Monthly Archives: December 2019

Aprenda português XXIX: A Isca 030

Surpreendentemente, diversas mulheres se interessam em ser a refeição da criatura dos tentáculos.

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PAGE 30 (Three panels)

Panel 1: Probably the largest panel across the top of the page. An institutional-looking room full of young women sitting at desks, filling out forms with pencils.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (1): We were surprised at the number of volunteers we got when word of our project got out on social networks.

Translation (1): Ficamos surpresos com a quantidade de voluntários que se ofereceram quando nosso projeto foi publicado nas redes sociais.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (2): We did extensive psychological testing to root out cases of suicidality and mental instability.

Translation (2): Fizemos testes psicológicos extensivos para excluir casos de tendências suicidas e instabilidade mental.

Panel 2: Turpentine in his office, being interviewed.

Turpentine (3): There were some legal issues, of course, but our philanthropic sponsor is well connected and found ways to deal with them.

Translation (3): Houve algumas questões legais, é claro, mas nosso patrocinador filantrópico é muito bem relacionado e encontrou formas de lidar com elas.

Panel 3: A young woman wearing a hospital gown, sitting on an examination table and having her blood pressure checked by a nurse.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): We did rigorous medical screening.

Translation (4): Fizemos uma rigorosa triagem clínica.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Medusa trouble

A Medusa, a ray-gun guy, and a sacrificial damsel all on the cover of the Winter 1944 Thrilling Wonder Stories, painted by Rudolph Belarski

I’m aware that I’ve blogged this cover before, back in August 2017, but now that I’m diving beneath the covers to see what pearls I can pull up, I thought it worth doing again. The cover, note, is by Rudolph Berlarski (1900-1983), about whom you can read more here.

There certainly is a lot of fun stuff under this cover, such as this early bit of tentacle-peril art, drawn by Mark Marchioni (1901-1987), illustrating Ross Rocklynne’s “The Invisible Army.”

Tentacle peril illustration by Mark Marchioni illustrating Ross Rocklynne's story "The Invisible Army."
“Hardesty leaped straight up at the monster attacking Ileen.”

And there’s also this bit of cheesecake, sadly unattributed, to Scott Morgan’s wartime fantasy “Trophy.”

“Suddenly, out of the empty air, there appeared a tall, slim girl.”

But leafing through these old, yellowed pages, I should note that it isn’t all fun and games. Amidt all the agreeable escapism there is every now and then a reminder of grim things and grim times, such as this full-page advertisement near the start of the issue.

I don’t want to be a downer, but it may be something to reflect on as we close out the year.

This issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XXVIII: A Isca 029

Uma vida curta e gloriosa ou uma vida longa sem destaque?

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PAGE 29 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Daphne, in the interview, now looking serious and pensive.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (1): But that means the end of you!

Translation (1):: Mas isto será o seu fim!

Daphne (2): It is a choice between κλέος and νόστος.

Comment (2): The Greek text above (κλέος, νόστος) should, if possible, be left untranslated and untransliterated.

Translation (2): É uma escolha entre κλέος e νόστος.

Comment (2): The Greek text above (κλέος, νόστος) should, if possible, be left untranslated and untransliterated.

Unseen interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (3): What?

Translation (3): O que?

Panel 2: View of a vase painting showing the Greek hero Achilles.

CAPTION – DAPHNE NARRATING (4): In the Iliad, the hero Achilles faces a choice between either going home and living a long life – that’s νόστος – or staying to fight and living a short but glorious life – that’s κλέος.

Comment (4): See Comment (2) above for how to treat the Greek text.

Translation (4): Na Ilíada, o herói Aquiles encara uma escolha entre voltar para casa e viver uma vida longa – é o νόστος – ou se manter na luta e ter uma vida curta, porém gloriosa – é o κλέος.

Panel 3: Daphne, leaning forward to engage more closely her unseen interviewer.

Daphne (5): Given the choice between a either a lifetime as a corporate drone after which I shall be forgotten or being part of something that will be in history books for centuries, the right answer seems obvious.

Translation (5): Diante da opção de uma vida de drone corporativo e ser esquecida depois ou fazer parte de algo que estará nos livros de história por séculos a fio, a resposta correta me parece óbvia.

Panel 4: Daphne sitting back, taking a sip from her cup of coffee.

Daphne (6): Or at least, the right answer is obvious to me.

Translation (6): Ou pelo menos, a resposta correta é óbvia para mim.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Hear us out, O Volcano Goddess

Robert Gibson Jones cover to Amazing Stories, June 1950, featuring a flame-haired volcano goddess.

Robert Gibson Jones gives us a flame-haired volcano goddess for the June 1950 issue of Amazing Stories. We can find the same cover, in somewhat better condition and with sharper colors, over at Galactic Central.

Women seem to have gotten the upper hand in this issue. Consider this illustration to Robert Moore Williams’s story “World Without Men,” done by fairly prolific Henry Sharp (1912-2005).

