Musical Trivia

The following popular singers have something in common, and share it with no others. There is a (rather obscure) hint somewhere in this post.

Jimi Hendrix; Janis Joplin; Otis Redding; Jim Morrison; Jim Croce; Bobby Darin.

Addendum: And we have a winner in comments, together with an explanation of the hint and the reason for the mood icon.

"The Ultimate Egoist"

I've finished reading the Theodore Sturgeon anthology The Ultimate Egoist and, sad to say, my overall reaction is "meh". There are a few jewels in the set, but most of the collection is forgettable.

In one sense, this is unsurprising. These are stories from the very beginning of Sturgeon's career. Some of them were never previously published, but were found among Sturgeon's effects after his death, and - for the most part - that they were not published is unsurprising.

It took Sturgeon quite a while to discover his gift for science fiction and fantasy. Most of the stories in this collection are mainstream: there are love stories, mostly insipid ("Permit Me My Gesture" is, perhaps, an exception), and a number of tales derived from Sturgeon's experience as a merchant seaman. Some of the latter are entertaining, such as "Mailed Through a Porthole", but still, there's not a lot there.

Even among the F/SF stories, some are duds. "Ether Breather" and its sequel "Butyl and the Breather" are intended to be humorous, but the humor is, well, sitcommy. (This isn't unusual in the SF of the thirties, in my experience, but that doesn't really make it more interesting.) The best stories in the collection are more in the direction of horror: "Bianca's Hands", "He Shuttles", "It" - the last being the progenitor of DC Comics' "Swamp Thing" series, but, to my eyes, quite a bit more disturbing. The title story, unfortunately, was a disappointment, if only because I've seen the gimmick too often. Solipsism taken seriously may have been daring and original when Sturgeon wrote the story, but not today.

Oh, well. I am a completist, after all, which justifies purchasing this book, but I'll be expecting more from the next volume. At least it'll include "Microcosmic God".

Oh, yes: there are three forewords, written by Ray Bradbury, Arthur Clarke, and Gene Wolfe. They're better than many of the stories...

Addendum: Huh. Putting the book away, I noticed the other Sturgeon anthology I own, The Golden Helix. I took it down and looked at the table of contents; there, right in the middle, was "The Ultimate Egoist".

I guess "forgettable" was the right word.