There appears to be both footprints & pawprints
on _The Flaming Star Nebula_
Harlan Ellison's _A Boy and His Dog_ won
the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1969.
<<
AE Aurigae (AE Aur) is a runaway star
in the constellation Auriga; it lights the Flaming Star Nebula. It is a blue O-type main sequence dwarf whose brightness varies irregularly between magnitudes +5.78 and +6.08. It is a runaway star that might have been ejected during a collision of two binary star groups. This collision, which also is credited with ejecting Mu Columbae and 53 Arietis, has been traced to the Trapezium cluster in the Orion Nebula two million years ago.>>
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_A Boy and His Dog_
<<A Boy and His Dog is a short story written by science fiction author Harlan Ellison in 1969. A revised and expanded version was printed in Ellison's 1976 story collection The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, and Ellison continued the story in the graphic novel Vic and Blood which was illustrated by Richard Corben. The novella was the basis of a movie adaptation in 1974, the post-apocalyptic science fiction film of the same name, directed by L. Q. Jones working in collaboration with Harlan Ellison.
. Setting
Both the novella and the film adaptation have the same alternate timeline setting. In this, President John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt on his life in 1963, and under his continued terms of office and that of the other Kennedys, the advancement of technology was concentrated on and billions of dollars poured into it instead of the space race. Technology flourished in the 1960s far faster than it did in our timeline, as indeed within a few years even surpassed that point at which we are at now. Androids became common household servants across the United States before the end of the decade. Extensive research was done into the fields of extra sensory perception and telepathy, which are both proved possible, and also animal intelligence. World War III broke out and was fought by conventional means very similar to World War II, yet lasted decades with both sides suffering heavy losses and still neither gaining an upper hand. World War 3 ended in an uneasy truce, the "Vatican Armistice", in March 1983. Tensions remained however over the next 25 years, and the global economy never recovered. In 2007, global negotiations finally broke down, and subsequently World War IV broke out. However, the latter was fought with nuclear weapons, and only lasted five days, just long enough for the nuclear missiles to leave their silos on both sides. Civilization was almost entirely obliterated, leaving the surface of the Earth reduced to a desolate, irradiated desert wasteland.
. Central characters
The year in which the both the novella and the film take place is 2024. The few survivors who remain above ground must forage and fight for food, clean water, clothes, weapons, ammunition, and women. Of these necessities, women are the rarest; most survivors are male because while the males were off fighting in the wars, their enemies bombed and destroyed their homes. Among these survivors, it has become a rule of dog eat dog.
The main character, Vic (portrayed by a 25-year-old Don Johnson in the film), is an 18-year-old boy,
born in the ruins of Phoenix, Arizona, in the year 2006. In both the novel and the film, Vic is focused on stealing food and fulfilling his sexual needs.
_Jewish Singles Night_ {Seinfeld} wrote:
Kramer: Ya know these latkes are going like hotcakes.
.
Frank: Where's the powdered sugar?
.
Kramer: You know Frank, you could take a break.
.
Frank: No breaks. I fell reborn,
. I'm like a PHOENIX rising from Arizona.
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Vic is fairly base, having lost both of his parents in the nuclear war, and having had no formal education. Neither does he understand the principles of ethics or morality. Satisfying his carnal desires remain Vic's main motivation throughout the story. He is accompanied by a well-read and wise-cracking telepathic dog named Blood, an "experienced female provider", using his advanced senses of smell and hearing. Blood's main motivation is food, most notably his favourite, popcorn, which Vic is able to provide by theft or by purchasing it from the various vendors in the wastelands.
Therefore, the two have a successful working partnership as they scavenge across the deserts of the Southwestern United States, stealing for a living and evading bands of roving marauders, beserk androids and mutants. Vic looks up to Blood as a teacher and a father figure, and Blood views Vic with equal fondness as a protégé, even though at times Blood is frustrated with Vic's unwillingness to learn and his rebellious nature. Although the two argue over trivial matters and threaten each other much, nothing ever comes of these arguments and threats, and in the end both agree (somewhat reluctantly at times) that they both need each other to survive. They have also been together since Vic was born and Blood a small puppy.
