And it brings back memories from years ago. They showed a movie about locust plagues in Africa way back when I was in school. They sprayed (probably DDT) from an airplane. They showed the view from the cockpit. The windshield wipers were going full speed wiping green crud that used to be locusts. The pilots could barely see where they were going. I haven't thought about that for years, until I read this story.
Thanks very much for your kind comment. It just shows that the DDT and the other bugsprays did their job, and eventually we’ll forget there was such a thing as bugs, or even animal life that isn’t pets or animals bred for food.
The whole extinction is buried under a squabble about being distracting. Harriet doesn't shut him up because the callouts annoy her. She shuts him up because she won't look at what's missing. That's the coldest thing in here, colder than the mandibles.
The bickering is what got me. Freddie counting splats is grief, basically, and Harriet won't let him name it, so it comes out as "distracting" for two pages instead. By the time the thing is sitting in the crater looking at him the dread's already fully loaded. Also "a small taco in dimension" is a horrible measurement and exactly right. Subscribed.
Evelyn and I have been discussing scenarios of mass insect revenge against humans. I tend to think of it allegorically but both Honeygloom and EKB tend to take Gaia self-defence more literally.
What ghastly 70s memories!!😆David Soul! Now I have that song on high rotation in my mental jukebox. The bugs! Little (or big) grenades smacking the windscreen. And in the Southern US, a nightmarish number of them. In particular, what we called " F and K bugs". They flew in pairs, and " if you see F, you see K".🪲
I really put in all the David Soul and other 70s trivia sort of for character texture - to say they're older people without directly saying it, and also because, unlike AI or bad Hollywood scripts, people don't focus laserlike on the main storyline but tend to drift off in tangents.
But it does turn out to be a fun counterthread to the horror narrative.
F and K bugs is a new one to me, but I'm originally from the UK where we don't have such colourful expressions.
I do remember watching some horror movies about insects when I was young - there were a few about swarms of bees, and then of course there's Phase IV - the one with the ants. One of the ones with bees featured a beetle - the car, I mean, because apparently its ventilation system is too narrow for bees to sneak through. The car got covered in them, though, so they drove it to an ice rink and waited for the temperature to drop enough to send the bees to sleep.
Amazing what one remembers just like that when prompted.
We definitely need a new insects revenge movie though.
I believe the bees film you mention is the one which I put a poster up for at the end. I don’t know Phase IV but there was of course the classic sci-fi horror Them about giant radioactively mutated ants. It’s actually very boring despite good sound and puppet effects, just that these memorable scenes are buried amid a ton of conferences where scientists and officers speak at interminable length.
Really the shortfall is the availability of cheap insect effects. Hitchcock did a lot with stuffed birds and hand-painted shadows. Harder to do that with plastic bugs (though of course British TV series have tried).
But a proper war narrative like Vollman’s would be a good series I believe.
Then there was that big box office bomb, 'The Swarm', which is more a disaster movie with an A-list cast that got totally panned.
I'm now remembering all these other low budget horror movies like the one with the piranhas. Then there was the alligator one, where a baby alligator is flushed down the loo and emerges from the sewers years later. Unless that was a crocodile. Part of me would delight in a life in which I was the number one expert in the world on natural horror movies. And I wouldn't care a jot if people called me a nerd.
They don't make nature revenge movies like they used to. An example of a recent one that falls completely flat is M. Night Shymalan's The Happening which is supposed to be about spores released from angry trees which cause psychosis in people. The cure for that in the end is "to walk faster than the wind." Famous for some stinky performances especially from the lead.
A much better one like that is Ben Wheatley's In The Earth. You with your 'vengeance of Gaia' proclivities would really like that one. The director is a good bloke with a Substack very accessible.
But the market really is wide open to a 'revenge of nature' scenario. Wouldn't have to be just bugs or birds or wild fauna - could be all of them and the plants too!
Great story. Not just the idea but the telling.
And it brings back memories from years ago. They showed a movie about locust plagues in Africa way back when I was in school. They sprayed (probably DDT) from an airplane. They showed the view from the cockpit. The windshield wipers were going full speed wiping green crud that used to be locusts. The pilots could barely see where they were going. I haven't thought about that for years, until I read this story.
Thanks very much for your kind comment. It just shows that the DDT and the other bugsprays did their job, and eventually we’ll forget there was such a thing as bugs, or even animal life that isn’t pets or animals bred for food.
The whole extinction is buried under a squabble about being distracting. Harriet doesn't shut him up because the callouts annoy her. She shuts him up because she won't look at what's missing. That's the coldest thing in here, colder than the mandibles.