Take that, cowboy!

This issue of Amazing Stories is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprenda português XXVII: A Isca 028

Daphne Bosselseg quer fazer parte da história da ciência.

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PAGE 28 (Four panels)

Panel 1: DAPHNE BOSSELSEG (“Daphne”) sits in a coffeehouse, being interviewed. There is coffee on the table in front of her. Daphne is a dark-haired, dark-eyed, intense-looking youngish woman who wears a dark cable sweater and blue jeans.

Daphne (1): The bitter truth is, I’m facing a lifetime of asking “Do you want fries with that?”

Comment (1): “Do you want fries with that? Is a stock phrase in American English, the question asked by a fast-food counter worker. By extension, to have to ask the question means having a poorly-paid, unenjoyable, and low-status job. It can be translated either literally or with an equivalent phrase in the target language.

Translation (1): A dura realidade é que estou diante de uma vida inteira perguntando “você quer suas fritas com o quê?”

SUBTITLE (2): Daphne Bosselseg, prospective subject.

Translation (2): Daphne Bosselseg, possível voluntária.

Panel 2: Front panel of the first edition of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, over which are layered the captions of Daphne speaking.

CAPTION – DAPHNE NARRATING (3): I wrote an award-winning Ph.D. dissertation in the history of science. “One of the best of your generation,” my advisors told me.

Translation (2): Redigi uma tese acadêmica premiada para o meu doutorado sobre a história da ciência. “Uma das melhores da sua geração” – disse meu orientador.

CAPTION – DAPHNE NARRATING (4): But thanks to yahoo state legislators and asshole STEM billionaires, there’s no funding for humanistic research like that anymore.

Comment (3): “Yahoo” is an American colloquial expression for a crude, ill-educated, and unsophisticated person, usually one of rural or small-town origins. “STEM” is an acronym for “science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” and in this context might refer to someone who got rich making technology, but who is ignorant and also likely contemptuous of humanistic learning.

Translation (3): Mas graças àquele Grosso, os legisladores do estado e os bilionários babacas do STEM, não existem mais fundos para a pesquisa humanitária do gênero.

Panel 3: Daphne back in interview position. She looks glum and pensive.

Daphne (5): No one with money wants to fund knowledge anymore. They all want universities that do nothing but make a compliant corporate workforce.

Translation (5): Ninguém que tem dinheiro quer mais financiar o conhecimento. Todos querem universidades que apenas atendam às demandas de mão de obra das empresas e nada mais.

Panel 4: Daphne being interviewed. She has brightened up, just a little.

Daphne (6): But now I have a chance at something.

Translation (6): Mas agora, eu tenho a chance de realizar algo.

Daphne (7): If I can’t write part of the history of science, then perhaps I can be part of the history of science.

Translation (7): Se não consegui escrever parte da história da ciência, então talvez eu possa ser parte da história da ciência.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)

Aprenda português XXVI: A Isca 027

Para capturar o monstro do mar, uma isca é necessária.

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PAGE 27 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Turpentine and Claudia stand in front of the vague underwater image of the creature, illuminated with a lightbox as if it were an X-Ray. Both are wearing white coats. Turpentine is pointing to the large siphon-like structure.

Turpentine (1): So, I suppose this structure is actually a specialized feeding orifice.

Translation (1): Então, suponho que essa estrutura seja na verdade um orifício com um mecanismo digestivo.

Claudia (2): When you’ve eliminated all the other possibilities, what remains, however implausible…

Translation (2): Quando você elimina todas as outras possibilidades, o que sobra, apesar de não ser algo plausível…

Panel 2: Turpentine back in his office, being interviewed.

Turpentine (3): Combining what we know from the native folklore and observed behavior and morphology, we seem compelled to conclude that every nineteen years, this creature comes near the surface and wants to eat young women.

Translation (3): Juntando tudo o que sabemos do folclore nativo e tudo o que observamos em termos de comportamento e morfologia, parece que estamos diante de um padrão, segundo o qual, a cada dezenove anos, essa criatura se aproxima da superfície para se alimentar de mulheres jovens.

Panel 3: A closer-in view of the mass of tentacles in the underwater image.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (4): It enmeshes them in tentacles, stimulates them, and eats them. We have no idea why.

Translation (4): Ela envolve suas vítimas com seus tentáculos, as estimula e depois as devora. Não temos ideia do porquê.

CAPTION – TURPENTINE NARRATING (5): Our methods to capture or closely study it have hitherto all failed.

Translation (5): Todos os métodos de captura ou aproximação para estudar a criatura falharam até agora.

Panel 4: Turpentine in his office, being interviewed.

Turpentine (6): We have been pushed to the conclusion that if you want to hook a fish, you have to have…bait.

Translation (6): Turpentine (6): Fomos forçados a concluir que, se você quiser fisgar um peixe, precisa de uma boa… isca.

  A Isca (Português/Versão em página longa)
A Isca (Português/Versão em carrossel)