Flame Tree Fiction

It seems incredible that some of Philip K. Dick's fiction is in the public domain. A superlative writer of science fiction and fantasy books Dick gave us so many powerful novels and films (Blade Runner, The Adjustment Bureau, Total Recall) but his first stories are available because their copyright was not renewed.

Oscar Wilde’s sole novel The Picture of Dorian Gray remains to this day a classic example of gothic horror. While initially rejected by a morally-rigid Victorian England, the novel has lived on and been elevated so that it, as well as Oscar Wilde himself, have become mainstays of the English canon. We celebrate Wilde and his work, and mourn the injustices he suffered in his life. While many called this novel obscene, the opposite is true. As Wilde put it, while the work presented moral issues it never demonstrated a morality itself. Instead, Wilde's goal was to depict and not to judge.

While Bram Stoker was not the first to write a novel about vampires, an idea which can be traced all the way back to Mesopotamia, he definitely established the modern concept of vampires with his novel Dracula.

Mary Shelley’s Creature

The original Creature is never described in great detail in the novel. The most we are told is that he is large and, in some way, hideous. Horror is at its best when the threat, when the feared thing, is enigmatic. What exists in our minds will always be something more than could ever be clearly described on the page. This is also true because the creature transforms throughout the book. Not physically, of course, but in how we view him. Perhaps we see him first as a sympathetic creature, shunned from society due to his ugliness. We might even sympathize further, as we see a character whose inner value is hidden under a rough exterior. As the creature turns towards evil, towards murdering those who Victor Frankenstein loves, our view of him turns to a dark avenger. Whether a terrifying figure who haunts, or a disgusting creature whose face is darkened by flashes of lightning, what it actually might look like is informed by how we view and comprehend it.

Philip K. Dick’s (1928–82) wildly manic style of science fiction, reflecting the deeply troubled, drug addicted author, has influenced and informed generation after generation of sci fi writers. Film adaptations of his work seem always to be in production; with great directors including Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven and Steven Spielberg as only the most notable to adapt Dick’s novels. One novel which has so far remained untouched by the film industry is his The Man in the High Castle. 

It is truly a great loss to the sci fi fandom that sf writer Frederik Pohl, author of such classics as Gateway and The Space Merchants, has died. He was prolifically involved in the genre during an impressive career that spanned over seven decades!

The Time Machine is a timeless classic of sf fiction. Whether it drives at 88 miles per hour or is bigger on the outside than the inside, the time machine has remained a steadfast pillar of science fiction. One wonders if H.G. Wells (1866–1946) knew that this would be the case when he first thought up the concept for his novel The Time Machine. Perhaps he simply wanted to tell the most fantastic story that he could, and in that regard he was completely successful. Wells’ The Time Machine stands not only as one of the original time machine stories, but also one of the best.

The film season Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film kicked off recently, including amongst its first screenings, Dracula (1958) – an absolute classic! You can't go wrong with a film based on one of the most famous gothic horror novels of all time, and actually Christopher Lee doesn't hurt either.