FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE WATER OF THOUGHT

The Water of Thought by Fred Saberhagen  (first published as one half of an Ace Double, 1965; greatly expanded under the same title in 1981; included in the omnibus The Space Force Chronicles, 2014)

Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007) was a popular and best-selling science fiction author, best known for his Berserker series and novels about killer machines that roamed the universe looking for intelligent life to exterminate.  The Water of Thought, published two years before his first Berserker collection, was Saberhagen's second published book and the third  and final entry in his Space Force series, which began with his second published story, "Planeteer" (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1961), and continued with his first novel The Golden People (1964, another Ace Double).   The first Berserker story, "Fortress Ship," was published in January 1963 and appears to have influenced a portion of The Water of Thought (and, possibly, also The Golden People, which I have not read).

The protagonist of the Space Force series is Boris Brazil, a planeteer (or planetary explorer) for the all encompassing Space Force.  Much of the galaxy has been settled in one fashion or another and explored (although at times rather incompletely), including the planet Kappa, located in a remote, less traveled section of the galaxy.  Humanity's presence on Kappa appears to be only a small enclave situation far enough away from the natives to have only occasional contact with the primitive Kappans, who are somewhat humanoid in appearance.  The Kappan society is divided among the workers, the warriors, and the priests.

Located somewhere on the planet is the Water of Thought, a strange elixir of almost magical powers.  It is actually water from a pool deep in the territory of the hominids, a race of primitive pre-humans unknown to the few Earthmen on the planet.  The hominid society is far more primitive than that of the Kappans, and the Kappans have been known to take the hominids as slaves to be worked to death and brutalized.  Both the Kappan and hominid societies are far more complex than anyone, even themselves, realize.

From the interior cover blurb:  

"Was that the key to a world forgotten?

"One explorer had already disappeared on the primitive planet, Kappa.  So the day a second Terrestrial, Jones, ran away after drinking the sacred Kappan water that he had coerced the natives into giving him, the remaining planetologists meant to find out just what was going on.

"Questioning the aliens only deepened the mystery.  For they said that what Jones had drunk would enable him to communicate with his animal ancestors.  It was their most precious and sacred possession.

"But how could it effect a person never born on Kappa, a person without such 'animal' ancestors?  what would really happen if either of them managed to bring this incredible liquid back to Earth?

Given the bloviated and often inaccurate plot descriptions common to Ace Doubles, it's obvious that there is more going on here.  The book centers on seven Terrestrials:

• Boris Brazil, the planeteer protagonist and hero of the novel; he landed on Kappa for a brief stopover until a scheduled Space Force ship will be able to take him to Earth for some much needed R-and-R.  When he first tasted the Water of Thought he lost all free will and had to obey every command from...
• Edmund Jones, another planeteer, one who plans to spend his time on Kappa.  When he first tasted the Water of Thought, he had visions that obliterated everything but the desire to have more, whatever the cost.
• Emanuel Magnuson, a local anthropologist who had vanished the year before.  Magnuson had discovered the powers of the Water of Thought, which had increased his mania to become the salvation of Mankind, leading it newer and greater glories, even if that meant thinning  the herd of undesirable humans; Magnuson was also convinced that he could make the hominids "evolve" to full humanity and thus usher in a glorious new age.  To help in his plan, he contacted...
• Don Morton, a local smuggler.  Magnuson managed to get sample of the Water of Thought to Morton, who arranged for them to be shipped to a large criminal cartel.  The profits from selling just a small amount of the elixir were astounding.  Morton was a naturally cruel and avaricious person.  Drinking the water mad his rage, greed, and egomania expand many-fold into a homicidal mania.  To aid in getting the water off-planet, Morton brought in a partner...
• Mayor Pete Kaleta, the leader of the small Terrestrial enclave.  Kaleta is weak and greedy.  The water made his greed an obsession, erasing any bit of common sense he might have had.
• Brenda, one of the few local unattached women in the enclave.  She finds herself attracted to Brazil, and he to her.  The water has made her inhibitions vanish and she offers herself to Brazil, and she risks her own life to aid him.
• Jane, the other "unattached" woman in the enclave, although she is in reality heavily attached to Morton.  Jane has a weak will and knows that she is doing wrong, but has a hard time preventing it.

