail of Ralsoth meeting. Not THAT would be worth its weight in mithril!

    Reply
  17. Mariano Cannon says:

    You can’t read On Writing and not come away with a smile on your face. Where other writing books are focused on the mechanics of the written word, King shows you how to capture the joy of the craft. You’ll find yourself wanting to write, not because of fame or fortune, but because it’s fun, and there’s nothing else you would rather do.

    Reply

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