Aleph 1
Welcome to Aleph Issue 1. Aleph is an occasional series we’ll be doing looking at the best, oldest and oddest genre fiction around. We’ll be covering everything outside the 20th century, the sort of work that laid the foundation for everyone from Lovecraft up to King.
Fiction:
Ghost Story by Pliny the Younger
Review:
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars
Couldn’t disagree more with the Doctor Who review. For about 40 minutes I was thinking, if the words “The Doctor has a major dilemma” were flashed up on the screen every other minute it would have been more subtle than this overblown, overdone nonsense. I’ll stick with it for the time being as hopefully Stephen Moffat will concentrate more on the storytelling rather than trying to wow the viewer with clever visuals and sound effects that are completely out of place(the bio’s of the stations crew being a case in point).
That’s the thing that constantly surprises me about Doctor Who – it divides viewers like no other show. Some will adore a particular episode while others abhor it, and the following week opinions are changed (though I do fear that too many people watch the show, hating it every week, but continue to watch just so they can tell everyone else how much they hated it).
I’m sure you’re right Lee, as there are people who love to complain. But I also think there are others like me who stick with the show because they wouldn’t want to miss another “Blink” or “Dalek”. These are just two of the shows that did concentrate on good storytelling and the fancy visuals and sound effects that modern technology gives filmmakers were there to serve the story rather than drive it. Having said all that, it mostly comes down to personal taste I guess.
Publishing old foundational stories is a great Idea. And this one from Pliny stands as it should: nice and somewhat thought-provoking, precisely for its antiquity showing how modern storytelling doesn’t bring anything really new most of the time. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installments.
Great idea here, I’ll be looking forward to more! I’d suggest:
-one or more of Walpole’s “Heiroglyphic Tales”
-excerpts from Beckford’s “Vathek”
Good luck and keep up the good work.