Charles Smyth

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@luckyprimate8287 6 күн бұрын

Thank you for sharing this! My favorite author.

@jeff_r517 2 ай бұрын

This was a great movie. I can see why they used Mary Orr's story. Very engaging!

@charlessmyth 2 ай бұрын

It can be interesting to go back to the origin, to appreciate the scope of the adaptation into a movie. The excellent movie, Bringing up Baby, was a lot of work for Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde to adapt the short story into a screenplay for what was a box office bomb, at the time of its release. Time has been kind :-)

@jeff_r517 2 ай бұрын

@@charlessmyth I’ll have to look that story up too. Thank you!

@RSEFX 2 ай бұрын

I love the fact that you did a reading of the FULL book. A very unique and rich tale. Rich with IDEAS that lead down some pretty interesting, seldom trod paths for this kind of subject matter.

@charlessmyth 2 ай бұрын

It was pretty accessible for the topic. Other than the shorter and less mysterious magazine version that differs with its more explicit setup, occasional switches in viewpoint and a more explicit ending, I don't know of an abridged version of the book. Thanks for the appreciation:- )

@RSEFX 2 ай бұрын

@@charlessmyth The distinction I was trying to make (in an admittedly indistinct way) ws between the book and the magazine version of same story. There is an audiobook of the latter on YT, which I find far less interesting than the book itself. That's why I am glad the BOOK version exists. My bad for not making that clearer.

@glenrich-uu9zr 3 ай бұрын

The vulnerability of this novel, no further descriptions about the background of the "Weapon Shop". Unless they were aliens, the science level higher so much than The Queen' regime. Like they can send a man to Mars in 3 hours, but people need 3 weeks by Earth spaceship.

@charlessmyth 3 ай бұрын

I haven't read much of it, but the novel "The Weapon Makers" may address some of these issues. For "The Weapon Makers" there is the novel version and the longer Astounding magazine version: Astounding Science Fiction, February, March and April, 1943. You can find both options at Internet Archive

@glenrich-uu9zr 3 ай бұрын

@@charlessmyth The idea about justice, human integrity is great. Against an inappropriate system is the precious value of modern humanity. But I am so amazing about the huge gap of technology of both sides. Thanks a lot of your recommendations! I will read it.

@philippeforest8502 6 ай бұрын

Amazing writer ! He truly was a "Universe Maker" . Merci pour cette entrevue. (Avril 2024, Témiscouata, Québec, Canada )

@TheCrossroads533 6 ай бұрын

Among the top three of the best generation starship stories, alongside "Orphans of the Sky" (Heinlein) and "Aurora" (Robinson).

@charlessmyth 6 ай бұрын

He handles it deftly enough :-)

@Hour25-f6l 6 ай бұрын

How long did probalities last on kpfa?

@charlessmyth 6 ай бұрын

You'd need to ask KPFA about that :-)

@adamhamlett6417 6 ай бұрын

I had a collection of science fiction books as a kid, this story was in a compilation of short stories. Was one the very first stories that made reading fun for me.

@charlessmyth 6 ай бұрын

It's a good little read. The part close to the end where they take time for an extended trip, is similar to a story by John W. Campbell that I've forgotten the name of :-)

@gobzdzilla 7 ай бұрын

This is actually really fucking good.

@charlessmyth 7 ай бұрын

It's a solid thought experiment of a straight-up Sci-Fi story., but not as attractive to Sci-Fi fans as The Monster :-)

@gobzdzilla 7 ай бұрын

@@charlessmyth it's got some pretty good concepts, but for a 80 year old story it's really good.

@Mr.Westery 7 ай бұрын

I know you're a real-life crime documentary enthusiast. I invite you to watch the latest documentary I shared. Would you like to share your thoughts?

@charlessmyth 7 ай бұрын

I'll take a look at that. It is often a surprise that true crime is so much stranger than fiction that it would be dismissed as too daft for fiction :-)

@mr.midnight1997 7 ай бұрын

I only know about Slan because a character from berserk is also named Slan.

@danielwilliamson6180 7 ай бұрын

I own the novelization.

@charlessmyth 7 ай бұрын

To what extent

@danielwilliamson6180 7 ай бұрын

@@charlessmyth I bought it at a secondhand bookshop years ago.

@havocmaverick 8 ай бұрын

Nice to know. I just bought all the magazines that have dune stories in them. About 1000 dollars and 17 issues. I plan on reading them sometime in the future.

