Published bimonthly.
Contents copyright 1997 The Nutmeg Point District Mail and assigned
to individual contributors. All rights reserved.
TEMPORARY CULTURE
P.O. Box 43072
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072
Or: wessells@aol.com Use the electronic address for requests to be added to or dropped from the mailing list.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
AVRAM & THE MASONS ; or, An Open Question about "The Stone That the Builders Rejected"
(aka "Caretaker, a short short story" aka "A Very Old Custom")
Your editor has noted the frequent appearance of issues pertaining to the Masons in Avram's writings. These references are explicit in his unpublished novel The Corpsmen, somewhat less so in Masters of the Maze (1965), and quite oblique or encoded in "The Blaze of Noon" (Analog, Sept. 1961), a collaboration with Randall Garrett. Confessing an utter lack of familiarity with this subject matter, I invite readers to shed more light on matters connected with this connection, particularly with respect to the unpublished story, "The Stone That the Builders Rejected," (see Vol.1, No.2) which tells of the ceremonial murder of Joe Gilson by members of the building trade who are about to pour concrete the foundations of a new building. Joe's body is incorporated into the foundations. . . .
Somewhere I read an unidentified (biblical?) quotation, "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." Furthermore, I wonder about the apparent connection between this story and the account of the murder of Hiram Abiff that forms part of the Masonic tradition:
According to the Master's degree given by speculative Masons in the 1730s, the murder of Hiram Abiff, the master workman at the building of Solomon's Temple, took place at 'high 12 at Noon.' A group of disgruntled craftsmen accosted him in the temple demanding the secret 'Master's word'--a term used primarily to differentiate the pay and assignments of workers but also, the ritual implied, bearing deeper mystical significance. Refusing the conspirators' demands, Hiram was killed and his body thrown into a grave, where it lay until found by a party sent out by Solomon. On the way, the workmen agreed that, if there was no clue on Hiram's body to the powerful but now-lost word, their first statement would become its substitute.Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), p.11.
Further ruminations and uncoverings on this topic will appear in the District Mail.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Curiosae Hyperboreae ; or, A Footnote to Ursus of Ultima Thule, &c.
"Once this was Beringia, a now-sunken continent that straddles Siberia and Alaska twenty thousand years ago, its mid-portion a low-lying, sluggishly drained plain now deep beneath the Bering Strait. [...] They thought of their homeland in different terms, as a world where the spiritual and material realms were one, where animals and humans were linked in close, intensely symbolic relationships. Thus it was that they settles in broad river valleys near slow moving summer streams, where there was shelter from the Arctic wind, and where lumbering mammoth and bison congregated, even in winter. [...] Today, central Beringia is heaving ocean, an ice-strewn, foggy strait that separates two continents."
-- Brian Fagan, in Ancient America (Boulder: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995).
New Age anthropological mumbo-jumbo recapitulates Avram's ethnological imaginings, although I have yet to see an archaeologist propose that the meteorite showers at the end of the novel provide an explanation for the rapid settlement of the Americas, circa 13,000 B.C.E.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
AVRAM DAVIDSON IN WHISPERS
W. Paul Ganley reports that he and Stuart Schiff are publishing a joint issue of Whispers and Weirdbook that will be available by the end of March. Each section of the magazine will have its own cover and the two halves will be bound tete-beche "like the old Ace Doubles." The Whispers portion includes a previously unpublished Avram Davidson story, entitled "Room for One More," as well as original fiction by Joseph Payne Brennan, Hugh B. Cave, Chet Williamson, Ken Wisman, and David Drake.
Single issue price is $6.00 postpaid before 1 April, postage additional after that date. A limited edition signed by Schiff and Ganley is also available for the prepublication price of $30.00.
Available from:
W. Paul Ganley Publisher
Post Office Box 149, Buffalo, NY 14226-0149.
Telephone 716.839.2415
Or:
Whispers Press
70 Highland Avenue, Binghamton, NY 13905.
Telephone 607.729.6920
For the hopelessly (terminally?) electronic, the URL of the Whispers Press home page includes an order form: http://www.horrornet .com/whispers.htm
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Grania Davis writes:
The new anthology Modern Classics of Fantasy edited by Gardner Dozois (with Marvelous introductions!) has two (count 'em) Davidson stories: The ever-popular "The Golem," and the magic-realist Limekiller novelette "Manatee Gal." This is the first Limekiller reprint since AD's passing, so the book is a real treat--with other great stories and authors too.
The votes have been counted from SFWA (SF and Fantasy Writers of America), for the upcoming Fantasy Hall of Fame anthology, which is chosen by the members. Great news: Avram Davidson was one of the top three vote getters (along with Ray Bradbury and Fritz Leiber)!! His work will be represented by (surprise!) "The Golem." (What else?)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
THE GOLDEN NUTMEG AWARD essay and book review (from last issue) will be published in a future issue of The New York Review of Science Fiction, edited by David Hartwell.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A correction of bibliographic information that appeared in the inaugural issue of The Nutmeg Point District Mail:
"Sambo," by Avram Davidson and Ethan Davidson, actually appeared in Eidolon 21, Autumn 1996, pp. 45-46. It is preceded by "An Appreciation of Avram Davidson," by Lucius Shepard, pp.42-43.
From the Eidolon website:
In the early eighties I wrote the short story "Sambo." It was based on a dream, which was based on the children's story "Little Black Sambo," which my father, Avram Davidson, had read to me decades earlier. Since I had no word processor then, and my spelling is terrible, I sent the story to Avram, who lived in Washington State, asking him to please proofread and retype it. He did that, and much more. He re-wrote it. He kept my basic story, but added words, phrases, and details all his own. He sent it back with a letter explaining the reasons for each change. Since then, I have had a play produced and have had poems, news articles, and a couple of short stories published. But "Sambo" has remained unpublished, until now.
-- Ethan Davidson
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
WHERE? WHICH? A short quiz (published works only)
The prize is one grumpkin (redeemable in the New York, New Jersey, or Philadelphia area in vino or in coffee).
Name three stories involving religious concerns: schismatics, heretics, non-conformists, saints, etc.
Extra credit given for answers in essay form.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
ANSWERS TO WHERE? WHICH? from the fourth issue
Stories with anthropological dimensions:
Gregory Feeley notes that, strictly speaking, "Zon" (Worlds of If May 1970) should also be included in the list of Avram's unfinished series.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Next issue will appear on 8 May 1997.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +