life on mars as described in the works of Joseph Conrad and George Orwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I believed it in the same way one of you might believe there

are inhabitants in the planet Mars.

 I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars.

 

If you asked him for some idea how they looked and behaved,

he would get shy and mutter something about `walking on all-fours.'

If you as much as smiled, he would--though a man of sixty--

offer to fight you."

Joseph Conrad  Heart of Darkness

 

 

"sometimes he said   when sleeping on the embankment  it had consoled  him to look up at mars  or  Jupiter  and think there were probably embankment sleepers  there.

he had a curious  theory about it

life on earth  he said  is harsh  because mars is poor in the necessities of existence .

mars  with it cold climate  and scanty water must  be far poorer  and life corresponding  harsher

where as on Earth you  are  merely  imprisoned   for stealing sixpence

on Mars  you are probably boiled alive"

George Orwell  down and out in Paris and London 1933

 

 

 

two unexpected science  fiction  quotations   from  unrelated works  of English literature

Thuria, mad queen of heaven!

"Cluros, the farther moon, was just

rising above the horizon to commence his leisurely journey

through the heavens. Eight zodes later he would set--a trifle

over nineteen and a half Earth hours--and during that time

Thuria, his vivacious mate, would have circled the planet twice

and be more than half way around on her third trip. She had but

just set. It would be more than three and a half hours before she

shot above the opposite horizon to hurtle, swift and low, across

the face of the dying planet.

 

It was the age-old miracle of the

Martian nights that is always new, even to Martians--two moons

resplendent in the heavens, where one had been but now;

conflicting, fast-changing shadows that altered the very hills

themselves; far Cluros, stately, majestic, almost stationary,

shedding his steady light upon the world below; Thuria, a great

and glorious orb, swinging swift across the vaulted dome of the

blue-black night,"

 

The Chessmen Of Mars      Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

 

any of the few who saw the  dire "john Carter" will reember if anything of the  loosely based plot that  the two martian moons  in that movie  were lunar spheroids in close o double rbis showing identical phases  not the fast moving low horizon thuria    orbiting three times a night "nocturnal Martian scene one of splendid and weird

grandeur." as Princess of Mars   desscribes it

based as theey were on Deimos and Phobos  orbits  (albeit ERB moons   were  more Swiftan than  Hall) the main  plot  device in the Barsoom books was the difficulty of  anyone  to  hide  under Thurias rapid  binary bright light

 

see my illustration of bright  racing Thuria   near the horizon  larger Cluros in the sky and the evening star Earth

 

making a astronomical sighting quadrant out of a protractor and a drinking straw

Owing to my hospitization and slow recovery rather a later post than originally intended

I  made this quadrant in 2007 but am now unable to find it or any of my other   made

kits  such as the Astrolabes, Moon phase dial and Nocturnal  at home   believed thrown out as just  bits of cardboard during my long absence

 

Tycho and Hevelius made many discoveries  with just such great  quadrants

 but here I made a simple  altitude instrument  reading to 90 degrees  and  consisting  of a  protractor  (see  template ) to which an ordinary  drinking straw was  fixed  horizoniclly as a sight  and  from which a plumb line   free weight  dangled on the end of  a string  tied through a hole  seen as a small circle  just above 0 degrees on the template

 Completed  the quadrant can be sighted on any astronomical object  and the altitude read off  on the scale  arc from the dangling plumb line

It of course  can   be tested like any  quadrant   by sighting on  Polaris   according to your latitude

 

 

all you need is

a   90 deg protractor  either  the old one from maths class  or print out the template and affix to hard card

a drinking straw

string  to attach weigh  falling to arc of quadrant

a weight or plumb bob

 

hospitalization and major surgery but feeling alive again

recovering at home after five months i Hospitalization  from  February to July 2014  

 i was  rushed in for  emergency  abdominal surgery after collapsing  

  despite having  no prior symptoms   one early morning  sudden abdominal pain and  a ruptured  bowel wall  

 luckily operated on in time

very much a life changing experience

 

 

not exactly feeling six millions dollars    with a bowel resection and  have an  daily  dressing covering open wound in my lower abdomen  that is   23cm across

 have to wear a " abdo support"  to  literally stop  my guts  falling out and resemble a Mayan "chac  moo"l figure

 

 

 

no selfies on instragram  nor tweets  from the operating theatre   as  unaware where I was until April

  and  communicated   for weeks  via an alphabetic   pointing  board  

only  able to walk again late may

not something to blog about

 

a long period of recovery over the next year    and realisation that the internet is not everything

email either MIA    cancelled  or compromised  did not have energy or interest y to access internet  during this   home recovery period

sick people writing about their operations dull to anyone  else and prime target for trolling anyway

 

blog   i was working on  posts which i thought i had put on in February   on

 

  a blog post on how  the dream of  a ghostly  medieval knight  warned of the sinking of an ocean liner in 1909

a blog post on  the meridian of Azin  and medieval navigation

a  blog post on  making a quadrant from cardboard and drinking straws

a blog post  on Orion constellation as seen from the distance 11 to 100 light years

a blog post of star trek villain  khans  night sky as seen from ceti alpha 6

a blog post on  Eleanor Plantagenet  1203 -1241  rightful queen of England

a blog post on life on Mars as described  in the writings  of Joseph Conrad and George  Orwell

