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MANTICHORE
1, No 3 (June2006 e. v.)A Contributionby LeighBlackmore forSword &Sorcery &Weird FictionTerminusamateur press association.
Leigh Blackmore, 78 Rowland Ave,Wollongong, NSW 2500. Australia.Email:lvxnox@iinet.net.au
IN THIS ISSUE“ManticNotes”………………………….1“Lovecraftian Notes”…………………..2“Where are the Women in theWorldof Fandom?”……………………………..3“Sherlock Holmes meetsCthulhu” .…3“The TodalGleeps”…………………..18Entries for “SupernaturalLiterature of the World”………………………………20Mantichorus: MailingComments…...9
MANTIC NOTES
News:
As I write, it’s early April 2006and I am starting my June issue early.Hopefully I’ll be able to keep ahead of the game a bit and produce a betterissue, rather than leaving things to thelast minute as I did with my first twoissues.[Late May]. Well, I’m glad I did thatbecause May has been a killer! I hadtons of uni assignments, had to readand assess two very long fantasy novelmanuscripts for different agencies, andfinish a long overdue piece on ThomasHarris for Ben Szumskyj’s criticalvolume on Harris. In addition, mypartner Margi’s mother – 90 years oldand near-blind – has gone into hospitalwith fractures to her pelvis, and wedon’t know whether she will comeback to the house to live or will needto go into fulltime nursing care; that’supset the household and hasnecessarily taken time away fromcreative work to some extent. On topof that we have been running ourmagical group, MoonSkin, which takesmuch continuous planning anddiscussion, as well as actually runningrituals! It’s been one of the busiestmonths on record for me, folks. I’vetaught myself to use Powerpointpresentations, as these are handy foruni tutorials and also for magicalworkshops I run (my next is ThelemicMagick 3: Liber AL and HexagramRituals, scheduled for July at LotusBookshop here in Wollongong).Somehow managed to watch a ton of DVD movies during the month as well,but no time or space to review themhere. I’ve finished my first session atUniversity of Wollongong (first half-year) doing Creative Writing andSociology, and now have a six-weekbreak during which Margi and I willattend Conflux, the Australian NationalSF convention in Canberra. I’ll alsoread Terry Dowling’s yet-unpublishedhorror novel
Clowns at Midnight;
and
Thicker Than Water 
by Zak Lucas, amanuscript co-written by the guy thatruns one of the agencies I assess for.Haven’t had much luck with placingmy own stories lately; my ghost story“Cemetery Rose” is still looking for ahome after being bounced fromseveral anthologies, as is a morerecent sf tale “A Myriad of Stars”. I didhave a 500word short tale called“Wave” published in
Micro
, a little magput out by third-year uni students. Iwant to get back to working on myRossetti novel,
Ghosts in the House of Life
, and will make that my mainwriting project (except critical work)for the next two years. [early June] The household chaos continues, withMargi’s mother being moved to Bullihospital, and some ailments of my ownthat are interfering with work. I hadplanned a longer issue, but I’m goingto restrict this to a few pieces.
