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Jul 17

Here it is detective... the shot Lichen...Click for full image

Rachel J’s Art Direction: I promised you could do the cover for Wyndhams latest and here it is: Trouble with… Lichen… Uh, well, anyway, good luck with that..
Published 1963

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 6.92 out of 10)
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23 Responses to “Trouble With Lichen”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    Ever get the feeling your porridge is watching you?

  2. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Well, I for one am lichen it!

    (Hopefully, no-one will be tempted to abuse that line from now on.)

  3. Michael Toland Says:

    I quite like that cover – very moody. But it could go with a hundred different books. It’s the title I have problems with. Trouble With Lichen? Seriously?

  4. Tom Noir Says:

    This cover artist has a lot potential for growth. (ba-dum!)

    This book would fit comfortably on one of those weird books that really exist lists.

  5. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    What would you expect from John Wyndham? The world is conquered starting with the English countryside, maybe? Philosophical and political discussions in place of cuticle-tearing action? Spot on!

  6. RachelJ Says:

    @Dead Stuff (#5). Well, the odd walking, man-eating plant would have been a nice change. Unfortunately, the summary to which you link is all too accurate.

  7. Dan Says:

    John Wyndham wrote a story called “Jizzle.” Come on.

  8. The Tag Wizard Says:

    Great name for an album, this. I’m thinking “Fugazi: Trouble with Lichen”

  9. FëårófMusīc Says:

    And someone would read this why, exactly? Dull photo of a breakfast gone bad. Title that sounds like a deeply boring book of gardening tips. Hmm, perhaps the trouble with lichen is it’s unsuitability as a story device. ‘Run children! The lichen is coming!’

    The lichen is lackin’.

  10. RachelJ Says:

    I should qualify my last statement. The summary claims that “Wyndham speculates how society would deal with this prospect [of extended life-span].” This, though technically correct, gives a false impression. If you’re not paying close attention, you might even get the idea that the book is all about the social changes in a world where everyone lives 300 years.

    Instead, the sentence should read “Wyndham speculates on how fictional people might speculate on the possible effects of something that doesn’t happen in the course of the book but might eventually at some unspecified point in the future. Or not. Thrilling!”

  11. Bibliomancer Says:

    I had a lot of “Trouble with Likin” this cover.

    Ba-da-boom!

  12. fred Says:

    Sounds perfect for a 60’s Steele/Cushing/Lee Hammer film if you replace the lichen with Dracula.

  13. frank Says:

    Waiter..something ate the fly in my soup!

  14. Rags Says:

    Was this George Lucas’ inspiration for the death star?

    Wait, this book isnt about penguins?? Very confusing…..

  15. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @Rags: Brilliant! You can imagine Wyndham’s horror. He’s spent seven months working on this pastiche of how penguins are noisy, and they get in the way of fish trawlers, and their shit smells. He’s about to post it when his agent rings him up and announces, ‘We’ve signed a five-book contract with Penguin SF! Can you have the manuscript ready by Tuesday next?’

  16. Phil Says:

    The trouble with lichen is that it messes with your finest blue china.

    Five and six for this book? Bargain! That’s 27.5 new pence according to my calculations.

  17. B. Chiclitz Says:

    The trouble with these lichen, at least, is that they look like the Mandelbrot set! Egad, self-similar, infinitely replicating plants with a dimension between zero and one! There’s no hope for the world.

  18. random Donna Says:

    The title sounds like one of those old educational short films that tries to make science fun! Complete with cartoon characters and a goofy narrator!! “One’s a mycobiontic fungus–one’s a phycobiontic alga! Can they get along?!?!

  19. Joachim Boaz Says:

    Looks so much more like mold….. especially considering its in a petri dish.

  20. Tat Wood Says:

    If Pinewood studios were ever looking for a title for a John Wyndham/ Norman Wisdom crossover film, this is it. The writing, as I recall from reading it in the last days of the Callaghan government, is about as jauntily 50s as that would have been: isn’t this the one with a guest cameo by Jack de Manio from the ‘Today’ programme?

  21. Boyan Says:

    Actually, if memory serves me right, the cover depicts a moment in the book. The peculiar characteristics of the lichen were discovered, when a plate of milk left in the hallway for the cat (or something like that) didn’t go sour in a day or two, as would have been normal.
    However, I fail to see how the picture of a plate with some gray substance would entice anyone to buy this book.

  22. Jaouad Says:

    I put a bullet through a fungus, and all I got was this crappy cover.

  23. Stevie T Says:

    This looks uncannily like the textbooks I received in high school biology, circa 1988…

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