In addition to locating women for Vic to befriend, Blood also has the unenviable task of trying to educate Vic and keep him safe from harm. Blood is the result of genetic experimentation, which resulted in an intelligent canine mutation with telepathic abilities. However, the only human Blood can communicate with is Vic, whom Blood refers to as "Albert" as a "term of endearment." Blood's opinion of the human race is not generally a positive one, and Blood is something of a misanthrope. As Blood notes, "human sex is an ugly thing". This opinion of humans may have something to do with the fact that Blood is most likely the most intelligent and learned living thing left in the world, and he looks down upon the "stupidity" of humans. Blood does however have a more positive outlook on life in general, and believes in a place untouched by nuclear radiation he heard about from a police dog. Blood refers to this place at various times as "Over The Hill" and the "Promised Land", where "deer and the antelope play and it's warm and clean and we can relax and have fun, and grow food right out of the ground." Blood wants to look for "Over The Hill" with Vic, but Vic does not entertain it as a sensible suggestion. Vic states that their current situation is as good as it gets, and there is no "Over The Hill."
. Plot summary
The remnants of civilization has gone into the "downunder", a subsurface setting, with artificial sunlight, hydroponic bays, biospheres (with similarities to the Eden Project) and even functional, living forests. One such underground city, referred to as Topeka due to the ruins of the city it lies beneath, is fashioned in a mockery of 1950s rural innocence and brave-new-worldian madness, with all the inhabitants wearing dungarees and mime makeup. Topeka solves its need for exogamous reproduction by forcibly extracting fluids from sperm donors with machines and artificial insemination, yet the subterranean city with its limited population is still running low on viable donors. Anybody who refuses to comply, or shows any disregard to the committee whatsoever, is sent off to "the farm", and is never seen again. Even when someone becomes no longer useful to the society, they are sent there. "Heart attacks" and "farming accidents" are given as reasons for the unexplained disappearances. However, the inhabitants of the underground city are so brainwashed that they either do not realize, or do not protest.
Quilla June Holmes (portrayed by Susanne Benton in the film), the scheming and seductive daughter of one of Topeka's committee leaders, Lou Craddock (portrayed by Jason Robards in the film), is sent by her father to the surface to bait Vic into much needed "service", which Vic thinks is his dream come true as he believes he will be impregnating the women of Topeka by more conventional means. Blood takes an immediate disliking to Quilla, sensing something wrong, and warns Vic, but Vic will not listen. After saving Quilla's life from a band of raiders, and after, some mutants referred to as "screamers", Vic then spends an amorous night with her. In the morning she knocks Vic unconscious and flees. However, she had told Vic about where she lives, and also deliberately left an access card to the vault door so that he could follow her down there. Vic, completely taken by the idea of women and sex, takes leave of his lifelong friend Blood despite Blood's pleading and pursues the young lady into the downunder. He soon learns the harsh reality of the authoritarian committee and of its need for his semen, and is strapped to a table and a machine is used for this purpose. Vic is told that, when his sperm has impregnated 35 women, he will be sent to "the farm", as they will no longer have any use for Vic.
Quilla June, along with a few other rebellious teenagers, have other plans for Vic. They free him from captivity and beg him to kill the committee members and their android enforcer Michael (performed by former Californian boxing champion Hal Baylor in the film), thus leaving Quilla June in power. Vic, however, has interest in neither politics nor in remaining underground. Nevertheless, before Vic can shoot Lou Craddock, the other rebellious teenagers are captured by Micheal and have their skulls crushed by Micheal's bare hands. Vic manages to disable Michael with a heavy barrage of bullets. Still, knowing that her plan is foiled, and her co-conspirators dead, and also after overhearing her own father ordering her execution, Quilla decides Vic is her only chance and decides to escape to the surface with him. To this end, she tells Vic that she loves him, although this is clearly a lie to save her own skin (she was also apparently romantically involved with one of her late co-conspirators, although this may have been done also to her own ends.)
It is at this point that the novel ends, with the trio going off to look for Blood's "Over The Hill" (which in Vic's mind is a place filled with designer clothes, guns and gorgeous chicks), but in the film the story does not end at this point.
.
In the film, Vic and Quilla discover when emerging to the surface that Blood is starving as he was not able to find food without Vic, because Blood is an elderly dog and has a broken leg from an earlier fight with a raider's dog. Blood is near death. Vic faces a difficult situation, and in a twist ending, it is implied he kills his new love and cooks her to save Blood, as a bonfire is shown barbecuing food. She only disappears and the dialog suggests her fate - Blood states "Well, I'd certainly say she had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste." In the introduction of the Vic and Blood anthology, Ellison criticized the film's "moronic, hateful chauvinist last line, which I despise.">>
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Thanks Art.
That's OK though; I see a face at the bottom of the nebula. 8)