Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 12:58:08 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) game, bowie, Knight

This is a very inane post on my part, but here are a few random comments:

I managed to play that Castlevania game with Terminus Est in it.  It rips off 
all kind of fantasy literature, from Moorcock's Mourneblade to the estoc and 
badelaire already mentioned on the list.  That's a really, really cool game. 
If you aren't wearing special glasses when you go into the "last" room, the 
game ends halfway through. (Kind of like those uncritical readers of Wolfe on 
that rasf discussion - they weren't wearing the right mental glasses to see 
the huge upside down castle underneath the obvious one) Now I'm trying to 
fight the urge to start playing those stupid things again (actually, some of 
them aren't that dumb - I remember being totally confused by some aspects of 
Final Fantasy VII's plot (did Sephiroth die before the game even started? Is 
he just a clone then? Could Vincent be Aeris' father?), and the ending was 
more ambiguous than Wolfe (did all the humans get wiped out? Did the heroes 
survive in that ship?)).  I thought I kicked the video game habit in high 
school.

Thanks for the heads up on David Bowie's endorsement, Nigel.  Now for the real 
question: who would make a prettier woman - David Bowie or Mick Jagger?  While 
I readily admit that Mick Jagger may not be an attractive fellow, I've seen a 
picture of him in drag and was taken aback by the improvement. And is there 
really an extra "ding" in Vanilla Ice's rip off of Bowie's Under Pressure?

I haven't been able to find an obituary on Damon Knight online.  Was there any 
special, extraordinary cause of death, or simply a peaceful shuffling off? 
Dan'l, you seem to know.  Odd that Lafferty and Knight should die in such a 
short span of time.  Anybody have a favorite Knight work?  I like Man in the 
Tree, and I have Humpty Dumpty but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.  
I recall someone saying it was very "lupine".

Have a nice day, everybody.

Marc Aramini



--