Charon's Boat

Learning a bit more about the bad guy

One of the most famous images from the James Bond movies shows a beautiful woman covered in gold paint. She had been murdered by Auric Goldfinger's manservant Odd Job. Goldfinger does this because Bond discovered a gambling scam Goldfinger was operating and in the process, seduced Goldfinger's assistant/girlfriend.

However, when I read the book, there's more to it. I'll let the woman's sister, Tilly Masterson, explain:

"He has a woman once a month. Jill told me when she took the job. He hypnotizes them. Then he - he paints them gold."

"Christ, Why?"

"I don't know. Jilly told me he's mad about gold. I suppose he sort of think he's - that he's sort of possessing gold. You know - marrying it. He gets some Korean servant to paint them. [...] Afterwards, they're washed down by the Korean with resin or something. Goldfinger gives them a thousand dollars and sends them away."

In the movie, Bond is knocked out and wakes up to discover the Jill Masterson's body. The book goes a bit differently, but knowing now what Goldfinger is into, I'm going to always wonder what happened between Goldfinger and Jill after Bond was knocked out.

No Words

Considering vampires are a thing of mine, I'm surprised it took me this long to get around to making a manip with one. I hope you like it.

You can see the rest of my manips here.

The List Grows Apace

One of the most infamous genres of EMC is the teenager who gets Uber-Mind-Control-Powers! This power-infused young man, it's almost always a young man, then proceeds to get revenge upon, enslave, and have sex with all the women in his life. It's become such a cliche that Billy Ray has written a fantastic parody of this genre which incorporates the situations, poor writing, and dizzying array of over-the-top euphemisms for the male and female sexual anatomy (my personal favorite is "thrill drill"). That story is titled "Dramatic Saga of Peter Q. Kleeshay".

The story I'm adding to the list is in this genre, but it has none of the cliches. Instead, this is more like The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", and it's a spooky, disturbing ride.

In this story, the narrator is writing a type of confession. He has the power to influence minds, but his knowledge of the real-world implications of his fantasies remainds vague. Instead, he sees a woman then spins a scenario in his head, and by implication, we discover that everything in his scenario comes true. But the narrator never meets nor has any kind of contact with his victims, except in his mind.

It's also clear that the the narrator is insane, and the one person who seems to have influence over him is his psychiatrist. Their relationship is never made plain since it's distorted through the narrator's eyes, but there are strong hints that she is terrified of him, and her eventual fate is not a good one.

The story is Character Flaw by Orestes.  Here's a sample:

Anyhow, I guess I must have been reading some stories on the internet. That's where I got some of my early ideas. That's where I became a little obsessed with bondage. Hell, it was like a smorgasbord for me back then, and bondage was just my favourite cuisine at the time. Chicken a la Parker !

My fantasies about Anne went that direction. Strangely enough, I think I had some intuition that these kinky fantasies weren't all fiction. I mean, Anne developed a taste for gothic attire soon afterwards, and began hanging out with friends who all seemed to be looking for the next big thrill.

When I was in my room jerking off at night, I knew that Anne was sneaking out her bedroom window. I could almost picture every moment of her evening as she joined up with her new friends, and began to experiment with tying each other up, and spanking each other, and forced sex acts.

It was all pretty coincidental, really. When I imagined that she was being anally raped by her new friends at night, I could see Anne having difficulty walking the next day. When I imagined that she spent the night being whipped until her back was raw, I could hear her cursing the sting of the water in the shower the next morning. It was a weird symmetry between my fantasies, and Anne's reality that made me feel almost guilty when I saw her suffering from a lack of sleep, and a battered body.

This spooky trip is a great addition.

An Exception

I didn't plan to link to a lolcat site, but this one met the standard which is laughter to the point of pain then becoming overcome with giggles every time I think of it for the two following days. With that said, here it is:

more cat pictures

Ancient Mind Control

Here are two women who are two have appeared in many guises, and they've consistently been given a bad rap. All the following quotes are from Book 12 of The Odyssey by Homer

Circe, the sorceress, tells Odysseus a story about his journey ahead:

'and now pay attention to what I am about to tell you- heaven itself, indeed, will recall it to your recollection. First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.

