Lee's Blog

In the comments to the previous post, macaroni observes

Maybe Jack is a little afraid of his ability to defeat the “Black Wind” and believes he could win many smaller battles against evil in the future and that it would better serve “mankind” in that way. He just needed something to prod him off his logical thinking. Smile. He who runs away lives to fight another day….. No “Charge of The Light Brigade” for Jack.

That makes sense, but there are three points that argue against it.

First, Glaeken has survived for 15,000 years battling against the Adversary. He isn’t into the “Charge of The Light Brigade”. Granted, he’s telling Jack to act instead of doing it himself, but Jack is his Heir — the one who will take over the defense of the world when he is gone. Glaeken would never tell Jack to charge to his death. He told Jack to perform a physically demanding task that he himself is no longer up to, that’s all. And in fact, as it turns out, there really isn’t any physical danger; the important thing is to keep moving as fast as possible so as to kill the focus of the Black Wind before the mental effect (feelings of depression and futility) is able to stop you.

Second, even if this were a situation where Jack had to leave tens of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — to die because he had to live to fight another day (which is a situation that Glaeken might really have found himself in), he should have felt regret. Indeed, if he were not a narcissistic sociopath, he would reasonably have been calling Glaeken names because Glaeken ordered him to leave those people to die. This actually happens sometimes with firefighters and the like, I am told — they know that they cannot save people, but it tears them up not to try.

There is no possibility that Jack would react like the firefighters, however. He made that absolutely clear in a previous book, Harbingers, where he stated that, if Vicky and Gia died, he would leave everyone else in the world, including his supposed friends Abe and Julio, and his beloved sister’s children, to die horribly, and that he would not lift a finger to save any of them. Instead, in that book, he sadistically trapped and killed four of the firefighters who were carrying on the fight that he explicitly refused to join.

Third, there is still the fact that Jack called Glaeken a name because Glaeken pointed out that the people that Jack “loves” — in his stunted, narcissistic fashion — will also die if he does nothing.

Think of this in purely realistic terms. Imagine that Glaeken and Jack are in an apartment building late at night, and they observe a man pouring liquid all around the building. Glaeken says that the man is a known arsonist and that the liquid smells like gasoline, so he must be planning to burn the building with everyone sleeping inside. Glaeken tells Jack to stop the man from lighting the gas, because Glaeken is not able to limp down there and stop him in time. Jack says no, trying to save all those people would endanger his own valuable hide. Glaeken says, “Vicky is at a sleepover in this building.”

Is the natural reaction to call Glaeken a bastard for pointing out to him that Vicky is in danger too? Or to thank him for preventing Jack from making a horrible mistake — leaving Vicky to die with all those others?

I would understand Jack’s reaction (not sympathize or agree, but understand) if Glaeken had said, “Some of those who will die are nine-year-old girls just like your Vicky, just as cute, just as well-loved, with just as much potential that will be wiped away through your refusal to save them.” That really would be emotional manipulation, trying to reach whatever fragment of conscience Jack may possess, trying to show him that there is something going on that he “cannot abide in his sight”.

But Glaeken’s statement simply brought to his attention that Vicky and Gia really were in danger. How could that warrant calling him names? Unless, of course, in Jack’s mind, Glaeken’s statement counts as emotional manipulation because it forces him to actually live up to his claim that he loves Vicky and Gia more than life itself. To him, Glaeken’s statement counts as emotional manipulation because he would rather walk away and let all those people die including Vicky and Gia, and after they were dead he would just shrug and say, “Well, that’s not my fault because Glaeken didn’t explicitly warn me that they were in danger, but now that they’re dead, I don’t ever have to lift a finger against the Adversary.”

So, with all due respect to macaroni, no, I don’t think Jack’s actions are explicable by his thinking this is a “Charge of The Light Brigade” situation.

There are times when I really, sincerely, despise Repairman Jack and wonder why I even read the books. Case in point: “By the Sword”.

At the beginning of this book, Jack is “fund-raising” by enticing muggers in Central Park to try to rob him, then incapacitating them and taking their ill-gotten gains, which he will donate to the Little League. As he leaves the park, he sees a thug about to attack an old man, and he decides to intervene because there are certain things that “I will not abide in my sight”, such as beating up a defenseless old man. The old man in question is Glaeken (the Sentinel who’s been defending the Earth and humanity for 15,000 years), so he handily dispatches the thug by himself, but we’re supposed to think that Jack is an honorable person.

Fast forward to a later scene. The sole surviving member of a murderous cult has just invoked the “Black Wind”, which was demonstrated earlier as capable of killing absolutely every living thing within a very wide distance. The earlier usage was in an uninhabited area and only five people died. This time it is in New York City. Jack and Glaeken are watching from the roof of the next building.