@charlessmyth 8 ай бұрын

$1,000. You're a major fan :-)

@havocmaverick 8 ай бұрын

Good work are you going to read the prophet of dune?

@charlessmyth 8 ай бұрын

I had planned to read more of Dune, from the magazine instalments. But it looks to me that the novel was written and then published as magazine instalments before the novel got published by Chilton/Greenberg. The differences are slight. Also, there is a version of the complete audiobook as read by George Guidall from a few years ago. Nice job. So there was no real point for me to add to the record :-)

@LuciFeric137 9 ай бұрын

Excellent. Another variation on Van Vogt's "superman" theme.

@LuciFeric137 11 ай бұрын

E. Mayne Hull was a very interesting author. "The Winged Man" is excellent if you can find it.

@charlessmyth 11 ай бұрын

Internet Archive have copies along with other more obscure titles :-) archive.org/details/wingedman00vanv

@colinellesmere 11 ай бұрын

I am wondering about your accent and where its from? There is a hint of northern Irish but I dont think its from there. Curious to know? But for the record your narration is really good. Nice intonation. Can distinguish the voices. No jarring. What else do you narrate?

@charlessmyth 11 ай бұрын

All the way from Belfast, Northern Ireland :-) More material: www.youtube.com/@charlessmyth

@mailfraudvoter6620 Жыл бұрын

Heard of this new thing called a treadmill 🏃‍♂️ 😂😂😂😂😂

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I've got a Peloton on order, to be sure I get a good one. Maybe you network ?? :-)

@mailfraudvoter6620 Жыл бұрын

Is this a story about your epic Trump butthurt??? 😂

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your interest. Keep listening :-)

@garybernstein3527 Жыл бұрын

the introductory commentary implies that Van Vogt began writing for s Asounding science fiction in the 1940s instead of 1938

@garybernstein3527 Жыл бұрын

the commentary suggests that then volt wrote influenced by General semantics in the 1950s after he became interested in dianetics whereas in fact his writing was influenced by General semantics in the 1940s before 1945

@colinellesmere Жыл бұрын

You read well. Great material. But please put numbers to the videos. There is no way of knowing which comes first. Your intro says four part but there are five videos. Again great work.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I do this now to keep the uploads easier to follow :-) For these five videos, the date of the upload is a way to keep track.

@colinellesmere Жыл бұрын

Just noticed from a comment I should start with this. Why not number the videos 1. 2. 3 etc. and leave the titles in as well.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

They're stand alone stories and the comment related to how they related to the fix-up novel: The Weapon Shops of Isher :-) The Seesaw does have more to its ending than that which was incorporated into TWSOI.

@paulmurphy42 Жыл бұрын

February 23rd 1980 radio show Probabilities on KPFA

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

I'm enjoying these. A.A. Van Vogt is bit obscure these days but I've always loved his stories.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

Seldom published nowadays, but there's the most of his output available as used books :-)

@paradox_1729 Жыл бұрын

Thank you. This was a favourite of mine and probably shaped a lot of me later in life.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

There are stories that can have that effect :-) Check out some of the others that I recorded by this author.

@txhobtolwmtiam3389 Жыл бұрын

His you have any other

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I expect to have the short story, Far Centaurus ready for tomorrow. I'll keep you posted :-) In the meantime, to see what else is available: www.youtube.com/@charlessmyth

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

I love this story; it's a classic,

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

Done.

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

Done.

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

Done.

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

A good reading, thank you.

@tragicslip Жыл бұрын

cheers

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

As with The Weapons Shop, the earlier chapters all seem to be missing ?

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

They look to be present to me. Load the page that lists all of the files :-) www.youtube.com/@charlessmyth/videos

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth Thank you, I've found them now. Looking forward to this and to SLAN.

