THE DEEP ONES: "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" by Roger Zelazny

"24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" by Roger Zelazny

Discussion begins February 25.

First published in the July 1985 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.



ONLINE VERSIONS

No legal online versions found to date.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41688

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Cthulhu 2000
Frost & Fire
Nine Black Doves

MISCELLANY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny
http://tinyurl.com/ltas2xs
http://www.georgerrmartin.com/about-george/friends/in-memoriam-roger-zelazny/
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/z/roger-zelazny/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQ4wKLfYbc
http://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2013-2/issue-27-october-2013/
http://tinyurl.com/oug5c2t

Cthulhu 2000 for me.

I read this when a subscriber to Asimov's, back in High School, don't recall anything but the title. I'd probably not read much if any HPL by that point, but think I followed up with some more Zelazny. Wish I'd saved my copies but I'm too much of a hoarder as it is, so probably just as well I didn't.

>3 elenchus:

I too had this issue of Asimov's as part of my subscription back then! It's long gone now, and I don't even remember if I read the Zelazny story. I'll have to see how familiar it seems on this pass -- although I also have it in Cthulhu 2000 and might have read it there any time in the last 20 years.

Cthulhu 2000 for me.

It took me a while to get the rhythm of the story, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I wonder how much Zelazny might have been influenced by William Gibson's novel Neuromancer which had been published the year before. The two mid-eighties tales are pretty prescient as far as the "Net" goes. At one point I was thinking of Lafcadio Hearn only to see his name referenced several paragraphs later. Lovecraft's ideas are used sparingly and in just the right spots that make them resonate.

R'lyeh and the Old Ones as part of the many literary and mythical allusions the narrator is fond of, here to suggest a new cult dawning. The appearance of the "priests", at the very least warrior monks, appearing at the climax seal that idea.

Like Cthulhu, Kit may lay dreaming, but he may interfere in the world -- if only out of sentiment and habit.

The ending evoked, this time for me (this may be my third reading of the story), Michael Shea's "The Autopsy" with a narrator closing a pathway to alien intrusion into the world by their suicide.

>6 semdetenebre: I think this was Zelazny's attempt to do cyberpunk. On my first reading, in 1991, I thought he got the cyberpunk tone all wrong with the scene of Kit's "translation", but my 2015 self didn't mind.

In some ways, this story touches on other Zelazny tales: My Name Is Legion (computer networks and the importance of conscience and guilt) and "Frost and Fire" (old lovers carrying on their feud in a cyberworld).

>6 semdetenebre:

I'm tempted to wonder if Roger Zelazny influenced William Gibson in some way. I read Roadmarks and Eye of Cat when they were first published as UK paperbacks, and I read Gibson's story "Burning Chrome" whine was published in Omni (I don't know why, aged 14, I was buying Omni!). Reading "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" reminded me that I'd bracketed the two authors together in my mind - not in any formal literary criticism sense, just a vague "this is the sort of thing I like and would like to see more of" feeling. I think, at the time I would have been rather resistant to elements of the Mythos coming in to what seemed fresh and new (I should, quickly, point out that I'd read no Lovecraft at this point and my views were picked up second hand from reference works like The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction and late 70's/early '80s horror paperback covers. I hadn't quite realised how much of the Mythos had been incorporated into the US comics I's been reading since the early 70s.)

It's the first time I've read this particular Roger Zelazny story, and my sensibilities have changed a bit in the last three decades. I'm less impressed by Mari's erudition than I would have been aged 17 or 18. Do all the literary, philosophical, etc. references make the narrator's inner life richer and more believable, or the world of the story a dense palimpsest of alternative and differing meanings, or on the other hand is it writerly musing disguised as tough-guy (or here, gal) existentialism?

Unfortunately, reading the story in Cthulhu 2000 denied the appearance of the Innsmouth-esque monks the element of surprise. I don't know how I would have reacted coming to this cold, whether I would have been satisfied with the use of the Mythos in this story, or even worked out why it was used. Jim Turner's introduction gave an answer before I'd even begun to read the story. I really need to start treating Introductions as Afterwords, I think.

Despite these minor doubts and (as a reader) missteps, I enjoyed this one, more for the nostalgia of revisiting early 80's Zelazny and early sort-of cyberpunk than as a Mythos or weird tale, though.

To me, this was quite reminiscent of other Zelazny work: the occult delirium of The Dream Master and the enigmatic threats of the Amber books. The Yog-Sothothery was pretty marginal to the tale itself, which I enjoyed well enough.

>7 RandyStafford:

"The Autopsy": yes indeed.

>8 housefulofpaper:

I'm tempted to wonder if Roger Zelazny influenced William Gibson in some way

That could well be. I came to Zelazny via the Amber series (paradoxosalpha nails it with "enigmatic threats") and Creatures of Light and Darkness, which are more in the way of traditional fantasy/SF than cyberpunk. I'd like to read more of his work in that vein, though, if there is any - he does it quite well here!

>8 housefulofpaper: I think the first time I read this story, in Frost and Fire, I may have missed the Mythos reference all together but still liked the tale.

The commonality between Gibson and Zelazny may be the noir aspect. Specifically, I believe both were influenced by Raymond Chandler. I know Zelazny was influenced by Chandler. I suspect Gibson was too.

>11 RandyStafford:

You could well be right. I think reading Gibson's early stuff indirectly lead me to Chandler. (Although, a couple of neurons have just sparked in my old brain, and reminded me that it was Bladerunner making the connection between noir and cyberpunk overt, back in 1982).

Sorry to resurrect an old thread... I have a question about the version of this story that is in Cthulhu 2000...

Does it include the illustrations of Hokusai's woodcuts, or is it text-only? I'm considering buying it in hardback but, at ~$30.00 I'm only interested if Zelazny's story is illustrated. Otherwise, I'll likely go for the paperback at half the price.

Thanks in advance!

No illustrations.

>14 RandyStafford: Ah, ok. Thanks very much. I've just researched a bit more and found that the version in Nine Black Doves includes Hokusai's artwork.

Definitely going to read this (I've read Neuromancer and am a Blade Runner fan), but one question given the title. Is Hokusai a character or is this a translation of sorts?

*Extra note for fun! Apparently Gibson went to see Blade Runner but left the theater midway through as he was writing Neuromancer at the time and the movie looked way too much like the inside of his head.

>16 WeeTurtle: No, the story is set, as I recall, in the near future, and Hokusai doesn't show up.