Some more scans
from one of my old musty books
A marvels of
science and nature
encyclopaedia which I bought from
jumble or church
Christmas fayre where
amongst jetsam from decades before
the Philip Harben TV cookbooks
and forgotten celebrities such as
the "Wit of Arthur Godfrey" you could
pick up a "Look and Learn Annual" from 1966 or
huge but dated and discarded
black and white photo illustrated encyclopaedias of 1930s to 1950s popular science for 5p
These musty old
books are of course the same that my post mortem a house clearance team will put them all in the dumpster
targeting a Meccano
building secondary modern
generation the marvels of science and nature encyclopaedias were hard back
red tooled paper simulated
leather Britannica types and full of
monochrome or red
green colour autogravures with articles on
"the fastest train journey from Sydney to Albury", "Soviet floating base
at the North Pole" or an ethnographic
picture spread "hair dressing customs of the
world" and for me the
best to last a section
called "Out into Space
"
the books were created by a team of FRS
contributors so authors and artists
were rarely named as individuals
The out into space
articles I always found the most interesting
with their descriptions of the new
telescope on Mount Wilson or artist impressions of pointer
nosed moon ships docking at wheel
space stations of the future, a moon landing
by at least 1980 and a flight over the canals on Mars and comment
"they may be an optical illusion, what is a
flowing stream may look like it is a straight line from the air , there is no evidence of life on mars beyond
vegetation or natural
waterways that are of seasonal
origin "
It was the artists
impressions midway between the Mars of
Burroughs and Bradbury
that even today are the most dreamy
watercolours
imagining of what was basically a desert, ancient, dry
and what was to be the coming
space age typical view of lifeless
looking mars not a Mars of Great
Ruins or Martian Super
wisdom in contrast to pre
Silurian Tropic Jungle Venus
and our own Atomic powered Earth
I scanned in two Martian
canals and. dry dead sea bottom
both have a crystal egg
faded feel to them
I was not put on any
back to work scheme as it may
not be of any use to me - (I used to teach
courses to get people back to
work ) since everything job search is
mandatory online and that I must pursue 25
opportunities a week booked to
use job service
computers but every time I use
them asked by staff am I able to use
computers by myself -" yes,
until I was made redundant I used to teach IT" always my surprising answer
I have not written any poetry for
over a month and feel
not really able to write anymore!!
I lack interest
and inspiration having explored all the major themes
from horror to ghosts
to pirates and pagans
and now feel dissatisfied with my talent
poetry mainly a
pastime and written for my own
amusement and that I am the neither fashionable or literary establishment author
the two kindle
direct e book collections Christopher lantern his midnight name 2011
and the ragletters 2013
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