8FOLD/TEB: Annotations for the Compleat History of the Red Hart in Nine Acts

Andrew Perron pwerdna at gmail.com
Sun Mar 8 21:36:34 PDT 2015


On 3/8/2015 1:37 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
> On Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 12:43:41 PM UTC-5, Andrew Perron wrote:
>> On 3/1/2015 11:47 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
>> <snip>
>>   > (1) "the ruins of Las Vegas"
>>   > In Andrew Perron's story 'Open Letter' (MIGHTY MEDLEY # 1), which
>>   > introduced the Dyzen'thari, it was hinted that something had happened
>>   > to Las Vegas when the Dyzen'thari invaded our reality. Said invasion
>>   > was depicted in JOLT CITY # 22-23, and is dated as October of 2008.
>>   > RED HART begins five years later.
>>
>> Notably, it also implied that the unnamed letter-writer had done something
>> they'd rather not have.
>
>Which we'll see, albeit obliquely-- we'll know that /something/ happened,
 > and there will be consequences of that something-- in the final issue of
 > JOLT CITY. Careful readers of #22 can probably guess what one of those
 > consequences are (though, please, no guessing in public).

Ooooh, I know - they summon Spider-Man and the copyright shield of RACC scoops 
the entire city out of reality! :D

(Actually, man, that sounds like a cool climax for an LNH story. Um... forget 
you read this. <.< >.>)

>>   > (3) "deadly Venus, wand'ring Mars"
>>   > This is of course a reference to the ORPHANS OF MARS corner of the
>>   > Eightfold Universe, in which Venus is home to dread and unspeakable
>>   > horrors.
>>
>> Dread and unspeakable horrors which are, apparently, tens of millions of years
>> old at *least*.
>
> They don't call 'em the Great Old Ones for nothin'.

The Before Earth Guys!

>>   > As hard as "normal" meter was, it was much harder with the sonnets, of
>>   > which this was the first. Octonion's argument here is that
>>   > civilization and technology is more beautiful than nature-- that not
>>   > being able to see the stars at night due to urban growth is a small
>>   > price to pay.
>>
>> Interesting, but I REALLY FRIKKIN DISAGREE UGH. >:/ Light pollution *frothing
>> rage*
>
> I disagree with a lot of what the math-gods do and say in this story. :-)

I mean, trying to overwrite the free will of everyone in the universe is *one* 
thing, but LIGHT POLLUTION GRAAAA

>>   > The cosmic
>>   > dam was built-- probably by Nox, the absolute oldest survivor of the
>>   > various pantheons we encounter-- to contain it because it cannot
>>   > itself be destroyed.
>>
>> Hm! I didn't see her as a builder, but that might make sense...
>
> Mother = creator, protector

Eeeeeenh. ^^;

>>   > He didn't have a whole lot of
>>   > personality there, but when we did the never-released "Human Zeppelin"
>>   > radio program, he became very hokey and square-jawed.
>>
>> WHY NEVER. ;.;
>
>Recording equipment was substandard; putting in the proper sound effects
 > would have been a bear; computer crashed, lost the files.

Eesh, gotcha. x-x

>>   > One of the original Wonders, Pharos, was Jolt City's first costumed
>>   > hero. His lair was underneath a church, and now serves as the Green
>>   > Knight's hideout, the Knight's Den.
>>
>> Oh nice!
>
>And we're actually going to find out more about Pharos in JOLT CITY # 23,
 > as luck would have it.

Awesome.

>>   > She unfortunately doesn't actually appear in
>>   > these pages; I could never quite find an excuse to work her in.
>>
>> It happens. I'm sure the More Dr. Fay League is working behind the scenes as
>> we speak.
>
> WE ARE LEGION

:D :D :D

>>   > He persists in saying that the Never-Lord is dead, and
>>   > wondering how he can have the Never-Lord's powers-- but I think he's
>>   > starting to become aware of what's really going on, or at least is
>>   > afraid of it.
>>
>> I was wondering if he actually did.
>
>Coming back to the stage play conceit, I think it's also a matter of how
 > the actor might approach the role, the same way in which there are dozens
 > of equally valid Hamlets.

That's quite true!

>> (Which, I guess, means that I'm on Claremont's side re: Galactus. I'm okay
>> with that.)
>
>Well, the salient thing for me is the concept of Galactus as being a dude
 > that needs to eat-- he has a biological imperative, and I don't think
 > taking lives for sustenance is an inherently immoral thing-- in fact, it
 > might be one of the only two truly justifiable reason to take a life. It's
 > not like Galactus has an alternate source of energy-- he can only eat
 > planets. I'm certainly fine with everybody in the universe getting together
 > and saying, you know what, we need to take out Galactus to preserve
 > ourselves-- preserving life being the other moral reason to take a life, if
 > only as a last resort.

Pretty much. And the justification for not doing so summed up to "because 
cosmic reasons".

>Interestingly, according to the Rachel & Miles podcast episode where they
 > interviewed Kurt Busiek, the destruction of the D'Bari was something that
 > /Byrne/ added to the story-- it was nowhere in the plot, and then Claremont
 > got the pages back and just ran with it-- I'm sure much to his chagrin once
 > Shooter got involved.

Oh, yeah! I've been going through their archives, and that's *fascinating*. 
But appropriate, I think, for both creators.

In the Dark Phoenix Saga specifically, I don't think it was *necessary* to do 
that, but it gave the ethical stakes a different flavor than if they hadn't - 
sort of like the stage versus the movie versions of Little Shop of Horrors. 
(And similarly, Claremont's original planned ending makes more sense without it.)

>> Incidentally, I've ranted before about blowing up planets for shock value, but
>> this didn't feel like that - it felt like what all those stories are *trying*
>> to do, in terms of showing scope and scale. So much so, in fact, that I didn't
>> even think about that aspect until just now.
>
> Thank you very kindly. That's high praise indeed.

It's thoroughly deserved.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, STARSPLODE



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