 
LOVECRAFTIAN NOTES
SOTA TOYS have a line of 
Nightmares of Lovecraft 
toys which were released in2005. These include Cthulhu from “TheCall of Cthulhu”, the Ghoul from“Pickman’s Model” and Dagon from“Shadow Over Innsmouth”. EachNightmare of Lovecraft ranges in sizeand comes with multiple points of articulation and ball-joints. Seehttp://www.sotatoys.com/news-archive-display.asp?lngID=79for some greatcolour shots of these beasties.CALL OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNNERSOF THE EARTH: There has been a hugequantity of previews and reviews overthe last couple of years for theLovecraft-based computer game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth,produced by Headfirst productions andBethesda Software. It was finallyunleashed on the gaming world inMarch this year and has garnered muchpraise. It runs on PC (Microsoft) andXbox. I have never been a gamer,although back in the early eighties Iused to buy modules of the
Call of Cthulhu
role-playing game published byChaosium. Those were the days when if it was in any way Lovecraft-related, Iwould try and buy it. It got way tooexpensive considering I never playedthe board games, just collected thesebooklets. Anyway, I don’t have an Xboxbut the release of this game almostmakes me want to get one. It looks veryhigh-quality and seems to pay homageto Lovecraft in a faithful way. Theofficial website is at:http://www.callofcthulhu.com/MASTER OF DISGUST: There’s a veryanti-Lovecraft article, ‘Master of Disgust” by Laura Miller, athttp://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2005/02/12/lovecraft/index.html. Thiswas a review of the Library of Americavolume H.P. LOVECRAFT: TALES. Hersniffy tone in discussing Lovecraft’swork is reminiscent of the best (orworst) of the Lovecraft critics such asEdmund Wilson who have disparagedLovecraft for apparent faults in hiswriting style, basing his work in hisneurosis, and a dismissivecategorization of his oeuvre as low-art.In response, there are three pages of letters from Lovecraft readers who wereoffended by Miller’s article – seehttp://dir.salon.com/story/books/letters/2005/02/15/lovecraft/index2.html?pn=1 Stuart Gordon’s filmed version of Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch-House” as part of Showtime’s majorMASTERS OF HORROR TV series in theUSA has received much mediaattention. I dearly wish that such showswere madeavailable inAustralia butgenerally theyaren’t, so it maybe years untilI’m able to trackdown a copy of this episode.Actually it’savailable to buyon DVD from Amazon.com - seehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E5KUMO/103-0004830-5771079?v=glance&n=130 – but I just can’tafford it.In 2004 Seattle’ Open Circle Theater puton a production of some of Lovecraft’sstories under the title HP Lovecraft’s Theater of Horrors. There’s a good
 
review athttp://www.greenmanreview.com/live/live_lovecraft_1103.htmland another athttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/theater/142751_horrorq.html. Sounds as thoughit was a small but entertainingproduction that also had some fun withLovecraft’s themes.
WHERE ARE THE WOMENIN THE WORLD OFFANDOM?
A few brief reflections on thegeneral absence of women from theranks of critics and participants in theworlds of (at least) Lovecraftian fandomand of SSWFT. Have a look at theSSWFT membership – all males, not onewoman. Why is that? When I was inEOD, there were at least a couple of participating women critics – thebrilliant Bernadette Bosky, and theequally active Mollie Burleson. Yetlooking along the ranks of critical worksI have on my shelf about Lovecraft, Inote they are all by men – St Joshi,Peter Cannon, Darrell Schweitzer,Robert M Price, David E Schultz, ScottConnors, Donald Burleson. I imagine thesame applies to the world of Robert EHoward fandom, and to other fandoms.I think we need to ask ourselveswhy the small press at least seems tobe such a male province? Are there nowomen who are interested in horror anddark fantasy? Not the case – the award-winning editor Ellen Datlow springsimmediately to mind; but where is thegender polarity in SSWFT, for instance?What do other members think aboutthis? Are we being exclusivist, or itssimply that women are not asinterested in these genres and theircriticism as men are? Are weunconsciously creating a malepreserve? Do male members of theSSWFT have women partners orgirlfriends? What is their generalattitude to the apa’s activities? Do theynot participate themselves becausethey simply don’t have the impetus toput out apazines, or is there somethingabout men’s brains that makes themmore naturally gravitate towards criticalactivity in the literary forum. (I reallydon’t think that’s the case). What doother members think about this issue?Fellow SSWFT-ers: please forgive me asthe following article is not completelywritten up as an article should be; it islargely there, but parts are in whatamount to notes form. This was givenas a talk and some parts I readverbatim, while other parts Iextemporized. It had been my intentionto make this flow more smoothly beforeprinting it here, but limitations of timeprevent me. I still want to present it,though, so I just ask that you excusethe gaps and jumps here and there. –LB
SHERLOCK HOLMESMEETS CTHULHU:C. DOYLE & H.P. LOVECRAFTWITH PARTICULARREFERENCETO THEINFLUENCEOF“THE HOUND OFTHE BASKERVILLES”ON LOVECRAFT’S “THE HOUND”With a Brief Excursus upon SolarPonsA Paper for theSydney PassengersSherlock HolmesSociety’sCentenary Celebrationof 
The Hound of theBaskervilles
Bishopthorpe Manor, NSW, Oct2001
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