 

 my last published poem in december was  on the subject of leonardo  da vinci as a body snatcher serial killer

my  rewrite version of the Nibelungenlied  survives in pencil notes that are scribble i cannot read

A mummy goes west

hard pyre  and nineteenth century values

a spelled Egyptian king  comes to catch the  faking life

no it is a shadow

yes its paint

 below pharaoh     his  gods were  snakes

 

poor bone cold   up from the river    with only a curse to his name

 

 

arise!  arise!

 get out of your dusty  box   napkin face   knotted hankie  beast    cottontail

bang bandage  hands  around the  white throat  of   a plump  clergyman  

his  cross  crushed  by your ankhy  cross of life 

 

more floating baggage  without  grime scrolls or three colour poster

in a   hall  of pin copper pitch play lude wonders

a muffled princess  shipped with bier

 he smells her sept 

lust for scarab   and scabie

 goes out the door   to London flesh

penny paper fog and  gas lamp sothis

ladies  of   vampire ice  feeding on  nurse maids 

Ripper Jack  cuts to  dusk

 

"A Mummy goes West"Mark  Littler  January  2013

 

2070 a year to cross the road

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having regular   REM dreams of the  future  and that  now a days everyone drives around  like  Noddy   it  has never surprised me to wake up   remembering  that by  2070  no one knows  what an automobile is    

 

The  automobile  going the way of a    society   with its vital   job roles of  knowledge focus  engineers,   Paid friends  for  Nano  People,  request  food  designers   and Religion managers

All I could remember  was  by 2070   why do you need a  automobile if you have  after  death  consciousness, separation of body  and  soul   and Permanent   happiness  as a  lifestyle  choice

 

oh and the after effects of a   forty year long   society  destroying   ultimate  world  war  does  not help   automobile  sales  either

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

written little poetry  since october   and what I have done  not good enough

  always  know the  future is  better

All do the Hokey Cocos

I mentioned that  the  treasure map  I found in the  Mabinogion   was not  that of  Cocos island  a  favourite of  wide  world tales magazines   , children's  annuals   and action comics   from  the 1920s to 1950s    "The Plunder Of  Peru"  "Dead Men Tell No Tales "  the story was  popular at  the time  and  inspired    a  search that involved both  the  land speed record  Ace  Malcolm Campbell   and the  US  navy with no results  

 

The  Plunder of Peru

In 1821  to save the  treasures  of the  Cathedral of  lima  from   Bolivar's   liberating  army  the Spanish colonial   authorities and    catholic  church    moved the   centuries   of conquisidor   collected   plunder of Peru  from Lima    to  the port  of Callao  where they  secretly  loaded it on  the  Brig Mary Deir of  Bristol  to be  hidden at sea  until the  forces of  Bolivar  were  defeated.

 

Cut of sight of land    the Mary  Deir's  Captain Thompson and  his  crew  murdered  the  Spanish  soldiers  guarding the  treasure and sailed  away  locating an old pirate  haunt   Cocos island known to them  where   not long before   the   cut throat  Benito  Bonito   buried  his   golden sack  of  the Spanish main

 

Thompson  and his crew  by this time  described   as "celebrating"  landed  on the  barren Cocos  island    transfered  the  treasure in a process   that  filled ten boat loads  and then sailed away   where  later  that month the  Mary Deir was captured  by  a Peruvian naval ship  on his trail  all but  Thompson and his mate hanged  from the yardarm

 

Thompson  promised  to    lead  the  Peruvians ( it is unsure whether they are   Spanish    colonial or liberator  forces ) to the  treasure as  only he and the mate knew the exact  location 

 Both  of  them escaped  over the  side in Panama  Bay   the mate  eaten by a shark but Thompson swims ashore   where he hides   for the next 20 years 

 

In 1841   A  Canadian molasses  clipper  the  Gauntlet  is  anchored  in Panama  harbour  looking out  from the  deck      the  carpenter   John Keating  sees a  gang of  toughs  attacking an old man, who hearing Keating's shout flees  up the Gauntlets  gangplank where  he  is  hidden by Keating  in a  empty barrel   but the old man   expired  shortly  afterwards but not before  revealing his identity as that of   Captain Thompson and  passes  on the  treasure  map to Keating.

 

Keating  by 1850   has     become  partners  with a  Captain Bogue   they finally  sail to Cocos  find  the treasure  Bogue and Keating carry it all   away in their  one  rowing boat   but in a repeat  of the accidental  sole survivor story above      Bogue is drowned   just like the Mate at Panama

Keating  returns a rich man to  St  Johns  Newfoundland  but   later  buries  most of   the  Peru Plunder  and  Bonito   treasures  unnoticed back on  Cocos

 

A  rip roaring  shanty  yarn  the  tale of  Cocos island is   now like a  book out of print   repeated in the many  Engliah Anglican  establishment   run  boys own  magazines  pages  seemingly delighting in the stealing  of the treasures of the  Catholic  Church by an English sea captain

There was little  treasure in  Lima   at the time,  Benito Bonito is  based on  Benito de Soto  or Diabolito   but they  buried no gold   and  Keating found none

 

looks  like the map  I  found in the Mabinogion was Cocos  after all