I noted oh thos blog that yesterday, December 13, was Wold Newton Day, marking the anniversary of a fictional meteor striking ner Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, in 1795. This event, a construct of writer Philip Jose Farmer, would have lasting implications for the literary world for centiroes to come. The meteor was radioactive and somehow caused genetic mutations to the occupants of two passing carriages. The descendants of these occupants became the eal-life counterparts of many of the most popular fictional characters in literature -- endowing them with great intelligence and strength and embuing them with a huge capacity or either good or evil. The list of characters affected by the Wold Newton meteor is lentgthy: Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage, Lord Peter Wimsey, Captain Blood, A. J. Raffles, Allan Quatermain, Professor Challenger, Bulldog Drummond, Holmes's nemesis Moriaty, Solomon Kane, Phileas Fogg, Sam Spade, The Shadow, The Spider, Nero Wolfe, both Dr. Fu Manchu and Sir Denis Nayland Smith, James Bond, Travis McGee, Lew Archer, M. Lecoq, Arsene Lupin, the Time Traveler from Wells's The Time Machine, G-8, Sam Spade, and Doc Savage's cousin Paricia and his aide Monk Mayfair...and I'm sure there are many others, including Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel.
To honor the Wold Newton characters, here's a dramatization of The Scarlet Pimpernel, from the 1934 film based on Baroness Orczy's 1905 novel. For this radio adaptation, Leslie Howard reprised his film role as the Pimpernel. Olivia de Havilland plays Margaret.
They seek him here
They seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven?
Is he in Hell?
That demmed elusive Pimpenel!
To anwer that rhymje, he's right here -- at the link below. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ipacZTdW98
Just by coincidence, I just came into a batch of Philip Jose Farmer paperbacks. PJF is a very underrated writer so I'm glad you're honoring him and his work!
ReplyDelete