The Phantasmagoria Metallique: 100 Years of A. Merritt's "The Metal Monster"

Sphere and block and pyramid ran together, seemed to seethe. I had again that sense of a quicksilver melting. Up from them thrust a thick rectangular column. Eight feet in width and twenty feet high, it shaped itself. Out from its left side, from right side, sprang arms—fearful arms that grew and grew as globe and cube and angle raced up the column's side and clicked into place each upon, each after, the other. With magical quickness the arms lengthened.

Before us stood a monstrous shape; a geometric prodigy. A shining angled pillar that, though rigid, immobile, seemed to crouch, be instinct with living force striving to be unleashed.

Two great globes surmounted it—like the heads of some two-faced Janus of an alien world.

At the left and right the knobbed arms, now fully fifty feet in length, writhed, twisted, straightened; flexing themselves in grotesque imitation of a boxer. And at the end of each of the six arms the spheres were clustered thick, studded with the pyramids—again in gigantic, awful, parody of the spiked gloves of those ancient gladiators who fought for imperial Nero.

For an instant it stood here, preening, testing itself like an athlete—a chimera, amorphous yet weirdly symmetric—under the darkening sky, in the green of the hollow, the armored hosts frozen before it—

And then—it struck! 

 - "The Metal Monster," A. Merritt 

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of A. Merritt's "The Metal Monster," one of my very favourite weird tales and a truly remarkable work of science fiction.

Pal of the Blog Deuce Richardson very kindly hosts my exploration of just how rich and expansive the story's links to modern science fiction are.

For such a visual feast, there's remarkably little illustration out there for "The Metal Monster." Stephen Fabian's cover art for the 1976 Avon Books publication (pictured at the top of the post) is a bit closer to the modular, weird nature of the Monster, but there are some other interesting ones out there.

Abraham Merritt, Metal Master

She stood before us, shielding us. One golden call she sent.

I looked back into the darkness. Something like an enormous, dimly shimmering rod was raising itself. Higher it rose and higher. Now it stood, upright, a slender towering pillar, a gigantic slim figure whose tip pointed a full hundred feet in the air.

Then slowly it inclined itself toward us; drew closer, closer to the ground; touched and lay there for an instant inert. Abruptly it vanished.

But well I knew what I had seen. The span over which we had passed had raised itself even as had the baby bridge of the fortress; had lifted itself across the chasm and dropping itself upon the hither verge had disintegrated into its units; was following us.

A bridge of metal that could build itself - and break itself. A thinking, conscious metal bridge! A metal bridge with volition - with mind - that was following us.

There sighed from behind a soft, sustained wailing; rapidly it neared us. A wanly glimmering shape drew by; halted. It was like a rigid serpent cut from a gigantic square bar of cold blue steel.

Its head was a pyramid, a tetrahedron; its length vanished in the further darkness. The head raised itself, the blocks that formed its neck separating into open wedges like a Brobdignagian replica of those jointed, fantastic, little painted reptiles the Japanese toy-makers cut from wood.

It seemed to regard us - mockingly. The pointed head dropped - past us streamed the body. Upon it other pyramids clustered - like the spikes that guarded the back of the nightmare Brontosaurus. Its end came swiftly into sight - its tail another pyramid twin to its head. 

 - A. Merritt, "The Metal Monster" (Illustration by the incomparable Jim Cawthorn)

Today is Abraham Merritt's 128th birthday. Every time someone's anniversary comes along, I feel rather inadequate for rarely coming up with a good tribute. Usually the heavyweights, the Lovecrafts, Tolkiens, Poes, Conan Doyles et al are well represented on the blogosphere: even the criminally neglected Smith had some great tributes. But the vastly under-represented A. Merritt could do with more love, beyond some glib quips about how "The Metal Monster" would make for the most Metal concept album ever. So, I've made a roundup of some of my favourite Merritt tributes and discussions around the web, and have a short look at one of the greats of 20th Century speculative fiction.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has a DINOSAUR TRANSFORMER

It's Grimlock.

Here's a trailer.



HOLY MOTHER OF PRIMUS

Fun with Skyrim

I really needed a distraction from things.  Thus, I made this.



Before you watch, you need to be familiar with the awesome The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer, and it helps if you've seen the Transformers: War for Cybertron trailer too.  Others have done really fun versions: Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3.  That's all, though.  Which disappoints me, since the Skyrim trailer is possibly the finest teaser I've ever seen.