Glaeken describes the action of the cloud, says “more than three thousand will die tonight …. Imagine the terror. Imagine the Adversary’s joy. You’ve got to stop that [person].” Jack whines that he can’t just shoot the guy because it’s too far. “Then you’ll have to go over there.” “Swell.” Jack is unenthusiastic because “Jack didn’t feature entering that place and fighting his way to the roof for nothing.”

Well, you know, Glaeken is 15,000 years old. He’s seen quite a lot in that time. He has senses that perhaps the rest of us lack. He says the guy has to be killed to save thousands of lives. Perhaps Jack should listen to him. But no, Jack continues to whine and ask for explanations as the Black Wind grows. Finally Glaeken points out that the Black Wind may last “long enough for the winds to reach Sutton Square and beyond.” Sutton Square is where Jack’s girlfriend lives.

Jack responds, “”You’re a bastard, you know that.”

No, Jack, Glaeken is perfectly justified in calling you names, but not vice-versa. Jack can’t “abide in his sight” an old man being beat up, but he’s perfectly cool with standing by and watching thousands murdered — thousands of defenseless old men and women, helpless children, the pregnant teenage girl that he believes to be in the basement of the building currently being engulfed by the Black Wind. And he calls Glaeken names? If I used that sort of language, I’d call him a lot worse.

In fact, my only criticism of Glaeken is that, if I’d been writing the book, he would have said, “I’m an old man and I’ve fought the Adversary for fifteen thousand long years. I doubt I can stop this Black Wind but I cannot and will not run from it. I will take the sword and try to stop it. You run away, little Heir, and prepare yourself to be the Sentinel after my death, but run far and run fast, because the Adversary will know I’m dead, and he will be looking for you and yours.”

Why should Glaeken even argue with this utterly selfish, utterly useless “Heir” in an attempt to get him to recognize the need to risk — not necessarily lose but merely risk — his own life to save tens or even hundreds of thousands of innocents. Maybe shaming him would do some good, though I doubt it. He’s too selfish to even worry about losing the favor of the most ancient living being in the world. He’s too selfish to think that he should “give back” a bit to a man who has suffered and sacrificed for him and his loved ones for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, I already know the end of Nightworld. Jack survives.

I seriously do not understand this whole conflict. MacMillan wants to charge more for their eBooks. Amazon doesn’t want to. So Amazon decided to pull all their books — digital and dead tree alike — for … what? Just this weekend? Forever? I don’t have any idea, though I’ve seen various people suggesting it’s just for the weekend.

But the reason many people have advanced for Amazon’s action makes no sense to me. They are saying that Amazon needs to keep the price of the eBooks down so they can sell more Kindles. If that were the case, why would they have an iPhone app so you can read their eBooks on the iPhone that they didn’t manufacture or sell? Why would they have a PC app so you can read their eBooks on a computer that they didn’t manufacture or sell? Doesn’t it seem obvious that they want to sell the eBooks, not so much the Kindles?

I’m totally at a loss here.

I got Ground Zero from Amazon on Sunday. I looked at the other Repairman Jack books that were available on the Kindle, and noted those that were missing. It seemed to me that it would be cool to have the whole series on that one little device, but several were missing.

So today, I happened to read that the only one still missing was Crisscross. Hmm, I thought All the Rage was missing too. I went back to Amazon to check and … they’re gone! They’re all gone, including Ground Zero! Even the books are gone! At least, they still show up, but you can’t buy them from Amazon.

I guess I should be grateful that they didn’t snatch Ground Zero back off my Kindle.

So, I got F. Paul Wilson’s latest, Ground Zero, on my Kindle, of course. This is part of a continuing series, and is definitely not recommended for anyone but a fan who has read the previous books. Also, it ends with: “Excited, he hurried after the One to tell him.” Only a fan would want to wait until fall for the rest.

Anyway, back to Anya Mundy. So, here’s the setup. Imagine you’re a supernatural being as old as life on Earth. For thousands of years, you have been harried from pillar to post by the Otherness, which is now gaining power at a rapid rate. You have recently been severely injured by the Otherness. If you are destroyed, everyone and everything on Earth will die, slowly and horribly. You have been told that the Otherness has come up with some new ghastly thing, which you cannot detect because sometimes you can’t detect things of the Otherness, although human beings can. One of your human allies has gone to investigate. All clear so far?

So, your human ally comes running back, screaming at you to run, get away. He seems to be striking at something invisible — striking and even shooting at it. You ask what he’s doing, and another human ally says he’s attacking a man. A man. That both of them can see clearly, and you can’t. Hmm. Kind of like those Otherness things that humans can see clearly and you can’t, don’t you think?

Now both of your human allies are screaming at you to run. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to, like, run? Just run before the Otherness thing (whatever it is — who cares?) gets to you?