For a short novel, The Water of Thought packs a lot into it.  Often chaotic in its reading, the book manages to pull most of the threads together in the end.  The most interesting parts include the dissection of the to alien societies, the true planarian-like secret of the Water of Thought, and Brazil's attempt to stop the homicidal Morton, who is wearing an invulnerable and deadly "groundsuit," sort of a precursor to Saberhagen's berserkers.

A fast read with more to it than appears on the surface.

LUX RADIO THEATER: THE FALLEN SPARROW (FEBRUARY 14, 1944)

Robert Young, Maureen O'Hara, and Walter Slezak headline this radio dramatization of the 1943 film based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes.  Young takes over the role that John Garfield had in the original film.

"Kit" McKittrick has managed to escape to years of torture after being captured in the Spanish Civil War, managing to keep vital information from his captors the entire time.  His escape was arranged by his friend Louis, a New York City police detective.  When Louie dies under mysterious circumstances in a fatal fall, Kit -- still recuperating from his ordeal -- travels from Arizona to New York to investigate.  Kit meets pretty Toni, who happens to be only witness to Louie's fall.  The suspects are the many people who attended the party where Louie met his death, and always in the background are Kit's memories of his torture.  The never-seen Nazi with a limp who had been both instrumental in the torture and angered that Kit never revealed the secrets he had been holding, may or may not be lurking -- could this be Kit's imagination?

There is murder, Nazis, danger, blackmail, a threatened child, romance, betrayal, and the question of Kit's own grip on sanity.  A potent mix for suspenseful entertainment.

Introduced by Cecil B. DeMille...and don't forget to use Lux dishwashing flakes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetVrqlkHys

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: BLACK STUFF

 "Black Stuff" by Ken Bruen  (from Dublin Noir, edited  by Ken Bruen, 2006)

The world lost one of its greatest hardboiled and noir fiction writers last year with the passing of Ken Bruen at age74.

No.  That's not right.  Let me try again,

The world lost one of its great writers -- hands down, period --last year with the passing of Ken Bruen at the age of 74.

There.  That's much better.

Bruen has a rather unique background for a crime fiction writer.  He had a PhD in Metaphysics and had spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Asia, and South America.  He had a poet's ear, punk-rock sensibilities, and a love for literature, especially mystery fiction.  His first published work was Funerals:  Tales of Irish Morbidity (1991).  His first four books were not a financial success; they began to get the recognition they deserved after the success of his Tom Brandt series and his Jack Tsylor series, when they were reprinted as A Fifth of Bruen (2006); it was then that people began to realize that the fabulous author of those series had been hiding in the bushes for years before with works equally brilliant.

Bruen set most of his books in his beloved Galway, carefully dissecting the decline of the Catholic church and Ireland's waning economic power, "which has left Ireland as a materialistic and spiritually drained society which still harbors deep social inequality."  His characters are flawed human beings, often alcoholic or drug addicted, capable of rage, violence, self-reflection, and compassion.  He had an elliptical style, often meandering, yet always honing in the essence of his characters.  To read Bruen is unlike reading any other writer.  The poetry sings from the page.

"Black Stuff" is a very short tale featuring a black Irisher who uses the name of Phil Lynott, the black co-founder of the hard rock band Thin Lizzy.  Phil is bitter, antisocial, and a heavy drinker; he never really realized he was black until he was fourteen, and even then he was not goaded by his classmates because of his race, but because he "was shit at hurling."  Phil has two crushed fingers on his right hand given to him because a getaway car he had been driving stalled, angering the crooks who had drafted him.  One evening Phil is at a bar when a white man named Charlie Bowman enters and strikes up a conversation, seemingly amazed that Phil is both black and an Irishman.   Bowman says that he is an American and actually seems to embody all the negative stereotypes given to Americans.  