LOVE THIS!!!!! The thunk made me flinch
Thank you! I live to give you spooky-yikes
The bickering is what got me. Freddie counting splats is grief, basically, and Harriet won't let him name it, so it comes out as "distracting" for two pages instead. By the time the thing is sitting in the crater looking at him the dread's already fully loaded. Also "a small taco in dimension" is a horrible measurement and exactly right. Subscribed.
Thank you John, I hope you enjoy the dread and strangeness going forward
K was showing me articles about praying mantis in UK, cos of climate change and this heatwave summer. This hit close.
Evelyn and I have been discussing scenarios of mass insect revenge against humans. I tend to think of it allegorically but both Honeygloom and EKB tend to take Gaia self-defence more literally.
Insects, microbes, tiny wee things you didn't realise you were going to have to think so much about, eh? Interesting thought material, yeah.
What ghastly 70s memories!!😆David Soul! Now I have that song on high rotation in my mental jukebox. The bugs! Little (or big) grenades smacking the windscreen. And in the Southern US, a nightmarish number of them. In particular, what we called " F and K bugs". They flew in pairs, and " if you see F, you see K".🪲
I really put in all the David Soul and other 70s trivia sort of for character texture - to say they're older people without directly saying it, and also because, unlike AI or bad Hollywood scripts, people don't focus laserlike on the main storyline but tend to drift off in tangents.
But it does turn out to be a fun counterthread to the horror narrative.
F and K bugs is a new one to me, but I'm originally from the UK where we don't have such colourful expressions.
I do remember watching some horror movies about insects when I was young - there were a few about swarms of bees, and then of course there's Phase IV - the one with the ants. One of the ones with bees featured a beetle - the car, I mean, because apparently its ventilation system is too narrow for bees to sneak through. The car got covered in them, though, so they drove it to an ice rink and waited for the temperature to drop enough to send the bees to sleep.
Amazing what one remembers just like that when prompted.
We definitely need a new insects revenge movie though.
I believe the bees film you mention is the one which I put a poster up for at the end. I don’t know Phase IV but there was of course the classic sci-fi horror Them about giant radioactively mutated ants. It’s actually very boring despite good sound and puppet effects, just that these memorable scenes are buried amid a ton of conferences where scientists and officers speak at interminable length.
Really the shortfall is the availability of cheap insect effects. Hitchcock did a lot with stuffed birds and hand-painted shadows. Harder to do that with plastic bugs (though of course British TV series have tried).
But a proper war narrative like Vollman’s would be a good series I believe.
Ah! I did some searching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_horror_films#Honey_bees Ant movies are listed directly above the bees, which does include Phase IV. Ah - yeah, and Them! as well. Can't remember if I saw that one.
Turns out the one with the beetle and the ice rink is actually called 'The Savage Bees': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Bees
Then there was that big box office bomb, 'The Swarm', which is more a disaster movie with an A-list cast that got totally panned.
I'm now remembering all these other low budget horror movies like the one with the piranhas. Then there was the alligator one, where a baby alligator is flushed down the loo and emerges from the sewers years later. Unless that was a crocodile. Part of me would delight in a life in which I was the number one expert in the world on natural horror movies. And I wouldn't care a jot if people called me a nerd.
They just don't make 'em like they used to.
They don't make nature revenge movies like they used to. An example of a recent one that falls completely flat is M. Night Shymalan's The Happening which is supposed to be about spores released from angry trees which cause psychosis in people. The cure for that in the end is "to walk faster than the wind." Famous for some stinky performances especially from the lead.
A much better one like that is Ben Wheatley's In The Earth. You with your 'vengeance of Gaia' proclivities would really like that one. The director is a good bloke with a Substack very accessible.
But the market really is wide open to a 'revenge of nature' scenario. Wouldn't have to be just bugs or birds or wild fauna - could be all of them and the plants too!
"Hey, was he Starsky or Hutch?"
He was Hutch (proper name: Ken Hutchinson). Paul Michael Glaser was Starsky.
Bonus question: which well-known musical did PMG appear in?
“Grease”?
Thanks for playing! Correct answer: Fiddler on the Roof
Master of lore, Dave. Who was Kojak and where did he buy his lollipops?
A bald-headed New York City police detective played by Telly Savalas. Not sure about the latter..
Me neither
thanks for sending this, it’s a really good one
Very happy you dig it EJ!
EXCELLENT! love how the banal ramblings suddenly are hijacked by an insane world that nobody could see coming. great idea!
Thanks, it seems that is exactly what my head is like these days as I wrote it spontaneously and all the inane ramblings just popped up
that is exactly how it read. my mind wanders in a similar way then comes out my mouth. My wife is constantly frustrated by it.