Only an idiot would hang around and ask them to explain. They can explain later! Grab the dog, transform yourself into a teenage girl, strong, long-legged, and — especially — fleet of foot; tell the dog to transform into a greyhound, and run! Or, given that the spirit of the world probably doesn’t need to travel by the same means as human beings, go check out the weather in Antarctica.

So what does she do? Hang around and ask them to explain, until the Otherness thing gets her.

Idiot.

Amazing what they have on YouTube. I watched “The Island of Terror” and “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, both of which I actually remember seeing in the Dusk-To-Dawn shows. Perhaps I’ll write about them.

I am now watching “Horror of Dracula”, which, to be honest, I don’t remember seeing except for the very end. It’s remarkable how these people know they’re dealing with a vampire, but they think it’s appropriate to go trying to stake him at almost sunset, or to go checking Lucy’s tomb in the middle of the night.

Our hero, Paul, saw the Gorgon, of course. Her face was reflected in a pool. He had the good sense not to look. Then he ran around and encountered her again. He didn’t get a good look at her, though, since she was in the shadows and he didn’t strain to look at her like his father did.

Now he’s in the hospital but not petrified. We seem to have a dead but not petrified woman. So what killed her? Looks like the orderly in mental hospital did it, frankly, though the doctor seems willing to believe he didn’t.

Our hero has been out cold for five days. He doesn’t seem to know what happened. He remembered a horrible face in the pool.

The doctor is showing him his face in the mirror. But what about his face? It doesn’t look like stone.

He has bad dreams and wakes up screaming. I think Miss Hoffman, the woman who’s been talking to him, is really the Gorgon in human guise.

Ooh, now he’s ready to leave. But he’s holding hands with Miss Hoffman. I still think she’s the Gorgon.

The Doctor really doesn’t want to investigate. Our hero wants to destroy the Gorgon. This distresses the Doctor. So he calls in the orderly? “There’s a full moon tonight. Don’t let her out of your sight.” “She may be close to death.” Huh?

Let’s dig up Daddy! What’s he doing? Confirming Daddy’s really petrified? A woman has come to watch. Miss Hoffman? The Gorgon?

Yep, Daddy’s really petrified. How did they get him to lie down properly in the coffin then?

Miss Hoffman was in the shadows, but was still human when he spoke to her.

The Doctor wanted the father’s letter. Why not just ask for it. Why not cooperate? Because he knows Miss Hoffman is the Gorgon, that’s why.

She says she can’t leave the Doctor. Paul offered to take her away and she got all upset, but she says she doesn’t know why. (Because she’ll turn into the Gorgon more often away from here, obviously.)

Ah! The Professor (Christopher Lee) is here. “What’s happened to you?” What is wrong with his face? Looks okay to me, really.

The Doctor is looking at the dead woman’s body. (No, not like that!) Autopsy, I think. Apparent cutting and slicing actions. Miss Hoffman shows up. Oh, she has a first name: Carla. The Doctor quizzes her jealously.

Clearly an autopsy. He removed the brain and put it in a jar.

Ah, she’s wondering if the dead woman was the Gorgon. He says positively not. But she wants to know who it is, and he says “Not until I’m sure.”

The Professor is a head taller than Paul.

Oh, this is a great idea. We know there’s a Gorgon wandering around in the night, so instead of staying inside with all the doors and windows closed, we chat on the balcony.

Let’s yell at the police. Let’s threaten him with the foreign secretary. We want to see all the women who have come here in the past ten years. Miss Hoffman is one of them. She has been here seven years, and the murders started five years ago. Or at least so the policeman says. Let’s threaten the police some more for good measure.

The Doctor won’t talk to them. Now he’s telling Miss Hoffman there are times when she shouldn’t be alone. But he won’t explain why. She says, “I am sick of you!” This was very distressing to him.

So she calls Paul and says to meet her at the castle. Oh, great idea. Seriously great idea. I hope at least the Professor is smart enough to bring a mirror.

She is enthroned. Now she’s wandering around the pillars where the Gorgon usually hides. No Gorgon so far, though.

They’re kissing. I hope he keeps his eyes closed. I still think she’s the Gorgon. She wants to leave now. He won’t go because he wants to find the Gorgon. He says it won’t be long but she says it will be too late. Longing looks — “I may never see you again”. Now she runs off. He follows.

The attendant from the mental hospital creeps up behind him but is jumped in turn by the Professor. The attendant shrugs him off and throws a knife but not very accurately. So now we’re going to confront the Doctor. All will be revealed. I think the Doctor is going to get petrified in here somewhere. I hope the Professor doesn’t.

Ooh, the Professor climbed in the window. Does he have a mirror? He has a crowbar. He’s breaking into the locked files. How did he know what files to go after? The ones with the lock, I guess. The Doctor is looking around for Carla while the Professor flattens against the wall.

