Wednesday 31 August 2016

Music In The Brook

Poul Anderson, Three Hearts And Three Lions (London, 1977), Chapter Six.

This cover illustration shows the swan-may, Alianora. For fun, she changes to human in mid-air, then changes back to swan just in time to break her fall.

In the Middle World, the sun is hidden but it is not dark. There is a mysterious blue light.

"A brook ran close by which did not tinkle but played, an endless melody on an alien scale." (p. 39)

Imagine a world where continual background music is part of the environment. See here. In fact, imagine other media-derived worlds, e.g.:

Earth Opera or Musical, where everyone sings (Alan Moore incorporated some songs into the dialogue of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen);

Earth Advertisement, where no one can use a commercial product without dancing around the house or the street singing its praises;

Earth Comedy, where nothing is serious, all conversation is hilariously funny and there is background laughter;

Earth Murder Mystery, where even the smallest village has at least three murders every week.

The possibilities are endless.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I suppose it's the pedant in me, but I can't help wondering, if EVERYTHING we say is funny, will humor be possible at all?

And, if even the smallest hamlet or village has three murders a week, that would strongly indicate to me that a society or nation is far along the way to anarchy, chaos, and collapse.

Sean