Gloria & Audrey Harchar

By Carl Stephenson

What a strange, yet horribly tragic story, (we read it for language arts class). It’s about this guy named Leiningen who owns a plantation in Brazil. He gets word that there’s a huge horde of ants coming toward the plantation–two miles wide and ten miles long. The District Commissioner warns him that he must leave and take all his workers with him. But Leiningen figures that he’s smart and that he can take control of his fate by conquering the ants.

It’s an amazing tale. The author did well in describing how the ants worked–they really are intelligent. They made boats out of leaves, and they built a dam. I remember seeing on the Discovery Channel those big ants with incisors and snapping jaws, and how they could strip a stag of its flesh clear down to the bone in only minutes–six according to Stephenson’s novella.

My skin crawled as I was reading it. I kept slapping at my legs!

Leiningen was bull-headed, brave, and fool-hardy, imo. He thought he could defeat nature and the ants. I guess he did, and he did make a run for the dam to release the river to save his men, and nearly got eaten by the ants.

But he lost at least two men–peons is what the author called them. Ugh. How demeaning. It was written in 1962. I didn’t realize they called Brazilians, peons. Not very nice. Anyway, sad that the plantation owner felt he could sacrifice his men for the ants, and they didn’t even save the plantation. Too, I couldn’t help but notice how the author compared women to oxen!

Here it is if you want to read it, a classic short story:

Leiningen Versus The Ants

Here is the practice test you can, well, practice on before you take the real test for a grade.

I like how Steampunk Tales describes what Steampunk is.

Look at all the bling on the monitor!

Basically they say it’s science fiction of the Steam Age. When they say it’s “the Industrial Revolution re-imagined with the advantage of modern insight”–it strikes me as to how perfect that explanation is. Exactly! That’s why it’s so awesome to describe it as a post apocalyptic Steam Age world.

I just love the Victorian Age and all it’s ornate beauty in the way they decorated. Add to that the Edwardian period where society had all kinds of societies that pondered the philosophy of evolution, theology, etc. And to imagine what that mythical time period would do when given the opportunity to recreate the computer.  Basically they say, “following in the footsteps of Jules Vernes and H. G. Wells, steampunk authors blend history, science and imagination into a world of wonder that might have been.” Yes. Precisely!

Here’s another definition: Steampunk is a sort of retro-futurism, in which technological developments like robots, computers, and time machines are created using the technologies of the past: steam, rivets, gears and dials as opposed to electricity or electronics. It is heavily influenced by the work of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and steampunk fiction is often set in an idealized Victorian milieu. Read more: http://scififantasyfiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/an_introduction_to_steampunk#ixzz0R3IAVSWV

And while I’m on the subject of Steampunk Tales, please look into buying the Penny Dreadful to read on your iPhone. I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have a Sony Reader. And when I saw that Jay Lake is a contributor with one of his short stories, I decided I would definitely buy Issue #1!!! He is a fabulous author–I can attest to that!

Once I read all the stories, I’ll let you know what I think. Hey, and let me know what you think, too…