THE DEEP ONES: "Lorelei of the Red Mist" by Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury
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"Lorelei of the Red Mist" by Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury
Discussion begins February 16, 2022.
First published in the Summer 1946 issue of Planet Stories.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41196
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Swamps of Venus
Three Times Infinity
Sea Kings of Mars
The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 8, 1946
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63917/63917-h/63917-h.htm
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
No online audio versions found to date.
MISCELLANY
http://www.haffnerpress.com/book/lorelei-of-the-red-mist-planetary-romances/
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett
https://raybradbury.com/
https://tinyurl.com/mrx8hrzs
Discussion begins February 16, 2022.
First published in the Summer 1946 issue of Planet Stories.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41196
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Swamps of Venus
Three Times Infinity
Sea Kings of Mars
The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 8, 1946
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/63917/63917-h/63917-h.htm
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
No online audio versions found to date.
MISCELLANY
http://www.haffnerpress.com/book/lorelei-of-the-red-mist-planetary-romances/
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett
https://raybradbury.com/
https://tinyurl.com/mrx8hrzs
2paradoxosalpha
According to Brackett, she wrote the first part, and Bradbury just continued from where she had left off. So I'll be playing "spot the join" on this re-read.
3paradoxosalpha
Wow, we're really on a pulp sf kick this quarter. This story was the quintessence of planetary romance in my book. I sure prefer Brackett's Venus to Dyalhis' Venhez.
I couldn't see the join: Bradbury did a really good job of keeping to what Brackett had started! She gave Starke some funny early-20th-century US diction that faded toward the end, but I couldn't note any obvious pivot.
I was a little puzzled by what seemed to be Celtic and Scandinavian names and historical shadows. The Lorelei of the title is presumably Rann, as a temptress and sort-of mermaid.
It was a little hard for me to visualize or rationalize the weird sea, but that was one of the cool features that kept this story feeling otherworldly.
I couldn't see the join: Bradbury did a really good job of keeping to what Brackett had started! She gave Starke some funny early-20th-century US diction that faded toward the end, but I couldn't note any obvious pivot.
I was a little puzzled by what seemed to be Celtic and Scandinavian names and historical shadows. The Lorelei of the title is presumably Rann, as a temptress and sort-of mermaid.
It was a little hard for me to visualize or rationalize the weird sea, but that was one of the cool features that kept this story feeling otherworldly.
4AndreasJ
I couldn't spot the join either, and would easily have believed it was Brackett the whole way through.
The red sea is presumably the same as the one we encountered in Brackett's "Enchantress of Venus". There are other references, such as to Jekkara, that clearly set us in the same Solar System as the Eric John Stark stories. Checking the dates, though, this was published before any of those.
I guess Brackett really liked the sound of "Stark{e}", BTW? Two different protagonists sharing it, albeit with different spellings.
Speaking of names, Conan? Really? I did wonder, BTW, if it's a coincidence that Faolan's first insult is "dog" - Conan means "Little Dog". Anyway, it's not the only time Brackett gives Celtic names to extraterrestrials - there's also Ciara in "Black Amazon of Mars", frex. Did she expect readers wouldn't recognize them, using them simply as a ready-made source of coherent onomastics? Rann presumably draws hers from Rán, the Norse goddess of the sea.
The Gutenberg version had some apparent typos, perhaps most amusingly "erotic flowers" for what's presumably meant to be "exotic flowers".
The red sea is presumably the same as the one we encountered in Brackett's "Enchantress of Venus". There are other references, such as to Jekkara, that clearly set us in the same Solar System as the Eric John Stark stories. Checking the dates, though, this was published before any of those.
I guess Brackett really liked the sound of "Stark{e}", BTW? Two different protagonists sharing it, albeit with different spellings.
Speaking of names, Conan? Really? I did wonder, BTW, if it's a coincidence that Faolan's first insult is "dog" - Conan means "Little Dog". Anyway, it's not the only time Brackett gives Celtic names to extraterrestrials - there's also Ciara in "Black Amazon of Mars", frex. Did she expect readers wouldn't recognize them, using them simply as a ready-made source of coherent onomastics? Rann presumably draws hers from Rán, the Norse goddess of the sea.
The Gutenberg version had some apparent typos, perhaps most amusingly "erotic flowers" for what's presumably meant to be "exotic flowers".
5AndreasJ
Oh, speaking of the join, I spot this in the 2nd misc. link:
At that point when Hawks summoned her to his office, she had prepared half of the 20,000-worder “Lorelei of the Red Mist” for Planet Stories. She had written the line “Then it was gone, and the immediate menace of the foreground took all of Starke’s attention.” At the same time that she wanted to accept Hawk’s offer, the assigned story had to be finished. She had to make some kind of decision.
The dilemma was solved. Ray Bradbury was five years younger than Leigh Brackett. She was a kind of mentor and a sounding board for this aspiring writer. She turned to Bradbury and asked him to complete the story. He accepted the challenge.
Where Brackett had stopped writing the story, Bradbury jumped into medias res and continued with the following sentence, “He saw the flock, herded by more of the golden hounds.”
At that point when Hawks summoned her to his office, she had prepared half of the 20,000-worder “Lorelei of the Red Mist” for Planet Stories. She had written the line “Then it was gone, and the immediate menace of the foreground took all of Starke’s attention.” At the same time that she wanted to accept Hawk’s offer, the assigned story had to be finished. She had to make some kind of decision.
The dilemma was solved. Ray Bradbury was five years younger than Leigh Brackett. She was a kind of mentor and a sounding board for this aspiring writer. She turned to Bradbury and asked him to complete the story. He accepted the challenge.
Where Brackett had stopped writing the story, Bradbury jumped into medias res and continued with the following sentence, “He saw the flock, herded by more of the golden hounds.”
6paradoxosalpha
Well, nobody could have guessed it without the pointer.
7RandyStafford
Finally got to this one and enjoyed it.
I agree with everyone that Bradbury caught Brackett's voice. Given Brackett's multi-genre career, it's not surprising that this is a mix of crime story, western, and historical tale (the Viking and Irish inspirations) as well as planetary romance.
I thought the scenes in the Red Sea had some nice imagery.
My only complaint is that I found the action aboard Rann's ships when Conan shows up to be a trifle confusing.
Brian Stableford, in an essay on Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton, claims that a theme in Brackett tales is often the pointlessness of romantic dreams. You can see some of that here with Conan burying his loot with Starke's body, but I'd say the ending is still plenty romantic.
>5 AndreasJ: Thanks for that bit of info.
I can see, with the idea of an army of dead warriors slaying their kinsmen, why Michael Moorcock is a fan of Brackett's.
I agree with everyone that Bradbury caught Brackett's voice. Given Brackett's multi-genre career, it's not surprising that this is a mix of crime story, western, and historical tale (the Viking and Irish inspirations) as well as planetary romance.
I thought the scenes in the Red Sea had some nice imagery.
My only complaint is that I found the action aboard Rann's ships when Conan shows up to be a trifle confusing.
Brian Stableford, in an essay on Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton, claims that a theme in Brackett tales is often the pointlessness of romantic dreams. You can see some of that here with Conan burying his loot with Starke's body, but I'd say the ending is still plenty romantic.
>5 AndreasJ: Thanks for that bit of info.
I can see, with the idea of an army of dead warriors slaying their kinsmen, why Michael Moorcock is a fan of Brackett's.
