Filament Book Clublog

Atalanta And The Golden Lion

            After writing the Hercules story for Filament Book Club, I decided to give women equal billing, so went back to Greek myth for my next story. I had read about Atalanta previously, and to be honest, was quite fascinated with the character. She was quite probably the influence for the TV series, Zena, as well as Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonja, plus a dozen other s&s heroines of fiction, including those created by SF author, Leigh Brackett (if Nancy has taught me how to post pictures in the photo-section by the time I post this, there should be a photo of Leigh Brackett and me on file). There are even a lot of similarities between her and France’s Joan of Arc; both were bigger than life heroes and their lives ended in tragedy.

            Atalanta lived in the same period as Hercules, Jason, and Peleus, the father of Achilles. Achilles went on to become one of the heroes that fought at Troy, killing the defender, Hector. Atalanta’s son, Parthenopaeus was one of the Seven Heroes who died in the battle at Thebes. All became legends. One common theme among the Greek heroes, their lives all ended in tragedy. Although Odysseus eventually returned home to Ithaca after fighting at Troy, he was forced to wonder for twenty years before he saw his homeland again.

            I based my story on the Greek legends, which recorded the Calydonian Boar hunt, and her wrestling Peleus in the arena. There were many tales of her youth, one of those spoke of the she-bear, so I borrowed that to include with my story. And, of course, the infamous golden apples and the race that ended her single life as a free spirit, although there is some question to the man’s name that she married. I created the adventure in Ethiopia, and the slaying of the dragon and the Golden Lion, but these may have happened. After all, the historians still argue whether or not Atalanta sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. From what I have learned of Jason, I doubt he would have allowed her to go with him. Jason had to be the hero in his saga, and Atalanta (or Hercules) would have shared his glory, and Jason would not have allowed that. I don’t normally write in first person narrative, but in this case, I felt that I needed a storyteller who had stood beside her and fought the monsters that she faced. Some day, we may actually find his scrolls hidden in some lost Egyptian tomb. Who knows?

            Was Atalanta real? I would like to think so. After all, Hannibal and Alexander were real. Cleopatra and the Pharaohs were real. We now know that Troy really existed. Why not Achilles, Hercules, Hector, Paris, and even Atalanta? The Romans so loved the Greek tales, that they adopted the gods and tales as their own, so ancient scholars often became confused when telling and retelling the old stories. Names disappeared, or appeared in places at the wrong time, or were spelled differently from one tale to the next. Gods and monsters were created to add excitement to the tales, like we do today. Do you see the similarity between Atalanta and Atlantis? Was there a connection between her and the island that sank thousands of years ago? Perhaps recorded in scrolls that were lost over time, and forgotten by the ancient poets? We may never know, but that’s what makes us love mythology even more. It could have been based on some truth, and I would like to think that Hercules and Atalanta still live within us to some degree. Maybe our heroes don’t slay dragons and giant demons, but they stand tall in our own hearts anyway!

            When Filament Book Club releases “Atalanta And The Golden Lion”, I hope you will read the tale. I think you will fall in love with this untamed spirit. I know I did!

Tom Johnson

Seymour, Texas

June 17,2007

UFO Movies

            I know there are a number of good books on and about UFOs in the marketplace, including such titles as “Shoot Them Down” and “UFO Warminster”, as well as others on Filament Book Club. And let’s not forget Bill and Nancy’s outstanding UFO Magazine! All are great books to read. There are also some very good sci-fi novels on Filament, so you really don’t have to go elsewhere to find something good to read. However, once in a great while, I get a little lazy and am in the mood to watch a movie. Just, as I’m sure, all of us are.

Okay, that said, I recently stopped at the video store to rent something to watch on a slow night this past week, and to my surprise, I found  “Night Skies”, a new UFO flick, and without hesitation I rented the thing hoping for a good UFO movie after all the horror stuff that’s been showing at the theaters. Before I say anything about this cinema, let me ask the members of Filament when the last good UFO movie was that they watched? And what was the title?

            Two blockbusters that quickly come to mind are “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” and “Hanger 18”, both with great actors, good plots, and fantastic special effects. After that, we may have to go back to the 1950s for such classics as, “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, “This Island Earth”, “The Man From Planet X” (though I’m not sure just how much of a UFO film that was), and the sci-fi/horror classic, “The Thing From Another World” with James Arness as the pilot of the flying saucer that crashes in Alaska (or was that the North Pole?). However, my problem with this last one, they had Arness growling and grunting like a monster. Remember, one sign of intelligence is a spoken and written language. In order to pilot a flying saucer, there had to be some intelligence in the creature. Instead, this monster just knocked big chunks of wood out of doors with the thorns on his hands and growled a lot, scaring all of the kids who went to see the movie at the time. At least, with the “man” from Planet X, “he” had a language and was intelligent. We might even classify the original “War of the Worlds” as a good UFO movie, although it was really an alien invasion film, and had nothing to do with UFOs. But I’m stretching the rules a little as I search for “good” UFO movies. There just aren’t many out there that I am aware of.

            Okay, back to “Night Skies”. The hype claimed this was a true story based on the Phoenix lights of several years back. We all remember those strange lights that appeared in the skies over Phoenix, that the government claims were flares dropped by the air national guard. Uh huh. That incident! Well, my interest was instantly peaked, and if this was based on the truth, I had to see this movie. I rented it and rushed home and put it in the DVD player, popped some popcorn, and set back to watch “the truth” play out on the screen.

            Well, the “truth” may be out there, but it wasn’t in this movie!

            After an hour and a half, or whatever the length was, I was wishing I could get my money back! This movie was just another dumb teenager slasher flick, using UFOs and aliens as the bad guys instead of Freddie or Jason. You know the type. I wish someone had warned me about this movie before I laid down good money to see it.

            Please, when is Hollywood going to give us another “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”? These mindless horror flicks are driving me crazy. Thankfully, we have The History Channel and the National Geographic Network that shows UFO research programs that are pretty decent. I even catch our boss, Bill Birnes on many of the episodes. And I’m about ready to disconnect from the Sci-Fi channel. For the life of me, I continue to watch their sci-fi movies, and I don’t know why! I’ll see something that sounds interesting in the listing and turn it on, only to watch about thirty minutes of the movie before I become disgusted and turn it off. Don’t they have any decent writers any more? There doesn’t seem to be any imagination to the stories being filmed, and they all play to the same old tired formula of horror and slash, cut and dismember Where’s the sci-fi?

            I sure wish there was something to watch. For now, I think I’ll stick to reading the great books on Filament, and watching The History Channel for studies on UFOs. Readers, do you have any suggestions? What good UFO movie did you last see? Comments, anyone?

Tom Johnson

June 1, 2007