James Whistler's famous portrait of his mother, Arrangement in Black and Gray, is currently on loan to the city of Dublin and Bowman wants to steal it, and elicits Phil's help.  The way Bowman had it figured it would be an easy job,  but a soldier appeared out of nowhere and Bowman shot him in the gut.  A month later, Phil and Bowman meet up, supposedly to split the profits, and Bowman pulls a gun on Phil.  But Bowman had been too cocky all along; his I-am-an-American act was good but not perfect and Phil knew all along not to trust him.  And Bowman was also too cocky to realize that Phil had something up his sleeve.  Actually, in his damaged hand...

A minor story, perhaps, but one with those lovely Bruen touches.  Well worthy of the few minutes it takes to read this tale.

I WANT TO BE A COWGIRL

Posted for no special reason except that I like the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQMH3KgYsTY

THE GOAT (1921)

Buster Keaton could always put a smile on my face.  His timing and comic control truly made him a candidate for the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), as well as the hapless "goat" on this silent two-reeler.  Here, through a series of mistaken identities, Keaton is mistaken for a murderer who is pursued by a posse, lead by the father of the woman he loves.

Also starring Virginia Fox, who was the leading lady in many of Keaton's early films, and went on to marry producer Darryl F. Zanuck; she died at age 83 or maybe age 76 or perhaps somewhere in between -- her given birthdates had an eight-year discrepancy.  Joe Roberts played the police chief; Roberts had become a friend of Keaton's father and the Keaton family and was asked by Keaton to appear in 16 of Keaton's 19 silent short films of the 1920s. Playing the actual murderer was Malcolm St. Clair, a producer, director, writer and actor who also co-wrote and co-directed The Goat with Keaton; Keaton's influence on St. Clair has been described as "transformative" and his directing work is distinctly divided between pre- and post-Keaton.

Enjoy this comic gem from more than a century ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6kE2JfkJ1c

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SMILEY LEWIS! (AND A HAT TIP TO THE TWO-PIECE)

 Overton Amos Lemons (1913-1966), a.k.a. Smiley Lewis, was "the unluckiest many in New Orleans.  He hit on a formula for slow-rocking small-band numbers like 'The Bells Are Ringing' and 'I Hear You Knocking' only to have Fats Domino come up behind him with similar music and a more ingratiating delivery.  Lewis was practically drowned in Domino's backwash."  Other songs Lewis recorded were "The Bells Are Ringing," "Blue Monday," "One Night," and "Shame, Shame, Shame"  -- most of these became hits for other artists.

"I Hear You Knockin' "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeY7J9kjg0

"Shame, Shame, Shame"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctLKz-ZLbMU

"Blue Monday"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxdRFTa0sg

"The Bells Are Ringing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKsnw0ZH7gY

"Tee-Nah-Nah"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIu6fnUNP0U

"Can't Stop Loving You"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnAckkJ-ncI

"One Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yks0vvhF9c

"I Love You for Sentimental Reasons"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tN8UY2P_sw

"She's Got Me Hook, Line, and Sinker"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg2VtGYyXHE

"Bumpity Bump"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-vwQMi6lsY

"Someday You'll Want Me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIEmHdQmnSE

"Go On Fool"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPTzS38c_E

BONUS:  Did you really think I would let the 80th anniversary of the two-piece swim suit -- the bikini -- got unnoticed?  When runway models refused to model the revealing swim suit, designer Louis Reard hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to model the 30 square inches of cloth at a press conference at a public pool in Paris on July 5, 1946.  Thus was history made.  Bernardini, bless her, is still alive at age 98.

In tribute, here's Bryan Hyland with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU&t=3s

HYMN TIME

 The Golden Gate Quartet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvngnjAcrAw