Tarot (was Re: Finally, NASA gets to the important stuff)
wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid
[weird tarot decks]
> Suddenly had a wierd vision of a Pokemon Tarot...
Well, I once designed a Paul Delvaux Tarot deck (1). It probably being a major
copyright violation, I only ever made the one copy, which is strictly for
personal use, but it was a very interesting exercise--trying to find paintings
that matched a particular theme [easy for the Tower, incredibly hard for
Justice; of course, it's a major-only deck]. Now if I could only find enough
material to do an Yves Tanguy deck (2).
Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the end :-)].
Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
deck would be very interesting.
(1) For the benefit of the two folks who said "huh?" up there [r.a.sf.w is a
very cultured crowd, so everybody else already knew, right? ;-)], Paul Delvaux
was an, alas, lesser known Belgian surrealist painter. Like his better known
colleague René Magritte, he uses the trick of juxtaposing familiar objects in
unfamiliar combinations to achieve a dream-like effect. His repertoire of
familiar objects tends to be more limited, mostly to classical, gothic, and
19th-century steel-and-glass architecture, steam locomotives and railways,
skeletons, nude people with introverted expressions, and middle-aged,
conservative-looking scholars and scientists engrossed in various specimens.
It has been said of the people in his paintings that the skeletons are the
ones that look most alive [not disparagingly, I should perhaps add; it's
actually quite a fascinating effect].
(2) For the benefit of the same two people, Yves Tanguy was a French emigré
American surrealist painter who painted large alien landscapes populated with
organic-looking shapes. I highly recommend his paintings to get into a
not-of-this-earth mood. Unfortunately, samples of his work are rather hard to
find these days. He didn't live as long as Delvaux (who was almost 100 when he
died) so he didn't have the benefit of sheer volume to make his paintings
better known.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jan A. E. Six cast...@mail.utexas.edu
"It is a hypothesis that the sun will rise in the morning. This
means that we do not _know_ it will rise." --Wittgenstein.
"Now that you come to mention it..." --Copernicus.
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Briar Rose
>Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
>have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>deck would be very interesting.
Well, if you'd count an LOTR deck, then you can probably count the
Vertigo deck published by DC comics. It's based on the characters
in their Vertigo line, which at the time included _Sandman_ and,
er, darniforgettheothers.
:) Connie-Lynne
--
"Once I heard that the Internet was destined to go the way of
the CB radio. I do wish that it'd be about it, and quick."
Dylan O'Donnell
> Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the
> decks out there that have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure
> a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot deck would be very interesting.
There is a Lord of the Rings tarot; I have a copy here, published by
U.S. Game Systems, Inc, "developed by Terry Donaldson, artwork by
Peter Pracownik, game by Mike Fitzgerald" (yes, it comes with rules
for a Crazy-Eights-based game that makes use of the fact that the
cards are themed Good and Evil).
The artwork is passable enough, though of course it suffers from the
"I never imagined the characters like _that_" syndrome; the blurbs at
the bottom of the cards could have done with being actual quotes from
the book rather than bland stuff like "The Nine Riders know nothing
except the will of their Dark Lord" (Nine of Swords) and "Théoden
concentrates all his pwoer and charges the Orc Army" (The Chariot).
--
: Dylan O'Donnell : "Merely corroborative detail, intended to :
: Permanent Underling : give artistic verisimilitude to an :
: Forgotten Office : otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative." :
: http://www.fysh.org/~psmith/ : -- W.S. Gilbert, "The Mikado" :
Anton Sherwood
> Someone (Bruce Pelz, I think?) did a _Fantasy Showcase Tarot_ in which
> each separate card was done by a different fantasy illustrator. . . .
Yes, Bruce Pelz.
I long ago lost the booklet from mine, dammit.
--
Anton Sherwood *\\* br0...@p0b0x.com *\\* http://ogre.nu
David Goldfarb
Briar Rose <cly...@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
><wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid> wrote:
>>Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
>>have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>>deck would be very interesting.
>
>Vertigo deck published by DC comics. It's based on the characters
>in their Vertigo line, which at the time included _Sandman_ and,
>er, darniforgettheothers.
Also _Swamp Thing_, _Animal Man_, _John Constantine, Hellblazer_,
_The Enigma_, etc. Dave McKean did the whole deck; the comics characters
were the Major Arcana, the Minor Arcana he did on his own.
There actually is a _Lord of the Rings_ tarot, though I don't own a copy.
Someone (Bruce Pelz, I think?) did a _Fantasy Showcase Tarot_ in which
each separate card was done by a different fantasy illustrator. It was
sort of an extended deck, with four "Lady" cards to provide a female
equivalent of the "Knights", and with two new Major Arcana.
--
David Goldfarb <*>| "Oh no, foolish Jed, you have let out
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | the verbal gerbils!"
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- _Sandman_ #11
aste...@slip.net |
Steve Taylor
> (2) For the benefit of the same two people, Yves Tanguy was a French emigré
> American surrealist painter who painted large alien landscapes populated with
> organic-looking shapes.
...and who also inspired many of the SF covers of a certain era (50s?
60? - there were a lot of blobby covers on the secondhand shelves while
I was growing up). I was glad to see the blobbys reappearing on the
cover of my NESFA Kornbluth(?) short stories.
> Jan A. E. Six
Steve
Exercise: Postulate a world in which SF covers of the sixties had been
clumsily ripped offf De Chirico rather than Tanguy. How would society
differ? Would astronauts still have taken Tang to the moon?
Nancy Lebovitz
<wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid> wrote:
>In article <20000529054836...@nso-fk.aol.com>, kly...@aol.comedy (Klyfix) wrote:
>
>[weird tarot decks]
>
>> Suddenly had a wierd vision of a Pokemon Tarot...
>
>have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>deck would be very interesting.
>
the Major Arcana for an Objectivist tarot. It was never drawn or marketed,
but some of the cards worked out very nicely.
The Fool: Howard Roark at the beginning of _The Fountainhead_.
The Priestess: Ayn Rand
The Magician: John Galt
The Chariot: The locomotive that makes the cross-country run in
_Atlas Shrugged_
The Devil: Ellsworth Toohey, with Peter and Catherine chained--that
one was my favorite
The rest could probably be recreated if anyone cares.
--
Nancy Lebovitz na...@netaxs.com www.nancybuttons.com
The calligraphic button website is up!
Paul Clarke
wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid wrote:
>(1) For the benefit of the two folks who said "huh?" up there [r.a.sf.w is a
>very cultured crowd, so everybody else already knew, right? ;-)], Paul Delvaux
>was an, alas, lesser known Belgian surrealist painter.
>
>(2) For the benefit of the same two people, Yves Tanguy was a French emigré
>American surrealist painter who painted large alien landscapes populated with
>organic-looking shapes.
Thank you. I wonder who the other person is.
Sebastian F. Mix
Well, there's a Hello Kitty Tarot...
http://www.sizer.org/tarot/tarot.htm
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--
--------------------------------chelImQo'----------------------------------- -
Sebastian F. Mix, Irenenstrasse 21a, D-10317 Berlin, Tel: ++4930 521 1034 /(a\
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USX+ P- L- W++ N+++ w--- M- !V PS+++ Y+ PGP+ 5+ X++ R-- b++(+) e+ h+ r-- y*
Scott Beeler
>Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the end :-)].
>Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
>have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>deck would be very interesting.
I've got a copy of an "Alice in Wonderland" Tarot, with suits of Hats,
Flamingos, Oysters, and Peppermills, and pictures based very nicely on
the classic "Alice" illustrations. It's fun.
--
Scott Beeler scbe...@mindspring.com
John Scott
> wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid wrote:
>
> >Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the end
> >:-)].
> >Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
> >have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
> >deck would be very interesting.
There's an Amber Tarot which I've only seen available from a shop in
Paris - it's published by Jeux Descartes and is very pretty.
I can't comment on its suitability as a tarot deck for reading.
John
Danny Sichel
>>(1) For the benefit of the two folks who said "huh?" up there [r.a.sf.w is a
>>very cultured crowd, so everybody else already knew, right? ;-)], Paul Delvaux
>>was an, alas, lesser known Belgian surrealist painter.
> >(2) For the benefit of the same two people, Yves Tanguy was a French emigré
> >American surrealist painter who painted large alien landscapes populated with
> >organic-looking shapes.
> Thank you. I wonder who the other person is.
*raises hand*
Tanguy was magnificent, but I'd never heard of Delvaux.
Maurice Walshe
>> wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid wrote:
>> >Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the end
>> >:-)].
>> >Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
>> >have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>> >deck would be very interesting.
>There's an Amber Tarot which I've only seen available from a shop in
>Paris - it's published by Jeux Descartes and is very pretty.
Ohhhh I want that!
Rgds Maurice
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John Scott
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]
In article <8h3521$1gd$1...@pheidippides.axion.bt.co.uk>, Maurice Walshe
<maurice...@bt.com> wrote:
<snip Amber Tarot>
Pictures and review at
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/ambermagnin/index.html
John
Demian Phillips
>In article <8gu7i1$kje$1...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>,
> <wittgenste...@mail.utexas.edu.invalid> wrote:
>>In article <20000529054836...@nso-fk.aol.com>, kly...@aol.comedy (Klyfix) wrote:
>>
>>[weird tarot decks]
>>
>>> Suddenly had a wierd vision of a Pokemon Tarot...
>>
>>Um, actually, this was the digression [hey, I usually do that at the end :-)].
>>Anyway, what I was curious about, are there any tarot decks out there that
>>have been specifically inspired by SF? I'm sure a Pern(tm) or a LOTR tarot
>>deck would be very interesting.
>>
>A little bit off from your question, but some friends and I worked out
>the Major Arcana for an Objectivist tarot. It was never drawn or marketed,
>but some of the cards worked out very nicely.
>
>The Fool: Howard Roark at the beginning of _The Fountainhead_.
>The Priestess: Ayn Rand
>The Magician: John Galt
>The Chariot: The locomotive that makes the cross-country run in
> _Atlas Shrugged_
>The Devil: Ellsworth Toohey, with Peter and Catherine chained--that
> one was my favorite
>
>The rest could probably be recreated if anyone cares.
I have some old fandom stuff i can dig up there was a SF tarot made.
My wife was given a hello kitty tarot deck for her birthday.
---
^_^
Demian Phillips
PGP KEY ID 0x5BC4FCB4
Anton Sherwood
counted on one hand, I heard someone say that if you add up all the
numbers mentioned in a chapter the sum represents a card (dunno how),
and the chapter-cards for each volume form a reading, and if you somehow
assemble all these readings you get (a) the three-dimensional Pattern
and (b) who kills Corwin.
Ya sure. Be that as it may, there are clues to which member of the
family belongs on which card. In particular, four of the brothers
(including Eric) are described as bearded, and they can reasonably be
assigned to the Kings. I bring this up because the deck cited below has
a different assignment.
Also, somewhere in "Hand" iirc there's a mysterious message, or an
object appears in an unexpected place, and Corwin asks Random who the
"postman" might be; in the annotations to the Ryder/Waite deck one of
the Pages is said to represent a postman -- and iirc there's some other
reason to match that prince to that card.
John Scott wrote:
> <snip Amber Tarot>
> Pictures and review at
> http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/ambermagnin/index.html
--
Steve Taylor
> There's an Amber Tarot which I've only seen available from a shop in
> Paris - it's published by Jeux Descartes and is very pretty.
>
> I can't comment on its suitability as a tarot deck for reading.
More importantly - does it work the way the decks do in the Amber books?
Sure could use some of those magic powers...
> John
Steve
Joe Mason
>I have some old fandom stuff i can dig up there was a SF tarot made.
>My wife was given a hello kitty tarot deck for her birthday.
<obvious> Anyone ever actually make a Dune Tarot? </obvious>
Joe
David Given
John Scott <j.f....@brighton.ac.uk> writes:
[...]
> <snip Amber Tarot>
I have a copy of _The Illustrated Roger Zelazny_. It's a paperback sized
book consisting of abridged versions of a number of his stories, plus
rather good black and white illustrations by an artist whose name I don't
recall. (There's a specially-written comic-book form Jack of Shadows
story, too.)
There's also a colour section. Part of this consists of a section on
Amber, including portraits of all the major characters, arranged as if on
cards. The artist has done a really good job here; all the characters look
as they are described in the books, they're in the right poses, wearing
the right costumes, and generally fit. They remain the definitive visual
portrayal of the royal family of Amber, to me.
--
+- David Given ---------------McQ-+ "There does not now, nor will there ever,
| Work: d...@tao-group.com | exist a programming language in which it is
| Play: dgi...@iname.com | the least bit hard to write bad programs."
+- http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~dg -+ --- Flon's Axiom
Demian Phillips
Dunno.
All I remember is it was called "The Science Fiction Tarot"
I'll have to go through all the old fandom stuff and dig it up..
Captain Button
>jcm...@uwaterloo.ca (Joe Mason) wrote:
>
>>Demian Phillips <dem...@cmhcsys.com> wrote:
>>>I have some old fandom stuff i can dig up there was a SF tarot made.
>>>My wife was given a hello kitty tarot deck for her birthday.
>>
>><obvious> Anyone ever actually make a Dune Tarot? </obvious>
IIRC, _The Dune Encyclopedia_ has an article about the Dune Tarot,
including black and white drawings and descriptions of some but not all of
the cards.
Other Tarot in SF:
I think there are "Caroc" cards on DiscWorld, and IIRC, one of the
stories in the first _Thieve's World_ anthology had what the author
described as a "not-gypsy using not-tarot cards".
--
Captain Button - but...@io.com
"The trick is to take control of your _Own_ life while resisting the
temptation to then take control of *Other* people's lives." - Me
Nancy Lebovitz
Captain Button <but...@io.com> wrote:
>
>Other Tarot in SF:
>
>I think there are "Caroc" cards on DiscWorld, and IIRC, one of the
>stories in the first _Thieve's World_ anthology had what the author
>described as a "not-gypsy using not-tarot cards".
>
Jane Yolen's _Cards of Grief_.
Greer Iline Gilman's _Moonwise_.
A novel or two by Lynn Abbey whose titles I can't remember.
John Scott
<absu...@es.co.nz> wrote:
> I'm pretty sure that they're Onion themed though aren't they, or
> is it just that they're used to play "cripple mr Onion".
>
> Now where did I see the rules for that game. Captain, do you
> know
http://www.lspace.org/ have links to it - the rules are at
http://jump.to/cmo
John
Michael Caldwell
>IIRC, _The Dune Encyclopedia_ has an article about the Dune Tarot,
>including black and white drawings and descriptions of some but not all of
>the cards.
>Other Tarot in SF:
>I think there are "Caroc" cards on DiscWorld, and IIRC,
I'm pretty sure that they're Onion themed though aren't they, or
is it just that they're used to play "cripple mr Onion".
Now where did I see the rules for that game. Captain, do you
know?
--
Paul Andinach
> Captain Button wrote in message ...
> > I think there are "Caroc" cards on DiscWorld,
>
> I'm pretty sure that they're Onion themed though aren't they, or
> is it just that they're used to play "cripple mr Onion".
I think it's just that they're used to play games with sometimes.
Caroc cards are something similar to tarot, although with different
major arcana (I can't remember any offhand except "The Patrician".)
> Now where did I see the rules for that game.
Paul
--
The Pink Pedanther
David Given
d...@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given) writes:
[...]
> There's also a colour section. Part of this consists of a section on
> Amber, including portraits of all the major characters, arranged as if on
> cards. The artist has done a really good job here; all the characters look
> as they are described in the books, they're in the right poses, wearing
> the right costumes, and generally fit. They remain the definitive visual
> portrayal of the royal family of Amber, to me.
Okay, okay, I know it's late. Nevertheless, here they are:
http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~dg/Personal/zelazny
zelazny.jpg: Corwin.
zelazny2.jpg: Assorted brothers.
zelazny3.jpg: Brand, being evil; Moire, being green.
zelazny4.jpg: Ganelon in Lorraine, and Benedict with Chaos.
zelazny5.jpg: Lintra; Benedict and Dara on the throne of Amber.
zelazny6.jpg: Random on his rock; Fiona, Flora and Llewella.
zelazny7.jpg: Eric and Corwin trying to kill each other.
zelazny8.jpg: Corwin, Flora and Deirdre (plus an unidentified Brian
Blessed clone).
zelazny10.jpg: Dworkin and his griffin, with Dara in the background. Plus
a free illustration from _A Rose for Ecclesiastes_ that was on the next
page.
The artist is Gray Morrow. I'll take the pictures down in about a week.
--
+- David Given ---------------McQ-+ "[SF is not about predicting the future.]
| Work: d...@tao-group.com | We are not prophets; in fact, if we were
| Play: dgi...@iname.com | much worse at it, we'd be economists." ---
+- http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~dg -+ Stephen Dedman