Raygun Gothic.

During the high point of the Downes Age, they put Ming the Merciless in charge of designing California gas stations. Favoring the architecture of his native Mongo, he cruised up and down the coast erecting raygun emplacements in white stucco. Lots of them featured superfluous central towers ringed with those strange radiator flanges that were a signature motif of the style and which made them look as though they might generate potent bursts of raw technological enthusiasm if you could only find the switch that turned them on.

William Gibson, The Gernsback Continuum

I lost it recently - which is probably just as well, under the circumstances.  No, it wasn't my cool, or my peace of mind, or my faith in humanity (sad to say, long gone) but rather an eBay™ auction for a Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol, model number XZ-38 to be specific. 

I've made cautious forays into genre collecting with my Major Matt Mason purchases, but somehow the idea of owning an 78-year-old ray gun takes it to a different level in my mind.  To be truthful, the idea of spending over $150 on a rusted child's toy also indicates a different level to me, which is probably why I stopped there and let the next bidder take it for only eight dollars (and fifty cents) more.

The XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol, produced by Daisy Manufacturing in 1935, was the follow-up to the astonishingly popular XZ-31 Rocket Gun* of the previous year, which had resulted in lineups of over 2,000 eager buyers at Macy's in New York when it was released.

The arsenal of Buck Rogers weaponry - there was also an X-35 "Wilma Deering" pistol and the XZ-44 Liquid Helium Water Pistol - is the first big science fiction spinoff merchandising success, reflecting the popularity of the Buck Rogers comic strip which was introduced in January of 1929.  The daily strip was based on Armageddon 2419 A.D., a short story by Philip Francis Nowlan which was published in the August 1928 edition of Amazing Stories, the classic Hugo Gernsback "scientifiction" magazine.

The eBay™ seller aptly described the XZ-38 as "Machine Age Toy Art", which is an accurate description of the Art Deco inspired design aesthetic introduced to the world by Buck Rogers and his spiritual partner (and competitor) Flash Gordon in their comic strip and movie appearances during the 1930s and 40s.

(I've always felt that the great failing of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series with Gil Gerard was that its art direction was based more in the 1980s than the 1930s or the 2400s, whereas the ongoing cult popularity of the 1980 Flash Gordon film adaptation owes a strong debt to the faithfulness with which it reproduced comic artist Alex Raymond's distinctive illustrations.)

So this time I regretfully decided to pass on the opportunity to own a genuine piece of geek history - but, who knows?  Maybe next time I'll be up against someone whose mental rusted-toy-purchase governor is set twenty dollars lower than mine.

- Sid

* My apologies to everyone who thought that it would be the follow-up to the XZ-37.

 

As opposed to nerd glaze.

From: Sid Plested
Sent: April-25-13 8:33 AM
To: Wendy
Subject: Jane Lui
Jane Lui's web site is www.janelui.com – sometimes it’s not rocket science – and right on her front page is a link to a mashup video with Felicia Day.  (If you don’t know who Felicia Day is, sadly, you are experiencing geek fail.)
- Sid

Although I had to lead with the Felicia Day picture for the sake of nerd glaze (or geek fail, as the case may be), it is completely necessary to recognize Jane Lui herself: talented musician, passionate performer, and quirky sound effect guru.

- Sid 

"In the morning, she had forgotten."

I’m currently re-reading Dan Simmon's superb 1989 novel, Hyperion.  Simmons is a talented and versatile author whose work includes high concept SF like the Hyperion series and Ilium/Olympos cycle, horror novels like Carrion Comfort and The Children of the Night, and historical/speculative works like Drood.

Hyperion takes its structure from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, where each of the six major characters tells their tale to their fellow pilgrims. In this case, the pilgrims are making their way to the enigmatic Time Tombs on the distant planet Hyperion, where they hope to find the metallic Shrike, an anthropomorphic killing machine that will grant one of them a wish, and slay the rest. 

One of the pilgrims plans to ask that his daughter be healed - while doing archeological research in the Time Tombs, she has been afflicted with a terrible punishment, growing younger and younger each day, now with only a few days remaining until her life ends, ironically, by reaching its beginning.

I’m struck by the poignancy which Simmons gives to the situation through his description of the widowed father's reactions to the plight of his daughter as she grows younger and younger, losing her intellect and her memories one day at a time, bewildered and lost, up until the point where she says her last word: "Mamma".

For people like myself who have no children, it would be difficult to imagine how such a situation would feel, but Simmons creates a believable and tragic window into the gradual loss of a daughter.  It is made even more affecting by the father's inability to share his anguish with his daughter - because, if he does, she will simply forget.

- Sid

P.S. In passing, there is a marvelous wistful moment of whimsy at the end of Hyperion. It was such a perfect non-conclusion to the story that I was almost sorry that there was a sequel.