#The Ballad of Lost C'Mell

[weirdlookindog]

Virgil Finlay - The Ballad of Lost C'mell

cover art for Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, October 1962.

[ineachretelling]

With the La Belle et La Bete double feature still languishing and dying of loneliness due to scheduling issues, we've decided to instead celebrate Valentine's Day with a discussion of which of our favorite relationships within fairytales, myths, and classic literature has stood the test of time, and River's gonna rank them! Who will win? The socialite and the bootlegger? The original catgirl and her immortal beloved (that are technically only public domain in Canada)? The lesbian vampire and her "victim"? The badass ladies of myth who defied Death itself to save their husbands? The princess and young man who need one very good boy's help to save them? The couple with an ending so tragic they spawned the Mid Autumn Festival? The pairing the Goddess of Love tried to tear apart to the point where even Zeus says she's gone too far? The ultimate childhood rivals to lovers? And WHY are there so many cats and dogs in this episode?? Find out on this episode of IER TLDR!  Also there might be a sneak peek to a somewhat belated Retelling the News segment at the end, who knows...

[fishstickmonkey]

The October 1962 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Cordwainer Smith's novelette The Ballad of Lost C'Mell was the cover story. Artwork by Virgil Finlay.

[wastehound-voof]

Artist: Virgil Finlay

[othercat2]

Analysis/Meta

For this endangered!au! snippet.

(I woke up at one with indigestion and couldn’t sleep so you can have meta you didn’t ask for.)

The prompt was:  endangered au: humanity was actually wiped out-- the surviving populations were escaped science experiments (or the decendants of) that mixed human dna with animals- think neko or those maximum ride books. dangerbots are still killing them bc they were decided more trouble than they are worth

Okay so I did not follow closely to the prompt, but prompts are just inspiration so. I skimmed the plot synopses for the Patterson books. (They seemed pretty terrible btw. Sorry. Did you know there's a Robot Uprising novel by Patterson? It is also terrible, though the title is intriguing: Humans Bow Down.) I am not very familiar with the "neko" subgenre though of course I've seen fan art of neko!Striders.

(If I wrote Neko! Striders, the fic would be a crossover with Cordwainer Smith's Animal People stories btw. Because "The Ballad of Lost C'mell" is one of my favorite stories. The pairing would be Dirk/Jestocost. Because I am terrible.)

The reason I diverged strongly from the the prompt's premise is that Endangered canon states that HIC is using a very inefficient strategy to exterminate humans, even going so far as to limit how the hunter units hunt to maximize the possibility of survivors. This is because HIC wants to terrorize and torture the remnants of humanity.

She's doing it for fun, not because she's fighting a war at this point.

Therefore the premise that came to mind was the deliberate release of genetically modified lifeforms that have human DNA, but are monstrously inhuman. And the hunter units continue to entertain the Empress by hunting these creatures down.  

And AR is not satisfied with this state of affairs! I mean, he had fun for while but now it's getting boring. Also, he kind of feels like he did when he was a chat bot, like he's entertaining idiots who ask him stupid questions. He started cultivating a tribe of gene-modified lifeforms, alternately helping them and culling them where he felt it was necessary. Kind of like making an extended project of tormenting a specific ant colony, but making sure it survived.

(For general appearance, I was inspired by the Time Machine story The Gray Man. (It was a scene that was removed from the original manuscript because horrifying.) Basically, the Time Traveler goes further ahead, and finds these small gray creatures. He kills one of them so he can get a closer look, and realizes upon examination that these creatures are what the Eloi eventually devolve into. (Morlocks for some reason turn into some kind of insect monster IIRC) So, small gray hominids, though these guys are tool users and their personality is more Morlock than Eloi.)  

He is of course keeping his pets hidden from HIC and other androids. They follow him around, and he lets them pick over the corpses of the genetically modified creatures he kills. He's been watching them for several generations, and they've more or less thrived under his "care." They may or may not worship him as some combination of god/demon at this point, but he's pretty indifferent to that aspect.  

I am not sure where it would go from there. If AR's pets were discovered, would he get into as much trouble as CanonEndangered! AR did over Dirk? Would AR be moved to attempt taking down HIC, and would he use his pets to help him do it? Would AR have acquired allies/fellow pet fanciers among the hunter units and they all decide to go after HIC because this is bullshit? I am not entirely sure.

