come quick! they’re everywhere [ the white notebooks #13 ] Kershed I WAS INCLINED HERE to begin with a recap of recent called ‘the threshold’, which is that barrier that prevents reading, but basically that has been tramlined, summed up an author’s bibliography from becoming unnecessarily by the above single word headline, suitably in bold type. extensive when they have actually contributed little to My more regular reading about Thailand and Asian spec- speculative fiction: to get an idea of this, scroll to the ulative fiction has been diverted into a very British cul-de- bottom of any bibliography page and see how much non- sac these last four months after an engaging encounter genre work is included there. For current examples, Robert with the writings of the prolific Gerald Kersh (1911–1968). Silverberg’s [3] non-genre work appears to be more My first Kersh happened around ten years ago, extensively researched than Isaac Asimov’s [4]. Then go see with the 1941 short story ‘Frozen Beauty’ in Mike Ashley’s the extent of Ian Fleming’s [5] spec-fic output, and see how The Best of British SF 1 (1977). It didn’t make much of an many James Bond books we list (clue: none). It’s a vague, impression, and he remained pretty much forgotten by me movable feast but ‘the threshold’ is actually a necessity, and until June this year when I encountered his 1953 novelette authors who are ‘above the threshold’ are generally ‘Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?’ in Damon decided upon by editorial consensus. I gained the Knight’s 1968 anthology 100 Years of Science Fiction. It was agreement of several other editors that Gerald Kersh the writing of this (only slightly) bizarre tale that made me deserves to be considered as ‘above the threshold’, with a sit up and take notice, and checking out his ISFDB page more complete bibliography that includes his non-genre [1] I was inevitably led to Harlan Ellison’s ‘Kersh site’ [2], work. For comparison, think of Kurt Vonnegut [6]. in which Ellison® has laid out a possibly complete So to expand Kersh’s bibliography means also, bibliography of all Kersh’s writing including his necessarily, to explore it. Kersh had twenty-one collections journalism, with the necessary coda that there may indeed of short stories and twenty-one novels, only one of which be more stuff undiscovered and currently lost to history. was science fiction (The Secret Masters, aka. The Great Ellison’s Kersh’s bibliography first appeared on 10 Wash). His speculative output in short stories fared much February 1999, and as I made note of in the ISFDB header, better, with several collections (a few posthumous) it appears not to have been updated since then. comprising entirely of horror, science fiction and fantasy. I’ve since been going over Ellison’s Kersh Many of his other collections are sprinkled with bibliography with the proverbial fine-toothed comb, speculative content amid the more everyday fiction. Even because there is so much information there of use to the his mildly famous short fiction series on the great criminal ISFDB where our own Kersh biblio, as I discovered, was Karmesin has a couple of ghost stories. actually sorely lacking. We have a thing at the ISFDB In the last few months I’ve read five of the come quick! they’re everywhere [ the white notebooks #13 ] August 2561 / 2018 a print perzine for limited distribution, available for ‘the usual’ also at efanzines.com. email: [email protected] 136/200 Emerald Hill Village, Soi 6, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan 77110, Thailand set in 9/12 Didot and Letter Gothic [ 1 ] collections that are available as e-books, but I still have essays, often decades old and so far outside of Ellison’s many more to go. Only a scant few of the combined forty- own sphere of contact? No, I suspect he came by Kersh’s two titles he produced are available as actual books own records, perhaps acquired some years after Kersh currently in print, several in Faber and Faber’s eclectic died in November 1968, and the highly useful bibliography ‘Faber Finds’ series, so the rest will have to be found on he presents on his own website (in a section known widely Amazon, AbeBooks or eBay. His bibliography at the as “the Kersh site”) is simply a result of his distillation of ISFDB is now twice as long as when I first looked at it, Kersh’s own record-keeping. Looking at the finer details of and there is still a long distance to be covered. the bibliography, it’s very hard to see it any other way. I’ve found Kersh to be an enjoyable writer. His Nevertheless I’ve discovered it is also riddled with imagination is prodigious, his writing bold and confident if errors that are not backed up by other sources (such as a little lacking in finesse, although