Then Odysseus tells his crew what he wants them to do:

I will therefore tell you about them, so that whether we live or die we may do so with our eyes open. First she said we were to keep clear of the Sirens, who sit and sing most beautifully in a field of flowers; but she said I might hear them myself so long as no one else did. Therefore, take me and bind me to the crosspiece half way up the mast; bind me as I stand upright, with a bond so fast that I cannot possibly break away, and lash the rope's ends to the mast itself. If I beg and pray you to set me free, then bind me more tightly still.

Of course, the crew is to stuff their ears with wax first. This is what happens when he reaches them:

"'Come here,' they sang, 'renowned Ulysses, honour to the Achaean name, and listen to our two voices. No one ever sailed past us without staying to hear the enchanting sweetness of our song- and he who listens will go on his way not only charmed, but wiser, for we know all the ills that the gods laid upon the Argives and Trojans before Troy, and can tell you everything that is going to happen over the whole world.'

"They sang these words most musically, and as I longed to hear them further I made by frowning to my men that they should set me free; but they quickened their stroke, and Eurylochus and Perimedes bound me with still stronger bonds till we had got out of hearing of the Sirens' voices.

Beautiful words, hints at delivering everything Odysseus might want. They sound like a pair of lovely, sweet young women.

Last Known Photo

I was learning techniques for aging photos in photoshop, and one turned out pretty well. So, I created an EMC caption to go along with hit. I hope you like it. This has also been posted on the Collective. (Click the thumbnail for the full picture.)

You can see the rest of my manips here.

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

*Spock eyebrow raise* Fascinating...

Mr. Bond

I've mentioned my affection for Raymond Chandler and many other pulp writers from the 30's and 40's before, but in many ways, I'd resigned myself to the fact that the thrill of new and interesting, to me anyway, was in the past.

But I was going through some boxes of books, and I discovered the writer who, along with Mickey Spillane, picked up the torch during the 50's.

The weird thing is that he's been under my nose almost my whole life, and it bugs me that I've just now discovered his stories. One day, I'll learn this lesson and apply it: if I get the sense of something good, I should go to the source. Other people's interpretations are not the real thing.

Meet Mr. James Bond, created by Ian Fleming:

So this great red full stop marked the end of the Spangled Mob and the end of their fabulous traffic in diamonds. But not the end of the diamonds that were baking at the heart of the fire. They would survive and move off again across the world, discoloured, perhaps, but indestructible, as permanent as death.

And Bond suddenly remembered the eyes of the corpse which had once had a Blood Group F. They had been wrong. Death is forever. But so are diamonds.

Bond dropped down off the truck and started walking slowly towards the leaping fire. He smiled grimly to himself All this business about death and diamonds was too solemn. For Bond it was just the end of another adventure. Another adventure for which a wry phrase of Tiffany Case might be the epitaph. He could see the passionate, ironical mouth saying the words:

"It reads better than it lives."

From the final pages of Diamonds are Forever.

It has all the elements of great pulp: clear writing, fast-moving plots, new worlds in what seem to be ordinary places, but most important of all, a hero. James Bond is one of the good guys. He enjoys good food, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, and sex. He's also honest, just, and courageous.

This manifests itself in the legal authority he's been given: Mr. Bond has a license to kill. In the hands of a thug or the Bond who appears in the movies, this would be a dangerous, troubling thing, but Ian Fleming's James Bond is not a common thug. He views his license to kill this way:

So here came the last of them, the last of the gang, and yet the first. The man he'd taken a look at in Hatton Garden. The first of the Spangled Mob, the gang that had rated so high in Washington. The only one, except the harmless, rather likeable Shady Tree, Bond had not yet had to kill -- or, he thought of the Pink Garter Saloon and the two men from Detroit, almost kill. Not that he had wanted to kill these people. The job M had given him had only been to find out about them. But, one by one, they had tried to kill him and his friends. Violence had been their first resort, not their last. Violence and cruelty were their only weapons.

Again, from Diamonds are Forever.

The movie James Bond is not the same thing, not even close. I can't recommend the books enough.

Bo Diddley 1928-2008

Thank you, Mr. Diddley.