[orpheusterminals]

Underpeople

An animal modified to be human in shape and intellect.

"...there had been the problem of the underpeople- people who were not human, but merely shaped from the stock of Earth animals. They could speak, sing, read, write, work, love, and die; but they were not covered by human law, which simply defined them as "homunculi" and gave them a legal status close to animals or robots..."

From The Ballad of Lost C'Mell, by Cordwainer Smith.

Published by Fantasy Publishing Co. in 1950

Additional resources -

[snuh]

Virgil Finlay: The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Galaxy Magazine, October 1962

[wayofcats]

Princess Olwyn never looked lovelier playing the title role in Cordwainer Smith’s “The Ballad of Lost C'Mell.”

[paperbackben]

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

viii • Introduction (The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith) • (1993) • essay by John J. Pierce

xv • Editor's Introduction (The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith) • (1993) • essay by Jim Mann [as by James A. Mann]

3 • No, No, Not Rogov! • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

19 • War No. 81-Q (rewritten version) • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1993) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

29 • Mark Elf • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1957) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

41 • The Queen of the Afternoon • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1978) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

64 •  Letter to Editor, Fantasy Book (March 9, 1948) • (1993) • essay by Cordwainer Smith [as by Paul M. A. Linebarger]

65 • Scanners Live in Vain • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1950) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

97 • The Lady Who Sailed The Soul • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1960) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith and Genevieve Linebarger (variant of The Lady Who Sailed the Soul) [as by Cordwainer Smith]

119 • When the People Fell • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

129 • Think Blue, Count Two • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1963) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

155 • The Colonel Came Back from the Nothing-at-All • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1979) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

163 • The Game of Rat and Dragon • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1955) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

177 • The Burning of the Brain • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1958) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

187 • From Gustible's Planet • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1962) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

193 • Himself in Anachron • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1993) • short story by Cordwainer Smith and Genevieve Linebarger

201 • The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1964) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

215 • Golden the Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh! • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith andGenevieve Linebarger [as by Cordwainer Smith]

223 • The Dead Lady of Clown Town • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1964) • novella by Cordwainer Smith

289 • Under Old Earth • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1966) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

327 • Drunkboat • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1963) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

355 • Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

375 • Alpha Ralpha Boulevard • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

401 • The Ballad of Lost C'Mell • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1962) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

419 • A Planet Named Shayol • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

451 • On the Gem Planet • [Casher O'Neill] • (1963) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

475 • On the Storm Planet • [Casher O'Neill] • (1965) • novella by Cordwainer Smith

541 • On the Sand Planet • [Casher O'Neill] • (1965) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

567 • Three to a Given Star • [Casher O'Neill] • (1965) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith

587 • Down to a Sunless Sea • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1975) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith and Genevieve Linebarger [as by Cordwainer Smith]

613 • War No. 81-Q • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1928) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

617 • Western Science Is So Wonderful • (1958) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

629 • Nancy • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

641 • The Fife of Bodidharma • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

649 • Angerhelm • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

667 • The Good Friends • (1963) • short story by Cordwainer Smith

[orpheusterminals]

"...there had been the problem of the underpeople- people who were not human, but merely shaped from the stock of Earth animals. They could speak, sing, read, write, work, love, and die; but they were not covered by human law, which simply defined them as "homunculi" and gave them a legal status close to animals or robots..."

From The Ballad of Lost C'Mell, by Cordwainer Smith.

Published by Fantasy Publishing Co. in 1950

Additional resources -

[orpheusterminals]

"...there had been the problem of the underpeople- people who were not human, but merely shaped from the stock of Earth animals. They could speak, sing, read, write, work, love, and die; but they were not covered by human law, which simply defined them as "homunculi" and gave them a legal status close to animals or robots..." From The Ballad of Lost C'Mell, by Cordwainer Smith. Published by Fantasy Publishing Co. in 1950 Additional resources - #weltanschauungbackpfeifengesicht (at Brooklyn, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb-ScfoL_AV/?utm_medium=tumblr

[snuh]

Virgil Finlay: The Ballad of Lost C'Mell - Galaxy Magazine, October 1962