The Horror and Fantasy Art of Jay Trefethen

e-mail me at - jaytref@jaytref.com

October/November 2009

Goat Songs are for Lovers!

Well....I′m a little late this month. It seems like everything that could go wrong has this month. But, at least the October illustration is finally up. This one is based on the novelet Goat Song by Poul Anderson. It was originally published in the February 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It is a wonderful combination of classic science fiction themes, mythology and religion. It explores the science fiction theme of man′s increasing dependence on computer intelligence, and the atheistic dream of immortality through cloning.

For this illustration I decided not to show a specific scene from the story, but to paint character portraits of the main characters. The story takes place in a future environment in which mankind is ruled over by an intelligent computer named SUM. The setting in the illustration is SUM′s underground complex, a dark and deadly place not built for humans. The woman in the robe is the Dark Queen, SUM′s envoy to the human word. She spends six months of every year among the humans who live like a peasant class to SUM′s aristocracy. She listens to their requests, gives them SUM′s orders, and returns to SUM after six months. She spends the next six months plugged into SUM, her entire psyche overridden as SUM absorbs her memories. If that isn′t crappy enough, she only gets to live for seven years. Then SUM kills her and grows a clone with her memories implanted in it. So looking at it one way, she is centuries old. Look at it another way, she′s never older than seven. Is a clone with your memories really you immortalized? If you are a clone with your DNA donor′s memories, are you your own person, or your donors?

Everyone in this world wears bracelets from SUM that store DNA samples and absorb and store memories. When someone dies, winged robot drones retrieve the bracelets. SUM claims that ′when conditions are right′ it will use the information in the bracelets to clone everyone who has died and we will all be immortal. Of course, SUM is a bit vague about what conditions have to be right before this can happen, or how likely it is for these conditions to be right anytime soon. What SUM really wants is information. Even though it rules over mankind, it doesn′t really understand us. It is constantly absorbing information about us, trying to figure out what makes us tick.

The guy on the floor is the hero of the story. He is a musician who specializes in haunting and evocative folk songs written long before SUM was ever dreamed up. He used his haunting melodies to seduce the Dark Queen into giving him a ride when she was on her way back to SUM. You see, he has a little favor to ask. He recently lost his lady love, and he can′t live without her. He is an emotional throwback to the days before SUM came along and squeegee cleaned our brains out. He wants the unthinkable. He wants SUM to bring his true love back. Unfortunately for him, SUM thinks this is an excellent opportunity to test a human′s abilities. If you′re up on mythology, you′ve already figured out what happens next. But don′t think you′ve figured out the end of the story. We′re only about a quarter of the way in. This is just when things start getting interesting.

The lovely lady floating in the vat of mouthwash is of course the clone of the lost lady love herself. She doesn′t get a lot of screen time actually (I'm sure you′ve already guessed what happens to her.) But she is important to the plot, and to the harpist, so I threw her in too. Plus I got to paint another pretty lady sans clothing. Bonus!

I′m not sure if Goat Song was every republished, but if you ever get a chance to read it, I recommend it, even if you have to track down a copy of the magazine on eBay. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1972. In addition to Goat Song by Poul Anderson, there is also a novelet by James Tiptree Jr., a short story by Dean Koontz and an aritcle by Isaac Asimov. Oh, and a cartoon by Gaham Wilson. If you can′t find something in this magazine worth your time, you′re on the wrong web site.

So What's Next?

To make up for all the moldy oldies I′ve been illustrating lately, my next one will be a spankingly brand new novel. I′ll be painting a piece inspired by The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom, a wonderful haunted house story that just came out this year. Look for it around the first of December. (Yes, I′m skipping a month again. Might as well, since this month′s was so late.)

As always, thanks for checking out my web site. - Jay Trefethen 10/21/09