The Doctor didn’t see him, and is now going to look for Carla in her room, though he won’t find her there since she just sneaked out the back door. Going to the castle, I bet, to petrify some more wee beasties.

The Professor brought the file back. Carla started suffering attacks of amnesia five years ago. The Doctor is in love with her and keeps her as a nurse even though she had these attacks. The Professor points out that she still suffers attacks at the full moon. He says the Gorgon’s spirit has found a resting place in her, and that’s why she couldn’t leave (for those of us who hadn’t figured that out).

Now Paul is yelling at him that the only reason he stayed here is because the Professor needed him. What? Paul stayed because he wanted to know why his brother and father died. The Professor dropped everything and came out to find why he hadn’t communicated for days. The Professor is here because Paul needs him, not vice versa.

Wait, what happened? She showed up but the attendant tried to drag her off and Paul pushed him away? Yes, I think that’s right. I love how nobody feels it’s necessary to involve the police in this.

Now they’re all lovey-dovey, and he wants to leave but she says it’s too late. She can’t go today.

We have visitors. The Doctor plus the police. The Doctor does not want to talk to the Professor. He demands to see her. The Professor reveals he knows about the amnesia. The police intend to search the house (very obedient).

The Doctor says if she doesn’t show up, they’ll be charged with abduction. The Professor reveals that they know about the attack by the attendant.

She really isn’t in the house. Wonder how they did that?

She’s supposedly going to take the train to Leipsig. The Professor says she won’t take the train. He suggests calling the hotel where she’s supposed to be at 5:30. He is quite confident she won’t be there.

The police won’t search after dark, since it’s the second night of the full moon. The Doctor is deeply distressed.

She didn’t show up at the hotel, of course. Check the castle, Paul.

The Professor slapped Paul to prevent him from going out into the dark. “I can’t let you destroy yourself.” He’s going to climb out the window, of course.

Paul’s the hero. I doubt he’ll get petrified. I worry that the Professor will, which would be very unfair. I confidently expect that the Doctor will. He “deserves” it for protecting the Gorgon.

The police have showed up to arrest Paul. They’re very obedient.

Paul is at the castle, which is remarkably brightly lit since it is night time. Ah, the Professor knocked down the cops and climbed out the same window. Heh.

Paul is wondering around the castle. The Doctor is standing around with a sword. If he wanted to hurt Paul with it, why not strike without speaking? But he speaks. They fight.

The Gorgon has showed up and is watching the fight. The Doctor won and turned and saw the Gorgon. He didn’t strike fast enough with the sword and is now dead without having struck the Gorgon.

Paul sees the Gorgon in the mirror and is paralyzed with fear. She’s magically forcing him — he’s turning around — The Professor is creeping up — he cut off her head. But Paul looked at her first.

He crawls over to the head and sees that it is, of course, Carla.

The Professor is watching — what else can he do?

“The Gorgon” is a horror movie from 1964. I remember seeing part of it when I was a child — my mother used to take us to the Dusk-To-Dawn horror movies. I think I slept through most of it, however.

It is now on YouTube in its entirety, so I am watching it. So far, Christopher Lee has had a cameo appearance but presumably he’ll show up later. One character got petrified, which is no shame on her since she didn’t know there was a Gorgon roaming the woods. Another character got petrified, and it is a shame on him, since he walked into a ruined house, tripped over several petrified little beasties, then went further in (without mirror) and, when he saw someone moving in the shadows, strained to see who it was.

Well, who do you think would be hanging around in a ruined house with petrified beasties on the floor? Mind you, he suspected the Gorgon might be there, although you’d think a human being turned to stone would be pretty much the clincher.

I am taking time out to type this note, as his surviving son goes wandering about looking into the shadows when he hears odd noises. He does not have a mirror either.

I was on Amazon this evening, sort of bouncing around, and through some sequence I got to this book: When Technology Fails (Revised & Expanded): A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency (Paperback). Available on the Kindle. I’m not sure why this strikes me as exceedingly funny.

But no, I think I’ll pass on that book for my Kindle.

In Repairman Jack: a new identity, I described four candidates for Jack’s new identity: Richard Westphalen (my personal favorite candidate), Lew Ehler, Miles Kenway, and Jim Zaleski. In mentioning the latter three, I was working from memory since the book was out of print and my copy was in Oklahoma. However, the book has since come back into print and I have a copy.

Miles Kenway is out — he’s too old. It’s a pity he died, as I really liked him.

Jim Zaleski is out — he has a brother. I didn’t greatly regret his death, as he was a jerk.

Lew Ehler remains a candidate, as he stated that he had no close relatives and his age appears to be right.

Again, what bothers me is that Jack never even considered any of these guys, especially Richard. Every time he would moan about the difficulties of finding a new identity, I would mutter “Richard! Richard!” between gritted teeth.