It also gives me an opportunity to post this.



It's hilarious, because some think it's a biting satire on the fanboys who get too excited about trailers that don't show you anything, while others consider it an authentic encapsulation of their sentiments.  I think it's a bit of both, really.  See, Bethesda know how to make a damn teaser.

Atop the Fourth Wall takes Pat Lee to task

Gaze upon the peerless technical skill Pat Lee displays in showing such wide ranges of emotion as despair, terror, disbelief, triumph and rage!

Pat Lee is somewhat infamous in Transformers fandom. When a man doesn't pay his employees because he splashed out on a "company" Porsche, you know the guy's a bit of a scoundrel.

Collectormania '10: Disappointments and Pleasant Surprises

As you might know, Alice Krige couldn't make it, and I was sad.  It turned out Joe Flanigan landed a movie role, and had to fly out at the last second, robbing me of the chance to cheekily grill him about Momo.  So I was sad.  Indeed, I was so sad that I didn't even actually attend any of the talks, or go to meet any of the other guests - not even Chris Barrie or Danny John-Jules.  I'm probably going to regret that pretty soon, but I just didn't have the heart for it.  What was quite strange was I didn't feel that strange rush one gets when in the presence of someone famous or well-regarded, certainly not like last year.  Am I becoming desensitized to celebrity, or was I just too low to fully appreciate them?  I met a ton of famous folks at Cross Plains, and was a teeny tiny mini-celebrity-of-sorts at Cross Plains - four people came up to me saying how much they enjoyed my work, which is just the most wonderful feeling in the world even when the annoying self-consciousness and self-deprecating modesty sets in.  Or maybe someone needs to prick my head for fear of it carrying me into the stratosphere...

Transformers: War for Cybertron, or, The Rise of Wheelie

It just occurred to me that I'm posting a lot of stuff that really should be the domain of The Cimmerian, which isn't what I intended for The Blog That Time Forgot. Therefore, I'm going to stick to the one thing that probably wouldn't fly on TC: Transformers!

Specifically, Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Yes, I am excited.

... Create-a-Transformer. Ahem. Do Excuse Me.

Update on Transformers: War for Cybertron (which I discussed back here.)

"Complete with several multiplayer modes, Transformers: War for Cybertron allows gamers to play through story missions with their friends in drop in/drop out online co-op, and also create their own Transformers character for competitive head-to-head multiplayer modes, choosing among four distinct character classes, personalising its look and selecting from a huge variety of weapons, skills and abilities."

"...and also create their own Transformers character for competitive head-to-head multiplayer modes..."

"...create their own Transformers character..."

... Aly?



OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD WOO WOO WOOOOO

So that means if one of my favourite characters isn't in the game I could create him!?! I could play as Impactor, or Bludgeon, or Jhiaxus, or Thunderwing, or Straxus, or Shattered Glass Wheelie!!!

I could even make one of my fan characters! This is INSANE! All my awesome dudes could get a shot - Audax Prime! Maestro! Horizon! Morningstar! Flatliner! Blackguard! Nightsunder! Carnifex! Executron!

Even though the game has THIRTY Transformers to choose from like Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, GRIMLOCK, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave!?!

I mean, sure, it might just mean cosmetic changes like colours or what not, but by golly I'll take it!!! WHAAAAAA WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO WOO...


... Thanks a lot, Hasbro, now my ten-year-old self's bouncing off the walls. He won't be able to sleep for a week, and as a result neither will I.

I hope you're happy.

Transformers: War for Cybertron

You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen.

- Orson Welles on Unicron, his final film role

You know, it only just occurred to me that despite being listed third of my main interests up underneath the blog's title, I haven't really talked about Transformers that much. I'd been meaning to, though, especially things that I've noticed few really talk about: the themes, history and metaphors of the Transformers. Most people tend to dismiss the Transformers fiction as little more than a soulless means of advertising an increasingly commercialized childhood, and that's certainly how the comics and cartoon came into being. However, the various writers took the inherently surreal SF mantra of gargantuan robotic organisms that, somehow, transmogrify themselves into vehicles, and they ran with it. Bob Budiansky & Simon Furman are probably the most famous of these, the latter in particular famed for bringing some much needed explanations & gravitas to a setting that could so easily have become a campy, trashy mess.