he does have a Phil Stephensen-Payne’s extensive and detailed Galactic particularly good turn of phrase now and then. His Central [7]). Not all of the errors can be explained away as preoccupations are very much within the ‘low’ end of merely typographic or by Ellison’s strict adherence to the society: rough people, criminal behaviour, grubby city information’s poor presentation, which is basic to say the streets, coarse language, wars, deceit and a sizeable amount least. If any incorrect information does come to us via the of desperation. His speculative fiction also has a certain website then these errors could well be Kersh’s own. muscular charm about it, as if it was something he enjoyed I think the time for a better, updated presentation writing but knew he would never be up there with the of Kersh’s bibliography is overdue – twenty years is too greats. His speculative ideas are generally simple and long a duration to pass without a single recorded update. unrefined, but they work. Some of his story endings are Much (although not all) of this information is useful to the abrupt and don’t really satisfy, but he is also the kind of purpose of the ISFDB, but while making it more widely writer you would never imagine having writer’s block: he’d available is certainly good work, I wonder if people would ignore any criticism and evade the self-doubt by simply not also want to see the complete bibliography (one that getting on with the next story. includes his journalism) presented in a more readable way. Kersh was Harlan Ellison’s favourite writer, and Maybe I should think about working on that too. it’s easy to see why as their championing of the underdog But that’s a project for the future – it’s not as if Mr. Kersh is consistent. I imagine Ellison found a reflection of his hasn’t given me enough to be getting on with already. own abrasiveness in Kersh’s uncompromising outlook and directness as a writer. I’ve also wondered how Ellison [1] http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1060 came to present this trove of bibliographic information. [2] http://www.harlanellison.com/kersh He makes it look like it’s all his own work and alludes to [3] http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?54 “six years of research”, but what far distant avenues on the [4] http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?5 other side of the Atlantic would he have had to pursue to [5] http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?31742 gain so much detailed bibliographic information on all [6] http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?62 those fiction sales, translations and all those newspaper [7] http://www.philsp.com k Biopics Kafka 1991, Steven Soderbergh Yes, it’s a stretch to call this a biopic, but then Soderbergh has always played fast and loose with his material – Solaris being another case, a movie that I actually liked more than the Tarkovsky original (which puts me in a minority of 1). Kafka is an original story set in Kafka’s own universe of chronic self-doubt, a distant relationship with his father, the frustrations of his office job, the personal perils of writing – and overseeing everything, an imposing and impenetrable Castle. Except that with the help of a rebel group of dissidents opposed to the status quo in this unnamed city, Kafka does breach the Castle and learn the inner workings and meaning behind his dystopian society. I’d say it’s a journey worth taking, if only to see the wonderful performance of Armin Mueller-Stahl as detective Grubach; Ian Holm provides some comic relief and Jeremy Irons makes a good Kafka, although the secret of the Castle somehow does not really fit with everything else. But this is still an interesting (and fun) creative diversion from Kafka’s true story. [ 2 ] Dystopia Mon Amour Beyond Brave New World: Four More British Dystopias Lucky residents of Happyville™ know dystopias are all the certainly straightened him out on that score, or at least rage these days, and nowhere more so than in the deity- tried to. But of course there have been more successful blessed United States of America [1]. It is my belief that British dystopias that have both feet firmly planted on the American alternatives to their perfectly utopian existence correct side of the fence: the dark side, the side that have mostly been written – with the obvious exception of doesn’t also try to kid its imaginary citizens that in some works by that degenerate socialist scribbler Norman insincere Harold Macmillan sense they’ve never had it so Spinrad [2] – so that readers can feel superior to the poor good, and are in fact living in a benign utopia the way unfortunates forced to exist in such dreadfully depressing Huxley tried it on with his readers.