Sin And Horror The Soul Of The Plot

 I May Have Pontificated On This Theme Before -
<which is code for "I can't be bothered to check and see if I have" - the horrid truth courtesy Mister Hand>
     In case you don't recognise those words, they are from an Edgar Allen Poe quote, from his writings: "And much of madness and more of sin and horror the soul of the plot," though you can take that as a sideways comment by him on his entire oeuvre.*  Art?

Edders!

     The sentiment was echoed by J.R.R. Tolkein, who mentions in "The Hobbit" that pleasant events are soon described and rapidly turn dull, whereas the hideously unpleasant ones are usually a right rollicking read and real page-turners.
     Here an aside.  The Kindle generation might have to be instructed on quite what a "Book" is, let alone the differences between "hardback" and "softback", and the eternal debate about whether you use a bookmark or <shudder> turn down the corner of the page itself.  A debate for a later date, methinks.
     So!  Let us turn to that horribly entertaining series "Chernobyl", which is pretty much the definition of trainwreck-television: terrifying yet fascinating.  Art?

Let me guess: those observers are not happy bunnies?

     Filming actually in Pripyat or the Chernobyl plant itself isn't possible, thanks to - you know, radiation and the sarcophagus.  Plus the Ukranian government is probably both puzzled and annoyed at people wanting to ghoulishly enjoy themselves there.
                 
                       Clunky Sinister sarcophagus                         Sleek Western designed sarcophagus
     So - where was it filmed?  Lithuania, actually, on the shores of the Baltic, and the other side of Europe.  In an hilarious irony, they had to go there to find housing that looked appropriately Sinister, as the real thing's mostly been condemned and demolished, either that or it fell down of it's own accord.** Art?

Fabijoniskes
(The place-name, not an inherent quality)

     Lithuania is also the site of the Ingalina Nuclear Power Plant, which bears a striking resemblance to the one at Chernobyl.  Art?

Sic

     In more than one way.  My colleague Karolina, who hails from Lithuania herself, said it was an open secret that the plant was dangerously run and polluted the locality, but if you mentioned this aloud the KGB would make you disappear.
     So, a silver lining for Lithuania, then; all that money from the film production simply pouring in!  And doubtless there will be Ghoul Tourists in future who want to see where things were shot.
     Now, motley, that pack of ravening zombies is pounding up the stairwell, heading for you on the roof, and the only way off is  that tightrope cable running for, oooh, half a mile to the next skyscraper.  Go!

A Brief Interlude Of Calm Amidst The Chaos
Don't worry, we'll get back to All Things Horrid in a minute.  In the meantime, I have to announce that the madness has started again, in a rather muted way.  Art?

Getting <ahem> jiggy with it

     This is a slightly less ambitious project than the one from last year, as there are only 1,000 pieces in this one, and the design doesn't have large swathes of barely-visible zero-contrast designs all around the borders.  That there is what I have dug out of the contents, being the edge pieces.  We'll see how they match up tomorrow.
     Now back to the sin and horror!



"4 Years On The Western Front" By Aubrey Smith
You want horror, here it is.  Oh by Jove yes.  Ol' Aubs, as you should surely know by now, was a transport driver, who was thus spared being sent to the front lines after mid-1915, where he'd taken part in the Second Battle of Ypres.
     Here an aside.  Hey, look how long I waited!  Ol' Aubs described the continual and shattering effect of Teuton artillery fire on the British trenches at 2ndY, where shells could come in from three directions simultaneously thanks to being stuck in a salient.  Art?

2ndY.  Early war - you can tell by the intact trees

     He didn't enjoy the experience one little bit.  After the battles of the Somme, he (and pals from the transport section) visited the old Teuton front-line defences, which they could see for themselves were formidable indeed.  As Aubs states, they'd had nearly 2 years to fix those defences up. 

An example

     By the time he's visiting the crater-fields of the battle after the New Year, when the lines had moved further east, you can practically hear the malicious glee in his tone, when he describes the Teuton defences by the end of the Somme as being exactly like those of the British at 2ndY.

Sic.  This might have been a trenchline, once.

     You might think a driver's lot was a happy one - by comparison with the PBI in front-line trenches, yes, though it was no doddle when you had to trundle your supplies up a road under shellfire, sitting on a horse making you a great big target unable to take cover.  I think we shall come back to this.




A Bit Of Sin -
The sin of Pride!
     Your Humble Scribe blathered somewhat on Facebook before leaving home, about if he had to get up at this unpleasantly early hour, there'd better be a Cryptic Crossword on the bus as compensation.
     And there was!
     And I smashed it in less than 20 minutes!

Conrad, beaming with pride.  Beaming, honest!

     It may be "Small Earthquake In Chile" to you, but I take credit where I can get it.
     20 minutes!


More Sin!  More Horror!
Conrad beset by the sin of Pride again, with a healthy dose of horror to boot: I have been re-reading a Fanfiction work composed many years ago, based on the BBC's flagship Dramatic Reconstruction series, "Doctor Who".  It takes a while to get moving, being a bit parenthetical in the start - what's that?  Seventh Doctor iteration.  FYI -

The Doctor

     - and in this particular work he is whizzing about with Ace.  Art?

Ace.  Ace.

     This one concerns a sneaky and covert invasion, based in Australia, by aliens with incredibly sluggish metabolisms, who fear water, and who are acting as a third party - which is implied to be the Daleks, prefatory to their Invasion of 2065 ...
     We may come back to this!








*  "Collected stuff"
**  Poor quality control.  There's an earthquake joke in there from the Sinister era ...