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

Where are chapters 1-5 ? Just finished, The Weapons Shop, Iand we enjoyed it,) but can't find the missing chapters.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

This should be it :-) studio.kzbin.info4Sl4seDSUn8/edit

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

We've got chapters 6-11 then chapters 11-15 then we've got, "THE WEAPON SHOP is the second of the short stories that became incorporated into the "fix-up" novel The Weapon Shops of Isher,." I can't honestly make head nor tail of it.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

The fix-up novel, The Weapon Shops of Isher, takes the form of a narrative that is bookended by The Seesaw and crosscuts between the Weapon Shop and the Weapon Shops of Isher: It opens with The Seesaw up until the main character is returned to his own time. After that, it proceeds with the Weapon Shop and Fara Carke until such times as he loses ownership of his workshop and contemplates suicide. Then it continues with Cale Clarke from the Weapon shops of Isher, and, with adjustments to the timing to account for the events that apply to Cale Clarke, crosscuts between those two stories until the close of the Weapon Shops of Isher and that which applies to Fara Clarke. The fix up ends with the main character from The Seesaw, bouncing around through time, until he comes to rest, and, as his only way of escape, ignites the Big Bang. Simple enough :-)

@Eris123451 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth Thank you for the feedback, I read this years ago and I don't remember it being so complicated; I was having considerable trouble making sense of the right sequence to listen to the various episodes in A clear listening order,(such as the one you've just loosely provided,) would be of enormous help. We've just started listening to The Weapons Shop, although it sounds as if the Seesaw Might really be the first story in the arc ? Anyway it's clear and articulate reading and we're very much enjoying listening to it, thank you.

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

Thank you so very much , my favourite story , by this master writer. And brilliantly narrated. Thanks again!!!

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

It took longer than expected :-) Good to know you liked it. Have The Human Operators by van Vogt and Harlan Ellison (1971) in preparation

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth thank you

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

I just wondered if you thought about the story called Juggernaut. It has a very contemporary theme to it. And possibly be his most pertinent subject

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

This is one of my favourites thank you for posting. Is “The Monster “available anywhere??

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I wondered about this as part of the mashup that became the novel, The Weapon Shops of Isher. I have the text for The Monster short. I'll try to get a reading posted for this weekend, as it's just shy of 7,000 words. You might like the lengthy start to Tripoint that I posted. Van was a fan of C. J. Cherryh.

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth that would be brilliant, thank you . The Monster is one of those tales that has stuck with me since I first read it in the 70s. I must have re-read about 50 times, a true classic. I will try the C J Cherryh book. Once again thank you!

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

@@colintwyman956 The Monster has gone live. Enjoy :-)

@colintwyman956 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth that’s brilliant thank you so very much.

@joebrooks4448 Жыл бұрын

Black Destroyer is one of the best SF short stories of all time. Just my opinion.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I like it as much as Killdozer that came after it :-)

@joebrooks4448 Жыл бұрын

A. E. Van Vogt certainly did develop the final prophetic and genius novel over years in the 1940s. Through the below mentioned short stories and a few others not integrated into the book, that do not directly relate to the Weapon Shops story timeline. This is the original short story that lays the foundation for the final product. A 20 minute read that contains all of the basic elements of the novel. The novel expands on certain cultural aspects that are too complex for a short story. "Look!" Fara said hoarsely. He pointed with rigid arm and finger at a sign that glowed in the night, a sign that read: FINE WEAPONS THE RIGHT TO BUY WEAPONS IS THE RIGHT TO BE FREE Fara had a strange, empty feeling as he stared at the blazing sign. He saw that other villagers were gathering. He said finally, huskily: "I’ve heard of these shops. They’re places of infamy, against which the government of the empress will act one of these days. They’re built in hidden factories, and then transported whole to towns like ours and set up in gross defiance of property rights. That one wasn’t there an hour ago." www.prosperosisle.org/spip.php?article880

@matthewvanderford1275 Жыл бұрын

I didn't want this to end. I greatly appreciate you reading this, I've enjoyed it for a few days now. Thanks for sharing.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

One of the best :-)

@chromabotia Жыл бұрын

Ah, A.E. van Vogt I love this writer! I started reading this Golden Age writer in 1968. You may deduce that I have seen many years. I loved the Weapon Shops of Isher,, The House that Stood Still, The War with the Rull and The Darkness on Diamondia. I was confused by the Darkness on Diamondia so I wrote him in care of his publisher. Within two weeks I received from Van a business sized envelope with his home address in Hollywood. He used a colorful abstract stationary penned in a expressive script. Van explained that in this novel he was exploring General Semantics and Game Theory. Van was a kind man and I thank him very much! Yes, I still have that letter in my desk drawer ~ PS ~ Thanks for posting!

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

While I read the first chapter of The War Against the Rull (which I have yet to read beyond chapter 1 :-), I thought that this may have been an inspiration for a similar alien creature that is a major feature/character of Forty Thousand in Gehenna (1983) by C. J. Cherryh. Bundled as a republished combo along with Merchanter's Luck. According to an interview with Charles Platt for Dream Makers. . . Vol 01 (1983), van was a fan of "the great" C. J. Cherryh. From that interview, I read that van lived on Belden Drive L.A. The best I could figure from the description was that van lived about 8-miles from Harlan Ellison's Lost Aztec Temple of Mars, which, as per the Estate, is under the administration of Mr. Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski. If you can let me have the address, I would appreciate it, for to confirm the accuracy of my detective work, via Google Earth and Street View :-)

@joebrooks4448 Жыл бұрын

I never had enough sense to go to his Museum out in California. He and Forrest J. Ackerman built it, it seems.

@MrKylePopovich Жыл бұрын

2:22 Who is the interviewer? and what is the date of this recording of Van Vogt? Sometime before 2000, surely... thanks!

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I think it's from 1976, or thereabouts :-) The website from where this came, as cited, may have more details.

@joebrooks4448 Жыл бұрын

February 1980

@RSEFX Жыл бұрын

Well, so mice to hear this, as someone who has somehow gotten involved in so many ALIEN-related things, (including effects for ALIENS)...And, as well, as a film historian with a lot of links to IT. AND, also with COMPUTERWORLD's script, which I still have. Some very thoughtful words here from Mr. Van Vogt. Thanks for sharing.

@ludicrous6380 Жыл бұрын

I've always loved this story along with most of A E Van Vogt's books. I still search second hand book shops for the books I don't have. Nothing wrong with the accent either.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

Thanks for that. I ought to have left it for a couple of weeks for to rest my throat after the read of The Seesaw :-)

@Denis-pj6zg Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for this post. I am a dedicated fan of A.E. van Vogt for decades and have never heard his voice.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

There's probably other examples that someone has on a forgotten tape in a box in a garage :-)

@Denis-pj6zg Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth That would be a great find. Something from the 1940’s or ‘60’s to compare with this interview.

@tessierashpoolmg7776 Жыл бұрын

Damn I miss Pacifica Radio. Van Vogt's obscure book War Against the Rull was almost incomprehensible when first encountered as a teen, but it's strangeness and and mash up plot were akin to nothing else . I must have read it 20 times just trying to really grok what was going on. He was a mesmerizing writer.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

I'll look for that one to see how well the fix-up worked out :-)

@tessierashpoolmg7776 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth Good hunting. It would be great to hear your take.

@ruthsmith1472 Жыл бұрын

Wow fascinating to hear Dick discuss the publishing industry back in the day and how rotten they were/are, reminds me of the music industry... Thank you Charles for uploading this! A life long PKD fan here. Greetings from Oz. All the best.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

The problem for the publishing "industry" is that no one is compelled to read what they publish, and your guess is as good as theirs. Also, no one -- given available capital -- is prevented from being a publisher. Even less so today. The complication is that there is so much stuff now made available by way of Kindle, etc., that authors have vastly more competition and also have to engage in a death march of publish-or-die, along with the considerable expense for to feed the beast of their online profiles and rankings and promotions. A full length book every six-weeks is about the going rate. Via the data from k-lytics, for only one line of a sub-genre of Cozy Mysteries, there are 44,000 "authors" in play :-)

@ruthsmith1472 Жыл бұрын

@@charlessmyth Interesting take/info- cheers for the reply. Seems like over saturation from what you have explained. It's tough all round out there at the moment and IF full blown depression hits the global economy then, as I am sure you are aware- books and other expendable consumables will be first to go anyway from spending habits... We will see? I wonder what PKD would make of our current hi tech (western) society and state of the publishing industry with it's own set of modern Pros and Cons?

@rotcaka Жыл бұрын

Now we have AI that can (soon enough) write books -- what will compel any of us to be creative in the future??

@ruthsmith1472 Жыл бұрын

@@rotcaka you're right and the thought of it makes me truly sad.

@menippean1 Жыл бұрын

I love this book (particularly this chapter), and it's wonderful to hear Leiber read it. Thank you!

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

He's a good reader. :-)

@roberthasse7862 Жыл бұрын

Started in 1939 with the story "Black Destroyer" for Campbell's Astounding.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

With no equivalent today of Campbell and Astounding, his chances to get started today, would be slim to none :-)

@ShadowWizard123 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for making this. I'm really enjoying it so far.

@charlessmyth Жыл бұрын

It was interesting to compare with the version that is the novel :-)

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